Twodogs

I remember being quite irritated as a young kid that they broke up the bruise brothers. I always wondered; (not so much at the time but later, like in the late 90's early 2000's with the way Tom Kelly treated guys like David Ortiz). I wondered how much input TK had in this trade? They just played the Cardinals in the WS, Tommy Herr was a classic slick fielding slap hitter which seemed to fit the TK mold to a T. Bruno was more of a, well David Ortiz type, but obviously he could field a little bit as he ran around in the OF tracking down fly balls and such. I could be way off, but after I learned more about TK and the way he was I just couldn't help myself to instinctively push some of that blame for that trade onto TK.

I really wonder how many hitters the twins faced this year after pitch #100. I'd bet not many. I know Maeda had a few when he was going for his no hitter, but I can't think of too many.

I wonder if there were even 113 plate appearances after pitch 100 for the whole twins team this year? If you never get there then you won't know what those numbers could be? If Morris was pitching today for the twins he wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to pitch past 5 or 6 innings.

At first I thought they brought back Bartolo Colon.

The bats are definitely different from yesteryear.

I think you might get more for Kiriloff in a trade than Sano. I also think that the Twins need 2 more bats like Arraez in the lineup. 2 and 3 run shots would look a lot nicer than all of the solo shots. I think the Twins can win with this lineup, but they have to at some point change their approach especially with 2 strikes. Houston busted the shift against us numerous times to win that series because they were willing to change their approach when it warrented it. Not sure what they could get for Sano? But Sano would probably be better with a couple more hitters like Arraez running around on the basepaths.

Yeah, after the Twins limit him to 75 pitches and 4 - 5 innings per start, he then wouldn't be that expensive to re-sign again as his value will diminish.

I kind of agree that if the Twins keep Rosario it'll be just his last year of arb and then he is gone next year. Cruz is not a guarantee to be back, it would be nice, but no guarantee. Now if the Twins were to use their young guys like Rooker, Kirlloff as bench guys with no Cruz then the twins would be able to rotate Rosario and the young guys through the DH slot. Rosario was used as a DH a few times this year also, so maybe that is what they are planning. Then the young kids get eased into some playing time and used extensively when the injuries hit and then rolled back to eased into the lineup when healthy again. Rather than banking the season on likely not 1 but using 2 or maybe 3 young guys in the lineup. That would be a little scary. I think May is gone. He is a power reliever and if he drops a couple MPH on his Fastball he will be toast. Probably better off trying to develop one of the younger guys like Colina etc.... May had his bad moments already, good overall, but his secondary pitches haven't seemed to be all that great. So he is fastball dependant which scares me over 162 games.

But what does 162 games have anything to do with laying an egg in the post season? I mean the same thing happened last year too?

I'm mad at Rocco when the decisions are made also, but could it be possible that Rocco is doing what he is told by the geeks behind the computers?? Just a thought, before I and everyone else jumps all over Rocco. He was a ballplayer, I assume he has these hunches once in awhile, but maybe he is afraid to go against what the computer guys say?

You know, every team's guys are dinged up and have injuries going into the post season, always. The teams that win play through those dings and win. The Twins guys appear soft from the outside looking in. Pulling Maeda and Berrios after 5 innings to me was assinine. I mean you have to send those guys back out. I mean you should send those guys back out until things get shaky. I mean someone hits a line shot at Kepler and then it's probably time to go and get him. You can usually tell when a guy has lost it. You have to have confidence in your stud pitchers to get you 6 hopefully 7 innings out there. The team needs that, to feed off of it. Let the pitchers get in a rhythm. Within reason of course. You don't want them pitching 120 - 130 pitches or anything like that, but let them go 100 or 110 if they are shutting the door on the other team. Dusty Baker I think used a total of 5 pitchers for the series? I mean his starters didn't go too far, he could see them start to get shaky. But when his relief pitchers were on he left them in until someone ran them out and nobody did. The Twins need a couple of hitters to cut down their swings with 2 strikes. I get it, home runs play, but swing away on strike one and two. After that choke up and get a single, maybe the next guy will hit a bomba on strike one or strike two and now you have a two run bomba instead of a solo shot. It seems to me that the good teams get some hits besides home runs all of the time. It's like for the Twins it's a home run or a K-out. Those K's cost a lot of runs. Sometimes a ground ball can advance a runner and a fly ball can sacrifice someone home. But none of that stuff can happen when you strike out all of the time. Shifts. Shifts and bunting and base stealing and all of that stuff works when the other team can't predict it. Shift too often and you become predictable. Bunt too often and you become predictable. Never bunt and you also become predictable. Never steal bases and you become predictable. When you become predictable you set yourself up to be beaten by that dribbler through the area where the shift vacated. If a hitter knows you are shifting him all of the time, just once does he have to go up there looking for that changeup away and walla he hits a sqibbler through the shift. These things need to be used on occasion and in a more unpredictable fashion. I think that is where Rocco is wrong, is everything he does is now predictable, whether that's his fault or upper management's fault I don't know. But that is what I see.

So the post season failures is also a culmination of the front office?

So are they just giving up? Buxton on the bench? I mean cruz has been slumping too, he didn't get benched? Buxton is the most dynamic player on the team speed wise and defensively. IDK, doesn't make much sense to me to start a guy who hasn't played in a real game all year?

Buxton is reported to have mild concussion symptoms. Looks bad, who knows about Donaldson.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing, seems like they could have found someone else to drop off the 40 man to keep Baily around just in case you need him in the playoffs?

Rosario won that game tonight!

I hope he doesn't have any real serious health issues, it's different that someone would retire with only a week left in the season. Hope he is ok.

