Game Thread Twins vs Orioles 12:10pm cdt 5/26/2021 ad

[RickOShea]

1 minute ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

I'm in favor of banning the strikeout.  It's not fun to watch, it doesn't add to the experience.  And then consider starting every inning with the bases full to reduce the advantage pitchers have in the game right now.

OUCH!!!!!!!

[wsnydes]

2 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

I'm in favor of banning the strikeout.  It's not fun to watch, it doesn't add to the experience. 

[mac098]

Big Mike is having a decent game. Outside of that one bad pitch, he is rolling along. Falling behind but still able to get the K and getting routine outs. Too bad the offense is squandering his good outing...again

[MMMordabito]

At least Big Mike is raising his deadline return

[stringer bell]

As far as the shift goes, there aren’t many guys who hit grounders to the opposite field and if they do, the ball isn’t often hit sharply. 
 

Even Mauer, for all of his opposite field hits, seldom hit grounders to the left side. Kepler hits the left-center gap often but almost never hits grounders to the left side. 

Roy Smalley said that hard contact on the ground is almost always to the pull side. It only figures that teams should shift. 
 

 

[SwainZag]

8 minutes ago, bighat said:

Getting shut out by the worst pitcher on the worst team in baseball is a sign that the Twins' problems aren't over. They need sweeps, and today's game provides them with the best chance they'll have all year for one. Pretty sad display so far from the offense, and not for the first time.

The Royals aren't the Orioles and it's not even close, BTW. They're a better team than the Twins and it would take a real good argument for a reasonable person to be convinced otherwise.

Hope Nelson Cruz has at least one more hot streak in him before the trade deadline. At this rate the Twins aren't going to get much for him - he looks very much his age right now.

Good thing games aren't over after 5 innings!

[SwainZag]

2 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

As far as the shift goes, there aren’t many guys who hit grounders to the opposite field and if they do, the ball isn’t often hit sharply. 
 

Even Mauer, for all of his opposite field hits, seldom hit grounders to the left side. Kepler hits the left-center gap often but almost never hits grounders to the left side. 

Roy Smalley said that hard contact on the ground is almost always to the pull side. It only figures that teams should shift. 
 

 

Very true, but when there are only 2 players on one side of the diamond and 5 on the other, a lot of time you don't need to rocket a ball out there to get on board.  

[mac098]

Wait!?! Are the Twins reading whats on here? Because we were just talking about hits and working the pitch count and what do they start doing? Getting hits and working the pitch count. 

[mnfireman]

Winning 2 out 3 the rest of the way is 76 wins. 76 + 19 = 95 wins. 95 wins has been enough to win the AL Central for the last 13 years. But 95 wins is a pretty lofty total for this team right now.

[wsnydes]

Big spot here, rook!

[wavedog]

OK, Sano - just a soft single - make contact and go the other way

[Brock Beauchamp]

20 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

I'm in favor of banning the strikeout.  It's not fun to watch, it doesn't add to the experience.  And then consider starting every inning with the bases full to reduce the advantage pitchers have in the game right now.

Sure, those are all the same thing. 
 

*eye roll*

[bighat]

Sano!

[SwainZag]

SANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[mnfireman]

Soft single....LOL

[wsnydes]

And there was much rejoicing!

[Aggies7]

strikeout or home run. there is no other outcome 

[wavedog]

2 minutes ago, wavedog said:

OK, Sano - just a soft single - make contact and go the other way

Or that will do as well - nice contact there Sano!  

[Brock Beauchamp]

[mac098]

Just now, mnfireman said:

Soft single....LOL

It was a soft single...that went a little further.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 minute ago, Aggies7 said:

strikeout or home run. there is no other outcome 

He also walks. 

[AceWrigley]

Sano what? Goodbye baseball.

[TouchEmAllGuy]

I knew it was cooler out today, but SANO??

[Cap'n Piranha]

3 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Sure, those are all the same thing. 
 

*eye roll*

They are the same thing--they are both fundamental re-writings of the rules of baseball.  Locking defenders into having to start a play at certain spots has never been a thing in baseball history.  Moving the mound has been done, but just two years ago we were talking about the onslaught of homeruns turning games into homerun derbies.  The game is cyclical, and we don't need to introduce sweeping changes every time there's an aspect of the game we don't like.

[denarded]

26 minutes ago, bighat said:

Getting shut out by the worst pitcher on the worst team in baseball is a sign that the Twins' problems aren't over. They need sweeps, and today's game provides them with the best chance they'll have all year for one. Pretty sad display so far from the offense, and not for the first time.

 

I'm from the future so I know we score. But that's spot on. This pitcher is meh and as another poster noted we have a habit of making scrubs look great

[mnfireman]

Eliminate the shifts. Other sports have made parts of their "traditional" game illegal to improve the game for the players and fans.

[SwainZag]

Caption this:

[Brock Beauchamp]

10 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

They are the same thing--they are both fundamental re-writings of the rules of baseball.  Locking defenders into having to start a play at certain spots has never been a thing in baseball history.  Moving the mound has been done, but just two years ago we were talking about the onslaught of homeruns turning games into homerun derbies.  The game is cyclical, and we don't need to introduce sweeping changes every time there's an aspect of the game we don't like.

This isn't a trend that will likely cycle out of fashion, though... it's an inherent change to the strength and advantage of certain players. You can't stop pitchers from throwing triple digit heat and velocity has been on an upward trajectory every year for the past... 20 years? 30 years?

And MLB literally did something about the homeruns... they changed the ball, just as they've done many times throughout baseball history. Is there something more "fundamental" about the sport of baseball than the ball itself? That gets changed regularly and we accept it.

The shift was basically non-existent just ten years ago, excepting a few specific players in history (Williams, Ortiz). I see no reason not to rule it out of existence entirely, I don't really care if it has been done before or not. I see MLB's stubbornness about history a bug, not a feature.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 minute ago, mnfireman said:

Eliminate the shifts. Other sports have made parts of their "traditional" game illegal to improve the game for the players and fans.

Exactly.

[Dodecahedron]

11 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

Eliminate the shifts. Other sports have made parts of their "traditional" game illegal to improve the game for the players and fans.

So if Competitive Bungee Jumping changed their rules, should the MLB jump off a bridge too?