Royals 4, Twins 1: Twins Swing and Miss at Chance to Bury Kansas City

[KirbyDome89]

4 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Did you expect Varland to pitch a perfect game? 3 runs in 6 innings from Varland, at this point, is a terrific game. What were your expectations?

Not moving the goalposts for what constitutes pitching wonderfully?

Today was a typical Varland start; hard contact, traffic on the bases, and home runs. He was lucky nobody was on base for either of the bombs he surrendered. 

[Karbo]

The Twins have posted the third-highest bullpen ERA since the All-Star break

What happened to "one of the best pens in the league" we kept hearing about in the spring? 

[TwinsDr2021]

11 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

He did okay, but lets not exaggerate 

Why not, it is done all the time on here, I have heard 4 or 5 inning starts that were considered great. I watched just about the whole game and Varland did pretty darn good, they way he went about it doesn't seem like the best way going forward, but he did something today SWR has only done in 7 of 20 starts and Festa hasn't done yet and that is pitch 6 innings.

[TwinsDr2021]

15 hours ago, bean5302 said:

The Twins got lucky Varland allowed only 3 ER on 8 hits and a walk, including 2HR given his 7.01 FIP. It was a start which didn't bury the Twins, but the lack of offense again is getting old. They're scoring more than 3 runs a game barely 50% of the time back through the Mets series.

We need more consistent offensive production. It was a winnable game again today, just like the last two flops against Cleveland.

Who cares about FIP when talking about the game that just happened? We know exactly what happened, I would agree that it looks like the Twins aren't or shouldn't be expecting a quality start out of him every time if he continues to pitch like this. I was watching the KC broadcast and they couldn't stop talking about Witt's homer and how Varland could have made that same pitch 10 more times and it is unlikely it is a homer again.

and I agree with you on the offense besides Lewis, Santana and Miranda yesterday's lineup was pretty terrible.

[wabene]

The best case scenario for the Twins moving forward is during the next few weeks Festa and Zebby pitch well enough to possibly allow Varland to move to the pen. There is no guarantee he does well there, but he does provide a power pen arm. He could be joined there by Paddack who likely will not be able to provide a starter's length this year. Obviously the pen could use the reinforcements.

[Whitey333]

Here we go again.  People blaming the loss on missed balls and strikes.  Yes the ball and strike calls in baseball are terrible.  They give fans an excuse for their team when they lose.  I'm sure the ball and strike miscues never benefit the Twins.  You never here about it when they do.  I do agree though that those umpires get worse and worse on balls and strikes.  Plus they are so arroga t and confrontational.  They got rid of Angel Hernandez thankfully.  They need to get rid if more starting with that stiff Hunter Wendelstadt. 

[David Maro]

How many times have you seen a team score 10+ in a game and then come out flat the next game.Both Jeffers and Castro made Ragans job easy swing at pitches way out of the zone.Jeffers swung at pitches neck high and Castro at pitches in the dirt.The rest of the lineup wasn't much better swinging at the first pitch they saw.It makes the pitchers job easy when they swing at his pitch every at bat.Ragans hadn't thrown 50 pitches into the 5th inning.

[LA Vikes Fan]

15 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

I agree with mikelink on Varland. The stats aren't bad, but the stats were more than just a little lucky., The Royals hit Varland pretty hard and he was lucky to escape the 4th and 5th innings. I would call this an ok start at best, and nothing that would make one think that he could be an effective starter every 5th day down the stretch. 

Most importantly, we have to evaluate how he looked as compared to Festa and Matthews. Festa has looked better with a 2.2 ERA over his last 4 appearances and 18.2 innings. He also has a lot more strikeouts. He was also better than Varland in AAA. Matthews only has one appearance where he went 5 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs, 5 SOs, and no walks. So far Festa has looked better than Varland and has a big enough sample size to be meaningful. Matthews has also looked better but we need to see at least one more start before ranking. Right now, I would say Varland is number 3 of 3 headed either back to AAA as starter #6 or to the BP but we need to see one more Matthews start before we can be more confident in that. 

UPdate - Just saw that the Twins have optioned Louie Varland back to St. Paul. No corresponding move yet announced. Looks like Festa and Matthews are the short term winners for the #4 and #5 rotation spots with Varland as #6 for the time being. Assume he will be back before 9/1 in the bullpen unless there's another injury. I think it's the right move. 

