Darius

Unforgivable for Pagan, agreed. But it was extreme luck for the Rays up to that point. If Schoop gets the bunt down it’s a tie game, at minimum, on Arraez’s single. Then, somehow, Polanco can’t get a run across with the bases juiced and one down. There might not be a hitter in the World this side of Trout i’d rather have at the plate in that situation. You only have so much Karma.

And the grown man Cruz steps up and takes care of business. What a clutch hit.

Why don’t people hate Schoop as much as they hate Sano? I swear, that guy has K’d in every AB with RISP this year.

Just arriving, and that steak made me walk right back to kitchen. Although, not a big sirloin guy. Can’t beat a good ribeye, bone in. Another go to: Flat iron marinated in a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Give that a try with some onion, fresh cilantro, and corn tortillas. Chipotle who? Anyways. Maaaaaayyyyyy!

People are irrational when it comes to assessments of Sano. Look at his career OPS to date (.813). In his first 6 season in the major leagues, Harmon Killebrew surpassed that number 1 time. Think about that. David Ortiz one time (and he wasn’t good until he was 26+). I don’t know why Ks are even in the conversation anymore. Look around the league. Domingo Santana, who is having a great year, Javy Baez, Bryce Harper, Trevor Story, Luke Voit are all in the top 10 in Ks right now (Miguel is not due to less PT I’m sure). People are striking out a ton these days. Some of the best players in the game are striking out a ton these days. Writing him off now is asinine. Yet, the same people keep pimping Astudillo and his .685 OPS and awful defense. It’s really mind boggling, and frankly, an awful take IMO. Did nobody learn from Thrylos wanting to swap Buxton for a bag of balls and replace him with Granite?

If I were more internet chat-board savvy, this is where I’d post the gif of Michael Scott from the Office screaming “No! Please God, No!” Knock the garner off the end of his name and that’s what you’re left. His peripherals are not good the last few years (unless you’re looking for a 3rd-5th starter), especially away from his current pitcher-friendly confines. If you’re going to upgrade the rotation st the cost of prospects, really upgrade the rotation. I might rather have Kyle Gibson start a playoff game. Bum isn’t not even a shadow of his World Series MVP days right now. Also, I’d rather not have a guy that makes an ass of himself on the field every time someone looks up at one of the many HRs he’d give up at Target Field to RH hitters.

Massive win on multiple different levels. 1). The struggling offense (relative to earlier in the year) put a beat down on the reigning Cy Young award winner. Huge confidence booster. 2). Similar to the above, but on an individual level, Rosario and Garver had huge games. Getting those guys hot again solves a lot of problems (pitching well doesn’t matter a whole lot when you’re scoring 7-8 runs). 3). If things do continue to fall apart (again, relative to earlier in the year), the Rays are the direct competition for a wildcard spot. Conversely, if things don’t, doing as much damage to Rays as possible isnt a bad thing. Not sure I’d like to see Snell, Morton, and Glasnow (maybe) in a playoff series. 4). Capitalized on an Indians loss, which is a rare occrrence lately. Building the lead back up before their pitching staff gets healthy is imperative. With all of the games we have left with them, a lead in the ballpark of 4-6 games scares me. 5). People are blasting Gibby, but I think it was a great performance for the team. Didn’t have to work the bullpen. K’d 7, which means his stuff is working. Kept the lead comfortable. Would it be nice to see more from him? Sure. But, going 7 and getting a win is big. Winning tonight and taking the series would really put a nail in the coffin of that bad week. The only negative in my mind is potentially losing Kepler (maybe news has broken, Im under a rock). That would hurt.

Losing Kepler for a significant period of time, on top of Buxton and Marwin, would be pretty devastating. That also includes IL trips for Garver, Cruz, and Sano. I was under the impression that only the Yankees have to deal with injuries.

Hand gave up a granny to blow the lead in the 9th for Cleveland. Wonderful development and chance to pick up a game.

A Twins team in the late 90s set some sort of record on offense? I’m sure it could be/is true....but so hard to believe.

Can’t touch Homer Bailey, then proceed to pound 6 runs in 3 innings against the reigning Cy Young. Clearly I have this team pegged. Whatever I think is going to happen, the opposite ends up being true. Thank goodness I have a day job.

After watching the rotting corpse of zomvie Homer Bailey shut down the Twins....I’m kind of terrified of Blake Snell.

The excuses I’m reading regarding the Pressley trade are starting to get a little rich. 1). Is they can’t develop pitchers like some other organizations, they’re just not that good at developing pitching. Wasn’t that one of the main bullet points when we brought them in? 2). People are saying the front office needed more than the significant amount of time he spent patching well for this club. Really? Then why would the Astros target him for trade? They had nothing more than game tape and scouting reports. 3). The sentiment that Astros got lucky, and he just happened to explode after arriving in Houston is just flat out ludicrous. 4). If they thought this team wouldn’t compete in 2019, they didn’t have a very good handle on what they had here. It’s Rosario, Kepler, Buxton, Polanco, Berrios, Gibson, Odiorizzi, Garvey, Castro, etc that are driving this team’s success. Not Jonathan Schoop or Marwin Gonzalez. They shouldn’t get a pass for their faulty assessment of their own team. At the end of the day, they got brought and paid to make the right decisions. To this point, it’s primarily been the previous regime’s players that have turned things around. And now, their prized number 1 overall pick is flailing in A ball. The Astros turned around and laughed all the way to the back, with arguably the best reliever in the game right now, for what amounts to almost nothing. Why is so hard to some to admit that Falvine got taken behind the woodshed by superior baseball minds. Not only that, but could’ve well put the nail in the coffin of this current team’s World Series aspirations before they even knew they existed. I need to start seeing more out of Falvine in terms of player acquisition. So many have chosen to blindly follow these guys because they’re young, cool, and follow all the trendy analytics. I’ll base my opinion on results. This year has been great....but it’s far from over and we’re seeing the seams start to fray.

