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Royce Lewis' future, Matt Wallner's status and more of your questions · Twin Cities Territory

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: A do-or-die series against the Cleveland Guardians begins Friday night
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: at Target Field, and we answer all your Twins questions
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: today on Twin Cities territory on this Friday morning. Is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: it still morning?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We were with you yesterday. We talked a bit about Cleveland,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: but we'll do it again today. It's obviously a big series.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: The Twins are at 69-77 and four and a half
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: games out in the wildcard race. Guys, the first part
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of my like 400-step plan to get the Twins back
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: into this wildcard race happened last night. The Rangers lost
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: in Seattle, so the Twins got a little bit closer.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: But just to remind everybody of the situation, four and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: a half games out. It's going to take me a
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: minute to navigate again to the right page. But four
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: and a half games out, and that's not even going
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to click right now. Let's forget that. Four back in
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the lost column of Cleveland. So if the Twins can
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: win this series or not, even better sweep it. They
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: can close that gap. Uh, the Blue Jays and Orioles
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: are playing each other, both those teams ahead of the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: twins as well. So some losses to be handed out there.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: The Rangers now go to Arizona to play the Diamondbacks, uh,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a tough series, tough matchup for Texas there too. They
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: also ahead of the twins still. So those are the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: four teams still in the way of that third wildcard spot,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: but the twins can do something about it this weekend. And, uh, Guys,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: we're going to be back here on Monday morning, and
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the tone of that podcast will very much be determined
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: by these next three days. If the Guardians sweep, or
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: even really if they win the series, that's pretty much
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the official nail in the coffin, all but officially over
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: at that point. If the Twins win it, and especially
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: if they sweep, they could be as close as one
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: game back in the loss column from the wildcard leader,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: depending on what Toronto and Texas do over the weekend
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: as well. So it's not over yet. It's not likely
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: that this team that has not been able to figure
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: out a winning streak really much lately is going to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: be able to sweep a very good pitching, especially Cleveland team.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: But here we are, Dan. Are you excited? This is it.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: This is the big series.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Get up.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: You got a lot of good sleep last night.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: You're ready. yeah i got terrible sleep last night it's
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: funny uh i really hope that cleveland followed the plan
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: and flew in on wednesday so they could get acclimated
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: to the time zone yeah because we've seen in sports
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: how much of a difference that can make and the
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: the twins came back from detroit wednesday so they're back
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: and on the time zone 49er strategy all right very
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: very successful 49er strategy thank you very much um And
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I was hoping that game last night was part of
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: your 400-point plan to get the Twins back in there
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: when the 49ers destroyed the Rams. But, you know, we'll
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: move on. Anyways, big series.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: We can make it 401 points. Yeah, let's throw it
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in there.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Sure, yeah.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Thank you. I mean, hey, look. Maybe they studied how
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Brock Purdy just effortlessly moved around the pocket last night. Anyways,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: we'll get away from the 49er topic here. We don't
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: want to drive away viewers. But anyways, yeah, it's a
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: big series. And they're going to face some really good pitching.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: What is it?
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: It's Parker Messick today.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Oh, sweet.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: There we go.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Parker Messick versus Taj, then Gavin Williams versus Bailey Ober Saturday,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: and on Sunday is Joey Cantillo against Joe Ryan. A
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: battle of the Joes. The Twins are 6-4 overall this
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: year against Cleveland. Against those three pitchers, 3-3. Messick has
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: beaten them. Well, I'm not sure if he got the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: win both times, but they lost both games that Messick
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: started this year. 2-1 in the Gavin Williams games and
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: 1-0 against I can't tell, but they've all been low-scoring games.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Cleveland is exceptional pitching, struggle at the plate, so they've
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: been mostly low-scoring games with Cleveland. But, Tyler, again, little
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: evidence to suggest even a series win is coming the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: way this team has been playing, but it's kind of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: time to push your chips in if you're going to
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, this is, in a nutshell, the season. They can't
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: afford any mistakes. This weekend, they've got to show up
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: and play clean baseball. Cleveland plays good defense. They run
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: the base as well. They don't give you extra outs often.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: They know how to pitch and execute a game plan.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: They've always got a good back into the bullpen somehow.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: I know we had some success against a couple of
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: their guys last time around, but you're going to have
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: to play clean baseball and you're going to have to
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: find a way to push some runs across. It's just
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: as simple as that. You're starters. You're going to have
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: to match them. and, and it's, it's been tough. You know,
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: they played a lot of close games. It seemingly always happens.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: We've heard about Dan's, uh, lovely times. They're having to
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: retype after some walk-off wins and losses. Um, so it's,
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: it's always a great series, you know, Tito across the
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: way he's, he's, or not anymore, but you know, he'd
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: seemingly always had that team ready.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: And now you got Steven vote, you know, behind the
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: helm there.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: And it's just, it's always a gritty ball club that,
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: that knows how to fight and scratch out wins and
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: the twins, uh, They've got to show up ready for that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: They will. Shelty's going to have them ready to go.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: It's going to come down to execution and that big hit.
