Whammy

To me, this paragraph right here answers your question. That's 4 OF. I want all of them to play almost every day. There will of course be injuries along the way, but when they are all healthy I want that DH spot open so that all 4 can be in the lineup.

If we aren't going to pass the White Sox for a potential 1st round bye, I'd rather not pass the Red Sox and have to travel to Yankee Stadium in the WC round. You might says that's a pretty small needle to thread (playing well enough to catch the Red Sox, but not well enough to catch the White Sox), but the needle exists.

Best series of the year. Right when we needed it most. Not being able to access TD during those last couple innings was stressful.

Twins SP must rank very high in pitches per inning, right? Taj had like 18 pitches through 2 innings and now somehow having only given up one run and two hits, he's at 88 pitches through 5. Meanwhile... .... and a Caratini 1-pitch AB to start the next inning

Twins: Get Away Day Braves: Double Get Away Day!

Me too. I'm sure he's got some inherited runner stuff in there that's not showing up in his ERA, but based on the overall bullpen ERA, it can't be THAT many of those.

This is exactly why I've had him on my fantasy baseball team for like 5 straight years. "But he's injured too much to be valuable in fantasy." Nope. Incorrect. I get to put him on the IL when he's injured and start a replacement level CF for those games. When you combine his 100 games with the 60 from the replacement CF, it's a very productive 9th round pick at a position that doesn't have great offensive options The key for the Twins is to have a replacement level CF (or LF if he moves positions) on the roster for the times he's on the IL. Because his per-game numbers and rate stats are still mostly fantastic (this recent slump not withstanding)

So the "do the guy a favor" comment was just BS you thought sounded good then?

Yeah. He's been better than probably anyone on here could have hoped for this year, but we're already seeing some regression (74 wRC+ since the all star break) and for ~$7M with a crowded 2027 OF, it just doesn't seem to make much sense.

Fragoza now at Cedar Rapids, by the way

Almost HAS to be

I'm not super interested in witnessing Larnach's regression for $7M, when we have Buxton, Keashcall, Emma, and Jenkins who will all almost certainly be on the Twins and playing OF most of next year (though I could see an Emma trade). Seems like he could have some value to an org that's not so log jammed with lefty corner OF. If you can move him for some middling bullpen help or a minor league lottery ticket, I'd do that. If not, then I personally would non-tender him.

Twins bullpen ERA since 6/30 ranks tied for 3rd in baseball at 2.99 Player ERA Kody Funderburk 0.46 A.J. Minter 1.13 Tommy Nance 1.46 Andrew Morris 2.11 Yoendrys Gómez 2.25 Taylor Rogers 2.40 Jeff Hoffman 3.00 Travis Adams 3.93

Seems like everyone should be pretty available. Even probably Yo-Go if necessary. They've used him three straight games earlier this season, but that was back when our bullpen was a hot mess. It could be that with more solid options and the off day tomorrow they just put Gomez off limits and give him two full days of rest. Nance collecting dust is a little odd (especially on Saturday). I think I'd rather see Rojas up for the road trip and plan for Prielipp to only go 4 innings on Friday and Rojas go 2-3 innings.

I think the biggest reason to move him off of CF is that he misses a lot of time, not that he's merely adequate out there now. It would be the same story with a SS, or to a lesser extent 3B (Catcher also but that's a whole different category here) Those are the hardest positions to fill on the fly. When he inevitably misses time, you're scrambling to field an adequate defensive replacement. Him missing time becomes a double-whammy of missing his bat in the lineup and then either putting an empty bat in the lineup that's capable of playing CF or moving one of your reasonable bats to CF and crossing your fingers defense. That's not the case if he's your primary LF. Sure the defense probably takes a hit when he's out. but the list of guys that can play an adequate LF is way longer than the list of guys that can play an adequate CF. Finding a replacement for 1 game, 1 week, or 1 month shouldn't be very difficult. I fear two things though: 1) They will defer to Buxton, who will not want to move from CF. I get it. He's earned that right a little. He's a 10+ year vet who's the face of the franchise. It'll be a tough conversation with him. Have him be a great defender at a non-premium defensive position rather than an adequate defender at a premium defensive position. Frame it that way. Let us ooh and ahh for the next 4 years over what an awesome defensive LF he is. 2) The Twins will be wishy-washy with it. Gotta rip the band-aid off. Don't make it part time. Once he's moved from CF, make it permanent. Can he roam around out there in a pinch? Yes. The same way that Lewis can still technically man 3B and Keaschall can technically man 2B. But don't make it part of the plan. Move him and be done with it.

Really nice win

That assumes an on target throw. But timing wise your probably right

Ball was blistered and Acuña has a cannon. Still felt a little weird

Well sure… with that attitude

Minter to face the leadoff lefty maybe ?

Jeffers takes an awful lot of middle middle fastballs

Is this Morneau’s burner?

He was going along really well. 2 base runners through 5. Low pitch count Then he walked the leadoff guy in the 6th and things snowballed.

Not quite that succinctly (no surprise), but yeah, basically

Quitting and sucking are two very different things. It’s not that athletes never quit, I just think it’s an easy thing to say when athletes aren’t succeeding. To me it just sounds incredibly silly. Just like when fans complain about the front office not having a plan. No. They have a plan. They just didn’t tell you about it.