Beast

They keep finding ways to win games. Gotta give them that. But, for the love of Pete, get Nick Gordon out of the cleanup spot. He had 6 guys on base in 3 of his 4 ABs. He averaged 2.33 pitches in those ABs, 7 pitches total. He took 1 ball. 3 swinging strikes, 1 looking. Put two balls into play meekly. Stranded all 6. His other AB was 4 pitched, swung at all of them. All ABs were with 2 outs. He ended 4 different innings. That’s just absolutely terrible and unacceptable. Get a professional hitter behind Buxton. There are guys on this roster that can take a higher quality at bat even with all the injuries. But, that’s my only gripe. The pitching is unreal right now.

Nick Gordon might hold the honor of being the worst player in the entire MLB. What does that say about our brain trust that throws him in the freaking lead off and cleanup spots? Unreal. Dude cracks a .700 OPS for the first time in his decade long professional career and they give him the world.

You have to make Kirilloff earn it. He looked great for a short time a few years back, but his numbers in the majors are largely poor. You can’t just plug him in based on nothing more than a hope he can return to form. Larnach has impressed me. Gallo has arguably been our best player outside of Buxton. I’m not taking them out of the lineup for Kirilloff until they go completely cold or Kirilloff lights St. Paul on fire. Polanco gets second base back without question. He’s the most tenured and consistent players on the team, arguably. He brings a combination of reasonably good on base and contact skills that we don’t have in anybody else. He’s a key to this teams success. I have no issue pulling time from Gordon or Donnie Barrels to get Polanco in the lineup. They provide nothing of value aside from being warm bodies. Barrels brings something against LHP, but not enough to be concerned about forcing him into the lineup. I agree with a poster above. If Kepler doesn’t figure something out at the plate soon, you can’t keep running him out there. Maybe he’s an option to be replaced (although I don’t see that happening).

I think we were getting a little ahead of ourselves with the excitement. We just lost a series to the Miami Marlins and looked embarrassingly futile offensively. This day off thing is just getting out of control. We really can’t even get through week 1 of the season, which already has multiple off days built in, without pulling the plug on guys? Nick Gordon leading off yesterday, now Solano hitting third today? And people here are constantly handwringing about there being no room on the roster? This roster is still an absolute dumpster fire. The only thing that’s really changed are the hideous jerseys.

I’m not sold yet. It’s still very early, and as stated we haven’t played anybody yet. With the balanced schedule, we don’t get to beat up on these bad teams as much as we used to (mainly central division opponents). An easy schedule now means a hard one later. the bullpen has been good. But, the it still concerns me. I just don’t trust Jorge Lopez, and we’re still running Pagan out there way more than we should be. Same with the rotation. Lopez looks like a stud. Great trade. Ryan looks like Ryan. Another great trade. After that, Sonny looked rough in his outing. Mahle is a ticking time bomb until proven otherwise. I need to see more from Maeda as well before concluding he’s back for good. There’s certainly a lot to be excited about there, but it can change quickly. Offensively, we’re already tapped out in terms of depth. I know some people love Gordon for whatever reason, but he’s just not that good. Him hitting lead off at any point is a huge concern for me. That’s just terrible. Al cantata is a great pitcher, but the offense looked beyond anemic last night. If we need to rely on Joey Gallo to hit multiple extra base hits to score runs, it’s going to be a long year. I don’t expect Larnach to keep up his hot start. We’re still riddled with injuries. I’m fairly concerned about the lineup right now. Great start to the season, but I’m reserving judgement until I see more.

We have plenty of fine leadoff hitters. Why Baldelli keeps inexplicably throwing the worst option for the lead off spot (arguably) into the leadoff spot is a mystery. Buxton is our best all around hitter. He hits for a ton of power. He avoids double plays better than anybody in the MLB. He should be put in a position to hit with runners in base. Other than that, put anybody there. If Polanco makes it back, he’d be a pretty good candidate. Gallo’s ability to see pitches and take walks would even work fine. It may even help Kepler to get out of this prolonged funk if you took some of the pressure off and buried him in the 7 or 8 hole.

