Latest / Twin Cities Territory / Twins end road trip with a win, Taj Bradley strong again, the home opener arrives, and MORE!

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Twins end road trip with a win, Taj Bradley strong again, the home opener arrives, and MORE! · Twin Cities Territory

0:07
Speaker 1: All right, hello and welcome to Twins Cities Territory, our
0:12
Speaker 1: brand new Minnesota Twins podcast here on the Foul Territory Network.
0:16
Speaker 1: I am Zach Pierce. Still not sure how to introduce myself,
0:20
Speaker 1: former Athletic Minnesota editor. I guess is the most relevant
0:24
Speaker 1: way to do it, but join here as always by
0:26
Speaker 1: Dan Hayes, the Athletics Minnesota Twins beat writer, and Tyler Duffy,
0:31
Speaker 1: former Minnesota Twins pitch here. Guys, welcome. How you doing tonight? Good?
0:36
Speaker 2: We won the game, won a ball game.
0:38
Speaker 1: We got a victory on the board for the Twins.
0:40
Speaker 1: It is. It's Thursday, April second, a couple hours after
0:43
Speaker 1: the Twins finished off a five to one win over
0:47
Speaker 1: the Royals in Kansas City to finish up their six
0:51
Speaker 1: game road trip to start the season. They come to
0:54
Speaker 1: Target Field for Friday's home opener, now at two and four,
0:57
Speaker 1: and guys, many of concerning things, but also a lot
1:02
Speaker 1: of good from what we've seen so far in these
1:05
Speaker 1: first six games. Let's start with Taj Bradley Dan, who
1:07
Speaker 1: had another heck of a start today.
1:10
Speaker 3: Fastball was so good I think he hit one hundred
1:13
Speaker 3: with it today. He got out of situations with it.
1:17
Speaker 3: He just dominated with it and you could tell he
1:19
Speaker 3: is the confidence in it, and then he can mix
1:22
Speaker 3: in the other pitches and he's got a really good splitter.
1:24
Speaker 3: He threw the cutter a few times. Think he got
1:27
Speaker 3: either big out with the cutter on a strike three.
1:30
Speaker 3: You know, Kansas City is a team that puts the
1:32
Speaker 3: ball in play, so it's not where you're going to
1:33
Speaker 3: pile up your strikeouts very often. And when you have
1:36
Speaker 3: a Joe Ryan, you have a Taj Bradley, guys that
1:38
Speaker 3: can live and die with the strikeouts. To see him
1:41
Speaker 3: effective that way without it was impressive because there were
1:46
Speaker 3: a few points, there were choke points where it could
1:48
Speaker 3: have caught up to him. And he's talked about it
1:49
Speaker 3: many times, how innings spiral out of control and how
1:53
Speaker 3: he's trying to take that step and be more mature
1:55
Speaker 3: and less stubborn. And I think we saw two times
1:57
Speaker 3: today where innings could have spiraled out of control on him.
2:00
Speaker 3: Loaded the bases, got out of it. But then there
2:03
Speaker 3: was a different one that was a little more interesting.
2:04
Speaker 3: There was a in between innings. Cole Reagan's asked for
2:08
Speaker 3: the mound to be fixed because Taj Bradley wrecks the mound,
2:12
Speaker 3: just destroys it. He's a strong, lower leaged guy and
2:15
Speaker 3: he kind of tears it apart. So Cole Reagan's fixed
2:18
Speaker 3: it in between innings, and you could tell that Taj
2:20
Speaker 3: Bradley was not thrilled with the way the moundin was
2:22
Speaker 3: when he came back. He got in the three ball
2:24
Speaker 3: count to start the inning, and he came back and
2:27
Speaker 3: instead of issuing a walk and letting a rally happen,
2:30
Speaker 3: he came back, got the out real quick, got out
2:32
Speaker 3: of the inning. I just feel like these little things
2:34
Speaker 3: that have maybe bugged him in the past, he's kind
2:37
Speaker 3: of maturing and figuring out how to get past him.
2:39
Speaker 3: I know that there's been a lot of talk about
2:41
Speaker 3: that in camp. We've seen it twice. That first and
2:43
Speaker 3: in Baltimore was the same thing. And these are huge
2:46
Speaker 3: developments for the Twins because when you have a guy
2:48
Speaker 3: that throws a hundred with the off speed stuff he has,
2:51
Speaker 3: that's a guy that can step in and be a
2:52
Speaker 3: difference maker in your rotation immediately. And so you know,
2:57
Speaker 3: two good starts for him to start the year. And
2:59
Speaker 3: this was a huge lift today because two and four
3:02
Speaker 3: going into the home opener. Looks a hell of a
3:04
Speaker 3: lot better than one in five.
3:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I think to your point, I you know,
3:10
Speaker 4: I've had it written down. You know that at bat
3:14
Speaker 4: he punched out Bobby the second time. Yeah, and it
3:17
Speaker 4: was just a challenge heater at one hundred, and I
3:21
Speaker 4: think his one the fastball itself is a weapon, you know,
3:26
Speaker 4: like Joe uses his heater like they're just different fastballs.
3:29
Speaker 2: Shelter.
3:29
Speaker 4: I think in the postgame was talking about it. You know,
3:32
Speaker 4: it's one hundred and twenty four inches of vert Like
3:34
Speaker 4: you can't teach that pitch, I know, you know, it's
3:37
Speaker 4: hard to grasp it for like the average watcher, But
3:40
Speaker 4: like that ball was literally rising at one hundred miles
3:42
Speaker 4: an hour to the hitter like they're they're hitting a
3:43
Speaker 4: whiffle ball, and then he's got a splitter and a slider.
