mikelink45

Nothing works for me, but there is such craziness in RP market - who knows.

Trade Paddock and Alcala - get Festa and Matthews into the majors RP/SP. We need all the good arms we can get. There are ways to stretch from BP to SP if needed.

Next week determines whether I am impressed with this week's results or not.

With the extended playoff options, no team is out of it yet. So yes they can. And they do have some good players coming back. So I wouldn't give up yet. But next week we no longer play teams that are last place. So that will start to show if we are turning a corner or shrinking back into what we've seen so far this season

I think that we have to really consider how our team wore down last year and think about the posts above questioning our use of relievers. We have played 27 games so far. This is how often our top relievers have been called on so far: Varland 14 Duran 12 Sands 12 Jax 12 Columbe 12 Alcala 10 Topa 10 The first 27 games - 16% of the season! Varland has been over 50% of the games. Tell me this is sustainable.

Mickey Gasper, Kody Clemens, Jonah Bride, Keirsey - that is our bench! I feel so bad for Keaschall. I don't know who has the Twins organizational health insurance, but I think they are about to file bankruptcy. In the midst of mostly good news tonight I am looking at France and Bader and their numbers are fading. Good thing Buxton is going well (stay healthy) and Larnach's bat is looking up. We need Lewis and Wallner.

Mickey Gasper, Kody Clemens, Jonah Bride - that is our bench. We are hurting!

All RP analysis is based on SSS but that is to be expected when they only go one inning at a time. The best BP in the league predictions have crashed and we need any live arm that can be consistent. I would have kept Blewett over Alcala for example, the revolving door will continue to spin.

I agree with you. It reminds me of Curt Flood and the lack of respect for the individual's personal needs. This has nothing to do with what they are paid - all professional athletes in the majors are overpaid, but rather the human aspect.

Alcala has consistently teased the team and they keep putting them in and he keeps failing. I think it's time he went somewhere else. Put paddock in the pen and Matthews in the rotation. Something has to change.

The White Sox played with the same ump. Not an excuse

Sure and we have the best BP in baseball and we are going to win the Central division - I agree we are better with Keaschall, but this is overstating the case

This is the last place world series and we are serious - 6 pitchers in a 9 inning game - try to keep that going. Love what Keaschall has contributed and hope it keeps going. But to have all those base runners stranded in the first few inning is not a good sign.

Since I was an usher in year one and have followed them since day one I can say this team has really pushed me to the brink. Luckily I have a job that has me traveling half the year so I have other distractions, but in the past I had Killebrew, Oliva, Kaat, Carew, Bostock, Viola, Hrbek, Blyleven, Gaetti, Puckett, Pascual, Tovar, and Mauer and Morneau who gave me joy win or not. Then there was the "I love that kid" Wynegar and other players who made me want to be at the game. I loved it when we had Mudcat and I wanted to see Vic Power with defense and energy at 1B. But now this team has no one who moves me to be excited. Buxton is too injured or too erratic. Correa has shown why other teams worried about his health. Julien had a flash in the pan year, but I really miss Arraez. No energy, no special qualities (I almost used a French phrase there) and if they are blasé' why should I get excited? Put that into context with all the elements that Nick described plus contraction and the buzz I got attending all the 1991 WS games is hard to sustain. I had hoped that Lewis would be that great and joyful player, but an injury list longer than his stat summary diminishes that potential.

I was never excited by him but the only reason to cut him is if we have someone to replace him. The cupboard seems quite bare.

When a team is desperate it is time to take a chance - give McCusker a chance.

This is about wholesale change - not tweaks - as Fire Dan Gladden says, we need this team to be sold. Pohlads are not going to regain any favorable relationships with Twins - that slide began with the old retraction effort to eliminate the team years ago. They were not committed to the team or fans then and they have not improved over the years. A new owner will have that honeymoon period where they can tell us that things will change and we will want to believe them. Prospects are always promising until they prove us otherwise. Maybe it will be different this time - we keep telling ourselves. But are we sure that the leadership team can bring them up and help with the transition to MLB? Past performance does not seem to indicate it. But for the fans sake we need Emma, Walker, Matthews, Festa, Morris, and Keaschall to be the real thing. We keep seeing other teams bringing up really young players and have them prosper. We need that. The hitting and pitching coaches are easy targets and we keep changing them with the same results so maybe it is time to look at the other management members and ask what they are doing. Can TD examine all the coaches and not just their functions, but their success?

We won! But looking at their lineup it is hard to see how you could lose. Duran looked like he would lose it. That would have been a disaster.

It will be fascinating to see if the three bottom teams can fascinate the fans enough to get them out. At least there's a chance we'll win.

I have no solution, but like me most season ticket holders are not in the demographic this articles addresses and I am fearful of the sports future as it moved down the spectrum - Vikings, Timberwolves, Lynx, Wild, United and fishing, hunting, lake cabins, boating, concerts, picnics. Not sure where to put the Twins. I know that driving 100 miles to a game with the team playing lousy is not motivating - especially when the concessions and parking eat up more money. I am not even motivated to listen on the radio anymore. I just catch the 10 minute MLB.com summary which in this season is too long.

