Speaker 1: Let's talk about the White Sox right now. Jim Margolis
Speaker 1: joining us from Socks Machine. It's part of the FT Network.
Speaker 1: Make sure you check out the platform, but also the
Speaker 1: multiple show slash podcasts per week. Jim, good to see it,
Speaker 1: and great times for the White Sox. They sweep the
Speaker 1: Tigers and they're in their best spot they've been in.
Speaker 1: So how real is it feeling that this team is
Speaker 1: going to go from one hundred lost season to a
Speaker 1: division title.
Speaker 2: It's still hard to grasp just because the White Sox
Speaker 2: have had three hundred lost seasons in a row. Their
Speaker 2: preseason ambitions were muted in terms of wins and losses.
Speaker 2: They're still talking about developments versus any kind of tangible
Speaker 2: goals of a winning record or a wildcat spot.
Speaker 3: Or even the division.
Speaker 2: So to see them sweep the Tigers in Detroit, which
Speaker 2: finally tilted their fangrafts projections for the postseason. Now they're
Speaker 2: at sixty three percent. Had been below fifty percent the
Speaker 2: entire time because it always takes the systems the longest
Speaker 2: time to catch up.
Speaker 3: To what over performers are doing.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it certainly was a statement series in the
Speaker 2: sense that they very well could have been swept by
Speaker 2: Detroit and left America Park in second place and said
Speaker 2: they turned the tables. They take all three, the rest
Speaker 2: of the Central has a pretty bad time over the weekend.
Speaker 2: And now, yeah, you would have to say that if
Speaker 2: they didn't make the postseason, if they didn't win the Central,
Speaker 2: it would require it would be a disappointment, depending on
Speaker 2: the shape of it, depending on how hot other teams
Speaker 2: have to get, it would be considered a collapse, which is,
Speaker 2: you know, it's a weird way.
Speaker 3: To think about it.
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, to think that the White
Speaker 2: Sox are in a position to where it would be
Speaker 2: a pretty stunning disappointment if they didn't make the postseason
Speaker 2: based on how they entered the year, I think that
Speaker 2: reflects ultimately just how charmed their season has been.
Speaker 4: Okay, so charm season. Yeah, we didn't nobody expect it,
Speaker 4: including Chris Getz in the front office. They didn't build
Speaker 4: a team expecting to get here. So what do you
Speaker 4: need to see from this team from now until the postseason?
Speaker 4: Which you said, hey, it looks like they're gonna make
Speaker 4: it so that they have success, or does a Sox
Speaker 4: machine shut down after the first round of the playoffs
Speaker 4: and say what an amazing season.
Speaker 2: Pitching, basically starting pitching, I think right now is the
Speaker 2: biggest gap. They have three starters you can pencil in
Speaker 2: right now. With Davis Martin go on the injured list,
Speaker 2: there isn't a proven or you tested ready replacement in
Speaker 2: the miners to fill the spot, So right now you're
Speaker 2: seeing two TBAs in there are probable pitcher listings. And
Speaker 2: then Sean Burke his last time out stuff was flatter,
Speaker 2: missing a tick or to a velocity. He's approaching a
Speaker 2: career high innings, so you're seeing this rotation. They added
Speaker 2: Luis Castillo, who should help in terms of having an
Speaker 2: arm that doesn't require a lot of maintenance.
Speaker 3: The rest of the way.
Speaker 2: But between Burke and Anthony Kay who has never has
Speaker 2: certainly been through this length of a season Stateside, then
Speaker 2: Davis Martin signs of him wearing down rookies who are
Speaker 2: trying to get in the rhythm of a major league season.
Speaker 2: Noah Schultz didn't quite take David Salin's had some moments
Speaker 2: but has had more struggles. Drew Thorpe could be back
Speaker 2: to maybe make his first major league start in two
Speaker 2: years after Tommy John There are a lot of holes
Speaker 2: and some candidates to fill those gaps, but there isn't
Speaker 2: anybody who inspires a whole lot of confidence at this time.
Speaker 2: So Will Venable has been able to cover for it
Speaker 2: with creative bullpen use, some long outings. We just saw
Speaker 2: Sean Newcombe record a two and a third inning save.
Speaker 2: He hasn't been afraid to go to the bullpen early
Speaker 2: to play matchups. He's been very proactive, which helps. I
Speaker 2: think if you're talking about that first round exit, you
Speaker 2: could see a pitching staff where if they aren't able
Speaker 2: to find some kind of continuity in the rotation between
Speaker 2: now and October and they don't have the kind of
Speaker 2: they still have to kind of play all out to
Speaker 2: make sure that they lock down a spot because it's
Speaker 2: nothing's a given yet, then you might wonder if they're
Speaker 2: going to run out of gas come October. But everybody
Speaker 2: expects them to tail off at some point, or you know,
Speaker 2: they had their first four game their last team to
Speaker 2: lose four games in a row and that finally hits
Speaker 2: and you're thinking, okay, this is the beginning of the end.
