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Whitey333

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Everything posted by Whitey333

  1. What a soft soap article this is. The bottom line is the bullpen blew it AGAIN. Pagan blew it AGAIN. I believe the bullpen this year is directly responsible for 24 losses. I'm sure someone could check it out and get the exact number. The article failed to emphasize Duran gave up a homer. Yes it just barely cleared the fence but it was a terrible pitch. Why did Lopez twice have hitters at 0-2 and gave up the tying runs. Yes you can perhaps blame Gordon for not knocking the ball down but Lopez blew it for the second time in 4 starts. Pagan? He was lucky not to lose the game in the 10th due to a nice play by Buxton and poor Angel baserunning. The claim that managements plan is working with Buxton is clearly a joke. He is hitting in the low 200s and has struck out in over 34% of his at bats. Clearly not working. He's always hurt, his 27 Homer's are the only positive he has going. What about our great manager? He's one of the poorest in baseball IMO. Bottom line if you insist on only allowing starters go 4 or 5 innings you better have a great bullpen not a minor league one like the Twins. Keeping Kepler in the lineup in key situations and in an 0 for 27 slump is foolish.
  2. Nice article. I pretty much agree. I'm not quite sure about Ober. I would like Winder back first and performing well.
  3. I'm really hoping Arraez wins the batting title. I'd love to see Twins win the division but that is very questionable at best. I would love to see some life in this team; especially the veteran players. I'd love to see Rocco get a new computer or reboot his current one. He may have some analytic and computer skills but has shown very little field managing skills. And most people upset with the Twins, including me at times, aren't basing it on 2 games with the Dodgers. The Twins have been playing uninspired and at times down right poor baseball over the past 60 games. If they don't take advantage of the games against those sub 500 teams then they aren't any better than them. Go twins!
  4. This isn't a recent phenomenon by the Twins playing poor baseball. They have been playing below .500 baseball for 60 games. They are 2-12 against first place teams. They have a lot of issues. The starting pitching has been flawed all season. The 5 inning plan is as much an organizational plan as it is by poor performance. If this was indeed the plan then the FO did a lousy job of building the bullpen. If you only let your starters go 4-5 innings your bullpen needs to be solid. Ours has been a joke. People rightfully bring up an easier schedule upcoming. Yes but you still have to win a majority of those games to be taken seriously. This year, overall they haven't done that. Plus we have baseballs worst field manager and his computer making out lineups with no feel for the game and very poor in game adjustments. We need to win at least 2 of 3 or sweep these next two series.
  5. Great article. Lots of great viewpoints from everyone. I as a baseball fan am just frustrated with the disparity between the haves and have nots. I'm not necessarily talking about the world series. I'm talking about individual teams being competitive. It isn't much fun to watch your team get thumped on by the usual suspects because your team can't or won't try to be competitive. I surely don't know the answers but other than a few exceptions it's generally conceded year to year that the dodgers, Yankees, Astros et al are the cream of the crop. Maybe it's not all bad. To me ownership needs to either field a competitive team or if they keep claiming poverty then sell the team. There's no salary cap the owners including the Pohlads can spend whatever they want.
  6. Everytime we get upset about the Twins play people tell us one game doesn't matter. I understand the philosophy but if one game doesn't matter why play it? I know that's a silly comment. But so to is the comments about losing games doesn't matter. This team has been floundering for over two months. They have been riding a very hot streak in may to try and stay on top. I hope they win the division but this team has so many flaws. Where's Buxton? Injured as always. Where's Correa? He must be busy counting his money because he hasn't shown up at the ball park for six weeks. Where's our manager? Oh that's right we don't have one.
  7. Rocco has been a head scratcher all season. His lineup decisions have defied logic all year. He's the reason Twins are floundering and probably won't make playoffs. He has poor in game management and more head scratching managing his pitching staff.
  8. Yes it's time for Sano to go. I imagine someone will sign him for next year on a cheap contract. The first guy to 1000 strikeouts in such a short time. That's what I remember. Feast or famine. Sadly far more famine. Good luck Miguel!
  9. Never enough starting pitching is confusing with the Twins in that it is rare they let any starter go past 4 or 5 innings. None of the pitchers mentioned coming back from injury move the needle much. The top 3 are good place to start. After that winder, Dobnak, and Ober don't move the needle at all.
  10. What can you say? Dodgers 10 Twins 3. Twins totally outclassed and outplayed. Rocco's handling of pitching staff has been baffling all year. A totally expected loss. But the team could have showed up. Meaningless homer by Buxton late in game. Another blowout Wednesday is likely.
