BUCK has returned!!!
https://twitter.com/dohyoungpark/status/1834760741615747178
Too bad everyone else still sucks.
Rocco with yet another questionable choice of relievers after Over battled to get 2 outs in 7th with runners on 1st & 2nd. Alcala promptly walks the 1st batter…then serves up a GRAND SLAM to the 2nd batter! BRILLIANT 🤣 I’m quite certain Beauner will have an alibi for Rocco’s move thou…lol. HOW Fning BAD is Alcala…🤬
The Band is back together!!!!
Rocco with yet another questionable choice of relievers after Over battled to get 2 outs in 7th with runners on 1st & 2nd. Alcala promptly walks the 1st batter…then serves up a GRAND SLAM to the 2nd batter! BRILLIANT 🤣 I’m quite certain Beauner will have an alibi for Rocco’s move thou…lol. HOW Fning BAD is Alcala…🤬
Funny that you leave out how he did what all the armchair experts demanded of him and let Ober start the 7th inning because he was cruising and he promptly gave up a leadoff triple, then a single and a double.
Obviously the Alcala move didn't work out tonight but acting like its indefensible to bring in a guy who has been as good as he's been this season is so laughably stupid it doesn't warrant a real response. Our best 3 RPs this season have been Alcala, Duran, and Jax. Use one to finish the 7th, one in the 8th, one in the 9th.
Rocco can’t trust 7,8,9 anymore than the casual fan who’s watched twins baseball this season. You don’t know what you’re getting. His guess is about as good as anyone’s when it comes to having consistent command of the arsenals and that’s not gonna cut it unless there’s about 5 runs to play with late. FWIW I think Duran is a hell of a thrower but he’s an average pitcher. I don’t give a rats about stats.
TK used to always say the players made his job easy. He was a hell of a manager but he’d be the first to admit sometimes he didn’t have to do shit. I watched around 90% of the games this year but in the last few weeks maybe a handful. So what’s even happening with them currently I really don’t probably have the most knowledgeable opinion to be honest.
Rocco with yet another questionable choice of relievers after Over battled to get 2 outs in 7th with runners on 1st & 2nd. Alcala promptly walks the 1st batter…then serves up a GRAND SLAM to the 2nd batter! BRILLIANT 🤣 I’m quite certain Beauner will have an alibi for Rocco’s move thou…lol. HOW Fning BAD is Alcala…🤬
Funny that you leave out how he did what all the armchair experts demanded of him and let Ober start the 7th inning because he was cruising and he promptly gave up a leadoff triple, then a single and a double.
Obviously the Alcala move didn't work out tonight but acting like its indefensible to bring in a guy who has been as good as he's been this season is so laughably stupid it doesn't warrant a real response. Our best 3 RPs this season have been Alcala, Duran, and Jax. Use one to finish the 7th, one in the 8th, one in the 9th.
While I realize 9 games over .500 on Sept 14 constitutes a solid season, it’s just maddening what tight wads the Pohlad ownership group is, so any limited success buoys the fan base, despite the fact ownership has ZERO committment to ever winning another WS title.
The Pohlads wouldn’t spend any money at the Trade Deadline to improve this team. I’m sure that the players looked at this as a message that they weren’t committed to this team. It was a slap in the face to the team & it’s been all downhill since then! If management isn’t committed to the team & try to help them have a shot at the World Series, what’s the point in owning the team!!
The Twins still have a shot at the post----
lololol
Sorry, I just can't...
When you tell somebody somethin', it depends on what part of the United States you're standin' in... as to just how dumb you are.
There reward will be to play a best of three series at Houston where they will get totally destroyed!! They can’t even beat Cincinnati at home!
Honestly kind of hoping the Tigers get past us even after they were sellers at the deadline.
Carlos Santana is MURDERING left handed pitching!!!!
For comparison Barry Bonds career slugging % is .607
League average is right around .395
Yikes, that was a bad, bad, bad loss.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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The trend continues, Twins blow ANOTHER late lead. Doesn’t help when their offense completely drys up at end of game (s) to boot! Also pretty clear Rocco has reached the end of his wits during these situations…as whichever strategy he goes with seems to backfire during this stretch ….Yikes, that was a bad, bad, bad loss.
Another Twins hope, another fleecing of the average fan: "We're so close, maybe next year!"
ugh.
