All Things 2023 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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I signed up for the 2-month free trial of Apple TV+ just to watch these Twins games. according to my schedule, this was the last Apple game for the season. there is one game later in the year on Peacock. I really didn't see anything else on Apple that would get me to subscribe.

as far as the Apple broadcast - it looked good. good picture quality. some of the graphics were interesting - but I could do without the little pop-up telling me the hitter's % of getting on base.

and Dontrelle Willis as the color man is...................................well, I'd rather listen to Glen Perkins or Plouffe. plus, you could tell their knowledge of the Twins was rudimentary, at best.
 


GophersInIowa said:
Look around the league. This isn’t a Twins thing only. Almost every team has their top power guys in the top 3 spots.
Click to expand...

I said 2 is wrong.

Trout and Freeman do bat 2. But they have Ohtanti and Smith/Muncy backing them up not fuckign .369 slugging solano. Any team that has a really good 2 hitter will have really good 3 and 4s as well(aside from us)

And again, we had Julien batting 2nd like 2 games ago. So no, our logic is not "best hitter bats second"

Rocco throws darts at a board and hopes it works.

Or are you suggesting that Ahmed Rosario is better than JOse Ramirez??

Pete Alsonso has 20 homers and 46 RBI when he bats 4th this year with a .545 slugging. But yeah, it would be smarter to bat him 2nd with no one on base and have Jeff Mcneil hit cleanup

LOL
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
But Falvey and Levine don’t know how to build a pitching staff…

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Well, the irony here is that the worst starter is the one they "built" in trading for Lopez.

Ober and varland have been revelations. Ober was great last year. Our best in spring training. Started in the minors so that guys that Falvey/Lavine brought in could suck and/or get hurt first.

They literally though Kenta Maeda who hadnt pitched in 1.5 year was better than Bailey Ober.

Gotta give credit on Joe Ryan trade. Rays made one of the dumbest deals in recent history. But that was a true GM move.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
But Falvey and Levine don’t know how to build a pitching staff…

Click to expand...


Great article by Gleeman recently on constructing a bullpen; it is the one area a plurality of teams try and skimp on when figuring out their roster budget.

Credit for finding Stewart and DeLeon (who appears capable and will stick).
 
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MUgopher32 said:
Well, the irony here is that the worst starter is the one they "built" in trading for Lopez.

Ober and varland have been revelations. Ober was great last year. Our best in spring training. Started in the minors so that guys that Falvey/Lavine brought in could suck and/or get hurt first.

They literally though Kenta Maeda who hadnt pitched in 1.5 year was better than Bailey Ober.

Gotta give credit on Joe Ryan trade. Rays made one of the dumbest deals in recent history. But that was a true GM move.
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Rays went for it. Can't fault them. Especially when they seem to churn out 3 guys similar to Ryan each season.
 


Breakin' The Plane said:
Rays went for it. Can't fault them. Especially when they seem to churn out 3 guys similar to Ryan each season.
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Yeah and they usually make really good moves. Just nice to be on the receiving end of them making one of their really really bad ones.
 




NL rookie of the month in May is Spencer Steer. 6 homers and .318 BA for the month.

Encarnacio Strand a 1.018 ops and .333 ba at AAA.

I know neither will win a gold glove. But the correct spelling is f-l-e-e-c-e-d.
 


MUgopher32 said:
I said 2 is wrong.

Trout and Freeman do bat 2. But they have Ohtanti and Smith/Muncy backing them up not fuckign .369 slugging solano. Any team that has a really good 2 hitter will have really good 3 and 4s as well(aside from us)

And again, we had Julien batting 2nd like 2 games ago. So no, our logic is not "best hitter bats second"

Rocco throws darts at a board and hopes it works.

Or are you suggesting that Ahmed Rosario is better than JOse Ramirez??

Pete Alsonso has 20 homers and 46 RBI when he bats 4th this year with a .545 slugging. But yeah, it would be smarter to bat him 2nd with no one on base and have Jeff Mcneil hit cleanup

LOL
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You actually said AK and Lewis should be 3 and 4. I’m saying it’s extremely common to have your best hitters in the top 3 of the lineup. The Twins did that with Polanco, AK and Lewis.

