LA VIkes Fan

Wow

Weird, my MLB app has a different Twins lineup. Buxton, Correa, Miranda, Polanco, Arraez, Urshela, Celestino, Kepler, Leon.

Amen, brother. We need a couple of more hot bats to go with Arraez and Miranda. Polanco, Buxton, Correa, Larnach when he returns - 2 or 3 of those guys getting hot would cure a lot of what ails us.

All good. By the way, can you believe the lineup that moron Rocco is putting out for tonight? I could do better with a dart board! And I bet he pulls Mahle after for five innings just because he's gone through the lineup twice. He needs to get his head out of the computer and actually watch the game for a change! We're doomed.

I'm not as negative as the last two posters but I do agree that these next 3 series are pretty critical. We have 3 against the LAA, 3 at home vs. KC, and 4 at home vs. Texas. All sub .500 yet all dangerous. We need to go 6-4 minimum, 7-3 or better realistically. I also agree that he injuries have just killed us. I think the plan was to contend for and maybe get a playoff spot this year as we built the team for "real" contention next year. The hope at the beginning of the season was that the 2022 lineup would have some combination of Miranda, Lewis, Kirilloff and Larnach getting the necessary experience so they could be the 4-7 spots in the batting order in 2023 after Arraez, Polanco and Buxton.. Now, we'll be lucky to have Miranda there plus Larnach, with Lewis and especially Kirilloff complete questions marks. That means another year we have to rely on guys like Kepler and Urshela who otherwise should be the 4th OF and gone respectively. This was the year Ryan, Ober, Winder and Paddack would be making their bones in the starting rotation and be solid to good pieces next year. So far Ryan is it, with Ober maybe coming back so the best case scenario is that those 2 are the 3 and 4 starters next year. That meant we had to trade some prospects to get Mahle - great move, by the way - and will probably need to keep Archer or Bundy, or maybe even both, to get a competitive rotation for 2023. Still, I remain optimistic. I say that the 2022 Twins somehow slip into the playoffs, win a home series against Tampa or Toronto, and then get blown out by Houston. Hey, a guy can dream, right?

By the way, is it wrong for me to secretly hope that Bundy suffers a non-career threatening yet season ending injury so Aaron Sanchez can take his spot? it probably is . . .

I like your style Rosterman. I think 30-22 is doable and gets us in.

C'mon, that was funny. I'm in my "early" 60s, 15 lbs overweight, and can barely walk 3 or 4 miles in a row. But I think Byron Buxton is dogging it, should return his paycheck, and should just put on his big boy pants and play! These kids today, with the hair and the music... Sometimes we get a little too serious about this stuff. I have to tell you if someone had come to me in February and told me I can can make you a deal so the Twins will be over .500 and in real contention in August, i would have said "where do I sign"? I don't know about you guys but this season has been actually fun even after they came out here a got their butts kicked by the Dodgers. I'm enjoying the ride.

You forgot baserunning, but I guess we only get to identify 3 weaknesses.

Agree we got to do something to help this roster. Beckham can't hit and doesn't bring a lot of defensive value. Understand the thinking, he hit in AAA so maybe he would hit in the bigs. Turned out to be wrong. Replace him with Palacios, play Palacios 1-2 days a week at SS with Correa DHing 1 and sitting 1. IL either Kepler or Buxton for 10 days depending on how much you think Buxton can play. Whoever goes misses 3 against LAA, 3 against KC, and 3 of the 4 against Texas. Replacement is either Helman or Contreras. Consider an option/DFA for Cave - nice story but we're back to the same old thing with his 3 SOs last night, 7 SOs in last 25 ABs - and bring up the other of Helman or Palacios. Bring up Aaron Sanchez, either to pitch long relief or start in place of Archer, DFA Pagan. Up - Palacios, Helman, Contreras, Sanchez. Down or Il - Pagan, Cave, Beckham, and either Buxton or Kepler. I may be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic but may give us a spark.

Great question. Here's another - why is Tim Beckham on the roster? He can't hit and doesn't bring a lot of defensive value. understand the thinking, he hit in AAA so maybe he would hit in the bigs. Turned out to be wrong. Replace him with Palacios, play Palacios 1-2 days a week at SS with Correa DHing 1 and sitting 1.

