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I don't want to start a conversation about this but I *only* hear this message from people who don't go to downtown Minneapolis. I know *so many* people who go to a ton of Twins games and/or live downtown and they move around down there without a bit of trouble. Hell, our own John Bonnes lives downtown and (obviously) goes to a bunch of Twins games. He walks back and forth and has talked about it on the podcast a few times. Never had a lick of trouble, nor has one of my best friends who literally lives two blocks from Target Field. Don't buy into politically-driven narratives from people who don't actually live or visit the place in question. With that said, I have no interest in pursuing this line of conversation or arguing about it, as I've been there, know people who live there, and no one has reported any difficulty or worry so let's end the discussion here and move on.

Time for some heat from writers/bloggers/beat reporters on the front office, Rocco, Wes Johnson, and the hitting coach. A team simply cannot regress this hard 35 games into the season with no heat on them. I don't think Rocco should be fired, nor should anyone in the front office, but I do think a change, especially on the hitting side of things, would be welcome. The Mets fired their beloved hitting coach after not getting the results they wanted. The Twins coaches should not be immune to this. I've said it the past few days, maybe even weeks, but this team simply isn't very good. Almost every single player outside of Buxton, Cruz, Donaldson, and Polanco as of late has regressed. Time for someone inside the organization to take some blame and accountability for things, and it starts with Rocco saying something other than "Yeah, these guys are really battling but aren't getting the results we want. It'll come around eventually." Show some fight. Please.

This site is becoming our therapy couch. We keep elevating our hopes - Oh good Happ is pitching! Yikes he gave up 9 runs. Shaun is coming in (the announcers are so desperate that they talk on about how many different spellings the teams history of Sauns has had) and of course he gives up a HR. The team rallies, we are going to keep it going - right? The radio announcers are trying to hold in their shock - Garlick is going to bat and they have good matchups on the bench - sure they will use Larnach. No they don't. Larnach will PH with no one on and be stranded in the next inning, but Garlick will bat and kill the rally. Hey Rocco - find that sheet about LH/RH matchups. They pull Garlick then and put in Cave and his 169 BA. That will help. What happened to Simmons? Why is he out of the game? Will his ankle keep him out now? The tears are flowing, but I am feeling better now - thanks for the couch!

For what it's worth Big Mike threw 96 pitches, not 80-85. Even so, he's BIG and he's been around for a while. There's no reason why he couldn't throw 110 pitches or more. Unless he told Rocco he was tiring, the option to leave him out there or go to the bullpen which has imploded almost every game would give me reason to let him throw until his arm falls off. We all know that happens now-a-days once a pitcher reaches the magical number of 100 pitches or more. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Right now one would have to question Rocco's sanity with his every move to quick hook a starter and go to the bullpen. With the current state of the bullpen I'd be letting the pitchers go 8 or 9 innings everytime out if they aren't imploding like the bullpen.

The starter was left in too long? He pitched five and a third. Sorry, Mike, I will have this conversation with you all day, at least for today's game. I was listening on the radio. Sounded like Pineda wanted to stay in. After a game yesterday of 4.1 innings from the bullpen (two innings from Duffey and Colome). Now Rogers is burned up for tomorrow. Moves the other guys forward in the line. Multiple innings from the bullpen, every single night. It all compounds. Let a starter pitch, for crying out loud, maybe something interesting happens today and Pineda works out of it, and then pitches a quick scoreless seventh, and the guys come to bat in the top of the 8th with some vigor, Kepler's home run ties the game, Robles and Rogers still fresh for the bottom of the eighth. I mean, honest question? How much worse can it get to leave a starting pitcher in a game that he does not want to come out of, just once? (none of this is meant to be taken personally)

Rocco lost a lot of his staff the past two years and i believe it is showing up now this year.....

They rank last in the league in CG+TS (crotch grabs plus tobacco spits). ?

The advanced analytics are necessary in today’s game, but not sufficient. Baseball still requires tobacco and spit. This team doesn’t have enough of it.

