Minnesota Twins Talk

As expected, Berrios is tearing up Rochester. 2 starts, 0.00 ERA, 7 hits, 1 walk, 13k's. Meanwhile Gibby had a laborious 5.1 IP start yesterday, throwing 88 pitches and allowing 11 baserunners. Gibby has always sprinkled in thunkers but they are becoming more frequent. Opponents OPS against him: 2014: .679 2015: .698 2016: .820 2017: .908 FIP: 2014: 3.80 2015: 3.96 2016: 4.70 2017: 6.74 Listening on the radio yesterday Provus was giving live Statcast readings and several of Cleveland's hits were scalded at over 100 mph. How much more of this do we need to see before making a move?

The Twins are 7-6. Using pythag record, the Twins should be 9-4. Using BaseRuns record, the Twins should be 9-4. The Twins have lost one game by more than two runs. One game. On April 1st, I would have been quite happy with a 7-6 record. Does this team have problems? Of course it does. I'd rotate at least one guy, maybe two, off the roster and call up at least Vargas. Are 3-1 losses frustrating? Yes. Are 3-1 losses even more frustrating when the Twins score a single run on nine hits and four walks? Yes, of course, but that happens. It's baseball. Grossman is teeing off on the ball. Brian Dozier is being Brian Dozier. Sano is a beast. Kepler is the player we …

Once again, four years in a row, our favorite team has no backup plan for terrible OF play. Once again, it bites them in the butt. Will this team ever learn?

Rochester's pitchers are listed as "TBD" for the next three days. Today would be the normal day for Berrios to pitch. Is something brewing?

Can someone point out who came up with the concept "pitch to contact" within the Twins organization (Anderson)? I'm flummoxed that the term still survives whoever made it up. I'm assuming whoever decided that was the way we wanted to build a pitching staff is long gone...If they are still here I think I'll be sick to my stomach. Does the new FO embrace this concept too? Seriously. Who coined that ridiculous term? I know it can allow the starting pitcher to go a little longer but maybe we need to find strikeout pitchers.

I just noticed that the Twins have allowed their opponents the lowest number of runs of any team -- 30 runs allowed. The Twins are also tied with the Dodgers for best run differential at 23. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/standings Small sample size, but the pitching and defense seem promising so far.

When I clicked on my profile a couple days ago, I discovered that I was coming up on my 100th post. It seems, then, that this is the most appropriate way to acknowledge this milestone. By saying, “Thank you.” Thank you to the folks who got this Web site rolling. Your stories at the five-year anniversary mark were great. You continue to provide awesome material. Thank you to the folks who give us stuff like the Off-Season Blueprints, Prospect lists, minor league reports. What a gift to get all this Twins stuff at one place, especially in the dead of winter when I’m tired of watching Little Big League for the umpteenth time on MLB Network. Thank you to the moderator…

http://www.gomn.com/news/rod-carews-new-heart-came-former-nfl-player/ http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/baseball-hall-of-famers-heart-transplant-beats-with-inspiration/ Always a Twin forever!!!!

Okokok....we're only 9 games in. I get it. But remember where this team was 9 games in last season? It was the first chapter in a season long horror show that not even Wes Craven could dream up! Now there is a whole lot of season to be played. I get that. But the 2016 "nightmare" Twins were projected to win approximately 70 something games with Sano in the OF, Plouffe at 3B, "I don't give a damn" at SS, Suzuki at catcher, a questionable rotation, a pen that was NOT re-worked, etc, etc. And at times, it looked like Freddy Kruger and his knife-blade hands was pitching, or playing defense. And if not doing either of those two things, he was inflicting various pain and injury…

While watching yesterday's painful at-bat from Romine, it looked like he golfed that pitch out of the park. I was perusing the game info today and noticed Gameday had the pitch listed here: Okay, yeah, so that's not a golf swing. That's dead red in the wheelhouse. But then look at the actual game. Here's the swing: Okay, that meets the eye test of what I saw. Romine is swinging at a pitch well outside the zone, down and in. But here's the kicker: the actual in-game Fox Trax pitch tracking put the ball here (red square to emphasize which pitch was appearing on the screen as the ball launched into orbit): What gives? The eye test says that was a good sw…

5-1 Check out these new age Twins! 5-3 Same old same old for the Twins! Here we go again... All these over reactions are annoying me. Am I alone?

I have never been a huge Brandon Kintzler fan as a closer and would rather see him in a 7th inning role. Tyler Duffy closed in college and could be better suited as the new closer over trying to stretch him out to go back to starting.

And Berrios to the rotation.

Good for #22 in mlb. https://www.forbes.com/pictures/mlm45gfllm/22-minnesota-twins/#5d49882c37e2 #1, the Yankees, is worth 3.7 billion.

has anyone else noticed the pitch count of opposing pitchers could that be a factor in how well they have been playing so far?

