Latest / Twin Cities Territory / Twins 2026 season preview: Can they beat the low expectations?

Transcript

Twins 2026 season preview: Can they beat the low expectations? · Twin Cities Territory

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: All right, hello, and welcome to the first episode of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Twins Cities Territory, a brand new Minnesota Twins podcast on
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network. I am Zach Pierce here with
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Dan Hayes, and we're thrilled to be here with you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: For those of you who don't know us, of which
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: there are many of you, I'm sure Dan is our
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Minnesota Twins b writer for the Athletic does a fantastic
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: job reporting from the clubhouse. He's actually in Baltimore right
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: now for Thursday's opening day. This is on Wednesday. We're
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: taping this for you, so Dan's gonna be with us
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: all season long. I have no connection to the Twins
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: other than childhood fandom. At this point. I used to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: be the Athletics Minnesota editor. Now I'm our Olympics editor,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: NASCAR a few other things as well. So Dan asked
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: me to do this with him, and of course I
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: said yes because it is a resurrection of the long
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: lost fan favorite. Pucket will do it live.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Dan, Pucket, We'll do it live. Man, I miss it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: This is a new podcast, though that name is Twittle's
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Long Gone Unfortunate.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Tittle is long Gone. I actually looked up some stats.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Our last show was June fifth, twenty twenty. We were
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: coming off the one one hundred and one win excuse me,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen season. Things were good, then the pandemic hit
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and our show went bye bye. In the meantime, we've
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: missed most of the Rocoball Delly era, we missed the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Carlos Korea era, we missed the first playoff series win
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in twenty one years. And now expectations are about as
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: low as they've been in recent years, and we thought, Dan,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: what better time to restart a Twins podcast?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, well it can only go up at
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: this point. So you know, we left when everything was
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: down in the middle of the pandemic. We're coming back
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: when things are down on the Twins front. But here
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: we are, and it should be pretty fun to get
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: back and talk Twins. And we're gonna be taping probably
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: about three episodes. It's a week. It's not just gonna
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: be us. We will have a special guest, Tyler Duffy's
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: going to join us, former Twins pitcher Tyler Duffy. He's
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: he's going to bring in that player perspective that we
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: are sorely lacking, you know, like my athletic achievements are
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: not very good. I don't know about your, Zach. I
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: think you were more of an announcer too than an athlete.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: That one year of high school, junior varsity first base,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: So I'm not sure that quite compares to Tyler, but
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: you will certainly up the major league experience on the panel.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: A lot has happened Dan in the last eight months
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: or so since, I guess starting around the trade deadline
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: last year. The Twins, of course had an absolute fire sale,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: with darn near half the team leaving. They fired their coach,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Derek Shelton in for Roco bell Deli. They fired their
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: GM with Derek Falvey out Jeremy zol In. They tried
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: to sell the team but couldn't, and now there's just
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: a new poll Ad calling the shots. Their only free
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: agent signings of note were not particularly of note. I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: guess I would say payroll once again languishing around one
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: hundred million dollars, with a decent chunk of that going
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to Korea to not play here anymore. And if that
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough, their best starting pitcher is out for the year.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: On the first day of training, camp.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Dan.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: All that said, it's a lot to start a season
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: with all that, But as somebody who was at for
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: spring training for the entire time, what did you see
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: out of the team and what's your outlook for them
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: this season?
