jmlease1

I generally feel that people overrate the impact of a manager in baseball, and in todays game a lot of what the manager does is behind the scenes in managing the personalities and the clubhouse in ways that aren't seen by the fans (and with players more careful about what they let loose in public it's harder than ever to really get info about what anyone really thinks). But at the same time, the manager is the face of the franchise in many ways, and extending Rocco during what has been pretty rough play going back to last season is remarkably tone deaf. I don't hate the manager, and some of the hate directed his way has often been very overheated and frequently based on things that seem to exist only in people's heads that despise the manager. But at the same time Rocco hasn't shown he's a superior manager, just one that falls into that mushy middle in MLB where is the players are healthy and playing well, the team wins and he looks good. When they have injuries and are playing poorly, he looks bad. Well, they're playing poorly and have a key injury (Pablo). He's done nothing to show that he deserves an extension. It's an insult to the fans, which this franchise shows little concern about year over year. Can't wait for the team to be sold, but it sounds like it's not happening any time soon. Sigh.

Excellent job by Ryan. Cal Raleigh had been on such a trail of destruction against the Twins that I was basically in a "just walk that guy!" mode, but Ryan wasn't scared. Pretty impressive K-ing him 3 times! Bullpen did the job too, though it definitely highlighted who was trusted and who was not in a close game. Sands has clearly fallen out of favor (not unreasonably based on recent performance) and Topa isn't trusted in higher leverage situations right now either. Considering how badly this team needed a win, I can't really complain about going for it that way. Not much offense, but Seattle has pitching too. Tonight was a gain where you didn't need much and they scratched 2 across. I have some concerns that Clemens is a streaky all or nothing guy at the plate, but he's doing enough to make a difference, at least until Keaschall gets back. We've been losing in every possible way recently. Hopefully, this starts a run where things fall the other way for a while. Much more fun watching a game like this.

I think this is basically it. With a couple of guys in the AAA rotation struggling and/or fighting an injury, there was room to add another guy. They probably have him as one of those "hey, if we can fix XX, maybe he could do something" guys; I'm sure there's something they like about him. But I doubt there's any real expectation there, and if he get called up for a start it's because other guys are still injured/ineffective at AAA. Seems like a normal depth move to me, I doubt they're expecting him to be in the rotation in a few weeks and are probably hoping Zebby is back before they ever "need" him.

I don't think they hate starters going deep into games as much as they fear their starters ability to get through innings 5-6-7. But they do seem to be pursuing this as a developmental strategy to try and move pitchers through the system without wrecking their arms. I've heard they're not the only team digging in on this, but might be one of the ones that's more advanced on the implementation of trying this strategy in the minors where they're running starters 3 innings or so at a time, but getting them out there more frequently. It's an interesting idea, but it's unclear if they're intending this to move into the MLB program as well, or if this is primarily developmental strategy to keep a young pitcher's elbow/shoulder from exploding before they hit AA. It could lead to an interesting pitching staff design where you have 3-4 traditional starters, 6 1-inning type relievers, and 3-4 "bulk" inning pitchers that are designed to piggy back with each other and/or one of the other starters. It also might be an area where they expect to lengthen starting pitcher candidates more in the upper minors and MLB. will it work? I don't know, but I appreciate investigating new designs to keep pitchers healthy.

Wallner is not getting traded, no matter how happy that would make some people around here. He's been too good overall the past two years and is still plenty cheap. Castro makes a fair amount of sense because he's a pending free agent and isn't likely to return without a real bump in payroll, plus he's hitting well this season. It would definitely hurt to lose him. Larnach is an interesting one; I honestly don't know what his return looks like. He's been solid, but never quite breaks out. He's not a butcher in LF, but he's not particularly good there either. He's still relatively cheap, but he's getting more expensive. If I were more confident in Rodriguez's ability to stay healthy, I'd be more excited to move an OF bat. (I haven't given up on the season yet, though this rotten run of play is making it less and less likely that it can be saved) I think moving Larnach might be the right play? Feels like a team could talk themselves into seeing more of a ceiling with him and the floor right now is pretty good. The years of control probably gets you a better return than Castro? Even if Rodriguez doesn't get tapped, I wouldn't mind seeing McCusker get a real chance to show if he's a real player or just a Quad-A guy, and the only way that's going to happen is if Larnach or Castro get dealt, I think.

