Beast

It’s mind blowing, the number of pieces raving about this FO getting rolled out this week after getting our ass kicked by the Yankees AAA club and Guardians (basically another AAA club). Judging by the level of ratio these articles have received in the comments, I don’t think anyone buys this borderline propaganda at this point. I really appreciate what you guys built here. It was great at one time. A bastion of baseball truth. Kudos for the idea, the hard work, etc. But, It’s kind of turning into Twins.com. The CNN of Twins blogs. Unreadable for casual fans who watched them piggy back off the previous regime, squander one of the greatest offenses in history in 2019, make numerous awful decisions (remember the 2018 debacle anyone? Now this?). They’ve flat out stunk. We’re pushing a decade and they haven’t even caught the scent of a playoff win. I mean, honestly. We get it, they’re not going anywhere because ownership is incompetent. But, It’s not illegal to criticize where it’s deserved (at least it used to be). Bloggers for years complained about not being allowed into the country club. You finally get in and the first thing you do tie a cardigan around your neck and join the yes men like Lavelle, etc. Is that the standards are just that damn low? Or, is there really no safe haven left to honestly talk baseball instead of ass kissing.

I get that excitement for the team drives page views, revenues, etc. and I’m sure the people you all deal with in the FO really appreciate articles like these….but woof. What a parade of “it’s not their fault,” this week. What’s the old saying…”Thou doth protest too much?” At least present the illusion of unbiased analysis here occasionally. Thats why I came here in the first place. It was once honest analysis. The comment to the effect of “nothing they can do about Paddack and Mahle,” Is a bridge too far for even the biggest homer. The Mets, one of the most generally incompetent organizations of the past few decades, backed out of a Paddack trade because they were concerned about the elbow before the Twins made the deal. The freaking Mets found a way to figure it out and make the right call on that one.

I’m seeing these lists put together a lot lately, and it’s mostly just dramatic effect. The big problem is the reliance on a lot of these guys. This isn’t an aw-shucks, who could’ve seen that coming, scenario. Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, Miguel Sano, Alex Kiriloff, Kenta Maeda, Bailey Ober, and Randy Dobnak have all had recent and/or significant injury history. Some with little to no expectation of contributing this year. They even came into the year setting a goal of 100 games for Buxton. You can’t set that expectation, then turnaround and lament one IL stint. Paddack and Mahle were hurt when they traded for them. Hell, casual fans here were expressing concern at the time of acquisition of both. There should be no surprises there at all. I still like both moves and they can still payoff - but acting like it’s hard luck that they’re currently hurt is disingenuous. Guys like Larnach and Lewis were basically unknown commodities, with Lewis also coming off a major injury. Jeffers has been OK at best, not something that should be overly difficult to replace. We didn’t choke the season away due to missing Ryan Jeffers playing mediocre defense and hitting at the Mendoza line. A handful of those guys weren’t going to contribute even if healthy, (Bechtold, Romero, etc.) or can be easily replaced (Stashak). The problem is that they placed some sort of reliance on these guys. There is some luck involved on one or two of these guys. But, when we’re seeing it to this extent, it leans much more toward awful judgement. It’s their job to make the right call on personnel. Get the damn job done. No more excuses.

Brooks Lee for sure. I see no likely scenario in which he’s graduated off the list next year, even with Correa likely to opt out.

I hope nobody shows up for the remaining home games. This team doesn’t deserve people spending their hard earned money in this time of economic uncertainty. I may show up if the farmers market runs a promo to dispose of their old produce by throwing it at the windows of the FOs offices. That may be the only way to get a crowd the last couple weeks. Although, I was thinking about it last night after the second game. Maybe I’m being unreasonable with the FO. Is it the ownership group? Everyone mocks the “cheap Pohlad” mantra, but is it just so toxic at the top that nobody could succeed here? I don’t think that’s unlikely. There has to be something going on under the surface. You don’t repeatedly implode in such embarrassing fashion without a root cause (and, no, it’s not injuries). I think it may be a little of both. If so, what the hell is the point? There’s just no hope here. Ever. That’s just a sad truth. Pretty bleak outlook. I’ve never been as frustrated, disillusioned, jaded….frankly, sick of this organization as I am right now. I can’t imagine I’m alone. They’re going to have to change something just for the PR benefit. This just feels like it’s run it’s course.

