JD-TWINS

Executing a sacrifice bunt has nothing to do with “breaking out”. His role as a fringe player is doing the little things right. He could have another 150 PA’s and not be asked to bunt once. It’s not about MLB reps to bunt. He needs to be smart enough to take a pitch letter high and inside edge…….he didn’t get it done! That happens……….no fun to watch. No reason to try and rationalize his pop up bunt to somehow being the fault of “many others” as you elude…….management’s fault? Come on. Not being able to execute a bunt - creating a free out for the defense doesn’t give the Manager any reason to change his mind - guys that execute and produce get played more………..not give a bunch of AB’s to a guy and hope he comes around. Why not let Gasper hit everyday then?

Gotta be Keaschall up first? ……Is he on 40 man? He may only be able to hit? (DH) Gasper at 1B & 2B defensive depth. Nobody on left side for depth - right? Maybe Correa just sits a couple days? I saw Wallner pull up in replay this morning - 10 day IL almost certainly.

Keaschall at DH or &/or PH as needed as soon as April 16th if either Wallner or Correa are out for 10 days.

12 hits - 5 BB - an opponents timely error…..all in 8 innings……..6 runs & a W. Jeffers 3 hits - Buxton 2 hits - Julien & Lee both adding offense……nice to see! I was back & forth during the broadcast. Are both Wallner & Correa hurt? Seriousness?

Looking at Batting Averages just now…….3-4 guys get hot for a game or two (Correa - Larnach - Buxton - Jeffers) and most of the Team will be at League Average, which is a meager .235. Gasper & Kiersey are a combined 2-24 ……. if they can be replaced by Keaschall & Lewis over the next few weeks, I still think this team can generate some reasonable offensive production……….once these two are on Roster Castro can shift to many more OF innings & Larnach can play more in LF which has Bader sitting down v. RH pitching - we’ll have 2 others available to DH in Lewis & Keaschall.

What’s happening in 2025? ……..did I say we were in 2012? It is NOT incorrect per your own statement…….Team’s pitchers are pitching the same amount of innings OR More than other staffs around baseball. Why are so many people complaining? It’s not 1975 nor is it 2005! With max velocity as the goal, starter innings have dropped & arm injuries are up - it’s not new.

They are 16 games into the season……..how is the bullpen being abused? …….starters are often built up on pitches over the first 3-4 starts of the year - pretty typical. Through Saturday, 7 of the guys in our PEN currently have thrown between 4.2 - 6.1 innings to date. Varland had thrown 8.0 innings. An average Starter’s innings in 2023 was 5.18 & in 2024 it was 5.24……….in 2024 the Twins starters averaged 5.26 innings. This includes the Bailey Ober 1 2/3 inning blow ups, etc. Nobody expects Paddack to throw more than 110-120 innings all year - SWR is going to push for 150 innings plus - Festa, maybe 135 innings. 5.25 innings x 30 starts is 157.5 innings for the year. Lopez has averaged about 185 - 190 innings over past 2 years - Ryan, if healthy is targeting 180 innings (5.8 innings per start in ‘24) - Ober, essentially same as Ryan (178.1 innings in ‘24). Do not see any glaring issues with how pitching is being deployed…….”length of games” is certainly not a criteria to manage by at any level.

Nobody contributes at .192 & striking out - Buxton will come around……time and a couple of breaks will help. Correa’s leadership seems overhyped to me - he is a professional most of the time but he has lapses like most. His bat is what the Team needs and he seems lost. Larnach makes the minimum but has the potential (‘24) to be a solid contributor when healthy. If he stays fit he should come around. Group effort in the line-up breeds pressure on opposing pitchers and everyone benefits. Need the group to pick it up one guy at a time.

SEVEN straight solid starts by 6 different guys over the last 7 days. Not really on same page with overuse of the PEN strife? 3-4 relief pitchers are a pretty normal usage throughout today’s game…..get used to it since Team has been doing this for years. Relievers gotta be able to throw 14-18 pitches every other day without being “overloaded” …… that’s 4 innings a week in a busy week! If Team scored more than 3 runs routinely the Twins would be in first place. Ty France, for now, seems to be the least of the Team’s worries……..Buxton .192 BA …… Larnach .189 BA ……..Correa .164 BA …….Lewis out & we’re counting on Brooks Lee for an offensive spark. I do agree that Julien has earned AB’s with recent scrappiness and performance at the plate. Does Matthews pitch on Monday or Joe Ryan?

