bighat

Polanco coming back sure has helped - incredible difference. Let's hope the Yankees and other teams don't start pitching around him just yet. Gray has been amazing this year. Can this guy stay healthy all season? Still waiting for Buxton to catch fire.... Joey Gallo right now in the running for best cheap free agent signing of 2023. Twins may have guessed right on this one.

I'd like to see Kirilloff starting in RF every day for the Twins, effective immediately.

This type of statement has been said about Larnach for the past 3 years. He's been hurt a LOT, and the only times he's been given the opportunity to play for long stretches, he's been very bad. Anyone can cherry pick a couple good weeks - just look at the final stats he's put up any year he's played. It's not pretty! We are fans, sure. But we have to be adults and remember that just because you want him to be good, doesn't mean he is good or will be good. Let's all stop pretending that 27 year-old guys who have been in the league for 3 years are "prospects". If you put Larnach's numbers next to some unfamiliar name in the Pittsburgh Pirates system, and you wouldn't think twice about him. Look up Larnach's name in the similarity index on statcast, and you'll see: Kyle Garlic, Nelson Velazquez, and Kerry Carpenter as the most similar matches. Are we still excited? Why? Because he mashed college pitching at Oregon State 6 years ago? We've been saying "Wait and see" on Larnach forever. Dude, we've waited. And we've seen. And I don't think we're going to get much out of this guy and the sooner we all realize it, the better off we'll be.

Even if Kepler was the best defender in baseball, his offensive shortcomings aren't worth it. And, he's not anywhere close to the best defender in baseball - in fact, the whole "Kepler plays good defense" statement is debatable at this point. People keep saying that but only because it's something we've been told, there's really no hard data to back that up anymore. And he certainly doesn't pass the eye test. The guy's washed up and the sooner the Twins cut bait, the better - please, let's stop pretending he's Ozzie Smith already.

Gordon is out of options - Larnach isn't. Trevor should go down. No way the Twins can afford to lose Gordon, he's super versatile and he carried the team for the 2nd half of the season last year. You don't give up on him because he's had 3 bad weeks in April. Larnach has never blown the doors off, even when given long chances. Injury prone and flashes potential here and there, he strikes me as a Tyler Austin, Luke Raley, or Chris Parmalee clone - he'll find work for a few years but he just doesn't seem to be dynamic enough to become a pillar of any team's offense. Guys like Larnach are actually long-term detrimental to a team. Because the Twins will end up trying millions of ways to fit this guy into the heart of their offense, but he's just not "that guy". The Twins have let go Akil Baddoo for free and trade LaMonte Wade Jr. for a bag of balls - both because Larnach was seen as the better player. And now Gordon too? Best thing to do would be to trade Larnach while he still has some value. Unfortunately sending him down to St. Paul is only going to hurt that trade value.....argh! Like I said - it's just a no-win situation with him as long as he's on the team.

I'd love to see some more honest headlines! This one could have been: "Offensive struggles continue as Twins salvage a win against the worst team in the National League." It's hard to find positives even in victories these days.

^^^^ Yep. This team isn't going anywhere this season - let's see some stolen bases, some big homers, let's see 'em lose a lot of high scoring games and go 62-100. It'd be much better than watching this dried-paint experiment go 75-87. Losing 3-2 because this team can't score against the worst pitcher on a 5-13 basement-dweller AT HOME is just super on-brand for whatever this Twins team has become. After going through this exact same thing for most of 2022. it's really hard to feel positive about anything on the '23 team besides maybe Pablo Lopez. Things are going to get very bleak by the time the summer's over. A lot of stretches of losing 5 in a row, followed by a win, followed by 3 straight losses, etc. And I'm pretty darn sure there's a 10-game losing streak in the mail and it'll get here by June.

Brent Rooker is carving out a nice little full time role for himself in the cleanup spot in Oakland. Batting .324 with 4 homers in just 37 AB with only 7 strikeouts. He just pulled a hammy and will be out a couple days, but it reports say it's not serious. LaMonte Wade Jr. is a fixture in the leadoff spot in San Fran. Off to a slower start but still has an OPS higher than Buxton's and is among the league leaders with 14 walks, which is nice to see from a leadoff guy.

Great write up @Thiéres Rabelo. Weird, we hear so much about all of our pitching prospects: Woods Richardson, Prielipp.....remember Jordan Balazovic? Then some guy we've never heard of comes up and has a very solid debut in Fenway Park. Huh. Good on him. Nice to see the bats wake up, really loved watching the highlights, can't beat homers from Larnach, Eddie J, and Gallo. Gotta mention they were going against Corey Kluber, who's "bien cocido". I don't see how that guy's going to stick with Boston. Red Sox are 0-4 in Kluber's four starts, losing 10-9, 4-1, 9-3 and 10-4. Tanner Houck pitches today for the BoSox and has also been hittable.

