Matt Braun

So, after nine years of waiting (and mainly losing), the Twins reach their first playoff series since the inaugural season of Target Field. A great number of things have occurred since that series in 2010 including the death of Osama Bin Laden, the official ending of the Iraq war, and about 20 terrible Godzilla movies. Naturally, the team that awaits the Twins this year is the same team that has knocked them out of the playoffs the last three times the Twins have made it and five of the last six times that the Twins have reached the playoffs. I don’t need to say the team by name as even just thinking about them sends a cold chill down the spine of any Twins fan, but hopefully this year will be different. Of course, I had to go with The Strokes for my artist reference but instead of “Is This It” (which is way more doubtful in tone), I decided to switch it to “This Is It” because again, I make the rules.Brief Overview: Strip away the jerseys, the locations, and the history, and these are two remarkably similar teams. The Twins ended up finishing the season with just one more homer than the Yankees in order to be officially dubbed the home run champ of MLB, but the Yankees look to be their match in just about every offensive category. Conversely, both teams have rock solid bullpens and suspect starting pitching, giving us a match-up that will certainly be interesting to watch as it unfolds. What They Do Well: When talking about the 2019 Yankees, the most immediate topic is their great offense. Not only did they give the Twins a run for their money in the home run chase, they actually ended up a single point ahead of them in team wRC+ (117 to 116). One point of difference is essentially meaningless but the Yankees’ feat is especially impressive when you consider that Giancarlo Stanton barely played, Aaron Judge missed some time, Aaron Hicks is now out for the year, Didi Gregorius played just 82 games, and Edwin Encarnación has struggled with his own injuries since being traded to the Yankees. The depth players such as Gio Urshela and Cameron Maybin have been the backbone to a Yankees offense that has almost never been at full strength and it is in those players especially where the Yankees lineup goes from good to elite. The other great strength for the Yankees is found in their bullpen. Not entirely surprising as they have had a death bullpen for about three years now and it seemed like they were well on their way to a historic one in 2019. While they never quite reached that height, the Yankees’ bullpen sits at second in baseball by fWAR and their collection of relievers is one of just three groups with a total fWAR over seven (Rays ahead of them at 7.6, Twins below them at 7.3). Needless to say, they will be relying heavily on this group in each game and it won’t be surprising at all if each Yankees starter has a short leash. What They Do Not Do Well: We have covered their offense and relief pitching so far and both have been great, there has to be somewhere where they falter, right? Indeed there is, as their starting pitching fWAR was good for 17th in all of baseball with their 10.6 mark being exactly as good as the Tigers. Now, this isn’t crap-all-over-the-Tigers week because I’ve already done that about three times this year, but being tied with that team in anything is never a good sign. The Yankees boast a solid 1-2 punch of James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka, but the quality of starters drops immediately and the volatility goes through the roof. Thanks to Domingo Germán losing postseason eligibility due to his domestic violence incident, the next two starters become J.A. Happ and his 5.34 FIP and Luis Severino who has thrown all of 12 innings in MLB this season. This is where the Twins will have an opportunity to take advantage and possibly put up runs quickly. Hilariously, the Yankees have the sixth lowest number of stolen bases in MLB this year. This is funny because the Twins have by far the lowest total at just 28 swiped bags (second lowest is the Cubs at 45). While this is less “what do they not do well” and more “what are they not even trying to do”, it still is notable that the Yankees will mainly stick to hitting for power when it comes to scoring runs in the series and the Twins will most definitely follow suit. Individuals Of Note: For a team historically known for cartoonish evil and throwing money at anyone that walked, the modern Yankees are somewhat the reverse of that as they are full of players either developed internally or targeted from other teams in order to improve when they join New York. The shining example of this in 2019 is D.J. LeMahieu who was finally freed from the oppressive confines of Coors Field when he signed a somewhat modest deal with the Yankees this last offseason. The result is a massive 5.4 fWAR season that saw him top his career high for wRC+ with a 136 mark. LeMahieu will likely serve as the leadoff hitter and his .375 OBP in 2019 will serve the Yankees well in this series. There are currently just two players currently on the Yankees who were with them when they last played the Twins in a playoff series. One is C.C. Sabathia who might not make the ALDS roster and the other is Brett Gardner who continued to defy age as he put up yet another solid season for the Yanks. His 115 wRC+ was his highest since 2012 and he set a new career high in isolated power with a .253 mark that absolutely destroyed his last career high. Somehow, he remains a thorn in the side of other teams and I can assure you that he will be a pest in this series as well. There are four names the Twins and their fans need to know; Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle, Zack Britton, and Aroldis Chapman. These four horsemen of the apocalypse stand as the most trusted relievers in Aaron Boone’s back pocket and they will be called on in whatever situation presents itself. Chapman has been melting faces for awhile so I don’t think I need to talk about him too much as has Zack Britton who has somewhat suspect peripherals (3.74 FIP) but a cartoonishly high ground ball rate of 77.2% and a past history of success. Tommy Kahnle is the “Jekyll and Hyde” member of the bullpen as he was all sorts of awful last year but is back to dominating this year to the tune of a 3.33 FIP thanks in part to his 90 MPH changeup (for real). Adam Ottavino is the newcomer who has video game-like movement on his pitches but is also known for walking his fair share of batters with a career BB/9 of 4.02 and a 2019 BB/9 of 5.43. This is the kind of stuff the Twins will have to navigate through in order to beat the Yankees and I can guarantee that a number of games in the series will come down to which bullpen didn’t falter that day and which one did. Recent History: The Twins and Yankees played two series this season and the Yankees won both 2-1 giving them the season series at 4-2. Although, every game except for one was within three runs and the one game that wasn’t was the Twins’ lone win in Yankee Stadium this year. Pitching Match-ups: Friday: Berríos vs Paxton Saturday: TBD vs Tanaka Monday: TBD vs Severino No pitching matchups have been announced as of writing this article on Wednesday night. The matchups will be updated as the announcements are made. Ending Thoughts: Well, here it is! This is the reason why we pour so much energy into following a team over the off season and during the long season. There really is nothing quite like postseason baseball and it gets even better when the team that you root for is one of the few that will play. For the Twins, this is the result of a multi-year effort full of botched moves and fired personnel as the 2019 team finally broke through to win the division in epic fashion. From here on out, everything will be under a microscope as each mistake and clutch play will be amplified under the pressure that is the postseason. Will the Rocco Baldelli-fronted Twins finally slay the Yankee dragon that haunted the Ron Gardenhire squads of the past or will the Twins’ incredible run be cut short? Frankly, I’m not someone that can see into the future, but the pessimism of the past cannot bring me down as I predict that the Twins will indeed win a playoff series against the Yankees. See Also Looking at When Odorizzi Should Pitch in the Playoffs Yankees' Weaknesses: The Lineup Attacking the Heart of the Yankees Order: Part 1 Damage Control: Pitching is Minnesota's Primary Advantage in ALDS How Minnesota Can Punch Against Paxton The Only Twins-Yankees History That Might Actually Matter Click here to view the article