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I'm almost surprised we don't have the things are fine
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: meme going on with me in a burning like really
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: like there's just definitely it is not a good time
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: necessarily for the Twins target field, low payroll, lash or
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: attendance last year after that fire sale. You know, lots
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: of questions. I think I wrote a story today in
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: a season preview and the lead was welcome to camp.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: So many things need to go right, and that's where
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: they are right now. It's not saying that the Twins
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: can't have a interesting season, even potentially above five hundred season,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: but to get there, so many things have to go right.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: And you know, I mean, the optimist in me wants
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: to think that that can happen. The realist in me
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: sees the projections for wins Fangrafts Baseball perspectives both at
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: seventy eight wins for the Twins bet MGM and Bovada
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: or age online whatever that are seventy two and a
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: half wins and seventy one and a half wins. I
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: think they both expect a trade deadline sellof where Joe
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Ryan ends up on another team in July or actually
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: this year it's early August. It's a challenging time for
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: the Twins. They have the roster is littered with top picks.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: You look around and there's a lot of first round picks.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of guys that haven't really proven that
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: they are consistent major leaguers. They've had flashes. Royce Lewis
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: has had some great moments in Twins history. The two
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: home runs in those playoff the playoff went over Toronto
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: that we unfortunately didn't get the podcast about afterwards. Our
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: fifty listeners would have loved it back then. You know
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Royce Lewis, you look at him, you look at Trevor
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Larnick has had a consistent, solid major league average career.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Brooks Lee has never quite hit the way they thought
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: he would. They have pitchers who are young and unproven.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of talent, but it all has to
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: be realized, and they all have to be realized at
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: the same time. That's could be so challenging and the
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: reality of that is daunting, especially you think about Bailey Over,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: who's their number two pitcher. He's battling command issues and
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: trying to get his velocity back to where it has been.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: It isn't it's eighty nine point six right now when
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: he's peak, he's ninety one. It's not a hugely, but
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: that one mile an hour is a big difference for
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: a guy like him who lives on the edges. Just
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: that doesn't even mention the bullpen. They traded five guys,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: They traded Duran, they traded Jack's, they traded Varlin. Any
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: one of those guys would be the closer right now
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: here we are less than twenty four hours from opening day,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: and there's no closer. There's I don't know if there's
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: a seventh inning guy set. I don't know if there's
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: an eighth inning guy set. The last two spots to
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: the bullpen went to Zak Kent, who's a journeyman who
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: actually is getting some swing and miss with his slider
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: and is interesting. Cody Lawyerson Lowryson was very surprised. Yes,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: it is. It is surprise. Ad We all thought Dan
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Altavilla was going to be the guy in that eighth spot.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Just a very fluid situation for LaTroy Hawkins, their new
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: bullpen coach to handle and Derek Shelton to manage, and
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: you just look at all that stuff and it's like
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the list of things that have to go right is
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: long and daunting and again, very optimistic here always, but
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: it's hard to overlook that reality and think, man, this
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: is this is gonna be a successful year.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: There's been a lot of seasons in the last thirty
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: five years where it's felt like, if everything goes right,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: maybe And I'm trying to think of how many of
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: those actually panned out, and I'm only coming up with
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: two thousand and one off the top of my head.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: But we'll see. Even with Pablo Lopez's injuried in, starting
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: pitching may still be the team's bright spot. What did
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: you see in camp coming out of how the rotation
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: is shaping up.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one thing that I think is still solid.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, with Pablo Lopez, this would be a pretty
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: fantastic group you think about it. Joe Ryan is an
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: All Star. Finally got that notch last year and that
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: was great for him. He's looked really good the last
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: two years in particular, he was having a fantastic season
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: before the injury in twenty twenty four. He looks to
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: headed up and he looked good after the lower back
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: tightness and early in camp, and you know, Pablo Lopez
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: went down on day one, Joe Ryan went down. He's
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: got scratched from his first start a few days later
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: and it sent Twins fans into a pan. But he
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: has looked really sharp. The stuff is there. He's confident.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Bailey over kind of mentioned that earlier, the velocity stuff.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: He's encouraged what he's seen. He's been up and down
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: though this spring. Like you can tell he's excited sometimes
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: and others concerned. But the hip is healthy. He's really
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: just working in ironing out mechanics. There's a lot to
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: get right there when you're six foot nine, there's a
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: lot of moving parts, and he is still trying to
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: dial it in. You can tell it's a very frustrating,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: thorough process that I mean, he's been doing this. He
