karcherd

Have some patience, first he wasn't hitting enough now it is his fielding. Players do not come up as finished products. They need to learn what it takes to be successful in the major leagues. Luke has started 161 games from college tot he pros at 2B, maybe he doesn't improve, but that is just a year of starts. Can he improve, I don't know but he is athletic and appears to have the work ethic. Give him some time, Koskie was a butcher at 3B when he first came up and he became a good third baseman. We always want immediate success but it doesn't always happen. As for hitting for power, sometimes that comes with experience, have heard many former major leaguers make this point. All this said if you have a better option, then move him or move on. But we don't have a better option and no Kriedler or Gray or other AAAA types are not the answer either. Either bring someone in that can, that actually has and can play the position and has shown they can be a starter at this level or stay with Luke. We have to start defining these positions and stop moving everyone around. Keep Clemens as the super utility player, he is one who is comfortable moving around and play passable defense at multiple positions. The team needs to decide what players they have that they can count on for roles going forward and where are the holes are and make the moves to fill them. Unfortunately with no real leadership in the front office, I don't know when this will happen. And we will just keep floundering around .500 and tease us enough to pull us in and then have a stretch of games where they look like little leaguers out there.

Can we watch the game, it would be nice.

You will never acknowledge that he has made improvements. Still a short sample size but he is looking much better at the plate overall with some bad AB's like everyone has. For this team to have success they need Royce to play up to what he has shown what he is capable of.

And he has to let every bad pitch go by, he is not allowed to swing at any bad pitches.

Let's hear from the Royce haters what he did wrong on that AB.

It's an indictment of their development of pitchers. They have to stop having everyone be a bulk pitcher, so they are prepared to give some length up here if needed. Only two pitchers are throwing more than 60 pitches a game in AAA.

You are lucky, you don't have to hear about nachos for a half inning while Buxton is hitting a home run.

Be nice if they would focus on the game at some point.

But now we get the bullpen to cover 4 innings, it would be nice if it was less.

This is the problem with their bulk pitching process, these guys are not being prepared to start up here. They are only being developed to be long relievers. I don't think Paredes ever faced the lineup a third time, so I was not surprised Rogers was in there, it was going to happen no matter the situation.

Thanks, that will be helpful when I play Strat-o-Matic.

How many games had he played at 1B or CF this year. If it's that big of a concern than I would put Lee in there. It does not help the team to keep playing spin the wheel with the defensive alignment. Make Gray and Clemens your utility players and keep everyone else at one position.

Arcia could sign a minor league contract this offseason, what has he done that would make a team really think he is now the answer two months later. Maybe the famous cash considerations could be obtained for him.

The available options tonight would be to play Lee and sit Clemens. I did not reference roster construction.

So who wanted to sign Correa and add to payroll if it wasn't Falvey. Did the Pohlads just say for no apparent reason, hey let's raise payroll by $20m. The biggest point that I disagree with you is on Falvey. He was the top baseball man in the organization for the last 9 years. As in any organization, he sets the direction of the organization on the baseball side, including payroll, just because the Pohlads approve it doesn't absolve him of any responsibility. I don't necessarily agree with the way the payroll was cut by Joe, he was in over his head. But Falvey was ultimately responsible for all facets of the baseball operations and he needed to operate within the parameters given to him by his bosses. Continuing the success of 23 would have been one way to convince them he deserved the higher payroll.

And the team is 6-7 for the month thus far and seven games under .500 for the season. So all this chart shows is production by player and it is not translating to meaningful results. So let's start looking to see what we have going forward. Clemens very well could be on the team next year but if we are moving towards being a contender that should be as a utility player playing a few days a week. Not hitting 3rd every game. So rather than move Lewis around who has more upside, move Clemens around, he has and can play 3B. If Royce could lock down 1B, that would fill a huge hole in the organization.

They are trying awful hard to fit Clemens in the lineup every day. He has been hitting so I get it, but I am not sure he should the priority on this roster. That is more an indictment of the organization overall. I don't really agree with moving Lewis around, let him get comfortable in the field and hopefully that translates to continued success at the plate.

He is only going to throw 60 to 65 pitches, they have stretched him at St. Paul. He is on the stupid bulk pitching plan and they typically max at 4 innings. This is why they won't list him as a starter until basically the day of the game.

You are correct, I am not sure all the losses are related to operating costs except the local tv money. But if some the debt was to Target field investments and pandemic losses as the Twins claimed then yes I think they would have invested. This is the real question what were they shown for the operations of the business and how much are they losing on operations. That is what we will never truly know. Some of the investment was definitely due to potential growth of the franchise value and getting a return on that.

I don't believe it made sense, especially when Falvey said at the time he was signed to play 1B, not full time DH.

All the other teams know what Bell is, a hot streak isn't going to change that. Washington found no takers for him last year at the trade deadline and I have a feeling it will be the same this year. Gray is not falling off, this is what he is. He has had a few good moments on offense but he is not an every day player and never should have bee.

I didn't say to bench him completely, but the original comment was he is one player that should be in there every day. That is not a good use of AB's, if you are sitting young players that you need to find out about. That is what this season should be about. Bell has a .652 OPS for the season, he has not earned guaranteed playing time and it will just make it another wasted season holding back others.

I very clearly said I don't the know the cause of the debt, you seem more certain to me. You are making a lot of assumptions and they may be correct but none of us know. What has been reported is that the Twins were one of two teams in 2020 that did not lay off any employees during Covid. It makes sense to me that would cause some level of debt, have no idea how much. They have said some debt was from Target Field improvements that is not operating losses from an accounting standpoint. Have they shifted debt around, who knows, every entity, the Pohlads run is owned by a holding company and they did sell another major piece of their portfolio in the last year so my guess that was somewhat due to the property losses. I also know that they have brought in two new minority partners and if they were moving too much debt or not operating in a normal fashion, those partners would not have signed on to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. I am not a fan of the Pohlad family, but I was around when were there threats to move the team in the early 80's and Carl Pohlad prevented that. I am thankful for that. I like that they have mostly been hands off owners, that usually hires the right people to run the organization and let them do their job. I think Joe was too hands on and I wish Tom would get out of the way and hire someone competent to run the baseball side of the operations. I am just not as down on the Pohlads as many others are. Falvey ran this organization into the ground and everyone wants to blame the payroll number but that is only one side of the equation.

I would not be taking AB's from players who have a chance to be part of the future to have Bell at DH. That should be the spot to give someone a half day off and make sure you are giving AB's to others. Bell is not part of the future and will not be traded but don't keep wasting AB's on him.

Don't platoon him, there are plenty of ways to get him AB's against RH pitching. I don't want to see him pinch hitting late in every game after Monday. Larnach can DH for Bell, who hasn't earned regular DH duties every day. I like Clemens but he doesn't need to be in there every day, Fedko can play a day in RF. If you want to give Keaschall a day off play Clemens at 2B and put Fedko in RF again. You need to priortize getting him regular AB's, not necessarily every day for at least a couple of weeks to see what you have. This is the year to do this.