Twins 10, Rays 4: Tristan Gray Grand Slam Powers Home Opener Victory

Good to see the support from a nice crowd on a chilly day.  Win Twins!

Props to the author for using the term ducksnort. Brought me back to Legion ball which was long ago. 

Baseball in this weather is brutal. Hard to get on the players.

One has to be impressed by the fan turnout today. Sitting or standing in 30 some degree wet weather with a wind blowing while watching a game isn't recommended for anyone's health. Kudos to the fans. 

The Twins are trying their best in my opinion. No sense in criticizing a player for physical errors. If the Twins can vastly reduce mental errors they can improve.

On the subject of errors, people need to totally disregard those. There is no standard or even a fair judgment on how those rulings go in today's MLB baseball. At this point I'm fine with getting rid of ERA (use runs allowed) and errors. Just make it standard. A guy reaches base, it is a hit. Of course, that is ridiculous but we have already seen a dozen errors ruled hits this young season. 

Does anyone else note that Ober's loss of velocity (he never threw hard) has concerned too many people. When Ober keeps the ball out of the middle and keeps batters off balance he gets outs. His stamina seems to lag and that seems strange because he sure looks like a big strong man. I think Ober will always get hit when he throws it middle, middle and it doesn't make much difference if he throws 88 or 92 mph. The funky delivery and mix of pitches on the edge or just off the corners will work. He needs the stamina back though.   

The Tampa Bay players and Manager Kevin Cash looked shocked that the game wasn't postponed. 

35 minutes ago, Linus said:

Props to the author for using the term ducksnort. Brought me back to Legion ball which was long ago. 

Wasn't it Bert who refered to it as a duque phart?

19 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

I agree.  In the 1970's, when I made out the batting order for my team, the only stat I used was the HITHDHGOB statistic.  HITHDHGOB was an acronym for How In The Hell Did He Get On Base measure that I created.  If a player reached base without causing someone else to be out, he was awarded a point.  That total was divided by the total number of at bats (including walks and sacrifice flies).  I used this as my method for choosing the lineup (the higher the number, the higher in the lineup).  There were two players who year after year finished first or second in HITHDHGOB and led off the lineup.  The person with the highest actual batting average usually batted third or fourth.  Weird, eh?

I believe Tom Kelly came up with a similar system to analyze a hitter’s effectiveness. I wish I could remember the details but it was pretty simple as it was done manually but quite effective. It had something to do with the hitter advancing himself or others without making outs. It may not have been TK it might have been Mauch. 

Another ugly game among many.  Shocking how awful the Rays look and have played this early part of the season -- leading the league in errors, and in bullpen ERA.  Junior Caminero with 7 errors already?   

Kevin Cash, longest tenured manager in MLB, must be feeling insecure.

Sorry, but Ober's velocity does matter.  The Rays had four hard-hit doubles in four innings.  Ober threw 80 pitches before being pulled.  We can hope that a 6' 9" right-handed Jamie Moyer will be able to hold a spot in the rotation, but, reality is, with fast ball velocity dropping below 90, below 89, it's just not going to play against good teams.  I have loved watching him pitch, but now, it's cringe-worthy.

Wallner?  Five K's, some in big situations, and the Twins still score 10?  What an ugly game, only slightly more palatable than the 12-9 disaster in KC amidst a typhoon.

Will see what happens, but Keaschall is the Twins best player, and the next best 3 or 4 are currently playing in St. Paul. Hope Buck is okay but he has been striking out all spring, in WBC and now in the regular season.  Not a good look, and not looking good for the Twins -- terrible baserunning, indifferent defense, spotty hitting with RISP -- the best part of their team, hilariously enough, has been their bullpen!

Maybe play Larnach more than Wallner. He has struck out 8 times in the last 2 games.  About 60% of his at bats thos year 

Ugly games from Wallner and Clemens, but it is nice to see the Twins get a win behind an unexpected offensive outburst, and a suprisingly effective bullpen.

I was at the game today. Very fun game to watch. Ober definitely battled. He didn't have his best stuff. Wallner, it was tough to watch those at bats. Ouch. Gray had himself a game, thats for sure. He may very well be the starting SS soon if he keeps playing like he has been. It was fun watching baseball in the rain. Although, I've never seen a game continue to played after lightning strikes. 

Go Twins!

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

Diff'rent Strokes for diff'rent folks.  😁

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

 

And I'm suffering the ignominy of having claimed on Thursday that Gray was "not ready for primetime." Maybe I can have a little credit for an effective use of the "reverse jinx"?

