MIN 3, CLE 2: Mitch Garver Makes it Rain

Magic Number Update -

Division: 60

Wild Card: 64

Here's hoping Mejia's wrist is OK. The guy's been effective and seems to have earned a spot in the rotation moving forward. Shutting down the Tribe on the road, tip your cap to him.

Garver's hit held up, nice to see him contributing.

Hildy's given up 11 earned runs over his past 14 innings pitched.

How can a guy who is a professional baseball manager continue to put Morrison's name on a lineup card?

Enough already.

Nice game by Mejia, this guy is doing a much better job keeping his pitch count down than the guy who pitched last year. Hope his wrist is ok.

Would be nice to build a bit of momentum and win a second game tonight.

  On 8/8/2018 at 11:36 AM, bighat said:

Hildy's given up 11 earned runs over his past 14 innings pitched.

It's definitely concerning. Is it just a slump, is something wrong or has the league figured out his smoke and mirrors?

  On 8/8/2018 at 1:06 PM, stringer bell said:

Forsythe reached all four times. Has some versatility and has shown some power. Any interest in keeping him on a one-year deal?

I'd let it play out before I'd consider it. He's been pretty bad for the last year +, so I would want to see it for more than a couple of games.

I also wouldn't sign him and Adrianza. They seem fairly redundant defensively.

It seems that the Twins did not need Shohei Ohtani after all.  We have Mitch Garver - he can hit, pitch AND catch!

Does this mean that Mitch will get at least as many starts as Wilson?

Without Duke and Pressly, I fear it's Hildy to pitch 5/7 days under Molitor's idea of bullpen usage.

  On 8/8/2018 at 12:07 PM, Oldgoat_MN said:

How can a guy who is a professional baseball manager continue to put Morrison's name on a lineup card?

Enough already.

NoMo LoMo!

  On 8/8/2018 at 1:06 PM, stringer bell said:

Forsythe reached all four times. Has some versatility and has shown some power. Any interest in keeping him on a one-year deal?

If Forsythe is now healthy I'm all for it. Other 2B options for next year (i.e. the struggles of Gordon in AAA) aren't that tempting, so  he could be a good, solid place holder for a year at least.

Great game by Mejia. He could make a believer out of me yet. And Garver also continues to impress with the bat. As good as he's been lately I find it hard to believe that he only has hit 6 homers all year.

  On 8/8/2018 at 12:23 PM, gil4 said:

It's definitely concerning. Is it just a slump, is something wrong or has the league figured out his smoke and mirrors?

Just because he throws sidearm, doesn't make it smoke and mirrors.  

It's simple... you leave a pitch up and middle in and major league hitters will promptly tear the stitching off.   I will agree though that "something" does seem off with Hildy, and I really hope that it is just a slump and not anything more serious.

I realize I know very little about Gabriel Moya. I noticed his fastball was clocked at around 87 in today's game. That's scarily slow. His change up (which he used a number of times) was at about 78. These pitch speeds seem mediocre at best. Can he be effective at this level (maybe he gets great movement on his pitches?)?

  On 8/8/2018 at 1:06 PM, stringer bell said:

Forsythe reached all four times. Has some versatility and has shown some power. Any interest in keeping him on a one-year deal?

Inclined to look at the 211 PAs in LA to get a better idea of what's coming than the 20 PAs with the Twins so far.   

We're talking about a 31 yo who wall-scraped over an 800 OPS once in his career and then got paid for it. 

No problem having him place hold the rest of the season, although I'd personally rather see Adrianza out there every day. But, with Ehire being the more versatile, switch-hitting, speedy type, he does make more sense coming off the bench.

Glad LoFo had a good night, but leaving it at that.

  On 8/8/2018 at 3:15 PM, Mike Sixel said:

Big believer in Garver. I hope he plays some 1B this year.......when not catching.

In the current situation, a player who has been producing the way he has should be getting one of the longest looks.  I was surprised he still hasn't had 300 MLB PAs.

At least give him DH against LHP the rest of the year (of course, Austin may have a say in that come September)

  On 8/8/2018 at 6:20 PM, VATwinsFan said:

I’m somewhat surprised no one has mentioned that fact tha Moya has pitched in 7 of the last 10 games so I’m mentioning it.

Because MOY is who he is.

Also, Hildenberger has made ten appearances since July 20, a span of 18 days. One of which was an off day. So, that’s 10 appearances in 17 team games.

  On 8/8/2018 at 12:07 PM, Oldgoat_MN said:

How can a guy who is a professional baseball manager continue to put Morrison's name on a lineup card?

Enough already.

My thought on it is that by giving him opportunities the team is hoping that he can do something good here in the next few weeks to get something for him in an August trade. If this continues into September, he probably sits for the majority of those games. I hope I'm right.

  On 8/8/2018 at 9:00 PM, Minny505 said:

My thought on it is that by giving him opportunities the team is hoping that he can do something good here in the next few weeks to get something for him in an August trade. If this continues into September, he probably sits for the majority of those games. I hope I'm right.

No reason to sit, just outright him and be done with it.