bighat

Buxton went 1-for-3 with a HR and 2 RBI the last time he faced Plesac, so with the team having lost 8 of its last 9 it's a great time for him to rest that knee. Edit: Astudillo also went 1-for-3 with a HR the last time he faced Plesac, so of course he's also on the bench tonight.

Twins just recalled Simmons and sent Gordon back down to the taxi squad. Didn't even get an AB or an inning in the field. Pretty pathetic.

Bloggers and Tweeters keep telling us that "It all evens out" - no, it doesn't. There is a reason some teams are 100-62, and other teams are 62-100. The bullpen, fundamental defense, and offense have been godawful. If things continue the way they are going, the Twins won't even come close to making the playoffs - in fact they will field one of the worst MN teams in years. Bloggers and Tweeters can dig around and find obscure stats that the Twins are excelling in (ie: from the 3rd-5th innings their XFIP + BABIP x WAR Squared is ranked 14th in baseball). Means nothing. I mean, I can probably find something positive about the Ice Capades but it doesn't mean it's a good production. Five games is a small sample size. 20 games is not. This team is getting smoked by good teams and is barely able to compete with bad ones. They are vastly underperforming and deserve all the criticism they've been getting and then some.

Great article, shocked there weren't any comments - for me it just appeared on my feed so maybe I missed it last night. All good points. I think the problem might be that our depth/reserves have been playing so much that the book is out on them. Guys like Astudillo and Cave (who ironically were last night's stars) probably used to get a few more cookies simply because they were viewed as backups. However....are we really going to blame this on the bench guys? Jeffers, Cave, Astudillo, Rooker haven't been good. But we wouldn't be in this position if Sano and Kepler were already at 4-5 HR each and 14 RBI a piece. Garver can't hit his way out of a paper bag. If THOSE guys produce, we're not even having this conversation....

Great effort by Happ, give credit where it's due. Any time you can get a gem like that out of your 4th starter, you have to be thrilled. Looks like he may have some gas in the tank still. We'll take it. Astudillo and Cave with the offense. That's cool, but also troubling. Maybe that 12-run outburst was really just a product of those infamous Oakland Day Games where the ball really flies. On a side note, it's really unfortunate to see yet again more ugly spring weather in Minneapolis. Don't get me wrong, outdoor baseball in Minnesota cannot be beat, it's absolutely the only baseball we should be considering....but man, watching guys have to play in snow, 30, 40 degree weather for a MONTH is pretty brutal. There's nothing we can do about it, but it just feels like such a severe disadvantage for this Twins team. Play on the road, or play in 30 degree weather - those are your two choices. Maybe it's just magnified for me this year because of the bad start to this team, I dunno. I played high school ball in Minneapolis - I remember playing with piles of snow in the outfield grass and mud puddles on the infield. The Twins are pros and their field is pristine, so they should be able to push through this. Just looks like they're not comfortable and it really shows offensively.

Blankenhorn going down maybe?

(Using my best Dwight Schrute voice): FALSE! Nick Gordon was ranked 48th and 50th, respectively on the MLB Top Prospects list a few years ago. That's in all of Major League Baseball. He was the #2 ranked Twins prospect at the time. Kiriloff came into the 2021 season ranked 21st on that same list, in all of MLB. Scouts and MLB employees know a lot about baseball and they have very high opinions of both of these players.

Yeah, this is one of those amazing games where you can't really blame any specific player OR any specific skill set. Everyone was bad on defense. Starting pitching was terrible, bullpen was terrible, managing was terrible (I rarely criticize managing because hindsight is always 20/20). Clutch defense was disgusting. Can't throw a guy out? Can't field a grounder? Honestly that looked like bad middle school baseball. GAAAHH!!! Cruz 2 HRs, Donaldson goes 4-for-5 or whatever with a HR, Buxton hits a 2-run homer in extra innings and you freaking LOSE?!?!? Who's going to get the Twins out of this mess? Berrios and Maeda are spent, guess it's time to turn to Big Mike on Friday? JA Happ and Matt Shoemaker are the type of guys that you can have ONE of, but you don't want two. But that's for another thread! Still just bamboozled over yesterday's loss.