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: was hitting ninety ninety one early in January. He felt
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: like he was great, and they got the camp and
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: it's gone the wrong direction a little bit, but you
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: can tell he's encouraged sim and Woods. Richardson has been
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: a stable guy with a four to four to ten
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: ear for his two seasons. I think that the Twins
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: like what they have there, but really the secret sauce
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: for this team will be Mick Abel and TODJ. Bradley
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: and what they can do. And Mickabel was the buzz
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: of Spring Train and the grape Fruit League. I can't
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: remember the strikeout total yesterday, but going into yesterday is
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: outing twenty three strikeouts, three walks. Low ear a. He
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: throws a really good fastball, but he worked to dial
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: in his off speed command in the offseason. That work
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: looks like it's paying off. He's very confident guy. And
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: they got TAJE. Bradley for Griffin Jacks. I think both
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: teams kind of knew they needed to move on from
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: their pitcher. It was not a it was let's swap
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: talent for talent, and TODJ. Bradley certainly has it. Last
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: year he lost field for his split change. All together,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: it feels like he is a splitter back. This year,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: he really seems excited. He's confident. He throws one of
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: the hardest fastballs in all of baseball. I think when
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: you look at the stuff that those two have, and
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Josh Bell said it, those two guys can be forces.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Those guys have have stuff that can make them real
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: guys on this team. When you think about that, those
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: are the two new entries into this it's a good place,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: a good baseline to start from. The twins really need
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: them to both mature though and show consistency. And that's
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: some of the stuff that we That's another part of
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: the what ifs with this team is like it is,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: you know, I think I think back to the movie Swingers.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna date myself with a thirty year old reference.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: But you know, you're you got the tools, you got
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the tools, You're you're you just got to you gotta
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: be that killer. Like basically, essentially, they convince Mikey he
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: needs to step forward. Well, they need mick Abel and
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: TODs Bradley to really be those guys. If they do,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: this can be an outstanding rotation.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: A thirty year old reference, excuse me, A thirty year
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: old reference is not too bad for you, Dan.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: So we'll take you.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: You already talked about the bullpen a little bit, but
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the fact that there's no closer going into the season,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: did anyone show the potential to be in that role?
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: And how do you think the Twins will address that,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: at least until something more clear establishes itself.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: I love when I hear players say that's above my
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: pay grade, because this is something that would be above
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: my pay grade. I have no idea how they're gonna
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: get done, and that can't be comforting for management, for
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: the front office, for ownership. They they're going to have
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: to do matchups there. I think they like the mix
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: of guys they have, but it's a lot of very
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: inexperienced guys. You know, the plan had been to bring
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: They brought in Liam Hendricks, They brought in Andrew Chaffin
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: in hopes that both guys could kind of come in
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: and take some late innings roles. Neither of them had
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: the velocity. Liam Hendricks just couldn't consistently get there. Early
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: in camp. They were encouraged by what they saw, but
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: it just it didn't last and they released both of them.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: And you know, beyond those guys, Taylor Rodgers has fifty
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: saves in his career, But Taylor Rodgers was throwing ninety
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: five when he had fifty saves. He's throwing ninety two
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: now throwing ninety one, and it's working on a new cutter.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: This is not the same Taylor Rodgers. Would it shock
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: me to see him get some of those chances? Not
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: at all. But you know, maybe we'll see Cole Sands
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: in there. I don't know. I really don't know, and
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I don't know if they know at this point. And
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: that is, honestly, it's a very challenging or frightening, you know,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: place to be because if this team can beyond you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: play on all cylinders offensively and get that starting pitching
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: that they want, they're gonna be playing a lot of
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: tight games, and bullpens need to come in and close
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: out those tight games. Not saying they can't do it,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: but nobody's done this to the extent that Twins will
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: need them to do it. They're gonna be asking a
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: lot from guys who have never been in these positions before,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: and somebody's going to have to step up. But it
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: certainly has a recipe for going the wrong way too,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: And that's why I understand where those projections are.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: You mentioned Royce Lewis earlier as well. A big year
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: for him after two not a great year as following
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: his twenty twenty three season where he was the playoff
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: hero in that first series win in a long time.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Matt Wallner probably in that category. Two big year for him.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: What do you see out of those those young hitters
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: that maybe could really really use a big year.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Ryce Lewis is definitely a vibes guy, and I think
