tony&rodney

Raya pitched well this afternoon. He has stuff.

My guess is that Boston still believes they have a shot at a playoff spot this year. Also the Red Sox have a strong collection of young position players and pitching prospects in their system. Thus a team asking for Jarren Duran may need to cough up an MLB pitcher. Boston will want Ryan but might consider Ober plus Jax. The price would be dear and I doubt the ask includes anyone from the minor leagues.

Sorry to include a negative comment but Jose Miranda had a horrible plate appearance in a situation where he could have sealed the game. The pitcher gave him four grooved pitches to hit. A sac fly was what was needed. Miranda took huge line drive hacks and grounded into a DP. He needs a complete reset in Ft. Myers.

The Twins have exactly the players that Falvey wanted. He has said so on numerous occasions. The transactions and trades since 2017 reflect his wishes. We get to follow the outcome of his design.

Andrew Abbot, a 26 year old LH SP in his third year as a Cincinnati Red, threw 110 pitches in a complete game shutout last night.

I really tuned in to C. J. last season. He looked good and was coming along. The one quibble i had with him is that he throws 6 or 7 pitches and he was not developing at a rate which I would expect from his arm. That may be unfair but it takes quite a while to command and control any offering. Starting pitchers hope to harness 2-4 pitches. The ability to master twice the number of offerings is a huge task for a young pitcher. He had a very nice outing yesterday though and we will need to see how he does going into the summer once he (Culpepper) transitions back to AA and possibly AAA by August.

We are probably on the same page. I wanted the Twins to be aggressive trading a few guys (Lee, Julien, even Lewis and Wallner, but of course not all) the last few off seasons to target more talent. Naturally that is difficult to pull off and Falvey is risk adverse to the max. To be fair, one never knows how things would turn out. When I watch Hill and Soto I can see the potential but they clearly need time. Prielipp is closer and ready for AAA. I wonder when that move will come. I do like how the Twins are having Prielipp use/ develop all of his pitches as opposed to just mowing down the weaker part of the AA lineups. Certainly he goes to AAA in July if the next couple of starts go well. The Twins may wind up trading Morris this coming winter if Adams and others develop. I think Morris could easily slot in as an above average #4/5 starting pitcher next year and a pile of teams could use that skill. The Twins may be content to hold their top 3 and let Festa, Matthews, and Woods Richardson fill the bottom. It should be interesting to see where Prielipp is a year from now. I don't see Raya in the SP picture or anyone else. The pitching has been enjoyable to watch. The bats and defense, not so much.

If we are talking absolute ceiling only then you are likely correct, which is what I also suggested. However, pitchability is still a thing and for now I'm sticking with Morris until such time as Prielipp gets past 60 pitches and resides in St. Paul as successfully as he has in Wichita. No doubt that Hill and Soto have loads of potential but they are a ways away from MLB conversation. Morris will almost surely never rise above a mid to back end rotation piece in the majors but there is real value in a guy who gets outs and stays off the barrel. I will continue to tune in every time he pitches

Nice home run by Wallner, but slow down a bit and wait a while, say about 2200+ more plate appearances before you compare big Matt to Miguel Sano. Wallner could go on a sweet run here with the Twins but he currently sits at 33 bombs and has a few to hit to reach Sano's 164 blasts. I will be cheering Wallner on but we sure have forgotten #22 pretty quickly. Maybe revisit Wallner and Sano in 3 years and the numbers could easily favor Wallner at that time.

Fun to watch all four of these pitchers. One could make an order on ceiling or where they are at the present time. Based purely on my views of their games: Prielipp, Hill, Soto, Morris for ceiling. I would go Morris, Prielipp, Hill for performance to date based mostly on the level of competition and considering I have not seen Soto enough times. Morris has usually been around 94 MPH and has hit 98 MPH in the games I have seen him pitch. I have watched Morris 8 times. It seems like Morris works quite a bit on his pitches for development as opposed to just trying to get outs. The number of poor plays behind him has been discouraging to watch with Miranda and Julien being particular bad. Prielipp should be ready for AAA by July. I agree with the careful approach at this time. There are times when he just toys with AA batters. I have watched 5 of his starts. I have only watched Soto once. He looked really good but I would like to see him more times before jumping all in. Dasan Hill looks really good too. He is an exciting prospect. I have only seen him pitch four times. Pretty cool to watch and know the Twins have some fun talented players to watch in their minor league system.

Well, this explains quite a bit. When you haven't watched anyone it isn't a good idea to have thoughts on that not knowing. BTW, the minor leagues is almost exclusively for development which is why players work on specific skills in game action. This is similar to Spring Training in some ways. If you had an mlb.com account you could watch minor league games. If you have internet there are quite a few games that are free on both mlb.com and milb.com. The other MLB teams and the minor leagues are very entertaining for a hardcore baseball fan. You are not incorrect that many players are or seem less accomplished in skills at the MLB level than we would hope. My take is that they are doing the best they can do. All of the former or current players I have known are total workaholics. Remember there is money to be made if one is successful. The Twins are an organization that values bats more than speed, defense, and small ball. It is what it is.

This more clearly represents what I feel is the most accurate picture regarding Eeles and his prospects for becoming a Twins. What I wrote above in the comments needed a sentence that states that it is totally unlikely for Eeles to get a roster spot soon. As others noted, his knee injury knocked him out of competing for a slot in March. Eeles is down the list now.

