Padres 6, Twins 2: Stuck in the Middle-Innings With You

2 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Never understood the extreme fan hype with Prielipp? He hardly pitched for 4+ years…..he is fatigued, to be expected ….as much mentally as his body……so Yes & Yes.

He has arm talent but way too often he only has 1 or 2 of his 5 pitch mix……that’s difficult to navigate!

Not sure either of those guys are assumed to be in the Rotation?

Matthews is a horse but very spotty in starts…..to me, he’d thrive in the occasional 5th inning+ but often appearing in the 6th-7th inning role. His 4 ram velocity could be maximized and he could trim 2 of his 6 pitches……hopefully, he’d gain command.

Prielipp would be a solid #6 to start the season ………he’d have a real opportunity at some time by mid-May to mid-June due to injury in Minneapolis or lack of performance.

I think Rojas is even money with either of these two for a starting role in ‘27.

Bradley - Kremer - Lopez - Ryan - Abel/Ober all seem to be ahead of Matthews/Prielipp/Rojas, if everyone’s healthy.

Matthews has been blown up in three of his starts, the other 14 he has given up 4 runs or less and is averaging 5 2/3 innings per start.  That seems pretty good for a #4 or 5 starter, especially after what Sim was giving us earlier in the year.

Prielipp has gotten up blown the last two starts after probably being left in too long and had two other bad starts in May.  Otherwise he has consistently been pitching into the 5th and 6th inning giving up 2 to 4 runs a game keeping his team in the game.  I am not sure what more you want.

If Able and Rojas can come into spring training and beat them out, then they should be in the starting rotation.  But what do these two have to do to become part of the rotation, they have earned their shot next year until you bring somebody in that is clearly better or they are beat out.  Abel has had two good starts, we have no idea what he can do.  Rojas has looked better in St. Paul but has had troubles throwing strikes up here.  Those two need to prove themselves before I hand them a spot when you have other options.

We have a backup catcher and a defense first utility player on the bench and two spots we refuse to use.  At what point do you try and help the offense, bring someone up from St. Paul to see if they can contribute.  I understand you are trying to give the players who got you here a chance to right the ship, but there needs to be a sense of urgency.

And if it has to be someone on the 40 man roster, than call up Wallner or ERod.  I am not calling for anyone specifically but this offense has been scuffling since the All-Star break and they need to try something to see if it can spark this offense.  They looked like they were going thru the motions last night, maybe a move will give some of these guys a sense of urgency, competition isn't a bad thing.  But they know they aren't going to be sat when two players won't even be used.

2 hours ago, Linus said:

People kind of overlook that Prielipp has had control issues his entire career (I think his whip was 1.5 last year in AAA).   This is who he is at this point - good stuff but will struggle to locate his pitches. Since he has relatively few innings pitched we can hope that he will improve his control going forward 

Some of that may be just the fact that he can get a lot of swing and miss in AAA. Similar to Rojas or Funderburk before his most current stint. They all have Wipeout stuff as long as the batters are swinging at it. AAA batters are. They give up a lot of walks but get a lot of K's.  ML batters aren't. It's an off-season tweak of his command so his pitches look in the zone as the batter is committing.

On 8/22/2026 at 7:26 AM, Greglw3 said:

It’s clearly time to call up German Marquez and have him start in a demoted Connor Prielipp’s spot. Prielipp is not the slightest bit competitive at this point.

The other option would to be to call up Rojas and piggyback him with our newly effective relief core.

Just to be clear, I think Prielipp has outstanding stuff, and the potential to be a top of the rotation pitcher. He has a great slider, curve and his fastball is more than sufficient. It just appears to me that he’s worn down for this season. The two games lost, he gave up 8 and 6 runs while pitching very well at the start.

I noted that in his 2nd to last major league appearance, Marquez pitched 5 innings of 1 hit ball. So, he has something left in the tank. That was my logic in the post. See if Marquez, being fresh, can give a competent start.