mikelink45

I will be checking in on TD all fall and winter and again next season. I am hooked on baseball and this site is a positive part of each morning. The team will be different net year if nothing else the free agents that leave will change the make up of the team and the way the minor leaguers bang on the door will impact the team too. Somehow the FA and trade market is always more talk than action so if they actually make a big move I will be pleasantly shocked. Trying to figure out the rotation is a real puzzle - and I would not resign Pineda - get better, don't repeat what did not work. Berrios, Graterol,??? is my rotation going forward.

Michael Powell wrote - "There was a mellow quality to conversations with the Twins after their postseason finale with the Yankees on Monday night, a wistful pride at what they had accomplished before that 18-wheeler from New York City flattened them." Wow I can feel that! "Rocco Baldelli, the Twins’ young manager, slid into his seat Monday night, having come out on the wrong side of a 5-1 score in the deciding game of an American League division series. He shrugged. His team had just lost its 13th consecutive playoff game to the Yankees, a record of futility that extends to the early days of this century. “To be very blunt about it, they probably pitched a little better than us,” Baldelli said. “They probably swung the bats a little better than us and defended better than us. We’re not going to run away from what just happened." "The Yankees dispatched the Twins as a farmer puts down an old cow, clinically and with minimal fuss." "When the end came near midnight, many fans had long ago streamed through the exits, and the Yankees celebration, the usual waste of industrial strength Champagne, had a perfunctory quality. “This was our absolute best effort,” Baldelli insisted before departing into the night. “Nothing got in the way of it.” Nothing except that Yankee eighteen-wheeler." If you want to read more from Michael Powell - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/sports/yankees-twins-michael-powell.html Or there is the game summary article - “We’ve got a really good team,” said Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres. “We don’t feel any pressure.” Compare that to our listless Twin quotes. "The Twins became the first 100-win team to be swept in the first round of the playoffs since the 1980 Yankees were knocked out by the Kansas City Royals." Doesn't that make us feel good, we are the books with the Yankees. "In a series that was expected to produce seesawing action between the two best home run-hitting teams of all time, the outcome was decidedly lopsided. The Yankees, who didn’t add major-league pitchers at the July 31 trade deadline, held the Twins to seven runs in the series." Yes we expected something too, like the series we had during the season. "When the bases were loaded with no outs in the second inning, he got Miguel Sano to pop out on a 98-mile-per-hour fastball, and then struck out Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Cave on diving sliders." “That situation right there set the tone for the rest of the game,” Severino said. That situation also summed up the Twins approach - stikeouts do nothing, put the bat on the ball. "“Today we played the best defensive game of all season,” said Carlos Mendoza, the Yankee’s infield instructor." And how was the Twins defense for this series? "Three more outs were not nearly enough for the Twins to erase a four-run deficit with Aroldis Chapman on the mound. The Yankees’ closer allowed a two-strike leadoff single to Marwin Gonzalez and walked C.J. Cron, but that was all Minnesota could muster. Chapman struck out Max Kepler on four pitches — getting three consecutive sliders past Minnesota’s leadoff batter — got some serious help on a diving catch by Gregorius on a liner by Jorge Polanco and finishing things off by freezing Nelson Cruz with a 99.4 mile-per-hour fastball for a called strike three, and the ballgame, and the series." Here is the full game summary it you want to suffer through it https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/sports/baseball/twins-yankees.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_191008?campaign_id=2&instance_id=12775&segment_id=17677&user_id=df677009e65a80ff046d9aedfdc120f5&regi_id=275511921008