The move was never a head scratcher. It was clear why they did it. Nobody on the roster can stay healthy, and the “surplus” hasn’t proven they can sustain production at the MLB level. If people can’t see the value in a player like Gallo, I don’t know what to tell you. Throw the offense in the trash, even though there’s significant upside: The guy can play every position in the OF at a high level - a place we’ve been decimated by injury in recent years. He can play third, a place we have an unproven Miranda (defensively). He can play first, where our once top prospect has spent 2.5 years dealing with chronic wrist issues. Back to offense: We have no threatening left handed hitters (no, Nick Gordon doesn’t qualify). We have next to nobody that can take a good, professional AB and work a deep count consistently. We don’t have a ton of power. If he can even partially bounce back from last year, he could check all those boxes. The guy was a perfect fit for the Twins. Especially when you don’t want to lock yourself into a long contract. Being optimistic is a good thing. But, just blindly hoping that “surplus” of players would pan out givin their individual histories wouldve been negligent. Letting that group ride is how you end up collapsing like we did last year.

No, they’re just being used improperly (mainly Ober). None of these guys are workhorses by any stretch. Even if they were, we just saw Baldelli again yesterday pull a starter with a shutout fairly early in the game. So, instead of getting creative and using a 6 man rotation or piggy backing guys like Maeda and Ober in the same game, they’re going to fill the void created by short starts with low quality relievers like Pagan, Sands, etc. It’ll cost the team games, for sure. The question is how many. 3? 5? I could argue it cost them at least that last year with just Pagan alone. It also may cause issues with lining up starts. Let’s say Mahle cant make a start because his shoulder flares up and Varland and Ober started yesterday and the day before. You may not be able to get your MLB guys ready guys to fill those gaps and end up with whichever AAAA retread is available (Gonzales and Chi Chi types from last year). Maybe it only costs them 1 or 2 games throughout the year if they’re lucky. Still too many.

Did it hurt the Dodgers to relegate Maeda to the bullpen? I would say definitely not. It may have helped. It showed they’re not screwing around and want to win. If a player’s priority is not losing their spot to a superior player, I don’t want them for multiple reasons anyway. Good players want to win. That’s what hurts the Twins in free agent negotiations. They’ve largely stunk for 20+ years, with a ceiling of being utterly non-competitive in the playoffs. Free agents have seen very good teams hamstrung by being passive. They have seen HOF caliber talents like Mauer and Santa squander their career. They’ve seen the AL central teams playing in barren stadiums, televised on obscure networks that switch out due to bankruptcy every 3-4 years. That’s why nobody wants to come here. The Twins have cornered the market on yawn inducing apathy and hopelessnes. I’m a huge fan, but I can recognize that they’re one of the lamest professional sports franchises in any sport. That’s just my take on it. I don’t know if it’s Maeda I’d move to the pen, but I certainly wouldn’t be scared to. I do know that burning any of Ober’s innings in AAA is an absolute abomination of roster management. We’ll be lucky if throws 100 innings this year, and he could very easily wind up being our most effective starter while he’s healthy.

Burning Ober’s limited innings in AAA is just a gross mismanagement of resources. You could easily find the innings for him here while keeping him “stretched out.”. He’s never been someone who goes deep into games. Bad decision. Ball guys overthinking it.

