mikelink45

What does Wes say?

Dream on - https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11971-let39s-trade-who-wants-to-do-it/ when I did this blog I was fascinated by the fact that 2/3 of the teams want pitching. I shouldn't have been, but that is the true market. We can want, but the chance of capturing any of these is slim and none. What we need is to have someone step up. Who is on the 60 man and why isn't Balazovic?

Let's change the headline - ANOTHER bad day...

this is really not exciting. For a team with our aspirations this is junk ball. suddenly we are short on both pitchers and hitters.

Berrios is really disappointing. I personally give him credit for no good games - Pittsburgh? come on. He is not showing any improvement in a year when across the league the pitchers are ahead of the batters. Of course, even if the pitchers are ahead there is no excuse for the BA of Sano and Garver. And as a Rosario supporter/fan I am so disappointed in his fielding gaffs, let alone his hitting. And Rocco - boy is it good that you had such a wonderful year, but remember what happened to Molitor after he got MOY? That's right you got his job. Your idea of saving all the top relievers for ???? and giving us the lesser lights who have suddenly gotten much lesser is not the way to stop a streak. Nor is giving days off to your best hitters when the rest of your team is in a slump. Batting Garver first because you did it last year stunk yesterday. Bringing Berrios back today for the 6th was only good in theory and your batting order left/right alternates was great next year. Rethink it until the team gets back on track. Okay - Dobnak is next and Maeda is two games after him. We need someone to pitch that middle game - who? I do not trust Thorpe nor do I want to see Smeltzer start again. Hill is seemingly over the hill and is on a monthly rotation start. Oddorizzi cannot come back that quick. I am curious.

With Berrios showing up as a #3/4 pitcher we have to rely on Maeda and Dobnak (do we think he can keep this up), Smeltzer and Thorpe flaming out, and suddenly the rotation is no longer a strength.

I too am frustrated. we have so three batters hitting more than 250 and five batters hitting below 200. Why not dip into the St Paul players? Arraez, Kepler, Buxton all look like they are going to be doing well. The rest days, the choice of reliever, the general blah approach after the first Pittsburgh games is disturbing. We do need something to wake up the team. Let me add one more idea that probably has no support elsewhere - at a time when we are having trouble scoring and the hitters are struggling - how about bunching the hot hitters together? TD articles were all about the great schedule we have, but if we allow the "poor teams" to beat us it does not look as favorable.

time to turn things around. I look forward to Odorizzi establishing his claim as the top of the rotation (I hope). I am anxious to see the lineup. Time to put out the best we can.

We have looked bad. No consistency. Solo home runs are nice, but like last night they do not win ballgames by themselves. It is time to try someone besides Cave as fourth OF - Wade, Kiriloff, Larnach? Maybe Garver needs to have a longer rest period, he just looks lost and he needs some work. Can Rooker give Sano a break? Shake things up.

Nice article, but I do not buy into all your conclusions. This is also the year of 60 players available and if we have nagging injuries then bring the next guy in. Keep a healthy team on the field.

I know that Rocco is big on days off, but if Cruz is going to PH is it a day off? Somehow we have to have a way of keeping some of the better bats in the line up every day. We have not lost to Pittsburgh and KC - when the schedule came out those were soft games we should win. But the team is playing lackluster ball. Smeltzer survived, but this is KC. Our bats have been in a collective slump but this is KC and we just finished at Pittsburgh which should have been batting practice for the team. If this is just slumber until the playoffs I can shut them off like I do regular season NBA.

That is why Mike Tice was fired

No it didn't. The biggest take away I had was that most wanted a pitcher. If we were going to offer Thorpe or Smeltzer we would get some interest.

I have lost my enthusiasm for him. He needs to change and I hope he listened to Wes Johnson. He and Smeltzer are both moving down the pitcher list.

Why is Cruz resting tonight? He is a DH - is his bat too heavy? This is a weak looking lineup. I am concerned about the quality of our batters and when they are turning it around. Buxton looks like he is coming around.

My biggest concern is not Lewis, but the fact that it is so hard to come out on top against the Athletics.