Some of this is a lack of talent. But some of this is a failure of the players to meet our expectations. And the fluke 2019 season didn’t help. The Keplers, Garvers, Sanos, and Rogers maybe aren’t what we thought they were. I for one thought Polanco would be a true pure hitter. He’s gotten better, but he isn’t what I envisioned. And while Cruz has 9? HR’s, he is beginning to appear a mere mortal. As for mental approach, well one of the "team leaders" lollygagged his butt home on that DP and cost a run. Also, I was a huge fan of signing Simmons, the team needed a SS badly. But he is playing with about as much interest as my grandchildren do when we pick up sticks in the yard! The Twins pitching staff needs no further verbal abuse, it’s mostly all been said. But, if I was a pitcher and had to pitch to Garver I would seriously have to consider going to my grandmothers funeral that day. The fact I no longer have a grandmother would not deter me a bit. Seriously, if there is a worse MLB catcher I can’t name him. His two singles were easily displaced by the two unblocked low balls, scoring runs. How can you pitch with confidence down in the zone looking at him behind the plate. Pitch framing? I have seen high school catchers who don’t jerk a pitch that clumsily. I don’t think the Calvary is coming this year. This may just be what it is. The FO is going to have to do some pretty miraculous work to turn this around, even by next year. The only player untouchable should be Buxton, and I think he only has a year left under control. Sadly, with his inability to stay on the field, that translates into about 100 more games.

Seth Rogan just did some hilarious interviews with Howard Stern - including some really funny stories about meeting Tom Cruise and George Lucas. If you're looking for a day brightener, head over to YouTube and look them up. Back to the Twins - we could have all turned off the game when the White Sox took a 2-1 lead in the 1st inning. There is no fight in this team offensively. And, every time the offense shows life, the starting pitcher or bullpen immediate gives up the lead. I'm talking right away, they don't even let the Twins build on a lead for an inning or two. Any lead is just POOF gone. I'm getting antsy for some kind of big move. Maybe it's a firing of someone in management. Or maybe it's a demotion of a big name. But something's gotta happen. Because sitting around and doing nothing is just so pathetically lethargic that it's embarrassing.

It's too early to say he's back to his All-Star form, but he's showing progress, and seeing more pop from his bat is a good sign.

I didn't say too long....I said it didn't work...which is how people here seem to judge decisions......and, none of it was personal. You attacked my position, not me. Which is great on a forum. He'd just walked two guys.....people here would be blasting him if he'd left him and it didn't work.....really, there is no good option there given this bullpen. If they had even an average 'pen, making the move there is an easy choice. Frankly, I feel bad for Rocco.....there just aren't good options, and it isn't like he gets to hire these guys, he gets who he gets.

How tough to be assigned post game wrap ups. I would want to write- They Stunk again and go have a beer. But of course baseball is about nuance. So Rocco tried to get six innings out of a starter. Maybe you start pushing the innings in ST and early in the seasons. Not a sudden, lets try it. Sorry, but Pineda did not blow it in the sixth. Robles let in the run and Pineda is given the score on his sheet. Baseball Reference says 67% of inherited runners score against the BP. How do you spell RELIEF? Not the Bullpen. 32 inherited runners have scored - subtract that from the SP and add it to the RP - how are the ERAs? Robles you do not deserve a clean 0 runs. Taylor Rogers you killed us with the run you gave up.

I've got to hand it to the White Sox -- they're kind of fun to watch right now. As a Twins fan, I had hoped/expected them to be fun in a trainwreck kind of way when they hired LaRussa and spent big money on a closer. But as a baseball fan, I can appreciate that they have a very interesting mix of players -- of different styles, from different backgrounds. They're far from perfect, but they're coming together in an effective way at the moment.

I think that sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

He is on the Injured List. It does sound like he's getting pretty close. Balazovic has the oblique injury. He's a little behind Duran. He'll go to Wichita.

