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LastOnePicked

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Everything posted by LastOnePicked

  1. LastOnePicked
    Yup. Trouble is, you gotta win four straight series now - two weeks worth of games - just to get to .500. This team hasn't shown any capacity to even win a single series. Gonna be over before it even got started, unless someone can light a spark.
  2. LastOnePicked
    Rogers > any other option out of the pen in a close game. By a lot. Could be a matter of several wins difference or more in 2022.
  3. LastOnePicked
    Fair, but the point of the the Correa signing was kinda to win now, wasn't it? That trade is clearly hurting our ability to win now. Unless Pagan would have been fine in the Duffey spots - in which case, this mess is more about Baldelli's poor choices.
  4. LastOnePicked
    It is funny how the small things become the big things. Duffey's role in the pen is magnified because of the Rogers trade. The pen's role in the team's success is magnified because of last year's April-May debacle. Now, a team that should be at least 6-5 and feeling loose is playing with additional pressure under the shadows of 2021 at 4-7. It's not that I thought Rogers was going to be team MVP, but I feared that a few out-of-the-gate bumps without him (coupled with Rogers very predictable lights-out success in SD) would cause an early momentum downslide that will be hard to overcome later on. And that's exactly what's happening. How could the FO not see this as a likely outcome? At any rate, back to Nick's point. Yes. they better adjust their plans fast. Duffey shouldn't be doing anything for this team but mop-up work in blowouts at this point. You can't make the entire team suffer for one guy's inability to get it done.
  5. LastOnePicked
    I felt it at the time and feel it even more strongly now: the Rogers/Paddack trade is going to be the defining blunder of this season. This team on paper had a small margin to sneak into a WC berth. That trade has made that margin even more narrow already.
  6. LastOnePicked
    Similar to last year, every button Rocco pushes seems to implode. He was a great manager when the Twins were mashing home runs at a record pace (who wouldn't be?), but he seems to lack a feel for the game when things are tight - who's hot, who's not, who needs to be tested, who needs to be rested. Again, I like what I see of him as a person, but I don't find him impressive as a big-league manager. Every team is going to win 54 and lose 54. So far, I think the Twins are 0-3 in the remaining 54. And those losses are on the manager. And he doesn't seem to be learning from mistakes.
  7. LastOnePicked
    Me after Monday: "Not a terrible start at 4-6. It's a long season." Me after Tonight: "The new draft lottery is going to give us a good shot at the #1 pick next year."
  8. LastOnePicked
    "Fans can point to the base-running send error by Watkins or another implosion by Duffey."
  9. LastOnePicked
    I'm leaning a bit more pessimistic, but this is a fair take. Two splits against good teams isn't terrible, and the two-game trouncing by arguably baseball's best team wasn't unexpected. Nice win today. Good teams get clutch contributions from all over the lineup. Good for Garlick.
  10. LastOnePicked
    I seem to recall that Cron's thumb was injured at the end of his year with us, and the injury seemed pretty bad at the time. I liked Cron, and I'm glad he's had a resurgence, but I can't really fault the choice of Sano over Cron. Sano seemed on the verge of stardom. All that said, the bad luck and the missed opportunities are starting to add up again.
  11. LastOnePicked
    "The Twins will show us glimpses of who they are as soon as this weekend at Fenway." Well, we've seen the glimpses now. Yes, it's early, but these glimpses have me thinking more about the trade deadline than the postseason. We heard a lot about the Giants-style increase of the coaching staff this offseason. I can't tell if this team is under-coached or over-coached, but they don't seem ready to hit or to play defense.
  12. LastOnePicked
    Fun read, with great notes on the total game experience. I'm waiting until May to get back to the ballpark myself. If the Twins heat up, that should bring some more folks back as well.
  13. LastOnePicked
    I agree with everything here, BUT ... the only way to field a dominant team like the Dodgers is to buy one (we'll never spend that kind of money) or build one. And building one is going to be a decade+ of Astros/Rays like futility, coupled with major scouting/developmental changes. And even then, you gotta keep all the right guys at the right time, Personally, I was kinda ready for a long rebuild. And it may happen anyway. But I do appreciate that this FO made improvements, here and there, to see if things might click and we could squeak into a WC berth. And that's still possible, because it's very very very very early, The 1991 Twins stunk in April, for example. In short, we ain't the Dodgers. But we don't have to be to have a satisfying season.
