FargoFanMan

I made it to the second part. I’m not confused at all. The intention was for people to click on it. That’s why I said what I said. I grew up in minnesota and I’ve lived all over the world and witnessed many cultures and several extreme ways of life. Some ways that people around here would consider wrong, stereotypical or the ways of an uncivilized people. But it’s their way and I accepted that. I am still to this day amazed at how some people can be so condescending, triggered and outright bigoted in the other direction of the norm as people from the upper Midwest. Being tolerant works both ways. Not just left or right, republican or democrat Christian or atheist or whatever other means or triggering keyword you want to use to other another person. I read the article despite you thinking I’m a racist, uneducated or bigoted piece of ****. I figured that it would take on the connotation it did because the author intends it to be that way. And yes, happy pride month. Thank you for posting a picture of a cartoon bear waving a rainbow flag. That has shown me that you are obviously more tolerant than me in your smug better than thou vapid sense of humor. I hope you respond 20 more times arguing how great and tolerant you are as opposed to me and I hope all your friends laugh at your jokes about me and you all think I’m a ****ing moron. Because I wish you well and as another human being I still love you as a brother and a fellow Twins fan. Why? Because I was you once. I was everyone in here once. It doesn’t bother me anymore. I don’t root for political teams like football teams. I don’t want to impose my views as better than someone else’s just to put them down. I believe I am flawed as is every other human on the planet and I can understand different views and look at them rationally and logically and believe what I believe without having to tell everyone else and shame others. I think it’s silly and childish to be political on a baseball fan site. Many others don’t think so and this site is just another soapbox. That’s great for them and I sincerely hope that makes them happy at the very least cause lord knows if we could have just a little more happiness we’re all better. I understand that people on this site have different views and if I want to read about the Twins then maybe this isn’t the spot to read about them anymore. Great, I’ve figured that out and I thank every one of you over the years. It’s been fun and I wish you all the very best regardless. I’m gonna go read about the twins somewhere else. Thanks and I hope everyone has a wonderful day, month, year, life!

That’s all most of us want to do here is read about baseball. Others want to ridicule and some are in the middle. Btw, did anyone ask what Willi Castro thought? What was his intent? If it was truly to support “Pride” and the pride day was the next day then why didn’t he wear that “eye black” the next day? Of course the writer didn’t ask. Probably made no attempt to. Instead he just assumed what it was cause it supports a narrative that’s near and dear to him. What if it supported his children’s birthday? Or it was his mother’s favorite color on a special day for her? What if it’s the colors of a flag that’s special? What if it’s his and his wife’s favorite colors on their anniversary? What if those colors represent any myriad of possibilities? Instead the writer made it about something he cares about and Willi Castro just happened to fit the bill. We don’t know why he chose those colors. The writer doesn’t either. It just fit a narrative. Good, bad, right or wrong. Perhaps the writer knew that this would spark controversy as he’s done it before and probably won’t be the last. It involves Willi Castro who is a Twins player and the Twins are a MLB team. That’s the only connection to baseball.

Larnach is 28 finally learning to hit as a college draftee. Lewis is a soon to be 26 year old with only a full seasons worth of games as a high school draftee. Lee is just figuring things out as a 24 year old. Keaschall is already starting the great but injured college draftee regimen and Jenkins is great when he plays but is gonna miss 2 months with a sprained ankle. Following the path of his predecessors. Also, Erod can’t seem to stay on the field as well. He’s great at drafting and developing guys. He just can’t seem to keep guys on the field. Bad luck probably but damn is this team cursed for some reason.

And every team is a good team. Every pitcher is a tough pitcher. Every lineup has great hitters. As long as the guys just keep battling day in day out and show up all while trusting the process it’ll work itself out………. it’s cold out and it’s tough to play in cold weather.

That’s the problem. This offense is perpetually without large swaths of what should be the starting lineup for long periods of time. As soon as someone comes back it isn’t more than a week that the next guy goes down and we play this game of “when so and so comes back the team will be better.” We wait for this magical point when everyone will be healthy that never seems to come.

To me this once again all falls on the Pohlads laps. Especially Joe Pohlad. Nobody from the owners box has come out to address what is going on. They are hiding behind the sale of the team which gets passed to the firm handling the sale. No accountability from the owners of the team to address anything which leaves everyone to speculate. Optically it seems nobody is in the captains chair of this ship while everyone waits for this sale that seems to be falling apart cause there isn’t any status on that either.

SWR is a capable, reliable, dependable 5th starter. This isn’t on the pitching at all. It’s on the offense. Plain and simple. The lineup is bleeding into the pitching. If the lineup consistently put up 4 or 5 runs the pitching would be a non issue. Also, Festa and Mathew’s are not the saviors everyone claims them to be. They’re good with lots of upside but they’re not the second coming of Johan. They’re not good enough to overcome an offense only scoring 1 run game after game. Neither was Johan.

