Article: MIN 8, KC 2: New Twins Ace Wins in Front of Old Twins Ace

[Tom Froemming]

It was a highlight evening at Target Field Saturday night. Johan Santana was enshrined into the Twins Hall of Fame, Jose Berrios had a strong performance and the lineup flexed its muscles en route to victory.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

Jose Berrios: 66 Game Score, 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 K, 3 BB, 66.0% strikes

Home Runs: Eddie Rosario (20), Max Kepler (14), Logan Morrison (15)

Multi-Hit Games: Max Kepler (3-for-3, HR, BB), Logan Morrison (2-for-4, HR)

WPA of 0.1 or higher: Kepler .318, Berrios .166

WPA of -0.1 or lower: None.

Download attachment: WinChart84.png

Berrios ran into some control issues in the third inning. He walked three of the first four batters he faced that frame, then surrendered a two-run single to Alex Gordon. That was the only blip on the evening, as Jose went on to give up just those two runs over seven innings.

 

It had to have been pretty cool for Berrios to have the opportunity to perform with Cy-tana in the building, and he stepped up to the occasion.

The Twins hit three home runs in support of their ace. Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler and Logan Morrison all went deep, LoMo’s was particularly impressive.

Here are the numbers on that mamoth shot:

Download attachment: LoganMorrison.png

Recent waiver wire pickup Oliver Drake made his Twins debut, setting a new MLB record by appearing with his fifth different team this season. He struck out one batter over a perfect inning of work.

 

Postgame With Molitor

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

Download attachment: Bullpen84.png

Next Three Games

Sun vs. KC, 1:10 pm CT: Ervin Santana vs. Danny Duffy

Mon at CLE, 6:10 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. Trevor Bauer

Tue at CLE, 6:10 pm CT: Adalberto Mejia vs. Carlos Carrasco

 

Last Three Games

MIN 6, KC 4: Long Day at the Office

CLE 2, MIN 0: Carrasco Stars in Dominant Performance

CLE 6, MIN 2: Deadline Day Ends in Defeat

 

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[ashbury]

Things are looking up for LoMo. So far, August is shaping up as his best month of the season for batting average.

 

With his 2-for-4 night he's now hitting .250 in 3 games, eclipsing May's .244.

 

[wsnydes]

Things are looking up for LoMo. So far, August is shaping up as his best month of the season for batting average.

 

With his 2-for-4 night he's now hitting .250 in 3 games, eclipsing May's .244.

 

Ha! Better late than never?!

[Riverbrian]

I was at the game. Great seats to the left of behind home plate.

1. Sano is looking great. I don’t care about home runs right now. I am absolutely enjoying what seems to be a new found discipline.

2. I couldn’t help but wonder how good Cave would look if he could walk more and raise that OBP. Probably cut down on some K’s in the process.

3. The only way the Royals were gonna touch Berrios was how they did. Berrios losing the strike zone for a moment.

4. Morrison hit the ball a long long long way. It may have reached the Kirby Statue. It was jaw dropping distance and I couldn’t help wishing that it was Tyler Austin who hit it.

[Riverbrian]

Things are looking up for LoMo. So far, August is shaping up as his best month of the season for batting average.

 

With his 2-for-4 night he's now hitting .250 in 3 games, eclipsing May's .244.

 

Just like the person who doesn’t water his flowers and finally brings the watering can after all the leaves fell off.

[ashbury]

Just like the person who doesn’t water his flowers and finally brings the watering can after all the leaves fell off.

Wait, Mrs Ash has been tattling on me?

[BJames]

Wow, I thought we had a weak hitting line-up. K.C had 4 guys hitting under .225 and 2 under .200.  To my surprise the Twins also had 4 and 2.   I'm still surprised Motter hasn't been called up yet to take Caves spot on the Roster (sarcasm).  Showing my age, I remember a time when if you hit under .225 you got replaced, rather you could hit HR's or not.  Maybe Dave Kingman was an exception? 

[puckstopper1]

 

Wow, I thought we had a weak hitting line-up. K.C had 4 guys hitting under .225 and 2 under .200.  To my surprise the Twins also had 4 and 2.   I'm still surprised Motter hasn't been called up yet to take Caves spot on the Roster (sarcasm).  Showing my age, I remember a time when if you hit under .225 you got replaced, rather you could hit HR's or not.  Maybe Dave Kingman was an exception? 