  11. One area of weakness not mentioned was field manager Robocop Baldelli. Probably one of the poorest managers in all of baseball IMO. You recently had the game against the blue jays where he sat out both Buxton and Correa on the same day. Today, Tuesday against the Dodgers because they are pitching a lefty Arreaz is not in starting lineup. He just went 6 for 10 in his past two games and you sit him? Get serious. The lefty/lefty thing is strange in that you have one of the best hitters in all of baseball but you are telling him he is not good enough to play against lefties? Rocco always plays Kepler against lefties yet Arraez has a career 50 points higher lefty/lefty average than Kepler. Very strange. Rocco has not much feel for the game and is terrible at in game management and sticking to the game plan even when it's not working. In the end Rocco will cost the team a playoff spot. He's already lost a number of games this year. I vote lack of veteran performance and field manager as the biggest weaknesses.
  12. There we go again. Comparing Correa to Simmons? Come on. And NO his 35mil has largely been a waste this year. He is taking up 40% of teams payroll. It certainly is understandable to expect more from someone coming here with a superstar status. In my opinion he's been a big dissappointment. Good or bad it looks more and more like he will opt in for next year to stay with the Twins. Who's going to pay him big money with the year he is having? Unless of course he gets hot and do what he was supposed to be doing. Carrying the team to playoffs.
  13. Excellent article!! You pinpointed the holes in the team very well. The pitching has been atrocious. The bullpen has 22 losses tied to it. The starters have one of the highest ERA's and amongst the fewest innings pitched in baseball. But to me the biggest problem has been the lack of production from veteran players. Buxton is always injured and when he plays he's not very good. Granted he has 26 homeruns but that's about it. His average is terrible and strikeout rate is alarming. Oh yes he's injured so his poor production can be blamed on that. This year it is his knee. Correa has been the biggest negative. He started the year ok but I would argue he hasn't been worth 35 million. He is overly babied by the manager. Kepler has been awful most of the year. Polanco is doing good. One of the few veterans that appears to want to be in the lineup every day. The young players on this team are the ones holding the team up. They are the reason we are in contention not the veterans. Correa has been a joke most of the season. I hope he doesn't opt in for next year. That money could be used to upgrade other areas.
  14. Yes a bad call but let's not overdue it here. That didn't cost the Twins the game. It was starting out with a very questionable lineup. Even though Buxton and Correa have sucked for about 6 weeks, you can't leave both of your supposed superstar players out of the starting lineup on the same day. That has happened too many times this season. What kind of signal does that send to players and fans? That you have no interest in competing? Someone needs to remind Rocco that we are in a pennant race. Poor baseball, lack of clutch hitting, and poor baserunning doomed the game well before that play at home. There's a built in day off Thursday. Correa has no business sitting out as well. He may not have done anything anyway but at least show that you care.
  15. Yes a bad call but let's not overdue it here. That didn't cost the Twins the game. It was starting out with a very questionable lineup. Even though Buxton and Correa have sucked for about 6 weeks, you can't leave both of your supposed superstar players out of the starting lineup on the same day. That has happened too many times this season. What kind of signal does that send to players and fans? That you have no interest in competing? Someone needs to remind Rocco that we are in a pennant race. Poor baseball, lack of clutch hitting, and poor baserunning doomed the game well before that play at home. There's a built in day off Thursday. Correa has no business sitting out as well. He may not have done anything anyway but at least show that you care.
  16. Questionable call? Yes it was. It was a very surprising in call due to the lack of evidence and almost never is the catcher called for illegal blocking even in obvious cases. Rocco was right to argue and his comments after the game, partly fueled by growing frustrations, I'm sure will cost him a substantial fine. But it's a little stretch to blame the loss on that. Twins did a great job coming back in a game that at the start was going to be a blow out win for the Jays. They just, again, couldn't get clutch hits in key situations. It's a little convenient to blame the loss on that one play at home. A call that was amateurish at best. But that is major league umpiring as a whole: amateur
  17. I agree with you. Not sure about Strotman but Pagan has been terrible. Then we can send Rocco out with Pagan. I know that's not going to happen. Looks like a b team lineup again today at home. No Buxton, No Correa, some players playing out of position. They have tomorrow off they don't need two days off in a row IMO. Although I must admit they have both been terrible anyway for the past 4-5 weeks. Looks like a Toronto blowout today. I notice they thought the game was important enough to have their regular players in
  18. Great article! I agree with your listings. On the not hot list Byron Buxton must be close. But being a pert time player for 7 years is hard to classify him as a regular. Sanchez is awful, Jeffers when he isn't injured is just ok. Not great. The great Correa has been a major disappointment to me this year. Maybe I expected too much from a superstar. Maybe I expected too much from a 35 million per year player. Maybe it's realizing we could have had several quality pitchers on the team that we are paying him for. I thought he would carry this team. He should be carrying this team. Instead this team is carrying him. Our young players have greatly outperformed Correa.
