KirbyDome89

I used 2019 PAs for Kepler because it was the full season vs. the present but yes, if he misses time again this year it could be closer to 1 K every 5 or even 6 games. If I knew what was going on in hitters meetings, or I had the answer to what was wrong I'd be employed by the Twins right? Do I think the Twins are explicitly telling hitters it's fine to K at will? No. Do I think they believe in an approach that de-emphasizes Ks and overvalues putting the ball in the air? Yes. Do I think that approach finds it way into how hitters prepare game to game, and how coaches instruct? Also yes.

If you've got inside info on what's going on feel free to share friend....

Defensive innings will destroy his knee, but sprinting at full speed and diving on the bases gets the green light. Laughable.

Uh huh, and those three seasons all happened to come after he turned a corner offensively. Now the K rate has climbed back up, but again, he's not the same type of hitter that was posting those numbers early on. Huh? An extra 7% in 2019 is 42 Ks, so an additional strikeout every 4 games is the difference. Instead of striking out an extra time every 4th game this year, lets say he gets a hit 20% of the time to maintain his paltry .200 average, only singles as well, no extra bases whatsoever. That's a .733 OPS, which isn't all that impressive, but it would be a 45 point improvement on where he's at currently. I think 7% kinda makes a difference. That's a .232/.300/.433 slash line What hitters in any era of baseball haven't looked to attack mistakes? Maybe it is a talent thing, Idk, but I have trouble believing that guys like Taylor, Farmer, or Vasquez show up, post high K rates, and it's just a coincidence. The Twins would have to be the unluckiest team of all time to collect all these guys having some of the worst contact seasons of their careers, all at the same time. Hell, throw the Gallo signing in there too. To me these signify a greater willingness to sacrifice contact.

If it's a stability issue with the knee I doubt he'd have medical clearance.

Does it have to be a good reason? This is the same FO that couldn't bear to part with Kepler in the offseason and continues to run him out in RF and bat him in the middle of the order. Is it really that crazy to think they're completely comfortable with MAT in CF and keeping Buxton at DH because preservation is being prioritized over production?

So we're taking away innings from a rotation that has carried this team and giving them to a washed up, veteran SP and a bullpen with 2-3 reliable arms. Ok.... Was watching Chris Archer scuffle through short starts and chew up a middling pen last year so enjoyable that we feel the need to repeat it?

No, the question was whether the quest to replicate the 2019 results has skewed too far towards the extreme. Has this organization been willing to sacrifice too much to recapture that success? I'm not saying players aren't accountable for their performance. It starts there, but if the Twins are de-emphasizing Ks, situational hitting, yada yada and encouraging the type of all or nothing approach so many of the hitters seem to have they're part of the problem. Can these guys just revert to 2019 form? Why doesn't the current lineup just start hitting line drives, moving runners, or taking extra bases? Easier said than done if you've been down this path for a while right? 2019 was only a career year for Kepler, both Buxton and Polanco have had better offensive seasons post the juiced ball year. We both know that Buxton's foray into MLB was rough, and that he struggled mightily at the plate. Why are we using his career K%? Has he even remotely resembled that type of hitter in the time period we're talking about? Even if the changes year to year for all three guys have been incremental, the trend has been upward. They're all sitting at a K% that's 6-7% higher than the starting point. That's not insignificant. I'd be more inclined to believe what we're seeing with this trio is an outlier if some of the new additions weren't also posting some their highest K%s in the last 5 years, or matching career highs.

Yep, there have been plenty of "wake up calls," already. I laughed when I heard about the players only meeting. Dropping 3 of 4 to Detroit and embarrassing yourself to start that Boston series just a week before wasn't a wake up call? If firing the hitting coaches lights the fuse that eventually blows up the FO I'm all for it but I have serious doubts that this organization is willing to make the necessary shake up.

Buxton, Kepler, and Polanco are the remaining position players from that '19 squad, and they've all seen their K% jump considerably from that season to where we stand right now. Kepler's strikeout numbers took a minor downturn last year, but for the most part all three have seen a steady increase over that time span. Is this the result of age related decline, i.e. a talent deficiency, or has the approach actually shifted slightly? I'm asking honestly here. To me, it feels like the Twins have leaned harder into the more extreme end of the three outcomes, and I'd call that a shift in approach.

On top of the aforementioned price paid for this rotation, we're just going to ignore the fact that the bullpen has 4-5 arms that can't handle any sort of leverage right now, or that despite the rotation being mostly healthy for the first half (RIP Mahle,) they're one minor/major injury away from Dallas ****king Keuchel starting games because "pipeline," guys like Varland and SWR are getting blown up at AAA? Can we just enjoy three months of good starts before racing to crown this team a top pitching organization? I mean seriously....

What was said?

Comma usage wasn't the issue, the lack of a conjunction to specify which year(s) was.

As it turns out, it's important to choose the correct part of speech in order to convey the intended message. Wild.

Or they've beaten up an awful team and played meh to poor baseball outside of those series... You mean TB right? LA? The Twins are 22-27 against teams over .500. Their record against sub .500 teams other than KC isn't good either.

Nearly a quarter of this team's Ws have come against KC. That's not an advantage? The Twins have a losing record in 20 games against all other division opponents. That isn't a massive opportunity (advantage) squandered when you consider how middling to bad those other three teams are?

Every year? They've finished 5th and 3rd the last two years in this terrible division. The lineup, which has struggled all year, also has to face playoff rotations. There won't be a 39 year old, washed up Zack Greinke trying to squeeze out a 6th inning after being battered in the first 5, during playoff contests. You can "give it a shot," without pushing in valuable chips on a very flawed team. Why should we take them seriously as an actual WS contender? That's the better question. They've stumbled through the first 80+ games of the year, and despite having the massive advantage of playing in the ALC, they're fighting just to stay around .500. A regression argument that ignores the other side of that coin isn't all that compelling. Take the invitation, don't try to keep up with the Joneses.

Don't sell Greinke, Marsh, and Cox too short! 1-9 vs MN is about the max amount of help possible so far.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the lead will be comfy enough they won't have to worry about defensive swaps.

Complaining about Kepler criticism being disingenuous while framing the side making the arguments as "ADHD fans with outsized expectations, obsessing over shiny new toys," seems odd.... You're expecting 3 WAR production, and if things break right even more value? Kinda hard to take some of this seriously...

They're also on pace to lose 115 games. My guess is it's the former.

Maeda is going to be the story (and he deserves props for throwing as well as he has coming back,) but holy **** KC is awful. They're so bad it actually pisses me off.

I'd be willing to bet a large sum of imaginary money that facing this dog**** Royals lineup will yield much better results.

Gallo has an OBP below league average, he isn't working his way on at any sort of impressive clip. The OPS, which now sits sub .800, is HR driven, and those HR clusters have been oases in a desert of offensive ineptitude, i.e. he's a black hole a vast majority of the time. To me, that's pretty empty. Yeah, I'd put Kepler in the same boat, but for guys like Larnach or Wallner to beat out the incumbents, they need to be given the opportunity to do so. The Twins seem very content to continue investing innings into Kepler and/or Gallo despite the lack of production.

2 runs in 2 games. Reset. Yeesh.