Game Thread: Twins @ Rays, 8/7 @ 12:10 CT

[Danchat]

Game Thread: Twins @ Rays, 8/7 @ 12:10 CT
Probable Starters: Kyle Gibson (3-6, 4.94 ERA) vs Matt Andriese (6-2, 2.72 ERA)

1. Battle for the Best of the Worst
Who is the worst team in the AL? Is it the Twins (44-66) or the Rays (45-64)? The Twins have been hot since June or the Rays who have fallen apart since then? Comparing them with Pythagorean W-L, the Twins are still the same distance back at 49-61 to Tampa Bay’s 50-59. I definitely believe the Twins are the better team at the moment though… but they’ll have to do better than last night’s game to prove that.

2. The Revenge of Kevin Jepsen and Oswaldo Arcia
I was really hoping that Arcia was going to be healthy during this series, but alas, he is not. However, we did get to see Jepsen pitch a scoreless inning last night. I hope the Rays send him back out there and the Twins pulverize him into the dirt. Well… maybe that’s a bit harsh, but it’s frustrating that the Rays have Jepsen, Chih-Wei Hu, and Alex Tapia in their system and the Twins have nothing – only but a good run of Jepsen in 2015 and a bunch of losses in 2016.

3. Lineups

Twins
Kyle Gibson ®

1. Brian Dozier® 2B
2. Robbie Grossman(S) DH
3. Max Kepler(L) RF
4. Miguel Sano® 3B
5. Eddie Rosario(L) CF
6. Kennys Vargas(S) 1B
7. Jorge Polanco(S) SS
8. Juan Centeno(L) C
9. Danny Santana(S) LF

 

Rays
Matt Andriese ®
1. Logan Forsythe ® 2B
2. Nick Franklin (S) LF
3. Evan Longoria ® 3B
4. Brad Miller (L) SS
5. Mikie Mahtook ® CF
6. Corey Dickerson (L) DH
7. Steven Souza Jr. ® RF
8. Tim Beckham ® 1B
9. Luke Maile ® C

 

4. Random Stuff
Hmmmm… let’s look at some random statistics for no reason. Let’s see… each teams’ top 5 players by WAR! (I’m not including traded players) (WAR stat from Baseball Reference)

Twins
Dozier 3.4
Kepler 2.7
Mauer 2.6
E. Santana 2.1
Kintzler 1.1

Rays
Longoria 2.9
Forsythe 2.4
Kiermaier 2.4
Odorizzi 2.3
Andriese 2.0

 

The Rays starting pitcher is their 5th best player so far… that might not bode well for us.
And now… for one more really random stat… WAR per PA! (I calculated the stat by dividing oWAR by plate appearances)

Polanco .0119
Vargas .0107
Kepler .0092
Dozier .0075
Grossman .0055

Obviously we’re dealing with very small sample sizes for Polanco and Vargas, but it still shows how well they’ve hit so far.
So remember! When Brian Dozier comes up to the plate, he will add .0075 WAR. Hooray for pointless numbers!!

 

Alright, let’s win this one Twins!

[HitInAPinch]

Pointless Numbers....

[Craig Arko]

Polanco at short; will be interesting.

[HitInAPinch]

Sano back at 3rd, Polanco at SS.  Interesting. 

 

Anyone hear why Buxton is sitting again?  He's not going to get better there and nothing left to prove in the MiLB. 

[ashbury]

Anyone hear why Buxton is sitting again?  He's not going to get better there and nothing left to prove in the MiLB. 

Held out due to a pending waiver trade?

 

^{_{/ just stirring the pot...}}

[Mr. Brooks]

If Buxton is on the roster he needs to play everyday. If not, he needs to go to AAA.

Does Mollie think we can still catch that second wildcard spot or something?

Bizarre.

2018 and a new manager cannot get here soon enough.

[HitInAPinch]

 

Held out due to a pending waiver trade?

 

^{_{/ just stirring the pot...}}

[USAFChief]

Buxton on the bench, Santana in left, and Grossman at DH.

