Aerodeliria

I was watching the Twins vs Tigers--the first game of the 1987 playoffs at a low-key sports bar near the San Diego Airport (before my flight). There were only a few people in the place and only four Detroit fans and I were interested in the game. As the game started turning bad for the Tigers, they became increasingly obnoxious as well as angry and started loudly voicing threats towards any Twins fans. I'm sure if I had let out a cheer for the hometown boys that I would have ended up in the hospital (if I was lucky) and not on an airplane.

The Twins were also not 19 times worse than Cleveland even with the injuries. The Guardians just knew how to win every game that mattered down the stretch. I think they'll even be tougher this year, so the Twins will have to up their game.

Polanco is a bit of an enigma. When healthy, his calm demeanor at the plate means that he has been as good as almost anyone at crunch time. In the field is where the flaws appear and oddly at crunch time. I hope his defense has improved, but I have serious doubts about it. Who can fill his slot if he can't play? It could be a merry-go-round again... but let's hope not.

This is the elephant in the room. Bad defensive teams lose tight games by failing in critical situations. You can't outhit bad defending. Polanco is a negative defender and always will be. His ankle might improve, but his footwork never will. We hope Miranda improves but he is not a lockdown defender. Correa is the player I worry about the least. I believe he'll play better. Kirilloff at 1st is a mystery.

I guess it comes down to trust. They trusted Berrios even when he was getting hit hard. Do they trust who they have now?

Are they banking on this? I think we have had ad nauseum discussions ending up with a general concensus that they won't likely change the way they deal with starting pitching (i.e., twice through and then go to the bullpen...) regardless of who is in charge.

Yes! Thanks. There are two nostalgic Twins memories about Dave Goltz that are tucked away in the old gray matter. The first is the near no-hitter. I was listening on my transistor radio as I was prone to do. That was a great hitting Boston team that featured the dynamic duo of Jim Rice and Freddie Lynn. I was so disappointed when Rice got that single to left. The second is the knuckle curve. I had never heard of a knuckle curve before Dave Goltz, so I thought it was so cool that we had a pitcher that threw an 'interesting' pitch. (I suppose I thought it was more like a real knuckle ball, which I was quite familiar with as the Twins faced a few knuckle ballers in those days and usually fared poorly, especially against Wilbur Wood.)

I will remain highly critical of the Arraez trade. I think it is one of the riskiest trades the Twins have--maybe the worst since the Pressley debacle. Of course, I could be wrong, but there are gambles that are far less risky than trading away probably the hitter with the best eye in baseball, who led the league in BA and was an all-star to boot. I'm always skeptical of trading away proven talent for pitching...the Twins have a very bad record in this regard. (I'm always thinking, "What does Miami believe about upside and durability of Lopez that the Twins don't?") I hope I'm wrong, but I think it is a bad trade.

The old saying, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," should be made into a monument and put up in centerfield. (They used have the monuments in Yankee Stadium. Although I am sure in the first game of the season, Buxton would collide with the monument and be out for 6-8 weeks.). We have a batting champion. His knees are not great, but he spent most of the season in the line-up. How long will it be before we learn the lesson that the pitcher we are putting all of our hopes in turns out be not quite the same as the promotional catalogue claims? The other thing is that teams with high OBPs tend to make the playoffs. Teams with poor OBPs tend not to. Just glancing at the numbers would suggest that there is a high liklihood that the there is a positive correlation between high OBP and making the playoffs. Certainly no team with OBP of below .300 made the playoffs in 2022. You can't score runs if you can't put runners on base, so if anything, we need more Arraez-like players not fewer. I imagine this trend will be exacerbated once we get the robo-umps. Also, saying Arraez's knees are 'ready to explode' is a bit hyperbolic. I hear very few people saying let's trade Buxton away because his entire body is about ready to explode. One player has a far worse track-record than the other regarding playing. Sure, Arraez's knees have not been great, but he has been able to play the field--especially at 1B--and has been more than serviceable in the field. Let's not trade away one of our few proven hitting assets. There are plenty of other bats/arms that should be in line for the auction before the name of Arraez appears.

Personally, I think there are three glaring problems with Baldelli's approach: 1) The numbers are not a sufficient substitute for preparation and being ready to play--focus supercedes all other psychological constructs; 2) the numbers do not necessarily reflect what is happening on the field; for example, a pitcher is at 75 pitches and facing a hitter for the third time, but the pitcher in that particular game has a better than his usual slider on that night; everyone knows it, but the numbers don't (it slices both ways; the next time out, he is getting hard right from the start; the numbers say leave him in, but everyone knows his breaking balls aren't breaking and his fastball has almost no movement), and 3) the numbers indicate typical trends for the situation at hand, but looking at the data is no substitute for assessing the intensity of the moment and reacting to it--call it 'instinct' as one Daily member did. Perhaps, I could sum it up in this way: Baseball cannot be reduced to a board game (even though I think I may have a version of APBA hidden somewhere among my unused treasures). Trends and data only get the manager to the 90th percentile so to speak, but it is at that point where good managing really begins IMHO.

WAR HOO, What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Well maybe not but winning in playoff games supercedes wins against replacement IMHO. Gagne was a very slick fielder and very durable. He has a ring for the Twins. You gotta get a ring here to be the best.

"...And I think with the core group that we have, the right guidance, the right work ethic, and the right just atmosphere in the clubhouse, we can we can accomplish those things.” As the team is basically the same as last year, this statement seems far weightier than it might appear at first glance (i.e., we didn't have the 'right' guidance, work ethic or atmosphere last year...)

