Latest / Twin Cities Territory / Twins open home schedule with cold weather, cold bats, and another 1-2 series vs. Rays

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Twins open home schedule with cold weather, cold bats, and another 1-2 series vs. Rays · Twin Cities Territory

0:09
Speaker 1: All right, hello and welcome back to Twins Cities Territory,
0:13
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Twins podcast here on the Foul Territory Network.
0:17
Speaker 1: I am Zach Pierce, the Athletics second best of two
0:22
Speaker 1: alpine skiing writers, also a longtime Twins fan, former Minnesota
0:27
Speaker 1: editor here at the Athletic. Dan Hayes joins us as
0:30
Speaker 1: always the Athletics Minnesota Twins beat writer, and also with
0:34
Speaker 1: us again Tyler Duffy, longtime Major leader and former Minnesota
0:38
Speaker 1: Twins pitcher. Guys, the Twins are three and six after
0:43
Speaker 1: a third straight one win, two loss series to start
0:47
Speaker 1: the season. I have to ask you, are we still
0:49
Speaker 1: in the four point three percent club?
0:53
Speaker 2: Man maintaining, maintaining.
0:57
Speaker 3: Yes, there's still signs they need some offense badly. It's
1:02
Speaker 3: a little rough fourth game yesterday where they have scored
1:05
Speaker 3: one run this season and their mid pack and run scored.
1:09
Speaker 3: Actually they've thirty eight runs scored, but they've done all
1:11
Speaker 3: their scoring in five other games. Of those four to
1:13
Speaker 3: one run games, three of them were winnable. I would
1:16
Speaker 3: say Saturday night, which was maybe the worst weather I've
1:19
Speaker 3: ever seen a game played in, that was not a
1:22
Speaker 3: winnable game. They lost seven to one. But every other
1:24
Speaker 3: game yesterday, last Monday in Kansas City and Opening Day
1:29
Speaker 3: all were winnable games. No offense shown up, and that's
1:33
Speaker 3: shown up quite a bit early on. We've seen it,
1:35
Speaker 3: and it's it's something they're going to have to get going.
1:38
Speaker 3: They have six regulars right now with an OPS under
1:41
Speaker 3: six hundred, and those guys all have at least twenty
1:44
Speaker 3: three at bats, So there's some good performers on the
1:47
Speaker 3: offense and they need to get Byron Bucks in Luke
1:50
Speaker 3: keishall going to keep that hope meter up.
1:55
Speaker 1: The four point three percent reference to the Athletics Hope
1:58
Speaker 1: a Meter poll that we talked about last week, in
2:01
Speaker 1: which four point three percent of fans said they were
2:03
Speaker 1: optimistic about the season. Dan, you mentioned the offense. They
2:09
Speaker 1: were actually tied for fifth and runs scored going into
2:12
Speaker 1: Saturday's game after having, as he said, an outburst of runs.
2:16
Speaker 1: The rest of their offensive stats were sort of on
2:19
Speaker 1: one side of mediocre the other. Yeah, and then came
2:22
Speaker 1: this weekend, just an abysmal couple of games Saturday and Sunday.
2:26
Speaker 1: By the way, it's Monday, April sixth. Usually I say
2:29
Speaker 1: that at the top six hits and sixty two at
2:32
Speaker 1: bats in those two games. Matt Wallner had had a
2:36
Speaker 1: whale of a weekend with nine strikeouts and thirteen at bats,
2:40
Speaker 1: but also provided the only run on Sunday then had
2:42
Speaker 1: the base running blunder as well. So cherry picking any
2:48
Speaker 1: couple of games is obviously tough in a long season,
2:50
Speaker 1: but overall, certainly some concerns about the offense after what
2:53
Speaker 1: we just saw in those first two games.
2:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you look at it, and I mean again,
3:00
Speaker 3: I think everything goes through Byron Buckston and Luke Kishall.
3:03
Speaker 3: Friday night, Byron Buckson got hit scary moment in the
3:06
Speaker 3: opener and left but was okay. But I mean he's
3:10
Speaker 3: got a four or five ops I think it is,
3:12
Speaker 3: and Lukeishall's is like five fifty, somewhere in that range.
3:16
Speaker 3: These are guys that are expected to have like eight
3:18
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty ops. Is get on base a lot
3:22
Speaker 3: that will loosen things up when they're on base. Saw
3:25
Speaker 3: Keishall come out of the the game and go straight
3:30
Speaker 3: to the batting cage yesterday for some extra swings, because
3:33
Speaker 3: we get into the clubhouse probably about twenty minutes after
3:36
Speaker 3: the game, and I saw him walk in with his
3:37
Speaker 3: bat at that point, just coming in from the field,
3:40
Speaker 3: so you know, he had a monster spring. He will
3:44
Speaker 3: get going, but they need it. And it's frankly, the
3:48
Speaker 3: last two games are pretty boring, so like that was
3:52
Speaker 3: a very winnable game. On Sunday, you know, they had
3:57
Speaker 3: Tampa Bay came in two and four, just like the Twins.
4:00
Speaker 3: Twins beat them on Friday and beat them behind Rice
4:03
Speaker 3: Graduate Tristan Gray's grand slam and right.
4:08
Speaker 2: But.
4:10
Speaker 3: Tampa Bay was was susceptible and the Twins had a
4:13
Speaker 3: second time where they had a rubber match where they
4:16
Speaker 3: could win the series, and they didn't two Sundays in
4:18
Speaker 3: a row, so they need to figure it out.
4:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been you know to like and you know, uh,
4:29
Speaker 4: Simeon had a great game, like you know, great star
4:32
Speaker 4: when he went six and two thirds pitching the seventh
4:34
Speaker 4: inning or whatever it was, and you know you're you're.
4:37
Speaker 2: Playing extra innings, like is that yeah? That was actually right?
