Jacksson

Great Strategy. Come in to start the 9th with your team ahead by 1 run, with zero outs and the bases empty. Hit the first batter faced and put the tying run on 1st with no outs. Having Banda come into a game is like walking on eggshells. His stats conceal the fact that he gives up scores to runners he inherits, hits batters, walks batters and allows hits.

MNFIREMAN: #1) You pitch Goodman inside with heat on AB#3 so that if he were to get plunked, you can say: "OOPS, S-O-R-R-Y!". I don't care if he didn't showboat, he still went yard twice. Buxton was still hit. Nobody intentionally hits a batter (HA HA). With Buxton being made of glass and being the team's best player, EVERY TIME he is hit with a pitch, a manager with GUTS would and should order retaliation to protect his player. #2) Whatever coaching is being done with respect to outfield play and specifically with handling caroms off the wall and positioning with respect to being in a position to handle caroms off the wall clearly is not yet working. Both Martin (TWICE) and Keaschall looked like clowns out there and only a HOMER of an "Official Scorer" prevented both from being charged with the errors they both deserved. Let's remember that both Martin and Keaschall are even out playing the outfield is because both proved to be defensive butchers at second base. Can't wait to see the extra bases taken on Keaschall if he continues to man RF. #3) Funderburk's mind is on his family, not his profession. I don't mean that in a bad way, it is understandable. A Major League Pitcher needs to be able to put his personal life aside when he is asked to perform and Funderburk has demonstrated multiple times this year that he is incapable of temporarily putting his profession first and executing his job at the MLB level. He needs to go down to AAA for the rest of the year where his focus issues are not so impactful while he deals with navigating his off field family issues. #4) I'm willing to lengthen the leash on Raya and chalk up the first two batters of this outing as being MLB jitters or the pitches called by the catcher. BTW: In reviewing the lengthy list of coaches, I fail to see a CATCHING COACH, or at least the reference that one of the existing coaches serves in that role. Perhaps one is needed based on the performance of the catching duo with respect to calling the game. #5) "The official scoring in today's game is horrible, but it's league wide and it's probably not going to change." UNTIL MLB steps up, acknowledges that there is a problem with leniency and inconsistency and DOES SOMETHING ABOUT IT !! #6) "The pitchers need to execute their pitches in order to help the fielders record outs." And so it would seem that the: Advance Scouts, Pitching Coach, Bullpen Coach, Outfield Coach need to be reminded that they are being PAID to do a job and, at present, they are failing to execute their jobs based upon on-field performance. #7) under Shelton, as compared to Rocco, Derek has managed to lose games based on: game strategy, use of his 26 man roster, misuse of his bullpen, too slow to use a hook, too fast to use a hook, failure to incorporate the sacrifice into the on-field strategy, failure to direct, motivate and hold accountable the coaches and players under his authority. I don't believe he, and his coaches are the correct choice to give a "chance to finish if/when the prospects arrive and start performing" based on the team's current level of performance and execution on the field both defensively and offensively. At present he and his crew may be adequate to handle a team going nowhere that is "comprised of having to piece together the scrap-heap finds and other teams cast-offs."

Shelton is a chicken ****. After Goodman unloads 2 bombs, when Goodman came up to bat in the 5th, all he sees is heat on the inside and if he should get hit by the pitch, so much the better. Shelton should have ordered that Goodman get plunked. If not for the 2 homeruns, then as payback for Buxton getting plunked in the 1st. Shelton is an idiot. Lefthander on the mound, runners on 3rd and 2nd = FIRST BASE OPEN and a guy that has gone yard twice already this game. Either walk him or plunk him. Funderburk needs to be optioned to St Paul and remain there for the rest of the season. Clearly, his mind is on his new kid and his wife's health. With those things paramount on his mind, he is no use to the team at the major league level. All Kody has to do is get 3 outs. Instead, he digs himself into a hole from the get-go = single, walk, homerun. And that homer was on a hanging sinker, up in the zone and right down the middle. All Raya has to do is to get 3 outs. And yet, the first batter he faces sees ONE strike out of the six pitches he sees; the FIVE that missed were not even close. Having walked that guy, Raya misses badly on 3 out of 4 pitches before grooving pitch #5 which promptly left the yard. Question: What is Hawkins being paid for? To send in relief pitchers that: can't throw strikes, pitch behind in the count, give up walks, give up hits, and serve up homerun balls?? Hawkins is supposed to have a handle on the performance of the members of his bullpen and despite the dubious abilities of the bullpen pitchers; he is supposed to be making them BETTER !! Marco, Keep your ticket to St Paul handy!! Let's not fail to point out the misplay in RF by Keaschall where he completely misplayed a ball of the wall in RF that the charitable, hometown scorer scored as triple as opposed to the correct call which should have been a single and a 2 base error on Keaschall. The Twins pitchers need to take this so-called "Official Scorer" out behind the woodshed and knock some sense into him as to what is exactly a hit and what is an error. ANYBODY who plays RF at Target Field needs a few hours EACH AND EVERY DAY to learn how to play the caroms off the wall on balls hit over their heads (as well as work for the pitchers, and catchers to not call and throw pitches that are not going to end up being hit over the heads of the outfielders - who are hopefully positioned correctly.