Will be interested to hear Rocco's quotes about this one. Is he going to laud his players with praise? Talk about how his bullpen did a great job and had a few unlucky bounces? Talk about how the A's are a great team and wow how fun it was to be in this dogfight? I'd be refreshing to hear him just finally lose his apples and tell it like it is for once. For what it's worth, I like Rocco overall as a manager. I'm just an extremely irritated Twins fan.

Cruz was lifted for a pinch runner after getting hit by a pitch - you can bet we won't be seeing him today. Rocco's going to say DAY OFF!

Twins look just awful, offensively right now - wasting solid pitching from their starters. I'm sure they'll improve, but I can't recall feeling this bad about a Twins team since the "all systems failure" year of 2018. Also - sure would be a good time for a fiery speech from the manager. Alas, I think Rocco probably told them to make sure to practice self-care and drink some lemongrass tea while they think peaceful thoughts and listen to Enya. (No offense to Enya, she's great but I think the Twins could use some Cannibal Corpse or Onyx or Mobb Deep right about now).

Good points on your response, but this particular quote doesn't make sense to me. In Florida the vaxx has been available to anyone age 16 and over for weeks, and for anyone over 30 it's been available for a month. There are so many openings and so much supply that walk-ins are welcome just about everywhere the vaxx is available. The Twins got the vax last week, I certainly don't think they cut in line or stole anyone's spot.

I don't think you're going to get a list of those who got vaccinated, personal medical information, etc. I did see that Betsy Halfand tweeted that Kyle Garlick DID get the vax (see tweet below) and remember that Sano and Astudillo, already had the virus a year ago. Overall it's just getting old. I thought we were done with this nonsense - and up until now, the Washington Nationals were the only other team to screw the pooch on this, and that was opening weekend. Just super frustrating as a fan. Get it together already, Twins.

Welp, this season is now officially off the rails. This is stuff most teams figured out how to handle in 2020 and long before Spring Training. Inexcusable, frankly.

Let's look at the positives for a minute: Sano was 1-for-3 with a walk (by the way, 2nd in all of MLB in walks with 13 total, as many as Trout). Polanco was 1-for-3 with a walk. Kepler 2-for-3 and Donaldson 2-for-4. A struggling Garver was also 2-for-4. Of course....they somehow still managed to score just 3 runs. You'd think with all of those guys above finally hitting, you'd at least see a 5 or 6 spot on the board. Dobnak, what can you say. Dude got an extension, looked like a savvy move, and now he's just been awful. Kind of feel bad for him. Honest question: if the Twins hadn't given him this extension, would he be in St. Paul right now? Cave, another guy who should be playing once per week but instead has become an every day player. He seems to succeed as a role player - where the heck is Buxton already? Theilbar is this year's Ryne Harper. A great little comeback story, a fun little broadcast human interest piece. But if he keeps getting shelled you've got to cut bait. Twins are in last place in the AL Central. If the Twins play like they have been for another week, people are going to start to notice. This team doesn't look good, and it's not like they've got any major pieces on the DL or waiting in the minors right now. The players you see are pretty much what we're rolling with. And it's not looking pretty.

Thanks for sharing - found this link on Twitter. It's great when people interview in their native language, I think that more reporters should learn Spanish and give it a try with Latino players....just spend a day in their shoes trying to speak a new language and they'll have a whole new level of respect.

Cruz has appeared in 12 games, but he essentially missed the entire Milwaukee series. Buxton has played in 9 games but is going in the wrong direction. We're 2 weeks in and Buxton, Donaldson, and Cruz have all been "rested for precautions". Gimme a break. Donaldson and Buxton could absolutely have played yesterday. Both have missed more games than Ken Griffey Jr. would have in an entire season during his run.

Thanks for these interviews - great to see someone digging deep into the Twins system and getting these talented guys some much needed exposure to the fans. Much appreciated!!!

