Article: Were We Possibly This Wrong?

[jmlease1]

The Kinley thing seems to keep coming up again and again as a hack on the FO and a reason why the twins are in this hole. I have trouble accepting that one: the last spot in your bullpen is going to have marginal impact at best.

 

Of our Opening Day starters, only 4 have an OBP over .300. Several of them are far worse than that. All of them last year were over .310. Joe Mauer is one of the only guys this year that you can rely on to get on base so far. That's killing the offense.

 

There were a lot of reasons to be skeptical of Phil Hughes being effective again as a starter. It's proven out so far. I can understand the FO not wanting to just eat the contract if there was a chance of getting some value out of him, though. And that's only 2 starts. So far, Lance Lynn has been a bust, but it's still hard to say it was a bad move: we needed the pitching, his track record is excellent, and it was a one-year deal. Hopefully he pulls out of this mess, but I can't beat up the FO on that one. Odorizzi has been ok. Gibson has been ok. Either would be fine in the back end of the rotation, but because Lynn is awful and Santana is on the DL, we need them to be 2nd & 3rd options and they don't seem to be good enough. The whole pitching staff is walking too many guys; Berrios, Pressly, and Reed are the only guys I'd be happy with there. Funny, they're our three best pitchers this year.

 

You have to hope this is small sample size at work. Maybe Crash Davis can come get us a rainout.

 

[Loosey]

9-16 is awful.  And it started after Puerto Rico.  They went into Tampa and lost the first game due to a blown save (and walked off in 10), got killed the next game, then got walked off again.  

 

Into New York - Absolutely destroyed for 3 games.  Then blown save (walked off in 9).

 

Come home and looked like crap against the Reds.

 

My glimmer of hope is that if they would have won the games they got walked off on instead of lost them they are sitting at 12-13.  Not great but, it's an alright record heading into May.  

 

I am of the belief that those type of losses can demoralize a team too, so maybe they play differently if they win those and actually win one of the games they got killed in.  

 

Basically, need them to go and win 4 in a row to get back on track and settle things down.  

[Richie the Rally Goat]

To be fair, the Twins often call up their top hitting prospects directly from AA. I don't think Gordon being in Chattanooga affects his call-up timeline if they need/want him in Minnesota.

there is no one listed as SS in FT Myers right now, so unless Lewis is ready to jump straight to double A in his second pro season (holy crap wouldn’t that be awesome) there’s no reason to promote Gordon into a less pitching intensive league.

 

Seems like AAA is synonymous with AAAA and AA is where the prospects stay.

[Mike Sixel]

 

there is no one listed as SS in FT Myers right now, so unless Lewis is ready to jump straight to double A in his second pro season (holy crap wouldn’t that be awesome) there’s no reason to promote Gordon into a less pitching intensive league.

Seems like AAA is synonymous with AAAA and AA is where the prospects stay.

 

?

 

we have some posters saying you can't go to MLB from AA, because you need to face AAA pitching....we have some saying you don't need to go to AAA?

 

Gordon should be in AAA, now. Wade should be in MN, or AAA, now.

 

The players there are better. Some are former MLB players. 

[curt1965]

My opinion about the 4th outfielder: he is only going to play 1-2 times a week, so he has to be a good soldier and not complain about sitting. He has to have a “decent” chance to get on base as a late inning pinch hitter. He most likely is a marginal player, since the front office doesn’t want to prospect to come to the show to sit. He more than likely is perceived to be a good clubhouse influence. Hence Grossman.

If the front office deems it ok that a player of Grossman’s ilk is going to play for an extended period of time, the fans have to accept that this is a problem for the portion of the season when this happens.

It would be nice if Wade would come up until Buxton is healthy, and Grossman agreed to go to Rochester during that time. But what do you think the chances of that happening are?

[Mike Sixel]

 

My opinion about the 4th outfielder: he is only going to play 1-2 times a week, so he has to be a good soldier and not complain about sitting. He has to have a “decent” chance to get on base as a late inning pinch hitter. He most likely is a marginal player, since the front office doesn’t want to prospect to come to the show to sit. He more than likely is perceived to be a good clubhouse influence. Hence Grossman. If the front office deems it ok that a player of Grossman’s ilk is going to play for an extended period of time, the fans have to accept that this is a problem for the portion of the season when this happens. It would be nice if Wade would come up until Buxton is healthy, and Grossman agreed to go to Rochester during that time. But what do you think the chances of that happening are?

