sftwinsfan

I'm not saying they had other options at this point, the point is for a playoff team to have those guys in the starting lineup is not ideal. Look at their lineup compared to some of these other playoff teams. I wish we had more productive options for LF and 1B.

Would have maybe been a good spot there for Taylor to try to push a bunt towards 1st to try to get on base. Too bad nobody knows how to bunt anymore. Need to get him into the stretch and disrupt him.

Or Willi Castro for that matter. Both are solid bench players but shouldn't be in your starting lineup in the postseason. Unfortunately, it just shows how outgunned they are by Houston's lineup.

One positive for next year is Paddack looks like he's come back from surgery pretty good.

Was Stewart pitching too well? I would have ridden him for another inning (had someone warming in case he ran into trouble of course). Bringing in Thielbar here, not smart in my opinion. Alvarez doesn't care about facing lefties. Thielbar is alright, I think he puts more fear into me than the opponents though. He's a little more craftiness over stuff. Plus, he has to pitch to at least 3 hitters, he is not exactly killing it against righties. This is nuts.

I must have missed Urquidy winning the last 5 AL Cy Young awards, my God. They're not even coming close on these swings.

Umps calling everything a strike all the sudden. Apparently, the Target field crowd and Twins catchers need to get nastier and throw more little fits to intimidate the home plate umpire.

Agree, seems like the wheels are getting a little wobbly and in danger of falling off with the pitching. Gray really seems to struggle once he gets past the 5th inning or so and Ryan has been terrible lately. Maybe Duran has focused too much on velocity to the point he's lost some command? As for Gallo-look up his splits the last 3 months (so the vast majority of the season). He's hitting .156 with a .628 OPS and striking out in over 45% of his plate appearances. Indefensible that he's still on the team let alone still getting playing time at this point.

Ryan's 1st 10 starts of the season shows 61 IP with an ERA of 2.21 and 4HR's allowed. His next 12 he's also thrown 61 IP but with a 5.90 ERA and 17HR's allowed. Last season he had a 2.28 ERA through May with 3HR's allowed but then had a 5.31 ERA in June and July allowing 11HR's. Both seasons it's like a switch was flipped right around the end of May.

Looks like Joe Ryan's mid-season swoon might be becoming an annual thing. Hope not.

Saw this and was hoping he was still hot, nope. Looks like he's riding at least an 0-19 with 11K's from 6/25-7/4. Talented, but definitely a work in progress.

Not that he looks like a bad prospect, but just not at #5, I don't care what he's willing to sign for. Hopefully they won't have this opportunity often to draft top 5, especially in a year with strong talent at the top, so they need to use it to try to obtain an impact player. I hope they throw out whatever model they've been using, because it hasn't been producing much for results.

Some good signs to start, especially if his wrist is finally healthy. He's struggled pretty badly in June but may as well let him get in some experience. His early numbers were a bit inflated by a high average of balls in play. I think in the end he'll be pretty good when it's all said and done if he stays healthy.

They definitely seem to rely too much on guessing and looking to drive the ball over the fence regardless of count or situation. Seems far too often guys just take a fastball over the plate for strike 3 because it's not what they were looking for. Or maybe when a pitcher is rolling against them and they're not seeing the ball well off him, try to do less, shorten up and look to go the other way. Buxton at this point just looks like he's trying to yank everything to left, but he has enough power to hit it out to right as well and when he's going good seems to drive the ball well to the right-center field gap. Just more adjustments would be great, you can't continue scoring 2 or fewer runs in 35% of your games.

Was just listening to something on YouTube, in high leverage situations opponents have around a 1.400 OPS against him. How many games over a span of a week or two was he involved with blowing just against Cleveland last year? I'm not opposed to running him out there in games where you're down by 3 runs, take the pressure off and he's been pretty good. In a tight game late though, I think they'd have a better chance letting a position player pitch.

I think you may be on to something there, look at their minor league system too. Emmanuel Rodriguez .217 (has moved that up a bit lately), Jose Salas .167, Noah Miller .205, Yasser Mercedes .167, Bryan Acuna .194, Misael Urbina .178, Rafael Cruz .180, Ariel Castro .119. I realize some are young, some are small sample size, but that's 8 of the 18 hitters on MLB's top 30 prospect list. Batting average may not be everything, but I believe they've overcompensated because the percentage chance of someone getting a hit does matter in many situations. How many times have they had the bases loaded where just a single could have possibly scored 2 and changed the game, yet they're swinging for the fences? Rough count the Twins have scored 2 runs or less in 27 of 74 games this season, that's crazy.

