All Things 2022 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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All these guys going on the DL late in the season with baseball boo boo's and other guys not coming back while the team is on pennant race fumes tells me the Twins have quit on Rocco. I think Jim Pohlad will clean house after the season.

My current pet peeve about MLB is every manager should be bilingual. It's pretty clear that Rocco doesn't speak Spanish even though that's the first language of over half of his team. There's no way a manager can keep a clubhouse together if he can't communicate easily with his players. This isn't the days of Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, Kirby Puckett, Greg Gagne and Bert Blyleven.
 




Now that would have been an awesome way to end the game with a blocking the plate replay on a runner out by 10 feet.
 



Just keep pitching to Rosario. It’s not like he was 8-12 today.

Oh well it was fun and frustrating while it lasted but the patient is officially dead.
 










A note about this teams thinking and roster construction and playing time.

Your season is on the line after losing the first two games to Cleveland. You have 1 year of Carlos Correa who is one of the top SS in all of baseball defensively. In game 2 you decide he should be the DH taking his glove out of the game. Instead you play a prospect who was just called up on September 3rd. Correa rewarded this decision by going 0-5 and leaving 4 on base. Palacious rewarded this decision by going 0-6 with 3k’s and leaving 8 on base. Plus madea couple of bad plays in the field and the one that cost them the game.

But hey at least Carlos can play in the field today after resting yesterday night.
 

Twins were picked by most to be 3rd or 2nd in the Central with some 4th. It was supposed to have been a cake walk for the Sox with the Tigers, of all teams, were expected to be in 2nd on their heels. The Guards overachieved and jumped from 4th in most polls although several had them in last! That's the joy of baseball!

Once the injuries to Buxton and other key players (namely pitching) started rolling and the bullpen started imploding, there was no way for the Twins to keep up the mirage. They have regressed to the mean.

The Monday morning managers can post about this decision and that decision but this second half performance can ALL be attributed to the injuries and lack of bullpen performance. Better luck next year.

Management needs to ensure that St. Paul and the farm system is stocked with some arms that can come in and be average in case of injuries to the team that leaves FL next spring. The duct tape approach didn't work this season.
 

ecoperson said:
Twins were picked by most to be 3rd or 2nd in the Central with some 4th. It was supposed to have been a cake walk for the Sox with the Tigers, of all teams, were expected to be in 2nd on their heels. The Guards overachieved and jumped from 4th in most polls although several had them in last! That's the joy of baseball!

Once the injuries to Buxton and other key players (namely pitching) started rolling and the bullpen started imploding, there was no way for the Twins to keep up the mirage. They have regressed to the mean.

The Monday morning managers can post about this decision and that decision but this second half performance can ALL be attributed to the injuries and lack of bullpen performance. Better luck next year.

Management needs to ensure that St. Paul and the farm system is stocked with some arms that can come in and be average in case of injuries to the team that leaves FL next spring. The duct tape approach didn't work this season.
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You should never expect Buxton to play for a full season. So the fact they did and have not had a major league caliber back up is on the twins.

The starting rotation going into the year was supposed to be:
Gray
Ryan
Ober or Paddock
Archer
Bundy

Ober was hurt for the entire year with what was supposed to be a 3-4 week groin injury. That again is on the twins for A not getting it healed the right way or B not diagnosing the injury correctly.

Trading for Paddock and Mahle both with known injury issues is a then proven as well.

Yes they had injuries and it did hurt their season, but they also invited a lot of the injuries on themselves. Plus when you trade for Pagan and he continually blows games that is again a then problem they invited on themselves.
 

ecoperson said:
Twins were picked by most to be 3rd or 2nd in the Central with some 4th. It was supposed to have been a cake walk for the Sox with the Tigers, of all teams, were expected to be in 2nd on their heels. The Guards overachieved and jumped from 4th in most polls although several had them in last! That's the joy of baseball!

Once the injuries to Buxton and other key players (namely pitching) started rolling and the bullpen started imploding, there was no way for the Twins to keep up the mirage. They have regressed to the mean.