It's as if every game is a playoff game against the Yankees.

Please transition Thorpe to the pen full time and call him up ASAP.

Enlow looked really good last night. Here is some video...

The little sliver of hope that many of us were holding on to coming into this series is gone. Of course there is plenty of season left, but it’s clear the difference in these two rosters is significant, and that’s without Chicago having 2 of their best hitters. I would also say that the twins had the starting pitching advantage in game one, and tonight was a wash, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the scores. At least colome has been decent as of late I suppose, get that trade value up above nothing. Congrats to Larnach on his first hit. At this point, I’m hoping the positive from this season is that AK, Larnach, and a few other prospects we haven’t seen yet give me reason to believe in next years squad.

Every few days, I'm going to try to cover some of the features of the new site in a few paragraphs. Using the old site, as I'm sure many of you are aware, tables were basically unusable. That has changed! I'll tackle B-Ref tables quickly in this post but you can do similar things with FanGraphs or other sites that use table data (which is how almost all stat sites display their content). First, pop on over to Lord Byron's B-Ref page: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/buxtoby01.shtml I'm going to grab his 2019-2021 season stats. Just above his stat table, you'll see Share & Export. Click and then select Modify, Share, & Export Table. Boom, you can then select what stats you want to display and which you want to remove. I've removed all seasons except the last three. I also removed team and league because "duh". Then click the big X in the top right of the yellow square and you have your filtered table. Grab that table by moving your cursor to the top left of the table (just to the left of Year in this case) and while holding down the button of your mouse/trackpad, drag toward the bottom right of the table. The table will begin to highlight in yellow as you select the cells. Grab them all and let go of the mouse/trackpad. Then copy what has been selected (control+c on Windows, command+c on macOS). Pop over to Twins Daily, start typing a comment, and paste your content (control+v on Windows, command+v on macOS). Year Age G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 2019 25 87 295 271 48 71 30 4 10 46 14 3 19 68 .262 .314 .513 .827 116 139 3 2 2 1 1 8/HD 2020 26 39 135 130 19 33 3 0 13 27 2 1 2 36 .254 .267 .577 .844 127 75 2 1 0 2 0 8 MVP-16 2021 27 24 98 92 19 34 10 0 9 17 5 0 4 23 .370 .408 .772 1.180 236 71 0 2 0 0 0 *8 7 Yr 7 Yr 456 1602 1472 223 363 87 17 60 189 67 9 95 467 .247 .297 .451 .748 99 664 10 13 14 8 3 162 162 162 569 523 79 129 31 6 21 67 24 3 34 166 .247 .297 .451 .748 99 236 4 5 5 3 1 And that's it! Note: you can use this method for most websites and spreadsheet data so whatever table data you have available you need to copy and paste, this method will likely suit your needs.

What is happening however is that our guys can't get the 3rd strike or 3rd out before allowing a run. Their guys pretty much stop us every time...no matter how many outs or men on base. It defies odds when an opposing pitcher can stop us from scoring a run with no outs and a runner on 2nd 6 out of 7 times. I don't think thats normal. And our run production in innings 7-10 is abysmal. meanwhile our pitchers are giving up runs every game when it matters most. Can't crawl into a guys head...but it sure 'looks' from body language that the Twins collectively have zero confidence right now. After Keplers surprise HR in the 8th, we followed it with two singles. Somehow once again, nothing resulted.

Bottom line, 2 runs isn't enough. The pitching has been bad, the relievers have been bad, the lineup has been bad, Rocco's managed himself into some horrible situations (that infield alignment in Oakland with a lead in extra innings would be "Exhibit A" at the trial) . . . . This team is doing next to nothing right beyond showing up for the games on time.

I'm curious about what specifically you'd like the media to do or say, and what you think would change because of it. I think the team and the organization is well aware of how badly this season is going and how frustrated all of the fans are. What answers would satisfy you? I don't think anyone really has any answers at this point.

