Platoon

I will be your sponsor. Whenever you get the urge to buy a ticket, call me. I will talk you down. Maybe we can instead meet for a Saints game?

The question was "Why not Abad"? Which I wondered during the game, knowing that he would pitch to one guy. Likely the biggest AB of the game. Win lose or draw, Abad cannot face Longoria, especially this weekend. Personally I would have went Abad and May and went for it. As its been mentioned what is there to lose. But I had to wonder if May was hurt? If FanGraphs is correct he was last sighted on June 1st. Per FG that was his 5th appearance in 8 days, 1 ER and no hits and 8 SO in 4 IP. The previous 5games were not quite as stellar, but in 26.1 IP he has 40 SO, and 5 HR allowed. The opportunity existed, and the match ups, to get out of that jam, if one had wanted to make the two long treks to the mound. May and Tonkin are the only two that have the stuff to overpower a batter. I can't say I know this would have happened, but the chances have to be better than Jepsen getting out unscathed. I don't know if it's indecision, lack of baseball common sense, or favoritism, but something is amiss in the Twins dugout.

You beat me to it, no comparison. I don't think I have ever seen Mauer take a throw accidentally standing in foul territory. Park is better than I thought, but not Mauer. I know Park has some slugging numbers, but I'm not sure if they currently transfer into wins. Well, obviously they do not. But while he has ten HR's most are solo. And most are from off speed cookies. Maybe he will catch up, I don't know. But so far he hasn't seemed to be a bat that any team is going to try and figure out how to work around!

I didn't post this because I wanted Nunez benched, Molitor fired, or so someone could think I didn't know there was more to Rosario going down than the steal. I made mention of the ongoing stupid baseball being played almost daily by this team. And the fact that while everyone would agree that proven veterans get more slack, this team is carrying it to an extreme. I really do not think most of the players on the team have a clue of where they stand or what management wants. Some players sit on the bench for failing to "go the other way" and some players are chiseled in the lineup in stone, who do not. Be aggressive, but don't get caught. One guy steals third, and a joke is made of his speed, and one guy gets humiliated by being benched in the middle of a game, and has a cab waiting for him. Trust me, the players are well aware of this. I would not be surprised if the three most used words between players are WTF. This team has lots of mediocre players, and youth. It should have a mediocre record like last year at the least. Not this! I am not dumb enough to to call for Molitors dismissal. It took 4 years for them to fire Gardy. And unless Pohlad tells Ryan, it's him, or him and you, it's going to take more than this year for Molitor to go.

It's never good when they issue an intentional walk to get to your 4 hitter. Even given the fact that the guy was Mauer, you just put another guy on base for your big power bat. Either the other manager was out of his mind, or you should look in the mirror and see what the opposition thinks of your lineup!

Having watched the replay of Sanos adventure in RF just before his injury, it seems he limped when chasing the ball after it went by him. Seems being the operative word here. Regardless, Plouffe is in the wrong place at the wrong time. The current OF is far superior to anything they have thrown out there for quite awhile. While I am not sold on Grossman being anything past a 4th OF, he will do until Rosario comes back. And I think he will. Just sticking Sano in RF because you don't know what else to do with him is like my granddaughter hiding under her blankie and thinking I can't see her. Mauer is not going anywhere, I doubt Park is, so Plouffe is the odd man out. Not because he is disrespected or disliked, simply because there is no alternative.

There were a lot of things going on here, but thinking, over or not, was not one of them. If a manager is not going to control the parts of the game he can, what exactly does he do? If he isn't going to indicate to the runner, and the hitter, in this situation what he wants done when will he. As for benching Nunez, or anyone for that matter, if he had tried it sooner in the season, maybe this would not be such a confused god awful mess of a team. Whether it's baseball or work or family, playing favorites is never going to work. Nothing costs you your credibility faster.

Well then let's approach it that way. How many games does Nunez sit? How and where do you put an end to one "bone head play" after the other. How do you show that bone head plays have consequences, or in this teams case, it depends on your status. This is not the first time I have heard, "he bunted on his own". If your players don't know when to bunt, do the math for them. You better, it's your job on the line.

These stats still do not take into consideration who is next in the lineup. Two big hitters you can't work around, or one you can. A bunt to third with a fly ball prone hitter next, vs a ground ball prone hitter, or a low contact one? That is where the manager comes in, and the stats separate, IMHO. But this is also the same bunch that plays the infield up early in a game, real early. Besides the individual players and decisions involved. What really irked me was the inning, the score, and the way TB was taking BP against us. One run was not gonna do it.

Hoskin wrote a fairly thorough article on what affect the Plouffe and Rosario steals did to the chance of scoring. I wonder what the bunt did? And do those computations take into account who you are bunting to!

