wsnydes

Any Major (League) Dude Will Tell You that the key to a successful season, is the perfect soundtrack. Better late than never!

What a pleasant surprise to wake up to today!

If you find a taker, no reason not to trade him. That goes with any expiring contract. bring up Gordon and give him the chance to show what he can do with consistent playing time. It'd be a nice reward for fighting through everything he's been through the last couple of years.

What Kay is suggesting would have resulted in Cole not finishing the game and getting suspended. Whose point is proven by that? Thankfully, Cole was above that. As he should be. Cole won this "battle" the way it should have been, on the field within the rules of the game. This game went about how I expected it too, so I don't really have much to say about it. It's just the same story, different game.

That's fair. May is also the one guy I hoped they'd brought back. To this point, he'd still be part of the problem. Glad he's at least trending in the right direction though.

Defensive metrics continue to perplex me a bit. Sometimes they don't pass the eye test. Not that the eye test is the gold standard of defensive prowess either. I didn't realize the defense would rank that highly last season. But that's not really the point. The constant shuffling of guys in and out of the outfield has to be the bulk of this slide. Buxton and Kepler missing significant time has been an issue. Furthermore, with the infield injuries, you've got Astudillo playing far more in the field than he otherwise would be. Thinking it through, it's not all that surprising.

But this team was losing when all of the guys you mentioned were healthy. Buxton was playing at an MVP level, and the team was still losing. Cruz was hitting and the team was still losing. We don't know how long Maeda was pitching hurt, but last season was an outlier in his career. Donaldson has been playing his best ball in a long while and the team is still losing. Kepler hasn't replicated his 2019 season, healthy or not. Garver hasn't replicated his 2019 until the last month or so, the team was still losing when he was hitting. Arraez has been excellent...and the team was still losing. Polanco has played his best ball in two years (despite being hurt) and the team is still losing. Sano has been abysmal all season, yet has been healthy most of it. All of those guys have played extended stretches where most, if not all, were in the lineup and they were still losing. Rosario isn't playing much better than the crop of guys they've run through LF. May has been awful and Clippard hasn't thrown a pitch this season. Have Happ and Shoemaker been effective? No, and they're perfectly healthy as far as we know. Also not mentioned is the bullpen, which has largely been healthy yet completely incapable of holding down a game. So, saying that we're using "stats as a crutch because we don't know what we're looking at" glosses over the fact that healthy players are underperforming. The team is bad. Injuries are a part of it, but its certainly not the primary reason.

The only bullpen arms that didn't pitch last night were Robles and Duffey, who both had pitched the last two games. Granted, with a day off sandwiched between them. I imagine that Rocco was trying to keep some arms available for the remainder of the series with the backend of the rotation starting the next two. Given the low level situation, it only made sense to use Jax in the 9th. He, as well as all of us, know that this week is going to be pretty hard on the pitchers. It makes sense to save two of your better arms in that scenario.

This article is actually arguing the opposite of what you're saying. They're not losing because of the injuries. And it's not trying to convince you that they're a good team. When was the last time this team played with a "full team"? They were 5-2 the first week of the season, and that was probably as close to healthy as they've been since. That's not to say that they've played well, however. Even the healthy players have underperformed. So, as the article is stating, injuries are not the prime reason for the poor play.

Its one thing to have production drop off from starter to replacement, but the sloppiness is quite another. Sure, they have lost games because they simply don't have talent that the other team does. But more often then not, they're losing because the beat themselves by errors or otherwise sloppy play. Little things in close games get amplified and result in losses, sometimes in blowout style. That's not due to injury. The injuries only explain a small portion of what this season has become. I don't mind losing, sometimes the opponent is just better. But it drives me nuts when a team beats itself. Even more so when its done as often as this team does it.

Shoemaker shouldn't even make it to the trade deadline. In fact, once the FO determines that they're going to be in sell mode, he should be DFA'd if he hadn't been already. The only logic that I can see for keeping him around at this point is that they're buying time for a prospect or the plan is that he is the corresponding move to activating Maeda.

Eddie isn't doing all that much better than the crop of guys they've run through LF. Definitely not enough to justify the price tag he would have come with. And he was blocking Kirilloff.

They identified defense as being a major issue, which it was, particularly in the infield. It has played out as a "one or the other" type scenario though. I do wonder how the pandemic economic pinch plays into this, but how it's played out is pretty disappointing, to say the least.

I'm concerned about the minor league injuries, but I really expected an uptick given the off year. The injuries at the major league level are insane though. I'm worried most about the injuries to the pitchers. They seem inevitable, but injuries to pitchers always seems to be a bigger issue long-term.

For a team that was supposed to be a legitimate contender, the FO didn't take the bullpen seriously. It's one thing to supplement depth or even plan to use one or two cast offs, but to rely almost solely on them is foolhardy. Relying on some voodoo magic to turn pumpkins into solid, shutdown relievers by the bunch is a serious gaffe for a team trying to break through in the playoffs. I didn't mind the Shoemaker signing too much. It definitely didn't excite me, but had some upside and Dobnak was there to take over should he falter. I didn't think he'd be all that good, but I didn't think he'd be this bad either. He was someone I could live with in the backend of a rotation.

I expected growing pains and am not too concerned about it. He'll relax eventually and start hitting again. If he's going to reach his ceiling, he's going to have to hit what he's given. It may be a blessing in disguise. It may be rough now, but if he learns from this experience, he could become a very tough out in short order. Also, I've always heard that wrist injuries are hard on hitters. It impacts power and even ability to adjust on the fly to a pitch. Hopefully, he heals up and starts hitting again.

Ninja'd by @spycake by, oooh about an hour... Unfortunately for the Twins, the great TBD is hurling for the Yankees, destined to outduel Happ. Fortunately, spycake actually gave you (and me) options of who TBD may actually end up being. You'll just get snark from me! ?

Quite the pitching matchups against the NYY. I don't know who TBD is, but I'm fairly confident that he'll outperform Happ. I'm not looking forward to this week of Twins baseball.

Swing hard in case of contact.

These stolen base things are exciting! I'd love to see more of them! I'd like to see more of Gordon, even if it's just a showcase for trade bait. Those are the types of things I want to see the rest of the season.

This quasi-competition was closer than the Twins game!

Teams like the Twins have a smaller margin of error for mistakes in basically every facet of their talent development. Whether it be injuries or a guy just not panning out, high revenue teams can absorb that more easily. Some of that is luck, but there is some control there. Talent evaluation and development is key to longevity to an organization like the Twins, and most other franchises. They've done a decent job in the last decade, but it's still not enough. And even to that extent, like the 2000's teams, they were built to win divisions and nothing more.

The poles of the Earth are closer than last night's Twins game was. At least the affiliates were competitive.

I wonder how much the off year for the minor leaguers is impacting keeping Shoemaker around. Is the organization trying to determine where any potential in-house fill ins are as they come back? There's not been a lot of roster shuffling aside from for injuries. Kinda makes you wonder. The pitching staff has been mostly healthy, so they can't use that as an excuse to jettison a healthy player that's clearly not up to the task.