GusGus11

Would be absolutely mind blowing if they brought back Gordon. Hasnt played since May. Sucked when he did play. Hasnt had a hit in AAA yet. Is a lefty so wont even spell our young lefties. His D versatility is already obsolete by Castro and Farmer and hes worse than both of them. Oh yeah, he also isnt even a good base stealer healthy and coming off a leg injury. Gallo would be a last resort as well. But at least there are small uses for him albeit all requiring like worst case scenario to other players. Stewart we need back effectively forsure. Hopefully one of Alcala or Paddack emerges as an option as well.

Keuchel has a literal 0% chance of being on the WC roster. Maybe a generous 2% of a ALDS roster.

The bad news, we essentially threw in the towel when we brought Keuchel in The good news, he threw 58 pitches so we wont be seeing him again for a while.

I mean the numbers are staggering for both Ryan and Lopez. Look it up Clearly coincidence or not, it aint working

Can we stop having our catcher who cant hit start games that Lopez and Ryan start? Vazquez is awful with the bat and shouldnt play regardless. But how bad both of those two are with him as their catcher is not a small sample size. There is a clear issue. Stop starting our weaker catcher who doesnt gel with two of your better pitchers. Its simple stuff.

Luplow going bye bye is a massive development. Dont have to worry about him pinch hitting in the 5th vs a lefty only to have his spot come up 2 mroe times vs righties at bigger moments in games that matter. Welcome back Michael A

Kepler is 100% having his option picked up. I'd offer Taylor a 1 year deal and see if he takes it. People that are worried about us "keeping the veteran all year" shouldnt be. Taylor only played as much this year because he literally had to, hes been a godsend. If Martin is ready or Lee is ready and Lewis goes to CF, Taylor would become a true bench player. But having his experience as a option has been so key this year. I am also on the train of never ever seeing Celestino again. Let him try to break out somewhere else. Guy cant hit. Weve seen enough.

De La Cruz has so much potential and hopefully I dont jinx us this week, but hes been terrible and borderline unplayable for months now. He is lucky in that we dont have a lefty going. Better off letting me bat right handed then him right now. Will be fun to watch him play this week though.

Pinch hitting up 6?!?!?!?!?!?!? And people try to argue this team cares at all about developing our young lefties and giving them experience??

Calendar year?? more like a calendar month for him haha Hope he saves a couple for the national stage in a few weeks.

Pay Royce all the damn money. Just do it.

Cmon Jeff With runners on the corners as a righty you cant be lunging for a ball trying to pull. Take it or go the other way. Was a routine DP if not for the contact play. So instead a routine throw out at home.

Nice first inning from Ober

It would be weird if that hadnt been the case most of the year(or among the lowest when guys like Vazquez play). Just look at that 1st inning. 4 players combine to see 22 pitches. Carlos walks up and swings first pitch for a lazy fly out. Its whatever at this point. His contract is about locking in, in October anyways. Just pray the flip switches in a couple weeks.

Huh? I have quite literally said multiple times now that saying "6 innings is the expecation" for any of these guys except Lopez is in the post season is a stretch. That was my literal initial post Whether its pulled cause they stink, pulled prematurely, cardiac arrest, pulled as an inside joke. That is irrelevent. It is a stretch to say the expectation is 6 innings per starter and to staff the bullpen according to that. That is literally all.

Dont get me wrong, Im not advocating for pulling guys(unless they truly have no gas in the tank) im just saying the way weve handled guys and the way the post season is managed and the way Rocco plays match ups. I wouldnt expect 6 from anyone but Lopez Gray will if hes dominating but thats a duhh I do hope we get a good Stewart back though

Huh. So you are saying you expect Ober in the playoffs to start throwing more innings per start?? Hahah what. All I did was point out the reason why Ober has good innings is because hes consistent. **** fangraphs did a article on it. The guy doesnt have short starts and he doesnt go super deep. Its 5-6 you can basically bet the mortgage. I didnt say anything that it was Roccos fault Its just a factual data point to show why we have innings(our starters dont have short starts) but also why its insane to "expect" 6 innings when we have 1 guy who can be counted on to go 6 innings in even low leverage games. Ironic you mention "treat game 1 or 2 of WC like regular season" thats actually the whole point. Do you watch playoff baseball?? Guys get pulled even quicker in these games. Simplest thing I can say is just watch the games in a few weeks and see. Unless they unquestionably deal our guys will not be averaging 6 innings.

But his whole "expectation is 6 innings" How can you "expect" Sonny to go 6 when he doesnt even average that all year? Sonny gets pulled routinely "early" per how hes doing. Like in Philly he went 6 innings but they hadnt had a hit off him in 4 innings. They literally couldnt make contact. He was pulled with 80 pitches. So that was a quick hook for how he was doing. Playoffs are managed differently by all managers. Quicker hooks. If people are expecting anyone but Pablo(again barring bad production) to go 6 and definitely anything more(he threw in a +) are setting themselves up for disappointment. Honestly I will flat out guarantee that if Ryan or Ober have a post season start that is anything less than shut down they are pulled between 4-5. 2 runs or more and there is no chance they end up seeing the 6th. Gray will depend on how much traffic and his strike % Its not a nitpick to point out the Twins dont have short starts, its true. Gray/Lopez/Ryan/Ober/Maeda are basically a lock to go at least 4. But we also outside of Lopez havent had a lot of starts that hit 7 innings all summer. Rays series is a perfect example. 3 starts. Everyone went 4. No one went 5. And yes, none of those were Rocco hooks all 3 needed to be pulled. Gray if the game mattered coulda went 1 more but no brainer on situation. Its just nuts to expect 6 inning in high leverage playoff games from guys who dont typically average it with a manager notorious for "playing match ups" whether its hitting or pitching.

Wrong. There are many ways to be high up in innings. A key to our starters is our depth being so strong that we almost never have huge blow ups where a starter has a 3 inning or less start. Take Ober for example. Guy basically never goes less than 5 but at the same time he doesnt go more than 6. Weve seen Rocco in the playoffs before going to the bullpen over Berrios after 5. Overmanaging has always been his thing. And to "expect" Gray a guy who doesnt even average 6 innings to go 6 innings with Rocco who has pulled him after 4 vs the damn Tigers. Is a wild stretch.

Thats a stetch. Rocco combined with Grays ability to randomly lose control makes 6 far from a lock. Same for Ryan who still isnt fully back to form yet. Lopez absolutely. Only way he doesnt go 6+ is if its a truly bad start.

Cant really disagree with much here Except Wallner is definitely in the lock category.

Shouldnt be much issue getting tickets when they release. Only hold up would be if they do try to force you into buying all 3 through the team, but even if thats the case there are so many secondary markets where its pretty easy to get tickets for a good price(relative to location and "face value" set by the team). Twins and Wolves dont usually run too high. Even vikes premeire games are not too bad. Wild are the toughest

Jax is absolutely addicted to losing games.

Yeah. With better umps/robo umps his eye will get even more walks. But sometimes you gotta swing. He gets so many dead red 3-0 pitches. He could have like 8 more extra base hits if he swung at them sometimes. Patience isnt always about drawing walks or deep counts. Its about getting a hittable pitch. Which he gets almost every time on 3-0/3-1. A lot of our other players have the reverse problem where they swing 1st pitch at a ball or borderline pitch instead of taking and waiting for better. We need guys to combine approaches.

I love his patience and plate discipline But man Julien has to start swinging the bat. Cant always look at 3-0 and 3-1 cookies. And get fooled on 3-2 balls down the middle too.