Twins 2021

Yes the whole letting the pitchers work out of trouble thing must have Falvey hiding under his desk. Do the Twins have a complete game since the child genius took over?

I love Kaat- thank god Bert is gone!!!!

Dutchboy wrote:

Yes the whole letting the pitchers work out of trouble thing must have Falvey hiding under his desk. Do the Twins have a complete game since the child genius took over?

2019 they had a whopping 1. 0 since.

Careful Dutch….Captain Cheeseburger has 2 doubles tonight. Might be back over 190 now.

Yes……Fat Kid a couple of hits, and then who wouldn’t use a guy with a 21.60 ERA the last 4 games as closer. Pure genius.

Good thing our rookie catcher is a better in game manager than our manager and calmed the “veteran” down.

Another pitiful line-up by the White Sux. Amazing the Twinks can be so far behind these guys. Had we gotten ANYTHING out of the bullpen the first couple of months we would have a race.

Amazing what good pitching can do for you.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Amazing what good pitching can do for you.

Shocking isn’t it. It’s almost like wins actually mean something.

Colome was the perfect choice.

Might as well call it for rain before it’s 30-1.

Kaat tonight on the new techniques and strategies these days: “Did they ever think to ask people that actually played”.

Absolutely love it. Especially when the Twins give him 3 errors, horrible baserunning, and awful strategy to prove him right.

From Hayes at the Athletic.

Wes Johnson may be the world’s most positive man. Even though he’s endured a half season in which the team is not only wildly disappointing but also among the worst in Major League Baseball in most pitching categories, the Twins pitching coach remains unwavering and upbeat.

The Twins entered Tuesday having allowed the most home runs (127) and ranked 28th out of 30 in earned-run average (5.04) and FIP (4.76). The bullpen has allowed 58 percent of its inherited runners to score, which represents the worst rate in MLB history.

But now that the initial shock has worn off, Johnson is focused on the positives. No matter what question he was asked, Johnson didn’t rip into a pitching staff that has performed far below expectations during a 15-minute interview with The Athletic on Tuesday.

Could you have imagined the challenges you would have faced this season?

At first, you’re in shock. You don’t even know what to do each day when you wake up. You come in. Let’s use Bailey (Ober) as an example. Bailey didn’t throw an inning in spring training, not one. I mean, in a real spring training game. If you were to ask me when we broke spring training if Bailey Ober would pitch for us as much as he’s pitched for us before the All-Star break, I would have lost a lot of money. You don’t. At first, it’s like you’ve been knocked down in the first round and you’re trying to get up off the mat and not get counted out. Now, I think we’ve got our feet back under us again. We’ve got a plan. It doesn’t always work out because you’ve got a lot of younger guys and they’re having to learn on the fly.

What has the lack of certainty done to lining up bullpen roles?

Taylor Rogers, you couldn’t ask a guy to do anything … and (Hansel) Robles, man, we’re still getting Robles back. Robles, we know what kind of year he had last year. We’re getting him there. You’re seeing it. You’re still going to ride some rollercoasters with him. I think Alex (Colomé) is really getting close again. He was close and, God, just some crazy bad luck. I think we’re getting close to getting his mind where it needs to be. I thought we had Luke Farrell in a spot where we needed him, he was going to be able to help us and give us some innings, and then … it’s one after another, man.

How much have depth injuries wreaked havoc with rotation?

Here’s the mindset you have to take. I thought what Griffin Jax did in Kansas City for five innings … he had a couple tough lucks there in that last inning. But what that young man did, he’s getting better. That’s how we have to look at it. Did he give up six runs? Yeah. But he had some freak stuff happen there in the fourth or the fifth. But the things we’re asking him to do to survive at this level, because he’s learning on the fly, he did. You get excited about that. Yeah, you lose the game. But you pull back and go, “We’re working really hard with this kid and we saw some progress today.” If he can continue to do that, he’ll be able to help us. But it’s just not happening fast enough.

This was projected to be a 90-win team. How surprising is it to be in this position?

