Week in Review: Hope Sinks

Good summary Nick. I too hope they will bring up some of the prospects/suspects, it's glorified spring training the rest of the way, but lets see who wants to play in 23.

Nick, I appreciate both the content of the article and its presentation. Highly professional writing, which is not always the case on this (or any) blog.

Having Arraez fade so hard down the stretch again is tough. He looked great to start last year, but faded late in the summer in 2021, too. .296/.365/.381 wRC+ 109 in the first half .292/.348/.371 wRC+ 100 in the second half, .271/.314/.333 wRC+ 80 in Sept/Oct.
 

The slide may have started on June 1, but the error on a routine ground ball last night brought my ridiculous hopes to a halt. I have enjoyed and appreciated the articles. Twins Daily writers are crazy hopeful and supportive of the Twins.

I hope Wallner among others gets plenty of at bats. Cave deserves to play as well. Varland, Winder, Ober and perhaps a few others should get innings. Buxton, Polanco, Kepler, Larnach, and Jeffers as well as those pitchers currently on the IL need to heal entirely, meaning these players should not return and risk further injury. If the team is going to win the remainder of their games it will need to be those on the current roster who accomplish the task.

2-10 against the Guardians in 1 or 2-run games. We can blame it on injuries but you can't field a groundball with a clipboard.

17 hours ago, Aerodeliria said:

2-10 against the Guardians in 1 or 2-run games. We can blame it on injuries but you can't field a groundball with a clipboard.

Actually you can angle the clipboard to direct the ball to your throwing hand for super quick transitions. More double plays my friend. 

Just finish strong!!! Hoping for a winning record-Chicago sweeping Cleveland making last 3 with white sox for division title it’s a long shot but it could happen. Think 2023 with healthy team will be the year. Twins were competitive through mid September playing meaningful games with depleted roster as they did much better then I thought. I’ll still watch the twins this season and beyond. 

As with any season there are some bright spots to consider. Ryan looks like he will become a main piece to the rotation for many years to come. Duran likewise in the bullpen, (although I'd love to see him get a chance to be a starter again). Due to the injuries 2 more players got to prove themselves as legit roster pieces, MIranda and Gordon. Now is the time to see who else can join them. 

Will second rv78's comments above.  Ryan is proving to be a quality front of the rotation starter.  Ober sure appears to be another quality starter who will fit nicely into the third or fourth spot in a rotation.  Add Gray, Mahle and Maeda and that's five.  Toss in Winder and Varland as either long relief or pitching in reserve at St. Paul and you have a fine starting staff.  Granted, there isn't an ACE, but really most teams don't have that ACE.

Lots of decisions will need to be made elsewhere.  Where to get one more top late reliever would sure top my list.  Believe in Moran and hopefully, Alcala can come back strong.  But they still need one more late inning guy.

Isn't much needed in the field that won't be fixed by good health.  Should Wallner continue hitting like his first weekend, will have a huge question what to do at the corner outfield spots.  Would be fearful to trade Kepler as the rule change just MIGHT lead to him becoming that special player many of us have hoped for.  But what do you do with Kepler, Larnach, Kirilloff and Wallner on the same team?  Maybe a good problem to have.  So that leaves catcher, where there is lots of work to get better.

2 hours ago, roger said:

Isn't much needed in the field that won't be fixed by good health

You must be joking. We have legitimate questions at almost every position. CF-Buxton has a 4 War , but Celestino is at 0. Buxton had slightly more PA, so call it a 2. LF is a huge question mark because we really don’t have anyone reliable above average to play there. RF is slightly above average only because of Kepler’s defense. Huge falloff after him. Kepler’s offensive WAR has declined every year since 2019, and there’s really no reason to believe that won’t continue. Keep Kepler or Billy Hamilton?  3B is slightly above average with Urshela. SS is ok with Correa, but Palacios is not MLB ready. 2B is a crap shoot with an aging Polanco. 1B isn’t well patrolled by Miranda or Arraez, but it is what it is. Catcher is below league average with no help or reason to believe it will improve in-house. Ironically, the pitching staff is the strength of this club going forward. I think Miranda and Duran should be locked up with Dobnakesque contracts. That is how small market teams keep players. Low-risk high-reward contracts that are entered into before players really establish themselves. There needs to be answers as to why virtually everyone was hurt this year. There also needs to be a re-evaluation of how they are using metrics and how rigidly they are employed. The FO is not going to go out and sign a legitimate #1 and 2. They may go out and sign a few depth SP aka Bundy and Archer. It might even be them. They were signed to be 4 and 5 guys. They’ve actually done that at a reasonable level. Another legitimate RP will probably be signed. The big questions are on offense. 

