Dantes929

"Bunting late in a game solely to break up a no-hit bid is one I think should draw some ire." I might agree with this if your team is up by 15 with 2 outs in the 9th...Maybe. Otherwise, absolutely not. Why should a team care about the opposing pitcher's no hitter aside from trying not to be the team he no hits? What value is a no hitter if the opposing team doesn't use every way at their disposal to get a hit? I've been a fan of baseball for 50 years. I didn't grow up with this kind of BS.

"The “unwritten rules” of baseball are such an embarrassment to the sport. You have a generational superstar in Tatis Jr. and he’s being told not to hit a home run because he shouldn’t hurt the other team's feelings." Anyone complaining if he pops up to the infield? No, didn't think so. If this stupid unwritten rule is so important to them then just put in a written rule that if you are up by such and such and have a 3-0 count it automatically turns to 3-1 without throwing a pitch. Ridiculous.

No way. The most he's ever made was 14 mil a year and is making 12 mil now. Most David Ortiz ever made was 16 mil. He's been awesome but I don't see anyone offering him multiple years at his age. No need to do anything for next year at this point either. Just beat the highest bidder. If he likes it here and keeps being productive he'll get paid.

I am ok with Dobnak being in the Cy Young conversation as long as he is sub 2 ERA and as long as Lance Lynn is still in the conversation. Here is a list of current MLB starters that don't need to be dead on to be successful....... Ok, there might be a few, but not a lot. Giving up two home runs is not a good example of being destroyed. Every year there are 4 or 5 guys in the top 30 or so that have similar strikeout rates. He's not Cy Young material but the longer he keeps it up think more Brad Radke, Dallas Kuechel, Mark Buehrle and less Kevin Slowey, Mike Pelfrey and Tommy Milone. Not that the last three weren't useful in their day.

I guess we should be aiming to win every game regardless of the opponent. The most likely outcome with a good team against a bad team in 4 games is good team winning 3. The 2nd most likely outcome is splitting. Winning two out of three with a good chance of taking the 4th is a good result and one I would have been happy with before the double header yesterday. Going 2-5 against a bad team is only a bad sign if that is all they played. If they should win a little over 60% which is what they did last year and what is expected of them this year then they have achieved that goal by going 14-8 so far. I would say it is a good sign that they have gone 2-4 against the worst team and still are in 1st place and on the same pace as last year.

He's never been my favorite pitcher but its a little early to write off Berrios. Last year he was awesome for 4 months and then not so much. If he is mediocre the first half this year and then finds it for the playoffs (presuming playoffs and the twins still in it) that would be a great result. I never thought he was an ace but certainly he has had stretches where he pitched like one. That happens in the playoffs also. He has time to find it.

We loaded the bases with no outs against Severino and he got out of it with no damage. Dobnak loads them up with no outs, was pulled and all inherited runners scored. I didn't like the move because to that point Dobnak had a short history of battling and executing quality pitches in tough situations. Now of course he could have just as easily given up those runs but my level of confidence in him was such that I wish he had been left in. I had more confidence in Odorizzi last year but by the end of the year next in line was Dobnak and Pineda over Berrios. I don't get the logic that says he is pitching like CY Young against weaker lineups, the rest of the staff gives up twice as many runs against the same lineups but Dobnak benefits from it more. Of course, he could end up getting shelled by anyone any time but until it happens my confidence in him is as great as it is in anyone.

Just curious. What gives him the edge over Dobnak?

All for it but would consider Alcala as a starter also.

At a minimum he has so far proved that he should have been one of the top 5 to start the season. Just think if the top 5 had stayed healthy and just pitched mediocre Dobnak would still be on the outside looking in, probably pitching long relief.

I agree,its not black and white. Its 50 shades of grey. A few years ago Santana was throwing upper 90's in the playoff game against New York. He didn't have very good command with it but whatever mechanics change that was causing him to throw 4-5 mph more than the rest of the season was also messing with his bread and butter slider. I don't know how increased velocity affects Berrios. Maybe these are just growing pains while he figures stuff out. Maybe he is better off leaving the fastball be and getting a little more north south on his curve ball. Heck, there's 50 shades of gray with Berrios alone. For myself, I don't think velocity is the be all, end all. I get more excited when I hear a pitcher has command and "stuff" of which velocity is just one of the components. Significant, yes but just part of the package.

Back when we were losing 90+ games a season I used to say the worst part was watching bad baseball. You can have lesser talent but still hit the cutoff, hustle on base paths, execute bunt defense, advance runners, battle every at bat. It was hard to watch back then and its hard to watch now.

Pretty sure Buxton's homer was to go ahead by two rather than game tying. Still in first but would be nice to take a game tomorrow.

Rogers got 3 outs in 5 pitches the other night and none of these balls were hit any harder than those. Its not rust and it doesn't matter who they play. Its baseball. Rogers pitched well and a few batted balls found spots. Every pitcher in the history of baseball has given up runs. Move on.