This isn't a popular belief, but there isn't always an answer or reason why things happen.....other than the bullpen, this could not have been predicted at all. Sometimes bad stuff just happens.

100% Absolutely agree. There seems to be a lot of reporters saying things like "Gee whiz, another bad game for the Twins" and not much else. This is a train wreck and the media is just mailing it in, like the coaching staff. LaVelle did tweet last night that this could be a 100 loss team but he's not really the Twins beat reporter right now. No pressure at all from media or ownership or front office... Now you also mentioned fight. Here's the crazy part: Josh Donaldson: known as a competitor, can be a red-assed hothead. Wants to WIN. Period. Luis Arraez: Battles every plate appearance. Gritty. Gutty. Fun. Contagious attitude. Nelson Cruz: Ageless talent and the one of the biggest cheerleaders in the game. Yells and celebrates and has tons of fun with teammates in the dugout. La Tortuga: If not a competitor, at least he's a fun addition to a clubhouse. Buxton: A huge "LETS GO!" guy who gets fired up when he makes big plays and gets fired up when his teammates do as well. Berrios: Works hard, has the respect of his teammates and is not shy about pumping his fist. Clearly wants to WIN. How on earth can a team with the players listed above be so listless? What on earth is going on? It's like Rocco's putting sleeping pills in the gatorade or something. Not only are the Twins playing way under their abilities, but they are also sleepwalking through the whole thing. It's insane and even crazier is that all we hear is "gee whiz these Twins aren't playing well" from the local media and from Rocco. This is a dumpster fire and I for one want answers.

Runners in scoring position this season .296 batting average and .382 on base% 11 RBI

Tbf, the 2nd walk was a really bad call and most definitely a strike, and had a chance to be a strike em out throw em out, and instead resulted in none. Leaving in Pineda was the right call there, result or not. I had zero issue with how Rocco managed this game (which is a rarity for me in this young season). However, if you think Rocco is just “getting who he gets” you’re fooling yourself. Rocco doesn’t have the final say on players on the roster, but he certainly does get a say on it somewhat.

The thing is no one has any faith in this bullpen. This is the only option. Pineda and Berrios are way better than anyone there.

They lose the same way all the time. When was the last time that someone got a clutch late inning hit to tie the game or take the lead? Bullpen---just bad enough..again. First Robles lets an inherited runner score. then typical Rogers...he gets 2 outs and then gives up the RBI hit to turn it into a 2 run game again. Meanwhile Twins strike out at every opportunity. None of them escape this. 12 more men left on. They had chances galore and just never got the clutch hit. And often the RISP were with less than two outs. Twins are now the worst team in MLB and they have earned every bit of that. The hitters look frustrated from the time they step up to the time they walk back to the dugout. Time for a shaleup...something...anything

Thank you! It popped right up like you said! I like the new format. On a side note I attended the first two games in Wichita. Nice team and park!

That's part of the indictment. The White Sox aren't world beaters and have some key injuries, yet this team doesn't look remotely close to being able to beat them. The fact that other lesser teams are competitive with this team reflects what you're saying. Average teams should walk all over this squad right now.

I've been pretty unimpressed with Garver's defense this season for many of the reasons you listed but in fairness to him, that first failed block that scored a run was some pretty lousy baseball luck. The ball hit something - possibly the edge of the plate - and bounced the opposite direction it was tailing (and the direction Garver was moving to block). Happ is a lefty and the ball hit the opposite side of the plate. It then bounced back to Happ's arm side of the plate, which isn't something a catcher can expect to happen or have time to react to it happening. https://www.mlb.com/gameday/twins-vs-white-sox/2021/05/12/634160#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=634160 Blech, MLB doesn't want to let me easily link to a specific video. Look for the video "Hamilton Scores on a Wild Pitch" after scrolling.

Agreed that Rocco should try extending the starters a little more. But when the bats stop scoring in the second inning and every dang reliever comes in and gives up multiple runs, as was the case last night (and about 20 other times this season), there really is no simple solution. The starters can pitch deeper into games, but it still won't matter if the bullpen and late-game offense both continue to be this inept.

