S.

And then he was forced to chase the following pitches just as far out of the zone, because the ump is garbage.

Holy hell, that foul ball was a bomb.

If a manager cannot get professional players who have made it to the MLB to play baseball at a fundamental level that you would expect from high school players, then he is a bad manager. Either he is incapable of providing coaching to the players, or the players no longer listen to him. Either way, that is not a manager I want. Obviously, that is my opinion and people can argue it is all on the players and the manager has 0 impact, but these are pro players. They all know how to play at a fundamental level or they would not have made it to the majors. If they continuously fail to do so, then to me that implies there is a problem at the core of things. And the manager is the core of things when it comes to coaching and training and fixing problems. I guess we have different definitions of competitive, because in my opinion competitive means you can compete with good teams. In the last 15 years we've been 2-15 in the playoffs. That is not competitive. Edit: I assume it is a given, but since these types of threads tend to end up with opinions running pretty hot, I figured I'd mention that none of this is a knock on you, and lots of posters on this board have different goals, expectations and points of view, none of which are necessarily right or wrong. Probably doesn't need to be said, but figured it might be worth mentioning because I've seen plenty of other threads like this turn a bit more personal than they should. AKA, I disagree with you but I respect your right to your opinion.

The goal isn't to be a .500 team though. The goal is to win the world series or at the very least make a strong playoff run (getting swept in the first round or mashed in the wild card doesn't count as a "run"). Being .500 isn't an accomplishment. Are we supposed to be proud of the fact that we still suck but not quite as bad as we used to suck? Is that supposed to be a strong point in the argument of keeping Molitor? Well, we still aren't doing anything good but boy, oh boy, we almost were .500 in a division that is so bad that we're soundly in second place.

To be fair, the roster definitely plays into that too. And various other factors. But anyone who has watched a lot of Twins games this season knows that Molitor completely overuses some bullpen arms and completely neglects others. And its not like he kept going to some top tier RP in high leverage situations, he kept going to Matt Belisle.

The fact is he is the manager. If his team constantly makes stupid errors on the base paths and in the field, which they do, then he should be remedying the situation in practices. There is no excuse for the amount of embarrassing play we've had this year. These are professional baseball players. Yes, they make mental mistakes sometimes and that is to be expected once in a while, but the last 2 games have been full of plays that would be getting players on high school teams benched. And no where did I absolve any of the base coaches, but they aren't the ones running the show in practice and in games. They are base coaches. How are they to blame that our team is playing like a bunch of little leaguers and don't know how to do a basic run down? How are they to blame for Garver standing there and not throwing to any base today? If the base coaches are the ones responsible for base running management in practice, then they are absolutely to blame for that too. And this isn't absolving the players either because they're at fault too, but if a manager can't get his team to do simple **** that even a little league coach would expect their team to be able to do, then that is on him too. How many times this season has Rosario thrown to the wrong base? How many times have we made stupid mistakes on the bases? How many times in the last two games have our players looked like they have 0 clue what they're supposed to do with the ball in the field? If the manager isn't responsible for any of that, then what exactly is it that Molitor does besides give canned statements to the media?

I'd argue we've been seeing lots of awful base running and awful baseball in general the last few days. Am I to understand that is all intangible and the manager has nothing to do with making sure his team knows how to do a run down or knowing how to run the bases? Edit: Also, he is awful at making lineups and bullpen management. So, if we're only going by those two factors then he is an atrocious manager.

I'm honestly curious if there are still people that think Molitor should keep his job, and if so, what exactly it is that they think he is doing a good job of? Can't manage a bullpen, team can't run the bases, team makes endless mental errors, team doesn't know how to do a run down, etc, etc, etc

They could've made an out at first, second, or third, yet Garver never even threw the ball as the second runner at third slowly jogged back to second or as the runner at second slowly jogged back to first.

That might be the worst play I've seen all year.

Or maybe more contagious like polio, and everyone is losing normal function of their body.

I think what we really need is a nice brawl to liven things up.

It is almost impressive that more runs haven't scored with how bad of baseball is being played.

Man, that catcher sure made that strike look like a ball in that case.

Yeah, the was 100% not a strike. Wasn't even borderline.

Atta boy, Sano. Mushed it.

That strike 3 pitch on Alonso was greasy

I should've specified, I more meant prior to his injury, when we first moved him to the pen. No surprise at all that he's pitching out of the pen on the big league club this season.

It still kinda bums me out that May didn't get more opportunity as a starter before we moved him to the pen. On the bright side though, I think he has the potential to be a solid setup guy or high leverage reliever, and I really hope he reaches that potential.

Well, Belisle isn't on the 25 man roster, so yes?

Game started, for anyone else who changed the channel instead of sitting through the same weather delay crap for the 100th time.

For anyone who has been paying attention during the delay - have they given any estimates on when they expect the game to start?

To the few of you still watching and who changed the channel, game is set to resume shortly. Some confusion going on with the umpires and an announced RP before the rain delay started.

Wasn't looking at the tv at all and the call on that play confused the hell out of me for a second, thinking the other team scored when Dick said the ball went past Dozier and Forsythe scored.

I got some bad news for you