I was reading MLB.com’s list - 1 possible Deadline upgrade for every team – and thinking about the Twins. Our trade was for a left handed reliever which I do think is a big item. However here are some intriguing trade options for Rooker, Kiriloff, Larnach since we seem quite set in the OF Needs: Blue Jays – OF Indians – OF – wrong division – sorry Tigers – a bat (wrong division, but they are the Tigers and they like ex-Twins) Athletics – 2B (Lewis?) Mariners – C Rangers – 1B/3B – maybe Rooker Nationals – 1B – Rooker? Brewers – 3B – Blankenhorn? Cardinals – impact bat Cubs – rp – anyone still sorry we did not sign Kimbrel? Pirates – C Giants – C Padres – impact bat These teams would want pitching – not going to trade with them: Orioles Rays left handed rp Yankees – sp Red Sox – sp Royals – sp White Sox – sp Angels – sp Astros – sp Reds - rp Braves – sp Marlins – rp Mets – sp Phillies – rp Diamondbacks – sp Dodgers – sp – sorry no returns Rockies – rp That is the MLB summary. Unless we think we have excess rp we are not in on the second list and I do not think we have a Catcher to give unless it is Telis.

Why wasn't Donaldson put on the IL? Bring in Blankenhorn. Why play short handed?

Thanks for the retrospective. I would like to see Celestino instead of Jake Cave on the current roster. I know that Cave is a vet and we should ignore his terrible stat line (except for the one big homer), but what I like is Celestino's defense and if Buxton goes out again I would like a real CF out there. Alcala looks like a rookie right now. I hope he will pull it together because he has the pitches to succeed.

I loved the Dyson on base activities - not because I wanted the Twins to lose, but I am tired of station to station baseball. I love the stolen base, the hit and run, the active pursuit of runs and the use of speed. We have speed, but we do not utilize it because some stathead said it was bad. So many factors come in to play. Dyson really shook up the Twins - that cannot be measured. I hated that we lost, but boy that was fun.

Some players are so unlucky with injuries. As a person who has had too many replacements and operations from my years backpacking, climbing, skiing, and canoeing I know how frustrating injuries can be. The difficulty for the Twins is that we really do not have an adequate 3B replacement. Marwin is great as a fill in, but he is utility and should not be a regular. Adrianza is even less of a good replacement for extended times. Is it time for Blankenhorn to get a try out? I would. Good luck to Donaldson, I hope he is back soon. For the Twins good luck too. This was a great signing and I would hate to have it backfire and cause them to be more cautious in the future.

I am ready for an infusion - Kiriloff and Rooker? Cave down. Who else?

I had to look at the RP chart and Romo and Rogers have not been over used. i hate it when we blow it with the bad teams. But it started early. Except for one bad pitch was a mantra we used earlier with Berrios. That is what professional pitchers are supposed to avoid.

They all worry me. Today we lost to the Pirates and they are really bad. One or two in a slump we can handle, but this is too many. I am shocked by Arraez and confused by Donaldson. Sano and Buxton have never registered high on my trust meter. Garver was someone I really had high expectations for. We are two games from 1/4 of the season. Keep that in mind. This 60 game or less season is really a challenge.

Not sure why, but Randy Dobnak got me thinking about the odds of ever being a major league player. According to MLB stats there have been 18, 918 to play in the majors since 1871. I do not know if that is accurate – who does? Does it include the Negro leagues? Does it include the female league? No those last two are not included. It does not include the independent or the minor leagues, but even if it did it still represents such a small percentage of the population. There are 328.2 million people in the US according to the census. If all of the players who ever played in MLB were playing now they would still be just 5.7% of the population and we have a game that draws from all over the world. Out of this group 333 are in the hall of fame – 1.8%. It is a demanding game. Only 21 players have gone from drafted to the majors with no stop in the minors. When MLB heartlessly cancelled the minor league season there were 160 teams and towns impacted and about 8000 players. In the majors there are 30 teams and 60 players on their lists 1800 total. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/sports/baseball/minor-league-baseball-season-canceled.html I try to imagine how many players are let go or retire and how many are signed each year. Baseball America https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/how-many-mlb-draftees-make-it-to-the-majors/ says that about 900 players are signed each year. Since they do not create new leagues for them we must also lose 900 a year. Wow – talk about crashed dreams. The same article said, “from 1981-2010, 17.6 percent of players who were drafted and signed ended up making it to the majors.” And “Only 9.8 percent of draftees who signed have managed to register 0.1 career WAR, which is roughly 83 players per season.” What about undrafted players? There will be many more this year with the aborted draft that was held. I cannot find a number for all the undrafted players – of course before the draft everyone was in that category. But I did find this list that includes our own Dan Gladden and HOF pitcher Bruce Sutter and HOF outfielder Larry Walker - https://www.mlb.com/cut4/best-undrafted-players-in-mlb-history-c278967168 plus some more really good players. Which brings me to my final stat – there are 750,000 Uber drivers in the US and we have only one former driver in the big leagues – Randy Dobnak. Think of those odds – 1/750,000 and then 5.7% of the current US population having ever made the majors. Hat’s off to Randy. Enjoy every pitch. The ride might turn into pumpkins eventually, but he is already among the luckiest and most achieving.