LA Vikes Fan

I agree. My thought was to see if we are sacrificing power as measured by slugging % in order to increase OBP and decrease our strikeout %. I'm really curious to see if adopting a better two strike approach and/or a more contact oriented approach is having a decreasing effect on overall power. It seems like the conventional wisdom is that by being more contact oriented, even if its only with two strikes, that teams sacrifice a lot of power/extra base hits. I think that's wrong and would love to see the data to see. Is there a source to find that data?

Thanks for doing this. . It would be interesting to track slugging % and runs per game. It might be a way to see if the new emphasis on contact and a better two strike approach has lead to more runs and how it has effected power.

Good analysis. The high strikeout guys problem is exacerbated when you look at the AAA roster - the best player is Wallner, another high strikeout (80 SOs in 225 ABs), feast or famine guy. Same for Larnach and Williams - both over 35% SO guys. Is there someone at AAA who's more of the sparkplug, high OBP guy? Julien was supposed to be that guy but he has 48 SOS in 120 MLB ABs and only 15 walks. Early yes, but his SO rate is going up lately, not down. Looking at the stats, is Andrew Stevenson an answer? Hard to buy that since he wasn't great for the Nationals in part time duty with a .687 career OPS and he's 29 years old. To me, the bottom line is that the players currently on the roster have to make the adjustments. This starts with Correa, Buxton, and Kepler (since we seem to be stuck with him). Let's see if that happens. If things don't change stringerbell is right, we won't win this awful division.

Agreed. You don't get results calling out individuals unless you're willing to lose those individuals from the team. Those individuals are counseled in private and the rest of the team knows who they are. Calling out insufficient effort by the group is a good start of a shake up. Now Rocco needs to put his money where his mouth is and either sit or lose players who don't make the adjustments he's looking for. I'm looking to see who loses playing time or is demoted/let go to reinforce the message.

To add to my earlier post - how to get the spots to keep Wallner, Julien, Kirilloff, Lewis and Miranda on the team? Need two spots, three when Polanco is ready (his absence is being keenly felt in my opinion). DFA/trade Gallo, Il Buxton until he can play in the field at least 3-4 days a week, and DFA/trade Kepler. Do it, and do it now.

Agree with all of the criticisms of both Rocco and the players. The better question is - what are we going to do about it? Rocco says the approaches by players aren't working. Ok, sit those players. Sit them every day. that probably means no ABs for Gallo or Kepler and MAY make the FO do the right thing and replace them with Wallner and Miranda. Drop Buxton to 6 or 7 in the Order and make him work his way up. Same for Correa. Let the younger LH hitters face LH pitching and see if they improve. Run a daily top of 5 of something like Julien/Solano, Lewis, Kirilloff/Miranda, Jeffers. Wallner, with Castro in there when Vasquez catches, and then find spots for guys like Buxton, Correa, and Taylor. Put Polanco on the 2 hole when he returns and find a way to keep Julien on the roster even if it means losing Solano or Castro. This team needs to be shaken up and Rocco controls the lineup card. Put your money where your mouth is and use it. Will this kind of a lineup be better? Who knows. I do know one hitting though, it's unlikely to be worse. Don't rip the players for their approach and then leave them in the same spots. Tie spots to actual production.

Hey guys, Brock Stewart just went on the IL with right elbow soreness. Get ready for Pagan in a lot more medium high to high leverage situations. On the positive side, here's is a shot for Balazovic, Headrick and Winder to get a good BP slot (Ortega is a long shot). Hope somebody steps up.

I agree with one addition. He not only can't play in the field, he's pretty clearly not himself at the plate either. I really wonder if the better idea would be to just shut him down through the All Star break. Bring up Wallner and/or Miranda and let Buxton heal up for the second half. These half measures aren't working. Let's find out if Wallner can force a spot and try to heap up Buxton at the same time.

Let's be honest guys, Kepler's mini hot streak probably got him leave to stay until the All Star break at least. In fact he's playing and hitting 3rd tonight! I'll cheer for the guy but I think we all know that he's at the end of the line by year end, or at least we won't pick up the option. Gallo, on the other hand, is lost at the plate. I live in LA and he looks like the same guy who hit .162/.277/.393 (.671) for the Dodgers last year. While I never hope for illness or injury, I'd love to see something happen for Wallner (or Andrew Stevenson) to get up to the Twins and show what he can do. I found myself almost wishing that Buxton's back spasms required an IL stay so Wallner could come up and hit. Miranda is also now hitting well in AAA, Larnach not so much. I don't see them DFAing either Gallo or Kepler, and neither one of them have any trade value to speak of, so I think Wallner and/or Miranda's only way up is an Il stint opening a spot.