Well, as a CPA that leaves with me a bunch of questions. ”Higher than revenues suggest it should be.” What does that mean? He needs to define a couple of terms there. What revenue? Total revenue? Operating revenue? Our payroll is very middle or the road, and we suffered one of the biggest losses? That sounds like a revenue generation problem, not a payroll being too high problem. Who the hell can’t figure out how to make money off of a professional sports team over there? You have a state of the art facility, some highly marketable players, you have a massive geographical region covering 4 states with multiple highly populated areas (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Duluth, Rochester, St, Cloud, Mankato, Fargo, Sioux Falls, multiple cities in Iowa, etc.) that are completely devoid of competition. Another point: There are a lot of ways to make it look like you lost money on paper. Depreciation and Amortization - what’s that number? How much did the Pohlads draw from equity? How are they recognizing certain revenues (deferring, etc.)? Do they recognize the unrealized appreciation on the value of the team? Carl bought the team for $44 million in 1984. It’s worth $1.5 billion now. It went up 5% last year. You have the audacity to tell your fans, who paid for your stadium, that you’re losing money? At the end of they day - it’s your fault you can’t sustain a middle of the road MLB payroll without losing money (which is disingenuous). Do your job better. If the team hadn’t been godawful for the last 15 years, maybe you wouldn’t be “losing money” on a $130M payroll. You need to sell me the product. Would Ford motors come out and say, “sorry guys, you just have to accept a worse car than our competitors - were actually putting way more into making them than we should be! - you’re welcome!” What an incompetent. If I were a Pohlad I’d have half a mind to have his office cleaned out before he got in this morning. What a disastrous things to say PR wise. Things were going fine on the “cheap Pohlad” front, and he just reopened the can.

How can Acuna and De Andre have a higher current hit tool than a guy like Julien who put up a higher average against better competition? Seems flawed. Future I understand. But, current is current.

I’m shocked that a bunch of players that are always injured are injured.

I’m not sure a top 5 overall draft pick with MLB bloodlines turning into a league average bench outfielder at age 27 is a success story. Ober I could get on board with if he wasn’t hurt all the time. He’s thrown a total of 361 innings since 2017, an average of 72 innings per year. I also have a hard time calling a middle reliever with a negative career WAR a resounding developmental success. He was drafted in the 3rd round, was fairly highly touted, etc. I think you need a bit more there to call it highly successful. I wouldn’t call them failures, and they could make further progress. But, we’ve set the threshold pretty low on this one.

I’d go with a 6 man rotation without blinking. It’s a match made in heaven for this pitching staff. None of these guys, with the exception of Ryan, has been able to stay healthy. Maeda, Mahle, and Ober will all have innings limitations. Adding an extra day in between starts can only help some of these guys. Also, wasting any of Ober’s limited number of innings in AAA is just absurd. That’s an extremely poor use of a finite resource. There are some things that could be done outside of the box here as well. Some of these guys can be used in tandem occasionally. Especially early on with the guys with the limitations (like Maeda and Ober). There seems to be this perception that if a certain process isn’t followed their arms will fall off.

I’d be shocked if we saw Lee this year unless there’s a serious injury to Correa or Miranda, or Miranda’s performance falls off the planet. If someone is needed to play 1B/DH, there’s just so many guys there other than Miranda, and Julien would likely get the first call. Have they been moving him off of SS at all yet?

That would be fun to watch for a while, but nobody will care if they got swept out of the playoffs again.

Cleveland is probably saying, “don’t overhype the Twins, who haven’t won a playoff game in two decades, folded like a cheap tent last year, have the most injury prone roster in the MLB by a mile, and who’s only dominant pitcher throws 4 innings a week.”