Welcome to the final regular-season series of the year! It’s been a fun ride that started with tracking spring training performances and story lines that will soon end with a division title and a dance with another team in the ALDS. At this point, the only thing that the Twins could possibly gain by winning games is potential home-field advantage in the World Series against the Atlanta Braves. But, we are all baseball addicts at heart, so we shall follow each game like normal but without the agony that comes from the potential division implications a loss holds. Also of note; this is the final series in the managing career of Ned Yost who announced recently that he would be retiring after this season. I’m sure Ned will have a hard time buying his own drinks in public as he brought KC their first championship since 1985 when the Royals won it all in 2015.Brief Overview: As one of the 100-loss teams in MLB, the Royals have quite nearly been as bad as the Twins have been good. Having four teams with 100 losses certainly can’t be healthy for the league, but until tanking loses its incentives, this will most certainly continue. Do not get it twisted at all, this is a tanking team who would probably appreciate it if the Twins helped their cause by moving them up draft boards by beating them once or twice or thrice this weekend. What They Do Well: Ah, yes, I again reach the point where I have to dig up something random that a bad team is good at, what fun. “Well” is certainly subjective here, but the Royals’ offense strikes out at the 14th lowest rate in baseball. Yes, this is where I must go for content. Anyway, their 23.0% K rate is actually somewhat impressive given their offensive woes, leading me to believe that their issue is more what they are doing with those balls in play than it is just putting the ball in play. For reference, Kris Bryant is striking out at a 22.9% rate in 2019 but he also has about .120 points of slugging on the Royals which helps him be more valuable as a hitter. Do not expect the Royals to be an impressive hitting squad but be ready for an offense that won’t strike out quite as much as the Tigers. Was that not trivial enough for you? Well get a load of the Royals’ pitching staff and their 44.0% ground ball rate which is the eighth highest in MLB. Looking at the other teams around them, there doesn’t seem to be a great amount of correlation between GB % and the quality of the pitching staff. There are some great individual pitchers who hold a similar rate of ground balls, but again, there are other factors at play when deciding the quality of a pitcher or the pitching staff as a whole. Anyway, do not be surprised if the Twins hit a few more ground balls this series than usual even given the Twins’ massive fly ball tendencies. What They Do Not Do Well: Unfortunately, Tom would get mad at me if I just put “everything” here and left, so I’ll actually drop some knowledge here. The Royals’ pitching staff holds the third lowest K/9 in baseball as their 7.80 K/9 is much like Weezer, a better fit in the late 90’s. Their lack of ability to miss bats has probably been the leading reason for their poor pitching as a whole and they remain one of the few teams under a 8.00 K/9, and the teams around them are mostly teams you do not want to be associated with as far as pitching quality. But it’s OK, they make up for not being able to strike batters out by walking too many batters. Their team BB/9 of 3.72 is the fourth highest in baseball and much like the other number, you don’t want to be among the other teams that surround the Royals for their walk rate. Expect a hefty number of base runners and balls put in play against the Royals in this series. Individuals Of Note: I’m almost tempted to say that no one is notable as I have already covered everyone that is and this team is just SO BORING, at least make being bad somewhat fun. You guys already know about Jorge Soler, Whit Merrifield, Hunter Dozier, and all of those guys, so I feel like focusing on some of the lesser known players on this team. RHP Kyle Zimmer is a pretty notable player as he was a former first-round pick by the Royals who has had quite the career so far. Zimmer struggled with injuries to start his professional career before eventually being DFA’d by the Royals in March of 2018. He would rejoin, leave, then re-rejoin the Royals that year and in early 2019. Zimmer was one of the many pitchers who has trained at the Driveline baseball program in Kent, Washington and with help from them, Zimmer made it the majors in 2019 and is averaging 96.5 MPH on his fastball. Sticking with relievers, the longtime starter, Ian Kennedy, transitioned to the bullpen in 2019 and has been phenomenal there as his 3.06 FIP is the 18th best among qualified relievers. Kennedy has been the de facto closer for the team but given that there may not be many save opportunities in the series, Kennedy could be used in different situations as needed. At any rate, the Royals do have a stud reliever to call upon if they find themselves needing outs late. Recent History: The Twins and Royals just played a four-game series at Target Field last weekend and the Twins took three of four from the Royals. Overall, the Twins are 12-4 against the Royals this season. Recent Trajectories: The Twins are 11-5 over their last five series while the Royals are 5-10 over their last five series. Pitching Match-ups: Friday: Berríos vs Skoglund Saturday: TBD vs Sparkman Sunday: Odorizzi* vs López *MLB.com says Odorizzi but this could be subject to change Ending Thoughts: If there was ever a series the forces of the world couldn’t care about, it would be this one. The Royals have nothing to play for besides their own pride and the send-off for Ned Yost while the Twins can only improve themselves in one niche area with gaining possible home-field advantage over the Braves in the World Series. Considering what was on the line during some other recent series, this feels like nothing. I am interested in the starting pitching matchups as the Twins may shuffle some players around in order to figure out how to potentially run an ALDS rotation. Indifference aside, I’m feeling like the Twins take two of three as the Royals win the final game in order to properly send Ned Yost into retirement. Click here to view the article

