singlesoverwalks

Just checking in...trying to figure out why Garlick is DHing and batting cleanup against a right-handed pitcher when we have a game tonight against a left-hander?

This would happen if you lacked the decision-making chops to manage a bullpen.

The pitch to Naylor was a bloody hunk of raw meat. It was a ribeye.

Fireable offense.

He'll be standing in right at Chase Field when the Target Field centerfield wall appears out of nowhere and body-slams him.

Not to be a downer, but Logan Gilbert looks like a guy who's going to pitch for the Yankees in the Series in a few years.

Not playing Buxton today is absolutely classic Rocco. Four home runs in two days? Bench him. Of course.

Yes. This happens all the time. Rocco is slow to pull the trigger on the obvious move. Both Tom Kelly and Ron Garden hire would have automatically brought in Thielbar in that situation. Rocco gets analysis paralysis. The game moves too fast for him.

What gets me is this: if you have a shaky bullpen, you should let your starters go deeper into games.

Yet another case of Rocco bringing in the reliever who just had a bad game to "build up his confidence," and instead the guy gets shelled.

Again just super happy that the Canadian government has saved us from the possibility of Rocco bringing in Pagán to protect this lead.

Thank god Canada's vaccine requirements prevented Rocco from bringing Pagán in to build up his confidence.

There's a weird tendency with Rocco to pull starters early when they're doing well and stick with them when they're having a bad game. I guess he sees it as motivational?

Sending Bundy back out there after he gave up six runs: classic Baldelli move. Bundy then giving up three more runs: classic Baldelli result.

I love the wins just as much as the next individual but let's stipulate that no team has ever deserved to be swept as much as these Tigers. In the 4-run inning they threw the ball into the back of a running bunter TWICE IN A ROW. You all saw how the Twins had a walk-off the-other-team-made-an-error in the first game (that was the second game they won this way during this streak). Practically every time the Tigers touch the ball, they bobble it. It is a sight to behold. They may be sniffing glue. Don't call me a killjoy. You should definitely still enjoy it. It's baseball and when things go your way, you take it, because when things don't go your way you lose and it's no fun.

The silver lining I will take from this game is Max Kepler hitting an opposite-field single off a left-handed pitcher. That authentically improved my mood.

And adding on to that, you might use the opener strategy or the "low starter innings" strategy if your bullpen is a strength, like we think of the classic Rays teams that first tried the "opener" strategy. It really doesn't make sense in the Twins' case, where it currently looks like the starting rotation is relatively strong compared to the bullpen. Simplified basic pitching management that we all know: You want to send out your best pitcher available at the moment. A few complicating (and also obvious) factors: pitchers get tired and therefore less effective as they pitch more, so your "best pitcher" available changes over time, and of course you don't want to over-stress your pitchers and cause injury, which leads to the typical strategies of having high-leverage and low-leverage pitchers, like a "long man" to cover innings where you are losing badly, so you can save stress on high-leverage pitchers, and lower-quality relievers you bring in when you are down a run or two or leading big, etc. Rocco has trouble selecting his best available pitcher on the fly. In the 5th inning yesterday, there was much more reason to be confident in Archer than Winder, and really little reason to think that another inning was going to injure Archer. It was a high-leverage moment because the game was tied, and it was a no-brainer to leave Archer in there based on what our eyes could see. The best path probably would have been to send Archer out for the 5th, with a higher-leverage reliever warming up in case the 5th inning started to go south on Archer. It just seems like Baldelli maps his pitchers out ahead of time and sticks to the plan regardless of the information he's getting from the game itself. He assumed Archer would be gassed and struggling to contain the Dodgers after 4 innings, so he planned to bring in a reliever in the 5th inning. He didn't change his plan based on the actual game-time information that Archer was doing well after 4 innings. And he probably pre-planned bringing in Winder, which would make sense in a low-leverage situation where the Dodgers had shelled Archer - something that certainly seemed like a very real possibility before the game. But it made no sense in the situation. I know I'm beating a dead horse. But actually, it's not a dead horse, because Rocco is still out there managing games for us, so, he's a live horse, and I'm beating him, end of post.

I have to agree. Baseball is baseball and different things go right and wrong every night, but the most consistent reaction to Twins games is that Rocco brought in the wrong pitchers at the wrong time. Duffey in the ninth in game 2, our best high-leverage pitchers with a 4-run lead in game 4, NOT using Winder with that lead in game 4, pulling Archer early, then bringing Winder in for his MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT in a TIE GAME against the FREAKING DODGERS. Nothing makes any sense and I am sure, absolutely convinced, at this point, based on three years of evidence, that Baldelli can't handle the moment-to-moment decision-making required of a major-league manager.

Fangraphs projects that lousy rotation and good lineup to finish at 82-80, which is more optimistic than I feel. That looks like a sub-500 pitching staff to me. I would sign Johnny Cueto.

Playing Kiriloff in left field makes a lot of sense when Buxton is healthy. Buxton can make up for some of his limitations. The real question is who takes over center when Buxton can't play - especially if we end up with Kepler and Buxton injured at the same time, as has happened before. I'd take Gordon over Cave because he can still claim a bit of prospect status and can play the infield.

I want to add that the AL Central currently edges the NL West for the division with the fanciest shortstops. Correa, Tim Anderson, and Javy Báez beat Cory Seager and Tatís Jr. If Trevor Story signs with the Giants then we can debate it, but right now it's hands-down.

Correa >>> Simmons Gray < Berríos Urshela << Donaldson Jeffers < Garver Bundy = Pineda (hopefully?) Sánchez < Cruz Buxton could be healthier, veterans could have career years, young players could improve. There is reason for optimism. But the off-season still looks like a wash at best if there isn't more coming, especially given how bad the pitching already was.

LOST Garver (#1 C) Donaldson (3B) Rortvedt (#3 C) GAINED Sánchez (now the #2 C) Urshela (new 3B) $50 million in 2022-2023 budget OUTSTANDING NEEDS SS Pitching would be nice Adds up to a free agent shortstop signing coming.

I have figured out the Twins' strategy on pitching. (Clears throat.) Never spend big money on pitching. Small money on multi-year contracts is good. They'll do that (Maeda, Dobnak). They'll do medium-big one-year money (qualifying offer to Jake Odorizzi). But if you won't sign José Berríos at what he was willing to sign for, you simply will never sign any big-money pitcher to a multi-year deal. So, from this list, I would predict the Twins sign Michael Pineda.

My personal hobby horse is that the Twins' problem isn't that they don't draft good players. It's that they don't usually do a good job developing the players they do draft. Too many players get better after they leave the Twins.