I just hope they take one of those top 5 guys and don't try to get cute. No guarantee a player will be there when you draft next, just take the best available when you're picking that high. Especially in a year with a top 5 this strong, rare opportunity. if they do want to be creative, I'm willing to sign for well under slot and can strike out at least 3 times per game.

Right away I thought of Ben Revere, he was a little taller than that though. He could go get it in center, just didn't have a throwing arm or much of any power.

So, I guess we're looking to demote a guy that's currently 1st on the team in RBI, BB and OBP. 2nd in runs, 3rd in OPS & hits. I agree Larnach has struggled a bit, but he's still taking some quality at bats, especially compared to the rest of the team. I'd rather leave him at the major-league level and let him hopefully make adjustments. If he continues to struggle then I'm ok with him possibly going down, but we haven't gotten to that point yet. Yes, he's 26, but due to being a college player and not having a '20 minor league season he really only had one full minor league season, which was in '19. The injuries the last 2 years were unrelated, as long as he can stay healthy it's put up or shut up time for him. I agree that Gordon has more versatility, but there's a lot of outfield options on this team and guys like Solano and Farmer can back up the infield spots. Most of his minor league career was a bit of a struggle. I'm sure plenty will disagree, but I don't think he really excels at anything. Pretty much the definition of a utility player. He was surprisingly red hot for a period last year, but I'm not sure how you can say that's who he is versus the rest of his professional career. Kepler, as long as Gallo can produce and if AK forces things by continuing to hit in AAA (fingers crossed), I'd give Gallo his spot in RF. Always a guy I was high on over the years, but there aren't enough flyballs or difficult plays in RF to justify his bat. He'll get hot for a series, but then just seems to disappear for long periods. Hard to see them moving on from him though, they're still trying to put him out there hitting leadoff.

If you include organizational guys Spencer Steer is doing well early on with the Reds.

Hard to recall for sure as its been so long, but I don't think I liked the trade at the time. They took a key bat out of the line-up. Lawton never stood out as a big star but definitely one of those guys that was pretty valuable when you added the sum of his game together. Another underrated guy I always liked in the OBP tweet, Shane Mack. Haven't seen that name in a long time.

At least Balazovic has only had one bad year thus far, so I have a little more hope for him. The other two haven't shown much of any sign of being productive since they've been drafted. Another you could add to the list could have been Blayne Enlow, but maybe he's where these guys would be after another rough year given he was outrighted. Still around though, so all hope is not lost for him either.

Interesting trade, it appears the Twins got the better part of the deal, but a little weary. Lopez is a solid pitcher, but last year was the first time he's gone above around 111 innings and jumped all the way to 180 innings. I really hope we don't see a scenario where he makes 5 starts then suddenly is largely done until he's a free agent. Risk you largely have to take with pitching I guess. The rotation looks the deepest it's been for quite some time. With the huge layoff and prior experience as a bullpen weapon I wonder if they'll consider moving Maeda to the bullpen which could really shore that group up. Only issue now is this lineup seems pretty iffy to me. Arraez was one of the few guys that took good at bats and could deliver a hit when they needed it. They could be hard to watch outside of the top of the lineup. Of course, maybe this means they're confident Kirilloff's wrist issue may be behind him now? He could be a guy that if healthy, could make up for the loss of Arraez in the lineup. At least this roster is looking a lot better than it did a few weeks ago.

I was wondering if any other players have had this done before, but that pretty much answers that. To break a bone is one thing but shortening a bone and needing plates and screws in there could have some impact on things. Hopefully this will not only solve his pain issues but that he can regain full range of motion and not have his swing impacted. Between the prior Tommy John surgery (as an OF/1B) and this he could sure use some luck to go his way.

To me Lewis and Lee are clearly the top 2. System is pretty weak on higher-end talent after that outside of maybe some lower-level younger guys. Based off Lewis' surprisingly strong performance in AAA and with the big-league club I'd put him #1 yet. Shocked at how well he came back after all that time off better than he was prior and at a higher level of competition. Lee is likely the only other player that will be in top 100 lists unless someone sneaks in at the bottom. Martin, honestly, I've never liked. Repeating AA and actually going downhill, not a good sign. Looks like a possible utility player, hopefully way off on that.