tony&rodney

Caleb has come a long way since playing for Randolph High School. He is a great story.

Ok, it is the White Sox but Varland just cruised through two innings in impressive fashion.

Is Varland the answer?

The dream .... Julien facing a lefty.

Farmer was not stealing a base. He was going on the belief that Julien would make contact on a strike or take a ball. Thus it is a run and hit. I like it when Baldelli loosens up and put players in motion but many do not. Julien freezing up makes the call to send Farmer look questionable but the fault lies with Julien here. He has to swing to protect the plodding Farmer. FWIW, I was not happy about Julien taking that pitch but even athletes at the highest level f-up. I wasn not in favor of Baldelli sending Vazquez to pinch hit either, mostly because I believed that the Ray's lefty was less effective than their righty who came in and put Christian away on three pitches. It just doesn't make any sense to spend any time second guessing. I might not like a decision at the time it was made but I move on. More than any other sport baseball is all about failure, dealing with it and adapting and having the confidence to forget misplays to an extent yet still learn and adjust.

I'm not at all sure or even really care why Baldelli pinch hit for Julien. You may have resources and knowledge that allow you to know why decisions are made in some game situations, which may explain your certainty. I was merely attempting to soften the vitriol that casts Baldelli as incompetent by suggesting there are reasons for his actions and we don't know his thoughts. Baseball is entertainment for me these days. I'm no longer active in the game (too old) and find simple joy in the pitcher-catcher-batter chess match. I don't see second guessing and anger as a healthy part of entertainment. I do understand that people question actions and get very frustrated.

It was completely understandable why so many people were upset when Luis Arraez was traded. A fan favorite and entertaining player plus the AL Batting Champion seems like a guy to keep. The Twins sorely needed pitching however, and despite the high risk inherent in all pitchers something needed to occur or the Twins were doomed to repeats of using guys like Archer and Bundy. Actually Bundy and Archer were better than one could have expected as shown by their current standing. Pitching is critical to team success and starters are the most valuable of all baseball players. I was all in with the Lopez-Arrez trade immediately. While I loved Arraez, it was obvious the Twins needed a quality starter to be a .500 team or better. It is looking like this trade was excellent for both teams which is a good thing. I'm actually hoping the Twins can pull off a similar trade during this coming offseason. Pitching is the main factor in a winning team.

Perhaps the Twins can find another trade partner who needs a position player for a starting pitcher. Can the Twins get by with Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Paddack, & Varland in 2024? David Festa and Simeon Woods Richardson may help at some point next year as well. Perhaps there is a free agent pitcher available to sign. Somehow, a trade seems like a better option. Never such a thing as too much pitching.

Says someone lost who stumbled onto to baseball blog. Life is good.

Cedar Rapids wins 9-4. Also, AK had some nice swings tonight. I was a little surprised that Kepler scored but Alex needed the rbi's.

No, Twins pay. Maeda has been a good guy/player for the Twins.

Fairbanks blows away all three batters in bottom of ninth, TB wins 4-3.

Maeda over 100 innings. Another $250,000 for Kenta.

Wonderful game for the Twins. I'm watching Cedar Rapids (up 6-1) and Tampa Bay (up 4-3) on the computer with Twins on TV.

I have been to Chicago a few dozen times and always had a wonderful time. It is a great city. Also, both Wrigley and Comiskey are fun places to watch a game. I really never enjoyed how much Wrigley smelled like urine before they fixed it up, but the neighborhood feel of the old setup was preferable to the current corporate development. People at White Sox games always seemed so chill.

Only in a few select areas of the city where you should not be hanging out.

Fun to watch Julien and Lewis having fun in Chicago.

Maeda has a contract that is focused on innings pitched and games started for income. Neither applies to the postseason. Maeda is a good pitcher and should be very useful in the bullpen in October.

