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Game Thread, Twins @ Blue Jays, 8/6 @ 6:07pm CT

BK432

By BK432
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BK432 FCL Twins

BK432

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LINEUPS:

 

Twins

2B Brian Dozier

1B Joe Mauer

RF Torii Hunter

DH Miguel Sano

3B Trevor Plouffe

CF Aaron Hicks

LF Eddie Rosario

C   Kurt Suzuki

SS Eduardo Escobar

 

P   Kyle Gibson

 

Blue Jays

SS Troy Tulowitzki

3B Josh Donaldson

RF Jose Bautista

DH Edwin Encarnacion

C   Dioner Navarro

1B Justin Smoak

CF Kevin Pillar

2B Ryan Goins

LF Ben Revere

 

P Mark Buehrle

 

------

 

Sigh.

 

I gotta be honest, I'm having a difficult time getting excited to write this post today. 3 days of watching bomb after bomb from the Blue Jays will do that to a man. But, we persevere. Heck, we expect that of the Twins, the coaches, the ownership. Wouldn't be fair not to expect that of ourselves, right? So, let's find the talking points and maybe any positives together, shall we?

 

Let's start here: Happy Birthday, Mom! 62 years young today, and she gets a public shout-out.

 

Now perhaps on to the more Twins-relevant.

 

The Twins can avoid the sweep and slipping back to .500 today by letting Kyle Gibson go out and do his thing and getting after the hard-throwing Mark Buehrle (don't worry, that's just a joke). So let's focus on that outcome as we script this thing out.

 

Wild Card Race

 

As tough as these past few games have been, the Twins are just 2 games out of a wild-card spot and can pull to within 1 with a win today. It's clear that since the trade deadline passed, an aggressive team like the Blue Jays have performed very well, while a team that preferred to mostly sit out the deadline (at least based on actual trades made) like the Twins have struggled. Is there a correlation there? Personally, I don't really think so. There's way too much variance in player performance in six games to make any vast conclusions. I think it's fair to say that over the long haul in 2015 and into possible playoffs, the Blue Jays helped themselves more than the Twins did.

 

Does that mean the Blue Jays were right and the Twins were wrong? Maybe. Maybe not. I think it's possible that both teams did what was right for them, and strangely, the Blue Jays were below the Twins in the standings. But the talent level on the Jays was so clearly better, even before getting Price and Tulo.

 

It's a tough pill to swallow for a fan base on the backs of 4 90-loss seasons that basically sitting tight was the right move for 2015. And one can definitely make the argument that an aggressive deadline approach could have changed the complexion of this team enough that the 'banked' wins could have now been owned by a team situated to compete. But the price in doing so was in my opinion too high and carried too much risk. I personally did prefer the "wait until 2016" approach....but I don't think wanting more aggressiveness is indefensible.

 

Anyway.....pitching

 

Mark Buehrle. He throws his fastball 85 MPH. He's throwing it more now in 2015 than any year since maybe 2009. He continues to reinvent himself and keep opposing lineups off balance. There's nothing extraordinarily odd about his 2015 performance; BABIP against him is slightly down against career norms, K rate is down, walk rate is down, and ground ball rate is a bit up. As a result his ERA is outperforming his xFIP (3.32 vs 4.10) but his ERA always outperforms his xFIP (career is 3.79 vs 4.19). While he won't overwhelm anyone with power (obvious) he will work fast and hit his spots, which should get a lot of outs.

 

We know what we have with Kyle Gibson. He gets a lot of groundballs, won't K a lot of guys, and with that recipe has had a decent amount of success this season. His ability to keep the ball on the ground will be greatly appreciated with all the launch pad shots that have taken place this series when Toronto has been at the plate. He has a chance to keep the runs at a minimum and the Twins in the game.

 

Rest of the World

 

No MLB pitching debuts tonight after 4 in the last 2 night. But a couple of young arms to watch and one old and ineffective one.

 

Aaron Brooks makes his 2nd start of 2015 for Oakland. Was very impressive 5 days ago - he looks to keep it rollling against Houston.

 

Joe Ross, the unheralded rookie pitcher in Washington, makes another start tonight, this time against Arizona. Just 22 years old, the kid has put together a string of nice starts. The Nats can't keep him out of the rotation.

 

And poor old CC Sabathia. The Yankees owe him about $32 million through 2016 and will have to buy out his 2017 for another $5 million. That being said, what do they do with him for now? He's been awful for 3 years now and, being unexpectedly in the mix for a playoff spot, the Bronx Bombers have to be considering using him out of the bullpen in October. I'm not sure you can expect to win a playoff game in 2015 with Sabathia starting the game on the hill for you.