4:40
Speaker 4: They went extras Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, it's like
4:43
Speaker 4: you said, we're giving ourselves chances. It's you know, it's
4:46
Speaker 4: not a lack of competitiveness at this point. It's literally like, hey,
4:50
Speaker 4: we just need like three runs instead of one, you know,
4:53
Speaker 4: and that's you know, back to the guys at the beginning.
4:56
Speaker 4: You know, you talked about Buck. I still think him
4:59
Speaker 4: going to the w BBC was great. You know, you're
5:01
Speaker 4: you're never gonna not go. But I think in my eyes,
5:04
Speaker 4: it's he missed out on a lot of at bats
5:06
Speaker 4: you could have had at camp, you know, because he didn't.
5:10
Speaker 4: He wasn't a starter every game. He's a defensive sub
5:12
Speaker 4: a couple of times like that. So it's it's tough
5:14
Speaker 4: to get.
5:15
Speaker 2: Going, you know.
5:16
Speaker 4: And now you plug right back into a big league
5:17
Speaker 4: game where you're the guy in the lineup, like it's
5:20
Speaker 4: not like you're in the middle of the All Star
5:22
Speaker 4: lineup anymore. It's like there's Byron Bucks and he circled
5:24
Speaker 4: on everyone's card. You know, you're not ready to get
5:27
Speaker 4: him out and then worry about everyone else, and you.
5:30
Speaker 2: Know, it's a tough spot to be.
5:31
Speaker 4: But it's also thirty eight degrees in April, you know,
5:34
Speaker 4: it's uh, we're now in April, you know, so it's
5:37
Speaker 4: a you know, I think it'll even out at the end.
5:41
Speaker 4: These young guys who are making their first opening day
5:43
Speaker 4: rosters and all that stuff like, you know, as the
5:45
Speaker 4: smoke clears and dust settles, you know, I think guys
5:48
Speaker 4: will start really getting into their their swinging things and
5:51
Speaker 4: their routine, you know, like you said, getting in the
5:53
Speaker 4: cage postgame. Like sometimes that's all it takes is at
5:56
Speaker 4: one time and it clicks and then you look up
5:58
Speaker 4: and the guy's you know, on fire. So you know
6:01
Speaker 4: it is, you know, going one win and each series
6:04
Speaker 4: to start the year is and what you want. But
6:07
Speaker 4: within the gray area of that, it's like a lot
6:09
Speaker 4: of one run games and you know those are coin
6:12
Speaker 4: flips sometimes, so maybe in this series, maybe they'll come
6:15
Speaker 4: our way.
6:15
Speaker 3: You never know, they have a they have an actual
6:19
Speaker 3: batting practice today, they have actual chance to get in
6:21
Speaker 3: the cage before it's a night game, So get some work.
6:24
Speaker 3: And yeah, I don't know if the balls could be flying.
6:28
Speaker 2: Man.
6:28
Speaker 3: You mentioned that thirty eight degrees the feels like the
6:32
Speaker 3: wind chill on Saturday when Mickabel took them out twenty
6:35
Speaker 3: four degrees, you know, Mickables from Morgan. I bet that
6:38
Speaker 3: was fun even.
6:39
Speaker 4: So, yeah, I noticed that the thin turtleneck goes like
6:43
Speaker 4: it must be pretty cold to bust that one out.
6:45
Speaker 1: Yes, Tyler, you mentioned last week that the first couple
6:51
Speaker 1: of weeks are just kind of tough to get to
6:54
Speaker 1: get into it and read too much into just because
6:55
Speaker 1: of game times are strange, days off or strange. At
6:58
Speaker 1: what point and when when you're having a start like this,
7:02
Speaker 1: do does some concern start to sett in if things
7:05
Speaker 1: don't turn around.
7:07
Speaker 4: It's I mean, it's there for everyone individually, you know, Chelty,
7:11
Speaker 4: he did such a great job with us when you know,
7:13
Speaker 4: he was a bench coach when I was there with
7:15
Speaker 4: two separate managers, and he was what I loved was
7:19
Speaker 4: he was so good at taking the pulse of the
7:21
Speaker 4: play like daily, Dan, I'm sure you saw this you
7:24
Speaker 4: were around, Yeah, you know, he was one kind of
7:27
Speaker 4: doing the rounds in the locker room, you know, talking
7:28
Speaker 4: to everybody, how you doing today, how you feel? You know,
7:31
Speaker 4: really good about getting with the relievers, you know, how
7:34
Speaker 4: are we hanging today?
7:35
Speaker 2: Like, you know, can you get one? You get an
7:37
Speaker 2: n angle?
7:37
Speaker 4: Things like that, And you know he kept it loose
7:40
Speaker 4: even when maybe it wasn't loose. And you know I've
7:43
Speaker 4: used to I kind of used the joke, but he'd
7:45
Speaker 4: come around for like a big series and he's you
7:47
Speaker 4: nervous or you know, you sure you're ready for.
7:49
Speaker 2: To night kind of thing like free game. You know,
7:51
Speaker 2: the Yankees are in town.
7:52
Speaker 4: You know, the big Beast is here, and so it
7:54
Speaker 4: was you know, stuff like that to keep it loose
7:56
Speaker 4: and keep that perspective of like tomorrow's game has already
8:01
Speaker 4: gone and change it. And so now it's just move on,
8:04
Speaker 4: you know, take your next step forward, and especially with
8:08
Speaker 4: the right.
8:08
Speaker 2: Guys in that clubhouse.
8:09
Speaker 4: You know, Byron's been through it ten years now, you know, officially,
8:12
Speaker 4: and you know there's a lot of guys who had
8:14
Speaker 4: all their struggles and they'll know how to get through it.
8:16
Speaker 4: Now it's just you know, settling in. We're kind of
8:19
Speaker 4: getting past the craziness of opening weekend and series and
8:22
Speaker 4: all the fireworks and flyovers, and now it's like games
8:25
Speaker 4: at six forty. It's going to start at six forty
8:28
Speaker 4: and that's all that matters. And uh, you know for
8:31
Speaker 4: the next you know, month or so, just got to
8:33
Speaker 4: keep our heads down, you know, just just work through it.
