cHawk

I think he should stay around in 2022. He seems to have found himself.

I agree with this. I think the roster is set pretty well. The coaching staff will make the difference between NFCCG/Super Bowl (maybe??) and a Divisional/WC Round loss.

I wonder how deep we’re talking here…

Awesome, Adam Rank predicted we go 4-13. Thanks for jinxing us Adam?

Geez

Yippee. On the other hand, is there a single decent reliever in this pen? How can all 8 of your pen arms be bad?

This team is the MLB’s Falcons - Blows leads regularly (duh) - 6 ALCS appearances (ATL has 4 NFCCGs) - Wastes Talent (duh)

Firing Falvine after one disappointing season would be idiotic, IMO.

He has won two division titles. That doesn't make him a great manager, but that shows he has some level of competence and he's not the disaster many try to make him into. As for this season, it's one year. Seems negligent to say that this season is the rule whereas the previous two were the exception. If in 1-2 years, the Twins never come close to 2019 or 2020, then you'll have me convinced. But right now, you can't say that he got "lucky" in 2019-2020. You can't say that "the team was so incredibly talented that his mistakes didn't matter" and say for this year "the team isn't good enough to cover up his mistakes" when the core of the team this year is largely the same as the past two years.

I was referring to win-and-in games, not the 2021 season. I was referring to the two Postseason Series under Baldelli.

When all of your players who shined in the regular season all of a sudden play well below replacement level it’s really hard to look good.

I need some evidence of this before I can get behind it.

This hurts. Not gonna lie

Not sure if Rogers should be nominated. As I’ve been watching him, he hasn’t looked like the AL’s best reliever. I think it should go to Liam Hendricks.

Thielbar is a good story. But he isn’t going to be able to shut down good offenses if he can’t break 90 MPH. He would be fine, IMO, as a fourth or fifth option in the pen. His control (or lack thereof) doesn’t allow him to be a super lockdown arm. I just don’t know. I’ve never been a Stashak fan. He doesn’t have enough velo on his FB (IMO) and is completely unreliable when it matters. I don’t think we’re building up from nothing. I think we need to go shopping for BP arms and get at least two (good) ones.

The Twins have won 7 of 9. I’m not trying to be a debbie-downer, but I’m still not convinced this season can be saved (I would love to be proven wrong). Do you think Baldelli needs to go after this season? Please share your thoughts down below!

Do Balazovic and Duran not have #1/#2 potential?

Don't remind me about that game this past year against the Colts...

Concur. I'll say, "Not surprising."

If you don't think a nucleus of Buxton, Sano, Berrios, Kepler, Rosario, Garver, Polanco etc was a nice situation to build around, I don't know what to tell you. It seemed like a pretty good place to be. Certainly a lot better than our current situation. Maybe, but half of those guys have been regressing mightily in their primes. All of them except Berrios have failed spectacularly in big games. Something tells me they were fools gold. Half of them have been bad since the 2019 playoffs. We weren't winning that series even if we addressed our rotation at the deadline. It may have seemed like a good place to be at the time, it's not looking like that rn. How do you know the situation we're in is horrible? Do you predict we're going to see Kirilloff, Larnach, Duran, Balazovic, Celestino, Gordon etc regress in their primes as well?

Either that or look at the coaching staff. He’s been really bad, particularly when in big spots.

Either that or I’m starting to question the competence of Wes Johnson, because our pitchers can’t execute when it matters.

IDK, but Alcala may need more time in the minors. He’s been getting shelled pretty frequently.

Ober should. Dobnak and Jax should not

The current FO hasn't shown much ability to find top of the rotation starters. Does Duran not count? They had a nucleus of top 100 prospects to build around. The Twins were coming off a total system failure season, with 90+ loss seasons in 5 of the past 6 years. Guys like Kepler, Sano, Polanco, and Rosario weren't "prospects" when they arrived. None of them were that good in the majors (outside of 2019). They are a fault of the previous regime. Outside of those four, Berrios, and Buxton, I don't see what "prospects" you're referring to that weren't in the minors and a few years away. More worrisome, they might not think they have to b/c they might just think baseball will evolve into 4-5 pitchers per game snoozefests. It's not just the Twins that do this. A lot of other teams do it. There's nothing inherently wrong with 4-5 pitchers per game if you do it right. They didn't do it right the past year, the offseason wasn't good, but one bad offseason isn't a fireable offense.