Another day, another multi-hit game for GG. that's (checks notes) 12 since being called up to Wichita in 28 games. Dude is just raking. Nice to see some xbh's in the mix lately too. Really impressed with him this season, and Twins have to be thrilled with his development at the plate. Julien does seem to have himself back on track at the plate. He's showing his customary patience, is making good contact, and has added some pop back in so it's not just slapping singles around. I'm not sure many will agree, but I'd rather see Julien back up than keep dinking around with Bride, who has 1 hit in June, isn't in the team's plans, and most impactful role seems to be soft-tossing a few innings in a blowout. Happy to see Amick back in Cedar Rapids. Looking forward to seeing what some of those hitters do in the second half and if anyone else gets promoted to Wichita. (DeBarge? He keeps swiping bases too)

Could have been; it certainly looked like Lee wanted it and was close enough to make the play. But I'd say Paddack had more of a brain freeze than an actual freeze because he didn't really stop and fielded the ball cleanly. It would have been better if he'd left it to Lee, who was moving towards 1B, rather than away, which Paddack was. But he still had plenty of time to set and throw and just air-mailed it. (really was a nice fundamental play by a hustling Clemens to back up 1B there and save a run)

Might be time for the Bull Durham rainout. They're coming up with new ways to lose every game, it's sort of remarkable. 2 HBP in the 9th? really? Hitting into the double play with the bases loaded was the real crusher: Castillo was really struggling to hit his spots and find the zone that inning and they could have sent him to the showers right there. My head exploded when Paddack overthrew 1B on a simple fielding play by about 6 feet; guess he thought about it before throwing and we know that thinking can only hurt the ballclub. Props to Clemens for hustling to get in position to back it up, though.

Gleeman has reported it before. Hells bells it came up on the Gleeman & the Geek podcast in the last couple of weeks.

The Athletic 2024 poll of front office executives had the Twins front office 8th. 2025 had the Twins 15th. So after a winning season where they broke a playoff losing streak, they were ranked pretty highly. After a season where they struggled down the stretch and missed the playoffs, they tumbled to middle of the pack. Seems about right, and suggests that other teams in MLB respect the Twins front office, generally. Did not receive any votes (for the second year in a row for all of them, suggesting these are the teams whose front offices are not as well-respected): Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays. I'm not going to pretend that Falvey has done a great job this season, but I do think ownership hamstrung the front office and mucked up their long-term plans on the baseball side by cutting payroll after a successful 2023 season, leaving them little money to invest with and more of the payroll caught up in a few players. The last season and a half are the result. I suspect the rest of the league sees the same kinds of things. But it's also why ownership is easily the biggest problem with this team. They did a poor job on the business side of the operation for years (decades?) outside of getting a new stadium built. They missed on the Bill Smith hire, then whiffed again bringing back Terry Ryan (isn't anyone really going to pretend Ryan Part II worked?). They've botched their media deals pretty consistently. They've had various PR screw-ups. Basically the only things ownership has done well for sure in the last 20 years has been: getting Target Field built. It's a gem, a wonderful place to watch a game. buying in on the Saints to have AAA baseball across the rover in Saint Paul People want to move on from Falvey...fine, I guess? Time for Rocco to go? Whatever. I doubt it changes much this season. But I definitely don't want the Pohlads making the call, because anyone they "hire" will be a lame duck placeholder and that won't help either. Also? It's weird how often bunting comes up related to the Twins current front office and manager. Just because the Twins don't do it much doesn't mean that suddenly bunting a lot more will actually improve things for this team. Team with the most sacrifice hits this season is SD at 0.23 per game. They're scoring 4.24 runs per game...0.01 more than the Twins (who have struggled mightily on offense over the past month).

I don't think we'll ever know (unless Falvey writes a book...that someone wants to publish, lol) if he got offers or not, but there's certainly been rumors around other organizations being interested in him. YMMV on whether that means anything. (and we definitely know Levine was a contender for the Red Sox job and was in consideration when he was here) I don't think it happens to even the supposed top guys often just because there are so few jobs open annually.

Except Falvey was hired for the 2017 season and was told he had to keep the manager coming off a 59 win season (more stupidity from the ownership: you hire someone to change things in the organization, then tell them they can't pick their own manager?). After making the wild card in 2017, Molitor might have been able to keep his job long-term, but it's been reported plenty why they let him go: it wasn't the record, it was Molitor not being willing to get on board with the plan and actually interfering with it. It's notable that Molitor has not managed again in MLB and hasn't been a serious candidate anywhere either. what exactly was interesting about the 2018 Twins? they were 6 games under .500 at this time in the season and needed to win 11 of their last 14 in September, beating up on two awful teams in Detroit and CWS that were already on the beach to get to 78 wins. The Twins finished 2nd in an incredibly weak division. (two 100-loss teams and a 98 loss team. that's putrid) It's definitely better now, even if Cleveland and KC have taken a half-step back since last year. The revisionist history on Molitor as a manager is weird to me.

