LA Vikes Fan

While any player is certainly tradable for the right deal, I would keep Arraez unless we are blown away by some offer. I do see the upcoming middle infield backlog what effectively three second baseman - Polanco, Gordon and Arraez - None of whom appear to be a high-quality starting every day shortstop. I would like to create a way for Arraez to play basically every day to keep his bat in the lineup. I think the answer is simple - trade Donaldson. I don’t think you do that because of the great haul we’re going to get for him, I don’t think it’s there, but we dump his contract and that of Cruz and maybe Kepler so that we can use the money to sign Berrios, Rogers and/or Buxton long-term. If we trade Donaldson, Arraez and Polanco man second and third with Gordon as the infield/outfield utility guy. What about Miranda, you say? Well, he’s been in the minors for a while, wasn’t added to the 40 man roster last winter, and didn’t get drafted by anybody. He’s having a great year this year in AA, so let’s bring him up and see where he is on the development path. He may be ready in a year or two and we will have to find a spot for him on the 40 man roster, another good reason to trade Donaldson. If Miranda comes up and beats out Arraez for the third base job, we can always trade Arraez at that point. The bottom line is that we do have a bit of an infield crunch with a lot of guys who can’t play shortstop. I don’t think the way to solve that is to trade a productive, very cost controlled player like Arraez. I do think the idea that we’re going to get a top 100 prospect, or even a organizations’s top 20 prospect in return is a bit of a fantasy. I think the better move is to trade the under productive, more expensive player like Donaldson even if the trade is effectively a salary dump. I think it does two great things, (1) Keeps the younger player whose timeline is with the developing guys around, and (2) frees up money to try to sign Berrios, Buxton and/or Rogers.

I think the decision on Berrios is actually pretty easy. Lance McCullers got five years, $85 million. Berrios is a significantly better investment both in terms of quality and then likely longevity given his work ethic and past performance. He is clearly worth a five-year/$100, million type contract and might be worth more. The Twins could stagger the payment so that his salary went up significantly after Donelson comes off the books. Quality top of rotation starting pitching is the hardest thing to develop and the hardest thing to find. Even if Berrios is only really a number 2 starter, and I think he might develop into a true number one still, he is worth the money. He is the guy I will try the hardest to sign. Buxton is the much harder case because of his injury history and the fact that until this year he’s really never shown he could consistently hit major-league pitching at a high level. However, if he really is what we’ve seen this year when he’s played he will command $20-$25 million a year on the market although that will probably come with some strings in the form of a games played incentive. I would love to see the Twins be the team that signed him to that contract but I do recognize that our resources are not unlimited. I do think there is a way to sign them both without straining the budget if we are willing to make a couple of hard decisions. First, we need to know we can sign them to these contracts. Then, we need to offload some payroll. The candidates are obvious. Trade Cruz for pitching prospect(s), and replace him with a combination of Sano, Garver, Rooker and off day starters. Makes the team weaker in the short run but frankly all we’re ever going to get from Cruz is the short run. Trade Donaldson Without sending much money even if it means getting a lower return. This is a salary dump to sign the other two guys so you have to know you can sign the other two guys before you do this. Replace him with Arraez as the every day third baseman, with Gordon and Miranda coming up behind. Then, if you have to to make the numbers work, trade Kepler. The combination of Larnach and Kirilloff can handle the corner outfield spots, with Sano and Garver handling first base, or Kiriloff can be moved to first base with Rooker/Refsnyder/Garlick being the other corner outfielder. By doing this you free roughly $40 million a year off the current payroll which you then give to Berrios and Buxton to sign them long-term. We don’t have a lot of other long-term big money commitments coming up since Larnach and Kiriloff are very early in their careers. Same for Arraez, who also probably won’t ever command huge money. The big negative is this approach would hamstring us from signing big money free agents for the pitching staff but I frankly don’t think we’re going to do that anyway. I would advocate for giving Rogers three years/$20 million, giving Robles two years/$6-8 million and filling in from there. We have Duffy and Alcala in their less expensive years still, so we’re only looking to fill 3 to 4 other spots. We stunk at it this year but have been successful and others. This team doesn’t have the payroll to be filled with strong, established players in all areas.

I would accept that friendly amendment. It would have to be a huge offer to tempt me, however, particularly with respect to Berrios. The Twins don't do a good job of developing pitching so we need to hold on to what we have until it's very clear that we can't re-sign him.