I am an optimist by nature, probably a bit too optimistic.

Agreed, but who? The AAA cupboard is bare. Best hitters are Helman and Palacious. Maybe Contreras comes back when he is eligible on 8/16? I'm with you but I just don't see any options.

Agreed, but who do you call up to take his place? The best hitters at AAA are Helman and Palacios and neither is burning up the league. Contreras didn't do much with the Twins and he can't come back until 8/16 since he was sent down on 8/6. Beckham and Cave were the best two hitters in AAA and they aren't much in the Bigs. It may be that Buxton as a DH twice a week is the best alternative.

I think the point is not to panic just because we've been caught by Cleveland or got blown out by the Dodgers. I live in LA and the Dodgers have now won 9 in a row by a combined score of 62-13. They are stacked. Losing to the Dodgers is no shame. Ask the Padres. The Dodgers blew them out 3 times a row. Closest score was 4-0. The fact we've lost ground in the Division is a little more concerning, We've essentially been a .500 team since late May. We haven't really clicked on all cylinders for awhile. I still think winning the division is the best and probably the only way in and that will only happen if we do and go on a .600ish kind of long term streak. Frankly we didn't really have the pitching to pull that kind of streak off before. I think we may have have that kind of pitching now. The schedule eases after tonight and really eases up after 9/10. I think we'll find out soon enough if this group can pull things together.

I share everyone's feelings about Sano. Some real hope, following by a roller coaster of emotions leading to a disappointing ending. I do hope that Miami gives him a chance. Playing for Rowson in a warm weather city is his best chance of regaining whatever he has left. I feel for the guy but he has no place on the Twins.

I wasn't very clear; I was trying to say pitchers that go into the 7th. That should have been 6+ innings, not 7+. I do think those pitchers exist. In fact, I think Mahle may be one of them, particularly against weaker opponents.

Interesting head to head predictions. I think they split with the Dodgers since the Dodgers will be running out a AAA starter on Wednesday. I'd like to think they will go 4-2 against the Angels instead of the predicted 3-3. I think your 6-3 against KC may be optimistic but I'll go with that and I'll go with either 3-0 against the Tigers, 6-3 against the Pale Hose, or 2-2 against the Yankees. Bottom line: 90-72. Win the Central, open up against Tampa Bay, win that series 2-1, and then lose to Houston in 6 games.

I agree with the premise of the article but disagree with the comments that this is somehow the manager's fault or that the FO hasn't tried to deal with these issues. The reality is that the Twins have about 80-85% of the players necessary for a championship contender. We are short at least (1) a true workhorse starter who can consistently give us 7+ innings a game, (2) another middle of the order bat that can be a consistent run producer (that's more due to injury than anything else), and (3) sufficient bullpen depth, including a shut down left-handed relief pitcher. If you look at the statistics, you can understand why Rocco is not letting our starters have that 3rd trip through the order; all of them, repeat all of them, have consistently poor results that 3rd trip through. Even Ryan. Gray has always been that way. You could try to develop younger pitchers like Ryan by giving him that 3rd trip through but that may be at the expense of a few wins over the course of the season. I think the front office made the right move picking up Tyler Mahle to try to give us that 7+ inning pitcher. Time will tell if he can actually do that. The lack of a middle of the order band is I think the bigger problem because it puts too much pressure on the 4 or 5 solid offensive guys we have and over time their performance suffers as a result. To me, this was the one thing we didn't get at the trade deadline that we should have. Thank goodness for the development of José Miranda and the emergence or career year of Nick Gordon because without them we would really be in trouble offensively. I do think the FO did a good job strengthening the bullpen at the deadline and made the right call with Tyler Duffey. I would frankly like to see them make the same call with Pagan but I understand the irresistible lure of his talent. He at least has the basic talent to be a successful pitcher, something Duffey unfortunately no longer has. There are at least attacking this weakness and the return of Maeda in the bullpen could really help if that happens. I think our record is very reflective of our talent level and I think Rocco has done a good job of maximizing the production of the players he has. I think the bottom line is that were just short a little bit on the talent side so it requires us to have guys do more than there really capable of to be successful. I frankly think the injuries to Larnach and Kirilloff in particular really hurt us by depriving us of that guy that could hit in the number 5 or 6 hole and really lengthen in the lineup. Guys like Kepler, Sanchez, Urshela, Celestino, and now Cave are nice players to have if they hit 7 through 9 order where occasional offensive contributions can be enjoyed. The problem is we don't have enough hitters so all of a sudden Gordon has to hit 5, Buxton has to play when he really should be on the IL, Polanco doesn't get the chance to heal his back, and the team winds up counting on guys like the 4 mentioned above to be run producers. They aren't and probably never will be(although you never know with the guys in a Celestino). The real issue is were just a little short of the players we need. That's not Rocco's fault. I don't know if he or the Front Office are average, good, or great. The one thing I do know since they got here the team is better, more competitive, more enjoyable to watch, and gives one hope that they could actually win the division and even potentially compete in the playoffs. That is a huge step up from where we were before they got here.

