Jacks02

Sometimes I wonder if the Twins approach the last week or two of the season didn't play a part in the poor performance. Yes, there were injuries to Kepler and Arraez that kept them from playing, but overall it seemed they were a bit lackadaisical in their approach and not really taking things seriously to get into playoff mode mentality. They seemed to lay everything on the line for the Indians series, then just coast the rest of the way to the playoffs. Having Adrianza as manager for the day, AAAA lineups, and bullpen games. To go from two weeks straight of that approach against teams like the White Sox, Tigers, and Royals straight into a three game series against the Yankees really didn't set the Twins up for success. It's really hard to just flip a switch on the intensity meter come playoff time.

You realize that Keuchel didn't go 5 innings in either of his starts for the Braves in the playoffs, and that the Braves lost both of the games he started, right? He was also just 8-8 with a 3.57 ERA during the regular season. Kimbrel had a 6.53 ERA and 1.60 WHIP for the Cubs, who failed to reach the playoffs. I get complaining about the front office not spending money, but in this case, I don't see either of those guys making much of a difference against the Yankees in the playoffs.

Scherzer threw 109 pitches last night for Washington. Two days after he pitched in relief. There's no reason Berrios couldn't have pitched at least 5 innings in game one. He had one bad inning that was mostly caused by crappy defense behind him.

Get Littell back up and add the wild card Graterol for September, and this bullpen could be very good with some legit power arms come playoff-time.

Cruz is looking very much like David Ortiz did at age 39, let's hope he follows through with a similar age-40 season! Ortiz put up .273/.360/.913 as a 39 year old with 37 doubles and 37 HR, and he followed that up with .315/.401/1.021 with a league-leading 48 doubles and 38 HR at age 40! Cruz is currently at .296/.385/1.031 with 19 doubles and 32 HR...

What a great position to be in, and light years difference from last year's team. No Logan Forsythe, Johnny Field, or Gregorio Petit getting playing time in September this year!

Except Rosario isn't signed long term, nor is Cron. Could put one in LF and one at 1B eventually.

Exactly. Kansas City is an excellent example. However, I doubt many of their fans would give up their 2015 championship to have a more competitive team today.

The tracker I checked had Vlad Guerrero Jr. with TOR and Brandon Lowe with TB as the two current favorites. Lowe is currently hitting .276/.339/.862 with 16 HR in 279 AB's, so he's putting up some nice numbers. Arraez is hitting .380/.442/.942, but has just 100 AB's so far.

Those clamoring for sending Pineda to then pen realize he's pitching really well of late right? This is a guy who is gaining strength and getting back into the swing after TJ surgery, he seems to be coming into his own at the halfway point of the season. Over the last month he is 2-1 with 31 K's in 28.2 IP, a 2.83 ERA and 1.01 WHIP. He's only allowed 1 run in four of his last five starts, with the other being one with a bad 5 run inning against Kansas City where he gave up a 3 run HR to Hunter Dozier. His good starts came against BOS, SEA, and TEX, who all have potent offenses.

You think that was bad, check out 2007! https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?team_ID=MIN&year_ID=2007&draft_type=junreg&query_type=franch_year

Yes, he's hit better the last two weeks, but do two weeks of good play trump his career data? Even with the recent hot streak, Adrianza is hitting .205 with a .652 OPS this season. He hit .251 with a .680 OPS last year and .265 with a .707 OPS in 2017. He's nearly 30 years old with a .303 OBP and .658 OPS over 7 seasons. He's gotten plenty of opportunity.

Adam Bray is quietly putting up some really good numbers. He's now 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in nine appearances with 25 K's in 22.2 IP. Had a nice season at Ft. Myers last year as well.

Here's Twins' lineup for today's 12:15 start in Kansas City: Kepler CF Polanco SS Cruz DH Rosario LF Austidillo 3B Cave RF Garver C Adrianza 2B Austin 1B Gibson RHP

Perhaps Olt is a really good teammate and thought of as a good mentor for younger players?