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[Minnesota Twins]

Rocco Baldelli Joins The 500 Club

Photo by Matt Krohn/Getty Images

It’s tougher than ever to be a manager in modern MLB

A couple of weeks ago, Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli notched the 500th win—all here in MN—of his managerial career. It came—in zany fashion—on a Brooks Lee walk-off squeeze bunt scoring Byron Buxton.

With that milestone, Rocco joined the upper echelon of Twins managers in terms of victories. Only Tom Kelly (1140 from 1986-2001), Ron Gardenhire (1068 from 2002-2014), and Sam Mele (524 from 1961-1967) are ahead of Baldelli (504 from 2019-Present).

Photo by David Joles/Star Tribune via Getty Images
Rocco & Ron!

Before any further analysis of Rocco’s reign, there is a red-lights-flashing, sirens sounding, READ THIS FIRST point that must be addressed:

He will forever be unfairly criticized for handling starting pitchers, if only because every modern MLB manager faces the same malady. Data-crunching has largely proven that fresh arms out of the pen—even of nominal quality—are better than SP’s facing batters a third (or heaven-forbid fourth!) time in a single contest.

Of course, this notion flies in the face of fan enjoyment. We want to see starters succeed deep into games simply for the drama and familiarity. Much like folks in the mid-20th century pouted over the proliferation of relievers and five-man rotations, we now bemoan the banishment of the “starter-setup-maybe LOOGY-closer” game flow.

Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images
Noted “back in my day” connoisseur Jack Morris

We can jaw about this because our jobs aren’t on the line. But imagine—in any line of work—you have analytical data at your disposal prescribing a course of action towards a desired outcome (for baseball: winning). If you deviate from that data and fail, you will likely be held accountable for those decisions (i.e. fired).

So, the infamous “Rocco going to the spreadsheet” criticism—that he’s managing by strict percentages and not “feel of the game”? Setting aside that we’ll momentarily see Rocco’s best managerial campaign occurred when digging deepest into the analytical detritus, one thing I’ll guarantee: Baldelli does not enjoy removing a starter after 5 innings and 80-some pitches with the top of the lineup swinging around for the 3rd time either.

Photo by Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Should be renamed “The SWR” at this point

He’s doing it because the numbers tell him it is the best chance at victory, and if he doesn’t follow those general principles he’ll be out of uniform in short order.

Pitcher philosophy aside, I think Baldelli’s Twins tenure can be broken down into four unique periods—all perpetuated by the support he received (or didn’t) from Pohlad ownership...

The Bomba Squad (2019-2020)​

• What a time to begin a managerial career—the extreme rabbit-ball season and then the 60 game COVID-sprint. Inheriting a slugging squad, Rocco smartly sat back and let them smack their way to two division titles.

Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images
Why over-manage when the next guy will likely hit that exact sign?!

Infusion of Talent (2022)​

• After the lost season of 2021, the Pohlads finally made major outside-hire improvements—bringing in Carlos Correa & Sonny Gray. This is when Rocco began developing the formula of riding a couple really solid starters (Gray & Joe Ryan in ’22) to help keep the bullpen fresh, then mixing/matching position players for optimal scenarios. It worked—until everyone got hurt and division-deciding lineups were staffed by Mark Contreras, Sandy Leon, Billy Hamilton, Jermaine Palacios, & Gilberto Celestino. Collapse was the capper.

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
You mean you don’t remember the Jermaine Palacios Era?

Depth & Flexibility (2023)​

• Baldelli, the front office, & the Pohalds seemed to learn from ’22 foibles—depth is critical. Pablo Lopez was procured to further stabilize starters, while positional depth & flexibility became paramount. Players like Willi Castro, Kyle Farmer, Michael A. Taylor, & Donovan Solano allowed Rocco to pinch hit with impunity (even early in games) and still have defensive coverage on the back end. Rocco rode this formula to a playoff series victory!

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images
Every position on the diamond could be covered (many twice) by the Farmer/Castro duo

No Support (2024-2025)​

• Following 2023’s success, the Pohlad ownership group inexplicably turtled-up in terms of roster improvement—perhaps in anticipation of selling the franchise. As such, Rocco has seen the cupboard slowly empty of hitting & pitching depth (his seeming specialty). Though never bottoming-out entirely, these clubs have not sustained the highs of ‘23 or most of ‘22.

A humorous aside: you know how Rocco often gets criticized for showing little fire on the field? Well, his 19 ejections in 966 games is a 2% rate. Famous umpire tyrant Gardy? 71 heave-hos in 2107 games—or 3%. This of course compared to T.K.’s 5 clubhouse vacays in 2385 games (<1%, .002). So, Rocco isn’t as placid as perceived.

Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
He can get fired up too!

Add all this up and you start to get a bit of a narrative: when Rocco has a solid cast—whether they be stoic sluggers or flexible fliers—the team does well. When the talent or depth, specifically, is not there? Blasé. In all honesty, this is probably how all but the elite of skippers (the Terry Francona or Bruce Bochy tier) grade out.

One thing I can confidently state: Baldelli has shown a knack for taking a squad that looks to be on death’s doorstep and inexplicably ripping off a long winning streak or prolonged solid stretch of play. Coming out of 2025 All-Star festivities, that is exactly what this club will need to jump back into the AL playoff picture.

Source: https://www.twinkietown.com/2025/7/...s-analytics-tom-kelly-ron-gardenhire-sam-mele

 

[Minnesota Twins]

Game 97: Twins at Rockies

LaTroy thoughtfully posing in a PSA about kitchen safety. Do you have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen? DO YOU? | Denver Post Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon

The Twins face off against the Mile High club.

First pitch: 7:40 Central​

Weather: National Weather Service still gutted, slight chance T-storms, 86°​

Opponent’s SB site: Purple Row​

TV: Twins TV. Radio: No relievers allowed except when they are​

Not-great Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland is starting against the Twins today, for... reasons. I dunno what the reasons are. Maybe the thought process is “no point in readjusting the rotation post-All Star break when you’re 22-74.” (Also, his numbers are better than his ERA would indicate.) Freeland is a Denver native, so that’s kinda cool. Although he lives in Arizona. He throws in the low-90s and adds in a curve, sleeputter, sinker and change. YTD digits:

Recently, a former Twins draft pick and fringe major-leaguer was found guilty of first-degree murder involving a Lake Tahoe real estate dispute. You know who invests big in Lake Tahoe vacation property? Michael Corleone and nobody good.

As nagurskiinnortheast pointed out, Missouri’s gasbag governor guaranteed several hundred millions of dollars for new stadiums at the same time he was torpedoing a law requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to workers. After Missouri voters said “no” to a stadium funding ballot measure and “yes” to a sick leave measure. Which goes to show how much these politicos worry about anything their constituents actually want. Oh, and by the way, this is just the start of what the Royals’ owner is asking for. He will get much more.

Since those stories suck, here’s one from 2023 you may have missed, about the Rockies’ goofy scoreboard operator. One JumboTron message seemed oddly personal:

From the site meaww.com, whose “about” page says “we are the global hub for Reality TV and Entertainment.” They’re based in India, but don’t have any stories about Indian entertainment. Too bad.

Or, in another one, “The last time the Orioles visited Denver was 2004 - Nolan Arenado was just 13, the iPhone was just three years away from hitting shelves, and I was in the early stages of alimony litigation with my delight of a first wife. Time flies, eh?”

They’ve also had fun with how friendly the bandmembers and music of Hootie and the Blowfish are, when actual blowfish are often quite poisonous. So none of this is to be taken seriously, kids. (Some people on the internet thought “Becky” was real.)

Here’s a cute Guardian article about people in Pennsylvania who play old-timey baseball. As in, no gloves, wool uniforms, and balls caught on one hop are outs. My favorite quote is by someone who said they used to do Civil War re-enactments, but the outcome was always the same. (Although their old-timey uniforms are made by a Civil War re-enactment uniform supplier. This sounds like an expensive hobby.)

The Twins had an all-player broadcast crew for a bit against the Cubs last week, and it seems like the boys had a good time. At one point, they ragged on Trevor Plouffe a little bit.

Moving on to Today in Baseball History, there’s a fun one from 1986, when Detroit’s Jack Morris threw his third consecutive shutout. It wouldn’t be a shutout in his next game, on July 23rd; Kirby Puckett scored in the first inning on two errors. But Morris still went 8.0 innings that day and had 0 earned runs.

Better yet, in 1962, both Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew hit grand slams... and both were in the first inning! Allison’s was off Barry Latman, who’s been an All-Star the previous year. Latman was Jewish, and never played on high holidays (like Sandy Koufax in the 1965 Series); unlike Koufax, he was pretty observant — with Koufax, the 1965 thing was more about showing solidarity during a rise of antisemitism in the U.S. Latman played for four teams over 11 seasons and had a respectable 3.91 career ERA.

