CoachDW

Those top five picks indeed ended up being pretty underwhelming, as were most picks in the first two rounds of that 2017 draft. There were some intriguing players picked later in the first round of the draft, including Jo Adell (10), Jake Burger (11), Shane Baz (12), Trevor Rogers (13), Clarke Schmidt (16), Heliot Ramos (19), Tanner Houck (24), and Drew Rasmussen (31). The Twins used a first-round compensation pick to select Brent Rooker (35). Some good major league players on the list, some All-Stars (including Rooker, but alas, not with the Twins), but no real superstars. The second round included Luis Campusano (39), Griffin Canning (47), Gavin Sheets (49), MJ Melendez (52), Mark Vientos (59) and Daulton Varsho (68). Any of those would have been much better draft choices than who the Twins took with the very first pick of the second round - high school righthander Landon Leach (37). Ouch. All in all, 2017 was a pretty slim draft, but the Twins could have had better than what they ended up with over those first two rounds.

Kody Clemens challenge on the FIRST PITCH of his at bat was just stupid. Nobody was on base at the time and only would have reversed an 0-1 count to 1-0. It left the Twins out of challenges that they could have used later. What if the home plate umpire had called the last pitch a ball? The Twins couldn’t have challenged. Players have to know the game situation before mindlessly making a challenge on a pitch that has no major bearing on the game as a whole. That Clemen’s boneheaded challenge could have been a killer, and for really a minuscule advantage. That can’t happen again.

Hey Matt, I loved your Kennedy joke...made even better with the line about costing the author "thousands of dollars in tuition." Very nicely done. It's not even June, and the Twins have already set a franchise record with ten different pitchers earning a save. "Closer by Committee" has become more common in recent years all across baseball, but the Twins, either through desperation or dumb luck (likely both) have seemingly perfected it. The 2021 Tampa Bay Rays and 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers, who both won their divisions and made the post-season, had 14 different pitchers garner saves and the Arizona Diamondbacks set the record last year when they had 15 guys post saves. With the way the Twins bullpen fluctuates from week to week, with new guys being brought up from the minors and veterans being added endlessly via the waiver wire, the Twins have the opportunity to shatter the all-time record -- maybe by the All-Star break. It's easy to see that Brooks Lee, with his limited lateral range, is much more suited for 3B than SS. I think that Luke Keaschall has made defensive progress at 2B from where he was last year, and I think letting him play there everyday instead of moving him around into the outfield has helped with that. Keep playing him at 2B day after day, and with his athleticism, I think he will become very proficient there. We all need to remember that he didn't play a ton of 2B in the minors as the Twins were moving him around from 3B, 1B, and the outfield over the past few years, and he only played 41 games there last season in the majors due to injury. Pencil him in at 2B everyday, live with the growing pains, and you will have a very good defender before too long.

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**Voting closes Friday, April 8.** Did you mean to write Friday, May 8th?

Once a team uses up their two challenges, the umpire can then go back to “their” zone in calling pitches, knowing that their calls can’t be challenged. Hunter is an old-school umpire, used to calling pitches an inch or two off the plate strikes, which doesn’t conform to the ABS system. Once the challenges are gone he can revert back to calling those pitches strikes with impunity. Eventually we will get to a system where as soon as the pitch crosses the plate, “ball” or “strike” will be announced immediately over the public address system for all to hear and the ABS pitch location is shown simultaneously on the scoreboard for all to see. No need to ever challenge balls or strikes again.

