Road trip

Yup, gonna have to use some of the good relievers this game unless the offense puts up some more runs.

At the rate things are going the Twins might need both.

That was the narrative for a while, but he's been slumping lately. His season OPS against lefties is now down to .709, which is just slightly below league average. But I get playing him, because if you don't use him vs lefties what purpose does he serve?

Think that makes 10 guys who would normally be on our 40-man roster that are now on the IL, including 6 - 7 pitchers who were expected to be on the MLB club back in March (Duarte being a borderline case). Tough run of luck, but its almost become normal.

Apparently "TBD" throws left-handed... M Margot (R) LF B Buxton (R) CF R Lewis (R) DH J Miranda (R) 3B C Santana (S) 1B R Jeffers (R) C M Kepler (L) RF W Castro (S) SS B Lee (S) 2B

These are all unfortunate choices. Farmer's performance fell off a cliff. Had he repeated his 2023 line he would be a perfectly adequate utility infielder....but he didn't, and likely won't going forward. MLB pitchers pretty quickly figured out how to exploit Lee's weaknesses as a hitter. He has some things to work on, and didn't get all that many at bats at AAA (237, to be exact). A little more time there would probably help his long term development. Martin isn't very good defensively anywhere, but he's kinda sorta adequate at several positions, if you accept below average play as adequate. He runs well though, seems to take intelligent at bats, and his hitting has been roughly equivalent of Lee's thus far. Like Lee, he hasn't had a ton of at bats in AAA (267). One of these guys is gonna play pretty much every day in the middle infield until Correa gets back....someday, hopefully very soon, but that's just hope. None of them would be considered solid MLB starters at this point. Lee is likely the closest to this (if healthy), so I'd keep him up and rotate him with Farmer at 2b/SS. I guess that means Martin goes down until Sept 1.

I can accept the need to rest pitchers and limit innings because pitching styles have evolved (more spin, max velocity). I have a much harder time accepting the substantial rest days for all of the hitters when they are healthy. Castro and Santana are the only Twins that are pretty certain to surpass the 400 AB mark this year (Kepler might). The 1991 Twins had every starter surpass this mark except for Pagliarulo, who was platooning with Leius.... and most of the starters blew way past 400 ABs. This was in an era when weight lifting and training was in its infancy, "nutrition" was whatever they felt like eating, and postgame beers in the clubhouse were a standard practice. Heck, most of the players on that team were in their early 30s, and they still managed the daily grind just fine and continued to play for many more years. I'm not blaming the individual players here, as it isn't their decision. However I do wonder about how training methods are leading to all of these injuries, and the resulting belief that 5 games a week is all a position player can handle.

W Castro (S) SS T Larnach (L) LF J Miranda (R) 3B M Wallner (L) DH R Jeffers (R) C C Santana (S) 1B M Kepler (L) RF A Martin (R) CF B Lee (S) 2B Hope Ryan has his best stuff today. Not a stellar defensive unit out there, and missing some big bats.

Lee at 2B and Castro at SS is.... interesting. I suppose it means Lee's arm is still hurting.

Hard team to figure out, the Royals. They might have the worst hitting outfield in MLB. The bullpen is abysmal. Bench depth is poor. Their lineup is pretty young. But they send out a good starting pitcher pretty much every night. Witt Jr, has possibly become the best player in the AL (don't tell that to New Yorkers). They have a ton of speed to cover ground in the field and steal bases at every logical opportunity. They kind of remind me of the Royals circa 2014, minus the bullpen. I still think the Twins roster is better... but there is some reason for concern.

Perhaps it wasn't clear, but I was arguing against the point that Wallner is already too old to be considered a prospect who will develop further by providing a sample of players who did exactly that... And yes, Foster, Bautista, and Downing were in the majors earlier...but were slow developers. Foster flubbed his first chance to be a starter and spent nearly his entire age 24 season in AAA... was replacement level value at age 25, and then jumped to stardom at age 27. Bautista didn't manage an OPS+ over 100 until he was 29. Downing blossomed when he left the Sox for the Angels and was converted to outfield. Downing had 47 HR's in his 20's, and over 220 in his 30's. These are all late bloomers who developed long after their prospect status had expired.

No, you responded to Mike who clearly was talking about Cleveland, and then went on your diatribe. Peace, out...

Cleveland's kids have played far more games than the 9 players you listed above for the Twins, most of whom have spent the majority of the year at AAA (frankly even listing Castillo, Camargo, and Henriquez is a bit suspect as all were emergency injury replacements who barely have 10 games between them). The kids haven't all be great for Cleveland either, but they don't have other options. They decided back in spring to sink or swim with guys like Rochio and Bo Naylor. Their hitters as a group have the youngest average age in MLB. Their pitchers are also young.

