Melissa

Thanks, Lucas! Good to hear.

Thanks, Lucas! I only saw the last few innings, but noticed that Nick Gordon played shortstop. Did he have many fielding chances? Can anyone comment on how he looked out there?

I think though that Luis reaches fewer balls than Jorge does. Error counts don’t account for range.

So I was at the game last night, perched with a friend up in section 305 until a crowd of rowdy unmasked 20-somethings induced us to move higher up over in section 306. The weather was perfect, and it was fun to have a satellite’s eye view of young Mr. Ryan. Showed some flair even from the cheap seats. I agree with the previous comment that Refsnyder’s presence far below us in right field was puzzling, as was his number three spot in the lineup. Was Kepler hurt, or being rested? One upside to the overall lack of offense from either team was the game finishing at 2:28! Made it home early. But it was most disconcerting to have the stadium “crowd” cheering so hard for the Cubs. Whenever they got a hit or struck out a Twins batter or made a sharp play in the field, there was clapping and roars of approval. Way too few of those opportunities for us outnumbered local fans to offer support in return.

Thank you, Nash! Nicely written with lots of pertinent detail about this pitcher that has our hopes high!

I wonder whether the umpires buy into the Twins-fan narrative of Yankee domination over our boys? The home plate umpire really squeezed Barraclough on the Voit AB before his home run. Two two-strike pitches nicking the zone but called balls before the cookie Voit inevitably clobbered. [edited to correct name of pitcher]

I was busy last night, so only started watching in the eighth. Astudillo’s double play was a good first play to see! Another fine write up, Jamie — thank you!

Thanks for such an informative and entertaining report, Allen! The Wichita squad is especially sounding strong and raising my hopes. The Twins Daily mid season prospect ranking obviously came three weeks before the trade deadline, so it’s a bit harder to track our most recent shiny stars in the making.

As I just wrote in a different thread, I was born in Milwaukee in the early 1950s. We were a baseball loving family - my grampa took me to see his beloved Cubs at Wrigley when I was quite young. Without a TV in the house we listened to the Braves on the radio on our back porch. I could attend games in the right field bleachers of County Stadium as a member of the Knothole Club (Gang?) for 50 cents. It added to the appeal that our star right fielder, Mr. Henry Aaron, lived a few houses down our street in Mequon, Wisconsin. His daughter Gail was in my class at public school, but after a year or two her parents pulled her out due to how much racist crap she had to deal with (her dad wrote about this in his autobiography I Had a Hammer).

I’m a lifelong baseball fan (68 years old soon) and raised in Milwaukee without TV. So listening on the radio or occasionally attending games in person were the ways the sport got me hooked. I like having baseball on the radio while driving, and enjoy pulling over to watch a couple innings of kids or even old guys play on parks around town. I do watch (parts of) quite a few Twins games on Bally but also find it easy not to watch, when I have something else to do (semi retired now). I no longer watch pre-games — Tim Laudner says only the most obvious things, seems to think he’s profound, and then repeats himself — and few post-game wrap-ups. The poor quality of play lessens my enjoyment, but I don’t need constant excitement to appreciate the game. I enjoy being at Target Field the few times a year that I attend in person. I’m not afraid of downtown Minneapolis and have been glad to see the George Floyd sign on the right field wall. I don’t see support for racial justice as unpatriotic— and as a couple of people have said, there’s space given before and during games to raising the flag, singing the national anthem, God Bless America and honoring veterans. With so many foreign-born players and stars in the game I think we do enough to emphasize our patriotism. I think it’s fascinating how strong the game has become in Japan and Korea.

I thought it was meant as humor (?)

The link is to a discussion of Fernando Rodney??

Thanks for this, Jamie, all three young men you mention look to be promising!

Well, it was the current front office that signed Nelson Cruz as a free agent, twice, so that’s pretty impressive.

It was confusing at the park. Last night was our first visit to Target Field since the end of the Bomba season in 2019. It felt surreal and sad to see fans wearing Cruz 23 shirts, as he was scratched from the lineup just when we were settling into our seats. There were repercussions in the lineup, especially at 3rd base. Donaldson moved over to DH and Astudillo had a tough night at the hot corner. He missed a cutoff throw to allow the batter second base and was unable to handle three tough plays. I think JD would have made two of them.