Who’s Responsible for the Twins Failure?

[Ted Schwerzler]

Welcome to the 2021 Minnesota Twins season where Total System Failure has begun to rear its head once again. An expected World Series contender has fallen flat, but where does blame go?On May 5, 2016 Chip Scoggins received a quote from Twins owner Jim Pohlad calling the entire situation a “total system failure.” That team was 8-20 and would go on to lose 103 games. Fast forward to where we are now, a fan paying top dollar for Champions Club seats to hold up a “Fire Rocco” sign last night, and it’s hard not to see parallels.

 

 

Minnesota has been unlucky, bad, and ill-prepared throughout 2021. This team chock full of veteran talent has been nothing short of a colossal disappointment. Because we need to reason through how we got here, it’s more than fair to look for avenues of blame. Who, and to what extent, is responsible?

 

The Players: 60%

First and foremost, you can’t absolve anyone on this roster not named Byron Buxton. Outside of the Twins current AL MVP candidate, everyone has fallen short at one point or another. Kenta Maeda and his command look no part of the guy that finished 2nd in the AL Cy Young voting a year ago. Jose Berrios is always waiting for *that* inning, and the lineup has been nonexistent in the production department more often than it hasn’t.

 

It’s a good thing that runs are starting to be scored and the bats appear to be taking a turn, but that isn’t universal. Part of the catching tandem is down in Triple-A. Both Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco simply look bad, while Miguel Sano has seen none of the results due to timing issues hampering his bat. The names and pieces are there, but if no one is going to perform, this should be the expected result.

 

The Front Office: 25%

Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have done an exceptional job since taking over the Minnesota Twins front office. This offseason they were coming off a second straight AL Central division title, and despite the Postseason sweep, we’re again poised to have a team capable of contention deep into the playoffs. There wasn’t much this lineup needed and grabbing Andrelton Simmons as an answer to losing Marwin Gonzalez and Ehire Adrianza resembles something just short of a coup.

 

If there’s a problem, it’s that they relied too heavily on process regarding the bullpen and believed development would trump conventional wisdom. Matt Wisler was a great case study a year ago, but he was moved on from because the underlying warts were expected to be unsustainable (they were right, his 7.94 ERA says so). The problem is that in replacing Wisler the moves were all dart throws. A bunch of waiver claims with sliders as key pitches didn’t represent anything of substance. Hansel Robles has been fine, and while predicting this level of regression for Alexander Colome is unfathomable, they skimped on any sort of real plan if things started to go sideways. Now it’s scramble mode, and well, the deck is empty.

 

Rocco Baldelli: 14%

Over the course of a season, you’re going to have any number of coin flip decisions as a skipper. The best managers find success right around 60% of the time, while the worst are on the 40% spectrum. Unfortunately for Rocco, he’s been batting somewhere around 20% this season and that’s just not going to go over well.

 

Late game relief management has been suspect. There’s been more than a handful of substitutions that beg for a bit more explanation, and ultimately the Twins have gotten less when they’ve needed more. However, and this isn’t to absolve the man in charge of the clubhouse, a trickle-down effect is at play here. Baldelli is only able to turn to pieces provided by the front office, and unfortunate stretches of missed time have only extrapolated that reality.

 

Bad Luck: 1%

There’s no denying that Minnesota has had a good deal of bad luck this season. With a -1 run differential they should be much closer to .500, and it’s the results in close and goofy (extra-inning/seven-inning) games that has made the results worse than they need to be. However, we’re still less than 30 games into the season, so there’s time for that situation to balance itself out.

 

 

What we’ll see as time goes on is if the luck really has been as bad as it looks, or if the unfortunate circumstances are more a result of an ill-prepared team with less-than-ideal parts.

 

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[cHawk]

I agree with this split. We’re blasting the FO and Rocco but, while they deserve criticism for sure, the players need to come first.

