stringer bell

Players flame out or don't pan out. However, the Twins currently have Jeffers, Kirilloff, Polanco, Arraez, Lewis, Miranda, Larnach, Gordon, Celestino, Buxton and Kepler on their roster. All home-grown and under 30. The earliest any of these players could be a free agent is 2024 and the Twins have options to keep both Kepler and Polanco longer. It appears that at least three pitchers have arrived to stay with the Twins and there are more on the way. This looks like the nucleus of a contending team for the rest of the decade. Edit to add: I know that Celestino was acquired in a trade, but he was a Low A ballplayer when acquired and only 19 years old IIRC. In my book, that makes him home-grown.

I don't recall Coulombe's "shoulder shimmy" from previous seasons. It seems like a balk to me when runners are on base.

Looking forward to the rest of 2022, the guy I see playing the most first base on this team is..............Miranda. Right now, Alex Kirilloff seems to be in need of either another stint on the Injured List or a trip across the river to St. Paul. He's not hitting the ball hard and he doesn't look like he's enjoying himself on the field. It's a long season, but this is starting to look like every bit as much a lost season for Kirilloff as it has been for Sano. Arraez is going to be in the lineup almost all the time against right handed pitching. He can DH, play first, second or third. Barring a bunch of injuries, I don't see much playing time available for Gordon. With Celestino and Larnach advancing, and Garlick doing exactly what he has been pegged to do, again Nick doesn't have much of an avenue for consistent play in the outfield. We all know that injuries will continue and they tend to cluster. Gordon's ability to play both outfield and infield make him pretty valuable to the Twins.

I haven't been a huge Nick Gordon fan and pictured him "on the bubble" to make the Twins out of spring training this year. In paying attention to the Twins last year after they were hopelessly out of the running, and this year, when things have so far gone very well, I have an increased appreciation for Mr. Gordon. He has demonstrated that he is a capable outfielder and he's not a sure out at the plate. Nick has good speed, something in short supply on this Twins team. Injuries seem to have cemented his position on the active roster. As for his versatility, Nick Gordon is not going to play many, if any, innings at third base or in right field. The key to his value is whether he can be trusted as a shortstop. Last year, when winning mattered, Rocco preferred Jorge Polanco over Gordon as a shortstop. This year, Gordon has played one full game there and played a few innings where the score was lopsided. When Carlos Correa got injured, Gordon was the in-game replacement. I guess, on balance, the Twins seem to look slightly more favorably on Gordon as a shortstop. During spring training, I opined that Nick Gordon was no more than the third choice at any defensive position on the Twins team. If he's the second choice on the active roster at shortstop, his value is enhanced and I think that is the case if Royce Lewis is sent back to the minors when Correa is ready to play again. Gordon has gotten starts in center field and left field, so he seems to have improved his value due to his outfield play. The bat, however, continues to be bottom of the order at best. In summary, an out-of-options Nick Gordon is likely to last the season as a Minnesota Twin. If the Twins would try to sneak him to St. Paul via DFA, I now think he would be claimed and lost to the organization. I doubt that there is regular playing time in his future and wouldn't be surprised if he was on another team in 2023, but Nick Gordon is a major league player and has the skills and versatility that will keep him a major league player for some time.

Coulombe seems to be getting the most out of his ability. I think command is the key component, given his limited arsenal. I would expect some regression to the mean, but if he continues to hit his spots and keeps being used in low to medium leverage situations, he probably has a job all year and is well worth the 700K he is being paid this year.

With the Paddack injury, Bundy is sixth in the starting pitcher pecking order IMHO. Ryan, Gray, Ober, Winder, Archer and then Bundy. Obviously Ober is still on the IL, so Bundy will get starts until either he or Paddack is ready to go. It might be necessary to continue with a six-man rotation if only to limit innings for Winder and perhaps Ober. With Gray not ready to go deep and Archer apparently unable to get past 4 innings, there remain too many bullpen innings and the Twins would seem to need multinnings from several relievers.

Well, it’s dead for everyone and relative to the rest of the AL, the Twins are second is the league in runs allowed, a mammoth improvement from 2021.

As highlighted on a couple of other threads, the Twins have turned out to have a fairly easy schedule. Houston would appear to be the toughest test for the remainder of the month. The Twins and Astros have identical records and are close in team ERA, run differential and runs allowed. The Twins currently have more injuries, but they are playing at home. It should be an interesting series. On the topic of pitching, we are approaching 20% of the season completed, certainly early, but the team has improved dramatically and it appears somewhat sustainable. They rank high in just about every key stat—runs allowed, WHIP, BB% and K%. There is never enough pitching, but the Twins have gotten good performance from almost all of the staff. I think they need to add a bullpen arm to get Pagán out of save situations and probably add a starter, too, particularly if Paddack is on the shelf for more than a couple weeks.

