LA Vikes Fan

Guys, this offense is only going to go as far as Buxton, Polanco and Correa take it. Arraez can help some as a secondary piece, and Urshela and Sanchez can be tertiary pieces. There is no one else. Sano and Kepler are who they are - a streaky, unreliable hitter who can't field (Sano), and a below average hitter at an offensive position who has an above average glove (Kepler). They are not going to be the pieces we need to improve the offense. And if Rocco hits Kepler 4th again? Fireable offense. Our only real hope is that 2 ne players emerge to lengthen the lineup. Maybe Larnach can be one of those guys. Frankly, maybe Lewis, Contreras or Miranda can come up and be one of those guys. Does the bullpen need help around the edges? Absolutely, but it's not the biggest problem. The lineup is the biggest problem and we do not have the players on the roster to fix that problem. We need new guys. Right now it looks to me like we are trading Correa at the deadline (if he can get going), bringing up Lewis to play SS, and searching for starting caliber MLB OFs for the rest of the season. Disappointing but probably predictable. I think I let getting Correa go to my head. 78-84.

I agree. How is this offense going to fix itself? Let's look. Arraez, Urshela and Sanchez are doing about what one would expect. Should be hitting 1/2, 6 and 8. Correa and Polanco should get better and give us a 2 and 3 hitter, with Buxton as the 1/2 with Arraez. That's it. That's all we got. Sano is a streaky guy, hits 7th or 8th on a good team. Kepler can't hit and hasn't hit since 2019, should be hitting 8th or 9th and is probably the 4th OF on a good team. Same for Jeffers, back up catcher. The other guys? Kiriloff is out, probably for a good while and wasn't hitting before. Larnach and/or Gordon? Who knows? I'd be thrilled if Laranch hit .250 with 15 HRs and if Gordon hit .260. Fine for the back end of an order, but not the middle. This offense won't fix itself because it doesn't have the talent to fix itself. We have no #4 or #5 hitter, only one high OBP player and he doesn't run well, and put out 3-4 SO machines every game. It's not like we have good quality hitters who are slumping other than Correa and Polanco. We have a middle of the pack offense at best WITH Buxton, Correa and Polanco playing every day and producing the way they can produce. Without that, we have what you saw the last 2 days. Bottom third offense that can't handle good pitching.

The one ray of hope is that neither Correa or Polanco is hitting at all so there may be some offense that going to come around. Other than that, this is your team at the plate team folks. The starting pitching has actually been better than expected, and the bullpen has either been quite effective or a complete meltdown with nothing in between. The big disappointment is the offense and the only real hope for it to improve is Correa and Polanco hitting like the All-Stars they are. The only other hope is that 2 or 3 of Sano, Larnach, Kepler, Jeffers, or Gordon becomes a quality hitter. I'm not liking the odds on any of them breaking out and really not liking the odds on 2 or 3 of them breaking out. This could get ugly,

You may be right but the problem is that he's had the surgery so I'm not sure what else there would be to do. If the opinion he's received so far is correct that the surgery has accomplished what it could and there's nothing more to do medically, this really does become a condition to be managed rather than fixed. In that case, the real challenge becomes a mental one not a physical one. I think we just need to get this time because it can't be easy for a 24 year-old athlete to adjust to playing with what might be a chronic condition when the alternative is to kind of give up on his career. The mental part of this is going to be critical.

Oh my God, I remember once spending what seemed like eternity in a theater watching a second rate performance of Waiting for Godot. Excruciating, and I'm not sure better acting we have improved things. Perhaps a car chase or a dance number might've made for a more interesting evening, but even that might not have helped. Still, much more entertaining than watching "My Dinner With Andre". Perhaps "My Dinner With Rocco" would be better. It's a tough call. Very funny adaptation. I liked the Shakespeare as well. Very literary group.

I think you're absolutely right. And while this is a completely amateur diagnosis from afar with no real basis, I think that's what's going on here. It look like when he swung he was afraid to really "let it go" and so he was consistently late and tentative. If in fact the follow-up diagnosis is accurate, and I strongly support in getting a second and even third opinion, the issue is much more mental than physical. It may be that the correct clinician is not an orthopedist or MD, but a sports psychologist to help him get over the residual fear. I was a football player in high school and college and tore up my knee. I was not good for a while coming back after the first injury because I was scared to death that would hurt myself again. It took me a while to get over the hump and actually play freely again. That may be exactly what's going on with Kirilloff. I don't know if he's ever had a major injury before. If not, coming back from the first one is really tough and it takes a while to be mentally ready to play. Unfortunately, it may take a while before we see Kirilloff in the majors at anywhere close to his old self. I think what we're probably looking at is a rehabilitation assignment and some success at AAA before he would be ready to come back to the Twins. I think they get 20 days in the minors after completing the 10 day IL stint, but you guys know the rules a lot better than I do so correct me if I'm wrong. I think maybe the best case scenario is that he gets sent back to St. Paul, spends 20 days there and gradually gets over his fear of reinjuring his wrist. More likely, it takes longer than that for rest, rehabilitation and getting over the mental challenge and we don't see him until around her after the All-Star break. I hope I'm wrong.

i agree on the walks. It was good to see the Twins take much more high quality at bats. They are going to have to do that to be successful offensively. This team just doesn't have the talent in the lineup to mash opponents, and they now have even less with Buxton and Kirilloff out. They are going to have to work counts, get walks, and hit situationally to score runs. That hasn't been a trademark of this team the last few years. I hope they can do that.

