Cup of Coffee

October 12, 2023: Postmortem

40 Comments

Well, it was a heck of a season. Lots of highs, lots of lows. All in all, it was a lot of fun. What are your takeaways from this year? Any especially favorite plays? Bonus points for embedded video.

40 thoughts on “October 12, 2023: Postmortem”

  1. For me the biggest takeaway is just winning the division, finally winning a playoff series, and playing a very good Houston team tough (except for game 3) in the division series. If you'd told me in March or April that's how the Twins' season would go, I'd have taken it gladly.

    1. Agreed. Nice to finally see several of the (seems like forever) up-and-comers show up and contribute in a positive way. ESPECIALLY nice to see a really good pitching staff and serviceable bullpen - FO should be able to build on this team without having to be massively creative, and (barring injury) there are several directions where this team can step up performance next season.

      The fan support was also top notch.

  2. Glendale lost to the Surprise Saguaros 16-1 yesterday. Surprise scored a surprising ten runs in the fourth inning. Aaron Sabato was 2-for-4 with a double. Andrew Cossetti was 0-for-3. Kala'i Rosario was 0-for-3.

    None of the Twins' batters are doing much. Sabato's good day raised his average to .192 with an OPS of .685. Cossetti is batting .077 with an OPS of .558. Rosario is batting .042 with an OPS of .290. Small sample size, obviously, but that's not very good.

    Jordan Carr has pitched well--four scoreless innings with a WHIP of 0.75. A. J. Labas has two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. But that's pretty much the end of the good news. Zach Veen has an ERA of 3.86 in 2.1 innings, but with a WHIP of 2.57. Ben Ethridge has an ERA of 10.80 in 1.2 innings. Malik Barrington has an ERA of 33.75 in 1.1 innings. Again, very small sample size, and anyone can have a bad game or two, but that's still not very good.

  3. This is what punman posted last night in the game thread last night which nicely encapsulates this post's query:

    I approached this series with the thought "if we're going to be the best, we need to prove it by beating the best." Houston is undoubtedly the best team in the AL right now. Now 7 straight LCS appearances. They're the big dog and if any team is going to represent the AL, they fittingly should have to go through Houston.

    After watching this series, the Twins were clearly not the better team. They were good. They were better than I've seen them been in the other postseason series, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

    I think 5 of the Astros first 6 batters in their lineup all hit home runs this series. Alvarez was a MONSTER, and Abreu was just as ferocious.

    Meanwhile Lewis was really the brightest spot of our lineup. Julien I thought did great with his pitch selection, and kept us in this one late. Correa had a great game 2, but outside of that couldn't get it done. I will say though, we had a lot of hard shots hit right at their fielders, which they executed flawlessly, showing another facet of just how good the team is.

    We got home runs from Lewis, Polanco, Julien, and Farmer. Ironically, Farmer was only in the lineup for Game 2. I feel like it may have been better to play him more, though I don't know where we'd put him (first?)

    Pablo was amazing. He pitched a sweetheart of a gem that makes me feel better about our chances in the future. Sonny had a bad first inning, but his performance in the Wild Card game was just as sweet as Pablo's

    However, I was very disappointed with the performances of Kirilloff, Wallner, Solano, Taylor, Jeffers, and Castro. Often they reminded me of our other postseason teams that just looked lost. They were able to get a few walks, but otherwise I had really no expectation of anything spectacular when they were batting.

    But seriously, this team was a delight to watch again, and they have reignited my hope for their postseason success. I think we have some great building blocks, and seeing Lewis have so much success this early brings a lot of hope. I also hope that Wallner can improve and that we can make some good moves in the offseason to have another chance this year.

    Oh yeah, Paddock looked great tonight as well.

    Also, I feel sorry for Joe Ryan. If I were him, I would feel like my manager has NO confidence in me. Didn't start Game 1, pitched only 2 tonight. I hope he can work on some things in the offseason, but I feel kind of bad for him tonight.

    It was a great series, and though we didn't win, I feel that the better team did win. Houston was solid on so many fronts, and they have a good shot at another World Championship. I will not be cheering for them however, because I'd much rather see the Rangers win their first.

    Everyone here, it's been a blast hanging out with you. I'll still be around, but probably more scarce. It was great to finally experience postseason success with y'all (seriously, I'm pretty sure I started hanging around here during the 2006 run). Enjoy the rest of the postseason.

    Good night.

  5. Exchanged some text messages with a fellow baseball fan this morning - longtime Cubs and Twins fan now living in San Diego. In response to his unhappiness that the Astros are in the ALCS … again, I noted they were the better team, but I would rather lose to Houston than NY:

    They were the better team, but I agree. Dusty Baker is the only redeeming character in the Astros organization … & maybe Ryan Pressly.
    Twins offense, other than Lewis, Correa and Julien, was horrid. Team collectively hit .201/.319/.353 in 6 games with a grand total on 17 runs scored. Not enough.

    Then, another friend texted:

    It's the never-ending cycle of renewed and doomed hope. Minnesota. The Sisyphus of professional sports.

    and I replied:

    Absolutely. I figured I would just be happy with finally winning that first playoff game, and then a series ... and I found myself sucked right back in to thinking, "Maybe this is the year?"

    I had to apologize to Niblet after they lost - he was yelled, “I told you they’d lose*!” And I snapped back at him pretty harshly. That made it worse and I did my best to apologize and console him and remind him (and maybe myself) that only one team in the entire league ends their season with a win. One thing cheered him up … the Wild season starts this week. Let’s go Wild!

