JADBP

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!

The Twins just CAN NOT afford to waste a precious roster spot on a guy batting 0.000! It’s insane. Everyone else is playing with a 26-man team and we have a 25-man team! Really???? There is no scenario where this makes sense. i’d like the Twins to bring up Emma but just about anyone else would do just fine. With a Rookie, you know they are going to immediately slump against MLB pitching but you might as well get that started. It’s an adjustment (that Outman has not made).

A beautiful ant-bat. Way to go, ANTS!

WOAH! I missed that....Bradley tossed 100 pitches?!?!???! In his second outing? Come on, really? Are they intentionally trying to blow out his arm?

Its the old Fedex ad: its absolutely, positively has to be....time to move Wallner. If we look at his start to the year, there is no way that he can continue on this trajectory. He is striking out at a 45% rate. Even Sano was 37%. I know it is a small sampling, but 5 K's in one game? Come on...how long can the Twins put up with this? He is one-dimensional...occasional power. Everything else is [well] below average: running, hitting, fielding, He has a very strong arm, so you can say he has two tools, but if he can't get to the ball or throws it to the wrong base, what good does it do? He Push him to AAA and see if he can start hitting. He needs to take a lot more batting practice and I don't think he can accomplish this on the MLB team (without robbing other's of their practice time). Bringing up Emma might indeed Wally Pipp him. But that's Wallner's fault, not Emma's. Remember, Wally Pipp was not a bad player--just the opposite! He was considered the best NYY hitter before Babe Ruth joined the team. He hit over 100 RBI in 3 out of 4 years before he was replaced. It was never that he was a bad player, he was simply replaced with a far better player. Twins need to learn from history! Wallner will never be an Ortiz. Time to let go.

No not embarrassing, just losing. It’s gonna be a long season. Twins approach seems to be just cycle through every possible “free” RP and hope one catches fire. It’s unlikely to happen. But the problem is that the Twins don’t need one RP to catch fire, they need 4-5 to do so!!!! Meanwhile, good job Taj!!

Yeah I put the twins clearly under 70 wins this season. But, not because the team in the field today underperforms—but rather because they will have to bring up all the kids and trade Ryan + others exactly because the team on the field today is soooo bad! This “competitive” team will likely end up in the bottom. 2-3 teams in September. I understand the optimism but then reality smacks you in the face. I wonder how long it will take for TP to figure out that fans would rather watch Jenkins and Emma struggle and learn than Larnach and Wallner striking out?!?!?

Again: it will take 3-4 years to work through the messes that Falvey and Rocco have baked into this team. First, bad drafting. Second, some horrible trades. Third, some even worse non-trades! Just bad roster-planning and -building all around. I agree, Falvey did make some excellent trades (Ryan, Lopez) but that just doesn't overcome so many bad trades. While I love Joe Ryan, I highly doubt that he will resign with the Twins, so we may have missed an outstanding opportunity to trade him last deadline or offseason. The Red Sox offered two of their top three prospects, Payton Tolle, Jhostynxon Garcia, or Franklin Arias (all top 100 MLB prospects) in any combination. Apparently, Falvey asked for even more. This is the Twins problem: the roster is a mess because Falvey built this mess. The skills have not matured at the MLB level because Rocco did a poor job of coaching (except for perhaps pitchers--many of them arriving via trades (Lopez, Ryan, etc). Now the next wave is sitting in StP, but the Twins remain committed to proving that this mess will be "competitive." Maybe it is an ego/pride thing....they don't want to look like they made a bunch of bad decisions over the last several years....but THEY DID. The best thing they can do now is capitalize on the talent that is going to replace some of this mess, and as quickly as possible! Next time, bite on the Ryan trade! Unless he is willign to resign for a 3-5 year contract, let him go sooner rather than later so you can get a haul. Get rid of all of these AAAA or one-dimensional players, like Larnach, Outman, Wallner and Ober. Trade them out. And start bringing up Emma, Prielipp, Culpepper, and Jenkins. Make a plan to get MLB reps for additional players like Raya, Gonazles, and Rojas. The Twins don't need a teardown. They need to face REALITY! Wallner might hit 20-30 HR but he will cost 10 runs in RF and will K more than anyone else on the team. Is he worth getting play over Emma? No chance. Who would you rather have in LF: Larnach or Jenkins/Emma? Start making smart decisions, instead of hoping that this team of misfits suddenly purrs like a NASCAR engine--its never gonna happen, so ......??????

Not that long ago....Eddie Rosario hit 109 RBI in 2019. Cruz hit 108 in the same year. Before that, it was Josh Willingham with 110 RBI in 2012 and Delmon Young 110 in 2010. Now, if you are looking for someone that the Twins drafted, developed, and played for the Twins to hit 100 RBI, its Rosario, then Morneau who hit 129 in 2008, 130 in 2006 and 100 in 2009. Kubel hit 103 in 2009. So, yeah, it has been a very long time since the Twins drafted a player who hit 100 RBI in a Twins uniform. Honorable mention: Polanco came very close (98) in 2021 and Dozier hit 99 in 2016.

If this team can't rely on their one single star, Buxton, then they have zero chance of competing. Buxton overrunning 2B? I can't recall ever seeing that before. Buxton striking out in the 8th inning, down two, with the bases load? That was ridiculous. It was a fastball in his wheelhouse. So, yeah, and if Ober keeps this up, he is gone. And, unfortunately, I think he will. For some unexplainable reason, he has completely lost what little velocity he had. He has never hit 95 mph, ever. It's gonna be hard relying completely on twisty pitches. Its gonna be a loooong season.! Oh, one more thing...don't get too excited about the SP's in KC. At least one and maybe two games will be rained out.