Game Score: Royals 5, Twins 3

Sad hitting day. The Twins need to run the table to finish above .500.

Our standards have really slipped.  We celebrate giving up only 3 runs no matter how many innings pitched.  Our  batters continue to miss in big opportunities - come on Sano - a K on 3 pitches!  

5 hours ago, Matthew Lenz said:

I’d say acknowledging more than celebrating. The whiffs he’s generated in such few innings and his K/BB ratio have been very good this year. His ERA right now is better than Berríos career ERA entering 2020 and is better than Berríos ERA was at the same point in their careers.

I’m not saying he is or will be better than Berríos, but in a crappy year I think we can acknowledge Ober has been a pleasant surprise for a guy who nobody would have expected to pitch for the Twins this season.

I agree with you, but in reality we have had to lower the bar - things that would have not merited comment in the last two years become significant now.  I am really pleased with Ober and see him with a fine future as a #4, just as Gant looks to be a #4, and Jax a #6, and Barnes a #8,  Pineda is a #3 and will probably resign,  But that leaves a lot of rotational concern going forward.  I do hope Balazovic or Winder can step in,  But without AAA this year what is their chance?

Berrios is 11 - 7 with a 3.52 era and 2.4 WAR so I cannot compare any of the current Twins with him and wonder how we will afford a pitcher as good as him in FA.  

Polanco has been a great batter and would rank high no matter what year,  But we are playing Refsnyder and Cave and they are not the future - I know Larnach flamed out and I hope he comes back, Celestino needed AAA and has done well there and Kiriloff seems like another injury plagued star.  But our current nine have batting averages of 195 280 214 225 249 279 210 203 292.  We used to talk about the Mendoza line - I guess it is now the Sano line.  

We rank 9 in BA out of 15 teams, 8 in OBP, and 4 in SLG.    We are 9th in hits - HR or nothing.  

It is not a critique of a really good summary that you wrote, but rather an overall disappointment and desire to try to see the reality in our situation. 

Thanks for the response. 

A 90-loss season and a dead last place finish in the AL Central is all but secured.

Agree with @mikelink45 in that I don't feel too much like celebrating performances like Ober's last night. He's been a bright spot to be sure, but last night he got knocked around a bit by KC and couldn't finish the 5th inning. Outings of 4.2 innings and giving up 5 hits and 3 ER aren't good enough to win most days. The six strikeouts were nice but that's really just a silver lining to what was simply a below-average performance by Ober. That's what it was, and it's OK to call it that.

3 hours ago, Matthew Lenz said:

I’d say acknowledging more than celebrating. The whiffs he’s generated in such few innings and his K/BB ratio have been very good this year. His ERA right now is better than Berríos career ERA entering 2020 and is better than Berríos ERA was at the same point in their careers.

I’m not saying he is or will be better than Berríos, but in a crappy year I think we can acknowledge Ober has been a pleasant surprise for a guy who nobody would have expected to pitch for the Twins this season.

What I dont understand is why is Berrios our bar to set? He was never "Amazing" at his best he was good, not great. He was never an Ace, and he never will be on a winning team. We need to set our sights higher when it comes to Aces and great pitching. 

3 hours ago, bighat said:

A 90-loss season and a dead last place finish in the AL Central is all but secured.

Agree with @mikelink45 in that I don't feel too much like celebrating performances like Ober's last night. He's been a bright spot to be sure, but last night he got knocked around a bit by KC and couldn't finish the 5th inning. Outings of 4.2 innings and giving up 5 hits and 3 ER aren't good enough to win most days. The six strikeouts were nice but that's really just a silver lining to what was simply a below-average performance by Ober. That's what it was, and it's OK to call it that.

He is a rookie, wait till next year; it could have been much, much worse.

I was surprised to see that Do-Hyoung Park didn't tweet out that Ober extended his less than 3 earned runs to 10 games. But the writer of the article did and he actually got the number wrong.

I will say this again, I like Ober and think he has a real chance to be a major league starter but saying he had a strong performance is ridiculous, his ERA for this game was 6.24 and you don't get to take out the first six batters

There were definitely things to like in his last two starts, 0 walks, 10 K's in 8 innings, and 11 hits in those innings are good as well.

Hopefully next year he can deeper into games and these results translate in another inning or three.

IMO any starting pitcher that pitches 5 or less innings and gives up more than 2 earned runs  should not be considered a good start.