Beast

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.

I had to take a step back and play some golf tonight vs watching this game (my golf game wasn’t any less frustrating than the Twins, but another story). I return to see Correa has two xbhs with nobody on. Sigh. I will say there’s some great jokes being written here, though. So we have that going for us, which is nice.

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.

I don’t think the team is great. They stink, frankly. That’s an indictment of the FO, coaching, etc, not necessarily the players - because I agree that there’s some talent there. They signed Carlos freaking Correa and turned him into a pumpkin somehow. They’ve traded for 3 injured pitchers in 3 years. They just signed a guy off the street and threw him into the 8th inning in Yankee stadium when tied for the division lead. Nick Gordon is batting clean up in September. They’ve bungled this so badly, it’s unacceptable IMO. It’s time to pull Falvey out of the deep end. He’s drowning. I don’t know what to think of Baldelli. Part of me thinks he’s hamstrung and things are micromanaged for him from the top. Part of me thinks he’s just as incompetent. Either way, I think it’s time for a change there too.

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.

I’m guessing it’ll be a mutual split. He’ll probably take a pay cut to get out of this baseball black hole.

Don’t you know that all teams are forced to run guys like Megill out there? The proof is the righty sinker baller on the Yankees that throws 99 because of his poor ERA in 6 IP. I was just educated on this in a lecture here.

Fire everyone. I hate this team.

What the hell is this team doing. Get the freaking out. He’s going back to third. My God.

Megill out there hanging breaking balls like it’s on his contract.

Lol. This team.

Also, my argument has not been it’s the most important stat from the beginning. Only that it’s not useless. I don’t think it can be argued that it is the most important historical stat (or one of them). Not as much a predictive stat.

Again, anecdotal example that proves nothing. Nobody has hit more RBIs than Mike Trout with excuse me swings and hustle singles. It nails no coffins. It actually supports my point. If you’re talking about one specific RBI, sure. But, if a guy has accumulated many RBIs, he’s going to be a good hitter. Literally almost every single time. What are you even arguing here? No person ever said Eddie Rosario is better than Mike Trout. If you have a 100 RBI year, you’re probably a good player and providing value. Don’t how how that controversial in any way. Pretty common sense.

Well, that’s game. I’m also just ready for the season to be over at this point. This team doesn’t deserve the playoffs.

This team is so poorly managed/coached, I’m 100% confident they’d be better with no FO or management personnel like a town team.

So you think one anecdotal example using the best player ever is grounds to eliminate a run production statistic from every analysis ever done going forward? I would guess a player with more RBIs is better than a very high percentage of players with less RBIs. Like, well over 90%. Cleary not perfect, but I’ve always though throwing that out the window as a stat was absurd. At the end of the day, you still need to put the ball in play with authority with RISP to get the RBI. Something nobody on this roster can do regularly.

This should be interesting. Sure would be nice to have Hamilton on second right now. Although, he’d probably get caught trying to steal third.

True. Not much uncrushed soul left. Silver lining.

True. But they’d also have the kiss of death. RISP with nobody out.

Not liking our odds of winning this in extras. Letting this one slip away would be soul crushing.

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.