Make It Official! Twins 5, Blue Jays 1: Ober Dominates, Twins Win Sixth Straight Series

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Danchat said:

Kinda funny how a year ago Ober couldn't fit into the rotation for awhile despite the fact we knew he could hang in the majors. His career numbers in the majors are really strong, sub 1.1 WHIP and 3.76 ERA before this game. He is a quality starter through and through.

I was surprised they didn't call up a reliever from AAA before the game, whether it be Boushley or Henriquez in case they needed a long man. Jackson can be DFA'd and Sands is regressing back into who we thought he was.

With Sands Im hoping its just due to alot of pitches thrown over the last week cause he has not looked good.

[wabene]

6 minutes ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

If Sands situation was evident to us "common fans", why did Rocco put Sands in? The long warm up, then the usage yesterday and now disaster for Sands. Ober had pitched a little over 100 pitches, however he was cruising. I would have let Ober keep pitching until the end of the inning, or someone got another hit off of him or he walked someone. I said so at the time as Sands jogged in from the bullpen.

You would ride Ober to 110-120 pitches? In May? I don't know it was just last year while limiting him, his first full season, he still had to be shut down for a while towards the end. 104 was plenty good.

[RpR]

IF, if Julien ever did that , I may think better of  him. 😀

https://www.mlb.com/news/vladimir-guerrero-jr-cartwheels-after-catch

[mnfireman]

2 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Julien is looking like a future gold glove candidate. 

Since some people have an issue with thumbs down or other emojis that disagree with their posts, so I will disagree, laugh, and roll eyes with this statement. If pressed further, I will present evidence that disagrees with your statement, but the statement itself is its own argument.

[mnfireman]

51 minutes ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I would have let Ober keep pitching until the end of the inning, or someone got another hit off of him or he walked someone. I said so at the time as Sands jogged in from the bullpen.

No. I am not a fan of today's pitch count, but that is what todays pitchers are acclimated to, so Ober was ready to come out. Push him further and who knows how many starts it takes him to reset.

[RpR]

10 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

Since some people have an issue with thumbs down or other emojis that disagree with their posts, so I will disagree, laugh, and roll eyes with this statement. If pressed further, I will present evidence that disagrees with your statement, but the statement itself is its own argument.

Julien caught some balls today. If he had missed them . they would have  been scored as base hits

Nothing special really; it is the speed of getting the ball of of his glove and setting up where he needs to improve a lot (consistency , not every now and then) .

Untill then Farmer is just plain better; when he fields a ball it is smooth second nature; Julien looks uncertain,  After the play. He does not have the  -  I get paid to do this - so I do - calm look.

He is improving.

[mnfireman]

17 minutes ago, RpR said:

Julien caught some balls today. If he had missed them . they would have  been scored as base hits

Nothing special really; it is the speed of getting the ball of of his glove and setting up where he needs to improve a lot (consistency , not every now and then) .

Untill then Farmer is just plain better; when he fields a ball it is smooth second nature; Julien looks uncertain,  After the play. He does not have the  -  I get paid to do this - so I do - calm look.

He is improving.

See ball, hit ball

See ball, catch ball

Catch ball, throw ball

It's a simple game 

 

[Guest]

AK is a different guy at the plate the past two weeks.  I'm thinking it's physical and we'll see an IL announcement shortly.

And Jay Jackson?  Why is he still holding a roster spot?

[Doctor Wu]

12 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Carlos Santana. Oye Como Va, indeed.

No more "Evil Ways" for this Santana!

[AlwaysinModeration]

12 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Really suprised Ober allowed to come out for the 7th

Pretty simple, in my view.  He had nine Ks.  Bailey, I’ll let you go out there and try to get a 10th K.  If you get to 10, then I’ll pull you.  If you give up a baserunner, I’ll pull you.

[Patzky]

20 minutes ago, AlwaysinModeration said:

Pretty simple, in my view.  He had nine Ks.  Bailey, I’ll let you go out there and try to get a 10th K.  If you get to 10, then I’ll pull you.  If you give up a baserunner, I’ll pull you.

That tenth K was a battle too, if it had gone quicker he might have stayed out.

[bighat]

9 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

With Sands Im hoping its just due to alot of pitches thrown over the last week cause he has not looked good.

Sands has looked.....kinda like he's looked for the majority of his career. Not good indeed. 

Is it more likely that Sands had some kind of mental & physical breakthrough, and is on his way to becoming a dominant MLB reliever? Or that he just had a couple lucky weeks? Occam's Razor says it's the latter. 

[bighat]

6 hours ago, Minderbinder said:

AK is a different guy at the plate the past two weeks.  I'm thinking it's physical and we'll see an IL announcement shortly.

And Jay Jackson?  Why is he still holding a roster spot?

AK just doesn't seem like an everyday player. He looks tired. I think Rocco saw the same thing and is giving him some extended rest. I'm thinking we'll see AK back in the lineup this next series and if he doesn't perform well, it's going to be an IL stint. 