You’re shocked. There’s been days Rocco (Baldelli) and I come in and something will happen and we’ll be like, “Oh, that’s all you can throw at us today? That’s nothing, man. We had it 20 times worse in late April and early May. Now you’re telling us just one guy is down? That’s nothing, man. We can handle one. We’ve got a plan for two, three.” Like I said, especially early, like May, you’re shocked. You’re feeling like you were supposed to win the fight and got knocked down in the first round and now you’re trying to get up off the mat and survive. Now, it’s easy to look back. We’ve got to wake up every day and got to find a way to get Griffin better, Bailey better and J.A. Happ and all of them. We’ve got to come in and — not that you’re not teaching every day, even when you’re winning — but it’s at another level right now. It’s sitting down with our catchers, Ben (Rortvedt) and Ryan (Jeffers). You look back and we had a Jason Castro, an Alex Avila, we had that veteran catcher, Mitch (Garver), obviously. But now you’ve got two young guys catching and you’re trying to help them. Teaching is at a whole new level. Right now, you can’t really look and say we were supposed to be a 90-win team. We’ve got to teach every day just to survive today.

Have you experienced a season like this before?

I had one year at Dallas Baptist (University) where we got absolutely clobbered in the draft, really late. Guys signed last day, last minute. We lost our closer, our setup guy and our No. 2 starter, and we didn’t have anybody to replace them. We went 30-30 that year and were of course projected to win the (Western Athletic Conference). And we had a couple of injuries. I draw a lot on that year, on how we started to piece it (together). College, though, you play three and then get a couple days off and then play one. We don’t get that here. But, some of the stuff I’m doing with our younger pitchers. We expected to be here at some point, but not this early and not in this role.

How does this affect you away from the park?

We have to stay really positive. It is hard. Jax gives up six the other day, you lose. It’s not fun losing at all. You’re trying to stay positive and keep (Jax) positive because, “Hey man, you did do some things we’ve been working on. We saw some sliders get to the spot we’ve been working on.” The hardest part when you’re going through this is staying positive when you are losing 8-2 or 7-3 or 6-2. It’s tough. But that’s the only way we’re going to get through it.

I’m sure you expected some regression, but not this level with Colomé?

I’ve got to tip my hat to Alex Colomé. The guy is absolutely working his can off to get where he needs to try to be. I’ve been seeing it coming for a while. He’s close. I know I can’t (say that). But I really think he’s getting close to finding (it). He’s having to do things. He’s getting older. We’re doing a few things different now and it just takes time.

Is it more about fastball usage with Colomé?

That, but now what he used to be able to do is use his flattened cutter, and the way he would use (it). He used it early in the year and it’s not the same. Now, if you go back and look at his last three outings, he’s finally gotten comfortable. We saw it a month or so ago where it was, “OK, Alex, start throwing the one that’s got a little bit of this (makes cutting motion in to left-handed hitters). Just throw them down and we’re going to live with what happens.” Then you go look at his last three or four outings, you’ve seen him use that one a lot more and the results have been better. Here’s a guy who’s thrown that one for a long time and it’s really hard for him to not want to go to it.

I know it doesn’t come up until the end of the year, but when you’re talking to Derek (Falvey) and Thad (Levine) about construction, do you change anything about how you piece together a roster after this season?

I think the way we had it pieced together, honestly, before you lose (Byron) Buxton for an extended period, Garver for an extended period and (Max Kepler) for an extended period and we can go on, right? When we lost (Andrelton Simmons) — you go back and look at that two weeks, lost Simba for COVID-19, how that vital that was. (Kenta) Maeda, we were pitching him when we probably should have IL’d him. You go back and look at this team on paper to start the year. If you look at that and the team we had to start on paper from a position standpoint, if we get 125 games out of that team and then we get X number of starts out of our guys and they’re healthy, it’s probably a way different story. The challenge is, so what do you do? The biggest thing when you look at reconstruction now for me is, I don’t know how much value to put on some other players now because of what we’re going through injury-wise. I don’t know if we reconstruct anything different. Just hopefully we can stay healthy.

I get what he is trying to say, but man, he’s working awful hard at spinning it. Colome is close? Come on….Oh and apparently giving up HR’s is due to bad luck now…..