This is now the third-to-last series before the season is officially over and it also is the final home series and that, my friends, is a pretty sad thing to type out. The not sad thing is that the Kansas City Royals are bad and have no reservations regarding their awfulness. It makes for a good opportunity for the Twins to stack some wins but it also makes it really hard for yours truly to think of something interesting to say about a team that has almost nothing. Oh, I have also decided to break my self-imposed and non-existent rules regarding my title names because good lord, there is almost no good music from Missouri. My options were basically Chuck Berry and Scott Joplin and I don’t feel like listening to ragtime for the better part of an hour so I went with Semisonic because it’s a series in Minnesota, they're from Minnesota, and that’s good enough for me.Brief Overview: Let's start with a number: 97. Is that the amount of passing yards Kirk Cousins had last Sunday or the amount of losses the 2019 Royals have already suffered? It feels like the former but it is actually the latter as KC continues to lose without a care in the world. With two teams already at 100 losses on the season, the Royals look to make the prestigious club just a bit bigger as their tank continues to run throughout the Central. What They Do Well: As with most teams that are bad, they must be good in some way that makes them actually pretty annoying to play against. The Royals do this by being fourth in MLB in stolen bases with 110 swiped bags. Along with this, they have four players with steal totals in the double digits so their speed comes from a variety of players. Although, Billy Hamilton is no longer on the team so their total speed is weakened a touch but still remains a potent threat. What else is really annoying? Playing good defense. Can you guess what the Royals do well? Yep, their UZR/150 is ninth in MLB so expect a well-rounded group that won’t give away many free outs. A lot of their great defense comes from their middle infield duo of Nicky Lopez and Adalberto Mondesi, both grading out well along with some good outfield defense from a number of players who could make hitting fly balls a less fun adventure than it usually is. What They Do Not Do Well: I’ll make this quick because I don’t have the time to write a proper thesis here. Probably the most immediately egregious aspect of the Royals is their starting pitching, as currently they are fifth to last in MLB for starting pitching fWAR. That by itself is terrible but also consider that both of their top two starters, Brad Keller and Jakob Junis, have been shut down for the rest of the year. This leaves Danny Duffy as their best remaining starter and a trail of sadness follows him down the list of KC starters. It will be interesting to see how they string together innings during this series given this deficit. Alright, well, they can’t pitch, but can they hit? No! Their team wRC+ of 83 is third to last in MLB and also tied for Tim Laudner’s career mark. They have an interesting core of Hunter Dozier, Jorge Soler, Whit Merrifield, and Adalberto Mondesi, but the drop-off after those players is immediate and quite frightening. Alex Gordon is just below the average mark at 93 but it gets uglier than the color palette in Solo: A Star Wars Story after that. So much so that I’ll leave it up to the imagination of the reader in order to make this article more pleasant. Individuals Of Note: Take a gander at the home run leaderboard for 2019 and you’ll see a lot of names like Pete Alonso, Eugenio Suárez, Mike Trout … Jorge Soler??? Yes, the once uber-prospect for the Cubs has figured it out in 2019 and is mashing baseballs like they owe him money. He’s been especially spicy recently as his wRC+ in August was 173 and in September it has been 172 so he is swinging a bat made of pure lava. Hunter Dozier is another one of the players that make up the interesting hitting core of the Royals and he has had a peculiar season in 2019. His wRC+ on a month-to-month basis resembles an upside down pyramid as he cratered fairly hard in June but has since recovered. His overall wRC+ is 129 but he has also struck out more and walked less in the second half compared to the first half, possibly a sign of decline. Flip over to the reliever section of FanGraphs and do a little scrolling down the K% list and you’ll find Scott Barlow there at 37th among qualified relievers by K%. That total would be the third highest in the Twins’ bullpen (behind Tyler Duffey and Taylor Rogers), but Barlow is a random reliever who has been a better strikeout artist than guys like Roberto Osuna and Joe Kelly in 2019 and he deserves some credit because being a middle reliever on the 2019 Royals is a worse fate than being a cartel leader in Breaking Bad. Recent History: The Twins and Royals last played a three-game series at Target Field in early August and the Twins swept the Royals. Overall, the Twins are 9-3 against the Royals this season. Recent Trajectories: The Twins are 8-7 over their last five series while the Royals are 7-8 over their last five series. Pitching Matchups: Thursday: Gibson vs Montgomery Friday: TBD vs Skoglund Saturday: Berríos vs Sparkman Sunday: Pérez vs López Ending Thoughts: Kansas City is a movable object and while the Twins haven’t quite been an unstoppable force recently, this is still a series they should win. Don’t be fooled by the Royals’ recent record as most of their wins have come from the likes of Detroit, Miami, and Chicago, although they just played a respectable series against Oakland to their credit. I still don’t see this series getting out of hand unless some series shenanigans ensue so I’ll call for the Twins to take three of four and then be on my way. Click here to view the article

This is now like the third or fourth time I’ve had the pleasure of writing a series preview for Cleveland and combining that with the current frustrations that ache the Twins might have resulted in the most sarcastic preview I have written so far. Not to say that all my articles aren’t already attempts at out-doing myself as far as that goes, but you get the idea. Luckily for me, Dave Grohl was apparently born in Ohio so that opens up the door to like 18 bands to reference and somehow I think I chose the objectively worst one, which isn’t an insult but more of an observationBrief Overview: Like a bad case of the flu, the Indians just refuse to go away as they continue to fight tooth and nail until the end of the season for the AL Central crown. The Twins still continue to occupy the throne, but chinks in their armor have been revealed lately in the form of the Pineda suspension and the Buxton injury that will knock him out for the rest of 2019. Throw in all of the injuries to, uhhh, gestures broadly, and the armor is so non-existent that everyone can see the Hello Kitty underwear underneath it. What They Do Well: At times, credit needs to be given where it is due and the Indians deserve a lot of credit for how they have played the Twins this season. The season record is 9-7 in favor of Cleveland as they have outscored the Twins by four runs. Is this a good indicator of whether a team is good or not? Not necessarily, keep in mind that the Rockies actually lead the season series against the Dodgers and the Dodgers ended up in the World Series while the Rockies ended in the not-World Series. The Indians are also an excellent team as far as fielding goes as their UZR/150 is the highest in MLB. I don’t have the time to explain what UZR is (you can read about it here if you so please), but even given the generally large room for error in advanced fielding metrics, I can easily buy that they are an elite fielding team. Because of this, the Twins will likely find themselves having balls be caught that might have been hits in other scenarios which will most certainly be frustrating to watch. What They Do Not Do Well: I’m not sure what to make of this, but the Indians’ pitching staff gives up the least amount of ground balls in the AL as their 39.9 GB% is only higher than the Marlins among all of MLB. To the extent of my understanding, having a high or low GB% isn’t inherently a bad or good thing as much as it is an indication of how that staff pitches. There are good pitching staffs who get a low amount of ground balls and there are bad pitching staffs that get a lot of them, just expect a lot of fly balls as this Cleveland pitching goes up against the offense that hits more fly balls than anyone else in baseball. I mentioned it last week but their bullpen since the start of August still has not been good. Their bullpen has been worth just .1 fWAR since then and part of their issues has stemmed from the 12th worst BB/9 rate among other MLB bullpens over that time. Specifically, only one of their relievers has been worth more than .1 fWAR (Óliver Pérez) and multiple members who were once key cogs have since fallen off the metaphorical cliff. Seriously, walk around Cleveland and you’ll see multiple “Have you seen this man?” posters plastered around with Brad Hand’s face on them. Individuals Of Note: The Indians recently called up a reliever named James Karinchak who is perfectly normal besides his cartoonishly high K percent of 59.2%. For context, the highest recorded K% for a qualified reliever is Aroldis Chapman’s 2014 season in which he struck out 52.5% of all batters he faced, meaning that Karinchak is in uncharted territory with his strikeouts. Keep an eye out if he comes into a game this series because the whiffs may be strong enough to cool the first few rows of fans. It appears that the Twins will get to face both Shane Bieber and Mike Clevinger in this series. I’ve talked about Mike Clevinger and his wanna-be Steven Tyler act, but let’s focus on the Biebs for this one. Bieber was a top prospect for a bit as he made his name as a strike-throwing machine with refined mechanics. As usual, the Indians worked their magic on suga-Shane over here and the result in 2019 has been an elite starter of the old-school variety as the 24-year-old is third in the majors in innings pitched in 2019. Beyond just soaking up innings like a rather large sponge, Bieber has upped his strikeouts to an impressive level as his K% is eighth among all qualified starters in MLB. Recent History: The Twins and Indians last played at Target field just a few days ago and theIndians took the series 2-1. The Indians also own the season series at 9-7. Recent Trajectories: The Twins are 10-6 over their last five series while the Indians are also 10-6 over their last five series. Pitching Match-ups: Friday: Odorizzi vs Civale Saturday: TBD vs Clevinger Sunday: Berríos vs Bieber Ending Thoughts: This is the final chance for the Twins to exert their status on the Indians as well as it the Indians final chance to knock the Twins down a few pegs. Yes, the Twins are banged up pretty well right now, but no one is going to feel bad for them, especially the team that is getting ready to host them. No matter what, the Twins will be guaranteed to have a lead in the division after the series, but some things will need to change quickly for their division leader status to match up with how they have played over the last two series. At least one win is mandatory and anything more than that pretty solidly sets the Twins up to take the division heading into the Charmin ultra-soft part of the schedule. What do I predict? Hmmm, you know, this is a tough one to get a read on because nothing would be more hilariously baseball than the C-list Twins going into Cleveland and sweeping. I’ll just say that they take two games and head on my way. Click here to view the article

