stringer bell

Next inning.

Kirilloff get his first regular season hit this inning.

Big Mike is underrated methinks.

Kirilloff doesn’t look really comfortable in left and I’m not comfortable with that.

Great intro Dave!

Regarding “the closer”, I don’t think any candidate is right for the job, but probably sharing between Robles, Rogers and (gulp) Columé could work. Robles seems to fight his control occasionally, while Rogers has his documented problems on back-to-back days. Columé has been a disappointment so far but has a track record as an effective back-end guy. Two other arms—Duffey and Alcala—haven’t been trusted with nailing down a win.

Nice to see a game go under 2:30.

Four swinging strikes for Happ in four innings!

Happ is a nibbler at this stage of his career. Doesn’t get a lot of swings and misses and has to live on the edges of the zone. Someone mentioned Gordon getting playing time at short. I suspect he is as stretched as Polanco there. I don’t hold out a lot of hope for him at this stage in his development.

Baseball Reference says that the Twins will get an additional year of control even if Kirilloff stays on the major league roster from this point on.

OK. Have the Twins kept Kirilloff at the alternate site to gain an extra year of control? BB-ref says so.

Last year the Twins two most used bench players were Ehire Adrianza and Marwin Gonzalez. Both of these players are versatile and dependable glove men wherever they are put on defense. For the 2021 Twins, the versatile players are not defensive assets--Arraez, Astudillo, Garlick and Rooker are all bat-first players and when they get on the field, the ball seems to find them. So far, the results have been close to disastrous.

I don't think Romo will be in the A's bullpen for long. He lasted longer with less stuff than a whole bunch of pitchers.

Dobnak with an opportunity to keep from getting farmed out. I know he's a starter in waiting, but with Maeda's short start, he should be able to go multiple innings

OK, Kenta go out and pitch with the lead. I was going to comment that Cruz was in a little snag. He's a smart hitter with a short stroke who uses the whole field and sometimes goes outside the whole field.

Really good AB just there.

One run on a homer, but three doubles so far and so far nothing from that.

Last year, Maeda's WHIP was under 1. This year in three starts, it was 1.70, I think that says more about his effectiveness than the ERA.

The team seems to have catching problems.

Maeda just not as sharp as he was almost every time out last year.

Stashak was sent to the minors, so he has to stay there for 10 days (I think). This was done to get a fresh arm in the bullpen. I know there was conversation about lengthening the minimum time a player has to stay in the minors, but I think the number is still ten days. I'm pretty confident when Stashak's required time is up, he will replace someone, probably Smeltzer or Farrell. Bremer just said that all of the members of the taxi squad have been brought up while the Twins were on this road trip. When the team gets home I'm very confident that there will be more roster moves most likely including Kirilloff, especially with the nagging injury to Sanó.

That looked like 2020 Maeda.

OK, a lot of guys who have shown to be capable or better major league players have not performed--Polanco, Garver, Kepler, Sanó, and to some degree Cave. 2019 was when all of those guys were really good and maybe it is time to recalibrate expectations. Is there a Plan B? If the Twins continue to disappoint, they might be a completely different team after the trading deadline. The organization seems to be all-in on going for the formula of building around the long ball--no matter what the situation, try to hit the ball over the fence--and we've seen failures to score runners at an alarming rate. Bullpens have ups and downs. I'm not overly confident in the Twins' pen, but I don't think it is bottom quadrant, either.

The Twins face Oakland this after noon in the finale of a difficult road trip to the West Coast. The Twins are currently 6-10, having lost eight of their last nine games. They've lost two doubleheaders and three extra-inning games. Sixteen games is roughly one-tenth of a season and the Twins have had spotty pitching, poor hitting and have also made too many defensive mistakes. In other words, they have been a bad ball club. The opponent today, the Oakland Athletics, started slowly, but is now perhaps the hottest club in baseball having won ten straight games. The lineup is swinging well, they have a decent pitching staff and a fine defensive team. Today's starting pitcher matchup features Frankie Montas versus Kenta Maeda. Montas was drilled for seven runs in his first start, but has been outstanding since. The Twins counter with Maeda, who has been okay, but not dominant in his three starts. It would be a good time for Maeda to toss a gem, given the struggles of the team's hitters. Lineups and Comments: Minnesota (6-10) Arraez 2b Donaldson 3b Cruz dh Buxton cf Polanco ss Astudillo 1b Cave lf Rooker rf Jeffers c Pitching: Maeda 1-1 3.07 ERA Oakland (11-7) Canha lf Laureano cf Lowrie 2b Olson 1b Chapman 3b Moreland 1b Murphy c Brown rf Andrus ss Pitching: Montas 2-1 4.91 ERA Riddle is now on the COVID list for unspecified reasons, replaced by Telis (yet another catcher). Sanó is listed by ESPN as day-to-day. I don't know what his injury or illness might be. The fact that the team has a day off tomorrow and returns home for a series might be why the changes that have been made were made IMHO. I expect more roster moves when the team gets home.

When you’re going good.......and the A’s are, all kinds of things seem to break your way. Right now things are not going well for the Twins. They aren’t as bad as they look right now, but the team they are putting out there right now looks pretty brutal.