3:47
Speaker 4: So to for a guy like Bobby to go up
3:49
Speaker 4: there and take a hundred down the middle because he's
3:52
Speaker 4: looking for something else like that, that's the ultimate handcuff.
3:55
Speaker 4: And you know it's a good sign for what's to come.
3:57
Speaker 2: For sure.
4:00
Speaker 1: Danny mentioned a very nice win and much looks a
4:03
Speaker 1: lot better to be two and four than one in
4:05
Speaker 1: five head at home for sure. Certainly there were some
4:07
Speaker 1: some issues that we will get to, but because we
4:09
Speaker 1: choose optimism first in this podcast, we'll start with the
4:13
Speaker 1: the plot its but overall, Tyler, what else did you
4:16
Speaker 1: like from the win today?
4:19
Speaker 4: I think the guys coming up late. You know, we
4:22
Speaker 4: had the three homers to finish that game, you know,
4:24
Speaker 4: add a little cushion, I guess, take the lead and
4:26
Speaker 4: then add some cushion on, you know to an already
4:29
Speaker 4: taxed bullpen. You know, they had guys that were down
4:31
Speaker 4: I think last night, you know, guys that are out
4:33
Speaker 4: things like that, and it kind of forced their hand
4:35
Speaker 4: and for us one for our hitters to come up.
4:39
Speaker 4: You know, I think Bell is going to be a
4:41
Speaker 4: huge piece down the road if he can just maintain
4:45
Speaker 4: what he's capable of. He doesn't need to be an
4:47
Speaker 4: All Star this year or anything crazy like hit your
4:50
Speaker 4: twenty five and be a threat in front or behind somebody,
4:54
Speaker 4: and that's going to change the lineup.
4:55
Speaker 2: And he's a switch in like that.
4:56
Speaker 4: That's a guy that can play every day, that can
4:59
Speaker 4: show up and he's going to post hit a ball
5:00
Speaker 4: one hundred and fifteen off the wall.
5:01
Speaker 2: You know, that's that's such a huge thing to.
5:04
Speaker 3: Have he makes so we know they're swing and miss
5:08
Speaker 3: with like Matt Wallner, right, and we know that some
5:11
Speaker 3: of these run producers need to become run producers like Royce, Lewis, Walner,
5:15
Speaker 3: Trevor Linik. Josh Bell is just so solid in the
5:18
Speaker 3: middle of that group, and he can pare. He's not
5:21
Speaker 3: afraid to parachute a ball in. He's just like his
5:23
Speaker 3: bat to ball, his career strikeouts is ridiculous, his walk
5:28
Speaker 3: to strikeout ratio is fantastic, and like he just solidifies
5:32
Speaker 3: the middle of that group and you see what he
5:35
Speaker 3: can do. And then you know last night with the
5:38
Speaker 3: three run homer from the right side and then to
5:41
Speaker 3: do that again during the day game today, Like you're
5:44
Speaker 3: right like that, if it's a seven million dollars signing,
5:49
Speaker 3: it's not very sexy as far as like who you
5:51
Speaker 3: brought in on Painter, he's the ballplayer, yeah, and they
5:55
Speaker 3: need that. And I think that his influence can be
5:58
Speaker 3: so good on some of these younger guys and just
6:01
Speaker 3: taking pressure off them so they don't make the most
6:03
Speaker 3: they don't make the worst out or like it's not
6:05
Speaker 3: do or die every time you're gonna get four more bats,
6:08
Speaker 3: and I think he's common presence in the middle of
6:11
Speaker 3: the land up for them.
6:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah sure.
6:17
Speaker 1: Matt Wallner, Cony Clemens, Josh Bell all homered in the
6:20
Speaker 1: ninth inning after the Royals have cut into two to one,
6:23
Speaker 1: And it's just obviously, anytime you get three homers in
6:26
Speaker 1: an inning is great, but it felt especially big for
6:28
Speaker 1: this team after a couple of games that they lost
6:31
Speaker 1: already that they probably could have won with some more
6:33
Speaker 1: timely hitting. To not let this one slip away was
6:36
Speaker 1: a pretty nice finish to the road trip. Also, a
6:39
Speaker 1: trend that's emerged in from the first first week is
6:42
Speaker 1: that the Twins are the most prolific challenge team in
6:46
Speaker 1: the first in the first seven days of the ABS era.
6:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm looking at stats.
6:52
Speaker 1: Right now, don't get them wrong. Well, he ships.
6:56
Speaker 3: Challenges and they've made nineteen of them stand up. And
7:00
Speaker 3: I'm just tyler. I want to know what you think
7:02
Speaker 3: as far as what the umpires are going through right now.
7:07
Speaker 2: It's tough, man.
7:08
Speaker 4: These guys, like I said on the first show show,
7:11
Speaker 4: they're these guys are these are these are big league
7:14
Speaker 4: baseball players, These are major League umpires like the best
7:19
Speaker 4: that there is in the world at their job and
7:22
Speaker 4: they are just getting put under a literal microscope.
7:26
Speaker 2: And it stinks for them.
7:28
Speaker 4: But at the same time, it's like, yes, we want
7:29
Speaker 4: to get it right and we need them, but it's tough,
7:33
Speaker 4: you know sometimes and when it's an egregious one and say, okay,
7:37
Speaker 4: like we got to you know, fix that whatever that
7:39
Speaker 4: whatever the fix would be. But same time, you know,
7:42
Speaker 4: it's it's becoming fun to watch because you see a pitch,
7:46
Speaker 4: you know, and me as a pitcher, it's like, I
7:48
Speaker 4: know I wanted that one calls it a strike and
7:50
Speaker 4: then you're like holding your breath, like don't.
7:52
Speaker 2: Check it, don't check it.
7:53
Speaker 3: You know.
