lukeduke1980

I was a big Flavine fan. They originally brought in some good coaches like Wes Johnson & Tanner Swanson. They pick up some good FAs, like Castro, Cruz, Cron, Schoop, Perez & Pineda. & Odorizzi trade fell into their laps. The perfect storm of the "bomba squad" that organically came about due to the "juiced ball". This all set up the 100+ game season. Falvey was the head mainly because of the Twins' switch to an analytical approach & his association with the CLE pitching pipeline.; Although Levine did most of the talking at 1st. One thing I didn't like about this regime was its being occult. We had no idea who was responsible for what between Falvey, Levine or Baldelli. But we were winning, so who cared back then?
Falvey was hailed as a genius and credited with the Twins' success. This all went to Falvey's head. He did more talking, took more & more credit & more & more control. Resulting in becoming more & more imbalanced. Analytics is a necessary tool that all MLB teams have devoted themselves to developing. Because of this mindset, Falvey has been well thought of. But IMO, this mindset has gone extreme; that MLB baseball has turned into a fantasy baseball game, driven completely by biased stats & HR Derby; that has compromised the game. MLB baseball isn't cold & hard stats. It's a game played by human beings, not video avatars. With human elements like conditions, intangibles like instinct & heart that analytics can't register, or fundamentals that analytics have difficulty measuring accurately.  It's time to bring back the baseball-smarts back into the game & not be completely dominated by analytics. I'll state again that analytics is a necessary tool, but we can't not driven by them. We need to get away from this mindset that Falvey possesses. Falvey doesn't have the baseball smarts that is needed to be a GM.

Face it folks:  your 2024 Minnesota Twins are not good.

As of the time of this writing, they are 17-2 vs CHW, COL, LAA, OAK.  These are 4 of the 5 worst teams in baseball.  They are 25-33 against everyone else.

In MLB, they are 10th in runs scored, but 22nd in ERA.

Thank you ownership for taking a WS contending team and intentionally making them worse.
Thank you for taking the TV money and not reinvesting it back in the team.
Thank you for not allowing the FO to go out and getting a quality SP or two to replace the ones that left.
Thank you for not ensuring your fans get to watch their team on television this year by building in a solid out clause.

The articles of who the Twins should trade for need to stop.  No trade is coming that will increase payroll or move a top 10 prospect.

As a lifelong Twins fan, I am utterly disgusted with this year.  You should be too.

Everyone knows that Byron Buxton is struggling with some sort of knee injury.  Some folks are happy with the Twins current plan of playing him at DH, some want him at CF regardless of injury, and some just want more information about the injury because whatever the Twins are doing it doesn’t seem to be working.  I am in the last group and I am personally growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of information coming from the team and derision from the media.

If you don’t agree with some on Byron Buxton’s situation you “don’t watch the games” or “don’t treat the players like humans” but after the latest media scrum from Rocco on this you “just don’t want to listen”.  I have actually “listened” to a lot of things about Buxton’s knee over the last 2 years.
I listened when Dan Hayes reported that Buxton knew all of 2022 that he needed a knee surgery and would be out for only 6-8 weeks.  He had that surgery in September and still isn’t in CF.

I listened when Do-Hyoung Park reported last September that Falvey said there are no tears or structural issues in the knee and it is no worse that what most folks have in their daily lives.  He had that surgery in September and still isn’t in CF.

I listened when Dan Hayes reported that Byron Buxton reported to camp in good shape and is not limited at all.  Despite the lack of limitations, he still isn’t in CF.

I listened when the Gleeman & the Geek Progrum said for the entirety of Spring Training that Buxton not playing in games was not concerning and that many modern front offices don’t use games to get ready for the season.  He still isn’t playing games in CF.

I listened at the beginning of the season when Dan Hayes reported Buxton would be starting the season at DH to avoid crappy weather in April but that Buxton feels great.  He still isn’t in CF.
And I am listening now they say he physically can't play CF, which I can also see with my own eyes.

At this point I have lost faith in listening to the Twins and their treatment plans for an injury they are choosing not to disclose.  I am also tired of the media not even trying to ask during the press scrums “What’s wrong with the knee?  Ligament, Cartilage, Meniscus, Arthritis, etc…”  I don’t need an X-Ray or MRI, just a basic injury declaration like hundreds of other MLB players have given in the past. 

Talking about the Indians. When I looked at the opening lineup card I actually thought it was a post from a spring training game. That lineup is putrid. The great thing is the only person they are really missing is Lindor. Lindor is fantastic but he can’t make up for the rest of the poopoo platter that the Indians are going to trot out there on a daily basis. The Indians are going to be great at 2 spots with Lindor and Ramires and average at another with Santana. There is a good chance they will be below average to bad at the rest of the spots in the order. Even with that rotation, it’s hard to win every game 2-1. I wrote about this earlier in the spring, what happens if Lindor or Ramirez miss time or just simply aren’t as great as they’ve been the last 3 years? Then this lineup becomes one of the worst in baseball which is what we saw yesterday. Seriously Tyler Naquin batting 3rd? He wouldn’t even make the Twins roster. Lindor now has to wait for his ankle to heal then basically start spring training over again. He may miss the entire month of April. This division is absolutely for the taking. This isn’t an over reaction to 1 game. And don’t tell me they were missing Jason Kipnis also. Kipnis has been below average for 2 years.

I know it is popular to say Molitor is a poor manager. Today there is even a comparison with Lovullo. But maybe the problem rises to higher levels. Yes Lovullo lost his Ace and still succeeds. The Twins pitching lost its Ace and continued too. I here that the Twins are not running the bases like others. The problem is, you have to get on base. We have a collective 234 batting average and a 307 OBP. The old cliche is - you can't steal first. This team is not built for much of anything.
 
So what has the Front Office done for Molitor - they brought in LaMarre, Cave, Morrison, and Motter. We lost our catcher and they brought in Bobby Wilson. Tell me how Mauer compares to Goldschmidt? Who are the leaders for the team.
 
On the pitching side the analytical geniuses bring in Lynn and Odorizzi - its been a roller coaster, but I am not upset by those moves. On the other hand our aging bullpen additions do nothing for me. We have a 41 year old Rodney and 38 year old Belisle. Then we tell Molitor not to over use the one or two arms that are actually delivering. Reed and Duke - two more old vets are okay, but Reed failed as the eighth inning arm.
 
The FO brought in more coaches, consultants, good old twins guys than I can count or remember, but we watched our two premier players for the future - Sano and Buxton fail and flounder. How many consultants can we assign to them. Fernando Romero looks like the real thing, but as he reached that point where some adjustments are needed we send him down - sorry calling all our consultants.
 
We have had Adrianza and Petit at SS when we have Gordon in the minors. Gordon might be needing some more development, but can't he match these two or perhaps spell a struggling Dozier.
 
Of course Molitor does not want a 224 lead-off hitter like Grossman, but we started with Dozier who is batting 218 and Mauer who is batting 254 and looks lost since his occurrence of concussion symptoms. So who else can bat first? We need the two Eddies to be in the top of the lineup, but do you move them to one and two and put powerless Mauer at number 3 with 191 batting Morrison and 218 batting Dozier in position to drive them in?
 
Who does Molitor bring in from the pen - Hildenberger is doing great, Magill does not seem to have anyones confidence, Reed lost his position, Duke scares us, Rogers and Pressly have eras over 4 - terrible for a reliever. So FO guys, where is the help? How do you give your manager a roster he can actually work with?