Speaker 2: It was fun or Detroit finally closes within being a
Speaker 2: series of first place, and they're the hottest team in
Speaker 2: the ALE, and a lot of fans who are out
Speaker 2: expecting this, and a lot of even I would say
Speaker 2: projection systems, for example. There are a lot of reasons,
Speaker 2: whether emotional or math, to think that this isn't going
Speaker 2: to quite hold up. But every time he starts thinking
Speaker 2: the evidence is mounting against them actually sustaining this, they
Speaker 2: rally back in a pretty impressive fashion.
Speaker 5: Well, one of the things that helps a pitching staff
Speaker 5: is a good lineup. And right now, Mirakami has twenty
Speaker 5: eight homers. Vargas has to twenty eight homers. But I
Speaker 5: want to touch on Vargas real quick. So what has
Speaker 5: been the most surprising thing about him? And could you,
Speaker 5: I guess, make a case that he may be their
Speaker 5: most complete indispensable player so far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a journey with Vargas, certainly. I think
Speaker 2: a lot of fans saw how he looked after the
Speaker 2: trade from the Dodgers, the tweet of him kind of
Speaker 2: slumped by the dugout rail at the Coliseum, just staring
Speaker 2: into the distance and thinking like, what's happened to me?
Speaker 2: And what's happened to the team? I used to enjoy
Speaker 2: playing for going from the Dodgers to a White Sox
Speaker 2: team that was on the verge of making the wrong
Speaker 2: kind of history. But it's just been steady improvements, a
Speaker 2: lot of adjustments, a lot of no instant fixes. It's
Speaker 2: been working on the body to get stronger and to
Speaker 2: maintain weight over the course of entire season. It's been
Speaker 2: adjustments with hands, with hips, with everything like that, trying
Speaker 2: to get more power into a swing because he always
Speaker 2: made good swing decisions like that was always the strength
Speaker 2: of his game and his prospect profile. It was just
Speaker 2: not translating to power. It was like translating to a
Speaker 2: lot of medium, deep flyouts when he first arrived at
Speaker 2: the White Sox. So he's a testament to the amount
Speaker 2: of runway the White Socks were able to give him
Speaker 2: by losing one hundred games three years in a row
Speaker 2: and last season giving him the audition that a team
Speaker 2: like the Dodgers could never give him. And that has
Speaker 2: just been a lot of work on his parts. The
Speaker 2: coaches tip it back to him saying, no, he's the
Speaker 2: guy who did the work. He's the guy who believed
Speaker 2: in making the changes. His twenty twenty five could have
Speaker 2: been seen as fine, Like, I'm a major leaguer, might
Speaker 2: be a second division regular or a platoon bat or
Speaker 2: something like that, but I'm no longer at risk of
Speaker 2: being optioned to the miners. But he took that and
Speaker 2: he improved upon it further and he adjusted further. So, yeah,
Speaker 2: to your point about him being the most valuable regular,
Speaker 2: I think he is probably the hardest guy to pitch
Speaker 2: to you in the lineup in terms of play discipline
Speaker 2: and the ability to make contact within the zone and
Speaker 2: on the fringes of the zone, and that makes them
Speaker 2: a difficult out. And then his ability to play a
Speaker 2: decent third base also gives the team some flexibility in
Speaker 2: terms of, you know, he's a very good first basement,
Speaker 2: he's kind of a mediocre third basement, but playable when
Speaker 2: he's hitting as well as he does. And just the
Speaker 2: amount of configurations that Venable has for mixing up the
Speaker 2: infield and rotating guys out and resting guys getting handedness advantages,
Speaker 2: he certainly plays a big part in that.
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Speaker 4: All right, pull back a little bit. When you look
Speaker 4: at this team and you've watched this team the entire season. Yes,
Speaker 4: the record is where it is. It's awesome. Have these
Speaker 4: young hitters develop the way that you think they needed
Speaker 4: to develop to be able to be a sustainable winner
Speaker 4: year after year with a Colson Montgomery, I think he's
Speaker 4: got like he's got a pretty good shot at striking
Speaker 4: out two hundred times with the Miguel Vargas, all the
Speaker 4: stuff you just talked about Antonachi coming up. Have they
Speaker 4: developed the way that you think is sustainable or is
Speaker 4: it kind of like, well, you know we've won a
Speaker 4: lot of games, Well we've hit really well. I don't
Speaker 4: know certain things are sustainable.
Speaker 2: They have a couple holes I think in their lineup,
Speaker 2: like they've struggled against teams with really high riding fastballs
Speaker 2: that can get above the batpath. You can see that
Speaker 2: mirror Comi and Colson Montgomery have gone quiet in those series.
