Twins (We'll try it again)

[purple guy]

The ratio of letters to words there is outstanding... lol

Gardy has two faults, IMO: the way he handles pitchers, and Nick Punto. He takes a pitcher out of the game in the 7th or 8th based SOLELY on pitch count. The game that made me most upset this season was against TB at TF. Liriano never struggled, pretty much breezed through 7 innings with a 4-1 lead but had 101 pitches. So he takes him out and puts in the bullpen and they blow the game. Burnett, Guerierr, and I think Raush came in and served up batting practice for the Rays. I think the final was 8-6. This is not the first time this has happened. He over uses the bullpen, and they all get tired out by the end of the season, and in the postseason they are not effective.
And his love affair with Nick Punto is flat out madening. The Twins went on their incredible run when Punto was hurt (TWICE) but he insists on putting him out there. To me, it is no coincidence that the Twins win more with Punto on the bench.
I agree that he is a very good manager. I just think his strategies lose more games than they win.

Good post. The only thing I dont always agree with, is they claim he does "more with less". Well, less payroll, sure. Less talent??? I dont think so. The Twins organization is good at finding young talent, Guardy benefits from that. Then once everyone sees the talent, their stock goes up, the Twins wont caugh up a big contract (Obviously Mauer is an exception, as had they not, Twins fans would go ape ####) so they go play else where. That formula is probably good enough to make the post season sometimes, but not do much once you get there, especially with weak pitching. Maybe he is great and gets all he can out of his team, but like PMR said, is putting Punto in the line up EVER a good move? Matt Gerrier throws everyday it seems. Im not argueing he isnt a GOOD manager. I just dont think he is a great one. And he gets credit for "doing more with less" and he cant controll the payroll, and I think, for the most part, the talent isnt less. Who cares how much it costs if the talent is there, give that credit to the FO, not Guardy.

[PurpleMustReign]

[Good post. The only thing I dont always agree with, is they claim he does "more with less". Well, less payroll, sure. Less talent??? I dont think so. The Twins organization is good at finding young talent, Guardy benefits from that. Then once everyone sees the talent, their stock goes up, the Twins wont caugh up a big contract (Obviously Mauer is an exception, as had they not, Twins fans would go ape ####) so they go play else where. That formula is probably good enough to make the post season sometimes, but not do much once you get there, especially with weak pitching. Maybe he is great and gets all he can out of his team, but like PMR said, is putting Punto in the line up EVER a good move? Matt Gerrier throws everyday it seems. Im not argueing he isnt a GOOD manager. I just dont think he is a great one. And he gets credit for "doing more with less" and he cant controll the payroll, and I think, for the most part, the talent isnt less. Who cares how much it costs if the talent is there, give that credit to the FO, not Guardy.

If he wins the World Series, I will call him a great manager. Until then, he is a good one. And I agree about the less talent part. I believe the Twins have more talent than any team other thn New York. And I think they have the talent to compete with NEw York, with the right players. Nick Punto, Drew Butera (who is, IMO, just as good behind the plate as Mauer, but horrible batting), and Matt Tolbert have no business on the Major League roster.

[vikeinmontana]

i agree with you guys on the talent. we have EQUAL talent to all of the playoff teams aside form the yanks and maybe philly. but we don't have MORE talent. because of that i am very happy with the fact that we are right there with the yanks, phillies, and rays for the best record in baseball. with the talent we have i don't know why some act like we should just be winning every game we play! ya we just lost what...5 straight? annoying for sure. but the yanks and rays only won like 1 and 2 during that stretch too. we are still right there with all of them. when all is said an done this season, home field or not, the twins are going to be right there with one of the best records in the game. how anyone can say we are a longshot to get homefield advantage now is beyond me. we're almost exactly where we were this time last week! twins are still very much in the running for homefield, and even if we don't get it, i'm not writing these guys off.

completely agree on punto and butera though. i understand why they are playing at this time i guess, to rest mauer and some guys but i have always wondered how they were playing...

[purple guy]

If he wins the World Series, I will call him a great manager. Until then, he is a good one. And I agree about the less talent part. I believe the Twins have more talent than any team other thn New York. And I think they have the talent to compete with NEw York, with the right players. Nick Punto, Drew Butera (who is, IMO, just as good behind the plate as Mauer, but horrible batting), and Matt Tolbert have no business on the Major League roster.