Good point. I guess I overlooked Helman because the Saints page lists him as an IF and I think we're really in need of a RH hitting OF. Has he played any LF? We are going to face 3 or 4 LH starters this week - Urias of the Dodgers, and Detmers and Saurez of the Angels for sure. The Wednesday Dodger game is TBD for the Dodgers since Kershaw is out. I think a RH OF is an important missing piece for this roster, especially with an very uncertain return time for Garlick. I was hoping to find that on the Saints' roster to replace Beckham or Cave but I'm not seeing it.

We'll find out this week if he can hit lefties. We are going to face at least 3 LH starters in the next 5 games, probably 4. We don't have a RH OF with whom he can platoon right now, unless we count the withered husk of Time Bechkham, so we're gong to find out if he can hold his own against LH pitching. I think we should give it a try. Given all of the injuries and prognoses (prognosi?) we don't have another RH hitting OF coming around any time soon. Let's see of Gordon can hit LH pitching well enough to be an every day player.

I agree. That’s what the Dodgers concluded and that’s why we have him. He’s a nice guy to have for a spot start, be the second game of the doubleheader guy, or even come up and be in the rotation for two or three weeks when someone gets hurt. It seems pretty unlikely that Smeltzer will ever be a long-term piece of a starting rotation or even of a bullpen on a contending team. I suspect that after the season he will be faced with the choice of another year like this one going up and down between the Bigs and AAA or going to a weaker team where he can start in the back end of a second division rotation. It’s actually a bit of a tough choice, win or play? I think it will probably boil down to how much someone is willing to pay him as a back end starter for a team like the Angels, Rockies, Pirates, etc.

I think there’s a very good chance that Sanchez will get another opportunity to either start or be the long man for the Twins this season. All it takes is an IL stint for any starter in the short run and it wouldn’t surprise me if the overall plan is to replace Sands with Sanchez once the hold is over. I think he also hast to wait 10 or 15 days before he can be recalled. Same for Cotton. Frankly, I’d like either one of those guys In the bullpen the head of Pagán but I just don’t see the Twins giving up on his live arm without finding a way to get something in return. Giving his history, I am surprised that Archer has lasted this long into the season. Sanchez is his replacement at some point. Also, let’s not forget that Sanchez was essentially a Street free agent when the Twins picked him up after being released by Washington. It’s not like he’s got a lot of people clamoring for his services. Not surprising that he stayed with the one team that gave him a chance.

I have the same issue on the Baseball Reference stats. That's why I like the outs above average stat on Baseball Savant. They seem to be an effort to compare fielding metrics between players at the same position so you can get a sense for whether someone is above or below average for that position. Now that the just be my lack of expertise or lack of understanding of these other metrics.

Speaking of avoiding work on a Friday afternoon, I took a spin through the Hitting statistics for the St. Paul Saints to see if we could find and promote that elusive additional bat that we need. Boy was that depressing. Frankly, the best hitter left down there is Jermaine Palacios. We saw what he can do when he was up for Correa; good glove, no bat. Looks like we'll have to find that additional offense from Gordon, Cave, Kepler's return, or somebody another team lets go.