JADBP

Santana the phenom of phenoms! Blyleven—the Eveready Battery! I thought he was going to retire then zoom zoom another five years on the mound. And so much fun! 17Ks maybe some future phenom can get there but you need Skenes talent and a willing mgr today

The greatest international player ever signed by the Twins (and also my favorite Twin ever!) was the immensely skilled, fabulously talented, and super great guy, MR. Tony Oliva. I don't think we ever had a more gracious Gentleman on the team. In 1964, he was ROY and lead ALL of MLB in hits, runs, AND batting AVG along with being a great fielder, leading all of MLB in putouts. He came in 4th in MVP voting in 64 and runner up 3 times more. 17-time All Star. Just sayin..,.. So, We can find remarkable talent in the international free agent pool. I could never figure out why the Twins never played in the deep end of the pool, where the better talents are lingering...especially when we had such large international free agent bonus pool ($7.3 million this year). Maybe this is just another example of the Pohlads being cheap? They are afraid of spending money--so much so that they traded int'l bonus pool $$$ for a player (Banda) earlier this year! Whew!

Agreed. Cherry picking stats. Compare the first few columns of data-Wallner isn’t even close! Especially look at number of games, RBI. so if we want to send Wallner to AAA to get his hitting back up to par, then why not bring up Emma to play RF full time—his hitting IS up to par!!!!

LOL, yeah, he SURE DID!

Man oh man...I am sorry to say but he was not even close to the 7th best outfielder...maybe the 7th worst! He was dismal at driving in runs, the ideal goal for a power hitter...with 118 runs over those 3 years. Top outfielders like Judge and Soto hit drive in nearly that man runs in one season, not 3! Over three years, Judge: 333 RBI! Wallner's best year, subjectively, was 2024, where he hit 13 HR, but struck out 95 times. Ouch. Not a good year. OK, how about 2025? 40 RBI, 114K's. He is a strikeout machine! Looking at Statmuse, I can't even get down to Wallner's level-his stats are so bad. They only show the top 25 outfielders in any season. So, here's a good question...WHAT the heck happened to Wallner? He looking like he was starting to ascend in 2024 and I know he was injured, but what to his hitting? Starting some time in late 2024, his batting AVG just went into the tank and his K's went throug the roof! He is currently hitting at a rate of around 283 K's for the year (the record for most K's in a year is 223!). He's sitting at #2 right now with 34 (James Wood, who had 221 K's last year, is in first with 36 Ks).

LOL....I am confused to all heck! I am a fan on this site and for the life of me, I was not exacerbated when Larnach was tendered last fall. But, yeah, he is the one that has some actual trade value. As for Wallner...did you mean to say that Wallner's best is not as good as Larnach's worst? Yeah...OK...if we weren't carrying dead weight OUTman, then yeah, Wallner would look stupid being the worst hitter on the team. But that's not all...because he is also a poor RF'er and not at all fast. I hope he finds a fine future in MLB, probably as a DH, with SOME OTHER team!

I can't wait for the 10 games to be over and Wallner is swapped with Emma.

Geez, I'd take Max over Wallner ANY DAY!

I cast all 15 of my votes for Wallner!!!

You guys may disagree, but this was the problem with Falvey/Rocco. Why does this team keep repeating failed attempts with players (Manual Margot going 0 for 30)? How many times do you need to hit yourself on the head with a hammer to prove that it really does hurt? This team holds on to one-dimensional (one-skilled) players like Outman and Wallner, letting them flail away day after day. Its inane. I was hopeful that the "this team will be competitive" mantra and new management might have changed this repetitive failing. Outman and Wallner do not make the team more competitive--they make it LESS competitive.

What happened is that he is now in the Dodgers system where they do a far better job of bringing out players talent and teaching MLB skills!!!

Arguing over Outman vs Kreidler vs. Lee vs. Larnach/Wallner/whoever is just a waste of energy. The argument is when do you bring up the next outfield in AAA? We all know it is enormously challenging to jump from AAA to MLB and we expect Emma/Jenkins/Gonzo/C-pepper to stumble when they show up. But I would MUCH RATHER pay to watch our them than watch any of Outman/Kreidler/Lee and most especially Wallner. At some point Zoll has to grow up and know that he is now running the show, not Falvey. He needs to put his big boy pants on and make his own decisions, not repeat the same crap that Falvey did. He needs to learn that some players just are not gonna succeed in MLB, no matter where they were drafted. He has to let them go (Outman, Wallner, etc) or send them down for retraining (Lee, maybe Lewis?). He has to be able to let go. Every once in a while he will lose a Brent Rooker or Spencer Steer, but that should not stop him from moving on from some players. If Rooker has a good career elsewhere, so be it. You tried. I'm OK giving Lewis and Lee types more time (and maybe some specialized AAA time), but it the Wallner, Outman, Kreidler, group needs to be gone. They are doing more harm than good to the current and the future team.