As you’d expect, Killebrew hit his dinger off a different pitcher — Jim Perry! The Jim Perry who’d be traded to the Twins the next season, for the fairly decent Jack Kralick. (Kralick threw the Twins’ first no-hitter in 1962... and once bowled a perfect 300, too.) Perry would spend 10 seasons with the Twins, winning the Cy Young in 1970. He’s one of 40 people in the Twins’ Hall of Fame.

But the day belongs to a very good reliever who’s one of the just plain neatest people in Twins history, recent college graduate LaTroy Hawkins.

The whole story of the LaTroy Hawkins Fan Club is pretty legendary, so you probably know it already. Just in case you don’t, it started in 2001. Hawkins had already spent part of five seasons with the Twins, and it hadn’t gone all that great; 99 games with a 6.16 ERA. Two Twins fans, Heidi Sutter and Eric Englund, were hanging outside the Metrodome hoping to get some player autographs. They met Hawkins, and had a great time talking to him, so they decided to start a fan club. And yep, they got the autograph, too:

From this ESPN article. Credited as “Courtesy of LaTroy Hawkins Fan Club.”

The club would start the next day, with Sutter and Englund asking fans around them in section 216 to join. Many did. And things deepened when some members went down to Florida for Spring Training the next year, and Hawkins took them out to dinner. Over the years, Hawkins became basically a part of the family for some of the members, and vice versa — they’ve helped Hawkins and his wife Anita with babysitting, he’s been to their birthday parties and weddings. One wedding was a guy marrying his former high-school prom date. He’d taken her to the prom in Hawkins’s car. (He picked it up at the Dome after a game, and Hawkins got his ride home in his mom’s minivan.) And yup, they still know each other.

Hawkins always was a great teammate, too. Check out this really nice article from the Denver Post’s Benjamin Hochman and Nick Groke back in 2015 (which would be Hawkins’s last season); it opens with Hawkins dancing at the bar mitzvah of a team doctor’s kid. It’s about Hawkins doing things like buying the rookies suits, because that’s what Puckett did for him. And teaching them how to be decent people, too — that they darn sure better be tipping the hotel staff.

He was drafted in 1991, and was a little frustrated at first, so he told his grandfather he’d be quitting baseball to attend college on a basketball scholarship. Grandpa told him right back that if he was gonna quit, he’d better find another place to stay, and Hawkins agreed to keep trying at baseball. During his early struggles with the Twins, the front office wanted him gone, but Tom Kelly didn’t — he admired Hawkins’s work ethic. It got Hawkins the closer’s job in 2001, and that didn’t go great; 28 saves in 38 opportunities. By September, the job was Eddie Guardado’s.

In a setup role, though, Hawkins was much more successful. He’d have 5.5 bWAR in 2002-2003 with a 2.00 ERA; the Twins let him walk at the end of the year, thinking he was nearing his sell-by day at age 30. A little off, there — Hawkins would pitch in MLB for another 12 seasons, with a 3.37 ERA. Maybe nothing amazing, he never made an All-Star team, but pretty impressive all the same. And just an all-around nice guy, which matters most.

From this article, with members of the fan club, photo credit Bruce Bisping /Star Tribune

Also, the Twins today will be wearing Securian Financial logos on their sleeves. Not that I fuggin’ care in the slightest about how many more ads they run. But you might see these things and wonder “that’s new, what are they?” It’s an investment company based in St. Paul, and as-yet unconnected to any giant financial fraud indictments. You’d be surprised how many have been. Or maybe you wouldn’t.

Source: https://www.twinkietown.com/2025/7/...-rockies-byron-buxton-latroy-hawkins-fan-club

 

[Minnesota Twins]

Rockies 6, Twins 4: Buxton still awesome, Paddack less so

Wouldn’t you rather see a picture of Bux being cool to kids than the Twins in losing-game action? I would! | Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

It didn’t begin well. It got better, but not better enough.

Chris Paddack got his time zones mixed up and thought this game was starting an hour later, or earlier, or something. So-so Rockies starter Kyle Freeland solved the Twins bats when he needed to. Inning-by-inning notes:

1: Kris Atteberry makes a John Prine reference. Not really a great one, but I don’t care. If Atteberry is a John Prine fan, I now forgive him and apologize for anything negative I’ve ever said about his radio skills. (I thought he was GREAT as the studio guy.) All John Prine fans are excellent people. There are no exceptions.

Ryan Jeffers has a double and Carlos Correa a walk, and very good fielder Ryan McMahon absolutely robs Ty France of the two-out RBI(s). McMahon is related to former brash Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon; they’re both the illegitimate love children of former Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon. This may be untrue.

