KirbyDome89

The laz a faire approach many choose to take is incorrect IMO

Slightly off topic, but waaaay to many people don't understand baseball math. They see 162 games and think there's plenty of time. The regular season is a marathon, no doubt, but competitive marathon runners don't sit at the starting line for the first mile and two and win the race.

5 innings into the season series might be a bit premature

Same reason a 1B isn't charged with an error when an IF short hops a throw that isn't scooped.

Actively cringed watching that segment.

Nope. Festa was in the correct position. Wallner needs to eat that throw, and/or Correa has to dig it out. That play is 100% on the fielders.

That's Twins baseball baby. Our RF makes and off target throw where there was little to no chance of getting the runner. The runner at first gets to take 2nd. Correa deflects the ball trying to dig out the throw and instead of 1st and 3rd with 2 outs it's a runner on 3rd with two outs and a run across. Jfc.....

Might be time to sail the high seas...

Anybody else dealing with streaming issues for this game?

Detroit gets Festa, Paddack, then SWR. Probably a push as far as the SP draw is concerned.

Give the pitching staff their flowers too. I'm pretty sure they were sitting near the bottom of the league as well before getting a 4 game set vs. KC's anemic offense.

KC scored 3 earned runs combined the last three games of this series. They won 2 of those 3 games. Can't make this stuff up...

Yes and Yes. Idk about the pitching outside of Ragans, I honestly think the Twins as a starting unit can best them. I think KC is going to struggle to score and we know all too well how hard it is to consistently win games that way. They're pushing two full games (spanning the last 3) without scoring an earned run right now. SSS yada yada but that bottom half of their lineup looks putrid and even with positive regression it doesn't look like a group that'll impress in any way.

I know the Twins are scuffling but good god the Royals look almost every bit as inept offensively. Cleveland shouldn't scare anybody. Idk about Detroit. The ALC looks a lot like it did in 2023 so far this season. It's going to be a rock fight amongst a bunch of painfully mediocre (at best) clubs.

This. I guess people assume Lee's first go round last season and/or his ST are just an aberration? Castro can be your everyday 2B if defense is that much of a concern. That's why he's on the roster. Everybody wants Gasper out because a scuffling offense can't afford to carry all these struggling hitters. I don't understand the rush to plug in somebody who has also struggled.

Yeah Idk, does TD normally "page," backup IF, or dedicate entire articles to how the team should make room for them? There was no implication that the results last night are different with Lee at 2B? Ok....

2B or 3B defense isn't enough. Half your roster can't be a black hole offensively. I don't care about Gasper, make the swap, but if Lee isn't hitting the hook needs to be equally fast.

The headline for the 2nd paragraph is literally "Paging Brooks Lee."

Ok, but is that really a point in favor of the Brooks Lee savior argument?

It has always started with the players, they're first in the line of fire. The Rocco/FO chatter has picked up as the on field product has underwhelmed over time. I'm not asking Rocco to throw anybody under the bus. You can provide reasoning without doing that. You're right Rocco or Falvey are under no obligation to discuss decision making, but you're going to lose the benefit of the doubt faster if you're leaving decision making open to interpretation. As far as playing things close to the vest is concerned, we watched opposing teams goad the Twins into removing better hitters midway through numerous games simply by bringing in a LHP. It was possibly the most obvious move in baseball. I don't think the Twins are protecting some master strategy by not giving a reason for in game decision making. We'll never have all the info. That's an impossible bar to clear. IMO you don't need every tidbit to make a solid case. They've missed the postseason 3 of the last 4 years in what is supposed to be a contention window. The one year they made it, they borderline backed their way in. I have no clue what projection systems they did or did not beat/match, and to be honest, I don't give a f*** about preseason win expectations. They mean nothing. I'd rather see this FO go than Rocco if I only was allowed to choose one. Ownership is their own problem, but they don't meddle in the baseball ops department.

That's definitely not how he is/was being billed. Is it asking too much to not allow 10 baserunners in 6 IP? Not giving up a run in half of your (1 inning) appearances is an insanely low bar for praise. The Twins aren't using him for multiple innings because they don't view him as a back end guy. He's getting more run than other arms because the team wants to use him.

Careful, that blasphemy in these parts.

2023 is the outlier in the sense that they made the postseason and won a couple games, but they were painfully mediocre/bad for a lot of that season. That fact gets papered over because of the aforementioned Ws, but that 2023 squad was below .500 and had their brains beat in heading into the AS break. They were essentially rescued by some young players breaking out and the rest of the ALC being even more s*** than usual. That team doesn't sniff the postseason in either the East or West division that year.

Hasn't it always started there? Is anybody actually making the argument that this is some insanely talented club that's being sabotaged by the manager? Our ignorance of the minutiae with regard to decision making doesn't preclude anyone from constructing an informed opinion. The results speak for themselves. Also, Rocco and FO have every opportunity to explain their reasoning. I think the issue(s) start above Rocco Baldelli's head. I feel the same way about him as I did about the last few hitting coaches, or strength coaches, or pitching coaches, ect; these guys are deck chairs on the Titanic. This club has put together a few good months of baseball in the last 4+ seasons during what's supposed to be a window of contention. I think it's ok to start questioning whether the poor performance on the field is a symptom of a larger issue.

Undoubtedly that plays a part in it.