I agree. Good at this point, needs to win WS to be considered great. I can see why some of those players are playing NOW, but earlier Punto and such had zero business on the team, I agree. With this talent, we should be in the running for HFA, roster-wise, our glaring weakness is pitching. Really wish we would have made a trade for an ace at the deadline, but oh well, our bats and defense are going to have to cover our pitching weakness in the post season.

[DeeEss57]

Let's not get too excited about this late season losing streak, guys. Let's look at history, shall we?

In 1987 the Twins went 3-7 in the last 10 games of the regular season and lost the last 5 games of the season. Post season result? World Champions.

In 1991, the Twins went 4-6 in the last 10 games of the regular season and lost 4 of the last 5. Post season result? World Champions.

See? Nothing to worry about!


Dawn

[PurpleMustReign]

Idk guys, this team is just playing horribly right now. I have not seen this type of performance in a long time. I don't feel good about this post season.

[vikeinmontana]

Idk guys, this team is just playing horribly right now. I have not seen this type of performance in a long time. I don't feel good about this post season.

well there is no question about that. we have lost 6 of 7 including 5 straight at one point. we have been outscored 61 runs to 25 during that span. that is an average of over 8 runs a game so we're nearly giving up a run every inning!

however....look at the records of the teams we're chasing, being the yanks and rays. they have been just as horrible. anyone notice that as bad as we've been we have 93 wins and they both have 94? all i'm saying is all of us are resting guys, probably not real focused, playing with interesting lineups, giving up a lot of runs, not scoring many runs...and most importantly, we're all losing. so if you're really scared for the twins that is fine. but if you were a yanks fan you'd be saying the same thing. if you were a rays fan same thing. point is, we all just focus on how terrible the twins are and pretend that every team we might face is shooting on all cylinders. that is simply not the case. the twins can play with anyone right now, and i'll believe that even if we lose every game for the rest of the regular season.

[purple guy]

Idk guys, this team is just playing horribly right now. I have not seen this type of performance in a long time. I don't feel good about this post season.

They are not prepared to enter the playoffs. Coasting in is never good. Our pitching is as bad as its been all season. Im betting on us getting swept in the first series, you cant just flip a switch and play good baseball. What a wasted opportunity and a pathetic effort at season end.

[PurpleMustReign]

They are not prepared to enter the playoffs. Coasting in is never good. Our pitching is as bad as its been all season. Im betting on us getting swept in the first series, you cant just flip a switch and play good baseball. What a wasted opportunity and a pathetic effort at season end.

If they were losing 3-1 or 5-2 or something, I wouldn't be so upset. But they are getting CRUSHED by mediocre teams (I know Toronto has hit many HRs but KC and DET are not that good). The pitching will not carry them this post season, like it has in other seasons. We'll have to score 6 runs per game to have a chance.

[vikeinmontana]

They are not prepared to enter the playoffs. Coasting in is never good.

that is great news because that is exactly what the yanks, rays, and rangers are doing. what a relief...

[PurpleMustReign]

GRRRRR

[PurpleMustReign]

Finally some clutch play from the Twins. Alexi Cassila needs to play more than Punto and Tolbert. He is as good in the field as Punto, and better than both of them at the plate. And he comes through in the clutch often (game 163 for example).

But this was the first game in awhile where they played well. I hope they figured some things out.

[purple guy]

3-7 over the last 10 games, yuk. Hope they can find a way to rally today, not going to matter much, the other 2 teams did enough to have better records than us, guess their manager wanted HFA for some reason.

I hope they turn things around on Wednesday, but I sure wont count on it, thats just not how pro sports works, need to get hot at the right time, how many times have the Colts rested their players and coasted into the playoffs??? A lot, and have exactly 1 SB to show for it, and they were one of themost talented and well coached teams the year it worked. We have talent, the coaching part, IDK. Im betting on the Twins losing in a 5 game series to open the playoffs.

[PurpleMustReign]

OMG, are you f-ing kidding me... We play the YANKEES????

Can you say SCREWED???

[PurpleMustReign]

I mean... the YANKEES. I can't believe it.

I'm going out on a limb and saying one and done again...