one_eyed_jack

Well, now it's all about Luis getting a batting title, and some young guys getting a chance to prove they belong. This season should leave a very bad taste in everyone's mouth, hopefully a bunch of them come back in 2023 full of piss and vinegar, ready to do battle.

When that's the lineup you have to roll with in a must-win game, well, it's pretty difficult to be optimistic. We've endured some bad Twins seasons. Some were disappointing, Others were downright depressing. But I don't think I've ever seen a season this frustrating. This is a very weak and very winnable division. This Cleveland team is not exactly the '27 Yankees. The flaws in how this team was constructed notwithstanding, there's enough talent there that a postseason appearance should have been a layup. But thanks to what seemed like a never-ending stream of bad moves, bad decisions and bad luck, the Twins are going to finish 3rd.

Well, that sucked. But not unexpected when you’re running out a lineup half-filled with fringe major leaguers every night. Should be an interesting off-season.

Now do runs scored,

Feels like a similar case for Jason Kendall. When you look closely, his case is stronger than you would have expected, but still well short of any reasonable Cooperstown standard. And probably the same result as Kendall, one-and-done. I lean more “big hall” but I am not interested in lowering the bar to the point where every above-average player who hung around for a while gets in.

Hate to see it. The injury history notwithstanding, you find a way to keep a player whose ceiling is that high. They don’t come around often. Not doing so feels like playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Maybe the problems was not so much with the Twins’ offer but with the Twins a what Byron really wants is a fresh start elsewhere? Either way, I fear we are going to have to endure the excruciating experience of watching him become a hall-of-famer in another uniform.

I think it also came from the fact that the Twins would get hits but end up stranding a lot of guys on base. Their opponents who had power hitters didn't have that problem. Take for example the 2009 ALDS. The Twins outhit the Yankees 29-23 in that series but were outscored by the Yankees 15-6 thanks largely to the fact that the Yankees outhomered the Twins 6-0. So it was all "you can't beat the Yankees with small ball, you need to have guys who can hit the ball over the fence to match their power." Which wasn't wrong, but it's odd to see the "you can't rely on home run hitters to score runs in postseason" takes being advanced by the same people now. But in any case, like you said, it's been the same basic story of the Twins unable to score runs both now and then. Although I find these last 2 years, particularly this year, infinitely more frustrating due to the degree that the lineup underperformed. Just a lot of really, really bad at-bats from guys who can and should do better. I think Twins hitters not named Nelson Cruz were 5-for-53 this series? That's just wretched.

One thing I've found mildly amusing in the aftermath of this latest playoff debacle is the local media folks and their "you can't win with Bomba-ball in the postseason, you need to be able to scratch out runs" hot takes. Same people who 10-15 years ago were writing "you can't win with Piranha-ball in the postseason, you need power hitters who can hit the long ball".

I honestly have no idea what the answer is. It's so maddening. In the wake of a lot of the playoff losses to the Yankees, you could at least recognize that they were a more talented, deeper and more experienced team. Their starting pitching was far better. (When you're countering Sabathias and Pettites with Blackburns and Duensings, you shouldn't be surprised when it doesn't go your way). But I don't know how to explain what we've seen the last 2 years. So many guys up and down the lineup who were consistently good for the regular season looking completely overmatched and clueless against middling pitchers in the postseason. I'm not really interested in a rebuild, I don't want another early 2010's string of 100-loss seasons. As much as this playoff loss hurts, I'll take it over having your season effectively over by Father's Day. So I guess I'd tend to keep this core together for another shot at it. But if they don't take a step forward (i.e. make the playoffs and win a round) next year, then I believe it would be time to look at bigger changes.

Maddening. Excruciating. Soul crushing. I am running out of adjectives to describe what it’s like to watch this team excel in the regular season then defecate all over themselves in the postseason. I don’t know what the answer is. Horrible at-bats by quality hitters. Bad base running. Untimely errors. Dubious managerial moves. Just a complete meltdown.

There were a few dubious decisions to be sure but this series was so one-sided that it's hard to imagine a different outcome had different decisions been made. It was such a frustrating series, made even more so by the fact that every other DS is competitive - we're the only team that got so easily sent home. I'm so sick of the condescending pats on the head, the "plucky midwestern overachievers who get routinely stomped by the big bad bullies from the Bronx" narrative. Open the vaults, get a couple of shutdown starters and lockdown bullpen guys and flip the effing script. I don't want to hear about how proud you are of your regular season. I want to hear about how you're not satisfied with being playoff punching bags.

This one really stings. It reminds me of the 2006 season - a team that was a ton of fun to watch and exceeded everyone's expectations - entered the playoffs with a roar and exited in 3 games with a whimper, though that time to Oakland. To me, what makes these series with the Yankees so maddening is that not only are they the better team, but every break, every call and every bounce seems to go their way when we play them in the postseason, and the Twins don't help themselves with their habit of self-inflicted injuries. (Cave, what in God's name were you thinking diving for that ball.) And I can't stand hearing about how brilliant the Yankee pitching was. Yeah, they were good, but a lot of it was just bad at-bats by the Twins. Flailing away at garbage way out of the zone, fouling off destroyable pitches, we made their 3 serviceable starters look like Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz 2.0. Rosario, Arraez and Polanco were the only 3 guys that didn't consistently look clueless and helpless at the plate. Garver, Sano and Kepler were particularly disappointing. Oh well, hopefully this is an experience that they learn from, and they come back hungry in the spring. And we spend some money on pitching - we just don't have the arms to compete in October right now.

This has been beyond infuriating, watching our hitters flail against these guys after the season we had. Severino is a hittable pitcher. Odo has done a great job. Offense and defense both let him down.

