The Mind Trick that Afflicts Twins Fans

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Kirilloff had multiple cortisone shots and a wrist surgery already, prior to the surgery in 2022. It's unfortunate for him, for sure, and for fans and the team.

If I recall, one of those cortisone shots was while in the minors so that might have been a warning flag. But you could also say that it went from minor concern heading into 2021 to career-threatening concern in a blink of an eye. He might have had some trade value prior to August 2022, but at this point I would say not.   

I don't think the front office needs to come out point blank and say, "We will be lucky to get much from Kirilloff anymore, from this point going forward." That would be worst case, obviously, and I think that can be left unsaid. My own hope for Kirilloff is that he has some good stretches at DH. I don't know if catching baseballs affects his wrist or not or if keeping him out of the field would save some aggravation. You hate to ask a player to play through that pain.

[chpettit19]

11 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

I think you're arguing incidents, while I'm suggesting patterns, In isolation, all of these seem like "acts of fate," sure, but even as you mentioned, word was out about Rice's pitchers before Canterino was drafted. Asking a career SS rehabbing an ACL in his first MLB year to patrol CF was unwise. Last year, Kirilloff had been hinting since Spring Training that his wrist wasn't well. Believe it or not, some issues are preventable or avoidable. Not all, but some.

Add these back into the context of trades for Dyson, Paddack and Mahle that immediately turned into season-ending injuries, and you have a pattern of lack of awareness about injury and conditioning. 

Let me put it this way, when misfortune seems to be striking just one team continuously, it's probably not just fate at that point.

But all of this is separate from the main point of my reaction to this article and to other articles that suggest that fan morale or fan perception is out of whack for this club. No, the Twins are lucky to have fans at this point. Fans are allowed to have any kind of reasonable or unreasonable take about this club at this point. It is solely, squarely, 100% on the Minnesota Twins to reset the narrative for this organization. Not the fans. Not the baseball gods. The Twins. Period.

I mean your stance is basically that no Rice pitchers should ever be drafted. I strongly disagree with the "Lewis in CF was a mistake stance." He was no longer rehabbing an ACL. He was fine. This idea that CF is somehow inherently dangerous is preposterous and based on no actual information (news flash: SS's put stress on their knees too, and even jump for balls sometimes!). Kirilloff's wrist seemed awfully ok when he was in AAA absolutely raking. 

You can't add Lewis or Kirilloff into the Paddack or Mahle trades. Nobody knew Dyson was injured so that's purely revisionist history to fit your narrative. They didn't bring Lewis and Kirilloff in knowing they had injury concerns. You're just taking injuries and saying the Twins should've known guys would get injured. Paddack and Mahle are entirely different than Lewis and Kirilloff. Even Canterino was different in that he threw 96, 94, and 99.1 innings in his 3 seasons at Rice. That shows an arm that can hold up, but wasn't ridiculous usage by a college pitcher by any means. Also, you've listed 6 guys in 7 years they've been in control. That's less than 1 per year, but somehow that's a "pattern of lack of awareness about injury and conditioning." That's literally what the article points out. Confirmation bias. You're going to have to do a whole lot more than point out 6 guys, 3 of which don't even remotely fit your attempted narrative, in 7 years before it's a pattern.

"Seems" is the key word here. The Twins got hit hard by major league injuries last year, and to an extent in 2021. No arguing that didn't happen. But is their minor league system being hit harder than other team's, or does it just "seem" that way?

And, no, I don't agree it's on the Twins to reset "unreasonable takes/narratives." Like I don't understand that in any way. "Hey, I'm being unreasonable, but you need to fix it, not me" is an unreasonable stance. It makes no sense at all. Nobody is saying you have to praise the Twins or the FO or pretend the team hasn't failed the last 2 seasons, and the last 2 decades in general in the postseason. But being reasonable about it is an option. It's also squarely, 100% impossible for the Minnesota Twins to reset the narrative of every fan. You're trying to claim the Twins ignore injuries and are mad about it. These pages are filled with other fans mad the Twins aren't clearing the way for Larnach and Kirilloff and Winder and Ober. It's literally impossible for the Twins to fit both of those narratives. But that's your unreasonable expectation. So, yeah, I'm going to say at least some of it is on fans putting a little more thought into things and not being unreasonable.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

13 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

I think you're arguing incidents, while I'm suggesting patterns, In isolation, all of these seem like "acts of fate," sure, but even as you mentioned, word was out about Rice's pitchers before Canterino was drafted. Asking a career SS rehabbing an ACL in his first MLB year to patrol CF was unwise. Last year, Kirilloff had been hinting since Spring Training that his wrist wasn't well. Believe it or not, some issues are preventable or avoidable. Not all, but some.

Add these back into the context of trades for Dyson, Paddack and Mahle that immediately turned into season-ending injuries, and you have a pattern of lack of awareness about injury and conditioning. 

Let me put it this way, when misfortune seems to be striking just one team continuously, it's probably not just fate at that point.

But all of this is separate from the main point of my reaction to this article and to other articles that suggest that fan morale or fan perception is out of whack for this club. No, the Twins are lucky to have fans at this point. Fans are allowed to have any kind of reasonable or unreasonable take about this club at this point. It is solely, squarely, 100% on the Minnesota Twins to reset the narrative for this organization. Not the fans. Not the baseball gods. The Twins. Period.

The whole point of the article is the patterns we as fans can see may not actually be patterns and may not actually align with the decisions and actions being taken by the team.

You are correct the team needs to be driving the improvement and they are accountable to the Pohlads on sales that are generated from us the fans.

these are separate concepts but there’s causal/reaction that occurs. The PR machine whirs through the Twitterverse and we all react. On and on…