Mahoning

Apparently Madison Bumgarner is on the trading block. The Twins have some prospects. Kiriloff? And Bundy's future is not bright.

If you listen to Jim Kaat (and we all should listen to Jim Kaat) the only reason young pitchers pitch so few innings now is that is how they are trained. It's simply not possible that young athletes today have 60% of the strength and stamina that their grandparents did. If you are told by your bosses (as apparently the Twins pitchers are) that six innings is the limit of human capacity, then you will conform.

The situation has potential to be disastrous. As others have noted, Ober and Ryan have no track record and the Twins won't let them pitch many innings, and both could easily have arm trouble. Look for them to keep a Uber on call in St. Paul as they shuttle pitchers up and down from the Saints. The Twins should hope for a LONG lockout and a very short season.

Well, to rely on Ober, Ryan, and Bundy is madness. All if them could easily go down with injury or blow up, making the 2021 Twins look pitching-rich by comparison. Stockpiling arms makes plenty of sense.

With Buster Posey now retired, the Giants show up as a team that needs a catcher and maybe has some pitchers to trade. Also, Travis D'Arnaud can't hit a lick. Garver to Giants or Braves?

I see people lobbying for Larnach and Rooker. Good grief, two more .200 hitters with some power. If what you like is an offense based on solo homers, there you go. Kepler, another .200 hitter, seems totally expendable. You can get that for the major league minimum, not $9 million. If he were gone he would not be missed. I think Nick Gordon needs to be given a chance to play every day: Speed!

Rocco may be in over his head, I have no idea, but can anyone say what is the RIGHT way to manage a team whose pitching staff has collapsed? That said, I hope that the organization will train youngsters like Winder to go long and not be persuaded that six competent innings is a major accomplishment.

Everyone -- especially Bremer and Morneau -- seems to believe that 2019 was the REAL Kepler, whereas the evidence is mounting that it was an extreme anomaly.

Add me to the list of those who appreciate Jim Kaat. What a breath of fresh air! Unlike the babbling Morneau and Smalley, who mumble at least twice and mostly just repeat the standard "wisdom," Kaat speaks clearly, adds some information, and says it just once. Last night he marveled at Rortvedt missing ball after ball because, at least in part, he sits on the ground so he can't shift to block balls. Kaat wondered why.

It's obvious: Time to bring back Astudillo, this time as a pitcher. He can't be any worse than Ober and Shoemaker, and unlike three-ball-count-on-every-hitter Ober, Astudillo would move the game along!

Small sample sizes for Larnach (who also blundered on the bases) and Kiriloff. Eddie is on pace to drive in 100 (again!) To me that counts more that OPS, etc. In ballgames runs count, OPS doesn't. The Twins, ostensibly, were built to win THIS YEAR. Replacing a known run-producer with two unproven (and still unproven) rookies seems inconsistent with that (now failed) approach. It's unlikely that between the two of them Kiriloff and Larnach will match Eddie this year.

Countless times I have read the local experts asserting with confidence that Rosario would be easy to replace. Well, he is playing for a team with a poor offense and has 41 RBI -- more than any Twin. SO EASY to replace, and yet the Twins have not replaced him. Good for Eddie -- he went to an organization than knows how to win.

Rooker is a terrible outfielder; Larnach is not too great either. They better hold onto Buxton and hope that the train of misfortunes has reached the station. Rocco doesn't seem to know what to do with Gordon, suggesting that he doesn't really have a position. But he sure can run. I'd rather see him in the lineup every day than Simmons because . . . what future does Simmons have? Are we waiting for the 15-game winning streak?

Is it pitch framing or simply that that is the umpire's strike zone that day? The moving low-and-away or low-and-in pitch is the hardest one for an umpire to see and evaluate. (I suspect that "pitch framing" is the baseball voodoo stat of the moment. Umpires, after all, are trained to watch the ball in relation to the plate, not the location of the catcher's glove.)

Haven't the Twins already lost this game? It's against the Yankees.