Coming into the 2021 Major League Baseball season this Minnesota Twins club was expected to battle with the Chicago White Sox for the AL Central Division title. Someone apparently forgot to tell them that. We’re now over 30 games into the season and Rocco Baldelli’s club is nearly double-digit games out of first place in the division. The story this offseason was one of winning a playoff game, but at this point getting there looks like a herculean feat. A week ago, I wrote about where blame should fall for this debacle. Taking that a step further, which players have regressed the most, and should we have seen it coming? Max Kepler Back in 2019 the Twins inked Kepler to a five-year contract extension. They had a corner outfielder that had done just enough but was looking to breakthrough. They gambled right and that season the German-native posted an .855 OPS. Since that season he’s played in 72 games and posted just a .720 OPS. Although the .760 OPS in 2020 was still a step forward from where he’d been previously, Minnesota was going to need more in the year ahead. He’s responded but hitting below the Mendoza Line with an OPS of .642. He’s got just two homers in 99 plate appearances and the power potential has been all but sapped. Kepler has struggled at times against lefties in his career, even to the point of being platooned for a period. He’s become an advanced defender, but he’s stretched a bit in centerfield, and it has put his body in more of a demanding scenario as well. It’s one thing when he’s hitting at the bottom of the lineup, but this is a guy the Twins groomed to hit leadoff or for power in the middle, and he’s become anything but. At 28 there’s still time, but it’s getting late early on the 2021 campaign. Miguel Sano Arguably one of the most frustrating players in recent Twins memory, there is no one more of a lightning rod for criticism than Sano is. Despite a .923 OPS across 105 games two years ago, the guy has never been given grace. He’s allowed laziness and character issues to creep in off the field, and even after turning a corner there, performance took a step backwards. Getting off to a late start due to Covid in 2020, Sano has doubled down in 2021. He’s got an unacceptable .496 OPS and looks completely overmatched at the plate. No longer is he able to catch up to fastballs, and while the season started with a strong walk inducing plate discipline, he now looks to be up there flailing. This is a guy that went from Nelson Cruz protégé to someone that could wind up being a lost cause for the organization. Like Kepler, he too is just 28, but at bats are now no longer guaranteed for the first basemen and it’s on him to re-earn any semblance of trust. Tyler Duffey This is arguably the most surprising. Over 81.2 innings the past two seasons Duffey transformed himself into one of baseball’s best relievers. He owned a 2.31 ERA bolstered by a 12.5 K/9 and a 2.2 BB/9. The stuff was electric, he had strong command of it, and hitters found themselves looking like something close to an automatic out when he was on the bump. A 5.25 ERA isn’t overtly concerning across just 12.0 IP, but the lack of command and dominance is certainly a problem. Duffey has just a 10/9 K/BB this season and is seemingly not able to get batters to miss the ball. His 9.0 H/9 simply won’t play, and for a guy that was counted on to be a key back-end bullpen piece, Baldelli has been left searching for even more answers with one of his key cogs becoming completely unreliable. Mitch Garver I’m not certain that regression is entirely fair here for Garver as it depends on what the expectation was. I think it’s fair to suggest that his .995 OPS in 2019 wasn’t indicative of the player he is, just as the .511 mark battling through a core injury wasn’t a season ago. He’s since turned it on a bit and now owns a .733 OPS, but the 32/7 K/BB just isn’t reflective of the hitter we once saw. For Garver it doesn’t seem the problem is so much that he’s struggled with what to attack, but instead has been unable to attack the same pitches he once could. Previously hunting and crushing fastballs, he’s sat on that pitch in 2021 but been able to do little with it. Having dealt with a couple of bumps and bruises, it hasn’t been a fluid start to the year, but he could certainly ride some momentum back towards an acceptable output. Looking at the names above, I think they’re probably listed in order of impact and surprise. Kepler hasn’t been good for going on two years now, but he’s also been asked to do substantially more defensively and the level of consistency when getting to the ballpark hasn’t been there. Sano’s ceiling has long been established, and when the bottom falls out of a player like that it crashes hard. For Duffey there has to be a tweak that allows something better the rest of the way, and Garver isn’t far off from what should’ve been expected from him. All in all, the Minnesota Twins are where they are because the core players in their lineup and on the roster have fallen flat. Steps back should always be expected, but by virtually everyone at the same time, that’s pretty difficult to overcome. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email View full article

