All Things 2023 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Gray is having a heck of a start to the year.

Him and Gallo keep producing. Great win.

Also, Ober should stay with the big club. Hes simply a better option than Maeda right now.
 

MUgopher32 said:
Gray is having a heck of a start to the year.

Him and Gallo keep producing. Great win.

Also, Ober should stay with the big club. Hes simply a better option than Maeda right now.
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Maeda probly only going 4-5 innings. Might be smart to piggyback with Ober.
Would be better than seeing a couple innings of Moran/Pagan/Sands.
 


golf said:
Don't understand why teams don't put their left fielder between first and second to defend Kepler
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Because in the AB's he doesn't ground to the right side or strike out he hits a lazy fly to left haha.
 



Kepler as I have said is frustrating because hes now 30 and hasnt built off his 2019(only went backwards).

But even ignoring his defense which we know is good hes slashing .222/.280/.422. Yes its not good, not good at all.

But its better than Miranad and Gordon by miles. Better than Correa. Basically on par with Buxton and Larnach. The offense as a whole has been bad with the occaisional good games.

Taylor is execeeding expectations thus far. Polanco in a small sample size has been great. Gallo has been huge. Its basically those 3. Everyone else leaves a lot to be desired. So kinda odd that Kep is the one most signaled out on here. Hes basically one of 10 guys struggling.
 


Tampa has the 28th largest payroll, only Baltimore and Oakland lower.

Tampa at 75 million while NYY at 279 million.

Yet Tampa with a 20-3 record and every year punch way above their weight. Best front office in all professional sports.
 

MUgopher32 said:
Kepler as I have said is frustrating because hes now 30 and hasnt built off his 2019(only went backwards).

But even ignoring his defense which we know is good hes slashing .222/.280/.422. Yes its not good, not good at all.

But its better than Miranad and Gordon by miles. Better than Correa. Basically on par with Buxton and Larnach. The offense as a whole has been bad with the occaisional good games.

Taylor is execeeding expectations thus far. Polanco in a small sample size has been great. Gallo has been huge. Its basically those 3. Everyone else leaves a lot to be desired. So kinda odd that Kep is the one most signaled out on here. Hes basically one of 10 guys struggling.
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Small sample sizes vs. large sample sizes.

Kepler has been bad for a few years. Correa had a good year last year, so did Miranda. I think people are indifferent about Gordon because he doesn't play every day.
 




golf said:
Tampa has the 28th largest payroll, only Baltimore and Oakland lower.

Tampa at 75 million while NYY at 279 million.

Yet Tampa with a 20-3 record and every year punch way above their weight. Best front office in all professional sports.
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Imagine if they were in a nice stadium with a better fan base and then a little more money to spend.
 





MUgopher32 said:
Kepler as I have said is frustrating because hes now 30 and hasnt built off his 2019(only went backwards).

But even ignoring his defense which we know is good hes slashing .222/.280/.422. Yes its not good, not good at all.

But its better than Miranad and Gordon by miles. Better than Correa. Basically on par with Buxton and Larnach. The offense as a whole has been bad with the occaisional good games.

Taylor is execeeding expectations thus far. Polanco in a small sample size has been great. Gallo has been huge. Its basically those 3. Everyone else leaves a lot to be desired. So kinda odd that Kep is the one most signaled out on here. Hes basically one of 10 guys struggling.
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You can't get rid of both Willi Castro and Gordon or you have no utility IF'er. Castro has options, Gordon doesn't. It's nothing more than that. Castro should be the first one out when Kiriloff/Farmer are back. But who the second one is is the issue. I have no idea how close Farmer is but I don't think it's anytime soon.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Small sample sizes vs. large sample sizes.

Kepler has been bad for a few years. Correa had a good year last year, so did Miranda. I think people are indifferent about Gordon because he doesn't play every day.
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Exactly.

The lack of patience in the average sports fan is reminiscent of my time in Mrs. Martin’s nursery school - at least there I got graham crackers and milk.
 

howeda7 said:
You can't get rid of both Willi Castro and Gordon or you have no utility IF'er. Castro has options, Gordon doesn't. It's nothing more than that. Castro should be the first one out when Kiriloff/Farmer are back. But who the second one is is the issue. I have no idea how close Farmer is but I don't think it's anytime soon.
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Read an article on Farmer and he’s aching to start his rehab assignment - “I can still swing a bat with wires in my mouth.”

I like cut of his jib.
 

howeda7 said:
You can't get rid of both Willi Castro and Gordon or you have no utility IF'er. Castro has options, Gordon doesn't. It's nothing more than that. Castro should be the first one out when Kiriloff/Farmer are back. But who the second one is is the issue. I have no idea how close Farmer is but I don't think it's anytime soon.
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They'll find a reason to put someone on the IL if they really need to.