I have absolutely no clue how I overlooked Dobnak on my ballot but somehow I did and I deserve to be mocked for it so lay it on me.

No award may be more fun to hand out than the starting pitcher of the year award. Up and down the minor league system there are arms full of life and promise who have just one goal in mind; make hitters miserable. That they did this year, as every affiliate ranked highly in their respective leagues for pitching strikeouts and high impact starters made their presence known on each squad. Here we will appreciate and celebrate those individual starters who had the best seasons in 2019.Previous Starting Pitcher of the Year Winners: 2018 winner - Tyler Wells 2017 winner - Stephen Gonsalves 2016 winner - Stephen Gonsalves 2015 winner - Jose Berrios 2014 winner - Jose Berrios 2013 winner - Taylor Rogers 2012 winner - BJ Hermsen Previous 2019 Winners: 2019 minor league relief pitcher of the year-Anthony Vizcaya 2019 short-season pitcher of the year-Cody Laweryson 2019 short-season hitter of the year-Matt Wallner The Twins’ minor league system has seen some large advancements recently in player development and the most impacted area has arguably been the starting pitching. New players have come in and seen their velocity gain a tick or two, recent draft picks have flourished quickly at each level, and great performances have come from unexpected areas. It has become almost astounding to look to each affiliate’s starting rotation and see how much talent there is in every single rotation. There were many great choices here and I know that I personally found this vote the most challenging one to make. Six Twins Daily Minor League writers voted for the various awards this year. For the starting pitcher of the year, we each voted for five players. The player who was voted as #1 received five points, #2 received four points and so on with the #5 vote receiving one point. Results were tabulated and can be found below. Others receiving votes: Luis Rijo - 19 GS, 5-8, 2.86 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 107 IP, 89 H, 23 BB, 99 KJhoan Duran - 22 GS, 5-12, 3.76 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 115 IP, 97 H, 40 BB, 136 KDevin Smeltzer - 19 GS, 4-5, 2.76 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 104 ⅓ IP, 87 H, 22 BB, 104 KJosh Winder - 21 GS, 7-2, 2.65 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 125 ⅔ IP, 93 H, 30 BB, 118 KStarting Pitcher of the Year: Here are the top five vote-getters voted on by the Twins Daily minor league crew. T-#4 - Cole Sands, Cedar Rapids Kernels, Fort Myers Miracle, Pensacola Blue Wahoos: 18 GS, 7-3, 2.68 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 97 ⅓ IP, 81 H, 19 BB, 108 K Sands was taken by the Twins in thefifth round of the 2018 MLB draft out of Florida State University. He did not pitch in the Twins’ system that year which isn’t rare for college pitchers, so 2019 was his first year in professional baseball and what an impression he made. Splitting time between three levels of the minors, Sands dazzled with a 9.99 K/9, a 1.76 BB/9, and a 2.45 FIP. Injuries limited him to 97 1/3 innings pitched in 2019 but a strong season on the field made Sands one of the premier starters in the system and he may be up in the majors as soon as next year. T-#4 - Griffin Jax, Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Rochester Red Wings: 23 GS, 5-7, 2.90 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 127 ⅓ IP, 117 H, 27 BB, 94 K Jax was a graduate of the Air Force and was granted the ability to pitch in the Twins system full-time in 2018 under the military’s World Class Athlete Program which allows active-duty personnel to to train full-time for the Olympics. Jax backs up his cool story with some cool pitching as he threw the third most innings in the Twins’ system in 2019 and held the third lowest ERA among those in the system with at least 100 innings pitched. Jax ended the season at AA, had a taste of AAA, and will need to be added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the rule 5 draft, so he may factor into the Twins’ starting rotation in 2020. #3-Bailey Ober, GCL Twins, Fort Myers Miracle, Pensacola Blue Wahoos: 13 GS, 8-0, 0.69 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 78 ⅔ IP, 55 H, 9 BB, 100 K Ober unfortunately was not able to throw as many innings as the other names on this list, but his numbers were absolutely eye-popping in 2019. Out of every minor league pitcher who had at least 70 innings pitched in 2019, Ober had the lowest ERA with his 0.69 mark (second place was 1.10). Ober’s K-BB% of 30.7% would be the second highest mark among qualified MLB starting pitchers with Gerrit Cole being the only starter with a better percentage. Really, this is all just me saying that Ober had a fantastic year and when healthy he is one of the best pitchers in the entire system. He discussed his 2019 season, his pitches and more in a Twins Daily interview earlier this week. #2-Jordan Balazovic, Cedar Rapids Kernels, Fort Myers Miracle: 18 GS, 8-5, 2.69 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 93 ⅔ IP, 67 H, 25 BB, 129 K As a cold-weather pitcher before the draft, Balazovic was a prime candidate for developing quickly when placed into a professional system...and that he did. Balazovic had a good 2018 and then followed it up with an absolutely phenomenal 2019 that saw his prospect stock rise to the top of the Twins’ system. Balazovic’s K% of 33.9% in 2019 would be the fifth highest among qualified MLB starters this year and his batting average allowed of .191 would the third lowest among qualified MLB starters. His 2019 was mostly spent at Fort Myers but he was promoted late in the season and was able to make a single playoff start for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in which seven of the 14 outs he made were by strikeout. #1-Randy Dobnak, Fort Myers Miracle, Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Rochester Red Wings 21 GS, 12-4, 2.07 ERA, .98 WHIP, 135 IP, 104 H, 28 BB, 109 K Dobnak is the only starter in the top five to pitch for the Twins in 2019 and he very well may be the only one to pitch at four different levels in 2019 if you consider MLB as its own “level”. Nevertheless, Dobnak was an absolute horse in 2019 as he was first among all Twins’ minor league pitchers in innings pitched and his 2.07 ERA was the lowest among starters in the Twins’ system with more than 80 innings pitched. Dobnak was undrafted out of college and went to pitch in independent ball to start in 2017. Not long after the start of his career for the Utica Unicorns, Dobnak was picked up by the Twins on a minor league deal and he pitched for Elizabethton and Cedar Rapids that year. Beyond baseball, Dobnak was an Uber driver as recently as spring training in 2019 and he apparently was excellent as he had a rating of 4.99 stars out of 5. Man, these advanced stats are getting pretty weird even for me. Luckily for Dobnak, the major league paycheck is just a touch higher than the minor league one so he can retire from his Uber career. Dobnak’s professional career so far has been nothing short of incredible but he is much more than just a story. Dobnak’s wonderful 2019 season earned him a promotion to the majors where has allowed just two earned runs so far over his 11 major league innings. With some question marks in the Twins’ starting rotation at the moment, Dobnak will certainly get a few opportunities to prove that he belongs in the majors and that one’s draft position (or lack thereof) does not necessarily dictate how successful they will be in baseball. Dobnak has had a great 2019 in the minors and hopefully he will continue to have a great 2019 in the majors. The Ballots: Seth Stohs: 1) Randy Dobnak 2) Bailey Ober 3) Jordan Balazovic 4) Josh Winder 5) Luis Rijo Tom Froemming: 1) Jordan Balazovic 2) Randy Dobnak 3) Cole Sands 4) Bailey Ober 5) Luis Rijo Cody Christie: 1) Randy Dobnak 2) Griffin Jax 3) Devin Smeltzer 4) Jhoan Duran 5) Josh Winder Matt Braun: 1) Bailey Ober 2) Jordan Balazovic 3) Cole Sands 4) Jhoan Duran 5) Luis Rijo Ted Schwerzler: 1) Randy Dobnak 2) Bailey Ober 3) Griffin Jax 4) Jordan Balazovic 5) Devin Smeltzer Steve Lein: 1) Jordan Balazovic 2) Randy Dobnak 3) Josh Winder 4) Bailey Ober 5) Cole Sands Feel free to discuss our ballots! Who was completely wrong? Who needs a shout out because they were overlooked? What would your ballot look like? Click here to view the article