There is one spot on this vinyl record that keeps skipping..."but the Twins see something they like in him" "but the Twins see something they like in him" "but the Twins see something they like in him" ”but the Twins see something they like in him..."

I was thinking the same thing. Megill can touch 100 mph as well, but if the Angels are letting Oliver loose, it makes me worry that his fastball is Megill-like.

Senga has very good stuff and he is tough. He never gets rattled!! He is one of the reasons that when it comes to playoff time, everyone fears the Fukuoka Hawks....the other being their manager Kudoh, who seems to be able to elevate his teams in the playoffs even when they get into the playoffs by the skin of their teeth (too bad that he retired--for Hawks fans). PS-I wouldn't want Thor. Sure the reward potential is high, but the risk potential seems even higher. It would be nice to have a couple of starters who weren't injured or half-injured for 3/4 of the season.

There are a lot of questions, but some questions cannot be answered by simply getting a bigger and better battleship. Here is what two Astros players have just said: "These guys here, we've never been afraid of the brightest lights," Verlander said. "Obviously New York brings the brightest lights, the most attention. More than anything, it's about not being afraid. I think we embrace it and we bring our A-game and we play our best baseball." Here is the second: Mancini said, "You just want to better yourself every day. These guys prepare better than anybody I've ever seen." I think we need a bigger and better battleship, but if we are leaking oil because we didn't prepare properly or we don't have the right mindset, the battle is lost before it is even fought. There are intangibles in baseball. I'll go to my grave saying that...

Ohtani-san is loved in Japan and by my wife in particular, but the Angels are terrible as usual, so it has to go to Judge for that reason alone IMHO. On the other hand, who would I rather have on the Twins? Ohtani-san because of the dual threat...I'd take Judge though in a heartbeat. BTW, Ohtani-san is an excellent outfielder, but even in Japan, they limited his appearances in the OF once he became a regular player for Nippon Ham.

I finally had a chance to watch the Twins. Way back in June/July, I was kind of hoping to be able to watch them in their "clinching the division" mode when the Angels came to town. Unfortunately, only games 1 and 3 were on J-Sports 3. Game two was on a different J-Sports channel. Not that it really matters but here are my impressions of players who I haven't seen or haven't seen much: Player impressions: Megill: He pitched well in game 1 and terribly in game 3, but even in game one, I told my wife that despite his ability to throw +100 (he did it on several occasions according the Angels announcers...who I like BTW), his fastball has very little movement. I was not impressed in either of the games. Henriquez: I liked him a lot. He moved the ball around and his pitches had very good movement. I think he's legit. Varland: So-so. He has potential, but he looked like a AAA pitcher to me. He made critical mistakes to dangerous hitters. Pagan: He pitched well. I think when he can find the strike zone early in the counts, he can be a decent pitcher. Miranda: He's a pretty good hitter and he'll get better. I like his approach. Gordon: He's a hacker, but I like him. He's hard not to like. He's not an outfielder though--not yet anyway, but who knows. He could become great as he has the speed. Contreras: Send him back to AAA. He's has a long way to go. He made the pitchers look good. He looked decent in centerfield. Celestino: He could be a decent hitter, but when runners were in scoring position, he became very impatient (every time) and swung at the pitcher's pitch. He is a competent fielder. Wallner: He already looks very polished at the plate, and he played very well in the field in game 1. I like him a lot. Hamilton: He hit a homerun when game 3 was out of reach, but he appeared completely overmatched in every other at bat. I don't know very much about him, but he looks like a minor-leaguer to be honest. Urshela: He looked like a professional both at the plate and in the field. Palacios: Sorry, but he doesn't seem to have a clue. He made a few bad decisions in the games that I watched, including the "'no-look" throw into left field, but even on the routine plays, he made mistakes, such as letting the runner on second go to 3rd on a groundout hit directly at him. That's a high school-level mistake. His plate appearances were brutal. In game 1, he never was offered an actual strike from the pitchers but he still struck out. He offered at pitches that were a foot off of the plate early in the count. In game 3, he wasn't much better. I doubt he'll be ready for primetime anytime soon. General impressions: The Twins are a very sedentary team on the bases. The Angels announcers referred to this quite often, noting that if you don't have to throw over to first because you know the Twins aren't going to run, it helps you as a pitcher to 1) relax and 2) save your arm for pitching. (Despite all of the baserunners that Twins had in the two games that I watched, the Angels pitchers NEVER threw over to 1st base--not once!!) Twins hitters constantly expanded the strike zone when runners were in scoring position. Perhaps this explains why they have such abysmal stats with runners in scoring position. They seemed to be thinking launch angle and were very impatient in general. The Twins made a number of mental errors in the field. Of course, this resulted in runs. I mentioned Palacios, but Bundy failing to back up the catcher on a throw home? Those kinds of defensive tactics should be instinctive, but they need to be practiced...I wonder how often they are practiced... OK! Let the poison arrows fall from the skies.

...the ghost of Jacoby Ellsbury...

I like it. How about a 12-man rotation? Baldelli might even let someone pitch into the 6th inning on occasion ;-)

In that case, we should have a fantastic team next year....until everyone is injured again.

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.

That elephant was beating on the door with his trunk before the first pitch was ever even thrown. Don't blame the elephant--blame the elephant's trainer.

He's a rookie. He'll get better.