Agree with your take. I wanted to add that Jacob Wilson might be the new standard for swing and hit. Wilson's .372 average with 16 Ks, 14 BB, and 23 XBH along with 5 SB while playing a decent shortstop is really something. Watching him is nearly comical as he hits bloops, blasts, frozen ropes, and broken bat hits all over the field on every type of pitch in crazy locations. There was an interesting article on Fangraphs on May 23 about his batting stance and The Athletic had a good article on him on June 2. Wilson was picked 6th in the draft immediately after Walker Jenkins. Arraez has fallen below .280 AVE sadly. He might struggle to get a decent contract next year as a slow DH who doesn't hit many XBH and provides next to no defense.

Eeles still needs some time at AAA St. Paul. If he is needed the exchange would be Eeles for Bride. No reason to DFA Fitzgerald because Bride cannot be retained at AAA so he would be DFA. I'm not sure Eeles would be used much but he can play everywhere at a Twins level defense and does provide some speed which was lost when Keirsey Jr. was returned to St. Paul. The Twins will wait for an injury before making a move and even then they might prefer Miranda.

In reverse order: I would agree that a multiple inning relief pitcher would be a good idea. Sending down Adams does seem strange except one must recognize that Jorge Alcala has a great arm despite his faltering ways meaning the Twins are not ready to DFA Alcala just yet. There are still decent arms at St. Paul. Andrew Morris is not on the 40 person roster and he is still working on a number of pitching details, but I would suggest that Morris is as strong a starter as Woods Richardson minus the MLB experience which is actually important. St. Paul also has Darren McCaughan, Ryan Jensen, and the rehabbing Michael Tonkin. For now, pitching is not the biggest concern for the Twins.

The Twins should be alright. In early June after an early drought and a couple of weeks of miracle the team are above .500 and have the promise of holding their own going forward. Those who are wanting purity and sustained runs of winning games will find themselves in disappointment. The Twins have pitching, pitching, and a group of pretty average position players willing to find their place in baseball. I'm expecting Correa and Buxton to lead the way in support of the pitching staff. The Twins currently have the same record as Tampa Bay and Toronto and are a half game up on Cleveland and Milwaukee. Really good spot. Considering all things this is a very solid position at the moment. There are frustrations to be sure, but most of those are simply a difference of philosophy. Defense, base-running, and small ball are accepted if it happens for the current management but not a focus. So fans need to see the focused plate appearances and unselfish play from today. Buxton taking a base on balls instead of flailing at pitches out of the zone was a run. Make the plays possible and have grueling at bats - this will need to be the way the Twins win games and stay in a race all summer.

There were a fair number of people who predicted the Twins to win the AL Central. Some on Twins Daily had the team over 90 wins, which is always possible until it isn't. I'm suggesting the Twins are an 85 win Wild Card possibility.

Vazquez was looking for a pitch to hit in the air. He took a pretty severe upper cut at a low pitch and took a pitch he wasn't going to do anything with and hoped would be off off the plate. From where Vazquez stands in the box he isn't going to find success swinging at that pitch too often.

Really like how Vazquez took the perfect pitch for strike three because if he swings it is a DP. Buck followed with a very good plate appearance. Little things add up.

Raya has had some good games. He has struggled with consistency. Have you been watching the games because Morris has been fairly decent all season with only a few glitches along the way. I have caught most of his games on milb.com. He just needs experience with sequencing. Prielipp and Hill have looked dominant at times but they will also need to prove themselves at a higher level before we get too crazy with projections. I'm hoping Prielipp moves to St. Paul by July.

The Twins are a below average team at the plate. They don't hit many home runs, doubles, or triples and do not run the bases much at all. The sacrifice bunt is not a thing for them. Patience/ drawing walks is below average and they do strike out. The Twins will need an infusion of talent via prospects or totally unexpected trades to change the dynamic of the roster. The lineup can best be seen as functional. The overall team defense is better than expected but still near or below average. Correa is exceptionally solid and Buxton makes all of the routine plays. France has been surprisingly competent at first base and Bader plays a good outfield. The gloves have been adequate on the whole. The Twins have benefitted from pretty consistently good pitching. Both starters and relievers are doing their jobs. The pitching staff is among the best in baseball. Teams rarely add catchers during the season unless the team is doing poorly and the pitchers are struggling. The ability to add a significant position player piece would almost certainly come at the cost of a major arm or two from the current staff, which would be counterproductive. If the Twins want to change the level of the play from their position players this will need to be done after the season. Is there anyone in management interested in changing? I'm not betting on that. The best chance for the Twins is to qualify for the playoffs as a wild card team and have their pitching staff carry them while hoping that simultaneously a couple of bats get smoking hot.

A significant trade would be a surprise under the current management and ownership group.

Twins are actually outperforming their talent more or less. Line up the Twins versus Detroit, Cleveland, and Kansas City position by position. Which players do you pick? The Twins are getting good pitching but if management pulls the starters at 80 pitches on a routine basis the bullpen is bound to hit the wall. Starter usually say they have good stuff 40% of the time, are just ok a little more than 40% of the time, and have to fight every inning on about 20% of the time. One should prbably expect the relievers to also face similar odds. In any event the Twins are capable of reaching the playoffs but will need some guys to step forward.

The bullpen has been asked to fill more and more innings. I guess conventional knowledge tells us that starting pitchers poop their beds after 100 pitches, but couldn't guys like Paddack, Ober, Ryan, and Matthews be allowed to throw 99 pitches? It might help long term. Or is that crazy? Once upon a time the manager would look to pull the starting pitcher after 120 pitches unless they were sailing free and clear. Then the number went to 110 more or less. Then 100 pitches became the load for starters. The Twins are getting ahead of the crowd by lifting their arms somewhere around 80 pitches. Does this have a residual effect long term on the fellows in the bullpen?

Players make mistakes and so do umpires. This is not new. The umpires did not have much of a role in the game. The Twins struggle with offense and have all year. They also do not use the speed or small ball game. It is what it is and Toronto was better tonight.