bighat

Honestly I'd pull Sands now, or maybe let him try and get the 8-9 guys and then pull him. No reason he should be facing any Yankee 3 times today.

If you're Rocco, do you pull Sands? Or do you let him go back out for the 4th and face LeMaheiu, Judge, etc for the 3rd time?

Hicks about to make it 4-1.

Yeah, and diving for that ball would have been well worth the risk. Allowing Judge to hit with a man on base is a big no-no.

Rocco manages as if the season is 5 years long. I wouldn't be shocked at all to see Rocco "resting" guys on September 20th in a tight playoff race. He just has zero urgency. I still like him as our manager but he's way too much of a players' manager for my taste.

At least it won't be a shutout, 13-1 feels better than 13-0.

He was getting lit up in AAA this year to the tune of a 7.88 ERA in 18 innings.

That's what I was thinking as well. We had three bullpen guys who skipped the whole Toronto series. We couldn't cobble together a bullpen game with an opener? Get 2 each out of Theibar, Megill and Pagan? Put in Sands in the 6th for a couple more? Twins may as well have forfeited, these games where they don't even try to compete really bothers me.

Wow, right out of central casting.

Anyone think this would go any different? Sands is just so overmatched, I can't think of another MLB pitcher who's less equipped to deal with this situation.

Wasn't he a QB for the Bills a couple years ago?

I think Sands, Archer and Bundy are still worse and I don't think it's close. Both Deduno and Diamond had some very solid outings for the Twins over the course of 2+ years against good competition, I don't think the same can be said for our current trio.

I grabbed Judge, Stanton, Rizzo and Lemaheiu in DFS tonight, basically the same philosophy as you!

Every MLB season is full of measuring sticks. Baseball fans measure a team’s potential by looking at the standings on Memorial Day or at the All-Star break. For individual players, there are the classic measurements for a successful season: a .300 average, 30 homers or 100 RBI for a hitter, 20 wins for a pitcher. And for a generation of Twins fans, one surefire way to measure their team’s success is the answer to the following question: “How’d we do against the Yankees?” That’s right, the Yanks are in town and we’re ready to see how our boys stack up. It’s been a lopsided matchup as of late: since 2017, the Twins are 7-23 against the Evil Empire and you have to go back to 2001 to find Minnesota’s last winning season against the Pinstripes. The first place Twins (32-24) will try to shake that trend tonight behind AL batting leader Luis Arraez and an offense that showed some signs of life over the weekend. Minnesota is currently on the lam from the RCMP after committing international larceny, sneaking out the back door with 2-of-3 in Toronto and scoring 6.5 runs per game in the series against the Jays. The first place Yanks (39-15) come into Target Field with the best record in baseball and are riding a 6-game winning streak after sweeping the Angels and Tigers at home last week. Several of New York’s batters are putting up ridiculous numbers, including Aaron Judge and his MLB-leading 21 homers. Former Twin Josh Donaldson will return to Target Field sporting a .229 average, 5 HRs and 17 RBI. It’ll be interesting to see what the reception from the crowd will be like. My guess: Minnesota Nice all the way, polite golf claps with mayyyybe a few low-volume boos. Twins pitcher Bailey Ober joined fellow hurlers Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan on the IL yesterday, so rookie Cole Sands (0-1, 7.88 ERA) will take the mound on short notice tonight. Sands has given up almost a run per inning in his three appearances for the big league club, and has racked up an 0-4 record with a 7.23 ERA in 18.2 minor league innings so far this season. New York will counter with James Taillon (6-1, 2.30 ERA), who’s quietly having a fantastic season. He took a no-hitter into the 8th inning last week. Play ball! Gametime Temp: 70 degrees F, clear skies Odds: NYY -165, MIN +140 Lineups: TWINS 1. Luis Arraez (L) 1B 2. Byron Buxton (R) DH 3. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B 4. Max Kepler (L) RF 5. Gary Sanchez (R) C 6. Trevor Larnach (L) LF 7. Gio Urshela (R) 3B 8. Gilberto Celestino (R) CF 9. Jermaine Palacios (R) SS P. Sands (R) YANKEES 1. DJ LeMahieu (R) 2B 2. Aaron Judge (R) CF 3. Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B 4. Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH 5. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B 6. Aaron Hicks (S) LF 7. Isiah Kiner-Falefa (R) SS 8. Jose Trevino (R) C 9. Joey Gallo (L) RF P. Taillon (R)

THANK YOU for being the voice of reason. I'm guessing the author of this post along with anyone in agreement didn't watch Perez during his time with the Twins. By the All-Star break he'll be getting lit up by the 3rd inning like Dylan Bundy. And he'll take 3 hours to pitch those two innings, the guy's gotta be the slowest worker in the majors. We've got the aforementioned Bundy and Archer already doing this, the Twins can't afford another 30+ pitcher who's facing the end of his career. I'd rather the Twins go with Sands all season, as bad as the results may be. I hope the Twins don't entertain this idea at all, the downside is horrific.

