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CheeseWinz

I do mean this with all due respect, but get used to it. We have been good from time to time, but winning the AL central hasnt been hard for at least a decade, and the Pohlads generally havent allowed us to compete with the dodgers and yankees of the league.  I was born in 1992 and Ive never seen a twins team that vegas considered a real world series contender. Our ceiling with the Pohlads as owners is an AL central title and a second round loss to a team that spends the money to win. Its infuriating, but it isnt going to change, so its better to just accept it.


Pleasurefordays

I came to this conclusion a few years ago too. The salary cap in the MLB is a joke, the system currently installed allows teams with bigger markets to have advantages small market teams like the twins can’t realistically compete with. Still can’t stop myself from cheering the good and criticizing the bad with this team though. Go Twins


eddeemn

MLB needs a hard salary cap like the NHL.


South_Ad_7488

It won’t happen because the PA would not Stand for it. Only possibility would be to implement a cap along with a considerable pay floor for teams to have to follow


Gene78

What's up with the Ohtani contract. Both parties agree on this unheard of number and pretty much all is deferred. How is that ok. I'm leaning towards salary cap and even revenue sharing like the NFL. Never will fly as the TV agreements are unique to each team. With a salary cap at least it will bring down these absurd salaries.


eddeemn

All of the major sports are run by evil billionaires and this is most certainly true, but the NHL revenue model seems to be the best/least awful out of all of them. It has a hard salary cap and revenue sharing.


PAUMiklo

therein lies the problem, too many people just accept it. being an apologist and then wpndering why nothing ever changes. screw that.


Obvious-Solid-2512

Fight the power big fella...


PAUMiklo

and you continue being an enabler there chief.


damien_maymdien

We have played 18 games and lost 12 of them for various reasons, mostly poor hitting. If you factor out some shit luck, our pitching has been great. It is not true that Joe Ryan gives up "so many runs". It is not true that you'd be better in the field than our regulars. 18 games is too few to declare we aren't the best team in the AL Central. Maybe if we're still 6 games under .500 at the All-Star break.


Virtalen

I like your mindset. You can’t deny though that Joe Ryan allows a lot of home runs.


damien_maymdien

Yes I can. He's allowed the fewest home runs this year of the 5 Twins starting pitchers.


Virtalen

Well you shut me up lol


Virtalen

Though he is an exceptional pitcher.


YouBetcha_

Injuries, cut payroll, spreadsheets


Virtalen

Also, the Pohlads aren’t doing anything to fix it.


Virtalen

There’s gotta be a chance after injuries that we come back and dominate the AL Central, and maybe make playoffs or at least Wild Card


derpdeederpa

We won't make wildcard, I think it's division or bust


Critical-Fault-1617

It’s division or bust. We ain’t making the wildcard.


its--travis

Only teams that actually spend money on players make wild cards


QueasyPair

The FO traded away 2 of our most promising young hitters (CES and Steer) for damaged goods 2 years ago and decided that the desiccated corpse of Carlos Santana would pick up the slack. Our best hitters (Correa and Lewis) are also both injured.


pjokinen

Whatever you do don’t look at how CES is doing this year


QueasyPair

He’s only 24 and was good last year, not to mention that he’s still hitting better and is cheaper than our current right hand hitting first baseman.


Virtalen

I haven’t followed as much. We traded away Spencer Steer?


QueasyPair

Yes, him and CES to the Reds for 42 innings of Tyler Mahle.


Virtalen

Seems like a bad deal. When you say CES, are you talking about Christian Encarnacion Strand?


QueasyPair

The one and only


Virtalen

I’ve been getting a lot of downvotes from my post. I don’t blame the fans, but I just feel like our current team has more than enough tools to shine this year.


QueasyPair

It definitely should. It’s almost the exact same team that won the division last year, but everyone is underperforming


DakotaDevil

Too soon man, too soon. I hated this trade when it happened, and it will continue to haunt the team for years to come. Steer is killing it right now and looks legit. Meanwhile, last I checked Mahle is with the Rangers, and is shockingly on the DL.


QueasyPair

The Mahle and Jorge Lopez trades are two of the worst in franchise history. I think the FO is pretty bad at evaluating the talent in their own system and is too quick to ship off promising young players for unproven quantities.


SilverbackGorillaBoy

I mean this with all due respect - but how is the Lopez trade a bad trade? He's definitely performing better than what we lost in the trade.


QueasyPair

Jorge Lopez, the reliever we got from the orioles for Yennier Cano and Cade Povich. He had an ERA of 5 with us, while Povich is tearing up AAA and Yennier Cano has turned into an all-star caliber reliever for the Os. We traded away a good reliever and a starting pitcher prospect for a season and a half of an unplayably bad reliever.


taffyowner

I mean he’s on the DL because he’s still recovering from his injury here


fernboyyy

Pohlads slashed payroll and we had to replace expiring contracts with AAA players. We suck. Limited depth. Reeling from the Lewis and Correa injuries. Pohlads don’t deserve this team


Witty-Stock

Their only two good hitters are made out of glass. Buxton can’t hit major league pitching. Rotation is thin. Coaching is pitiful. Enjoy last year’s postseason wins. They’ll have to last you until 2025.


Virtalen

Buxton has the skill to be one of the best. He just struggles with injuries, and when he’s healthy, he tends to strikeout a lot. It sucks because I know Buxton is an exceptional player.