I fear AK might always be one of those "what could have been" type of guys.

On the flip side, great to see other guys like Miranda and Larnach resurrecting their careers from the dead. They went from being "organizational depth" to batting in the 4-5 spots for a major league club that's on fire. 

[Riverbrian]

I CAN'T WATCH THE GAME!!!

[Peter]

Huge much needed win especially after what happened on Saturday!!! 

[JD-TWINS]

13 hours ago, Dman said:

Kirilloff has been and continues to expand the zone and it isn't working out well for him.  I get MLB pitching is hard to solve but I do think some time back in AAA to learn more patience and recognition would be beneficial.

That was an amazing pitchers dual through 6 innings.  Happy to see Ober come out on top.  That was absolute domination through 6 and 1/3 innings.  Thankfully the pen held today.

I have been a Santana basher since they signed him.  Right now he is making me look foolish.  Hopefully he can keep this up as he currently is an important bat to stretch the lineup from the under performers below him.

The biggest thing with Santana, outside the jump in power, is his defense. He’s made a couple relatively simple plays turn into errors (pick-off throw for one) but he catches everything in the dirt or one hopped to first. His range on foul balls seems endless (home to half-way to the RF wall) as well as being aggressive on anything in the air. Caught a couple line drives recently as well.

My point is he’s making plays that I don’t think we can assume Miranda would make at the same % rate. He brings value with this defense!!

[Fatbat]

1 hour ago, bighat said:

AK just doesn't seem like an everyday player. He looks tired. I think Rocco saw the same thing and is giving him some extended rest. I'm thinking we'll see AK back in the lineup this next series and if he doesn't perform well, it's going to be an IL stint. 

I fear AK might always be one of those "what could have been" type of guys.

On the flip side, great to see other guys like Miranda and Larnach resurrecting their careers from the dead. They went from being "organizational depth" to batting in the 4-5 spots for a major league club that's on fire. 

Aren’t Miranda and Larnach a bit young to be deemed career dead? Each had stuff to work on and injury rehab. AK has some of the same issues right now. Castro went thru issues in Detroit. He is now a different player. Baseball is a grind. 

[UK Twin]

Outstanding from Ober. In fact he's probably been our most consistent starter ever since his KC horror show. 

Great to see Santana get hot at the plate, punished Toronto heavily for giving us an extra out there. And Kep ups his hitting streak to 14 games and put the game to bed at the same time. 

Huge week coming up with the Yankees coming to town and then off to Cleveland. Going .500 over the 6 games will do. Anything better will be superb. 

[UK Twin]

16 hours ago, DKrz56 said:

I think we can back off Sands a bit. I believe this is the third day in a row that he either warmed up (multiple times three days ago, right ??) and now pitched in the game back-to-back days.... that's a lot to ask any pitcher, but particularly a middle-of-the-pen option.  

Agreed. I like Sands out of the pen, got good stuff. Jackson and Okert however make me wince when I see them coming in. Okert is ok against lefties but awful against righties. Jackson is just bad - neither have particularly good stuff so need to rely on command and varying their pitches. I would much rather we keep Alcala as a full time member of the pen than keep Jackson.

[Jeff K]

2 hours ago, bighat said:

AK just doesn't seem like an everyday player. He looks tired. I think Rocco saw the same thing and is giving him some extended rest. I'm thinking we'll see AK back in the lineup this next series and if he doesn't perform well, it's going to be an IL stint. 

I fear AK might always be one of those "what could have been" type of guys.

On the flip side, great to see other guys like Miranda and Larnach resurrecting their careers from the dead. They went from being "organizational depth" to batting in the 4-5 spots for a major league club that's on fire. 

I think Miranda and Larnach are two of the best stories to the season thus far.  Wallner appears to be finding his game at SP and then our outfield depth will be even better.

[Craig Arko]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

I CAN'T WATCH THE GAME!!!

Somehow I hear this in Charlie Brown’s voice.

[Riverbrian]

2 minutes ago, Craig Arko said:

Somehow I hear this in Charlie Brown’s voice.

The Twins, Diamond Sports Group and Comcast/Midco hear it in Charlie Brown's Teacher's Voice. 

[madtowntwin]

Reflecting back to Spring Training - Wasn't there a team manager that verbalized being greatly impressed by Ober's pitching performance and predicted ascension to upper echelon? Phillies?  Prescient?? If Bailey can consistently get his breaking pitches to tickle the bottom of the zone...The way he uses the top of the zone - Look out. 

Here in Brewer-Land I was able to observe the difference Santana made to their roster late last year. After a slow start we are seeing that the veteran can still play - Still lead. 

CC's all around game was something yesterday. In the field, at the plate. on the bases... And again, leadership. Pretty close to his Prime Time form. 

