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1985Fan

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Everything posted by 1985Fan

  1. 1985Fan
    This would work if dealing from positions of strength or surplus. I don’t think the farm system has a catcher ready to replace Vasquez, unless they think Camargo is ready to step up. I also don’t think there is enough depth in the system to replace Jax., thus creating a hole in the bullpen. If they absolutely have to unload Vasquez salary, they’re going have to attach a prospect and leave the MLB roster intact to be competitive next year. That type of trade is going to hurt, but won’t leave a hole in the roster. The supposed surplus they have now is pitching prospects. To get rid of Vasquez, they’ll probably have to attach one of those prospects. Going to be painful, but that is the reality.
  2. 1985Fan
    Agree with you about Joe Pohlad, He definitely hurt ticket sales and alienated a lot fans. As you say, he is not a good businessman and business manager. He has damaged the brand. I disagree that that is why this team collapsed. The players they have should perform the same regardless of what Joe Pohlad says or does. Rocco and Falvey are responsible for on field performance. Period.
  3. 1985Fan
    First, I did not defend Griffith; I merely pointed out his strength was talent recognition and player development. Also made some very good trades. Player development is a weakness of Falvey and he certainly has missed on more trades than he has hit on. And if you want to look at facts, Twins had very good teams under Griffith until the 70’s. Current management hasn’t achieved the same success. I didn’t say anything about Tampa or Miami? I noted Cleveland and Detroit have lower payrolls and better teams. It’s not all about payroll! That is an excuse for Falvey and Rocco to hide behind along with the annual injuries excuse. I don’t understand why you want to disparage two WS teams. They played the games and beat the teams that they had to beat and won both titles on the field, not in some fantasy simulation. Games are won on the field, not in Rocco’s spreadsheet or Falvey stats room. You can keep buying into this management, but results are what matter. The collapse is a real event that is Falvey and Rocco’ responsibility. Period. Who buys tickets because of perceived advances by the organization?! I watch the team on the field, and they were horrible.
  4. 1985Fan
    The Pohlad family owned the Twins and won two WS. It was because of player development, a good manager that kept the team focused on fundamentals, and some very savvy trades. It was exciting baseball to watch. I don’t like the Pohlads style, especially the new kid that seems clueless. But the payroll is not the reason this team doesn’t win championships. Cleveland and Detroit have smaller payrolls. They play fundamentally sound baseball and execute. It’s that simple. Falvey and Rocco are responsible for performance of the team, not Joe Pohlad. I lived through Calvin Griffith and as hated as he was, he drafted and developed most of the players that went on to win 87 WS. Blaming the owners is another way for Falvey and Rocco to escape responsibility.
  5. 1985Fan
    I attribute the 2019 season to two main factors; the juiced ball, and clubhouse leadership. Cruz was the leader of that group. He was the one players went to and looked up to. I don’t think the players listen to Baldelli then or now.
  6. 1985Fan
    Don’t like his style of play and I don’t think it wins in the long run. Watching other teams in action against the Twins is a good reference. I see the “old school” managers that use more of their instincts and baseball knowledge than just stats doing pretty well. Every year we fans hear the injuries excuse. I guess we need to hope for zero injuries every year. Good luck with these players getting through a season without injury. They fired the old trainer, but that didn’t change anything. Keeping my fingers crossed that changing the hitting coaches will improve the terrible hitting.
  7. 1985Fan
    The coaching of Merrill seems to indicate the biggest difference between Twins and Padres. Players need to be confident to be successful in MLB. It’s very difficult to learn how to play at the MLB and do it good enough to gain confidence. Merrill’s success this year points to good coaching and management AND veteran leadership inside the clubhouse he could lean on. Twins didn’t have good coaching or management. Maybe new coaches will change that, but Rocco’s management will probably stay the same. Player development in the Twins MiLB system is also lacking. Lewis, Miranda, Julien, and even Lee at times looked bad on defense. Twins as a whole are poor fundamentally.. Minor league staff need to be accountable for producing fundamentally sound players, not judged on time through the system. I think what hurts players is their emphasis on position flexibility vs. defense excellence. It hurts young players to try to play multiple positions before you learn how to play one really well. Maybe give Correa and Buxton a pass this year on veteran leadership failure. They weren’t in the clubhouse most of the year. But their playing time probably won’t improve much next year, so maybe the need is to bring in veterans with leadership ability. Farmer couldn’t be that guy this year while he was going through his terrible slump.
  8. 1985Fan
    The hitting coach and manager should be responsible for the approach and philosophy. When the philosophy is to hit the ball into the seats, that only works consistently against bad pitching. When facing a good pitcher, there will be fewer mistakes to hit into the seats. Some very good hitters can hit good pitches into the seats, but I don’t see that type of hitter on the Twins roster right now. To be consistent, adjusting the thinking or approach would be required. Don’t try to pull the ball, hit up the middle, or hit it where they’re pitching you. I did not see many, if any, of the Twins hitters adjust accordingly during the collapse. Opposing pitchers kept exploiting their weakness and the collective slumps continued.