 

It feels like this team is constantly fighting against itself, nobody getting on the same page and, as a result, failing miserably at everything. When the offense shows up, the bullpen doesn’t. When the pitching shows up, the bats go bye bye. When the relievers find themselves in some trouble, the defense does NOT help out. Arraez never should’ve been at 3rd in the Oakland game, Blankenhorn shouldn’t have been at short. But Arraez is a major league player. He should have some idea of where to throw, and he misses by 40 feet. Was it dumb to pull Donaldson? Of course. Bad decision. But any major league player should be able to make that throw. That isn’t Rocco. That’s the players. With the bullpen in general, why does Rogers serve up meat so much? Duffey? Robles, who’s been rock solid thus far, giving up a game-tying HR to...let’s see here: Jonah....Heim??

 

Maeda, of course, was going to regress. But this kind of regression couldn’t have been predicted by anyone. Kepler and Polanco look like they don’t even care. Not bothering to work the opposing pitcher...not even taking professional ABs. I suggest trading Kepler while he still has SOME value, because rate of change in production function v(t) is negative right now, and a(t) is too. Polanco, at this point, has basically no value. I would rather see Gordon and Larnach in their spots.

 

Falvine did not do a good job with the pen, it’s been said over and over. I’m not going to address that, because enough has been said. Rocco is making questionable decisions. But given the attitude of his players, he basically is forced to put the whole team up on his back and it just isn’t happening.

[LA VIkes Fan]

I I am depressed. Who thought we’d be reading this article a month into the season?

[LA VIkes Fan]

Is it OK to give 100% of this to the players?

[LA VIkes Fan]

I would reverse the allocation between the Front Office and the manager. I do think Rocco it’s about 25% responsible for where this team is. I would give the FO 15% because they badly misjudged the bullpen talent. This team is just not ready to play every day, they’ve lost confidence, and they look tight. The manager has to take responsibility for that. Rocco also needs to get his head out of the statistics, give his starters longer leashes since the bullpen is not strong, and be less afraid to pull the plug on players like Sano who are simply not performing. Those players either need to go to AAA or the bench. I think we really miss Derek Shelton as a bench coach and I know we miss James Rowson as a hitting coach.

 

I think it’s time to cut to the chase. The season is pretty much lost. Let’s move on from some of the fringe, under performing veterans like Jake Cave, Kyle Garlick, and Caleb Theilbar. We need to keep Colome around, find a way to give him seven to ten strong performances, and then trade his ass at the deadline to somebody desperate for relief help. Strip this club down to the players you really want to have going forward and then, instead of filling the gaps with average or mediocre veteran talent, fill it with some of the young guys out of the system and sort through who can play. Now is the time for Larnach and Thorpe instead of Cave and Shoemaker. Let’s do what we’re doing with the catching. Garver is the starter and we gave Jeffers a chance to be the second catcher. He didn’t hit and we sent him to AAA and replaced him with Rortvedt. If he doesn’t hit and Jeffers hits in AAA, switch them out until you find one that can stay at the MLB level. Do you the same thing with the relief pitching and the same thing with the fifth starter spot. Sano can’t find his stroke at the MLB level, send him to AAA, give Kirilloff the 1B Job and put Larnach in the outfield. If Kepler can’t find his stroke, make him the fourth outfielder and start playing Larnach or Rooker every day. Maybe even find some consistent at bats for Gordon or Weil. And heresy of heresies, maybe it’s time to see if there’s a market for Cruz or Donaldson that would get you a quality relief pitcher or starter with upside.

 

Look, I’m disappointed because I thought this was a team that had a real shot. It’s becoming pretty clear even at this early stage that it just does not. I could get behind watching a developing team this year, with a decent core supplemented by young guys being groomed for the future and getting their shot. It’s hard to get behind a veteran team playing poorly with no real plans for the future. And let’s face it, that’s with this team is right now.

[lukeduke1980]

I think the blame should be spread evenly if we're approaching Total System Failure.

[D.C Twins]

I'll just say the (first) picture is worth a thousand words...

