Cooper Carlson

Matt and Cooper discuss how the playoff race is shaping up for the Twins, the impact of the recent September call-ups, and answer fan questions while still remaining the most sarcastic duo known to man.Podcast: https://open.spotify...RSruflqFUmNCIfw Time stamps: 1:40 Reviewing this successful week 9:20 Discussing the division lead 23:00 Rotation struggling 29:30 Wait...the bullpen is good? 34:45 injury news (Gibson/Buxton) 37:20 Fan questions! Which Sept call ups make postseason?How does your playoff rotation look?Predict the 2020 rotationWhich Twins player would you spend a day at the fair with?58:50 Did Martin Perez do his job? 69:00 Minor League awards but Matt gets mad at me for having fun 74:00 Looking ahead 80:00 Most fun thing to write about this year In this link you can find the Spotify audio of the podcast. https://open.spotify...RSruflqFUmNCIfw Please be sure to let us know what you think, whether it’s a question, you disagree with us, or anything else by commenting on this post or heading over to our Twitter accounts below Cooper: Carlson_MnTwins Matt: Matthew_bTwins Click here to view the article

Last night the Twins hit six home runs and lost. Today the Twins hit zero home runs and won. Obviously the Twins have to stop hitting home runs so they can win the division. Big Mike carried the Twins once again in a game where the offense came through with eight runs. Also today: The rise of Graterol.Box Score Pineda: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 74% strikes (62 of 84 pitches) Bullpen: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K Home Runs: None Multi-Hit Games: Cruz (3-for-5), Arraez (2-for-5), Cave (2-for-5), Polanco (2-for-5), Top 3 WPA: Pineda (0.15), Cave (0.11), Arraez (0.08) Twins offense uses the Gardenhire Twins approach with slap-hitting small ball. The Twins offense jumped out early today, scoring five runs in the second inning. The inning went ground out, walk, double, single, hit-by-pitch, single, line out, single, single, strikeout. Everyone had fun except Rosario because he produced two of the outs. Every hit that inning went to the opposite field, so you can be sure Tim Laudner approves of the Twins getting back to playing good baseball again. The Twins would not score again until the fifth inning and that run was produced by La Tortuga himself. I think everyone was happy to see Willians Astudillo back with the Twins for the playoff run. The final two runs came in the eight inning on RBI singles from Cruz and Rosario. Cruz has been on an absolute tear, hitting well above .500 with men on base over the last two weeks. Michael Pineda continues to be the king of consistency Over the last two months, Michael Pineda has been the only Twins starter with an ERA under four. He was also the only Twins starter with an ERA under three. 2.87 since June 29 to be exact. Today he continued that dominance with a quality start of six innings with only two earned runs. He also tied his season high total of nine strikeouts today. As the season winds down and he is the only reliable starter of late, where does he rank for a Twins playoff rotation? He has definitely looked like a clear number one lately. Brusdar Graterol finishes off the game for the Twins The Twins top pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol came in for the ninth inning for today's game. Like most rookie pitchers, he struggled a bit but Wes Johnson made the greatest mound visit of all time to induce a game-ending ground ball double play. The Twins won with their best pitching prospect closing it out. He hit 100 MPH a few times but hung around 99 for the most part. He has now thrown the third hardest pitch in Twins history, trailing only Juan Morillo and Trevor May. Hey Parker, use one word to describe Brusdar Graterol today. Thanks. Twins move back up to 5.5 games over the Indians The Twins are finally back over five games in the division lead. Cleveland was swept by the Rays and here we are. With reinforcements here for the Twins, watch out because this is one of the best teams in baseball. If Graterol also continues to do what he did today then October is going to be even more exciting. Postgame with Baldelli Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet Click here for a review of the number of pitches thrown by each member of the bullpen over the past five days. Click here to view the article

