Western SD Fan

I would say there could be some truth to that. On the other side, Shelton seems to be more of a clubhouse voice than Rocco. They stated during the pre-game that even during the year that he was Rocco's bench coach that it was Shelton that walked through the clubhouse. I remember them suggesting that Rocco and Falvey spoke nearly every day and there had been more than one question asked on whether Falvey was actually running the lineup.

I would say you're more correct about Jax than Abel. If you believe you are a good closer away from a WS run, you likely still make that trade. Especially if you stand a chance at resigning him, like Philly does.

My prediction will be that he will face IKF in the 8th, then be replaced by Rogers since the next 2 of 3 batters will be lefties.

I think he also see there are now players in his rear-view mirror who could replace him in the near future. He really hasn't faced that pressure yet in his career. He is also in his last pre-arb year and that probably mounts some pressure to perform, and he is not making the adjustments.

Great outing by Abel! Come out for the 7th?

Amazing how much his defense is not discussed when he starts to heat up. Some other players on the team could take notice. 🙂

While the Twins did not score, the fact that they made Gray work is still great for the team as it is looking more and more possible he won't get past the 4th inning.

A little reverse psychology, Twins pitchers have been plagued by patient lineups the past few years. Glad to see the Twins lineup finally doing it to some opposing pitchers.

I believe that he will, but I will say that his leash continues to get a little shorter each time he comes back and doesn't produce. If you believe the Culpepper is right around the corner, I could see Culpepper playing both SS and 3B to get continued playing time.

Abel showing off those PFP skills! Refreshing from a Twins pitching staff!

Plouffe has not made it a secret that he has been communicating with both Wallner and Royce on a consistent basis, giving them advice on the career spot they are currently in. Plouffe is probably the best person for it as he went through the struggle both of them are currently in. Whether they are listening to him or not is different story.

I just wanted to give a time stamp for you in case anyone else wanted to listen to it. If you look up Skor North Twins Show on YouTube, it was on today's show with Trevor Plouffe at 33:31.

That was one of my issues last year when Royce was struggling was that they kept him in such an important position in the lineup. He needed to be dropped in the order, especially when it was apparent that he wasn't ready when he came back from injury since he never really had a spring training in 2025.

Great job on the article and great research @Cody Schoenmann. My main concern with Larnach was that he appeared to be a redundancy of Wallner and having them both out there would negatively impact the lineup. In previous years, both in the same lineup would be similar to being trapped in a Bermuda Triangle where AB's go to die. Additionally, in previous years, there was little base stealing or even going from first to third on a single, neither could seem to hit with RISP, or hit enough HR's to make up the difference. The way a potential lineup was constructed also gave the idea that there was not going to be enough AB's for all of the LH bats. Credit the schedule that led us down a path that we haven't had to cross that path yet. Shelton has definitely brought in a new philosophy and the players have responded. As of now, this does not look as bad as it did before the season started and some of us (me included) may have overreacted. The Outman situation is untenable, but we have had players like him before such as Keirsey Jr and Billy Hamilton, although I agree that Roden needs to replace Outman as soon as possible.

SWR has entered the chat. Here is an extreme example that Rocco likely pulled his starters too early. Minnesota Twins vs Houston Astros Box Score: June 15, 2025 | Baseball-Reference.com SWR on the mound goes 5 innings, 58 pitches, 38 strikes, only faces 17 batters. Not even twice through the order! SWR has only given up 1 walk, 1 hit, and 4 K's and still gets pulled after 5 innings. Most conventions would suggest, even in a 1-0 Twins lead at the time, that he gets to keep pitching until the Astros show some signs of life. Twins went to the bullpen, and even with their studs in the bullpen coming in (Stewart, Varland, and Duran), still cough up the lead and eventually lose. I would suggest that Rocco's lack of trust in his starters led to the overuse of the bullpen. When you overuse anything in life, they are prone to being broken down eventually. Shelton has worse starters, by comparison, and his trust in his starters have kept the bullpen as fresh as they can be considering they are nearing the end of a streak of 15 days without a day off. I use the late 2010's Cleveland teams as my example. They had a great starting staff of Kluber, Bauer, Carrasco, and Tomlin. They also had great relievers like Shaw, Allan, Miller, and McAllister. The hype at the time was that all they had to do was get through the 6th inning with the lead and the game was essentially over. A great starting staff that could go at least 6 innings in a game helped shorten the game for them and make the bullpen more efficient and effective.

I do think that their success this year could be attributed to just the sheer number of lefties they have seen this season. Last season, we might have seen one or two in a week or every two weeks and would always seem flummoxed by them. The number of lefties they have seen have allowed the normal RH batters, who usually only get partial playing time, to get regular AB's and they have responded. I don't expect this to last through to a random August game with a random LHP so I will enjoy this while I can!

I just don't see that happening at this point. The difference between Buxton's contract and what Royce would be offered is we did see what Buxton was capable of. I'm not sure we have ever seen what Royce is capable of up to this point in his career. I also remember a graphic earlier this year where they showed the number of games Royce as actually played compared tohis injury time. IIRC, he played in 270 of 810 games, that's 33%. You're not handing any kind of extension to a guy that is playing that few of games. Even Buxton has played in more games than that. Since this is all for fun, let's consider a possible extension. Lewis becomes a FA in 2029 at 30 years old and is currently making $2.85M in arbitration. Given his current injury history and the quality of play when his has been on the field. A contract could be $5-6M a year with heavy accelerators for plate appearances and performance with a term not longer than 4 years. Given that scenario, Royce will likely bet on himself.

You have to wonder if the Twins seeing so many lefties right away has actually helped them. Many times, last year, we would just see one lefty every once in a while, so it would be such a struggle. By seeing them all at once, the RH batters are getting more AB's than usual and thus getting locked in. Just a thought.

Now we see Acton warming up.

Seems appropriate for Orze:

Orze looks like he is up next. Would have liked to see Acton to see if he could get a 3 inning save. Always can try to save the bullpen. 🙂

But there is 'Red' in their name! 😉

The annoying CarShield commercial is only slightly less annoying with an 11-run lead.

I'm not sure anyone wants to hear this, but we may see Ober only goes 5 innings. Ober's arm may be locked up with all the rest he's been getting this half of the inning.

Is Kevin O'Connell taking notes for this fall? This is how you score!