7:53
Speaker 4: I'm finding myself doing that now watching these games. Like
7:56
Speaker 4: even I remember sal behind the plate he kind of
8:00
Speaker 4: stuck one for a strike and umpart called it a
8:03
Speaker 4: strike and I think I think Austin Martin was hitting
8:06
Speaker 4: and it was just like oh, and like he wanted
8:09
Speaker 4: to check it so bad and it was like, I
8:11
Speaker 4: mean an inch off the plate and it's just like
8:14
Speaker 4: those are the ones. It's you know, how do you
8:16
Speaker 4: get good at that? So I don't know, it's it's
8:18
Speaker 4: gonna be a long season for for you know, the
8:21
Speaker 4: guys who aren't good, but ultimately the umpires are gonna
8:24
Speaker 4: be the one just wearing it, you know, good, good
8:26
Speaker 4: and bad.
8:27
Speaker 3: The Wednesday Night game was eight of nine the Twins.
8:32
Speaker 3: The Twins set a major League record by challenging nine calls.
8:37
Speaker 3: Matt Walner was wrong on the first broken soon Yeah,
8:41
Speaker 3: exactly by the Twins, probably actually because they were the
8:44
Speaker 3: ones that had set the previous The Twins and Orioles
8:47
Speaker 3: set the record for combined challenges on Sunday with ten,
8:50
Speaker 3: and I think the Twins were seven of those. And
8:53
Speaker 3: then the Twins and Royals last night, our Wednesday Night
8:56
Speaker 3: set the record with eleven and the Twins were nine
8:58
Speaker 3: of those. So the Twins will break their records. I
9:02
Speaker 3: you know, you look at the weather on Wednesday night.
9:04
Speaker 3: I wonder how much that played in s that umpire, Like,
9:07
Speaker 3: what a terrible night to be playing. I Like, the
9:11
Speaker 3: fog was insane in the early innings. Then the rain
9:14
Speaker 3: came and you get the sense the umpire was just
9:18
Speaker 3: kind of like, let's get through this. This is a blow.
9:21
Speaker 3: It was twelve to one, and and so there's like
9:23
Speaker 3: those speed up the game calls that happened.
9:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, I remember the one.
9:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, and and so that three to zero pitch, the
9:32
Speaker 3: speed up right, like the let's give the picture low
9:34
Speaker 3: cas always finished strike right now, it's not, but it's
9:37
Speaker 3: always been like, you know, what's going reminds me of
9:40
Speaker 3: it kind of reminds me of the neighborhood play at
9:42
Speaker 3: second base when we got rid of that with instant replay,
9:44
Speaker 3: Like it's always been right. And and so we're untraining
9:49
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty years of umpiring, like, hey, you know,
9:53
Speaker 3: everybody's got a cat a flight to catch. You know,
9:56
Speaker 3: we've got dinner reservations. Let's get the game going.
9:58
Speaker 2: Here.
9:58
Speaker 3: It's a three zero count, it's all one, and we're
10:01
Speaker 3: just seeing those calls get overturned.
10:03
Speaker 4: And then it's a ballgame two days later.
10:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, ball game. So that's great. The Twins are good
10:11
Speaker 3: at that real quick. Going back to the Thursday when Tyler,
10:14
Speaker 3: you were talking about it earlier with me off air,
10:16
Speaker 3: but uh, what'd you think of Cody Clemens with the game?
10:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, I circled it is like that's goin to be
10:25
Speaker 4: like kind of the identity of the team. You know,
10:28
Speaker 4: it's going to be grindy at times. It's going to
10:30
Speaker 4: be gritty. You're gonna hit three homers in an inning
10:32
Speaker 4: to take a lead, stuff like that. But it's you know,
10:35
Speaker 4: it's the drawing the throat from salve, you know, kind
10:37
Speaker 4: of heads up baseball. Like in the post game, he
10:39
Speaker 4: was talking about it and he was like, yeah, I
10:41
Speaker 4: was just kind of baiting him just to see if
10:43
Speaker 4: he was looking at me. Basically, you know, he took
10:45
Speaker 4: an extended lead and he let it rip and sailed
10:47
Speaker 4: it into the outfield and like it's his first back
10:49
Speaker 4: pick all year, probably perfect time to test it out,
10:53
Speaker 4: and you know, using his good base running skills, you know, ironically,
10:58
Speaker 4: because it's kind of been an issue. That was a
11:01
Speaker 4: great example of base running and heads Then he busts
11:04
Speaker 4: up his face sliding in the second later and then
11:06
Speaker 4: he hits home run late late in the game to
11:07
Speaker 4: take a lead, and it's like that's the kind of
11:09
Speaker 4: stuff like you just gotta sometimes you got to buckle down,
11:12
Speaker 4: and you know, you hate to say you do it
11:15
Speaker 4: for one sixty two, but you know we're already here
11:17
Speaker 4: and it's happening, and it's like, you know what, like
11:20
Speaker 4: keep going and bring your head up once you need
11:23
Speaker 4: some air and just put your head down and go.
11:25
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's kind of all you can do.
11:27
Speaker 3: He's a guy that made He was a waiver claim
11:30
Speaker 3: last year and the Twins got him at the end
11:32
Speaker 3: of April. Everybody in Philly loved him. He just never
11:35
Speaker 3: really got the playing time. He came over immediately became
11:38
Speaker 3: a leader because his baseball iq is is very high.
