Brock Beauchamp

Twofer!

Smalley is my least favorite but he's okay. The rest I like quite a bit, all for different reasons.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic focused on the struggling Texas Rangers in his latest trade deadline roundup. He points out that while it's rare for defending world champions to sell, the Rangers are teetering on that precipice as we head toward mid-July. Texas is in third place in the AL West, six games behind the Seattle Mariners. They're even further out of the Wild Card picture, 7.5 games out of the third Wild Card spot. While those aren't insurmountable numbers, the Houston Astros have been playing much better baseball after an abysmal start to the season while the Rangers have yet to do much better than treading water at any point thus far. What makes the Rangers particularly interesting is their corps of starting pitchers. Michael Lorenzen is having a stellar season (123 ERA+) while making only $4.5 million this season. He's a free agent at season's end. Nathan Eovaldi is having a similarly good season (128 ERA+), though he is making $16 million this season and if he pitches another ~70-ish innings, a $20 million vesting option kicks in for 2025. If he continues pitching as he has this season, that's probably not a deterrent to any acquiring team. The wild card candidate is Max Scherzer, who has a no-trade clause. He was willing to waive that last season but only if the Rangers added an additional season to his contract. There's no telling what Scherzer will do at this deadline; he's 39 years old now and is a free agent at season's end. View full rumor

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com wrote up a list of trade deadline candidates whose stock is rising. He only lists one candidate as a potential fit for the Twins and it's an intriguing one: Jesse Winker. Winker, once a promising rising star with Cincinnati, fell upon hard times in 2022 after joining the Seattle Mariners. He was later traded to the Milwaukee Brewers and had an even worse season in 2023. He signed with the Nationals hoping for a rebound season and he has accomplished exactly that: a 134 OPS+ on the back of a .263/.377/.425 triple-slash line. Winker, a left-handed outfielder (who is better positioned as a designated hitter, frankly), would slot nicely into the Twins lineup, which is elite against left-handed pitching while slightly above-average against right-handed pitching. Hit the link above to check out the rest of Feinsand's list. View full rumor

Which makes a lot of sense.

Happy Fourth, early game due to weather!

Festa! Again!

I agree that Wallner is valuable, I just think in the grand scheme of things his position and defense knocks his raw offensive output down a little.

That's where I landed as well. He's not enough to get what the Twins need at the cost they need.

Appearing on Skor North's The Scoop, Doogie Wolfson of KSTP 5 mentioned that the Twins are receiving calls on minor-league outfielder Matt Wallner. Wallner, after a highly successful half-season in 2023, stumbled out of the gate in 2024 and was demoted back to the Triple-A St Paul Saints where he has rebounded nicely, posting an .869 OPS in 64 games played. While the Twins may be fielding calls on Wallner, it's hard to imagine them actually trading the Minnesota native. He has less than a year of service time under his belt and with the expiring contract of Max Kepler looming, the Twins will need another left-handed bat as soon as next year. It can be argued that the Twins don't need Wallner next season, they need him today. While the Twins have done an excellent job of mashing left-handed pitching (.799 OPS, 2nd in MLB), they're merely adequate against right-handed pitching (.720 OPS, 10th in MLB). Wallner's left-handed power stature could play well in the Twins lineup in the second half of the season. Ultimately, it will boil down to the front office deciding whether Wallner is more critical than the Twins' immediate need of pitching help, both in the rotation and bullpen. View full rumor

The Tigers are freefalling but are putting two *very* tough pitchers up against the Twins, particularly tonight.

High five to chemicals!

I’m drunk so I definitely believe Pablo deserves another inning.

We let them stay up later but only to an extent. If our eldest doesn't get enough sleep or gets over-tired, she turns into a velociraptor.

I need at least one of those little goblins to start loving baseball, I'm not going to do this job forever. 😁

I believe most baseball games should target a 6:40 start. I go to WAY fewer games because of this 7:10 nonsense and it's much harder to get my kids into the sport when their bedtime is 8pm.

Derp derp, I was doing the math wrong in my head. I had just woken up.

WTF is up with this start time?