All Things 2020 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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forever a gopher said:
If the streak wasn’t in the heads of the Twins players before, it certainly is now. They are gifted an all-home 3 game series against a sub-.500 team that has an abysmal road record. And shit the bed yet again. I was convinced it was the Yankees that were the problem, and playing a “gimme” in the Astros would break the seal and turn this thing around.

When the homers aren’t flying out for the them, this team is slow, strikes out too much, doesn’t take extra bases, and has a generally blasé attitude. They load up with 4 catchers, but can’t stash a speedy late inning base runner on the roster? What happened to bunting and small ball? When the weather turns cold, and the HR’s arent happening, you need to be able to do other things. This team has no idea how to do those things.
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Exactly.

The hitting approach is awful. Its meant for the regular season.
 

forever a gopher said:
If the streak wasn’t in the heads of the Twins players before, it certainly is now. They are gifted an all-home 3 game series against a sub-.500 team that has an abysmal road record. And shit the bed yet again. I was convinced it was the Yankees that were the problem, and playing a “gimme” in the Astros would break the seal and turn this thing around.

When the homers aren’t flying out for the them, this team is slow, strikes out too much, doesn’t take extra bases, and has a generally blasé attitude. They load up with 4 catchers, but can’t stash a speedy late inning base runner on the roster? What happened to bunting and small ball? When the weather turns cold, and the HR’s arent happening, you need to be able to do other things. This team has no idea how to do those things.
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Cold weather? After the game yesterday I took a walk in short sleeves and today, while blustery it was pretty mild around 60 degrees. Warmer temps weren't going to carry any of those pop-ups the Twins hit to the seats. They couldn't even sniff the warning track.
 


Ope3 said:
Cold weather? After the game yesterday I took a walk in short sleeves and today, while blustery it was pretty mild around 60 degrees. Warmer temps weren't going to carry any of those pop-ups the Twins hit to the seats. They couldn't even sniff the warning track.
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No, it wasn’t cold today. But the point remains that more HR’s are hit in the heat of summer than early/late in the season. If they were to advance and be playing in October, the cold will come, and HR’s are harder to hit. The entire team is formatted for the long ball. I’m saying this isn’t a sustainable format moving forward if their goal is to get to the WS. If all you do is hit HR’s and can’t do the other little things, what happens when you don’t hit HR’s? You get swept by the cheaters at home.
 

tmvander said:
They just have no players who can do anything when it counts. The starting pitching was great. Outside of that the lineup should all be ashamed of themselves. Bullpen not much better.

No idea what to even do for the future as guys like Kepler, Polanco, Sano, Buxton, will all be in this lineup a long time. They are all fine players in the regular season but fold like a table in the playoffs.
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I'm not so sure about Sano or Buxton. I could see them moving on from Sano next season. If they can get something decent in return for Buxton, you have to consider it with his injury history and with Lewis waiting in the minors.
 


Breakin' The Plane said:
Buxton gets picked off first. Tim Kjurkan on baserunning: "Worst I've seen in 41 years of covering this game."

Great job, Bomba Squad.
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Took the bat right out of Sano's hands in the process. That at-bat had potential.
 






Our closers have been bad for awhile, it seemed like our hitters were swinging for the fences too much. Twins hitters need to improve their averages for next year. But the future looks bright, go Twins.
 


JimmyJamesMD said:
Stashak gives up lead. You dont pitch May, Duffy or Rodgers for two innings, but happy to pitch Stashak.

This is retarted managing.
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It was back to the same crap pitching as last years Yankees series. Stashak is wet garbage
 





Rocco is not the man to end this streak. He's worse in big games than Gardy. He's fine in the regular season, but his "zen" attitude and player usage will never get it done in the play-offs.
 



I saw something online (CBS Sports maybe) that said the Twins need to add pitching in order to be successful. Were they watching this series? We scored 2 runs. Our starters were outstanding outside of a few at bats. Bullpen wasn't great but they had to pitch 8 innings in 2 games.

Bottom line is we need our hitters to sack the F up. I didn't even look at what we had for LOB this series but game one had to have been about 15 itself.
 

forever a gopher said:
No, it wasn’t cold today. But the point remains that more HR’s are hit in the heat of summer than early/late in the season. If they were to advance and be playing in October, the cold will come, and HR’s are harder to hit. The entire team is formatted for the long ball. I’m saying this isn’t a sustainable format moving forward if their goal is to get to the WS. If all you do is hit HR’s and can’t do the other little things, what happens when you don’t hit HR’s? You get swept by the cheaters at home.
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Small ball won't cut it in today's MLB ballparks in general or against the Yankees specifically in any month.

