Twins 5, White Sox 1: Much Needed Win, Twins Avoid Sweep

Dylan Bundy is now routinely providing five reliable innings per start and keeping the Twins in each game he pitches.  Deserved congrats aplenty, Dylan.

Redemption.  Yes, Bundy should have been allowed to go more innings, we can not always expect all the relief pitchers to be on every day and Bundy was definitely on today.  He is playing himself into a contract extension. 

Sorry to see Arraez slip to second in the batting race.

Duran just gained more votes for rookie of the year.  Which is tough for Miranda who also added to his resume.  It looked like Lopez was getting ready to come in, then Rocco had second thoughts.  Has he lost some of the teams confidence? 

Billy Hamilton - caught stealing third two games ago - falls down on the base path today.  Not what we anticipated.  Get that motor going BIlly.

Now if we can just shut down the Yankees!  Let Judge get some solo shots and stop the rest of the lineup - that seems to be the formula against them now. 

How about that fireman performance from Duran there?

A few observations after a much needed W today:

Correa:  Nice to see our $35m player come through clutch today!  Only his 4th 2-hit and 2RBI (should've been 3 RBI) game since July 1st.

Hamilton:  Yes, I realize his impersonation of Lonnie "skates" Smith proved to be a moot point after Miranda's double scored him, but how many Twins fans were thinking the following after that play:

"Correa finally gets a KEY hit late in the game and Hamilton spins out rounding 3rd base---Now we're going to waste this scoring opportunity leaving runners stranded and out bullpen will find someway to blow this game?"

Miranda:  If not for Julio Rodriguez, is there a more deserving candidate (other than Duran) to win ROY?

and finally...

Dylan Bundy:  Count me in the VERY SKEPTICAL department when Bundy was signed just before the lockout.  He has exceeded my expecations not only by his OVERALL performance, but by staying healthy being a consistent member of the starting rotation.

By no means do I think management should pick up his $11m option for 2023, but I would support a 2 yr/ 16m offer.  Would be interested to hear others opinion on this. 

Looking forward to 2023 who are LOCKS for this rotation?  I would venture 3 fall in that category:  Ryan, Gray and Mahle (assuming his shoulder is healthy by ST).  That leaves 2 open slots.  I would argue that very few teams would be willing to offer Bundy a 2yr/$16m deal.  

I know there are more "sexy" candidates" for those 2 other rotation slots-----but all of them----Maeda, Paddack, Ober and Winder----come with serious health concerns.

Wish I could say I was looking forward to the next 4 games before we face CLE next weekend.  I'd be lying if I made that claim..

Bundy is clearly the best SP the Twins have right now. He has been fun to watch lately, even with the short 5 inning outings. We can worry about next year in November. 

Four games in NYC ... hope for the best.

Billy Hamilton has made two bad moves already. Getting nailed at 3rd killing a rally and ultimately probably may have cost the Twins an important game. then today, spinning out and failing to score on a real 'gimmie'. Fortunately Miranda bailed him out, but not a particularly good start.

I had commented a couple days ago that it looked like Larnach and Jeffers were done for the year when added to the 60 day IL. Someone said, no, it was only to get them off the 40 man roster, but they could return to play anytime before the 60 days. I don't think thats correct. Definition: 'players placed on the 60 day injured list must remain on it for a minimum of 60 days...and are temporarily removed from a club's 40 man roster'.

Based on that, sure sounds like those two aren't coming back.

Nice win today, but I’m having a hard time getting over how badly we have been fleeced on the Mahle, Paddock, and Dyson trades. It’s crazy how bad our FO did on those. I can’t believe the Pohlads fall for the bs excuses the FO must be offering up - the owners should be livid.  

That’s such a huge win.

How about the much maligned Dylan Bundy?  The guy hasn’t allowed more than 2 earned runs in a start since the calendar turned to August.  He hasn’t had a bunch of cupcakes, either.  He’s faced Houston, Toronto, and Boston.  Not to mention today’s goose egg in Chicago in the biggest road win of the year.

He’s been a rock in this rotation lately when most everyone else is falling apart.  Very impressed by his resilience this year.  We were counting the days until was DFA’d a couple months ago.

Jake Cave is doing more for this team in big spots than anyone (except maybe Gordon and Miranda).  Another great play off the wall to turn a double into a single.  Of course, the triple was huge.  

Good for those two guys.  Good stories.   You throw Gordon in there too.  A rag tag group showing the stars how to grab a handful and get it done in clutch spots.

In 11 innings, Seattle beats Cleveland, 6-3.  The Twins are somehow tied for first place.

I hereby ask Congress to revoke MLB's antitrust exemption should an AL Central team be admitted to the playoffs.

In spite of all the this team's shortcomings (some real, some perceived) today's win moves us into first place. Well, a tie for first place. Well, a tie for first place in the AL Central. In other words, we're no more mediocre than anyone else in our division.

