Game Thread: Twins v Red Sox, 4/20 @ 12:35pm CT

[Rosterman]

19 minutes ago, h2oface said:

There goes the all important run differential, Team ERA, and Team and individual batting averages all in one game. 😇

Now we will also get to hear, over and over, about that it was just that one outing for Pagan but he really has that great stuff, and trust the FO's judgement.

Yeah, even though Pagan warmed up each of the last two nights, we will hear how he was called upon to take one for the team with the Madea injury, getting into a second inning after falling apart.

Twins have to make a roster decision of Moran. Who is there at St. Paul. Wait for Winder, perhaps? Megill isn't having a great time. Of course, they could "remove" Garlick and/or Megill from the 40-man. Hey, Pagan, too. But, again, who do they bring up from St. Paul? Brock Stewart perhaps?

[RickOShea]

1 minute ago, CRF said:

I was in the car most of the afternoon listening to Cory and Dazzle. Was watching Pagan on tv as bad as it sounded on the radio? 

 

1 minute ago, CRF said:

I was in the car most of the afternoon listening to Cory and Dazzle. Was watching Pagan on tv as bad as it sounded on the radio? 

No, it actually is quite sobering.  Hard to see a human making as much money as he does, actually have a job, and suffer .

[h2oface]

Pitches to Solano right down the middle..... some would call those mistakes. But Donny Barrels just fouled them off. Not a mistake if you don't hit them out, I guess.

[mnfireman]

Just now, TwinsDr2021 said:

Younger, seems more durable and probably ends up taxing the pen less, And I assume he is on some sort of innings limit this year. Plus I am a fan of guys that are younger with their upside ahead of them (not that Varland is all that young, but he is compared to Ober)

So.....if Varland has an innings limit, then you will see Ober (and his innings limit!?) in his spot when he hits that limit.....  

 

[RickOShea]

Start or end a game, Kepler needs help.

[h2oface]

Damn Kepler. Get your head in these games. And just when the game winning rally had started, too!!

[jkcarew]

Broke the cardinal rule of baseball...

Never make the last out of the 9th inning at home plate when you're down by 6.

[tony&rodney]

What happened there? Kepler is the Twins best base runner until Polanco returns.

[Bamboo Bat]

10 minutes ago, CRF said:

I was in the car most of the afternoon listening to Cory and Dazzle. Was watching Pagan on tv as bad as it sounded on the radio? 

 

It was worse. Nearly every Red Sox hitter who made contact used the barrel of the bat to their advantage. He gave up a number of absolute rockets. There was zero thought he could possibly escape that inning with minimal damage. Just put it on a tee for 'em, Emilio!

 

[mnfireman]

5 runs and 10 hits should have been enough to win this game. BP let the team down in a short start. I know you can't foresee an injury, but a short start by Maeda could have been planned for. Maybe Headrick could have been optioned as a precaution.

Hate the give away/get away day BS.

[mnfireman]

Couldn't tell if Watkins held him up late or if Kepler just rounded too far. Either way, not a good way to end the  game.

[RickOShea]

Keppler's facial expression tells it all.  He was looking around, "Hey, what happened"?  I tell you this dude has some issues.  I didn't think he was the kind of guy who would necessarily tank, after signing a multi year guaranteed contract a couple of years back, but this has been going on some time.

[Irishman]

Maeda was given a loss.   I thought Pagan should be taken a loss.   Maeda allowed only one run.   Pagan allowed 6 runs.   Pagan must have giggled for not getting himself loss.   I don’t understand this.   What gives?  F Pagan.  

[TwinsDr2021]

29 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

So.....if Varland has an innings limit, then you will see Ober (and his innings limit!?) in his spot when he hits that limit.....  

 

Why in the world would Varland be on a innings limit? He pitched 130 innings last year and over 100 the year before. So maybe the Twins wouldn't want him over 160 but lets deal with that in 20 + starts from now.

[TwinsDr2021]

24 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

5 runs and 10 hits should have been enough to win this game. BP let the team down in a short start. I know you can't foresee an injury, but a short start by Maeda could have been planned for. Maybe Headrick could have been optioned as a precaution.

Hate the give away/get away day BS.

Lets be real they scored 3 runs the first 8 innings, then scored two off a 35 year old career minor league pitcher that gave up 3 runs yesterday as well.

[ashbury]

17 minutes ago, Irishman said:

Maeda was given a loss.   I thought Pagan should be taken a loss.  

Official scorer has no latitude on this according to the rule book.

You might be thinking of the case where a team wins but the starter doesn't go 5.  Then there is latitude, although in practice the scorers have a certain standard way of going about it.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

For ye watching, how close was the final out at third? They didn't show a replay...

[Jocko87]

2 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

 

This is his 3rd start. If you're a FA starter and they want to tie incentives to your # of starts and the team says "every opportunity to start" is 3 starts you're hanging up and never answer their call again. 

I'm sorry you think 2 starts is enough to change a player's role. It's not hard to see why fans aren't running teams.

I think you meant third year of starting. If you think I’m basing anything on three starts I’ll gladly excuse myself from this conversation. 