Agreed. Kepler is what he's been outside of 2019 - a good defensive OF who is a well below average hitter for a corner OF (only below avg. for the league as a whole, but corner OFs need to be above average hitters because it's an offense first position). He could have a role a on a contending team as a 4th OF but he won't play CF. I'd even be ok with him on the Twins if we didn't have Gallo and he was playing 2-3 times a week tops. Kepler and Galo are below average players and are redundant. Lose at least one of them, preferably both. Kep Kepler if you only lose one. Bring up Wallner to give his bat a shot. This team needs offense more than defense from the corner OFs. It's past time to find out if Wallner can help provide that missing offense.

Hey, he's 30, not 26 or 28. His athleticism may be starting to tail off a bit. Or his legs still are a little off from the earlier injury. Either of those would explain the drop-off. Now what explains how much he plays? You got me there.

I'm with August. Nothing against Kepler or Gallo, they are what they are. They're unlikely to improve by much if at all over the course of the season. Occasional good games aside, neither is really helping this team have a chance win on a consistent basis. More of ten than not, they are getting in the way of winning. I would at least lose one of them so Wallner can get a shot. Frankly, if Rocco is willing to treat Kepler as a 4th OF/defensive replacement, start 2 games a week guy - which is what the really is - I would prefer to lose Gallo.

Fun win tiday, Ryan was outstanding. Here's a thought - can Lewis, Polanco, Kirilloff, or Julien play LF? Or better put, can Polo or Julien play LF, and will they let Lewis go to the OF (probably not) I'm looking for a way to give regular ABs to Lewis, Julien, Kirilloff and Polanco when Polanco comes back in a couple of weeks. I'm also assuming Julien is still hitting well enough to warrant MLB ABs and Buxton is the DH 5-6 days a week without playing in the field. How about moving Julien to 1B in a platoon with Solano, moving Kirilloff to LF, and playing Polo at 2B? Alternatively, put Julien in LF, leave Kirilloff at 1B and Lewis at 3B. Don't think moving Lewis to LF helps unless we think Polo or Julien can handle 3B. This requires either Kepler or Gallo going with the other riding the bench a lot, both going to get Wallner up.

Like it. I also think this is it. We otherwise roll with what we have unless someone offers us a solid prospect for Farmer or Solano which seems unlikely. Open up OF ABs for Wallner, Larnach, and Castro, play Lewis, Julien and Kirilloff every day, and see the results.

Well, that went a long way.

Wow, an we bottle the bottom of the 3nd for later use? Aggressive baserunning, clutch hitting, actual smart baseball. Quite the refreshing change.

I actually think the FO had been doing a good job until this year. They inherited a poor team with no pitching to speak of and not a lot of good prospects. The Twins are now competitive until the last stretch and the starting pitching is a strength. I think things went south at the trade deadline last year when we decided we were only a player or two away from being a real contender. We weren't. the Mahle trade has turned out poorly, and Jorge Lopez has not performed while the guys we traded look pretty good. The FO compounded this fallacy by adding Joey Gallo and not trading away Max Kepler. All of these moves made sense at the time -hell, I was in favor of all of them - IF we had a solid foundation and these add-ons could take us to the next level. It's turned out neither of these things are true - we didn't have a solid foundation and the add-ons have flopped for the most part, Brock Stewart excluded. We're left with a team that can't score runs because they can't hit consistently enough and can't hit situationally, with a bullpen that was thin and now is becoming more and more unreliable because of injury and poor performance, and a rotation under so much pressure because we can't score that it is now starting to break down. I don't know the solution. It seems to me that Kepler and Gallo should be gone, replaced by Wallner and Larnach (or maybe Stevenson instead of Larnach). No platooning Kirilloff, and play Lewis and Julien every day to see what you have. If that means fewer ABs for Farmer and Solano that's what it means. If Rocco isn't on board with that, trade the players away so he can't play them. I'm not sure what else they can do now. I think it's the apparent lack of recognition of where the team really stands as evidenced by the lack of change that is the most frustrating. This team is 19-26 since the end of April. It isn't likely to get any better if we keep doing the same things over and over again.