Speaker 2: If the pitchers are hitting their spots. So in their
Speaker 2: current mode where they have a pretty a steep batpath,
Speaker 2: they are you know, they can be pitched you in
Speaker 2: a way where you can kind of see them, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe having a little bit too much reliance on the
Speaker 2: home run, you know, versus the strikeouts that can pile up. However,
Speaker 2: since seeing Tristan Peters, he wouldn't kind of a cold
Speaker 2: spell after the All Star break, after a surprise appearance
Speaker 2: in the All Star Game. He's come back and provided
Speaker 2: the kind of flatter batpath, more average oriented bat that
Speaker 2: is a nice contrast to the middle of the lineup.
Speaker 2: Antonacci has been that pasted all year at the top
Speaker 2: of the lineup and is getting better against lefty, so
Speaker 2: he's less of somebody who needs to be platooned, and
Speaker 2: Venable can use his right handed bats for other positions
Speaker 2: of need. You're seeing Chase Mydraft, who has had he
Speaker 2: had up and down first half wrestling strikeouts versus finding
Speaker 2: his power swing. But he's set a career hind homer's
Speaker 2: and now the strikeouts have come down as well, so
Speaker 2: it seems like he's figured out the balance between when
Speaker 2: to get his a swing off and when to hunt
Speaker 2: power versus when to ratcheted back and be more of
Speaker 2: the all around hitter or gap to gap hitter that
Speaker 2: he was in Triple A and during his prospect days.
Speaker 2: So when those guys are clicking, they provide a lot
Speaker 2: of depth lineup that makes it less reliant on you know,
Speaker 2: Murakami hitting a homer, Colson Montgomery hitting a homer. It
Speaker 2: makes it less reliant on Braden Montgomery needing to hit
Speaker 2: the ground running He's been a little bit up and down,
Speaker 2: but he's a rookie.
Speaker 3: That's forgivable.
Speaker 2: So I think there's an diversity in the lineup now
Speaker 2: that Peters is back that I think you can get
Speaker 2: by with what they have. And then you get to
Speaker 2: October and everybody is throwing ninety five plus and you're
Speaker 2: seeing a lot of relievers in short stints and all
Speaker 2: offenses kind of struggle. So I think they're probably in
Speaker 2: about as good of a position as they can be,
Speaker 2: in way better than anybody would have expected at this point.
Speaker 2: I think everybody saw it as a as a multi
Speaker 2: year project. There was some progress last year, more progress
Speaker 2: need to be made, and they made a lot of
Speaker 2: ground in a hurry.
Speaker 5: So you know, you go from sweeping Detroit and now
Speaker 5: you're going to face the Cubs at Wrigley. Do you
Speaker 5: see this as a legitimate test or how do you
Speaker 5: think this team is measuring up this game as they
Speaker 5: move forward?
Speaker 3: It's a test.
Speaker 2: I think having the Tigers right in front of it
Speaker 2: and that series being so crucial to their division race.
Speaker 2: The Cub series is always big. It's usually some date
Speaker 2: people circle because the teams are seldom good at the
Speaker 2: same time, so one team is trying to play for
Speaker 2: bragging rights and change the storyline in the city for
Speaker 2: a weekend. But I think with the Tiger Series right
Speaker 2: in front of it, it did take a little bit
Speaker 2: of this shine or the focus off the Crosstown series
Speaker 2: because they had to take care of the business.
Speaker 3: At hand in Detroit, and they did.
Speaker 2: But the emotions, the environment is so charged, whether it's
Speaker 2: South Side or North Side, that you know, this is
Speaker 2: not a trap series by any means. Everybody knows the
Speaker 2: Cubs are good, that they have a deep lineup, they
Speaker 2: play really good defense. So there's no reason to think, like,
Speaker 2: you know, should they lose the series that like they
Speaker 2: took it off or that is emotional letdown. There will
Speaker 2: be plenty of emotions, you know, coursing through the coursing
Speaker 2: the Wrigley Field and then they have the braves right
Speaker 2: after that. You know, it's it's not a week that
Speaker 2: encourages a letup because the schedule got lighter.
Speaker 4: Do that before I get to my next question, do
Speaker 4: the players on the White Sox know the South Side
Speaker 4: North Side? I'd like, are there enough guys that have
Speaker 4: enough tenure because if aj if aj Perzinsky was on here,
Speaker 4: he'd be like, oh, man, I hate the I hate
Speaker 4: the North Side. They're the you know, the bad side.
Speaker 4: Do these players know the rivalry?
Speaker 2: The quotes in the first half or the first front
Speaker 2: front end of the series on the season.
Speaker 3: Were temping at best.
Speaker 2: There were a lot of you know, while we take
Speaker 2: every series important and to their credit, like they were
Speaker 2: not in position where they could really pick opponents to
Speaker 2: targets and use themselves to measure against.
