JD-TWINS

We played Baltimore tough over 2 series. We beat the Rangers 5 of 7……we beat the Astros 4 of 6 ……..played the Jays & Mariners even. Boston & NY had no advantage. We had core guys hurt for big chunks of the year & still won our Division. The “we can only compete because we’re in the Central” is bologna!!

I think you maybe missed Scott Erickson - #2 in Cy Young voting in ‘91. Off the top of my head: Battey - C………back-up Harper Killebrew - 3B……..back-up Gaetti Versailles - SS………back-up CC Knoblach -2B…………back-up Polanco Hrbek - 1B…………..back-up Power Mack - LF…………..back-up Allison Puckett - CF…………back-up Hall Oliva - RF…………..back-up Brunansky Lewis - DH…………back-up Baylor Staff: Erickson - Viola - Morris - Kaat - Blyleven Aguliera - Reardon - Duran………………

I don’t think the Team nor the season were anywhere near perfect. However, we had a real chance to win Game 4 in the ALDS & certainly had better than a punchers chance, with Pablo throwing along with the recently reconstructed bullpen, in a Game 5. Can we agree on that? If so, we would meet the Rangers, who we won 5 of 7 games from in the last 30 days along with home field advantage. Obviously, we can compete with that club! So we weren’t near perfect but advancing in the playoffs is all about winning one more game than your opponent. With a fair share of games lost to injury spread across some key (line-up core) roster guys, we managed to stay competitive through most of the year. The wish list for an RBI guy - power guys - #1 or #2 starter - couple solid bullpen guys - etc. etc. - it’s not fantasy baseball! One writer thinks we only score station to station - we tied for league lead in homers - come on!! Our pen got weak through the year, Gallo was a failed experiment, Varland wasn’t ready to step in the 5th starter role………I’m sure, outside of the injuries to core guys in the line-up, there were other negatives. In the end we gave away the 162nd game of the year and were 8 games from 95 wins, which will win any Division 8 times out of 10 seasons. We can’t have a line-up that leads the league in K’s and expect we have the plate discipline to win tight games against good pitching. Per “MLB Network Experts” we need 4 impact players to compete in World Series and we have 2 (CC & Lewis)……..if Kirilloff is healthy he has this potential. If Buxton is healthy (long shot) he has the potential to be that. Hopefully, Lee has this potential. Julien is young but has enough bat to ball skills & pop & OBP to potentially get to be an impact guy. Wallner - Kepler - Jeffers - Castro - Farmer - Solano are all contributors but not guys that can be leaned on hard. Bottom line is there are no perfect teams & we need a couple changes in our line-up to beat the other big boys. We may have one or two answers that can come from internal options? Mahle - Maeda - Polanco - Gray - Gallo salaries add up to $50M plus so we should be able to get a starter for Staff depth & a supplemental bat, if we choose. We got a start this year with youth & some guys that are around for another handful of years - seems like a good culture & a cohesive group.

He has a contract & they are on the hook for 2 more years. He’s a good defender - good guy - not statistically as good as he once was at the plate but a good 2nd option. Nobody will trade for his offense & pay him $10M unless a first string guy gets hurt and they are desperate - very doubtful. He can start 35-40% of our games the next couple years - somebody has to spell Jeffers. He’s a great bench/clubhouse guy and he handles pitchers well. He’s not a big part of our problems! World Series winner with experience & a great attitude. Would like to see him get in better shape and it may help his play?

I agree. Bat to ball skills, particularly in tight situations, is what wins games! Need base runners - need to drive guys in when in scoring position. We tied for league lead in HRs……don’t see a need for some big power hitter/RBI guy like Alonso! He hit 46 HR & his average was .217 - not the answer. Wallner needs to get better or get moved next year. Need to make room for switch hitting Lee in the infield by mid-year next year. Lewis in OF may help strengthen line-up as a whole?Kirilloff needs to be healthy and he’s that RBI - bat to ball guy in middle of line-up. A guy like Lee hitting 6th would really lengthen our line-up. I think we take the Gallo - Maeda - Mahle - Gray - Polanco $ available after this year & re-invest in pitching - STARTER……maybe Gray? $50-$52 million available between those salaries from this year’s total. I really like and appreciate Donovan Solano but if we keep, as expected, Castro - Farmer - Taylor……..we may want our other guy to have more “potential pop” & additional speed off the bench. Donny was solid & there’s no perfect roster so resigning him and replacing him mid-season with youth may be a good move. Never can assume health - need capable depth!!

