Rod Carews Birthday

I know this sounds a little ridiculous, but I don't really think they should "use up" a lot of Buxton playing rehab assignment CF -- just enough to know that he can physically make it happen. The one thing that he is probably the best at (if he is physically able) is playing CF, so I'm confident that his timing, etc. will be fine. We know that his knee, hip, hamstring, etc. is not going to let him be 100% but Buxton in CF would help the lineup in so many ways so let's not jeopardize that. One things for certain, however, is that he needs to be given the "You will not try stupid things out there!" speech before he starts playing every day. We just need good defense out there and will gladly sacrifice the occasional highlight reel play.

Gut feelings are based on . . . . analytics, only with potentially less accuracy involved. It's OK to not like the word, but when a manager "uses his gut" to make a decision, it's based on what he has seen work before and thinks might work again, and that's analytics. These are not stupid people. They're not saying, "Hey! Maybe the pitcher should pitch underhanded. That will work." or "Let's try batting with the your hands in the opposite position on the bat". We know those won't work because of the information we gather -- even if we "just know".

This is what people forget. Just because it wasn't a computer telling managers (and players) what the exact numbers were, doesn't mean that analytics didn't exist. Batters and pitchers most certainly studied each other's tendencies and managers used every tidbit of knowledge they could to exploit them.

Love these kinds of articles for places I just might go (even if not for a Twins game). I’ve been to quite a few, but they change a lot sometimes from year to year, so the refresher is absolutely needed. Definitely a great call on Summerfest. It’s pretty amazing.

I would be a little surprised if the Twins had two top 5 prospects any time soon, but I’m not sure I really care about it much. If you knew those guys would turn into Mike Trout, by all means I would love to have them, but they also sometimes turn into Miguel Sano (ineffective) and Byron Buxton (injured, a lot). I think it is a better option to have many more players in the top 100 because there is not some great chasm of ability levels between #5 and #50 or #100. Given the choice of two players in the top five and 10 players all ranked between 80 and 100, I would gladly take the latter. Many more chances at someone (or multiple someone’s) being really great.

Difficult choice here, but I too lean Carew. I wouldn’t put up much of an argument against Killebrew, however. There have been some excellent seasons by people like Mauer, Olivia, and others, but I don’t believe any of them get quite to the level of Charlie and Junior — and they both were on the team at the same time!

This is an argument that cuts both ways 50/50 pretty much all the time. If someone is spouting positive things, they are in effect telling you to be more positive about the team. If someone is spouting negative things, they are in effect telling you to be more negative about the team. Someone will always be on the wrong side of it, although perhaps degree of positive or negative plays into it in extreme cases. Rationality is also important. Calling Gallo and Vasquez amazing hitters is stupid. Calling for everyone's head is equally so. I will agree that ultimately no one's opinions about someone's favorite team matter but their own, and kept to themselves are no less valid. So ultimately, we all have to agree to disagree. Now let's go out and win some ballgames!

While this thread isn't about a comparison between the '87 and '23 teams, I think that we are remembering the '87 team more fondly than they probably deserve. Throughout the season everybody kept waiting for them to fall out of 1st place, since that's what Twins teams of the past had done, and then everyone assumed they would lose quickly in the playoffs and in the world series. Taking nothing away from that team, as it is a team that made me many lasting great memories, it was not some juggernaut. That high ranking is mostly because of the association with WS champs that they will always have, and also because of the number of years before that the team had been absolutely terrible. It was wonderful. Absolutely. But the '27 Yankees they were not. Yes, the teams in the West that year were somewhat better, but the Twins would have finished fifth in the East with their record and not even had a sniff at the playoffs. If I learned anything from the 1987 Twins, it is that anything can happen in the playoffs -- particularly if you can match up well on pitching. At the moment our pitching is showing a little bit of regression, but the bats do seem to be coming around a bit, so I'm going to be optimistic about their chances to win the division and maybe even a round of playoffs. What good does it do not to?

Absolutely needed, and as you said, from a surprising source. If he's pointing it out, and he most certainly is, it must be pretty prevalent. TD isn't too bad, but there are lots of postings elsewhere that definitely allow the perfect to be the sworn enemy of the pretty good. Every single team has its warts, but I think that pointing them all out every single day is counterproductive. I posted the other day that there are some who would complain about the two losses if the Twins won the WS in six games and someone actually had to ask if I was being snarky (I was, or thought I was. . . yikes!). Unfortunately, there are too many people that think that whining (or is it wining?) about it is the sport, and not actually baseball.

