Western SD Fan

At least assume we won't see him until after the All-Star Break and maybe not in Colorado.

Gasper has a gardening glove?

I may be late the party on this comment. We finally have a game of some national interest (Skenes v Ryan). I was out at a sports bar earlier in the day where they had all of the sports pundits on and they were discussing whether this was the best MLB ticket of the year with the pitching matchup + Nelly concert. We still have to wear those AWFUL City Connects just because it's Friday!

I'm not blaming Lewis on that one. We have been MMQB all season that they need to put runners in motion, especially to stay of a GIDP. They finally put a runner in motion and it didn't work out. You can say that he should have looked in, but he would have been thrown out every time that he's at second base.

The insurance was Castro falling down and looking longingly at first base like, "that's just too far to run", in front of the Larnach home run.

I thought it looked like his ankle got caught in front of the base and was twisted, but we will find out at the end of the game. You just hope his is alright.

Today would have been a day I would have preferred Plouffe as the color man.

Sadly enough, I made this point in yesterday's thread. When these players (Castro) see your supposed leaders (Correa) not running out at bats, it becomes contagious. Combine that with a players-centric manager that seems hands-off with things like this, and you get a recipe for apathy. Sorry this is late, I was waiting to see if something was going to happen to Castro, whether he was hurt, or potentially taken out of the game. EDIT: Kudos to Lewis for running out of the box on an excuse me swing.

As feeble as it looked on the field, I do think we need to understand expectations as well. Prior to this homestand, if you would have been asked how you would feel to take 2 or 3 from both the Rays and the Cubs, most of us would have suggested to be checked into a 72-hour mental hold. I'm going to be happy for the series results and hope for a sweep against the Pirates, who are on a six-game losing streak coming into Minnesota.

Keirsey Jr is starting to remind me more of a Billy Hamilton type of player later in his career. He's mainly a pinch runner and defensive specialist. A nice player to have on a contending team, but a luxury on a team trying to find its footing.

To finish the thought that they said on the broadcast while giving props to Correa's defense. They commented that the rest of the players follow his example on how to play defense and to stay focused. I also believe they follow Correa's example on offense as he doesn't run out plays and doesn't seem to give quality at bats and it has rubbed off on the other players on the team.

I liked how they discussed early in the telecast about how the Twins play the greatest number of early games in the MLB and how they can ambush a team because they are used to it. I think they forgot that the Cubs tend to play a lot of afternoon games at Wrigley and we tend to not be awake on getaway day.

You're right. Paddack is likely closer to the middle or how he has been in his career. A back-end starter hoping to give you 5 to 6 innings of 3 run or less ball. I personally wouldn't sign him to an extension and would try to trade him considering we have enough pitchers that fit that role already on the team or in AAA.

I would just like to comment on the Twins promo department. I don't mind that they are showcasing Sue the Organist, but the fact that you're showing advertisements with Sue the Organist instead of, well maybe, the PLAYERS, either says a lot about the Twins as a team or the baseball operations of the team. I'll let the masses decide.

This guy is looking like he has channeled his Jamie Moyer Ouija board.

I think if you are seeing Paddack in the bullpen, it's for another team. He might be a player that I would try to trade regardless of whether we are in the race or not.

That seems to be one thing that drives me nuts about this team. When the hot player is out of the lineup, the rest of the lineup seems to forget what to do because they can't lean on the hot player to carry them to a win. Normally I would agree with you, but I think the only player missing from the normal lineup is Buxton, who we are assuming is hurt at the moment. At this point of the season, France and Clemens are almost interchangeable. The team attitude is a different story. It does look like they are just packing it in today.

This is why I would like to see one of Wallner, Larnach, or Lewis move to 1B in the offseason. I just see Correa becoming a more permanent DH and turning into Javier Baez prior to his resurgence this year. You have Lee or Keaschall for SS in the near future.

Fully agree that Swanson made a good play recovering to start the DP. Also can agree that if Correa moved faster than a John Deere Model A at a tractor pull, that he may have actually beat out the double play.

I made this observation before the game started about Juan Soto doing the same thing earlier today, except Holliday booted the ball on the transition and still almost threw Soto out. Must be something about making over $30M+ a year just weighs you down so you can't move as fast.

Is it me or does Paddack look like he's giving up hard contact today?

Great coverage by Wallner holding Suzuki to a single. That's almost a double every time when the player misses his dive.

Even non-Twins players jog to first in embarassing fashion. Watching the early game (Mets - Orioles), Juan Soto was jogging to first base, Holliday juggles the ball, and Soto barely legs it out once he realized that Holliday misplayed the ball.

Correct. The analysts stated this last night as well as they were surprised that the Cubs catcher actually threw through to get Wallner considering that the Twins have tried this before in the Rays series. The analysts suggested it was an error either by the catcher or the coaches for not catching it and warning the catcher of it. While I like the aggressiveness, I agree that it shouldn't be a permanent strategy and eventually we will run into outs, kind of like the contact play we kept running over and over earlier this season.

I pretty much reference Sportrac's multi-year contract page any time I want to discuss potential trades and how this will affect the team in future years. The link is here: Minnesota Twins Multi-Year Table As @Riverbrian has so thoroughly worked through, the FO has painted themselves into a corner. I don't see the current ownership raising payroll while they are trying to sell the team. I've been pleasantly surprised this season that ownership has the payroll where it actually is now considering all offseason it was reported that payroll had to be cut down to near $130M. As a team, we currently have too many players in the "wait-and-see" category: Royce Lewis, Larnach, Wallner, SWR, Ober, Festa, Matthews (when back from IL), Keaschall, Julien, and Miranda. Then there's the next group of prospects expected to graduate in the next two years: Eeles, Jenkins, Adams, Cory Lewis, Prielipp, Raya, and E-Rod. That seems to be more players than positions available. Any trade of Ryan for high-end prospects better be position specific, with catcher and future starters being the biggest needs. I think you can quietly have one of Larnach, Wallner, or Royce Lewis pick up a 1B glove with the expectation that they will work on it in the offseason rather than what Boston did with Devers this season or what the Twins did last fall in trying to force Lewis to play 2B. Ultimately, I don't see a Joe Ryan trade netting us what we need to truly get into a rebuild mode nor retooling, just a lesser version of what we have been experiencing the past few years. Ryan still has two more years of arbitration left and we can re-evaluate his value and potential value in the future. IMHO, trading Pablo Lopez in the offseason or next year would probably be the smarter move with the intention of taking that money and trying to sign Joe Ryan to an extension. If they do move Ryan in the near future, the FO is lucky that they have spent so little in marketing him to the fans that the average fan won't miss him. 😑