Twins Game Recap (7/19): Twins Have No Answer To A’s pitching

Today is Friday, July 19, it was the 96th game of the year and the Twins hit 1 home run. The Twins are now 59% of the way through the season. Out of 59 years, the current team ranks 9th on the all-time list of Twins' home runs in one season and are on a pace to hit 300 home runs this season. They are now 89 home runs behind the single season MLB record. The next Twins team to pass is the 1962 team that hit 185 home runs.

Losing to Hendriks, Grossman and Herrmann.

It really sucks to be a .500 team again.

Definitely not a fan of Harper in high leverage situations. Some like the story. "....but only the third time he allowed more than one run in an outing." So convenient to ignore his inherited runners scoring stat. Harper is not an answer, and it will only get worse.

I want moves for solid relief. Time is a wasting......

Yep. I rememebr the early part of the season where the Twins were really good, because they played like a team. But the bullpen makes you cringe. Moreso when starters can't do six innings. They need reliable arms! The projects of Parker, Harper, Magill and Morin were good news, but they jsut can't cut it! Weren't the Twins ahead of Cleveland by 11+ games once, not too long ago?

Liam Hendriks unhittable and hitting 100 on the radar gun?! Now, Cleveland has cut the Twins division lead to 3 games. I guess scenarios like this make the game fun. These two really sting right now, though.

Three game lead now!?!? I'm starting to have a bit of anxiety about the possibility of the Yankees coming to town and sweeping the Twins while the Indians overtake them in the division. That would be the worst...

BUT. You have to play the games. Twins win today and we're back in the groove.  Let's be positive. Win today and tomorrow and we take the series. One game at a time. What happened to this juggernaut offense? How about an ole' fashioned 11-5 drubbing tonight to cure what ails us?

The front office can motivate the Twins by announcing a big trade today, I can feel it in my bones, they've got to be pulling the trigger on a deal any minute now.

If I'm not mistaken I believe I heard Rosario's pinch hit 3 run bomb was the first 3 run HR since June 5th. If that's the case, that a worrisome stat as it shows the team is not:

1) Hitting well in with RISP

2) Getting multiple hit innings

Sure they've had some 4-5 HR games but it those are mostly solo shots.

On a positive note Marwin's HR was great. If you watched the highlight you can see he choked up on the bat to make solid contact with two strikes. He still hammered it while choking up. It would be nice to see if some of the others are doing the same thing.

Small ball plays well especially when you are not going crazy with the Home Runs.   I was curious to look at our HR rate since July 1 and thanks to Garver's 4 HRs we hit 1.6 per game - down from the 1.9 per game up to July 1. I do not know if that is very significant.

For the month the following BA do have a big impact:

Buxton only 8 games but 161

Cron 7 games 172

Cruz 12 - 205

Kepler 13 - 203

Polanco 12 - 218

Seeing Hendriks perform so well brings mixed emotions.  Am happy for the young man.  Am sad as I wanted him to do well for the Twins.  Then disappointed when we lost him.

But he really points out how difficult it is to find, and keep, quality relievers.  Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the A's released him last year before bringing him back?  And now he is one of the best in the game.  Finding a great reliever is almost like catching lightening.  There just aren't many Rivera's or Nathan's out there...you know, guys that are great year after year after year. 

  On 7/20/2019 at 1:34 PM, rdehring said:

Seeing Hendriks perform so well brings mixed emotions.  Am happy for the young man.  Am sad as I wanted him to do well for the Twins.  Then disappointed when we lost him.

 

But he really points out how difficult it is to find, and keep, quality relievers.  Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the A's released him last year before bringing him back?  And now he is one of the best in the game.  Finding a great reliever is almost like catching lightening.  There just aren't many Rivera's or Nathan's out there...you know, guys that are great year after year after year. 

Yes, the A's DFA'd him last year and nobody claimed him on waivers. So they kept him. 15 years ago we'd attribute his increase in velocity to performance enhancing pharmaceuticals. There's no reason to believe that's the case here so I guess we just have to assume he's a late bloomer. Every now and then that happens.

Is anybody concerned that the front office will no longer make a big move at the deadline?

Falvine talked all offseason about waiting to make a move and spend money until they had a better understanding of what they had, personnel wise, etc.  Wanting the young guys to all be on the same timeline.

I think it's become pretty clear that the team that came flying out of the gates the first two months of the season is simply not what this team is.  It was a fun story, but the bats especially have really come back to the pack.  The team we've seen the last 6+ weeks is more than likely the truer representation of this group than the team that was setting records, etc.

The FO has to know this.  Is anyone else getting worried that instead of making a splash, they make some marginal move and more or less stand pat and keep prospects to continue "building" the team?

Viewing the first 2 months as more of a "pop" up scenario than a real chance to push all our chips in on a championship caliber team?

I'm literally just spitballing and I have no way of knowing one way or another.

  On 7/20/2019 at 2:32 PM, ashbury said:

I don't think that's a hawt taek, at all.

 

Perhaps any move made will be even more tilted toward long-term controllable talent, and no rentals for a 2019 push at all.

 

Or, if the FO is really pessimistic, only rentals, at minimal prospect cost.

 

I think I can reverse-engineer any deadline outcome, after the fact.

I really think that's how things will play out.  Which is fine!

I just think folks need to recalibrate their expectations considering the last 6+ weeks of mediocre play. Just my thoughts

To further illustrate the slide, Gleeman just tweeted these numbers:

Twins' overall OPS:
April/May — .849 (#1 in MLB)
June/July — .802 (#7 in MLB)

Twins' OPS with runners in scoring position:
April/May — .888 (#2 in MLB)
June/July — .733 (#24 in MLB)

Twins' OPS in high-leverage spots:
April/May — .897 (#3 in MLB)
June/July — .620 (#28 in MLB)

Happy for Hendriks.

He has been DFA’d several times but it is still very frustrating how the Twins developed him.

He came up too early 22 and wasn’t ready. In his two main seasons with the Twins he started 24 games. Who was his main catcher? Ryan Doumit caught 11 of those starts. Josmil Pinto and Chris Herman caught 3 each. I am sure Gardenhire was thinking something like... “Hendriks has good control we can afford to start Doumit here.” He would then complain about him nibbling. The reality is a guy like Hendriks that can paint the black needs a catcher that can frame that pitch on the black. Instead with Doumit his pitches needed to catch more of the strike zone inside the black to be called a strike and we saw the results.

Last night Hendriks was nibbling in the high 90s painting the black for two innings, Herrman had someone teach him how to receive a ball and thankfully that era of Twin baseball is in the rear view mirror.

I am hopeful that the Twins will find some value in a talent like Littell. That would not have happened in 2012.

  On 7/20/2019 at 3:59 PM, USAFChief said:

Thats... if that happens, its cowardly in the extreme.

Thanks USAChief. You said it much more nicely than I would.

  On 7/20/2019 at 3:59 PM, USAFChief said:

Thats... if that happens, its cowardly in the extreme.

Agreed!  really, really hope that doesn't happen.