2025 Season | Series #10 | Twins @ Guardians | April 28 - May 1, 2025

You can debate whether or not it was the right move to pitch to Jose. On one hand he is Jose Ramirez. On the other hand you would be putting the winning run on first, a player who is one of the best base runners in the game. Everybody knew...or should have known...that Jose was gonna steal second.

But one thing you can't point to is the likelihood of Manzardo hitting into a double play. Manzo has one of the lowest ground ball rates in the game.
 
Real Deal said:
The run differential/leading the central in Runs Allowed is still a scary thing.
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I get it but nah, I believe Cats pointed out earlier our starters have been great or really really really bad so far. That will even out and we'll continue to win a majority of tight games bc of how we play. The bats will also pick it up if history is any indication (I mean as the weather warms up)

All in all to have this record after a month+ should have us believing that Vogt is for real and not just lucky during his freshman year.
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
I love it in the regular season.

Keep games manageable. 19 inning games where it was better to throw a position player out there and lose 7 innings ago, but now your entire pitching staff is fucked are bad for everyone.
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And yet…it was never an issue for the first 130 years of the game when pitching staffs were smaller. The “problem” of long extra inning games has been shown to be overrated. No, this was purely a Covid excuse having nothing to do either the welfare of the game or the athletes. It was simply something to govern costs and the grousing of people involved with the game who are bored by their jobs.
 
WhoAzcue said:
And yet…it was never an issue for the first 130 years of the game when pitching staffs were smaller.
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Yeah, and why wasn't CTE a problem back when football players had leather helmets!

Hmm...

WhoAzcue said:
The “problem” of long extra inning games has been shown to be overrated. No, this was purely a Covid excuse having nothing to do either the welfare of the game or the athletes. It was simply something to govern costs and the grousing of people involved with the game who are bored by their jobs.
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There's no point in having a game where it would have been more beneficial to your season-long success to just have forfeited it instead of playing it and hurting your team's chances of success over the next slew of games. This remedies that. On-field, it makes sense.

For fans, it makes sense as well. A 19 inning game that goes until 1AM isn't attractive to MLB fans and families.

The grousing is coming from people who just get angry and shake their fists when things don't stay perfectly the same in perpetuity. The rest of the world ignores them and we move on, but they stay loud and adamant for years and years, often congregating around message boards to find the few like-minded people who agree with them.
 
WhoAzcue said:
And yet…it was never an issue for the first 130 years of the game when pitching staffs were smaller. The “problem” of long extra inning games has been shown to be overrated. No, this was purely a Covid excuse having nothing to do either the welfare of the game or the athletes. It was simply something to govern costs and the grousing of people involved with the game who are bored by their jobs.
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This WAS a covid reason, not an excuse, as it was a means to keep players away from each other and games as short as possible in 2020. Almost 10% of games go to extra innings every regular season, so it was a smart move when trying to keep these guys isolated from each other and the season moving along without an outbreak effecting multiple teams leading the cancellations.

But then organizations and management (and players) saw how nice it was for their pitching staffs after the test run in 2020 for distancing purposes and wanted to keep it.

You say it has nothing to do with the "welfare of the athletes", yet the athletes unanimously voted for it to be ratified as a rule in the last CBA.
 
BimboColesHair said:
This WAS a covid reason, not an excuse, as it was a means to keep players away from each other and games as short as possible in 2020. Almost 10% of games go to extra innings every regular season, so it was a smart move when trying to keep these guys isolated from each other and the season moving along without an outbreak effecting multiple teams leading the cancellations.

But then organizations and management (and players) saw how nice it was for their pitching staffs after the test run in 2020 for distancing purposes and wanted to keep it.

You say it has nothing to do with the "welfare of the athletes", yet the athletes unanimously voted for it to be ratified as a rule in the last CBA.
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If the players okayed the change then the fans just have to deal with it. I don't personally like it, but it is what it is...
 
smalls1129 said:
I get it but nah, I believe Cats pointed out earlier our starters have been great or really really really bad so far. That will even out and we'll continue to win a majority of tight games bc of how we play. The bats will also pick it up if history is any indication (I mean as the weather warms up)

All in all to have this record after a month+ should have us believing that Vogt is for real and not just lucky during his freshman year.
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This team has been successful in one run games because they've had a BP to die for. They've had a lot of one run games because the SP has been stellar for the most part. They've also had a lot of one run games because the offense was shit and that's the reason this lineup is built differently now so don't believe the "small ball" bullshit. Sure, there are still going to be one run games, but this team has a much better ability to end the game with one swing of the bat now then in previous years and that factor is going to become more prevalent as guys like DeLauter, Kayfus and Bazzana emerge. If guys like Bo, Jones and Noel can get on track then you'll see it even sooner. I'd keep Wilson's bat in the lineup as often as possible because he hits the ball hard too and actually has pretty good discipline. In other words, we're just scratching the surface on what this lineup will be. No more being in the bottom half of the league(or worse) in SLG.
 
BimboColesHair said:
This WAS a covid reason, not an excuse, as it was a means to keep players away from each other and games as short as possible in 2020. Almost 10% of games go to extra innings every regular season, so it was a smart move when trying to keep these guys isolated from each other and the season moving along without an outbreak effecting multiple teams leading the cancellations.

But then organizations and management (and players) saw how nice it was for their pitching staffs after the test run in 2020 for distancing purposes and wanted to keep it.