The 2019 Minnesota Twins have broken the all time home run record for a single season! This quick post will highlight the ten most impactful home runs according to how much win probability they added in that game. Basically, I am ranking the ten most valuable home runs this season.10. Jonathan Schoop at Texas (8/16/19) 0.31 WPA Schoop entered this game in the midst of what is likely the largest slump of his career. The Rangers had taken the lead in the previous half inning, but Schoop put the Twins back on top with this two-run blast. The Twins would go on to win this game 4-3. 9. Miguel Sano at Angels (5/20/19) 0.34 WPA Sano’s second home run of the season was definitely a big one. The Twins were up 1-0 throughout the whole game but the Angels came back in the bottom of the seventh and tied it. Luckily, Miguel Sano came up clutch and smoked this two-run bomb that would lead to a 3-1 win. 8. Miguel Sano vs Detroit (8/24/19) 0.35 WPA This fifth inning blast from Sano gave the Twins a commanding 6-4 lead after being down 4-1 in a game the Twins couldn’t afford to lose. It came during a period where Sano was just insanely productive at the plate and that continued here. 7. Mitch Garver vs Kansas City (6/14/19) 0.37 WPA The Mitch Garver clutch two-run bomb against the Royals is definitely one of the most memorable homers this season. The late inning drama in a game tied at zero, followed by a crowd-exploding home run to take the lead and later win the game is something everyone will remember. 6. Miguel Sano vs Atlanta (8/5/19) 0.43 WPA This walk-off bomb from the Twins slugger was easily one of the most dramatic and exciting wins of the season. Playing against an elite Atlanta team, this was the perfect way to begin the series. This pinch -it blast is one of the most memorable homers this season. 5. Max Kepler vs Boston (6/18/19) 0.43 WPA This home run came in one of the craziest and longest games in Twins history. First of all, Max didn’t get an at bat until the eighth inning because he was subbed into the game. He tied the game in the eighth and then hit this clutch home run in the 13th inning. He would go on to provide the walkoff single in the 17th inning. 4. Byron Buxton vs Seattle (6/12/19) 0.45 WPA Byron Buxton had the entire state of Minnesota cheering for him for like 15 minutes after this huge home run. The Twins would eventually go on to lose, but we’re going to ignore that. Just remember how much fun you were having when this home run was hit to cap off a huge comeback. 3. Eddie Rosario vs Oakland (7/18/19) 0.46 WPA Rosario pinch hit for a struggling Jake Cave and did what Eddie Rosario loves to do. The Twins were down 3-1 against a great Oakland bullpen and with one swing of the bat, Rosario put the Twins on top for good. 2. Miguel Sano vs New York (7/23/19) 0.52 WPA If you are just a neutral fan, this was probably the greatest game you’ve ever seen. Constant lead changes, clutch hits and huge home runs, finished off by what could finish as the catch of the season. In the late innings, Sano crushed a memorable two -run blast that temporarily had Twins fans ecstatic. 1. Marwin Gonzalez at Milwaukee (8/13/19) 0.59 WPA Finally, the most meaningful home run out of this historic season so far was the Gonzo bomb off the elite reliever Josh Hader. The Twins held a lead all the way to the seventh inning, but Ryne Harper gave up a few runs and Hader was in for the two-inning save. Unfortunately for him, he was facing the bomba squad. After a Rosario double and Sano walk, Gonzalez came up with a chance to take the lead and did this…. Those are the ten most meaningful home runs this season in terms of win probability added. All of them so much fun, and yet we aren’t even at the most fun part of the season. Watch out MLB, the Twins are headed for the playoffs. Which home run was your favorite? Discuss in the comments! Click here to view the article