It seems there’s a fairly ridiculous semantics battle going on here in which both side are right and wrong, simultaneously. I think it’s more accurate to say they’re relying on health….of some players who haven’t proven they can be healthy. They’re banking on Buxton, Kirilloff, Polanco, and some combo of Mahle, Maeda, Gray, Ober to stay healthy in order to have a successful year. I agree that’s not an ideal situation to put yourself in. But, every team deals with injuries at some point. It’s also largely not those guys creating the issue right now. Gordon, Miranda, Winder, and Henriquez injuries aren’t going to derail the team. I don’t think it’s that surprising or unexpected to see Buxton, Polanco, and Kirilloff limited in exhibits right now. On the flip side, saying “what are they supposed to do about it,” isn’t a valid defense. They can help it. They put themselves in the situation. If you get thrown in jail for drunk driving, and someone criticizes you for being in jail, responding “what am I supposed to do about it, they won’t let me out,” doesn’t absolve you of making the decisions that put you there. Frankly, identifying players that can stay in the field is part of the job. There’s an element of luck there (Royce Lewis). But, when you actively target and trade for a damaged player, you deserve criticism. Also, “they’ve brought in a ton of depth,” doesn’t hold much water. Sorry, but if that depth isn’t that good. If the lineup consists of some utility castoffs from the Reds, Michael Taylor, etc., for significant stretches, the team will stink just like it did last year. People lost their minds over the Gallo signing. They did trade for Lopez, but they also gave up a Silver Slugger and batting champion. I see a lot of issues on both sides of the table here. My take: they do deserve to be criticized if this season once again is derailed by injuries to the usual suspects (Buxton, Polanco, Mahle, Ober, Maeda, etc). I’d even throw Correa in there, they aren’t exempt from criticism if they made a poor evaluation. If those guys start going down, the replacement level depth (Farmer, Taylor, et all), isn’t saving the day. But, we’re nowhere near that point yet. The key guys look on track to start the season.

I would think the Dodgers have bigger things in the works than Kyle Farmer if they’re making a trade. They aren’t hurting that badly for a shortstop without Lux. They already have Miguel Rojas, who was 1.5 wins better than Farmer last year in terms of WAR. They also have Chris Taylor, who is a pretty good ball player. Arguably a better player than Farmer as well. They have no use for Farmer as a starting SS.

It’s just a joke, and a play on the religious dedication to this philosophy by fans/media more than what the FO may actually be doing. I do agree that they have been more aggressive in regards to winning the division now (not a World Series)…Although, I don’t think it’s the FOs decision at all. I think ownership has loosened up a bit in reaction to cratering fan interest. They haven’t committed fully, which is why it seems like the FO is stuck in the middle. They want to invest just enough to tip fan interest back the other direction, but not dip too deeply into the coffers (overall payroll hasn’t exactly ballooned). But, hey, beggars can’t be choosers. They signed a superstar shortstop. They traded a good, but largely overrated player for some quality pitching. Both things I wanted to see. Much better than what I’ve seen for most of my life as a Twins fan. I’ll take it and gladly watch.

We’re never in a win now mode. There’s always some year in the distant future, 3-4-5 years from now that is priority. The prophesies say that’s when all of our prospects will turn into stars. That’s when we can finally take on a contract without anguish over whether that player will be worth slightly less than his AAV in year 8. A new age will dawn, and the Twins will ascend to their rightful seat at the contender’s table of the most high. Only once you understand that will you truly achieve enlightened “ball guy” status, and take your place at the right hand of Lavelle E. Neal.

Gallo has multiple gold gloves. Someone posted a figure here not long ago showing he is one of the MLB leaders in DRS over the last handful of years. He’s literally one of the best defensive outfielders in the game. Gordon has shown to be terrible in the OF at times. At his best, average. Gordon is probably the 6th best CF on the team (Buxton, Taylor, Gallo, Lewis when healthy, Kepler). Help me understand the reasoning behind preferring Gordon in CF over Gallo.

Will not compete with “Big Bucks” teams. It’s an important distinction to make. They aren’t bound by anything other than the percentage of revenues they choose internally to allocate to payroll to make their baseline profit number. That’s just an inalienable fact. Im not commenting on the strategy’s validity (if you can really call it a strategy - it doesn’t really have anything to do with baseball at all). There’s no more dead horse left to beat there. It’s been thoroughly composted and another Pohlad money tree is flourishing on it. Just want to make it clear that it’s a choice. Whether right or wrong. Can’t implies some sort on externally imposed limitation or actual inability.

Who knows what their magic 8 ball spreadsheet will tell them. It’s currently telling them guys like Pagan and Megill are good pitchers. It’s becoming one of the more flabbergasting things I’ve seen as a Twins fan…and that’s saying something after seeing every 42 year old ball player that can still roll out of bed play for the Twins during the Ryan years.