Whammy

Not everything needs to always circle back to the stuff that went poorly. It’s ok to have fun and enjoy things

Sparkle is very Emmasculating 😁

Yes... that makes sense. But I also LOVE the idea of a lineup on Sunday that has these guys in it Keaschall Culpepper Jenkins Rodriguez Lee and heck... even Roden Throw in Jeffers for his potential goodbye game and Bell/Clemens to celebrate their productive years. That's a great "final day of the season" lineup Keaschall (RF) Jenkins (CF) Jeffers (C) Clemens (2B) Bell (1B) Rodriguez (LF) Lee (3B) Culpepper (SS) Roden (DH)

Seeing his beautifully quick, compact swing, unfortunately makes me hate Royce Lewis' swing even more. I'd love to know where Royce's X is on that chart.

What's the payroll there? 120-ish?

That's a silly conspiracy. Larnach and Lewis in the lineup isn't selling one single solitary ticket. Culpepper, Jenkins, and Rodriguez however, would sell a few more tickets.

What's it like to be able to say things with such confidence that you have no idea about?

So, should we pound our head against the wall trying to "win" the trade or attempt to do the best we can with the players we actually have?

Option 1: Royce Lewis. There was some question about him going on the IL last week with his lingering shoulder issue. Positionally this makes a ton of sense. Option 2: Taxi Squad until Wednesday. Do something with Taj roster-wise after he makes his final start of the season on Tuesday and add Sabato to the roster to face the lefty SP on Wednesday. Option 3: One of the relievers is certainly dealing with enough of something to go on the IL (YoGo?)

Rookie eligibility isn't tied to service time. It's tied to days on the active roster and time on the IL doesn't count towards that.

This seems correct (he's at 38 days right now), but I'd love confirmation from an official source

108.4 in case anyone was wondering besides me. Also, they still appear to be calling this a triple which is hilarious.

Also… paging the moderators! There are a few people ruining the game thread

Anyone have the exit velocity of Emma’s RBI double?

Jeffers has to lead the league in strikeouts on fastballs looking, right?

It would be one thing if Royce tweaked some new thing midgame and come this morning felt totally fine. That happens. But the way Shelton was talking about it, made it sound like something that's been bugging him for a bit and he aggravated yesterday. That should be an IL trip, to me. Royce hasn't earned the grace that Buxton has been awarded in regards to keeping himself off of the IL.

The SP for the Yankees on Tuesday and Wednesday are lefties. For God's sake just call up Sabato and let him play some first base against the lefties.

AB #3 was a 101mph liner that the 2nd baseman caught. Very high expected batting average I’m sure.

Taj doing his best Twins Bullpen Pitcher impression

History is littered with effective MLB relief pitchers who weren't ANYTHING until their 30s.

I believe that ties him for the Twins all-time lead in HBP in a season If that's wrong, blame Attebury.

At the beginning of the season I had a strong belief that this season was going to be Zoll's only shot, unless the team strongly overperformed. There were times this season when that looked possible, but with where we are at this point, it looks unlikely. I believed Zoll was on borrowed time not because he's done a poor job, which is subjective and different people will have different opinions, but because I just don't expect Tom Pohlad to operate that way. He doesn't seem to be the type of person that will let someone grab hold of the most important job in the organization by default, which is how Zoll got the job. Tom strikes me as the type of guy who would hire a Dave Dombrowski-type. Knowledge. Experience. Those are the qualities that I suspect Tom values. Tom had to scramble this offseason as he took charge and Falvey departed. It made sense to maintain course with Zoll. But I just don't see that continuing, short of a miracle last 2.5 weeks.

That seems very shortsighted and an inefficient deployment of resources

I'm struggling with the idea of signing a mid-rotation starter. At first blush it sounds logical, based on what has happened this year and the depth that was required, but in practice it squeezes the roster/organization in ways that probably don't make sense. If I'm the GM I'd prepare for a few injuries, but preparing for extreme injury issues might start to do more harm than good. In my mind it's sort of like QBs in the NFL. Does it make sense to have an extremely capable backup QB? In a vacuum, yes. If your star QB gets injured, you don't want your season to completely tank. But that backup might cost $10M and in your ideal world he sits on the bench all year. And does a borderline starting caliber QB even WANT to sign up to be the backup for Jalen Hurts (for example)? And actually, history is littered with examples of a star player getting injured and it paving the way for unbelievable success. Matt Cassell getting injured and having to rely on late round pick Tom Brady. David Robinson getting injured leading to the #1 overall pick and getting Tim Duncan Now, it's different in baseball, because we're talking about a group of players, but let's play this forward with the 2027 Twins starters Barring a trade these guys are locks: Pablo Lopez Joe Ryan Taj Bradley So, you have two core spots available and here are the guys you have access to: Bailey Ober Zebby Matthews Connor Prielipp Dean Kremer Mick Abel Mike Paredes Kendry Rojas Some of those are easy. I agree that Ober will likely get non-tendered. Paredes to AAA as depth. Rojas either to the bullpen or AAA as depth. But were still left with 4 guys for 2 spots. And if you sign a mid-rotation starter, that's 4 guys for 1 spot and to be honest, I think it would be Kremer. So now you've got Zebby, Prielipp, and Abel ALL at AAA? It sounds fun to have that much depth, but to me it doesn't make sense. It's the equivalent of spending $20M on a backup QB that you hope to never use. So, this my long way of saying, spend money on 1B. Heck... SPLURGE on 1B. Because there's no reason to spend another dime on starting pitching depth.