Dantes929

And yet, the Twins still won the Division. Still a team game I guess. This isn't depressing to me. I expect a lot of guys to have good rebound seasons.

I guess my answer above is dependent on a few factors. Is Kiriloff replacing Eddie? Is Rooker replacing Cave? Is Sano still around?

It says he is looking for a two year deal. Is that confirmed? Anything beyond a year should be dismissed. Pay him for one year and pay him well, then see what next year brings.

I thinPlayers didn't play. That's just baseball. k you sugar coated it a little bit. Duffey also gave up all 3 of the inherited runners from Dobnak last year which were credited to Dobnak. Very little of this is on the pitchers. They gave up 7 runs and at least 4 of them were preventable with good defense. Twins scored a total of 2 runs. Houston might have pitched well, but they didn't pitch that well. We recently scored more of two Cy Young front runners. Its on the players. Wait til next year.

If you are going to take Maeda out after 5 then you have to leave May in for at least two the way he was throwing. I have never liked the idea of relying on 6 different pitchers all being "on".

I mostly agree also. Bottom line though is the pitching gave up one earned run. Should have just been one run period. I guess I also like Buxton bunting with two on and two on late in a game but know I am alone in the wilderness on that one. They played better defense than we did. It made all the difference. Their defense saved runs that could have scored. Ours gave away runs. All four of them, really.

Thanks for the research. I remember Gardy getting a lot of criticism after the 0-6 for playing an untested rookie like that. I didn't buy into that. Kubel was a good hitter and could just as easily have succeeded. One of my favorite memories of Kubel was a few years later when he took Rivera deep for a big dramatic grand slam. I'm not drawing parallels here to Kiriloff. Different time and different people and who knows what drama unfolds. I do agree however that getting him in a few games at the end would have been worthwhile.

I immediately thought of Kubel. because my memory was he came in a tough situation against Rivera in the playoffs with almost no at bats that year. I might be dreaming though cuz I can't find that game. Maybe thinking of someone else. Did discover he was 2-29 in his playoff career. Another big reason for the playoff losing streak.

Bases loaded, 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th tied or behind one. Do you want Sano or Arraez? I will take Arraez 100 out of 100 times and 100% because of batting average.

Low tide or high tide doesn't really mean squat for the playoffs. You can't come in higher than we did in 2006 or 2009. Came in well last year and averaged 2 runs a game. We limped in to the 1987 playoffs. There is anecdotal evidence to the skies for success in the playoffs after slumping at the end and for coming in hot only to get swept and everything in between. There is nothing realistic about predicting results based on how they come into the playoffs, good or bad. . I have been a fan over 6 decades as well and don't know how getting swept 15 years ago affects any of these guys that were around 10 years old at the time. Realistic is knowing the odds are the Twins win 2 of 3 followed closely by the odds of the Astros winning 2 of 3 followed by the Twins winning both followed by the Astros winning both. Realistic says its baseball and any of those things can happen. Realistically optimistic would be focusing on the path for success while acknowledging the possibility of failure. Realistically pessimistic would be the opposite. One isn't more realistic than the other. If you want reality for historical viewpoint you can point out that the Twins are the only team that lost 16 playoff games in a row or you can take heart from the fact that no team in history has lost 17 playoff games in a row.

Baseball is a game of cycles. White Sox have been terrible but maybe they are due to get hot. Who knows what sparks a team. I have always only wanted meaningful games in September. Playoffs are a bonus. I have always said the Twins had a decent shot in playoffs past and losing a record in a row does nothing to diminish that. The fact that they lost all those games does not mean that they could not have won them. Heck, we had the 2nd best reliever in baseball with the lead in a couple of those games. That said, I can live with losing the series to the Astros but getting swept would be a hard pill to swallow. Maeda our best shot for sure. Can we all just agree now that if the Twins win it all, it counts but if the Yankees or White Sox win it all, it is just exhibition?

I'm hoping they get swept by DET and PIT and then sweep CHW.

I agree with everything you said but I still laughed and will remember it, and I don't even particularly like Donaldson. Entertainment..

