Twins

On Wednesday afternoon, following yet another bullpen meltdown, the Twins announced the decision to option Ryan Pressly to Rochester.

They made other moves too -- including designating for assignment lefty Jason Wheeler -- but Pressly’s demotion hurts. The right-hander had allowed 19 runs in 18 innings of work, owning a swollen 9.50 ERA. Both his walk rate and his home run allowed rate ballooned alongside the ERA. While he was far from the only contributor to the relief corp’s recent collapse, Pressly could no longer be trusted to handle the assignments.

The thing is, on paper, Ryan Pressly has all of the qualities of a quality shutdown reliever, someone Paul Molitor should have no lack of confidence in at the end of a game. For one, Pressly shoves upper 90s heat, a rare commodity from someone in Twins uniform. The list of Minnesota pitchers dating back to 2009 who have reached 99 MPH or higher begins and ends with Juan Morillo and Ryan Pressly. Two, he has a snapdragon curveball that toys with the laws of physics and melts minds. And three, like a Turkish celebrity chef, Pressly will season an at-bat with a harder slider, just to keep a hitter’s head ringing.

These are three plus pitches and yet Pressly struggled in 2017 to keep opponents from squaring him up. What went wrong for the 28-year-old and can he rebound?

Good morning and welcome to the Daily Twins Daily.

FINALLY the Minnesota Twins get back into the win column. Unfortunately, Cleveland and Kansas City won as well keeping them from gaining any ground. Jaime Garcia looked good in his first start in a Twins uniform while Byron Buxton did some things on a baseball field as well. Also, does Friday's win mean the team will reconsider their trade deadline position or have they already committed to the purge?

Turnarounds like the one we saw from Minnesota this season are rare, but not unprecedented. Derek Falvey knows this as well as anyone.

Fresh off his first year as Twins Chief Baseball Officer, Falvey is working in familiar territory. He understands from experience that the hardest part isn't going from irrelevance to contention, but taking the next step.

Aaron and John talk about the Minnesota Twins signing Jake Odorizzi and Anibal Sanchez, not signing Yu Darvish, Jermaine Palacios' scouting report, the value of reverse splits, old friends Trevor Plouffe and Hector Santiago finding new MLB homes, projected payroll levels, the impact of Josh Kalk, and the state of the Twins' starting rotation. Sponsored by Pick and Shovel Wear and Casper Matresses. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link.

Let’s talk about Logan Morrison for a hot minute.

After last night’s 1-for-4 performance against the Yankees, the one they call LoMo is now hitting .113/.214/.177 on 70 plate appearances on the year. Yes, in the grand scheme of things 70 plate appearances is nothing. After all, a player’s fortune and season can change quickly if said player catches fire for a week. In 2016 Morrison started his career with the Rays by going 6-for-60 with a .290 OPS. He would post an .821 OPS the remainder of the season to bring his final stat line to a respectable .238/.319/.414 mark. Consider this, Morrison’s .392 OPS in 2018 is now the lowest mark among all qualified hitters just as his .290 OPS was to start the 2016 season. There is plenty of season left to return to normalcy but that said, Morrison’s tenure in a Twins uniform has the feel of a Black Mirror episode.

Yes, it’s still only April but It has got the makings of a historically bad season. So what is up with LoMo?

Aaron and John podcast live from Modist Brewing and answer the audience's Minnesota Twins questions at their first Tuesday Taproom Tour stop. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link.

What can you even say about this game?

Well, to even call it Major League Baseball is an embarrassment on multiple levels. The Twins played very poorly, there was an epic ump show and things wound down with Chris Gimenez on the mound.

What do we even call this? Total system failure is already taken.

We’re nearing the middle of January and there are still plenty of high-caliber free agents on the open market. The Minnesota Twins have committed over $30 million to a foursome of players that should all be expected to help this club. There’s still another $30 million the front office could choose to allocate (more on that here), but the question is whether they’ll fall into advantageous situations like 2018.

After three encouraging starts to open the season, Michael Pineda was pounded in his fourth start today. He gave up as many runs in the fourth inning as he had all season prior to today. Eddie Rosario provided some pop, hitting his fifth and sixth home runs of the season, but it wasn’t enough.

Another successful week in front of packed houses at Target Field. Who could complain? The Twins celebrated a franchise legend over the weekend, retiring Joe Mauer's No. 7, and won four out of six against lesser competition.

Your full recap lies ahead.

Aaron and John talk about what can or can't be done to prevent more Byron Buxton injuries, Sam Dyson's post-deadline implosion and injury, Devin Smeltzer making a case to stick around, our crushes on Nelson Cruz, the biggest week of games at Target Field since 2010, and blogging, fantasy, and gambling. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link.

I can still remember the first time I saw Miguel Sano play. The year was 2012 and my brother and I made the road trip from Minneapolis to Beloit to join our cousin and watch the Snappers, who were the Minnesota Twins low-A affiliate at the time, take on the Clinton Lumberjacks in the playoffs. That team had several future big-leaguers, including Eddie Rosario, Kennys Vargas (who somehow managed to make Sano look tiny), and Zach Jones. I remember being a bit disappointed in Eddie Rosario’s lack of plate discipline as he took wild hacks and being really impressed by Jones’ 96-mph fastball (that seemed really fast back then), but the main reason we had come was to see Miguel Sano – and he did not disappoint.