KirbyDome89

Yeesh. That's over half of the bullpen right now. I get wanting to move on from Lopez, he has been terrible, but ideally his spot isn't going to another relief arm that has to be spoon fed low leverage.

KC this weekend. I wouldn't fret.

30 of his 44 innings have come in low leverage. He isn't close to "filling a mid-leverage roll pretty well." He's providing an abundance of value (10 positive stats) but sitting at a negative WPA?

Gallo needs to write Hernandez a thank you card for that "double."

He has an .860 OPS against on the season when entering with men on base. We know his his high leverage numbers are atrocious. He's back at a negative WPA (by Fangraphs) after last night so the "X number of clunkers in 40 appearances," argument seems pretty silly at this point. He's a guy who can only be trusted to start clean innings in low leverage. That's a role you want Jorge Lopez in while he tries to turn it around, or someone like Balazovic filling while getting their feet wet.

6 innings, 3 runs, 11 Ks. Idk if they worked him over all that hard. I'd take the 3 runs if you offered them right now though

Yeah they definitely never ambushed anybody, or looked anemic against better arms in the 1st half....

Who is arguing that the Twins need to give the Ws back?

Cease & Giolito just combined for 11 innings, 1 run, and 18 Ks. Castillo and Kirby combined for 13 innings, 3 runs (all Castillo's) and 21 Ks to wrap the previous series. The Twins certainly took advantage of some bad (Oakland & Chicago) and inexperienced (Seattle) pitching but Idk if that's a departure from anything they did in the first half.

Actually the team would be better off with Lewis in CF, unless you think the issues with Buxton don't exist moving forward. No more MAT types locked into the lineup every day, 3B stays open for Lee (or Miranda if he gets it together) and you've got one of your best athletes at a premium defensive position.

He's not healthy enough to spend any amount of time in CF and he's struggling badly at the plate, but there's no IL stint in sight. His injuries haven't progressed through 100ish games, but now, as the wear and tear mounts, they're eyeing a return to CF post deadline? What we're hearing seems to conflict with what we're seeing. I'm not expecting a release of medical records but the Twins have certainly invited speculation/criticism with their handling of the situation. It's not like Buxton is helping the team right now, quite the opposite actually, and he's entrenched in the most easily replaceable position on the team. Are injuries not the primary culprit for his woes at the plate, and are we supposed to believe that whatever has held him out is better after another 2-3 weeks? Is this just Buxton being stubborn about an IL stint and the team giving in?

Probably not as hard I as laugh reading the tone of these posts that completely miss the mark.... They absolutely are part of the problem. Defense first OFers tend to play CF and be platoon/4th OFers. They aren't stalwarts in RF (a bat first position) with a below average bat. Depending on how much stock you want to put in defensive metrics, Kepler hasn't been anything special defensively this year either. Gallo was a bounce back candidate that hasn't worked out. He wasn't some insurance policy and nobody was planning on him "carrying the offense." The guy has been an albatross. He has started 60 games, 53 have been in LF or 1B with a bulk of the latter coming while Kirilloff worked his way back. What are these other two positions he has played "extensively?" I don't understand the need to obfuscate reality to justify roster spots for these two. The calculus here is simple, the Twins can (should) move on from both guys next year, and there are replacements deserving of a shot at AAA.

No, May up until now (present day) is the sample I'm using. He has a .681 OPS over that time. That's 2.5+ months, so nearly half a season. Is that small? We don't have to assume the HRs dry up, look back across the last few months, they do. I too hope that somebody "wrestles," some OF starts away from Gallo.

May to present day is nearly half a season, is that really a SSS? The primary issue is that when those HRs dry up, and they will, what you're left with is unplayable.

That OPS is entirely HR driven, and still heavily inflated by April numbers. I've called it empty in other threads. Since May his OPS is under .700 with a 43% K rate to boot. The average is abysmal, and his OBP is below average. He's an offensive black hole a vast majority of the time. He only provides value when he's clustering HRs, and that happens far too infrequently. I absolutely have watched Gallo's ABs during this stretch and thought the guy was unplayable, but YMMV.

This. I'll believe it when I see it. This FO has been incredibly comfortable running out non-performers with regularity. If they're cool with letting Gallo flail away for months and be awful Idk why we'd expect Buxton's leash to be shorter. Here's to hoping we're pleasantly surprised I guess...

They've continued to stick it out with Kepler and Gallo, I guess I'll believe it when I see it with sitting Buxton. If he hits the Il as soon as Polanco is back there should be plenty of questions about why they didn't make that move sooner...

If the Twins were sending out a talent like Goldschmidt, would you be happy with that return? Be honest. This looks like a fantasy football swap where one side thinks they can throw together a handful of spare parts on the bench and poach a RB1.

They shouldn't. This team is also 21-28 vs teams above .500 and 15-17 against sub .500 teams not named KC or Oakland. I wouldn't bank on winning many 1-0 games (middle game of that 1st Baltimore series) in the postseason but it could happen I guess. I get why some would move on. None of the above improves by shipping out Gray though. I'd keep him. Entertainment is the product, winning is more fun than losing, and MN's odds of doing the former are better if Gray is starting in October. I think there are other ways to make up whatever hypothetical future talent you're eschewing to hang onto Gray for the 2nd half.

I get the need for optimism with this team, but I agree, if we're going to hold up a 6-3 stretch as evidence that this team is turning it on, or performing the way we'd expect them to, I think it's fair to ask how often we expect to get two historically awful teams for 2/3 of every 9 game stretch.

Low-key rooting for TX because I want to catch him at TF this year.

Tell me you don't watch games without telling me you don't watch games....

I guess define drastic, because that's not a term I've used. 10% bump? 15%? Willing to tolerate means there doesn't seem to be a point (or at least we haven't reached that point) where the juice doesn't justify the squeeze, i.e. Ks seem to be considered a necessary evil. We just watched Sano wash out, and this FO goes out and immediately signs.....Joey Gallo, maybe the only other player in baseball capable of matching that kind of extreme profile. The guy has been atrocious for 2.5 months now while 2 actual prospects sit in AAA. If he was truly a make good type contract and not a "we know/are okay with what we signed up for," deal, he'd be gone right? Does Gallo get the same type of leash in 2019 if Larnach and Wallner are in AAA waiting for their shot? Buxton, post 2019, has leaned even more into pulling the ball and hitting it in the air. You don't even need to look up percentages to know that though, because you can watch his PAs and see him sell out at bat after at bat. I honestly don't think he's the same type of hitter we watched 5 years ago. Has he recently been sold more on an existing approach, or has the organization started testing the boundaries of extreme and we're seeing the results? So over half of the regular lineup has seen a real spike. That's all pure talent deficiency? Eh. I didn't say it was crazy, but I think that's more than coincidence or bad luck.

Is he, or did he just have a 4 hit game against KC? His OPS by month: April .634 May .730 June .735 July .696 Obviously that July number is subject to change, but whichever way you want to slice it (3 weeks or 4 weeks) he has a sub .700 OPS in the time frame and it certainly isn't just the OBP dragging it down. That's not close to being in line with his .825 career mark.

Yeah I think the desired results have remained unchanged, but what they're willing to tolerate to chase those results seems to have shifted. I just can't chalk up this many guys posting such high K rates to simply a talent deficiency. Agreed on Popkins stayling/going.