Last 28 days Buxton's is higher and Kepler is trending down. Add in Buxton's OPS of 1.051 vs Kepler at .554 and I know who I want to get more at bats. Small sample size I know but I would flip it around and say I don't know if Buxton should be leading off, but not Kepler. The very obvious guy to have at lead off always is Arraez. Without him we really don't have an ideal guy.

If you look at stats for different counts you will see being ahead in counts vs behind in counts seriously affects at bats. Having someone to bring runners home is worthless without actually having runners on. I offer exhibit every RBI in history that is not a home run. Just being snarky. I do believe RBI are one of the good measures of offensive contribution.

"The Twins also battled Angel Hernandez behind home plate just as much as they battled the White Sox all night long" I didn't see much of the game but bad 1st strike pitch calls to Turtle and Cruz with bases loaded were pretty crucial. Its not just the difference between an 0-1 count vs a 1-0 count which is huge its also enough to make the batter wonder what the strike zone is. Again, I didn't watch more than a couple innings but I noticed Berrios wasn't getting the same calls..

I don't know what it means but find it interesting the White Sox are 18-2 against KC and Detroit. Means they are 12-14 against everyone else . Twins didn't do so well against those teams but have winning records against the White Sox, Cleveland and St. Louis.

Headline is a little misleading. Romo got a big out so I think he got the better of Lindor. Regardless, I really can't imagine anything that could be said that would get Romo that heated. Lindor smiles and says "I can't believe you get anyone out with that bleep". Romo smiles back and says "you were lucky to even touch that pitch" No reason for heat on either side.unless its one of those stupid unwritten rules that no one agrees on.

It is very true but he is also probably pretty high on the list of scoring runs unexpectedly.. On balance I would prefer he be a little more cautious. Just a little.

Guy didn't look toward home which may or may not have been his teammates yelling to take the more likely out at third. I didn't see Rodario slowing up into 2nd. At that point he was probably watching to see if Rooker was going to try for home and it is still reasonable for him to think there might be a play at the plate. In this isolated case there may very likely have been no value in drawing the throw. If Eddie thought there was a chance of a play at the plate then it is defensible. He just guessed wrong.

Yep, but Eddie can't hear Dick say that and with the play behind him he can't gauge how close the play at the plate would have been. Again, if he wasn't hustling from the get go then there is no defense for him but if he was hustling I think it was reasonable for him to believe Rooker would have been no more than 10 feet closer to home than Eddie was to third and that either he was going to draw the throw guaranteeing the run or would make third easily if there was a play at the plate. If you believe there would be a close play at the plate then drawing the throw to third has run value. I don't know how to assign the value but it moves it toward a decent decision and away from a stupid mistake. In no way does it belong in the realm of yesterday's gaffe.

Replay doesn't show how easily Rooker scored. I think it was ok for Eddie to think a double would not easily score an average speed at best guy from 1st and that there would either be a play at the plate or he might draw the throw and eliminate the possibility of a play at the plate. T Your stats don't consider the possibility of Rooker being thrown out at the plate if Rosario didnt draw the relay throw. Unless Rosario was dogging it I would expect that Rooker wouldn't be all that closer to home than Rosario was to third. Very reasonable for Eddie to think the throw would be to home and that it would be close. Drawing the throw for the run to score has to be part of the equation.

I think most people, even old school would take the double play in that situation. The sabermetrics analyze averages but only to a certain degree. Its based on historical data compiled by every kind of team including great offenses, weak offenses, great relievers, and weak relievers on both sides. No team is exactly average. Even that doesn't go far enough. What are the percentages for Cave or the guy following him performing against the relievers the Tigers bring in? To illustrate my point sabermetrics would say in a tie game with two outs and a guy on third in the bottom of the 9th a routine ground ball to shortstop would be a wonderful thing for the visiting team.

Well, to be honest, I think we could do without that pederast Hanrahan in accounting.

“You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose." This one is even better "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same." All I ever want out of the Twins is to have meaningful games in September and then let the chips fall where they may. Hopefully that results in the playoffs. Well, these games mean something. When we were 20-10 everyone was gaga over how good a team we had. Now somehow, everyone is horrible and will never be anything but horrible. They are just a spark away from being good again. Will they find that spark? That's up to the players. That's baseball.