[D.C Twins]

The team may have a -1 run differential, but the horrible bullpen and hitting with RISP completely negate this one of many wishful justifications that a bad team's performance will eventually normalize. (

 

When your bullpen cannot hold leads in the 8-10 innings and your batters aren't clutch hitters with RISP--relying solely on sporadic bunching of home runs-- you are going to lose more 'close' games and the games that you do win will be by a lot of runs which skew the run differential (which is what has happened)

 

This is not bad luck. Our record very much reflects how we have played. 

 

My personal favorite is the average exit velocity that some rave about without remembering that you actually have to hit the ball to get an exit velocity. If people want to start factoring in exit velocity, better start averaging in 0s for the strike outs!

 

The Twins have had great exit velocities this year!*

 

*when they have actually hit the ball

 

....the manager deserves much more blame when an entire team is playing sloppy and without fire.

[Danchat]

Good article, Ted, and I agree with your % points. The players deserve the most blame, by far. They're getting paid to play a lot better than this. I am glad you didn't heap it all on bad luck like the Twins' broadcast does on a nightly basis. Rocco certainly deserves blame, but you could bring in the best manager in the league and he'd be at his wits' end with this roster.

[Huskertwin]

I remember an interview NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin had with Joe Buck where Irvin was talking about his first season with the Dallas Cowboys as Tom Landry was about to retire. They'd lose a game on Sunday and on Monday he had some players come up to him and remind him that the paycheck was still going to be there later that week. That infuriated Irvin and when his coach from the U of Miami Jimmy Johnson got the job to replace Landry, he gave Jimmy the names of those players and Johnson worked on getting them off the team. 

 

Could the Twins be in a similar situation? We have given early extensions to players like Kepler, Polanco and Sano that looked like good ideas at the time. But now we see those players not playing with the intensity and results they had before the extensions. 

 

Also, Rocco Baldelli might have lost this team already. He's always been too laid back for me and has babied the players since he's been here (with scheduled days off and IL visits that last past the normal period). If someone treats you like a baby, you might start acting like one. I think one could make an argument that he doesn't hold the players accountable for bad play. I know that players are professionals and should be able to hold themselves accountable to play hard, but being realistic, the players in general in the Majors these days have changed with the large money that is being paid to them. I guess I prefer my manager to be a little old school and want and try to win games and make the players also want to win as well. 

 

I know there's an argument that Baldelli's teams have won the AL Central division that last two years, but those teams were teams that should have been expected to do even more. The Pohlad's went out and upped the spending for the teams the last three years from the $90-100 million area to the $125-135 million area. If these teams don't produce you could expect to see the owners decide to spend less in the future, to stay profitable as attendance could be dropping.

 

And can we finally put the "pitch framing" strategy in the grave? I'm tired of watching our catchers give up bases and runs on wild pitches and occasional passed balls because they can't shift over on balls in the dirt to keep the ball in front of them when they're positioned with their legs spread out. Traditional catchers position themselves to be able to catch those balls in the dirt or wide. I think putting runners in scoring position or actually scoring on balls that get past the catchers far outweighs the calls we might get by "framing" the ball. Every umpire has their own strike zone and we all watch them make good and bad ball/strike calls irregardless of any help from the catcher. If the ball hits the ground, the missed ball is called a Wild Pitch and thus the catchers are probably less concerned since the missed ball doesn't show on their fielding stats.

[Darius]

No, the guy in charge is always 100% responsible.

 

If it’s a matter of the players being bad, why didn’t the talent evaluators figure that out? The FOs job is to put together a collection of players that can win baseball games.

 

The managers job is to get that collection of players to perform. That’s his one and only job. Literally.

 

Blaming this on guys like Kepler and Polanco, who now have a large sample size of suck, is absurd. Why would you think Maeda, in his mid 30s, is all of the sudden an ace because of one good shortened season? You can’t heap praise on these guys as “geniuses” when the players perform, then blame it on the players when they don’t. When Molitor was given crap team, nobody seemed to be lining up to give him a pass like they are Baldelli.