Sign me up for 2020. I have watched this team since 1961 and I am not stopping now. I have watched playoff futility throughout except for 1965, 1987, 1991 and it always leaves a bad taste - like watching the Vikings in the Superbowl in the old days, the league championship now (6 losses). We are the only team to be swept - every other underdog has found a way to at least 4 game series. It is the way we lose, the way we are overwhelmed like the Giants 51 - 0 thrashing of the Vikes or the listless ways we lost the superbowls. I wand some fire, some embarrassment, some anger. No Rocco, it is not okay to just show up, I believe you are all paid to compete."“We just went out there and were beaten by a team that played better than us for three games,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s OK to acknowledge that. We’ll be back.” WHY? I know we always think that the Yankees get the breaks. If they do it might have to do with the amazing way they play the game and the decisions that they make. I have seen articles about MOY and talk about Boone and Baldelli. It is Boone all the way. That team has a fire our team doesn't. We might have beat them in the juiced ball HR record, but in the end, who cares? The Yankees, when they were not hitting a HR still came up with clutch hits. Our 1 for 12 with RISP is horrible. Does anyone know how I can see the season record for hitting with RISP? I know some questioned Arraez on the roster (I could have seem him sitting out game one) but in reality he is the one who will at least have a chance to get on base. My questions are how Kepler and Adrianza could be on the roster when they had not hit for an extended period before the playoffs. When I look at the collective Playoff stats (today) Arraez is #7 in batting, Rosario is 23, Gonzalves is 30 and tied with Polanco. When I go to the bottom of the list there is Max Kepler 000. Would LaMonte Wade have done worst? Miguel Sano hit 083. By the way at this point the batter with the highest average in the AL in the Post Season is Robbie Grossman. Like I said - bring on 2020, at least it provides me with stories from February through November. We put Gibson on our roster while the Yankees left off Sabathia - the Post Season is not about sentiment.

7:40?? Why? What a strange time. Do I want it to be 7:40 or not? Is this my station or someone elses? Please give me a good night sleep.

I am following this game with hope, but no expectations. Am I alone in this shell shocked Yankee-Twins world?

I wondered how the New York Press would describe game 2 - here are some key quotes - and I cannot disagree with any of them: "Dobnak’s short outing was fairly predictable. A recent Uber driver against this lineup? Rather optimistic of the Twins. The last Twins rookie to start a game in the postseason was Brian Duensing at Yankee Stadium in 2009. Duensing gave up five runs in four and two-thirds innings and his father was hit by a car outside the stadium (he was O.K.)." "The Yankees did not homer off Dobnak, but they wore him down with hard-hit singles and doubles. Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli hooked Dobnak after the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning and turned to Tyler Duffey, a reliable reliever during the regular season. But Duffey was no better against the Yankees’ buzz-saw of a lineup, which began to pile on the runs." "The best-of-five series will shift to Minneapolis on Monday, with the Yankees one win away from clinching a berth in the A.L. Championship Series. And if the Twins cannot neutralize even the Yankees’ struggling hitters, they have little hope of extending their postseason." If you wonder what they wrote after game one - "Yankees fans, spoiled by 27 World Series trophies, might be frustrated by their team’s decade-long drought without adding another title. But consider the plight of Minnesota Twins fans when they learned of their team’s first-round postseason opponent. The Twins, who last won a World Series in 1991, have been eliminated in five of their six previous recent playoff appearances — in 2003, ’04, ’09, ’10 and ’17 — by the Yankees. In 15 postseason games between the two teams before this year, the Twins had won only twice — the first games of the American League division series in 2003 and 2004." "Interspersed between the blasts and runs, the dawdling game, which lasted 4 hours 15 minutes, featured 11 total relievers as both managers tried to navigate through the other’s potent lineup." I have nothing to add - let's just start by ending this losing streak! A moral victory is at least a victory.

Is this BACK TO THE FUTURE? This story has been written - over and over and over again. Berrios is the only chance we have and he gets four innings. The best relievers might not see the series from the mount. I think we see how Duffey really ranks. Didn't we have a TD article telling how our pen is better than there pen? This is tough to take. Bring on the Central division again - please. But not the Yankees. It is tough to come up with positives. Arraez got two hits. Okay that is the end of the positives. This really hurts and it will stay with us next year no matter how many bombas we hit. I just hope Odorizzi gives us a great game, that Berrios comes back and Rocco sits on his hands and lets him pitch and then we get to game five and magic happens.

He is so refreshing. If he maintains the discipline at the plate he has a great future. Lets not put HR pressure on him. We have enough bombas - we need men on base

I have no illusions, only hope I will wait and see.