Agreed. Say what you will about the pitching, this team is NOT fun to watch. Aside from that 1st inning in New York last week, it's been complete torture watching this offense. And who's gonna save 'em? Gallo? Polanco? Kirilloff? Yeah they better figure this out. You'd have thought going against a pitcher coming in with a 16+ ERA would have been just the right medicine, but they couldn't even make contact against him. Same with Grienke when they faced him on opening day. Abysmal.

The good part about fan-run sites is that we don't have to pretend there was anything positive about this. The Twins got absolutely dominated by a washed-up old pitcher who carried a 16.48 ERA entering the game. Sale had been lit up all year before this. Over the past 2 games, the Twins have started the game 0-12 with 11 K's in the first 2 innings. Buxton struck out 10 straight times before grounding out weakly to 3rd base in his second AB last night. We don't have to pretend this is a good team that's just experiencing some bad luck. Everything about these hitting statistics tells you that this offense is the worst in the league. There's no reason to expect better - at this point guys like Michael A Taylor and Solano are carrying the team on offense. Nobody's hitting, especially if they somehow manage to get men on base. The pitching has been off the charts awesome. The opponent's bats are catching up, though, and it's more likely the team ERA ends up towards the middle of the pack. What then? Folks, last night was bad baseball by what appears to be a bad baseball team. At this point it appears the Twins' only hope is that Jorge Polanco and Alex Kirilloff come back from major injuries/surgery and start carrying the offense. Does anyone realistically see that happening? The worst part: it's absolutely excruciating to watch. This type of swing-and-miss offense is exactly what MLB's been trying to fix with all the rule changes, and just about every team's offense is improved. The fact that the Twins have yet to see any improvement is a bad sign. It's early, but hard to believe this team is going to improve on last year.

Nice "W" - am I getting too greedy to think that the Twins could possibly take 3-of-4 in Yankee Stadium? A win Saturday would be monumental, Twins are going against a very hittable Domingo German, who has a 5.87 ERA over two starts so far. Can't say anything more about Varland that hasn't already been said. Correa starting to come around. Nice.

He hit a rocket off IKF in the 9th, was sad that didn't fall for him. 0-for-5 for Nick. He came around last year, but it did take a while if I recall correctly.

Most enjoyable game this season by a long shot. Would like to see if Julien can stick around. Maybe the kid can learn to play outfield? He should at least get a couple weeks before Farmer gets back. Great game for Ryan. Vazquez filled up the stat sheet. Miranda a couple much-needed hits. And Michael A. Taylor might need to be moved up in the order! Really nice to see the offense clicking early,

Glad they got the win. Happy the Twins are pitching well. At this point they've got to be the most boring team in baseball to watch, and with this offense they aren't going anywhere. Just wait until they go into New York against Cole, I'm guessing it's even money on whether or not they'll get no-hit. This lineup wasn't hitting WITH its big names, and now the big names are already hurt one week into the season (which I must say is very on-brand, the Buxton collision today was just chef's kiss straight-out-of-central-casting). Is there any hope for an offensive spark? Are we waiting for Royce Lewis to come and save this team? Polanco? Kepler? Gallo? 'Cause that's all we got last time I checked. Honestly I'd rather watch the Twins score 6 runs per game and go 60-102 as opposed to watch whatever this is and see them go 70-92. I know as fans we're supposed to be hopeful and cheerful....but sometimes I feel like I'm not watching the same games as some of you. Is nobody else seeing how limp this offense looks, regardless of who's in the lineup? Is the 8-4 record enough to keep everyone else from being dreadfully concerned? Because I am pretty sure we're watching what might be the worst offense in baseball when the season's all said and done.

Brutal for TX. Yeowch.

Thanks for the great writeup. I'd love to see him stick, I think it's pretty clear the Twins need offense and I hope they turn him loose and let him play. Starting around 2015, the Twins saw Byron Buxton, Sano, Kepler, Polanco and Arraez all come up from the farm to solidify a core of a rather successful squad for years. Alas, we haven't seen the same stability with our more recent prospects. With Wallner, Kirilloff and Larnach, I think we can all admit that things haven't gone as we'd hoped. It's still unclear to see whether or not they will be core members of successful Twins teams in the future. Injuries are certainly a big factor. Even our prized gem, Royce Lewis - who looks every bit as good as advertised - has been bitten by the injury bug. The Twins are due for some lightning in a bottle. Let's hope Julien starts a prospect resurrection at Target Field, starting today!