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: When the runners are on, first and second, whatever it is,
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: bases loaded, we've got to find a way to get
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: the hit this weekend. That's going to be the do
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: or die of it. I think the pitching's going to
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: be fine. The guys are all in place. It's going
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: to be that timely hit, whichever inning.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: It might be the first. It might be the ninth.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: But it's going to come down to the timely hits
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: this weekend. I think it's driving in that extra run
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: or the two runs that you need to win a
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: game 2-1. They're going to be close. It's going to
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: be hard fought. There's no room for error this weekend.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: You, the fans, are not particularly optimistic at this point.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: We had a little poll on our YouTube channel. How
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: do you think the series is going to go? Eighty-one
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: percent of you have the Guardian's Winning it in some fashion, 18%
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: of you took the Twins and 11% took the Twins
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to sweep. That is higher than 4.3%. I'm surprised. But
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: if that happens, the Monday podcast will be spicy, but
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: we'll see what goes on. Some news that could help
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the Twins a lot actually this weekend. Austin Martin returned
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: from the IL last night. Gabby Gonzalez optioned to make room.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: could be significant, Dan, because Austin Martin, of course, one
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: of the rare right-handed bats in the Twins outfield, and
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: both Messick and Cantillo are lefties, so he figures to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: play a lot this weekend.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: I would think so, and he got a chance to
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: go and test it. Last time I was around the
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Twins was when they were in Chicago. He was, I
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: think on Saturday, running for the third straight day and
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: then going to go to So, I mean, Austin Martin,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: that's welcome for sure, because when they were at their
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: best early in the season, it was a nice platoon
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: between Larnik and Austin Martin. And they were interchangeable and
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: they were both getting on base a ton. And it
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: was a critical part of their offense early on. So
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: they will definitely welcome him back. I know he's fallen
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: off the last couple of months, but maybe with a
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: little bit of a time, he should be in good shape.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Uh, Friday night is a six 40 start. I want
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: to say, is that right, Dan? I forget Saturday. Saturday
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: is kind of a mid afternoon. It's a weird, it's
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a weird set of times I think, but, uh, big one.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: At target field back football is back.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Football is back. Uh, Vikings Packers, which I just hate.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: So early in the season, like we were talking about earlier, uh,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: But that is on Sunday.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: Sorry. Twin to 7-10 tonight. 7-10.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Then 3-10 on Saturday and 1-10 on Sunday. That's actually
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a late afternoon Viking start. So you can just paint
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the town red that day. Go to the series finale
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: of Twins Guardians and then hop over to Vikings Packers. Anyway,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: we'll see how it goes. We'll be back on Monday
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to talk about everything that happened from there. And now
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: we will move on to... The reason I'm sure you're
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: all here is to see your questions answered from our mailbag.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you, everybody who submitted one. We really appreciate it.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Most of them came on YouTube. This time had a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: few from some other platforms. We'll try to get to
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: as many as we can. Caveat before we start. We're
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: going to kind of restrain ourselves a bit on the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: questions that are pointed towards the offseason and what players
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: will and won't be here in the future just because...
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: um it's not over yet and there is a possibility
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: however slight that the events of the next few weeks
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: could influence the way we think about that down the
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: stretch so we'll address it a little bit but just
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: rest assured everybody there will be a lot of off-season
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: time regardless of how the twins do the next few
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: weeks to talk about all that and we will in
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: more detail but we'll start with this one that we
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: got on youtube uh it's from tim mcdarby i guess
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it's always hard to tell when there's no spaces but
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: that's what i'm going to go with when a team
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: searches for a spark you usually look for a power
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: bat to jumpstart things. Are you surprised that Matt Wallner
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: was not given a shot already on 40-man roster and
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: he's a streaky hitter? Obviously, the Twins have been searching
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: for offensive answers, had some outfield injuries. Wallner has continued
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: to stay down in AAA and rake, Dan, but are
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: you surprised by that?
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Not necessarily just because I don't know that they think
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: he is good at handling velocity. We've seen him struggle
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: with the high fastball for a lot of his career
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: and Given his defensive struggles early in the season, just...
