Tigers 10, Twins 4: Detroit Rocks Taj Bradley in Series Opener

[Western SD Fan]

Looks like our winner of the bullpen sacrifice fund (starter) is Paredes.  Bradley has seemed to be back to not being able to put hitters out.  How many hits did he give up with two strikes?  As Sam Caulder mentions in his article, he still possesses swing and miss stuff.  It just looks like that teams are laying off the stuff out of the zone and making him try to miss bats in the zone and he can't do it.  

It is tough to blame pitchers for blowing up games when your defense looks closer to Little League than a professional baseball team.  Lewis allowing the ball to clank off of his mitt and roll all the way across the infield didn't help.  While the Tigers didn't score that inning, it did cause Bradley to throw an additional five high stress pitches with runners in scoring position.  I know there were other miscues/lapses on defense, but that one was the most egregious and Lewis did not get an error on the play.

Edited June 10 by Western SD Fan

[HarmonK03]

30 minutes ago, Western SD Fan said:

It is tough to blame pitchers for blowing up games when your defense looks closer to Little League than a professional baseball team.

This is the result of anyone can play anywhere and not stressing quality defense.  Yes Lewis didn't make a play on the grounder.  It was his second game at 1B, there are going to be more plays that would be made by an experienced first baseman that he is not going to make until he is comfortable.  This is on the Twins not on Lewis.

[Patzky]

3 hours ago, Bangkok Twins Fan said:

Great so see the Twins hitting some home runs, but too bad that nobody was on base when any of them were hit. Meanwhile another rocky outing for Taj, and the bullpen wasn't much better. 

All those opportunities for three run HR and Grand Slams .. nope.

[JD-TWINS]

10 hours ago, ashbury said:

This appearance spoiled Justin Lawrence's 0.00 ERA in a Twins uniform.

😉That ERA was obviously smoke & mirrors …… him, along with Adams - Lawyerson, it can be ugly ……… hoping for OBER & ABEL to get back in rotation in another couple weeks. Sands by All-star break. Rojas back.

PEN would get Rojas - Sands - someone from current 4-man rotation. Those changes would be welcomed!

[Blyleven2011]

So close to 500 and now so far ...

Is that the twins way ?

Interesting game as the scores were changing early on until bullpen let it slip away with bad defense ...

Time to change the name from TWINS or TWINKIE'S  to ...

MINNESOTA POSSUMS  , they play dead at home and get killed on the road ...

[wornsmooth]

One encourage sign.

Royce Lewis is having good at bats since his return. He isn't chasing every sweeper or foot outside change-up thrown.

 

[wornsmooth]

4 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Buxton doesn't walk

We forget that while Killebrew hit a lot of homeruns and struck out a lot, he also walked a lot.

He clearly had plate discipline and a good eye. He didn't waste his swings.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

Lewis is 3 - 11 with one double since coming up.  Makes me suspicious of St Paul Stats. 

You should be very suspicious of stats from St Paul. Offense is very high in AAA.

1 hour ago, Patzky said:

You wonder why Matt Bowman got cut. Guess where he wound up?

He ended up in Buffalo, where he currently has an ERA over 23.

They can fast track Sands and Abel back to the Twins. There is nobody blocking their return.

[DJL44]

14 minutes ago, wornsmooth said:

One encourage sign.

Royce Lewis is having good at bats since his return. He isn't chasing every sweeper or foot outside change-up thrown.

 

Yes. He’s still trying to pull the outside pitch but his plate discipline has improved. It helps to swing at strikes.

[LambchoP]

Time to start planning for another big sell off at the trade deadline. Hopefully they make smart trades, and for players close to MLB ready. Twins fans have suffered enough. We don't have the patience for a 5 year rebuild right now!

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

There is a plea to bring up St Paul talent and another points out we have all their best pitchers.  Is that true?

It is true, unless you count the rehabbing Abel and Sands.

Matthews, Prielipp, Morris and Paredes were promoted.

Marco Raya has an ERA of 6.29. Klein has an ERA of 5.73 and is walking 4 batters per 9 innings. Funderburk has been lousy since his demotion. Festa is injured. 

The best options are 30-year-old lefty Aaron Rozek or CJ Culpepper, who has pitched 10 games in AAA.

[HarmonK03]

8 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

It is true, unless you count the rehabbing Abel and Sands.

Matthews, Prielipp, Morris and Paredes were promoted.

Marco Raya has an ERA of 6.29. Klein has an ERA of 5.73 and is walking 4 batters per 9 innings. Funderburk has been lousy since his demotion. Festa is injured. 

The best options are 30-year-old lefty Aaron Rozek or CJ Culpepper, who has pitched 10 games in AAA.

The pitching well may be dry, but there are position players in St. Paul that should be called up and try to inject some life into this team.  And this should start with Culpepper, Gray is not a major league SS and it is getting insane that they keep running him out there.

[JD-TWINS]

17 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

It is true, unless you count the rehabbing Abel and Sands.

Matthews, Prielipp, Morris and Paredes were promoted.