If the article is about drawing a younger generation it is not through season ticket packages - it is about marketing young stars - giving the team an identity the youth can get connected to like Ant on the Timberwolves. The games have sped up which is good, but the Twins forgot the play exciting ball part of the equation.

Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Jax 22 0 26 0 0 48 Varland 19 0 18 0 6 43 Topa 0 0 17 24 0 41

Twins Video Ad ends in 1 Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan: 5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 5 K (93 Pitches, 65 Strikes, 69.9%) Home Runs: Byron Buxton (4) Bottom 3 WPA: Ryan (-.286), Edouard Julien (-.097), Brooks Lee (-.093) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): The Twins wrapped up their series in Atlanta today after gifting the Braves two winnable games and awakening the perennial contender from its early season doldrums. Joe Ryan got the start for Minnesota, coming off an outing against the Mets in which he labored but gave the Twins five strong innings. As a California "Deadhead" laboring isn't Ryan's favorite vibe. Teams know that when the righthander is healthy and throwing well, the only way to counter him is to work long at-bats and hope to wear Ryan down, with a solo home run or two thrown in. Unfortunately for Ryan today, the home plate umpire called two clear strikes as balls to second place hitter Austin Riley, extending Ryan's pitch count and turning what looked like a quick inning, into a much longer affair. The horrid Marcell Ozuna worked a walk and Matt Olson finally caught up with a mistake fastball and rocketed a two-run home run to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. Ryan threw 32 pitches in the frame. That could have been workable except the Twins anemic offense offered no early fight against Braves journeyman starter Kenny Powers Grant Holmes. Following the long inning for Ryan, the Twins went down in order on eight pitches, forcing Ryan back out with hardly a chance to sit down. He retired the first two hitters of the second fairly easily, but then a barrage of singles scored a third run. The third was similar- after two outs, Michael Harris turned on a hanging splitter and roped it for a double, and then the highly touted rookie Drake Baldwin pounced on a 92 MPH fastball not quite high enough in the zone, and pummeled it the other way for a two-run home run. The Twins at least made Holmes work in the fourth. After Trevor Larnach ripped a one out single, so did Carlos Correa. Ryan Jeffers was hit by a pitch on his wrist and stayed in the game. After Luke Keaschall popped out, Holmes spiked a slider that Baldwin couldn't handle, allowing Larnach to score the first Twins run. Brooks Lee made good contact in his at-bat, but Harris tracked down the liner in the gap to record the final out. As expected, a rejuvenated Ryan then had his easiest inning, setting down the Braves 1-2-3. Holmes continued to struggle with his command, walking the free-swinging Harrison Bader to lead off the fifth before leaving a cutter up for Buxton to lace into the gap for a double. Holmes then walked Ty France, perhaps equal to Bader in free-swingedness, to load the bases. But Larnach struck out looking on the juiciest pitch of the at-bat, a fastball middle-in, and Correa tapped out to get Holmes off the hook. Ozuna, sadly still not incarcerated, jumped on an inside sinker from Ryan and delivered it into the left field bleachers. The Twins put two more runners on in the sixth, but Julien tapped out to strand the Twins' eighth runner in a span of three innings. Buxton did launch a no-doubt home run in the seventh to continue his strong stretch of games. Louis Varland, Jhoan Duran and Danny Coulombe pitched scoreless innings. All three are having nice years, at least. Trends: Healthy Hurt Performing Contributing Low Impact/Slumping IL/Minors C Ryan Jeffers Christian Vazquez 1B Ty France 2B Mickey Gasper ? Brooks Lee Edouard Julien 3B Royce Lewis Jose Miranda Jonah Bride SS Carlos Correa ? LF Trevor Larnach CF Byron Buxton ? Harrison Bader DaShawn Keirsey Jr. RF Matt Wallner UTIL Willi Castro ? Luke Keaschall ? SP1 Pablo Lopez Bailey Ober ? Joe Ryan SP2 Chris Paddack Simeon Woods Richardson CR Jhoan Duran ? Griffin Jax ? SR Brock Stewart Louis Varland ? Cole Sands MR Danny Coloumbe Justin Topa Michael Tonkin LR Randy Dobnak Jorge Alcala Kody Funderburk What’s Next: Bailey Ober (1-1, 6.16 ERA) takes on Davis Martin (1-2, 4.84 ERA) as the Twins open a series at Target Field against the White Sox. Martin has been functional thus, far, but his peripheral numbers are rough. Ober has been pretty good since his opening clunker in St. Louis and will look to continue to have success against a White Sox lineup against whom statistics do count. Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Jax 22 0 26 0 0 48 Varland 19 0 18 0 6 43 Topa 0 0 17 24 0 41

Are we making Raya a RP? Because SP go more innings! Bring up McCusker - put Keaschall at 2B and McCusker at DH

I have stated this before, but it summarizes my feelings about the Pohlads - How can such super rich people not understand public relations? Do they think there is sympathy for the rich when they make bad decisions? Do we care that you might only get 1.5 billion instead of 1.7? Come on Pohlads, try to read TD and get an idea of how fans think and feel.