Muppet

I'd add to this 1. Lopez can regain his old form. If these things don't happen the Twins aren't making it past the wild card regardless of any trades.

I don't see why they would want an inconsistent pitcher who has a poor track record on the hopes that they could fix him. Just bring up Dobnak if you are desparate for a pitcher. He's having a pretty good year in AAA and you don't have to give up anything to get him.

The Twins' last four series will be against Boston, Cleveland, Miami, and Baltimore, 3/4 of which are pretty good teams. That should be an exciting end stretch. It will all depend on how well they can play against some big teams at the end.

It might just be one game, but the issue with this series is more deep. What happens when the Twins start playing the big boy teams. They can have a .750 win percentage when they almost exclusively play teams like the Rockies, A's, White Sox, and Mariners (who I only include on this list because they somehow can't figure the Twins out at all). But if they can't win at least .500 against the good teams they will face soon, they are toast. It looks as though the entire AL Central might turn out as expected after all. In that case, the Twins might sweep the division with subpar performances from here on (provided they go at least .500 with their remaining games against the Guardians).

Should be OK. When pitching against teams that aren't KC, Ober has a 2.97 ERA.

Yes. We might as well bench players like Miranda and Larnach because they have sucked for most of their tenure as Twins as well.

You are all nuts. Over the past 2 weeks Margot has a slash line of .286/.412/.357/.769 and has generated runs that have been the difference in multiple Twins wins. It'll take him a long time to make up for his bad start and have respectable numbers on the year, but baseball is a streaky sport. People start slow and get hot. A much shorter hot streak may have saved AK from from getting sent when Lewis was up. Right now is not the time to replace Margot. He has literally carried this team in recent games. Let him stay hot. Plus his defense, while maybe not great, is better than Larnach and Kirilloff. And defense might not win games, but it does keep the team from losing games. We might as well be calling for the heads of Jeffers, Kepler, Buxton, and Correa. THEY should be our all stars and they haven't done crap lately. Since May 15 Jeffers has an ops of .545, almost .150 lower than Margot. Buxton's OPS .592; Correa OPS .712 (averagish, but still lower than Margot); and Kepler .556. Nobody expects Margot to be the team MVP, but those players that COULD be the team MVP better start playing like it. In recent weeks, the Twins owe their wins to Margot, Santana and Vazquez (defensively). So win the Yankees sweep the Twins again... look to the top of the lineup to place your blame. And furthermore... if the past 3 years of watching the ups and downs of Larnach, Wallner, Miranda, Julien, and Martin haven't taught us anything, we should know better than to DFA our veteran depth to gamble on the next hottest rookie phenom. Even, ,... gasp ... Royce Lewis is susceptible to a deep sophomore slump until he figures out the league's adjustments and turns back into Mickey Mantle Jr. (None of this applies to Farmer. That guy is done)

One thing I"ve noticed lately is how the dregs of the team (thinking Margot, Vazquez, Julien, Santana) have mostly been responsible for the past several wins. Particularly Margot. Not only is he generating runs, but his runs, sometimes when combined with Julien's, have been the deciding runs. Julien, despite his lackluster offence had generated a run or two that ultimately won games. Even a more recent game where the Twins lost 2-5, Julien and Margot were the two run scorers. While Vazquez only drove in one run in the past 6-7 games, it was in a one run game. Despite his lack of offence, his defense has contributed in at least one occasion where he threw out Blanco trying to steal in the 9th to end a potential rally. When the bottom of the order finds ways to contribute, things get good. Also, funny note, despite Baseball Reference giving the Guardians a better chance of making the post season (85.3% to 79.5%) they give the Twins a better chance of winning the WS (5% to 4.5%).

When not playing the Royals, Ober is 5-1 with a 3.01 ERA and a 0.87 WHIP. Not bad. Time for the Twins to show they can beat good teams too.

This is all fine and well, but doesn't Paddack actually need to be injured to be placed on the IL? While every player in the MLB could potentially have one injury or another, it seemed that MLB was going to crack down with Eppler. Or maybe that was a special case?