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: it doesn't shock me. Look, they were going to get
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: to the point where they needed to check on Alan Roden.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: And even though Alan Roden was having a limited sample size,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: but even though he was having a successful August, he
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: got sent down to move in. with Walker Jenkins and
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: because the need for center field was so important, but
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: you know, with the way Larnik played in the first,
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: you know, up until the trade deadline, essentially, I think
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: he took basically any shot for Walner away because there
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: were other options. Luke Kieschel, that you're not going to
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: remove him, you know, Byron Buxton obviously was in there.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: So no, it doesn't shock me that this happened, but
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: at the same time, And, you know, it's got to
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: be trying for Matt Walner. I mean, this is a
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: guy that was with them for the division title in
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: 23 and has been with them off and on since
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: 2022 and through a lot of things. He's got some
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: really good times in the major leagues where when he
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: gets hot, he can carry, he's helped carry them. There's
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: no question about it. So, I mean, from that perspective,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: of course, it's a little surprising, but it is a
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: very crowded outfield right now. And it's very crowded with
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: left-handed options. You think about that. Larnik, Walker Jenkins, Allen Roden.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Early in the season, they had Altman. Walner had his
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: chance early, and they didn't like what they saw. The
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: one part that's unfortunate is he's always been a slow starter.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: In those early months, I can imagine... are challenging for
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: a guy that's as big as he is to get
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: the muscles going. When you have big– I mean it's
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: like April cannot be a fun time to hit for anybody.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: When you're 6'6, it's a lot harder to get all
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: those parts aligned. So the fact that his shot came there,
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: it's tough because that was his one real chance with
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: this team. but there's just so many guys, so it
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: doesn't shock me that much. I mean, right now, everybody's
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: talking about, should Emmanuel Rodriguez get the time? You just
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: look at the options, and it's very, very difficult to
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: find playing time.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Tyler, being clearly too good for AAA but not having
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: a home in major leagues has to be the worst
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: kind of purgatory for a player.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Dan kind of touched on it.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: I think he's got some glaring holes, unfortunately, in his
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: swing that just get exploited.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: And I would be willing to say if you did
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a deep dive.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: Into his games there where he has been just destroying
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: the ball at times, I guarantee you that swing and
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: miss is still there. He's probably still, you know, he's
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: probably fixed some, you know, percentage wise, but I guarantee
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: you there's glaring things, you know, analytically that say like, yes,
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: his exit below is incredible.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, this is good.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: But the holes in that swing and zone swing and
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: miss at that point. When you've got pitches at the
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: top of the strike zone that you can't even just
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: foul off to stay alive, that's when.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: It becomes an issue.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: And it's an issue a lot of lefties have, and
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: they address it and they become great players. So I
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: don't think it's the end of a road by any
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: means for him not being called up at this point,
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: but I think it's something he's definitely going to have
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: to address before 2027.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: If you like what you hear, please toss us a like,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: a subscribe, however you listen or watch. If you're on
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: YouTube right now, there is a QR code there on
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the screen to make it super easy. We'll take a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: quick break and be right back. More questions on Royce Lewis,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the future, Emmanuel Rodriguez, like Dan mentioned, and more right
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: after this.
• 13:46
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• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, now is the point where that caveat I mentioned
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: earlier about Plenty of off-season coming to talk about off-season
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: stuff comes into play. Our next question here on our
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: list comes also from YouTube, and it is, who are
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the players that are gone after... This is actually three
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: questions in one. Dan Knoll, you're cheating. Who are the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: players that are gone after the season? Will the Twins
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: go all-youth all the time next year in the infield
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: and outfield? And what is next year's starting rotation? I'm
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: going to let Dan plead the fifth on this one.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: But for the first question, I'll just say, look, again...
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Our opinions could change on who should or will be
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: gone at the end of the year. As we sit
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: here on this Friday morning, I look at Ryan Jeffers,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: not because I don't think he should be on the team,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: but because a lot of people are going to want
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: him on their team and he's a free agent.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Odds are.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Right. And then the other one from a strategic standpoint
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to me.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Is Trevor Larnik.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: He is in an outfield full of left-handed bats. They
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: need to do something there. It seems like they already
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: tried to move him at the trade deadline reportedly. And again,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: not because I don't think the twins could use him,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: but because he is very useful and some other team
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: might agree with that assessment and be willing to give
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: up something in return. He's arbitration eligible next year and
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: then free agent in 28. So the lockout hangs over
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: all this, like however long that lasts could affect how
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: much people want to give up for a player for
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: next season who's going to be a free agent after that.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: But Um, that's, that's where I'll stand for now. Asterisk,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: asterisk caveat until later this season. Any, any thoughts?