It really wasn’t “medical advice”. Bremer and Morneau seemed to be acknowledging that there was ongoing issues with his knee injury. I assume they are close enough to the team to have information that we fans don’t have.

Assuming that the position players return on schedule and without further incident, Godoy, Kirilloff and Lewis would be optioned to St. Paul in that order IMHO. There just won’t be enough playing time for Lewis if all but Sanó are healthy. Kirilloff needs to hit, but he could force the Twins to choose between himself, Garlick and Celestino.

I get that valuable players like Buxton and Correa are treated from a different perspective in regard to the Injury List. Also, it especially makes sense to be cautious (and limit innings) with pitchers. I remain perplexed about Buxton and maybe it is because of his injury history. A platinum glove center fielder shouldn’t be DHing so often IMHO and then also getting scheduled off days. Maybe it was the plan all along and perhaps the injuries that are limiting him wouldn’t be healed by a stint on the IL. But if the TV announcers are saying that he’ll have to “live with” a nagging injury it just seems wrong to both let him play at less than 100% and still not play him every day.

I guess you’re right, but they haven’t lost anyone to a DFA since the season started. My bad.

Overall, the Twins haven’t played as well as when they were on their seven game winning streak. They aren’t hitting or fielding as well as they were. Probably, that is a function of playing call-ups and backups. They have had the good fortune of playing Baltimore and Oakland. Outside of Bundy and Pagán, the pitching has been solid. Again it helps to be playing the O’s and A’s. I keep seeing a roster crunch on the horizon and it never comes. Buxton is supposed to be back midweek, Larnach and Garlick are supposed to be on the IL for the minimum duration and if they are back, there might not be room for Celestino, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The same for the 40-man roster. Sanó could be transferred to the 60-day list and Vallimont has not performed well enough to continue to be protected. Yet, the Twins haven’t made changes in their 40-man and almost every MLB team has.

It’s just that he was limited to about 15 innings last year due to elbow issues.

I just hope there’s no animosity between you and Squirrel. ?

Had ‘em all the way.

I agree. But I don’t think there is an answer in the system, unless you want to complete the conversion of Duran.

C’mon Pagán. I’ve got a tee time.

Except that Duran hasn’t thrown on back-to-back days ever.

Here we go.

I’ll write this before Chief responds—“yes”.

Pagán warming or Pagán warning?

Well, there doesn’t seem to be consistency. Correa and Buxton (particularly) have been carried although it was certain that they’d be out for some time, while Garlick, Larnach, Gray and Ober hit the IL when their unavailability looked to be less than 10 days. The larger question remains about Buxton—if he going to be out of the lineup frequently plus serving as a DH fairly frequently, perhaps shutting him down for 10 days to two weeks might be a better idea.

Productive outs—what a concept.

I guess I've felt the Twins were very prone to place players on the IL when they were unable to play for a day or two. I've also thought they were inclined to keep players on the IL perhaps longer than needed, such as with Sonny Gray, who was supposed to be on the Injured List for the minimum amount of time, and then he was out for an additional week plus. Now I am starting to really not know what is going on. Case in point--Byron Buxton. After the knee injury scare, he didn't play for over a week and then DHed and then sat out a game. So basically all Buxton did in a 10-day period was DH one game. Now Buxton was removed from a game and out of today's game with an off day to follow. It would be speculation to determine what is going on, but Tingler indicated his current injury is a hip problem (same as last year at this time?). Bremer and Morneau were speculating that Buxton's knee was still bothering him. We all know Buxton's extensive injury history and his immense value to the team when healthy, but is carrying him on the active roster with frequent DH days and days off better than placing him on the IL to get as right as he can be? I know it's not an easy decision, but I have to believe going in to every day with "will he or won't he" be in the lineup (and center field) really the way to go? Next case--Carlos Correa. I guess it was understood he wouldn't play at all in the series with the Athletics, but will he sit out more games after Monday? If he misses two series, wouldn't it make sense that he be put on the Injured List? If he can play against the Astros (and I'm sure he really wants to), it probably is a good move to avoid the IL for him and they got a look at Royce Lewis as a fringe benefit. Sonny Gray (and maybe Bailey Ober)--Both guys were originally diagnosed with minor injuries that would require no more than the minimum time on the IL. Gray spent 19 days on the IL and would have taken even more (scheduled rehab start in St. Paul) which changed to starting for the Twins. I haven't seen anything about Ober being activated and his 10 days are up before Tuesday's game against Houston. Alex Kirilloff--AK went from being in the preliminary lineup to the IL. He didn't stay on the list too long (three weeks) and he was sent on rehab to St. Paul and apparently recalled mostly because there wasn't anyone else on the 40-man roster. To me, this is a crazy quilt of decisions. There really isn't consistency in the decision-making process. One decision seems to prioritize long-term health of the player, another seems to prioritize winning today's game and a third seems to be about expediency. I don't have first-hand knowledge of any of these situations, but it's puzzling to me. Please comment and discuss.