Trov

I am happy to see Cavaco doing well so far. Still short sample but much better than what he did as a rookie out of high school. The other two I will wait to make much judgement, our pen first 6 games, outside of Colome was not too bad either, it sure turned quickly.

I think people have been wanting Polonco to be more than he is. Other than last year, and the start of this year he has been a good player. We have been wanting him to be a great to MVP level player. He is not that, but who should he be replaced with? I bet you will be hard pressed to find too many second basemen to say you would want playing over him on both sides of the ball. He has improved the overall defense being at 2nd and has been doing find on offense. If you do not look for him to be more than he is you will not be too disappointed.

When I saw the title I thought you were ranking how you trusted each pitcher, not the order you trust them compared to each other. I would agree with your rank, but I have zero trust for them right now. I assume every pen guy will blow whatever lead we have.

It is a little early to start looking to sell everything. Our team can perform much better than they have. So many teams have gone on long runs this year both winning and losing, it has been a crazy year in baseball for that. We could go on a long winning streak or winning even 8 out of 10 type streaks to get back into it. That being said, if we do not start to turn around quickly, I would look to sell any piece that you can get a decent return on that you do not plan to bring back next year. Buck and Berrios I would hold off until off-season to see if you can bring back, they both have a full year after this so teams will still look to take them in trades. You will not lose a ton of value for waiting in my opinion. Pineda could fetch a nice return and Rodgers could bring back maybe a piece. Cruz, he will have limited landing spots being he will only DH, but if you can get a prospect back and you are out of the hunt do it.

These numbers are sad to look at. No wonder our pen has been getting rocked late in games. They need to fix this and fast or call the season a complete loss reload for next season.

I will put most blame on players. They are the ones failing to get hits late in games, or in big situations. The extra inning record is on the players mostly. They have only scored 1 time in extra innings when Buxton hit a HR, and we still lost that game, but every other time we did not get it done. We have lost games because of defensive plays not being made, even when not an error the player still failed to make a play they could have. Rocco should get some blame as he has made some interesting decisions, but he uses data being fed to him from FO for certain situations which will affect his decisions. I do not put a ton on the FO, but they do deserve some because they put the pen together, which has been a huge issue. We have had so many late leads blown this year. So many saves and hold just out the window. There are a few other options we could have tried to go after, like keep May, who is doing well so far this year. We do not know who they were all in on and lost out, or what trades were looked at. I do put some blame on the front office. Overall, the players need to start getting it done. Getting hits late and in key spots. Also, pen needs to start holding leads late, or starters need to start going deeper too.

I am most interested in following Keoni Cavaco this year. He did terrible in his short season then no season so I want to see how much he developed. I hope he gets up to high A by end of season. He is the biggest wild-card of prospects right now in my opinion.

I want to know when Acala will get a chance to pitch late in games. Last night would have been perfect spot to throw him in the 9th. Rodgers was pitching in back to back, and not that he did "good" the day prior. Yes, if Donaldson makes his play we win, but Rodgers still failed overall. We need to figure out this pen situation quickly, or start having our starters pitch more than 90 pitches a game and ask them to go into 7th. We keep using too many pen guys each night. I do not understand using Waddell again in the 10th, he did terrible the day prior against the same guys.

My biggest thing from last nights game was the home plate ump was all over the place with balls and strikes. I am surprised no one was tossed or more arguing. Pitches he was calling 0-0 were different later in the count. That is frustrating for both hitters and pitchers.

Looking forward to my daily catching up of minor league ball. I missed them last year. I thank all the people that take the time to do a dive into these games for good reporting.

The team has been hitting the ball very hard, even the outs have been hit hard for the most part. I am not concerned for our bad start, I think we will iron out the rough spots and be just fine.

"Reaching base has been one of the greatest struggles for the Twins this season. Before the game, only seven AL teams had a lower team on-base percentage than Minnesota (.304)" So we are struggling to get on base but still in the top half of the American league? I love how you can use the same numbers but as you change the words things look different. You could have had a more positive spin on it saying, Twins are in the top half the American league for on base percentage, but instead you said only seven are below them. That aside, Kiriloff had two outs that were hit hard, but Donaldson hit some of the hardest balls you will ever see hit for outs. The offense and defense looked to be clicking yesterday. Lets hope we can have a stable lineup for a good winning stretch soon.

I read in a different article on here that his chase rate and whiff rate are very low, which matches what my eyes are seeing, but this says he still is chasing and whiffing at high rate, I am confused. One thing that I always felt about Buck is he was so open to coaching that it led to over coaching. I have been an advocate for a long time that certain players will just do well doing it their way, and not the ideal way. I feel some teams expect flaws at high levels so try to coach them out before they are there, but when a hitter has done something the same way for thousands and thousands of times it is harder to take that away. When you add in the fact that some hitters are just so good they have adapted to their style. Just because it will not work for the average joe does not mean it does not work for the super talent. When you mess with the super talent it can lead to flaws they never had to deal with before. How many HOF or perennial all stars had odd hitting stances, or approaches? Coaches and scouts would say no way will they be successful like that because it is not the way it should be done. However, some coaches will say well let them do it until they fail. I am a fan of the let them do it until they fail approach when they are a super talent. Buck going back to his basics may have helped him a ton and just pushing out the dozens of voices saying tweak this and tweak that. Some times you just have to let the talent do what they do.