 

In any event, the Twins are the main event tonight. Two pitchers starting with ERAs under 3.40....all signs point to a bit more of a lower-scoring affair tonight. Let's just root for the Twins to be a bit more successful at the plate than the Jays. A win, and things feel at least a little better here in Minneapolis with Cleveland up next.

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sampleSizeOfOne MVP

sampleSizeOfOne

Verified Member
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I gotta be honest, I'm having a difficult time getting excited to write this post today. 3 days of watching bomb after bomb from the Blue Jays will do that to a man. But, we persevere. Heck, we expect that of the Twins, the coaches, the ownership. Wouldn't be fair not to expect that of ourselves, right? So, let's find the talking points and maybe any positives together, shall we?

 

Well said.

 

How does it go?

 

"It's easy to grin when your ship comes in...

But the man worth while, is the man who could smile..."

 

Too lazy to look it up, figuring someone else will recognize it and fill in the blanks for me... What's that, crowd sourcing?

 

Anyway, yeah, i too will be up for this game. Gibson can show 'em what for!

JB_Iowa Ft Myers Mighty Mussels

JB_Iowa

Verified Member
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That's what I like about Buehrle.  Pitches quickly.

 

Of course, I don't like that the Twins didn't even make him breathe hard.

 

C'mon Gibson.

USAFChief GOAT

USAFChief

Twins Daily Contributor
Posted
Posted

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e78/zzneight/caddyshack.jpg

 

It's easy to grin

When your ship comes in

And you've got the stock market beat.

But the man worthwhile

Is the man who can smile

When his pants are too tight in the seat.

sampleSizeOfOne MVP

sampleSizeOfOne

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

 

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e78/zzneight/caddyshack.jpg

 

It's easy to grin

When your ship comes in

And you've got the stock market beat.

But the man worthwhile

Is the man who can smile

When his pants are too tight in the seat.

 

That's it!

 

Thanks Chief!

sampleSizeOfOne MVP

sampleSizeOfOne

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

 

Don't thank me.

 

Thank Judge Smalls.

 

Thanks Judge Smalls!

 

(though thanks Chief for trackin' it down. I remembered it was Caddyshack, but that's about the extent of my involvement)

 

If we can get that gopher, will that cut down the on the gopher balls?

JB_Iowa Ft Myers Mighty Mussels

JB_Iowa

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Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino  · 2h2 hours ago 
Antony on Duffey: "We believe this guy is going to be part of our future. We don't want to mess around with him" in terms of pen, etc.

 

So what does that say about Trevor May?

sampleSizeOfOne MVP

sampleSizeOfOne

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

 

Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino  · 2h2 hours ago 
Antony on Duffey: "We believe this guy is going to be part of our future. We don't want to mess around with him" in terms of pen, etc.

 

So what does that say about Trevor May?

 

He's part of our now. Or is that us now?

notoriousgod71 Ft Myers Mighty Mussels

notoriousgod71

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

 

Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino  · 2h2 hours ago 
Antony on Duffey: "We believe this guy is going to be part of our future. We don't want to mess around with him" in terms of pen, etc.

 

So what does that say about Trevor May?

 

 

This is an example of the idiotic **** this organization continuously spews. I don't think they have a legitimate plan for when something inevitably goes awry.

Mike Sixel GOAT

Mike Sixel

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

 

Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino  · 2h2 hours ago 
Antony on Duffey: "We believe this guy is going to be part of our future. We don't want to mess around with him" in terms of pen, etc.

 

So what does that say about Trevor May?

 

good golly, luckily for the Cards, Royals, Giants, and Dodgers fans, they don't agree with this philosophy.

 

And yes, wth does it say about May?

Mike Sixel GOAT

Mike Sixel

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

 

good golly, luckily for the Cards, Royals, Giants, and Dodgers fans, they don't agree with this philosophy.

 

And yes, wth does it say about May?

 

Odds a reporter follow up, and asks what it means about May? Better, worse, than the Twins chances tonight?

jimbo92107 Cedar Rapids Kernels

jimbo92107

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

So, what exactly is Paul Molitor supposed to tell his players to win this game? Maybe if he tells Gibson to stuff a fastball in the next guy's ear...

Aggies7 MVP

Aggies7

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Hash how embarrassing. Edwin encarnacion absolutely owns the twins. How many games do the twins have left in this train wreck of a season?

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