 

The FO had every opportunity to get this bullpen in adequate shape. They made the decision to let two key late inning guys walk (May and Clippard) and replace them with guys off the trash heap. They terribly misjudged Colome (other FOs that wouldn’t touch him seemed to figure it out). If they would’ve addressed that properly, we’d be within spitting distance of the division leaders now despite the slumping offense. We wouldn’t be having this conversation.

 

It’s time to stop making excuses for these guys. We’ve been sold a bill of goods on them (brilliant data analysts, pitching wonderkind, etc.) that is false. They got lucky in 2019-2020. Do your job or be held accountable.

[laloesch]

Rocco, Sano, and a very very bad bullpen.

[cHawk]

 

Blaming this on guys like Kepler and Polanco, who now have a large sample size of suck, is absurd. Why would you think Maeda, in his mid 30s, is all of the sudden an ace because of one good shortened season? You can’t heap praise on these guys as “geniuses” when the players perform, then blame it on the players when they don’t. When Molitor was given crap team, nobody seemed to be lining up to give him a pass like they are Baldelli.

 

We’re not just talking about Kepler and Polanco, they’re bunny turd balls on top of the already massive ****cake. We’re talking about Taylor Rogers and Tyler Duffey pitching like absolute ass in motion. We’re talking about Maeda giving up 6 HR in 2 games. We’re talking about Nelson Cruz and Josh Donaldson, instead of being the veteran leaders and quality players they were and are supposed to be, striking out on three pitches in key spots. We’re talking about Luis Arraez, a major league player, overthrowing first by about 40 feet. None of those guys have “a large sample size of suck”. And even then, Kepler and Polanco don’t even appear to be TRYING. If they’re not talented but they’re really trying, they would be putting together half-decent ABs but unable to hit the ball hard. What are we seeing? 4-Pitch Strikeout after weak dribbler after Popfly.

 

The players don’t wear mind-control helmets, they aren’t robots, and Rocco isn’t a mad scientist. When you boil it down it’s one human (the manager) working against forty others (the players). Players need to be held accountable for poor performance.

[TopGunn#22]

I have to agree with Darius regarding Rocco.  In my humble opinion, Paul Molitor was doing a LOT with nothing.  But he was more old school and not "analytic" enough for our brilliant FO.  When the FO gave him CRAP players like the no spring training Lance Lynn (who is obviously NOT that player now) and the Sano-like swing and miss Logan Morrison and guys like Buxton and Sano were complete zeros as far as positive impact it was Molitor's fault.  Why does Rocco get a 14% pass on this?  Literally, every late game decision Rocco has made has been wrong.  The probability of that is astounding.  LA Vikes fan is spot on:  It's time to cut the cord with Shoemaker.  Dobnak or Thorpe should have his spot.  Shoemaker earned nothing out of spring training and has been terrible in the regular season.  Get guys like Larnach and Duran up here SOON.  If Kepler, Sano and Polanco don't wake up, move on!  We've seen these consistent flaws in each of their approaches for a LONG time.  I see guys going up to the plate with seemingly NO plan.  They flail away with absolutely no idea of situational hitting.  One last point, and this regards the bullpen.  I too was frustrated with the lack of aggressive moves to bolster the BP.  But two of my favorite solutions were Rosenthal and Yates.  Look where they are now.  I would have signed one of them for sure and been up a creek without a paddle.  Sometimes FO's just blow it.  This one did for Molitor the season they found their excuse to fire him and it looks like our Boy Wonders have done it again.     

[Dodecahedron]

This is your opinion. I think Baldelli shoulders much more of the blame. He legitimately seems to be out of step with the players. You could say Baldelli is in his own bubble. It's clear to see with the pitching that has not adequately assessed who should be pitching where and when.

 

The front office shoulders more blame as well. Yes they had good intentions, and yes they used the same method to build out the bullpen that they used in previous years. Personally, I expected this year's result in those previous years too, so although I was not happy with the bullpen this year, I held back on judging it.