I believe he will start getting hits in bunches. Just for a comparison on how SSS people make snap judgements, remember how Badoo started his season? Here are his numbers now. He has played 19 games total, in last 15 his has slash line of .184/.212/.469 with a K rate of 51%. Taking only 2 walks in that time. His first 4 games, 3 against the Twins, his slash line was .455/.455/.1.182 with K rate of about 20%. I remember reading about how much of a mistake we made letting him go and he will be this super star after 4 games. I am pretty sure people are not thinking that now. You cannot look at single games or series as to how someone is or will do. I am not trying to hate on Badoo, but the point is people were sold on him after 4 career games as a future superstar. The point is you cannot judge a player so quickly. It takes a long time to really judge. Look at Buxton, he has never hit like he is now for so long, but he had glimpses of it.

I know it is unlikely he will hit at the pace he is, but I would argue it is not a fluke he is doing it. He is hitting everything hard, and the ones he is not hitting hard he is hitting in the right places most of the time. He has never hit like this for this long, but he also has never managed to stay of the breaking pitches out of the zone as well either. For me the 2 most important numbers to look at in that list is his whiff rate and chase rate. Both are very low, meaning he is staying of pitches out of the zone mostly, and is hitting the pitches in the zone. If that can be sustained his high numbers can be sustained I believe. Now, the league will start to adjust to how he has adjusted and try to find ways to get him out. However, so far this year the go to way to get him out, slider away, has not been working because he actually is taking that pitch. Something in his head has clicked at the plate and he is seeing pitches better. I also feel like his bat is faster this year, maybe the extra muscle has helped in that manner a lot.

I did not watch yesterday, but the highlights continue to show that Buxton may have figured it out at the plate and will put up some crazy numbers this year. I said all along what was holding him back is his lack of pitch recognition. He is staying off the breaking pitches out of the zone and crushing the ones in the zone. He also is not missing fastballs in the zone either. I do not know his chase rate but has to be very low and same with whiff rate. For most part his BABIP is not luck he is hitting the ball hard all over the field. Looks like the muscle he put on has also helped him at the plate for some reason.

I will agree that his numbers the last two years have been much better hitting RH than LH, but up until 2020, it was the other way around. To say that 2019 was outlier is not accurate, as in his prior years he hit better LH than RH. Yes, the last two years have been flipped and now he is more even. It will be great if he can fix his issues, but up until 2020 he was better from left side so to scrap it because of recent struggles is going far. I bet if he flipped now he would not do well.

I see no reason to keep him out of high leverage situation. I mean everyone else is failing in them so why not see what he does.

This year is much different from 2016. That team was not built to win in any way shape or form. This team is playing terrible, and that my be a combination of issues. They can turn it around, but will need to really start playing better. The pen is a huge issue, and their lack of producing runs lately too. They are failing to do much of the little things they need to do. I do not know if they have much of anything in minors to bring in for pen spots, but unless we can start getting guys out late in games we will not win much. Colome has been nothing short of a train wreck and might be time to cut bait on him, or at very least not be end of game guy. I sure hope they figure it out soon though.

Both teams play by same rules with runner on second. Other than the Buxton HR we have failed several times getting even 1 run in. A couple times we had runner on 3rd less than 2 outs and failed to do it. It is not just our pen in extras it is our lack of putting ball in play with a runner on third. I mean Simmons last night nearly threw his bat at the ball in the other batter box, what was that?

One thing I have noticed is most of the hits Twins are getting generally are balls being hit to the opposite field overall. I am of belief this is the best way of hitting overall. I hope the hitters start to embrace the approach more. In terms of Pineda, outside of the two HR, it was not a terrible outing. The errors did not help, and so many of the hits were weak contact that fell in front of the OF. Nothing more frustrating for a pitcher than weak contact getting hits and errors behind you. You think, what do I have to do to get someone out? I will say MLB standings, outside of a couple of teams, are no where near expected at this point. Still a long year, and hopefully this is just a terrible stretch and we will turn around soon.

Not sure what standards you use to measure who the worst team in the league is, or how much a country mile is to measure that by. However, coming into game Pirates had better record than 8 teams, Twins and Yankees being two of those teams. They had more runs scored than 6 teams, and over 20 runs scored more than the Mets who lead the NL east. Pirates have allowed less runs than 7 other teams, and have a run differential better than 2 other teams. Detroit is at the bottom of almost all of those lists. The Pirates pitcher last night, counting the game still has just over a 2 era, a sub 1 whip and putting up decent numbers. Also, his pitches have some nice movement. The Pirates may be expected to be a bad team, but right now they are far from the worst in the league by a country mile in my opinion.

I think it will just take some adjustments for him to get back on track. Will he be like last year all year, no he will not. We just need him to give 6 solid innings most starts. If the trend continues I will be more concerned. It has not helped that his last two games have been against, at the time, the hottest teams baseball. Both are Red Sox and A's are among league leaders in runs score and were on long winning streaks at the time.

In terms of the pitching move, I would more so question not letting Dobnak pitch more than 1 inning, which left you with limited options later in the game. I have little issue with using Colome in 10th, although I am not a fan so far of him this year at all. If we remove him and the new guy gives up a hit an we lose, we would question the choice to bring in someone else. Colome got the job done over all by getting to ground outs that were not completed. The move to take out Donaldson I agree is much more in question. It is not like Blackenhorn is a speedster. I know Twins do not want Donaldson to push things based on leg issues, but taking Donaldson glove out of game proved to be a huge issue. I have always been huge on having good defense. This game showed how much defense can impact a game. Not just the errors, but Buxton made amazing play to keep the lead earlier in game.

If we are asking him to be our savior, we are in real trouble this season. Can he help, I think so, but over last few games we need a whole lot more than a single hitter.