30 thoughts on “June 21, 2023: Fun In The Sun”

    1. I try not to dwell on the bad ones. We fleeced the regailed front office of the Rays for Joe Ryan. And we fleeced the Rays for Jake Odorizzi. Maybe we should only trade with the Rays

      1. I'm pretty convinced the Cruz-Ryan trade was acceptable to the Rays because they believed they would lose Ryan in the Rule 5 draft in the offseason. If a player is eligible for the draft but is going to rank below 40th on your overall depth chart due to better options, might as well trade the player for something you need now rather than lose him for a pittance in money.

        1. Like when the Twins traded Lewin Diaz to avoid potentially losing him for nothing

    2. Some might be bad luck but this is the last year for the front office if they don't win the division.

      1. I don't really see any reason to think that. Maybe you know something I don't, but I don't remember seeing anything that would indicate the Pohlad family is dissatisfied with the job Falvey and Levine are doing.

        1. The tenure, progress, and fan apathy.

          Maybe someone else will be the fall guy but articles like this one will add up.

        2. The Pohlad's are notoriously tight lipped and pretty forgiving but there is a lot of very public angst about this team and how it's constructed, managed, and run. The Pohlad's also read the newspapers and look at ticket sales. Right now there is no indication Pohlads are unhappy but don't be surprised if that changes in October given the current trajectory of this team.

        3. If anyone is on the hot seat, it's Rocco. FO has given starting pitching, and Buxton and Correa are in the fold (and cut Sano loose)...but of course wherever there's a perceived (or actual) lack, that's where the FO should have been focusing all offseason long

          btw, if there's a trade I'm most unhappy with, Arraez/Lopez isn't it, it's the Mahle trade.

          1. I doubt that Rocco's on the hot seat, either. Again, I see no indication that he's not managing the team the way Falvey and Levine want it to be managed. Besides, if they fired Rocco, they'd have to admit that they made a mistake, and I don't see Falvey and Levine as being very willing to do that. If Rocco is fired, I think it'll mean that Falvey and Levine really are in trouble, and are firing Rocco to deflect responsibility from themselves.

            1. I'm in agreement, but there's a lot more complaining about Rocco's managing than there is about the FO's deals -- forget what Reusse says (whatever it is; it's behind the paywall), just look at comments on FB or Twins Daily. No don't do that, come to think of it.

              1. Now there's a The Athletic article (another paywall) from Ken Rosenthal about how disappointing the Twins are. When the national press starts pointing out where this team is going, that gets ownership's attention. Not saying everyone is gone in July but a poor season and there will definitely be a lot of buzz around who stays and who goes in October.

                1. From Rosenthal:

                  It’s all rather disheartening for the Twins, considering they rank fourth in the majors in rotation ERA and 10th in bullpen ERA. And it’s certainly fair to ask whether a shakeup of some kind is in order.

                  The problem is determining who is most to blame.

                  1. That's easy. Rocco isn't striking out at an historic rate.

                    Gallo striking out a lot was wholly predictable. Buxton striking out a lot was expected, albeit not at this level. But the whole damn lineup seems to be carrying assbats to the plate. Maybe they sacrifice the hitting coach?

    3. As for Berrios, he's still out there every five days, never missing a start for the Blue Jays.

      He's been good again this year but last year, his final year before he would have reached free agency, was bad. I'm happy he's back on track.

      April 7, 2022: Taylor Rogers

      Who had a great FIP but bad ERA with the Padres before being traded to the Brewers where had a terrible FIP and ERA. This year he has a good ERA and an average FIP. But he was a free agent so his performance for this year doesn't count unless you assume the Twins would have re-signed him.

      The one trade Reusse mentions that sticks out as real bad is the Mahle deal. I could include Cano here but he didn't show this last year and I think this is an instance where you need to credit the player or coaching staff on unlocking something. Plus, it's been 37 innings.

      1. I'll mention again how bad the Lamont Wade for Shaun Anderson trade was. Anderson pitched 8(!) innings for the Twins before they released him in June of 2021. He's pitched a total of 15 MLB innings since then and I don't think he's on a major league roster. Wade has been a starter for the Giants the whole time and again is 2nd in NL On Base Percentage this year. Now that my friends is a one-sided trade.

              1. That’s the compounding factor for me. Not just losing Wade, who was young, talented, and seems to be a pretty solid guy, while keeping Cave in the organization waaaaay past his expiration date.

            2. I remember there was talk that he needed to swing more. Maybe not exactly anti-walk but they didn't think he could cut it at the MLB level.

  4. I'm typing this on my fancy new mechanical keyboard. I bought a Logitech MX K845 (I got a discount for Logitech stuff) with brown switches and I feel like I've been wasting my life on membrane keyboards.

    2. I have an old IBM AT keyboard that I still pull out and use once in a while. Beautifully beige. DIN connector on a coiled cord (with DIN->PS2->USB adapters) . Best tactical response of any keyboard I've ever owned, and I've had a lot of them over the years. My every day KB now is a Logitech K545 wireless (w/mouse). I absolutely hate laptop chiclet keyboards. Ish.

        1. Ditto on touchpads, but I was weaned on Thinkpads and Latitudes so the eraserhead feels pretty natural to me.

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