LaBombo

Didn't take it that way; just thinking out loud about the pro's and con's of PM's moves. It gave me no end of satisfaction to see Molitor not hesitate to dump Pelf just 3 outs away from a win when Gardy would have probably rather gone down in flames with the vet instead. But the bullpen doesn't have a Swarzak so far this year, who can go 2+ scoreless on a good night. So if Molitor leans on the pen too heavily on nights like tonight, it could be an ugly last third of the season if no relief help arrives. Off to the fireworks. Will try to avoid jinxing Twins and turn off the radio if 8th goes bad.

Not really defending his usage, just allowing for how he's probably outside his normal bullpen parameters when he's trying to hang on to a road win against the Royals. Tough call either way, and overuse doesn't show up all at once, so it will be awhile before we know if this kind of night hurts them down the stretch. Pitch counts were 11, 13, 4, and 7, so nobody should get an automatic sit tomorrow based only on tonight.

Against the division leader, only 4 games back, and just a matter of days to the ASB and then the trade deadline, Molitor might literally make a burnt offering of a reliever's arm (not naming preferences) to avoid losing another game on the division lead.

I'd even settle for IHOP.

The Suzuki extension was an admission that the organization would rather admit White Sox jersey wearers for free than let Pinto catch in the majors again. The wisdom of Mauer to first aside, Suzuki's season has exposed a positional sinkhole every bit as bad as the one left by the fiery Hindenburg crash of Aaron Hicks in 2013-14..

Duensing gives up another laser shot to lefty hitter but right at Hunter. There's a name for LOOGYs who can't get L's out: FLOOGYs. In Duensing's case the "F" was already there, but soon it will stand for 'former' instead.

A conscientious strikeout objector like Pelfrey not being able to find the plate isn't just flirting, it's pitching with these on... http://images.sodahead.com/polls/002207381/348994595_hooker_shoes_answer_8_xlarge.jpeg

Veteran with a lead gives way to bullpen in the 5th. How many times did Gardenhire "steal" a chance for a win from a veteran in that situation? Nice to see wins take precedence over possible hurt feelings of Gardy Guys.

At least Cain is a low risk for a grand slam.

Hughes, and it's not even close. Using small samples of ERA just doesn't work very well when grading pitchers. Career trends and peripherals tell a more complete story, and they both point toward Hughes and May being more effective. Milone and Gibson are having nice seasons, but they could regress at the drop of a hat unless their 6-ish K rates hold up. In the mean time they're relatively young and cheap, so the Twins might as well ride their hot streak while they can. That leaves the older, more expensive, low-K Pelfrey as the odd man out. It's great that he's a nice guy and all, but complaining about going to the pen when you're lucky to be in the majors at all somewhat nullifies that for me. Take away the good guy stuff and you're left with a guy who's 31 and has an ERA that's very likely unsustainable given his very low K rate and his other mediocre peripherals. May to the pen long term is a mistake. May to the pen instead of Pelfrey just makes it a bigger one. There is virtually no chance Pelfrey contributes much to a winning Twins team, especially in the long run beyond 2015. If the Twins weed out the weak rotation link in July while May helps win a couple in the pen before returning, great. Anything more than that and the franchise is likely the worse for it.

Perkins is definitely carrying a mediocre pen, but the blown save stat tells more of a story than that. The average MLB team has about 9 blown saves already, and a baker's dozen are in double digits. Yet only two full time closers have more than 3 blown saves, and the average appears to be around 2 per closer. That means that on average most bullpens' middle relievers have blown about 8 saves so far this season. So as poorly as the Twins middle relievers have pitched, they haven't underperformed much compared to other teams in terms of protecting leads, at least as far as blown saves are concerned.

The bullpen has been a disappointment, but not a disaster. Their ERA is 5th highest in the AL, but their blown save total is tied for second lowest in all of MLB. Their 12 losses ranks them middle of the pack in the AL.