Marco Raya has an ERA of 6.29. Klein has an ERA of 5.73 and is walking 4 batters per 9 innings. Funderburk has been lousy since his demotion. Festa is injured. 

The best options are 30-year-old lefty Aaron Rozek or CJ Culpepper, who has pitched 10 games in AAA.

Rojas was promoted as well - hoping we see him back in 10-14 days in the PEN.

Sands had a set-back. Have heard nothing very encouraging on Festa.

Ober & Abel would push a current starter into PEN. Maybe Prielipp to extend his season?

[DJL44]

21 minutes ago, karcherd said:

The pitching well may be dry, but there are position players in St. Paul that should be called up and try to inject some life into this team.  And this should start with Culpepper, Gray is not a major league SS and it is getting insane that they keep running him out there.

.280/.407/.540 in May and .391/.481/.696 so far in June. That’s exactly what Culpepper needs to do to force the promotion.

[LA Vikes Fan]

I agree that its now time to get up the young guys Contending this season is not happening. A more realistic goal would be to play .500 ball in the second half and finish with about 76-78 wins. We've essentially brought up every pitcher with a chance and will still be doing that as Adams, Funderburk, Klein, etc. ride the train. Time to start with the position players.

The two that seem to make the most sense are Culpeper at SS and Fedko as an OF/1B. I'd get Fedko up this week replacing Kreidler. I'd then choose between Gray and Arcia as my utility IF, DFA and hope to trade the other by month end for a lottery ticket and bring up Culpepper by the end of next week. Then, play Culpeper, Lee, and Keaschall pretty much every day, and get as many ABs for Fedko as possible. It's time to find out what we have. for the next few years. Gray and Arcia an re not part of the next few years. Frankly, Clemens and Bell aren't either but Clemens is hitting and playing D so we should keep him in the lineup and Bell we need to get going so we can trade him for a lottery ticket next month.  

 

[DJL44]

8 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

The two that seem to make the most sense are Culpeper at SS and Fedko as an OF/1B. 

Culpepper and Roden are my picks. Cut Arcia and option Kreidler.

[Saxophone Joe]

[KirbyDome89]

5 hours ago, karcherd said:

This is the result of anyone can play anywhere and not stressing quality defense.  Yes Lewis didn't make a play on the grounder.  It was his second game at 1B, there are going to be more plays that would be made by an experienced first baseman that he is not going to make until he is comfortable.  This is on the Twins not on Lewis.

It's far more the latter than the former. You want players that can play multiple positions, defensive versatility is massively valuable when it comes to roster building. 

As far as the Lewis play goes, he's a former SS, picking the ball up shouldn't be an issue for him no matter where he's at on the IF. 

[jkcarew]

8 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

We have a cumulative position player 4.4 WAR on BR, Buxton is 2 and Jeffers is 1.8  That means a total of .6 WAR for the rest of the batters.

 

Um…the Twins bWAR across position players is NEGATIVE 4.0

Buxton’s bWAR is + 2.0

[HarmonK03]

4 hours ago, KirbyDome89 said:

It's far more the latter than the former. You want players that can play multiple positions, defensive versatility is massively valuable when it comes to roster building. 

As far as the Lewis play goes, he's a former SS, picking the ball up shouldn't be an issue for him no matter where he's at on the IF. 

Being versatile doesn't mean you are competent at a position.  Having a couple of players that can move around is nice and can help a team.  Even having a couple players

that can fill in at different positions can be helpful in late game situations or short term injuries.  

But expecting players to excel at multiple positions is not realistic.  Reps still mean something and that is what helps you excel at anything in life.

The play for Lewis was not a simple grounder and I am not trying to overstate the difficulty.  But he is holding a runner on and has to come off the base to field the grounder.  Is he thinking or reacting, footwork makes a difference and that is where reps come in.

[knothole61]

20 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Buxton doesn't walk

Hard to deny...

[KirbyDome89]

6 hours ago, karcherd said:

Being versatile doesn't mean you are competent at a position.  Having a couple of players that can move around is nice and can help a team.  Even having a couple players

that can fill in at different positions can be helpful in late game situations or short term injuries.  

But expecting players to excel at multiple positions is not realistic.  Reps still mean something and that is what helps you excel at anything in life.

The play for Lewis was not a simple grounder and I am not trying to overstate the difficulty.  But he is holding a runner on and has to come off the base to field the grounder.  Is he thinking or reacting, footwork makes a difference and that is where reps come in.

Utility players rarely excel at every position they play. Most teams (probably all of them) aren't starting 8 regulars who excel defensively. Good defenders can move around and remain good defenders. Playing multiple positions doesn't degrade your defensive prowess.

The Twins' struggles defensively aren't because guys haven't gotten enough reps, it's because the organization hasn't prioritized defense. When were Trevor Larnach or Matt Wallner ever a good defender? Julien? Miranda? Brooks Lee might be above average now that he's at 3B. Keaschall hasn't ever been a plus guy with the glove. Jeffers isn't a particularly good defensive catcher. Lewis had issues throwing and picking the ball up in the minors. Is Austin Martin an average OF now that he's not playing CF? Maybe? I mean Josh Bell was their big "get," this past offseason.