stringer bell

He’s made a lot of nice plays in his short time with the Twins this year. Keep him out of center field and he’s an asset on defense.

Nice “D” in the bottom of the first.

Missed it by this much!

Contreras for Garlick I guess. Wow, the injuries don’t stop.

The odds are long for the Twins. They really need to win at least four of the five games and given their current roster, it is an extremely long shot. Because they are playing the teams ahead of them in the standings, they control their own destiny, but they must dominate two teams they have had trouble beating in the second half of the season.

Are we splitting hairs here? “This weekend” would encompass Friday thru Sunday. In your quote above, you say “Buxton will not be back this weekend”. In your previous post you said “Both could be back against the Guardians from the last news I saw” (referring to Polanco and Buxton). From those two statements, I guess the window is that Buxton could be playing on Monday. Is that what you are saying?

???? I haven’t seen that Buxton has done any baseball activities, no batting practice and no base running. I can’t imagine he’ll play this weekend. Polanco may be activated as soon as today

I think Bundy averages over five innings per start, which is par for the course for a 4-5th starter. I think he is the type to be managed as Rocco did last night--hard contact equals short leash. Given the dire situation, managing the bullpen as it was last night looks like the right call. They had to win the game and went with their best options (and it worked). Now they'll go into Cleveland with most everyone available except maybe Duran. The fact is that if they succeed in Cleveland (win 4 or 5 games), the less trusted bullpen options (Pagan, Moran, Megill, Sanchez) will have to come through. I wouldn't take that bet, but that is what they are up against.

I don't know if either Larnach or Jeffers will make it back for meaningful games. If the Twins don't win the Cleveland series, it could be argued that the chances for postseason are gone. Caleb Hamilton is superfluous if Jeffers is in fact ready to play. If Larnach is ready to play, there's really no point in keeping Contreras on the 40-man. Also, if the season is over, Billy Hamilton and Sandy Leon can be jettisoned. If the Twins do lose the Cleveland series, I'd bring up Wallner and put Varland in the rotation and perhaps SWR for a cup of coffee.

Injuries, injuries, injuries! It was obvious to me that Larnach wasn't right when he came back from his first stint on the IL and the results panned that out. The Larnach we saw before he was injured is at least a solid MLB player and perhaps much more. There is swing and miss in his game and there will be slumps, but there is excellent power and good defense. He takes his walks, as well. To the original question, it is really tough to count on any player who isn't established (Larnach, Kirilloff, Lewis) and coming off injury. My thought is that there needs to be enough depth if one or even two guys fail due to injury or ineffectiveness that there is someone to replace them. Having Gordon produce and stay healthy this year provides much of the desired depth. Arraez, Miranda, Kirilloff, Gordon, Lewis and Larnach provide a lot of positional flexibility. I also have not been swayed by Celestino. He's a competent center fielder, but his offense and base running aren't major league quality. With Buxton's injury history, he needs to stay on the roster, but I don't think he should be guaranteed a major league job next spring.

Two big comeback wins for the Twins’ Class A affiliates in their playoffs. Cavaco is still intriguing despite struggling for the Mussels. Also good to see Jordy Blaze doing better for the Saints.

BTW, Larnach officially started his rehab last night and Jeffers is scheduled to start his rehab tonight as the DH for the Saints.

Yes, it seems that the rotation has had a member or two ramping up for the entire season plus the limitations placed on Archer. The bullpen will be heavily used and every out is going to be precious. All members of the bullpen will be in line to pitch at crucial times. I don’t hold out a lot of hope, but some chance is better than none.

Yep, with their backs to the wall, the Twins go into Cleveland with Ober (just finished injury rehab), Winder and Varland for the first three games of a five-game series.

Winnah!

I think the Twins should have brought Billy Hamilton to run for Sánchez last inning. I think they need an insurance run.

The team never had a run-scoring streak commensurate with the offensive talent they have/had. They have been among the least efficient teams producing runs all year. Top that off with terrible base running and you have an underachieving offense and that was supposed to be the strength of the team.

Need a win tonight. It would be nice for the offense to score more than a half dozen runs.

Winder and Ober are the obvious choices. If they were totally out of the race, SWR would be a good bet, but not at this point.

No, but maybe he can throw an extra inning his next start against Cleveland.

Gordon had to wait for someone to get there. It was a truly weird play.

Good base running that inning. Especially Correa taking second on his hit. Also, Gio did his job and got the run in.

Isn't the standard one year recovery for TJ? Maeda will be about 18 months out and Paddack had his about May 1. Maeda is in his mid thirties, but Paddack and Mahle are still in their 20s. I would think a large part of their careers are in front of them.

I dunno. Celestino was running pretty close to parallel to the fence.

Nice catch Gilberto.