Didn’t get through all of this but certainly agree with Doc that nearly every respectable bullpen has the same similar approach as the Twins. 6 guys mixed & matched according to match-ups and recent workload ………then, if available, a couple guys taking the ball routinely (in winning situations) in the 8th/9th. Do not understand the “strategy” discussion specific to the Twins?

Miranda move can’t be bad - it may turn out to be neutral offensively? Hope not! Wallner batting lead-off - 2 RBI this year - nobody is ever on base when he’s in the box. I back Baldelli and put the responsibility on the players at every turn - this strategy is nuts!! Total HR for Larnach - Jeffers - Correa - Julien to date, ZERO. To me, that’s not Rocco. Last April Julien had 7 HR himself. OPS: Castro .671 - Buxton .564 - Larnach .522 - Correa .488. Again, to me, that’s not Rocco. #1 Picks (two of them #1 overall) Buxton - Lewis - Correa - Martin - Lee ………..getting unbelievably low contributions from this group!!

Lee - Lewis - Keaschall are all hurt or slowly mending. They certainly displace Gasper at 29 …….. Vazquez, unless he resigns for $4.5M is in his last year at around 33………France will be gone unless he has a career year……. Emma will be playing next year and Kiersey, at 29, won’t be around. Age isn’t the issue - lack of playing to capabilities/expectations are the problem.

Lopez - with a healed leg is solid …… Ryan & Ober will give Team a chance to win 75-85% of the time. SWR competes and keeps team in games …… between Festa/Matthews, they’ll establish our 5th rotation spot. Team played 23 games over .500 last year over 4 months……..started 7-13. So, not the proper bar to set, but if they go 3-4 over next 7 games they’ll match last year’s start. There’s still plenty of reason for hope. Correa’s done nothing - Buxton has done very little - Lewis hasn’t played ………there’s still hope. Should have won the game up 7-1! Could have won yesterday OR today - right? 2 more wins & they’re a 6-7 club. They aren’t waaay off but scoring 2 or less runs in 7 of 13 games is a BIG problem! France seems to be OK last 2-3 games. Hoping Keaschall comes across town next week unless Gasper gets a couple hits in next game or two played. Still hope! Varland - Topa - Coulombe - Alcala - Stewart/Blewett - Jax - Sands - Paddack - Duran …….. I truly think that’s as good as it gets.

Wallner striking out 3 straight times is never fun…….HR’s help make it better. Ryan seems healthy and in a good frame of mind - really good to see? With Lopez down my assumption is Matthews takes his slot and things move forward………I am wondering if it makes sense to get him to 15 day IL today so they can utilize the roster spot for a couple days before Zebby would be needed? Could bring up a PEN arm to help keep things fresh………could bring up a bat for a start Friday or Saturday to try and find an alternative to Gasper or even Kiersey? Paddack gets ONE more shot and then, if not successful, Festa comes over from St. Paul? Didn’t see the game but it seems France found something last night. 3-4 with a line-out to pitcher……couple RBI in separate AB’s. Julien seems to be on the edge of regular play - hanging in there.

Lewis or Keaschall at 1B sooner than later, at least as an option, may be considerably better.

It’s really tough to hide your pitchers from making routine plays! 🤞

Seems they’ll be OK if Pablo can go 6 innings or close to it this evening. 7 guys had Monday off …….. 4 more should be off tonight as well. Alcala & Jax have been disappointing (doubt seriously this continues) and the PEN has a 2.75 ERA over 39 1/3 innings………..didn’t count Castro’s 1 inning. They’re doing OK.

Once Lee or Keaschall or Martin hit well enough they will take his spot on the 26 man roster. Castro will play the OF as needed as others that play IF can contribute. Last year I was begging to let Kiersey play in the Show! My real life assumption is that the Team doesn’t think he can hit - if he could he’d be in the line-up. Right? What would be the reasoning to hold a good hitter out of the line-up? Is Rocco trying to get himself fired - is the whole coaching staff trying to get themselves fired? The progression for success in the Show isn’t, put guys in the line-up and let’s hope they can break through - that’s an under .500 team approach in late August/September……can’t be in the mix and experiment at MLB level. I DO AGREE that I’d rather see Kiersey or somebody else “with promise” getting AB’s v. Gasper and a couple other fringe guys like France.

