GusGus11

Yeah we went without scoring because we have Vazquez in to hit dribblers GUy is a liability and single handedly the reason we didnt bunt.

Vazquez hahaha Super glad we brought him into the game. Cant wait for us to start him again tomorrow too in key divisional game. And again Wednesday cause you know, Jeffers is not allowed to start two in a row at catcher.

Because hes one of our best bats and they would just walk Jeffers and set up the DP for Vazquez or have us use Gallo

Bunt Royce so that they can walk Jeffers and set up a DP with Vazquez???? Stop

Also left us with him needing to play 1B which he rarely ever plays.

Incorrect. No other manager puts themselves in position to pinch hit a guy with a sub .600 OPS

Bruce Bochy proving why hes a world series manager. Meanwhile we got a clown show steering our ship.

HAHAHAHAHAHAH Pinch hitting Vazquez statistically one of the worst hitters in baseball over your 24 year old rookie because of what hand they bat Just embarrassing

Alright Rangers bringing in a righty so no more Luplow

Damn that Polanco ball is gone on Thursday

Pray to god the Rangers use righties the next couple innings.

The youth is the present. Unleash the kids and compete in October.

On the bright side, Guardians left trash can Syndergaard in too long and they are now losing

DFA Luplow

Another L in a game against a lefty.

Jordan Luplow is a righty. Rangers are throwing a lefty. Thats why hes in the lineup. Twins logic and strategy doesnt go deeper than surface level

I mentioned this. Wallner and Kirilloff especially have absolutely destroyed lefties in the minors. Are they hitting them up here?? No but we barely play them against lefties unless a last resort. So there is zero repetition. Heck when healthy we play Buxton simply cause hes a righty and hes brutal against them Ho do young players learn if they dont get the opportunity?

Focus in on the wording there, I am genuinely asking for all opinions and thoughts. Can this team with its current philosophy make any sort of noise in October.? I used to think the problem was Rocco but I am at a point where idk if he even has a single say it the backward ass stuff we do. If it is all Falvey then I do question why we are paying millions for his services, but I digress. Anyways, this is going to be a long tangent but I do genuinely want to know everyone elses thoughts. Can we win running this team the way we have all year?? Falvey was negligent at his job and didnt get us relieft help, committing malpractice. It does not matter who the the lefty is, we are robotic and NO MATTER WHAT start a right handed lineup vs lefties. It is the most unispried and unintellectual game planning I have ever seen in sports. Like we dont even bother to look at the pitchers stats or batters stats or anything. Fresh out of the all star break we faced JP Sears for Oakland. At the time of that game he had a .289 average against lefties and .222 average vs righties. We started SEVEN righties and only two lefties(because we literally had no other options) simply because he throws left handed. What happened that game? Kirilloff and Kepler the lefties went 2/5 with a homer, the righties were 2/19 with a homer and both hits were Vazquez. They pulled Sears and then we brought in our TALENT and we wont the game against the As. But here is the funny thing. It seems we only refuse to look at splits for our young talented left handers. The other day we stared JORDAN LUPLOW vs corbin burnes. Why? Because Burnes is worse against righties as a right hander. What that ignores however is the fact that Burnes is still very good vs righties and if Jordan Luplow faced right handers he would no joke fail to make the Curaco roster in the little league word series. Stop playing objectively bad players. Before injury we kept batting Willi Castro FIFTH vs left handers. Please I challenge you without laughing, to look up Castros stats vs lefties and a right handed hitter. This team aside from the bullpen that Falvey refused to add to is actually very talented and versatile. But we lose that versatility but conintually starting players we shouldnt. Example again being Castro. Hes been a god send. He can cover 6 positions and he steals bags. Hes the perfect 7th inning tie game pinch running weapon. We cant use that weapon when he starts a game and bats 6th as a weak hitting center fielder who is statiscally BAD at center field. So last night, lefty in and that means immediately pull Julien. Why? Because hes left handed. God forbid our 24 year old on base machine and future of the organization ever gets a chance to develop reps vs a Lefty. Bring in Kyle Farmer a guy that everyone knows for 7 years is going to have a OPS of ,700 at best. Like we flat out know who he is. But heres the worse part, right before Julien hit we let Vazqeuez bat. We didnt pinch hit for a guy with a .600 OPS all year. Better yet, that guy is our catch who catcher AT WORST every other game. Please look around the league, tell me one team that has refused to start their better catcher back to back games. You cant find one. This has been a thing for centuries. Jeffers isnt just our better hitting catcher, hes better at blocking pitches, throwing out runners, and our pitchers PITCH better with jeffers. This is insanity. Are we really going to start Christian Vazquez in a playoff game? This full season says he starts game 1 or 2. Its mental. This offense got hot right out of the break because in Seattle it started batting Julien and Kirilloff in the middle of the order. Why? Because they are two of the best hitters on the team. Its that simple. Stop looking at how old guys are and what hand they swing the bat. Wallner had to put up historic AAA numbers to even get up here. Was he blocked by Ronald Acuna and Bryce Harper. LOL. Here is the best thing. I again challenge you, look up Julien, Kirillof and Wallners numbers in AAA vs lefties. two of them absolutely eat them alive. But our philosphy up here is to stunt growth and have them sporadically face them. Are any of them hitting lefties up here? No. But do they get consistent reps? No. We refused to develop the actual talent. Look at the good teams in the league. Are we the Braves or Dodgers? Of course not. But look at the good offenses. Do they platoon their talent?? Nope. Freddy Freeman bats second every single game no matter the pitcher. The braves play the same 9 guys every single game unless someones leg literally falls off their body. You dont win games by starting Kyle Farmer and JOrdan Luplow 3-4 times a week. Theres a reason we were able to pick them up and no one wanted them I have about a million other things I can say about our backward ass logic every game but Ill stop now. Do you agree or disagree with how we run this roster day to day? Do you think this team can win in October with this philosophy? Do you think game 1 vs Framber Valdez we will trot out our usually lefty failure lineup and play objectively worse players simply cause they hit right handed? Will Vazquez start a game? I genuinely want opinions on this. HOwever I will say that nothing can possibly sway my opinion because we have 130 games worth of proof that show I am right. This entire season we have won 4 games, lost 3, won 2, lost 4, won 3, lost 2, won 3, lost, won 2, lost 2. There is a very specific reason why we constantly hover at the exact same record with a really solid run differential. We kill our own momentum by refusing to play good lineups consistently.

