Western SD Fan

Think of the positive. Every extra inning gives you more value to your Twins.TV subscription.

I'm not sure he can lift it. If he can, it may be big enough for him.

I personally don't think so, but there are TD members who firmly believe that you can have less instruction than how to run a register at Walmart and think you're fine because you're a professional.

There will be a bottom of the 9th. Welcome back Walker Jenkins! Edit: See all the things @Patzky missed by not staying up until the end?

Here's a wild idea. How much do you like Ross at SS? Would you consider having Ross play SS and move Culpepper to 3B next spring and leave Lee as a PH/UTIL. It seems like the future is Houston at SS and Culpepper is expected to move to 3B anyways.

I'm not a TD writer. I wish I had an answer for you. Since TC loves the platoon to a fault, they will probably stick with it. We have seen it before where switch hitters will drop the one side from time to time and pick it back up later when it feels comfortable for them again. EDIT: If Lee didn't switch hit, there would be too much of an itch to platoon him at 3B.

Lee made contact! Things are looking up!

Technically a quality start. Blame the offense for California Dreaming.

Still potentially a top ten pick per Tankathon:

Lewis received less instruction at 1B while he was in St Paul than what you would get if you were hired at Walmart. He played mostly third when he was down in St Paul only receiving instruction for a couple days for BOTH first and second base and only playing one game at second and two games at first prior to being recalled. Let me dispel this tired old trope as well. "He's a professional baseball player. He should be able to pick up on those positions right away without much instruction." I'll give you a similar situation. An accountant can typically practice public (tax, attestation), government (schools), or private. Any accountant can do any and all three with proper instruction, but it takes time to know all the rules between all three sectors. If I moved from Accounts Receivable to Accounts Payable, it's the exact opposite side of the accounting world so everything you learned in Accounts Receivable is backwards and will take time to unwind and rework your line of thinking the to the correct side. Lewis is no different from moving from one side of the infield to the other. The basic skills are there, but he still needs to work on the instincts of being on the right side of the infield. Finally, most of the season at first? Including tonight's start, Lewis will have played 76 games at 1B. Even if you assume that he will start every game until the end of the season, that gets you to 85 games. Half a season is 81 games so he will play barely over 50% of the games at first this season. Hardly qualifies as most of the season.

A full lineup of Joey Gallo's would chase the White Sox for the most losses ever in MLB. Still an improvement.

To suggest that we have to have a big power hitter at first is laughable. The Twins and other teams have had light-hitting first basemen before. The Twins have had Kirilloff, Mientkiewicz, and Ron Coomer. Even the Yankees have had Greg Bird, who was not known for his power, in the lineup. Whether a first basemen hits the ball over the wall or into the gap still drives in the run. I'll take a full lineup of Lewis's, if they consistently hit the ball into the gap over a lineup of Joey Gallo's, who has light tower power, provided he can find the ball with the bat short of hiring Sherlock Holmes. As for figuring out whether Lewis is the long-term answer at first, this could have already been addressed by now had they done this last offseason, which was move Lewis off of 3B to first or second. Because they failed to address this last offseason, we need to use up another offseason to see whether the Lewis experiment will work or not. I could also make the argument that they could have addressed this in the 2024-2025 offseason when all the comments were flooding in about Lewis refusing to play second in September of 2024. I could be intrigued by Keaschall at first. Mainly because we just have too many OF that will need playing time and are better fielders, even if they move Larnach or not offer him arbitration, and I'm not even including Wallner, who probably needs a Julien type of trade out of Minnesota at this point. Lewis could then move to second with Clemens being the LH Swiss army knife that gives a platoon advantage.

Have to give it to the pitching. They aren't quitting on the game. Lee even had a nice play on defense.

I like the fact that the Twins are still going. I honestly expected them to fold when the Yankees scored in the 10th.

Keaschall with a clutch hit. Martin with a successful bunt? I mean, it is getting colder in Minnesota.

It's 2026. Jackson is playing Sodoku.

You just feel like Bellinger is going to come in and hit a 3-run jack off of Funderburk. Bellinger is an all-or-nothing type of hitter now.l

That's sort of my issue with Gabby. He seems like he has no position right now. They are already trying to make Keaschall work in the OF so he has a home. Lewis should be our 1B for next year and an OF that has already too many players that need playing time.

Standard stuff to have an interviewee for half an inning. Just too bad that half inning was so short.

Depending on which prognosticator you followed, the Twins were expected to finish anywhere from first to last, but most of the time a few games below .500. With a favorable schedule the rest of the season, 74 to 77 wins is still achievable, which would be in line with what was expected. At best, the team was expected to have a similar situation as the Odyssey. At worst, it was expected to be the Titanic without the pomp and circumstance of the maiden voyage. The season is finishing on a sour note, but I have some hope for next year that we are rebuilding a foundation that will work.

I think this season will already be considered a success from the standpoint of excitement around the team during the summer, finishing better than last year with lower expectations, and eventually bringing up the youth, although too haphazard and late to make a real difference. Even if Zoll is replaced in the offseason, I see Shelton being back next season. Think of the Molitor treatment when Falvey took over with the added uncertainty of the MLB offseason.

I believe so. I don't see Larnach being offered arbitration again. I don't believe Buxton will be ready by next spring training, and I fear will also be brought back slowly like they tried in 2022 with the semi-DH thing. I think there will be enough room for all of them. The order, how much playing time, and what needs to be worked on in the offseason, is what is being evaluated now.

Another way to look at it is that the Twins have reached the evaluation stage of the season. They already know that Jenkins will be part of the team next year. What they don't know is the combination of players that will be with him, specifically Keaschall, Martin, and Emma. There are still a few OF's that will have to be moved in the offseason to clear the logjam of "potential".

I never had a problem with the trades that were made at the deadline. We were competitive at the time, and the team was playing over its skis. The issue that I have in the end was they were not more aggressive on making the easy trades of Larnach and Jeffers at the deadline. I get the Houston owner nixed the Larnach deal. Considering how much interest that the kids have brought to the team (Keaschall, Culpepper, Jenkins, and Emma), attempting to clear the outfielder logjam should have been a larger priority.