So Cole Sands is most likely to start against the Yanks tonight? Aaron Judge, Mike Rizzo, and Giancarlo Standon must be shaking in their boots. This series may very well go just like the Houston series. Easily swept at home in embarrassing fashion only to hear the fan base use the injury excuse and pretend it didn't happen. No Ryan, No Ober, No Sonny Gray - speaking of Gray, we haven't really seen much of our big off-season trade piece all year, have we? A few games here, a couple games there. Mostly on the IL. Not a complete flop, but I think it's fair to call Gray's injury issues a major disappointment at this point.

Great post, in the end spending time together is the most important thing and I'm glad you guys enjoyed the game. The Cubs have so much to offer their fans, I don't blame your daughter one bit! I lived in Chicago for 10 years and saw a lot of friends from the Midwest get converted into Cubs fans. This was from about 2002-2012, a very interesting time with some good Cubs teams and some infamous games - including the Steve Bartman incident. I myself went to a Cubs playoff game thanks to a friend of mine who worked for the team. A handful of buddies split season tix so they were at the ballpark almost every week, and we all lived within walking distance - if you live on the North Side the Cubs become part of your life, whether you like it or not. My apartment was on Belmont & Broadway and during summer nights I'd open the window to hear the roar of the crowd when the Cubbies were rallying. There's really no better atmosphere than being around Wrigley Field before, during, and after a ballgame. It's intoxicating - whether you're a die-hard sports fan or not. Anyway, great post and thanks for sharing your Iowa experience!

Putting Buxton on the IL so that the Twins can give Alex Kirilloff more playing time is one of the most ridiculous suggestions I've heard all season. Alex had his chance, he played terribly. He didn't just struggle, he was beyond awful and beyond overmatched. And now he's in the back of the line where he belongs. I'm glad he's mashing Omaha Storm Chasers pitching, but at this point he's going to have to wait until a real injury occurs in order to get another chance. 50% of Byron Buxton is light years better than 100% of Alex Kirilloff. Enough of this nonsense.

Arraez now leading the league in hitting at .358. The gap between Sanchez and Jeffers has become more and more evident after every series. With an off day tomorrow, I'd hope that Gary's back behind the plate Tuesday against his old team. Really like what Smeltzer and Cotton have done for this team filling in emergency roles. Where would this team be without these guys? Nice to see Larnach run into one. That was a BOMB. Duffey, good grief. Remember his big league debut in Toronto all those years ago? This wasn't much different. Yikes.

Over the past month we've seen more and more games where this team looks more like the 2021 squad. Close your eyes, swing hard, and miss 90% of the time. Berrios had 5 strikeouts through two innings, basically every out was a K. How's that even watchable? Speaking of strikeouts, watching Berrios dispatch Larnach in that 1st inning was embarrassing. Why would anyone bother throwing Trev a fastball if he's going to swing and miss at every off-speed pitch? I also think it's time to start talking about Ryan Jeffers and whether or not it's time for a reset. It's perfectly reasonable for the Twins to consider sending him to St. Paul, IMO. Handing Sanchez the full-time duties and giving Godoy an opportunity to grab the reigns as a regular backup seems like something to consider. This team needs Correa, the bad luck injuries for him have been such a drag.

Dylan Bundy in April: 3-1, 2.85 ERA. Dylan Bundy in May: 0-1, 6.87 ERA. Dylan Bundy in June: 0-1, 19.29 ERA. If you look at his numbers last year with the Angels, they similarly got progressively worse as the season wore on. The Twins waited until July 1 to DFA Matt Shoemaker last year, and he was released by August 3rd. He's now happily playing out his days in Japan, living the good life overseas, as MLB teams no longer have interest. I think Bundy's headed to a similar trajectory. If the way they handled Shoe is any indication, we'll have another month at minimum of Bundy. Maybe more.

Let's hope we're done with pollyanna tweets like "It was a bad day but our brave hero Bundy bared down and saved the bullpen" nonsense that we heard the last time he gave up 6 runs. The dude's toast. Like @USAFChief, I unfortunately don't think this is his last start. He'll likely get at least 2-3 more starts and then 2-3 more looks out of the bullpen before he's DFA'ed. Twins will unfortunately throw away a few more games while they try and figure out what the world already knows.

I have suspected Gray would have been the other pitcher. Just a hunch, nothing more.

Yeah. Frankly I don't mind taking a look at Hamilton and seeing if he'll be a good long-term replacement for Pagan, Theilbar or Megill. I've always liked his stuff from what I've seen. Kepler's definitely a blow, Twins can't really replace him with an equal or better bat/glove combo.

I think most of us haven't talked about Taylor Rogers all season. We've seen him be dominant in a Twins uniform, we've also seen him go through tough patches and implode. But that's all for Padres fans to worry about. Checking in on how Rogers or Berrios are doing this year is just like checking your ex-girlfriend's facebook page. There's really nothing good that can come of it. Don't bother.