Twins 10, Red Sox 4: Bats Come to Life, Twins Get a Dominant Win

[Puckett34]

12 hours ago, SwainZag said:

Wins are so much more fun than losses 

 

[Drew]

Dean Evason would bench Joey Gallo today in favor of Fleury.

"That's what we do right? We bench good players for players that play an entirely different sport, right?"

Oh no,, my bitterness spilled out everywhere, let me clean this up and I'll be on my way.

[Nine of twelve]

11 hours ago, SwainZag said:

Not to mention the Twins have played more than half their games against the White Sox, Astros, Yankees and Red Sox.

This may not be quite as impressive as the initial impression. Three of those teams currently have losing records.

[Nine of twelve]

11 hours ago, SwainZag said:

I will always be jealous of those who were blessed with large hands.  Basketball, baseball, football.......all sports which big hands help tremendously. 

Large hands help, but talent rules. Moses Malone was a 3-time NBA MVP, 8-time all NBA center, first-ballot HOF. He was a beast on the boards. 6"10", 260 lb. And his hands were so small that he could not palm a basketball.

[JD-TWINS]

7 hours ago, Taildragger8791 said:

Almost the entire bullpen has only pitched once all week. I’d hope they can get by for a few days without pulling his parachute. But I get the AAA shuttle is basically a free roster spot.

I think we may see Ober at some point during the upcoming home stand to keep Rotation fresh. This would mean optioning somebody. If not Headrick, maybe Moran?

Would be good to see him get another inning plus before going anywhere. He should be good to go by Saturday/Sunday!

[Nine of twelve]

And by the way, Larnach absolutely pasted that home run. And it looked like he didn't even swing hard. Team MVP.

[JD-TWINS]

The offense hasn’t been stellar!

Been missing 2 guys (right side of infield) that will hit between 2-6 in their line-up nearly every day. Guys meant to be platoon players (Farmer - Taylor - Solano) & a guy meant to play 70% of the time, Gordon, is ice cold at the plate, and they are all playing essentially all the time.

Kepler has been blah. Buxton is streaky, to say the least. Miranda hasn’t gotten going yet. Correa hasn’t gotten going yet.

That said, we’ve scored 10 plus runs in 3 of 17 games. We don’t have anyone carrying us consistently day in day out but our timely hitting is getting it done quite often.

Throw in Gallo & the 2 catchers and every guy mentioned has been a big piece of 2-4 wins……every one of them.

I saw in a previous comment that we were 11th in an important offensive category & 15th in another……….in the 15 team AL. If that’s the case, and we get our regulars together for a month, we’ll be dangerous!

11-7 with all these problems - that’s what good teams do, they figure out how to pick each other up & get wins.

[JD-TWINS]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Okay Gallo - way to prove me wrong - so far.  I have one of the old baseball superstitions - if things are going well don't change them.  So for now I still don't like Gallo (keep hitting Joey).  Since someone mentioned we are 1/9th of the way through the season - 11% I thought it would be fun to look at where players are right now:

Vasquez, Solano, Gallo are the three highest BA on the team.  Anyone betting they will be there at the end of the season?

Taylor and Larnach are next at 242.   While Buxton 226 and Kepler 143 are way behind.

Who to send down or cut - Gordon at 095 is not looking good and Castro at 158 is not running away with his production. 

FOX sports lists these stats:

• Batting Average. .224. AVG. T 26TH OVERALL.
• Home Runs. HR. T 20TH OVERALL.
• Stolen Bases. SB. 30TH OVERALL.
• Runs Created. 59.86. RC.
• Isolated Power. .138. ISO.
• Wins. W. T 9TH OVERALL.
• Earned Run Average. 2.61. ERA. 1ST OVERALL.

Can’t help myself, Pitching Wins Games!

Gordon has no options and had too much success after May 1 last year for him to go anywhere.

Castro is a short-timer for sure - seems obvious. Polanco will displace him.

Farmer will take Julien’s place when he’s ready.

If/when Kiriloff comes back we may need to manipulate guys through the IL to make room. Only guy I see going down after original 26 Man is ready to go is Larnach. Seems too valuable to move down…………with health, we have 2 extra guys.

3 home series in a row coming up……hopefully,  we’ll get things going at the plate!

Looking for a start from Ober while at home - maybe?

[TouchEmAllGuy]

Great win yesterday! Based on memory, both Miranda and Correa had slow starts last year and then turned it on later. Hoping that happens here!

[jkcarew]

I'm very surprised Gallo came back without a rehab assignment. He was out quite a while to simply step right back in and hit major league pitching. Good for him. (And the Twins!)

[stringer bell]

6 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

I'm very surprised Gallo came back without a rehab assignment. He was out quite a while to simply step right back in and hit major league pitching. Good for him. (And the Twins!)

Gallo played a couple games in St. Paul and struck out a bunch of times. As far as I know, he was out for only a day over the minimum. 

[jkcarew]

1 minute ago, stringer bell said:

Gallo played a couple games in St. Paul and struck out a bunch of times. As far as I know, he was out for only a day over the minimum. 

