Minnesota Twins Talk

While Max Kepler hasn't exactly been consistent this year, I think his season has gone very well. After the excellent series against the White Sox, Max's OPS is .889, second only to Shin-Soo Choo of the Rangers among AL right fielders. Kepler's WAR is listed as 1.6, again second among AL right fielders (behind Mookie Betts). We are just about to the 1/3 mark of the season. Multiplying the traditional stats by three would yield a season of .276, 36 homers and and 99 RBI. I guess that would be pretty good! Batting at the top of the lineup a 3 or 4 game snag could end up being a 1-20, but right now Max is rolling. Combined with his very good defense and youth (26 years o…

I have believed for some time that the Twins need to augment the pitchers they have in the bullpen and I still believe that. However, I certainly like what I see in Magill and Duffey. First of all, there's plenty of velocity for the reinvented Duffey and also Magill. Their numbers look good so far this year. I do want to see them perform in higher leverage situations, before I'm sold, but signs are promising. Harper has also been very good and seems to be the choice to replace Hildenerger in the bullpen rotation, but I wonder if his effectiveness will diminish as the league learns about him. I thought May would perhaps be the guy to step forward, but so far I'm haven…

http://www.startribune.com/joe-mauer-money-goes-back-into-the-coffers-and-out-comes-deeper-and-more-talented-twins-team/510360372/ Surprised to see this wasn't posted here yet. I have to agree. Letting Mauer go was the best move this team could have made for so many reasons this year. As I said in another thread, I am more convinced than ever that for a variety of reasons he was a part of the problem, and not part of the solution with this club.

Was curious due to the 1 to 2 inches of rain coming in even if it tapers off by game time, will they still play?

Yes. Of course. But the thought still lingers. Even if the Twins play .500 ball the rest of the season, it will be one fine season. The key, as we see, is to dominate series. There is still a lot of ball to be played, but watching soldout crowds cheer and have fun actually staying in the stands to watch the game is...simply...wonderful. It is what baseball is all about. Sun, fan experience, home runs. The new Boys of Summer shine!

I assume Littell will be in the pen.

I have been out and about and tried to catch up on the Twins Daily site here at 8:45, I have some thoughts that might spur on conversations. Feel free to comment on any of these thoughts. Minor League Injuries and Disappointments--Today's announcements about a season-ending injury to Akil Baddoo, surgery for Luke Raley plus two of the better starting pitching prospects (Gonsalves and Graterol) are going on the injured list adds to an already long list of missed time due to injuries. Royce Lewis, Wander Javier, Nick Gordon, and Alex Kirilloff, all top prospects, have all missed time and there are others. These injuries sap the depth available and also reduce the number o…

Is this a new thing the Twins are doing were players are no longer signing during field practice? Wtf is up with that?

1. Can you still show up 2 hours early and watch batting practice while trying to get autographs? 2. Can I easily sneak in a flask? 3. I am planning on painting my face red and white while also dying my hair blue. My question is should I make my head look like a baseball or just half red and white?

Brusdar is in Minneapolis today. I wonder why...

My goodness, what a pleasant surprise this kid has been. With his minor league numbers, I figured he could do well in the bigs, but going 7-12 is damn impressive. I hope we see him in the lineup again tonight. Question is, what's the right move to make once Cruz gets healthy? Who's going down? I figure it will probably be Arraez, but it sucks to see him go.

I like the "3 Things" bit in the game thread introductions-so I am going to borrow it and use it for its own topic. 1) With starters going less innings these days, should a quality start be 5 innings and 2 earned runs or less instead of 6 and 3? 2) Will the Cleveland Indians be sellers at the deadline? (Talk about a big decision for that team-which direction would you go if you were them?) 3) The Twins will have some pieces to move around, as many of you have eluded to. Here's my first deal: Trade Ehire back to the Giants, along with Cave, Rooker and Jay for Will Smith and Trevor Gott. (This allows them to trade Crawford and/or Panik for more prospects. They need …

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I am too old to stay up for the end of these West Coast games so I figured I'd catch the final half of the replay. Due to time constraints they CUT OUT THE MIGUEL SANO HOME RUN. It's only the most important at bat of the game. That is some poor editing skills.