  9. 1985Fan
    I can understand and tolerate player limitations due to limited talent. There is no excuse for mental errors, poor defense, and poor AB’s. When it happens continuously, that is on the manager. This team showed poor fundamentals all year, and their poor record against good teams was due to this. Can’t beat good teams when giving them extra outs, giving away AB’s, and mistakes on the bases. I saw too many 1-3 pitch AB’s with runners in scoring position to show that is the norm for the team and not an exception. I saw Castro come to the plate in a critical situation with his protective pads on the wrong arm and leg to know that this team was not mentally focused. It’s the managers job to have the team prepared to play each game and opponent. I watched a majority of their games and they were not fully prepared. It was hey go up their and hack and hope you get ahold of one for the big three run home run. They don’t have the sluggers that can consistently hit three home runs to win enough games, but that did not change their approach. Not taking the extra base, poor base stealing (near the bottom of the league), and poor defense leads to the poor play. Hard to watch. I expect more of the same next year because it’s obvious this manager is given the green light to continue as is. Just a pathetic response from ownership and FO to come out so quickly with no changes, instead of doing a complete review of the season. How is that a response from an analytically driven organization? Doesn’t inspire fan confidence. Expect attendance to continue to decline. I fear this organization is on serious decline with bad things on the horizon.
  10. 1985Fan
    I’m most impressed with his improvement over last year and his confidence on the mound. He’s not afraid of any team or players, seems like he has a body built for endurance, and has the mentality to be effective. I hope he is able to build on this years success and look forward to watching him next year!
  11. 1985Fan
    Bad baseball played by the Twins. Terrible hitting, as usual. Bases loaded and less than two outs in extra innings and they couldn’t get a run in. How does Jeffers drop the throw from Correa for the force at home to let the fourth run score?! Game shouldn’t have went to extras if he catches the ball. Miami tried to give them the game by striking out 20 times and their usual bad defense. Fitting end to the season to lose a series at home to a 100 loss team!
  12. 1985Fan
    They’re lucky that Miami had four errors to allow the offense to get rolling. Hopefully, this is what gets their confidence back to score some runs in the next four games. Hope the BP is ready for tomorrow’s game. Festa needs to get into the 5th inning or the BP is going to have to rely on Tonkin, Blewett, and Thielbar. All hands on deck.
  13. 1985Fan
    Career numbers aside, he is unplayable in his current status. His glove has cost games and he does nothing, other than strike out, at the plate. They can keep him at AAA if they have room after protecting other prospects. He will have to make drastic improvements to be considered for the MLB roster, and I don’t see his glove as good enough to play anywhere in the field. Maybe he can improve his trade value so he can garner something in return. I doubt it.
  14. 1985Fan
    Rocco’s inability to understand when to sit players and when to ride the hot hand is incredible. You’re correct, the only guys hitting right now are Correa and Buxton. I would throw Wallner in one of the top three spots as well, even though he has only a handful of AB’s against lefties. Stats be damned at this point. Farmer has hit well lately, so he might fit in the top three or four. Other than those guys, everyone else is in a slump. And that’s the problem with this coaching staff. Their job is to maximize the talent they are given. The opposite happens with this team and this isn’t the first team wide slump we’ve seen. New coaching staff is needed.
  15. 1985Fan
    Game was over in the second inning and you could see it. Twins can’t hit and they especially can’t hit when they’re behind, They do not exude confidence, and that is what’s killing this team. Everyone is waiting for the shoe to drop, tightening up to try not to be the one to lose the game, Then they collectively go ahead and lose the game. Manager and team leaders need to loosen this team up, remind them to have fun and let their talent win games. But they don’t have that kind of manager and team leaders.
  16. 1985Fan
    One point to consider with the current pitching staff is that short starts force 4-5 guys out of the BP to be near perfect. That’s not going to happen with this bullpen. Other than Cleveland’s BP, it’s not realistic to expect perfection every night. This means that the SP needs to go longer than 4 innings to reduce the number of arms needed each game. Most everyone can see that except Rocco. The argument that you can’t trust the young starters to go more innings is Mott when you look at the BP results lately. Maybe if Rocco leaves Matthews in for one more out, he gets the job done and damage avoided.
  17. 1985Fan
    I agree we disagree. If it was one or two players in a slump, those are exceptions. When it’s the entire team with only one or two exceptions, that’s on the manager and hitting coaches. What is their job? To get the most out of the players. Pitching coach is doing his job. This is not the first time the entire team is in a complete hitting funk. This is a repeat of last season and at times, this season. Manager has ultimate responsibility for coaching staff and players. That’s his job.
