Doubleheader Recap: Tigers Sweep, Twins Sink To 3rd Place

Sky is falling, everyone commence freak out.

This team is in a complete free fall and I'm getting real sick and tired of the "oh well, we'll get em tomorrow" philosophy of Baldelli.  I also fault players throughout the lineup, mainly our hitters as they continue to fail to produce runs.  A grand total of 12 runs since leaving KC last Sunday over our last 5 games.  I'm sure others will disagree, but this offense, albeit an occasional good game from Kepler, Rosario or Sano has been MIA all season with the exception of Cruz.  I know only a shapshot, but after 2 days off...2 days off.....our hitters combined to go 8-47 today (.170) with 10 whiffs and only 1 walk drawn.  I'm sure Falvey and Levine will sit idly by as the trade deadline passes without making ANY KIND OF MOVE to upgrade the OBVIOUS HOLES on this team.  Its just the Twins way.  As is, signing over the hill FA's and getting nothing from them.  Yes, JD..I'm talking to you.

I am worried about this team, but I'll try not to overreact too much... but this offense needs a kick in the pants. Get Buxton back, Donaldson back, DFA Vargas, and maybe trade for a RH bench bat with a bit of pop. Either that or give one of the OF prospects a shot just to see if they can get this lineup going again.

As for the pitching, Thorpe needs to be DFA'd and replaced with a starter who can fill in these bullpen games. Whether that's Duran or a guy on another team, I'm not sure. By the way, what happened to the opener? Why not have Clippard/Wisler start a game, get through the 1-5 hitters, and then have a starter try to go 5/6 innings? I like that idea more than these bullpen games.

And if this team really wants to compete for the World Series, they need an ace starter... but it doesn't seem like getting one through a trade this year is possible. And our prospects who could become that aren't getting a full season in... ugh.

Can we get James Rowson back?

Can we acquire him in a trade before the deadline? Possibly for a CTBNL (coach to be named later)?

Going to state the obvious, I'm not happy. The sky is NOT falling and winning 2 on Sunday will make everyone feel better. As would ripping off about 4 or 5 wins in a row.

I forgive Dobnak for having a bad game. I can forgive/excuse May and Duffey for having an off day the same day. And I'm not trying to be insulting, but this is Detroit we are talking about!

Donaldson, Buxton and Garver are out. We are not the only team with injuries. The lineup we are putting out there is not maximum, and not what anyone wants, but it's still more talented than the opposition. The lineup is simply not performing well lately, at all! I think the FO has done a great job of building this team and the organization as a whole. I think they have done a great job from the ML level on down in regard to managers, coaches, instructors and advisors. But did losing Rowson really affect the hitters this much? Is there something else going on here?

I'm hoping this is a blip. But to see the talented players on hand flail and not perform lately to any expectation or previous production is frustrating and unexpected.

As pointed out by others many positions are really underperforming last year's numbers. The team badly needs Buxton and Donaldson to return healthy. and ready (defense and RH bats needed) A starting pitcher wouldn't hurt either - Pineda?

Want to be a top 4 seed - is the in-house help on the way enough?

Right now this is not a good team. It is also a team that isn't playing well. Pick your explanation, there are lots to choose from. They have about a month to figure it out or this season will go down as a squander.

In a short season, days like today are hard to overcome. This team has been pathetic against left handers, and as pointed out by Doc and others, the loss of the protection

(Donaldson, Graver, and Buxton) has been crippling! This organization has always had this weakness, and is probably why they went out and got The Rain Man.

I’m also disappointed in Baldeli-his use of Thorpe in a 2 run game, with a rested bullpen, was (fill in your own adjective). Mine isn’t printable. I’m not sold on his judgement in these situations.

Finally, Kirillof, Lewis and others sit unused in a wasted year for their development.

I don’t have any specific answers, but I think they at least would have given a better effort today!

I understand the reaction and as someone who posted a not very optimistic prediction for the rest of the season on another TD article, I can only say that those who keep telling us not to panic, not to over react can enjoy a winter trying to figure out when it is appropriate to panic.  

Dobnak could not keep going on forever, but what were the impacts of Rosario and Kepler and Polanco's fielding on his results?  I do not know it is a real question. How many of Dobnak's runs were the result of Thorpe (and why is he back with the team?)?  

Another Bullpen game - so our BP which at least got rest the last two days is now stretched again and we will be playing the White Sox.  The last BP game came before we played the Indians.  How did that work out?  I hate BP games.

Vargas batting fifth?  What is that all about?  Adrianza PR for Rosario - did Eddie break a leg?

Oh the questions I have.  Will we wake up against the White Sox?  

I do not like third place.

Duran Duran...... I implore the FO to listen to the music and become inspired to test out a 5th starter with potential season changing upside. 

Service time shmervice time (not a band... yet...TM pending)

One start does not a trend make....but I live in fear that MLB scouting will catch up to The Dobnak (even if it does... I'll always be thankful for his great story)

Pitchers will always have a bad game. It happens. Dobnak, May, Duffey have all been great so far this year. Since all 3 had it happen on the same day doesn't make it look good. I'll give em a pass for now. What I won't give a pass to is the lineup. I don't care if Buxton and Donaldson are out with injuries. Where are the rest of the guys? Why aren't they hitting? What's wrong with Polanco, Arraez, Kepler? Garver before he got hurt? When half your lineup isn't performing it's hard to score runs, then throw in a missing Donaldson and Buxton and you're left with a Sano who will never hit more than .250, and a Rosario who never met a high fastball he didn't like. Cruz has been the only guy who's been worth a dime. 1 guy can't carry the load every game. When you are expecting Marwin, Cave, Vargas, Adrianza, Avila to win games for you, well, it ain't gonna happen. If Larnach, Kirilloff and Lewis aren't better than any of these 5 misfits than we are in trouble long-term.

The old saying, "You are never as good as you think on your best days, nor as bad as you imagine on your worst" applies here.

That said, this team is one of the best in the league at going from 1st to 3rd in a hurry.

:}

It's okay to laugh, they are in the playoffs.

Enough with the excuses from the FO like “but we got depth at our alternate site,” this team needs to make trade before the deadline if they’re really serious about winning.

They need starting pitching with quality.

Geez, all the hand-wringing.

As I said on yesterday's games thread, keep in mind that this is an exhibition regular season to determine who plays in the exhibition postseason, the winner of which will be awarded the Golden Asterisk trophy.

What I am enjoying about this year's baseball is watching games played by good players. Who cares how the games turn out? It's just not a big deal. At all.

Enough with the excuses from the FO like “but we got depth at our alternate site,” this team needs to make trade before the deadline if they’re really serious about winning.

What depth at the alternate site? Read in the Strib that they don't have enough players there for Donaldson to play a 9 inning game at third.

I do predict at least two trades this week: 

*On Wednesday, I predict they trade Lewis Thorpe for Michael Pineda.

*On next weekend, I predict they trade Juan Minaya for Jake Odorizzi.

Further, sometime this week, I also predict they trade a PTBNL for Josh Donaldson. 

The only reason the Twins have a winning record is because of their inter league record.

They only have 8 inter league games left and 18 divisional games. Their are no easy division games for the Twins. This Detroit series is already lost. The Twins are in danger of falling out of the last available playoff spot. Detroit looks hungry, the Twins look full and resemble couch potatoes

I'll bet we could get Kikuchi from the Mariners. Sure his ERA is not very good but he's started showing flashes of his days in Japan. I think he's finally healthy too. (He can bring it at 98 for those of you who are wondering.)