Road trip

Well, I appreciate the optimism, but the bolded word choice below made me laugh out loud. "Tristan Gray, Orlando Arcia and Ryan Kreidler form an underwhelming but extremely intriguing collection of role players on the infield." I'm neither entertained nor intrigued by that collective, even if I'll root for them. On the other hand, wouldn't it be peak irony if the "pitching pipeline" finally arrived after Falvey left? Other than SWR's implosion, the performance of several young starting pitchers plus Morris in the pen is a cause for real hope. Bonus points as well for Ober's performance.

I saw that too. Olivar absolutely hit the snot out of the ball this year at AA (.978 OPS). Everything I read on here is that he is "barely" a catcher... but maybe if Brian Harper could learn well enough to be passable, so can Olivar.

There have been some rough games for the offense, and with Jeffers hurt it will likely get worse. The eye test says the Twins offense is bad. And yet... still 3rd in the AL in runs scored, and a mere run behind 2nd place Tampa. AL teams are all struggling to score runs. We've had some good pitching performances to be sure, as JD-Twins noted above. But there have also been some horrible clunkers. SWR a real disappointment. Essentially the entire bullpen is very bad. Overall, the Twins rank a very distant 12th in the AL in allowing runs. Every team in the AL Central is better, even the recently horrible White Sox. Despite some good individual performances Twins pitching (and defense) is NOT a strength relative to the rest of the league. I don't know that our eyes are deceiving us, but perhaps our perspective is. A few years ago the Bomba Squad scored runs with ease, but that era of baseball is long gone. Pitching rules the game currently, and pretty much every team can throw good starters out there, and most of them have vastly superior relievers than the Twins.

Makes perfect sense. Culpepper is a possible future Twins shortstop, and needs to get the innings there at St Paul. The Twins need to figure out if he can play major league caliber SS. Arcia is a former shortstop at this point in his career, and likely not a member of the 2027 Twins. He's logged thousands of innings at SS, but not many at other infield positions. Prepping Arcia to play 2B was only wise, given the lack of depth behind Keaschall.

Wrong wish granted... Jeffers is going to be out a while. Hamate bone fracture. AI says out 6 weeks.

For the many people who criticize the Twin's inability to draft and develop talent, Jeffers really is the great Twins success story. He was a bat-first pick from a small(ish) college back in 2018. He's become a good catcher through hard work and coaching, and has easily been the best player drafted in the 2nd round that year. Hope he doesn't miss much time..

It'll be interesting to see the lineup today. Buxton's bat is desperately needed, but is he healthy yet? Jeffers would normally get a day off here, day game after a night game, but his bat is also badly needed. Maybe he gets a DH start instead of the struggling Bell? They've got to find a way to scratch out at least 3 runs..

It seems inconceivable when watching games like this, but the Twins rank...... ..... 2nd in the American League in both runs and rbi's. I know, I can't believe it either. Could be the AL is just really awful this year relative to the NL.

If an infielder gets hurt, sure. But there is no reason to believe 36 games in AAA is anything more than a "dead cat bounce". Arcia's track record is long, and he was never a particularly good hitter. Much like his brother, he peaked in his early 20's. If his defense is no longer above average, what's the point?

Sure... roll the dice, Gomez appears to be able to clear the low bar of "better than Luis Garcia". I've still got some emotional scars from the Ron Davis years, but I have little doubt that this collection of relievers has a good chance to go down in history as "Worst Twins Bullpen".

Definitely satire. And yet...I think I'd be willing to give Hendricks a shot if the alternative is more Luis Garcia...

I get this, and I'm sympathetic, but I kinda wonder why minor league prospects aren't told "don't run into walls". Especially one with the pedigree and injury history of Jenkins? These games don't really count beyond development, and for reasons nobody fully understands modern players are getting injured at an alarming rate, much worse than a generation or two ago. So... in meaningless games, can the Walter Jenkins-type players of the world not be told "Don't run into walls"? Buxton learned to preserve his body, finally, after many injuries, and his wall crashes at least were in MLB games. The cost/benefit of running into walls in a minor league game is very bad.

I'll disagree with the crowd. The clock is ticking, but it isn't midnight yet.. Two weeks ago some seemed to think Bell and Caratini were going to hit all year. That didn't last. Five weeks ago many would have sold Larnach for a random minor leaguer, and Martin was a utility man who shouldn't play more than twice a week. That didn't last. Unfortunately their current hot streaks won't last either. Regression to the mean will happen for nearly all ballplayers, unless they are injured or age has stolen their skills. Wallner looks terrible this month, no doubt. He didn't look great at many points last year either. And yet his career numbers with the bat... are significantly better than any of the players I listed above. And none of those guys are good defenders, with the possible exception of Caratini when he plays catcher rather than 1B. ERod should get his chance in a few weeks if he is deemed ready. It may be at Wallner's expense, or it may be someone else. But this is a developmental year regardless. I care little if the Twins win 65 games or 75 games, because they aren't built to contend this year. Thus we may as well be patient. There is still a diminishing chance Wallner will make adjustments, return to the player he was in 2023-24, and be part of the future as a DH. Let's find out..

His upside is perhaps to turn into something like Chris Young. Young survived/thrived a decade-plus throwing an upper 80's fastball, and as I recall by the end of his career it was barely a mid-80s fastball. Young was even a bit taller than Ober, but much like Ober that long extension made his slow pitches more difficult to hit than they should have been. Ober will never be an Ace, nor was Chris Young. But maybe he can have a longish career as an effective #3 or #4 starter throwing like this, eating innings, keeping his team in games, and slightly befuddling hitters who are accustomed to much faster pitching. We shall see... I'm rooting for him.

I was just thinking Garcia is a useful name to remember when playing Immaculate Grid, as he's played for about a third of the teams in MLB at this point. Otherwise he brings very little entertainment value, or more importantly, hope for a better Twins future bullpen.