Game Thread: Twins @ White Sox 6:40 PM 5/18/2021

[stringer bell]

Baily Ober makes his major league debut as he faces the first-place Chicago White Sox at Target Field. The Twins face Lance Lynn for the second time in six days. Yesterday, the White Sox clubbed the Twins extending their string of dominance against the Sox.

The weather looks iffy from here (75 miles away) but there may be a window of dreary, but dry air to complete the game. Good luck Baily Ober.

 

White Sox (25-15)

Anderson ss

Lamb lf

Moncada 3b

Mercedes dh

Eaton rf

Grandal c

Vaughn 1b

Garcia cf

Madrigal 2b

 

Lynn (p) 4-1 1.30 ERA

 

Twins (13-26)

 

Arraez 2b

Donaldson 3b

Polanco dh

Kepler cf

Sanó 1b

Larnach lf

Garlick rf

Simmons ss

Rortvedt c

 

Ober (p) Major League Debut

 

 

 

[Dave The Dastardly]

Nice pinch hit

[sampleSizeOfOne]

We got this!

 

Piece of cake!

[Cap'n Piranha]

26!

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Yeah, i was wondering if Pineda met Ober on the mound, who would be looking up?

[Cap'n Piranha]

Bailey Ober is on pace to be the greatest pitcher in baseball history.

[stringer bell]

Cruz gets a day off. He's only been okay this month. I'm eager to see Larnach hit as well as how Garlick does against a good RH pitcher. 

[Cap'n Piranha]

Just now, Cap'n Piranha said:

Bailey Ober is on pace to be the greatest pitcher in baseball history.

Or not.

[Dave The Dastardly]

"The weather looks iffy from here (75 miles away) but there may be a window of dreary, but dry air to complete the game.:

 

Dreary but dry air reminds me of Latin class. Two years in all I could say was "Ubi est villa agricola."  Wasn't until much later I discovered vino. Didn't mean to drag my feet.

[Cap'n Piranha]

Dick relating how people didn't like Mercedes' 9th inning homer last night, one of whom was La Russa.  This is the crap that's ruining baseball.  It's a hitter's job to hit; is he supposed to just stand there and let every pitch sail past him?  If you don't want the other team to try and score, just forfeit.

[MMMordabito]

Another prospect fail

[Cap'n Piranha]

Just now, MMMordabito said:

Another prospect fail

I'm willing to give Ober more than 22 pitches before I decide if he's a fail or not.

[Danchat]

1 minute ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

Dick relating how people didn't like Mercedes' 9th inning homer last night, one of whom was La Russa.  This is the crap that's ruining baseball.  It's a hitter's job to hit; is he supposed to just stand there and let every pitch sail past him?  If you don't want the other team to try and score, just forfeit.

100% agree. I’m listening on radio and I’m losing my mind at how stupid this is. They disciplined Mercedes for doing his freaking job?! This old school crap needs to die ASAP.

[MMMordabito]

Just now, Cap'n Piranha said:

I'm willing to give Ober more than 22 pitches before I decide if he's a fail or not.

Looks like Slegers 2.0 ... Tall guy that soft tosses and gets rammed

[LVTwinsfan]

2 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

Dick relating how people didn't like Mercedes' 9th inning homer last night, one of whom was La Russa.  This is the crap that's ruining baseball.  It's a hitter's job to hit; is he supposed to just stand there and let every pitch sail past him?  If you don't want the other team to try and score, just forfeit.

Ruining baseball? There are a lot of written rules you could argue are “ruining” baseball, but in today’s game it’s the unwritten rules that are ignored, they are no threat to the game

[sampleSizeOfOne]

25

[MMMordabito]

Rocco will be lucky to get three out of this guy.

[Dave The Dastardly]

Just now, MMMordabito said:

Rocco will be lucky to get three of this guy.

I think one may be enough

[sampleSizeOfOne]

24...

 

Coulda been worse.

[Danchat]

I thought Ober’s FB topped out at 89? Gameday has him hitting 93...

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Rounding error?

 

Announcers were commenting on that.

 

[Vanimal46]

2 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

Rocco will be lucky to get three out of this guy.

He’s on Rocco’s limit of 85 pitches so you might be right. 
 

 

[Cap'n Piranha]

Just now, MMMordabito said:

Looks like Slegers 2.0 ... Tall guy that soft tosses and gets rammed

Aaron Slegers career MiLB stats--798.2 IP, 3.75 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 6.6 k/9, 3.2 k/bb

Bailey Ober career MiLB stats--188.2 IP, 2.34 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 11 k/9, 9.6 k/bb

As you can see, Ober is far superior to Slegers.  Will he be a good starter?  I have no idea, maybe not.  But writing him off simply because he has the same stature and velocity as another pitcher who failed is just silly.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

They obviously coached him to pitch up in the zone tonight. 

The first coulda been worse 

[stringer bell]

Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven allowed a homer to the first batter he faced and he did okay. I do doubt that Ober will have as effective an outing as Bert did, but yielding a homer doesn't equal total failure. 

[MMMordabito]

Lynn looks like he might enjoy a few of the scotch eggs that I have in the oven.  I went with eggs, because they are potentially chicken.

[RickOShea]

Need to bunt on Lynn.  He's too fat to field a bunt or two cleanly.

[RickOShea]

The Choker is up!

 

[Cap'n Piranha]

5 minutes ago, LVTwinsfan said:

Ruining baseball? There are a lot of written rules you could argue are “ruining” baseball, but in today’s game it’s the unwritten rules that are ignored, they are no threat to the game

It's ruining baseball because it's evidence of an attitude that results in boring, passionless, uninteresting baseball.  This is a problem, because it drives a lack of interest, which forces MLB to try and do things to maintain popularity.

[LVTwinsfan]

7 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

Looks like Slegers 2.0 ... Tall guy that soft tosses and gets rammed

I wouldn’t say he got rammed