Right on point. This team isn't hitting well because we don't have enough good hitters, and Buxton and Correa not hitting just turns a mediocre lineup into a bad one. How do we get better? We might not be able to with the talent we have, but at least let's stop running out the same lineup hoping for a better result. They've finally stopped playing Kepler, thank God, so let's finish the job by moving or releasing him. Call up Wallner and play him. Move Gallo, call up Larnach and play him. The OF should be a combination of Buxton, Larnach, Wallner and Castro, with MAT playing twice a week. In the IF, Play Lewis, Julien, and Kirilloff every day. Sit Farmer - he's a 32 year old reserve for goodness sakes. Play Buxton in the OF so Solano, Julien, etc. can DH. Try SOMETHING to shake up this lineup. This is just too painful to watch.

I hear the calls to fire Rocco, and I'm not far off. I wouldn't start there, though. This has just become a very flawed roster. We cannot play Kepler and Gallo in the same game and adding Buxton would just make it worse. Both Kepler and Gallo are automatic outs at this point, usually by strikeout. Even worse, now with Lopez out it's even harder to get rid of Pagan. What to do? Dump Kepler AND Gallo, call up Larnach and Wallner. Not sure if it will be that much better, but can't be worse. The return? Not important really; simply release them if you need to. Varland back to AAA, Maeda up to start or De Leon or Headrick if Maeda isn't ready. Louie is a nice story but he isn't a consistent MLB starter yet. Needs more time at AAA to get better control and consistency. I beginning to think it's also time to put Buxton on the IL again and leave him there until he's right physically. He's hurting the team trying to play. Also, this time give him a week in AAA to ramp up. Change the hitting coach and let Rocco know that he's next if things don't improve. This team is not good. It isn't going to get better by doing these same things over and over again. My suggestions may make things worse but at least there's a chance things could get better.

Just saw that Larnach has been optioned back to St. Paul. there wasn't a mention of a corresponding move, but I have to assume it will be activating Buxton. I'm hoping this means Kepler is now the 4th Of since Buxton will be the DH. You put Gallo in RF, Kirilloff in LF, Solano at 1B, Julien at 2B, and Buxton at DH. All of them should be playing over Kepler.

06/14/23 Minnesota Twins optioned OF Trevor Larnach to St. Paul Saints.

Lineup looks good for 5 spots at least. Hard to see Kepler and Gallo back to back unless you guys need a breeze out there... I was kind of hoping after last night that Kepler had been relegated to the bench but no such luck, I guess.

I agree completely. This is the year to turn over the lineup and luckily we can do so while still having a real chance to win this very lousy division. Adding Kirilloff and Lewis as every day players and Ober as a regular in the rotation is a good first step. The next is to find a spot for Julien to lead off even when Polanco is back. It's also time to give Wallner some run, probably as a replacement for Kepler. I think Miranda will be back in July as a 1B/DH. On the pitching side, keep Varland in the rotation or try him as a late inning reliever when Maeda comes back. I would also try Headrick or Balazovic in the pen. Yes, that limits our options if we have a starter go down but I think it's a risk worth taking. Bottom line, this is a year to move up prospects, not trade them for short term vets. The only move I would make would be to trade guys at the A or A+ level for a decent reliever if we can do that. Otherwise, let's move some guys like Kepler, Pagan, or even Gallo, Solano, Farmer, or Larnach to create space. Play the guys we have on the way up.

While I agree that the main reason we lost yesterday was Varland's inability to pitch well with a five run lead, you can't really compare him with Pagan. Varland is a young starting pitcher who has the potential of being a solid mid rotation starter. He is now going through some serious growing pains right now and his inability to even give us five innings with a big cushion is the reason we lost yesterday. He may still be a year away from staying on the roster all year long and will probably be replaced in the rotation when Maeda is ready. Still, he is part of a future Twins rotation. Pagan is not part of anybody's future. He is at best an overpaid low leverage reliever who has shown time and time again that he cannot handle high pressure situations. He should be sent out either by a DFA or as part of a trade package to a bad team like Oakland or Washington. I don't think there is much in the trade market for him and the FO doesn't like to admit mistakes, so I suspect he will be on the roster all season.

I live in LA and I can tell you that Adell isn't going to get a DFA. The Angels are committed to him longer-term as either a trade asset or they will simply keep him in the system. I think they would be open to trading him because they have a number of core outfielders already and Trout is eventually going to have to the corner. I don't think corner outfielders what they want in return; they are always on the lookout for pitching and need another catcher. I don't think a Wallner and Pagan package would be too enticing. More like a SWR or Festa, or maybe a Headrick plus a AA guy type package would be required.