The lineups are wacky but I love the aggressive idea behind it. Tailoring two lineups, one for righties, the other for lefties, I love it. Moving Buxton down in a prompt fashion, also the smart move. Not a lot to say about the bullpen because they've made him look good no matter what decision he's made but no complaints in that regard, either. Very few bunts, even fewer that weren't attempts to get on base safely. Where the hell was this guy the past two years? This is what we were sold as fans.

https://twitter.com/MikeBerardino/status/851802392064663554/photo/1 Both catchers are in the game against an opposing lefty. Mauer, Kepler and Escobar get the day off. Santana is in RF. Eventually, they'll probably have to have a big RH bat on that bench for just such an occasion but for now, this is how they're going.

I read this piece and was quite excited to do so as I am greatly interested in understanding the concept of pitch framing. http://www.twinkietown.com/2017/4/9/15222762/pitch-framing-jason-castro-salvador-perez-best-catchers-minnesota-twins-kansas-city-royals-mlb As I started reading the article I thought it was going to be amazing, the perspectives on Perez were going to really translate into strikes for the Twins. But, I am very disappointed. Granted, Perez is not a "quiet" receiver. However the writer compared Perez's bottom of the strike zone to the top of Castro's. If you compare the bottom of both catcher's strike plot you see a host of green diamonds. The ump …

Yes, we all know Santana was an established veteran when he came to the Twins but the guy has become a much better pitcher since joining the team. 2005-2014: 229 games, 99 ERA+, 4.26 FIP, 2.8 BB/9, 7.2 K/9 2015-2017: 49 games, 119 ERA+, 3.94 FIP, 2.8 BB/9, 7.1 K/9 What, if anything, has changed about this guy? Other than the actual runs allowed, his peripherals look close enough to be irrelevant. But he's been playing in front of some pretty questionable defensive alignments and has posted drastically better runs allowed numbers since becoming a Twin. Normally, I'd say "eh, whatever, stat noise" but we're talking about close to 1 2/3rds seasons now and he's picking …

I have seen a lot of pundits and people on boards talking about how the Twins can't play over their heads for an entire season. That's true. However, so far we've seen the following: -Timely hitting -Patience at the plate -Strong Defense with minimal mental errors -Quality pitching through at least 5 innings (save for Mejia) It's my assertion that this isn't the type of stuff that needs to go away when other teams get hip to what the Twins are doing-- these are the fundamentals that we've always heard so much about. Additionally, we have a number of guys who's talent has outran their performance for too long. It's possible that they're just finally putting it togethe…

OK, it's only 5 games, but until Sano had a bad day today, error-less ball thus far with solid play and more than a couple of defensive gems from almost everyone on the roster, including Sano. Anyone surprised? What are you seeing, expecting thus far?

Royals Review were a bit upset about some calls today.

Not to complain about a 4-0 start, but Molitor's batting order has me perplexed. Clearly Buxton isn't up to batting 3rd at this pont, and he did nothing in the spring to make it appear that he was. Take the pressure off the kid and bat him 9th until he forces your hand. On top of that, how do you protect Sano in the line-up with Castro or Polanco? I don't give a sh*t what Grossman's OB% is, if he is the DH choice over Park & Vargas, he or Kepler have to hit behind Miguel before Sano grows impatient over getting nothing to hit and starts to wildly expand his strike zone again. My biggest hope is that Kennys or Byungho hit their way into the 5-hole from Rochester …

Love the kid, but completely lost at the plate and eventually these strikeouts with RISP is gonna cost us games. Move him to the 9 hole and let him regain confidence. Also: Grossman shouldn't be playing everyday, call up Park to be the everyday DH. twins have come out of the gate strong, they need to make sure to put the best possible Lineup out every day IMO.

I'm sure this has been noticed somewhere at TD, but just in case it wasn't: Ricky Nolasco started opening day for the Angels. That's right, the guy we cast off in the "Alex Meyer Trade". We had to pay them to take him. Did our front office miss something, or are the Angels CRAZY???

It's early, but are Ozzie Guillen's Piranhas back in Minneapolis???????

Just for fun... AB Buxton 14 Hits Kepler, Sano, Polanco 4 2B Castro, Kepler, Polanco1 3B Sano 1 HR Escobar, Sano 1 Runs Sano 6 RBI Sano 5 BB Castro 6 SB Dozier 3 Avg Castro 500 OBP Castro 750 SLG Sano 1000 OPS Sano 1583 *using league standard of 3.1PA per game to qualify for avg, ops, slg, or OBP.

Bumgarner hits 2 on Opening Day. Mauer will still be homerless on May 25th - guaranteed. Mauer's 3rd will come in July.

2011 was a better time in Twins land, our beloved Minnesota Twins had just won back to back division titles, and were in the midst of what was probably one of the best overall ten year runs in franchise history. Expectations were sky high and an overconfident DaveW made a bold bet with his Royals fan buddy: The terms: 50 total years Payout every season Royals vs Twins $5 per win (i.e. if the Twins win 10 more games then the Royals in a given season, I win $50, if they lose 10 more, I lose $50) $10 per playoff win. Easy money right? The Royals were in the midst of their seemingly 20 year rebuild, and while there was some "talent" they had lost 93 games in 6 of their prev…

https://twitter.com/LaVelleNeal/status/849992297186025473/photo/1 Not the best picture nor the best spelling of 'three' but ... Santana in LF, Rosario DHing