Speaker 3: Like they they had to take every series seriously.
Speaker 2: They're in the process of building credibility, both individually on
Speaker 2: the roster and as a team. So I think the
Speaker 2: first time around there were a lot of players who
Speaker 2: are talking about learning the series, looking forward to it,
Speaker 2: but not really having anything spicy to say, which I
Speaker 2: think is a disappointment if you're trying to find something
Speaker 2: to run with for for clip for Twitter, or things
Speaker 2: to play on sports radio.
Speaker 3: But it's worth watching again.
Speaker 2: Whether it's this series, whether it's next year, to see
Speaker 2: as these players get some staying power, as they are
Speaker 2: seen as fixtures on the White Sox and players who
Speaker 2: are planned around, whether you see the emotions, how loud
Speaker 2: it gets, how rowdy it gets in the crowd, whether
Speaker 2: that actually embeds itself in these players and they start,
Speaker 2: you know, speaking up for the fans the way you
Speaker 2: know Aj has and other players have.
Speaker 4: All right, speaking of Aj and myself, the catching position,
Speaker 4: the catching position in the south side is filling the blank.
Speaker 3: Cleveland lights.
Speaker 2: I think right now with Jake Rogers coming aboard, you're
Speaker 2: seeing them commit to defense, commit to framing, blocking, throwing,
Speaker 2: game calling. Rogers gives them an experience catcher that they've
Speaker 2: largely gone without. Edgar Carroll and Kyle Teal became the tandem.
Speaker 2: Caro had been hitting better, and yet when the ability
Speaker 2: to add Rogers came up through waivers, they did it,
Speaker 2: and they sent Carow down to Triple A. And want
Speaker 2: to give them the everyday playing time there still, but
Speaker 2: it seems like they are committing to defense, to handling
Speaker 2: the pitchers, batting them ninth and then whatever offense they provided,
Speaker 2: and Derromo hit a huge homer against Detroit to get
Speaker 2: back in the game on Sunday, Like whatever offense or
Speaker 2: moments they provide the plate is more or less a bonus.
Speaker 4: Okay, So there wasn't any like thing nefarious picking up
Speaker 4: Jake Rodgers before this Detroit series, like he knew anything
Speaker 4: or is that just a conspiracy theory.
Speaker 2: It's the Tigers were asked about it, and just they
Speaker 2: did not indulge that. Everybody's got scouting reports, everybody's got information,
Speaker 2: everybody you know, everybody's on more or less an equal
Speaker 2: playing field or even playing field when it comes to
Speaker 2: just the ability to scout. And some names have changed
Speaker 2: between the last time Rogers was there too, So yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it doesn't hurt probably in terms of knowing a
Speaker 2: little bits. But I think it really came down to
Speaker 2: pitch handling first, or pitcher handling first, pitch calling, and
Speaker 2: then perhaps anything else he can impart in terms of
Speaker 2: whether it's just how to pitch the Detroit's, how Detroit's
Speaker 2: going to pitch, or just in general like what a
Speaker 2: veteran catcher provides who has seen a lot. I think
Speaker 2: is more or less the kind of added bonus points.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair, Jim, good stuff, thanks for joining us,
Speaker 1: and a reminder to everyone for much more White SOX coverage.
Speaker 1: Socks Machine is the spot and it's part of the
Speaker 1: FT network.
Speaker 6: Jim, appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 6: There it is nice and pretty on the screen. For you.
Speaker 1: You can smack the QR code on the screen for
Speaker 1: YouTube or for podcast platforms.
Speaker 6: Jim, Thanks, toxeing, Oh, happy to be here.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
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Speaker 1: ou l. Let's talk Twins and where they're at and
Speaker 1: also what they tried to accomplish a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago at the trade deadline. Dan Hayes joining us right now,
Speaker 1: can follow him covering the Twins every day for the
Speaker 1: Athletic and of course on Twin Cities Territory part of
Speaker 1: the FT network. Dan, if you don't mind, I actually
Speaker 1: want to start there. We had Mitch Bannon on for
Speaker 1: his point of view, but can we get your point
Speaker 1: of view of what the Twins tried to do. They
Speaker 1: did some things, but what they tried to do even
Speaker 1: past what they accomplished at the trade deadline and how
Speaker 1: that could have effected things down the stretch for them.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, I mean they tried to go big.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 7: They got the baseline stuff out of the way early on.
Speaker 7: They got their starting pitching depth and Dean Kramer, which
Speaker 7: has proved very useful so far. They got aj Mentor
Speaker 7: and Jeff Hoffman. They got Hoffman a little bit before
Speaker 7: the deadline, but I mean they had three days to
Speaker 7: work on that, and they were pretty confident going to
Speaker 7: the last day they were going to land him. But
Speaker 7: they were clearly aiming bigger because with the Angels, before
Speaker 7: the Angels traded Jose Soriano to the Jays, the Twins
Speaker 7: were in those conversations. The Cubs were to other teams
Speaker 7: and the Twins were asking and pursuing. The Angels wanted
Speaker 7: Walker Jenkins. The Twins did not want a part of that.
