HarmonK03

Rocco actually mentioned the other day that he is aware of the record, but Margot has a low strikeout rate and makes contact and that he would still let him pinch hit.

Rocco needs to go just for that move alone, how stubborn can you be and against a RH pitcher.

You have to be kidding me, you are seriously going to pinch hit Margot against a RH pitcher. Hoping lightning strikes.

Great job Louie! You are now in the bullpen permanently.

I believe it is a front office approach and they find staff that agrees with their approach. I still remember when Arraez basically burped and they took him out of the game saying it was precautionary.

No two hitters are the same, you may need to tweak their approach, but when you change it completely and don't get the results you desire, that is expected. The Twins are trying to make everyone one size fits all and that doesn't work.

No team is going to talk to his representatives because he is still under contract with the Twins thru next year.

It is a coaching and organizational issue. They are retooling the swings in the minor leagues to this approach. Both Martin and Lee have stated they went back to their original swing at St. Paul and had more success. Lewis has talked about it at the major league level as well. They keep drafting college sluggers because this is the approach they want. When it works, it produces a lot of runs. The problem is, it is feast or famine and that rears its ugly head in a short series like the playoffs against better pitching. The Falvine philosophy is not going to produce a consistent winner without playing more fundamentally sound and just not swing for the fences.

Have you seen him try to bunt?

Maybe Cleveland is doing a better of developing their bullpen arms, the top three guys after Clase are either in their first or second year. So maybe some of it is on the FO for the construction of the roster, but Rocco very clearly has stated he tries to match up to hitters instead of a set role for the pitchers. So there is a difference in philosophy and it does not seem to be working for the Twins, They try to emulate other teams maybe try to build a bullpen like Cleveland has.

And also how to use a bullpen. Clase has pitched one time before the 9th inning and that was when he hadn't pitched for 5 days. Note to Rocco, it is ok to have a closer pitch in only the 9th inning. At some point during the game other pitchers will have to pitch to the middle of the order and I would rather it be before the final innings.

Even if this team makes the playoffs, which right now I am not sure how they are going to pull themselves out of this tailspin, they need to do an honest assessment of the organization top to bottom. You can blame the owners all you want and yes it was not a good look to reduce payroll this year but does their front office have the ability to create a sustainable winning team. That is the first question that needs to be answered. Do they use analytics as a tool or as the rule to all decisions. Can they assess talent and put the tools in place to develop that talent. Their decision making has to be looked at. They have tried to get by with scrap heap pitchers, this year they were relying on two pitchers (Stewart and Paddack) coming off injuries or limited innings history to play major roles on the staff with no real backup plan in place. Another pitcher they traded for came with injury concerns and never pitched for us. They don't value quality bullpen pieces treating them as fungible pieces that can be shuttled between St. Paul and Minneapolis. They are building a roster with short side platoon players that becomes a weakness when there are injuries. They need to assess the field staff, can they develop players, is the homerun or bust philosophy working or do you need different players to make it work. Do you continue the platooning to the degree they do. They need to decide to either go with the youngsters or bring in quality replacements, not a Santana or Gallo type, but a Pete Alonso or a proven outfielder whoever that might be. It just feels like we are treading water and not really sure if they are going to play the youngsters who some aren't that young anymore or continue to cycle thru low cost and low productive veterans. It feels like there is a disconnect with the younger players and this organization and too many seem to regress when they come up to the big club. Coaching and development should not stop just because they are in the major leagues. Again is Rocco and his hands off style better for a younger team. I know they just rehauled their training staff, but are they doing everything they can optimally to keep players healthy and on the field. If just feels like too many players are going down throughout the organization. Maybe it's typical for everyone but I would hope they are going to look at this. I don't have all the answers, but I know as a fan it doesn't feel like they have a direction and I would hope after potentially two collapses in three years they would want to take a deep dive into the organization. And the one year they won the division was in a very weak division. I bleed Twins and want to watch and have even through the 100 loss seasons, but this team is hard to watch, they just seem rudderless and the style of ball is not fun to watch.

They have pitchers who get batters out, Rocco tries to play genius on every batter and get the perfect match up. We need pitchers who can get batters out whether they hit 1st or 9th in the order.

Why not Larnach here, come on Rocco. r

Pick the one stat, the original post was about Witt vs. Lewis. My only point is they are starting out fairly equally and we need to see if Lewis builds off his start like Witt has.

Witt in his first 150 games 31 doubles, 20 HR's, 80 RBI's, .428 Slugging .722 OPS Lewis in his first 142 games 26 doubles, 33 HR's, 103, .524 slugging, .860 OPS I know Lewis is slumping now, but let's wait to see what he becomes. He is actually putting up better numbers in his first 150 games.

Don't bring in Jax until we have a lead.

Actually it comes from the analytics staff and the dugout follows their directives.

Notice the difference in bullpen management. The Guardians have roles for their pitchers, Gaddis isn't pitching in the 5th inning, he is the set up guy. We try to match up every hitter and then run out of pitchers by the end of the game. Irvin should have been left in and now Sands is done and Varland will pitch one inning. Get ready Tonkin or Blewitt to pitch in a tie game. And they will have Clase and Smith to pitch.

Let Irvin pitch 2 or 3 innings if effective, we need length from him today. Don't try and match up on every hitter, it hasn't worked so far.

Give Santana a day off or even 10 days would be better.

Santana was so successful as the clean up hitter last night, why not try again. We have a long season ahead of us.

"the Pohlads' unwillingness to spend an even remotely acceptable amount at the trade deadline." Do you have a source that supports this statement. I am not a Pohlad backer but the narrative is that they would not spend at the trade deadline. Is this a statement of fact or opinion. They have stepped up in the past, they did cut payroll for this year which really stunk. But was it Falvey trying to wait out the market or was it the Pohlads not providing the additional funds the reason for no activity at the trade deadline.

Yes it was disappointing when the owners cut payroll at the beginning of the year. Do we know for a fact that they denied any requests at the trade deadline for additional payroll dollars. They deserve their share of blame but why does Falvey keep getting a pass. The pattern in the offseason and at the deadline is to wait out the market and try to outsmart the rest of the league. Then when nothing is left, they grab someone like Trevor Richards. They do not make smart decisions with the dollars they have, signing all of Farmer, Margot and Santana, was that really the best use of limited resources. And last year with the record payroll they gave $11m to Gallo when no one else was offering him anywhere near that. The fault of the ownership is in continually trusting the front office dynamic duo to put together a team and hiring a major league manager.