Rocco Baldelli

It doesn't mean you can't prioritize defense or at least have a higher, uh, kind of standard for what you want defensively.

And that was the thing with Rocco Baldelli.

You know, it was, man, these teams just don't look very sharp defensively.

And I'm not gonna sit here and tell you it was a Rocco thing.

I'm not gonna sit here and tell you it wasn't a Rocco thing, because at some point, coaching staffs do have to be responsible for their players.

But at the end of the day, I think the Twins just have never really given, whether it was low payroll, but even if you looked at Derek Falvey, there were years where they had higher payrolls, and they still didn't necessarily prioritize defense.

And I just think the Twins never really gave, whether it was Rocco Baldelli, whether it was Paul Molitor, whether it was now Derek Shelton, they've just never really given them a ton of great, great defenders to work with.

Now, again, you could say it's on the coaching staff to mold them and make them better, and, and you wouldn't be wrong.

Uh, I don't, I think Showalter at this stage, I don't think they'd bring him in.

I mean, Rocco Baldelli's probably gonna be a hot name.

He's working for the Dodgers.

Anybody who touches the Dodgers, and he did a, I thought he was pretty good with Minnesota.

John, who is the playoff...

In other words, like, if I'm looking for a wartime consigliere, uh, trademark The Godfather, uh, like, I w- I need somebody who will be good in the playoffs.

I'm not just s- I'm not certain, like, you know, you mentioned Rocco Baldelli.

He managed a team that are, obviously was a smaller team than them, but, like, what the Twins have always been good at is either not making the playoffs or going out very quickly.

Christopher Negron, Pirates bench coach.

Kai Correa, Mets bench coach, and then Rocco Baldelli, the Dodgers baseball operations assistant, former Twins manager, all still...

I'd say those last three are probably the o- the ones that feel like they now have the pole position, if that makes sense.

I, I don't know which one would be leading the candidacy.

I, I do think that the, the Mariners will interview and likely give favor to a manager with previous managerial experience, and that looks like Rocco Baldelli at this point.

And if he's the next Mariners manager, again, seems similar enough to the Torey Lovullo conversation that I was kind of propping up in terms of feels like a safer option compared to hiring a bench coach like Negron, who's never managed, albeit, you know, was with the Mariners organization.

Or Kai Correa, who, again, has, you know, several years of experience at this point in professional baseball, just no managerial experience.

I think that losing out on Lovullo, like, whatever.

I'm going to say my honorable mention and not draft him, but just get an extra bite at the apple.

Rocco Baldelli was on my list.

And then, I mean, some of the other names were a little like Gabe Kapler, David Ross.

But to me, the two I liked were Brandon Hyde and Rocco Baldelli.

Um,

okay.

Oh, that would be great.

Um, my, my two names, I feel like you guys named a lot of the ones that I had here.

Yeah, I'm not sure those two things, Jeff, are mutually exclusive.

I think you can have a guy who's been through it, um, you know, Rocco Baldelli comes to mind-

Mm-hmm

... and, and still has a healthy belief in and respect of analytics.