Margot leading off again. Last time he did that a couple days ago he went 2-3 with a run and RBI in a 4-2 win. Farmer, Santana, and Vazquez also combined to go 4-9. I like seeing the dregs of this lineup win games. It makes it feel like (almost) summer is heating the team up.

Bah... That was the OLD Twins that lost all the time.

Checking out the game log. It is easier to go 8-1 when most of your games are against the White Sox, the A's, Tigers, Astros, Blue Jays, and Angels. I'd like to thing the Twins will give him more of a challenge. But the last time Ober played the Royals, he gave up 8 runs in 1.1 innings. Let's hope they both regress a bit tonight.

Vázquez' bat has contributed in a big way to 2 wins in the past 5 games. Plus his throwing out a base stealer at 2nd may have been THE winning play of yesterday's game. Lately the 5 worst hitters on the team have been more than pulling their weight. Kirilloff HRs have won a couple of games. Farmer, Margot, Vazquez, Kirilloff, and Julien have all been putting it together lately. Baseball is a streaky sport. Some people really heat up after the springtime is over. It is almost June. Let's let these guys keep improving and see if they are still terrible by the all star break before we start figuring out who to DFA.

Right! Cy Young has more career losses than any other pitcher. But we give people the Cy Young award when they are the best pitchers in the division.

Bullpen relief is here. Staumont called up! (Let's hope Paddack can go 8-9 innings today)

First. There was nothing stopping the first baseman who was standing next to the downed pitcher pick up the ball and throw it home. Second. I don't know if there is some sort of protocol for when a player is down, but nobody standing nearby even acknowledged that a guy might have just broken his ankle next to them. They all just sort of stood around waiting for something to happen, blatantly ignoring the guy writhing around on the ground in pain. If they wanted to try to throw Kepler out, they could have.

It has not been Margot's year yet. But he is on the team, and until he isn't we can hope that he turns it around. Many others on the team have completely turned it around, so we know it is possible. Over the past 10 games Farmer has a slash line of .412 .500 . 647 1.147 after accumulating a slash line up to that point of .064 .200 .085 .285. Over the past 10 games Carlos Santana, while still no superstar, is hitting better. Kepler, who has been mostly terrible in the first half of every season is currently a rock star in right field. In the last 10 games Vazquez is hitting almost 300 and is a great defensive catcher and game caller. Yes Margot is the lone player who hasn't turned it around lately. On the plus side, as a departure from last year when they trotted out Gallo to bat first over and over and over again, they are now using Margot sparingly (not that Gallo and Margot are perfect comps or anything). Margot's even gotten a couple odd RBIs lately. Things right now that are more important and interesting than how bad Margot sucks: 1. Kyle Farmer is tearing it up after having an absolutely terrible start 2. SWR seems to be a much better MLB pitcher than an MiLB pitcher and is currently one of the most important rotation pieces that is performing much better than those previously occupying the hole he is plugging (i.e. Varland and DeSclafani). The rotation depth chart essentially ended BEFORE SWR and he is more than holding it all up. 3. Trevor Larnach and Jose Miranda, both of whom I had written off as ever being viable Twins players are playing like All Stars. 4. When Buxton went down, instead of clutching our collective pearls in despair, we all just shrugged it off as we all knew that Austin Martin could just come up and fill in. 5. While Austin Martin is filling in for Buxton, we can use Margot as a defensive replacement in late innings to slightly improve the outfield defense. So Margot isn't completely useless (though obviously still not optimal). Margot will be off the team when his time comes. Until then, I don't mind him being the only mostly worthless position player.

MLB Radio also give you the chance to work on your Spanish with ES broadcasts. I might not know what is going on, but I DID learn what ponches and bombas were...I think...

I sure hope these hot flashes with players like Miranda and Larnach continue when they play teams not named the White Sox.

Alcala is up

It might be nice to have an option to mute people for a set number of days (1 week?). That way I won't shut people out forever if they are just having an overly-emotional baseball day rather than just here to post endless complainey rants about their least favorite managers and owners.

Hey guys. The game is on! Let's In Play Run(s) this up!

A turnaround starts with one win. All those crappy bats can only really get better, right? Let's consider this one Opening Day.

Believe it or not, the inning has started and there are still no outs.