Speaker 7: I think that's the one guy that they were not
Speaker 7: gonna mortgage the future on. But they tried to talk
Speaker 7: to him about Zach Needo also, and it was always
Speaker 7: Walker Jenkins was the starting point there when with the Angels,
Speaker 7: you know, so clearly they looked at I thought zach
Speaker 7: Needo was the interesting part because, look, the Twins had
Speaker 7: Kalen Culpepper ready to go at the top of the
Speaker 7: minor leagues. He debuted Friday after the deadline in Milwaukee.
Speaker 7: But the Twins pursued Nido, knowing he had three plus
Speaker 7: years and that he has an accomplished shortstop and already here.
Speaker 7: And I thought that was pretty interesting just because it
Speaker 7: states how much they wanted to go for it. They
Speaker 7: ultimately chose not to again. Jenkins wasn't gonna be somebody
Speaker 7: they wanted to part with. But then when Soriano got
Speaker 7: traded over to the Jays, they continued to pursue them.
Speaker 7: With the Jays. Now, look, they were already talking to
Speaker 7: the J's about Jeff Hoffman, so the conversation just sort
Speaker 7: of came up. As what I was told was, they
Speaker 7: were like, oh, how did that happen? You know, like
Speaker 7: they're they're talking to these guys a lot. The Twins
Speaker 7: and the Jays have made quite a few deals over
Speaker 7: the last couple years. Louis Varland, Tommy Nants earlier in July,
Speaker 7: so they had some you know, they were having a
Speaker 7: little bit of a conversation and they said, like, how
Speaker 7: did that come about? And they thought that the Jays
Speaker 7: responded enough where there was an opening, so they just
Speaker 7: pursued Soriano. And it sounds like the Jay has never
Speaker 7: really entertained it because the Jays were kind of sitting
Speaker 7: there and like the second piece was going to be
Speaker 7: something along the lines of Riley Quick, and the Twins
Speaker 7: didn't that's their top pitching prospect. They didn't want to
Speaker 7: do a Kaitlin Culpepper, Riley Quick and that didn't go anywhere.
Speaker 7: That converse didn't go anywhere, But I think it kind
Speaker 7: of does reveal the mindset of where they're trying to go.
Speaker 7: And you know, we heard about it back in spring training.
Speaker 7: I don't think anybody took it serious, but the Twins
Speaker 7: were in that from or Valdez kind of sweepstakes that
Speaker 7: materialized late in January, right before spring training, and they
Speaker 7: thought they'd made a significant offer. Detroit obviously came along
Speaker 7: and blew out of the water, but the Twins were
Speaker 7: trying to make a play there, and it's just kind
Speaker 7: of where the owner is now. The owners trying to
Speaker 7: win back fans desperately because the fans have tuned them
Speaker 7: out and they're going to be down from last year
Speaker 7: most likely with attendance, and last year was one point
Speaker 7: seven million, So they're trying to basically win back fans
Speaker 7: that have been disappointed since the end of the twenty
Speaker 7: twenty three season with that payroll cut and then not
Speaker 7: adding it to twenty four deadline and then trading everybody
Speaker 7: at the twenty five deadline. So they're trying to reverse
Speaker 7: course and kind of, as the owner said, make bold moves,
Speaker 7: aggressive moves, that people wouldn't expect from us, And you know,
Speaker 7: to some degree, not to the two hundred and forty
Speaker 7: million that the Padres had a couple of years ago,
Speaker 7: but to some degree they see the Padres as a
Speaker 7: team that they'd like to kind of emulate, that goes
Speaker 7: out and makes moves and you know, has a great
Speaker 7: roster everybody's looking at every year. And I think one
Speaker 7: reason they can at least entertain this is that there's
Speaker 7: enough young talent on the roster where they could fill
Speaker 7: in with more expensive players now achieving that convincing people
Speaker 7: to come to Minnesota that's not easy, Like this is
Speaker 7: definitely a tough sell players and free agency. You're subjecting
Speaker 7: yourself to cold in April May and that that could
Speaker 7: be a very tough sell. But it's ideally where they
Speaker 7: want to go, and it's definitely a one to eighty
Speaker 7: from where you know, I think everybody thought they were
Speaker 7: totally totally.
Speaker 4: I was one of the people that said, yeah, they're
Speaker 4: definitely lying. But all that aggressiveness, you look at Soriano,
Speaker 4: you look at netto two three years of troll still,
Speaker 4: is that what the Twins look at with this team?