8:37
Speaker 1: Well, we have a lot more to get to on
8:38
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Speaker 1: Right, we're back Dan. You you mentioned the weather, you
10:03
Speaker 1: mentioned or we talked about the fan apathy going into
10:07
Speaker 1: the season opening weekend at target Field is now in
10:10
Speaker 1: the books and curious, as the only one of the
10:14
Speaker 1: three of us who was there this weekend, what the
10:16
Speaker 1: vibe was like and what your impressions were from just
10:18
Speaker 1: the atmosphere and the fans on the opening weekend.
10:21
Speaker 3: Friday was great. Opening Day, people showed up. It was
10:25
Speaker 3: announced thirty six thousand. There's no way it was thirty
10:28
Speaker 3: six thousand. That's the amount of tickets they distribute or sell.
10:32
Speaker 3: And I know somebody here who had four tickets to
10:36
Speaker 3: go and decided better against the weather. But I mean
10:40
Speaker 3: they distributed tickets thirty six thousand. I would bet it
10:43
Speaker 3: was more like thirty one in the park. They sold
10:45
Speaker 3: twenty four thousand two dollars beers in pregame. The power
10:50
Speaker 3: outage was absolutely wild. I mean, you're just looking for
10:53
Speaker 3: an omen and that's not a great one to start
10:56
Speaker 3: the season about. You know, eighty minutes BEFO first pitch,
11:00
Speaker 3: about forty minutes before all the ceremonies started, the lights
11:03
Speaker 3: just go out and cued a bunch of really crappy
11:06
Speaker 3: jokes on social media about not paying the power bill,
11:09
Speaker 3: but it was actually a neighborhood thing. There were about,
11:12
Speaker 3: I don't know, two thousand customers. There were fifteen hundred
11:15
Speaker 3: customers affected by according to Excel, along with thirty thousand
11:20
Speaker 3: at the ballpark. They didn't mention that, but they they
11:23
Speaker 3: got it back up. It went, It went good. The
11:27
Speaker 3: team decided to extend the beer sales into the second
11:30
Speaker 3: inning because they knew fans had kind of lost out
11:33
Speaker 3: on a chance to do it. I thought that was
11:34
Speaker 3: a great move. I think fans had a great time.
11:37
Speaker 3: And then you have they were terrible. The first three
11:40
Speaker 3: innings that were held hitless. Bailey over kind of struggled,
11:43
Speaker 3: but they the three runs, they're down three nothing, they
11:46
Speaker 3: come back, they take the seven inning out or seven
11:51
Speaker 3: run out bursts in the seventh. It was a great game.
11:53
Speaker 3: After that, the crowds were sort of disappointing. But also
11:57
Speaker 3: this is April, and you always have to remember that
12:00
Speaker 3: April crowds are going to suck. They have seventeen home
12:02
Speaker 3: games in April this year, and that's I think we've
12:05
Speaker 3: already seen. The numbers are down a little bit. We
12:08
Speaker 3: were keeping tracking somewhere around twenty seven hundred to three
12:11
Speaker 3: thousand people down from last year's first three games. We
12:15
Speaker 3: know it's going to be like that. We've the hope
12:18
Speaker 3: of meters four percent. And by the way, Tom Pollead
12:20
Speaker 3: knows what the hopemeter is. I pasked him in the
12:24
Speaker 3: pregame dugout and I was like, hey, you know there
12:26
Speaker 3: was a poll about finn finn optimism. He said, oh,
12:31
Speaker 3: you mean the hope meter. He's like, he said, if
12:33
Speaker 3: you don't think I read that? And I asked, was
12:36
Speaker 3: it surprising? He said surprising, No, but it was jarring
12:39
Speaker 3: and he knows what they're up against. So I want
12:42
Speaker 3: to ask you, Zach, because I think you know you
12:44
Speaker 3: used to be a diehard Twins fan. Now you have
12:47
Speaker 3: children seven and four, I think you fall more in
12:49
Speaker 3: the casual fan category. You had tickets for Friday. I
12:54
Speaker 3: would not have taken my four year old to thirty
12:57
Speaker 3: eight degrees and then rain, but say it was sixty degrees.
13:02
Speaker 3: Is this team doing enough to win you over as
13:05
Speaker 3: a fan?
13:06
Speaker 1: What do you need to see? Well, I should clarify
13:09
Speaker 1: I did have tickets. We think we talked about this
13:11
Speaker 1: in the first show or second show. I got them
13:13
Speaker 1: from TC Bear or a guy pretending to be Yes
13:18
Speaker 1: or a guy pretending to be TC Bear. Yeah, And
13:22
Speaker 1: you know, kudos to the Twins for you know, if
13:25
Speaker 1: you can't sell them, at least they're trying to get
13:27
Speaker 1: people to the to the ballpark anyway. And what an
13:29
Speaker 1: awesome gesture to get free tickets. And the only reason
13:33
Speaker 1: we didn't use them is because we had just gotten
13:35
Speaker 1: back from Palm Springs the night before. Kids are tired
13:38
Speaker 1: and out of control, and then they haven't Neither of
13:41
Speaker 1: them has been through a baseball game before, and I
13:43
Speaker 1: just wasn't sure that fatigued after a trip in forty
13:47
Speaker 1: degree weather was the time to do it. Because I
13:49
Speaker 1: want them to go back someday, right, Yeah, Like I
13:57
Speaker 1: I think I'm into sports in general because the Twins,
14:00
Speaker 1: because they won two World Series. When I was a kid,
14:03
Speaker 1: I got into with my mom. I remember watching ninety one.