Double-double-triple to start Chris Paddack’s night. That’s not ideal. Then a homer. That is REALLY not ideal. With nobody out! Nine guys bat in total. (Per radio postgame, four opponent extra-base hits to start the first inning is a first in Twins history). Rockies 4-0

2: Radio with Fun Facts I didn’t know. Michael Cuddyer won the NL batting crown in 2013 as a Rockie (Rocky?). Justin Morneau, next year, same thing.

More good defense, this time by Ryan Ritter keeping Royce Lewis off base. The funny thing is that by most conventional defensive metrics, the Rockies are near-bottom in MLB. (The Twins aren’t much better.) Just a reminder that every MLB player has enormous talent and can flash it at times. The difference between an MVP and a AAA lifer is, who does it more consistently.

A homerun for Jordan Beck, who is the illegitimate love child of guitarist Jeff Beck — so’s his brother, who sang “Where It’s At.” This may be untrue. Colorado 5-0

3: Atteberry says two of his favorite movies are Police Academy and Spaceballs. I take back what I said about taking back what I said.

Buxton with the one-out single and Ryan Jeffers follows suit. Nothing happens. I don’t mean space/time freezes, just that the Twins don’t score. Although with how depressing my newsfeed is every morning, I wouldn’t be surprised if “space/time going to freeze permanently in October” showed up one of these days.

4: Gameday has this as the Rockies’ jersey:

Is that their City Connect? Yes, it is:

Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

Man, those tops are uggggg-ly. Kinda like “let’s take the old Denver Nuggets jerseys and make them into crap.” I swear A.I. is designing these things now.

5: BUCK BOMB! A solo shot, natch, because Christian Vázquez is banned by MLB bylaws from ever getting any hits. More importantly, Buxton sings the Sheboygan sausages jingle on the radio commercial. We need more MLB players singing.

Have I used this before? Yes I have. I will use it again. It’s actually a fabulously-directed ad.

More traffic on the basepaths for Paddack. Is “traffic on the basepaths” an overused phrase? Yes it is. I will probably use it again. Or “a plethora of players plating pitches” or something. Paddack wins the 11-pitch battle with Ezequiel Tovar, and the Rockies steal third. Probably a double-steal and the runner at first missed the sign. Well, nobody scores. Twins need to start getting more runs, though. I’m not the boss of them or anything, it’s just a suggestion.

6: The Twins get two on with nobody out and Freeland picks up his first three strikeouts of the game. The Rockies score more, on an RBI double form Tyler Freeland. Cole Sands is the pitcher you can blame, if you wanna.

Another “Gameday” graphics thing, this quite sad. The retired numbers you can see in the graphic are Jackie Robinson’s, Todd Helton’s, and Larry Walker’s. That is not sad, they were all great players. The sad one is the initials “KSM.”

Those stand for Keli Scott McGregor, a Rockies team executive who unexpectedly died at age 47 of a rare heart infection. (This is why I’m excited to be losing my health insurance, I’m 52.) McGregor had been a NFL player for a brief period with the Broncos, and before that in high school and college. After his death, per his will, his brain was examined and evidence of CTE was found — the incurable brain damage you get from repeated concussions. That wasn’t what caused his too-young death.

Still, it’s amazing to me that Rod Serling was more realistic about how repeated head trauma affected boxers in 1956 than we are about the dangers of football seventy years later. Rockies 6-1

7: Once again, the Twins have two runners on... but this time, they score! Courtesy of a long ball by Willi Castro, the illegitimate love child of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. (This may be untrue.) Once again, Buxton was involved, with an infield single to start things off. If this guy hadn’t had so many unlucky injuries, he’d have been one of the best players in Twins history. As it is, I’m happy for him this year.

Justin Topa pitching. Radio tells the sad story of how the Tommy John surgery expert David Altchek passed away this last week of a brain tumor — he performed TJ surgery on Topa when Topa was 19, and they eventually became friends. Atteberry says he’s had a brain tumor removed and otherwise he wouldn’t be here. I take back the mean things I said about Atteberry after the nice things after the mean things. Mile Highers 6-4

8: The Twins get a little action going until Brooks Lee hits into a GIDP. For-now cup of coffee-ing Travis Adams (he’s 25, he might be a future goodun) gets himself into trouble and gets out of it.