The Minnesota Twins fell once again on Thursday night, capping off another sweep and pushing their record down to a lowly 12-23. Box Score Pineda: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 7 K Home Runs: Kepler (3) Bottom 3 WPA: Arraez -.179, Garver -.124, Donaldson -.110 Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) After the Twins allowed the White Sox offense to go wild on Wednesday evening, Michael Pineda did a much better job keeping the bats at bay on Thursday afternoon. Through the first five innings, Pineda only allowed two runs on solo shots from Tim Anderson and Jake Lamb in the first and third innings, respectively. While fans have criticized Baldelli all year for pulling his starters too early, Rocco trotted out Pineda for the sixth inning where he quickly found himself in trouble, walking the first two batters of the sixth inning. Baldelli then turned the ball over to Hansel Robles and the Twins bullpen, who again allowed an inherited runner to score after Andrew Vaughn connected for an RBI single to push the White Sox lead to 3-1. On the offensive side of the ball, the Minnesota Twins struggled early to get anything going, connecting on only two hits through the first seven innings, though they were able to generate base runners via the base on balls, walking five times in the game. The Twins finally found a spark at the plate in the eighth inning, led off by a solo home run from Max Kepler, cutting the lead down to 3-2. Following the home run, the Twins strung two consecutive singles together before manager Tony La Russa decided to go to his closer and former Minnesota Twins, Liam Hendriks, to attempt a five-out save. Hendriks was successful in doing so, as he shut down the Minnesota Twins with no trouble, taking them down in order to close out the game 4-2 following Yermin Mercedes' insurance RBI single in the eighth. Trevor Larnach Finding Success After achieving his first career Major League hit on Wednesday night, Larnach again found success at the plate on Thursday, connecting on a fourth-inning double with a 105 MPH exit velocity, where he would in turn come around to score the Twins first run of the game. In the fifth inning, Larnach demonstrated terrific plate discipline, drawing a nine-pitch walk off of Lance Lynn. In a season that has been disappointing on so many levels, being able to get performances like these from rookies are big-time wins for the long-term outlook of the Minnesota Twins. More Trouble with RISP In what has been a consistent theme throughout the season for the Minnesota Twins, the team once again was unable to come through with runners in scoring position. Today, the Twins went 0-for-10 with RISP, lowering their average to .230 in those situations on the season. For a team that is already struggling in so many different areas, they cannot afford to melt down with runners in scoring position, but that is exactly what they have done time and time again all year. Bullpen Usage Chart Click here to see the bullpen usage over the past five days (link opens a Google Sheet). What’s Next Things don’t get much easier for the Minnesota Twins as they will now return to Target Field to kick off a 3-game series against the 1st place Oakland Athletics. View full article

I dunno - how about they talk to Pohlad and ask if Rocco's on the hot seat? Start at least asking that question. If the Yankees, Dodgers, White Sox, or any other team that was predicted to be a playoff finalist were 12-23, we wouldn't just be hearing whispers, we'd be reading detailed articles about firing the manager daily. I think readers and fans are ready for some drastic moves. Someone should start the conversation.

Run expectancy again, eh? How is that working for the Twins in the tenth? The almighty expectancy is not the end all. Especially in baseball.