[tony&rodney]

12 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

For ye watching, how close was the final out at third? They didn't show a replay...

Not so close. I don't know what happened. Two strike swing and line drive to centerfield. The camera did not show the throw, so i have no idea whether it was to the plate well before Kepler could have scored. If Kepler could have easily scored standing up, he should have run. If there was even the slightest thought of a play at home, he should stop at third base because the run means nothing until it is the tying score. Weird play. Third base coach involved? No idea.

[chpettit19]

22 minutes ago, Jocko87 said:

I think you meant third year of starting. If you think I’m basing anything on three starts I’ll gladly excuse myself from this conversation. 

Nope, I meant third start, because this isn't his third year of starting, it's his 15th. Maybe you're unaware of Maeda's career and believe he wasn't a starter before he got to MN and are connecting his TJ surgery to him not having been a starter before he got here. Maeda has started 137 games in the majors. He started 217 in Japan. Of his 398 professional baseball games he's started 356 of them. It most definitely is not his 3rd year starting so I'm confused on what you're basing your stance on if it's not his starts this year.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

1 hour ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

For ye watching, how close was the final out at third? They didn't show a replay...

Yeah, just looked at gameday which has this play... Not close indeeded.

Not speculating how it happened, but i did. I was so wanting to be there to see Castro get the win, which coulda happened with only 4 more hits...

The one redeeming feature was looking up at the scoreboard and seeing the time was 4:20, April 20th.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

2 hours ago, Muppet said:

Silver lining here:

Twins don't have to pitch in the 9th inning. 

I so wanted this to age poorly... Oh well.

[Jocko87]

3 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Nope, I meant third start, because this isn't his third year of starting, it's his 15th. Maybe you're unaware of Maeda's career and believe he wasn't a starter before he got to MN and are connecting his TJ surgery to him not having been a starter before he got here. Maeda has started 137 games in the majors. He started 217 in Japan. Of his 398 professional baseball games he's started 356 of them. It most definitely is not his 3rd year starting so I'm confused on what you're basing your stance on if it's not his starts this year.

3 years with Minnesota, who didn't sign him to the contract and have nothing to worry about as it comes to his incentives.  His full career numbers are interesting, 2331 professional innings are quite a lot at age 35 to come back from TJ.  Oddly similar profile to MadBum who was DFAd today at 33 with 2200 pro innings and looks washed without TJ.

We are in the maximizing remaining career value phase of Kenta Maeda.  The Twins owe him nothing towards the incentives and he has to compete for a roster spot.  Its not Bundy and Archer he's holding back.  I'm not worried about him being a starter, I'm worried he may be done for good. 

[chpettit19]

2 hours ago, Jocko87 said:

3 years with Minnesota, who didn't sign him to the contract and have nothing to worry about as it comes to his incentives.  His full career numbers are interesting, 2331 professional innings are quite a lot at age 35 to come back from TJ.  Oddly similar profile to MadBum who was DFAd today at 33 with 2200 pro innings and looks washed without TJ.

We are in the maximizing remaining career value phase of Kenta Maeda.  The Twins owe him nothing towards the incentives and he has to compete for a roster spot.  Its not Bundy and Archer he's holding back.  I'm not worried about him being a starter, I'm worried he may be done for good. 

Let's say you work on commission on top of a base salary. Your company gets bought out and the new company comes in and keeps your contract, but takes away 3/4 of your clients so it's impossible for you to hit your same commission marks. When your buddy asks if he should sign with your company on a commission based deal do you tell him "well they didn't sign me to my contract initially so I'm not mad they took away my chance to earn my commissions and you shouldn't take what they did to me into account at all?" I think that'd be a weird response, but to each their own.

So we're back to basing it on 2 starts (unless your argument is that he's had a bad career) and I return to the idea that basing such things on 2 starts is absurd. Especially when he went 5 innings in his first start and 6 innings in his 2nd start.

And MadBum has been washed for years so I'm confused on that comp. Justin Verlander came back from TJ last year at the age of 39 with 2900 innings under his belt and had a 1.75 ERA in 28 starts. Why isn't that your comp if you're just picking random guys over the age of 30 with 2000+ innings? Or Scherzer? Darvish? Wainwright? Morton? Cueto? Carrasco? Lance Lynn? They were all 35 or older last year. Why weren't they your comps?

Who are you worried he holding back? The 27 year old who's thrown more than 100 innings in a season once in the last 9 years? Or the 25 year old with 6 starts under his belt? This has been my other point. People act like he's holding back prime Pedro or something. Ober and Varland are really nice depth, they're not prime Johan.

[Schmoeman5]

11 hours ago, RpR said:

Twins need fielders with STRONG arms, which Larnach and Gordon do not have at this point.

But Kepler has a cannon

[Schmoeman5]

11 hours ago, RpR said:

Twins injury demon hits again.

The announcers babbling about how he managed to throw, from experience, it takes a x time before pain really hits the nervous system.

I crushed my had and found out the hard way.

My hand was crushed by a 40,000 lb bridge crane. Didn't even feel it. All the nerves damaged totally. Hitting my thumb with a hammer was worse.