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Much more diplomatic than my pass. I just got passed. Yeah.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: There's too much.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Go ahead, Duff.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: I was going to say to your point, like Larnik
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: is the guy, unfortunately as, as great a guy as
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: he is. And he probably is in that clubhouse. It's
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: he's making more money than, all of the other left-handed
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: hitters that are going to be back, you know, he's
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: had his run, he's had his time to kind of
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: lock down a spot. Um, you know, it's been hit
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: or miss at times, but they have all these left-handed
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: bats that they're going to have to make a decision
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: on behind him.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: And so I think it's, that's an easy one.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: And like, we've talked about Jeffers a lot, you know,
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: the qualifying offer I would imagine.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Will be thrown his way.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: Um, you know, but free agency will have to kind
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: of hold off depending on how the lockout stuff goes.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: And it's weird because December 1 hits and you literally
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: can't speak with clubs anymore. I guess maybe your agent
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: can off the record, things like that.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: But that is going to be an interesting wrinkle.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: You could probably see what will be interesting to see
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: is how quickly the Twins and other teams for that
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: matter try to settle some arbitration.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Stuff before that deadline.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: I would imagine some teams want to get done so
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: they know exactly what they're going to have in place.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: And others are just going to wait it out. It
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: depends on the team, how they want to spin, things
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: like that. But those two, I think, are gimmies. And
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: then within those, we've got the youth coming. It may
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: push out some guys that we maybe don't expect to
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: see going. There will be some interesting ones. I'm trying
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: not to show our cards yet. There could be some
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: interesting moves.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: The pitching rotation changes. the starting rotation question also is
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: a good one because theoretically Pablo Lopez coming back, Mick
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Abel coming back, too many players for a traditional rotation there.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: So I think we'll maybe save that one as well
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: for the off season, but definitely a huge topic for
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the twins this off season.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Potential solid, like top four.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, Taj, Joe, Pablo, and Abel, like that's, that's
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: a hell of a way to start your rotation.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And, and, we're going to, like you guys have said,
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: the lockout, we're going to have a lot of off
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: season to talk about this. Cause I believe we're doing
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: two shows a week during the off season.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: So, so just, uh, you know, buckle up.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: We'll talk about it then.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: And like, who knows? Like once the lockout is done,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: whenever it is, it could be like, it's floodgates. It
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: could be like a two week off season to do
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: all this stuff. And then, you know, yeah.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It's going to March 2022 was awful. March 2022
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: was just, hey, let's go to spring training. Oh, by
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: the way, you're traded. Duff knows a bunch of friends
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: got traded. It was wild how that unfolded.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: It was like the Mexican League.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: It ended on Thursday night. The lockout ended on Thursday.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Mitch Garver got traded on the Saturday night. I want
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: to say that Josh Donaldson got traded on Sunday for
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Gary Sanchez and, and, that all went down.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: For a day and a half. Yeah, yeah.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Isaiah Conner-Falefa was there for literally seven hours, was a twin.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, it was insane. All of it unfolded quickly,
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: and that offseason all occurred in March. Carlos Correa signed
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: at like 2 in the morning. Um, and, and yeah,
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: so wild, uh, wild off season upcoming in March or
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: April or May, whenever we, uh, get the lockout.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: So don't say that.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: All right. I think this is our, this is our
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: last question under the, uh, under the off season caveat,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: but a common theme was people wondering what should the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: twins do with Royce Lewis in the off season? Mark
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Brownell says his glove has been good, but offensively he's
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: taken a step back and he's looked lost again. And
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: some agreement from another commenter.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Is he gone?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Do they let him start next year? And if he
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: doesn't perform, then he's gone. Again, in the unlikely universe
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: where he or anyone puts the team on their back
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: over the next three weeks and leads them to the postseason,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the temperature of this question might be a lot different.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: But I like... So after he went down to AAA
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and came back, oh, look at that.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: There I am. Look at this guy.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Over the next, I think it was 58 games, over
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: half the season, he was hitting 284 with an 850 OPS.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: If he could do that over the whole season, he'd
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: be one of the best on the team.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: It's an all-star.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's done that before. I mean, I know
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: 2023 is getting further and further in the rear view.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: So it's like for half the season, he's been great.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: For half the season, he has been terrible. Which is
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: it with him? And I know the inconsistency is frustrating. But, like,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: he's not making a ton of money for what he's bringing.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: It's going to go up next year for sure. But, like,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: it just– especially with the lockout situation coming in, who's
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: going to take a shot at him? It just seems
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: to me like it's not time to move on from
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Royce regardless. But, Tyler, like, I don't know, in a
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: situation where– where a guy half the year is great.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Half the year. Isn't like, how do you know?