14:06
Speaker 1: I don't remember eighty seven. I cashed in all my
14:09
Speaker 1: clout and my previous employer to get tickets to that
14:11
Speaker 1: All Star game above my head in twenty fourteen, and
14:13
Speaker 1: I took my mom. I would desperately love to have
14:17
Speaker 1: that connection with my kids through sports, and like, I
14:21
Speaker 1: don't really frankly care how good the team is if
14:23
Speaker 1: I can make that happen, but I do think that, Yeah,
14:27
Speaker 1: like it's tough to say, it's tough to put all
14:30
Speaker 1: the attendance woes on on apathy and anger right now,
14:36
Speaker 1: just given the weather and the fact that it's so
14:38
Speaker 1: early in the season. And Tyler, we were talking off air,
14:40
Speaker 1: and you said, even family doesn't go to games sometimes because.
14:44
Speaker 4: It's so cool when it's old, it's cold, and then
14:46
Speaker 4: it's raining and it's or snowing for that matter, and
14:50
Speaker 4: it's like, especially like you said, you got little kids,
14:52
Speaker 4: it's like you only got an hour before they start
14:55
Speaker 4: losing it to begin with, and then you're going to
14:57
Speaker 4: put them in the cold and everything else, and you know,
14:59
Speaker 4: it's part of it. But it's also the most beautiful summer, right,
15:03
Speaker 4: you know, atmosphere have so it's like it's a huge
15:06
Speaker 4: give and take, you know, they'll say, and everyone in
15:09
Speaker 4: Minnesota said, you know, oh, but the summers are great.
15:11
Speaker 2: They are. You just got to get to the summer,
15:14
Speaker 2: right Sometimes.
15:15
Speaker 3: Justin Moore, no, like who loved hitting at the Metrome,
15:18
Speaker 3: right loved hitting the Metrome. I didn't necessarily love hitting
15:21
Speaker 3: at target Field, said the same exact thing. He's like,
15:24
Speaker 3: I'll take this any day. He played in the bag.
15:27
Speaker 3: I mean, Zach, you've been to both, Like, the atmosphere
15:31
Speaker 3: is just significantly different. I never got to go to
15:34
Speaker 3: target Field, but I've been to the trop I've been
15:37
Speaker 3: indoors plenty in Arizona, Houston. There's something about being like
15:42
Speaker 3: I can't imagine how much different, like the first time
15:45
Speaker 3: you walked into target Field, even though you're probably freezing,
15:48
Speaker 3: but I mean.
15:49
Speaker 1: What like it was. Actually it was the second game ever.
15:53
Speaker 1: I couldn't get tickets to the first game. It was
15:54
Speaker 1: too too hot an item, and it was pretty nice,
15:57
Speaker 1: as I remember that day. Yeah it was actually do yeah,
16:02
Speaker 1: but yes, quite cool. I look, I think I totally agree.
16:08
Speaker 1: If they were still playing in the Dome, I don't
16:10
Speaker 1: know that I would be inclined to want to go
16:12
Speaker 1: on a nice June day and sit inside like. I
16:14
Speaker 1: think that aspect of it is great, And I don't
16:17
Speaker 1: to your point about me being more of a casual fan,
16:20
Speaker 1: I don't really care if they win or lose when
16:22
Speaker 1: I go, you know, because I'm only going to go
16:24
Speaker 1: to a couple of games a year. It's more about
16:26
Speaker 1: just the experience of being there and and it's a
16:28
Speaker 1: great way. It's been a summer day for sure. Anybody
16:31
Speaker 1: who is staying away and because they're pissed off at
16:34
Speaker 1: the pole ads frustrated that they can't put a winner
16:37
Speaker 1: on the field, like, I don't, I don't blame you,
16:39
Speaker 1: like that's that's it's not cheap to go, especially if
16:42
Speaker 1: you're talking about a family four kids, like I like,
16:47
Speaker 1: it's still the cheapest ticket in town of the of
16:49
Speaker 1: the of the major men's sports, for sure. But it's
16:54
Speaker 1: to each their own on that for sure. And I think,
16:55
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm any new season, I'm always willing
16:58
Speaker 1: to to open up my mind and be surprised if
17:02
Speaker 1: the team is unexpectedly good. It has happened a few
17:04
Speaker 1: times in the last twenty years where you know, there's
17:07
Speaker 1: been pretty low expectations. And I think Tyler, I think
17:10
Speaker 1: you were on one of those teams, and so you know,
17:14
Speaker 1: like and also I don't know, ask ask Yankees fans
17:19
Speaker 1: how how much spending money guarantees winning. Yeah, So it's
17:24
Speaker 1: like whatever kind of fan you want to be, I don't.
17:26
Speaker 3: I don't begrudge you for it.
17:27
Speaker 1: But for me, it's more about like I would just
17:29
Speaker 1: love to have a space to bond with my kids
17:32
Speaker 1: at some point and I'm just waiting for the right
17:34
Speaker 1: time to do that.
17:35
Speaker 2: So yeah, the experience going to the game is what's fun.
17:38
Speaker 4: You know, you get there, if you get there early,
17:40
Speaker 4: you watch them VP like, you can spend the whole
17:42
Speaker 4: day there really and then by the end of it,
17:44
Speaker 4: you know, half the time the kids don't know who won,
17:46
Speaker 4: are lost anyways, you know, And if that's that's what
17:49
Speaker 4: you're investing in, is a win, like, then you're in
17:51
Speaker 4: the wrong place because you know, one hundred and sixty
17:54
Speaker 4: two games, things got a lot of different directions.
17:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, now I think that I think the casuals will
17:59
Speaker 3: cantinue to come because it's when we get into this summer.
18:03
Speaker 3: I mean, I just the sense of community that was
18:07
Speaker 3: at the ballpark there to day was great in Minnesota
18:09
Speaker 3: had a hard winter, so like it's uh, I think
18:13
Speaker 3: people are going to want to come out in that
18:14
Speaker 3: regard the diehards. They want to be proven and I
18:18
Speaker 3: get that, and I and they see that payroll and
18:21
Speaker 3: they know that thirty million is not even on the
18:24
Speaker 3: roster right now, between Pablo and Lopez and Carlos Kreya.
