bighat

Unforgiveable situational baseball by the Twins hitters last night. When you have those stats of leadoff double, leadoff single, leadoff double, leadoff walk, bases loaded and 1-out, etc, etc.....AND BTW ITS A BIG GAME TOO! You gotta score runs. Period. You gotta move guys over. You gotta hit sac flies. But Rocco sits out there with his face buried in his stat books and tells his guys "Close your eyes and swing as hard as you can, because in theory, moving guys over to 3rd base is just a wasted out" or whatever the heck it says on the back of his Sabermetrics card. And it's god-awful to watch. Rocco doesn't change the way he manages in big games. At first I thought that was a good thing but now I'm starting to think it's a problem.

Twins haven't played all that well this year - and even so, they're right at the top.This team is GOOD. They were built for a marathon, not a sprint though. A shame we never got a full season to see them gel.Twins seem to be hitting their stride right now. Good timing. I hope Rocco doesn't start resting guys now, it would be like pulling the key out of the ignition while in 5th gear. Turn 'em loose, Rocco.

Nice to see Bux in the lineup for 2 straight. I never thought I'd say this, but his bat is as dangerous as any Twin right now. We might just be seeing the best version of Byron Buxton we've ever seen. He's always tracked towards being a late bloomer and I am guessing his late 20's and early 30's will be good years for him.

Dick Bremer: "Bieber and Giolito are probably the best two right-handers in the league" My first thought was, what about Maeda? I mean surely Bieber is the best in baseball, but Maeda's numbers match up with both of those guys and he's a TWIN! Dude's gotta be the most underrated/forgotten pitcher in baseball right now. Only because Rogers has blown 3 wins for him (and worked on blowing another last night). Speaking of, no more 9th innings for Rogers. How about Duffey, Wisler, or May from now on?

I'll be rubbing my hands together and cackling with glee if somehow the Yankees don't make the playoffs. C'mon Orioles! That said, if this were any normal year the Yanks would be on the outside looking in. At this point you almost have to be trying NOT to make it to the post-season. The expanded system for 2020 is an absolute joke and one of many gut-punches to the integrity of baseball this year.

Great letter! Thanks for sharing.

Fair enough. I think Cron is a bit of a stretch for various reasons, but his prior season in TB is probably a good comparison.

Eddie Rosario is batting .245 and is 2nd on the Twins in both HR and RBI. How are those "bad stats"? The author of the game wrap (not this author) called him "stupid" which is absolutely inappropriate. I don't accept the anyone's argument that Eddie Rosario is a bad player. Period. He hit 32 and drove in 100+ runs last year. He's got a top-10 arm and has made huge throws regularly. Can you name a white player who hits 32 HR and drives in 100+ RBI and routinely guns guys down on the basepaths who gets called "stupid" by his own fans? Go ahead, I'll wait.

Absolutely agree with everything you said here. At worst it was a "questionable baserunning decision" or "got burned for being overaggressive". Sportswriters don't call people "stupid", it's insulting and frankly pretty offensive to read. Game threads might use that language in the moment from commenters, but you don't write that kind of stuff in the wraps.

Gimme Jeffers over Garver any day.

Anyone else think that if Eddie's name were "Matt Johnson" we might be calling him a hard-nosed ballplayer that leaves everything on the field day-in-and-day out? Maybe it's just me. But let's take a look: the Twins are 5-1 over the past 6 games. During those games, Eddie's batted .285 with 2 HR and 7 RBI. He's struck out once. And now we're calling for his head?!?! Sure he made a bad play in the field and a baserunning error in the loss - but Max Kepler had done the same would this article be published? Listen, I get that Eddie makes some crazy plays that don't pass the eye test. And in today's world of about a billion stat categories, you can cherry pick a bunch of categories where Rosario is below average. But a lot of these arguments are crazy. Eddie's a part of the Twins biosphere. Would his skill set be a match for every team? No. But he fits well with the mix here. His numbers - the real ones (HR, AVG, RBI and team wins) speak for themselves.

Definitely a patented "B Team Game" for Rocco. When the Twins have already won a series, it's almost certain that Baldelli will be resting the regulars - pennant race be damned. Cruz on the bench again. Kep still hurt. Look for Theilbar and Poppen to be the first guys out of the 'pen today. At least Rogers is available, let's hope he gets an opportunity.

Any of those guys going to hit 32 HR, drive in 100+ runs and be among the top 5 in the AL in outfield assists? On a regular basis? Prospects - in our heads - are all future All-Stars who are being deprived of an opportunity. But a realistic full season for any of those guys listed above next year looks something like this: 15 HR, 50 RBI, and a .233 batting average. If any of them has a career like Eddie Rosario we'll be very, very lucky. Some people won't appreciate Eddie until he's gone. Maybe not even then.

Some good comments here. Agree with most that Odorizzi is really screwed and he's got to be just gutted about taking that Q.O. last year. It honestly couldn't have gone worse for the guy. On the plus side, makes the Twins a realistic partner and maybe we can get him at a discount? And frankly let's not pretend he's going to the poor house: a team will certainly pay him in the offseason, one year removed from an All-Star season, starting pitching is hard to find, he'll be on a lot of people's lists. But he did miss out on mega money. He'll be looking at Zach Wheeler's contract with the Phillies for a long time thinking "I coulda had that". And he coulda.

