Guardians 2, Twins 1: Cleveland Wins it Quickly

[Parfigliano]

24 minutes ago, William K Johnson said:

So we got nothing on the Polanco trade.

Topa got paid

[Colbeh]

55 minutes ago, William K Johnson said:

So we got nothing on the Polanco trade.

We saved cap space to sign Santana, 2 more years of Topa, and 2 young prospects with potential (more so for Gonzalez, but Bowen may be a solid RP)

[Linus]

2 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

SWR pitched great.  Keep it up!!  Hopefully the Twins bats will come alive Sunday.  Blaming in part the long winded pregame ceremony for any home team deficiencies is just another in a very long line of excuses to explain away the teams problems at times.  No way.  It was a well pitched game and the Twins only managed 4 hits. 

Kris Atterberry on radio is terrible.  He never shuts up and digressing to unrelated game topics way too much.  He's very hard to follow as he attempts to do play by play.  God I miss Provus on radio.  But I love Molitor and Perkins and Gadden as well.  They do an excellent job.

Attaberry might be the worst play by play guy I’ve ever heard. He just rambles and some of the stuff he talks about is nonsensical. 

[Linus]

Hat tip to Winder. I’ve never been a fan but if he can pitch like he did last night we might have something. He hit 97 and his change up was good. 

[bean5302]

14 hours ago, Hashim said:

Woods Richardson’s has been good. Now he just needs to work on cutting back his home run per 9. Maybe use his off speed more and learn to get more movement on his fastball. His run support has been horrendous too. 

It's not going to happen. SWR is a fly ball pitcher and he's been lucky with HR's so far. It's at 0.97 right now, which is already good. xFIP says 4.24 vs. FIP at 3.79. There's more HR regression to come, but if they're all solo shots, it'll be lucky and great for him.

[bean5302]

13 hours ago, wabene said:

Super nice to see Simeon bounce back from from the last 2 outings. Winder has looked much better his last 2 times out. That is unexpected.

I was encouraged seeing the velocity for Winder on the scoreboards. Winder's chronic shoulder had robbed him of a fair amount of velocity. He was sitting 96ish in the high minors as a starter and touching 97-98 when he was absolutely dominant as I recall. I felt like Winder's ceiling could have been as high as a #2ish guy back then.

If Winder is able to keep his average velo in that 95-96 range, he could be very good out of the bullpen, but he's never going to return to the rotation without some time being injury free.

[bean5302]

13 hours ago, Fatbat said:

SWR is looking dominant. He has that intimidating big dog mound presence. We gotta win tomorrow to send a message to the Guardians that they will be chasing us the rest of the year. 

Starts with 5.0 innings pitched and an ERA under 4.00 10/20 (50%)
Starts with 5.0 innings pitched an an FIP under 4.00 10/20 (50%)

Last 3 starts
4.2 IP, 6.91 ERA, 5.06 FIP, 4.03 xFIP

Last 5 starts
5.0 IP, 4.74 ERA, 3.54 FIP, 3.43 xFIP

Woods Richardson definitely isn't looking dominant, but he is certainly doing his part, and last night's start looked really great in person using the eye test as well as the actual runs on the board. Giving up 2HRs wasn't so good, but since they were solo shots, they didn't really hurt. 
 

[USAFChief]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Maybe the easiest solution would be for the teams to expect at least a 30 minute delay and start their warmups accordingly.  This happens once a year.  It is no big deal.

 I was at the game. Both pitchers started their warmup routine late. 

[USAFChief]

3 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

It's hard for me to see the Twins warming up while there's a ceremony honoring a Twins honoree going on. It seems disrespectful. It shouldn't be a big deal but a loss is a loss & this could be a big one.

Both starters started their long toss in the outfield while the speeches were in progress.

It wasn't an issue.

The Twins are holding the ceremony. Pretty sure they have a decent idea of its length.

[USAFChief]

Per Phil Miller in the Strib, the Twins have gone oh-for with RISP in four of the eight games against Cleveland this season.

Pretty bad baserunning by Jeffers, IYAM. I mean, if I can see from the stands the liner is going to fall, he should be able to.

Still, gotta generate more chances, and take advantage of a few. 

So often it seems our hitters are on the defense with runners on, rather than the pitcher.

 

[LanceJS]

14 hours ago, Rosterman said:

Tough loss.

Wanted to see Martin and Castro be aggressive on the basepaths. Whole new game if Jeffers hadn't been thrown out at third. Tough read for the runner.

SWR ws exceptional against a decent lineup. 7 innings! Great job. Only 8 more starts for him befroe season's end.

I’ll give some credit to Kwan for the fake he threw on Jeffers - enough hesitation to get the out.  He’s one who truly has earned his GG’s not just won them due to a popularity contest 

[William K Johnson]

5 hours ago, Colbeh said:

We saved cap space to sign Santana, 2 more years of Topa, and 2 young prospects with potential (more so for Gonzalez, but Bowen may be a solid RP)

Gonzales and Bowen both struggled this season.  

[Colbeh]

2 hours ago, William K Johnson said:

Gonzales and Bowen both struggled this season.  

Almost every prospect struggles. 

Im not saying they are locked in MLB caliber players. Just that they have potential to be, more so Gonzalez though.

[USAFChief]

We had 2 hits with RISP today.

Neither drove in a run.

 

[jmlease1]

On 8/11/2024 at 4:23 PM, William K Johnson said:

Gonzales and Bowen both struggled this season.  

And Polanco has put up an 88 OPS+ and a 0.5 bWAR, and has been hurt this season. For comparison, Ed Julien has basically done the same production in 100 fewer ABs and was sent down. This may have been why Polanco had much lower trade value than we Twins fans had thought/hoped this offseason.

Gonzalez had a modest improvement this season in high A, but has also dealt with injuries which may have hampered his power production. He did ok as a 20-year old in high A, but has things to work on.

[William K Johnson]

21 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

And Polanco has put up an 88 OPS+ and a 0.5 bWAR, and has been hurt this season. For comparison, Ed Julien has basically done the same production in 100 fewer ABs and was sent down. This may have been why Polanco had much lower trade value than we Twins fans had thought/hoped this offseason.

Gonzalez had a modest improvement this season in high A, but has also dealt with injuries which may have hampered his power production. He did ok as a 20-year old in high A, but has things to work on.

I think my basic problem with the trade is the front office's perpetual trading decisions with regards to injured pitchers.   As I watched Tyler Mahle pitch for Texas the other night, it reminded me of the great prospects we traded for a fellow who most can't remember pitching for us.   The Lamone Wade jr. trade and many others for pitchers who did not log more than 50 innings with us.   I just don't understand the logic behind it.