Make It Official! Twins 3, Blue Jays 2: Joe Ryan Gem Fuels Yet Another Twins Win

[DJL44]

32 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

to me, that negates his WPA and that value should go to Kepler!……..don’t really care about WPA but that play was weak.

You shouldn't care about WPA. It completely ignores defense and assigns all of that value to the pitcher. It is a bad accounting system.

[bean5302]

 

7 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

It has to be hard for Varland. As a starter, he's not good enough to make the rotation but he's too valuable as depth to convert him to relief and keep him in the big leagues. I hope they're not wasting his best innings of his career in AAA.

Varland's had excellent results at AAA so he's likely earn another shot when one of our pitchers inevitably needs a 15 day IL trip sometime this year, but unless his pitches improve in regard to movement or he's able to locate better, don't think his stuff will play as a starter at the MLB level.

[arby58]

22 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Disagree. Miranda can play first and third and he's a RH hitter. At this point, he's better and more valuable to the team than either Austin Martin or Alex Kirilloff (two of my favorite players BTW). He and Larnach have earned spots on the active roster for now, even if all the position players are healthy. The versatility of Willi Castro makes it more than possible to keep Miranda instead of either Martin or Kirilloff.

Lewis is on another level than Miranda IMHO. Put him at third and let him play. I'd love to see Royce be in the lineup 95% of the time after his return.

I don't disagree about Lewis' need to be out there all the time, but if you agree Miranda has earned playing time, where will it come? Santana is also slotted in against left-handed pitching at first and is a better defensive first baseman. The Twins are needing to keep Jeffers bat in the lineup, so he's taking the DH at bats. The only logical move that I see is Lewis moving to second against left handed hitters and putting Miranda at third - unless we think Miranda can play second base in those situations. He did play second base a fair amount in the minors.

[stringer bell]

As the season wears on, Jeffers will probably get more full days off, especially if he cools off. He’s going to be behind the plate for at least half of the starts vs. lefties, meaning there’s room to use Miranda as a DH.