stringer bell

The next hit was.

The last two hits weren't well-struck, but five walks and three hits is a lot of base runners.

Dick and Justin discussing Verlander facing hitters a third and fourth time. He may not have to face any hitters as fourth time the way things are going.

Agreed. Going into today, the Twins had issued the fewest walks in the American League. They trailed only the Dodgers.

2-0 does seem like 6-0 given the opposition pitcher and the Twins lineup.

Two "soft" runs.

What, no Houston Astros trash can lid?

They'll be lucky to get five out of Ryan. Too bad. Joe isn't getting many swings and misses either.

I recall a Red Sox player (maybe Yaz) hitting a broken-bat homer against the Twins.

I admire Byron Buxton and marvel at his skills. Everything I’ve seen or heard about him indicates he works hard and plays hard. He’s not a malingerer or anything like that. I’m more disappointed with each injury. I question the plan to rest him and particularly to use a platinum glove center fielder as a DH. I don’t have any answers, but it sure doesn’t seem like the plan is working.

At least Verlander had to work a little in the second. I have a hard time believing the Twins will score more than one or two runs tonight.

Here we go! Go Joe.

I just don’t know what to think. I am not sure that the idea of DH time and scheduled days off would reduce or eliminate injuries. Here we are a month in and he’s missed a third of the games—knee, hand, hip—suffered from running out a pop fly that turned into a windblown double, getting hit by a pitch and running out a grounder. None of those things occurred from being in center field.

I was going to make the same comment with a slightly different spin. My optimism is slowly diminishing.

I’d really like to see Kirilloff break out.

Contreras should have options so he wouldn’t be automatically DFAed if he is sent down. Cotton would have to be exposed via DFA if he is removed from the active roster.

That still doesn’t allow the club to go outside the 40-man. It probably gives them time to determine Paddack’s status.

Not according Levine. There has to be a minimum of three players out with COVID to allow the club to go outside the 40-man roster. It wouldn’t surprise me if Arraez gets activated tonight, with Godoy being optioned. I expect Sanó is being moved to the 60-day list and the other space will be made by DFA.

Correa and Paddack to the IL, Cotton and Contreras selected. Welcome to MLB Mark Contreras!

Gilberto Celestino has 42 plate appearances with the Twins so far. I'm not quite ready to say that he's ready to be a fourth/sometimes third outfielder just yet. Do remember that Rob Refsnyder was hitting over .400 in a similar number of plate appearances last season. He regressed hard to the mean. Gilberto is certainly a better prospect and some of the deeper stats are encouraging. He's only struck out 16.7% of his PAs, he's hit a fair percentage of balls on the barrel and he's a legitimate center fielder.

I beg to differ with the poster that suggested Garlick would/should be DFAed when all the outfielders get healthy. He provides punch against left handed pitching that Celestino does not. Garlick should have a job with the Twins as long as he slugs lefties.

According to BBRef, Larnach is second on the team in WAR and has positive defensive ratings this year (negative last year). My eye test of Trevor is that he has been a different hitter this year—using the whole field, chasing less and working the count better. Defensively, I see improvement in positioning to make throws and taking better angles to balls. I’m guessing Larnach is in the second quadrant in spring speed (25-50 percentile). He isn’t going to get to some balls that faster guys can reach.

Also on the starting pitching--there doesn't seem to be anyone in St. Paul that is pushing to make the Twins' starting rotation. Sands has been mostly ineffective, Balazovic has only made one start (and allowed seven base runners in 3.2 innings), Smeltzer got knocked around his last start and no one else has stepped forward. There looks like a couple of guys at AA who might move up pretty fast, but expecting them to help the Twins this year is a large gamble. A lot depends on health. If Paddack's injury isn't major and everyone else holds together, the need won't be too great, but having rotations go a full season without going eight or nine deep is a rarity.

As far as the original topic, I do believe a team can't have enough pitching. The apparent depth of having seven starters may be down to four, although Ober seems on track to boost the number to five soon enough. I am presuming that Paddack will go on the Injured List and that Bundy is cooked, although with Ober still on the IL, Bundy will get at least one more shot to redeem himself. There have been a couple of bullpen surprises, but I think there is a need to add at least one high-leverage arm and it would be nice if the guy was a lefty. Getting Alcala back would help to reduce the role for Pagan, which I think would benefit the club.

Also, you don't see teams dropping out of contention 30 games in, but Cincinnati has managed to do that.