"Nick, I hear your knee is a little sore, let's give you a few weeks to heal."
 

howeda7 said:
You can't get rid of both Willi Castro and Gordon or you have no utility IF'er. Castro has options, Gordon doesn't. It's nothing more than that. Castro should be the first one out when Kiriloff/Farmer are back. But who the second one is is the issue. I have no idea how close Farmer is but I don't think it's anytime soon.
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These things tend to work themselves out. I would assume another injury by the time Farmer is back.
 

GophersInIowa said:
They'll find a reason to put someone on the IL if they really need to.

"Nick, I hear your knee is a little sore, let's give you a few weeks to heal."
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There was an article last year about how the IL is abused league wide and players were anonymous quoted and laughing about when it’s their turn to chill for a couple of weeks -basically a paid vaca.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
There was an article last year about how the IL is abused league wide and players were anonymous quoted and laughing about when it’s their turn to chill for a couple of weeks -basically a paid vaca.
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When I worked in the minors everyone called it the phantom DL. Was not uncommon to have 3 catchers on the roster most of the year with one always being on the DL.
 

GophersInIowa said:
When I worked in the minors everyone called it the phantom DL. Was not uncommon to have 3 catchers on the roster most of the year with one always being on the DL.
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I gotta ask - what did you do in the minors?
Were they the best years of your life?
Cross paths with any players of note?
Smoke weed with Brockmeier?
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
I gotta ask - what did you do in the minors?
Were they the best years of your life?
Cross paths with any players of note?
Smoke weed with Brockmeier?
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Haha, out of college I moved east to do an internship with the Richmond Braves triple-a team for a year. Then worked in the Coastal Plain League for 4 years (collegiate summer league similar to the Northwoods League), then 6 years in Iowa in the Midwest League (was low-a at the time). Other than the year in Richmond, all were really small set-ups so I essentially did a little of everything: operations, marketing, sales, etc. Really had nothing to do with anything on the field itself with the players and coaches.

I saw guys like Trout and Buxton come through the league. Many of the players on the 2015 Royals WS championship team played on our team. Hosmer, Moustakas, Perez, Duffy, Herrera are a few. Other guys like Max Muncy and Wil Myers also played for us at one point while I was there.

Through different connections was able to meet guys like Killebrew, Gwynn, Sandberg, Billy Beane (not the Brad Pitt version) and others. It was fun, have a lot of great memories but it was also a lot. The hours during the season were insane. I missed out on a lot of things and now with a family, I just couldn't do it anymore.

Didn't smoke weed with Brockmeier and we really tried to stay away from the players at all times outside of the games. Even though I didn't work for the Major League team we were affiliated with, if they got word I was doing stupid stuff with their young top prospects, I would almost certainly have been fired.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Haha, out of college I moved east to do an internship with the Richmond Braves triple-a team for a year. Then worked in the Coastal Plain League for 4 years (collegiate summer league similar to the Northwoods League), then 6 years in Iowa in the Midwest League (was low-a at the time). Other than the year in Richmond, all were really small set-ups so I essentially did a little of everything: operations, marketing, sales, etc. Really had nothing to do with anything on the field itself with the players and coaches.

I saw guys like Trout and Buxton come through the league. Many of the players on the 2015 Royals WS championship team played on our team. Hosmer, Moustakas, Perez, Duffy, Herrera are a few. Other guys like Max Muncy and Wil Myers also played for us at one point while I was there.

Through different connections was able to meet guys like Killebrew, Gwynn, Sandberg, Billy Beane (not the Brad Pitt version) and others. It was fun, have a lot of great memories but it was also a lot. The hours during the season were insane. I missed out on a lot of things and now with a family, I just couldn't do it anymore.

Didn't smoke weed with Brockmeier and we really tried to stay away from the players at all times outside of the games. Even though I didn't work for the Major League team we were affiliated with, if they got word I was doing stupid stuff with their young prospects, I would almost certainly have been fired.
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Txs - sounds like heaven 😃
 

howeda7 said:
You can't get rid of both Willi Castro and Gordon or you have no utility IF'er. Castro has options, Gordon doesn't. It's nothing more than that. Castro should be the first one out when Kiriloff/Farmer are back. But who the second one is is the issue. I have no idea how close Farmer is but I don't think it's anytime soon.
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I get that.

And my post you quoted was just the offense in general and stating that while I get why Kepler frustrates people(myself included) just pure production wise he really isnt close to the biggest issue for this offense right now.

