Brock Beauchamp

Seriously, Paul Molitor. What the hell is wrong with you, man?

Wait wait WAIT. WHAT THE **** IS BRIAN DOZIER DOING IN THIS GAME?

Even so, run diff shouldn't weigh that heavily into the results.

These next couple of plate appearances will win or lose this game.

Yeah, BP's model seems excessively down on the Twins. I'm curious which part of their model is causing that drag.

Nah, Santana was worse. At least Vargas could only hurt the team with his bat.

I refuse to get my hopes up.

I don't see why not. May as well let him get a taste of flying from city to city instead of busing it. Bonus points if the Twins are still in contention.

It's (probably) the right move. Graham has been terrible lately. Since the ASB, he has pitched 16.2 innings, given up 25 hits, and allowed... wait for it... 20 earned runs.

Yep, pretty sure spy cake is right. The only part I wasn't 100% sure about was the guys on the 60 day.

It's possible Berrios could handle it. It's also possible he could melt down on the mound and give the Twins zero chance of winning the game. In a one-game playoff, I'd be as concerned about who won't give the game away as I would be who'd pitch the best game.

One advantage of keeping Kepler in Chatanooga is he gets to play in the Southern League postseason. Does that matter? Dunno, but it's a consideration.

The Twins are in the midst of a five game winning streak, a number commonly referred to as “half a dozen” by Bert Blyleven. Today’s game will see beautiful western Florida weather at 86 degrees game time but none of that matters because Tropicana Field makes the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome look like the Ritz Carlton, even accounting for the current state of said Metrodome. In celebration of this winning streak, I have compiled a half dozen talking points about today’s game. 1. Tyler Duffey. The righty is taking the mound for the fourth time in a Minnesota Twins uniform. After being on the unfortunate end of a whooping stick in Toronto, he has strung together 13.2 innings of very good baseball, confounding hitters with a curve that bounces no fewer than three times before it reaches home plate. He has struck out an impressive 15 hitters and allowed only two runs during that time. He’s still confused why they haven’t opened the roof in Tropicana Field. It’s a beautiful day outside, after all. 2. Chris Archer. The right-hander has quietly become one of the better pitchers in the American League since entering the Tampa rotation in 2013, pitching 492 innings of 3.11 ERA ball while striking out 8.8 batters per nine innings. He has also won 30 games for the Rays, which is important because Wins. He comes at hitters with a 95-96 mph fastball and a very good slider that clocks in at nearly 90 mph. Also, he doesn’t walk anyone. He’s kind of a pain in the ass, when you get right down to it. 3. Miguel Sano. He is what insiders like to refer to as “very good at baseball”, which is slightly odd because he seems to carry an intense dislike for actual baseballs; he rarely catches them and often physically rejects them with a large wooden stick he carries around the field most of the time. Paul Molitor, Twins manager, seems to believe his left hand is severely allergic to leather. In other Sano news, his career OPS+ currently sits at 167, one point lower than Ty Cobb’s career 168 mark. We can only hope Sano will not suffer the same fate as Cobb, and that is dying alone and friendless somewhere in Georgia. 4. Byron Buxton. Since being unanimously declared a Bust in late June of 2015, the young centerfielder - whom I’m told has a tool or two in his arsenal, though I’m not sure why that matters in baseball - knuckled down and worked out some issues in the minor leagues, the biggest of which was, reportedly, "my thumb really hurts". He has since returned to post a respectable .668 OPS in five games. He swings at the baseball and misses a lot but I still hold out hope he can turn into an acceptable platoon candidate on a winning team. 5. Eduardo Escobar. In recent seasons, the Twins have been experimenting with two takes on their own version of Moneyball: drafting college relievers and putting infielders in the outfield. One can only assume the latter was in hopes of entertaining the crowd with an MLB version of the Washington Generals but, again, that’s only an assumption on my part. Anyway, Escobar has been a pretty good player since moving back to the difficult side of second base, posting an .812 OPS in the month of August. I look forward to seeing him play at short for the rest of the season before moving behind the plate in 2016. Lineups: Twins: 1. Byron Buxton - R - CF 2. Brian Dozier - R - 2B 3. Joe Mauer - L - 1B 4. Miguel Sano - R - DH 5. Trevor Plouffe - R - 3B 6. Eddie Rosario - L - RF 7. Eduardo Escobar - S - SS 8. Chris Herrmann - L - C 9. Shane Robinson - R - LF P. Tyler Durden - R - P Rays: 1. Daniel Nava - S - RF 2. Grady Sizemore - L - LF 3. Evan Longoria - R - 3B 4. John Jaso - L - DH 5. Logan Forsythe - R - 2B 6. Asdrubal Cabrera - S - SS 7. James Loney - L - 1B 8. Kevin Kiermaier - L - CF 9. Rene Rivera - R - C P. Chris "Stop Calling Me Sterling" Archer - R - P

Fixed that for you.