Great effort by Lopez, too bad he didn't get the win. Speaking of winning - it's great to see the Twins finishing with a "W",,,but so far, it doesn't seem like much has changed from last year. The Twins scored a couple early runs, but the bats went cold and they were held scoreless for 7 straight innings.. They win on a defensive miscue. This was the formula for April & May of '22. Don't get me wrong, being 7-4 is nothing to sneeze at. But I'm feeling pretty queasy when it comes to this team's offensive abilities. We need more. On the bright side, maybe the news that Edouard Julien getting called up will help put a spark in the offense!

For Twins fans who wonder when the new, action-packed rules going to start taking effect - they're definitely having an impact: Texas scored 16 runs yesterday, the Baltimore-Boston game was 8-7 and included a 6-run comeback and a walk-off homer. San Diego and Colorado combined for 12 runs, and so did NYY-SF. Alas, us long-suffering Twins fans have been subjected to some textbook vanilla baseball in our 2 games thus far. The offense looked bad on Thursday and looked bad today. Yes, the Twins are winning. But they are still stuck with a sputtering, low-energy offense that slowly sunk this team last year. We'll likely see Jeffers, Farmer, Solano, and Willi Castro in the lineup today. It's also likely that Buxton could be rested. Get your blanket and pillows out folks, it's going to be a snooze-fest today (unless, of course, Pagan gets into the game).

Yeah, it was very frustrating to see the Twins leave the bases loaded early in the game. Zack Grienke is a great pitcher, but he's probably in his last year and is as hittable as anyone in the game right now. Outside of Buxton and Correa the lineup looks pretty feeble. Had the Twins lost this game 3-2, the LOB Boogeyman is all we'd be talking about. Thank goodness for Lopez, fingers crossed he stays healthy!

That's why they call it gambling! There's a huge thrill associated with betting on sports, First off, the possibility of winning is much higher than buying a powerball ticket or even a scratch off. Secondly, you get to feel really, really smart when you win a sports bet. Lottery tickets and scratch-offs are pure luck, but picking a sports winner makes the gambler feel like they've got some special skills. And some gamblers do! The rest of us are just shark bait. And we know it. But it's fun to swim with the sharks from time to time.

I don't see it happening unless there's a major injury at 1B. Which is totally possible - Miranda's already got a bum arm and if Kirilloff goes down, someone needs to keep it warm. White's last MLB season was in 2019 when he hit .208 and had an OPS of .612 in 240 ABs. The last few years he's been strictly an AAA guy, looks like at 32 years old he's just playing things out as organizational filler. I don't think he'll make the team, he might not even make the St. Paul roster. It goes without saying of course that most of us would trade places with him in a second. The guy's living the dream, and will gladly show up to the ballpark and suit up if there's a team that wants him.

Speaking of Bundy, I can't believe the guy's still unsigned. He went 8-8 with a 4.89 ERA last year, pitched 140 innings and was about as injury-free as pitchers come these days. Sure, he's not a strikeout pitcher but he improved between 2021 and 2022, and you'd think the guy should be someone's 5th starter going into '23.

Agreed, man. My problem with the ghost runner and all the other 'new rules' is that they're doing this to try and attract people who are NOT baseball fans. Adjusting and building the sport for humans who are NOT interested in the game....it just seems counter-intuitive. It would be like Cosmopolitan magazine changing their editorial content to attract 47-55 year-old male demographic: after six months of reading articles like "How to fix a screen door" and "What to expect at your colonoscopy appointment", the core audience would be leaving in droves! I'd rather baseball lean in to some of its traditions, including the stadium experience. Get an organist and throw out the noise-o-meters. Make going to a game affordable, the NBA and NFL can charge a boatload because there aren't that many games, you've gotta come in way, way, way lower. Make it so fans can go on a whim. At the same time, embrace technology that will streamline the game, like robot strike zones. For those watching at home, improve the viewing experience - maybe get a "skycam" type thing that they have in the NFL that hovers over the infield and another one for the outfield. Sure once a year a ball will hit one of 'em, but it would be extremely rare and the pros would outweigh the cons. Finally, start marketing your stars. For whatever reason, baseball hasn't been able to do this properly since the '80s. I see Mike Trout on a Subway advertisement and I'm betting most viewers have no clue who he is. Any advertisement featuring a major leaguer, the scenes come across as stiff and unlikeable. Good lord hire a marketing firm who can figure it out. Soccer has figured it out - a "boring", low-scoring sport that only features a couple big action moments per contest draws a full house at every professional game in most countries. We all know who Mbappe, Messi, Ronaldo, Maradona, and Pele are. It's just head-shaking to watch baseball - of all American sports - just completely fumble every opportunity to promote the game in a positive way. They announce changes and everyone's on the edge of their seat, but they just keep changing the wrong things and have really blown this whole "rebrand" in almost every possible way.

Frankly I think Gordon and Buxton have earned starting spots and the rest of the guys should compete for the 3rd OF spot in Spring Training.