 

there is no need to send grossman down...DFA Lamarre. Or a random RP, and cycle thru RPs from MLB to AAA. Really, no need to do anything with grossman at all. 

[Blake]

After watching tonight, the answer is: Yes.

[Mike Sixel]

Possibly.

[USAFChief]

Every single person in the Twins organization should be embarrassed by the 10th inning tonight. That was not a major league team.

 

That was what a good American Legion team does to a poor American Legion team. Run at will, laugh as the runner on first ambles toward second, daring the catcher to try to throw him out, knowing the other team won't be able to execute two successful infield throws in a row so the runner from third will score if they try to throw you out, a free base if they don't. And they won't throw, because THEY know they can't trust themselves to throw home to second to home without a bad throw. Scoring on a ball hit DIRECTLY at the SS who was playing IN in hopes of EXACTLY THAT THING HAPPENING. Jogging in to score on consecutive pitches to the backstop.

 

That wasn't major league baseball.  

 

 

 

 

[FormerMinnasotan]

It helps that our organization fails at developing any prospects and sucks at landing any free agents. If you can’t do either you won’t ever compete.

[USAFChief]

 

It helps that our organization fails at developing any prospects and sucks at landing any free agents. If you can’t do either you won’t ever compete.

We make up for it by being easy to swindle in trades.

  

"Hicks for Murphy?? And we don't have to throw in a prospect??? Quick, where do we sign??"

[adorduan]

The Miami  Marlins have a higher winning percentage than the Twins.  Enough said...

[KirbyDome89]

 

Run at will, laugh as the runner on first ambles toward second, daring the catcher to try to throw him out, knowing the other team won't be able to execute two successful infield throws in a row so the runner from third will score if they try to throw you out, a free base if they don't. And they won't throw, because THEY know they can't trust themselves to throw home to second to home without a bad throw.   

I honestly couldn't believe that Toronto pulled that off, and with Morales running no less. You're spot on, high level high school teams can defend that play. IMO that was the low point.

[yarnivek1972]

 

If the Twins felt Gordon was ready, he should have been in Rochester, there is a reason the FO sent him back to Chattanooga.

What exactly has this FO done to make you assume that their judgement is beyond reproach?

[Richie the Rally Goat]

?

 

we have some posters saying you can't go to MLB from AA, because you need to face AAA pitching....we have some saying you don't need to go to AAA?

 

Gordon should be in AAA, now. Wade should be in MN, or AAA, now.

 

The players there are better. Some are former MLB players.

Agreed that many of the Twins prospects could use more polish when they get to the bigs. Not sure AAA is necessarily the answer for every player. It seems to me Falvine do not believe every prospect must go to AAA in order to prepare for the bigs.

 

Maybe Gordon has learned all he can from Chattanooga, if so, sure send him to AAA. If not, no need to push. There’s no one behind him.

[laloesch]

Absolutely embarrassing.

[Blake]

 

I honestly couldn't believe that Toronto pulled that off, and with Morales running no less. You're spot on, high level high school teams can defend that play. IMO that was the low point.

I watched most of the game and managed to miss that.

 

Fortunate, I was.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Every single person in the Twins organization should be embarrassed by the 10th inning tonight. That was not a major league team.

 

That was what a good American Legion team does to a poor American Legion team. Run at will, laugh as the runner on first ambles toward second, daring the catcher to try to throw him out, knowing the other team won't be able to execute two successful infield throws in a row so the runner from third will score if they try to throw you out, a free base if they don't. And they won't throw, because THEY know they can't trust themselves to throw home to second to home without a bad throw. Scoring on a ball hit DIRECTLY at the SS who was playing IN in hopes of EXACTLY THAT THING HAPPENING. Jogging in to score on consecutive pitches to the backstop.

 

That wasn't major league baseball.  

Something we've seen with alarming frequency this season (mainly the past two weeks).

[USAFChief]

Something we've seen with alarming frequency this season (mainly the past two weeks).

Yeah, but not being as good as the other team isn't embarrassing. Errors will happen to everyone...there shouldn't be a ton of them, but humans make mistakes.

 

Thus was on a whole different level. This was something you should never see at this level. Ever.

 

This was one team toying with the other, and knowing they could. This was the varsity playing the junior high team in a scrimmage. This was a good pony league team vs a bad one.