Maeda - Probably not. He's currently (arguably) the best starter. This could easily change over the next month however. The good news would be that he has done it before and knows what it takes, which are traits not to be underestimated. Keuchel - He's done. Get one more start out of him just to eat some innings and bridge us to another healthy starter, thank him for his service, and send him away. His low velocity stuff won't play well out of the bullpen anyway. If we are in the playoffs and Keuchel is pitching, we're behind by five+ runs and it doesn't matter who pitches. We have Luplow for that. Varland - I think this is likely. His stuff might really play up in one inning stints and it seems unlikely that we will need him as a starter, although again, that could change. Paddack - I would love it if he got a few innings in September, but I'm really not holding my breath for much at this point. That's a lot of pressure to put on a "recovery" situation. Those innings could be useful for his recovery road though. The unused starters -- right now that would likely be Ryan and Ober, although again, that could change. You keep one as your fourth starter, which you could need due to injury/ineffectiveness, etc. The other goes to the bullpen and is likely one of your high leverage guys. That being said, an arrangement where one of them starts and goes 5 or so and the other comes in and finishes the game could be pretty exciting I think. You may have noticed how often I pointed out that "again, that could could change." We're a little too early to started measuring drapes for the playoff bullpen. We're not quite there yet, plus we don't know which pitchers will be hitting on all cylinders (or any cylinders) at that point. Give it at least two more weeks before we start to assign and streamline people into new roles. Let's go Twins! Let's win some ballgames!

I feel your (knee) pain and agree completely. However, he IS a lot younger than us and in a lot better condition, AND I don't know that we as fans know what exactly his physical issues are. Is it "just" knees, or hips, or "legs" or all of the above? You're right in that the move may not do any good and may be just as taxing on his body. Or, maybe he can do it. Hey. . . look. . . I'm grasping at straws here. . .

I’m not sure if this makes sense or not, but it isn’t a terrible idea to try (for NEXT year). Buxton as DH isn’t really working out. Given his personality, I’m not surprised that his being involved in the game is important to his success and first base is a way to get him more involved than anyone except the P and C. It would undoubtedly take some work on his part, as he hasn’t been asked to play 1B before but he is nothing if not a great athlete and would pick up some footwork and infield glove work relatively quickly. That being said, is that really easier on his body than playing CF? He would no longer have long intense runs after balls in the gap, but he would have many, many more plays that require a short burst of speed, possibly a dive, and quick stop. Those aren’t easy on the body either, but I defer to someone who might know a bit more about Buxton’s specific issues to answer that.

First of all, keep using Polanco as a stop gap wherever needed — third base at the moment, first base until people get healthy, second if Julien needs a break, DH if we need one that day. He is a solid veteran professional who can do many things - not a great defender, but certainly functional. That allows Lewis to play 3rd, Julien to play 2nd, Kiriloff (hopefully) to play 1st, with a safety net below them. Pick up Polanco’s option this winter and find a good trade partner. His value isn’t what it was two years ago, but it should still be something, especially with demonstrated defensive flexibility.. I’m not sure where this leaves Miranda. He needs to fix things before he has any value to the Twins or anyone else. Lee isn’t in the picture yet (until 2024 sometime), so let’s not imagine a logjam where one doesn’t exist yet. Second, and I join and repeat the chorus, DFA Gallo. For a while I thought Gallo was bringing more than Kepler, but I have changed my mind on that. Wallner obviously has earned his playing time, and Kepler has played well enough lately to be useful. Jordan Luplow has proven to be useful in a RH role as well. Much as I and everyone else would like to see Buxton back manning CF, we need to understand that it’s not going to happen this year, nor maybe ever — we’ll see. So I bring up Austin Martin to play CF. The OF is likely his future home and his speed will serve him well. The backup is MAT, with the possibility that he is pressed into service more or used less depending on the success of Martin. I don’t think Martin is a star in waiting, but I do think that the odds of him completely flaming out are slim given his on base skills, pedigree, and minor league experience. for next year, we still have a Kepler decision to make, but we can solve that over the winter. Finally, it seems like the starting rotation has gotten a little bit messy lately, and I don’t have a good solution for that. Hopefully some time off for Ryan will give him the rest he needed and he will be back strong. Then we can give Ober the same kind of break. Keuchel is definitely not a long term answer. So far he has had one good (ish) start and one terrible one. Let’s give him one more, but if it isn’t solid we need to move on to Varland or try something new (Dobnak?). I think next year can take care of itself here, but we do need to patch things back together for the rest of this season. Sorry. I got started typing and wanted to solve all of the world’s problems in one posting. . .

It is just on the edge of possible. Not Miracle Mets level of difficult, but likely Morneau over Hamilton (after Hamilton hit a stupid number in the previous round) in the home run derby difficult. For me, the pertinent question is what degree of recognition does he need to get to no longer be signable for the Twins and/or put other teams in heavy pursuit? I would either like the Twins to sign him for two years or so (or the accepted QO) or for him to sign for big bucks leaving the Twins in the dust but supplying them with a good draft pick compensation. The latter would likely be a sure thing if he actually won the award, but it's also possible that he sits out there in tweener land if he doesn't and holds out for the big bucks.