4 hours ago, insagt1 said:

Billy Hamilton has made two bad moves already. Getting nailed at 3rd killing a rally and ultimately probably may have cost the Twins an important game. then today, spinning out and failing to score on a real 'gimmie'. Fortunately Miranda bailed him out, but not a particularly good start.

I had commented a couple days ago that it looked like Larnach and Jeffers were done for the year when added to the 60 day IL. Someone said, no, it was only to get them off the 40 man roster, but they could return to play anytime before the 60 days. I don't think thats correct. Definition: 'players placed on the 60 day injured list must remain on it for a minimum of 60 days...and are temporarily removed from a club's 40 man roster'.

Based on that, sure sounds like those two aren't coming back.

I think Jeffers was placed on IL July 15th with 60 days making Sept. 13th possible return date.

Larnach was IL'd retroactive to June 24th, with 60 days gone past making him available whenever he is healthy enough to be added back to the roster.

Bundy has been a nice surprise. I'm glad he didn't bring in Lopez.

Huge win!!! Got nervous in 7th but Duran got them out of jam!!! Great to see C4 hit clutch HR!! Twins caught Cleveland now we are back where we belong in first place!!!

7 hours ago, AceWrigley said:

I think Jeffers was placed on IL July 15th with 60 days making Sept. 13th possible return date.

Larnach was IL'd retroactive to June 24th, with 60 days gone past making him available whenever he is healthy enough to be added back to the roster.

The clarification needed was the backdating of when the 60 days started for each guy. They still have to spend 60 days on that list before they can return...which was my response. More info was needed for my old brain!

9 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Okay, maybe there's fault to find here. The problem has been injuries for all of the guys named. Medical staff might be on the hook for okaying guys with arm issues and the brain trust could be catch flack for gambling on the health of guys with injuries. 

Beyond that guys like Fulmer and Lopez haven't been as effective after being acquired. Falvey and Levine could be faulted for acquiring these guys during breakthrough seasons and then have them regress to the mean.

Lopez and Mahle will be back next year and could recoup the value received. I won't dispute that the trades haven't panned out as of yet, but I think the jury is still out.

Re the jury, it’s back.  Sure, he returns next year (but I’ll take the under on Mahle next season as well - hope I’m wrong). But, the bigger point is that Mahle was a trade deadline acquisition in order to help this year.  That is why we gave up so many assets for him.  If we wanted to trade for him in the off-season, the price would have been much lower (especially now that he’s shut down with unclear expectations for the future).

The trade was a disaster. Yes, we got fleeced. Again. For the third time. The egg on the face of our vaunted FO is getting hard to wash off.

Lopez will be part of the pen next year, but expectations should be tempered - expect an every other day 6-7th inning type role behind Duran, Jax, Thielbar and the two other relievers we’d better add in the off-season. Fulmer may or may not be resigned - it’s beginning to look less likely.

Nice twins win.  Huge to avoid a sweep there.  Now the Yankees.  They have manhandled us for years.  I'm hoping we can at least gain a split.  It will probably be a huge bullpen day with 4 inning Archer on the mound.  A team could " win" the central with a 500 record or less.  May as well be the Twins.  

10 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Beyond that guys like Fulmer and Lopez haven't been as effective after being acquired. Falvey and Levine could be faulted for acquiring these guys during breakthrough seasons and then have them regress to the mean.

I read somewhere that the best deadline acquisitions are usually relievers with a good career track record who have had some bad outings in the first half of the season. They often bounce back to their old level of performance and cost very little to acquire.

The other way to make sure you're a good trade deadline acquisition is to be acquired by the Cardinals. They always seem to get a huge performance out of deadline acquisitions. This year they struck gold with Montgomery and Quintana but I also remember Larry Walker and Will Clark performing down the stretch for St. Louis.

15 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Four games in NYC ... hope for the best.

At least Pagan is well rested.

51 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

The cost in prospects was for Mahle to help make the playoffs in ‘22 and help the team win in ‘23. If Mahle is successful in 2023, he may not provide the value that the prospects will eventually produce, but then again he might get them into the playoffs, so I do say the jury is still out. 
 

Spencer Steer might have a fine career or he might parallel Josmil Pinto or Willians Astudillo. 

Or Mahle may never be any good again. Who knows? The point is that based on current expected value, we have lost this trade. It can’t be argued otherwise. Yes, I agree - we traded for a pitcher to help us now and next year. But he can’t help us now and his expected value next year has decreased substantially. Meanwhile, the assets sent are performing at or above expected levels at the time of the trade, At this point, based on expected returns, we have lost this trade, potentially big time. I hope it turns out differently.

But the bigger picture is the pattern of our FO getting fleeced for injured arms. Fool me once, shame on you; twice shame on me; three times is an absolute joke.