 

As for the players, I'm sure none of them want to be hitting or pitching as badly as they are. Let's be serious, would any of us be building a team around the likes of Kepler, Sano, Polanco, Shoemaker, Colome, etc.? Yes, all of us would probably have kept one or two of these guys around, but not all of them.

 

For me, the biggest disappointment is Polanco, but I can't honestly say any of the others would still be on this team if I were in charge. Not that getting rid of all of them now is the answer, gutting the team by cleaning house is a recipe for disaster. The Twins should be looking to improve continuously by moving a couple of these marginal pieces year over year.

 

In any case, the players are who they are. Blaming them for that is not productive, unless we know they are not taking the job seriously. If any of us believed, for example, that Kepler was a difference-maker, that's on us.

 

The Twins team of the 00s had a lot of turnover, but kept improving. Sure, the late 80s teams had roster consistency, but they also had a team of all-stars and were setting attendance records. 

[rdehring]

Agree With LA Vikes fan that the percentages given to Rocco and the Front Office should be flipped.

 

Rocco probably is 14% responsible for our problems thru his game management, or lack thereof. But he certainly gets another +10% for his being responsible for preparing this team to compete. Sure doesn't look like a team that wants to win? Really wish someone would show a little fight.  

 

Can they still recover, yes. But to do so they need to make a 180 degree turn and do it very soon. Another couple weeks of this and its over. At that point, I think the FO needs to take this team down to its core. And I sure as heck don't know who that core is.

[gunnarthor]

The FO should shoulder most of this blame. The bullpen is crap and they seem to be big believers in limiting starting pitching innings. Seems like if you're aiming to build a team where the starters max out around 170 innings on the season, you have to have a huge and productive bullpen. We don't. I don't understand how the team was made.

 

Offensively, I think it's ok. I'm ready to move on from Polanco and Kepler but we have some depth behind them that could work. And I'll give the FO credit for trying to build around the offense by bringing in Donaldson and Cruz. But the team has a few too many bench players in starting spots right now. Hopefully, a little health fixes that.

[Dodecahedron]

 

And can we finally put the "pitch framing" strategy in the grave? I'm tired of watching our catchers give up bases and runs on wild pitches and occasional passed balls because they can't shift over on balls in the dirt to keep the ball in front of them when they're positioned with their legs spread out. Traditional catchers position themselves to be able to catch those balls in the dirt or wide. I think putting runners in scoring position or actually scoring on balls that get past the catchers far outweighs the calls we might get by "framing" the ball. Every umpire has their own strike zone and we all watch them make good and bad ball/strike calls irregardless of any help from the catcher. If the ball hits the ground, the missed ball is called a Wild Pitch and thus the catchers are probably less concerned since the missed ball doesn't show on their fielding stats.

 

The pitch framing metrics were designed to keep umpires honest and make them accountable. Largely this has succeeded, yes there are still bad calls and bad games but it's not like it was 10-15 years ago. Yes, I strongly believe the Twins were bounced out of the playoffs more than once in that era by bad-intentioned umpires.

 

I'm not sure where Garver and Jeffers rank for pitch framing, so I can't say if this is what they are trying to do.

 

In any case, the best pitch framers get one extra strike per game. There was a strong narrative that this was a huge difference maker, there were many vocal pundits around saying what a huge difference this was. Logically we knew this was never the case. We have enough data now to show that no team has gone deep in the playoffs solely due to the performance art of the catcher.

 

Umpires have vastly improved their ball-strike accuracy in the last decade, but not due to catcher finesse. It's due to umpire accuracy being measured.

[mikelink45]

Another stat that means nothing - run differential.  Yes it is interesting and there are some correlations, but this needs some more examination.  We had a 15 - 6 game at Detroit, 10 - 2 at Seattle, lost 13 - 12 at Oakland and won 13 - 4 at KC.   Remove those 4 blow outs and what is the run differential for the other 26 games?  We are averaging 3.8 runs per game in those 26 games. 