18:28
Speaker 3: That's tough when the numbers one oh five. There's a
18:31
Speaker 3: lot of young talent and that can definitely you know,
18:37
Speaker 3: you look at it. All the guys like the Wallners,
18:39
Speaker 3: the bunch of the young pitchers, Luke, Keishall, brooks Lee,
18:44
Speaker 3: they're all still making a little bit more than the
18:48
Speaker 3: minimum salary. You know, they're they're because their service time
18:51
Speaker 3: is so low, so that skews the roster the numbers.
18:55
Speaker 3: But the Twins only spent a little bit and it's
18:57
Speaker 3: sixty million down from a couple years ago. People are
18:59
Speaker 3: having a tough time overlooking that. I get that. I do,
19:04
Speaker 3: so this team has to win them back by the
19:08
Speaker 3: time May and June rolls around. The team is going
19:11
Speaker 3: to have to like the fight is there. The competitiveness
19:14
Speaker 3: I feel like is there. But they need to start converting.
19:17
Speaker 3: Having two straight Sundays where you had the rubber match
19:20
Speaker 3: where you had a shot and you were in both
19:22
Speaker 3: those games the whole way coming up empty. They need
19:25
Speaker 3: to convert. You don't get those opportunities over and over
19:28
Speaker 3: and over before it starts snowballing the wrong direction. And
19:30
Speaker 3: if it snowballs the wrong direction, you know, not that
19:33
Speaker 3: there's as many guys as there were last year to
19:36
Speaker 3: trade away, but we've seen what happens when things go
19:38
Speaker 3: the wrong direction. I you know, you don't want that
19:40
Speaker 3: to be the case because you might drive away more
19:43
Speaker 3: Twins fans with another sell off at the deadline.
19:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. Winning cures all at the end of the day. Yeah,
19:51
Speaker 2: even if it's.
19:51
Speaker 3: Just oh the red Zoner and I struggle. I can't
19:56
Speaker 3: remember his name, but a couple years ago the Reds
19:58
Speaker 3: fans were livid because he was He essentially said, where
20:02
Speaker 3: else are they going to go?
20:03
Speaker 2: And right, yeah and watch another But.
20:10
Speaker 3: Like, knowing that they could win and they've been, their
20:13
Speaker 3: attendance is rebounded as they've gotten good again with you know,
20:16
Speaker 3: led Day La Cruz and talented players in that field.
20:19
Speaker 3: And yeah, so we'll see what the how this pans out.
20:24
Speaker 3: It's way too early because again, April just skews the
20:27
Speaker 3: numbers so bad. It's crazy that Twins have almost twenty
20:31
Speaker 3: person like twenty percent of their home schedule in April.
20:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's poorest part growing up or maybe just maturing.
20:47
Speaker 1: I don't know has made me completely flip on fair
20:50
Speaker 1: Weather fans. I used to hate fair Weather fans when
20:53
Speaker 1: I was like suffering through ten win Timberwolve seasons and
20:57
Speaker 1: then like they draft Kevin Garnett all of a sudden,
20:59
Speaker 1: everyone's like I love the Yeah, sure you do. Now
21:02
Speaker 1: I totally get it. It's just like life is busy, man,
21:05
Speaker 1: Like we all have things to do. I would I
21:08
Speaker 1: wish I had the free time to sit and watch
21:10
Speaker 1: a three hour game every night. But so like, yeah,
21:13
Speaker 1: people will come, Tyler, like you said, when the winning returns,
21:18
Speaker 1: and when it does, it'll be fun. It's it's a
21:20
Speaker 1: it's an amazing place to be when it's full and
21:23
Speaker 1: people care about what's going on in front.
21:25
Speaker 4: Of Oh yeah yeah, I wouldn't be surprised there's a
21:29
Speaker 4: I mean, I would hope a little turnout for this series.
21:32
Speaker 4: Just the Tigers are in town. You got cy Young,
21:35
Speaker 4: you know, big free agents signed. You know, I have
21:37
Speaker 4: Burlanders on the IL. But like that's kind of be
21:40
Speaker 4: a fun series no matter what whoever you match up with,
21:43
Speaker 4: Like it's going to be a dog fight, you know,
21:44
Speaker 4: and those are the series, especially during the year, you know,
21:47
Speaker 4: you go into Detroit now like there was no fans
21:50
Speaker 4: there a while back, and now it's a packed house,
21:52
Speaker 4: and you know, hopefully for barget Field's sake. You know,
21:56
Speaker 4: it drives a little thing too, because that's you know,
21:58
Speaker 4: it's a good team, that's a potential. What if, you know,
22:01
Speaker 4: if all these first rounders for the Twins kind of
22:03
Speaker 4: start to click, like that's basically what Detroit had happened,
22:06
Speaker 4: you know, And that's all. It takes a fear of
22:09
Speaker 4: your guys that you put some money into.
22:10
Speaker 2: They figure it out quick, like, hey, dup your building up.
22:14
Speaker 3: I wanted to ask you this that twenty four degrees,
22:17
Speaker 3: that chill factor there. Yeah, okay, so somebody was describing
22:24
Speaker 3: to me that when you're in the bullpen there's all
22:26
Speaker 3: kinds of heaters. It's actually very nice in there. Yeah,
22:29
Speaker 3: tell me the blast when you hit that outfield door.
22:33
Speaker 3: But also, then what does pitching in that weather do?
22:36
Speaker 3: Because you know, I mean there's people, yeah, played in
22:40
Speaker 3: high school, college, but I mean, I'm guessing a lot
22:42
Speaker 3: of our audience has not done that. And yeah, if
22:46
Speaker 3: I was, I'm not gonna pick that day to go
22:49
Speaker 3: outside and throw baseball around myself.