The Monday morning managers can post about this decision and that decision but this second half performance can ALL be attributed to the injuries and lack of bullpen performance. Better luck next year.

Management needs to ensure that St. Paul and the farm system is stocked with some arms that can come in and be average in case of injuries to the team that leaves FL next spring. The duct tape approach didn't work this season.
Click to expand...
We can no longer single out Buxton as an impact injury. This team has to assume he won’t be available and anything you do get out of him is a bonus. Rocco’s approach of babying him didn’t work. I don’t blame him for trying the approach, but going forward, leave him in CF where he has a large impact (not sitting on the bench) and however long you get out of him is gravy. We cannot use his injury as an excuse; they keep stats, and the club knows about how many games they’ll get out of him in any season. Tigers can’t change their stripes.
 


howeda7 said:
A new pitching coach. That's it, sadly.
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I know what I'm hoping for, but if the front office and Rocco stay and Tommy Watkins is still the 3rd Base Coach, that's a joke. He's cost this team several runs with a total lack of awareness. He just got Arraez gunned down at home by 5 feet, which is probably the 10th time he's gotten a runner thrown out by a mile this year.
 

given the track record under the Pohlads, the Twins are not going to blow things up.

I think it's possible we could see some changes in the coaching staff. New Pitching coach for sure.

What I hope happens is that the entire organization takes a hard look at all the injuries, and asks some tough questions about the training staff, the medical staff, and how injuries are being diagnosed and treated. And, being more careful about trading for players with medical red flags.

the big domino for the roster will be Correa. If he does not return, the Twins need a SS but they will have $35-million to spend. (in theory)
 

Joe Ryan goes 7 & 2/3 IP today. only 95 pitches needed to work into the 8th inning.

game is going into the top of the 9th. Twins lead 1-0 on a Cave HR.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
given the track record under the Pohlads, the Twins are not going to blow things up.

I think it's possible we could see some changes in the coaching staff. New Pitching coach for sure.

What I hope happens is that the entire organization takes a hard look at all the injuries, and asks some tough questions about the training staff, the medical staff, and how injuries are being diagnosed and treated. And, being more careful about trading for players with medical red flags.

the big domino for the roster will be Correa. If he does not return, the Twins need a SS but they will have $35-million to spend. (in theory)
Click to expand...

Bingo.

You lose 40% of your starting rotation for virtually the entire year (Paddock/Ober) and the guys you try to fill in with are also injured (Winder/Mahle). Arguably your 1st or 2nd best pitcher is still out with Tommy John recovery (Maeda). Your entire outfield is either perpetually injured (Kiriloff/Larnach/Buxton) or very ineffective (Kepler). Your starting catcher and 1st baseman to start the year are injured for most or all of the year. Your top prospect comes in and immediately gets injured. You lose a number of key bullpen pieces to injury (Alcala/Coulombe/Romero/Stashak). This leads to way too many at-bats for Cave, Palacious, Celestino, Leon, and starts for pitchers that probably aren't ready yet. The story of the 2022 Twins really doesn't need to go much further than that.

However, this team babies its players as much as anybody. So why all the injuries? Bad luck or the things you cite above? Injuries are part of the game but to this extent?

This team needs to get healthy and it would be very competitive in this division, in my view. They need more length from their starters either via philosophical change or better production. They can't rely on the bullpen for five innings every day. By mid-May the Twins were 11 games over 0.500. Then it started getting decimated with injuries and an ineffective bullpen (prior to the trade deadline).

The Twins would have run away with the division if they had stayed healthy and made the changes to the bullpen they did at the trade deadline.
 

Twins Win. 3-0. Arraez drives in two runs in the top of the 9th.

Duran gets the save in the bottom of the 9th. a little shaky, but got the Guardians to chase a lot of pitches that were out of the strike zone. worked around a walk of Ramirez, which seemed like a semi-intentional walk.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
A note about this teams thinking and roster construction and playing time.

