ashbury

It's true that 1B is a place where offensive production is paramount, and HR is one of the best ways to accomplish that. Still, if the choice is how to deploy 4 hitters among the infield position, I'd put the shakiest glove at 1B. Most of the plays that come to 1B are intended to be catchable; that's not the intent of the batter, for the other 3 infield positions.

Nice to see Buxton with a base hit to lead off the bottom of the first. That always gives his team a chance to score!

I smell a "Josh Bell for SS" campaign about to commence.

Royce Lewis at 1B and Luke Keaschall at 2B kind of boggles my mind, though. Luke seems like the one to just stand there and take the balls that are thrown to him.

Among the choices given.... looking at their fielding fundamentals, Keaschall seems destined for first base (or a corner outfield spot). Culpepper seems head and shoulders above both Lewis and Lee in the tools needed for the shortstop role. Between those remaining two, I don't see enough difference in aspects of their defensive game to differentiate one as clearly the 3B or the 2B. Lewis before the demotion seemed to have elevated himself to an average 3B, and Lee's not quite at the same level statistically (granting that the fielding stats I look at don;'t mean terribly much), so by default I'd install Lee at 2B and see how it all goes, but it's really a coin flip.

What if he was bad at relieving, though? The cash the team just received by trading him to Toronto while his value is still high goes out the window! 😁

Depends on how you define top prospect, but the off-season after he was drafted the MLB ranking had him 7th among all players, 2nd among pitchers, in the Mets system.

6'2", 240 pounds. Once Smith has gotten a head of steam, he may not be fast but I would not want to stand in his way. His running style in the video could be described as "earnest."

It feels misleading to me. 1) The Rays are having a good season. Their run-scoring is about the same as the Twins. They've been shut out 3 times. But they've been held to 1 run only five times. Our Twins have been shut out just once, but they've scored 1 run ten times. Not much difference in win probability, 0 versus 1 run. The Rays happened to pitch a shutout one of the times I mentioned, the Twins won none of their 1-run offense games, "as expected". Bottom line, there's not much difference in scoring a run versus not, if we're looking at shutouts only. 1a) Atlanta is right up at the top with the Nationals and Dodgers, in runs scored. They've been shut out five times this season, and scored 1 run five other times. Lost 'em all, "as expected." As for the Nationals and Dodgerts, two shutouts and six 1-run games, for each of them - no wins. Anyway, none of these offenses have demonstrated the same kind of futility as often as our Twins have. To be "impressive", I'd want to see the Twins be on more of a par with the big boys, in avoiding the no-chance-to-win games. 2) The eye test tells me this is just not a reliable offense. I realize their runs per game are a titch above league average. They racks up runs, like any team does, when the opposition is weak in some way. But it "feels" to me like it's more of a factor with this team than average. The eye test also tells me a lot of times they score meaningless runs to avert the shutout; that's hard to define a metric for and I certainly don't know how. It's perplexing that now and then they'll score against top opposing pitchers, and I don't know how to separate out "good pitcher having a bad day" versus "good pitcher unable to shut our unstoppable guys down," either.

He's responding tongue-in-cheek to my joke about it amounting to a three-team trade. Or am I joking? 😁

Full circle would have been back to the Mets, no? (Or else Kempner HS in Sugar Land, TX, but when's the last time you saw a high school make a significant trade?) Here's my eccentric report in another thread thirty minutes ago: Breaking news: BLOCKBUSTER THREE-TEAM TRADE Blue Jays receive Simeon Woods Richardson Twins receive Justin Lawrence Pirates receive cash Initial speculation has Pittsburgh being the big winner in this transaction. More on this exciting development as we learn about it!

The commentary? Yes. The actual pieces moving? No joke. SWR is reported going to Toronto for cash. Unless the difference is substantial, the money Minnesota sent to Pittsburgh is (in effect) Toronto money. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/twins-to-trade-simeon-woods-richardson-to-blue-jays.html

Breaking news: BLOCKBUSTER THREE-TEAM TRADE Blue Jays receive Simeon Woods Richardson Twins receive Justin Lawrence Pirates receive cash Initial speculation has Pittsburgh being the big winner in this transaction. More on this exciting development as we learn about it!

Hit batsmen.

Tune In Again to tomorrow's game thread to find out!!!

I was thinking merely of an alternative verb when I saw the headline, but making it a game is the next step.

In that case I have been misleading people by suggesting we'll have closure by Saturday morning. Could be Monday morning instead.

That's the slight detail I'm unclear on. Can the player be off DFA and on waivers? Then the total time in limbo could be nine days. I don't think that's so, but maybe?

Could be until Saturday until we find out.

I'm sorry. The correct answer was 8-0. Vanna will see you off with a nice parting gift.

Austin Martin on first. The comeback begins!

What are you talking about? He got the job done. Just a little unconventional, is all. No problem! The ninth inning belongs to him!

Just seems like the time between pitches is small.