Thielbar is nearing the end - decent stats but his health is sketchy. Only 30 plus innings this year. High leverage capability is lessening. Funderburk is solid - needs seasoning but should be the principal lefty in the Pen. Am hoping Moran can get his command under control as he can also be an effective guy during season. Alcala, with health, will be a nice addition to next year’s Pen. Pen out of Spring Training: Alcala - Jax - Stewart - Funderburk - re-sign Pagan - Moran - Thielbar - Duran………maybe Winder instead of Moran?

He’s a professional baseball player. There’s no apology needed. He’s getting paid better than he ever has. He was the back-up in Houston last year during playoffs. He got every opportunity for 6 months to earn some amount of playing time in the post-season. Jeffers beat him out with a very nice offensive season. Just because Jeffers didn’t flourish in post-season doesn’t mean Vazquez should be apologized to for no playing time. I like Vazquez. Thought it was a good signing!! He’s a terrific clubhouse/team guy and played really nice defense this year. Potential to trade him is zero with his $10M per year deal. Jeffers is still very affordable, so Vazquez contract, combined with Jeffers is an OK number for 2 very capable catchers!

So I like live umps - aways pushed back against automation……..only used on balls & strikes, ……….then where does it stop? The foul tip that should have gone against us would have been corrected with replay - not reviewable thoughCalls at first base are able to be challenged to “get it right”. I’ve heard announcers promote a “couple” challenges of balls and strikes per game, as a solution. The TV strike zone box seems clear cut to me……am assuming ZONE can be determined with Technology for each at bat/batter. Automation/replay to determine football calls seems to be generally accepted by all - right. Line calls in tennis are challenged all the time & have been for years and settled with automation. Nobody ever complains about those results Not sure what we are afraid of other than altering the look & feel of the game. That’s out of the barn with challenges & pitch clocks. Let’s try it for the month of April across baseball for the next two years and have all teams to just yield to the results and live with however it goes. That would be a pretty good data set at the highest level!

He’s got best defensive numbers in CF since 2021………I don’t get the complaining either.

Lights will be on, no excuses! Gotta get the young left handed trio going at the plate. Lewis needs to get relaxed with the bat - PRESSING! Polanco & Kepler……step up!!

IMO - if we hold the defending champs to 4 runs we have done well. HIT the FLIPPIN ball & be patient to drive up pitch counts. Ryan will compete and he’s had a week or more to put a plan together v. this line-up. I expect reasonable results They have Urquidy & France with ERA’s of 5.25 or higher for both. We need to chase them & get into their leverage guys so we are prepared for Friday. Still in a decent spot with pitching lining up the way it has. Gotta be patient and mentally ready. I like the start moving back 3 hours to get this out of our system before Game 4.

They play Castro v. RH pitching since he can swing from left side. Not punishing or hating on Taylor.

Obviously, he’s unable to run well enough to either play OF or to effectively DH. Can’t activate in middle of Series. Maybe he takes a spot next week?

He needs to be CROWDED - can’t let him turn on the pitch. Should be about 4-5 inches off his rib cage. Gotta hit in situations to score …..1-9 with RISP isn’t going to fly. 4 hits total & with about 10K’s from our rookies, we aren’t going to be very effective scoring. Chasing fastballs up and flailing at pitches off the plate made us look ill prepared and desperate. I get Javier is a professional and he made som nice pitches and competed hard! We still looked like a team with a bad plan. Not being able to see with poor start time has some validity but I didn’t see the Astro’s players looking like they were having issues at all - right? Poor offensive performance as a team - CC isn’t Superman - need to perform as a team.

2nd hop hit the chalk line & appeared to die - not the hop that was expected. Should have knocked down & gotten at least one out but when the ball stays down on an easy glove play you are toast as a fielder. That said, Gray can’t get the ball in off the plate enough on an 0-2 count & it gets drilled. And then he hangs a slider middle-middle for a dinger. I get the defense can’t give extra outs, but the pitching before the ball was hit down the line and then when the ball landed in LF seats was really sub-par!! Disappointing!!!