Eddie didn't cost the Twins the game here, fellas. Trevor May cost us the game. Tyler Duffey cost us the game. Sergio Romo cost us the game. Devin Smeltzer cost us the game. Eddie just....poured a little gas on the fire they started. He's an easy scapegoat but this one's on the bullpen, just like the headline says. Trevor May and his 5.74 ERA is right around his career average, BTW. He ranks only above Zack Littell, Devin Smeltzer, and Lewis Thorpe in that category right now. I'm consistently blown away by the chatter on this board about how great May is, and how much $$$ he's going to make in free agency. The guy's a career 5+ ERA reliever - would you want to bring in a guy like that on your team? Sure, strikeouts are sexy but outs are much more attractive to GMs. Giving passes to May, Romo, and Duffey here: but I think the Smeltzer experiment has to end. Can we find another lefty in St. Paul? Devin's stuff doesn't play at the MLB level right now, he's going to need a hard reboot and it's gonna take years and a new uniform for this kid to ever be serviceable IMO. A win today makes Sunday's dumpster fire obsolete. Go Twins!

Same here. This was a 1-0 game in the 5th, runs were clearly hard to come by. Sacrificing 2 outs for a run -- in this particular game -- seemed like a good deal for Minnesota. By his body language after the play was complete, I think Skubal regretted his decision as well.

HOW....??? Honestly this was a routine grounder. Not a dribbler, not a high chopper. Just a two-hop bouncer to short. And played solidly by the defender. It's unfair. And I'm laughing maniacally and rubbing my hands together. C'mon Bux, let's get hot and keep making contact. There might just be an All-Star year for him yet next year if he can stay healthy and stay in this lineup.

Not the prettiest double-header sweep I've seen but at this point we'll take it. With how the Twins have played against DET, KC and PIT, it's scary to think about what OAK, TB, HOU or the dreaded NYY might do against our boys. Donaldson's presence seems to be welcome. Twins are 3-0 since his return. Sano was 0-7 with 5ks on the day. WOOF. When he starts down this road, it can get real ugly. Just hit the ball the other way and you can bat .300 buddy. Dobnak is 6-2 with a 2.72 ERA, but has just struck out 21 batters in 40 innings of work this year. You can't call him "dominant" but just look at the numbers. He's good. Still behind Maeda and Berrios IMO but is solidly our 3rd best starter.

The AL playoff field is virtually all set, with one exception: Detroit. Yes, the Tigers (at 17-17) are realistically the only team that could, in theory, catch and replace the Twins in the AL playoffs this year. And we've got 5 straight games against them starting today. Including a mini double-header (I'm beginning to hate those 7 inning games BTW). Sweeping or dominating this series may essentially clinch the series for the Twins. Losing the series or gosh forbid getting whooped means we're in panic mode. Should be interesting.

Yeah, I guess pursuing controlled guys does make sense - for some reason my mind was just focused on the "rentals" when I made that post. But you're right when it comes to the guys with years of control.

Why any team would trade valuable prospects this year is beyond me. I think most teams are looking at 2020 as an exhibition season, and so are about 75% of the fans. Play the hand you're dealt and if you get lucky on the river card you might just win the whole thing. Nothing more nothing less. I'm frankly kinda baffled to see that any trades were made at the deadline.

He's indeed looked better as a hitter lately, it's not been unnoticed. That said, his defense....yikes.

Same - the bad at-bats are just awful. During the Twins' big inning, Cave came up with a runner on 2nd and nobody out. He should have done what was needed to get the guy to 3rd. Move the runner over, hit a grounder to the right side....instead he struck out on 4 pitches. It's just bad baseball. And lots of bad defense last night too. Aside from Maeda, none of the new additions have done jack squat. And where would we be without Maeda BTW?

Agreed. Zero sense of urgency. A few reasons for this IMO: first, all the guys on the DL right now. Starting with Josh Donaldson - Twins brought him in to fill a power-hitting role in the infield (ie: hit as many HR as Schoop and Cron combined) and he's done zippo, zero, zilch, nada. Buxton...well we knew that would happen. Secondly, all of these bullpen games and throwaway games organized by Rocco. Seems like he's content to flip a coin every other game rather than going for the jugular. Rocco is always playing the long game. In a short season, he might just be making a mistake. The time to rest guys and take your foot off the gas is when things are locked up - not now. Very frustrating. Side note: feel bad for Nelson Cruz. Dude is just doing everything he can to carry this team and his numbers are unreal. When does he start getting frustrated?

If you like the benefits that baseball players get, maybe you should have pulled up your bootstraps and become a baseball player. In seriousness, I've never understood the hate for professional athletes and their salaries. Sure, if a guy gets paid and stinks, I get the booing. But they've got unique talents - like actors, writers, etc - and they get paid the going rate. Comparing a baseball player's job, or that of a world class symphony conductor to mine is apples and oranges.