Doomtints

With one guy on base, two outs, and a 4 run lead, I'd leave Odorizzi in there -- especially when the bullpen being overused. There would be plenty of time to pull him later and protect the lead if things went south. And then May comes in ... just to get one out? Harper was clearly struggling. A walk, three hits, and a home run. There was no reason to leave him out there for a full inning. This game was only close because of Baldelli.

Twins hitting was up and down the entire time Molitor was the manager. I don't know that I buy into the idea of Bruno being the problem. The swings we saw this team go through under Molitor were weird. From respectable to catastrophe not once but twice -- all with the same group of people. Back when he was a player, Molitor was on the record as saying his only philosophy is to swing the bat. Good things happened for him when he did that. We certainly saw the young Twins try this in one of those catastrophic seasons with very poor results, and this happened to coincide with Bruno being around.

Removing Odorizzi to protect the lead and then handing the ball to Harper to cough up three runs is a strange management style.

Is he injured? He only played 2 innings in spring training.

I'm not sure the Twins like Sano enough to want an extra year of control. Of the players on the team worth a darn, Sano is probably the first one the Twins would part with. They have to play him to prove to the league he is awesome before they could do that.

A few players have that great directional control and have high career BABIPs. As you say, most don't.

Remember around ten years ago when the Twins scored something like 32 runs in a double header v. the Sox?

Twins tickets are dirt cheap. They make this up by charging a lot for concessions.

This is really nice.

Funny article. "Yeah, stats this time of year don't mean much. But here's this long analysis anyway."

The Pressly thing was one of the dumbest moves in the history of the franchise. At the time it seemed bad, in retrospect it seems downright suicidal.

There's no reason a GM of a sports franchise could not say something like this for laughs. Thanks for making me realize how boring and uncreative these people are.

Gardenhire brought the franchise to a .500 overall record. Now, of course, the franchise is a couple hundred games in the hole again. And it was his teams -- not the Oakland A's -- who were plastered all over mass media year after year for being the small market team that could compete. Kelly helped the team win two world series and he seemed masterful at knowing where to put position players and when to bring in certain pitchers. Kelly is a no BS guy and he left when the BS became intolerable. (Fold the team? Please...) Both of them are big parts of the Twins story.

That's right. He was never a stud. I was very nicely surprised by his start this year. I was also a little surprised he laid an egg his last time out. Gotta remember this guy is human. I was very skeptical of this pick-up but I think he is going to be one of the better Twins starters this year. As in, it will be him & Berrios pitching well and then a bunch of scrubs...... Of course this begs the question ... if the Twins didn't sign him a year ago, perhaps they could have signed someone longer term instead to be that #2 guy now and in the future....and more likely than not they still could have signed Pineda to be the #3 for this year.....

It feels like Twins pitching is terrible and Twins hitting is fine. Looking at the numbers, the Twins are in the bottom half of the AL in many hitting categories and in the top half of the AL in many pitching categories. They are in the bottom half in hitting in Runs, Hits, Stolen Bases, Walks, Total Bases They are in the top half in pitching in hits allowed, Runs allowed, home runs allowed, walks, saves, and are right in the middle for ERA. The quickest path for the Twins to improve is for them to hit better, even if our senses tell us differently.

Why does a manager not pinch hit Garver for Cron or Gonzales in this situation?

Cave hits now as it has taken years for other recent young Twins to hit. It's a shame but, yes, he's probably the odd man out.

When I read these types of threads all I can think of is the Simpson's "Old Man Yells at Cloud" meme. On another note, if 10% of calls are wrong, how much does that number change when it's not Joe West?

Garver's bbRef dWar is 0.1 so there is at least one system that likes him.

Last year, man. Last year.

So ... he's the next Kevin Slowey?

The Twins have the best WAR in the AL at the catcher position with 0.4. If Castro were not on the team, it would be 0.6. The closest team is at 0.3. Of the three, Garver has been the best defender.

Astudillo's 'bad game' sample size is two. Keep this stuff coming though, he thrives off people doubting him.

Don't forget ... there are a couple of relievers on the DL/IL who will be back soon.

I think Castro goes at the trade deadline. There are a few ways to slice this. If the Twins want to cut the most overpaid player, that would be Gonzalez. Gonzalez always has slow starts so they won't do this. If it's worst defender, which is very important for a bench player, it's Cave. Worst offensive player would be Adrianza. As others have said, it's going to be Cave.