HarmonK03

People like to mention payroll limitations, I would still like to know what is the correct payroll amount. Every front office or most have a budget, the good POBO and GM's work within their resources to develop their team. This front office signed three players that take up a sizable portion of the budget. That means the field staff, meaning Rocco needs to develop the younger players to fill in around those three. Who is the last position player that has come up and had sustained success. I know not every prospect becomes a star or even contributor at the major league level. But the record of this front office and the field staff they have hired is abysmal. And now you even have Correa talking to the front office and the coaching staff about better preparation. Isn't there someone among the numerous coaches they have that can't see this if Correa and quite frankly the fans can.

Everyone assumes Falvey is gone under new ownership, but are we sure. Joe gave him control of both the business operations and the baseball side of the house. Will a new owner really want to replace both of those key positions. And I don't see Falvey wanting to be the next Dave St. Peter. I am worried that Falvey will be moved back to focus on the baseball side and we will continue to see the same lack of development of players, strict adherence to poor strategies and boring baseball.

Playing with no bench, Bride and Kiersey are basically unplayable.

How about developing your pitchers and not be afraid of who your pitchers face. Richardson has been here a year and a half, when do you take the training wheels off. Last year the Guardians used an opener once and they had to throw a lot of their young pitchers out there due to injury. My biggest fear is if it doesn't work, when will they stop using the strategy. This organization does not like to admit mistakes because they are the smartest ones in the room and all of baseball.

If nothing else Festa got the two hitters out that Rocco was afraid to let him pitch against in the first inning.

Rocco the brilliant strategist just outsmarted the Brewers again!

Then Yelich comes later in the game let's say the 6th or 7th inning with runners on, who are you going bring in. If you don't have quality starters to get players out in the beginning of the game, either develop better or acquire better players. This is the same as they have done on the hitting side the last few years, pull your LH hitter early in the game then they are not available later and you end up with a weaker match up. At some point you have to construct your roster with players that can produce, you are not going to match up for every situation due to the roster size.

I have never understood the opener concept, so you have Coulombe pitch the first inning instead of the 5th inning. And you take the starter out of his routine. The Twins need to develop starters, stop limiting them in the minors so they are ready to pitch reasonable innings and pitch counts when they come up. And stop with the opener nonsense.

There's an All Star play by everyone's favorite all star and the best defensive player on the team.

But the process that can lead to poor contact can lead to better results, because other times you will put the ball in play with a better swing and good things can happen. But when you are only up there to find your pitch to drive, we have seen the results of that, a called third strike or I love when we get the fly ball to the warning track with two outs. Baseball has been played this way for decades and even Rocco claimed in spring training they were going to change their process, like they had come up a revolutionary new method to play baseball.

You missed my point, Altuve was looking to put the ball in play where you have an opportunity for something good to happen. Castro and Correa were looking to drive a pitch and ended up looking at strike 3. Change the approach and put the ball in play and give yourself an opportunity.

I am beyond frustrated with this team and this game encapsulated everything that this organization is doing to not create a winning team. They don't develop starting pitching well, SWR, pull him after 53 pitches and one hit because they won't let him face the order a third time. They are doing the same thing in the minors, they think they are going to change the pitching model for baseball. How can pitchers be expected to go more than 4 or 5 innings up here if they are not doing it in the minors. The AB by Vasquez called for a bunt, but no they think he will get lucky again against Hader and hit a HR again. Play situational baseball, something this team does not do well at all. They want all players to be utility players. It is great Castro can play multiple positions but he doesn't play them all well and some of that is not getting reps at the positions. The ball in the 10th was catchable and a player with more reps in the OF probably catches it. He also threw to the wrong base in the 9th inning that did not hurt the team. But this is not the first he has made these type of mistakes. He makes up for some of his mistakes with his athleticism but let's stop treating players like a chessboard. The AB by Altuve where he got his bat on the ball in the 9th inning vs. Castro and Correa looking at called third strikes. How often does this happen because they want their pitch to drive instead of just getting the bat on the ball. This is a team wide problem. This all starts with the FO and the philosophy they have implemented and it is creating a .500 team over the past 8 years. But Rocco at some point has to say in this moment this move will give the team a better chance to win even if it does not fit in with the organizational philosophy. When they win, it is usually against lesser teams that they are able to outplay their mistakes. And once in a while Rocco will go against his spreadsheet but never with any consistency. This organization needs to be blown up and figure out what they have in the young players by letting them play. Then fill holes where needed and not with one year stopgaps.