Great relievers are developed....then traded to the Astros for marginal prospects that will never see Target Field.

I know there are high opinions of this front office, et all. But, I don’t think they’re so superior that they can take guys like Allen and Rosenthal and turn them into dominant relievers again. It’s fine to take a flier or two. But, I’m not sure this FO/staff is in a place right now to be considered reclamation experts. Go get some pitchers that are good now, and work on some of the guys we already have.

I’m not ready to say Gordon is back on track. He is known to fall off a cliff in the second half. If he can put together a reasonable second half, I’ll pay some attention. It looks like Lewin Diaz is ready to reappear in the prospect rankings. Pretty good story.

He just signed this contract two months ago. They can’t possibly be to trying to unload it (certainly not, please just take it off our hands). If they are, they have serious FO issues.

Agree. Astudillo has gotten so overrated by many twins fans. His slugging percentage is abysmal. He’s not particularly hard to get out in a jam (just make him chase). We’ve already seen him drop fly balls in the outfield in key situations. I’ll take Arraez 10 time out of 10. He’s the better player. It looks sustainable. It clearly never was with Astudillos hot start.

The Indians are just going to keep getting better. They’ll get Kluber and Clevinger back. Lindor will keep getting better as he returns from injury. Things can only get better for Ramirez. They’re getting a number of quality prospects up from the minors. We’re not going to run away with this thing. I’d make the bet that the Indians will cut this lead to less than 5 games by the end of July. The way things are going right now, it’ll be by the end of June....and it’s far from a guarantee that the Central will get a wildcard spot. If this front office doesn’t get proactive now (aka, make some moves in the next couple of weeks), it’s going to be too late. This pitching staff, with the exception of Berrios, is awful and it’s going the wrong direction. If this team misses the playoffs, it’s one of the most epic collapses in the history of baseball. People should be fired if it happens.

Im not too concerned about the expiring contracts. Who among them are that good? Was anyone worried about losing Odorizzi 6 months ago? He is, and will continue to, come back down to earth. We can find a kid like Kohl Stewart to be the 5th starter. He can provide what Pineda has been (5 runs to the hapless Royals in 4 IP isn’t s high bar) for much cheaper. Schoop has been awful for a month now. I’d rather play Arraez over him anyway. Cron is having a good year. But, he had a good year last and found himself packing his bags. Some of his success is rooted in hitting in the heart of a great lineup. I’m not at all worried about replacing it, and 1st base defense is hardly a high priority. All of this said, I’m not so sure this is as crazy as it sounds. Deep down, after seeing these last couple of weeks, I think we all know this team is going to get blown away in a playoff series with Houston or the Yankees. Hell, Cleveland might bump us from the playoffs all together. We flat out don’t have the pitching. Berrios is the only guy that can be trusted at this point. Even Rogers is crumbling and we still aren’t to the All-Star break. It’s not looking promising. We watched the one-and-dones for years under Gardy. Do whatever it takes to get this thing over the hump, whether this year, next year, or two years from now. After that, we’ll be rebuilding this thing again. Buxton and Berrios will leave for giant $, likely one of Kepler and Polanco once their contracts expire. This team has never shown a willingness to have multiple significant deals on the roster at any given time. This will not be a lengthy window.

Nice win tonight. Not sure it relieves my concnerns regarding the bullpen, considering our best reliever blows a multi-run lead to the worst team in the game. But, the offense remains a resilient and productive group. A win is better than a loss with the Indians catching fire. Getting the 3rd out of 4 would be a good start to alleviating my concern.

The level of Sano induced insanity has hit an all-time high. He hit a home run in a massive spot to tie the game....and his demotion is called for. Despite a rough patch, he’s still OPSing .850. Astudillo is barely OPSing .600, and the same people are ready to put his number next Mauer’s on the limestone. Taking a step back and thinking about it....it’s comical. It’s very similar to the obsession with Trump right now. Reality is thrown out the window. Facts mean nothing. It’s hysteria.

Not really surprising. All of the crotchety old pitchers are like this. They like the game the way it used to be. That’s when they were relevant. They want a more pitcher focused game....because they’re pitchers. They aren’t going to be an advocate for getting shelled by 4 HRs, 2-3 of which are fly balls without a juiced ball, every night. Also, it’s a bravado thing I think (“do all the tinkering with launch angle you want, its a bunch of crap and waste of time. You still can’t hit me.”)

We’re talking about, arguably, the worst, most punchless offense in Major League Baseball. Perez allows 6 runs in 5 innings. Cleveland is about to win again, dropping the lead to 8. We have, what, a dozen or more games remaining with Cleveland....and they look like the better team at this point in time. This is starting to get serious. We are going to give this thing away, aren’t we?

If you think winning 104 games in a season while losin 16 of 17 at some point is the rule and not some fluke of the rarest exception, I guess I don’t really know what to tell you.