I recently had a friend text me something along the lines of “The score will be 17-1 after Duffey is done with this inning” and I thought to myself “Wait, how good has Duffey been this season?” As of the end of August, Tyler Duffey has been the Twins second-best reliever behind Taylor Rogers this season. How good has he been, and why isn’t it talked about more? As a top 30 relief pitcher in the American League, Duffey is certainly making a name for himself.Tyler Duffey will be finishing off his fifth season since making his major league debut in 2015. It has definitely been a bumpy ride after a successful taste of the majors in 2015. He came back as a starter in 2016, did poorly, and was eventually moved to the bullpen for 2017 and 2018 before something finally clicked this season. This front office clearly saw something in Duffey to hold onto him during the times he was struggling. The Twins brass will not hesitate to let a young pitcher go if they do not see a future with them, and Duffey has proven them right in a huge way this season. There was definitely something off or something to be changed with what Duffey was doing before this season, and the first place to look is his pitch usage. Things were simplified to throwing his curveball 52% and his fastball 46% of the time. This FanGraphs pitch types graph shows the change well. Download attachment: duffey pitch type.png Both pitches have been outstanding, and the fastball has been key to unlocking the breaking ball even more. Duffey has touched 97 MPH this season while averaging out at 94 on the fastball, a new career high. (Thanks Wes Johnson). He is allowing just a .202 AVG and .639 OPS on the season which is equivalent to what Joey Rickard is hitting for the Orioles. The curveball is the pitch he has always been known for, and he has shown it off this season for sure. Throwing it over half the time, he has allowed a .208 AVG and .608 OPS against it while generating a 14.2 swinging strike% on the pitch. A comparison for that stat line would be what Jace Peterson has done for the Orioles this season. The Orioles are awful. Now let’s talk some more about the results. He currently holds a career best 2.86 ERA that ranks 26th among AL relievers. He is also striking out more players than ever before at a 30% rate and that ranks 18th in the AL. He has turned himself into a top thirty relief pitcher in the American League and most fans have no idea. He has been excellent all season, and he may actually be at his best right now. Through twelve games in August, Duffey has not allowed a run while boasting a K/9 of 12.0 and allowing an OPS of just .494 so he is stepping up even more as the division race heats up. To my surprise, Duffey has quietly been better than both of the relief pitchers the Twins acquired at the deadline. He leads Sergio Romo in H/9, K/9, swinging strike%, ERA, AVG against, and OPS against. Romo and Dyson are both very good relief pitchers, but Duffey may be the best of that bunch. However, Duffey has not been used in spots with as much leverage as Dyson and Romo, which seems strange especially considering those two weren’t on the Twins all season. The Twins were giving high leverage spots to Ryne Harper or Blake Parker instead. Duffey is overdue for some positive appreciation because he has been excellent this season despite constant hate against the bullpen. He is the poster boy for how teams may start building their bullpen: start with two or three solid guys you can trust and then throughout the season plug in a lot of different young guys and see what works. It’s looking like the Twins may have found a bullpen weapon for the next few seasons. Click here to view the article

Defin Definitely agree. I would have put him on here if the list was around five or six but there were a lot of people including myself who expected Sano to be quite productive. Maybe not as good as he has been, but still not a huge surprise to a lot of people.