I don’t see that he has anything to worry about in past performance. He needs no redemption. The injuries are now at a level of real concern - not a topic for playoffs! If Jorge just does his thing with timely hitting we’ll be in good shape going forward. Hope he can tighten up glove side (at 3B) if asked to play there again. Hoping for Royce’s glove to be back soon.

This is pretty close to what we did Saturday. Correa could revert to August Carlos at any time - guys don’t get 2-3 hits a game for long runs. Hope he stays hot but baseball is % and norms not just what happens over the last week. V. RH pitching Kepler bats 4th with an invigorated CC behind him & then Kirilloff protecting him at 6th. Kirilloff has to be part of the solution! Jeffers is a great option in the #7 hole v. RH pitcher and with Wallner behind him………..if Buxton could play CF, this would be the best 1-9 line-up we’ve ever had……very long! Rocco said CC came to him & asked to bat up in the line-up…….his request was granted, so who knows?

Couldn’t force myself to read everything but well put together! Details! My question is, if the TWINS are fortunate enough to get to the ALCS, do we try to bring back the same group & make Gray a real offer? An offer something like 25% north of the qualifying offer of approximately $20M. So $25M/year for 2 years for him to stay settled with his family in MN …….with a very competitive club. He wants to win!! $25M is what we’re paying him & Mahle combined this year - no big budget increase. With players we have coming up and with the veterans we have in place, I don’t see us spending on any new position players. I don’t know where a new guy would fit with what we have coming back? IMO we proved this year that we can piece together 12-13 guys in the Pen to cover needs through the year & still have a solid playoff group. This year may be a little better than we can expect going forward BUT I still don’t see us spending on relievers, outside of our current group. Gray is an anchor on our staff now & his attitude/fire would carry a lot of juice going forward. We need to see Ryan-Ober-Paddack prove themselves over a full season before we have one of them taking up Gray’s slack. Sonny Gray a Twin in ‘24?

Completely agree on Baker’s strategy with Verlander. A Verlander/Valdez/RH relievers scenario for Friday is scary. They could turn our lineup some with Valdez in relief. The big deal outside of the obvious advantage a win Tuesday gives us…….we can get into their bullpen and soften them up or at least see them more of them for Thursday prep.

Tucker - Abreu - Brantley - McCormack are the reasons why. They are constructed to terrorize opposing pitchers. I completely agree on the middle-middle comment. Ober made a mistake with a change-up too high in zone - first curveball home run by a lefty all year against Thielbar - Stewart just needs to move his fastball around v. throwing a different pitch every other pitch…….98 mph is tough, he hung a slider. All 3 just weren’t executed. it Alvarez has still got to hit them. I think the worst pitch was from Stewart - he’d seen what Alvarez can do……..some blame goes to coaching/Jeffers for the need to never throw back to back fastballs.

Solano - Farmer - Taylor - Castro (with a healthy Buxton) were to be the depth - the bench guys - the platoon guys v. LH pitching. They are all 125 games - 140 games played. Affordable, solid guys that have really done their jobs! Kudos again to the FO for bringing them in to supplement the core guys & the youth.

Beware, Astros were 3 games under .500 at home this year and about 20 games over .500 on the road. I agree, we have an advantage with the playoff crowd…….just don’t think the Stro’s are going to rattle very easily. I’d like to see us get back in their bullpen by 5th or 6th to reduce effectiveness for Wednesday’s game. Verlander is only 18 months away from coming off surgery with a rebuilt/rejuvenated arm………he’s in great shape. He scares me for Game 4.

Lopez won’t pitch again until a potential Game 5………on regular 4 days of rest. Gray & Ryan are the next two up for Games 3 & 4. Houston has Javier & then ??? for Game 4………possibly Verlander on 3 days rest. They do have a young guy, Brown that could get a start with heavy bullpen back-up? Assuming they would like Verlander in Game 5 on good rest v. sooner. With an ALL right handed bullpen for Houston, our lefty hitters are going to have to come through from here on out!

Solano was playing, does play 1B, when Kirilloff is out. ……….Farmer took Julien’s spot in the line-up. Both playing with a LH Valdez on the mound. As usual, both contributed!

Once you have the ball - which Maldonado did - you can be wherever you like.