It's hard not to go with the Bomba Squad and their 101 wins as the most successful of the Falvey era. If not for several questionable pitching decisions by rookie manager Rocco Baldelli in the playoff sweep by the Yankees in the ALDS, it might have turned out much differently. The Twins won the AL Central by 8 games and Baldelli had ample opportunity to line up his pitching heading into the ALDS against the Bronx Bombers. Jose Berrios got the start in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium and pitched pretty well, throwing 4 innings with one earned run and six strikeouts, exiting after 88 pitches in a 3-3 tied ballgame. Baldelli then made one of quite a few head-scratching decisions he would make with his pitching staff in this series, going to rookie Zach Littell instead of a more veteran arm. Yankee Stadium in the playoffs was an intimidating stage, and Littell was understandably rattled, walking Aaron Judge, throwing a wild pitch, and then plunking Brett Gardner before exiting after only 8 pitches. Tyler Duffey, who led the Twins bullpen that year with a 182 ERA+, inherited the mess and struck out the side, but not before giving up a 2-run double to Gleyber Torres that put the Yankees up 5-3. Miguel Sano led off the top of the 6th with a homer to cut the deficit to 5-4, but instead of keeping Duffey in the game or going to another veteran reliever, Rocco mysteriously went to another rookie, Cody Stashak, to pitch the bottom of the 6th. Two solo homeruns later, the Twins were trailing 7-4. In the bottom of the 7th with the game still in the balance, Rocco decided to go with Kyle Gibson, who had started 29 games during the season and had appeared as a reliever sparingly during his career. After three walks, a bases-clearing double by D.J. LeMahieu gave the Yanks a 10-4 lead and effectively ended the game. Two rookies and a starter pitched with the game on the line while relievers Trevor May, Sergio Romo, and Taylor Rogers were left in the bullpen. Then Rocco questionably decided to start rookie Randy Dobnak in Game 2. Dobnak had pitched only 9 games all season (5 as a starter, 4 as a reliever). Dobnak gave up 6 hits, two walks and four earned runs in just 2+ innings and it was 8-0 Yankees after two innings in a game the Twins lost 8-2. Trevor May threw one pitch in this game and Sergio Romo only 2/3 of an inning, both after the game was well out of reach. Rocco finally pitched his veterans in the do-or-die third game, starting Jake Odorizzi and then bringing in Taylor Rogers (finally an appearance by the 30-save reliever), Romo, and May but the Twins lost 5-1 to end the series. It could be argued that the Twins just didn't have the overall pitching depth to defeat New York in the 2019 ALDS (and if so, that's on Falvey), but the decisions Rocco made with his hurlers during the three games were undisputedly odd. Rocco managed these contests like they were spring training games rather than a playoff series and it was a definite head-scratcher.

FINALLY! Both Falvey and Baldelli should have been fired after the epic collapse down the stretch in 2024; not doing so was a big mistake. When Baldelli was ousted last October, Falvey should have been shown the door as well. The Twins have totally wasted this entire off-season, and the timing of this move is very strange, coming just a few weeks before pitchers and catchers report - but better late than never.

Are Minnesota Twins Planning to Enter the 2026 Season With Edouard Julien as the Backup First Baseman? The real question should be: Are the Minnesota Twins seriously considering entering the 2026 season with Kody Clemens as the primary first baseman? Having a 30-year old who hit .213 last year with an OB% of .281 and an OPS+ of 94 as the guy to be your starting first sacker is a total recipe for disaster. With regular playing time, Julien could put up those numbers. Any low-level free agent the Twins could sign for 1B would probably be more of the same. 2026 will no doubt be a lost season, so I guess rolling with that is probably okay with the Twins brass. However, I would like to see them make a move to acquire a young player with upside who could potentially anchor the position for the next five or six years (someone like Coby Mayo of the Orioles comes to mind). The Twins have gotten decent production from the string of stop-gap veterans that they have signed to play 1B (Solano, Santana, France) but this is the year to make a move to get a younger, long-term solution there who will be in their prime when the Twins are ready to contend again.

One of Stu’s best. I hear that the Ty France-Instine jersey is going like hotcakes.

Whether his managerial moves were largely dictated by Derek Falvey or not, to declare that Rocco Baldelli was not at least a PART of the problem with the Minnesota Twins is just incomprehensible. He was simply a very poor in-game major league manager who should have been fired after the 2024 fiasco. That Derek Falvey brought him back at all (and then extended his contract) shows just how truly inept Falvey is at his job. Falvey needs to follow Rocco out the door, and the sooner the better.

Joe Pohlad: "At some point you gotta look at yourself and be like, ‘You know what? We’ve gotta try something different.'" So, why is Derek Falvey still in charge then? You can change the manager, but chances are he will do the same thing Rocco did, which apparently was to employ in-game strategy that Derek Falvey wanted, using the players that Derek Falvey provided. Hey Joe, you wanna try something different? Get rid of the architect of this mess, Derek Falvey!

Post trade deadline, it was reported that Jace Tingler told Rocco to unleash the running game, it apparently wasn't Rocco's idea. I imagine Tingler will be gone with Rocco, but having the Twins take chances on the bases and run at every opportunity was fun. I can only hope that the new manager keeps this style of baseball, and does away with the "always do the contact play" no matter what runner is on third base, and the "play the infield in in the first or second inning" insanity that led to multiple opponent's crooked numbers on the scoreboard numerous times over the past few years. Please, give up the run early in the game for a chance to turn two and avoid the big inning once in a while! If this changes, then we will know that the new manager is turning the team in a different direction, and if it doesn't, then we know that the manager is just doing what the front office commands off of the spreadsheet, which is what I think Rocco has been doing since taking over for Paul Molitor. Rocco was never going to change, maybe somebody new will make Twins baseball exciting again. We can only hope...

Rocco's out as manager for 2026. FINALLY!

Rocco's out as manager for 2026. FINALLY! HALLELUJAH!