I would agree they are probably not top 5 like they have been projected now 2 years in a row but I think this bad lineup is bleeding into the bullpen if that makes sense? I watch quite a bit of baseball besides the Twins and on a night by night basis I watch a lot of good teams and good bullpens give up runs late. But, those teams in a lot of cases put up a fight once they go to bat and the score is hardly ever 1-0 or 1-1. The fact that the game is essentially over once the other team scores the go ahead run and the fact that the bullpen is only ever protecting a one run lead puts a lot of pressure on that bullpen to be perfect night in night out. This isn’t a twins problem. It’s a twins offense problem. Also when you can’t rely on your infield defense it puts even more pressure on the relief pitchers. Not being able to score just hampers the whole team machine that is “winning”

Exactly! Having a lineup that can consistently put up more than let’s say 1 run allows the bullpen to be used in a way where they don’t have to be perfect in order to keep the team in the game. For most teams even being down by one or two runs is technically to them still in the game. This bullpen is tasked on a game by game basis with having to preserve a tied ballgame or at best a one run lead where the score is 1-0 with no chance of this team making a comeback. Alcala is a head case but he’s just the weakest link in a solid bullpen tasked with having to be perfect every night.

Free McCusker!!!

I’ve already admitted that. I’m waiting with the clown car running in the driveway and the door open for everyone else to get in.

When are we gonna hear Rocco be honest? When will the postgame interview not be the starter who went 5 innings allowing only 1 run but instead be the player who made an error to score multiple runs or a reliever who blew a lead or a hitter who didn’t deliver in a key spot? It’s always Rocco talking about a few good things and a starter talking about ONE bad pitch. Totally masking the night in night out debacle that is the offense.

At this point I wouldn’t bet against it

You may be right but it’s not true that guys can’t improve pitches. Also, he’s literally a month into being a big league reliever. The stats only show what he’s done and how those pitches rank. Jax improved. No question. Simply by improving his sweeper and his command of it and then bringing back the changeup. Remember when Joe Ryan was a strictly fastball guy with middling secondary stuff? He improved his sweeper and added a split-change. He improved his split-change more since then. Varland can easily improve by simply dropping what doesn’t work and improving what does.

He’s settling in and like Jax once he can settle in it’s easier to toy with different pitches than being a starter. If he can develop a change or splitter. He could absolutely dominate!

Which should get better. If he can be a straight fastball/ changeup guy he can dominate. He needs to ditch the cutter unless he can locate it better. He’s improving though and that bodes well!

He’s settling in and he seems like he’ll be a bulldog out there!

@Cody Christie come on man. Trying to solve problems that don’t exist? Or just putting fodder down on paper? I guess you got a reaction and that’s probably all you were looking for in the end. Can you write a real article please? Maybe tell us what’s happening with Walker Jenkins and when he’ll be back. Or how Matt Wallner is progressing instead of all these speculative and chaff articles that don’t amount to anything but chatter.

Exactly, I used to have to travel all over the country making $1900 a week which was good money for my profession. These guys are making over twice as much. Cry me a river. Just like I could they can quit at any time if it’s so tough. Every AAA player would gladly trade spots with a guy like Blewitt.

Dude is making almost $5k being on the mlb roster. He’s fine.

Oh yeah, so the guy makes $70,000 in 2 weeks instead of $50,000. What are you people talking about? This guy is living a dream and your pity is falling on no one. These guys are living a life long dream. They can quit at any moment if it’s so tough being a professional athlete. The MLBPA is taking care of these guys. Come on people.

Agree!!!!! It’s a job. A job that pays them well and they are taken care of every step of the way. The human element is he’s fortunate enough to play professional baseball for a living. The guy is 29. Could have easily washed out by now and been selling cars for a living. He’s not though. He’s playing in a professional sports league making as much in 2 weeks as most do in a year. If he’s complaining he can retire at any point if it’s such a strain on him as a “human”. For all the people “thumbs downing” every rational persons thoughts and feeling sorry for a professional athlete living his dream and making damn good money every day doing it you are pathetic. Drive yourself to downtown Minneapolis a join a protest and stop worrying about these guys. They don’t worry about you. Scott Blewitt and his family are fine. These guys are professional athletes and don’t want your pity.

I agree! Problems that don’t need to be solved. MLB players only get paid during the actual season. In those 2 weeks that he jumped around he made as much as if not more than us 9-5ers make in a year. And he’s playing professional baseball for a living. The MLBPA makes sure these guys don’t get short handed. He’s not suffering aside from “having” to play for 3 different Major League Baseball teams in 2 weeks. Plus not paying for any flights, getting that relocation bonus and incentives in the realm of what most of us would be great full as a Christmas bonus and getting to see and play for MLB teams most of us would kill to have done. Sucks but I don’t feel any remorse. Let’s get real here.

Agreed, I think Tingler should have went last year with the hitting coaches. I tend to think and maybe I’m wrong that he agrees with Rocco maybe too much and doesn’t provide any pushback or different ideas. Rocco’s style seemed to change after the older gentleman he had as bench coach in 2019 retired whenever that was. I can’t recall.

I’m not saying money doesn’t matter. It’s just not everything. It’s expensive to solve problems with FA’s. If you got $10M and it didn’t work out(aging FA player got hurt/ underperformed) would you want another $10M or would you be satisfied?