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Old Twins Cap

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Everything posted by Old Twins Cap

  1. Old Twins Cap
    There is nothing more dispiriting than listening to a Twins game when someone, like Shoemaker or Happ, blows a lead or pitches a lousy inning and puts the Twins in a hole. That game against Seattle, way early in the season, I think the Twins were up like 7-1 or something at home, and Shoemaker gives up a 3-run bomb after being lights out. Loses his cool, gets tossed by the ump and turns out, he never had good stuff in any case. He's worried about a call? I can take it from a young pitcher. It's how they learn. Next time out, maybe they make an adjustment, but if they can get the job done and learn from mistakes, there's a sense of imminent progress in the clubhouse. Not so with veterans because you know they are who they are: they have earned their mediocrity. There's no higher place for them. The rooks, who knows what they will become? Even someone like Liam Hendriks, seemed like a failure as a young Twin, next time you see him, he's one of the best closers in the game. How'd that happen? No idea, but that kind of thing doesn't happen with Shoemaker or Happ and never will. It will certainly make listening to the Twins interesting again.
  2. Old Twins Cap
    Better than bringing on Ammon Bundy, I guess, but otherwise, I'm going back to deep hibernation at this point. There will be no news about baseball or signings or trades or anything for many months.
  3. Old Twins Cap
    Yeah, it's a discount, though Buck is tough to keep on the field. On the other hand, $100M is a ton of money. Think about it... There are a lot of taxes, agent's fees, "expenses" in being a ball player, but at even just $50M, a properly invested portfolio will move $500K on a 1% rise in stocks. Those types of moves have been quite common in the last three years, with the market up almost 50%. That would be another $25M for Mr. Buck and his family...., well, before compounding the interest and price rises. Sure, it's a discount, but, in a universe in which, if Buxton hires the right people, he can afford a discount, especially if the Twins spend the savings on a good pitching staff. The one thing he should get from all this: peace of mind that his family will have a comfortable life going forward. Just hire the right professionals, pay them well and show up at the park ready to play.
  4. Old Twins Cap
    Look at Tampa Bay, poster boys for this kind of thing. Bulk guys and non-bulk guys, that's how their staff is sorted. Low-budget team, always a contender, this year better than the Yanks and Red Sox who are over $200M in payroll. Not dwelled on here but it's the kind of strategy that is hard to counter: Who is going to start? How many innings will he go? Lefty? Righty? What should our line-up look like? And, the manager plays his cards all game based on a slew of factors: who's hot? how's it coming out of his hand? who's swinging it good on the other side? And this important fact: early leads mean something in MLB. You want to put pressure on the other team by being in front. These guys crunch a lot of numbers and they have a strategy that involves getting out of the gate early and forcing the other team to be uncomfortable. That's a big part of this. You hold the other team down for the first three, four innings, get a lead and take your chances from there. Works for the Rays, that's for sure.
  5. Old Twins Cap
    Whatever, the Internet has no lack of opinions, some well-informed, some not. Failure is often just the thing that allows a person insight into what not to do. I would start with: Don't do what the Twins have done the last couple of decades. Best to you Tingly.
  6. Old Twins Cap
    Twins FO will be out of excuses if they don't sign a couple of these guys. Lots of directions to go. Remember two years ago, or three maybe, when out of all their FA escapades they latched on to Donaldson to play 3B. Not many players think of coming to Minnesota as an upgrade, whether late in their career or not. We will get what we get and hope they can sign Buxton.
  7. Old Twins Cap
    Well, can we focus on what each team DID have? 1. Good starting pitching and a deep staff generally. 2. A deep offensive attack that stretches the other teams' pitching staff. 3. Lots of home runs from lots of different players. 4. And, the one attribute that is most often overlooked, forgotten and ignored because there is no way to control it: multiple veteran guys who have "career years", for whatever reason, during the same season, whether pitchers or hitters.
  8. Old Twins Cap
    Yeah, me too. Buxton could be Willy Mays over the next five years. I will never get over watching him win the World Series for the Yanks or Dodgers. DO SOMETHING Falvine!
  9. Old Twins Cap
    Somone needs to tell the story of 2006, that was the year he turned a huge corner. It was at the beginning of May, and I think the Twins were on the West Coast. Morneau was having a pretty bad year at the plate up to that point, and frankly, so were the Twins. Supposedly, Gardenhire called him into his office, was it in Seattle? Told him he could be a someone if he would just focus on hitting the ball hard, not worrrying about whether he was any good. Maybe it was me, maybe I am romanticizing this somehow, but starting the next game and lasting for the rest of the season, Morneau exploded as a hitter and the Twins had one of their best seasons ever. In fact, the funniest part of that whole season: The Twins were never in first place the whole year. And their season was over, their last game ended with a win. But, after their season was over, I think it was Detroit lost their last game in extra innings and that made Twins the Division winners. So, Morneau and the Twins played the whole schedule out and were never in first but ended up there after Detroit lost later in the day. He was fun to watch. If you look at that Center Field camera when the pitch is coming in to Morneau, his eyes open really wide when he sees a fat one coming at him. You can literally see his eyes light up.
  10. Old Twins Cap
    The real question I have is: Does Buxton have the bad beard featured in the lede photo above? If he does, sign him to a long term deal.