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: And it's one, you know, it may be a, a
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: candidate for a, you know, they, they tender him. I,
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: does he first year are, but I think maybe, um, uh,
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: he was, okay.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: So he's already, he's second.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: So he'll, he'll get tendered, you know, a contract. I
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: would imagine, you know, this is me playing GM. Um,
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: but they're going to have, He's got to show up
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: to camp and probably be ready to roll day one
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: and be hot when he gets there. Because what they
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: can do, they can sign him. And I've seen it happen,
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: and you learn about this stuff once you start getting
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: paid through arbitration. Oh, yeah, it's guaranteed, blah, blah, blah. Well, no,
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: you've actually got to make that roster still. So he
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: could show up to camp, and he could be one
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: of those guys the last day, like, hey, we're going
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: to non-tender you, but DFA him. see if a team
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: wants to claim him, things like that, like if it
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: doesn't go well, you know, they have some wiggle room
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: to do that, but like, again, he's your first rounder,
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: your first overall pick, like the talent is in there,
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: you know, he's finally fully healthy, you know, all the
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: good things, it's, you know, maybe give him one more
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: offseason to maybe overhaul the swing a little bit, you know,
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: he's been battling with that throughout the year, and I'm
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: sure he's still working on that, but yeah, he's a guy,
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: he means so much to the club, I think, but
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: he's one, when he does well, he's got that little spark,
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: the edge, you know, the superstar light to him, that
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: goes a long way for that locker room, and for
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: that team, like, we need a guy that's the loud,
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: you know, make it be seen guy, you know, he's,
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: at times, he's the showman, and it's something that could
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: go a long way for this club, and, but at
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: the same time, if you show up to camp, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: you're not ready to roll, like, you know, it's no
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: hard feelings at the end of the day, they got
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: to take the best guys with them.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Certainly need more offensive production at first base. Yeah. Defense
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: has been solid for a guy that's learned, but like
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: I don't have any, yeah, I look at Royce's defense
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: and I know it's not standout, but I also look
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: at it and go, man, there haven't been a ton
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: of disasters that early on some stuff was getting by him.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: I think he's learned how to play the position better.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: But that's a position where you produce, too, and 14
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: homers and 14 stolen bases. There needs to be more.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: He needs to carry this team offensively for a while.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: And you're right, Zach. I mean, if he was to
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: carry them the last 16 games, that would go a
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: long way. Yeah, so we've evaluated on the whole year.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all I'm asking is like 450 with eight homers–
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: and the walk-off that clinches the playoff spot. And then
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: you're good. Listen to idiots like me saying otherwise.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Like, come on.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Simple as that, guys. All right, next question on the list.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I think this is one Tyler was going to tackle
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: from Deeks37. For Duff and Dan, what is the pitching
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: development plan with pitchers and the minors? I feel like
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the Twins need to overhaul whatever it is. Too many
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: teams in the AL have bypassed the Twins in their
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: own division on developing pitchers. young pitching can't all be
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: just drafting well.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's the tough one. Cleveland seemingly has some formula
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: that they've not told everyone about. I'll try to surmise,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: I was with three different orgs my last three years
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: in the States, and everyone was chasing big movement and
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: big velo. And if you had a pitch that produce
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: good swing and miss. It became throw that more than
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: anything else, which on paper makes perfect sense. Why wouldn't
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: you throw what works best? And then what ended up
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: happening is you ran into a lot of games where
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: guys stuff was electric and they could not get it
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: over the plate. So next thing you know, like there's
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: a Iowa Cubs game. I was, you know, on the,
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: I pitched the day before. So it was my automatic
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: day off, which makes no sense. but they do that
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: in AAA now.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Another part of the pitching world that just changed.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: We had like 15 walks in a nine inning game
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: and I get done and like Ron Vallone was our,
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: our AAA pitching coach. And I'm talking to him and
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: he looks at me, he goes, what do we do
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: with this? I was like, Hey, but their stuff was good,
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: you know? And it's, it's somewhere that's where the analytics
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: versus the old school worlds of pitching teams have yet
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: to fully harness both. But there is somewhere in the
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: middle that, I mentioned Cleveland.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: They've kind of found it.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: You can throw nasty stuff in AAA all you want
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: and get the swings and misses, but guys don't swing
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: in the big leagues.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: I've talked about this before.
