Game Thread: Twins v White Sox, 4/12 @ 12:10 CT

[cheeseheadgophfan]

28 minutes ago, RickOShea said:

We've seen this before, where a player seems okay and walks off under his own power.  Then we fiddle around with him for a few days off, then the IL, and before you know it the guy is missing from the lineup for quite some time.  

THIS!  Once our training staff gets ahold of him, it's gonna be a 10 day trip to the injured list.

[raindog]

8 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Yeah, I just don't see it being an overall team defense upgrade and they burned a bench move to move their defensive problem from the IF to the OF. Feels like some unnecessary tinkering. Not the end of the world, just unneeded in my view.

Were you watching? He made a crucial play that Julien probably doesn’t make. 

[RpR]

Just think how good the Twins would be if we still had Hicks, Rooker and Sano.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

1 minute ago, jkcarew said:

And halfway through his rookie year, Chief was complaining about Walter Johnson. We all get it wrong sometimes.

Chief was a rookie for the Senators?

[mrtwinsfan]

Instead of using my old Cooking glove, not needed anymore , he cant steal  How about a goalie mask when he gets to 1b,  Byron Face plants more than ive ever seen, 

[jmlease1]

3 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

Good to take the series, but I feel like they will get p'd on in the Bronx.

I think this comment has come up from someone after every series win. Lotta negativity in these game threads...

[ashbury]

4 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

And halfway through his rookie year, Chief was complaining about Walter Johnson. We all get it wrong sometimes.

Walter Johnson wasn't yet pitching, when Chief was a rookie.

/ ninja'd but I don't care.

[RpR]

4 of the Yankees starters are below the Mendoza line.

[D. Hocking]

2 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

Chief was a rookie for the Senators?

No - but he used to take his great, great, great grandson to the games.

[ashbury]

2 minutes ago, RpR said:

Just think how good the Twins would be if we still had Hicks, Rooker and Sano.

[chpettit19]

9 minutes ago, raindog said:

Were you watching? He made a crucial play that Julien probably doesn’t make. 

Is your suggestion that Rocco knew there'd be a tough play in the IF instead of the OF and that's why he made the move? I'm not even an anti-Rocco guy. But if the strategy for the year is to guess where the tough play is going to be and make defensive substitutions based on that guess they're in trouble.

[mrtwinsfan]

1 minute ago, RpR said:

4 of the Yankees starters are below the Mendoza line.

N.Y.. Headlines tonight, Thankfully the twinkies are coming in to get us going,!!!

[cheeseheadgophfan]

28 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Feels a little like overthinking things again. Is Wallner in the OF really some sort of defensive upgrade?

I think the feeling was Gordon at 2nd was the upgrade to Julian....

And Wallner is not that bad of an outfielder.....runs well...might have best arm of any of our outfielders.  Julien is a real liability at 2B....you could see on the backhand play he didn't make.

Gordon comes in and makes a diving play to perhaps save a run (Julien wouldn't have made that play) and then turns a double play and you're complaining?  I think you gotta tip your cap to Rocco on this one. 

[chpettit19]

3 minutes ago, cheeseheadgophfan said:

I think the feeling was Gordon at 2nd was the upgrade to Julian....

Right. But Wallner in the OF is a downgrade. So the overall defense wasn't improved. You just moved your brutal defender from the IF to the OF while taking a bat off the bench. I don't see it as a defensive upgrade while then handcuffing your ability to make moves if they're needed later. With the current squad they're always going to have a defensive hole somewhere because of Buxton DHing. I just don't think the strategy of moving the defensive hole around by using bench moves is an overall win. Worked out this time, and I'm glad. Just don't like it as an overall strategy.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

11 minutes ago, Cris E said:

I'm kind of curious how Duran is going to do without a 2-3 run cushion to work with. I mean it sure looks restful to pause and give up a scenic homer before slamming the door, but what's he going to do when there's no lead to piddle away?

Two day, two appearances, two home runs.

Unusual, but I’m not gonna sweat Duran yet. If I were Rocco I might have rolled the dice one more time today and used Pagan in the 9th and saved Duran for New York tomorrow night. I mean, they obviously like Pagan more than th fans do.

[raindog]

5 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Is your suggestion that Rocco new there'd be a tough play in the IF instead of the OF and that's why he made the move? I'm not even an anti-Rocco guy. But if the strategy for the year is to guess where the tough play is going to be and make defensive substitutions based on that guess they're in trouble.

Julien is a liability in the field. Wallner is not. It wasn’t that complicated of a decision. 

[chpettit19]

8 minutes ago, raindog said:

Julien is a liability in the field. Wallner is not. It wasn’t that complicated of a decision. 

