It should be disturbing to the team that I am one of the most avid Twins fans I know and I have no idea how the MyTwins thing works or what the benefits are.
"Buy a MyTwins, call for details" is an awful marketing pitch.
According to Baseball Reference, that's wrong
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/topaju01.shtml
Last 5 games are 4/5, 4/6, 4/11, 4/14, 4/19
He's not in the box score on 4/18
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL202504180.shtml
1) Players don't know where to position themselves on defense during discretionary plays where more than one player could make the play (cut-offs, bunts, in-between fielding plays).
2) Starting pitchers are not prepared to throw more than 75 pitches in April.
3) Baserunners are not motivated to run at full speed
That's enough.
I guess, if you're happy with the current offense, then by all means keep going down the path of more weak contact and fewer hard hit balls. A bunch of slow players hitting grounders seems like a bad strategy to me but everyone has their own opinion.
Did people reasonably expect that this team would have a .300 winning percentage in 2025? I didn't see many baseball pundits predicting fewer than 50 wins. That's how bad they've played since the collapse last season (6-16 plus 7-15 = 13-31). Rocco might not be the whole problem but he's part of the problem.
Zebby has always had good location and the ability to throw strikes. If he's improved his stuff while maintaining his location and ability to throw strikes that is a very good thing.
A batter can be successful in AAA waiting for mistake pitches. That doesn't work in MLB - the pitchers don't make enough mistakes. In MLB you have to be able to do something with the pitcher's best pitches.
I don't think they will make a move on Rocco until the end of May at the earliest. I also don't think it will be Toby who gets the job in interim. It is worth considering what record the Twins will have to have in May to get them to fire Rocco mid-season. I don't think they could ignore a record of 18-40 and they would have to fire Rocco. I think he stays if they are 25-33 (playing .500 from here to the end of May) or better. The grey area is in between.
I thought people here would be thrilled. All last year I heard posters loudly saying the team needed to reduce their strikeouts and stop trying to hit home runs. They've been very successful, reducing strikeouts below league average. Their home runs are now in the bottom 5 teams in baseball. According to Twins Daily posters this should have unleashed their full offensive potential.
The umpire blew a couple calls, but Joe Ryan didn't need to throw a fit on the mound. That was quite unprofessional. The Braves pitchers were also having trouble getting strikes called but I didn't see them throw their equipment into the dugout.
The only interesting thing left for this season is seeing what they get in return for the trades they're going to make. On the plus side, I'm getting a lot more reading done during the games. I nearly finished a memoir this weekend.
Matthews looks ready. He's consistently one of the best pitchers at his level. I'd like to see him get 6 innings in a start but the Twins don't seem to care.
Keaschall hasn't been of the best hitters in the league or even on his team. He's still rehabbing the elbow after surgery. There are lots of reasons not to promote him and if anyone else was healthy he would still be in AAA. Emmanuel Rodriguez also doesn't look ready yet.
If you want a promotion, show that your current level is too easy.