I was always the one arguing with the ones you call rubes but it seems odd that you are bringing it up now, that you are calling them rubes and that you want them to go away when I haven't seen any posts like that for a while now. Not to mention the big(gish) signings in recent years of Odorizzi, Cruz, Maeda, HIll and Donaldson seem to have worked out pretty well. Free agent signing proponents were the majority, many are still here, they have valid points and plenty of anecdotal evidence just like I felt I had when I was supporting the develop from within approach. I don't want them to go away. I appreciate opposing viewpoints.

Hey Nash, Can you explain what it means for the Twins to score 0.93 runs per 100 fastballs thrown. Average number of total pitches faced in a game is 146. That would translate to 1.35 runs scored in a game if all pitches were fastballs. That would be really bad. Am I missing something?

Throwing 97 isn't necessarily a good thing. A few years ago in the 1 game playoff with NY Ervin Santana was about 4mph harder than he was all season. Very little command and his best pitch slider didn't respond well to his livelier arm. Berrios performance reminded me a bit of that. He was throwing hard but his waste pitches truly were wasted pitches cuz he wasn't even coming close to the plate. Overthrowing fastball and curveball, imo. Less is often more. Ask Rich Hill. Would be great to win the 1st game of he series.

"What has been your favorite Player’s Weekend nickname?" Ironically, the guy starting for us today had the winner last year. Dick Mountain. I do like Miles Mikolis with 5280's.

I never worried about Donaldson. My only whining about Bailey was that I thought Dobnak deserved to be ahead of him. I still think that.

When Buxton walks can't he just keep running until they tag him out. That would still make him the last batter I think. I wouldn't advocate making outs on purpose. Have Buxton swing for the fences maybe or as suggested have him try to steal 2nd early. The odds of scoring a run with two outs and one on is still preferable to the odds that having a speedster at 2nd to start an extra inning is going to make the difference. I really miss speed being a big part of the game and having home runs be special. In my ideal world you would expand the fences and deaden the ball. Not a lot but enough that you actually have to hit the sweet spot on the bat.

That's not how I viewed Duffey. In 2015, he had a decent fastball that he located very well. He had several curveballs that he threw from different angles and different speeds that all had one thing in common and that was a sharp and nasty break. So of course the consensus was that instead of trying to get an extra tick on his fastball and work on command, he needed to develop a great changeup. In 2016 ST it seemed like he threw that changeup a lot and it never really did develop all that much but whether that was the reason or it was happenstance he did not have the same control of his fastball and his curveball did not have the same bite to it. So in my mind it went like this. His fastball was decent and his curveball was great. He worked very hard on a change up and as a result his fastball and curveball were not as good which showed up in the ERA and proved to people he couldn't make it with just two pitches (even though those two pitches had a lot of variations). What it proved to me was that he couldn't make it with three pitches when in my opinion he could have done quite well with just two pitches. BTW, add Scott Diamond to that list though I think arm strain was the reason he didn't succeed. Its not that batters adjusted. Its that one year his curveball was really really good and the next year it wasn't as good. As far as Dobnak goes, I have no idea except that he seems to have plenty good stuff and control and also a pretty good competitive nature. He didn't wilt under pressure but rather seemed to get tougher. Its why I was disappointed when they lifted him so early in the playoff game.

I thought he was our ace in 2019. His W-L, ERA, ERA+, FIP, WHIP, and SO/9 were all better than Berrios. Only stat Berrios beat him at was innings pitched and that has become less important when a relief staff is full of guys with even better ERAs. Plus I just felt like we were more likely to get a good performance when he was up. Not trying to take away from Berrios here. Over the course of a season innings are important to save a staff but Odorizzi was quite good.

That batting average and walk rate bode well. Just like I want a pitcher to have "stuff" rather than velocity I like hitters to have more than just power.

Electronic strike zone? Seems like the perfect time to try it.

No one I know and none of those whose opinions I have read on here thinks removing a stature solves any of the real problems in the US so who are these self righteous idiots you refer to except those that think removing the statue is a step in the right direction no matter how small? You seem to feel very strong about the subject. I said in a separate post that I respect people can come to the conclusion of leaving the statue up as long as they have gone beyond "This is just another leftist agenda that I have to refute". Maybe you did go beyond your first reaction but capitalizing the words and throwing ad hominen in there tells me you probably didn't. My life would not past muster but I neither expect nor want a monument. I also don't think we are bound by the decisions of who to honor by people of a different time whether it be 10 years ago or 100 years ago. Heck, someone might have wanted to erect a statue or name a school after Bill Cosby and changed his mind the next day when accusations came out. This situation is more nuanced. He did bring baseball to Minnesota but he also made a lot of money doing it. He would have probably let the Twins leave Minnesota if Pohlad hadn't stepped up. The public perception of him was strong enough and the apathy people had for racial injustice was enough for him to get the statue 10 years ago. If he was a better person it might have even survived drunken quotes from 50 years ago with Carew's moderating words. I never particularly liked him and had pretty much forgotten the Waseca quotes until reminded recently. He is part of the history of the Twins. Doesn't mean there has to be a statue for him.