I look at FIP first to get a good gauge of performance and then consider from there and Vizcaya's FIP was worse then everyone on my ballot. I'm not a fan of ERA for relievers because it can be incredibly volatile and Vizcaya's peripherals are more unsustainable than my choices. Not to say that he didn't have a great season, but I have to draw the line somewhere and he was just on the cusp.

For the sake of transparency, I'll explain my process somewhat. I mainly used wRC+ for ranking as it adjusts for the hitting environment and it is the best summation of how a hitter did. It wasn't purely by that as I looked over the names once ranking them and decided based on their specific case. Yes, Spencer Steer did not play much at Elizabethton, but I could not overlook the fact that he absolutely destroyed the pitching there and my thought process went that he would have continued to do so if not for the promotion. I ranked Wallner a bit low because I was turned off a bit by his high strikeout rate but I still had to give him a vote considering how well he did at basically everything else.

Only two games in the minor league system as both the Kernels and Blue Wahoos fight through their playoffs. Each day now looks to possibly be the end of the season and winning is the only thing that will stop that. How their games went and more in this edition of the minor league report.TRANSACTIONS C Kyle Schmidt activated from the 7 day IL at A Cedar Rapids LHP J.T. Perez activated from the 7 day IL at A Cedar Rapids RHP Matt Cantinero assigned to Elizabethton from A Cedar Rapids 1B Chris Williams assigned to A+ Fort Myers from A Cedar Rapids BLUE WAHOO BITES Pensacola 10, Biloxi 5 Box Score Charlie Barnes: 1 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 1 K HR: Alex Kirilloff (4) Multi-hit games: Alex Kirilloff (2-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI), Ryan Jeffers (2-for-5, HR, R, 3 RBI), Jose Miranda (2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI), Mark Contreras (3-for-4, HR, 2 R, RBI) The Blue Wahoos won a feisty game against the Shuckers and pushed the series to a decisive game 5 tomorrow. The Blue Wahoos offense was popping all day and it got kicked off immediately with Alex Kirilloff’s fourth home run of the series. Did I mention that that’s four straight games with a homer for Kirilloff? The home runs didn’t end there as Ryan Jeffers blasted his first homer of the series and Mark Contreras got in on the action with his first homer of the series as well. In total, the Blue Wahoos knocked out 11 hits in the game with every player except for one in the starting lineup reaching base safely at least once. Ryan Costello left the game early when he was awkwardly tagged while diving back to 1st base. He walked back to the dugout holding his left arm and left the game early. Hopefully, he’ll be fine and back in the lineup tomorrow. On the pitching side of things, Charlie Barnes only went one inning and gave up four earned runs. He didn’t reach the 35-pitches-in-one-inning rule that the Twins have in their minor league system but Pensacola still played it on the safe side. Marcos Diplan and Tom Hackimer combined for four scoreless innings in relief of Barnes to help stabilize the game for Pensacola. Jovani Moran and Jonathan Cheshire then came in and combined for just a single earned run over their four combined innings. In total, that’s eight innings of just one-run ball from the Blue Wahoos’ bullpen to help win the game as the offense made quick work of almost every pitcher the Shuckers sent out there. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 0, Clinton 4 Box Score Andrew Cabezas: 4 2/3 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Tyler Webb (2-for-3, 3B) The Kernels lost the first game of the playoff series against the Clinton LumberKings. Andrew Cabezas had a tough start with four earned runs given up over 4 2/3 innings pitched. Nate Hadley and Denny Bentley both pitched in relief for Cabezas and combined for no earned runs through the end of the game. In total, the Kernels’ pitchers struck out 11 batters over eight innings. The Kernels offense was held at bay for the entire game as they struck out 14 times in the game with just four hits. The only extra-base hit was a triple from Tyler Webb who also was the only Kernels hitter who had a multi-hit game. The Kernels will have to win two straight games in order to advance in the postseason and game two will be tomorrow. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Tom Hackimer (basically the entire Blue Wahoos bullpen) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Ryan Jeffers PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #1 - Royce Lewis (Pensacola) - 1-for-3, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, K #2 - Alex Kirilloff (Pensacola) - 2-for-4, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, K #3 - Brusdar Graterol (Twins) - Did not pitch #4 - Trevor Larnach (Pensacola) - 1-for-4, R, BB, 2 K #5 - Wander Javier (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2 K #6 - Jordan Balazovic (Pensacola) - Did not pitch #7 - Keoni Cavaco (GCL Twins) - No game #8 - Brent Rooker (Rochester) - Injured list #9 - Jhoan Duran (Pensacola) - Did not pitch #10 - Blayne Enlow (Ft. Myers) - No game #11 - Lewis Thorpe (Twins) - Did not pitch #12 - Nick Gordon (Rochester) - Injured list #13 - Ryan Jeffers (Pensacola) - 2-for-5, HR, R, 3 RBI #14 - Luis Arraez (Twins) - 1-for-3 #15 - Matt Wallner (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 2 K #16 - Ben Rortvedt (Pensacola) - No game #17 - Akil Baddoo (Ft. Myers) - Out for year with Tommy John surgery #18 - Jorge Alcala (Rochester) - No game #19 - Misael Urbina (DSL Twins) - No game #20 - Travis Blankenhorn (Pensacola) - 0-for-3, RBI, BB, 2 K SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Pensacola @ Biloxi (5:05 P.M.) - TBD Clinton @ Cedar Rapids (5:05 P.M.) - LHP Kody Funderburk Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday’s games. Click here to view the article