Your season is on the line after losing the first two games to Cleveland. You have 1 year of Carlos Correa who is one of the top SS in all of baseball defensively. In game 2 you decide he should be the DH taking his glove out of the game. Instead you play a prospect who was just called up on September 3rd. Correa rewarded this decision by going 0-5 and leaving 4 on base. Palacious rewarded this decision by going 0-6 with 3k’s and leaving 8 on base. Plus madea couple of bad plays in the field and the one that cost them the game.

But hey at least Carlos can play in the field today after resting yesterday night.
Click to expand...

Palacios was up here earlier in the year bro, per baseball reference this is his 16 game this year ( debut was 5/31/22). He’s 26 and I don’t look at him as a legit prospect, more of a placeholder till some of the younger SS prospects move up the ladder -

www.baseball-reference.com

Jermaine Palacios Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Jermaine Palacios. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Palacios was up here earlier in the year bro, per baseball reference this is his 16 game this year ( debut was 5/31/22). He’s 26 and I don’t look at him as a legit prospect, more of a placeholder till some of the younger SS prospects move up the ladder -

www.baseball-reference.com

Jermaine Palacios Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Jermaine Palacios. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
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Well aware of that still doesn’t mean that Carlos needs the day off from SS for a placeholder.

If I’m not mistaken he was called up the day after Royce Lewis tore his ACL and Carlos tested positive for Covid.
 


Single handily kept them out of the playoffs and yet still on the roster and will be next year. No one likes a great project like the twins cause remember his bell velo and stuff is amazing except the ball leaves the park too often and he walks players.
 

From the Parkinglot said:

Single handily kept them out of the playoffs and yet still on the roster and will be next year. No one likes a great project like the twins cause remember his bell velo and stuff is amazing except the ball leaves the park too often and he walks players.
Click to expand...
Pagan had plenty of help. Duffy, Kepler, Sano, Archer...
 

short ornery norwegian said:
given the track record under the Pohlads, the Twins are not going to blow things up.

I think it's possible we could see some changes in the coaching staff. New Pitching coach for sure.

What I hope happens is that the entire organization takes a hard look at all the injuries, and asks some tough questions about the training staff, the medical staff, and how injuries are being diagnosed and treated. And, being more careful about trading for players with medical red flags.

the big domino for the roster will be Correa. If he does not return, the Twins need a SS but they will have $35-million to spend. (in theory)
Click to expand...
The Pohlads typically don't blow things up. This year will be the exception. Falvey and Levine were hired five years ago to modernize the entire organization with an emphasis on pitching. The Twins farm system is ranked in the bottom third by multiple sites and in the bottom half by every site that I checked. Falvine hasn't produced a home grown alpha starter. Not even close. Duran looks like their only real success. The initial winning was done under Molitor w/ mostly Ryan's players. Rocco is Falvine's guy. If they go, he goes. His staff, too.

I can't see a scenario where Correa stays. Kepler and Sano are obviously gone. The core players next year will be Buxton, Arraez, Polanco, Miranda, Ryan, Maeda, Duran and Lewis (after June).
 

jamiche said:
The Pohlads typically don't blow things up. This year will be the exception. Falvey and Levine were hired five years ago to modernize the entire organization with an emphasis on pitching. The Twins farm system is ranked in the bottom third by multiple sites and in the bottom half by every site that I checked. Falvine hasn't produced a home grown alpha starter. Not even close. Duran looks like their only real success. The initial winning was done under Molitor w/ mostly Ryan's players. Rocco is Falvine's guy. If they go, he goes. His staff, too.

I can't see a scenario where Correa stays. Kepler and Sano are obviously gone. The core players next year will be Buxton, Arraez, Polanco, Miranda, Ryan, Maeda, Duran and Lewis (after June).
Click to expand...

Nearly every move they've made over the past year is for next season as well. That's why they won't blow anything up, nor should they. I believe it was a surprise to them they even competed this much this season, due to expecting both Cleveland and the White Sox to be much better than what they were.

Health is always a giant concern, but as long as they can get their younger guys healthy again, this team will be better next season. They will also have a ton of money to spend as their payroll will only be ~60 million if Correa opts out. That gives them a lot of room to go get a couple of good FAs to fill out their lineup and bullpen.
 

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