[cHawk]

 

Offensively, I think it's ok. I'm ready to move on from Polanco and Kepler but we have some depth behind them that could work. And I'll give the FO credit for trying to build around the offense by bringing in Donaldson and Cruz. But the team has a few too many bench players in starting spots right now. Hopefully, a little health fixes that.

 

We have not been “ok” offensively. Let’s break down our run production into a stem and leaf plot:

 

Scored 10+ Runs: 5 Times

Scored 9 Runs: 1 Time

Scored 8 Runs: 1 Time

Scored 7 Runs: 0 Times

Scored 6 Runs: 2 Times
Scored 5 Runs: 1 Time
Scored 4 Runs: 2 Times

Scored 3 Runs: 8 Times

Scored 2 Runs: 6 Times
Scored 1 Run: 2 Times
Shutout: 2 Times

 

That massive mark at 10+ completely inflates or Run Differential. Almost half the time, we score 2 or 3 runs. Those 10 Run games shouldn’t be separated from the 5 or 6 run games. That is called stat padding. For example, Ben Roethlisberger did not have a good game in the wild card game against the Browns this past year, despite the fact that his team scored 37 and he had a PR ~90. The game was well out of reach by the first quarter, in which his team scored 0, were down 28-0, with 3 turnovers. Those 37 points were stat padding against a backup secondary in garbage time.

[Bomba2026]

It's the curse of Eddie Rosario.....and at least Rocco wasn't managing in our World Series when Jack Morris pitched more than 6 innings....

[cHawk]

 

It's the curse of Eddie Rosario.....and at least Rocco wasn't managing in our World Series when Jack Morris pitched more than 6 innings....

 

Curses are not real. And Eddie is exactly replacement level, hate to say it. If Eddie can get “clutch” hits so can Donaldson, Cruz, Buxton, Arraez, and Kirilloff.

[Trov]

I will put most blame on players.  They are the ones failing to get hits late in games, or in big situations.  The extra inning record is on the players mostly.  They have only scored 1 time in extra innings when Buxton hit a HR, and we still lost that game, but every other time we did not get it done.  We have lost games because of defensive plays not being made, even when not an error the player still failed to make a play they could have. 

 

Rocco should get some blame as he has made some interesting decisions, but he uses data being fed to him from FO for certain situations which will affect his decisions.  

 

I do not put a ton on the FO, but they do deserve some because they put the pen together, which has been a huge issue.  We have had so many late leads blown this year.  So many saves and hold just out the window.  There are a few other options we could have tried to go after, like keep May, who is doing well so far this year.  We do not know who they were all in on and lost out, or what trades were looked at.  I do put some blame on the front office. 

 

Overall, the players need to start getting it done.  Getting hits late and in key spots.  Also, pen needs to start holding leads late, or starters need to start going deeper too. 

[gunnarthor]

 

We have not been “ok” offensively. Let’s break down our run production into a stem and leaf plot:

 

Scored 10+ Runs: 5 Times

Scored 9 Runs: 1 Time

Scored 8 Runs: 1 Time

Scored 7 Runs: 0 Times

Scored 6 Runs: 2 Times
Scored 5 Runs: 1 Time
Scored 4 Runs: 2 Times

Scored 3 Runs: 8 Times

Scored 2 Runs: 6 Times
Scored 1 Run: 2 Times
Shutout: 2 Times

 

That massive mark at 10+ completely inflates or Run Differential. Almost half the time, we score 2 or 3 runs. Those 10 Run games shouldn’t be separated from the 5 or 6 run games. That is called stat padding. For example, Ben Roethlisberger did not have a good game in the wild card game against the Browns this past year, despite the fact that his team scored 37 and he had a PR ~90. The game was well out of reach by the first quarter, in which his team scored 0, were down 28-0, with 3 turnovers. Those 37 points were stat padding against a backup secondary in garbage time.

If you are going to discount the best five games, you have to discount the worst five games.