  19. I agree about Pagan. However now Lopez is probably not available for Sunday. Probably won't be needed as 4 inning Archer is pitching. Pagan is awful. And you are right, who wants him in there. He shouldn't even be on the team.
  20. Wow. Nice win. Bundy only went 4 in Innings paving the way for 6 relievers. Granted they didn't throw much individually but collectively was too much. Curious decision to use Lopez after throwing 30 pitches just the day before. Wasn't necessary with a 4 run lead. Makes him unavailable for Sunday when 4 inning Archer is starting. Leaves a bad looking bullpen available for Sunday. But you never know!?!? The young players have been carrying this team for a while. The great Correa and Buxton went a combined 1-8. They should be carrying this team but for the past several weeks their bats have been missing. Nice win twins. Great contributions from our younger players
  21. Nice to win one that looked like was going to be another blown game. On paper the next two games look difficult. We have Bundy with an ERA over 5 then 4 inning Archer on Sunday. Glad we won Friday because Saturday and Sunday look like tough matchups. Come on now, any time I see Bundy then Archer back to pitching it's guaranteed a heavy bullpen usage and likely blow out losses. Then we get to go play the Dodgers. Good thing is after that we have several winnable games with Angels, Royals, and Rangers
  22. Thanks for a well thought out and honest article about Carlos Correa. He has been a big dissappointment this year. He with our other " superstar" part time Buxton have been dragging the offense down for the past several weeks. People have been treating him like some kind of God that can do no wrong. Provus on radio broadcast gushes over the way he joins in with pitching conversations on the mound. So what. So do other players. Bottom line for me is I hope he does not opt to stay. The FO told us and demonstrated to us their repeated philosophy of going for bargain basement pitching citing in part budget concerns. Yet pay one guy $35 mil. Made no sense then and even less now with his mediocre play. I'm wondering if the option to return is Correa alone or if the Twins have a mutual option. I also find it ironic that the poorer he plays the more likely he opts in due to the huge salary. I know I'm in the vast minority here in saying I hope he doesn't opt in and the Twins reinvest that money in much more needed areas.
  23. It's always fun to see how people throw out names from the minors like they were hall of famers. Most of those players mentioned in our minor leagues will not make it to the big leagues much less stay there and be productive for the Twins. I too believe the FO was caught by surprise with how well they started out and have hung into first place. But it is obvious this team may or may not finish in first place but they are not a first place team. The trades should benefit us for a few years though. Remember this FO assembled this mess of a pitching staff this off season. They elected to go bargain basement and holding pitching salaries down because of the budget. But yet we're able to spend 35 mil on one player. He hasn't even done that well this year. We could have had some mu h needed established major league pitching for that 35 mil. If the goal has always been to compete in 2023 and 2024 they must do a better job this off season putting the major league team together.
  24. Thanks Duff for your years of service to the Twins organization. The writing has been on the wall lately. I'm hoping a national league team picks him up. I figured he wouldn't be back next year so I thought they would hang on to him through the end of the year. Pagan also needs to go. You can't trust him in any role. I believe he leads all a.l. relievers in home runs allowed this year. Rocco says he still has good spin rates and is missing bats. He's not missing too many. Rocco, as usual is missing the boat. Pagan needs to be DFA' d soon. Spin rates and missed bats mean absolutely nothing when the final result is you give up way too many homeruns.
  25. Interesting discussion. I think Mahle will be just fine. What is almost amusing is the assumption the Twins will even make the playoffs. They haven't been playing like a first place team for 2 months. Lots of injuries and our top offensive players have gone into hiding. The great Correa, he of the 35mil (money that could have been used to get some good pitching) has been missing in action for several weeks. As I have been saying since the season started. What will stop this team is the 5 inning starters and using 4 relievers nightly, and a manager that relies on his computer analytics and avoid common sense managing too much. Rocco in the end will be the downfall of this team this year.
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