Muppet

In defense of Watkins. He used to be T (capital T) Terrible years ago. He's gotten to be decent enough that you don't even know he's there now. And for Larnach... well, if they win today, we can forgive a little mental error.... just learn from it and don't let it happen again. If they lose....? Off with his head.

And yet they have the highest win percentage than other AL teams when they score more than 2 runs in a game. Which is exactly why you have to look deeper into the numbers to figure out what is going on. When they beat the Rockies 20-2 for example, it only counts as one win.

As everyone continues to boil and simmer over the inability of ownership to pick up a top line starter or a left handed reliever, I posit that the biggest area of need is offense. Of course there have occasionally been times when the Okerts, Funderburks, or Thielbars of the team have given up large masses of runs in an inning blowing a game. I'd also note that Duran's ERA is unreasonably high for a closer. But when scoring 3 or more runs, the Twins fare better than all of the top 9 teams in the AL. I had a little fun with spreadsheets and looked at the teams in the AL with the most wins. Gu2 Lu2 wu2 wO2 w l T G3+ W%3+ mn 30 30 0 59 59 48 107 77 0.766 sea 40 35 5 52 57 53 110 70 0.743 cle 30 28 2 64 66 52 118 88 0.727 bal 26 22 4 61 65 45 110 84 0.726 hou 31 30 1 55 56 52 108 77 0.714 bos 31 28 3 54 57 50 107 76 0.711 kcr 31 26 5 56 61 49 110 79 0.709 tbr 40 33 7 48 55 53 108 68 0.706 nyy 26 20 6 59 65 45 110 84 0.702 (Gu2 = games under 2 runs; Lu2 Losses with under 2 runs; wu2 wins under 2 runs; w02 wins over 2 runs; w wins; l losses; t total games; G3+ games over 3 runs w%3+ win pct over 3 runs) First, the Twins are unique among the group in that they have zero wins when scoring 2 runs or fewer. Conversely, they have the highest win percentage when scoring more than 3 runs at 76.6% of games won. To me that suggests that, despite the numbers (and without spending another hour looking into the stats more deeply), the Twins really have been holding it together on the mound. Yes a left handed reliever that can get 1-2 extra wins over the remainder of the season would be great, but having fewer games with anemic offense would win more games. So here's to getting past the boring trade deadline and hoping for offensive surges, improvements from the bottom of the barrel, and healthful and continued returns from the likes of Correa, Miranda, and Lewis, etc... IF they make it to the playoffs, anything is possible. If they continue to lay offensive eggs, we'll just have to move on.... pick up a new hobby, or get into hockey or something. Who knows, maybe if Pablo gets his old mojo back, they'll even win a couple of 2-1 games.

This team isn't good enough that one above average player they would get in trade would push them over the edge. If they want to make a playoff run they need all of their hitters to be able to perform when not playing the White Sox, As, and Rockies. Everyone has inflated numbers due to playing terrible teams for most of the year. They can do it, but everyone will have to hit better. Weirder things have happened. No amount of Kikuchi would fix this team.

People are mad they didn't get a pitcher. But most of the time when they lose it is because they can't score more than 2 runs. Even good pitchers give up on average of 3+ runs per game. This team is not currently good enough to make a playoff run and no trade will change that. Hopefully by the time October rolls around they are on a good roll and everyone is clicking. Only then will they have a chance... but in baseball, everything is possible. So let's watch them start now by destroying the Mets.

Festa might give up 5 or 6 runs, but I'll never blame pitchers for the loss when the offense refuses to score more than a run or two.

And Kepler looks to have survived the last 10 trade deadlines.

A warm body for a guy who can't hit in High A. A decent move if you don't trust anyone in St. Paul to fill in as needed. Can't be any worse than Okert or Thielbar have been. I'm not going to lose sleep over this one. More excited to see Dobby back actually.

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.