Recap: Slegers Shines in Debut, Twins Split Doubleheader

I would like to see Slegers start again on this turn in the rotation.

DH?  Who's on the waiver wire?  Mike Napoli?  How about Stanton?

Parkas (PAlka + paRK + vargAS) doesn't inspire...Garver, I guess.

I've no comments on Perkins.  Good luck to him, and to Molitor, on how this will go down.

Kepler, Polanco, and Co. need to turn on the sprinklers tonight before they leave, then maybe hit a strip club, get an obnoxious tatoo, sleep in, and then go to the zoo and feed raw meat to the polar bears or something.  They should do it all in a montage.  Let their facial hair grow out, put in new, random surprise walk-up music in for each other.  That sort of thing.

Or, get lots of sleep, get up early and watch TIVOed Bachelor episodes, and drink a kale smoothy.  Whatever it takes.  It's August.

Well, since the Twins have to be pitcher heavy, I guess I would like to see Granite. But who is the DH then, Escobar? Okay, let's bring up Garver!

But watch, The Twins will bring up Daniel Palka!

Defensive expert Grossman doesn't give way to Buxton. What the hell was he doing out there anyway? Kepler sitting at this point is just poor management. I will be very happy when the 3 year Molitor era is over.

I have a lot of complaints about Molitor, but it was the second game of a double header and 1/3 of their bench plays OF. 

Grossman had no business going for that ball. It's his own damn fault he broke his thumb. You gotta know that's the CFers ball, especially when it's Byron Buxton.

Well, It's the CF'ers job to be traffic cop out there and I didn't see Buxton calling anyone off.

Grossman had no business going for that ball. It's his own damn fault he broke his thumb. You gotta know that's the CFers ball, especially when it's Byron Buxton.

Here's the problem: For some reason Grossman was yelling, "I got it I got it I got it," and Buxton didn't say anything. Both men are converging on the ball, eyes up, and Buxton cuts in front of Grossman without a word. I agree that Buxton should catch that ball, but as the boss of the outfield, he's supposed to yell loudly to call off Grossman. Why didn't he? This is another detail that Twins coaches will have to work on with Buxton. 

Did Slegers have to be put on the 40 for this, or am I so dumb that he's been on the 40 all year?  If not, where do you make the space, because I have to believe he'll be up as soon as possible.

Went back and watched Slegers from inning 1 through 6. Very tall, downhill plane, throws like a shortstop with the ball cocked behind his ear, long stride gets on the hitter suddenly. Slegers has excellent control, and I expect it will get even better as he calms down on the mound. We didn't see much of his off-speed stuff tonight, but it looks like h delivers it with almost exactly the same motion as his fastball, making it very hard to read as the ball suddenly appears from behind his head. 

Though his fastball tops out at about 93, his forward release point and masking the ball behind his head cuts the hitter's recognition time down almost like he's throwing mid to upper 90s. If Slegers develops a good change, that could be a deadly strikeout pitch. As is, his control of the fastball keeps hitters from barreling it up, which is why he produces a lot of easy outs. That forward release gives hitters very little time to figure out what he's throwing. I saw a lot of emergency swings. 

Also, just had a thought.

 

When the Twins are on the road in September and rosters have expanded, could they have Vargas start at catcher and lead off the game and then after the Twins bat, immediately sub in Castro? Is there anything in the rulebooks that says you can't do this? I get why a team might not want to burn a position player with 25 man rosters but when they balloon, it gets an extra at bat for a better hitter.

 

It would also be interesting for an AL team in interleague or postseason play. They could get an at bat for their DH early in the game. You lose him as a pinch hitter but it seems like it might be worth it to for sure get a chance to use him rather than maybe get a chance later in the game.

I suppose the only issue with that is now you have that catcher hitting at the top of the order the rest of the game unless you really go whole hog and pull a double switch. I don't see how it would be illegal, but if that strategy caught on I'm sure you'd see a new rule against it pretty quickly.

So much to say here - but first let me say that I like the idea of competing for the Wild Card and I think it is worth making decisions based on that, but not doing a trade.  With that said here is what I would like to see:

• Put Sleger in for Gibson.  If Kyle has not established that this is not his year I do not know what else needs to be done.  
• Bring up Gonsalves and put him in the fifth spot in the rotation.
• Tell Perkins it is nice that he is coming back, but we are trying to win something and this is not the time to lose that roster spot.
• Put together a real bench.  I think we will have Escobar at 3B and Sano at DH now, but I would like some power on the bench and I would have Vargas there and I would have Granite as the fourth outfielder.   As I have written elsewhere the defense has been the difference this year and the team ERA would shoot up to 5.33 if the defensive runs saved were the same as last year.
• Get Giminez off the roster and put Garver in and let him platoon with Castro.  Lets get over the love affair with Castros pitch framing - it has not made a difference - look at all the pitching stats.

For next year I am fine with Molitor but not his pitching coach.  Move on.

Mostly agree even though bullet one and two are unlikely.   Slegers looked great but lets not forget SSS.  Agree most on Perkins.    I like the guy and all and hope he can make a come back but like I say about every one coming back from year long injuries, let him show success in the minors before just giving him a spot because he is deemed healthy. 

If he contributes next year then great but what do they really think he can do this year when his ERA in the minors is over 6.    

Why Escobar at 3rd instead of Sano?     I really like Granite and he is a logical permanent replacement for Grossman but I really wish he batted right with two of the regulars batting left.   Not likely that he will go in just as a defensive replacement but if you pinch hit for Kepler because of his splits against lefties it would use less players if a right handed 4th outfielder could go in for him.   Its why I always envisioned Hicks as having a lot of value for that.   Of course now he is showing I was wrong about him from the left side.

You could see on TV Buxton wasn't calling the ball.

And he needs to call it, to avoid just what happened. Basic baseball stuff, for some reason Buxton didn't do.

Yeah, just like in volleyball.   You don't call "mine" for the sake of the 90% of the time you don't need to.   You call it to make a habit of it for the 10% of the time it means something.

To be fair though, Buxton may have called it before his image showed up on the screen.   We just know he didn't call it a second before the catch.

Congrats on your one year anniversary at TD! To celebrate this notable anniversary, all of the members pitched in to give you a weekend getaway at one of the hottest vacation destinations in America.... Chief's house! 

There are a few ground rules when you visit Chief's house:

- Don't sit on his recliner

- Don't eat leftovers in the fridge without asking Chief first if he wants it

- You have to buy at least one game of bowling for him

- You have to laugh at all of his jokes

 

Enjoy! 

Ok.   You gave me enough clues that I can narrow down who Chief is to 5 people.    Martin Crane, Archie Bunker, Al Bundy, Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin.     Was I close?