Twins_Fan_in_NJ

I'm soooooooooooooooooo tired of Pagan. If you give him 10 high-leverage situations, he'll implode in 9 of them.

His clunkers result in losses. As I said, the killer HR was coming. And it came last night.

Sands is a AAA+ pitcher. He really shouldn't be on the roster in the post-season.

The problem with Pagan is that when he's bad, he's horrifically bad. Most middle relievers will struggle here and there over the course of what you presume will be 65+ appearances. But Pagan gives new meaning to that. Perhaps the recent outings indicate that he's turned the corner but more than likely, we're not too far from seeing Pagan give up a game changing three-run dong in the 8th inning. And, even when Pagan gets out - they're loud scary outs. The game against Oakland a couple of weeks ago. He fooled no one, was just fortunate that the balls were crushed right at someone.

Boom!

If the Twins make the post-season with Lopez, Ryan, Gray and Ober healthy and pitching well, and if Duran and Stewart are healthy - they will have more than a good chance against anyone in the American League. The Yankees from the late 90's and early 2000's aren't walking through the door. Team hasn't won a playoff game since 2003. They have Correa, Buxton, and Lopez signed long-term. On some level, the Pohlad's aren't afraid to go for it. I don't expect them to mortgage the future but I'd be disappointed if they didn't do anything at all. Correa's absolute money in October. Can't forget about that.

Twins in bed with Boras. Not the worst thing in the world.

Very good news.

Orioles definitely slapped the Twins around before the break and the Rays, earlier in the year, looked like a juggernaut. But the Twins' starting pitching would give them a puncher's chance against both clubs - bolster the pen and line-up and I think the Twins can beat them. As for the Braves, yeah. They're loaded and look poised to win it all.

Dare I say it...the starting rotation is good enough to win a pennant especially in a year where no one in the AL stands out as a true favorite. But... How much does the bullpen need to be fortified and how badly do they need a right-handed bat in order for the 'pen and line-up to pick up some much needed slack - that's the question.

Will be curious to see what the Twins do with Polanco. He's been a fixture but with the way Julien's hitting, perhaps they want to use Polanco's money on starting pitcher or a high-leverage bullpen arm to go with Duran. Wouldn't mind Solano back on a one-year deal. Twins have been fortunate to have the positional versatility with Solano, Castro and Farmer. Yeah, they've all struggled at the plate at various times, but who hasn't on this team and they've really allowed Rocco to mix and match and survive injuries to Lewis and Polanco. No idea what the Twins do with MAT. Castro's getting more time in CF and Celestino's waiting in the wings. Maybe they rotate with Buxton (hopefully he's able to play the field in 2024) and MAT is cut loose. The rotation has four arms - Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Paddack. Paddack may need a month or two next season to get his stuff back - similar to Kenta - but they gave him an extension for a reason and he's going to pitching every 5th day if health allows. That begs the question - bring Gray or Maeda or do you give Varland the 5th starters spot? I seem to be in the minority but I'm not a huge Gray fan. He seems to implode after 4-5 innings and that's just who he is at this point in his career - if that's what he gives you, why not give the spot to Varland and divert that ~$20MM elsewhere? I'd love to see the Twins invest more in the pen but would anyone be shocked if they address that spot by re-signing Pagan and signing 4-5 depth arms for St. Paul in early January?

Kepler won't get traded. I think the bigger question with Max is do the Twins pick up his option for 2024? I'm not condoning that move nor would I criticize it - just throwing it out there. The FO tends to have a tough time saying good bye and with Buxton being such a gigantic ?, even if Kepler isn't a CF, it might make sense to hold onto an outfielder at a reasonable price.

I don't necessarily think Buxton's hurt. I think he's so far inside his head right now and he can't figure it out. If he's looking for Popkins for help, that's not going to do a whole lot.

I'm over Sonny Gray. He's good one time through the line-up and then the wheels come off. Ironic that the guy barking loudest about pitching deep into games can't manage to do so even with Rocco having a different philosophy than last season.

A win is a win. Sounds cliche but it rings true, especially in the AL Central. Twins need to bank wins whenever they can. A good 10 game stretch - something like 8-2 or 9-1 - as hard as they might be for this group - could give them a 6+ game lead headed into August. Cleveland's teetering with the pitching injuries and their line-up essentially being two players (Ramirez and Naylor).

Yup and based on the comments from the FO before the break, this is what they're banking on. Young guys continue to hit and the Big 3 get healthy and on track. If that happens, the Twins can probably get close to 90 wins and win the division by a handful of games. But at this point, that is a gigantic IF.

The problem with this team - the rotation and even the bullpen if Stewart and Thielbar are healthy - are good enough to win a series in October. But the offense is what you would expect from a 72-90 team. I don't think the Pohlads have much confidence in the front office to make the right moves at the deadline - last year's mistakes still loom large. I think we see the status quo and hope that Buxton / Correa / Polanco get hot at the same time and give the Twins a big second half. It won't take too much of a hot streak to pull away from Cleveland, IYAM.

Which perhaps speaks to the line-up not being good enough - I love Correa and I'm glad he's a Twin but if you're banking on him to be your best hitter, you're setting yourself up for failure. With that said, Popkins still isn't off the hook because even though the line-up isn't good enough - it shouldn't be *this* bad.

Correa's never been a great offensive player - I'd say he's good to very good (when he's locked in) but he's not going to carry a line-up for long stretches of time. His defense has been gold glove caliber so there's that and if he even slightly rebounds in the second half, his run production will wind up close to his career averages.

Good call on the differences between 2019 and 2023. It does seem like this team is focused on dead-pull and trying to lift the ball and that would have worked in 2019.

Fair point but I think that team has major chemistry issues and things going on behind the scenes. Maybe the Twins have the same issues, I don't know. But just from an approach standpoint, I'd like to see if Cruz could offer a different insight. I think we can all agree whatever it is that Popkins is doing - it isn't working.

Interesting regarding Lewis and while I get where he's coming from, this just solidifies what a joke the front office is. Lewis might turn into a franchise player. But he is no where near the point where he should be dictating the position that he plays. If the Twins had a legitimate opportunity to get Arenado, they shouldn't think twice about it - go ahead and make a trade. Let the dust clear afterwards and figure things out with Lewis.

Popkins wasn't ready for the job. He's too inexperienced. Sometimes thinking outside of the box works. Sometimes, it doesn't. There's nothing wrong with trying something and failing - if you see the mistake and correct it. The Twins are incapable of doing that. Speaking of thinking outside of the box - I'd say Nelson Cruz. IYAM, the Twins' success in 2019 had as much to do with his presence as it did Rowson.

Oh, and when I say Popkins isn't going anywhere - he should have been fired in May. Actually, he should never have been hired. But nonetheless, there's 0% chance that the FO will move on from him. If the Pohlads bothered to check-in once in a while, perhaps things would be different. But alas...

This is my fear. The Twins' FO doubles down on their mistakes rather than admit them, fix them, and move on. Popkins isn't going anywhere. He's their guy and they'll continue to provide puff piece interviews where they can't stop speaking but don't actually say anything of substance or meaning.