The path forward is clear now and frankly has been for the last month or so. This is a developmental/retooling year. What we need to learn from this year is what pieces we have and don't have and whether our focus is short term or a full rebuild is in order. I think if you start there, the steps are relatively straightforward. First, you DFA or trade the players on expiring contracts or who aren't part of the next contending team, unless you want to re-sign them now. DFA Shoemaker TODAY. Get ready to trade Cruz, Happ and Simmons. Trade Pineda if he's healthy enough to be interesting, you can always try to re-sign him in the offseason and he just isn't healthy enough for more than 20-22 starts. Demote Dobnak, he might be part of a contending team as a back end starter, you need to try to straighten him out in AAA. Colome is going to be almost impossible to trade because of his contract so we're probably stick trying to "fix" him or an August DFA. We're stuck with Donaldson and while he's overpaid, he does help us, just not as much as we'd hoped. Try to re-sign Robles and trade him if you can't. Second, bring up the troops and play them every day. Keep Larnach and Kirilloff on pace for at least 500 MLB at bats, and try to find 350-400 for Gordon. Jeffers and Rortvedt catch until Garver is back and even then should stay and get MLB experience. Ober stays in the rotation, Duran joins him after the All-Star break, and find 5-8 starts for any other starter you think has a chance to be MLB helpful next year (Winder, Sands, Barnes?). Get Hamilton, Vasquez, Moran and Cano into the bullpen at various points and try to get them 20 appearances apiece unless they stink out of the gate. Try Thorpe as a reliever when he's off the DL. Balzevic can move up to AAA in a few weeks, and then get a start or 3 in September so we don't use up a year. As for everyone else, while they've done ok, they should be moved to AAA or traded if necessary to give other guys their shot. These are the guys on the roster who are nice to have but don't move the needle much - Theilbar, Astudillo, Refsnyder, Garlick, Cave. Love Astudillo as a 26th man, both Refsnyder and Garlick are nice stories and Theilbar has been better than expected but we're talking about a 26th man/3rd catcher utility guy, 2 guys competing for the 5th or 6th OF spot, and a back of bullpen LH. They could help another team this year but they aren't part of the core of the Twins going forward ( with the possible exception of Refsnyder if this SSS is even close to what he could do off the bench). Let's use their roster spots for evaluating players. Whatever you do DO NOT trade Buxton or Berrios until the offseason. Try to keep them and then trade them only if you can't re-sign them and then only for near MLB ready starting pitching. They are part of the next contending Twins team and we need this year to figure out the horizon for that team - 2022, 2023, or are we looking at 2025 or later? The answer to that question determines how much you pay to keep them. Good times.

Hope Gordon is put in CF every day until Buxton comes back. Would really help us if he could be a multi-positional player. Gives us some speed that we desperately need and it looks like he can hit some.

I also agree with your list of who to trade, except that I would try to keep Pineda and Rogers. I think Kepler will wind up staying because of his "team friendly" contract and the hope that there just is another gear in there somewhere, but I think he is destined to be a quality 4th outfielder on a contending team, not a starter. The rest of those guys have 0 value to the Twins after this year so trade them for what you can get and play the younger talent. It just doesn't make sense to keep these veteran guys in the hope that we could win 75 games instead of 68 games (and that probably overstates the impact). Time to retool/rebuild. Let's start today

Trading Simmons shouldn't be about what you can get for him, it should be about where you have someone younger with a possible future that you want to put into that position or, potentially, if moving someone you have opens up a spot for that younger player with a future. We are going nowhere this year so keeping around a one year rental player isn't a smart move unless we plan on also having him next year to keep the spot warm until someone else like Lewis is ready. That's the question. If we got somebody else who could benefit from the reps, trade Simmons for whatever you can get. If not, we have to seriously look at trying to keep him beyond this year because we have no one else. I would like to see Polanco and Gordon man the SS spot in the 2nd half of the season and trade Simmons for what we can get, even if its just a couple of A ball guys. I know Polanco is stretched at SS, but we did win 2 division championships with him playing that position every day. I've heard that Gordon is also stretched at SS, but I'd like to see him get the opportunity to see if he can be the bridge to someone in 2-3 years. This year is about retooling for next year so unless were planning on having Simmons as our SS for next year I think we should move him and try what we have.