Growing up as a farm kid in SD, I listened to hundreds of games on WNAX radio (often on a tractor) in the 1970's and early 80's. Even though I know I listened prior to this because I remember a few Harmon Killebrew home runs, my first really vivid Twins memory is hearing Tony Oliva hit a home run on opening day in 1973. I had decided that I really liked baseball at that point and was looking forward to the opening day game. I was too young at the time to realize the significance of it being the first DH home run, but it still made an impression. My favorite player over the years was Rod Carew, and he had that ridiculous season in 1977 that we will all remember. As you may have guessed from my screen name, I share a birthday of October 1 with Mr. Carew, although he is my senior by many years. I actually didn't realize that until many years later (sometime in the 1980's) when someone got my one of those "On your birthday" papers and he was listed as one of the celebrities/athletes that was born on October 1. I have another favorite tidbit of Twins information as well. In 1983, my cousin put out a flyer (one front/back page on a copy machine) and mailed (yes. mailed) it to as many sportswriters/voters as he could find the information for. It was entitled "Killebrew in '84" and he even got to hand a copy to Mr. Killebrew at an old-timers game. Years later, a family member contacted him when my cousin was dying of brain cancer, he came to Salt Lake City to see him and offer him some gifts. He was "that kind of guy." My Twins connections run deep and I am a die hard fan. They have brought me much joy (and a little frustration) over the years.

I think that declaring one position as being defensively much more difficult than another sells the situation a little short. Yes. Certainly it is much more difficult to play SS than RF in some ways, but each position does have it’s own unique set of skills that require some trial and practice to become accomplished. In my former life as a band director, parents (and students) came to me many times asking for advice and input on which instrument they should learn to play, often with the question of which would be easiest. What I found was that there are instruments that one can become “OK” at pretty quickly and ones that have a steeper learning curve so that it takes longer. It’s why no one really likes to hear a fifth grade oboe player but a fifth grade saxophone player doesn’t necessarily sound that bad. What is often underestimated, however, is that getting really good at either instrument is roughly the same difficulty and takes roughly the same amount of time. The other factor, of course, is someone’s physical/mental suitability to a particular instrument. They all take slightly different skills. I think it’s the same with baseball positions. A strong athlete can probably become an “OK” defender at an “easier” position, but will take much more time to become truly good at it. Add in a player’s specific physical/mental characteristics and assignments up and down the defensive spectrum become much more difficult to simply just assign. They all take slightly different skills. Do I think Julien can play 1B? Yes — in the future. Do I think handing him a glove and saying good luck at the MLB level is a good idea in the late stages of his rookie season? No way. Polanco, as a long term veteran player, probably makes more sense if you need a quick/emergency move to keep people in the lineup.

I like this idea for now, but it seems likely someone will be traded during the offseason.

Put me down for "cautiously optimistic" on this. They look really good right now. They are both on the good side of healthy. They seem to be playing at a really high level. I really hope they both become big stars, but few years back we thought Sano and Buxton were going to be unstoppable and that didn't really work out, so I'm going to declare it too early to tell.

Bravo! I think this article does a great job at expressing why some of us are optimistic about this year's Twins team. In many ways, their strengths play up a little bit more in short playoff series' than they do in the long slog that is the baseball season. Good to great pitching combined with a little bit of timely (or streaky, or even lucky) hitting could carry them a long way. All other things remaining the same, I would think that a little bit of increased offensive effectiveness would mean a great deal to their chances of post season success. They have made it this far with the offense substantially underperforming, so I would take the over on the offense for the last third of the season.

One more X-factor player has to be Byron Buxton. Obviously if he comes back and is hitting like he has in previous years, that is a huge boost and would be tremendous. However, particularly given the (SSS) evidence of the team performance since he has been injured and out of the lineup, I am actually more concerned in the other direction. While he has been out, the lineup has been much more flexible and they have gotten better production from it. If he returns and still isn't hitting consistently as a DH, he completely clogs up the lineup. We can't have that if we want to continue to win games, series, and playoff games. My even larger concern is for Buxton's future. It has been obvious for most of the year that Byron Buxton has not been performing well and that he seems to be affected by his body breaking down at pretty much every turn. Put me in the club of keeping him out until he's actually healthy, even if that's the rest of the year. If that isn't enough, hopefully an offseason of rest and treatment (and surgery?) can put him back on the right path. If it can't, his career is in trouble and so are the Twins longer-term hopes.

