Game Score: Twins 4, Mariners 0, Bundy Cruises to a 1-hit Outing, Bats Play Small-Ball

Circumstance and opportunity says Duran is our closer. Not necessarily the plan, but given his lack of innings in 2021, and the opening day trade of our closer, here he is. After Duffy blew the first save chance we had I thought geesh what did we do? It doesn't take a rocket science degree to see a new plan developing here. I like it. He is a 50 save potential guy. And we have plenty of starters and potential coming starters. Not closing games last Apr/May cost us the season. In my opinion, Duran is our new closer. 

8 hours ago, RaoulDuke said:

Imagine facing a starter throwing 95+ then this funky weird side arm/ submariner comes in throwing bowling balls at 85 or sweeping frisbee breaking stuff in the 70s, then its right back to Alacala or Duran throwing 100+.  They might not strike you out but there is going to be a ton of soft contact and its going to screw with the hitters timing for the next ab as well.

 

 

I agree.  In college (a very long time ago), I participated in a lot of intramural sports.  I remember one sunny Saturday, we had a fast-pitch softball game at 10AM, then a baseball game at 1:30PM, and finally a slo-pitch softball game at 4:00PM.  I was so screwed up by the last game, I almost struck out on a three MPH pitch.

16 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I'm also not a fan of limiting one of your best arms to 60 innings of 9th inning work only. 

Yeah, I agree. My main reason to throw cold water on the "Duran is our closer" philosophy is.....what about his career as a starter? We can't forget that's who we've all expected him to be until this spring. Imagine getting 5-6 innings of Duran to start a ball game for years to come? Wow.

I remember being excited for Happ and Shoe after their first starts last year. I am reserving judgement on Bundy.

6 hours ago, Twins_Fan_For_Life said:

It's official.  Four games into the season brings the first "cut bait with Sano" post (unless I missed an earlier one)

I'm not calling for it yet. I'm asking how long we give him. If he needs until June to start hitting again, I'm not interested. 

2 hours ago, CRF said:

Everyone likes to gripe about Sano, but you know exactly what you've got with him. He take ridiculously poor AB's, strikes out a ton, leaves guys on base...and then every once in a while, he hits one or two rockets into the third deck. Ok.

It’s quite possible this IS why everyone complains about Sano? 
 

That said I am very impressed by Winder, I checked his stats, still no runs allowed! 

8 hours ago, RaoulDuke said:

I think Duran is here to stay, meaning his starting days are over.

I don't agree. I think being in the bullpen is good for both him and the Twins right now. His future still might be as a starter. Many young starting pitchers get their feet wet in the majors pitching in relief.

1 hour ago, bighat said:

I think Kepler and Sano - guys we used to rely on as major offensive pieces to this team - are probably the biggest concerns we have on offense right now. Defensively both look good, but they may have to be hitting 7-8 in the order for the foreseeable future.

Agreed, although I would add Kirilloff into that mix. Hopefully this is just one series and at least one of those 3 will come around quickly because otherwise we have a pretty short lineup. Best bet on that is Sano. Kepler is what he is - a .220 hitter with some power who's a good defensive OF. 8th or 9th place hitter. Kirilloff looks bad at the plate right now and may need some time at AAA to get 4-5 ABs a game and get his swing back after the long injury layoff.  

10 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

When the shortstop has already caught the throw from the outfielder and you have a 260-pound behemoth just touching third base, why does the third base coach think it might be fun to send the runner??  Sano was motoring pretty good but he didn't stand a chance in hell of beating the throw.  Maybe the third base coach thought the catcher would run away??  I did see that actually happen.  I was umpiring an intermural softball game between the law school and a frat house.  Alan Page was a runner on second when the batter hit a single to the outfield.  The throw to home was clearly going to nail him by a wide margin.  The catcher saw Page barreling down the third base line, turned to me and said "f#ck this sh#t, and went back to the backstop and waited until after Page crossed home plate.

Agree it was questionable to send him there. I was at the game, and a few other things concerned me on that play: Sano was slowing significantly rounding third and seemed to be spent. After the play he was very, very, slow to take the field for the next inning. He seemed to take forever to catch his breath and leave the dugout. I don't know if he got a bad jump on the hit but believe he should have been able to score on that play with an average jump for him at first with two outs. I have tried to find a replay to confirm but haven't found one. After losing 25 pounds I was hopeful he would live up to his potential.  Maybe he is dealing with a cold or other issue (might also explain his poor at bats) but that looked very alarming to me.

Taylor Rogers went on a really good run in 2017-21 for the Twins peaking in 2019 with 30 saves in 36 opportunities. That season I guess you could call him our closer, those totals would indicate so. For me I prefer fireman. He was used high leverage with the preference to exploit matchups. This was his best role. This lead to his top notch WPA over those years. Most pitchers suffer a drop in performance used in consecutive days and I think Rogers was particularly prone to this. A traditional closer needs to go back to back matchups be damned. That is not the best way to use Rogers imo and it surprises me that even Gleeman refers to him as former Twins closer Taylor Rogers.

6 hours ago, bighat said:

Sano's baserunning mishap wasn't exactly his fault, he was waved home after all. Kirilloff's, not sure. Either way frankly I don't mind the aggressive baserunning. Half the time those throws home miss the mark or the catcher can't handle them.

Thanks, this is what I was trying to understand, if the 3rd BC sent him, why would it be Sano's fault???

Like that Duran got to pitch 9th in a non-closing, low leverage opportunity. He has the ability to be the best closer on the Twins staff this year. Duran may not be able to go back to back games. And due to only pitching 15 innings the past 2 years, maybe 60-70 IP out of the bullpen this year would be a good goal for him. Would like to see Duran and Alcala get opportunity to get majority of save opportunities this year.