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: I remember when I first got called up as a
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: starter instead of Berrios, and he had more stuff, better stuff,
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: threw harder, looked the part, all the things, but it
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: didn't register for me initially because I was like, why
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: me over him? And when I'd gone back down and
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: I watched the start just through the different set of lenses,
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: you know, and you, I realized quickly he was getting
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: swing and misses on pitches that weren't even close to
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: the plate. Cause he was just so nasty and those
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: pitches don't play in the big leagues. And so it's,
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: you know, you see these guys come up and they're
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: spraying the ball, the, you know, the, the ball's different,
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: the light's different, whatever it may be. It's, there's definitely
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: another hurdle sometimes. And, you know, the guy that's nasty
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: in AAA that isn't over the plate, it's going to
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: be hard to adapt.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: And, and that's, it's.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: Not the twins, not developing things. It is an era
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: of full effort, a hundred percent throws every time. And
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: guys just don't know how to throttle back anymore and
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: just throw strike one. And you see it, these guys
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: get in a bad spot and they'll throw nine balls
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: in a row. And it's like, what are we doing?
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: They're throwing sliders because that's their best strike pitch somehow.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: And so it's, It's great in a world where guys
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: don't have as much feel. You know, the old get
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: the ground ball and strike one kind of thing. It's
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: been interesting, to say the least.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: That was great. What he said.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right. No insight to add here, that's for sure.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Next up is one Dan is itching to answer from William.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: How does the front office and decision makers buck the
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: issue regarding inconsistent hitters?
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: Examples.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Lewis, Larnik, and previous years, Eduardo, Julian, and Matt Wallner
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: seems to be evaluation of talent issues. Agreed, Dan?
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: It sounds like a question Dan would ask a player.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I'm going to lead you right to what I want.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's kind of cherry-picking. Okay, one, look, in
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: a case with Wallner and Julian, those guys were being
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: protected by in their careers early on, you would see
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: them platoon early. Like Julian got to the spot where
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: he got to face more guys, but then he didn't
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: adjust back to the league. And I mean, I don't
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: know that it's a twins issue. I think that's a,
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: he went to the Rockies this year and fresh start.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: And I think he is a free agent currently. Same
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: with Jose Miranda. Sometimes it's just the player and like,
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: I look at it and I go, yeah, like Royce
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: Lewis is inconsistent. Guys are streaky in baseball. That's something
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: that we see everywhere. That's not a Twins issue. And
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: I kind of think when you look at that, you
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: like you're overlooking ryan jeffers being consistent especially the last
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: two years like luke key shoals on the other side
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: ledger byron buxton's had a a great career so like
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: every team has its success stories and every team has
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: its its struggles that's just a fact of life for
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: baseball i don't know that the twins have any more
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: or any less i do know that from 2020 like
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: in the popkins era the twins were top 10 and
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: runs i believe three straight years i don't know where
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: they are right now but i know they're in the
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: upper half of the league we're not talking about a
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: team like where it's cleveland like cleveland is consistently 27th
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: 28th 29th um in runs scored and it's what holds
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: them back every year so it's it's funny because we
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: look at man, everybody here would love for the twins
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: to have Cleveland's pitching development. And I guarantee everybody in
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Cleveland would love for the, the guardians to have the
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: twins player position player development. I mean, look, there's no question.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of inconsistency in some of those guys. Um,
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: Walner's just runs hot and cold Royce Lewis. There's mounting evidence.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Like it just seems like the last couple of years
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: when August rolls around, he gets into a bad spell. Um, I, it's,
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: it's hard to explain, but we can't just pick four
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: guys and then overlook guys that have succeeded with the twins.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, look at Cody Clemens, like Cody Clemens. I
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: don't think that's anything to do with the twins. I
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: think that's Cody Clemens knowing his swing and getting opportunity
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: with the twins. But you could look at that and go, man,
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: Detroit and Philadelphia really screwed that up. And it's like, no,
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: maybe Cody Clemens was supposed to be this all along,
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: but he got 450 plate appearances with the twins and
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: just took off. So, I think that it's hard to
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: point to those four specifically and just say, this team
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: is flawed and it's developed. This team has one of
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: the best position player histories. You look at the Hall
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: of Fame, it's incredible. You look at the team's Hall
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: of Fame and all the position players that have come
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: up over the last 25 years and stars that have
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: stuck around the league for a long time that came
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: up with the Twins. There's a lot of it. So,
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: I think you kind of have to take good with
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: the bad because there's a lot of good here.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Nobody's had a superstar year offensively. I mean, Buxton was
