MIN 12, CHW 4: Garver Drives In 6, Mauer Showered With Applause

Good to see da boyz finishing strong. Can't remember the last time the Twins swept a doubleheader. The Mauer Moment was nice.

Great to see that sweep!

Kepler's batting .222 this year - only 4 players (Chris Davis, Kyle Seager, Joey Gallo and Kole Calhoun) are worse among qualified batters. Kepler has just 56 RBI this year. I'm sure someone will dish out some arcane stat  (WAR+BBDO +TK421- OCHO5) actually places him in the top 5 outfielders in the league....but I'm not going to buy it. He's been quite frankly a huge disappointment and it's largely been overlooked. I'm not sure he's a part of this team's future at the rate he's going. I wish the Twins would have taken a look at some young outfielders this September. Looking at the bats on the bench, it's a pretty discouraging state of affairs.

What a fun day to watch baseball.  A great 2-1 pitchers duel followed by the home team blowing out an opponent.  OK, it was the White Sox.  But it still was fun to watch.

Hasn't it been interesting watching these four young starters, Stewart, Gonsalves, Littel, and De Jung, get valuable experience.  I see those four together with Mejia, Slegers and Romero battling it out for the #5 spot in the rotation next spring.  Or two spots should Pineda not be what they expect.  That situation tells me I will be surprised if the Twins go out and get any starting pitching this winter, unless they complete a trade to upgrade another starter.  They should also have Thorpe by late summer and Graterol sometime in 2020.  Not a lot of work left for the starting rotation and that is good so they can focus on the bullpen.

Based on those quotations, it seems like Mr. DeJong likes himself some Chase.

Great to see that sweep!

 

Kepler's batting .222 this year - only 4 players (Chris Davis, Kyle Seager, Joey Gallo and Kole Calhoun) are worse among qualified batters. Kepler has just 56 RBI this year. I'm sure someone will dish out some arcane stat  (WAR+BBDO +TK421- OCHO5) actually places him in the top 5 outfielders in the league....but I'm not going to buy it. He's been quite frankly a huge disappointment and it's largely been overlooked. I'm not sure he's a part of this team's future at the rate he's going. I wish the Twins would have taken a look at some young outfielders this September. Looking at the bats on the bench, it's a pretty discouraging state of affairs.

I agree Kepler has been a bummer this year, but the 71 BB at least provide a glimmer of hope. Maybe he blossoms like Aaron Hicks? One can dream, I guess.

I still maintain Kepler’s “struggles” are extremely fixable. He has a ridiculously low career BABIP of .256 - that’s about .050 lower than league average. He has a 24% line drive rate, which is about 2% lower than league average and he hits ground balls at a slightly lower than league average rate. So, I have no idea what explains his BABIP. My hope is that someone employed by the Twins can. His walk and strikeout rates are both fantastic and are indicitive of someone who knows what he is doing at the plate, not just guessing and getting lucky. He doesn’t have Sano-Buxton “just swing at everything and hope I hit it” issues.

He has a good deal of talent. Superstar? Probably not. Maybe fringe All Star. Something or someone will help him unleash it. I certainly don’t want to see him reach his potential elsewhere.

I'm not at all disappointed in Kepler.