BD57

World of difference between 11 year olds, where there can be wild disparities in talent, and MLB, where there isn't. Plunking Kepler because the guy before him swung at a 3-0 pitch is ridiculous. Throw at Cave next time you get the chance, if it's that big a deal - but it shouldn't be. The Rangers were down 8 because "they earned it." That's not the Twins fault. If they wanted to walk off the field and say "no mas," that's what they should do - otherwise, don't throw a pitch and expect the batter not to try.

Interesting Article about "blowouts" .... https://sports.yahoo.com/yankees-manager-aaron-boone-would-favor-mlb-mercy-rule-and-hes-not-off-base-004158370.html?fbclid=IwAR1s3AJZuQmAo5VpCYgetvbxtpWonEGRpcQwCef5t2t6ZnP1WvYJgYkvm0Q

Rather than the whole "unwritten rules" business, let's just give teams the right to 'call it" ... let the Ranger say "enough, we can call off the game now." But they won't do that, will they? So instead, we're supposed to go through this charade of "playing out the game," even though the team that's ahead has to "really not try 100%" to get hits and score runs. Question ... why didn't the Ranger hitters just go up and swing & miss at every pitch at the end, to get the game over with? Why were they still trying to get hits and score runs, if the game was over? If Kepler had been hit in the head, or on the wrist, and been injured so he'd miss time, this would be a whole lot bigger deal. The "unwritten rules" are all about "pride." Yeah, well ... "excessive pride" causes all sorts of problems. Don't want to give up hits on 3-0 counts? Throw strikes.

I think "he threw just 9 pitches last night" has something to do with it.

Rocco is trying desperately not to waste a pitcher on one hitter here.

Pitch count is "getting up there"? He's over 80 pitches in the 5th inning!!!!!!! With all of ONE out!!!! And he's still nibbling. His stuff's not good enough to "not be hit" when it's in the zone ... aaarrrggghhh

remember when "Twins Baseball" was about "getting the fundamentals right"?

nibble, nibble ... and now we can't field the blasted ball ...

Perez has pitched himself out of the rotation, if we have someone else ... which is the issue. Gibson has to decide whether he believes in his "stuff"; he pitches like he doesn't. All those pick off attempts (one of which he eventually threw away ...) - pitchers throw to bases when they don't want to throw to the plate. Frank Viola supposedly figured out he was "good enough" when he was told to throw it down the middle & "let's see if they can hit it" (and they didn't, so much). Gibson's not as good as Frankie was, but he's not going to be given the ball if he won't throw strikes. Berrios' arm is getting tired, or something - his velocity is down, and that's not good. The whole staff (by and large) struggled against Cleveland. WAY TOO MANY WALKS .... what's with that? The "story" of late hasn't been the offense so much ... pitching hasn't been "contender quality" for a while. Too many guys not throwing strikes.

I don't think they can say "Dumb move" within hours of the event, even if they think it was a dumb move - you just don't do that. Let's see if he's still 3rd base coach next year.

Bad "send" ... gotta think "situational" - you've secured the tie, you have 2nd & 3rd, 1 out in the bottom of the 9th if you "hold" the second runner. I "pocket" the tie in favor of two shots at getting the run in; you're going to have infield & outfield in, so you'll have a good chance at getting it done. You might "send" if it takes two perfect throws to get the out. You don't "send" if it takes a bad throw to score the run (translation: if two "normal baseball plays" throws your runner out, it's not the right move in that situation). My other concern - either we had a slow radar gun today (which didn't seem to be the case) or Berrios is down a few MPH .... don't like seeing that.

Cleveland is just playing better baseball these days. Gibson's afraid to throw strikes, and when he does - throws something fat ... Geez.

Gibson is seriously ticking me off. A guy who throws over to first that much is someone who doesn't want to pitch to the hitter. He's setting us up to be down 2 because he's afraid to throw strikes.

Didn't Eddie have one before tonight? Or was Eddie's just for the lead late?

Oh, he's definitely changed the game - can't say for sure "how" or "in what way," but when your strike zone moves all over the place the way this guy's does, you're constantly putting hitters and pitchers in counts they haven't earned, and that definitely will change the game.

Just wish Trevor was balanced in his motion - he seems to be falling all over the place much more often than not. I know, I'm no expert; just think it's easier to be consistent when you stay in balance.

That's like saying the HIndenberg was a slight mishap ....

That was better ... don't know what changed, except he seemed to settle some.

May just never looks like he's in balance ... what's the deal with that?

IMO, we're not fielding our best defensive team (1st base & right field) and that passed ball was just flat sloppy ... play solid defense & we're out of that inning with the lead. But, of course, that's not where we're at. May is overthrowing something awful.

It's "Sports Fan Logic 101" .... "If it doesn't work, it was a stupid idea." Sports fans - of every team - love to tell you what a moron their coach/manager is AFTER they know things didn't go well. See how many of them will "call it" that way before they know how it turned out, though ... *crickets*

He ran Dyson - a National League pitcher - out against a National League team. If anyone should have some familiarity with the opposing hitters and have an idea about how to get them out, it would be someone like Dyson. Obviously, it didn't work, so that makes it a "bad move" ...

The current state of the pitching staff is my concern, with pretty much everyone getting hit - it's becoming a "theme." We scored enough runs against the Yankees to sweep them, and gave up enough runs to get swept. The latter has to be addressed - we're not playoff team with the staff pitching like this.

We're experiencing the truth of baseball ... A team is never as good as it looks when it's on a roll, and never as bad as it looks when it's in a slump. We're "in a slump" right now - and even then, it's a slump built to a great extent (in perception, IMO) on losing two to the Lowly Mets (is that their official name now?).

Tropicana is a horrible ballpark in a worse location. Being in St. Pete adds an hour-to-hour-and-a-half of driving for a lot of people to attend (I've made it a point to go to a Twins game the past few years). They need a ballpark on the "Tampa" side of the Bay, closer to where the people are. Build something more modern and more centrally located / easier to get to & they'd draw better. Their front office is putting decent teams on the field more often than not; they just got stuck in that dump and they've never been able to get a new park built. OH YEAH ... TO THE POINT ... This "split between Tampa & Montreal" business is nuts.