11:42
Speaker 3: I wonder where that comes from. You know, yeah, you
11:45
Speaker 3: would think maybe your dad's like a been a star
11:47
Speaker 3: in the league for a long time. But like guys
11:50
Speaker 3: just gravitated towards him and they it's why he was
11:53
Speaker 3: on this team no matter what was the IQ and
11:56
Speaker 3: what he brings. So it's good just to see guys
11:59
Speaker 3: kind of get going. And like that's the one thing
12:01
Speaker 3: we have to keep in mind about all week is
12:03
Speaker 3: like this team's offense right now, Luke Keishaw and Byron
12:06
Speaker 3: Buckston have like five hits combined right now. That's not
12:09
Speaker 3: going to happen all year. And so it it with
12:12
Speaker 3: this wonky schedule where you're like off on Friday and
12:16
Speaker 3: then you play Thursday, you're off Friday, then you play Saturday.
12:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got to the first couple of weeks and
12:21
Speaker 4: like it's starting to just play baseball, like it's it
12:24
Speaker 4: is the weird it's the worst two weeks.
12:26
Speaker 2: Like think about this, like this is something nobody thinks about.
12:29
Speaker 4: You know, odds are you know, unless you had a
12:31
Speaker 4: wife who's taking care of everything for you.
12:33
Speaker 2: Like these guys are going to get home.
12:34
Speaker 4: They're probably getting home now ish whenever time it is,
12:37
Speaker 4: and you're gonna go settle into an apartment or go
12:41
Speaker 4: to the hotel to move out of their to their
12:43
Speaker 4: apartment tomorrow, go to the ball field. It's like there's
12:46
Speaker 4: a lot going on the first like ten days of
12:48
Speaker 4: the season, and it's opening day tomorrow, so you've got
12:50
Speaker 4: to be there for like seventeen hours, you know, get
12:53
Speaker 4: introduced in the whole thing, which is amazing. But by
12:57
Speaker 4: the end of the game, you're like, can we just
12:59
Speaker 4: play baseball? Like that's all we want to do at
13:01
Speaker 4: this point.
13:02
Speaker 3: And and so this year is a little different. The
13:04
Speaker 3: Twins actually have some home night games in April. There
13:07
Speaker 3: was a it was either last year or the year before,
13:10
Speaker 3: they had like twenty two of their first twenty seven
13:12
Speaker 3: games were day games to like a company for weather
13:16
Speaker 3: and when you don't hold that, you can't anything. There's
13:19
Speaker 3: the cult right exactly, but you don't get into that
13:22
Speaker 3: season routine. There's no VP, there's no chance for hitters
13:25
Speaker 3: to go to a cage before the game, like when
13:28
Speaker 3: you're when you play a one o'clock game, you know,
13:30
Speaker 3: like like you get to the ballpark at like nine o'clock.
13:33
Speaker 3: For if you play the night game of the day
13:35
Speaker 3: before and you have a one o'clock you're there at
13:37
Speaker 3: like nine and you're getting your body woken up and
13:39
Speaker 3: like eating breakfast, you are really when you know what
13:43
Speaker 3: I mean? Though, your guys to schedule is so different
13:45
Speaker 3: for a day game than it is for a night game,
13:47
Speaker 3: and like guys want to get in the cage for
13:50
Speaker 3: forty minutes and work on their swings, and there's no
13:53
Speaker 3: forty minute time to do that. Like a few guys
13:56
Speaker 3: maybe Buxton does, like if you know, like maybe the
14:00
Speaker 3: key vets do, but not everybid. So like when you
14:03
Speaker 3: get to your fightular schedule, it changes things. So the
14:08
Speaker 3: first couple of days are so weird and like so
14:11
Speaker 3: you look at that was great for Cody Clements to
14:13
Speaker 3: have that moment just because it was a weird game.
14:16
Speaker 3: But I'm just wondering how difficult was that for you
14:20
Speaker 3: to say something nice about a ut guy.
14:25
Speaker 4: We worked out for a minute a couple off seasons,
14:28
Speaker 4: so you know, we'd go back a little ways, you know.
14:30
Speaker 4: But it's good to see a fellow rice al out
14:32
Speaker 4: there starting to chors up today.
14:34
Speaker 2: That's always good to see. It's great.
14:35
Speaker 4: You know there's a there's a few of us out there,
14:37
Speaker 4: so I keep my tabs out.
14:42
Speaker 1: Well. Along with all of that good stuff, certainly some
14:47
Speaker 1: concerning things from the game as well. Guys, where do
14:50
Speaker 1: you want to start? Dan lefty pitchers? Base running? Defense?
14:54
Speaker 1: What do we where are we going spin the wheel?
14:57
Speaker 3: Let's go base running because we like, look, this is
15:00
Speaker 3: a team that's gonna live on the margins. Their their
15:04
Speaker 3: margin for error so thin. We saw it Sunday they
15:08
Speaker 3: ran into three outs, they lost by two runs. They
15:11
Speaker 3: could have easily won that game. Today early innings, Vic
15:15
Speaker 3: Carratini made an ill advised move going first to third,
15:18
Speaker 3: and you know, I get where they're trying to be aggressive,
15:21
Speaker 3: but you have to be Your execution just has to
15:23
Speaker 3: be good. And he got thrown out. And this is
15:25
Speaker 3: a team that's struggling to score runs right now because
15:28
Speaker 3: of the lefty pitchers, which we'll get into, but I
15:31
Speaker 3: think they have had four outs between second and third
15:34
Speaker 3: base so far this season in six games. And you know,
15:38
Speaker 3: it's they want to be aggressive. You understand why they
15:42
Speaker 3: need to be aggressive because they you know, there is
15:44
Speaker 3: some power, but it's gonna be probably guys that get
15:47
Speaker 3: hot and cold they're gonna need to win games with.
15:51
Speaker 3: And especially with seventeen April home games coming up, you're
15:54
Speaker 3: not gonna hit a lot of home runs. You're gonna
15:55
Speaker 3: need to win by moving around. But I think you
15:59
Speaker 3: as much as you want to be aggressive, you have
16:00
Speaker 3: to do it in the right ways. And I think
16:02
Speaker 3: that we've seen them be a little poor with that
16:06
Speaker 3: so far. It's definitely something that's jumped up enough to
16:10
Speaker 3: be noticeable so far.
16:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's one I've I've noticed too, like just trying
16:18
Speaker 4: to take an extra base when probably don't need to.
16:20
Speaker 2: And you know, the little things, the little.
16:23
Speaker 4: Things are going to add up over the course of
16:25
Speaker 4: this season is what the issue is going to be.
16:30
Speaker 4: You know, you can't afford to give away an extra
16:32
Speaker 4: out when you're already fighting for one run.
16:34
Speaker 3: Right And I mean, look, do they need to find
16:39
Speaker 3: ways to get offense. Absolutely, and we saw them. Look
16:45
Speaker 3: over the last six weeks of the season. Last year,
16:47
Speaker 3: the Twins were number one the majors in base running aggressiveness.
16:50
Speaker 3: It worked to their advantage, but that team really did
16:53
Speaker 3: have they They were coming from a point where nobody
16:57
Speaker 3: expected it. And by the time scouts find out, they're like,
17:01
Speaker 3: but it's still the Twins. They're like one of the
17:02
Speaker 3: most unathletic teams in baseball, and they were at that point.
17:05
Speaker 3: But they pushed it and they were you know, I
17:09
Speaker 3: don't think that teams were adjusted and so they were
17:12
Speaker 3: able to take advantage of it. And it's also dog
17:15
Speaker 3: days of August, end of September, like it's it's you know,
17:19
Speaker 3: this is the the new start of the season. Everybody's
17:22
Speaker 3: dial day, and people are going to know that Twins
17:25
Speaker 3: want to do this. So they just need to pick
17:28
Speaker 3: better spots. I think that they have the right guys
17:33
Speaker 3: to do it at the top of the lineup. And
17:35
Speaker 3: Austin Martin's been on base a ton so far. His
17:37
Speaker 3: on base percentage has been great. He's also had he
17:42
Speaker 3: got picked off. I think it was was it the
17:45
Speaker 3: first inning on Monday or the first thing on Wednesday,
17:48
Speaker 3: I can't remember, but he got on he got picked
17:50
Speaker 3: off cat stealing like you can't waste the chances and boo.
17:57
Speaker 3: Yeah that was yeah with left handed number one of
18:00
Speaker 3: three in that series. So it's a it's definitely when
18:05
Speaker 3: you were facing lefties all gonna be kind of it's
18:10
Speaker 3: just gonna you're gonna notice it more often because they
18:12
Speaker 3: get so few chances essentially.
18:15
Speaker 4: But we need to get a left handed thrower.
18:18
Speaker 3: Yeah that's or maybe just some more right handed batstick
18:21
Speaker 3: and hit uh more consistently that that could possibly be.
18:26
Speaker 3: I mean, they're gonna be really in a good way
18:29
Speaker 3: against against right hand pitching. I mean, they definitely have
18:33
Speaker 3: a lineup and the majority of the league is right
18:36
Speaker 3: handed pitching, so it's not like we're going to see
18:38
Speaker 3: the lefties that we have so far. But everything is
18:42
Speaker 3: basically blown out of proportion right now because every game
18:47
Speaker 3: feels like it's you know, every game has been tight,
18:49
Speaker 3: with the exception of the blowout, which.
18:53
Speaker 4: Is I mean, that's all you can ask for honestly
18:56
Speaker 4: at this point too. You know, on the other side
18:57
Speaker 4: of that coin, like close games when you're in them,
19:00
Speaker 4: you know, and even the blowout turned into a close game,
19:04
Speaker 4: which that's all you can ask for, you know.
19:06
Speaker 2: So it's it's a you know.
19:08
Speaker 4: It's there, are the glimmers are there? You know, it's
19:11
Speaker 4: we're all of six games into the season. So it's like,
19:14
Speaker 4: you know, we won two on the road against two
19:16
Speaker 4: good teams, like you know, that's the other thing, like,
19:19
Speaker 4: you know, Royals are a playoffs bound team, odds are
19:22
Speaker 4: you know, and and the Orioles planning to be as well.
19:24
Speaker 4: So it's you know, those are some good, good teams
19:27
Speaker 4: to start out with, you know, and we've got a
19:28
Speaker 4: good one coming in.
19:29
Speaker 3: You were only out of one of those. And raise
19:33
Speaker 3: your hand if you gave up on that game last
19:35
Speaker 3: night or Wednesday night, because I did.
19:39
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I stuck it out.
19:41
Speaker 3: I stuck it out. Yeah. I watched on my phone
19:44
Speaker 3: and I I like threw it on my phone on
19:48
Speaker 3: video when it got to be like twelve to four
19:50
Speaker 3: and I saw the bell.
19:51
Speaker 2: That you had to actually see what's happening.
19:55
Speaker 3: But but I mean that's the only game that like
19:58
Speaker 3: you could say you've turned off so far because they
20:00
Speaker 3: were out of it. They lost by one on opening day.
20:04
Speaker 3: They won the next day, they lost by two on Sunday,
20:06
Speaker 3: they lost by one on Monday, and they were it
20:09
Speaker 3: was a one run game the whole way today, So
20:12
Speaker 3: I mean, it played interesting ball and they've you know,
20:16
Speaker 3: it'll be fun to see what it can happen if
20:19
Speaker 3: Byron Bucks is hitting, if Luke Keishall's hitting, and what
20:22
Speaker 3: that will do to the rest of the lineup, because
20:25
Speaker 3: in this series, Austin Martin was the only guy of
20:27
Speaker 3: the top three that was really getting on base and
20:29
Speaker 3: kind of giving those mill the order guys chances.
