Twodogs

That stuff is hard to tell without a replay

Fly ball now

Let's drop down a bunt and get an extra run.

Yeah, but nothing was really hit that well in that last inning, so he could have gotten out of there pretty quick if it wasn't for the stupid interference call and whatnot. I'd say when a guy is at 76 pitches and your bullpen has been overused all year it might be a good idea to let your guy go another inning or two if they can get the outs. Which they didn't. But I thought it was worth a try.

I don't think he's unraveling necessarily, but last year and early this year he could blow a 95 mph fastball by someone, and now it's like 92 so it seems like he is going back to more curve balls?

He was only at like 76 pitches. Gave up an interference call and what most SS would have probably turned into a DP? I think he left with like 80 pitches? Had he got those two outs he'd still be in there.

Duffy is starting to worry me a little. Seems like his velo is not as fast.

I mean it feels like once the twins are behind by more than 1 or 2 runs it's like they are done. There isn't any coming back because they can't hit that many solo shots and no one is getting on base.

Twins hitting is terrible. I mean yeah they hit a few dingers and stuff but their team batting average is like at .240 and their OPS is like at .740 and OBP is like at .319. both numbers are not good. They need to be OPSing around .770 and have an OBP around .340 to be doing good. It's actually amazing that they are doing as well as they are right now with such poor hitting.

https://www.startribune.com/no-in-game-video-means-trouble-for-twins-hitters/572093282/ I wonder if this affecting guys like Garver, Sano, etc....

Yes I understand, and the OF will lean one way towards the tendency of the hitter, but the OF never over shifts and leaves one whole side of the OF open like they do in the infield. I mean you could do it to an extreme pull hitter? Stick Kepler in Left center and keep Buxton in center, I mean how far towards the right could he cover anyway? They don't do it, because of the implications of the few times the shift doesn't work. I'm not sure how many runs the Royals would have scored today had the Twins been playing a more traditional defense. I can think of at least two runs that wouldn't have come across. That makes a difference in close games. Doesn't make much of a difference in blowouts. But in close games it does.

How dumb did it look when Arraez and polanco couldn't turn the double play. Shift is working great though. The shift isn't for every hitter but the Twins seem to be currently playing it on every hitter. There are a few hitters that pull most everything, but there are a lot of them that don't and they are still being shifted. It really probably shows that their defense sucks overall, because most of the balls hit into a shift would have been caught by a good fielder anyway. I mean when Soler comes up they don't shift Kepler over to Center and put Buck in Left center. Why not? If all of the hits go that way anyway?

Another hit through the shift.

Lead off walks suck

Berrios gave up one good hit. Solers hit was smoked, but Merrifield had a flair and Dozier's was a weak ground ball to the 2nd baseman, oh I guess we don't have a 2nd baseman, we play 2 shortstops.

I'm getting tired of watching balls go through the shift all of the time. I get it there are some hitters that are straight pull hitters, but idk if it's the twins lack of ability to be good fielder's or what. I mean they shift Hunter Dozier and then Berrios pitches him away, what do they expect? I mean that was a weak ground ball right to where a 2nd baseman should have been. Plus many balls hit into the shift would have been caught anyway. I'm just getting really tired of watching stupid hits get through these crazy shifted infields.

It would be nice to actually have a guy like Dobnak as the long guy. I think that was the original plan with Berrios, Odorizzi, Maeda, Hill, Bailey, Pineda as the starters. Thorpe and Stashak shouldn't really be put in during high leverage innings. Also who's to say they can't bring May in during the 4th instead of these below average starter guys? Sometimes it's just better to get yourself out of the inning and get back up and hit. What if the twins scored another 2 - 3 runs and had expanded the lead then it's not such high leverage for a Thorpe or a Stashak type of guys. I don't know, I guess hind sight is 20/20.

Arraez has struck the ball hard quite a few times, he has hit some line shots that have been caught. So eventually he will go through a streak where those line shots fall in and it will even out.

Well the Twins have a lot of dings right now with Donaldson, Hill, Bailey, and Odo all out at the moment. So have to cut them a little slack. However, those types of losses are bad losses, ones where you pretty much controlled the whole game and then your lock down closer comes in and blows it. I'd rather have seen the twins get their butts kicked in for a whole game and lose rather than lose one like that, especially to a 2 - 10 team. It's even a little different if that happens to a real good team, but still pretty bad. Hopefully it doesn't send them into a tailspin for a few days.

The Lance Lynn bandwagoners are probably mad right now! 18 scoreless innings, dang.

Well yeah, and the Braves starters are falling like flies so looks like he landed in a good place for him.

Maybe they should have kept Chacin??

I wonder if this guy could rebound, he's only 28???

Chacin got the win for Atlanta yesterday. 3.2 innings 1 hit 54 pitches. Weird didn't Anibal Sanchez also go to Atlanta when the Twins cut him?

My favorite is Hunter, Bert, Kaat, Morneau, Latroy, Smalley, Morris.