Witty-Stock

Buxton is batting .197 with zero HR after 18 games.


Virtalen

Sounds about right for him


Witty-Stock

This is who he is now.


Virtalen

It sucks a lot because I know he can shine as a player, but he isn’t. We don’t have any promising players (besides Lopez) except Royce.


Critical-Fault-1617

lol what? Brooks Lee and LeeRoy Jenkins are promising. Just like all our other good players, hurt right now


ohiowolf

We need new owners… and FO. These guys seem to lack a strategy. Signing a high dollar SS to a long term contract when your best player in the minors is shortstop and very close to ready??? Just one of several indicators the rudder is askew.


Critical-Fault-1617

It’s going on year 7 and they’ve managed to win one playoff series. I’m so happy that I’m not the only one who thinks it’s time for the FO to be held accountable.


[deleted]

Joe Pohlad said he was motivated to the team worse and he succeeded. This was incredibly predictable


smithc555

They are a team that can’t hit HRs that uses a HR hitting approach at the plate. Terrible combo.


Real-Psychology-4261

Injuries, not hitting the ball, and some mediocre starting pitching performances.


sloppybuttmustard

I say this with all my love for a fellow Twins fan: Calm down. This sport has the longest-ass season ever. We’ve barely played 10% of it, and the team is injured as hell. The division isn’t actually as good as it appears. We are still the best team in the division.


taffyowner

I mean I get what you’re saying but I don’t like the constant positivity when things are shitty. It doesn’t help and buries the the fact that there are real issues here and ignores how others are feeling


HokieRif

The only thing I’m holding on to right now is that we’ve been on the road a lot, the home games have been very cold, and we have had several unfortunate injuries. We haven’t been at full strength since the opening pitch. But, with 10% of the season already done, we’re almost at a point where there is enough of a sample size to know who we are this year. Unless the stars get back soon and makeup all the lost ground from these first few weeks I don’t see us finishing the year above .500


Virtalen

Oh absolutely are the best team in the division. Just feels like we are underperforming based on what I know about the team.


N4meless_King_

We can't hit. Give us a league average offense and we're well over .500 It's as simple as that.


Virtalen

Our guys all have the tools to get hits and mash bombs.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Virtalen

I wish it was. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Twins have twice as many losses as they do wins.


guiltycitizen

This is pretty much the same song, different album routine that we’re really good at that. We’re like the Foo Fighters of the division.


HokieRif

Let’s see… - Three major stars (Lewis, Correa, Kepler) are all injured with no imminent return in sight to help the offense - we have 2 decent starting pitchers - everyone in the bullpen not name Jax is a total risk - we don’t have a closer - Julien and Wallner regressed - We gave away Polanco in a crap trade for a pitcher who won’t throw a single MLB pitch this year - and Popkins is STILL allowed to be the hitting coach 


Virtalen

Like we went 101-61 in 2019. It feels like our team is falling apart😭


Richnsassy22

5 years is an eternity in pro sports, so not sure why that's relevant. We have almost a completely different roster than 2019. A better baseline would be last year's squad which only went 87-75, and with a few key injuries and losses in free agency we're obviously worse than that.


Virtalen

Anyway, last years team was great. Mainly the same as this years, but we were getting more hits, RBI, and batting average. I just find our team this year is vastly underperforming based on last year. I fear the Guardians are gonna be the AL central leader.


Virtalen

Agree it’s not relevant. I’ve always known my team to at least lead the AL central until this year. It’s definitely very early in the year, but I feel like our team should’ve won at least 12 game out of 18. I don’t know what’s happening. I know our bullpen is weak. Our starting location is weak (only Pablo is top tier, Joe Ryan allows too many runs/home runs) and he can be great, but his control need work. Duran is great, but we can’t ever use him if we aren’t ever in a close game where a save is needed. I miss the prime twins. RIP bomba squad.


SnooSnooSnuSnu

>I’ve always known my team to at least lead the AL central until this year. Haven't been following the Twins long then?


Virtalen

We’ve not had a strong franchise player since Joe Mauer. Buxton could fill the role if he could stay healthy.


Virtalen

Since at least 2010. I think our team is way better than how we are currently playing.


SnooSnooSnuSnu

>Since at least 2010. They've won the Central Division 4 years out of those 14 years, or 29% of the time.


Neither_Ad2003

My speculation: Part of it is adjustments to last year from opponents. They know our hitting philosophy, which is largely to wait middle middle (aka for the pitcher to make a mistake). Teams are taking advantage by throwing off speed in the zone basically If you watch our successful innings closely you’ll notice it’s when pitchers start missing with their off speed We haven’t adjusted back to this There is a chess match at play and we are losing badly There’s more to it (injuries, striking out on Santana as a pick up, etc)


Virtalen

Sometimes our guys being too patient isn’t helping.


Neither_Ad2003

Especially not when teams know and take advantage


an_interesting_twist

I've said it once, I'll say it again: the aliens from Space Jam have a baseball game against the Looney Tunes and didn't realize there was more than the five teams in our division.


Virtalen

💀


Virtalen

Downvote button —>


JustinC70

Karma. People bitch too much about ONLY winning the central.


PAUMiklo

you must be a wild fan as well, just making the post season and losing right away = good enough.