When you tell somebody somethin', it depends on what part of the United States you're standin' in... as to just how dumb you are.
Twins claim pitcher Cole Irvin off waivers from Baltimore, option Jorge Alcala…it can be argued that move was over due.
Too little, too late! They should have been making additions to the roster a month ago!! The Twins front office didn't want to spend any money!!!
This team is so far away from actual contention. They’ve inflated their record playing in a bad central and beating other bad teams with the stars all being more and more consolidated across baseball. Writing was on the wall before the season started as winning without an actual de facto ace is damn near impossible in the postseason unless you a lights out bullpen. Will be another good not great team and they won’t spend yet again. Same story year and year
This team is so far away from actual contention. They’ve inflated their record playing in a bad central and beating other bad teams with the stars all being more and more consolidated across baseball. Writing was on the wall before the season started as winning without an actual de facto ace is damn near impossible in the postseason unless you a lights out bullpen. Will be another good not great team and they won’t spend yet again. Same story year and year
The AL Central is not a weak division this year. It was last year, but not this year.
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This team is so far away from actual contention. They’ve inflated their record playing in a bad central and beating other bad teams with the stars all being more and more consolidated across baseball. Writing was on the wall before the season started as winning without an actual de facto ace is damn near impossible in the postseason unless you a lights out bullpen. Will be another good not great team and they won’t spend yet again. Same story year and year
The AL Central is not a weak division this year. It was last year, but not this year.
we’ll see when we get to the postseason. To me it’s still the AL East in the AL and overall NL better than AL. They’re also 12-1 against the white sox (as are the Royals, Det is 9-1 with 3 games left, Cleveland much more pedestrian and only 8-5). Take out abusing the Sox and MN KC and Det are all .500 teams and I think the intraleague and records against the east are probably more telling. That’s just my feeling but it feels like Cleveland will live and die by how they hit, the royals as far as their pitching and Witt take them and the Tigers would need Skubal to win them multiple games to win a series.
Maybe I’m wrong because as my interest in the Twins has faded as they’ve looked like the exact same team as we refuse to finally get a big money pitcher to anchor the staff or solidly a bullpen that can shut down a 7, 8, 9.
part of the original post was more a disappointment the stars continue to consolidate onto relatively few teams that are willing to pay them but the central is 18, 19, 20, 23 and 26 in payroll. It’s tough to have a bunch of good teams when you’re paying your squads 200 million less a year
This team is so far away from actual contention. They’ve inflated their record playing in a bad central and beating other bad teams with the stars all being more and more consolidated across baseball. Writing was on the wall before the season started as winning without an actual de facto ace is damn near impossible in the postseason unless you a lights out bullpen. Will be another good not great team and they won’t spend yet again. Same story year and year
The AL Central is not a weak division this year. It was last year, but not this year.
we’ll see when we get to the postseason. To me it’s still the AL East in the AL and overall NL better than AL. They’re also 12-1 against the white sox (as are the Royals, Det is 9-1 with 3 games left, Cleveland much more pedestrian and only 8-5). Take out abusing the Sox and MN KC and Det are all .500 teams and I think the intraleague and records against the east are probably more telling. That’s just my feeling but it feels like Cleveland will live and die by how they hit, the royals as far as their pitching and Witt take them and the Tigers would need Skubal to win them multiple games to win a series.
Maybe I’m wrong because as my interest in the Twins has faded as they’ve looked like the exact same team as we refuse to finally get a big money pitcher to anchor the staff or solidly a bullpen that can shut down a 7, 8, 9.
part of the original post was more a disappointment the stars continue to consolidate onto relatively few teams that are willing to pay them but the central is 18, 19, 20, 23 and 26 in payroll. It’s tough to have a bunch of good teams when you’re paying your squads 200 million less a year
Overall the AL Central teams in playoff contention are 56-60 against the AL East, and that includes the Twins 0-9 record against the Yankees and Orioles (they still have 3 left against Baltimore). The Twins first 3 games against the AL East were at the beginning of the season where they were absolutely terrible (IIRC they were like 6-12 after getting swept by Baltimore. They went 0-6 against the Yankees this year and largely were awful offensively. IIRC they scored 1 run total in the first series and got shut out in another game in the second series.