  11. Old Twins Cap
    I don't know, you have to wonder if the Twins aren't developing a pathology that basically says: "You are either injured, or you are going to get injured, and so, we are going to play you in a way that will prevent you from being injured which means we are not going to play you." It's maddening. And of course, Baldelli, he spent his entire career dealing with injuries and it eventually ended his playing days early. Not sure where this ends, but it will never be with a World Series title. Can we get back to having passion for playing the game?
  12. Old Twins Cap
    I knew, and everyone should know, if the game is close, the Twins are going to lose. It's sad, but, at this point, going in to the series, it was obvious the Twins were going to get swept. Over and over again, the Twins are going to lose. It's who they are. And, like for so many years in the past, there is no accountability. Rocco can explain, in perfectly reasonable ways, why they lose. But they lose. Again. And again. Worst team in baseball, and there's always a reasonable explanation. That is the problem. Losing make sense to the Minnesota Twins, in the playoffs, in extra innings, in close games, because that's the culture they have created. Even with the new CDC guidance on masks, the Twins should wear masks, on the bench, on the field, on the way to the ballpark, when they are naked in front of the mirror, for the rest of the year, and for the rest of the decade, because they are pretending to be a baseball team.
  13. Old Twins Cap
    I love baseball but even listening to the Twins is more than I can handle at this point. You know instinctively they will find a way to lose, especially close games. Going winless in extras, yeah, maybe unlucky, but have they even scored any runs starting with a guy at 2B? Have they even stopped the other team from scoring? They are simply a rotten team, playing terrible baseball, over and over. The bigger the moment, the more dramatic the collapse. Player after player failing to come through. There is no path back from this. If baseball is ultimately about accepting failure, the Twins are giving a Master Class in how unsatisfactory that feels on a regular basis. O-18 in the playoffs, 0-7 in extras, 0-anything in overcoming a deficit in 2021. To get these outcomes rolling dice would constitute an anomaly outside the realm of probability; to make it happen on the field is senselessness without redemption. Literally, there are no words to describe how execrable they are.
  14. Old Twins Cap
    Sano comes back and Cave drops from the lineup, not Kiriloff. If the Twins put Arraez at 2B, Kiriloff in LF, Sano at 1B -- use Polanco as super sub, and they get anything from Garver and Kepler, they will be pretty strong offensively. It's the pitching that needs to get better for them to win: Maeda, 5th starter, then figuring out the bullpen.
  15. Old Twins Cap
    No fight, no passion, no emotion. Like their manager. This will not end well.
  16. Old Twins Cap
    Baldelli is a well-spoken guy, a player's manager. He protects guys and projects a soft, good-natured, completely relaxed persona where there is always a right answer and a positive way to take even the worst performances. It's a glib patina and he is the definition of laid-back, cerebral. Be interesting because Twins have played awful on the field this year and I can't see where his management decisions or style have helped. Twins are finding new ways to lose with regularity and someone needs to start kicking things in the clubhouse.
  17. Old Twins Cap
    What's with the blackout on Buxton news? Why didn't he play? No news anywhere on that. WTF happened to him?
  18. Old Twins Cap
    Public safety is not a political issue. The Governor has declared a curfew and the National Guard is on the scene. Play Ball! Not a good look.
  19. Old Twins Cap
    When it means he can be drafted by another team in Rule 5 draft.
  20. Old Twins Cap
    Watching the Yankees-Orioles game in extras. Great game ending DP by the O's as Urshela slides in at the plate and gets his face slammed by a tag on a would-be Sacrafice Fly. Love it when Yanks lose at home. Laughed kind of hard. Just wondering, if you are the away team and you don't score in the 10th-- which the Twins did twice this week--, why the hell would you not walk the first batter in the bottom of the 10th and set up a force-at-any-base situation? Granted, maybe you feel a match-up advantage for a hitter. But, in general, it's do or die in extras, and the defense needs every advantage. Here we have all the analytics in the world, but they can't figure out that walking the first or second batter when one run loses you the game might help the defense? Kind of slow on the uptake.
  21. Old Twins Cap
    Does the title say "Should Josh Donaldson miss time"? Just asking 'cause, it was the first game of the season, after a season last year where Josh missed considerable time, and after a career where his calf is anything but golden. Donaldson is an IL itinerant in waiting. Unfortunately. Best to understand reality, and live in it, then walk around with stories in your head about how things are going to be just fine.
  22. Old Twins Cap
    On the plus side, Cleveland and the Whities lost, and, for schadenfreude fans, Kyle Gibson lasted all of a third of an inning for Texas against the Royals, giving up 5 runs. And, in a bit of symmetry, the Royals turned around and gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the 1st. Gotta love baseball!
  23. Old Twins Cap
    Looks like they can hit some and pitch some. If they field better, they should hold their own. With what has been going on in recent American history, like what we just lived through, good to see people panicking over a baseball game. Things are getting back to normal.
  24. Old Twins Cap
    Dobnak is the story of the spring as far as pitching goes for the Twins. Still getting ground ball outs, but has added K's to his repetoire. Opposing batters are not reading his new slider as it comes out of the same slot as his diving sinker.
  25. Old Twins Cap
    Scalpers paradise: an artificially limited supply of seats during a high demand moment. You can bet they will be taking cash outside the stadium.
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