9: With Vázquez due up first, Rocco Baldelli chooses to pinch-hit with Matt Wallner, and it doesn’t work. But I like the choice. Had the inning ended up tied, that means Jeffers would have had to go from DH to catching and the Twins would have lost the DH — it’s worth taking the chance. I loved Gardy, as did we all, but he was absolutely paranoid about PHing for catchers and losing the DH. Which usually meant that Gardy teams had one catcher who could hit, one who hit less, and one who was good at doing dugout crosswords. If you haven’t read Zach’s analysis of Rocco’s strengths/weaknesses as a manager yet, check it out, it makes a lot of sense.

Rockies reliever Seth Halvorsen (a Twins draftee in 2018 who chose not to sign and played college ball instead) throws upward of 100 MPH and the Twins don’t hit him. Our side loses

Studs of the game: Buxton as almost always, Castro’s 3 RBI, Jeffers (4-5). Duds: Paddack’s first inning.

Comment of the game absolutely goes to sandwiches. I wondered why WCCO always seems to get louder at night, and he responded: “Yes, look up “clear-chanel radio stations” and it’ll have a better explanation than what I provide. But basically clear-channel stations have to power up to 100,000 watts at sunset. So that signal surge is that process taking place since ‘CCO is one of those stations.” (Indeed it is.)

Thanks to everyone who participated on the gamethread, which wasn’t anybody for the last 45 minutes and I felt lonely. But I still love ya folks.

Tomorrow’s game is at 7:10, and features Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela against a Totally Bada** Dude (TBD) who might be Zebby Matthews, he pitched four scoreless with nine strikeouts for St. Paul on Sunday. Catch you then, or later!

Source: https://www.twinkietown.com/2025/7/...on-buxton-still-awesome-chris-paddack-less-so

 

[Minnesota Twins]

Rockies 10, Twins 6: Rocked to Sleep

Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

The Twins are running out of time to prove they’re contenders before the trade deadline.

The Minnesota Twins came out of the All-Star Break and decided to completely discard the idea of momentum, despite Kody Clemens’ best efforts. After another loss to the worst team in baseball, Minnesota is doing little to prove that they’ve turned things around for good, in the latest indictment of a confounding Twins team.

Zebby Matthews made his grand return from the injured list and struggled with his command, missing spots and causing at-bats and innings to extend past their expiration date. He didn’t walk many batters, but Zebby allowed eight hits and five runs by the time his night was over.

The Twins did manage to get the scoring started in this one, with Ryan Jeffers, Kody Clemens, and Carlos Correa getting three extra-base hits in a row to plate the first two runs of the game. A Matt Wallner single put the Twins up 3-0 in the top of the second inning.

The Rockies kept chipping away at Matthews, scoring one in their bottom half of the inning and two more in the third, the latter thanks to a two-run shot by future Yankee third baseman (calling my shot here) Ryan McMahon. After a clean fourth, Zebby was sent back out for the fifth and allowed the first two Rockies to reach before being lifted for Brock Stewart. Beef Stew managed to get the first two batters but light-hitting shortstop Ezequiel Tovar crushed a first-pitch fastball out to put Colorado on top for good.

The Twins would mount a Clemens-led comeback attempt in the eighth inning with a bases-loaded double, but Correa followed up with a quick strikeout, stranding runners at second and third and leaving the Twins down by three. With the comeback coming up short, manager Rocco Baldelli had to turn to Justin Topa and Anthony Misiewicz to pitch the late innings, and both gave up two additional runs to the Rockies, as they are wont to do.

While the Twins were gaining some momentum heading into the All-Star Break, winning their final three series, they’ve now guaranteed a series loss to the league-worst Rockies with a chance to be swept. At 47-51, Minnesota sits 11.5 games out of the division, 5.0 games and 5 teams behind the final Wild Card spot, and have contests against the Dodgers and red-hot Red Sox as they close out July. The Twins tend to play to the level of their competition, but asking for a lengthy win streak with these teams on the docket is far fetched.

STUDS

• Kody Clemens: 2-4, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 2B, 1 3B

DUDS

• Zebby Matthews: 4 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 6K
• Justin Topa/Anthony Misiewicz: 1 IP, 2 R each
• Byron Buxton will never be a dud. Stop asking.

Despite this roster having a lot of talent I still believe in... at some point, you are what your record says you are, and the Twins have been playing well below .500 for about a calendar year. With just 10 games until the trade deadline, it may be time to start enjoying our last few games with Willi Castro, Danny Coulombe, and Harrison Bader, among potentially others.

Source: https://www.twinkietown.com/2025/7/19/24470760/rockies-10-twins-6-rocked-to-sleep