Nashvilletwin

There is one most obvious and easiest to accomplish trade deadline move that not only preserves/enhances our dwindling chances of making the playoffs this year, but also does the absolute most to put the franchise on the path to rebuilding as a contender: Fire Rocco and Falvey. It’s as obvious as the noses on our faces. Simple to enact. Keeps our controlled pitching studs. Gives someone else a chance to see what they can do with this underperforming roster. Hell, it might even facilitate a transaction/price increase for the Pohlads. One easy and blatantly obvious move to best improve this franchise. Enough said. I’m going back to watch the Brew Crew - a really well run mid market team effecting a well thought out strategy to the utmost.

The only reason that comes to mind is that maybe this is some inane strategy, like in Major League, to lose so badly that the owners make their best return by moving the team to Nashville. Ricky Vaughn, straight out of the California Penal League, here we come! Please note the italics as a substitute for sarcasm font. In all seriousness, I switched my MLB Network TV preference to the Brewers - way more fun to watch - and reducing my commitment to being a casual MLB watcher as opposed to an every dayer. Please don’t think of me as a traitor - I’ve watched over 140 Twins games every year for the past decade. I’ll come back when there is regime change. In the meantime. I’ll find other more rewarding things to keep me occupied until football preseason begins - I hear knitting and basket weaving are fun hobbies. Or maybe I’ll just watch paint dry - even that is better than watching this futile team and franchise led by the Pohlads, Falvey and Rocco. Just need something more positive now that the only true reason for hope - Rocco, bless his little heart, being fired - is gone. Watching that ineptitude and then coming to the TD for all the carping (albeit well deserved) just isn’t a good use of always and increasingly valuable time. Best to all of you TDers - it’s been real!

Btw, is it just me or are Cory Provus and Trevor Plouffe (et al) starting to sound a lot like Bob Uecker and his sidekick in Major League?

Wow, those are two of the worst back to back efforts from the Twins that I’ve watched in more than 55+ years as an avid Twins fan. It’s one thing to see how wrong the team’s strategy and construction are as compared to a team that clearly has those things right. It’s completely another thing to compound those errors by ineptitude and lack of effort. Alas, after the 13 game winning streak I thought we’d have meaningful Twins baseball to at least carry us through to the beginning of football season. Sad, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. What’s the over/under on home attendance now - 1.4MM? Poor Pohlads, the price is dropping by the day, especially as the true composition of our notoriously fair weather, band wagon fan base is increasingly laid bare.

Will Rocco have a job after the Tigers series?

Too bad they took Bride out already.

Little league

Geez this is a boring baseball team. Complete snooze fest.

Has there ever been a more clear example of two mid-market teams competing with different strategies and different levels of execution? Team A is well constructed, managed and coached. The strategy was clearly to perform all the major parts of the game of baseball well by doing all the little parts that comprise those big parts at a high level. No walks, strong fielding, heads up aggressive (risk adjusted) base running, plate discipline, keeping ABs alive, hitting to the opposite field, playing as a team, playing to their (myriad) strengths, etc., etc. Team B looked like the exact opposite: poorly constructed (for their chosen style of baseball), poorly managed and poorly coached. A team that basically eschews doing all those critical little things - either because the players are unable, are not coached to do them, they are not emphasised, or, likely, a combination of those reasons. The juxtaposition could not have been laid more bare. Team A looks like a mid-market team that understands the competitive dynamics of modern major league baseball and is ready and able to face those dynamics head on. Team B looks completely lost with a mirage for a strategy to compete. If last night’s game didn’t lay clear the issues with the Twins approach, leadership and roster construction, perhaps nothing will. Sad as it is to say, but one has to top his hat to that franchise from Wisconsin.

Bride better start getting loosened up…

Is this a joke?

Didn’t he just drop a fly ball that cost us a game? Hit him right in the glove. Tough play? Yes. But when your team is struggling, that’s a catch that has to be made. It’s plays just like that one which make the difference in so many games. Right now our opponents are making more of those plays than we are. And that shows in the win-loss columns.

Yes, you make great points. But the call was blatantly bad and bases loaded with no outs vs. first and third with one out are two totally different things. But, as you correctly imply, the team that (demonstrably) hit, fielded, pitched, and ran the bases better won the game. Umps or no umps - that is almost always the recipe for getting the win. It’s not rocket science.

Where is the disconnect? Can Wallner be a “world class hitter” who really only plays part time and very rarely hits against left handed pitching? Either Wallner is not a “world class” hitter or Rocco isn’t utilizing this tremendous talent correctly. Probably both are at least partially correct. But one thing is for sure: we will never know if Wallner could be truly be a “world class hitter” if he doesn’t play and develop by getting those crucial high leverage ABs against lefties.