I hate to sound old school, something I'm not, but this may be as simple as Kirilloff learning to play with a certain level of discomfort or pain. He should definitely get another opinion other than from the doctor who did the surgery and may have some bias toward defending his work. If that second or third opinion is the same it may be that he has to understand that he has a condition that he will have to live with as he plays. I said before that he looked overmatched this season. It may be that he was just being tentative because his swing caused some discomfort. It sounds like that may be something he's going to have to learn to play with over time. A setback to be sure, but one he has to overcome if he wants to be successful. We may learn a lot abut his mental toughness over the next few months.

Wow, is that ugly....

Let's assume Buxton is out for at least 10 days, probably longer. Time for Upton? Maybe put him in right field, Kepler in center field, and the great unwashed cast of thousands in left. Wow, does that sound ugly. Never mind.

Hopefully Garlick won't spend much time in the field or the lineup, he is not good out there. The harder call is Arraez. We need his bat now even more than before with Buxton out but he is an adventure at 3rd. Bad inning against the Dodgers and ole'd another ball he should have played. Solution? Hmmm, where to play a hitter who isn't good with the glove..... what's open... Wait, isn't left field open? PLAY ARRAEZ IN LF! Play Urshela every day at 3B, DFA Garlick or option Celestino or Larnach and bring up Miranda to play some at 3B and some at 2B. Improves the batting order and gets Arraez away from 3B. Sano is better there than he is. Wait, Arraez to 1B and Sano to 3B? Hmmmmm.....

Wow, Larnach looks pretty clueless up at the plate...

Similar experience to when I tore mine. You can walk in a straight line i without pain but any other kind of movement that requires a twist or a lift causes a lot of pain. I didn't see it but that might be a way to assess severity. A meniscus tear (I've also done that, 3 times) allows for much more freedom of movement.

I've torn my ACL. If Buxton walked off without a limp, he didn't tear his ACL. I could walk in a straight line but not turn at all without severe pain.

Cutting Rodriguez was probably the right call. There's a good chance that he will pass through unsigned and wind up back in St. Paul. I never thought I would say this, but I'm glad to see that Garlick is back on the roster. We are going to have to cycle through some guys in LF and at least he provides a quality RH bat against LH pitching. My guess is it's going to be a platoon with him and Larnach in LF with Garlick also getting some ABs against left-handers with Kepler on the bench. Certainly not ideal but better than running Celestino, Rooker or Larnach out there full-time. Almost makes one wish we picked up Justin Upton, but not really. I would expect Celestino to go back to AAA when they need a spot and probably after May 1.

I agree that it's way too early to judge the pitching. I'm actually optimistic about that group. I don't think its too early to judge the lineup though based on their track record. We were all planning on Kirilloff to be the number 4 or 5 hitter and with him gone and unlikely now to be that guy this year we kind of know what we have. Three good to elite hitters - Correa, Polanco and Buxton (maybe, jury is still out), one pretty good complimentary hitter with no power in Arraez, one maybe at that same level with a little more power in Urshela, a catching tandem that's decent for catchers with some power and lots of SOs, and a major black hole in RF, 1B, and LF - spots where you should have 3 good hitters not a streaky high SO guy, a lousy hitter and young, unproven guys with spotty track records. Add to that we seem to have very few position players in the minors screaming to be brought up. Hard to optimistic about the future of that lineup. Looks like the only way to get a better lineup is to do the one thing we probably shouldn't do - trade young pitching. I think we're stuck with this group and I don't see them as anything more than a middle of the pack offense and probably a little less than that. The pitching is better but not good enough to overcome that.

We are going to find out a lot about the ability of this roster to compete in the first month. The first 21 games of the season are against Seattle (90 wins in 2021), the Dodgers (106 and NLCS berth), Boston (92 and ALCS berth), KC (74), the White sox (93, division champs), improved Detroit (77), and Tampa (100, division champs). Not a schedule conducive to working out the kinks. The Twins would only be favored to win maybe one or two of those series, at home against Detroit or in Kansas City. Very realistic to go something like 7-14 or 8-13 in the first 21. The good news is we might get buried early but have a much easier schedule in May and June. Still, it sure looks like we can't compete with the big boys so far.

Sadly, you may be right. There's a lot of IFs there and they aren't all going to come true and maybe only Correa playing better. Most likely result is Kepler, Sano and Sanchez playing like they usually do - average to below at the plate - and Gordon, Larnach and Celestino and a legion of "work in progress development" players in LF. I'm sticking with 78-84.

