Astros (McCullers Jr) vs Twins (Matthew): 5/19/26, 6:40pm

[amjgt]

1 hour ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

Interestingly enough...seems like St. Paul had him at 2B more than SS or 3B.

Indeed

[Vanimal46]

3 hours ago, Craig Arko said:

Hopefully Buck is ready to go tonight.

At least there's some good news today... Buxton back in the lineup per Aaron Gleeman

[mnfireman]

McCullers scratched, Alexander gets the start. He has not pitched well this year, hopefully the Twins can continue this trend....

[Chris Hove]

3 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

At least there's some good news today... Buxton back in the lineup per Aaron Gleeman

Buxton is leading off and will be the DH. Outman draws another start.

[Chris Hove]

2 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

McCullers scratched, Alexander gets the start. He has not pitched well this year, hopefully the Twins can continue this trend....

Wow, 10 ER in 6 1/3 INN. Yikes

[Patzky]

4 hours ago, karcherd said:

For everyone wanting Jeffers traded, you will now see the future starting today.   Caratini and Jackson will be the two catchers for the near future.

That's fine but.. where's the return? 🙂 

[Patzky]

13 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

McCullers scratched, Alexander gets the start. He has not pitched well this year, hopefully the Twins can continue this trend....

McCullers hasn't pitched well either. I was salivating there for a minute until I remembered our hitting.

[Road trip]

3 hours ago, amjgt said:

Indeed

Makes perfect sense.  Culpepper is a possible future Twins shortstop, and needs to get the innings there at St Paul.  The Twins need to figure out if he can play major league caliber SS.

Arcia is a former shortstop at this point in his career, and likely not a member of the 2027 Twins. He's logged thousands of innings at SS, but not many at other infield positions.  Prepping Arcia to play 2B was only wise, given the lack of depth behind Keaschall.

[stringer bell]

5 hours ago, karcherd said:

Being an upgrade over Lewis is a low bar the way he is currently playing.  I know Arcia is playing well but will that translate to anything more than he has done the last couple of years.  On this roster we now have two AAAA utility players and one veteran utility player that is on the downside of his career.  Even if this translates to one or two more wins this year, how does this help the team today or in the future.  Is Culpepper really that far off from being ready to being called up.  Let's not wait for the perfect timing.  And if Lewis finds himself that is a good problem to have.

I am afraid we are going to be stuck with Arcia, Gray and Kreidler because if I recall correctly they would need to be DFA'd if they are moved off the active roster.  The recent history of this organization is they get nervous about not having enough depth so moving off of any of those players will be very difficult and a slow process.

Both Gray and Kreidler have option years to use. Arcia will have to be DFA'd if they want to send him down. I think the verdict is that Culpepper isn't really ready and will benefit from more time at AAA (I agree)

[stringer bell]

5 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

I am curious with Jeffers out, how much worse are we going to be with ABS challenges? Jeffers is a key cog in our challenge success rate so far. 

Caratini has been pretty good with challenges. Jackson will be a wild card, but he has a good reputation as a receiver including a strong arm, which I welcome given the Twins' lack of success stopping other teams' running games

[stringer bell]

5 hours ago, karcherd said:

It doesn't look like they are interested in bringing up Bowman if they recalled Adams.  Today would be the day to do it as they need arms that can pitch tonight.

I don't see much upside in either Brebbia or Bowman. I know Bowman has put up great numbers in Triple A, but his stuff and major league performance in recent years shows a guy who might be okay in middle relief, nothing more. 

[stringer bell]

5 hours ago, Chris Hove said:

Lewis is down bad, Arcia will be a slight upgrade, and he's only 2 years removed from an All-Star season. The Twins are doing Twins things, keeping their top guys down and bandaging up their other spots with temporary guys. Not sure if they think KC is ready, but Arcia isn't terrible. IMO

I would say that Arcia was an All-Star three years ago, the same time Eddie Julien and James Outman were emerging talents and Royce was a future superstar. He fell off in the last half of '23 and was pretty bad the next two years.

[stringer bell]

5 hours ago, Chris Hove said:

Klein and Lawyerson should be the next two up, assuming Lawyerson completes his rehab. Goodbye to Ortiz and Gomez.

Who is Ortiz?

[RpR]

[stringer bell]

2 hours ago, mnfireman said:

McCullers scratched, Alexander gets the start. He has not pitched well this year, hopefully the Twins can continue this trend....

The Twins have faced a succession of "who's he" pitchers lately and really haven't taken advantage.

[HarmonK03]

6 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I don't see much upside in either Brebbia or Bowman. I know Bowman has put up great numbers in Triple A, but his stuff and major league performance in recent years shows a guy who might be okay in middle relief, nothing more. 

I am not necessarily a fan of Bowman, but if you are going to call up Arcia based on AAA numbers why not Bowman.  Garcia and Banda haven't exactly done anything to earn a roster spot.  I would prefer the younger guys but if they are going to have guys with major league experience why not give him a shot.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Patzky said:

McCullers hasn't pitched well either. I was salivating there for a minute until I remembered our hitting.