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: he's got good vibes going into this season. You know,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: he's a guy that needs to feel good to produce.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: He is a new hitting coach they hired in the offseason.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: You know, he's been lost and the last two years
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: have been especially since August of twenty twenty four through
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: the end of last season. We're really challenging for him
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: at the plate. We saw him talk about being on
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: an island last year and not knowing who to go
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: to about hitting woes, and just you know, realizing what
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: failure can be like for an extended period. Because we're
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: talking about a guy who when he came back after
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: that opening day injury in twenty twenty four, came back
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: in June of that year and hit ten home runs
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: right off the bat. Looks like a superstar, right and
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: everybody's used to seeing that guy. We haven't seen that
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: guy consistently for about ten or eight baseball months, you know,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: all of last season, in the last two months of
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: the previous year. So I think he's in a good spot.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: He started getting some hard hit balls, get some results
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: at the end of spring. Spring numbers are ugly. Don't
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: look at those if you're trying to make a decision
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: on Royce Lewis. I don't think it got above one
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: point fifty. But he feels good. He feels like he's
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: in a good place. He's still tinkering with the swing,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: and he says it's gonna be a work in progress,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: but he's already felt more consistent. In the more consistent
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: bats he's gotten in the last week, he start to
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: feel even better. So it's a big year for him,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: without question. The Twins really need him to be the
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: one to one player that they drafted in twenty seventeen
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Matt Wallner. Like last year, suddenly he just forgot how
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: to hit with runners in scoring position. He's a big
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: home run guy. He's got a lot of pop there.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: His numbers with running in scoring position in the first
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: couple of years of his career were great. Last year
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: when they kind of needed him to be a middle
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: order guy, they weren't very good at all. In fact,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: he ended up with forty RBI's twenty two home runs,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: so that needs to change. They know they do have
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Josh Bell to kind of be in that middle. There's
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: a really good bat to ball guy. He's not gonna
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: be a big home run guy, although who knows what
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: going to target field from playing in Washington will do
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: for him. There might be a few more home runs
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: in there. But he is a very professional hitter who
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: can be steady in the middle of the lineup. But
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I think that's a great influence for a Royce Lewis
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Matt Walner, just to see that type of hitter there.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: He'll put the ball in play a lot. He doesn't
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: strike out very much, but they certainly need Lewis or
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Walner or both to take a step forward if they
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: want to do something meaningful this year.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Derek Shelton is a obviously familiar name to Twins fans
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: to those who have been around the organization for a
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: little while. He was the bench coach for Rockle Bell
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Delli six years ago, then went to the Pirates to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: be their manager. So he's used to coaching a team
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: with low expectations, I suppose. But in your mind, Dan,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: what makes him a fit or up for this job
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: for the Twins.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Well, the one thing that I think he does a
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: really good job of is connect with his players, and
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: they've all been adamant about that since the start. Royce
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Lewis said it back in November at the GM means
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: that the first time they met. Shelton flew to Texas
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: to meet Royce on the way to Vegas, and he
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: said he gave him Dan Campbell vibes. I don't think
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: that Derek Shelton's could ask his players to bite the opponent,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: opposing hitters or pitchers. I don't think that that's gonna happen.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: But I mean, like you get it that he knows
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: how to interact with this guys. Shelton said one of
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: the things he learned after getting fired last year was
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: how much better he needs to get at messaging with
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: his players. And what he meant by that was, Hey,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk to you and then later that day
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: or maybe the next day, I'm gonna follow up and
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: hear what your takeaway was from that. Because I need
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: to get that message across to you, because that's so important,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and he's really stressed communication. I think that in camp,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: guys said that there was a lot of stressing on
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: attention to detail, on fundamentals, and my takeaway from that
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: is this is a team that recognizes its margin for
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: error is very thin. They're going to be outspent by
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: the majority of opponents that play. There's gonna be more
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: talent on their side of the field. And by the way,
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: that can be misleading totally because you can have a
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: bunch of young guys who were I haven't reached r yet,
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: which the Twins do have some of that. But at
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: the same time, they're going to be outspent in the
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: majority of games. They're going to be up against it
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: a lot, and I think Shelton recognizes that and they
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: went through everything, apparently pitchers fielding practice, which is the
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: most monotonous, boring thing ever, Shelton, Shelton, you should try
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: and get excited about pictures fielding practice on February twelfth
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: and taking video of it and trying to show the
