stringer bell

Apologies for a muddled thought above. What I meant to say is that, of the two teams that the Twins are competing with to win the Central Division, I think Cleveland is the better team. This may or may not be proven in the shortened regular season. IMHO the Twins are better than either the White Sox or Cleveland and so far that has shown in their head-to-head matchups.

5-3 against Cleveland in the season series. The Twins need to win at least one more this weekend to clinch hold the tiebreaker, then beat the White Sox three of four. I think Cleveland is the better team despite a less-than-stellar offense. They pitch better than anyone, have a nice defense and have the top pitcher in the AL.

There were too many hard hit balls that inning, but ......winnah!

Great outing for Maeda. Bring it home bullpen.

I'm sure this is Maeda's last inning. More guys are getting on. Also over 90 pitches.

Big double play!

Santana got a break there.

It's been flying like a whiffle ball and usually drifting right.

Rosario's hit reminds me of the way I've been hitting my four iron.

Watch those calves Josh!

One more inning for Maeda?

Yup, They're great. I'm glad young whippersnappers like you know of them.

How long do they go with Maeda, who has been terrific, but third time through the order.

Marwin can't hit anything right now.

Official game!

Sox get a hit, so much for the no-hitter. Two on, none out for Chicago in the sixth.

Nice play by the pitcher!

Overrun by Rosie. Tough play.

Pennant race update: Tigers score three vs. Giolito, lead 3-0 in the bottom of 6. Mize has allowed no hits for Detroit through 5.

Surprised they’re playing. Good job Cave & Buck!

I've resisted comment here on this topic because I think it's complicated. No one statistic is the magic bullet and Eddie Rosario is a big league talent, without question. It makes no sense to me to bench him, reduce his role, or diminish his playing time with two and a half weeks to go. That certainly seems to be the consensus of those posting on this thread and I agree wholeheartedly. Eddie's best skill is as a run producer. We can have the debate about the value of RBIs, but Rosario wants (I think more than most) to be the guy at the plate when a big hit will change the game and he has produced on balance. Eddie is not a patient hitter. While he is chasing less, he still gets in "swing mode" quite often and will swing at everything, usually making contact, but not often enough making solid contact. His OBP and slugging are in the average range for a corner outfielder. I see nothing in the advanced metrics that predicts that he will be better than that. Defensively, his metrics are somewhere between average and poor. My eyes tell me he's covering more ground this year in the field than he did in the second half last year, but he seems to come up short on making great defensive plays more often than not. The arm is strong, but too often the throw goes to the wrong base. Also, it must be considered how many outs he has cost on the bases. I think it is far more than the extra bases he might have taken, so his base running is also a net minus. All of these factors result in a WAR that is mediocre. Is WAR a perfect stat? I don't think so, but it tries to give a comprehensive look at the overall value of the player. Also, as noted, Rosario has diminished value since his best year, 2018. Eddie's value doesn't match his salary and the projected salary he would get as an arb-eligible player next year. The Twins have at least three players who project to be better offensive players than Eddie (Kirilloff, Larnach and Rooker) and any of them would cost pennies of the dollar compared to Rosario in 2021. I believe one or more of the three will be ready for full-time major league duty next year, and if that is the case, it is time to say good bye to Rosario.

According to ESPN , Cleveland is favored both tonight and tomorrow despite the Twins better record and playing at home. That probably has a lot to do with the projected starting pitchers, but still a bit of a slap in the face of the reigning division champs.

Eyes on the sky for this one. There shouldn't be much scoring and weather may end this before it starts.

I’ve been reading that the best-of-three opening series will be played at the higher seed. It would be nice for the Twinsvto host that series. It is in their hands. Wine 4 or 5 of seven against the White Sox and Cleveland should move them up and also hold the tiebreaker against either team.

The good news is that the Twins control their own destiny. If they can win 4-5 of the next seven games, they will be in position to get a much higher seed, especially given that they then would have the tiebreaker edge on one or both of the other playoff contenders in the division.