20:32
Speaker 4: One to your point, Keishall, he I liked he got
20:36
Speaker 4: think two singles today. Yeah, he's a weapon if he's
20:40
Speaker 4: just putting the ball in play because those were like
20:42
Speaker 4: routineish ground balls and he's safe. So you got to
20:46
Speaker 4: get him guy, like, you know, if he ends up
20:48
Speaker 4: floating towards the top of the lineup or whatever it
20:50
Speaker 4: may be. Like there's a lot of speed at the
20:52
Speaker 4: top of the lineup which the Royals have, and it
20:54
Speaker 4: causes havoc, Like you get guys on base, next thing,
20:57
Speaker 4: you know, it's a four run inning. You know, they've
21:00
Speaker 4: got to hold guys on and they miss a pitch
21:02
Speaker 4: over to Bell or Jeffers or whoever's hitting four and five,
21:05
Speaker 4: and it's like, oh, we've got a ballgame, you know.
21:07
Speaker 4: And so it's like the little stuff you know, three
21:10
Speaker 4: four weeks from now, like you never know.
21:14
Speaker 1: It's also it is very early asterisk. But nobody in
21:18
Speaker 1: the central looks like a wagon to me right now either,
21:20
Speaker 1: So there's also that interesting little caveat to keep an eye.
21:24
Speaker 1: I don't want to get too too optimistic, though, we'll
21:26
Speaker 1: move on. The door is open.
21:32
Speaker 3: I don't know if I I don't know if I
21:34
Speaker 3: trust your optimism, but I like your optimism.
21:37
Speaker 1: You know who does not share my optimism is Twins
21:40
Speaker 1: fans or at least are we gonna do this?
21:43
Speaker 3: Are we gonna hammer the athletics Paul real quick?
21:47
Speaker 1: So we are? You know, you aware of this because
21:49
Speaker 1: this is not a great poll.
21:50
Speaker 2: For I don't even know where to look this up.
21:53
Speaker 1: Luckily, Yeah, you'll get the gist of it, Tyler, don't worry.
21:58
Speaker 1: So I think this came out the day we did
22:00
Speaker 1: our last podcast, but I didn't see it in time,
22:02
Speaker 1: so we're talking about it now. But the Athletic every
22:05
Speaker 1: year does a hopometer for every team's fan base, asking
22:09
Speaker 1: them one simple question, and the way that was worded
22:11
Speaker 1: this year was dig deep, be honest. Are you optimistic
22:15
Speaker 1: about your team? Most? Most every team is north of
22:21
Speaker 1: sixty percent. Several are much higher. As you can imagine,
22:25
Speaker 1: Dodgers fans feeling pretty good about things optimism.
22:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would love to know who wasn't.
22:34
Speaker 1: That's right. There were there were six teams below fifty
22:41
Speaker 1: nine percent, and there were two teams below six percent,
22:46
Speaker 1: the Angels at five point seven and the Minnesota Twins
22:50
Speaker 1: at four point three. Now, this is obviously the subset
22:54
Speaker 1: of Twins fans who reads the Athletic, so probably a
22:58
Speaker 1: slightly more engaged and uh aware fan. But that that
23:02
Speaker 1: kind of exaspered me.
23:03
Speaker 2: Disgruntled fan, A disgruntled that's.
23:06
Speaker 1: You like, you know.
23:08
Speaker 3: But yeah, you said Tyler about the Dodgers, I want
23:13
Speaker 3: to know who wasn't. I want to know who the
23:15
Speaker 3: four percent were that are because I'm reading online comments
23:18
Speaker 3: right now and.
23:19
Speaker 2: We need to get them season tickets. That's what we
23:21
Speaker 2: need to do.
23:22
Speaker 4: Whoever you are, reach out to us and we'll get
23:24
Speaker 4: you some tickets.
23:26
Speaker 3: Because it's it's great. I mean, look, all you have
23:28
Speaker 3: to do is go online and look right now and
23:31
Speaker 3: look at the comments on stories and they're ninety nine percent.
23:35
Speaker 3: I would bet maybe ninety nine percents high, but I
23:38
Speaker 3: bet seventy five percent of the comments on my stories
23:41
Speaker 3: have selled the team in it.
23:44
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that's that I've been going for years.
23:49
Speaker 3: It has, it has. But also I think fans very
23:52
Speaker 3: much thought that was really in play last year, and yeah,
23:56
Speaker 3: you know, Justini Ishbia looked like he was good buy them,
24:00
Speaker 3: and Denny pivoted and decided to go in on the
24:03
Speaker 3: White Sox, which we'll talk about that later. But that
24:07
Speaker 3: is just a killer because Justinishbia wants to buy build
24:12
Speaker 3: a downtown ballpark right on the river in the South
24:14
Speaker 3: Groop of Chicago, which would make the White Sox a
24:17
Speaker 3: proverbial monster if they got a if they got their
24:20
Speaker 3: own Wriggly where people just go because they're tourists and
24:24
Speaker 3: it's right off of like, you know, you can't miss
24:26
Speaker 3: it Ranton Millennium Park, like four blocks away. People would go,
24:30
Speaker 3: and they would have an average fan base that just
24:33
Speaker 3: shows like the Cubs could be terrible. You know there
24:36
Speaker 3: were days where yeah, what, like you're there, maybe the
24:40
Speaker 3: team's not playing great and they still show up. You
24:42
Speaker 3: might be in the middle of a sixty who's in
24:44
Speaker 3: streak and forty thousand people show up a wriggly. If
24:46
Speaker 3: the White Sox get that, it'd be amazing for them.
24:50
Speaker 3: And Justin Is should be a potentially brings that, so
24:53
Speaker 3: you look at maybe he might be the Twins owner.