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: world what this is. But it's an art, right and
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: it's critical. It is the difference between wins and losses sometimes,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: he said that. Shelton said that they went back to
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: a Guardie TK slash Paul Maltor style heavy PfP schedule
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: early because they wanted to stress how important it was
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: when it came to base running, which this team absolutely
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: knows it needs to do. They did some interact of drills.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: They brought minor league players over and they asked the
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: minor leaguers to play defense, and then they would use
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: the pitching machine and they'd yell out hey first, the third,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: hey steal second, yelling instructions to players and asking them
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: to perform the drills, something the Shelton said he's never
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: done before. I don't know what to make of it,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: if there's anything to make of it at all. The
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Twins stole seven more bases to spring in one fewer
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: game than they did last year. But this was a
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: team that, over the final six weeks of baseball, was
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: the most aggressive base running team in the majors. It
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: definitely was an advantage for them. Now the rest of
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: the league knows to expect it this year. They're going
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: to be on the lookout for it. But if the
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Twins are buying in, you know, that's a good thing.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: That attention to detail, that focus was there. And the
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: last part that Shelton said he did was they waited
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: until March sixteenth to really get into the cuts and
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: relays because they knew whereas at February twelfth, February sixteenth,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: there are seventy players in camp, on March sixteenth, there
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: were thirty five players in camp or forty players in camp.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: So they got to divide the workload up and get
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: real detailed and work hard, and if players were not executing,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: they would do it again. They would work. They were
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: pregame infield. There was pregame outfield every day from about
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: that point on. There was just a heavy emphasis over
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: the last week to say, look, this is what we
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: have to do, and that messaging is good, it sound,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: it's what you can do. Coaching staffs can come in
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: and set a vibe. They can show you that they're
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: going to expect accountability. That's something that this team wants
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: to do. That's it. The rest of it then is
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: up to the talent on the field. So I think
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: from that perspective that they accomplished what they wanted to
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of veterans were talking about how it was
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: a different vibe and it was a good energy that
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: was much needed, and they were happy with the way
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: camp had gone.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Base running and pitchers defense. That's definitely living in the march,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and we'll see if it gives them an edge.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Most projections are somewhere in the seventies for wins for
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: this team. I've seen a range of predictions around that
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: as well, But got to get your prediction, don before
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the season starts. How many wins for the Twins in
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six?
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Ah? Man, you put me on the spot. I mean, realistically,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: that bullpen scares me. I know there will be some
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: guys that come up over the course of the year.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's going to make a difference
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: in time. I think they're going to be better than
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: the win lost bet line. The seventy one and seventy
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: two and a half, you know, I mean, seventy nine
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: eighty wins makes sense to me. I don't think they're
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I just think there's enough starting pitching to kind of
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: get them to a point where they're interesting and in
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: a lot of games. And I think Luke Keishaw and
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: I think Byron Buxton are going to be real forces
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: at the time the lineup. I mean, it's possible that
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: a lot of the good things that need to happen happen,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: but it's just so hard to say that, you know, man,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: this is going to happen. And without that certainty, I
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: just I can see it very easily being an under
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: five hundred team. So let's let's go with seventy nine
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: and eighty three. I'm guessing that's fourth place in the
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Al Central. I. You know, we'll see maybe there could
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: be some more upward growth there, but it seems like
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: it's just gonna be really challenging for them to accomplish that.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with eighty two just to choose optimism
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: here on March twenty fifth, So we'll see how that
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: works out for me. But opening days tomorrow in Baltimore,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Thursday afternoon, start right down.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Thursday afternoon should be a good chance to get
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: out there. And we have the seventy five grees is
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: on the schedule for the weather. We saw that.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Oh that's great.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's funny because today is somewhere in the
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: fifties and Friday is looking like forty five and rain
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: fifty and rain so yeah, Fortunately it's looking like a
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: beautiful opening day, so.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: We won't need that weather day on Friday, but they
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: will be often on Friday and finish the series up
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday, and then home opener next Friday against
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Tampa Bay a series at Kansas City in between. We
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: will be back with you soon on Twin Cities Territory
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: after we see what happens on opening Day. But for
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Dan Hayes, I'm Zach Pierce. Thanks very much for listening,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and we'll catch you next time.