Whoops...you missed one! 3B Gray throwing up his hands saying "Throw it to me!" It looked like Martin was going to throw it home, to cut off the run, but he's trained to throw it to the guy with his arms up...which he did. Martin should have thrown it home, which he might have if instead Gray just points to home. While Martin is not the strongest thrower, he can certainly make it home from shallow LF. I'd add that in as another fielding error on the part of Gray. I agree that Lee should have picked up the ball. He was close--steps away--and Martin still 30-40 ft away. Good thing Martin is fast! But, it was Lee's job to back up the bobble by Gray, and he was 5 ft away versus Martin. Look at these pictures...Lee is 2-3 steps away (although the ball is rolling away from him) while Martin is what 30-40 ft away? That was Lee's ball! I disagree that "LF was charging in..." Yeah, he WAS, but Lee was far closer to the ball. If Lee goes gets that ball, he freezes the runner at 3B. S0, I have an 3B flubbed the catch. E on Lee for not backing him up (I have no idea what Lee contributed to the play--he was a spectator! Maybe an E on LF for muffing the catch, but NOT on his throw, he followed his training and threw it to the guy with his arms up. And, yeah, another E on Gray for throwing his arms up and/or not throwing it home (but by that time, I don't think he could have caught the runner. It was too late. He should have just stood there and pointed to home plate.

This game, even with all the errors and pitching mistakes, I put on the back on Shelton. I agree...putting Morris back out there to pitch the 9th inning was INANE! Shelton said in this postgame interview that the BP was a little beat up...but he still had Acton who had to come in anyways to rescue Morris. Morris is brand new to the biggs and you put him in as the closer in a tight game against a tough team. What the H was Shelton thinking?

We are never going to be a consistently competitive team until we clean up the roster. The frustrating part is that several of the answers seem to be ready to go in StP. Here is my anxiety: we are going to lose so many of these games already. So why keep throwing the likes of Larnach, Lee, Topa, Wallner (especially Wallner!) and Fubderberk out there just to lose and lose again? Wallner is who he is and jamming him out there a gazillion times is not going to suddenly make him a .275 hitter with 35 HRs. He is never-ever gone be that guy. So swap out Wallner for Emma. Topa for Prielipp. Lee for Culpepper. Give them a chance and let guys like Wallner refind their groove in AAA. Here is my question: would you rather [pay to] watch the team we have or the rookies?

It was time to replace him about 15 months ago!!!

I agree the K-1 pass through makes sense and is a great, and legal, way to share P&L’s across entities. I suspect the Pohlads did this for tax reasons but applied loans only to the Twins—thereby reducing their tax liabilities without burdening their other entities But then how do they untangle this for investors? I am sure they would want their share of profits? Maybe the investors invested just to profit in a future team sale, but then I would expect they would take a substantial hit in equity. Less equity for their $$. And the Pohlads were able to reduce a lot of debt without burdening their someone else’s money—again without affecting their other entities.

Right. Why can’t the Twins Le go of non-performing players?????

REALLY? Do you think there was any scenario where Tom was not directly involved with Falvey leaving? It was so obvious that the value of the Twins has gone backwards over the last few years (running up $500 million in debt!). There was no way on this big Earth that Tom was not going to push out Falvey. He just did it in a professional, respectful way, letting Falvey "resign."

UNTENABLE....Just the perfect word there! There are so many players that can hit better than 0.000! Even worse than untenable, he has hit exactly 0.000 with 10 runners in scoring position. The sad part of letting Outman flail at the plate is that you are damaging his psyche and degrading his skills. He needs a reset. He needs to escape the pressure of MLB. Based on his history, I don't think he is suddenly going to get 5 hits in the next 10 AB. Zoll needs to understand that he has to let go of the bad trade. Its done and you can't fix it. Move on. And, don't worry that he is out of options, NO ONE is going to claim an untenable hitter batting 0.000.

Yeah but 100% of them (except for the C) are batting over 0.000!!! That’s my point. We can’t get any worse than Outman. Keeping a 0.000 batter on the team is just insanity. And it is actually bad for Outman too! Send him down and let him reset. I highly doubt that anyone will claim him.

ANYTHING TO GET RID OF OUTMAN! Talk about statues....isn't that Outman at the plate? Batting 0.000. I think absolutely anyone currently on the Saints team can do better than that. The floor couldn't be any lower, Outman is in the sub-sub-super-basement! I hate to say it (again), but we cannot afford to keep a 0.000 hitter on the team, NO MATTER how good he might be in the field. I'd get Emma some reps in the biggs, or Fedko, or Gonza, Culpepper, Roden, Arcia.....anyone. I know it is damn hard to hit a baseball, but I am sure we can find someone who can hit better than 0.000 and contribute somewhere for the team.

I guess we are all rooting for Flora...because I am sure Joe's daughter would be over the moon! It would not be a bad pick either. He's currently sitting at 6-0, with a 0.63 ERA over 9 games. Flora is currently doing better than Skenes in his last year of college.......Skenes had a 1.69 ERA over 19 games. I have changed my vote...going for Flora!

No, I disagree. We have plenty of fast runners. Swap Out Outman with Emma. You will still have a fast runner, who can field, has a strong arm and HIT! Or Cullpepper or ANYONE that can hit!

If the Pirates can fire Shelton on May 8th last year, then we can surely let go of the 26th man who provides very little value to the team. We have other players who can run fast. Bring up Emma already! He can run, throw, catch and HEY, he can HIT!