Even if Berrios makes the club and helps the team in September, you don't put a do-or-die game on a rookie with a month of MLB experience. That's asking too much from the kid. Go with a more established player.

I'm not sure why people continue to predict doom and gloom for Dozier. He's up to a whopping 1700 PAs of above average offense. I think it's pretty safe to say Dozier "is who he is" until the decline phase sets in. He's a well above average hitter who can peak into elite territory on occasion. The Twins would be better off trying to move Polanco in trade. He's never going to be Brian Dozier and even if he comes close to being Brian Dozier someday, it will take some time... And the Twins should be trying to win every single game they play from today through 2020. If you can get a 4-5 WAR catcher in trade for Dozier, you make that move. That's not going to happen so Dozier stays.

He's quite a bit more athletic than Kubel, even the pre-injury version. IIRC, Kubel never graded out any higher than "mediocre corner outfield defense" while Max has fringy centerfielder potential in the vein of Wil Myers. You don't want him in center but he can probably hold down the position without completely embarrassing himself.

The Twins traded Knoblauch in 1997. They hadn't seen a winning season in half a decade. The Braves traded Uggla as part of a rebuild. Their winning days were over and they knew it. edit: Actually, the Braves released Uggla so the comparison makes even less sense.

Took me a minute to get that. Whoops.

If I'm Terry Ryan, most of the rotation is on the auction block this winter. Nolasco, Santana, Gibson, Milone. Two of those guys are basically unmovable. Gibson is a good pitcher under team control. I'd prefer to keep him but would let him go for the right catcher or prospect. Which leaves Milone. I'd probably try to move him for a prospect. That shouldn't be difficult. He's a career 99 OPS+ guy with several years of control. Something has to give in the rotation and with the amount of mediocre vets under team control/contract, Milone seems the guy most likely to move for something of value while not crippling the 2016 rotation. If you can move Duffey, have at it... But I don't see that happening. That allows you to enter 2016 with Hughes, Nolasco, Santana, Gibson, May. Call up Berrios the moment one of them falters and never look back.

"when he gets mad at a call that to us is saying that son of a buck is competing." I can't do anything but laugh. Right or wrong, that is such a Twins statement to make.

That's easily the most frustrating part of this season. Many of us weren't asking for big changes... Get Oliveros (or somebody) up here in May because it was obvious Boyer was living on borrowed time. Convert one of the Rochester starters into a reliever and get him up here. Make some waiver wire moves or small trades in June because it was obvious the entire bullpen (minus Perkins) was on the verge of collapse. Make a bigger trade in early July and get out in front of the rest of the pack. There were so many options available to the front office, yet they didn't do anything. It's nice the bullpen is finally acceptable. It would have been nice to see it start happening 2-3 months earlier before the Twins handed away the Wild Card spot they had locked down for the better part of two months.

I'm fine with Berrios getting the call now, my post about service time was under the assumption he wouldn't appear with the Twins this season. I believe the Twins denied Jose's request to play winter ball so I suspect they're planning to shut him down relatively soon. I don't think he's going to make an appearance this season.

I don't know if that's really a problem unless the manager is some kind of control freak. Baseball is a 162 game season that consists of "playing it by the book" the overwhelming majority of the time. The manager doesn't do a whole lot that impacts the on-field play. I'm sure most managers feel their bench crew can manage a few innings without the wheels coming off. If the manager didn't feel that way, he'd probably hire new coaches.

Well, no matter what the rotation looked like, it'd be nice to keep Jose in Rochester through the middle of April no matter what. That will convert his age 29 season into a team-controlled year. And I believe it's a solid strategy to game the controlled years in that fashion, particularly for pitchers. It's different if you have a guy at third who plays a single position. At some point, you either need to release/bench the existing third baseman and rotate in the new kid. But the rotation? 20% of an MLB roster is the starting rotation. The likelihood of a guy underperforming or getting injured early in the season is high. It's pretty easy to rotate in a kid who you feel is ready at almost any time from mid-April onward. All you need is one guy out of five to have some kind of setback in the early going. That's not only common, it's kinda expected in today's game. And that's not even including the option of bringing a young pitcher up through the bullpen.