Don't look now, but I think the Yankees are just as far out of 1st as the Twins are. They've won 7 straight.

No off-days in playoffs: Here's who benefits https://www.mlb.com/news/how-postseason-with-no-days-off-affects-pitching No off days probably helps the Twins deep pitching with a lack of an Ace or two. Those guys probably won't be able to start 3 times in a series anymore with no off days.

But even hitting home runs is dependent. Petco park is not very home run friendly, Yankee stadium is a band box. So one player could be a pretty good hitter in Yankee stadium, and another player could hit every ball exactly the same as the first player but due to air pressure and park nuances they can be not such a great hitter. I mean if you are saying that a ball hit out of the park is a ball hit out of the park regardless of outside factors then someone could argue that all of the colorado rockies hitters from the 90's should be in the hall of fame, I mean they hit the ball out of the park

I agree that everyone in the game gets to steal off of Astudillo in that instant, but when you look at numbers you look at them over a course of time. Nobody narrows down how many RBI's you got on August 12th. Or how many home runs you got on June 15th. It's always over the course of a definite period of time. Usually a long period of time such as the whole season. But even then, even if you are in the same game stealing off of Astudillo when one pitchers is on the mound is different than when another pitcher takes the mound, even with the same catcher baseball stats are dependent. Even with the same swing same launch angle same everything will have a different result when you barrel up a Chapman 100mph fastball as opposed to a Greinke 50mph ephus pitch. Same swing, same hit, same ballpark, still will create a different result. Stats are dependent on outside factors no matter what.

You can make that argument about home runs also. Hitting a ball out in San Diego or Anaheim is a lot different than Yankee stadium where if you can clear the infield it has a good shot at going out. Just ask Mo Vaughn. So you can make those kinds of arguments about almost anything. Racking up stolen bases off of Astudillo is a lot different than getting that many SB's vs Molina. Everything in baseball is dependent on who you are facing. I mean we look at pitchers and their swing and miss stuff, but how would those guys swing and miss stuff percentages play out if they were facing guys like Carew, Gwynn, Boggs, Brett, and guys who played in that era? It would be a lot different. So just like with Buxton or Cruz on 3rd is dependent on whether someone gets an RBI so is every other stat in baseball.

It's amazing that the White Sox took the lead with small ball. Adam Engal didn't really hit the ball through a shifted infield, he hit a slash bunt, because Engal tried to drop down a bunt in the first pitch and then he squared around, Donaldson charged and Polanco was wheeling over to cover 3rd and then Engal slashed and put the ball right where Polanco vacated. Nice example of small ball working. The Twins didn't really have a lot of chances for small ball yesterday. I mean Kepler came up with a guy on 2nd and he hit a grounder to the right side and moved the runner anyway. About the only time I think they should have bunted was with Astudillo up to bat with Cave on 2nd. Had Astudillo successfully bunted there Cave gets to 3rd and probably scores to put the Twins up 2 - 1. Who knows what happens from there? All of the sudden Cruz might hit his 17th bomb because bases wouldn't be loaded and the pitcher might pitch differently? Who knows. Also I don't think Rogers was brought in to close. Rocco brought him in to face the bottom of the lineup in the 8th. I'm almost thinking that Rocco was planning on using Alcala to close it out had they taken the lead? JMO? It was interesting on the mlb channel yesterday. Leiter, Pedro and the other guys were discussing the best playoff rotations. The Twins were brought up and Pedro said no way, he said that the Twins are a good example of having a guy who could win the Cy Young, (Maeda) but Pedro said he would not have him in his (playoff) starting rotation. Then someone brought up Berrios. Leiter then said that Berrios is also good, but to be a top playoff pitcher you have to go longer than 5 innings. Not saying that I completely agree or disagree. But these are the opinions of a hall of famer and a guy who pitched big games in the playoffs. Interesting take.

I'm just glad to see KC is still causing trouble. I see they have tripped up Cleveland a few times lately. I was worried that the Twins played them early when they had hope and now Cleveland is playing them after the trade deadline when a lot of teams kinda give up. As long as KC and Detroit in the AL and the Brewer's and the Pirates in the NL can steal a couple of games here and there that will help the Twins a lot.

Just my opinion obviously. But at this point I would have a rotation of Berrios, Pineda, Maeda with Dobnak being #4 swingman. Obviously he wouldn't be needed that often especially since the first series is only 3 games. But that gives you 4 on the staff. Then I'd try to prepare for best case scenario is that your starters give you 6 minimum; then you need 3 guys to get you to the end of the game. Now I think the Twins bullpen has been good this year, but they aren't great pitchers in my mind, I think they do a great job, but when they get seen by the same team too many times that they start to get figured out, just like that game in Detroit where May and Duffy blew up. They hadn't pitched back to back games, but the tiger hitters saw them on Friday and now seen them again. So hopefully with the bullpen depth the Twins can limit how many times these guys get seen. Maybe have like 6 main relievers for innings 7 through 9. May, Duffy, Alcala, Rogers, Romo, Clipboard. Then maybe keep Hill because he has a lot of playoff experience, he can start and he can relieve he has in the past done it all, and over the last 4 - 5 years or so has had a very nice K%. That gives you 11, now the decision centers around keeping 2 more guys for those ooops just in case games. Maybe the Twins are up by 15 or down by 15 regardless the Twins don't need to burn another pitcher. So now you have to pick between Stashak, Theilbar, Wisler, and Odorizzi. If you take Wisler and Odorizzi that gives you 13 pitchers? Berrios Pineda Maeda Dobnak Rogers Romo Alcala Duffy May Clippard Hill Odorizzi Wisler That gives you 13 pitchers.