22:51
Speaker 4: So what's it like we're pretty shielded because you know,
22:55
Speaker 4: it's kind of like a bunker back there, and especially
22:57
Speaker 4: I guess at one point the home side was the
23:00
Speaker 4: front and then per request of somebody, I can't remember who,
23:03
Speaker 4: they moved it to the back. But you're pretty covered
23:07
Speaker 4: from the wind. You know, the benches now are heated,
23:09
Speaker 4: you know, jackets, there's heater like you name it. We're
23:12
Speaker 4: in our little cocoon down there. And as soon as
23:16
Speaker 4: like you hit the gate and the wind, like you
23:18
Speaker 4: can talk to Byron about how the wind flows through
23:20
Speaker 4: the stadium, it's like it's blowing out to center. It's
23:22
Speaker 4: blown actually like at his back, it's like it. I
23:25
Speaker 4: don't know how the effects work, but you hit that gate,
23:28
Speaker 4: once you get on the dirt, and the temperature drops
23:30
Speaker 4: like twenty degrees like instantly, and so you're feeling that.
23:35
Speaker 4: It's the initial shock of like oh my god, okay,
23:38
Speaker 4: this is real. And then to that point, like you're
23:40
Speaker 4: pretty sedentary, like you can move around whatever, but until
23:43
Speaker 4: you really get a blood flow sweat going, you know
23:45
Speaker 4: that like your hands are purple or white, you know whatever.
23:48
Speaker 4: You're trying to throw a baseball, and like it's throbbing
23:51
Speaker 4: sometimes you can't feel your fingertips and you're just like,
23:54
Speaker 4: all right, I guess I'm gonna figure it out once
23:56
Speaker 4: I get on the mound because it ain't happening yet,
23:59
Speaker 4: and so it's it's definitely for a reliever. It's you know,
24:03
Speaker 4: granted it's one inning, but if you can't get it
24:07
Speaker 4: right quickly like that in and goes south very fast,
24:10
Speaker 4: then you know, then next thing you know, you're in
24:12
Speaker 4: the dugout, Like what happened?
24:13
Speaker 2: Yes?
24:15
Speaker 3: Like how how long I mean is it? Can you
24:18
Speaker 3: adjust to it? Can the second time out? You've experienced
24:21
Speaker 3: it once before? Like does that change things that you
24:24
Speaker 3: have gone through it?
24:26
Speaker 2: Yeah?
24:26
Speaker 4: You try to move around a lot like I was
24:28
Speaker 4: big on you know, whenever we'd get there for opening day,
24:32
Speaker 4: Like I would go out to play catch in a
24:33
Speaker 4: T shirt, like I may have pants on, but like.
24:37
Speaker 2: Go as little clothing as possible, just to.
24:39
Speaker 4: Like introduce it to your body because you've been in Florida,
24:42
Speaker 4: like you know, not anything remotely close and so there's only.
24:46
Speaker 2: So many ways to do. And you'll see a lot
24:48
Speaker 2: of guys do that. It's kind of like.
24:49
Speaker 4: Granted, the NFL there, it's scare tactics you know, guys
24:52
Speaker 4: are runing around without their shirts on, but they're also
24:55
Speaker 4: kind of shock in the body.
24:56
Speaker 2: It's like, hey, look, this is what we're going to
24:58
Speaker 2: be in. You know, it's in yourself used to it,
25:01
Speaker 2: but yeah, you settle in.
25:02
Speaker 4: And I won't say it's an advantage for anybody, because
25:06
Speaker 4: you ask any of the hitters, they don't want to hit.
25:08
Speaker 2: Like it's just simple. You get jammed.
25:11
Speaker 4: You know, you hit one at the end, you feel
25:12
Speaker 4: it for three weeks until you know, to that point
25:16
Speaker 4: like you can get used to it. Your body gets acclimated,
25:18
Speaker 4: but you can't ever get hot, like.
25:20
Speaker 2: It's just never going to happen. J Yeah, and to
25:24
Speaker 2: that point.
25:25
Speaker 4: But like for fans, you're just sitting there like a
25:26
Speaker 4: popsicle drink the only way to survive.
25:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, Junior Cameron Aro on the Friday and the opener,
25:35
Speaker 3: his body language said he wanted no part of being there,
25:37
Speaker 3: and this is like one of the biggest bad asses
25:39
Speaker 3: in baseball right. In fact, he hit he gulfed that
25:42
Speaker 3: home run out against sim yesterday. The pitch was like
25:46
Speaker 3: I think Matthew Leech from MLB dot Com said that
25:49
Speaker 3: it was like the third lowest pitch that day, have
25:52
Speaker 3: tracked since stat tracker is in that was hit out
25:56
Speaker 3: and he hit it in the second deck, So we
25:57
Speaker 3: know that guy's like just a general badass and he
26:00
Speaker 3: had two errors on Friday, and you could tell he
26:03
Speaker 3: wanted no part of being there, Like his body was tense.
26:08
Speaker 3: It's a big man, like there's a lot of parts
26:10
Speaker 3: to get going and cold. Yeah, you can see it,
26:15
Speaker 3: and you can see guys experience it for the first time.
26:17
Speaker 3: And like there was Sunday there was actually sun out
26:20
Speaker 3: and it was forty seven and it's like still windy,
26:23
Speaker 3: not fun, but at least there was sunshine and guys
26:27
Speaker 3: were acting like it was the greatest day ever. And
26:29
Speaker 3: it's like it just tells you what guys endure as
26:34
Speaker 3: they go through this.
26:38
Speaker 1: Amid all this losing in recent years and all the
26:41
Speaker 1: stuff we've talked about today, a cool thing has also
26:47
Speaker 1: been happening and it was commemorated this weekend in the
26:49
Speaker 1: locker room, Dan Byron Buxton hitting ten years of service time,
26:54
Speaker 1: all of them with the twins, and by all accounts
26:58
Speaker 1: seems to be somebody who despite all of this, enjoys
27:01
Speaker 1: being here and wants to stay here, which I never
27:04
Speaker 1: understand that when we you know, Kevin Garnett was kind
27:07
Speaker 1: of like that to the athlete who's not from here,
27:09
Speaker 1: but for some reason loyal despite struggles on the field.
27:13
Speaker 1: But Tyler, you came up with him basically, right.
27:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, we were same draft class, so I played at
27:19
Speaker 4: every level, saw everything, and then unfortunately for me, I
27:24
Speaker 4: got very used to him. So when I got called up,
27:27
Speaker 4: you know, and we would miss each other things at
27:29
Speaker 4: that and I'm like, man, I could really use bucking
27:31
Speaker 4: s their field right now, you know, Yeah.
27:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's he.
27:35
Speaker 4: I guess it was yestually it was officially ten years,
27:37
Speaker 4: which is yeah, crack back on now, you know, from
27:41
Speaker 4: you know, fighting, I remember Tommy Tommy Watkins having to
27:44
Speaker 4: escort him to the bus because fans are like waving
27:47
Speaker 4: bats trying to get him signed and things like that.
27:49
Speaker 4: We're like leaving the field that I've never seen this before.
27:51
Speaker 4: I'm like, you know, we're baseball players, like who cares?
27:54
Speaker 4: And it was my first like intro to like this
27:56
Speaker 4: is what being a prospect is. And it was like
27:58
Speaker 4: just literally people waving full sized baseball bats like over
28:02
Speaker 4: our heads trying to get him to sign and Tommy's
28:04
Speaker 4: at the people.
28:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
28:06
Speaker 4: It was was in Beloit and there was nowhere to
28:08
Speaker 4: like hide, Like we had to walk through the stadium
28:11
Speaker 4: to get to our locker room. And so they pulled
28:13
Speaker 4: up the bus, you know, I don't know, twenty yards
28:16
Speaker 4: away and it's just a wall of people just screaming, yelling,
28:20
Speaker 4: and I'm just.
28:21
Speaker 2: Like, what is going on here?
28:25
Speaker 1: Yeah?
28:25
Speaker 4: Literally, like literally it's like this is this is kind
28:28
Speaker 4: of cool. Like I'm glad it's not me having to
28:29
Speaker 4: deal with that, but.
28:30
Speaker 2: You know, it was.
28:32
Speaker 4: It's pretty neat and like to your point, doing it
28:34
Speaker 4: with one team is I think that's something that guys hold,
28:38
Speaker 4: you know, close to their hearts. You know, it's something
28:41
Speaker 4: the team that drafted you and getting to spend your
28:43
Speaker 4: whole career there. You know, it's something that doesn't happen
28:47
Speaker 4: for everybody. You know that it's not a lot of
28:49
Speaker 4: guys wish they probably could have done that.
28:51
Speaker 3: Where where's your service time currently at?
28:54
Speaker 2: Right?
28:54
Speaker 4: I got six and six and change, you know, this
28:58
Speaker 4: act on one with Chicago somewhere in there.
29:03
Speaker 3: So this is I mean, so Buck is the first
29:07
Speaker 3: guy and there's gonna be three this year with the Twins,
29:11
Speaker 3: Taylor Rodgers could be later this month. I think it's
29:13
Speaker 3: when we get to New York. Josh Bell is some
29:15
Speaker 3: point later this season took so Taylor gave a speech
29:21
Speaker 3: yesterday and one of the parts was, you know, everybody
29:25
Speaker 3: kind of assumed when Buck got drafted he would be
29:28
Speaker 3: a ten year guy, that this was going to be
29:30
Speaker 3: that guy that could do it. And he said, but
29:33
Speaker 3: just because we all assumed that, I didn't want it
29:35
Speaker 3: to get lost. And I think we needed to recognize
29:37
Speaker 3: this the way we have this. How many times in
29:40
Speaker 3: your career do you remember guys getting And this is
29:43
Speaker 3: something that's a recent phenomenon, probably in the last five
29:45
Speaker 3: ten years, where I feel like players have recognized that
29:49
Speaker 3: getting there is such a big deal where it's a
29:52
Speaker 3: huge Two years ago, Kristen Ross Christian Vosquez, we were
29:55
Speaker 3: in Texas, his wife hired. It wasn't a salsa ban,
30:00
Speaker 3: it was something close to that, and they played in
30:03
Speaker 3: the clubhouse and it was incredible, Like they played in
30:05
Speaker 3: the clubhouse for like twenty minutes. It was the biggest party,
30:08
Speaker 3: and the Twins they won that game. But Vosky is
30:12
Speaker 3: like walking around grin and ear to ear and it
30:14
Speaker 3: does feel like now players are recognizing it more. Taylor
30:17
Speaker 3: said that out of the twenty four thousand in Major
30:19
Speaker 3: League history, like seventeen hundred, it's seven percent whatever that
30:24
Speaker 3: is have reached ten years and so now guys are
30:27
Speaker 3: recognizing it, and we have these great celebrations. Buck got
30:30
Speaker 3: a rolex, there's painting, there was a bottle of champagne
30:36
Speaker 3: signed by all his teammates. But like, how many guys
30:39
Speaker 3: do you remember and what do you think it means
30:41
Speaker 3: to the individual player just to achieve.
30:43
Speaker 4: That it's huge At the time, I want to say
30:47
Speaker 4: the number was in like the mid nineteen thousands when
30:51
Speaker 4: I first remember hearing yeah. I remember like trying to say,
30:56
Speaker 4: I want to say it was Matt Belile did it
30:59
Speaker 4: for maybe for Phil Hughes. I think was one first
31:03
Speaker 4: ones I remember seeing, and it was one year. You
31:05
Speaker 4: start thinking about the numbers because there's only you know,
31:08
Speaker 4: however many thousand players ever and fill half a stadium, right,
31:13
Speaker 4: wouldn't fill in an entire stadium the numbers that have
31:15
Speaker 4: ever played. And of those, you know, it's the seventies,
31:19
Speaker 4: seventeen hundred.
31:20
Speaker 3: Roughly whatever somewhere around there are Yeah.
31:23
Speaker 4: And so it is it's something you know, you see
31:26
Speaker 4: guys play forever, but like guys don't get to actual
31:31
Speaker 4: ten years of service time.
