wavedog

4th time to see Bauer and we did better against him - nice win on the road. Good to see the pitching results of Mejia, Duffey, Rogers and Hildenberger. Kluber vs Gibson today? Yikes - where is my lucky rabbit's foot

He only made 3 starts in AAA - the first 2 were ok and the 3rd one was bad. Maybe he had a time limit on his deal with them to either make the majors or release him or they didn't like that last start. http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fister001dou&type=pgl&year=2017

Looks like Doug Fister is becoming free again as well - he could be another stopgap option.

Gee could be a step-up from some of the other recent pitchers we have thrown out there. And by step up I mean - If he can give up 5 runs in 5 or 6 innings instead of 5 runs in 2 or 3 innings that is a step up. Saw him pitch a couple times for Texas this season and he was not horrible - he gave up 10 runs (6 earned) in 13 innings as a long man/mop-up reliever in 4 appearances.

Enjoying these game summaries Tom and the new bullpen usage tracker - Thanks for putting this together!

That is interesting - we really missed out on picking up Dyson then - we could have locked up the 3 highest reliever ERA's in the league. lol!

Here is a video of Rooker as he was getting drafted https://www.facebook.com/HailStateBB/videos/1759344020747427/

BJ Garbe came to my mind because he was a top 5 HS pick for the Twins as well back in 1999 and the scouting reports stated that he was a 5-tool player. Not saying they will turn out the same or that they are the same type of player. Found an interesting article from 2009 on Garbe and the Washington area draft class of 1999. http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/remembering-washingtons-great-baseball-draft-class-of-1999/ Below is an excerpt from the article: Garbe’s story is the classic tale of a can’t-miss prospect who did. While Justin Morneau, taken in the third round of the same 1999 draft by Minnesota, is a superstar in the second year of a six-year, $80 million contract, Garbe’s life is consumed by running Kegler’s Casino and the Wild Card Sports Bar and Grill in East Wenatchee. And loving every minute of it. “It’s kind of hard to say this, but I’m probably more happy doing this than I’ve been in a long time,” he said. “I’ll always miss baseball, but I’m extremely content right now.” Pro baseball was an ordeal almost from the start for Garbe, who as a senior at Moses Lake was named the Gatorade national player of the year. For one thing, he was diagnosed with night blindness, which can be a problem in a sport in which 80 to 90 percent of the games are at night. “It played a part, definitely,” he said. “In day games, my average was 80 points higher than at night. Was that the deciding factor? I don’t think so.” The Twins tried to change his batting stroke, and he never adjusted. Mostly, Garbe said, he didn’t like the fact that baseball had become a business. “I never liked that about professional baseball,” he said. “The game just changed. I lost a lot of passion for it over the years that I played.” The Twins finally cut Garbe after the 2004 season. He hooked up with the Mariners’ organization in 2005, hitting .275 in Class A ball, and began the 2006 season in AA with the Marlins. Struggling with a .184 average in May, he quit for good.

BJ Garbe came to my mind as well.

Rooker - yes!! As a fellow Mississippi State Bulldog I love the pick!! Now let's get some pitching.

Well, all we can hope for the best. Have to say given the fact we rarely have the #1 pick it is a bit disappointing not to get a franchise impact player. Maybe this just was not the draft to have the top pick. Hope this organization can develop him correctly in 5 or 6 years.

I thought I would take a look at his game logs for this season - http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/5829/matt-belisle Man, when he goes south he goes in a big way. Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He is pitching more like a rookie, I would expect a veteran to be able to collect themselves and limit the damage in those situations. He has had several nice quiet outings as well but the overall line is ugly.

As a Mississippi State Bulldog would love if we took Rooker if he is there at 35 or 37. But I will admit I know nothing about the MLB draft. Seems to be a bit of a crapshoot but I love all the draft write-ups on this site - it is getting me educated.

What a nice rally - good at-bats by Dozier, Grossman and Mauer!

That was an ugly at-bat for Buxton. Just kept throwing the same pitch to him.

A little early for math but I believe it should say 33% of Detroit's wins have come against Minnesota. 4 out of the 12 wins. Here is another fun Central Division fact - The Twins have already won more games this year against Kansas City (5) than they did all of last season (4).

Winner! Nice play Polanco!

Pitch framing

Nice play by Polanco - left side of infield did well this inning

Sano catches a difficult pop-up. Worth the price of admission

Really thought Buxton was going to get there and catch it . Good effort!

Strike em out - throw em out!

Not a good start - Perez throws a lot of DPs - maybe Dozier should have been running

The easy answer is any park where Hughes is pitching is considered a hitters park. Lefthanded hitters have it a little easier. Any guesses on how far Gallo will hit one tonight? Hopefully we keep up but Perez usually pitches better at home than on the road.

Catching up on the topics - yes we have our share of grackles here - we used to go to the Sonic Drive-in frequently when my daughters were smaller and there was always a one-legged grackle there scavenging for dropped food. Bruce Springsteen? He is OK but I am no fanatic - not like I am of the Twins. Speaking of the Twins, I will be going to the game tonight down here so I hope we fair better tonight than the last couple of days. How about a Buxton HR? Last year when I went to the game we beat the crap out of Texas so I hope that is repeated tonight although with Hughes pitching it most likely will be the other way around.