ashbury

Lee would bring back a haul in trade. His major league stats would be a blip to any FO, especially given the rapid learning curve he's demonstrated at every level in the minors. We'd be chumps to trade Lee for anything other than blue-chip starting pitching with lots of years of control. Came here to say that last part. The article is about whom to move if the Twins do pull off a deadline deal, i.e. who has some trade value while freeing up a 40-man spot. My vote would be Severino - a team with pitching to spare probably has needs on offense (otherwise wouldn't they be in the playoff hunt?), and maybe one of them sees the guy as a productive bat even if he's limited to DH. Maybe Henriquez has a tiny bit of trade value and could play the 2024 Brian Duensing "sweetener" role for every imagined trade. But now of course we're discussing every imaginable trade. 😀

Ladies and gentlemen, Cole Sands: Phillies killer.

b-r.com keeps track of that for us too: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/2024-pitching.shtml#all_players_reliever_pitching Will it surprise you to know that Thielbar leads the team in percentage of runners who score, at 57%? (Majors-wide it's 33%. and no one in the Twins bullpen is below this figure except Alcala and Stewart.) Sands has had only 9 runners on base when he's come in, and allowed 4 to score, so that's not a good percentage but in sheer numbers it doesn't make up very much of his resume one way or the other, except to reinforce my belief that he's okay but nothing special this year; if they replaced him it would likely be with someone worse. And he could improve. Sure. Why not. Thanks for the compliment.

No one does well with 2-strike counts. Across the majors, there's a collective .509 OPS when the count reaches that point. Our Twins as a whole do slightly better at .553. Julien is a bit below par at .460; Kepler, Margot and Kirilloff have all done worse. But no question, a trend of backwards Ks is maddening.

Oh good grief. Totally ninjaed.

I can't bear to watch this game live via mlb.tv, but monitoring occasionally via MLB Gameday, I can only think of this: I. Also. Like. To. Live. Dangerously. /edit - grievously ninjaed. I can't bear to keep up with game threads on a game like this either.

You mentioned Cole Sands in reference to low leverage, which immediately reminded me of USAFChief's principle that in modern bullpen usage there are no low-leverage arms. However, I checked the numbers, and if there is a poster child for correct usage, Sands is it. baseball-reference.com provides a "Leverage" category in its splits page (for team or for player). By definition, a lot of innings by starting pitchers qualify as low leverage and I am not going to go into that. But if you rank Twins pitchers by batters faced (PA) in low leverage situations, Sands is behind only Ryan/Lopez/Ober/Paddack. When the game is out of hand or safely put away, Sands is the arm Rocco prefers to go to. (Funderburk and Jay Jackson rank highly too, and now they are gone.) With medium or high leverage, Sands drops behind Duran/Jax/Alcala in batters faced. And the clincher for me is this: when you slice and dice the numbers for Sands, the pattern of results is stark: Low Leverage: 127 PA, .497 OPS Medium Leverage: 29 PA, .661 OPS High Leverage: 30 PA, .798 OPS Yes, this is Small Sample Size. I would not stake a lot on this. But the trend is consistent with Sands being used correctly. .798 OPS is losing baseball (from the pitcher's perspective). I am happy for Sands that he is putting together a nice season. But I don't trust him in an important role and I would not call him a top setup man. It seems that Rocco prefers to avoid such a role for Sands except when the bullpen is otherwise depleted.

Philly would have presented him with a bigger challenge.

I said you could look it up. I didn't expect anyone would actually do it.

Detroit Tigers. July 12, 1979 You could look it up. / or, I could just tell you. Disco Demolition Night in Chicago. Forfeit.

The approximately 130 feet from where the shortstop positions himself is the relevant distance.

Conversely he's part of the problem against right-handers. This goes beyond him and applies to most of the guys facing righties from the left side of the plate. Only because our RHB have fared actually pretty well against the right-handers has it not become a full-blown disaster. Kepler, Julien and Santana are tasked with pulverizing RHP and they just aren't doing it.

I'm skeptical the Twins will free up both the necessary salary space and the prospect capital to make Kikuchi happen. Much better option than Paxton, though. I was intrigued by Paxton's availability yesterday, but this morning I wouldn't bother with him. When in doubt, don't bet against the Dodgers' player evaluations. I don't care at all for the other pitchers named in this thread as alternatives either, the common thread being low strikeout rates, and/or high walks, and/or current ERA fueled by a stretch of favorable BABIPpery that I don't believe will be sustainable.

I just hope the league doesn't decide on contraction for the Twins franchise after the debacle tonight.

Rocco mismanaged the bullpen yet again. Renowned Phillies-killer Cole Sands will be unavailable for the coming game.

There's a big difference between mostly fluent and all fluent.

I want to clarify that Designated For Assignment is not the same as being on Waivers. For a team to do the latter, the former needs to occur; but not vice versa. Waivers take 3 days; this has to occur sometime within the 7-day DFA window. DFA just lets the team remove the player from the 40-man roster, freeing space for someone else. What happens during those 7 days can vary, including a trade, or waivers in preparation for an outright assignment to the minors or unconditional release. I haven't seen any reports that Paxton is on waivers as yet. We're not in a situation where we can just claim him. The Dodgers surely are in "listen to trade offers" mode. He might not be "cheap and easy to get" - our Twins could easily get outbid in this environment. MLB themselves maintain a very good Glossary on all kinds of baseball terms, including a group of them that pertain to transactions: https://www.mlb.com/glossary . I use it frequently to try to fact-check myself a little. (And I nevertheless mess up.)

I also speak fluent Police Squad, Abbott and Costello, and Princess Bride when called for.

Always keep your eye on the ball.

"Nobody shops there. Too crowded."

He kind of crow-hopped as it was. He just needed to throw harder and straighter and less sidearm, easy peasy.

Those who listed Wegmans among their grocery options, I hope you count your blessings.

"High cheese from Sands" I'll take unexpected ninth-inning phrases for $200, Alex.

They knew, but the umpire was surprisingly reticent about making eye or verbal contact with anyone to confirm. Last thing you want as a runner is making highlight reels over a misunderstanding of some type.

Phillies Daily must be losing their collective **** right about now. Season Over.