Eephus

In a world with goofy stuff happening all the time, having a hitter with a .363 OPS (that's after the home run) jog out of the box watching the ball soar to faraway land of deep center and it goes out by a few inches...Tom Kelly would not approve.

I was curious how is Twins career (thus far) compares to David Ortiz in the event Sano is done with Twins and goes onto stardom elsewhere. Seems Ortiz was just sorta coming around for the Twins when they set him free. Sano has had his worst years recently. Sano (currently 29) -- 8 years, 2,502 ABs, .808 OPS. Worst year -- arguably this year. Ortiz (26 in last full season with Twins) -- 6 years, 1,477 ABs, .809. Not sure anything to learn from this, but would definitely seem like the Twins have given him more than a fair chance to demonstrate his value.

What happened when the Miranda homer landed? Did it bank off a couple of people? Very catchable ball for fans but no one was scrambling for it?

At a minimum if they move the pen, Bundy and Archer are veterans that shouldn't get rattled and walk the bases loaded when we are up by 3+ runs. The Cottons and Thornburgs ... uff da. Archer has had some wildness, but he's got poise.

Winder = starter. And if Ober can join the rotation, move Archer and Bundy to the bullpen since they can only pitch 4 innings anyway. Boom! Solved it!

This is sorta my theory. He wouldn't be the first guy to fall in love with hitting home runs at the expense of everything else (Oswaldo Arcia comes to mind). I hope he doesn't get asked to be in the HR derby. If it hurts to run and he at times looks like a top five HR guy, it could certainly mess up his approach.

20 of Buxton's 52 hits this season are home runs. 11 of his 24 hits since June 1 are home runs. I've got mixed feelings about this, but hard to argue with his penchant for clutch homers. Last year with a 1.005 OPS, he hit 19 homers among his 72 hits. Maybe he won't get hurt as often if half the time he gets a hit he is jogging around the bases.

I do wonder if Buxton is starting to fall in love with homers, but still top 15 in OPS. Twins overall seem to be on the verge of warming up to a top 5 OPS MLB team, especially if Miranda and Kiriloff continue to hit and Polanco gets it going.

Falvey and Levine should have to wear a gaudy gold chain that says Uff Da! on it until their get a couple pitchers. Uff Da!

Archer ?!

I could imagine I just watched Geoff Zahn "really show up" and Kenny Landreaux belt a long ball for the game's only run.

Hard to believe he's only 25. I thought Palacios was a plus defender back in the olden prospect days. There's no mention of here. For a shortstop, that's a pretty significant part of whether he has value. If he's got a plus glove and speed, an average bat seems acceptable.

The incentives laden contract for Mvp awards and placing in the top 5 or so in MVP votes, getting 500 or more ABs, we're all agreed to since last season. It's hard to imagine he would be considered for Mvp if he's only playing 100 games and it seems a stretch to get to 500 ABs. I think the ABs incentives were in $500k increments. Seems a little odd to me they came up with this plan in the spring (according to Souhan) before he hurt anything, but after the incentive packed contract was signed in December.

Sonny Gray...chasin' the clouds away.

I'm with you and I said a while ago that Bundy reminded me of the Phil Hughes toward the end.

Agree with rankings. Bundy reminds a wee bit of Phil Hughes and not in a good way.

Memorable and bizarre night all around.

I was a college freshman in the area and ended up at this game. It was a surreal evening for a few reasons. Mainly, surreal because it seemed like a tornado was hitting the dome (I'm sure I had a few American domestics in me but nothing stronger than that). Speakers swaying and then the teflon section -- I think over the right field nosebleed seats -- started filling up with water and sagging and then -- splash! I'll have to look up the game to be sure, but I think the Twins had a healthy lead going into the weirdness and then aggressively lost the game with long balls and such. The other weird part of the night was for some reason a friend and I walked back to the dorm at St Thomas. Not exactly a short walk and encountered some rambunctious folks along the way. Surreal. Okay...just looked up the game. The Angels scored 6 runs in the top of the 9th to win 7-6. Frank Viola went 8 and pitched to 2 batters in the 9th and the Ron Davis ???took over. RD struck 2, walked 1, and 3 hits including 2 dingers.

I know we'd much prefer to still have Rogers and also somehow have Paddock, but of course that ain't how things work. Rogers is off to a good start, but he did blow a save for the Padres recently and last year converted 9 of 13 save opportunities for the Twins. Wish we still had him, but he wasn't exactly Bruce Sutter in his prime for us.

Byron Buxton is getting babied and should play if he is 60%. At 60%, he would learn to play more safely. Buxton at 80% playing 80%of the time is reasonable, still productive and acceptable.

It would make sense that a trade for pitching could safely include anyone other than Polanco from the players mentioned in this post and in the comments.

What is Celestino's floor/ceiling offensively and defensively?

Is there an eyes wide open, objective assessment of Miranda's defense at 3rd? Before buckets and buckets of more virtual ink are spilled considering these dilemmas, it would be good to know if Miranda can actually play a legit major league 3rd base. It seems like below average fielders get described as average until they make it to the major leagues and play 50 games and then they start getting called liabilities. I I guess what I'm saying is Please don't tell me he's adequate if he he's below average.

I have always had this feeling the Yankees make the Twins throw obvious strikes because they know the umps will tend to not call the close ones when nibbling Twins like Dobber are pitching, especially at Yankee Stadium. I'm glad I wasn't watching. It would have been too painful.?

Remotely related question. Are some/most/all contracts -- like Dobber's with the Twins -- insured by the Twins? Partially insured? If so, if a contract isn't working out too well (possibly like Dobber's) do the Twins get some relief (no pun intended) if there's an injury?