At the game tonight… will say it again, Sano is a vastly different hitter with no one on base as opposed to RISP…

I know the pitching coach has to stay positive and toe the company line, but jeeeezzzzz that’s just gross. You’re in the big leagues on a team that was supposed to compete. And the lack of depth is appalling.

BigWerm wrote:

I know the pitching coach has to stay positive and toe the company line, but jeeeezzzzz that’s just gross. You’re in the big leagues on a team that was supposed to compete. And the lack of depth is appalling.

Hey, you can’t say that. It reflects poorly on the wonderkids in the front office.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I get what he is trying to say, but man, he’s working awful hard at spinning it. Colome is close? Come on….Oh and apparently giving up HR’s is due to bad luck now…..

I’m just a casual baseball fan but I occasionally talk baseball with a friend who follows it a lot more than me and he’s into the analytics. I said was Rogers was terrible last year, but he argued that “He wasn’t actually that bad. The batters hit the ball really hard against him and he just got unlucky because of it”. Same guy also argues with me that striking out isn’t that bad, and not really any worse than getting out on a grounder or fly ball. Yet, strikeouts for a pitcher are really good. I just don’t get it.

blank wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
I get what he is trying to say, but man, he’s working awful hard at spinning it. Colome is close? Come on….Oh and apparently giving up HR’s is due to bad luck now…..

I’m just a casual baseball fan but I occasionally talk baseball with a friend who follows it a lot more than me and he’s into the analytics. I said was Rogers was terrible last year, but he argued that “He wasn’t actually that bad. The batters hit the ball really hard against him and he just got unlucky because of it”. Same guy also argues with me that striking out isn’t that bad, and not really any worse than getting out on a grounder or fly ball. Yet, strikeouts for a pitcher are really good. I just don’t get it.

Kaat just said it perfectly. The analytics should be used by the front office to evaluate players but on the field they should play the game. Chicago’s Double A team beat the Twinks all over the field today by hitting the ball all over the yard. Is it a coincidence they are managed by a 70+ year old “baseball” guy? I think not. Lynn didn’t have his good stuff today and yet he dominated the Twins hitters. I believe a bad message is delivering poor results.

I can agree with Kaat’s opinion on that. That sounds perfect to me too.

I don’t like La Russa, mostly as a person, but I can’t really argue against his baseball managing.

Blank, you just proved yet again, that analytics people have no clue how the game is actually played and for that I thank you for sharing your story.

Dutch, I agree, Kaat nailed it. What I have noticed with this club is once analytics came in, all the fundamentals of this team were ignored and not coached anymore.

You still have to do the little things right to win consistently. That’s why this game is so great and that’s why I think analytics will be scaled back in the next 5 years or so. Whether it’s fans that can’t stand it anymore or MLB for making the games take 5 hours. Their own analytics are starting to show that it’s making players worse and the games less interesting.

If the coaches go by the analytics, it’s not their fault the team loses.

Netguy wrote:

If the coaches go by the analytics, it’s not their fault the team loses.

Right…..It’s bad luck not the strikeouts and hard hit balls….

I have a feeling that the Twins are going to be no hit tonight……

Amazing what a little pitching (and playing a terrible team) does…….I can’t say enough about how much I’ve enjoyed Kaat calling it like he sees it. Very refreshing. Anyone else notice anytime he does it, Bremer sits there in silence trying to figure out how to stop him?

Kaat and his common sense will ruin the game of baseball.

He is so refreshing after listening to all these guys jamming stats down our throat.

Polanco starting to look like a real ball player again. Shame it doesn’t mean anything this year.

I’m actually surprised they haven’t stopped using Kaat after all of the honest analysis he’s given. It’s the exact reason Morris isn’t doing broadcasts anymore. He was too anti-analytics.

The real life Bad News Bears are in town playing the Twinks this weekend. These guys look horrid.

See what I mean about Polanco??? HA

I don’t care if it was against an awful team. That was one helluva ballgame.

Fun game. Fans that stuck around got their moneys worth.

Garver back soon? Will he be a little off balance? Never heard the details. Don’t really want to