Speaker 4: Are they right that this position player Corps has because
Speaker 4: they always develop bullpen arms. Right, Obviously it'd be nice
Speaker 4: to have Louis Varland, but they've always developed bullpen arms.
Speaker 4: They have Joe Ryan, they had, you know, they have
Speaker 4: some pitching out there. Is this the core that they're looking? Okay,
Speaker 4: we have three years because Buxton's contract's going to be gone,
Speaker 4: and are they right in making this move or are
Speaker 4: they just trying to buy their friends?
Speaker 7: It's it's a good question, but I do think there
Speaker 7: have been signs that this is the right group. Look,
Speaker 7: Brooksley is having a good season, his nineteenth home run
Speaker 7: Grand Slam yesterday. Royce Lewis has shown a lot of signs.
Speaker 7: He in May, his career looked like it was pretty
Speaker 7: much on the ropes, and he's responded with an eight
Speaker 7: hundred plus OPS for more than two months since he
Speaker 7: came back from he's cut down his strikeouts. He looks
Speaker 7: like the guy again. You have Luke Kishaw, who since
Speaker 7: as a four hundred OPS sorry on base percentage and
Speaker 7: like an eight hundred OPS. They got to find him
Speaker 7: a position where he's comfortable, or get him comfortable in
Speaker 7: the outfield. But like that guy's a gamer. He gets
Speaker 7: on base, you look at those moves, they think that
Speaker 7: Walker Jenkins coming. They're really excited about Von Lackey, who
Speaker 7: they drafted in July. I don't think they look at
Speaker 7: him as being a long ways away. And so when
Speaker 7: you have those young pieces, I mean, especially with the
Speaker 7: progress that Lee and Lewis have made this year, Like
Speaker 7: who knew going into this year what they were going
Speaker 7: to be if they could do enough. And there still
Speaker 7: needs to be more improvement, but I think the signs
Speaker 7: they've seen suggest those guys can be players that they
Speaker 7: can build around, and then you go and get bigger
Speaker 7: pieces in different spots. I don't know how you do it,
Speaker 7: because there's so much in the outfield too. Right, you
Speaker 7: have Buckston and he's in for a couple more years.
Speaker 7: I think his contract expires after twenty eight, but he's
Speaker 7: he's got a couple more years, and Walker Jenkins and
Speaker 7: Emmanuel Rodriguez are there in the minor leagues. It like,
Speaker 7: I don't know where you spend unless you go out
Speaker 7: and spend on pitching. It's going to be interesting because
Speaker 7: like do you get a DH you know they're gonna
Speaker 7: they're I think they see this as that window and
Speaker 7: they just need to do anything to attract fans because
Speaker 7: it hasn't worked. What you know, this is a team
Speaker 7: that drew two point three million in twenty nineteen and
Speaker 7: it's gone downhill since then. I think they would have
Speaker 7: been in line for a good, good attendance boosts in
Speaker 7: twenty twenty four, but you cut payroll by thirty million
Speaker 7: and disappointed your fans less than a month after you
Speaker 7: won your first playoff series in twenty one years, And
Speaker 7: that was just a huge mistake. It may have saved
Speaker 7: them money in the short term, but it cost them
Speaker 7: in the long term. I mean, we're probably look at
Speaker 7: a team that would have drawn two million that year,
Speaker 7: and they were seventy and fifty three at one point
Speaker 7: in twenty twenty four and looking like they're streaking towards
Speaker 7: the playoffs, and they ran out of gas because they
Speaker 7: really didn't add anything to the deadline. That's I think
Speaker 7: something that they realized they disappointed fans so much that
Speaker 7: they just have to be aggressive and do things that
Speaker 7: people don't expect them to do. So I don't know,
Speaker 7: I don't know how it looks, but I see that
Speaker 7: they're you know, they've talked about it. They've talked about
Speaker 7: a lot. Tom pole Adds the new point man is
Speaker 7: for ownership. He took over after the partial sale in December,
Speaker 7: and he's gone on record with this a lot, and
Speaker 7: that has not been something we've seen from Twins ownership
Speaker 7: before in the forty plus years of the pole Add
Speaker 7: family owning it. He's been aggressive with his his thoughts
Speaker 7: publicly and basically saying we're going to do this. And
Speaker 7: you know it's it's one thing to say that privately
Speaker 7: and not, you know, have it be on the record,
Speaker 7: but by putting it on the record, you're going to
Speaker 7: get called out if you're not living up to this stuff.
Speaker 7: And I thought the deadline was solid. They did a
Speaker 7: good job. They got the baseline stuff they needed. I
Speaker 7: like probably a B or a B minus on their
Speaker 7: grade for that. But they did a good job of
Speaker 7: going and getting guys and they said they were gonna
Speaker 7: do that, and it was it was one small step
Speaker 7: to try and win back the fan base. There need
Speaker 7: to be a lot more steps to win back the
Speaker 7: fan base.