Edouard Julien is real firebrand for controversy on Twins Daily. The conversations, disagreements, and occasional volatile reactions have been interesting this summer. My own take is that Julien is an exciting talent who is exceedingly inexperienced for a MLB player. He has also been a critical part of this 2023 Twins team. This has been chronicled. What seems to be creating controversy regarding Julien is: 1. his fielding 2. his batting approach 3. being pinch hit for. Julien is unfinished as a defensive player. He is much improved since the start of the year with fair lateral skills. Edouard looks awkward at times and is a hesitant fielder whose transfers are less than smooth. The facts are that he makes most of the plays. Still, viewers are somewhat queasy whenever Julien is involved in a defensive play. This seems understandable but doesn't mean that one cannot acknowledge that Eddie is getting better with his glove. Julien is the anti-Guerrero Sr. Edouard is not ever going to successfully hit pitches out of the strike zone. Thus he is super selective, perhaps to a fault. I would like to see Julien swing more on 3-0 and 3-1 counts as well. I feel he guesses at times in those counts. As far as the called strike three pitches, I'm willing to bet that two thirds of those pitches were balls. Finally, Julien will grow into being more successful in certain counts as he becomes more comfortable and learns the pitchers; he is still an inexperienced rookie. Finally, there are the annoying times when Julien has been lifted for a pinch hitter. He does struggle against left-handed arms and he is inexperienced. It makes sense to sit Julien at times. I believe that Julien will get more opportunities next season. The specific use of Vazquez for Julien yesterday seemed confounding. There may have been other items involved that we are not privy to as fans. Julien messed up when he took that 3-2 pitch down the middle with Farmer on the move. Edouard does not just take a fastball in the middle of the zone in any count unless he is totally fooled and a run and hit play requires the hitter to swing at anything close. Missed signs are a just cause to be lifted in a subsequent at bat. Either way , we don't know and it is best to not rush to judgment. Julien has created plenty of controversy this season in any event. Hopefully his leg heals and he goes on a tear in October.

Julien is an inexperienced baseball player, having played professionally only in 2021 and 2022 before this season. There is plenty of reason to believe that he can improve as a baseball player. The splits are rough for Julien this year and I agree with others that he begins to receive more opportunities next year versus lefties. It should be noted that platoon baseball is often a good decision. While we will likely never know exactly why Baldelli used Vazquez yesterday instead of just letting Julien hit, it is at least plausible that it may have been a consequence of his previous at bat. Julien took a pitch fully in the strike zone on a run and hit leaving Farmer as an easy out at second base. It is possible Baldelli wanted to send a message when he pulled Julien; we just don't know.

Good content. Loved the conversation. David Festa has looked tremendous in various starts. His stuff seems top shelf, although he still looks like he is working on command and control as well as endurance. Festa also looks like he needs to eat a few pizzas. Does he have a 29 inch waist? Where do you see Festa in the realm of pitching prospects? What is his timeline?

I think you meant to put a comment in the game thread. I did not comment on Jax. No problem though. FWIW, Jax did not throw a single fastball to Arozarena. Arozarena hit a sweeper for the home run.

This makes me recall Gaetti's comment about how difficult it is to play baseball when one is clutching their throat with both hands. Gaetti was the ultimate gamer and understood what it was like to be a young player in a pennant race.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Julien is really good about not swinging out of the zone and taking close pitches, some of which are strikes. However, the 3-2 pitch was fully in the zone and Farmer was not stealing but going on a run and hit play. In that case Julien must swing. The failure is cause for him to be pinch hit for in the ninth inning, even by Vazquez. Julien needs to take the sequence of events to heart and reply appropriately.

I believe others do disagree, including Baldelli. Baseball has a long drawn out season that includes numerous substitutions and player usages that seem at odds with what makes sense to one person or another. A guy like Paul Molitor has forgotten more about baseball than the entire collective understanding of the game of Twins Daily readers, which naturally includes me as well. We are actually likely to know more about running a Fortune 500 company than how to manage an MLB team. Sometimes it seems that some baseball fans are more attuned to football and the immediacy of wins each week than the slog of a long season. I don't follow football at all so maybe that is a bad comparison and I don't mean to offend anyone at all. Baseball is different in how a team (manager/front office) needs to view the larger picture. MLB is totally different than the minors, college, or amateur ball. Heck college is more like town ball than professional baseball. Despite playing and managing hundreds of games I can confidently say that I am in no position to suggest what a MLB manager should or should not do in any given situation. Of course I have my opinions but these are just for entertainment purposes. Nobody is going to pay me millions to make a decision on managing a MLB team. It is best to just enjoy the competition and entertainment. Arozarena hit a monster home run and Tampa Bay won. The Twins had their chances. Tampa Bay had their chances. Each team made a few mistakes too. It was a competitive game. There is another game tomorrow. The Twins really should put their feet down on the White Sox.