The Twins have needed a lot to go right for them in order to hold the lead in the AL Central. For every playoff team, that includes getting production from unexpected players. The Twins have had many notable players help them win this season, but I will be highlighting three players who have dramatically out-performed expectations coming in to 2019 to help put the Twins in the spot they are in today.Tyler Duffey: 3.07 ERA, 29.6 K%, 1.15 WHIP, .211 AVG As you all probably know, the Twins bullpen has been the main area of concern all season with guys like Blake Parker, Ryne Harper, Fernando Romero, Adalberto Mejia (I could do this all day), and many more competing for high leverage spots behind Taylor Rogers. Only one guy has been able to firmly hold his spot and that has been Tyler Duffey. Duffey entered his third season in a relief role in 2019 and something finally clicked for him. The last two seasons were about as bad as could be for him, as he could never take that final step. His career as a reliever had a rough start with him having a 4.94 ERA in 2017 and a 7.43 ERA in 2018. There definitely were some changes made this season, but the most notable has been the large increase in his fastball usage from 36% to 51% in just one season. He also dropped the changeup and sinker and throws the curveball as his only secondary pitch. His value to the team is a bit under-appreciated because of all the hate the bullpen has received, but Tyler Duffey had quietly helped stabilize it until the trade deadline reinforcements showed up. Among all AL relievers he ranks 19th in K%, 25th in ERA, and 23rd in opponent AVG. He is currently the Twins fourth reliever on the depth chart, so that shows just how deep this bullpen has become. Mitch Garver: .263/.343/.597 (.940), 139 wRC+, 23 HR The third surprising performance comes from catcher Mitch Garver, and his breakout has been equally impressive, if not more so, than the other two on this list. After ending last season with a lot of criticism about his defense not being good enough to be a major league starting catcher, Mitch set out with a mission and came back improved in the defensive aspect of the game by notably dropping his catching ERA from 4.60 to 3.82, along with putting up some elite offensive numbers to go with it. The season began with Castro as the number one catcher and Garver as the backup, but Garver has blown away every single projection or expectation by becoming one of the premiere hitting catchers in baseball. Among MLB catchers, he ranks second in home runs (23), first in OPS (.937), and first in wRC+ (138). With Castro mashing against right-handed pitchers, the Twins have the best catching platoon in all of baseball. Mitch Garver is looking like the catcher of the future for the Twins, and there were some arguments made that he should have been in the All-Star Game this season. If he continues to hit like he currently is, there will be a lot more opportunities for him to lead AL catchers in the All-Star Game. Luis Arraez: .348/.416/.456 (.872), 133 wRC+, 1.50 BB/K I’m sure you’re all well aware of rookie sensation Luis Arraez by now. He could even be in the running for the Rookie of the Year Award. Since being called up in the middle of role May, he has done nothing but get hits in whatever situation he is put in. He is well known around baseball for his outstanding walk against Edwin Diaz after coming into the game down two strikes in the count. He has one of the most professional approaches you will see at the plate. Luis Arraez’s impact came at the perfect time for the Twins, as Opening Day second baseman Jonathan Schoop has fallen into a huge slump since June. Arraez has performed better than anyone could have expected and to see him filling the everyday second base in August is still surprising. To put his impact into one number, his Win Probability Added (WPA) is already third among Twins hitters at 1.61 despite him missing a couple of months. So can he win the Rookie of the Year Award? Among all AL rookies, Arraez is first in AVG, first in OBP, fifth in SLG and second in OPS. The Twins pulled a hidden gem out of the minor leagues this season and he was ranked down at 22 in the Twins Daily top 30 prospects to open the season. For a 22-year-old in the middle of a pennant race, his performance has been nearly perfect so far and his approach at the plate looks like he has been here for ten years already. The way he walks up to the box, scans the field, and then pokes a single wherever the defenders aren’t standing is a rare skill that people who say “I’m tired of all these home runs! Where did the sacrifice bunt and hit-and-run play go?” really like to watch. Overall, there have been many players to step up this season like Ehire Adrianza, Devin Smeltzer, Michael Pineda and more but I tried picking the three that had the largest impact while having low expectations coming into the season. Every playoff team has to rely on some unexpected key players in order to win and this year’s Minnesota Twins team has plenty. Click here to view the article

Hey everyone, we’re back with another podcast fresh off a four-game sweep over Texas! Matt and I talk about Jorge Polanco, Jose Berrios, Michael Pineda, Cleveland and much more in this episode so give it a listen and let us know what you think!Click this link to go to the Spotify playlist! https://open.spotify...ZQk2Vb_T2VzxwxQ 1:30 Reviewing the 5-1 week 11:00 Michael Pineda/Who is the Twins #1? 15:40 Jose Berrios 21:30 Bullpen still a concern? 29:30 Jorge Polanco/Ehire Adrianza 36:50 Nelson Cruz injury 39:20 Fan Questions 56:15 Martin Perez 61:30 Minor Leagues 72:00 looking ahead Let us know what you think in the comments, and ask questions if you have any. Click here to view the article