While I think you are probably right that there have been at least 5 to 10 games where you can point to a lack of executing on a fundamental play as costing us the game, we would not have won all of those games by any stretch, I think again the poor fundamentals are a symptom of the problem but not the underlying disease. Let's say we win 5 more games by making a simple fundamental play, like the game in Oakland, 5 more wins would make us 29 – 32 instead of 24 – 37. Better? I guess, A move into playoff relevancy? I don't think so. The Problem is simple: we don't have enough talent. If you look at the team, even when we are at full strength we have about three quarters of the starting lineup sufficient to be a contending team, or about two thirds depending on how you count Sano. We are still at least one outfielder or and perhaps two short, and still unsettled in the middle infield and unsettled at catcher. That's giving credit to 1st base being covered by either Kirilloff or Sano. We have at most 60% of the starting rotation with the last 2 spots not covered by the combination of Happ, Dobnak and Shoemaker. The most we can hope for there is that Dobnak will somehow recover his magic and be a serviceable 5th starter in the future. The bullpen is even worse. We do not have the necessary high-end closer so everybody is stretched one spot. Rogers and Robles should be 7th and 8th inning guys, Alcala and Duffy 6th and 7th inning guys, and the rest are just filler. This bullpen could work with Colome being the elite closer but it turns out that's not what he is so the whole thing has fallen apart. The flaw is that our young core group just hasn't advanced with the possible exceptions of Polanco who has looked very good the last 30 games or so, and Rogers and Berrios on the pitching staff. Sano and Kepler do not look like starters on a contending team. Those two, Arraez and Garver are very much works in progress at best; not the finished, solid to elite hitters we all thought they were. It is much more likely that Kepler and Sano are what they have been the last 2 years, a DH/bench bat and platoon/4th outfielder respectively. So the bottom line is it's not just a few injuries that are hurting us, it's an overall lack of talent and depth coupled with the lack of progress from the young core that has killed us this year. Unfortunately, I really think the Twins are what our record says we are, a mediocre team that injuries have turned into a poor team. The big question is where we go from here. I'm actually a little encouraged by the fact that the FO and Baldelli seem to realize the situation and are giving some younger players run with Larnach and Kirilloff playing every day, and Jeffers/Rortvedt getting some real time behind the plate. I know injuries caused a lot of that, but I think that's going to happen for the rest of the season. I also think that Simmons will be traded even if all we get is a A ball lottery ticket which should free up playing time for Gordon at 2B and SS with Polanco back at SS. I really hope they do that rather than bringing up someone like JT Riddle the play short. I hope Bailey Ober is here to stay in the rotation for the rest of the season, and that Jax will get a real opportunity in the bullpen. I also hope and expect to see Duran in the rotation at some point, probably after a Pineda trade, would really like to see Andrew Vasquez get a shot in the bullpen. Frankly, I'd like to see Louis Thorpe in the bullpen after he recovers from his latest injury because he's either going to have to make it there or go somewhere else. He's just isn't good enough to be a starter. This year's a lemon. Let's make lemonade out of it by basically fielding a developmental team for the rest of the season. Trade Simmons, Cruz, Pineda, Happ and Colome for whatever we can get and give their spots to young guys on the way up. DFA Shoemaker. Frankly, trading Cruz makes it a lot easier to find at bats for Larnach, Kirilloff, Sano, Arraez, Gordon, Jeffers, Rooker, and even Refsnyder who might be the RH bat in a platoon with Kepler/4th OF. We can try to re-sign Pineda in the off-season. The rest are gone forever. I'd also say trade Donaldson but his contract probably makes that impossible. Let's just see this team for what is and try to retool this year so that we know what we can do and can't do in the off-season. Nothing else makes sense to me.

I agree with your premise - the Twins' injuries have been tough, but that isn't the main reason we are 24-36. I think the main reason is poor fundamental and situational play. We make too many errors and also don't execute simpler lays like converting ground balls into double plays and hitting cut-off men, and so we let the opponent have too many at bats. We also don't execute well on offense when it's time to move over a runner, run the bases well, etc. or hit well with RISP. We can blame a small part of that on injuries - putting Astudillo in the field is an invitation for an error, for example - but that's not the main problem We just don't execute well and don't have the talent advantage In the field or anywhere near enough pitching to overcome that problem. I don't know the answer. Maybe it's coaching, but more likely it's just the players we have. I really liked the idea of trying to improve the pitching by improving the defense but that hasn't really seemed to work. Getting Buxton back will help but not solve the problem in its entirety. We are going to continue to play at this level unless the fundamental play improves.

