bighat

On another note, thrilled to see the Twins send Larnach down and bring up Kirilloff. Trevor was in a world of hurt, he's shown flashes but honestly I think many of us see the writing on the wall. His been given chances that guys like Mark Contreras could only dream of getting, and at this point you have to think he may only get one more serious audition before he becomes the dreaded "organizational depth". Pulling hard for AK on his return.

Same here, WTF man!?!?! I can see them pulling this on a Wednesday afternoon get-away-day game, but on a Friday night broadcast? That's just evil.

Hopefully a St. Paul Saints hat.

Ground ball to the right hand side and a sac fly, and you're ahead. Not one Twin even put the ball in play, three straight K's in the 11th. Just an embarrassment, this isn't baseball, this is pure garbage. Larnach needs to be sent down, bring up Kirilloff now. Anyone who can make contact, good lord.

Larnach has struck out 6 times in a row? Didn't Buxton have 10 straight K's earlier this season? Isn't the goal of these ghost runners to make it easier for teams to score in extra innings simply by putting the ball in play? Just how inept is this team, offensively?

You're not alone. The Twins 7th inning was horrendous in every way. But at least Correa and Buxton put the balls in play. Sure, they were tappers to the mound, but both of them put pressure (at least a little bit) on the defense. Larnach getting down 0-2 immediately and then striking out was much more painful to watch.

And then gives up his 2nd hit of the inning on the next pitch. You gotta try real hard to lose games like this, Twins are doing their best.

Jax with the pickoff!

Pathetic. This'll be the 2nd game in a row that the Twins didn't grab when it was there for the taking. When this team inevitably falls 10 games behind Cleveland by July 4th, it'll be this kind of thing that's to blame. Timely hitting just doesn't exist here. On top of it, Rocco pinch hit for the guy who's hit homers in back-to-back games. Can't make it up.

Larnach quickly down 0-2, guy's got no common sense to take a darn pitch. Just oblivious.

Bases loaded, nobody out - worst team in baseball and have been for years. There's gotta be some kind of stat that keeps track of how many runs teams score in this type of situation, and this team is most definitely at the bottom of the pile.

Let's go get 'em, need a win here tonight boys. Let's leave it all on the field these next few innings.

Great writeup, thank you! Twins need to win this series, would be nice to see a sweep. Boy is old Grienke cooked, sad to see guys like him and Kluber getting smacked around. It's interesting that many all-time great hitters can leave the game gracefully with solid stats in their last years (ie: Ortiz, Pujols, etc) but it's not as common with pitchers. Bux is really heating up. Keep him in the lineup, Rocco....anyone have an idea if he's going to play in the field at all this year? I mean, I can see the argument for continuing to DH him but it's frustrating to see such a dynamic talent being held back. Pitching injuries are everywhere. 2021 Cy Young Award Winner Robbie Ray of the Mariners is now officially out for the year, he made one start. Carlos Rodon hasn't even thrown a pitch. Names like Verlander, Woodruf, Glasnow, Wainwright, McKenzie, Severino, Taillon, and many more all on the shelf for long periods of time. That's an All-Star lineup.

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.

Austin Martin was the star prospect involved in the big Jose Berrios trade of 2021. A year prior, the Toronto Blue Jays drafted Martin with the #5 pick in the 2020 draft out of Vanderbilt University. Not long after he was drafted, Martin was listed as the #2 prospect in all of baseball. And when Martin landed in the Twins organization, most experts thought the Twins had found a new star that would be carrying the major league ballclub for years to come. One scout wrote: "Martin's upside is that of a perennial All Star, but he's most likely a strongly above-average regular who posts 3-4 WAR per season." Hey, that's a pretty nice floor! So what happened? Martin spent almost all of 2022 at AA Wichita, where racked up 331 at-bats and hit .241 with 2 homers and a below-average .685 OPS. Luckily, he seemed to right the ship and had a huge performance in the Arizona Fall League, finishing third among qualified prospects in average (.373) and sixth in on-base percentage (.454) while stealing 10 bases. Martin was invited to Twins spring training camp but had to be reassigned to Minor League camp in late March after spraining the UCL in his right elbow. He's listed as being on the 7-day IL, and still hasn't played a game for the Saints and there's no timetable for his return. He's no longer the #2 prospect in baseball - instead he is now listed as the Twins' #12 prospect. I still think Martin has a chance to become a big part of this team, but I must admit I'm not as certain as I was 2 years ago. Anyone want to contribute reasons to feel positive (or negative) about him?

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.

Maybe - but you're totally right. Their record-setting success in 2019 led to a strategy shift from the entire front office at that time: close your eyes and swing as hard as you can. Strikeouts don't matter. Home run or bust. And with the juiced ball, it worked. Unfortunately, the Twins enforced that same strategy all the way down the minor league pipeline, and so guys like Larnach, Miranda, etc were all taught the same thing. The sad thing is that even casual fans know the ball was juiced and that baseball's a different game now. Manfred specifically added all these new rules to STOP teams like the Twins from playing the way they do. And 29 other teams in baseball have figured it out - offense is up around baseball and stolen bases are off the charts. The only team still stuck in 2019 is the Twins. It shows - and they should be mortified. The loss of our one contact-hitter, Luis Arraez, was the death knell for any chance this fragile offense had. It was over before it begun.

^^^^ 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.

I've been moaning about this offense in game threads since March 31st. The offense is horrible. A lot of people keep saying "they'll start hitting" very confidently - as if it's a fact. Alas, that's a completely faith-based argument and it seems to me that you have to do a lot of mental jumping jacks to figure out how make that claim work. Buxton turns 30 this year - I think we know what he is by this point, which is anything BUT reliable at the plate. Correa did heat up at the end of last year....when the Twins were well out of the race and nothing mattered. He had an incredible September but other than that he was a very average MLB hitter. And those two guys are far and away the MOST LIKELY to start hitting. Polanco, Kepler, Gallo, Larnach, Miranda, Gordon - that's the "core group" (!!!!) that the season is riding on. Read that again. Remember, there aren't as many inter-division games this year, so fewer games against KC and DET. Truthfully I have no idea how this team will even stay in the running until July in order to merit adding a bat. We could be in for a very, very ugly stretch in May & June. I'd love to be completely wrong on this. But when you put the names down on paper, I have no idea how anyone could be remotely hopeful about this season.

Pagan is such garbage. Twins are going to let him wear it. Looks like Rocco's already thinking about tomorrow, Twins going to get just stuffed into a locker on their way out of town. Demoralizing series in Beantown, only able to get hits of the skeleton of Corey Kluber. I think the Twins' leadoff hitter has struck out to lead off the past 6 games or something incredible like that.

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.