The Twins stayed as hot as the scorching weather today as they completed the sweep over the Texas Rangers. Martin Perez made his second straight good start and a huge triple from Jorge Polanco led the Twins to the 6-3 win. The division lead remains at 2.5 games and the Twins will host Chicago next.Box Score Perez: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 65% strikes (65 of 100 pitches) Bullpen: 4 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K Home Runs: None Multi-Hit Games: Polanco (2-for-4), Adrianza (2-for-5) Top 3 WPA: Polanco .426, Castro .162, Gonzalez .130 Bottom 3 WPA: Cron -172, Rosario -.134, Cave -.131 Lance Lynn does Lance Lynn things as Twins take early lead This game started with the narrative of Lance Lynn pitching against the Twins and Twins fans everywhere wanted to score 30 runs on this guy but he just reminded us of his tenure in Minnesota. The first two innings took him fifty seven pitches to get through and the laboring was caused by rough fielding all around from Texas. The Twins scored on him immediately on a Kepler walk, Sano single and then an RBI double from Marwin Gonzalez on a ball that had an expected batting average of .120 off the bat. A poorly played ball in left led to an early two-run lead for the Twins. Marwin continued his insane tear against Texas with this RBI double Martin Perez has his second straight solid start For the second straight start, Martin Perez was able to prove he can stay in that fifth spot in the rotation for now. He didn’t have his best control throughout the game, walking four guys and striking out just two while leaving seven on base, but he ultimately got the job done. He left his long-time home ballpark in line for the win and was noticeably ecstatic while leaving the mound for his last two innings. This will almost certainly be the last game he pitches in this stadium so it was good to see him pitching well. Texas comes back but Polanco gets the bit hit In the bottom of the seventh inning, Shin Soo Choo led off the inning with a solo home run to tie the game at three and it wasn’t looking great for the Twins. In case you missed it, or you weren’t sure if it was a home run, this Indians announcer has you covered. The Twins bounced back in a huge way the next innings. After a single, double and walk to load the bases, Jorge Polanco came up huge with a bases-clearing triple to give the Twins a three-run lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. I decided to continue the new score keeping method on Twitter. Oh, here is the clutch triple. Romo and Rogers close out the sweep The Twins high-leverage relievers once again got the job done. Sergio Romo came in for the eighth, allowed a base runner, but ultimately walked off the mound with the lead and pumped up as always. Taylor Rogers came in for the ninth inning, gave up a couple of hits but ultimately got the save. The Twins completed the sweep over Texas and held on to their 2.5 game lead in the division. They will welcome the White Sox to Target Field for the next series. Postgame With Baldelli Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet Click here for a review of the number of pitches thrown by each member of the bullpen over the past five days. Click here to view the article

Sup Matt?

Ok I don't mean get six innings every time, but recently it has just not been happening at all. Also, the Red Sox had an one of the worst playoff bullpens last year that had a couple guys step up in a big way and won the world series. Bullpens don't win championships. Starting pitching and offense do.

I like it. That seems fair for both sides, I just wonder if the Twins would be willing to go more than two years.

I wonder if the Twins would be willing to go 3 years $42 million or something around there. It'll be interesting.

The bullpen will be fine. A back end trio of Rogers-Romo-Dyson with a mid tier of May-Duffey-Littell is not bad. The starters have to get to the sixth inning and beyond for the bullpen to succeed.

They will re-sign Pineda and Gibson for 2-3 years but Odo will get a much larger deal than the Twins will be willing to pay.

Odorizzi is going to get a big deal this winter, likely something around 4-5 years and I would rather see the Twins go acquire someone else of his caliber via trade (like they did when they got Odo in the first place).

I would love to see Pineda get a deal around 2 years for $25 million. I would expect we re-sign Gibson as well.

I expect Pineda has a good chance of holding up just because these IL stins seem more scheduled or precautionary than anything serious.