[LambchoP]

Varland may have technically pitched a quality game, but he was very lucky for most of the day. He must have thrown at least a dozen meatballs right down the middle that the Royals didn't capitalize on. I've got to believe if it was the Yankees or Orioles, he would've given up six runs plus, easy. Our bullpen is a real liability now. Richards and Theilbar both are clearly DFA candidates, but Twins won't because we have no replacements. Either call someone up from minors or search the waiver wire. Rolling with these guys is going to cost us too many games. In a playoff chase, it's unsustainable:(

[JD-TWINS]

On 8/14/2024 at 4:47 PM, LA VIkes Fan said:

I have seen some comments about a getaway lineup. I don't think the lineup was a matter of poor choices; the problem is we just didn't have anybody else to put in against a very good LH starter. Correa and Buxton are both out, so there go two RH hitters who hate left-handers well. The only other options would have been to play Kepler or Wallner instead of Larnach, and maybe Vasquez instead of Jeffers. I don't think it was really a getaway day lineup in the traditional sense where you play your reserves on Sunday afternoon. I think this is what we've got to go against LH pitching at the present time.

I would have been tempted to sit Castro, and play Farmer at SS with Martin at 2B. Kepler could then have played RF with Margot in CF - that effectively trades Castro for Kepler. Castro is in a major slump and looks gassed. We could've tried Wallner but that would've meant sitting either Lewis or Larnach. Statistically, neither Larnach or Wallner can really hit left-handed pitchers so I think that's kind of a pick your poison situation. I agree with the idea that they should get a chance to hit left-handers to improve but when we do that you have to endure days like today when Larnach wasn't much value at the plate.

We really need Correa and Buxton back to go against LH starting pitching PLUS we need Lewis to start hitting. Lewis is hitting .231/.311/.519 in his last 30 games, .250/.308/.417 in his last 7. Not horrible production but not middle of the order production either. Without him hitting like a true #3 or #4 hitter and then without Correa and Buxton, we are easy pickings for a LH starter. 

 

Lewis fits in a lot better mixed amongst Miranda/Correa/Buxton …..guys (Managers) don’t want him to beat them and he’s getting pitched accordingly. Can’t hit 15 HR in 40 games and not have other Teams notice.

[JD-TWINS]

9 hours ago, wabene said:

The best case scenario for the Twins moving forward is during the next few weeks Festa and Zebby pitch well enough to possibly allow Varland to move to the pen. There is no guarantee he does well there, but he does provide a power pen arm. He could be joined there by Paddack who likely will not be able to provide a starter's length this year. Obviously the pen could use the reinforcements.

Winder should be back in a week as well - 4 appearances with a 3.00 ERA & .888 WHIP & 10/1 K’s to walks ratio.

[JD-TWINS]

7 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Varland may have technically pitched a quality game, but he was very lucky for most of the day. He must have thrown at least a dozen meatballs right down the middle that the Royals didn't capitalize on. I've got to believe if it was the Yankees or Orioles, he would've given up six runs plus, easy. Our bullpen is a real liability now. Richards and Theilbar both are clearly DFA candidates, but Twins won't because we have no replacements. Either call someone up from minors or search the waiver wire. Rolling with these guys is going to cost us too many games. In a playoff chase, it's unsustainable:(

Can’t really think there’s quality from the waiver wire in August……Winder - Henriquez - Blewett all seem to be prime candidates to displace them……Richards & Thielbar. Can’t imagine Caleb is going anywhere…….maybe a Varland/Paddack combination forces him off roster?

[stringer bell]

23 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Winder should be back in a week as well - 4 appearances with a 3.00 ERA & .888 WHIP & 10/1 K’s to walks ratio.

I believe he has to spend 15 days at AAA, unless he’s recalled to fill for a player placed on the Injured List. 

[USAFChief]

36 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Can’t really think there’s quality from the waiver wire in August……Winder - Henriquez - Blewett all seem to be prime candidates to displace them……Richards & Thielbar. Can’t imagine Caleb is going anywhere…….maybe a Varland/Paddack combination forces him off roster?

Also, Blewitt DFAd. Although if he clears, it's possible he could be back.

[JD-TWINS]

20 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I believe he has to spend 15 days at AAA, unless he’s recalled to fill for a player placed on the Injured List. 

I thought it was 10 days - I really have no idea but I do know there’s a restriction on timing……that’s why I said a week. Sooner the better - he looked good!

[stringer bell]

37 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

I thought it was 10 days - I really have no idea but I do know there’s a restriction on timing……that’s why I said a week. Sooner the better - he looked good!

Ten days for position players, fifteen for pitchers. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

17 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Winder should be back in a week as well - 4 appearances with a 3.00 ERA & .888 WHIP & 10/1 K’s to walks ratio.

Agreed with slightly different timing. I think the Twins optioned him on 8/14 to be sure his 15 days were over before the 9/1 playoff roster deadline.  He may or may not be on that roster, but getting him up by 9/1 preserves the option.  Same for Varland going down on 8/15. It will be interesting to see what happens when and if Richards, Winder, Okert, Henriquez, and Varland are all healthy and there's 3 bullpen spots for the 5 of them. I suspect that an "injury" could resolve it so 4 (everyone except Henriquez) are either on the 26 man or the MLB IL on 9/1.