34 minutes ago, Reptevia said:

 

You must be joking. We have legitimate questions at almost every position. CF-Buxton has a 4 War , but Celestino is at 0. Buxton had slightly more PA, so call it a 2. LF is a huge question mark because we really don’t have anyone reliable above average to play there. RF is slightly above average only because of Kepler’s defense. Huge falloff after him. Kepler’s offensive WAR has declined every year since 2019, and there’s really no reason to believe that won’t continue. Keep Kepler or Billy Hamilton?  3B is slightly above average with Urshela. SS is ok with Correa, but Palacios is not MLB ready. 2B is a crap shoot with an aging Polanco. 1B isn’t well patrolled by Miranda or Arraez, but it is what it is. Catcher is below league average with no help or reason to believe it will improve in-house. Ironically, the pitching staff is the strength of this club going forward. I think Miranda and Duran should be locked up with Dobnakesque contracts. That is how small market teams keep players. Low-risk high-reward contracts that are entered into before players really establish themselves. There needs to be answers as to why virtually everyone was hurt this year. There also needs to be a re-evaluation of how they are using metrics and how rigidly they are employed. The FO is not going to go out and sign a legitimate #1 and 2. They may go out and sign a few depth SP aka Bundy and Archer. It might even be them. They were signed to be 4 and 5 guys. They’ve actually done that at a reasonable level. Another legitimate RP will probably be signed. The big questions are on offense. 

Nope, wasn't joking and stand by my statement.  Also disagree with most of what you state.  If you will read what I said and you quoted, "good health."

Not going to get into the specifics as I really don't want to write a lengthy text, but given good health I believe the only position really needing work is catcher...as I said previously.

I’m not sure what you’re disagreeing with. For the most part, what I stated above is based on stats and performance. It’s not an opinion. Would left field be better if patrolled by Larnach or Kiriloff who have proved nothing at the MLB level?  Possibly. I just take issue how many on here take prospects with extremely small sample sizes and place way outsized expectations on how they would perform. I’m just trying to look at it pragmatically. Larnach, Kiriloff and Lewis are not locks for the all-star team. All three may never contribute much at all. It is unknown at this early part of their careers. No, Buxton is not the best player in baseball. Far from it. With him and the backups we’ve run out there, CF has produced about 2 WAR. Not bad, but far from the best.  “Not going to get into the specifics as I really don't want to write a lengthy text, but given good health I believe the only position really needing work is catcher...as I said previously.”

 I, and the stats, simply disagree with this statement. Unless the goal is a losing record. 

My hope was already at the bottom of the lake next to the old coke can and rusted anchor.... 

Twins problems, hmm, unless Baldelli has decided the season is over and it makes no difference who he puts on the field, in tonight game, Sept.21, he is putting Palacios at second and Gordon in left field.

Palacios is NOT a good Second baseman and Gordon is not a good out fielder; Gordon is pretty competent, (except when the ghost of Willie Mays Hays over comes him) at second base and at his worst still better than Palacios.

Cave is a good Left Fielder, and better bat than Palacios; the teams Baldelli fields at time make no sense or he is so addicted to analytics, he ignores reality,

12 minutes ago, ashbury said:

If benching Cave against a left handed starter is analytics, then they've been doing analytics in baseball for more than a century now.

What analytics say Palacios' bat is better in the lineup than Cave, not even considering his glove over Gordon's at second.

Just now, ashbury said:

So apparently Rocco is using both too much analytics and too little.

Rocco just throws the bones.