https://twitter.com/UmpScorecards/status/1695444993471594745/photo/1 Basically Torres was only bad against us last night MLB made the call they needed Texas to snap their streak. They didnt.

I said it on the game thread. But we cant have that guy batting 3rd in big games behind guys who draw walks. Its a strategy thats asking to be exposed. He isnt good with RISP either.

Im begging

A lefty reliever like Funderburk Id say is absolutely necessary. And Alcala/Miranda wont play again for us this year.

Funny you mention AK, because I was actually gonna add him to this convo when giving my opinion on why Id be ok paying Royce ASAP. I am a HUGE AK. I have a long time Twins buddy that I have kept in contact with from a different sports message board many years back. We text all the time how much we love him and that as an all around hitter hes the best of the bunch. But hes one I absolutely would not try to do any early deal with. Because 1. Hes almost 2 years older than Royce 2. While his all around plate coverage, use of all fields and OBP ability is impressive. Royce with the known power and all around talent has a higher ceiling 3. The main thing. His big injuries unlike Royce's worry me immediately. I mentioned how I think Royce knee injuries in a vaccuum are more concering for 33 year old Royce than 26 year old Royce. Hes still fast and athletic now and they dont impact his hitting currently. AKs wrist injury from everything I read was nearly a career ender and directly impacts his hitting ability. Im glad its been fine this year *knock on wood* but having a wrist injury that nearly ruined your career by 25 is not a good thing. Now hes dealing with a shoulder problem which agian theres optimism hes close to returning. But already having shoulder and major wrist issues before your prime is scary. I look at Kirilloffs injuries as much more ominous than Royce. I'm willing to roll the dice with Royce.

I said into his 30s not when hes 30. If you give him the deal now you dont just overpay yearly for 1 more year haha. You do it like the Acuna one and see if Royce due to his injuries wants that same security but at a later age. Paying him 17ish per year through age 32 is a great risk and avoids having to do any sort of performance based arb that could raise his pennies cost currently and also avoids having to negotiate with a 29 year old under no contract that is ready to get paid with a big deal finally into his mid 30s at earliest with knees that wont last. Lockin him up now lets us acess where hes at into his 30s and through most of his prime. Again, its cool if you wouldnt. But there is a very clear world where that would work wonderfully. Or it could fail. Same way waiting could.

Excellent point. And very probable Boras would go that route. What I should have made more clear in my OP is this discussion is simply from a Twins stand point. Basically me saying I think the team should be looking to try to do it. And wanting opinions of those on this board what they would do if they were Gm. How much, right now? Wait til last minute? Give it 1 or 2 years. Basically operating under the assumption that whatever deal makes sense is what Boras/Lewis would agree to. So like my stance is right now I would would love locking him up at an Acuna like rate. If the twins tried to do that and royce said no he wants 10 years 300 mil right now. I would not be mad at them for saying "nahhh we are gonna wait" But I am of the opinion we should try something soon within the next year at the latest. And would be really disappointed if we never tried and just let him fleece us at 29.