Attendance Problem = P - O - H - L - A - D

Austin Martin STUNK on his misplays in the first and second innings of a recent game in which the charitable hometown scorer awarded the batter a triple in the first and gave the batter in the second a double. Both should have been errors due to Martin's play.

"Martin is a very good defensive outfielder." Did you not see him fumble and stumble around in RF in the first 2 innings a few games back? The charitable hometown scorer gave the batters a triple and then a double on what rightfully should have been recorded as errors due to MARTIN misplaying both "hits".

Leave Wallner BURIED at AAA until AFTER whatever fallout takes place following the team's trade deadline activity. Leave Jenkins at AAA and off the 40 man roster at least until the 2027 season. Austin Martin is lost at the plate and in the outfield so option him out to work on his batting and fielding issues. Leave him at AAA until AFTER whatever fallout takes place following the team's trade deadline activity . Bring up Roden and give Fedko a REAL CHANCE to make an impression. So simple a child could do it. But can Zoll and Pohlad elevate their brains to that level?

Certainly less than ABEL Bodied.

Not a Chance.

Other than serving as window dressing as a means of propping up fan interest in the team, if Zoll and TP truly believe that the Twins are SERIOUS Trade Deadline Buyers, then both should be spending their time reviewing the contents of the Fairy Tale section of the Downtown Minneapolis or Downtown St Paul Public Library.

Banda is overrated. Check his stats on inherited runners scored as well as his line on the first couple of batters he faces when entering a game: Walk, HBP, Hit. You left off Wallner entirely. Perhaps if Zoll got the other GM drunk enough....

RF 1B DH

Commentary on 6/14/26 game: Bottom of the 8th, 2 outs, runner on 2B, Twins just went up by 1 run. The "guy" you want at the plate, the team's marquee player Byron Buxton is at the plate. He has gone 3-4 so far this day, now with the count being 2-2, and Buxton has seen 5 pitches from the guy on the mound as well as having the opportunity to watch the 4 batters in front of him were pitched. A hit means a run and with the state of the Twins bullpen this season, an insurance run is both desirable and necessary. The Buxton proceeds to wave at ball 3, a sweeper down and away and it was a ball by a considerable margin. THREE OUTS. Top of the seventh for the Cardinals; 2 on and 2 out. The Twins are down 3-2. Bradley is pulled and Banda is brought in to get the FINAL OUT and to not allow the Cardinals an additional run so that the Twins remain down by just 1 run. Banda is behind in the count 2-1 having thrown 3 straight sliders, Banda gets a break when the batter takes a sinker up in the zone for strike 2. Pitch #5, is a slider down and away (the pitch was ball #3) and the batter dumps a bloop single to Buxton in LCF to put the Twins down 4-2. Banda then issues an "unintentional" intentional walk so he can then face another left handed hitting batter. That batter flies out to LF. Inning over. BUT The Twins score 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th, which, except for the inherited runner that Banda allowed to score, would have made Bradley the winning pitcher on this day AND would not have bloated Bradley's ERA by the run that scored because Banda didn't do his job. Back to the game on 6/13/26. Martin playing RF and looking totally inept & lost out there First inning = Hit to RF - S/H/B an ERROR - Hometown Official Scorer called it a Triple. Second inning = Hit to RF - S/H/B an ERROR - Hometown Official Scorer called it a Double. If Martin has options remaining, he'll be demoted soon.

The time for a position change is the off season and spring training, not 1/3 of the way through the season. After the 2025 season he should have been given a 1B mans glove and told to work on that and only that position during the off season. Numerous commenters on this site have been advocating shifting Lewis to 1B for quite a while.

Can you somehow catch up with the player named "LATER" ? Seems like he moves around quite a bit and is included as an option to Cash Considerations. Many a time trades can include a: "Player to be named "Later"".

Wait it out this season. Work through his issue. Let him rebuild some value over the balance of the year. Dump him by trading him to a team dumber than the Twinkies in the offseason.

He was cooked even before he was signed by the Twins. With both defensive and offensive challenged corner outfielders in the fold, who could reasonably slide into the role of DH to hide their defensive shortcomings, why in the hell would you blow $7 MM to sign a poor defensive 1B, who's "best" position is actually DH. Poor organizational decision making.

Keep him exiled in AAA oblivion until at least the 2026 trade deadline.

Morris got neither the loss or a blown save but it was him that pissed the game away.

Overdue move on Outman. Too soon to bring back Lewis. His AAA short term success is no based upon a change in approach, but rather performing against AAA pitching. Knee jerk front office reaction based upon Lewis getting hot in AAA and trying to put bodies in the seats.

Tin Man Buxton. Move him at the deadline and the team can put an end to this ongoing injury soap opera from their centerfielder. This drama has just become tedious & old.

Keep both Lewis and Wallner buried at AAA until (at least) after the 2026 trade deadline when who knows what the 26 & 40 man rosters will look like. By keeping them in the minors you are sending a message to them and to the players in the organization.

What is the matter with the Minnesota Tin Man this time? He was pinch hit for in his 2nd at bat in the 6/05/26 game and three position changes had to be made to accommodate the absence of Brittle Buxton.

"Larkin in LF with a right handed starter" ?? Is that Gene or Barry Larkin ??

Have the Cubs throw in Jonathon Long, 1B.