Yeah I don't see us beating the Yankees 2-1 or 3-2. I think they key will be jumping on Severino to build a healthy lead and let Odo relax a bit while forcing the Yankees to go to their pen early. A close game in the late innings does not favor us.

I didn't expect the Twins to win over 100 games and break the home run record. I had more fun watching Twins baseball this year than I have in years. But man, another loss tomorrow, particularly if it's another loss of the non-competitive variety, and it will be hard to look back on it positively. At least initially, when it's still raw and emotions are running high. I'm sure I'll feel differently as the off-season progresses and the conversation shifts to talking about 2020. I agree that a win tomorrow would be huge, even if that's all we win. I just don't see beating the Yankees 3 straight. But for the love of God, rise up and win one effing game. Give the home fans something to cheer about. End the historic postseason losing streak so we don't have that hanging over us next time we play October baseball. And show the world we at least belong on the same field as the Yankees, cuz we sure didn't look like it this weekend. Severino is a beatable pitcher. Odo is capable of throwing a good game. Get it done.

These 2 losses have been painful, much more so than years past. At least last decade, you expected it. The Yankees top-to-bottom simply had much better teams - especially in terms of starting pitching and offensive depth. Still, the Twins were competitive in most games, and were often in position to win until foiled by a bad bounce, a bad call or a bad pitch. But there isn't that same talent disparity this time around. To watch this Twins lineup flail against utterly hittable Yankee pitching is maddening. 14K's? Blech. Let's see what happens on Monday, Severino is another hittable pitcher. But as good as this team has been, if Monday's game is a repeat of today's, the fans will be well within their rights to boo the hometown team off the field.

The "it'll be different this time!" sentiment was correct in one sense - we went from competitive, heartbreaking losses to the Yankees to one-sided, humiliating losses to the Yankees.

Talk about soul crushing defeats. Blowing a 6-run lead.A 1-run lead turned into a 1-run deficit in an inning that should have been over but for a blatant missed callOne strike away from victory - closer on the mound with 1-2 with 2 outs, and he walks himContinued, historic futility with the bases loadedA former Twin saves the day at the plate and in the fieldMissed opportunity to pull another game ahead of Cleveland, who blew a late lead in Toronto And, of course, it's against the bleepin' Yankees. I don't know what savage pleasure the baseball gods get out of torturing the Twins against them, but I wish they would find something else to amuse themselves with. Good night all. May tomorrow bring a better result.

It wasn't meant as an attack on anyone, and it wasn't a reference to anyone here. I'm just sharing my observations of behaviors I've seen that I think are counterproductive and off-putting. Certainly having different views doesn't one smug or self-satisfied. I'm talking about the people who are so rabidly insistent on ideological purity that they take to lecturing and scolding people who agree with them on 95% of issues about the other 5%. And I respectfully disagree that is "distracts from the discussion". We're talking about the 2020 election. If it's something that may influence voters, that is the discussion.

Anecdotally, I actually know a few traditionally Democratic voters who were all in on Bernie that either stayed home or voted for Stein on election night. I even know of one Bernie supporter who voted for Trump, though I don't know this person well enough to know if they typically voted Dem or were one of the newer voters you mentioned. I'm not saying these folks are the only or even the main reason Hillary lost, but I think they were a factor. In any case, I don't think Bernie is the answer for 2020, and I suspect you're right that Biden isn't either.

I think Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia and Florida will decide it. Trump won all of those but Virginia last time around. If the economy stays strong, it's going to be an uphill battle for the Dems to flip enough of the others to win.

Yeah Dems can get hurt in elections because some lefties get overly concerned with their own smug self-satisfaction. Adherence to principles is a fine thing, but like many other good things, it can become a bad thing when taken too far. One of the big reasons that Trump won in 2016 is that many disappointed Bernie lovers just couldn't bring themselves to vote for "Crooked Hillary", so they either stayed home or voted for Jill Stein.

I'm getting increasingly concerned that the Dems are blowing this and we're going to get 4 more years of this noxious clown show. Obama was right when he warned of the dangers of a circular firing squad. It feels like every day I read about someone announcing that they are running. At this rate it will soon be easier to name the Dems in the Senate who aren't running. Forget by who, but I saw the point made recently that the last 2 successful Democratic presidential candidates, both of whom also won re-election bids, were both seen as challenges to the status quo and appealing to more centrist voters. I thought it was a good observation, but nobody in the current field jumps out at me as fitting that description. The other important point not to lose sight of is this: this is not really a national election. It will come down the results in a small number of battleground states, maybe 5 or 6. You already know which way the other 40+ are going to go. Don't worry about those. Sadly, having lost 3 very winnable presidential elections in the last 5, it's hard to have faith that the Dems will get this one right.

That must have been something. Wish I could have seen a game at the Met. Jim Kaat's career was really something. Not many pitchers who can say they faced both Ted Williams and Darryl Strawberry during their major league tenure.

I understand the idea of a HOF, and don't disagree with reserving the highest honor for the very best of the best, but it does leave a lot of players who contributed a lot to the game out. I've wondered whether the binary HOFer/non-HOFer distinction is too simplistic, and maybe there should be other categories that can be used to honor guys who aren't worthy of induction to the HOF, but are still worthy of recognition. The defensive wizards. The super sluggers. The scrappy, speedy lead-off hitters. The guys who excelled for short stretches and were on HOF trajectories until injuries derailed their careers. The iron men who had productive 20+ year careers. The current HOF process results in these guys getting critiqued and put down for everything they weren't. Wouldn't it be better if there were some way to celebrate and honor what they were?