The reason Falvey was brought in was pitching. “It’s hard” isn’t a valid excuse for accomplishing nothing on that front in 3/4 of a decade, whether developed or external. There are teams with tighter budgets than the Twins out there getting it done. There are plenty of free agents out there every year better than Archer every year that require a Cole mega deal. I’m not buying the implication that they’re just always stuck with guys like Archer. But, I’d they’re going to cower at the thought of a significant pitching contract, they can’t screw up evaluations like they do. You can’t trade for multiple guys who are too hurt to pitch in one year. You can’t pick Archer over Cueto. You can’t bring in the worst reliever in the MLB over the past 3 years and watch him blow 15 games because you like his spin rate. Their decision making and roster construction this year has been pretty horrendous at times. I don’t care when they pull guys. But, people do because what they’re doing isn’t working. They’re questioning all philosophical decisions at this point. Nobody cares if a similar philosophy is working for Tampa or the As (neither will ever win a title). Nobody gives a rip about the “value” you got from 170 innings of Dylan Bundy at 4.5 ERA while you run they run the division down their leg. They’re not paid to theorize. They’re paid to get it right. They’re getting it wrong, no matter the intentions/theory behind. It’s bubbling over. People are sick and tired.

They intentionally traded for two of the guys on the IL, knowing full well they were injured. Everyone knew Buxton would end up there eventually. Polanco hasn’t been healthy since May of 2019. That’s just off the top of my head. There’s been a couple of tough breaks. But, they’ve largely done this to themselves. I’m also not convinced they haven’t implemented something pitching-wise that’s contributing. There are way too many pitching injuries to be bad luck. At the end of the day, their job is to make sure there’s a good team on the field.

Unfortunately for Varland, he’s stuck in one of the most incompetent organizations in the game. I have every confidence they’ll run his career into the ground.

Falvey was supposed to be a pitching genius. He’s, what, 7 years in and we’re wondering if he finally got one with a guy projected as a mid-rotation starter? When do we stop connecting Cleveland’s pitching acumen to this guy? Bring in the same room as an astronaut doesn’t put one space.

What Grant is missing in his misguided response to Alex, is the Yankees followed up with two very good relievers. Sure, they have one bad reliever on roster as filler. 3/4 of the Twins bullpen stinks. Awful take. The Yankees wouldn’t be caught dead with three relievers of that caliber in their ‘pen. Let alone use them back-to-back-back in a game within reach. They basically just waived the white flag and threw a game down by two runs in September while tied for the division lead (with the other team in first likely to win against the Royals). If you’re OK with forfeiting a game in the division race, you just don’t care. Which is fine, but pretending every other contender would do the same is laughable. I mean, one of the pitchers we used literally just got axed off the roster of a non-contender.

Tough to keep Bundy off of the list the way he’s been pitching lately. Not always pretty, but he’s been keeping some pretty good offenses in check down the stretch.

He’s a really strange case. His numbers this year are very good, but it’s an extreme outlier from the rest of his career and he’s somehow still blown 20% of his save opportunities with a sub 2 ERA. I just don’t think he’s that good. I think he’s due to regress hard, and we’re seeing the beginning of that. Obviously the O’s felt the same. Savvy move on their part to dump him at that peak.

That’s such a huge win. How about the much maligned Dylan Bundy? The guy hasn’t allowed more than 2 earned runs in a start since the calendar turned to August. He hasn’t had a bunch of cupcakes, either. He’s faced Houston, Toronto, and Boston. Not to mention today’s goose egg in Chicago in the biggest road win of the year. He’s been a rock in this rotation lately when most everyone else is falling apart. Very impressed by his resilience this year. We were counting the days until was DFA’d a couple months ago. Jake Cave is doing more for this team in big spots than anyone (except maybe Gordon and Miranda). Another great play off the wall to turn a double into a single. Of course, the triple was huge. Good for those two guys. Good stories. You throw Gordon in there too. A rag tag group showing the stars how to grab a handful and get it done in clutch spots.

I’d like to blame this squarely on Lopez. What’s that, his third or fourth blown save (in few opportunities) since coming here? But, I can’t. As unhappy as I am with his performance since being here, this is another failure on the offense. They, again, blew numerous opportunities to put some big, crooked numbers up early. It’s uncanny how poor this team is in grade A scoring opportunities. Baldelli needs to get Kepler out of the 3/4 hole. All he does is hit impotent ground balls to middle infielders. He’s like a jugs machine set up by a coach to practice tailor made double plays. He’s a rally serial killer. We burned our best starting pitcher (and maybe lost him for the stretch run) and best bullpen arms, while they used an opener. The cherry on top is lighting a fire in their gut by throwing at one of their best players’ head. Did you see that celebration? They know that was a monster game. You could almost see their failures all year evaporate. I feel a sweep coming on. We just left the door wide open for the Sox. They’re taking this division now.