I think you hit it on the head- this team is what their record says they are. Time to rebuild/ reload this season woth a focus on 2022/2023. Lets not wait and see if this season will turn around; it won’t. It’s already too late. Let’s maximize the trade value of Cruz, Simmons, Happ and Shomaker, to the extent that’s even possible. Play Kirilloff, Larnach, Gordon, and Rortvedt as much as you can. Find a few starts for Duran, Jax, Ober, Winder and maybe even Caterino, opportunities for Vasquez, Cano and Sands, and at bats for Miranda. Rooker, Weil, and Celestino. Let’s see what we got. Does anyone really care if we win 70 games or 81 games? I don’t if we’re playing youth snd trying to get better.

I’m very split on whether to trade Berrios at all, in part because I think your AAV to sign him is low and in part because I think he has a better chance to take the next step up to solid top of the rotation starter. I agree that he’ll never be a true “ace”. I still think he’ll get a contract in the $17-20m AAV range because that’s what true #2 guys are worth today. I’d still sign him if we could because we can’t sign top end free agents so we have to keep our own if there’s a chance they can become that top end guy. Any trade has to bring back pitching, period. I like the Braves prospects the best and that gets him out of the AL.

Hey, sometimes you get lucky. We need a RH hitting 4th/5th OF that can play CF. He's ben a lot more than that so far. Even if he falls to hitting .260/.320/.440 he's worth having and fits a needed role on this team.

Thorpe may not work out in the bullpen but it's definitely worth a shot. Some guys have gotten much better with a change in role (see Perkins, Glen and Aguilera, Rick). I don't know if Thorpe will be one of those guys but it's definitely worth the experiment given that the other option would be a DFA or release unless his fortunes change as a starter. This is the perfect season to give this a try since we aren't likely going anywhere any way.

I do think the time to test the pitching pipeline we have so far is fast approaching. We're losing (again) today. It's becoming more and more clear that there is a very low probability of even some modicum of playoff contention this season. I'm glad to see that we're giving Kirilloff and Larnach a real run in the bigs, although I would like to see Gordon get the same kind of opportunity (maybe after SImmons is traded). I'd like to see more opportunity given on the pitching side. I recognize that creating space probably requires some trades and it's a bit too early but I do think it's time to get things moving. I would definitely like to see Vasquez, Duran, Caterino, Ober, Cano and Winder get a shot this year and do it before September.

I agree with everything you wrote with one exception. I thought for a while the that Thorpe probably needs to be in the bullpen. Frankly, I think Shoemaker should go there with him. We have Dobnak and Ober showed enough to potentially fill a spot. I think there’s a much better chance of Thorpe being an effective, long-term pitcher in the Majors by putting him in relief. I disagree that they’ll heavily shop Rogers at the trade deadline. I think the team is past the day where you get rid of a guy just because of his salary. I think I’ll keep Rogers, try to re-sign him over the winter and, if Ithey can’t, trade him then..

Hey now, Twins Fever.... Catch It!

The best part of watching the highlights was watching how much joy there was in Sano’s Face as he went around the bases after his home run. I know I and I think many of us sometimes forget these are human beings trying their best every day. He has had a very tough time but by all reports is working hard on his craft. I hope this gets him started because we need help and he could be that help. I’m just glad for him. That must’ve been a huge rock on his shoulders. My post earlier today wondering why we have not DFA’d him and why he was in the starting lineup when anybody else would have been better? Yeah, forget that one. I will take credit for saying two weeks ago the Robles should be the closer though. I think he’s the best we got for that job.

While I don’t think you’re wrong about getting from Shoemaker what we should have expected, I think that misses the point. He was brought in to be an adequate fifth starter on a contending team, with the hope he must be better than that. He probably has fit the “adequate fifth starter” role. The problem, of course is, is that the Twins are not a contending team and do not appear likely to be one this season. That means the whole reason to have a Matt Shoemaker no longer applies. The calls to move on from Shoemaker really involve switching to a development/reloading year as a team. Absent huge uptick in performance which appears unlikely, Schumaker is not on this team next year. On the other hand, Thorpe and Dobnak probably are and at least one of them will be in the rotation. We need to use this year to give them some development time, particularly in Thorpe’s case, to be sure they can handle that role. Conversely, the one way Shoemaker could be on this team next year is if we move into the bullpen and he thrives in a high leverage relief role. So overall, I would not say Shoemaker’s been a disappointment. He’s been kind of what we all expected, a mediocre fifth starter. Our needs have changed. This team doesn’t need a mediocre fifth starter. This year should be used for the development of someone who can start next year and beyond. The change doesn’t have to start with the next turn in the rotation but it needs to start soon. I think the team does right by Schumaker by making him a reliever because if he’s going to stay in the majors long-term, that’s where he is going to be. Keeping him as the fifth starter accomplishes nothing and is, in my mind, exactly the wrong thing for this team to do going forward.