Well, the “let’s rush the rookie pitcher into action by flying him to the west coast to start against the pathetic A’s while saving Ober for the home start against the strong hitting Blue Jays” strategy didn’t pan out. Two losses and probably a little damage control to address the mental makeup of either or possibly both pitchers. Too much thinking by Rocco? Perhaps. But maybe letting Ober keep his scheduled start to try getting that last win in Sacramento, securing a winning road trip, keeping the team momentum going and letting the rookie start at home after no travel might have been a better call.

I’m not sure I understand the theory of flying a rookie out to the west coast to make a start by pushing Ober back. Why not let Ober start on his normal day against a very beatable team and let the rookie stay in his normal environs and get ready to get his start at home? Festa seemed out of sorts from the start. I guess the theory was that the A’s aren’t very good and even if Festa struggled a bit, the game should still be winnable. Then Ober would be ready for the first game of the next series against a better team. Sure hope Ober brings his A game tomorrow; otherwise, the strategy will have failed. Seems like Festa was a bit sacrificed today. It’s certainly likely it would have been a lot better for him - mentally and physically - to get the start at home tomorrow.

Google Twins sale process over the past several days. Then you can judge my credibility. Multiple stories and references to their cash flow issue from people who have reviewed the financials. Has Forbes reviewed the offering memorandum? Yeah, didn’t think so. The derision continues. lol.

What this article failed to mention is that it has been reported several potential buyers who have reviewed the Twins financials were surprised to find out the Twins have been losing over $25MM annually on a cash basis. This significant cash flow problem has been the biggest deterrent to completing a sale. And the problem isn’t necessarily straight forward to address. Coupled with the debt, it will take a pretty big increase in future equity value to end up making money for new investors. Also, it’s not clear if the Pohlad’s ask is only for their equity or for the enterprise value (i.e. including the debt). A very few of us TDers have been making this claim about the magnitude of the Twins cash flow problems/losses for several years - often to much derision. Oh well.

Exactly!

Please, please just do Julien a solid and trade him so he can get the fresh start he needs and deserves. He’s only 26 and Rooker 2.0 is not out of the question for him if he’s with a different organization. If his agent is worth a lick, he’s hounding Falvey daily to make that happen. While Falvey is at it, trade Martin and Miranda too. They deserve fresh starts after their Twins development debacles. Btw, I saw an interview with Kevin O’Connell this week. He says that the players the Vikings drafted are all talented and capable of being accomplished NFL players and it’s up to him and his coaching staff to make that happen. If that doesn’t happen, it’s on him and his staff. He acknowledges that player development and the successful transformation from college football to a productive NFL career is the responsibility of him and his staff. If they are successful at doing that, then the chances for team success rise exponentially. We’ve never, ever heard Rocco say anything like this. KOC has his heart into player development because he cares and he’s smart/commercial. Young football players are dying to be a Minnesota Viking under KOC because they know they have a commitment from the coaching staff to be developed into their best football selves. The record is there to back up that up. That dynamic and record is nonexistent for the Twins under Rocco.

No excuses. The Guardians just flat out out executed us when it mattered. Whether it was moving runners over, stealing a base, running the bases, throwing out runners, etc. Again, it’s not rocket science. Play a clean game, do the little things better, have strong fundamentals. The Guardians are just better at those things than the Twins. Those things matter - a lot! And it’s fairly obvious. And it’s why they beat us more often (ok, virtually all the time, especially in Cleveland) in close games.

So I’m watching the game and Stewart starts out Naylor with four straight 4 seam FBs. Then he throws a change up. Our brilliant tv analyst smartly says, that by throwing the change up, Stewart has now set up Naylor to not sit on the four seam. I literally yelled out “OMG - no, he’s sitting dead red for sure!” Here comes the 4 seamer and goodbye Mr. Rawlings. lol.

I actually think Buxton’s catch last week to save game 1 vs. the White Sox not only saved Rocco’s job, but also may have saved the Twins’ season as well. That catch really feels like a huge turning point.

Two of three - it’s a start and, unless they get swept this weekend, probably enough for Rocco to keep his job for the time being. Thank god for Buxton’s amazing catch in game one. I’m actually starting to like this roster a bit more if they can get it healthy and start hitting. If our 13 position players are Correa, Buxton, France, Bader, Lewis, Castro, Wallner, Julien, Lee, Larnach, Jeffers, Vasquez, and Keaschall, that team should be pretty good on paper at least. Now, if they only could start performing to their potential.

Seriously, I’ve seen two little league teams play better fundamental baseball.