31:32
Speaker 2: Like guys will play for parts of thirteen.
31:34
Speaker 4: Years and they bounce around the winners and do that
31:37
Speaker 4: and the journeyman types whatever. But to to get to ten,
31:41
Speaker 4: you know, that is the goal. That's the pension, that's
31:43
Speaker 4: the all the things.
31:45
Speaker 2: You know. But it's a it's a stat it's a
31:47
Speaker 2: club within the game. You know.
31:49
Speaker 4: That's not as it's not a Hall of Fame or
31:52
Speaker 4: you know, your number getting retired. It's just like, hey,
31:54
Speaker 4: you did this for ten years like period, you know.
31:58
Speaker 4: And I in Irony when I first get to Minnesota.
32:02
Speaker 4: We got all these guys with twenty years that are
32:03
Speaker 4: just hanging around the clubhouse.
32:05
Speaker 2: You know.
32:05
Speaker 4: It was Eddie and LaTroy and Tory and Molly like
32:08
Speaker 4: all these guys that played forever. And so we get drafted.
32:11
Speaker 4: We're like, oh, we get to play for fifteen years.
32:13
Speaker 4: Like it's not a big deal.
32:14
Speaker 2: You know, it's mindsight, it's not that easy.
32:17
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's pretty special. And you know, Roger is
32:21
Speaker 4: coming up. I was actually talking with Presley. We're trying
32:23
Speaker 4: to get something maybe order something to surprise him with.
32:26
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's it's pretty special for everybody that happens
32:30
Speaker 4: for it.
32:32
Speaker 2: It's a unique club. Yeah.
32:34
Speaker 3: And also, by the way, belated congratulations to Jack Black
32:38
Speaker 3: and Jack White. They're part of the five Time or
32:40
Speaker 3: Saturday Night Live Club after this Saturday. So they beat
32:44
Speaker 3: buck by one day.
32:45
Speaker 2: As club.
32:50
Speaker 1: Four games against Detroit this week, which is not good
32:53
Speaker 1: news for a team that struggles against left handed pitching,
32:56
Speaker 1: but they get two lefties in these four games, the best,
33:00
Speaker 1: yes to the best two time defending say young winner,
33:04
Speaker 1: is that.
33:05
Speaker 2: Right, schooling?
33:06
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's on Tuesdays, Frambour Valdez on Wednesday, three six
33:12
Speaker 7: forty starts that would make Tyler happy, and then the
33:15
Speaker 7: getaway game on Thursday before they head out on the road.
33:19
Speaker 1: Dan, anything you're looking for in this Detroit series here,
33:23
Speaker 1: just for the bats.
33:24
Speaker 3: To keep getting there and waking up again. It's not
33:27
Speaker 3: going to go on forever. And April does is the
33:31
Speaker 3: worst time to hit. And fortunately the weather for these
33:35
Speaker 3: you know, might rain a little, but I think it's
33:37
Speaker 3: supposed to be warmer in general for the next four days.
33:40
Speaker 3: That's good. Still gonna be crappy conditions, and like your point,
33:45
Speaker 3: you you mentioned the pitching that they're going to face.
33:48
Speaker 3: There's a lot of work to be done. Play competitive,
33:52
Speaker 3: you know, they need to, They need to figure it out.
33:54
Speaker 3: Because Sim was amazing on Sunday, that strikeout of Yandi Diaz,
33:59
Speaker 3: who is one of the toughest hitters to face in baseball,
34:03
Speaker 3: first and third, two outs in the fifth inning and
34:06
Speaker 3: Jeffers with the challenge and getting the overturn. Yeah, yeah,
34:12
Speaker 3: the tiniest piece of the ball hit the zone. But uh,
34:17
Speaker 3: that was a great performance by Sim and it, you know,
34:21
Speaker 3: gets lost because obviously they don't lose it within they
34:26
Speaker 3: know that he's pitched eleven and two thirds great innings
34:28
Speaker 3: so far this season. But a win next to your
34:31
Speaker 3: name would be better, and and or a team win
34:34
Speaker 3: next to you know his name. Can't let those things happen.
34:38
Speaker 3: And also I want to see what Mick Abel does.
34:41
Speaker 3: I think he's got the Thursday start. This might be
34:43
Speaker 3: the best conditions he will have pitched in first time,
34:46
Speaker 3: being the being the back end of the piggyback and
34:49
Speaker 3: then the Saturday night. Now, look, those are not optimal
34:54
Speaker 3: conditions and it's a young guy. So I do think
34:56
Speaker 3: there's something there that you have to at least take
34:59
Speaker 3: that content and consideration. Also, he needs to not bury
35:03
Speaker 3: two strike curveballs and hit guys in the feet up.
35:05
Speaker 3: But I think the goods are there, so I want
35:08
Speaker 3: to see that that outing on Thursday, for sure.
35:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I think him settling in. You know, he
35:14
Speaker 4: hasn't looked comfortable to me yet watching him. You know,
35:16
Speaker 4: it's spraying a little bit things like that. Like I said,
35:19
Speaker 4: that could be cold weather, like we don't know, we're
35:21
Speaker 4: not up close, Like his hands could be purple, like
35:24
Speaker 4: trying to get you know, some sort of grip on
35:26
Speaker 4: a baseball. You know, it's there's a lot going on
35:29
Speaker 4: on that field, especially when the game gets going quick,
35:32
Speaker 4: so you know, get a good settle in. You know,
35:35
Speaker 4: it's gonna be a good gut check series, that's for sure.
35:38
Speaker 3: Yeah.
35:39
Speaker 1: All right on, and we will be back with you
35:42
Speaker 1: before that series is over at some point, probably on Wednesday.
35:45
Speaker 1: But until then, thanks very much for listening. If you
35:48
Speaker 1: like what you heard, click that subscribe button. Appreciate you
35:51
Speaker 1: sticking around with us, and we will catch you next
35:53
Speaker 1: time on Twin Cities Territory.
35:55
Speaker 3: So yeah, Ni