Bodie

I will gently remind you of the then-unhittable Jacob deGrom a few years back when he was a Met.
10 wins versus 9 losses, with a 1.75 ERA.  The Mets were so bad that 2 consecutive starts (both CG shutouts - if I remember correctly) were won by deGrom at bat as he drove in all the runs scored in those two games!  At the season's end, people said he wasn't Cy Young material because he only had ten wins/wasn't much more than a .500 pitcher!

Love that for him. Hoping to continue to see him flourish. Impossible to not like the guy. 

I will gently remind you of the then-unhittable Jacob deGrom a few years back when he was a Met.
10 wins versus 9 losses, with a 1.75 ERA.  The Mets were so bad that 2 consecutive starts (both CG shutouts - if I remember correctly) were won by deGrom at bat as he drove in all the runs scored in those two games!  At the season's end, people said he wasn't Cy Young material because he only had ten wins/wasn't much more than a .500 pitcher!

Is anyone else having fun reimagining conversations about Royce Lewis? It's a pretty entertaining exercise. Here are a couple I came up with:

MID-JUNE, TWINS FRONT OFFICE:
DEREK: What are we going to do about this team squandering so many tight games?
THAD: As per our stats department, 600 plate appearances of Joey Gallo should generate just enough home runs for us to save face.
DEREK: I like it.
THAD: I do too. But here's one other thought - apparently this Lewis kid in our system is incapable of not hitting grand slams.
DEREK: Isn't that a side effect of ACL recovery?
THAD: Not sure, but good to be cautious about it. I'll check with the training staff. 
DEREK: Please do. We'll keep that as a backup plan.
THAD: Good call. 

9/14/23 & 9/15/23, WHITE SOX DUGOUT:
GRIFOL: Okay, Charlie. Bases loaded now and this new kid up for the Twins. What does our scouting department have on him?
MONTOYO: That's weird. The entire scouting report is  just three words: "hits grand slams". 
GRIFOL: Well, shoot. Let's walk him and take our chances with the next guy.
RESULT: Bases-loaded walk, RBI
GAME RESULT: Twins 10, White Sox 2
24 hours later...
MONTOYO: Here's that grand slam kid again, skip.
GRIFOL: Well our approach didn't work very well yesterday, did it?
MONTOYO: Heck no. Better pitch to him today.
GRIFOL: My thoughts exactly.
RESULT: Grand slam
GAME RESULT: Twins 10, White Sox 2

 
Any others?
 

Sergio signed w/ San Fran, pitched to 3 batters in the final ST game (in SF) and was pulled - to a standing ovation - by Buster Posey.  All done to allow him to retire as a Giant.
Nice send off for quite a fun and unique dude!  Wish him well!

This doesn’t bode well for the future. I want Royce to be working out in CF all winter. Just too bad - watching Buck in CF has been one of the highlights of my baseball watching life. 

Over reliance on analytics has hurt the Twins (and all of baseball)!
fixed that for you 😉 

Over reliance on analytics has hurt the Twins (and all of baseball)!
fixed that for you 😉 

I am not. I did watch him and learn, though.

We can dream...

We can dream...

At the very least, if Julien is at first he won't be catching Julien's tosses from 2nd.

I really like that he is a well rounded hitter. We need more of that on our big league club. 

I suspect this is who Buxton is going to be the rest of his career.  He's not going to get magically healthier as he ages.  My belief is the Twins made the calculated decision that playing the field will further shorten his career, and he's done playing the field (as a Twin, at least).
What I don't understand - and this isn't just a Buxton thing - is whether he has been instructed by the organization to abandon his "hit" tool in favor of swinging out of his shoes every single time.  If so, yet another indictment of the FO's faulty offensive philosophy.  If not...is anyone in the organization telling him it aint working?  What adjustments are being made in his approach?  This is where I think Rocco's hands-off, "let players do whatever they feel is best" attitude really shows its flaws.  Sometimes players need to be instructed - "managed", if you will - especially if a player is actively hurting the team with his chosen approach. 

A productive Buxton is the much more fun Buxton.

He's such a valuable trade asset that it's nearly impossible to imagine an asset worth trading him for. If they traded him 1/1 for Ohtani, my knee-jerk response would be "they'd better have an extension worked out!"

I don't know if he's forced himself into their long-term plans, but I think he's earned the chance to keep his roster spot for the rest of this year, and, assuming he continues to play at this level, the first shot at a utility role for next year. I'm not giving him any sort of multi-year deal, but I'd take him on his last arb year for next year, and go from there. He's at the front of the line for their utility players, and I think he's a wonderful 13th position player. He stays that way until someone knocks him off his perch.

Ober struggled early, but really liked how he settled in. He competes. Twins needed that sort of tough-minded performance by Ober after a string of suspect efforts by the rotation. 
Scoring 10 runs didn't hurt either.

I forgot one stat where the two teams are close - the Twins are first in striking out (as batters) and Oakland is third.  

Very interesting that Rocco was fine with Ortega pitching with a 2 run lead in the 8th, but needed Duran to pitch with a 3 run lead in the 9th.  Have to think that the pen tomorrow consists of Pagan, Sands, Balazovic, and Lopez, with Ortega also potentially available.  Leave it to Rocco to blow out his fully rested pen in two days against one of the worst teams of all time.

Funny thing... the same people who believe that "swing and miss" pitchers are an absolute necessity for a quality staff don't seem to think that an offense that does little but swing and miss is an acceptable part of a quality team!  We have a staff that will assuredly break (more likely shatter) any and all Twins strikeout records.  And an offense that will have even more Ks (and shatter MLB strikeout records).  And a front office that thinks that what last year's strikeout plagued team needed was Joey freaKing Gallo!
Fire Falvey and Baldelli now.  Not at the end of another hugely disappointing season, but now.  No heart, and no willingness to adjust are now the hallmarks of the Twins, and this starts with the decision makers both on (Baldelli) and off the field (Falvey). 
Bring in fresh eyes to see what is salvageable, what HAS to go via trade, and what just has to go into the old circular file cabinet.

You're talking about the same people/person who thinks it is a "good idea" to run Joey Gallo out almost every day...

You're talking about the same people/person who thinks it is a "good idea" to run Joey Gallo out almost every day...

We all know Buxton is not "able" to play outfield due to his knee. The Twin so much stated that a few weeks back. This past weekend it looked like he was moving pretty good rounding the bases to score and didn't look like he had any knee issues. I would think running the bases is just as much "work" and puts as much stress on your knee as playing outfield. So what is it? As a DH he is not getting it done. Bring back Lew Ford.