Funderburk's appearance was big after Cole's struggles. Speaking of "Big" - He still has work to do in terms of using his frame as effectively as Bailey does. 

Team Psyche. Following a tough Saturday loss the team looked focused. Both teams were in "Get Away Day" mode, but the Twins put that stumble behind them. Santana, Corea, Baldelli seemed to put the team in short memory mode. 

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

The biggest thing with Santana, outside the jump in power, is his defense. He’s made a couple relatively simple plays turn into errors (pick-off throw for one) but he catches everything in the dirt or one hopped to first. His range on foul balls seems endless (home to half-way to the RF wall) as well as being aggressive on anything in the air. Caught a couple line drives recently as well.

My point is he’s making plays that I don’t think we can assume Miranda would make at the same % rate. He brings value with this defense!!

25.6 ft/sec sprint speed. He definitely does not have endless range. Right now, Santana sits right behind Christian Encarnacion-Strand in 8th place of 24 1B with 200+ innings in OAA, which is a good indicator of how well he moves. That said, Santana has a very sure glove.

Miranda is probably an average, maybe a tick better than average fielder at 1B. Santana's defense will probably net him out 0.2-0.3 WAR over Miranda as a first baseman.

[JD-TWINS]

10 hours ago, Minderbinder said:

AK is a different guy at the plate the past two weeks.  I'm thinking it's physical and we'll see an IL announcement shortly.

And Jay Jackson?  Why is he still holding a roster spot?

Jackson - I agree, generally. His ERA was 6.00 - then after 2-3 outings it was 3.90 & now 2 poor outings later he’s DFA material. Back over 6.00. They are paying him regardless so my assumption is he’ll have some runway ……..remember Emilio?

[bean5302]

I think people are being too hard on Sands. He owned a 0.77 ERA / 2.28 FIP / 2.50 xFIP until 4/25. Believing Sands might finish the year out as the best reliever in baseball after being considered an emergency depth long reliever feels a little stretchy. 

Sands had a couple clean innings on 5/4 and 5/7. The kind of innings I really love to see. 1-2-3. No base runners and he's sitting at a 3.81 FIP / 3.13 xFIP at the moment. It seems like he's a solid middle innings reliever right now, IMHO.

Jay Jackson is the guy I have the least amount of faith in.
 

[JD-TWINS]

12 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

25.6 ft/sec sprint speed. He definitely does not have endless range. Right now, Santana sits right behind Christian Encarnacion-Strand in 8th place of 24 1B with 200+ innings in OAA, which is a good indicator of how well he moves. That said, Santana has a very sure glove.

Miranda is probably an average, maybe a tick better than average fielder at 1B. Santana's defense will probably net him out 0.2-0.3 WAR over Miranda as a first baseman.

You gotta be kidding me - Miranda is a slightly better than average at 1B?? Let’s see anything backing that up.

My comment about Santana is obviously instinct & ability based - historical performance based. Never thought he was a speedster……….his sprint speed has zero to do with taking command as appropriate on foul & fair balls around the infield…….making plays on throws at 1B.

[JD-TWINS]

Ober has got to be Top 10 pitcher in the game since his first start. He’s 4-0 with a WHIP, including that first game, of .884. He’s got a K% of 9.4/9 innings. His ERA since then, over 7 starts, is 2.16. He’s been outstanding!

[bean5302]

9 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

You gotta be kidding me - Miranda is a slightly better than average at 1B?? Let’s see anything backing that up.

My comment about Santana is obviously instinct & ability based - historical performance based. Never thought he was a speedster……….his sprint speed has zero to do with taking command as appropriate on foul & fair balls around the infield…….making plays on throws at 1B.

Sure. UZR/150 was +3.3 in 2022 when Miranda played 595.1 innings there. 

[bighat]

2 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Aren’t Miranda and Larnach a bit young to be deemed career dead? Each had stuff to work on and injury rehab. AK has some of the same issues right now. Castro went thru issues in Detroit. He is now a different player. Baseball is a grind. 

Dude, Larnach and Kirilloff are 27.  Good ballplayers are in the prime of their careers right now working on making their 3rd All-Star team. Luis Arraez is 27. Austin Riley is 27. Kyle Tucker and Ozzie Albies are 27. 

Larnach, meanwhile, is working on how to hit a curveball. Kirilloff is working on seeing whether or not he can play 2 months without going on the IL. 

As I said I'm pleasantly surprised their contributions so far and think Larnach has certainly improved. But let's stop pretending Larnach and Kirilloff are part of the future. They missed their window. 

Let's just enjoy what they are doing now and be grateful they are finally at least contributing to the ballclub in some meaningful way. We don't have to pretend they're going to be core players moving forward, or that they have long-term futures with this ballclub to enjoy what they are doing.

Every team needs back-ups, stopgaps, and fill-ins. That might be the best we can ever expect from them and we should all be OK with it, rather than trying to pretend they are the players we wish they were.