My bad. Maybe I ignored it because of all the K's :)

[John Belinski]

The 2 hitters with the biggest contracts are just not getting many hits. I am concerned about Correa ever being an above average hitter. Last year he started slow and then started hitting so can hope he will start hitting.

[John Belinski]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

Can’t help myself, Pitching Wins Games!

Gordon has no options and had too much success after May 1 last year for him to go anywhere.

Castro is a short-timer for sure - seems obvious. Polanco will displace him.

Farmer will take Julien’s place when he’s ready.

If/when Kiriloff comes back we may need to manipulate guys through the IL to make room. Only guy I see going down after original 26 Man is ready to go is Larnach. Seems too valuable to move down…………with health, we have 2 extra guys.

3 home series in a row coming up……hopefully,  we’ll get things going at the plate!

Looking for a start from Ober while at home - maybe?

Gordon just looks lost at the plate. He can play several places, but he has to start getting some hits.

[mickster]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

Can’t help myself, Pitching Wins Games!

Gordon has no options and had too much success after May 1 last year for him to go anywhere.

Castro is a short-timer for sure - seems obvious. Polanco will displace him.

Farmer will take Julien’s place when he’s ready.

If/when Kiriloff comes back we may need to manipulate guys through the IL to make room. Only guy I see going down after original 26 Man is ready to go is Larnach. Seems too valuable to move down…………with health, we have 2 extra guys.

3 home series in a row coming up……hopefully,  we’ll get things going at the plate!

Looking for a start from Ober while at home - maybe?

No way Larnach goes down.   They need him.  Kepler is the man on the outside and they may try and sneak Gordon through waivers and deal him to a claiming team

 

[Major League Ready]

Kepler has a wRC+ of 97 (basically league average) since 2020 and he is way above average defensively.  They are not going to just cut him.  He is still a 2 WAR player.  It would also just simply be a bad look to cut a guy that has been with the team for this long.  Not a good idea to treat players in such a manner.  If they want to move him they will find a trade partner.  Even if it's for a case of Gatorade.

[DJL44]

4 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Kepler has a wRC+ of 97 (basically league average) since 2020 and he is way above average defensively.  They are not going to just cut him.  He is still a 2 WAR player.  It would also just simply be a bad look to just cut a guy that has been with the team for this long.  Not a good idea to treat players in such a manner.  If they want to move him they will find a trade partner.  Even if it's for a case of Gatorade.

Not to mention he's the backup CF on the roster if Taylor gets hurt.

[JD-TWINS]

28 minutes ago, mickster said:

No way Larnach goes down.   They need him.  Kepler is the man on the outside and they may try and sneak Gordon through waivers and deal him to a claiming team

 

He hit .289 last year after May 1……28 doubles ……8 HR. Larnach has options & Kiriloff does not. I think he’s the only move if all other 26 guys are healthy. They may tell Max or even Gordon to “pull a hamstring” to manipulate the IL……it’s big time pro sports, I’m sure this stuff happens.

Hell, Madison Bumgarner got DFA’d today at $37M per year. Maybe Max is next?

[Aerodeliria]

I was all in on Gallo, so I'm excited to see him blasting away. It's kind of fun to have a guy who makes contact less often, but when he does, the ball jumps off of his bat. SSS but the lineup just feels more potent with him on the field.

[stringer bell]

12 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

He hit .289 last year after May 1……28 doubles ……8 HR. Larnach has options & Kiriloff does not. I think he’s the only move if all other 26 guys are healthy. They may tell Max or even Gordon to “pull a hamstring” to manipulate the IL……it’s big time pro sports, I’m sure this stuff happens.

Hell, Madison Bumgarner got DFA’d today at $37M per year. Maybe Max is next?

Kirilloff still has a minor league option.

[stringer bell]

14 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Not to mention he's the backup CF on the roster if Taylor gets hurt.

We haven't seen Kepler in center since midseason last year. Gordon has played a lot more center field than Kepler in '22-'23.

[mickster]

19 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

He hit .289 last year after May 1……28 doubles ……8 HR. Larnach has options & Kiriloff does not. I think he’s the only move if all other 26 guys are healthy. They may tell Max or even Gordon to “pull a hamstring” to manipulate the IL……it’s big time pro sports, I’m sure this stuff happens.

Hell, Madison Bumgarner got DFA’d today at $37M per year. Maybe Max is next?

Kepler and Gordon are not part of the future plan.  Gordon has Lewis, Julien,Lee and Martin coming behind him.   Julien most likely will need to move to RF/1B/DH.  Kepler should have been traded in the off season

[John Belinski]

4 hours ago, Puckett34 said:

 

 

[John Belinski]

I keep reading about some of the pitchers that could help the Twins and then see how Pagan is pitching today so wonder why he is still on the team. In his first inning today he gave up 6 runs. For some reason Rocco thinks that Pagan belongs on the team. Pagan has been one of the worst pitchers on the team for the past 2 years, but that goes to show that Rocco has no clue about handling pitchers.  After reading about the 2023 Twins starting pitchers being much better this year I expected better starting pitching, but it appears that 2 of the projected starters may not help much due to their bad outings so far.