After game one you might want to edit this

After today it is reinforced by the ghost of Yankee Twins past playoffs

I just tuned in to a rerun of the previous years Twins/Yankees series - how did they get the names changed on the back of the shirts? Gibson pitches in Yankee stadium That sure settled down the team. I believe we can come back down 3 - down 6 is discouraging. This is one of those what the Hell games. Our Ace is Berrios - an Ace is given a chance to win the game - 4 innings? What the Hell. Then we turn to a Rookie and then we turn to a Veteran who has no chance. What the Hell? Is Cron really better than Astudillo? What the Hell was he doing with his glove - does he know he is supposed to catch the throw from Second base? I know - tomorrow is still 0 - 0. But please no more replays from series past.

I am delighted to see Garver getting our local respect. As a Twin Fan I realize it takes amazing performance (think Trout) to get national attention.

Nicely done - I am not interested in the optimistic fan story, you were well balanced and restrained. I still have the Koufax syndrome - I need to see the result for myself.

How many teams sites are writing this same kind of article. It is the responsibility of all fans to think that they are the best. Tonight the Nationals and the Brewers were in one of those games where all the predictions and comparisons came apart when the rookie right fielder misplayed a ball in right field. The one thing none of us can do is predict the misplays, the errors, and the bounces that actually overwrite the factors that we try to analyze.

Is his injury one that they can carry him on the roster for one game and then have him go in game 2 or 3?

It would be great if it continues through the series. I see it as a Horatio Alger story - rising from the bottom - he just needs to continue to all star status in the next few years. At least we have three starters now with a chance to win, a chance to hold the game in check for five innings. After Pineda I was really worried we would only have two.

I hate to ruin the bomba story - actually I only want to add on. Luis Ruis unranked prospect emerged and forced his bat into the lineup and along the way he made a tape of how to bat when he had to step in and take over a bad count 0 - 2 and worked a walk. It will be the classic at bat of the year for me. Parker Hageman posted this https://twitter.com/parkerhageman/status/1151538159102152712?lang=en The other story of the year is the outrageous growth of our bullpen from worst to first! Who saw that coming. We traded for two relievers, one who went on the IL almost immediately and one good vet, but in the end it was our own guys and the AAA shuttle that did it. It is also the story of a rotation that was filled with stories - Martin Perez looked like a steal in the early season, then had his bubble burst, Odorizzi made the all star game and like Berrios has come alive again at the end of the season to give us a good 2 pitcher punch. It would have been more except that Pineda seemed to think that MLB testing could not get him and Gibson suffered illness that took his weight and strength. And still we will win 100 games! I know there will be more recaps and I hope it will also cover the phenomenal breakout year of Mitch Garver. 30 HRs as a part time player. And the sad loss of Byron Buxton leaving a terrible hole in CF. What is the future solution there? So many stories in a great year.

On another post I forecasted him for the Dusty Rhodes award. The unheralded player that steps up and dominates a series. If anyone can relax and just produce it is him.

How great was this season - so much to anguish over, so many different players, such a shuttle between minors and majors, so many home runs, so many questions in pitching, so many errors, so many surprises! That is baseball. Thanks to the Twins and TD for giving us a great year.

Bring on the Yankees, or anyone else. Does it matter. Somehow the Yankees and Astros both have to go down, so lets go in with attitude. No complacency and no fear. The other team will score off our starter, we know that. So lets just bombas away.

It is interesting to see the Gibson posts, it is the biggest attention grabber of the night even though Astudillo, Rosario, and Odorizzi were the reasons we won. Gibson's call was a surprise and he did nothing to impress me. He gave up four hits and a run in two innings against the worst lineup in baseball. It does not matter if they were soft hits - the Tigers do not hit the ball hard. It was shaky at best and I do not want him facing the Yankees like this.

It turned out to be a bad trade, but did we lose anyone who was going to make a difference for the Twins in the next two years? If I were the Twins I would simply go after SF paying Dyson's salary and close the books.

Buxton's true asset is speed and both age and injury can take that away. Does his bat play well on the corners? If he is CF he is terrific, but elsewhere he is not. I want Buxton on our team and hope he stays healthy for the next 10 years, but I would bet on Sano now. Thanks to Cruz, he has a role model that has helped him mature. His skill set has more staying power than Buxton's. So sign them both, sign Berrios and sign Rosario. We waited for the prospects to mature, now we need to keep them in place.

My god - I see Perez name and my heart starts to flutter - a terrible thing for a 74 year old. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO is all I have to say for Martin.