  14. LastOnePicked
    Funny how different this team seems after the last two wins rather than the first two losses. My heart is guarded, but like Bombo said, I could learn to love this crew. Good shutout win against a solid Ms team.
  15. LastOnePicked
    Though, tonight's the kind of outing that could, if repeated often, make me a lot less jaded.
  16. LastOnePicked
    I'm rooting for him. But I'm looking forward to a time when we sign a starting pitcher and don't have to pray they somehow revert to a level of success they haven't reached in years, if ever. Maybe it's just the looooong string of reclamation/restoration projects that just never pan out that has me kinda jaded. Maybe the Twins should just hire Bob Villa as an additional pitching coach, see how that works.
  17. LastOnePicked
    I did not think this was a great start. Ober and Ryan do not look good, and betting on magical recoveries for Bundy, Paddack and Archer seems risky. Manea might well have been the better move, and Rogers could have been kept, too. We'll see, but there were more 2021 memories this week than I wanted. That said, thank God Byron Buxton is a Minnesota Twin. This might be his year. Hopefully the FO didn't blow it with poor planning and Rocco won't blow it with terrible bullpen decisions.
  18. LastOnePicked
    1) It's in our job description. And we've been doing this for a lot longer than a year. 2) 100% perfectly doesn't describe anything about the Minnesota Twins for decades. It's not like we haven't been patient through bad decisions in the FO and the dugout. 3) Last year, we just so happened to be right. The problems we were screaming about after the first few series were the problems that sunk the season. It's possible that trading away Rogers with no clear plan for a shut-down arm to take the 9th is going to be a problem. A big one. 4) Thankfully, we have not yet been mathematically eliminated from contention. See, there's optimism!
  19. LastOnePicked
    "we saw glimmers of what is yet to come with this team" That's what I'm afraid of, yes. Good recap, though, Sherry.
  20. LastOnePicked
    I keep wanting to see this team elevate their game and make something happen at the plate and on the basepaths. They were a slugging team last year, and started sluggish yesterday. Unlike 2021, the bullpen gave them every chance to win. At home for the opener, that's a game they absolutely should have won. BUT ... they nearly did. So here's hoping this was just some residual "bad luck" from last year, and today's result is different. Here's my overreaction though: KLaw was right - Joe Ryan's fastball is going to get hammered into the seats, and it will keep him from being more than a #4-#5 starter on a good team.
  21. LastOnePicked
    Urshela hammers a homer against the reigning Cy Young. Sanchez misses a 9th inning game-winning stunner by inches. Donaldson sneaks a seeing-eye grounder through the infield for a walk-off win. Yankees win. Twins lose. Welcome to Minnesota, boys. Land o' hard luck.
  22. LastOnePicked
    "they’re receiving a significant number of snakes, reptiles, and other creatures." Didn't we have an eagle attack an opponent starting pitcher a while back in a pregame ceremony gone wrong? That was genius. I can definitely see similar uses for the haul they got back. Good trade.
  23. LastOnePicked
    Here's my last word on this: it's unwise to complete a trade that makes your current team worse in year that you've decided to compete. The bullpen was the reason for the team's terrible start in 2021, and the terrible start effectively ended the season very early. Rogers was very well-respected and trusted. He's a team leader, and he kept the players informed and unified during a very contentious lockout. He brings clear value on the mound, and also intangible value. And he looked *great* during spring training. It's not hard to imagine a few blown late-inning leads in the first week, and the general feeling sinking into the club, "Rogers would have closed that out" or "here we go again." Momentum matters. This offseason has been one giant test for the FO. I'm still hoping it works, but I'm more skeptical now.
  24. LastOnePicked
    Agreed. I should have said that Rogers was one of the few (the only?) truly reliable, elite relievers on this staff in 2021. And a contending team needs reliable, elite relievers. Maybe we have a few on staff ready to step up, and maybe we don't. Looking forward to hearing the inside scoop on how the trade happened. And if Tingler does have insights on Paddack's health and was consulted, so much the better. But I'm guessing that the current Padres staff knows more about Paddack's health/value than a guy they fired 6 months ago.
  25. LastOnePicked
    Love these bold predictions. Especially the last one. I would love to see Kepler rebound and draw interest, but I think the word is out about his BABIP. It's not a fluke at this point. I think Maeda himself already ruled out pitching in 2022 in a preseason interview, so that one might be the shakiest at this point. Here's hoping you're channeling the future, and we see these all come true by October.
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