You say it has nothing to do with the "welfare of the athletes", yet the athletes unanimously voted for it to be ratified as a rule in the last CBA.
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To add to this: the player getting placed on base in extra innings has been previously used in the minors before the COVID season. Same thing with the 7 inning game for doubleheaders.

While some possible games changes are tried 1st on the the minor league level ( pitch clock, ball/ strike challenge system) that is not always the case. There are some changes implemented because it made sense on the minor league level and the logistics related to those games.
 
Keep waiting for Thome, Belle, and Manny to return...but it ain't gonna happen.

We couldn't afford to keep them today, because under any circumstance we couldn't afford to run a top four payroll year after year.

If we can't do the little things well...

Put the ball in play...
Move runners over..
Hit sac flies..
Steal bases at a high success rate...
Run the bases well, take the extra base, put pressure on defenses...
Have a shut down back end of the bullpen...
Play exceptional defense...

We can't compete.
 
BimboColesHair said:
You say it has nothing to do with the "welfare of the athletes", yet the athletes unanimously voted for it to be ratified as a rule in the last CBA.
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Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

For fans, it makes sense as well. A 19 inning game that goes until 1AM isn't attractive to MLB fans and families.

The grousing is coming from people who just get angry and shake their fists when things don't stay perfectly the same in perpetuity. The rest of the world ignores them and we move on, but they stay loud and adamant for years and years, often congregating around message boards to find the few like-minded people who agree with them.

———————————

Leaving aside Q’s personal insults, neither the players nor those who run the game are immune from doing things which harm the game and the fans. I guess players are also in favor of separate admission double headers? If there hadn’t been an outcry, I guess those seven-inning beauties Covid brought us were “fan-friendly” too? Since you’re so concerned with rushing games to a conclusion by shortening games for fans, why were “old-fashioned” Sunday doubleheaders the most popular and heavily attended games of the week? Why did SCHEDULED twi-night doubleheaders on weeknights represent special and heavily attended dates? My aunts took me to a Tuesday night one in ‘79—when we were quite mediocre—and the Tribe knocked off the powerhouse Red Sox twice, with the first game going extra innings after we tied it in the 9th with something like five runs with Toby Harrah heroics and I’ve never heard 40,000 louder…we ALL stayed for the nightcap as well—Len Barker was awesome—and we got home on a work night well after 1AM…but yeah, you need gimmicks to make the game more appealing and memorable for the masses.

Please, you want to speak for the jaded, apathetic, and the bored, by all means do so. But don't you dare speak for fathers like mine who scraped to take his kids to one or two games, and never once said, “Jeez, I sure hope this game doesn’t go to extra innings.” He never once looked at his watch and worried his hard-earned money was being extended. It’s called free baseball for a reason, and for many fans, their very best memories came from those most unusual and memorable games (and yes, I was there with my college buddies at that legendary July 4th-and into the 5th—1985 contest in Atlanta and saw the postgame fireworks shot off at 4AM).

I love people telling fans what’s best for them.
 
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WhoAzcue said:
Leaving aside your personal insults, neither the players nor those who run the game are immune from doing things which harm the game and the fans. I guess players are also in favor of separate admission double headers? If there hadn’t been an outcry, I guess those seven-inning beauties Covid brought us were “fan-friendly” too? Since you’re so concerned with rushing games to a conclusion by shortening games for fans, why were “old-fashioned” Sunday doubleheaders the most popular and heavily attended games of the week? Why did SCHEDULED twi-night doubleheaders on weeknights represent special and heavily attended dates? My aunts took me to a Tuesday night one in ‘79—when we were quite mediocre—and we knocked off the powerhouse Red Sox twice, with the first game going extra innings after we tied it in the 9th with something like five runs with Toby Harrah heroics and I’ve never heard 40,000 louder…we ALL stayed for the nightcap as well—Len Barker was awesome—and we got home on a work night well after 1AM…but yeah, you need gimmicks to make the game more appealing and memorable for the masses.

Please, you want to speak for the jaded, apathetic, and the bored, by all means do so. But don't you dare speak for fathers like mine who scraped to take his kids to one or two games, and never once said, “Jeez, I sure hope this game doesn’t go to extra innings.” He never once looked at his watch and worried his hard-earned money was being extended. It’s called free baseball for a reason, and for many fans, their very best memories came from those most unusual and memorable games (and yes, I was there with my college buddies at that legendary July 4th-and into the 5th—1985 contest in Atlanta and saw the postgame fireworks shot off at 4AM).

I love people telling fans what’s best for them.
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If what you got from what I said is to go into a tough guy routine, okay then haha. My apologies for whatever I said that triggered that.
 
BimboColesHair said:
If what you got from what I said is to go into a tough guy routine, okay then haha. My apologies for whatever I said that triggered that.
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Nah, my fault, while I disagree with the basis of your comment, it was merely debatable, not offensive like Q’s, so I’ve attempted to edit my reply, but it was awkwardly done since I don’t have my laptop with me while traveling. Apologies for catching you so heavily in the crossfire.
 
sportscoach said:
Truth be told, I am not sure why he wasn’t fire last year. He's gotta be on the hot seat...
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Minnesota is an org run a lot like ours, with decision makers who came from ours. Like ours, they think long and hard about major decisions. They don't act rashly.

Heck, they've only had four managers in the past 39 years.
 
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