Wallner is every bit the liability Julien is. He's an absolutely awful defender.

[roger]

42 minutes ago, HawksNest said:

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but what the heck was Buxton doing? That was terrible baserunning. Hope he's ok, but dude....

If you watch the replay you will see Buxton focused on watching the ball so it wouldn't hit him.  He was looking in and I suspect never saw the infielder moving into his line of running.

[PseudoSABR]

Just now, chpettit19 said:

Right. But Wallner in the OF is a downgrade. So the overall defense wasn't improved. You just moved your brutal defender from the IF to the OF while taking a bat off the bench. I don't see it as a defensive upgrade while then handcuffing your ability to make moves if they're needed later. With the current squad they're always going to have a defensive hole somewhere because of Buxton DHing. I just don't think the strategy of moving the defensive hole around by using bench moves is an overall win. Worked out this time, and I'm glad. Just don't like it as an overall strategy.

With Castro inserted at SS with Farmer (and Correa) out, improving the infield defense made sense.  And unquestionably middle infield is more important than corner outfield.  I also don't think Walner is quite the butcher out there that you are making him out to be.

[raindog]

1 minute ago, chpettit19 said:

Wallner is every bit the liability Julien in. He's an absolutely awful defender.

Agree to disagree, I guess. That’s not been a common thing I’ve seen about Wallner. Also 2B is a premium defensive position. RF isn’t. 

[adjacent]

3 minutes ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Two day, two appearances, two home runs.

Unusual, but I’m not gonna sweat Duran yet. If I were Rocco I might have rolled the dice one more time today and used Pagan in the 9th and saved Duran for New York tomorrow night. I mean, they obviously like Pagan more than th fans do.

Can you imagine what these comments would be if Rocco had put Pagan?🙉

[chpettit19]

4 minutes ago, PseudoSABR said:

With Castro inserted at SS with Farmer (and Correa) out, improving the infield defense made sense.  And unquestionably middle infield is more important than corner outfield.  I also don't think Walner is quite the butcher out there that you are making him out to be.

3 minutes ago, raindog said:

Agree to disagree, I guess. That’s not been a common thing I’ve seen about Wallner. Also 2B is a premium defensive position. RF isn’t. 

Totally fair that mIF is more important than cOF. But Wallner is terrible. There's not a scouting report out there that has him above a 45 defensive grade. Fangraphs page for him has a 20 current, 30 future field grade for him. There's not a defensive metric out there that grades him well. He's a terrible defender and the team has openly spoken about his need to remain in AAA to work on his defense.

[wsnydes]

3 minutes ago, adjacent said:

Can you imagine what these comments would be if Rocco had put Pagan?🙉

Pretty sure we'd just lock the thread.

[Cornholio]

32 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

With Farmer out, who is up next? An OF or (hahahaha, no way) Lee?

There isn’t much to choose from. Soto, Perez or Garlick from AAA. If Farmer or Buxton (or Correa) is out for an extended period, maybe Lee would be the play. 

[chpettit19]

Just now, wsnydes said:

Pretty sure we'd just lock the thread.

I hope we'd leave it open for the outside chance he's successful and then the thread just goes silent on it's own. Have we ever had a thread lock itself?

[ashbury]

10 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

they're always going to have a defensive hole somewhere because of Buxton DHing.

Just a quibble, but they're always going to have a hole on offense when Buxton DHes.  Because then MAT is in the batting order, instead of Buxton in CF and a more legitimate bat in DH.

[ashbury]

Per Rocco, Farmer's having a procedure today to realign teeth.  This, he said, is better news than they feared.  Oh my OMG.

[wsnydes]

2 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I hope we'd leave it open for the outside chance he's successful and then the thread just goes silent on it's own. Have we ever had a thread lock itself?

I believe so.  Maybe not a game thread, but I'm pretty sure threads have been locked.  

[chpettit19]

Just now, ashbury said:

Just a quibble, but they're always going to have a hole on offense when Buxton DHes.  Because then MAT is in the batting order, instead of Buxton in CF and a more legitimate bat in DH.

Well you cut off the rest of my thought there. With the current makeup of the roster they will always have to play someone who should be a DH (Wallner and Julien being the obvious guys right now) in the field because Buxton is taking the DH spot. Agree that there's also a hole in the lineup with MAT in there against righties. Buxton DHing is bad for both sides of the ball, but I was just speaking to the defense driven decision late in the game.

[wsnydes]

2 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Per Rocco, Farmer's having a procedure today to realign teeth.  This, he said, is better news than they feared.  Oh my OMG.

Thanks for the update, Ash.