 

But my point was that I think the offense is going to be fine. Sano is better than this and will flip a switch and start hitting. Kiriloff is a legit middle of the order bat. We have enough weapons and depth to be a pretty potent unit. Pitching, bullpen in particular, is going to drag the team down all year. 

[SomeGuy]

It has only been 30 games....I wouldn't write them off yet.  I'm in the bad luck camp especially on offense.

 

Donaldson BA .262 XBA .337 Slug .426 xSlug .602

Polanco BA .206 XBA .271 Slug .304 xSlug .465

Kepler BA .200 XBA .247 slug .343 xSlug .398

Arraez BA .291 XBA .324 Slug .372 xSlug .494

Garver BA .205 XBA .220 Slug .493 xSlug .540

 

Pretty low BABIPs

Donaldson .275 (career .298)

Cave .262 (career .344)

Polanco .247 (career .310)

Kepler .245 (career .252)

Garver .243 (career .299)

Kirilloff .192 

Sano .148 (career .334)

[Mahoning]

Leadership seems to be saying, "Just give us some time and it'll be 2018 again." There doesn't seem to be much urgency. I recommend bunny steps. Next time you go to extra innings, lads, just try to get a runner to third. That would be a big confidence builder. 

[Squirrel]

I think the FO should get more than half the blame. For one, the bp. For two, I think they've massively over-estimated or completely missed in evaluating abilities of some of the players. Yeah, some players are just not performing and I have to wonder if that's just who they are at this point (Kepler, Polanco and Sano). And those are the three that the FO has put some faith in with healthy contracts. So ... yeah ... the FO gets the majority of the blame here. And I'd say 60% or more of it.

[mrkarbo]

Rocco needs someone "old school" that can help him or he needs to go. He manages completely by stats which is fine if your playing strat-o-matic, but in the real world you gotta go with your gut at times, and it doesnt seem Rocco can or will do that. It seems all I ever hear from him is preaching patience, or how hard the boys are working. He is the boss on the field and as such the responsibility is his to get better results. Yesterday as an example he pulled Pineda after 6 innings with the bottom of the order due up next and less than 90 pitches thrown. Was something wrong with Pineda? Knowing what a terrible bullpen we have why not let him go another inning? I havent seen any pitchers arm fall off at 100 pitches in the 60+ years Ive been watching the game. There have been countless other times where i have thought to myself "what in the world is Rocco thinking" this year and usually it turns out bad. Im not saying fire the guy, but he needs someone who is more experienced to help him as a bench coach.

[cHawk]

 

If you are going to discount the best five games, you have to discount the worst five games.

 

But my point was that I think the offense is going to be fine. Sano is better than this and will flip a switch and start hitting. Kiriloff is a legit middle of the order bat. We have enough weapons and depth to be a pretty potent unit. Pitching, bullpen in particular, is going to drag the team down all year. 

 

If we remove the 5 worst games, we then have:

 

Scored 10+ Runs: 0 Times
Scored 9 Runs: 1 Time
Scored 8 Runs: 1 Time
Scored 7 Runs: 0 Times
Scored 6 Runs: 2 Times
Scored 5 Runs: 1 Time
Scored 4 Runs: 2 Times
Scored 3 Runs: 8 Times
Scored 2 Runs: 5 Times
Scored 1 Run: 0 Times
Shutout: 0 Times

 

That’s 13 games out of 20 where we score 3 or fewer, which is even worse.

 

Sano may very well come around. I do like Kirilloff, he’s a legit MotO bat. But the offense was bad all last year, putrid in the playoffs, and bad so far. I see it as quite optimistic to predict that it will turn around. Nobody has been in sync.

[Dodecahedron]

 

If you are going to discount the best five games, you have to discount the worst five games.

 

 

We could start using the median instead of the mean. The median for the Twins is a hell of a lot lower, and heck it accurately describes what happens more often by its very definition. 

 

Median runs scored per game: 3.

Median runs allowed per game: 4.