Couldn't agree more. Move Thorpe into the rotation (or Dobnak) and move Shoemaker to the bullpen. On the reliever side, how about Andrew Vasquez? He was good in the minors until 2019 and now seems to gotten back to his previous self. He's 27. It's time to see if he can throw at the MLB level. He would need to be added to the 40 man but my sense is we have some AAAA guys on that roster that we can take a chance with, or we can DFA Cave.

I agree, Mike. Just because Pineda didn't do well in the 6th doesn't mean you pull every starter after 80-85 pitches. Let these guys go and give them a chance to work out of jams. This bullpen isn't getting better any time soon so we have to try to get length out of the starters. Speaking of which, the one place we seem to have a little tiny surplus is starting pitching with Thorpe and Dobnak at AAA. Let's call one of them up to start and take a current starter and put him in the bullpen to see if he could be more successful in one or two inning stints. I nominate Matt Shoemaker since we have no long-term commitment there and he has been our worst starting pitcher by far. Maybe we will get lucky and he will be successful as a high leverage reliever, reinvented himself, and provide value at the trade Deadline. His level of starting pitching is replaceable with either Dobnak or, I think, with Thorpe who we need to develop anyway. This is now officially become a development year, not a contending year. Let's get the young guys some real opportunities. Kirilloff and Larnach need to play every day, Garlick and Kepler platoon when Buxton comes back. On the pitching side, I would actually bring up Dobnak first with Shoemaker going to the bullpen, then bring up Thorpe if there is an injury or when we inevitably trade Happ at the deadline for low-level prospects. Let's give Andrew Vasquez as a chance in the pen and we should really think about whether Jax or Duran can come up this year and get their feet wet at the MLB level by pitching out our bullpen. I know Levine subscribes to the two months evaluate, two months fix, two months enjoy theory of roster construction but I don't think we need to wait our full two months to make this change. Six weeks of bad baseball is enough.

Wow, if Duffy is our 3rd most trustworthy reliever we are in some deep do–do. He has been awful. While I'm not sure whether these rankings are what you think management does think or what you think management should think, I would definitely put Alcala ahead of Duffy as a reliever in whom we should have some faith and trust. I see it as: A good quality backend reliever – we don't have any of those. A Small gap Rogers - Close, but no cigar. Who knows, maybe he could become that good quality reliever he once was. A pretty good sized gap Robles - B- guy who is not that trustworthy but might return to form. Alcala - B- guy now but might improve if given more opportunity. The Grand Canyon Duffy - A great example of why you do need to get in shape even to play baseball. Think low carb diet. Colome - Come on, he can't be this bad based on prior years, can he? Theilbar - Meh. Mediocre and doesn't really belong on a good team (so he probably does belong on the Twins). The Mariana Trench Everybody Else.