WHAT A THROW! Still very high off the end of that game, I, your humble writer and guide, will attempt to put together a sufficient preview laced with as much snark as I am feeling at the moment. I know it has been said about every series so far, but this series actually will be the biggest one (so far) of the year as the Twins get a shot at the team chasing them in the standings. The band this week is The Black Keys who are from Akron, not Cleveland, but all of Ohio is the same to me so I don’t care.Brief Overview: The ride of the season has brought these two teams back to face off against each other in the penultimate regular season series between them. The Twins are riding high after climbing higher in their division lead while the Indians have scuffled recently. Ever since the Indians took over sole possession of the division for exactly one entire day, it has been rough sailing for them as they have gone 9-13 while losing a few key pieces to injury. What They Do Well: Hey, the Indians have great starting pitching, shocker, isn’t it? Despite Corey Kluber being out for most of the year, Carlos Carrasco being out after being diagnosed with leukemia (but he has since returned as a reliever, which is amazing to see), and Trevor Bauer being traded, the Indians have the fifth-best starting pitching in all of baseball by fWAR. The secret sauce’s ingredients has been the development of Shane Bieber and Mike Clevinger into aces along with impacts from Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale. Although, peripherals suggest some regression for both of the latter arms. Nevertheless, the Indians’ starting rotation remains a force that will certainly test the Twins’ offense. They not only can pitch, but the lumber in Cleveland is well brought as well. Ever since August (basically when they acquired Yasiel Puig and Franmil Reyes), they have been the ninth-best offense by wRC+ with a respectable 105 mark. I’m sure you want a frame of reference for that, so be aware that Doug Mientkiewicz held a wRC+ of 104 when he was with the Twins. The Indians have cleaned up one of the aspects of their game that was once a negative and the result has been a well-rounded team that can hold its own. What They Do Not Do Well: For months, I said that I didn’t think the Indians’ bullpen was that good and for months, I looked like a crazy man yelling conspiracies with a megaphone in downtown Seattle (it happens). BUT, since the start of August, the Indians have the 20th best bullpen by fWAR and their 4.86 FIP is the 13th worst in baseball over that time period. What happened? Well, the once reliable Brad Hand has a ghastly 7.15 ERA over that time period as his peripherals have also went down the toilet. Both Nick Wittgren and Tyler Clippard have great ERAs but they also both have peripherals that would make anyone blush (that is, in a bad way). Really, beyond them, there isn’t much in the form of a quality reliever that can be trusted for an inning no matter who the batters are, Tyler Duffey might be the best reliever on the Indians if he were there (thank goodness he isn’t). This is going to be a strange one, but they really don’t play well against good teams at all. Take this stat from Andrew Simon: Now, beating up on bad teams is pretty much the meta for the AL as a whole as there are many, many teams who would rather lose than win, but it is telling to see that they are bloated on the end of beating teams of poor caliber. The Indians are just 20-32 against teams at or above .500 which is the 19th best mark in baseball. The Twins are 28-32 under the same stipulation and the question for them is whether they can beat teams that are actually good, so the question remains even harsher on the Indians. Individuals Of Note: Mike Clevinger in 2019 so far has made the great decision to strike out more batters while walking a hair fewer, a pretty smart combo I must admit. The result has been an incredible 12.77 K/9 which would be the third-highest mark in MLB among qualified starters if he had the innings to qualify. On top of that (or more accurately, something that feeds into that), his average fastball velocity is up two ticks from 93.6 MPH to 95.8 MPH and his swinging strike % is in the stratosphere at a 15.5% rate. Basically, this is a long way of saying that he good, real good. Oh, and he is scheduled to start on Sunday. I previously mentioned the Puig and Reyes deal in which they dealt from a position of strength to help a part of the team that was very weak, but Puig and Reyes have been sufficiently meh since the deal. Since the start of August, Puig holds a below-average 92 wRC+ and Reyes is at 111. Reyes’ defense (or lack thereof) knocks his value down and both players have been worth just .1 fWAR over that time period which spans over 120 plate appearances for both players. Baseball is naturally a streaky sport, but it seems like the Indians didn’t get the boost they were hoping for from both guys when they acquired them. Recent History: The Twins and Indians last played at Target field in early August. The Indians won that 3-1 and the Indians hold the season series by a tally of 7-6. Recent Trajectories: The Twins are 11-5 over their last five series while the Indians are 7-9 over their last five series. Pitching Matchups: Friday: Pineda vs Plutko Saturday: Odorizzi vs Civale Sunday: TBD vs Clevinger Ending Thoughts: The magic number for the Twins is currently 16 and this series will be a great opportunity to knock that number down a few pegs as each win counts as two towards the magic number. The pitching match-ups fall pretty decently in the Twins’ favor as they get their ace against the Indians’ worst starter and they get their All-Star starter against a rookie as well. The Sunday game may be interesting but now is the chance to show the Indians why you are the top team in the division. I’m feeling a 2-1 series in favor of the Twins and my mojo may be slightly regained after correctly calling the previous series, so watch out if you are an aspiring fortune-teller out there. Click here to view the article

The key for WPA is timing, that was hit early on in the game when more could have happened later so the WPA bump is relatively minor even though it ended up being the only run scored.

Pro-tip: Don't have your laptop update itself 2 hours before you're supposed to write the minor league report because it'll take a decade to finish updating and make the whole thing more annoying than it should be.