If he could hit he’d be in the line-up! The fans don’t NEED to see a guy perform for the Team to make a sound judgement on his capabilities…….agree with your AAA comments………again, if he were capable the Team would take advantage!

Wallner was hitting .150 or maybe less until 2 games ago - now he’s at .303. It’s not terribly difficult for a bunch of guys to hit their career average or .250 after 20-35 AB’s. If a half dozen guys hit .250-.290 they’ll be OK.

Guys that can hit get playing time. (not Kiersey) (Kiersey) ”…..he was a pinch runner, & he stole a base…..”. Seems the coaches remembered then? I like youth but Kiersey isn’t displacing anyone currently playing…….if he showed he could hit at the MLB level he’d be playing. The coaching staff has been observing his abilities for years. They need offense and IMO, he doesn’t move the needle. Julien is an issue and not really much of a contributor to date either. I see Keaschall or Lewis at 1B going forward and Eddie needs to get his hitting together to carve a niche at DH and occasional 2B……….do not see the organization letting him play 1B on any regular basis.

So, if Team goes 4-6 over the next 10 they would be where they were in ‘24 (7-13 start). Not uplifting by any means! They did play 23 games over .500 though for the next 4 months through August 15. That was with Correa & Lewis & Buxton in and out. Paddack was out (👍). That was with Wallner at AAA for couple months - Margot playing a bunch of innings - Julien’s bat disappearing - etc. They look terrible offensively - they lost a game Sunday that was firmly in their grasp. Paddack, to me, is clearly not a rotation piece, here nor anywhere………continually on the edge or worse. All is not lost until we see how things look in mid-June. 10 -11 weeks in and there should be a pretty clear picture of what’s up for ‘25. Through games played by April 8th is certainly premature…….end of ‘24 has certainly left a bad taste! Keaschall - Lee - Lewis - Matthews - Stewart are all potential positives going forward & if 2-3 of the 5 come through that would be a nice change.

Not completely against your view but Jeffers playing more (Catching & DH in ‘24) just tires him and then there’s no production. To me, Vazquez is a FO issue. He’s the guy the organization has paired with Jeffers and there are ZERO options behind them at AAA.

I realize Buxton’s attempt on the fly ball to the track was a difficult play…………I realize that it was windy & it was affecting fly balls, that said, either Buxton has to make that play or Bader has to catch the fly ball down the LF line. If either play is made, no run in first inning. 2 runs beats no one. To me, Kiersey is not really a viable option to contribute from what’s transpired so far in first 10 games. Gasper is a nice switch hitting, flexible defender on paper, but he’s done nearly nothing. Unless they don’t hit at all this week, Martin & Keaschall need to infuse some actual depth that helps Team (potentially) score some runs by a week from today. Woods Richardson wasn’t perfect but he and Blewett gave Team a chance. No offense………don’t care about exit velocity that results in outs……..weak way to rationalize no runs.

I noticed there seemed to be a meager crowd - thought that was odd this early - maybe cold? (Am in Cincinnati) Anyway, I’m surprised I hadn’t seen any real complaints here in posts other than Baldelli’s managing (happens win or lose) and pitching. DEFENSE was terrible in my opinion. Castro, in one inning at 3B (I think 3 of 4 batters) he misses a sharp ground ball down the line (Morneau criticized the play so it had to have been playable) and it goes for a double - needed to be knocked down at a minimum. Then next guy hits a ball to him and he makes a nice stop but then his throw pulls Gasper off the bag (tough play but a whisker from an out). Finally, pop fly down the line and Bader is coming in and comes to a complete stop 2 steps shy of the ball hitting the ground as Castro circled into foul territory and then back into play, cutting Bader off on the play………any of these 3 plays on their own wouldn’t be a big deal but all 3 happening over 6-7 pitches was a killer. It’s why Paddack got chased in 4th with nobody out. Varland is pitching and he throws a 98MPH fastball on the outside corner black (for strike 2) at the knees and Jeffers stabs at it and drops it - why? It was called a ball. Provus mentioned it right away. Then later in the 10th they know Astros will send guy at 1B and then try to score the other runner from 3B. Play that’s on for Twins is to throw to 2B and have the IF (Julien) catch it in front of the bag for probable return throw to home……..Jeffers throws the ball high (7.5 feet maybe) and on the 1B side of Julien - he then can’t make the return throw to home, accurately, and another run scores. Simple details that turn any chances of winning.