The problem with Ober is that he has to be pin point accurate with command of his off speed pitches. Because of his height, his 91-92 mph fastball of a couple of years ago was effective. But 89-90 isn't going to cut it without his changeup/slider/sweeper all working well. Caminero lining a FB well above the strike zone for a double is evidence of that. When he falls behind in the count he's always going to struggle to get outs. Having said that he always fights and both of his starts haven't got out of hand and kept us in the game and I can respect that.

So happy for Gray, He's been a very pleasant surprise so far. Lee's going to struggle to get back in the line up right now. 

Seeing plenty of fight in the team which is good to see. Almost as if they've got a huge chip on their shoulders after being written off by pretty much everyone.

Important win!!! 2 in a row and yes twins are playing with chip on their shoulder!!! If you go to facebook it’s soooo toxic and negative!!! They are scumbag 🗑️🤮💩A holes!!! F them!! Let’s get win today back to .500 and take this series! Go Twins!!! 

Wallner needs to figure out how to do something with guys on base. He's great at hitting a solo shot here and there when it doesn't matter, but if he comes up with ducks on the pond...he's useless. Ober is going to be a problem going forward. All in all...a good win on an awful weather day. There will be another one today. 

10 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

I agree.  In the 1970's, when I made out the batting order for my team, the only stat I used was the HITHDHGOB statistic.  HITHDHGOB was an acronym for How In The Hell Did He Get On Base measure that I created.  If a player reached base without causing someone else to be out, he was awarded a point.  That total was divided by the total number of at bats (including walks and sacrifice flies).  I used this as my method for choosing the lineup (the higher the number, the higher in the lineup).  There were two players who year after year finished first or second in HITHDHGOB and led off the lineup.  The person with the highest actual batting average usually batted third or fourth.  Weird, eh?

Interesting. Coaches tended to create their own "analytics". I did too, decades ago, for roughly similar reasons. It is one reason I fail to kneel at the altar of the current trends, although I don't dismiss them. The managers and coaches are working with the team on hand. It is different from level to level: who tries out, volunteers, recruits, and those signed by upper management. There are no more Connie Macks. BTW, even now there are rare moments when I run into or hear from a former player about my "strange" formulas and the initials for them.

So far two guys I didn't want on the roster are playing pretty well: Larnach and Gray. It's early, but Twins are looking like they knew what they were doing in keeping those two. We'll see if it holds?

Ober is concerning. His changeup was great and the sweeper is very effective, but I just don't know if he can eat up enough innings with this version of his fastball, which is more of a medium ball right now. Maybe when the weather warms up a bit? We'll need the other guys in the rotation to go deeper in games if this ends up being where Ober is I'm afraid.

Caminero is having a rough start to it for TB; feels like they changed that second error to hit for Keaschall on some kind of mercy rule so that he might not lead SportsCenter with a "guess who had 7 errors in 7 games!" He's poor fielder (18 errors last season! yikes) but this is brutal. 

Really nice work from the pen in difficult conditions. Defense held up in difficult conditions also. Those two innings from Orze were critical.

I appreciate the players like Gray who battle so hard to make the major leagues. It has to take a toll moving from organization to organization and minor league town to minor league town to fight to stay in the game you love. It is frustrating when the Twins acquire these players (as all teams do) and the first words in response to the news reported by TD is for us to really tear down these men who have given so much of themselves.

Well done Tristan. Glad you are a Twin.

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

So far two guys I didn't want on the roster are playing pretty well: Larnach and Gray. It's early, but Twins are looking like they knew what they were doing in keeping those two. We'll see if it holds?

Ober is concerning. His changeup was great and the sweeper is very effective, but I just don't know if he can eat up enough innings with this version of his fastball, which is more of a medium ball right now. Maybe when the weather warms up a bit? We'll need the other guys in the rotation to go deeper in games if this ends up being where Ober is I'm afraid.

Caminero is having a rough start to it for TB; feels like they changed that second error to hit for Keaschall on some kind of mercy rule so that he might not lead SportsCenter with a "guess who had 7 errors in 7 games!" He's poor fielder (18 errors last season! yikes) but this is brutal. 

I'm glad that Larnach is hitting pretty well.  Because he is a poor fielder, I haven't changed my perspective that he is in the way of the youngsters who look to be two way players.  I hope that Larnach is increasing his trade value and the Twins take advantage of that.  

At this point early on, Larnach looks locked in while Wallner looks completely lost at the plate. Not sure if Larnach can play RF opening up LF for Martin, but Wallner may need a reset in St. Paul. It worked last year anyways:). On the pitching side, I really worry about Ober. If he's only throwing 88-89 this early I don't think he's going to last. With Abel being a crapshoot and Zebby not looking good in AAA, I think they should really sign Giolito. That is if they really want to compete this year, which I'm not sure they really do....