24:55
Speaker 3: That was his of January last year, everybody's thinking the
24:57
Speaker 3: pole Ads are gone. The pole Ads in August announced
25:01
Speaker 3: they're hanging onto the team. The time, Joe Polad said,
25:04
Speaker 3: we feel we're the right people to keep running this.
25:07
Speaker 3: The team at the time was five hundred million dollars
25:09
Speaker 3: in debt. They announced the partial sale. Tough sell down. Yeah, no,
25:14
Speaker 3: it was not the last three years at Everything in
25:20
Speaker 3: October twenty twenty three was great. The team had finally
25:23
Speaker 3: ended the playoff, losing the streak. Fans were high on
25:28
Speaker 3: the Twins, they had Carlos Korea. It looked promising, and
25:31
Speaker 3: then they cut payroll by thirty million. A month later
25:34
Speaker 3: and everything has gone down. And Tom Polad, who took
25:38
Speaker 3: over as the team's executive chair in December, has been
25:42
Speaker 3: saying the right things all along. I think he like
25:46
Speaker 3: I actually think he's a good voice for this team
25:48
Speaker 3: and he said that was the worst, like understands the
25:52
Speaker 3: landscape of things and why the decision was made, but
25:54
Speaker 3: they couldn't have made a worse decision essentially at the time.
25:58
Speaker 3: And here we are, you know, twenty eight twenty nine
26:01
Speaker 3: months later. They fired Roco, they fired Derek Falve. It'll
26:06
Speaker 3: be really interesting to see what the season ticket numbers
26:08
Speaker 3: look like on Tuesday, because in cold weather, there's no
26:12
Speaker 3: mask in a night game crowd, it's going to be
26:14
Speaker 3: the base, no tickets. And so here we are four
26:18
Speaker 3: percent hope. And it's not a shock at all given
26:21
Speaker 3: where this team has been the last twenty eight twenty
26:24
Speaker 3: nine months.
26:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that's it's so tough, like you mentioned,
26:30
Speaker 4: you know, especially to start the year, and like we've
26:33
Speaker 4: literally we had these conversations inside like can we mix
26:35
Speaker 4: in a night game like for our ownsanity, Like we
26:38
Speaker 4: want to just sleep, you know, and go like whatever.
26:41
Speaker 4: And it's like literally the one conversation was the average
26:44
Speaker 4: temperature is you know, five degrees warmer for these day games.
26:48
Speaker 4: So it's like we're just holding on a prayer that
26:51
Speaker 4: fans will come because it is, you know, it's thirty
26:53
Speaker 4: degrees or whatever it is. Or the chance of sleep,
26:55
Speaker 4: and it's like, you know, you can you can only
26:57
Speaker 4: expect so much at the end of the day, you.
26:59
Speaker 2: Know, when they didn't put a roof on the building,
27:02
Speaker 2: So just.
27:02
Speaker 4: Like, well, you know, we're guys, We're not going to
27:04
Speaker 4: risk dying to come watch, you know, an early season
27:07
Speaker 4: game against the Angels.
27:09
Speaker 2: You know, Sorry, it's just not happendent.
27:11
Speaker 3: Those heat warmers are good, no, I mean, they do
27:13
Speaker 3: as good of a job as they can to accommodate
27:15
Speaker 3: fans at night, but it's still Minnesota, Minneapolis at night time,
27:19
Speaker 3: and it's I just wonder because we have the windows
27:23
Speaker 3: closed in the press box. But what that energy like,
27:26
Speaker 3: how it's a good thing it's April at the start
27:28
Speaker 3: of the year, because those crowds cannot give you guys
27:31
Speaker 3: much energy to go off of.
27:33
Speaker 1: Like no, that's it's tough, right.
27:37
Speaker 3: I mean when you when you get that buzz from
27:40
Speaker 3: the crowd, it does give you Oh god, yeah.
27:43
Speaker 2: You kid me.
27:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, when we go out for the you know when
27:45
Speaker 4: that I say, it's when summer hits.
27:47
Speaker 2: Honestly is every year it kicks in gear and.
27:49
Speaker 4: Like you go out all of a sudden, it's like
27:51
Speaker 4: like you can just hear it, you know, you're talking
27:52
Speaker 4: about the buzz.
27:53
Speaker 2: It's just like, oh, like there's some people here tonight.
27:56
Speaker 4: You know, people are yelling, people are having a good time,
27:58
Speaker 4: and it's like a like I don't even need to
28:01
Speaker 4: get loose tonight, like we're good like kind of thing.
28:03
Speaker 4: And so it's like it's such a big you know,
28:06
Speaker 4: it's hard to describe it. You know, hear we talk
28:08
Speaker 4: about it, you know, and you're just gets the juices
28:10
Speaker 4: going in. It's just like, you know, it's like when
28:13
Speaker 4: you're on the field for a postseason game and all
28:14
Speaker 4: of a sudden there's more cameras or more guy, more
28:17
Speaker 4: guys like yourself that are just around. You're like, okay,
28:20
Speaker 4: this is different, you know. And when you walk into
28:21
Speaker 4: a stadium when it's dressed like a seat night, it's
28:25
Speaker 4: kind of hard to get going, you know. But then
28:27
Speaker 4: midsummer and you know, they're giving away a bobble hat
28:30
Speaker 4: or something, and it's like, okay, like everybody's here to
28:32
Speaker 4: have a.
28:32
Speaker 2: Good time, you know, and it's it's inspiring, you know that.
28:35
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the best word for it. It gets
28:36
Speaker 2: you going, man, it's fun.
28:40
Speaker 1: The Athletic published a few comments on the Twins hopemeter piece.
