KirbyDome89

Well, Twins fans are all too familiar with outspending divisional opponents only to yield disappointing results. Ideally a $40M gives you an edge, but if you're throwing that money at players like Lane Thomas I'd argue you're basically lighting that cash on fire. I know he was hurt last year, but he was terrible when he wasn't, and he was terrible during his time with Cleveland post deadline in 2024. KC might stack up better side by side vs. the Twins, but we're talking about a MN club that looks like 90 losses might be median outcome right now. The Royals will stay alive this season because the ALC sucks. Bubic is gone after this year. Ragan's is gone after 2027; this is a club that should be pushing in, and instead they're going to tread water in an awful division. Massey, Isbel, India, Thomas, Loftin, Marte; that's almost half the positional group that should be the 26th man and/or floating on the waiver wire, but instead they'll get serious run.

Also, outside of that of that 5 minute window with the homer barrage, that might've been one of the sloppiest and most boring games of baseball I've ever watched. I feel like I need to take a shower after that....

I know the Twins have a brutal roster but KC isn't too much better. How the actual **** are you letting Lane Thomas hit right there, and what the actual **** were you thinking giving him $5M after the disaster class he put on in Cleveland? Yeesh...

Such an awkward slide

Twins are getting away with a lot of sloppy play so far this game

People were (rightfully so) pushing to upgrade RF when Kepler was there. Not for necessarily the same reasons, but the limited skillset(s) means the margin for productive vs. looking to move on from is thin. Best chance to deliver power on the team not named Buxton is again, an insanely low bar. I'm all for feeding him PAs this year to see if he can maintain that 2023 level of production over the course of an entire season. If 2026 looks a lot like 2025, eh, you've got a 29 year old that isn't suited to play the field and doesn't have a consistent enough bat to hold down the DH spot.

Pointing out that Cal Raleigh, coming off a near MVP season, has been one of the best hitting catchers in baseball for the last 3+ years is most certainly adding context. Pointing out that 2025 for James Wood was a stretch of production that Matt Wallner hasn't rivaled is also adding context. The irony of claiming to be "just the actual numbers," guy while pushing back on the addition of more numbers (yay context) entering the chat seems to be lost. I don't understand the inability by some to separate a view of Wallner as a flawed player vs. "hating," him, but ok....

Yeah, and I added some context, which is of equal importance.

Apples and oranges here... Raleigh doesn't belong in the discussion. Full stop. He's been one of the best hitters at his position for years and he's coming off and MVP type season. If James Wood continues with that horrendous K rate for a few more weeks. Gets sent down to AAA and scuffles there for a while, comes up midseason, replicates his '25 performance, then has a middling 2027 where he adds no value (probably negative value defensively) outside of a very occasional homer we can talk. Wallner had ≈ 500 PAs combined in '23/'24 and ≈ 400 PAs last year.

"Wasn't sexy," is probably an understatement. Wallner feasted on subpar pitching in games that were out of reach. I understand that, to a degree, everybody is going to get fat against lesser competition, but Wallner's splits were extreme. The bar to clear shouldn't be other prospects that have fizzled. A 114 OPS+ from your starting SS who is capable of actually defending the position would be a revelation for this club. A 114 OPS+ from a guy that struggles to play one of the smaller RFs in baseball and adds nothing on the bases is likely someone you're moving on from.

Is it me or does Buxton look like he's cruising a little too much this game?

Curious what's being said. I'm currently sailing the high seas and locked into the Baltimore broadcast

That ****ing pitching wedge. Dude.....swing the actual ****ing bat.

Taking that extra base is huge

That Brooks Lee "new approach new body," hype is evaporating pretty quickly.

I get that power = fear for pitchers, but I really don't understand PAs like Wallner just had. Kudos to him for laying off a few pitches there, but my god you just watched him swing through 2 pitches in the zone and then you start nibbling and ****ing around. Being scared to throw strikes in favorable counts just seems counterintuitive.

I would've hammered the under the 10.5 runners period

Why did Bell look like he was swinging a pitching wedge during that AB....

Great AB by Keaschall. Brutal outside of that

Certainly plausible. Lewis also gets lumped in with guys like Miranda, Julien, Wallner (to an extent) ect. and that's not really apples to apples. I'm not giving Lewis a pass, he's been massively disappointing the last few years, but undoubtedly his inability to stay healthy has played a significant role. It's fair to question how much organizational instruction Lewis is actually absorbing at this point. I think it's entirely possible that the unsustainably hot start in a very SSS combined with the injuries set unreasonable expectations. That said, he hasn't been anything more than average-ish for short bursts the last 2 years and we're having serious discussions about whether he's worthy of arbitration, let alone an extension. It very well could be that the Twins found a way to maximize the thing(s) some of the lesser prospects do well, and once big league pitching found a way to adjust, there was nothing there to counter with. Guys like the trio I mentioned weren't "can't miss," status. Brooks Lee might just be a subpar SS without a good hit tool. Again, I'm not giving this organization a pass, I think they've done a pretty poor job of developing players. What I'm saying is I don't know if there's actually some systemic issue that stops these young guys from blossoming at the MLB level, rather, the Twins might've squeezed all the metaphorical juice they could out of these guys, i.e. maybe it's a dearth of talent, and not a total failure in making the developmental jump from AAA to MLB. Miranda and Julien will be interesting case studies this year.

Mentally fragile is probably too far. I think it's fair to question his maturity (mentality) after some of his comments/actions the last few years.

Those vets tend to be usable players, not an albatross actively dragging the lineup down, unless of course, you're the Twins. Dude, this one was already covered. Toronto played 18 postseason games. Ty France had 4 PAs and didn't start a single game. I mean c'mon.... Ah, we "don't know ball." Well, from my vantage point it looks like you've back yourself into a corner and the only way out is revisionist history and I guess claiming everyone else is too stupid to grasp the 4D chess that has been the Twins roster management. YMMV of course.

Forcing another roster spot to carry a LF candidate while continuing to burn a roster spot hanging onto a LF candidate that isn't playable? I mean what are we talking about here.... Why would anybody complain about successful additions? Haha, he might've "lost," his job as far as playing time was concerned, but he stayed on the roster for the entire ****ing year while being unplayable for 5+ months! That is the definition of refusing to move on. The notion that the Twins couldn't find somebody else to take over the role of possibly the worst hitter in all of baseball is laughable. There's absolutely no chance the organization was hanging onto Keirsey because his production was irreplaceable.

Pretty straight forward; cutting underperforming vets on MiLB deals during ST isn't the same thing as cutting bait with underperforming vets in season. The former happens all the time, the latter is a far more rare occurrence.