I think the point here is that Kuechel isn't really a good pitcher anymore and people are afraid that he will be installed as a regular (6th?) starter. I agree with that 100 percent. However, if he can smoke and mirror his way through a few decent starts (certainly less than 10, but probably more like 5), then he is a cheap way of keeping them in ballgames and giving a rest to the members of the rotation. It is definitely not pretty, but he's making it happen so I'm not going to complain about it. It could certainly be argued that some of the starters at AAA may deserve a shot at the spot start in MLB instead of running a guy out there who has no upside, but there really isn't anyone breaking down the door at the moment. I like the plan. Give him a few starts with a short leash and cut him loose when he is no longer effective.

Sorry. It was my (bad) attempt to be (a little) snarky. It was directed at a number of posters who see their baseball team as a zero sum game. I’m paraphrasing, but there definitely are people who are very frustrated that the FO has been here for seven years and we haven’t won a WS. There are also plenty here that are grading the season’s success on style points, i.e. we strike out too much so our team sucks. For too many there is no joy to be gotten from baseball and that’s a shame. I don’t look at the baseball season as either you won it all and had a good season or you didn’t and had a bad season. I do think there is some real positive in winning the division, regardless how bad we think the other teams are. If the same situation didn’t exist in 1987, we wouldn’t have a WS championship to take pride in. I also think that putting a mostly solid product on the field that can play competitive baseball most of the time is a lot better than the alternative like that 100 loss team from a few years back. I share many of the same misgivings as you and others about facets of this year’s team. I just don’t let those things get in the way of making it fun and continuing to hope for good outcomes. I’m OK if we win the division and keep losing in the playoffs (although I’ll be frustrated), but I’d be awfully happy if we could win a series or two (or three)! Let’s hope we can take at least the first step this year!

Sorry. I may not have written that very clearly. I didn’t mean all of them would likely be better. That would indeed be a little optimistic. I meant that among that group of players at least one would likely be better (and I would actually argue maybe a couple). I agree that the object is to put the best team on the field and win games, but I also think it is important to keep an eye on the future and what new players bring to the table. This enables the team to maximize the value they get out of the players under their control and possibly move on from or trade the players that can be replaced. Keeping Kepler in place next year (and Gallo this year) doesn’t let the team do that.

Also, as fans, we can’t let watching baseball be like daytrading the stock market. It goes up and down a LOT on a daily (even hourly) basis, but it’s a long year, and if your portfolio goes up by 10% or more by the end of the year you have to be pleased with that, regardless how you got there. A baseball season is 162 games, and yet, when we were swept by the Royals (who got hot and went on a 7 game winning streak) people were outraged — SELL, SELL, SEll! The three game sweep at the hands of the Royals is a blip on the radar at the end of the season, and the seven game winning streak by the Royals didn’t make them good - it was just a nice streak (and probably the highlight of their season) when they got hot. Sorry for how long this has taken, but I will be thrilled when/if the Twins win a playoff series. I will be thrilled when the Twins win the division. I will also be thrilled when they score a run in the ninth inning to win a game. I think that the front office has largely done a good job overall and I feel pretty good about it already.

I agree with much of what has been stated in that some will employ recency bias to get on the Twins bandwagon and some won’t be convinced if we win the WS in six games because we lost two games. I’m hoping that many more of us are closer to the middle. I don’t really care about the “style” of their game. I just want them to win games. I am thrilled with a 1-0 game and thrilled with a 19-17 game, as long as we win. From my perspective, the Twins are in a better position to win a playoff series than they have been in recent memory because of the quality of their pitching. Lots of things can mess that up (injuries, sudden ineffectiveness, etc.) but I would rather be the team going into the playoffs with a bunch of good starters and a pretty solid bullpen than with what we had in 2019. That was a nightmare because expectations were huge after the big HR season, but in order to win a series we needed to win 11-10, 9-8, and 13-12 because our pitching was a mess. I really like the “who would you rather be” argument about the Hawkeyes and Cornhuskers brought up by @IA Bean Counter. History says it’s the Huskers, but present value says the Hawks, and the present is where we live. Neither of those will likely ever be Alabama or Ohio State, but once in a while, they will beat them and in that we get to take a lot of joy. It’s a lot like someday when the Twins beat one of the blue bloods of baseball in a series. That will be fantastic. Bringing it back to baseball, I’m certain we are all happy to not be the Athletics or the Royals at the moment, but I think a better comparison is the Mets and Cubs. Both teams spend a ton of money to build a flawed team, have no patience, underachieve, get frustrated tear the whole thing down, and start over. Those two teams are lucky. They have ample budgets to work with. If the Twins operated that way with a mid-market budget,, they likely become the Athletics or the Royals — doomed to the bottom for the foreseeable future.