Just two games in the system tonight as Pensacola prepares for their playoff push and the two Florida-based leagues were cancelled. Still, there was some action in the system and some potential theories regarding who will be called up to the majors with the expanded rosters. All that and more in this edition of the Minor League Report.TRANSACTIONS RHP D.J. Baxendale activated from the 7 day IL at AAA Rochester RHP Edwar Colina transferred to AA Pensacola RHP Adam Bray placed on the 7 day IL at AA Pensacola 1B Chris Williams assigned to A Cedar Rapids from A+ Fort Myers C Kyle Schmidt placed on the 7 day IL at A Cedar Rapids OF Ian Miller will reportedly be called up by the Twins RHP Brusdar Graterol will reportedly be called up by the Twins sometime in September RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 5, Syracuse 3 Box Score D.J. Baxendale: 3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 0 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Ramón Flores (2-for-3, 2B, R, 2 RBI), Tomás Telis (4-for-5, 2B, R), Wilin Rosario (2-for-5, R), Alejandro De Aza (2-for-5, 2B, RBI), Ronald Torreyes (2-for-3, R), Mike Miller (2-for-4, 2B, R, RBI) The Red Wings ran a bullpen game against the Syracuse Mets who also ran a bullpen game. I’m sure every reliever got their steps in with all the pitching changes made in the game. Baxendale started the game and was able to go three innings for his first outing off the IL. Jake Reed picked up after him and was able to net seven outs with just one earned run. After Reed, potential call-ups Jorge Alcala and Fernando Romero combined for 11 outs and no earned runs to put the finishing touches on a well- pitched game. While the offense only scored five runs, there were many opportunities to expand that for the Red Wings as they had 16 hits total in the game. Telis was the big winner at the plate with his four hits but there were five other hitters with multi-hit games and every hitter except one had a hit. In total, the only thing that could stop the Red Wings from scoring was themselves as they had a runner on base in every inning except for the ninth. Naturally, there was no ninth because they were the home team and had the lead following the top of the ninth so the bottom of the ninth did not exist, a shame. BLUE WAHOO BITES No game MIRACLE MATTERS Season cancelled KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 3, Beloit 1 Box Score Josh Winder: 4 ⅔ IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Matt Wallner (2-for-4, 3B, 2 R) In the only other game that was played in the Twins’ system, their affiliate won again. How’s that for a clean sweep? Josh Winder started the game and continued his excellent season with just one lone earned run given up. His ERA on the year now stands at an excellent 2.65 and he should get a fair amount of consideration for the Twins Daily minor league pitcher of the year. The offense was not loud for the Kernels but it got the job done. A DaShawn Kiersey ground out in the fourth plated their first run of the game and a passed ball in the sixth scored Matt Wallner following his triple earlier in the inning. The lone run scoring base hit came from a seventh inning Spencer Steer single which gave the Kernels an insurance run that was not needed. Not to be out-shined by Winder’s start, Dylan Thomas and Jose Martinez worked in relief and nailed down the game with 4 1/3 scoreless innings combined. As a whole, Winder, Thomas, and Martinez combined for just one earned run and 13 strikeouts on the night. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Josh Winder Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Tomás Telis PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #1 - Royce Lewis (Pensacola) - No game #2 - Alex Kirilloff (Pensacola) - No Game #3 - Brusdar Graterol (Rochester) - Did not pitch #4 - Trevor Larnach (Pensacola) - No game #5 - Wander Javier (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, K #6 - Jordan Balazovic (Ft. Myers) - Cancelled season #7 - Keoni Cavaco (GCL Twins) - Cancelled season #8 - Brent Rooker (Rochester) - Injured list #9 - Jhoan Duran (Pensacola) - No game #10 - Blayne Enlow (Ft. Myers) - Cancelled season #11 - Lewis Thorpe (Rochester) - Did not pitch #12 - Nick Gordon (Rochester) - Injured list #13 - Ryan Jeffers (Pensacola) - No game #14 - Luis Arraez (Twins) - 0-for-1, K #15 - Matt Wallner (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, 3B, 2 R, 2 K #16 - Ben Rortvedt (Pensacola) - No game #17 - Akil Baddoo (Ft. Myers) - Out for year with Tommy John surgery #18 - Jorge Alcala (Rochester) - 1 ⅔ IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K #19 - Misael Urbina (DSL Twins) - Season over #20 - Travis Blankenhorn (Pensacola) - No game SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Syracuse @ Rochester (5:05 P.M.) - TBD Pensacola @ Montgomery (5:05 P.M.) - LHP Charlie Barnes Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (2:00 P.M.) - LHP Kody Funderburk Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday’s games. Click here to view the article

Well, here I am again holding the honorable job of writing about the next series and what team do I get to write about? None other than the Detroit Tigers … again. Look, I get that writing repeats will happen, but what kind of terrible draw is it where I have to write about this bad team twice in a row? My only consolation is listening to Jack White while writing which does make me feel a bit better actually because the distortion can almost make up for the horribleness of the team.Brief Overview: Last week I wrote that Detroit was a poor team and they were so offended by that statement that they decided to take the first game of that series and then subsequently lose every other game heading into this series. A perfect 0-5 sums up their season quite well as they have already been eliminated from playoff contention, have hit 92 losses, have had their awfulness quantified in a historical context, and their manager, Ron Gardenhire, has already said that he understands if the Tigers choose not to retain him next year. Again, it’s August and the Tigers’ grave has already been dug and the funeral procession has apparently already come and gone, this is now just the after-party. What They Do Well: No other business can say that they have single-handedly kept the flight from Toledo to Detroit alive and flourishing quite like Detroit can. A mean-spirited joke yes, but the Tigers have had 52 different players play for them at this year and all I can think about is the executives at Delta swimming in money. Although that was probably going to happen regardless of Detroit’s 40-man situation. Beyond my snark, Detroit still has an average starting rotation by fWAR as they rank 15th in baseball in that stat. Again, it’s mainly Matt Boyd, Spencer Turnbull, and Daniel Norris carrying them in that stat, but for a team with this record, even mediocrity can feel like a miracle. Beyond them, it's a drop-off into the abyss (sans Jordan Zimmermann's actually decent peripherals) but the Tigers should have a fighting chance to win a game with any of those guys pitching. What They Do Not Do Well: This could literally end up being a masters thesis if I were so inclined but I’ll try to cut to the chase here. The Tigers were able to BABIP themselves into a decent offensive showing against the Twins last weekend, but the mirage did not last long and the numbers for the year as a whole remain ugly. A league-low 77 wRC+ paired with a bottom three ISO of .149 reflects an offense without many threats. The ISO especially is indicative of the kind of offense the Tigers possess as in a day and age of power, the Tigers’ need for extra-base potential is greater than the Indians’ thirst for actually having people come to their games. Can I quantify that? Yes, actually. The Tigers’ leader in ISO (Ronny Rodriguez) holds a mark of .222 while the Twins as a team hold a mark of .230. Can they at least pitch? Well, not really. The Tigers have the third highest team ERA in baseball and it hasn’t gotten better recently. In the month of August, the Tigers’ pitching staff has a lower fWAR total than Trevor Hildenberger has earned in 2019 (.3 to .4). Hildenberger has thrown 14 innings in the majors this year, you do not really need me to tell you that that isn’t ideal, but finding fun ways to slant stats is half of the point of these articles so allow me to continue. Individuals Of Note: Unfortunately, I mentioned Niko Goodrum here last week because he was having a solid year, but he then suffered an injury and will most likely not return this year, sorry for that one, Niko. After Niko, the next best position player by fWAR is Victor Reyes whom the Tigers picked up in the Rule 5 draft last year and somewhat stashed in their savings account in order to get full team control over him. Reyes has responded by BABIP-ing his way to .4 fWAR season over 41 games. Most of his value has been earned through his great defensive metrics as his 85 wRC+ is incredibly whelming, and that’s even with a massive .359 BABIP. Beyond that, this is a vast wasteland of lost hope as no other position player really deserves notoriety in this sprawling array of sadness. The Tigers’ position player fWAR leaders list would be the perfect place to hide secret government codes or laundered money. Maybe “Mikie Mahtook” is actually code for one of those things, maybe I’ll get back to that later. Let’s talk about Daniel Norris, because why not. Norris was part of the return when the Tigers dealt David Price to the Blue Jays, which is a very old-fashioned statement, but a true one nonetheless. Norris struggles with staying healthy and has gone through the general wringer that most young starters are subject to as they adjust to major league hitters. This year has been a step in the right direction for him as he has already set a new high for MLB innings in a year with 126 1/3 and he may hit the 2.0 fWAR mark if the last month of the season goes well for him. He’s no longer a young gun at 26 but there is still a good chance that he turns into a quality big league pitcher. Recent History: The Twins and Tigers have played a handful of times this year and the Twins are 8-4. The most recent series was won by the Twins as they took two games and the Twins also took two games the last time they were in Comerica (which was in early June). Recent Trajectories: The Twins are 11-4 over their last five series while the Tigers are 4-10 over their last five series. Pitching Matchups: Friday: Gibson vs Jackson Saturday: Pérez vs Boyd Sunday: Pineda vs Turnbull Monday: Odorizzi vs Zimmermann Ending Thoughts: This is one of those weird series where they play four straight games against each other but it’s technically a three game series with the fourth game being a makeup game from an earlier rain out. Anyway, the Twins are coming into the series hot while the Tigers are literally the farthest from hot as a team can be. Taking three games will be the absolute minimum expected from the Twins and taking four should not be out of reach at all. Granted, I am now on a three-series losing streak, but I will call that the Twins will take three games exactly, so who knows what actually will end up happening here. Click here to view the article

