KirbyDome89

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.

How can that roster spot be a revolving door if Gallo held onto it all season? A .288 OBP is terrible. We both know that. Moving on from a replacement level player is exactly what teams interested in winning should be doing, hence the term, replacement level. Locking in that type of performance is absolutely a worse roster decision than attempting to improve. I honestly don't know how that's debatable. Joey Gallo was most certainly a contributor to the offensive woes that plagued the Twins for much of the 2023 season. Yeah, we're gonna disagree that burning a roster spot on an unplayable guy because you paid him $11M is good roster management. You supported the Twins keeping Keirsey on the roster, despite his horrible performance, and you argued that was good roster management? That's not the discourse I remember, but ok.

People forget that the Twins were trying to win games in 2023. They were below .500 at the ASB that year. "He has to play because X, Y, Z player is out/needs rest," arguments were sunk cost reasoning. @chpettit19 already said it, but that spot at minimum could've been a revolving door for internal and/or external options. They could've actually addressed the need for another OF at the trade deadline if they felt so inclined. It wasn't simply Jordan Luplow or bust. That's a false choice. "Didn't meet expectations," is an understatement. He was a terrible offensive performer from May onward, and hanging onto him was terrible roster management. I really don't understand the argument for burning a valuable bench spot on a guy that you can't play. You led the charge for removing Kiersy last season for the same reason, why does Gallo get a pass here?

Three weeks ≠ 20% of the season, but more to the point, I didn't say that span of time didn't count, I said it was the only portion of the season that he was playable. He still held a roster spot through the entire year, so that's 5+ months of carrying an offensive black hole that no amount of corner OF defense could compensate for.

Margot was awful from the jump, but Gallo from May 1st through the end of the 2023: .163/.288/.374 with a 45% K rate. The rose tinted view of Gallo's MN tenure is baffling. He was a terrible offensive performer despite the ever declining OPS to which fans clung, yet the Twins refused to actually use his roster spot. I hope Larnach is playable for more than 3 weeks this season.

For sure a frustrating experience watching the US offense no show vs both the DR and Venezuela. I think most (and rightfully so) expected the US lineup to put on a better display. After the offense flopped, the frustration became "they didn't care," as opposed to "it's ST and it's 2 games." Idk what the tourney meant to the US players. Tbh, I don't really care, because while entertaining, I view the WBC as an exhibition. I would happily trade any number of WBC championships for a Twins sale and return to relevancy. The US guys play 162 games, in the most competitive league in the world, in front of fans in their home country. It's just different, and that's ok. I think fans are projecting their feelings (and I'm not unempathetic or even in disagreement) about what's happening outside of baseball onto individual performances and/or single games.

Venezuela earned it by playing better no doubt. The "they wanted it more," narrative feels like cope to me though. The US lost the championship game of a single elimination tourney by one run. That's baseball. At some point this season the Colorado Rockies will beat the Dodgers and nobody will think twice about. No questions about LAs effort or desire to play to game. That DR lineup was absolutely stacked. They scored one run in their loss. Did they just not want it enough? We need some perspective.

Thought the same thing reading that. Off the top of my head: Alex Jackson Ryan Kreidler Tristan Gray James Outman That's 4 position players right there. I believe Orze is on the 40 man and it doesn't sound like he has been all that impressive this spring so there's a 1 for 1 swap if the Twins can't possibly stomach losing any positional "talent." Travis Adams has been mentioned already.