Speaker 8: Sea Geek is the official ticket marketplace for Major League Baseball,
Speaker 8: and anytime you want to go to a game, you
Speaker 8: should go to Sea Geek. I used to call the
Speaker 8: director of team travel. I used to call the traveling
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Speaker 8: to get a seat. But on Sea Geek, I can
Speaker 8: pick my own seat, and I can pick where I
Speaker 8: want to sit instead of being told where to sit.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's a great option. And summer is coming to
Speaker 9: an end here soon. I'm going out and finding all
Speaker 9: the day games possible, all the warm weather cities so
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Speaker 9: want to make sure that I get the most out
Speaker 9: of this tank top and warm weather and Sea Geek
Speaker 9: is where I would go and get my seats.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, hopefully they're starting to go in the right direction
Speaker 5: with that, because yeah, it's when you said the attendance numbers,
Speaker 5: it's mind blowing. So hopefully they're getting back to where
Speaker 5: they need to be to be contenders. But this past
Speaker 5: series they lost seven to one, nine to one, and
Speaker 5: then they blew a five zero lead on Sunday. Do
Speaker 5: you think that that was just one of those bad
Speaker 5: series or do you think the Phillies expose something And
Speaker 5: how do you think that stands? What information did you
Speaker 5: pull to where it gives you information on if they
Speaker 5: are true a playoff contender.
Speaker 7: Well, the Twins have an interleague problem. I mean, they're
Speaker 7: thirteen and twenty six against the National League this year
Speaker 7: and tonight it gets no easier. Atlanta comes to town
Speaker 7: and there's two lefties and the Twins have not been
Speaker 7: able to hit lefties very well. You look at and
Speaker 7: they go from here to San Diego. So basically they
Speaker 7: are in this just terrible stretch for them schedule wise,
Speaker 7: and they need to figure it out because Sunday was
Speaker 7: pretty crushing to have the five nothing lead and it
Speaker 7: slipped and you know, they it blew up on them fast.
Speaker 7: And I will say a post game was a little
Speaker 7: bit tense manager's office. It was a short session. You
Speaker 7: could tell that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 7: It was disappointing weekend. They did not play well in
Speaker 7: the field of dreams and nationally televised game. They were
Speaker 7: almost on Saturday night within they were an instant replay
Speaker 7: overturn of Keishel getting thrown out at the plate from
Speaker 7: tying the game, and it would have been one to
Speaker 7: one in the fifth inning, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 7: you look up and it's eight to one in that
Speaker 7: game is or eight to nothing and that game is over.
Speaker 7: So Sunday they thought they had it and they had
Speaker 7: their bullpen in place, and it just didn't happen again.
Speaker 7: Philly's the middle of that lineup was very effective during
Speaker 7: the last two games of this series. Alec Bahum had
Speaker 7: seven hits. I don't think Alec Bohm will ever be
Speaker 7: invited back to target field. You know, they like the
Speaker 7: three run homer yesterday was crushing, but then he blooped
Speaker 7: a single in down the line to write and it's
Speaker 7: one of those it's in no man's land and it,
Speaker 7: you know, ties the game and then an Opo base
Speaker 7: hit for to pull ahead. I mean, it was just
Speaker 7: one of those days where it's like everything that could
Speaker 7: go wrong went wrong. Austin Martin got hurt on trying
Speaker 7: to track down a Louis Aurri's opposite field double that
Speaker 7: hit off his glove and he's on the I l
Speaker 7: that they placed him on the aisle, I will say.
Speaker 7: Talking to Byron Bucks and afterwards, like he he stressed
Speaker 7: that the guys are treating it the same and that
Speaker 7: they are in the same mindset that you know, things
Speaker 7: haven't changed, but it did still feel a little bit
Speaker 7: more tense around there, and I think they do recognize
Speaker 7: they're in a very tough stretch right now. They you know,
Speaker 7: just a week and a half ago they were at
Speaker 7: five hundred and here they are five games under and
Speaker 7: starting to see some distance between them and the White Sox.
Speaker 7: It's six games back in the division and then also
Speaker 7: even in the wildcard race, and the one thing that's
Speaker 7: been lucky for them all season is nobody's really pulled
Speaker 7: away in the wildcard race. I think they're one and
Speaker 7: a half back right now in that sixteen blog for
Speaker 7: the third spot. That's that part's encouraging that it's still
Speaker 7: there for them, But that's a lot of teams to
Speaker 7: keep track of and beat out, and unless you start
Speaker 7: taking care of business, I mean, it's not going to
Speaker 7: be there. So I think they understand that. But also
Speaker 7: I you know, talking to guys, they didn't seem to
Speaker 7: be flustered. That's been one of those team's strengths all year.