The Twins are 9th in baseball and 3rd in the AL in runs per game. Some of that may be luck, but offense is a lesser problem than relief pitching and defense.

[HarmonK03]

14 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Both Gray and Kreidler have option years to use. Arcia will have to be DFA'd if they want to send him down. I think the verdict is that Culpepper isn't really ready and will benefit from more time at AAA (I agree)

Thank you for clarifying the status of Gray and Kreidler, I wasn't 100% sure.  No minor leaguer is ever 100% ready to be called up, they are always going to have some degree of things to work on.  I don't think he is that far off, so why not try and jnject some juice into the lineup and give fans some hope.  Churning thru guys like Arcia and Gray is just leaving this organization stuck in neutral, going nowhere.

[stringer bell]

2 minutes ago, karcherd said:

I am not necessarily a fan of Bowman, but if you are going to call up Arcia based on AAA numbers why not Bowman.  Garcia and Banda haven't exactly done anything to earn a roster spot.  I would prefer the younger guys but if they are going to have guys with major league experience why not give him a shot.

I think it is the "under the hood" numbers and possible replacements. Who could the Twins call up to replace Lewis? There are a lot more relief pitching options close--Funderburk, Sands, Laweryson--than there are infield replacements for Lewis. As I said upthread, I think the FO believes that more time at AAA is warranted for Culpepper and if not Culpepper there's really only Arcia.

From what I remember of Bowman, he doesn't wow with velocity , great breaking pitches or exquisite command. At his best, he keeps repeating okay pitches to get outs and maybe he's been extraordinarily lucky at St. Paul. I was more excited about several of the minor league signings the Twins made than I was about signing Bowman, but he's been very successful at St. Paul. Someone likely will give him a major league chance when he becomes a free agent.

[stringer bell]

No Keaschall again today. Is he nursing an injury? 

[stringer bell]

I've made a bunch of comments in this thread but I do want to say one more thing:

Welcome to Alex Jackson and Orlando Arcia, when they make their Twins' debuts, it will give me a couple more guys to plug into Immaculate Grid where I try to use as many Twins and ex-Twins as possible. 

[HarmonK03]

6 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

No Keaschall again today. Is he nursing an injury? 

I am thinking it is more to keep Clemens and Bell in the lineup with Buxton at DH.

[Patzky]

8 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

No Keaschall again today. Is he nursing an injury? 

He played last night didn't he?

[Vanimal46]

30 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Caratini has been pretty good with challenges. Jackson will be a wild card, but he has a good reputation as a receiver including a strong arm, which I welcome given the Twins' lack of success stopping other teams' running games

Thanks to @Chris HoveI have been checking out Baseball Savant’s ABS leaderboard and it’s pretty fascinating. 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/abs

It’s data I’ve been curious about but haven’t looked too closely until now. Jeffers as a C on the field has 36 challenges and a 22-14 record overturning the call. Caratini as a C has 25 challenges and a 19-6 record. 

[ziggy]

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

Thanks to @Chris HoveI have been checking out Baseball Savant’s ABS leaderboard and it’s pretty fascinating. 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/abs

It’s data I’ve been curious about but haven’t looked too closely until now. Jeffers as a C on the field has 36 challenges and a 22-14 record overturning the call. Caratini as a C has 25 challenges and a 19-6 record. 

ESPN has an article on it today also.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

18 minutes ago, Patzky said:

He played last night didn't he?

Sure did, 1 for 4 with two runs batted in. Looked terrible before the rain delay, didn’t stay up for the end.

[Patzky]

45 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Who is Ortiz?

I hope they don't mean Orze. He's been one of the more competent pitchers.

[HarmonK03]

42 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Who could the Twins call up to replace Lewis

As I keep saying, there was no reason not to call up Culpepper.  Zoll is showing the same tendency as Falvey that they favor the vets, mostly underperforming over the younger players.  Even when they have been outplayed.  ERod should have been with the team coming out of training camp, he outplayed Outman.  And yes I know Outman had no options, teams cut players like that loose all the time.  There are too many examples to list them all.

[mrtwinsfan]

Sending Lewis to the Saints is only gonna make any possible development and changes non-existent,  If anyone here listened to Trevor today on skor-north he is 100% right about Wallner and Lewis-  If those 2 are serious about there careers and not worry about there Status -moreso Lewis than Wallner , both at the Pivot of there careers and need total resets and St. Paul is not the answer ,  Go back to where they started  Change what ya need to for awhile --then Prove it in A.A.A and  hopefully will see them back up here ,  at this Time  A.A.A  ONLY Makes it worse .  Sorry  but i want them both back to what we expected and so should they ,  Especially Lewis -  very immature !!!!!

[Church of Kreidler]

Glad to see Buxton back in the lineup! And excited to see how the roster moves shake out! I figured they were coming, but I wasn't expecting them to happen until the homestand was over. Let's get another win!