I... what?!?!? First off, let's not do away with history, either of the Twins or of baseball in general. Gardenhire's teams averaged 96 losses over his last 4 seasons. That's gotten every non-expansion manager since World War II fired. Yes, those teams lacked talent. But to excuse Gardenhire's record they would have needed to be the least talented rosters in modern baseball history. They weren't even the worst in baseball during their four year run of futility. But even setting aside the mandate of history that led to Gardy's firing, how upset can you be that the Twins are 42-38 on the 4th of July instead of 38-47 under Gardy on the same date last year? And if your argument is that a turnaround this big is due to greater talent, then you're welcome to make the case, but good luck. With the exception of Hunter, who is having a nice season, the offense is mostly the same guys Gardenhire had last season. None of the young potential future superstars has broken out yet, and only Rosario has even made a net positive contribution. As far as starting pitching, Molitor and Allen have gotten more from Pelfrey and Gibson, and a little less from Hughes. The real difference has been Milone + May, 2015 >>>> Nolasco + Correia, 2014, So with the same guys at least to some degree available to Gardy and Andy, Molitor and Allen have turned the worst rotation in the AL into the 5th best. The bullpen is a work in progress for Molitor, both in terms of personnel and usage, but despite some high-profile late/close failures they're performing nearly up to the level of last year's pen despite the flameout of veterans Duensing, Thielbar, and Stauffer. And on a purely personal and subjective note, managers always get second-guessed about bullpen strategy, and after over a decade of tearing my hair out over Gardy's relief decisions I was ready for a new manager and maybe some hair plugs. That leaves defense, and I'm not going to judge that until there's a full season of stats to help measure the effectiveness of Molitor's defensive calls. Purely from a standpoint of watching the game there's no comparison, as the shifts and alignments called by Molitor's crew are far more frequent, varied, and entertaining to watch. Bottom line for me is that with almost all the same players that Gardy had, Molitor has put together nearly the same amount of offense, much better pitching, a much more fun defense to watch than Gardy did last year. He's four wins over .500 despite essentially zero run differential. Not bad for three months on the job. PS, Yes, Hunter and his mix CD's of of post-victory dance party music deserve turnaround credit, but it's hard for me to picture even that transformation taking place under Gardy after his grumpy four year slide.

Can't say i approve of Twins management getting involved with that, but if they're going to distribute it then it should probably be a reward for good play instead.

Good point. Pitching and defense get left holding the bag in 7-6 type of losses, but when it's 3-2 you have to spread the blame around more evenly.

Rookie owes Cain a case of whatever he drinks for bailing him out. Bummer loss, but a little perspective never hurts. If you'd have told me that the Twins would celebrate the Fourth of July in second place, fewer than five out of first, despite Mauer batting .260 and no help yet from Buxton or Sano, it would be a pretty hard sell. And yet here they are.

Just saw it out of the corner of my eye, but it looked like he ran halfway into the stands to avoid the tag, but with no out call from the umpire. Who says the Royals get no respect?

Only if I can take a day off to get over it... Would Claritin help speed the recovery?

Bert borrowed this take. Royalty check is in the mail.

Riddles are often better when wrapped inside a burrito...

Not to detract from the drama, but how lucky are you as the Royals manager when Infante comes to the plate tied in the ninth with the bunt in order so you don't have to pinch hit for an "All Star"?

It's hard for me to see the line of reasoning that goes along with the Vargas demotion. But for now, while I still disagree with the move, my reaction is pretty much one of 'what's done is done'. For the good of the kid rather than for the good of the organization, it's my hope that he stays put at Rochester until we start seeing the level of offensive production that causes people to contemplate the printing and wearing of "Free Kennys Vargas" t-shirts. On a potentially related note, this Hunter kid has been both a good story and a good signing that has worked out much better than I expected, But it would grate on me to no end if his presence, both on the roster and in & out of the lineup as a 39 year old in need of liberal days off and/or DH AB's, causes the Twins front office or Molitor to do anything with either Vargas or Sano that's not in their best interest as developing players.

Completely agree that it's hard to see why Mauer would need the day off when Hunter is sitting too, But to me the most important question about the lineup today is not "Why sit both Hunter and Mauer?". To me the real question is "How many teams with realistic hopes to contend are in trouble on any given day because their lineup is without both a 39 year old outfielder and a first baseman with a .370 slugging percentage?".

Well, in his comments about the current and impending shakeups with the roster, Morris just gave a tentative vote of confidence to May. But it's Morris, so his vote for May, the leader of the current Twins rotation in FIP, xFIP, and K/9, was tempered with the understanding that he stay in the rotation to 'work though his problems there instead of the bullpen'. Good grief.

The ball left the bat of Rosario in no particular hurry, and to no one's surprise but Bremer's, ended up in the glove of Reds right fielder Jay Bruce without testing his range, which normally comes with a name like Whirlpool or Fridgidaire attached to it. But somewhere near the apogee of the routine fly ball, for Bremer it became a potential home run off the bat of Ted Williams that could have put the Red Sox in the playoffs and Williams over .400 on the final day of the season