Lineup is at least 2 bats short, maybe 3 now that Kiriloff is gone. We have 3 strong and potentially elite bats in Buxton, Correa and Polanco, two potentially good complimentary bats in Arraez and Urshela (we need to play them both at the same time), and the catchers are decent as an entry. Huge wasteland after that. Kepler isn't good at the plate and Sano is way too streaky. LF is a void. Nothing much on the bench or at AAA. The pitching? Better. Probably will wind up about league average which is a step forward. Staff doesn't ahve a lot of really weak points but lacks the top end in the rotation and bullpen. Having said that, we have young, talented guys who might develop into top end guys. Actually, I'm fairly optimistic on the pitching for the next 2-3 years. Defense and management? Both should be better but are off to slow starts. I expect the defense to stabilize at a pretty high level, not so sure about Baldelli. I've been a defender of his but he just doesn't seem to get it or to be getting any better. Way too mechanical and too player friendly. He might need to be replaced to give this team a spark but I'm still withholding judgement. Overall - mediocre to slightly average team. Better than last year, but still at least one year away from truly contending and may need 2 years to develop a high end starter or two from the young guys and at least another 2 bats In fact, we probably need 3 bats since we will need to replace Correa after this season. Predict between 77 and 83 wins depending on injuries and development curve of the young guys. Right now if I had to bet I would say 78-84.

Agreed. Make Larnach hit at AAA before we bring him up. Play Gordon and find what he really can do if he plays every day. This really does show how thin we are in the field. We've gone from a team that seemed to boast a lot of hitting depth with not much pitching in the org to one that seems to boast a lot of pitching depth that can't find a competent bat to play LF, the position where defense is the least important (well, other than DH but that's not really a position). Frankly, it's a little scary for the long term.

Let's face reality, it sounds like Kirilloff is out for awhile. I suspect we'll be looking at a 60 day IL stint once we have to make a 40 man decision. Really hurts because we were counting on him to fill one of the top 5 spots in the Order and there isn't anyone to replace him on the roster in that role. We know who Kepler, Sano, and the catchers are and none of them can hit in the top 5 or even top 6 on a contending team. The choices are Gordon and Larnach for now unless we make a trade. I for one would like to se Gordon play LF every day for a month and see what he can do. I would either sign a FA RH hitting Of (but who?) or bring up Garlick as a RH stopgap playing 2-3 days a week for Kepler and Gordon. I would do that for the next 3-4 weeks so Larnach can play every day in AAA. Then I would bring Larnach up and play him every day unless Gordon takes off with regular playing time. Gordon is 26 and Larnach is 25. They can either can play at the MLB level or they can't and its time for us to find that out. In an ideal world, we wind up with Gordon as a quality super utility and Larnach as an every day OF or at least one of them claims the job. The other end of the spectrum is they aren't good enough and we cut bait and move on to Contreras, Martin and Julien. Kirilloff is going to wind up as the every day 1B by next year so the LF spot is open. Let's use this time to fill it.

Following the last two games in an office in LA surrounded by Dodger fans too polite to say the truth - the Twins are nowhere hear the Dodgers league.

Ah, how one day and one injury changes things. This lineup is about 4 bats long, 5 against RH pitching because you can add Arraez. Kirilloff was supposed to be a middle of the order bat. Gone, and might be for awhile. Sano is off to his usual torrid start. Won't be any better than last year and a better second half doesn't help a team out of contention by the All Star Break. Kepler is who he is - a lousy hitter. The Catching position actually could be mediocre at the plate and that's the best spot in the back half of the lineup. The pitching? Not that bad. Could be middle of the pack. Defense? Not good so far. Overall? Mediocre team. Let's use this year to develop some more guys.

Hard to see a good reason to go get Upton. Frankly, Garlick looks like a better bat at this point. If we think we can contend, put Arraez out there, live with his poor defense and hope he knees allow him to play 120 games. Maybe pair him with Garlick. If this is really more of a rebuilding/development season, put Gordon out there some and Larnach some and see what happens. I lean to the latter because I think these first 6 games have sobered me up to see how many holes this team has. The pitching may be average - an improvement but not good enough - but the lineup is least two hitters too short to really contend. I hate to say it, but I think we have time. Persistent soreness that affects one's swing in an already surgically repair wrist doesn't sound like a 10 day IL stint to me. Sounds more like at least a month and that's if they can figure out what's wrong.

Really bad news about Kirilloff. I was one of the people calling for him to go back to AAA since he really did look bad and overmatched. In a sense, it's reassuring to hear that his problem is an injury; really bad because it sounds like it could be a longer term one. Even worse, we have no one to replace him that looks even close to ready to play every day in the bigs. Maybe Arraez, but Rocco doesn't want him in the OF. Sounds like this is the best opportunity that NIck Gordon will ever get. Hope he runs with it. Time to think harder about Upton?