Spot on, BJames.  Hitting used to be about putting the ball in play.  Situational hitting, batting average, RBI and not striking out were of paramount importance.

 

Now it is all about exit velocity and launch angle.  The game has definitely changed and not for the better IMHO.

[bighat]

 

Spot on, BJames.  Hitting used to be about putting the ball in play.  Situational hitting, batting average, RBI and not striking out were of paramount importance.

 

Now it is all about exit velocity and launch angle.  The game has definitely changed and not for the better IMHO.

 

Don't forget OBPS - the only stat that anyone seems to care about these days.

 

Mauer was in the Top 20 in MLB last year in both on-base percentage and batting average, played great defense...but was considered a below-average player because of his OBPS. Just weird seeing guys who bat .300 get called out for not being good enough anymore.

[Thrylos]

 

 

New Twins Ace Wins in Front of Old Twins Ace

 

Un not quite.  Santana was an Ace.  Berrios is the Twins best pitcher right now.  Bit different.  Calling him an Ace is almost as back when DickNBert called Scott Diamond that...

[Dozier's Glorious Hair]

 

Un not quite.  Santana was an Ace.  Berrios is the Twins best pitcher right now.  Bit different.  Calling him an Ace is almost as back when DickNBert called Scott Diamond that...

 

If you type "ace pitcher" into Google, the first definition you see is: "In baseball, an ace is the best starting pitcher on a team and nearly always the first pitcher in the team's starting rotation." Tom's headline is perfectly fine.

[ashbury]

If you type "ace pitcher" into Google, the first definition you see is: "In baseball, an ace is the best starting pitcher on a team and nearly always the first pitcher in the team's starting rotation." Tom's headline is perfectly fine.

And if you continue reading the Wikipedia page* that it pulls this from, you see, "Modern baseball analysts and fans have started using the term ace to refer to the elite pitchers in the game, not necessarily to the best starting pitcher on each team.[5] For example, the April 27, 1981, Sports Illustrated cover was captioned "The Amazing A's and Their Five Aces" to describe the starting rotation of the 1981 Oakland Athletics."

 

So, enjoy your non-modern, pre-1981, terminology, Grandpa.

 

^{* _{Not that I'd really rely on Wikipedia on close decisions regarding baseball terminology.}}

[jimmer]

Does that mean the Astros and Indians only have one ace type pitcher? :-)

Edited August 5, 2018 by jimmer

[Dozier's Glorious Hair]

 

And if you continue reading the Wikipedia page* that it pulls this from, you see, "Modern baseball analysts and fans have started using the term ace to refer to the elite pitchers in the game, not necessarily to the best starting pitcher on each team.[5] For example, the April 27, 1981, Sports Illustrated cover was captioned "The Amazing A's and Their Five Aces" to describe the starting rotation of the 1981 Oakland Athletics."

 

So, enjoy your non-modern, pre-1981, terminology, Grandpa.

 

^{* _{Not that I'd really rely on Wikipedia on close decisions regarding baseball terminology.}}

 

The Sporting News does a good job covering that "controversy":

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/ace-pitcher-theory-number-one-starter-greinke-baseball-philsophy/rm2bq6eiz9y61m9v0lomz4ijt

 

But the point I'm making is that saying Berrios isn't the Twins' ace requires only allowing for one definition of the term. Tom was clearly going for the "staff ace" definition in the above headline, hence the headline is fine.

 

I'm sure the world is big enough to allow for more than one way to describe an ace pitcher.    

Edited August 5, 2018 by Dozier's Glorious Hair

[ashbury]

 

The Sporting News does a good job covering that "controversy":

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/ace-pitcher-theory-number-one-starter-greinke-baseball-philsophy/rm2bq6eiz9y61m9v0lomz4ijt

 

But the point I'm making is that saying Berrios isn't the Twins' ace requires only allowing for one definition of the term. Tom was clearly going for the "staff ace" definition in the above headline, hence the headline is fine.

 

I'm sure the world is big enough to allow for more than one way to describe an ace pitcher.    

A balanced view like this, of an inherently fuzzy term, and I wouldn't have felt like piping up.

[Dozier's Glorious Hair]

 

A balanced view like this, of an inherently fuzzy term, and I wouldn't have felt like piping up.

 

Oh, and The Sporting News is now apparently just Sporting News, so I really am non-modern as hell.