As far as Castro and Gordon go, yeah I really dont have a preference either way. Castro isnt some world beater.

And maybe its a little too quick to cut Gordon. But we do have minor league players that could also get a shot. Julien could be more of a super sub. Obviously hopefully Royce is up here ASAP when hes healthy. AK as a 1B(not the Gordon utility role) needs to be up here now.

But we also cant just say "Gordon has no options so gotta keep him". Hes currently got 1 walk in 48 ABs while batting .104. His OPS+ is -24(had no idea that was possible). I'd entertain the notion of "give him more ABs to turn it around" but will not buy the "he has no options" excuse. Have to decide at some point if they do more harm than good and stop worrying about contracts and options. Dbacks are eating 34 mil of Madbaum because he was that bad.

Twins FO seems to have the mindset "buuuuut we have Pagan under contract we cant cut him".
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Txs - sounds like heaven 😃
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I was glad I did it when I did and I'm glad I'm not longer doing it, haha.

Maybe more info that you want but talking about this brings me back to my experience with Harmon Killebrew. When I was in the Coastal Plain League in North Carolina, another team in the league brought Harmon in to be the speaker at their winter banquet fundraiser. The owners of that team knew I was a big Twins fan so they invited me to come the night before the banquet to their house for a small dinner with Harmon and a few other people. Essentially Harmon flew in that evening, they just had him over for dinner before bringing him to his hotel room.

So there was maybe 10 of us at this dinner, we ate and he told stories about his career. After dinner, most everyone else left. I ended up hanging out with Harmon for a good 30 minutes, just him and I chatting anything and everything Twins related. It was amazing. The stories of him being so nice are 100% true. He didn't have to take that much time with me but he did. Got a few autographs and a picture. A true gentlemen.
 

Not a Megill fan, but dropping him while clinging to Pagan is something.

 

MUgopher32 said:
And maybe its a little too quick to cut Gordon. But we do have minor league players that could also get a shot. Julien could be more of a super sub. Obviously hopefully Royce is up here ASAP when hes healthy. AK as a 1B(not the Gordon utility role) needs to be up here now.
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AK has yet to play 2 full games on back-to-back days at all in the minors this year. It was attempted on Friday, but was pulled after 2 ABs. Did not play Saturday.

I am fine with keeping him off the MLB active roster for a while longer.

www.milb.com

Alex Kirilloff Stats, Age, Position, Height, Weight, Fantasy & News

Alex Kirilloff Stats, Age, Position, Height, Weight, Fantasy & News
www.milb.com www.milb.com

Maybe when temps are above 50 it will help.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I was glad I did it when I did and I'm glad I'm not longer doing it, haha.

Maybe more info that you want but talking about this brings me back to my experience with Harmon Killebrew. When I was in the Coastal Plain League in North Carolina, another team in the league brought Harmon in to be the speaker at their winter banquet fundraiser. The owners of that team knew I was a big Twins fan so they invited me to come the night before the banquet to their house for a small dinner with Harmon and a few other people. Essentially Harmon flew in that evening, they just had him over for dinner before bringing him to his hotel room.

So there was maybe 10 of us at this dinner, we ate and he told stories about his career. After dinner, most everyone else left. I ended up hanging out with Harmon for a good 30 minutes, just him and I chatting anything and everything Twins related. It was amazing. The stories of him being so nice are 100% true. He didn't have to take that much time with me but he did. Got a few autographs and a picture. A true gentlemen.
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Txs again and definitely not too much info.

Baseball is my favorite sport and I could talk about it endlessly and appreciate the backstory and history of the game - it’s always fun to hear about these types of encounters.

Quick one from me, Gary Serum grew up in Alex as I did and his dad and mine were close friends, they were baseball ump duo.

Gary was with the Columbus Clippers for a spell and was buddies with the equipment manager there and they we’re getting new uniforms next year and they had an extra set of unworn old unis and Gary finagled getting them to our town team (his younger brother Greg was on it) which was also the Clippers (for some odd cosmic reason)- so we had Triple A double knits which greatly endured us to the Carlos and Urbank squads -who had silk screened polyester.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Don't forget - thanks to BSN's ownership being in bankruptcy, the Twins are not getting their normal payments for local cable TV rights. for the season, that comes to roughly $43-million. depending on which source you believe, that amounts to anywhere from 16 to 20% of the team's annual revenue. So they are not going to eat Kepler's salary unless it's a last resort.
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I can't remember where I saw/heard it, but heard that MLB was covering the lost payments from BSN to the Twins. Maybe I'm smoking something, but can't remember where I got that from.

If not, we can set up a Go Fund Me to make sure the Pohlads aren't prevented from feeding their kids.
 


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