Doomtints

Not saying the sky will fall -- but the reality is that the reliever's ERA will rise. Hopefully slowly.

The three of them hitting better won't help the pitching.

I'm guessing the season will be enjoyable even without 85 wins. Defensively they look good, which has made the SP and RP look better. What happens to the defense if Buxton is still hitting .100 in a month?

The relief pitchers currently have a 1.61 ERA. 6 of the 8 relievers who have pitched have not allowed a run. They will regress, not get stronger.

I wouldn't spend too much time thinking about this unless they are in first place around midseason.

The bullpen is starting to show signs of falling back to earth. Let's see how he manages when that happens.

Biggest difference so far this year: The position players are playing good defense.

4-0 is infinitely better than 0-wtf.

Hughes looked better than last year but certainly not like he looked in 2014. I echo the sentiment that what he is doing won't work once the weather gets warmer. But he also has time to adjust.

Though very sunny it is indeed chilly today in Chicago. Both baseball stadiums in town tend to get miserably cold when this time of year when it is windy and there is enough wind for that to be the case today. The games over the weekend however should be perfect, 60s and 70s.

Dominos also has a NY style crust. Does this make them an authority on NY Pizza too?

That's a fairly accurate representation of the walking traffic in downtown Chicago during rush hour.

Deep dish in Chicago is not like that. You're describing Domino's style deep dish crust, which is a thick bread.

Actually yes, in border towns.

The Twins have to play well against a couple of more teams before we can get truly excited. But 3-0 certainly doesn't hurt.

Chicago really does sport a more NY style of pizza plus the deep dish pizza outsiders associate with Chicago. When it comes to deep dish, there is no one style in the city. Malnati's deep dish crust is thin and crispy with a gigantic single piece of centimeter-thick cheese on it with sauce and other toppings on top of that. It's lightly sauced, it's all about the huge slab of cheese. They also sport pizzas with the thin crust cut into squares. Other Chicago deep dish pizza joints have less cheese but instead as much sauce is they can put on. These are less tasty and less like "pizza." Regardless, the "deep dish" one gets at Dominos (or whatever) bears no resemblance to the local deep dish pizza joints in Chicago. In any case, what Chicagoans consider to be their mainstay is the hot dog, which is also different from hot dogs elsewhere (no ketchup, lots of relish).

It's interesting that cats are afraid of brooms and vacuums, but once you pull out a swiffer they have to get right in there.

He still looks just as lost at the plate as Aaron Hicks looked. Gotta drop him down the order again until he calms down.

TWINS #1 FOREVER

I don't think he was extended for his aggression either. He never has been aggressive. He was extended because he is a hometown hero. This is still the case.

Plenty of position players are valuable without hitting home runs. Forget about Joe's salary, that's not our problem. In any case, he was not given his salary based on his ability to hit home runs. Heck, only half of his contract was because he was a good catcher. The other half was a mix of PR to address the criticism of the Twins never paying anybody mixed with the fact that he was the home town golden boy.

I'm fine with Santiago being pulled. I'm talking about using 5 relievers who collectively allowed no hits and one walk with a 2 run lead in a game that the team was sure to win.

Yes. And preferably they should use half of the pitchers each game just so none of those little whipper snappers get comfortable. This is how the managers in the HOF did it, after all. Yum, this kool-aid is good. And 3-1 with no baserunners is a damn nice lead. It's OK that you may not remember that, being a follower of the Twins over the past five years and all. But usually there are no panic moves by the manager when the team is up by 2 and there is no one on base and the opposition couildn't even hit off of Santiago.

Have to give Molitor the F today. It's not Santiago's fault they burned through 5 relief pitchers in a blowout win, when no reliever allowed a hit and the Royals never posed a real threat. One more year....

Close game. A real nail biter.