Doomtints

There was a theory thrown out on the air that putting someone else in the on-deck circle when Odorizzi had a no hitter going got into Odorizzi's head. Odorizzi ended up batting anyway -- this was just a strategic move to freak out the other team -- but the theory is this rattled him. I'm pretty sure I remember Odorizzi having a no-hitter going for quite some time and melting down the same way last year, though. And don't forget -- his best game last year was also his first game of the year.

I think it was a dump from day one. Those bathrooms were ridiculous. But yes, I saw many baseball games there and liked the place, even if I couldn't ever pee while at a game.

Buxton put up similar numbers at the levels Kiriloff has played at so far. We all remember the Buxton hype, too. I don't think it's smart to trade anybody to get someone like him on the roster. It takes some players years to perform in the MLB. Let him ease in to the role. Heck, this is a moot point anyway. Either Kepler or Rosario will probably be gone anyway by the time Kiriloff comes up.

No one who seriously follows baseball ever thought that Polanco's peak years would not be pretty darn good. The question was how many peak years would he have. It could be one, it could be six. This is why Polanco has been hard to figure out. Yes Polanco can have a .900+ ops in his peak year(s). I expect nothing less.

In retrospect, all "pitching to contact" meant was favoring not walking people over striking people out. Though this sounds like a 'backstop' strategy it worked for the Twins for an entire decade. But this requires more than a pitching strategy. For this to work, you also need a fired up group of position players who are willing to play some hard defense. Do we have that now? Maybe, I don't know.

Who is worse than De Jong and Vasquez so we know who they can call up next?

If Kiriloff can play in the OF, that's where he should play.

Never fear, the bullpen will improve immediately once Perez moves into the rotation. If we are patient just a little longer we can talk about having to improve the rotation instead. But yes, no matter how you slice it ... the pitching will be the problem this year. But hey, the 87 Twins made it with 2.5 (quite good) starters, a good closer, and a good bullpen. Stranger things have happened. (Don't get me wrong, the top teams in the league are far better now than in 87, it won't be enough to go all the way.)

It's all true.

CBS Sports published an interesting article about the epic inning before the game was even over. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/twins-put-together-early-contender-for-worst-inning-of-2019-allow-seven-straight-mets-to-reach-base-without-a-hit/

So the Twins should lose games because Gibson should be on the DL but isn't?

This isn't the first time Odorizzi had a lights out game but everything fell apart in an epic fashion. Most of us complained that the previous d00d didn't know when to pull pitchers ... but I think even he would have pulled people sooner than this. Baldell might be trying to be too nice. I suspect this will change after a few more games like this.

This is better than the BS I would hear in Texas. "They're all the same ... so vote Republican."

So 2019 is "the year"?

I did no such thing. I am talking about the future of the ball club. Whether he is good the rest of the year or not, we know what his tendencies are. Let some other team take the risk on a 32 year old pitcher who has been mediocre most of the time.

The first team I followed in any way shape or form after the Twins was the Royals. Granted, I stopped paying attention to the Royals decades ago, as did everyone else outside of Kansas or Missouri, probably. But even still -- I would be happy if the AL Central was always a battle between the Royals and the Twins.

Gibson is the oldest starter on the staff and his start this year has been predictable. He should be let go at the end of the year.

So far, Austin is better than Cron and I expect that to continue. Don't you? I'm very surprised everyone is writing off Austin and seem not at all suspicious of Cron. I would have made the opposite decision every day of the week.

Trading five years of Austin for one year of Cron is bad management.

This was an interesting game, but come on, we all knew the Mets were gonna put up a rally in the 9th. No surprise. If the Twins can keep hitting like this, the Detroit series will be interesting... They are pitching well but not hitting well.

Hopefully he wasn't recalled for e.coli contamination. :/

A Ron Gardenhire team playing over its head? Hm...that's never happened.

Those pitching diagrams can't be right. There should be 133 and 134 dots on those charts, respectively.

I am free to make my own assumptions. I think Castro is not a good catcher defensively, I think he's a finesse ("pitch framing") catcher who has too many passed balls and bad throws. We know he can't hit. Can Garver learn something from Castro? Probably, but maybe nothing good. In any case, he can still learn from Castro if Castro is catching once every five games. They sit on a hell of a lot of airplane rides together.

I'm OK with someone being awful their first year. It's not his first year anymore.