Monkeypaws

This year's trade deadline caught me on a all-time low interest in sports in general. My interest is slowly rekindling, and I took a closer look at Gant yesterday and liked what I saw. Did the same for Ryan and was amazed at his minor league career. Respectable 1st year in lower A : 3.72 ERA, 36 IP, 26H, 14 BB, 51K Phenomenal 2nd year covering 3 levels A- up to AA: 1.96 ERA, 123 IP, 77H, 27BB, 183K. Wow stuff. This year in AAA, 3.41 ERA, 66 IP, 40H, 12BB, 92K. You all have probably been over this before. but the low hits and walks allowed and many Ks per innings pitched are really stand out indicators that this guy can be an MLB pitcher.

Gant might have a shot. Tonight's line sums up his career in a nutshell: few hits but many walks per inning pitched.: 5 IP, 3H, 4BB, 7K. His career ERA is 3.8 in 365 innings. He has allowed only 306 hits, so opponent BA is .228, with 33 homers, so, not bad. The bad news is walks, 195 of them(compared to 321 K). Still, he looks like a nice end of the rotation/bullpen guy. I've never actually watched him pitch, but he must have some good movement on his pitches or something to keep hitters off their game.

It is totally debatable. Winning a division is nice, but if your playoff run is short, big deal. Graterol is becoming an effective MLB pitcher and just turned 23, and throws 100 mph. He's just a few weeks older than Balazovic, and we all have hopes of future development from him, no? I think Graterol has the potential to develop into top line stuff. Not saying the Twins lost the trade, yet, but 1 oddball year of covid success might seem pretty irrelevant if Graterol puts it together down the road.

I believe Astudillo leads the team with a 2.25 ERA.?

Wow, stop paying attention long enough to see the Twins roll out these pitchers: Gant Barraclough Garcia Garza Jr. Whobie whatie?

If they continue to play .700 ball, as of 8-18, they would finish 82-80. Otherwise, I'm guessing 75 some wins or so.

I got to see him a couple weeks ago in Iowa. Sitting down near home plate, he got a lot of swings and misses. He looks very sturdy and athletic on the mound. The defense let him down and he gave up a couple home runs, but after 5 innings, I thought at the least the Twins has a bullpen candidate in Gross.

Too bad about Thorpe - he looked poised for greatness in the early days, power lefty.

One other statistical difference between 1991 and 2021: The Twins as a team have struck out 1005 times so far this season. in pace for 1391. The 91 Twins stuck out 747 times in an entire season. I know the Twins were ridiculed back in the day for trying to get David Ortiz to hit to the opposite field, but I would love to see them try to make a complete hitter out of some of their younger guys before they become the next Sano, where hitting into the shift and whiffing are the 2 most likely outcomes.

Was looking at the MLB team hitting stats tonight, curious where the Bomba Squad sat in homers, because that seems to be the one thing they continue to do well, and I found they are #4 in MLB with 168, after only Atlanta, Toronto and leader SF with 176. What surprised me was some of the other sortable stats. #9 in OPS #18 in Ks, #14 in BBs. This was the one that stunned me - the Twins, with all their Medoza lines, are 12th in MLB in batting average at .244. I was expecting near last. The Rays, Yankees, A's, Mets, Indians all have team batting averages in the .230s. For reference, the 91 team honored tonight led the AL in BA with a team average of .280. They were 6th in the AL with 140 Home runs. The game has changed.

Taking away pressure and expectations can do that sometimes. Even better, maybe they have a chip on their shoulders.

Triple M, I don't many reasons to hate the Sox anymore - Harrelson, AJ, Ozzie, and other shnits from that era are long gone. They are in the "fun team to watch" team category for me.

Hope MLB will allow me to watch the condensed version. Having been there years ago, it is pretty to see the dreams come true. Corny yes, but don't all sports rate high on the cross grid of corny and awesome?

Go back to the Squirrel's post, #2 in the thread, and listen to the sound of that home run. Rare and beautiful. I was very lucky to have seen Ohtani rip one at Target Field in July.. This guy is baseball crack to us fans.

I enjoy the randomness of MLB : tune in the Giants Dbacks on MLB. Sean Poppen is pitching. The DBacks intentionally walk someone so Tyler Rogers spot comes up and they pinch hit. The Twins are a great proving ground of MLB players, not that Tyler has anything to do with the Twins. Just a twin. BTW, Tyler has an ERA of 1.83 EDIT: Now Zach Littel is warming up for SF as McGee is melting down. And he shuts it down with a good K. I guess when the bullpen has been a disaster, seeing these "minor" guys have success elsewhere gives pause.

Can't we just send him to AAA? Cut seems rather harsh

Well, at least you're humble!?

Answered over 30 years ago

3 of 4 from the cheaters in their stadium. I like that a lot.

I was in Cedar Rapids the last 2 nights. Varland and Gross really pop the catcher's mitt. On a side note, the woman I ended up sitting next to and talking baseball with was Matt Wallner's grandma.

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/baseball/minors/2021/08/02/daniel-brito-surgery-red-wings-iron-pigs/5451484001/ 2 surgeries.

Dang insagt1, I was watching Denmark's game in Euro 2020 where Christian Eriksen had cardiac arrest: so similar. Moments like that underlie the bigger picture: these are games, what's important in life is something else. Hope Brito has a similar recovery.

Tough to call trading your best hitter by a mile, and your best pitcher by a mile a win. However, given Cruz is in his 40s, and Berrios looked kind of set on leaving after next year, tough to dislike the return on those trades. Still hope to keep Buxton, got a decent core, Kepler, Polanco, the catchers, Donaldson. They are a few pitchers away from at least .500 ball. Won't miss Happ or Robles. Glad it wasn't a fire sale. So I think the front office did a nice job of gaining assets at the expense of the best but short term players on the team, while keeping a core to rebuild around. B

Get yer vaccines dammit. Florida just set a state record for new cases today with 21,000+

This is a good old-fashioned win-win trade. Both teams come away happy.