    *he did indeed tell me after the Abreu HR that they were going to lose … but when I suggested that we could just turn it off, he decided it was worth watching.

    1. I really can't stand the championship or bust mentality. Or the "Minnesota sports" crap.

      This team did exactly as well as they should have with the talent and health they have. There was no choke. Just a good team losing to a better team.

      1. Yeah. It’s an easy, “It is what it is”-type of comment and a hard habit to break.

        Your second comment is spot on, but also not easy to internalize- losing sucks and it’s hard to feel invested in a squad and then transition to a dispassionate acceptance of them not being good enough and celebrate a successful season overall.

    2. Re: the kids and watching... I've apparently been fatalistic enough about MN sports that during game 2 of the Wild Card, with 2 outs in the 9th, Aquinas said "here's where it all goes wrong, I suppose." But after they lost yesterday he commented that he hasn't had this much fun following the Twins that he ever remembers. So hopefully I did something right. Every time they lost, I tried to make a point of saying "it's okay, they'll get 'em next time" or "that's fine, it was a really good game" or something along those lines.

      The game itself is supposed to be the fun part, not just the result. And really, except for game 3, the whole playoffs were a blast.

      1. My kid is uber-competitive and throws his whole passion into whatever is going on … his sports, board games, school, ‘his’ professional teams, you name it. He doesn’t yet know how to process disappointment, let alone “failure” and we haven’t figured out how to help him or teach him to channel it.

        1. we haven’t figured out how to help him or teach him to channel it.

          Might I recommend Lego League? (Though there are certainly those uber-competitive lego league teams too... so might I recommend a bad lego league team?)

              1. My kids have had a good experience, although my son was called out by his coach on Twitter yesterday for organizing what they call "the Glazer challenge.".

                They each eat as many Quik Trip donuts as they can before practice. He's "won" each of the last two years.

    1. I feel like the worst calls were both against Kepler. That strike 3 in the 6th and the strike 3 in the 9th.
      Both of those could've swung the game our way.

      Close calls like that though do illustrate just how close we came in this game. We also had some very hard hit balls that were just hit in the wrong spot and right at fielders. That first inning double play kinda set the tone for how things fell against us. It wasn't an ump call or a failing on the hitters, we just happened to hit a few balls that the Astros executed in getting the out (or outs in the case of the first inning).

      I think that's why I'm more optimistic. As good as Houston is, we were right there with them. If that ball hit by Polanco is hit in a slightly different direction, Julien stays on base and Lewis' homerun is a 2 run shot rather than just one.

    2. I guess it could be worse.

  7. In the selfish superstition world of things, I blame the Twins loss entirely on my wife.

    Let me explain.

    My wife is not a baseball fan. At all. She tolerates me watching it, but she doesn't really get into it. However, this year, for the Wild Card game 1, I was watching the game in our bedroom and she was in there with me while it was on. And they won! WC Game 2 same story. Didn't think anything of it.

    ALDS Game 1, I was at a local board game convention and was watching the game on my phone. My wife likes board games about as much as she likes baseball. She was not with me, and the Twins lost. Sunday night though, there we were in our room watching the game again.

    Tuesday she left to go visit a friend, and then the Twins lost Game 3. That's when it dawned on me that she was the lucky charm. I asked her kindly to come home so that the Twins would win again, but she whined about it being too far. Sheesh. Some help.

    So next year, I'm not letting her go anywhere. She's gonna be right by my side for every game.

  8. From Joe Pos:

    and it was all a big ol’ Philadelphia party, except in the Braves’ radio booth, where Joe Simpson decided to take it to a pretty dark place.

    “Given today’s climate around the world,” he said of the throat slash, “I’m not sure that’s quite appropriate or whatever anybody wants to see.”

    I mean — chef’s kiss to an ATLANTA BRAVES announcer criticizing inappropriate hand signals. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

  9. My word, the Fox Sports app is terrible, just awful. I had to prop the laptop up on the side table because it wouldn't cast to the TV to save it's life.

      1. Ooh, neat!

        I suppose they absolutely have to be because any bump would be magnified greatly at that speed, but the smoothness of hsr always blows me away.

  10. Great season. Got to go two 4 home games and 2 were WINS! Bummed we are missing out on a game 5 but very happy with the season.

  11. I agree with a lot of the sentiment expressed here. Twins did well against a better team and the future looks bright (hopefully). Frankly the first half of the season was a slog and it took the rookies of Lewis, Wallner, and Julien to kick some ass (including Kepler's). I still have concerns that the team has a lot of bats without a good position for them so hopefully that gets sorted out next year. I'm loving how the pitching staff is evolving and could really be the core to a fun season next year.

    1. All I have to do is scan the Twins Daily comments to see how the other (GOSO) half lives, and that's a miserable life. The Twins were fun to watch this season, had a mildly successful post season, exceeded realistic expectations, show a direction for improvement, didn't embarrass themselves* -- I definitely call it a success. And they retained a share of the MLB season team HR record.

      *I think I heard that of the top 8 all-time season strikeout teams, 2023 Twins was the only one with a winning record

      2. If the Twins could find a way to even be in the middle of the pack with regard to strikeouts next year, they could be a very dangerous team. Assuming the pitching performs as well as it seems it could.

Comments are closed.