Premature to think that, I think. Pineda walked 2. Big deal. Especially since ball 4 to Abreu was actully strike 3, and the umpire blew the call of a great pitch! So bring Robles in with runners on 2nd and third with one out, and you know he will let the runners in. I am amazed he didn't let both in. All it took was one pitch from Robles. Just like has been happening. ONE PITCH! Obviously, even if Pineda had walked the bases loaded, Robles was brought in at least one batter too soon. Pineda didn't get the chance to end the inning, and no run scored in the 6th on his watch. All this pen does is let inherited runners in. I say let the starter decide the fate. The pen is trash.

35 games, 32 different batting orders. I understand some of this is necessary because of injuries, but I don't see other teams shuffling line-ups as much as the Twins do. A little consistency might let guys get more comfortable at the plate and understand roles better. That, and other than Cruz, Donaldson & Sano (and maybe Buxton when he returns), more guys need to start moving runners over instead of weak pop-ups to the SS.

chili davis is probably available.

To say this is complete system failure at this point is an understatement. The Twins are unwatchable. Who in their right mind would even consider PAYING to go to a game at this point. And that's without even considering the current crusade against law enforcement in the Twin Cities, how potentially unsafe it could be to go to the ballpark. But even watching on TV is just far too frustrating. Lastly, it's certainly time to send Sano to St. Paul to "find his stroke" because he is just plain LOST at the plate.

I have been impressed with Julien as a hitter so far. Much more impressed with his bat and approach than Sabato thus far. Cavaco has been holding his own too which is very encouraging. Like many I was concerned about his eye and bat but he is off to nice start so far. We could really use infield help so here's hoping he continues to do well. I believe Enlow started the season giving up 7 hits I much prefer the 7 K's he got this time around. I still have hope he can be a mid rotation arm this is a big year for him. Thanks goodness we have the farm to follow as the MLB team really stinks this year.

In addition to the informative write-ups each day for the minor league teams, I appreciate the easy access to the box scores. TY

They've been brutal in all aspects of the game: pitching, opportune hitting, fielding and base-running and in-game management is also suspect...so that just about covers everything I think.

My Saints t-shirt from the 90s is a frequent reminder of one of the things I miss about the Twin Cities.

I appreciate the OP very much. I'm just not sure how to rank vast disappointment and complete breakdown. The thing is, how could EVERYONE be having a disappointing/poor season all at once? Rogers has his velocity back up and has shown some wicked stuff. But then be grooves one or someone inside-outs a good pitch and you hand slap your forehead. Robles has largely looked OK, but has been inconsistent. How does Stashak suddenly have huge K numbers but no control? And he's always been a solid control pitcher previously. Relatively young and no injuries, what cliff did Duffey jump off of. For that matter, Colome has never been about pure velocity and doesn't seem to have lost any. So how are either of these guys so bad all of a sudden? I get Alcala is still developing. But how can his velocity and slider...both wicked...be so bad against LH hitters? I didn't dislike the Colome signing at all when it happened. But I still would have paid a little more to keep May instead. IMO, the Twins didn't see anyone giving him $7M. I know I didn't, and I even really like the guy. I think the Mets may have been the only team that would have done it, and they did. But here's the rub, other than May, everyone else the Twins let walk has been hurt or aweful. There is an easy list to compile of about 6-8 additional arms they could have signed, or were in on, and all of them are hurt or pitching poorly! Someone please remind me, all of this taken in to account, how the FO screwed up? Who should they have onboard they don't now? And again, how has EVERYONE seemingly collapsed at once? Someone, please, bring in a KFC bucket sacrifice to break thjs curse!

When I saw the title I thought you were ranking how you trusted each pitcher, not the order you trust them compared to each other. I would agree with your rank, but I have zero trust for them right now. I assume every pen guy will blow whatever lead we have.

I was watching Cano also last night. Wow, I realize they were AA hitters but he completely overmatched them. Great presence on the mound, older for a prospect. Cano was on my top ten list of pitchers to make their MLB debut for Twins this year. Will be interesting to see how Twins handle his progression. I was impressed with Moran also, big LH pitcher.