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: maybe trending that way before the injuries, but 10 guys
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: are on the right side of 100 of OPS plus
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look at Brooks Lee. Brooks Lee started slow. Brooks
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: Lee's found it with them. But a lot of it's
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: also finding the good hitters and being able to draft
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: and develop them. It's up to the hitters a lot
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: of times.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: When they spend that money this offseason, that's where you
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: can make the move is go get a proven bat.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: It would be awesome if Pete Alonzo was a free
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: agent again and was available to all because, man, that
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: would be a super solution. Put a consistent guy like
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: that in the middle of the lineup. Just have a– yeah.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: All right, we're going to move on to a couple–
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: We're going to move on to a couple of questions
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: we got from Blue Sky. But before we do that,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: in pulling these questions for this podcast, I became aware
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: of Dan's username on Blue Sky, which is Disco Danny Hayes,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: which is fantastic. So everyone, please follow Disco Danny Hayes
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: on Blue Sky. One of the people who follows you
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: asked you, Dan, when are they finally going to call
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: up Emmanuel Rodriguez? Clemens, Bell, Lee have nothing left to prove.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: The team isn't playing for anything anymore. Disagree. And the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: roster has potential. That was me inserting myself. And the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: roster has positional flexibility to find him at-bats if they
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: really wanted to. If he has to be on the
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: next opening roster, shouldn't they want to see him? By
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the way, also, this person asking this question has the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: username BaseballAndCats.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Is this Dan Berger? It's Dan Berger.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: No wonder they follow you, Dan.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: That's perfect. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. No, look, with Emmanuel Rodriguez,
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, of course, everybody wants him up, but where
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: would he play? Like, look, there's just, he's not getting
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: into the lineup over other people. Are you, like, basically,
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: are you getting rid of Walker Jenkins and putting Emmanuel
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Rodriguez up there, and then you have this center field
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: issue again? That's not happening. But when you say there's
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: nothing left to play for, these guys have nothing left
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: to prove. You know, Cody Clemens is, I believe, going
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: into arbitration. Cody Clemens would want to destroy baseball and
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: cats if he had his arbitration numbers hurt. Josh Bell
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: is a free agent after this year. Trevor Larnik also
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: is arbitration eligible. But here's the thing also, as much
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: as personally I'm saying that I don't think this team
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: really has a shot right now, they're still in it.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: They're still four out. Is it four or is it
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: four and a half?
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Four and a half.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: Okay. There's still time on the clock. And just because–
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: fans think it's over and want to wrap it up.
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: Do you know how many season ticket holders would want
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: to murder the twins for doing that?
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Like there's, there's still life in the body.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: You just, you can't, you can't assume the season's over
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: just because like, and if they have an extreme uphill climb,
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: there's no question what it's 2.4% chances of making the playoffs.
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: We're not trying to sugarcoat anything here whatsoever. It's pretty
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: much going to be, it's next to impossible that they
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: will make the playoffs. However, that is still on the table.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: And until they're eliminated, they're not going to take key
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: guys out of the lineup. People get fired over that
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: kind of stuff. So, no, that's not happening. And sorry,
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: as far as Emmanuel Rodriguez, the talent definitely merits it.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: It's going to be– it's a really tricky situation. He
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: has no options left. He'll make the team out of
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: camp next year. He'll be there.
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: But there's just no spot right now. I mean, I
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: would take Alan Roden back in the majors over Emmanuel
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: Rodriguez first and foremost if push came to shove at
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: this point.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: The way I've been kind of phrasing it to myself
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: is they have an incredibly realistic chance of still making
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the playoffs for how poor their chances are. You know
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: what I mean? Like they're down to 2% odds, but
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of it is in their hands. They just
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: have to win the games, which– is a tall ask,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I realize. But again, we'll see. We'll come back on Monday.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about that. Last question, and it's related to
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: what we were just talking about, also from Blue Sky.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: You're Jeremy Zolt. What does your outfield look like in 2027?
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I guess this is kind of an off-season question too,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: but it is interesting because Walker Jenkins, center fielder by trade,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: presumably Byron Buxton is back next season. As we sit
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: here right now, what do you think an opening day
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: outfield would look like, Tyler?
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: I like, obviously... perfect world.
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: Byron in center, you know, lefties, I guess they've tip
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: historically in my head, they play right, you know, slide
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: Walker to right field. I think he's got a plus arm, um,
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: which is great to have, you know, similar to like
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: cap when he was there. Um, and then you have
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: your platoon, you know, you can platoon left and, and
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: do Keyshaw or, or whoever else.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: You know, of all the lefties that are there.