No surprise, but veteran reliever Addison Reed was Designated for Assignment to make room for Austin Adams. Reed had begun his rehab with the Red Wings. Some say he'd hit 88 and 89. From watching a couple of his outings, I saw 86-87. It's too bad. Injuries stink.

Are you like me and wondering how in the hell is Jason Castro hitting like a madman? The dude's barrel rate is off the charts this year! 4 times his career level. Sustainable? Not sure. Fun? Yes.

Very surprised by this news. Wonder if ehire is hurt?

This team is 28-15, on the verge of 29-15. They are just +1 in pythag, just +1 in BaseRuns (if you look at the numbers, it's fractional and they're basically +0 after tonight). I have to admit that I've been a pretty hard sell on this team and I still expect them to regress. Fangraphs has them at a 91 win pace. I don't disagree. So what's your over/under on that? I'm gonna fan out for a minute and go the over.

I know it's been mentioned elsewhere, but there wasn't much discussion, so I thought I'd give Adams his own thread. "Twins Option Trevor Hildenberger, Will Select Austin Adams" https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/05/twins-demote-option-trevor-hildenberger-select-austin-adams.html Adams is out of options (as you might guess, given that he's 32 years old with experience across 3 MLB seasons). That 3.78 ERA season with Cleveland was in mop-up usage (.44 gmLI, similar to the very last guys in recent Twins pens, like Breslow, Hughes, Dean, Drake), and a very low K% (15%). His modest success then was mostly due to a low HR rate (his xFIP was about a run higher). But …

Some of you may have seen this from Wednesday's Angels at Minnesota game. Shohei Ottani hit a comebacker to Jake Odorizzi, who jogged toward first and may an underhanded toss that C. J. Cron didn't react to. The ball went by him, and Ohtani went to second. Here are a couple links to the play: https://sports.yahoo.com/did-twins-infielder-trick-his-own-teammates-into-committing-a-ridiculous-error-233250569.html https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/bp1k0h/cj_cron_doesnt_realize_odorizzi_fielded_a/ I gave Cron an error (with an assist to Ohtani). The next day I heard that Cron's confusion was caused by second-baseman Jonathan Schoop miming the play, sort of l…

The video suggests that it is serious. https://www.mlb.com/twins/news/mitch-garver-injured-on-home-plate-collision I pray that it's not that bad.

Addison Reed in Rochester: 4.0 IP, 11 hits, 6 ER, 3 HR, 13.50 ERA *reaches for vomit bag* Just go get Kimbrel already. I'm totally off the fence on that acquisition.

Corresponding move tomorrow

Glad to see that this unfortunate experiment went out with Molitor and his pitching coaches and the Twins are focusing on their starters pitching longer in games and actually wining...

And Jake Cave is being sent back down to AAA, per twitter and the lineup card. I think Duffey has a decent chance to stick around. Will be real interesting to see what happens with Sano's return now. I thought Cave would be the one on the way out for that move. Now I think it is Ehire, Hildy, or Morin.

The Twins are going to end April either 7 or 8 games above .500... It's been a long time since we could say that. Is this the best stretch of baseball they've played since going 20-7 in May 2015? Back in that season very few actually believed the Twins were that good, they didn't take advantage of the banked wins, and skidded to an 83 win season. I am hoping this year is different, and they take advantage of a hot start... Make an early, aggressive trade for pitching help. Find that elusive starter to transform this team from a cute story to a contender. This is the year to go for it!

Including today's game, that is. I wonder what Rocco's rationale is here. Not trying to be overly critical, just genuinely curious.

Taylor Rogers hasn't pitched since May 7th, and only twice since April 29th. There were logical places to use him this weekend against Detroit. Nursing an injury?

The Twins played their 39th game this season yesterday. Their record remains the best in baseball (by percentage points), despite a 5-3 loss to Detroit. While 40 games is closer to the 1/4 mark, there are more than 24 hours between games to consider where the Twins are and what changes (if any) should be made. Obviously, with that good record, the weaknesses aren't too glaring and the strengths are pretty evident. Why are the Twins 25-14? Power and pitching are the easy answers. They are on a club-record pace for long balls, with a lineup that legitimately could have eight or nine 20-homer hitters. Starting pitching has been well above expectations, as well, with José B…