Much needed win - that said, it was another painful game to watch for Twins fans. Even Kepler's ducksnort single in the 9th felt like this team got plum lucky and didn't deserve this one. A shame to see the bullpen in shambles. Everyone looks terrible: Duffey, Stashak, Rogers, Colome, and now Robles. If the Twins didn't have good starting pitching they'd be 1-12. Buxton. Cruz. Donaldson (good grief). This is the team's 2-3-4 part of the lineup and none of these players have played in more than half the team's games! We're fricking 13 games in and they're "resting" Donaldson right after he returns? Baldelli always seems to be saving bullets in the chamber for the next game, or the next series. Thinking about ways he can get away with using guys like Astudillo, Cave, and Riddle and sneak out wins so that he can play his "big guns" next time and give everyone a rest. Again, we're 13 games in! Play your stars! You think Ken Griffey Junior was "resting" and just playing in 10 of his team's first 13 games? No! The dude was a stud and he was playing in 157, 156, 161, 160 games PER YEAR. Good lord Rocco, get these guys on the freakn' field. By the way, I like Rocco as a manager! Just hate this particular aspect of his philosophy. Wonder how Thorpe's going to do against Mike Trout tonight?

If anyone needs to jump on a flight and head to LA right now, it's the Minnesota Twins. It's pretty clear none of them like being here right now. I'm pretty sure they're going to mail this one in today, but the Red Sox are going to be playing their B Squad so the Twins might just have a chance. This team has not been fun to watch. Those winnable losses against Seattle and Milwaukee are looming very, very, very large right now.

I love how you don't want to count blown saves. That literally means they came into the game and gave up the lead - which is the only thing you don't want your relievers to do! How's this for you: Tell me the main reason living on Mars would suck - but you can't mention the lack of oxygen, atmosphere, freezing cold temperatures, or the desert-like conditions. Jeez louise man, you're way too caught up in expanded stats. We can't give Robbie Grossman the MVP Award just because his expanded statistics suggest he's more valuable than Nolan Arenado. It doesn't work that way.

Polanco is an average hitter? Gasp! He's going to just hit .260? Horror! Did I miss something? Did I miss the MLB.com article that said "Twins Success in 2021 Rides on Jorge Polanco's bat"???? The fact is that if Polanco hits .260 with 15 HR and 62 RBI that's just fine - after all, we've got Buxton, Cruz, Donaldson, Sano, Garver, Kepler, and Arraez who are all supposed to be mashing around him. Polanco's not the problem. Never was, never will be. Because he can hit and will get out of slumps. The problem is Sano and Garver, who literally cannot hit the ball and take MONTHS to come around. It's unacceptable to have 4 and 5 hitters going 0-32 in a 3-game series with 25 strikeouts. It's a killer. I'm increasingly worried about Kepler also. I'm happier to see Garlick up at the plate than Sano, Garver, or Kepler at this point.

True! Also wish they had a former MVP about to get healthy, maybe a guy who could play 3rd base and hits right-handed. Darn.

Batting Garver 5th behind Buxton vs. lefties isn't going to work. Twins are one right-handed bat away from putting together a solid middle of the order, wonder where we can find one of those? Oh yeah, Josh Donaldson is supposed to be that guy. Blame Tortuga, blame Polanco, blame anyone you want: but Donaldson's absence is costing the Twins big time. With him it's almost impossible to think this team isn't at least 7-1.

If you are a baseball fan, specifically a Twins baseball fan, yesterday's game could not have been better. Home Opener. Double-digits on the scoreboard. Three homers, including one from the breakout MVP candidate. Berrios to 2-0. Garver showing some swagger. These guys are having fun... Only downside: Josh Donaldson watching from the bench. This team is firing on all cylinders without him, and Arraez in the lineup daily is looking more and more like a perfect fit. Must be frustrating for JD, not much he can do but sit back and enjoy the show. What a team this would be if Donaldson could stay on the field.