Bottom line to me, if Polanco squares himself up and makes the routine toss to 2nd (or 1st) in the 9th inning on Tuesday, they are probably at least playing today.
 

Ope3 said:
Small ball won't cut it in today's MLB ballparks in general or against the Yankees specifically in any month.

Bottom line to me, if Polanco squares himself up and makes the routine toss to 2nd (or 1st) in the 9th inning on Tuesday, they are probably at least playing today.
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I have absolutely no confidence that they would have found a way to score a run in the 9th or extra innings before Houston did. None.
 


Ruesse's article was spot on today, essentially the reg season bombing doesnt work in post season.

I hope they make substantial changes for next season.
Sano and Rosario need to go.
Polanco is cheap enough you give him a couple of months to see if bubble ball was just not good for him.
Garver really is coming off as a one hit wonder. Twins can give him another chance, but probably in a platoon with Jeffers.
Reusse suggested Kepler get traded for pitching. Rooker and Kirlioff both looked like they belonged. Seems too early to give up on Kepler though, especially with Rosario getting the boot


My keepers
Cruz (obviously assuming he resigns)
Donaldson - big contract (stay heathy you f-er)
Arraez
Buxton (his injuries are soooo annoying, but showed he can be a star)
Gonzalez - with all of the injuries, he proved to be very valuable
Kepler (for now)

In the wings
Rooker
Kirlioff
Lewis
Trevor Larnach

pitching was good this season. May, Acula, Duffey, and Rodgers are the only relievers i hope they keep
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
I have absolutely no confidence that they would have found a way to score a run in the 9th or extra innings before Houston did. None.
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The Astros were as weak at the plate as the Twins were, their earlier run was also due to a fielding miscue by Gonzalez. Tie games heading to the bottom of the 9th, huge advantage goes to the home team. Going into the bottom of the 9th, they would have had 6 outs to outscore the Astros 3 outs.

They even got some runners on base in the bottom of the 9th, playing for only 1 run instead of 3 they might have been able to push one across the plate.

The one 2nd guess I had for Rocco was Tuesday's game after the Astros brought in their reliever in the 5th and walked the first 2 batters he faced to bring up Buxton. I would have tried to make something happen with a SAC bunt, that he may even be able to beat out. Getting a runner to 3rd with less than 2 outs, could have scored even on a fly ball.
 
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Bad Gopher said:
Cruz had been a mess, and he came to life in these two games. No team wins that gives up on their best players, and Sano is one of their best players.
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I disagree. A below average 1B who hits .200 with power and strikes out 50% of the time is not hard to find. I'd trade him if they can find takers, even if the return is nothing more than a good middle reliever.
 


howeda7 said:
I disagree. A below average 1B who hits .200 with power and strikes out 50% of the time is not hard to find. I'd trade him if they can find takers, even if the return is nothing more than a good middle reliever.
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I agree.

Sano looked so promising when he first came up. But he shows no interest in becoming a complete hitter.
 



skiumah1 said:
Seems like the odds should be even higher. 18 in a row is a ridiculous number. Especially in baseball. You'd think you'd just run into a game or two.
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Not sure which is more futile, 18 straight games or 9 straight playoff round losses. Since beating the A's in 2002 they have lost to the Angles, Yankees (6x), A's & Astros.

Amazingly, they have lost in Best of 7 (1x), Best of 5 (6x), Best of 3 (1x) and Best of 1 (1x).

MLB has actually invented 2 types of playoff rounds since the last time the Twins won.
 

I believe in redemption. I believe in the universe's ability to shift course. I believe that the Red Sox could lose 13 straight playoff games and soon after begin a dynastic run as frequent champions and perennial contenders, and their fans easily accept the imfamy of the former for the glory of the latter. I believe an NCAA basketball team can be the first #1 seed in history to lose to a #16 one year and come back and win the national championship the next year because I've seen it occur. If you asked any of us Gopher fans whether we'd want the humiliation of the first occasion on our record as long as we get to have a national championship trophy, we'd all take that without hesitation.

So I believe these things can happen and that fortunes can change 180 degrees, but that doesn't mean it will happen. I don't know what steps the Red Sox took to change their fortunes, but that list surely begins with Terry Francona and David Ortiz. The Twins are missing something, and they have been missing something for some time, and if it were clear what they were missing, the team would have done something about that long ago. I do believe Rocco Baldelli can get this done. The streak was already 13 when he took this job, so he's inherited something--a culture, a monkey on their back, a curse, whatever--that he's probably still trying to identify and get his arms around. One thing I know: he and his staff and the organization have shown that they know how to correct things. The defense was not good in 2019 and improved markedly in 2020 (let's not talk about Polanco's error).
 

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