BOS 10, MIN 4: Twins Blow Lead in Spectacular Fashion

I think Duke goes to Red Sox. That has to be the reason he hasn't played. They don't want him to pitch against them in this series. My guess is he is traded tomorrow.

I agree that Duke not pitching means he is being traded to the Red Sox.

I wonder what the Twins could get for Taylor Rogers, a lefty under team control who

throws 94 mph and is sometimes quite effective and sometimes what he was tonight.

I think Duke goes to Red Sox. That has to be the reason he hasn't played. They don't want him to pitch against them in this series. My guess is he is traded tomorrow.

Or maybe the Red Sox made noises about Duke so the Twins wouldn't use him in this game, instead using a lesser pitcher in Moya...

People aren't that sneaky, are they...?

"Magill gave up a run on two hits over 1 ⅔ innings, but he also struck out three batters." Well, kind of. He pitched in 3 innings. On the stat sheet, he gave up two runs, but one was Taylor Rodgers (and the brain trust, who ordered two intentional walks) walking a third batter all on his own and walking in Betts with the bases now packed, instead of providing relief, so I will also go with he only gave up one run, too. 

And what? No Rodney?

Eh, what the hell, why not? We'll put down whatever we feel like. Nobody's gonna be reading these things anymore anyway

Now that is funny! Next up, Tom's stand up routine......

The only drum I can bang at this juncture is that the Twins have seven games against the Cleveland baseball club between now and August 9. That's it.

Eh, what the hell, why not? We'll put down whatever we feel like. Nobody's gonna be reading these things anymore anyway

Bottom line, they have committed themselves to at the minimum a major overhaul. I had no problem with that. But then they better do one, and not trade people and replace them with the next Belisle or Wislon.

If there was already a deal in place to send Duke to Boston, they would announce it and he’d be in their uniform. They wouldn’t wait until after the series. Sure, they could be working on it yet. But there is no way Boston suggested that the Twins not use him while negotiations were ongoing. That would be tampering and could be construed as attempting to influence the outcome (i.e. fixing) of games. There is no way either team would do that. Anyone caught doing it would be banned for life.

This is awfully early for malaise to set in, but we really only have trades, Rosario, and Berrios to make the Twins enjoyable.  I saw that AZ was looking at Dozier or Escobar - why didn't we make them choose Dozier?  

Does Sano look better striking out with less weight?  Was that the adjustment - 3 out of 4!  

This team just is not attractive to a fan except for the two I listed and Gibson.  The FO has talked a lot and now has 4 new players in the top 30 prospect list - http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2018?list=min  But what about the majors?  I keep looking for a hook that will be the theme for the rest of the year and keep me watching, listening, caring.

One more final thought - we added more prospects, but we have not figured out how to make prospects into productive major leaguers so how does it help to have more prospects?

 

One more final thought - we added more prospects, but we have not figured out how to make prospects into productive major leaguers so how does it help to have more prospects?

This exactly.

If your player development staff hasn’t been getting the job done, does it make sense to give them more projects?

Do we really need to run down the list of failed “can’t miss” prospects this organization has had over the last decade?

And how are Escobar or Pressly relevant to the conversation? They both started their tenures with the Twins at the MLB level.

Pressly only had 27.2 IP at Double A when he joined the org and Escobar had a whopping 104 PAs with the White Sox. I feel like it's plenty fair to say both of those guys are developmental wins for this team.

 

I get there's a lot of negativity and frustration right now, but are you really ready to throw in the towel on a 25-year-old Miguel Sano and a 24-year-old Byron Buxton? Derek Falvey's only been running the show since Oct. 2016, you're ready to say he and his staff are not to be trusted with developing players from the lower levels?

 

You don't give this org any credit for developing guys like Jose Berrios or Eddie Rosario? Dozier, Kepler, Polanco, Hildneberger, Garver? How about how Kyle Gibson has blossomed under the current regime?

 

Every team is going to have more failures than success stories. For every eighth-round pick who comes out of nowhere to hit 40 homers you can find three dozen highly-touted players who failed to live up to expectations.

 

I don't think the homegrown talent is the issue with this organization right now. Most of the issues are coming from the guys who they've brought in from the outside. Do we really need to run down the list of disappointing players this organization has traded for or signed as free agents over the last decade?

Pressly and Escobar aren’t relevant to the conversation because they never worked in-season with the minor league player development personnel. The comment you quoted of mine was in direct response to a post about acquiring minor league prospects.

I made no mention of Sano or Buxton.

So, that is twice in a single post that you directed your response in a completely different way than the post to which you were replying.

I’m not going to change my opinion. The results on the field for the last 7 or so years speak for themselves.

If there was already a deal in place to send Duke to Boston, they would announce it and he’d be in their uniform. They wouldn’t wait until after the series.

Ha, you think the Twins FO works on weekends.

Just because there are new people at the top doesn’t mean the people in the trenches actually working with players has changed.

Indeed, there have been only a handful of reported changes of minor league coaches, managers, etc. And many of the people moved were reassigned, not simply dismissed. Doug Mientkiewicz being the notable exception. Same people. Same culture. Same results. If Falvine wants organizational methods to change, that is where changes need to be made.

I will agree the Twins have been no better at trades and free agents. The kind of lousiness the Twins have experienced is organization wide failure.

The changes have been cosmetic, at best.

Well, as far as Sano and last nights game, I'll just quote The Who.  "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"....

Sano is always gonna strike out. It's who he is as a player. But that doesn't mean he can't be a productive player. Jim Thome struck out over 2500 times. Not saying Sano will ever approach Thome's career but the point is, big power sometimes leads to big strikeouts

Sano is always gonna strike out. It's who he is as a player. But that doesn't mean he can't be a productive player. Jim Thome struck out over 2500 times. Not saying Sano will ever approach Thome's career but the point is, big power sometimes leads to big strikeouts

Thome struck out 2500 times in over 10,000 plate appearances. His career rate was less than 25%. And he had a 5.9% HR rate. Sano’s career rate is 36.4%. His career HR rate is 5.3%.

Thome struck out considerably less and went deep more frequently.

So, yeah Sano isn’t Thome. That’s not GOOD news. Because that is kinda what the Twins need him to be.

Thome struck out 2500 times in over 10,000 plate appearances. His career rate was less than 25%. And he had a 5.9% HR rate. Sano’s career rate is 36.4%. His career HR rate is 5.3%.

Thome struck out considerably less and went deep more frequently.

So, yeah Sano isn’t Thome. That’s not GOOD news. Because that is kinda what the Twins need him to be.

Yeah, he needs to be closer to Jim Thome than Rob Deer....

The best chance the Twins have at a sustained run of success is through building from the bottom up. Yes, add prospects. Loads of them! And once you're in a position to compete, you'll also have the opportunity to cash a few of them in for MLB talent if you see fit, just like Arizona and Boston just did.

 

That's part of it. Andy MacPhail would say you have to do both. You have to feed the minor leagues but also supplement with free agency.

And you know what? The current FO seems to be doing just that. They were active in free agency during the offseason. They're selling people at midseason to supplement the minors.

Falvey was even quoted this week saying you have to feed all parts of the system.

This front office is acting like they get it, which many young Twins fans have simply never seen before. This is almost "paint by numbers for running a baseball team" right now.

Let's hope we NEVER go back to a GM who only will feed the minor league system and do nothing else.