karcherd

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.

For all you Santana lovers, remember this game when he was 0 for 5 with RISP. A flyball instead of a groundball at least brings home a run. And he has had multiple games like this on offense. He is a defensive replacement and play only against LH pitching player.

When did Miranda fail. In 22, teams were inquiring about him and the Twins wouldn't move him. Last year he had 142 AB's because he was injured. He has been one of our better hitters this year despite not having a regular position. His defense will improve with more rep's, where will he top out, no one knows.

Our top RBI player who is batting fourth is now 0 for 2 with RISP. Sure glad he is in the lineup over Lewis.

I guess he doesn't want to come back for television work next year.

The Twins have actually stated this is their philosophy. You keep stating everyone does this or that, and if they are, great because some of those teams are having more success than the Twins are. But you can't wait until they get to the majors to determine their position, you need to do it in the minor leagues at some point so they can learn and master the position. Again this is why we keep seeing sloppy and poor decisions when they get up here.

If the starting 8 is not in the organization then build for it. But the Twins are not doing that. They are purposefully drafting shortstops to move them around later. They are not trying to build a starting 8, they want to move players around like chess pieces and this is where the logic fails in the playoffs. They don't have a Wallner or Julien ready to play against LH pitching and you have to start lesser players. That works during the season over 162 games not in the playoffs. This year Wallner should not have been sent down when he was, he should have had a longer leash, Kiriloff should have been at 1B. Yes you have to plan for 162 games but you don't have to move players as much as they do.

This is where we need Kiersey up here instead of in St. Paul.

Having a strong starting 8 mitigates the need to move players around. That is where you only need a player like Castro to fill in at different spots as needed. And this is my frustration, they seem to value position flexibility over having a strong starting 8. Texas pinch hit once in the World Series last year, that should be the goal. You have a bench to give players a day off here and there not three days a week. I get platooning one or two guys like Leius and Pags at 3B in 91 but having a team of platoon players is not a winning recipe.

My point on moving players around is it not just based on injuries, they do as a regular part of their lineup juggling and other teams don't do it to that degree. I agree with you on when injuries occur.

The pinch hitting streak will not be continued today for Margot, maybe Rocco is trying to let him break the record at home.

He is starting at third today.