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: Um, and to that point, like, The crazy thing, it's like,
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: all right, do we move Keisha back to the infield? And,
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: you know, Clemens is here. You know, slide him to first. Again,
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: that's where, again, playing GM, like, you never know. But,
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: you know, if you got Jenkins up and he's ready,
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: obviously he's got to show up to camp and be
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: the guy. You know, and that's when it gets interesting
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: is because somebody, Ryan Lamar, shows up to spring training
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: and hits 400. And it's like, he's going to be
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: on our team. Somebody else is out, you know. And
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: that's the beauty of our sport.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: That happens.
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: And so, um, you know, on paper, those sound great,
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: but who knows who's going to show up to spring
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: next year, ready to roll and come out guns blazing. And,
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: you know, it's a dog eat dog world sometimes. And
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: it's tough to see buddies, you know, come and go,
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: but at the end of the day, they got to
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: take the best guys. So I'm going to make a
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: prediction here. Um, I would imagine that Emmanuel Rodriguez is involved.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: In some kind of off season trade. I don't know.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: That's just a thought. um walker jenkins and left luke
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: kieschel and right byron buxton center luke kieschel is not
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: platooning duff not a chance that's make the whole plane
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: i said i said well and and whether or not
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: i i'm not convinced that uh i think they want
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: him in right field i think that they I want
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: to give him stability and a chance to get back
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: out there. It's another guy who just got thrown in
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: there and has been an outstanding teammate for just adapting
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: and rolling and not complaining. And he struggled a lot defensively,
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: but he's also shown some upside. And I think the
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: chances are that he's the right fielder. I just, you know,
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: I don't know that they would, I think he'll continue
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: to take ground balls at second. It would be great
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: to get him with Ron Washington and put him, those
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: two together. And then you could potentially look at him
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: as a second baseman. But I think he's right field.
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: I think Walker's in left. Well, you know, this is also,
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: Byron Buxton's going to probably have off-season hip surgery. So like,
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: what does that, what does that do for him? And,
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: and so that could, you know, Maybe I'll put a
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: hold and temper my my, uh, Emmanuel Rodriguez gets traded
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: because Byron Buxton, obviously we got to see what he
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: he's capable of, what the timeline is going to be
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: when he finally does have this. Yeah.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: It could affect Larnik too, or anybody like maybe that
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: glut of outfielders is needed for another year.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: I think we will see a youthful outfield with Buxton, um,
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: in some form. And yeah, Walker Jenkins, who knows, maybe
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: he has to go to cramp and earn that job,
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: you know, with the way he's played so far, we, we,
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: we see there's more development needed. Right. And it's another
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: guy who could have go off for 16 games and
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: his numbers jump up. But also that first year when
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: you were trying to be like, we saw it with
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: Luke Kieschel in April, the Shelp, Derek Shelton made a
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: great point about it. Luke Kieschel had a great first
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: season last year, and it was like, what, parts of
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: two months. He hit over 300. He was an on-base machine.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: And when he got to April and he had a
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: full season ahead of him for the very first time
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: out of the gates, he struggled. And it took him
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: until May 2 to get his back going. He's been
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: great ever since then. So you don't know what you
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: can expect out of the young guys. And, like, on paper,
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: it looks great to go in and say, yeah, Walker Jenkins–
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: Man Rodriguez, Byron Buxton, and Kieschel. But, I mean, whoever's
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: ready is going to determine that kind of stuff. I
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: think we'll see Alan Roden in the picture somewhere. I
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: don't know what happens with Larnik and Wallner. It is
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: a very confusing group to try and filter.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: It's so many guys. Yeah.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: All right. I'm going to leave you one more time
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: with my theory. Here's what to root for this weekend.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: The wild card standings, I finally got it working. It's
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: on the screen now. Guardians 74 and 73, four and
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: a half ahead of the Twins, three other teams in between.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Here's what you're rooting for this weekend, Twins fans. The
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Orioles to take at least two of three from the
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays. The Rangers to lose at least once in Arizona.
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: More would be great.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: And of course, the big one, the Twins to sweep
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: the Guardians. If all those things happen, if they all happen,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Twins are one game back in the loss column from
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: whoever would be leading the wildcard race at that point.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: A boy can dream We will see what happens Friday
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: through Sunday. Twins Guardians, big one. We'll be back with
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: you on Monday. Thanks, as always, for listening to Twin
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Cities Territory. If you like what you hear, please toss
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: us a like, a subscribe. However you watch or listen,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: if you're on YouTube, there's a QR code on the screen.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Makes it super easy. We will see you on Monday.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Have a good weekend.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Bye-bye.