Bringing up the Angels is exactly what I’m talking about. Their two best hitters are 1/2 or 2/3, not 3/4.
 
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short ornery norwegian said:
breaking news -

Twins fans have discovered that some trades do not work out in your favorite team's favor.

the only answer is to never make a trade again, because it might not work out.
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Making trades is fine. That's kind of what you have to do when you're barely treading water in developing your own players.
But if you're out browsing the lot and you see obvious hail damage on every make and model you put an offer on, you're an absolute sucker if you're paying sticker price.
 


golf said:
NL rookie of the month in May is Spencer Steer. 6 homers and .318 BA for the month.

Encarnacio Strand a 1.018 ops and .333 ba at AAA.

I know neither will win a gold glove. But the correct spelling is f-l-e-e-c-e-d.
Click to expand...

FWIW, before anyone coronates Steer as the second coming of Luis Tony Arraez Gwynn, bear in mind that Steer was at .253 with two HRs through April.

www.baseball-reference.com

Spencer Steer 2023 Batting Game Logs | Baseball-Reference.com

Spencer Steer Every game played with complete stats, links to box scores and automated row summing for 2023
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com


Remember,Miranda lead us in RBIs last season while hitting .268 in 444 ABs, so let’s see where he ends up at the end up this year and year or two after. Steer wouldn’t get the playing time here, he would in Cincy as well.

IIRC Strand was rated as the higher prospect as well. You usually can’t evaluate a trade for a couple years after the transaction; Drat - Patience🤬
 
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Arraez went 5-5, with 5 Ribeyes today and is now hitting .390; couldn’t resist.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I signed up for the 2-month free trial of Apple TV+ just to watch these Twins games. according to my schedule, this was the last Apple game for the season. there is one game later in the year on Peacock. I really didn't see anything else on Apple that would get me to subscribe.

as far as the Apple broadcast - it looked good. good picture quality. some of the graphics were interesting - but I could do without the little pop-up telling me the hitter's % of getting on base.

and Dontrelle Willis as the color man is...................................well, I'd rather listen to Glen Perkins or Plouffe. plus, you could tell their knowledge of the Twins was rudimentary, at best.
Click to expand...
I did this too. There is another game on Apple+ on July 7.
 


I really liked Kepler and thought he had the chance to be really good. But it’s time. I’m hopeful when they’re a bit healthier they move on and give the younger guys a chance.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I really liked Kepler and thought he had the chance to be really good. But it’s time. I’m hopeful when they’re a bit healthier they move on and give the younger guys a chance.
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It’s not just the low average- so many of his AB’s are pop outs. A pop out to the inner outfield is never a productive out. So his value is just so low. If he’s going to hit .200 with a bunch of pop outs, roll with a youngster.
 


20 yr old corner outfielder Kalai Rosario and 22 yr old infielder Tanner Schobel are on fire for Cedar Rapids.
Nice to see. Hopefully Falvey doesn't trade them for an injured pitcher, but am guessing the Reds will call to see if they can hoodwink us again. That trade at present really hurts.
 

forever a gopher said:
It’s not just the low average- so many of his AB’s are pop outs. A pop out to the inner outfield is never a productive out. So his value is just so low. If he’s going to hit .200 with a bunch of pop outs, roll with a youngster.
Click to expand...

He has the lowest BA on balls put in play in all of baseball; if I can find the reference I’ll post it ln the next couple of days.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I really liked Kepler and thought he had the chance to be really good. But it’s time. I’m hopeful when they’re a bit healthier they move on and give the younger guys a chance.
Click to expand...

I’ll post some info on trading him via Gleeman either today or tomorrow.
 



From the Parkinglot said:
So is Jorge Lopez just done?
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Some guys can handle the bright lights and some can’t (no idea if it’s temporary vs. permanent, at this juncture)

He likely needs to be in lower leverage spots for a while till he gets his confidence back.
 

From last night’s Yankees vs Dodgers game.

Sometimes the wall loses -

 


Can’t have nice things.

Also what the hell is the 1st baseman doing. He fielded the ball and just stood there. Did he not think anyone was running down the baseline?
 

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