As we continue through the “cupcake” part of the schedule, it’s good to re-evaluate the status of the team after each series as it feels like their play recently has had the same peaks and valleys of a heartbeat monitor. They gave the Rangers the business before losing another home series, this time to a weak White Sox team. But I maintain that their play in both series was awfully similar and lady luck in game 1 of the White Sox series is the only thing standing between a series win and the series loss they suffered. Nonetheless, they move on to facing the Tigers at home and I have my choice of a number of Motown artists, Jack White, and Eminem, a solid list you have there, Detroit.Brief Overview: Let’s not mince words here, Detroit is a poor team who has somehow even played below the level of the lowly Orioles this year. Their talent is few and far between and even harder to spot after Nick Castellanos and Shane Greene were dealt at the deadline. They currently have no qualified hitters with a wRC+ over 100 and just a small handful of pitchers who would be considered useful on any good team. I’m being harsh here but it really is hard to compliment a team that is 38-87 on the year and has already been eliminated from AL Central contention. What They Do Well: Oh lord, well, I’ll really be stretching what it means to “do well” in something, and liberties will have to be taken given the context of their baseball-reference page. The Tigers do actually have some solid starting pitching as they rank 13th in baseball by fWAR for starters. Most of this is carried by the efforts of Matt Boyd, Spencer Turnbull, and Daniel Norris who have all been able to soak innings with peripherals that range from “good” to “passable” which is truly something to note for a team in this situation. Usually I have more here but honest to God I cannot find anything worth writing about. What They Do Not Do Well: OOOH BABY, how much time do I have? Well, let’s start with the offense that’s about as offensive as Mister Rogers. They have the worst team wRC+ in baseball with a 76 mark which is just one point ahead of Nick Punto’s Twins wRC+. It gets even worse when looking at just the last seven days in which they’ve held a mark of 50 and have struck out an incredible 36.6% of the time. I mentioned before that they currently have no qualified hitters with a mark that is at or above average (100) and the only player above that line is Travis Demeritte and his 109 mark in just 77 plate appearances. “Does it get worse?” My sweet summer child, it always can. Their bullpen FIP is the third highest in baseball at 5.11. You want a comparison for that? Addison Reed had a FIP of 5.11 with the Twins... that’s the most horrific statement I’ve probably ever written. After trading Greene, they’re left with just a single reliever with a FIP under 4.00 who has thrown more than 10 innings. You want to guess who it is? Surprisingly, it isn’t Joe Jiménez but actually the wonderfully named Buck Farmer. But after him, there's a bunch of sketch and not a lot of experience. Individuals Of Note: Matt Boyd has been a good starting pitcher this year with peripherals that suggests an even better pitcher is deep down within him, but the home run problem that has nagged him for months now remains one of the biggest reasons why there is such a difference between his ERA and xFIP. Only 5 qualified starters in the AL have a higher HR/FB % than Boyd’s 17.6% mark. A guy with a homer problem going up against the 2019 Twins? What could go wrong. Although, Boyd was placed on the paternity list recently so his status for this series is up in the air. One of the other starters I mentioned was Spencer Turnbull who can pitch as well as someone named “Spencer Turnbull” should be able to. His FIP of 4.18 is solid but his real talent is the Rick Anderson special-the ground ball, and his GB% of 48.8% would be the seventh highest among qualified AL starters if he were qualified. Ex-Twins’ farmhand (and major leaguer for all of like 5 minutes), Niko Goodrum, is having the only real noteworthy season from a Tigers’ position player as he’s the only one still with the team who is above .3 fWAR (he’s at 1.9) and he also looks to be the only position player on the Tigers to eclipse the 2.0 mark set for “average” major leaguers. Goodrum is currently BABIP-ing his way to a solid year as a multi-positional-weapon as he has logged innings at every position except for catcher and as this article is being written he sits with a respectable wRC+ of 94. As snarkily mentioned before, his BABIP on the year is an above average .341 so he may be due for some regression but even if he is, he remains one of the few bright spots on the Tigers. Recent History: The Twins and Tigers have played a few times this year and the Twins are 6-3 against them but the last series against them came all the way back in the second week of June which might as well be an eternity ago. Recent Trajectories: The Twins are 8-8 over their last 5 series while the Tigers are 6-11 over their last 5 series. Pitching Match-ups: Friday: Berríos vs VerHagen Saturday: Gibson vs Jackson (holy crap it’s Edwin Jackson) Sunday: Pérez vs Boyd (The Tigers rotation is in limbo so this may change) Ending Thoughts: The Tigers are bad, like, really bad. Potentially some weird “baseball-like” thing will occur like it did the other day when they were able to beat Justin Verlander and the Astros at Houston, but there should really be no reason or excuse that the Twins can’t take the series or sweep. In my eyes, a series win is the very least they can do and a sweep should be expected given the difference between the two teams, but I would still lead with some caution given how tricky baseball can be sometimes. Anyway, I will call a sweep despite the fact that I am now on a two-series wrong streak. Hopefully I’ll get back on track. Click here to view the article