How about saving innings on the bullpen for later in the year or developing your staters. SWR has been here almost a year and a half, at what point are they going to let him face the order a third time. If they aren't then put him in the bullpen. Pitchers need to pitch and face adversity and learn from it, that is how they get better. Rocco almost always refuses to let SWR face the order a third time.

Pinch hit for Larnach and not Clemens even with the lead, this makes no sense.

He has definitely helped the team and his defense has better than expected. But he needs to be a bench player. He should not be taking AB's from Lewis and Lee and currently he is. He has started the same number of games as Lee this month and one more than Lewis. The Twins have to find out what they have in Lee and Lewis and if Clemens is the best you have to replace them, then they need to be in the lineup. Rocco and the organization falls in love with these marginal vets and this why we are a .500 team. If they can't do the job then move on, but they find out what they can do. Lewis has impressive numbers over his first 162 games, but sitting him every third game is not going to help his development. Clemens should only be playing a couple of days a week.

They had a chance to potentially use a long man tomorrow by keeping Adams up here and starting Festa as he would be on normal rest. But instead they sent Adams down and my guess they will start SWR. Does this organization really believe in a long man, it keeps being speculated but what is their plan. They have starters they don't trust to go thru a lineup more than two times but then they don't set the bullpen up with any multi inning relievers who can help bridge to the later innings. They do not have the 8th man in the bullpen that they can churn thru like in recent years, They either have to DFA Alcala or send Topa down, none of the other relievers are a realistic option to send down for a long reliever. So really what is their plan, or are they just going to burn thru the bullpen as is and hope they don't burn out before September.

They will need to send down a reliever when they need another starter for Lopez. I am assuming it will be Adams because they don't seem to want to cut bait with Alcala. So let's use Adams in at least one game before sending him back because they have a short leash with both Festa and SWR, And of course there could always be another injury which could change everything.

Start Festa on Tuesday and use Adams in relief. You at least save the bullpen for one game. Then go with SWR on Wednesday.

So now Lewis is a part time player, he plays two games and has a game off. If we are going to have success this season, they are going to need Lewis to get going. Sitting him over France and Clemens is not going to lead to success for this season or future seasons.

Do the Twins have faith in Wallner, it doesn't appear that they do. After the Thursday game Rocco stated that he told Wallner that he would be in most every game and not sitting two games in a row. Then before last night in his press scrum, Rocco said he could play but it also depends on other players on the roster. Then he pinch hits for Wallner and not Clemens. All players are not equal in ability and other than Correa and Buxton, Rocco treats the players as though they are all equal in ability because of matchups. They need to identify 5 or 6 core players and they play every day regardless of who is pitching. And if they are not good enough, make changes. Players like Clemens, Bride, Bader, even Castro need to fight for playing time, the others need to be in the lineup. This is what championship teams do. I know Castro is valuable but playing him every day wears him down as evidenced last year. Play him 4 days a week and bring him off the bench strategically the other days is a better use of his skills.

So you pinch hit for Wallner but not Clemens. I have no idea what the spreadsheets are saying anymore.

Festa got squeezed, that was strike 3 on Wilson. He would have been out of the inning with one run only. He can't let it affect him, but it's a tight strike zone.

Lewis needs to be in the lineup every day. Our chances to have a winning season are much greater with Lewis if he can turn it around. But he won't get better playing every couple of days. He gives us a better chance this year and future years than Clemens or Bader.

Why take Zebby out, he was doing fine.

A LH is projected to be the bulk pitcher, so according to Rocco, you can't play Wallner in that scenario.