Twins Game Recap (7/26): Pineda Fuels Twins Easy Win In Chicago

Nice win for the boys!

Pineda has been surprisingly solid.

I don't find it surprising at all. He had over a year off baseball and scuffled a bit. After a couple of months of scuffling, he's good again.

 

He's not a guy I want around forever but for a one year deal, he's a great addition.

Disagree, depending on price would like to see a two to three year extension

Good, solid win today.

Jeepers, I didn't notice, though, we have 10 games left with the Tribe! 10!

Fortunately, 7 of 'em at our park, but that's a lot of time to tell which team is going to finish on top.

On another note, I don't get the crying about how Cleve. has a 'soft' schedule these days- all teams play the same sched, and the month of August will be as soft on us as it will be tough for them- so, July and Aug are going to be a wash. Let's see if the boys can make some hay next month when it's our turn through the Chi-KC-Detroit portion, while Cleveland deals with the Yanks, Red Sox, and Rays.

I really appreciate these summaries but please be accurate in the reporting. Pineda has not pitched 8 times since the all star break. #factsmatter

Pineda has been very underrated in regards to his importance to this team. He's an almost guaranteed quality start every time he pitches recently. If the playoffs were tomorrow, I'd have him as the Twins #3 starter in an ALDS. 

Having Buxton back really helps this team.

Time to run off six, seven, eight in a row.

Rip the beating heart out of Cleveland's chest and stomp it into dust as a parade of players round the bases, bomba upon bomba.

The White Sox sure are the cure for what ails ya, huh?

Kepler is having an excellent season, just excellent. I was ok with the contract extension because Kepler's ability to play CF gave him significant value even if his hitting never really broke out. Maybe its the baseball, maybe he's just unlocked his power stroke, but regardless of what it is he's slugging it like you expect from a guy playing RF. Now that deal looks like a steal.

What the Indians, Giants and Cardinals are doing right now is pretty damn impressive. Let's see who looks pretty damn impressive in August. I don't know who it will be but it will probably be three different teams.

Hopefully, one of those three will be the Twins.

Does anyone have any information on the status of La Tortuga?  You see him on the bench for every game, seemingly having a good time supporting his mates.  Sure doesn't look all that injured.

Could the plan be to keep him on the bench until August 11?  Then send him out for a 20-day rehab so he is back on September 1 when rosters expand.  Meanwhile, he could be available at any time should a need arise for a second catcher.

Pineda now has 10 quality starts out of 20 which is about league average for all starters and exactly equal to Noah Syndergaard.     I prefer to cherry pick and say that since May 11th he has 9 quality starts out of 13 which is way better than average and top of the rotation territory.

I think we tend to spend too much time discussing hard or soft schedule. 

 

The hardness or softness of schedule is a moving target. 

 

Play the Tigers while you are playing like crap... They will sweep you. 

 

Play the Giants while they are winning everything and they will sweep you. 

 

The Padre fans were probably pretty excited to see the Giants on the schedule around the first of July. In hindsight... not so much. That was about the time the Giants got on a month long roll.  

 

I'll leave assessing the schedule strength to others and look at them skeptically each time they try.

 

What the Indians, Giants and Cardinals are doing right now is pretty damn impressive. Let's see who looks pretty damn impressive in August. I don't know who it will be but it will probably be three different teams. 

I agree completely with many of your points.   Pretty much every season has top teams losing or getting swept by bottom teams.   When the Twins couldn't buy a victory against any East team last decade the last place Royals seemed to do pretty well against some of them.      You absolutely have to take care of business when playing bad teams and you can't assume Cleveland will lose against the good teams.   My all time favorite example of this was in 2006 when we were tied with the Tigers and 3 to go.  We were playing a pretty good White Sox team and Tigers were playing the 100 loss Royals.    Everyone was saying we absolutely had to sweep the White Sox to have a chance at the division title.   We ended up winning 1 game but the Tigers, with everything to gain, got swept by the Royals.... At home!      However, over time schedule does matter.    Yes, give credit to the Indians for their winning streak but it has been against the bad teams.   Twins giving up ground while playing the Yankees, A;s, etc, was predictable.     Twins are winning 70% of their games against losing record teams.   Over time those stats matter.  Throw them away for short term.  Twins should do better in August but whether they do and whether it is enough remains to be seen.   They do play the Indians 10 more games.    

Its amazing how good the bullpen looks when the starting pitcher goes 7 strong... 

Keep it up boys!

I thought I heard he had resumed baseball activities but could be confusing that with someone else, as I heard it during the Yankees series and I was pretty drunk for that entire set of games.

When he is available, expect he will be the odd man out.  Expect either a rehab assignment or just optioned to Rochester until September 1.

Pineda has been surprisingly solid.

I don't find it surprising at all. He had over a year off baseball and scuffled a bit. After a couple of months of scuffling, he's good again.

 

This is very similar to Sano's situation. He was injured for the last 2-3 months of 2017, had major surgery which rendered him unable to work out during that off-season, was therefore out of shape at the beginning of 2018 and never got things together. It was somewhat better for him during the most recent off-season but then there was the fluky heel injury and he had essentially no spring training. When he finally was activated the rust was painfully apparent, especially compared to everyone else who was in mid-season form. Now that he has had a chance to get his timing and conditioning up to speed we have been seeing a marked improvement in his performance. There's good reason to think not only that he won't regress but that he can continue to progress even further both at the plate and in the field.

It is beyond me that so many people seem to think that the issues he had with his health were insignificant and feel that he should be traded or even, as many have advocated, DFA'd. He has 50-HR-per-season talent and a cannon for an arm. He's not a perfect fielder but he has the ability to be the best third baseman in baseball.