Looks great. Better than the Twins are playing. Just because certain fans hate the style of baseball, hate the executives, hate the manager doesn't mean the rest of baseball (including the people that cover the teams) agrees with them. Find me the list of baseball professionals who think that Falvey and Baldelli are bottom 5 in baseball at their jobs. I'll wait. Rocco still didn't deserve an extension, IMHO. He's not pulling any levers that are making a difference, hasn't done enough to show that he can turn things around (though with as bad as the players are playing, it's not clear that anyone else would either) and he's probably getting stale as a voice. Average managers get fired when their teams stop winning, and their teams usually stop winning when they're not healthy and/or the players aren't performing. Faley giving the extension might be a classy move to protect a loyal member of the organization, but it's a bad PR move and unlikely to be a good baseball one. It won't help him keep his job with new ownership, which this franchise badly needs. The pohlads have never been good owners: they've been mediocre at best, and only looked good in comparison to some of the awful ones out there. they've been dreadful at their worst, only saved by mostly avoiding the spotlight and hiring some generally competent baseball executives over the years.

Can't wait to get Keaschall back and push Clemens to the bench where he belongs. Would love to have Lewis back and push Bride off the roster. Going to have to be patient on Pable & Zebby, and that sucks, because we need them both right now.

LOL, this is where fanbase irrationality comes into play. Falvey is well-respected across the league. While he might not immediately get a new job as a GM (there simply aren't that many of them), he will be in demand from other parts of the league. The same applies to Rocco, who is not viewed by people outside this market as being the worst manager in the league. Remember, the rest of baseball sees us as being a poor market, more akin to Tampa Bay than say St. Louis. But the team stinks right now, so expecting rationality out of the fanbase is almost certainly a bridge too far. Also, if anyone thinks they're sending the franchise a message by quitting the team, forget it. The team is for sale, and ownership doesn't care about you. Hells bells, it's the Pohlads: they've never cared about you as a baseball fan. They don't care about the baseball (well, except for someone like Joe...who doesn't appear to actually be good at the business or PR sides of it and likely has little to no say in the baseball aspects either), they care about the asset, and they just want to claw as much money as possible out of it. I'm guessing Falvey did it thinking the team is being sold and wanting to protect his manager a little from the inevitable "new owner change" (which while we all crave, but can create new problems; as much as we were interested in Justin Ishbia, his brother Mat's Phoenix Suns are in deep trouble from a basketball standpoint). I respect the loyalty, but it's a bad look and not helpful to the team.

No. It's pretty clear that Molitor was let go because he wasn't on the same page with the front office. Information that they wanted passed on to players was stopping at the coaching staff, strategic input was being ignored, etc. You want to tell your boss to @*%#$ off, you better win a LOT, and Molly didn't. I wouldn't have extended Rocco, regardless of when the option was picked up. Last season ended poorly and the team is up for sale. Why add the obligation on the books now? If he pulls things together, maybe he gets a nice extension from the new ownership, but are we really all that concerned about Rocco being a free agent and getting poached by another team? I'm not one of these people who blindly hates the manager, but he's one of those guys who looks good when his players are healthy and playing well, and bad when they're not. That's 60-70% of the league. He's hardly elite tactically, but also not the embarrassment some people prefer to frame him up as. He seems to do a good job of running his clubhouse, managing personalities, etc. But hasn't done enough recently to show that he deserves an extension, really, and I don't buy the theory (which has been pushed into the media by coaches, who have a vested interest in people believing it) that a manager can't be effective in their walk year.

Oof. I suppose it's a positive that Ober only looked unplayable in ONE inning? Not sure this policy of letting him try and iron out his mechanics in live fire exercise is working out. I mean, great that he cut down the the walks, but if it means he's still grooving pitches to get launched into the seats then it's not going to work. He's now given up 10 HRs in his last 4 games, and that's just awful. I think I've seen enough of the Joey Wentz Experience. DFA the guy. Would much rather see Travis Adams in this role as a long man; at least he might have a future with the Twins. I didn't mind them taking a shot on Wentz as the last man in the bullpen, see if they could find something there from a pitcher relatively recently converting to the bullpen, but he looks like he needs a lot of work. Disappointing effort from the offense; need more than 8 baserunners. Maybe time to drop Wallner down in the order until he starts connecting again. Can't wait for Keaschall to get back, because Clemens has fallen off the cliff. He's been awful for a month now. Good to see Brooks Lee still hitting though.

Props to Sabato for continuing to grind. He's been labeled a bust for a couple of years now because of his low contact rates, leading to tons of Ks and low batting averages, limiting his ability to let his prodigious power show out and he didn't have the tools to contribute in other ways. But dang if he didn't keep working, and finally cracked AA, and earned a promotion to AAA. He's done fine since joining Saint Paul too. He's kept the K's reasonable, still drawing walks, and has a couple of dingers to show for it. I wouldn't say he's played his way back into the Twins plans...yet. If he keeps this up, then he might get there, though. He's shown some mental toughness in hanging in there through injuries, through failure, through being labeled a bust...and turned it around for himself. I like that.

