MIN 6, HOU 2: MARTIN! MARTIN! MARTIN!

Great write up! Perez has got my attention.

Looking ahead to the Yankees, it looks like the Yankees have yet to beat anyone with a winning record.

Huge start after last nights game.  We needed to get competitive innings and Perez gave us that and more.  We need to have the ability to come back after a bad loss, against a good team, and show some meddle, no matter who is toeing the rubber.

Tonight that happened.  13 hits in 3 games for the Twins.  Not great, but extra base hits keep helping us out.  I wonder how sustainable it is?  It's clear we are going to hit for power, but will we consistently hit?  We will see.

Thanks Tom!

Did anyone notice that Garver caught both Monday's and Wednesday's games? Is it possible that he's a pretty good defensive catcher?

Did anyone notice that Garver caught both Monday's and Wednesday's games? Is it possible that he's a pretty good defensive catcher?

sunday too. happy to see garver starting 3 of 4 over castro since astudillo went on the IL

also good to see mauer back at target field. his time in the booth on espn was great... bland and typical mauer. i loved it

If Perez could be a big success story for the Twins... that'd be huge for the rotation, and great for the organization - it'd be great if the Twins could start to be known as a team that can fix pitchers.

i'm starting to wonder if wes johnson is some sort of wizard

Looks like Martin Perez has caught lightning in a bottle. His new 96mph heater really compliments his 90mph cutter. Plus, it looks like Perez is really enjoying himself on the mound. He was grinning between pitches. Fun to see.

Perez is looking like our solid #3, maybe even 2 right now, and Pineda more like a #5.

I don't care what order they come in, if Gibby can keep gaining strength, and Odorizzi can keep his ship righted enough to get thru 6 regularly, we've got the makings of a starting staff that could help us contend all year.

I've gotta be honest, in the off season it seemed to me like we were bargain hunting, with Perez, Schoop, and Cron it looked like we were trying reclamation projects. Even Cruz was an old has been. The FO seems to have known what they were doing. The Twins are Legit as long as we can stabilize the pen

Yeah, when Perez, Parker, Cruz, Schoop, and Cron are all giving you what you most optimistically expected and only Marwin has been a disappointment so far, I think we might owe the FO and the professional scouts a big tip of the cap about the quality of these decisions as we get further along.

Cleveland, with Clevinger and Kluber out for months each, that's bad luck.

But, a team wins three years in a row, that means they've been fortunate to some degree and things do have a way of evening out. 

Speaking of an evening out, come home and Kluber is injured while Perez pretty much dominates the best hitting team in baseball -- that's a swing evening that you could not have imagined.

May 1st, the day the season swung.

Monday was a wonderful night to watch baseball as the Twins played the best game I have seen in awhile.  Don't know if last night was its equal or better, but it sure seemed better...Perez just looked in total control and a few hitters brought more excitement than Monday.

Rosario is on an 0-20 skid, someone mentioned he's down to .236. Not worried, just would be nice to get him going again. 

Was nice to see Buxton get a nice looking single and an SB. I hope Rowson sits down with him soon to talk about laying off that outside breaking ball.

Pen had a nice day off yesterday. If Berrios is on today, they should be ready for New York.

In a radio interview Martin Perez said his favorite player growing up was fellow Venezuelan, lefty Johan Santana. Good choice Martin.

It simply reminds me how old I am to have current players say their “heroes” were players that (to my mind anyway) didn’t play that long ago.

I have a hot take to share:

I recommend we use the strategy of having a starting pitching performance like that every night.

That is all.

Cleveland, with Clevinger and Kluber out for months each, that's bad luck.

 

But, a team wins three years in a row, that means they've been fortunate to some degree and things do have a way of evening out. 

 

Speaking of an evening out, come home and Kluber is injured while Perez pretty much dominates the best hitting team in baseball -- that's a swing evening that you could not have imagined.

 

May 1st, the day the season swung.

Cleveland getting backed into a corner .... Time to pounce .... Run up a double-digit lead before Kluber and Clevenger even resume baseball activities .... Maybe they'll sell us Bauer (unlikely)

No need to eat crow, you're a Twins fan, we're conditioned to expect the worst and when things are going well there's always the feeling of "when are things gonna fall apart?!" It just comes with the territory

Would that be Twins Territory?

Did anyone notice that Garver caught both Monday's and Wednesday's games? Is it possible that he's a pretty good defensive catcher?

I thought Garver called 2 phenomenal games.  

Not to detract in any way but it was a pitcher friendly but I think very fair umpire and it was a 46 degree night that kept a couple of marginal balls in the park. Schoop's might have gone 500 feet on an 80 degree day. Perez was a pleasure to watch and was fearless in the strike zone. Anyone notice the game time? Very few deep counts and incessant ab's with foul tips after foul tips. Had a couple of 9 or 10 pitch innings.

Two asides  by the ESPN announcers were very interesting. One was that the days of the sinker ball ground ball pitcher may be over which is great news. The other which has been suspected and now basically confirmed is that AAA baseball has switched to the major league ball and the home run count has almost doubled from high 400s to mid 900s for the month of April. Sutcliffe said that when he holds a current major league ball that it doesn't even feel like a baseball to him. Take that for what it is worth.

Watched the game on ESPN (yes I turned the sound down after awhile). Martin and Garver looked great together. It looked like they expected to get each hitter out. They looked very confident out there. Been a Garver fan since they drafted him (gotta support fellow Albuquerqueans). Is that a word?

Mitch Garver - Allstar catcher. Yes.

Most similar player on Baseball Reference to Martin Perez through age 27? Bruce Hurst, Most similar by age? Cole Hamels. Just saying.