Speaker 7: Just when it seems like it's over to everybody else,
Speaker 7: they turn it around. And they have done that. But
Speaker 7: it's a really tough stretch right now to turn it around,
Speaker 7: given it's the Braves and then the Padres on the road.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, they fired rockoball Deli and now under
Speaker 4: Shelton this team is playing better? Is it Shelton? Is
Speaker 4: it not? Is Rocko getting too much credit for what
Speaker 4: he did or didn't do from last year? Where is
Speaker 4: this at? And is that mindset a manager's mindset directly
Speaker 4: tied to Derek Schell.
Speaker 7: Look, I will say the new energy, the new life
Speaker 7: certainly has been appreciated, There's no question. I think everybody
Speaker 7: there was a like I truly think the thirty million
Speaker 7: dollars payroll and then not seeing ads at the deadline
Speaker 7: in twenty four just put a sour taste on everything
Speaker 7: for a lot of people. And I think it, you know,
Speaker 7: they felt like they were up against it, they had
Speaker 7: to do it with limited resources, and that when it
Speaker 7: didn't happen. They pulled the plug in twenty twenty five
Speaker 7: and that team was barely out of it. However, the
Speaker 7: league wasn't nearly as bad as it was as bad
Speaker 7: as it is this year the American League, but you know,
Speaker 7: they had a similar record where they were, so there
Speaker 7: is a new energy around it. I think the players
Speaker 7: in the clubhouse really love what Derek Shelton's brought's. He's personable,
Speaker 7: he's close to a lot of them. You know, he's
Speaker 7: a communication kind of first guy, and when it's been
Speaker 7: tough decisions made. When they told Luke Keishall at first
Speaker 7: that hey, you know, we know you drafted you as
Speaker 7: a second baseman. We know that's the position you've played
Speaker 7: most of your career, but we're going to replace you
Speaker 7: defensively late in games. He had a conversation with him
Speaker 7: about it and was just give him a heads up,
Speaker 7: but then went back and kind of talked over a
Speaker 7: second time with him. He said, that's something he learned
Speaker 7: in Pittsburgh, was the importance of that communication. And I
Speaker 7: remember talking to Keishall about it two days later and
Speaker 7: his response was, you know, he went out of his
Speaker 7: way to look out for me, just so I wasn't
Speaker 7: blindsided by stuff, and I really appreciated him doing that.
Speaker 7: And you can find that conversation having happened over and
Speaker 7: over and over with players in the clubhouse, and Keishall
Speaker 7: was responded. I think he had an extra base hit
Speaker 7: that was critical in a victory, like the next day
Speaker 7: after he got replaced defensively, and I think, you know,
Speaker 7: those kinds of things have mattered with these guys. I
Speaker 7: think that Shelton's approached it just a little bit different.
Speaker 7: There seems to be just one. I mean, the coaching
Speaker 7: staff is Grady Sizemore and it has LaTroy Hawkins as
Speaker 7: the bullpen coach. Guys love the coaching staff. They've talked
Speaker 7: about that openly. They trust the coaching staff. I remember
Speaker 7: early in the season Trevor Larnox saying, and as he's
Speaker 7: being platooned, he talked to the veterans. The veterans said,
Speaker 7: this coaching staff is really good, and they all trusted that,
Speaker 7: and they kind of just bought in. And I think
Speaker 7: that has gotten them some extra mileage. Now they have
Speaker 7: the parts in the bullpen to get through. They didn't
Speaker 7: have those bullpen pieces in April, in May and they
Speaker 7: got some as it slowly developed. Yo wenders Gomez they
Speaker 7: got as a find for cash in a trade for
Speaker 7: cash with the Rays in late April. He's developed in
Speaker 7: to a nice ninth inning guy. Andrew Morris is having
Speaker 7: a little bit of a rut as a rookie you
Speaker 7: know does in the bullpen. It's not unexpected right now,
Speaker 7: but like he's been critical to them. And then they
Speaker 7: went out and added aj Minter, and they added Tommy Nance,
Speaker 7: and they added Jeff Hoffman, and they built out the debt.
Speaker 7: But the starting rotation has struggled lately. They're giving up
Speaker 7: two many first name runs. They're just constantly playing from behind,
Speaker 7: and that's been pretty troubling for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, underrated coaching staff for what they've done this year.
Speaker 1: I'm with you on that one. Dan, thanks for joining
Speaker 1: us a lot more of this of course on mile
Speaker 1: or mile high on Twin Cities territory. Dan, thank you, appreciate.
Speaker 7: You all right, guys, thanks there.
Speaker 6: It is Twin Cities for you subscribe to it.
Speaker 1: There is a mile high, but Twin Cities for this one.
Speaker 1: Talking twins, Zach Peerce, Tyler Duffie former twin and Dan
Speaker 1: who was just with us, Go check it out