Not only are we looking pretty futile, it's hard to see a way forward here. I've been one of the voices saying call up Law!! Call up Larnach! Send down Jeffers!, etc. it's becoming increasingly clear that bringing up guys from AAA is not likely to be the answer other than some help at the margins. Kirilloff looks like he could be a long-term Lineup fixture if he is not hurt, Thorpe looks like he could develop as a starter if we can make room for him in the rotation, I still think the Dobnak can be decent to good number 4 or number 5 guy in the rotation, and maybe Jeffers can get it back together. That looks like it's about it. At the major-league level, it looks like Polanco is getting back to his old self and we do have some other guys who are solid, but Kepler and Sano have regressed horribly and show no real signs of improvement (particularly Sano), and age may be finally catching up to Cruz - still a good hitter, but no longer able to carry the team for stretches the way he could at one time. Maeda is pitching like the number 3/4 starter he was the Dodgers, rather than the ace we thought we might've lucked into last year, and Berrios, Pineda and Happ are all competent starters but none of them are true number 1 guys and only Berrios is really even a solid #2. The bullpen is a disaster. So what we have here is a team with about two thirds of a lineup at best, a middle and back end of the rotation but no top end, and about one third of a competent bullpen. All this, and not much down below to provide immediate help. So what do you do? Much as I hate to say it, I'm beginning to think were doing pretty much everything we can short of trading guys. And that's what's so depressing. We have to play Garver at catcher because he is the best we have and we've got to sort through Jeffers and Rortvedt to see if we have a competent 2nd catcher. Rortvedt simply can't hit at all, so it's probably time to give Jeffers another shot or maybe Tellis. They called up Larnach and Kirilloff, and each of them should play every day when healthy at the expense of Cave, Kepler and Sano. I'm not sure what to think of Garlick as a longer-term piece and maybe it is time to demote Cave and give Broxton a shot, but not at the expense of at bats for Kirilloff or Larnach. I would love to see Gordon get a shot but frankly middle infield hasn't been the problem in the short term. I think his shot comes in July or later after we trade Simmons for low-level prospects. I would like to see Andrew Vasquez get a shot in the bullpen and Alcala get more high leverage innings, but there we're stuck with hoping that Duffy, Rogers and Colome simply do better to really see much improvement. Stashack needs to go back down and try to re-find a groove and it's hard to see how Theilbar is really any part of the solution. I would also give Robles some higher leverage innings, not because I see him as a long-term solution, but I see him as a potential trade piece in another month to a team desperate for relief pitching. It's also probably time to take some of our better starting prospects and try them in relief this year as necessary. Once these steps are taken, time to work the phones. I think Simmons, Robles, Colome (another guy we're going to have to get back to high leverage innings to improve his trade value), and Happ are all viable or potentially viable trade pieces for decent prospects. I would include Kepler and Sano as trade pieces but their value is so low right now and the potential is still there, so I think we have to keep them but limit their playing time for now. It would be great if we can send those two to AAA to re-find their stroke but I know that service time and options prevent that from happening. I would also seriously consider trading Donaldson and Cruz but you would have to get a significant return to make either trade worthwhile and I don't really think that significant return is out there, especially for Cruz. I would not trade Buxton unless you're firmly convinced he cannot be re-signed. I think you go ahead and make the higher financial commitment to both Berrios and Buxton if you need to to get them signed and take the risk on whether Buxton can ever stay healthy. I realize that the result of a plan like this is that an 80 win season is probably our best hope for and even that may be out of reach. I frankly think we're already there. My view would be to use this year as a way to set up next year. I think the lineup as soon as possible this year and for next year needs to have Kirilloff and Larnach as everyday players, probably needs Arraez in the infield rather than the outfield playing either 3rd base if there's a Donaldson trade or 2nd base there's a Simmons trade with Polanco moving back over to short, and with a Kepler/Garlick platoon in right field or with Kepler in centerfield if Buxton is hurt or traded. I think Thorpe and Dobnak need to be in next year's rotation, so they need to get some MLB starts this year, and I would love to see 3-5 starts apiece from Duran and Balzovic to at least check on where they are. We are going to need to transition to a younger, hungrier team. This team simply isn't good enough to really contend and we are not going to be willing to pay enough to attract veteran ballplayers to augment this group, and because veterans want to go where they have a chance to win and right now this team does not give them that chance. We may not have the right manager or stand for that kind of the team. My view should keep Baldelli, get a different hitting coach, and stay with the pitching coach. In short, time to punt on this year's win/loss record as the measurement of success and switch to player development as the primary goal. It sucks given our preseason expectations but I think this is the reality of where we are.

I don’t know if the season is over, but it is at best on life-support. Nothing kills a baseball team more quickly than blown late leads/ ties by a bad bullpen ( see Davis, Ron). The bullpen is sucking the life out of this team and probably cannot be fixed. The more interesting question is whether anyone is going to step up and make a mark this year for the future. Watching for that may soon be the only reason to watch this team, at least sober. The second most interesting question is whether this manager and coaching staff survives the season intact. I’d the odds of stating intact is no better than 50/50.

Well said, Mr. Nelson. You really encapsulated they way I, and I suspect many others, feel about this team. You see glimmers of hope for the lineup, the starting pitching seems decent, but the bullpen and clutch defense just seems to doom this season. Add in some injuries and very poor managing at the FO and field levels and it’s just hard to see how things can improve. I’ll still follow the team and rant on Twins Daily every now and then, but my heart just isn’t in it this year. This team shoes no signs of life, fortitude, or resilience; nothing you can grab on to and give one much hope. It’s frankly a little sad.

This team is hard to watch. Like many here, I do want to move things up and start over at least a little. The problem is who to add. Hopefully Arraez is back Tuesday, and Kirilloff by the end of next week. Move Shoemaker to the pen, bring up Dobnak. Rortvedt isn't ready, time for Jeffers to come back. Find Significant playing time for Larnach and Gordon. Keep Law in the bullpen for the next 10 days and see if he can pitch. Its hard to know what to do other than that. There just isn't much else out there. Its actually pretty depressing.