28:47
Speaker 1: We had one that said, I was sitting at the
28:49
Speaker 1: rehearsal dinner of my mother's wedding when the Twins fire
28:52
Speaker 1: sale began. I sat in disbelief watching players be shipped
28:55
Speaker 1: out like Amazon packages. If her marriage fails, it's the
28:59
Speaker 1: pull out its fault.
29:01
Speaker 2: So I don't.
29:02
Speaker 1: I don't think we'll see j T at the ballpark tomorrow,
29:07
Speaker 1: but the Twins will be. Their home opener is Friday three,
29:12
Speaker 1: ten pm. Start Bailey over against Joe Boyle of the Rays.
29:16
Speaker 1: A right hand or good news, uh, and then we'll
29:20
Speaker 1: see from there. The weekend looks a little dicey. But
29:22
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay and Detroit on this homestand Dan Tyler, any
29:27
Speaker 1: any anything you're looking for in the homestand here.
29:31
Speaker 2: I'll let you go. First.
29:33
Speaker 3: You were saying about people yelling two dollars beers for
29:37
Speaker 3: the pre game, and so I'm thinking you're gonna be
29:40
Speaker 3: some people yelling. It might not be what ownership wants
29:43
Speaker 3: to hear, but there there will be two dollars bud
29:47
Speaker 3: Light Budweisers and then Summit pills. So there's one good
29:50
Speaker 3: beer in that two dollars pregame beers. I'm looking for
29:58
Speaker 3: what it's we cannot have those in the press box.
30:01
Speaker 3: Maybe I'll buy them and bring a little ice box,
30:04
Speaker 3: put them in that for a post.
30:06
Speaker 2: Just leave them outside.
30:07
Speaker 3: There you go, There you go.
30:10
Speaker 4: Dan and Atabery we're talking about it. They're like the
30:13
Speaker 4: I guess it's the breakfast on the concourse. How these
30:15
Speaker 4: everybody drives in to have have hot dogs and beer
30:18
Speaker 4: at nine.
30:18
Speaker 2: Am to celebrate opening day. Yeah, that sounds like a
30:23
Speaker 2: great time.
30:24
Speaker 3: It's it's crazy, like the Twins really do a really
30:27
Speaker 3: good they're calling it a party, like they have the
30:29
Speaker 3: breakfast on the plaza and then they have Yeah, Rod
30:33
Speaker 3: Carews could be at one of the gates welcoming fans
30:35
Speaker 3: in that. That would be so cool to me as
30:38
Speaker 3: a fan. You know, the little kid's not gonna know
30:40
Speaker 3: who Rod Carew is, but his dad sure is and
30:43
Speaker 3: his mom is. Yeah, like, the Twins do it as
30:46
Speaker 3: well as you can for a team that knows it's
30:48
Speaker 3: gonna have like thirty eight degrees at first pitch or
30:51
Speaker 3: forty four degrees whatever it is. And you're right, Zack,
30:54
Speaker 3: it is gonna be a dicey weekend Saturday. Who knows.
30:56
Speaker 3: Sunday looks okay, but I think we will. I'm just
31:01
Speaker 3: gonna guess we'll see the Rays in a makeup game
31:04
Speaker 3: at one point later this year. But one of these
31:06
Speaker 3: three games.
31:07
Speaker 2: So lose, lose an off day somewhere.
31:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, which I'm sure you love, Ray Tyler.
31:14
Speaker 4: Oh nothing better. I mean, gosh, what was the one
31:17
Speaker 4: we flew from Anaheim? We had a night game in Anaheim,
31:21
Speaker 4: flew to Cleveland for a day game, flew home after
31:24
Speaker 4: which that was supposed to be an off day coming
31:25
Speaker 4: back from California, and so we flew in, got it
31:27
Speaker 4: at like four am or whatever it was. I think
31:30
Speaker 4: we played a day game, then flew home after it.
31:32
Speaker 4: And you get home, You're just like, do we just play?
31:35
Speaker 4: Like I thought we were still here? Like you just
31:37
Speaker 4: it's a whirlwind of a thirty six hour forty eight hours,
31:40
Speaker 4: and you're just like, I.
31:41
Speaker 2: Just want my bead.
31:42
Speaker 1: Like you.
31:43
Speaker 4: Pray for the starter, whoever that is. You know that
31:45
Speaker 4: they leave early and get some rests. That's all you
31:47
Speaker 4: can ask for.
31:48
Speaker 1: Yeah. Nice. Well, if you are going to the ballpark
31:51
Speaker 1: this weekend, stay warm, enjoy baseball's back in Minnesota. If
31:56
Speaker 1: you like what you're here here, Please click the subscribe button.
32:00
Speaker 1: We're having a great time and we thank you for
32:02
Speaker 1: joining us and look forward to doing again next week,
32:05
Speaker 1: shall we guy us after a couple more for.
32:07
Speaker 2: A couple of home games, after a sweep.
32:09
Speaker 1: After a sweep sounds great?
32:13
Speaker 3: You were definitely not.
32:14
Speaker 2: Hey, wem only play one game so we can just
32:16
Speaker 2: win the one. It's a sweet.
32:20
Speaker 1: Hope.
32:20
Speaker 3: A meeter on the podcast is high, much higher than
32:24
Speaker 3: the four percent.
32:26
Speaker 4: Oh lord, yeah, we got to meet that guy. Whoever
32:28
Speaker 4: the whoever that one was.
32:30
Speaker 2: We gotta find.
32:33
Speaker 1: All right, Well, j T if you're listening, please please
32:35
Speaker 1: hit us up and we will have you on the pond.
32:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks very much, tickets.
32:42
Speaker 1: There you go. Thanks again for listening everybody. We will
32:45
Speaker 1: catch you next time on Twin Cities Territory. Bye bye,
33:00
Speaker 1: still Ustill with the airs of Fall.