We don't have any better communication than post game comments? This isn't the first time this type of thing has happened.

A bloop single presents Molitor with an almost no brainer decision in a close game. One of arguably the 3 fastest players in baseball at first, his top hitter at the plate, a RH pitcher and a defensive catcher with a 9 % throw out rate! That is not a typo, 9%! Taking at least two strikes while Buxton stole second would be in order, at the least. But no, we bunt? And with Buxton not running, it likely means the bunt was called? We bunt to what is currently the worst hitter on the team. And that's saying a mouthful. He promptly follows his part in the script, allowing the RH pitcher to walk Mauer and face the 4 hitter. Armed with more than the 74 mph curve ball last seen leaving the yard, the 4 hitter is quickly dispatched and order is restored. There were only two reasons to bunt Nunez. One should get the manager fired, and the other should get Nunez sent to Rochester, as it is easily a dumber move than stealing a wide open base. You do not need twenty years in the majors to come to several conclusions. You don't bunt and give up an out, when the odds of a successful steal are approaching 96%. You don't bunt to a terrible SO prone hitter, so their RH pitcher can walk your best LH hitter, to get to your SO prone 4 hitter. If you do, you then better be ready to PH Arcia for Park. Top the whole idea off with this thought. You are playing for one run, in the sixth inning against a team that is hammering your pitching staff. The absolutely stupid baseball being played here is getting ridiculous. I have seen Legion coaches ridiculed in the stand for such idiocricy. I really do not want to hear any BS stories tomorrow about Nunez bunting on his own, if he doesn't have the brains to not bunt, give him the "don't bunt" sign. By now if this team doesnt have one, they need one!

Since I think the last time he pitched was in his major league "start", will he have a case to remain on MLB pay, etc? Can he contend he was hurt while on the 25 man?

I didn't know the prisoners were allowed internet access?

Your language today has been appalling!

Always go the the SW corner!

Frankly I don't like them either, but I just ignore them. Nowadays it's almost the only way to survive!

Maybe I saw this wrong. I was busy today, tivod the game, and watched it on fast forward. Did we sac bunt Nunez with a guy on first and no outs to get to BD? And after the inevitable did I see Mauer get walked to get to Park? Followed by the inevitable. Or do I have this mixed up with my granddaughters ten year old softball coaches decisions?

Or as long as you don't PH or basically use your bench anyway, have Park and Arcia platoon at DH. But that would be pretty innovative for this bunch. I love Arcia, somewhere he is going to make it. But I doubt it will be here. Either way, unless Kepler and Buxton are hitting under .100 they better not go down. It's time to move on. Someone, I think LEN3 wrote about Buxton looking better but still chasing balls dipping down on him? Torii Hunter was chasing them the day before he retired.

IMHO this years (not to be confused with other years) debacle started with the Park signing. Park himself is not the issue, but the idea that you could construct a team built on the premise of having Park, Sano, Plouffe, and Mauer clogging up the roster, with this pitching staff is preposterous. Follow that by painting yourself in a corner announcing the Sano Experiment, and proclaiming to all the Plouffe is untouchable, and there is no way you can win. I can understand keeping all the pieces until ST, and then dealing with the construct. But they didn't. To me that set a tone. I know this sounds simplistic, but it made the entire field roster unmanageable. You can put three all star centers on an NBA team, but that doesn't mean you will win. And the players involved in this for the Twins are far from AS.

Agreed, but first you have to determine what you are looking for. A fourth OF, it would be Grossman. A platoon LH power bat, Arcia. But there is no evidence of Molitor defining rolls. Just look at how he handles the BP.

And now power has become cheap(er) and we are suddenly all about power. Or were supposed to be. I don't want Ryan trading our good young stock for a late 20's or early 30's SP. if you have to buy one, buy one. But you cannot even consider trading Buxton, Kepler, or a Sano. Comparisons? Ask the Royals how long it told Moose, Gordon, etc to get there. That always takes longer than we like. But to make the wait eventually successful, you have to be willing to take some losses, and I don't mean in the W/L column. I mean in trades, to clear blocking and dead wood. For example you can't view Dozier and Plouffe as actual 3 and 4 hitters and expect a comparable return. And Ryan does, so trades become almost impossible, financially and "emotionally". You have to bite the bullet and move. most teams who have a successful player who is struggling, give him a chance right himself. The Twins on the other hand take players without a history of success and hope they suddenly succeed. You can draw on 18 and hope you hit a 3, but the math ain't good.

If you read this sentence over and over, it makes you quiver. The yearning for the good old days is very hard to resist.

Dozier treats the outer half of the plate like Les treated the "walls" of his office".

e It's like a recurring nightmare, I used to always dream I fell out of the big door in the hay barn. The difference is I woke up before I hit the ground, Molly doesn't seem to.