The Twins are 9-16 against the East, Cleveland is 18-15, KC is 14-18, and Detroit is 15-11. Detroit has 6 games remaining against the AL East - IIRC they have Baltimore and Tampa Bay left. Minnesota travels to Boston at the end of this week and closes the season against Baltimore. I believe KC and Cleveland are both done with the AL East.
As far as "take out the White Sox and the Twins are a .500 team" well yeah, but everyone else in the AL got 6 games against that trash team too and I'd guess a vast majority of the teams in contention won at least 5 of 6.
As far as the "Finally get a big money pitcher to anchor the staff" they have Pablo Lopez... He's been arguably the best pitcher in baseball the last two months of the season after getting off to a brutal start. He's allowed 18 earned runs since July 10th, a span of 12 starts. His ERA was as high as 5.63 in mid-June and is down to 3.84 as of today. He had a 1.71 ERA in August and 2.25 through 3 starts in September. Just because he's not a big flashy free agent addition doesn't make him not one of the best SPs in baseball.
Joe Ryan was also having a great season before he got hurt (3.60 ERA in 23 starts).
The bullpen has had some glaring blowups, but when given a clean inning (IE: not coming in with guys on base) they've still largely been solid. Of the relievers who have thrown at least 60 IP, Jax is 12th in ERA in all of baseball. Their "inherited runners scored" stats are like historically bad.
As far as Duran goes, this article does a decent job explaining why the Twins should still have faith in him: https://twinsdaily.com/forums/topic/68383-3-reasons-the-twins-should-continue-to-trust-jhoan-dur%C3%A1n/#comment-1444096
The TLDR summary: The underlying metrics show he's been getting unlucky with some bloop hits lately and his numbers in save situations are significantly better than those in non-save situations.
Is it beyond irritating that the Pohlads cut payroll after having such a good season last year? Absolutely. It's part of the reason I haven't added the extra $20 to my Xfinity bill to get Ballys this season. I'm not going to pay extra to pad their pockets when they're not reinvesting it in the team (especially when there are streams online for free).
Does the fact that they've been rocked by injuries suck? Obviously yes. Between their three best offensive players (and defensive when it comes to Buxton and Correa)so far (Lewis, Buxton, Correa) they have a combined roughly 240 games played. Those are 3 guys that are exceptionally difficult to replace in a lineup for extended periods. They lost their #2 pitcher after 23 starts and their #4 SP after about 17 starts. Matthews, Festa, and SWR are doing a decent job trying to tread water but Festa and Matthews pitching meaningful innings in a playoff race was probably not how they planned this season to go.
But to act like this team doesn't have the tools to win a series or two in the playoffs is silly, IMHO. Especially with how well Lopez and Ober have pitched lately. Obviously matchups in the playoffs are everything and nobody wants to see the Yankees in round 1 with the lineup they have, but I'd take my chances with basically anyone else. YMMV.
This team is so far away from actual contention. They’ve inflated their record playing in a bad central and beating other bad teams with the stars all being more and more consolidated across baseball. Writing was on the wall before the season started as winning without an actual de facto ace is damn near impossible in the postseason unless you a lights out bullpen. Will be another good not great team and they won’t spend yet again. Same story year and year
The AL Central is not a weak division this year. It was last year, but not this year.
fwiw - KC and MIN have losing records vs. the East, the ALC teams all got to beat up on CHW, had a combined losing record INTR but held their own vs. the ALW.
@beauner very very fair analysis. I’m not as sold on Duran as those authors (there’s a reason his WAR is awful and it’s not just that he’s unlucky, he also seems to have lost some velocity which is a big deal for him). I’m not as confident in Pablo though I think he’d be a great #2. Maybe I’m too into the advanced analytics in baseball and he has been great lately, but I don’t think there’s really any team in contention that I’d take him over their ace. On the rest of the bullpen, I mean the inherited runners thing is a massive part of baseball and what a good bullpen does (gets your starter bailed out of their jams late). I don’t really feel confident we have the depth/group that can go toe to toe when managers are more likely to pinch hit/play matchups more aggressively in high leverage situations. Jax has been awesome, agree with you 100% there.
the injuries have been tough this year, but putting your full faith in 3 guys who have been notorious for injury is hard to not see it coming (I mean what other position player are you game managing from early season to hope he gives you 100 games?).
all in all, feels like the same team that’s “close” but still an awful long way away from the best teams. Could they have spent to get there? Yeah I absolutely think so