 

Seriously. Molitor has got to go.

[USAFChief]

Pop quiz: what do Max Kepler, Robbie Grossman, Trevor Plouffe, Eduardo Escobar, and Byungho Park have in common?

[twinssporto]

 

Pop quiz: what do Max Kepler, Robbie Grossman, Trevor Plouffe, Eduardo Escobar, and Byungho Park have in common?

They all played AAA?

[Squirrel]

 

/ just stirring the pot...

 

 

/we've given out warnings for lesser things. Just sayin'

[HitInAPinch]

 

Pop quiz: what do Max Kepler, Robbie Grossman, Trevor Plouffe, Eduardo Escobar, and Byungho Park have in common?

jock straps?

[Squirrel]

 

jock straps?

Oh yuck ... I hope they don't all share jock straps.

[HitInAPinch]

 

Oh yuck ... I hope they don't all share jock straps.

Team Building exercise ... 

[Danchat]

 

Buxton on the bench, Santana in left, and Grossman at DH.

Seriously. Molitor has got to go.

Did something happen to Buxton on Friday? I saw he left the game in one of the middle innings... I've been busy the last couple days so I didn't figure out if he got hurt again.

 

Pop quiz: what do Max Kepler, Robbie Grossman, Trevor Plouffe, Eduardo Escobar, and Byungho Park have in common?

Uh, they're Twins?

[HitInAPinch]

"Alex Rodriguez’s 22-year baseball career will come to an end on Friday when he plays his final game for the New York Yankees, and then assumes a special advisor role with the club, the Yankees announced Sunday."  USAToday

 

MLBTR:  http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/08/alex-rodriguez-to-retire.html

 

 

[operation mindcrime]

Nice start!

[pierre75275]

A little surprised that Mauer and his defense are sitting on a day when we have a groundball pitcher going AND pry the current worst defense pair we could field on the left side of the diamond

[operation mindcrime]

"Alex Rodriguez’s 22-year baseball career will come to an end on Friday when he plays his final game for the New York Yankees, and then assumes a special advisor role with the club, the Yankees announced Sunday." USAToday

 

MLBTR: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/08/alex-rodriguez-to-retire.html

Good riddance!

[operation mindcrime]

Awesome start!

[Danchat]

Well, my TV died, so I guess it's back to watching the game on MLB Gameday... I'll cheer for a 'In Play - No out(s)'.

[Riverbrian]

I like the way that Molitor has been moving the lineup around lately.

 

As long as nobody gets put to sleep... I'm Ok with it. 

 

If Molitor decides to hand Buxton a pillow... then he should be sent down. 

 

 

[USAFChief]

All the above answers to the "what do ... have in common" question are good, but not the answer I was looking for. 

 

I'll give you'se a couple innings.

 

 

[HitInAPinch]

Well, he made contact, hit it hard and a long way.

 

Progress!

[ScrapTheNickname]

 

Sano back at 3rd, Polanco at SS.  Interesting. 

 

Anyone hear why Buxton is sitting again?  He's not going to get better there and nothing left to prove in the MiLB. 

circular reasoning = correct.

 

what I meant: Buxton is in limbo right now. No sense sending him down and his offense is that of a AAA player. What you gonna do?

[HitInAPinch]

Rosario never should have thrown home.

[jimbo92107]

Gibson does have a pretty pick good move to first...

[jimbo92107]

Rosario never should have thrown home.

I'm wondering where was the cutoff man? I didn't see anybody waving for the ball between Rosario and the pitcher's mound. So, Rosario threw it at the pitcher's mound.

[USAFChief]

At the end of the day, the sum of Gibson just always seems to add up to less than the parts. 

[ScrapTheNickname]

 

I like the way that Molitor has been moving the lineup around lately.

 

As long as nobody gets put to sleep... I'm Ok with it. 

 

If Molitor decides to hand Buxton a pillow... then he should be sent down. 

I was thinking by "put to sleep" you meant kind of like executed in a quiet way like they do to ailing cats and old dogs.