stringer bell

Kiersey with the tying double ( originally ruled a HR), he scored on a stolen base and throwing error. The Twins take a lead into B-9.

Glad to hear that. I confess I didn’t see the velocity on every pitch, so I may well be wrong about his velocity.

Megill looked good yesterday, probably the only guy in competition for one of the last spots that has so far (I think Moran is a near-lock so I am not considering him). I hope someone(s) steps up and that Winder and Henriquez get healthy.

Agree. It looked like Alcala was throwing high 80s meatballs yesterday. I didn’t see a single pitch with velo above 90. It is early and he is coming back from surgery and missing virtually a whole season, but I’m not confident that he will help the club early.

Love the golf talk guys. I’m a diehard too and since I’ve retired, I have no excuses about not getting to play enough. I’ll play in the cold or the heat and in the rain (no lightning!), but the body has been rebelling for the last couple years. I hope to play with less pain this year and maybe get a little more distance.

When you get to my age, you hope to maintain the handicap you have. The lowest I got was 13.

Nice easy stroke for Jeffers and it flew.

Looks like Alcala fot nabbed for taking too long. I really think Alcala needs to show he's got his good stuff before he's gifted a spot in the bullpen.

Nice inning for Duran.

On the pitcher, not the left fielder.

Run Nick!

I can see the results of the pitch clock. I like what I see. Dennis Santana--not impressive.

Not a cheapie. Go Jake Cave. Probably a better fit with the Phillies.

With his R/L splits, Farmer should be starting against lefties all the time. Not as a good for him to fill in against right handers. He’ll get quite a few at-bats filling in anyway. I guess I’d prefer him at third and Miranda at first.

The best thing for the bullpen would be success from the current deep and relatively experienced rotation. Two things the Twins FO and field staff had to like about Pagan were his willingness to take the ball on consecutive days and ability to throw multiple innings. I hope that Pagan is infrequently used in high-leverage situations. The last two or three in the bullpen already look a bit shaky (I know it's early!). Alcala gave up several base runners, Megill got knocked around and both Winder and Henriquez are dealing with arm ailments.

The injuries to Larnach and Miranda are concerning, of course. I'm sure that in Spring Training, the Twins aren't going to take any chances with anyone. Any complaints about having competent veterans on board bring me back to last year when the not-ready Wallner plus Cave, Celestino and Contreras were playing regularly in the outfield. I'd much rather have major leaguers playing and if the prospects come through, they will get their chance. If Rocco can get the veterans at-bats where they have the best chance of success, they will be fine, but I doubt the club will suddenly believe they are foundations of the team. There is a jumble of young, ready or nearly-ready position players without clear places where they will play. It's up to the field staff and front office to handle this, but the time is in the future. Goodness, guys like Kirilloff and Larnach haven't established themselves and a bad season could change the opinion of Miranda and Gordon.

My thought was that the Dodgers might be interested in Gordon to fill Rojas’ utility role, with Rojas moving in as the primary SS.

As far as strategy for extra innings goes, I don't think a bunt is in order very often if you are on the road. First of all, playing for a one-run lead when the opponent will get a runner on second with none out really isn't a great percentage play. Secondly, there aren't many good-enough bunters to get that runner to third and quite often two strikes or an out will be given up without advancing the runner. Third, and probably most important, getting the runner to third with one out is far from a guarantee that he'll score. Strikeouts are at historic highs, infield flies seem to be up as well and I have to believe that it is far less than 50% of the time that when a runner on third base and one out the runner is scored without benefit of a hit.

I think with a larger sample size that the "ghost runner" rule would hurt the Twins because of the makeup of the team and the flaws therein. They were far below average the past two years at advancing runners with outs and hitting with runners in scoring position. They were noted as among the very worst base running teams and their team speed is quite a bit below league average so stealing a run to score a win was pretty unlikely to happen. When it comes to the pitching side, their candidates for pitching the extra innings were not high velocity and strikeout guys and mostly right handed, so the chance of advancing a runner on a pulled ground out would be a bit higher than average. That said, the rule is the same for everyone and really the key thing will be good hitting with runners on and a deep enough bullpen that the guy who goes out for the tenth or eleventh is as good a shot as the opponents for throwing a goose egg.

Minor league contracts don't bother me much at all. Santana, OTOH, bothers me some, in that he takes a spot on the 40-man roster and has no options. There will be plenty of transactions, but right now the current 40-man is tight and several players that are pretty desirable could be lost to get a relief pitcher or catcher on the active roster.

Definitions seem to be the debate here. Positionless would infer that there isn't a position where the player can thrive or least defend acceptably. Utility would be where the player can defend acceptably at multiple positions. Positional flexibility would infer that the player can defend acceptably at multiple positions. Clearly, the organization doesn't want to bring a bunch of positionless players (DHs) on board. It seems the headline is misleading. I'd be willing to predict that Austin Martin, Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee all will play more games at other positions than shortstop, at least as long as they are playing for the Twins. I don't think that is a failure of the organization, but rather a plan of keeping players at the high end of the defensive spectrum as long as possible. The three guys I mentioned haven't played many games outside of shortstop and that is a concern because they all could be in the majors this year.

Not so easy to be “on the shuttle” when he has no options. If he is DFAed any club can claim him and if unclaimed he may be able to claim free agency. That would be the case whenever he would be sent down.

mlbtraderumors.com reports that the Twins have claimed relief pitcher Dennis Santana. He pitched last year for the Rangers. Royce Lewis was placed on the 60-day IL to make room for Santana.

The rules are the rules. The Twins may have already made roster changes that will benefit them in extra inning games. First, they have at least one backup OF who could pinch run (Taylor and/or Gordon) and they have what profiles to an excellent bench with pinch hit possibilities to give a platoon advantage in those run-scoring opportunities. I would hope there would be improvement in those situational hitting instances in extras. That was the most glaring problem last year.

Using Buxton as the DH frequently bugs me because he is such a great defender. I know it is about keeping him healthy. I also know that using him (too) frequently last year was an attempt to get him through the season with an ongoing knee injury. I am not sure if he needs that DH time this year to protect that injury or anything else that is an ongoing issue. Hopefully, this year, using Buck at DH is a way to give him a half-day off for rest. In that case, it shouldn't be more than 10-20% of the games. I agree that the poorer defenders would be optimum DHs. That would include Miranda most likely, but really no one else as long as health isn't affecting their ability to defend. I have believed that Farmer should be in the lineup most frequently at third base against left handed pitching, with Miranda either moving to first base or DH. As far as having a "permanent" DH, they need to be really good offensive players. Being a full-time DH implies the player can no longer adequately play a defensive position (think Giancarlo Stanton's misadventures at Target Field last year) and provides no place to get other good offensive players off their feet for a break or to deal with nagging injuries. There aren't many guys like Thome or Cruz to fill the full-time DH role and giving the role to a younger player diminishes their value long-term.