Lots of late-blooming sluggers out there. Not even sure Wallner would qualify as late-blooming since he has hit the ball pretty well ever since arriving, minus a few adjustment periods. Beyond Nelson Cruz, you could also list Jose Bautista and Josh Willingham as recent examples. From my younger days I'd note Brian Downing and George Foster. The all timer, of course, was that Ortiz guy who played for Boston (I'd like to forget about the fact that he was released by.... someone). Give Wallner 1000 at bats and then we can judge what he may become. He's an outlier to be sure, but if he maintains anything like his current career OPS+ he is not only a starter, but a star.

It's hard not to be a little jealous of the KC fans. The Royals were absolutely awful last year, but ownership went all in on improving the team. When they see an opportunity they are very aggressive and this year it has worked out well. Having said that, I like the Twins present day roster and minor league system better than the Royals. I think the Twins still finish ahead of them by multiple games. But most improved team this year? No doubt, it is the Royals.

Very possibly correct.... but someone should tell the tv guys as they implied otherwise.

How on earth could the ump believe that Kepler intended to interfere on his swinging strike?

Agree, he may find it hard to get a 3 year deal. It is hard to project Kepler's value, and hard to know how well his skills may age. It may depend on how much a team will value his defense, which is significantly better than Gurriel's Lourdes Gurriel Jr. vs. Max Kepler: Value Rk Player Age From To G PA WAR WAA oWAR dWAR Rbat Rdp Rbaser Rfield 1 Lourdes Gurriel Jr. 24-30 2018 2024 712 2874 12.0 2.4 10.7 -1.1 41 -3 -4 11 2 Max Kepler 22-31 2015 2024 1048 4160 21.1 7.1 15.5 2.9 26 11 2 52

Exactly. Next year I expect him to end up at a bigger money club. It's just the nature of the game. 3 years/$45 million or something like that. Not a chance the Twins can fit that into their payroll plan since they have a bunch of arbitration eligible players who will need increases.

I largely agree with this, and like many share the frustrations implicit in this strategy. I'd add "Their other plan is to trade for potential top pitchers from other teams". This is how the Twins got Pablo, Ryan, SWR, Duran, and Alcala...likely 5 of their top 8 or 9 guys. They've also traded for a variety of vets like Gray (a success) and Mahle (a failure). Obviously they didn't do that this month...perhaps no good opportunities. Given the payroll limitations, it is actually a fairly logical plan. The FO can ask for payroll increases every day but have to live with ownership decisions. Thus the FO has to draft, develop, and scout other organizations very well to succeed. Drafting at a high success rate means taking mostly position players in the 1st round, because you can't afford too many 1st round flame outs (Tyler Jay, Kohl Stewart, etc). Converting promising young position players (Steer, Encarnacion-Strand, Arraez, etc) along with expiring vet contracts into viable MLB pitchers can work, and I think is pretty much understood to be their core strategy. Supplement this with "sign and try to develop mediocre pitchers" as you noted which usually fails, but very occasionally gets them a gem or at least a useful relief pitcher until their arm falls off. It isn't an ideal way to get good pitching. However all the other better ways involve more money, and at least this FO has put together a better and deeper pitching staff today than what the Twins have had for most of the past twenty years.

Agree on most, but the cost on Blackburn wasn't excessive (and he has pitched several games this year, just beat the Angels last weekend). He's been a sort of average MLB pitcher for a long time now. If the cost was only the 28th best prospect in the Twins system, well I think I'd make that trade just to solidify the #5 starter slot. Could be Festa or Dobnak will work out... but I don't really like wagering on that.

Huh... 2 pitch guy, despite being a former starter. Based on the description he really needs a pitch to attack right handers. Maybe the staff hopes to teach him a slider like they seem to do with all retreads and hope he's a quick learner? Anyway, we hope for the best. Welcome Trevor!

Do I wish the Twins had kept Wade? Yes. Do I think they should trade a real prospect to get him back? No. He'd just be another left-hander that Rocco would always pinch hit for, and we already have several of those. His days in the outfield also seem to be over, which makes me think his speed is gone. He sure did learn to hit after leaving the Twins though. If there is to be a move today I'd expect bullpen help. From the list above Alexander (or frankly anyone from Oakland) should be affordable. Whether Alexander or anyone else from the A's would be a significant upgrade over Okert or Thielbar is frankly unknown.

I mean, sure, but Dobnak is owed about 500k for the remainder of the season. MLB minimum for a full year is 740k, so savings gained are tiny. If the Twins are that desperate for cash flow that they need to throw away a prospect to save 500k (and I find it hard to believe that they are) then things have gone terribly wrong.

Relative to many other prospects, yes, Larnach has avoided major injuries. He has suffered some nagging injuries. He had some muscle pulls in '22 that landed him on the IL a couple of times, and has battled a foot issue to start this year, which for a time was limiting him to DH duties. But compared to Lewis/Buxton/Kirilloff, Larnach has been pretty healthy. Some of this of course is just good vs bad luck...