  18. 1985Fan
    Varland pitched 1.1 shut out innings to hold the tie in late innings on Friday. Blewett followed with a shut-down inning to get the win. Rocco doesn’t go to guys that aren’t on his pre-printed spreadsheet. He needs to defend the decision to go to Irwin when other arms were available. He won’t have to because the local beat guys don’t ask tough questions. Even worse, he sent Irwin out for the next inning, which added to the carnage. Rocco and the hitting coach are to blame for every hitter on the team going into a slump at the same time. What are they doing to prep for games during BP? Add in his BP mismanagement and all the other questionable in game decisions and you have a complete team collapse.
  19. 1985Fan
    As I’ve said before, this team can’t hit. They pile up stats and wins against the sub .500 teams and when they play a team with decent or good pitching, the hitters don’t know what to do. Today’s pitching implosion is just another step in the complete collapse. When this team gets behind, everyone from pitcher to hitters loses confidence and the game is over. Everything goes bad at the same time from defense to hitting and everything in between. I’ll hold out hope that they can start a win streak and that today was bottom. That’s because I’m a (idiot) fan and I’ve been watching and cheering them on all year, so a few more games can’t be much worse.
  20. 1985Fan
    I agree that Twins needed BP additions. But I disagree that they should have spent prospect capital at the deadline. They should have added during the off season when prices were cheaper (my assumption), not at the deadline. With this FO history of BP trades, giving up significant prospects for relief pitching would be a problem. I think it’s better they didn’t mortgage the future on this team that can’t hit and has a manager and hitting coach that do nothing to help. If they had spent to add Scott and/or other arms, that wouldn’t have done anything to improve this offense.
  21. 1985Fan
    Agree 100%! Molitor made a comment during one of the extra inning games after an AB that the hitters were expecting FB when ahead in the count. He said that after 2-3 AB’s facing the pitcher, hitter should know the pattern is breaking ball or off speed, not FB. Really critical comment on the coaching staff and the players. Cleveland did not crush the ball against the Twins. But they were much more aggressive stealing bases to get in scoring position, putting the ball in play, and putting pressure on the defense. During the recent team slump, they have reverted to the station to station, wait for the three run home run philosophy that was a failure first half of last year. It looks like they’re back to trying to pull everything instead of hitting the pitch the other way and making contact. I blame the manager for not bunting more, calling for a steal, or even hit and run to try jump starting a morbid offense.
  22. 1985Fan
    It’s not so obvious that the BP is the problem for this team. This BP did a fantastic job during the Cleveland series and last night in Boston. Are they perfect? No! Could they better? Yes! If Rocco used his BP a little better, the two arms he has might be a little more fresh. Last night he used Blewett in a late inning tie game because he had to. Blewett pitched great. Rocco has let him and Tonkin sit in the BP during all of these extra inning games while wearing everyone else out. Blame the BP for all of the recent poor play, but it’s the offense that has failed. Every hitter on this team has had chance after chance to drive in runs in critical situations but has failed. Jeffers, Lee, Santana, and many others have stopped hitting. Some of that you can attribute to the pitching they’re facing. If you want to be a championship team, you have to hit good pitching. Expecting the pitching staff to hold opponents scoreless every game is not realistic.
  23. 1985Fan
    No. They’ll not afford the money Santana will require. Have to go internal options. For the record, Miranda is not a good first basemen, so moving his problematic defense from 3rd to 1B is not realistic. They’re going to have to start emphasizing defense to help out the pitching staff, instead of penalizing them. I don’t know if Severino is a good glove at 1B, I’ve read/heard his defense is not good. Another player they’ve moved around the infield with flexibility as a priority instead of defensive competence or excellence. I’d vote for a trade to get a 1B with a good bat and glove.
  24. 1985Fan
    If you look at stats the Twins are a better offensive team than Cleveland. They are better as a team in hits, runs, RBI, even home runs. Stats are deceiving, even in baseball. I believe the stats are misleading because Twins numbers are padded against poor/lowly teams. I’ve watched most of the Twins games or listened on the radio. I believe the Twins lack confidence in their abilities, the attitude that you are the better player and team. That is what counts in critical situations vs. hoping you get the job done and escape with a win. The attitude and confidence comes from leadership. Rocco does not help confidence with a constantly changing lineup, pinch hitting in the middle innings, playing utility players instead of good defensive players, and pulling pitchers that are going well. He’s all about stats instead of managing and leading people. With the bad defense and poor offense, the pitching needs to be almost perfect to get wins. Perfect is not going to happen every game.
  25. 1985Fan
    I’m really disappointed in hearing about “this team is exhausted” excuse. If they have players that can’t play 80-90 percent of the games, then why are they signing those players?! Is Detroit or Seattle complaining of exhaustion? If you train to play 162 games, why are you complaining about exhaustion at 140 games? What the heck is this team doing during the offseason and spring training. I’ve followed the Twins for many years and I’ve never heard this drivel coming from this manager and FO. If you can’t get motivated to play for the playoffs, then what is the point? Seems like these guys are covering for their expected failure to reach the playoffs already. With that mentality, this team has no chance to make the playoffs. That is on Rocco.
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