It's hilarious that you've included Cincinnati in this list. Talked to many Cincy fans over the last few seasons? They've been begging ownership to sell the team, and have struggled mightily for a decade. After 4 years in a row where they were dead last in their division, they've followed it up with exactly 1 playoff appearance, threw in another 100 loss season, and haven't won 90 games since 2013. They're barely above .500 this season. They're not even particularly young as a team outside of De La Cruz and Greene, and my god they have Pagan as their closer (which is working out so far this season, but would you feel good about it?) I've been getting the texts from a Reds fan for a decade about how much they suck, how hopeless the franchise is, how stupid the management is, and even this season it's been a deluge of "Elly is amazing! Greene is elite!! why doesn't anyone else on this team give a damn?!?" The grass is not always greener. I'm fairly uninterested in an attempt to retool midseason until the team is sold. Because it's fairly likely that the new ownership will bring in their own people, even if someone like Falvey might end up staying for at least a season or two. (Rocco seems like the most likely candidate for a new ownership "splash" move where they signal that things are "going to be different" by firing the manager) New ownership is probably going to retool as well and retooling after retooling almost guarantees that one of them will go badly. Get new ownership in. The fish rots from the head.

I'm nervous about this, because it seems like any kind of "arm strain" has been the first sign indicator of pending Tommy John for this club. Doesn't mean that's the case here, but the organization is uninterested in giving out more detailed injury information (assuming they even have any to give), and with all of the pitchers who have had significant injuries over the last 5+ seasons, it's hard not to assume the worst. Hope it's nothing serious, because Morris is a real talent, but...

I think he can hold down a corner spot. It'll be a little iffy at times because he's below average to average out there, but he's not a butcher. He's also probably a little short for 1B? I'd like to see him stick in LF as much as possible and see if they can improve his route-running through repetition and just let him get comfortable there. Obviously, his bat is his path to MLB, but he can be as good as someone like Larnach out there. He certainly better than Delmon or Willingham. (IMHO) He's a really tough out right now, and it's fun to see.

This is part of the problem we're seeing right now: as soon as a young player wobbles a little, suddenly people are declaring him a bust, time to get rid of him, move on to the next shiny new thing. Lee seems to be figuring it out right before our eyes, but he gets bagged on regularly, Wallner can't have any slumps ever or he's trash, etc. I definitely agree: getting older doesn't fix this team's issues and certainly doesn't position them well past this season. I'm sure keaschall will start every day when he gets healthy, but god help him if he has a bad week.

Amick looks ready to return to Cedar Rapids, I'd say. Raya did great. But he needs to do this in 3 of his next 4 as well. Time to show some consistency. The talent and stuff are there, but he's got to do it more than one time in a row. I'll admit, I don't even care what Walker Jenkins stats are for the rest of the month, just that he's playing. :P I suspect he'll be fine if the ankle is ok and he can stay on the field. Should be fun to see him in Culpepper this summer in AA. (best part of the rain delays was getting some Wichita action during the broadcast) Every time I check the prospect reports GG has another fine day, it seems! He's really in a nice groove, and it's fun to see. If he keeps rolling like this, the Polanco trade will end up working just fine, frankly.

Yes, ownership torpedoed fan interest last season and have done nothing to improve the situation. The utter botch on the tv last season and the borderline unprofessional roll-out of a tv deal this season has hurt the team badly with casual fans, especially when added to an awful collapse at the end of the season and a poor start to this year. Add in more hard-core fans being fed up as well and it's hardly a surprise that attendance is in the tank. About the only way to lose more fans if for the Pohlads to announce they're pulling the team off the market and that Joe will be in charge for at least the next several years. *shudder* Regarding the game: Festa was bad. you simply can't give up 12 hits in less than 5 innings, especially with 3 walks on the tally. Unfortunately with injuries to both Lopez and Matthews, we don't have a lot of other options right now, with raya struggling in AAA and Morris battling an injury. Maybe Adams gets a shot, but they don't seem that excited by him as a starter. Nice to see the offense wake up and score some runs, but a shame that 3 of the 4 Twins homers were solo shots. That's just bad luck though. Nice to see Lee & Correa both have 4 hit games. Buxton is just a monster right now, and it sucks that we seem to be wasting a great Buxton season.

Culpepper seems to have no interest in cooling off! good for him. and GG is definitely moving up the prospect ranks when they inevitable midseason adjustment are made by the esteemed Twins Daily panel, right? He doesn't look like the 13th best prospect any longer. Dude just keeps hitting.