stringer bell

Festa so far keeping the ball out of the middle of the zone. Two Ks and a line out in the first.

I agree that the Twins will try to keep payroll where it is or slightly lower as evidenced by the "right sizing" comment and their refusal to add payroll at the trade deadline. We know that Pablo López is due for a big increase in pay and that Ober, Ryan, Lewis and Jeffers all will get big increases due to arbitration, which should eat up the savings by cashiering Kepler, DeSclafani and Farmer. Certainly Santana has been worth his salary this year, but expecting the same in 2025 is far from a sure thing.

Matt Bowman will get work with another major league team. His contract was selected by the Orioles.

That is the first news on Kirilloff in a long while. He'll get 20 days (maximum) in St. Paul to show that he can help the club. With Santana ahead of him at first base and Wallner and Larnach both doing well, it might take an injury for him to score a place on the active roster. Teams can only add two players after September 1, and most likely Lee, Buxton and Correa will need to be added as position players.

Tyler Mahle is back on IL with shoulder issues. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/08/rangers-to-place-tyler-mahle-on-injured-list.html

Carlos Santana seems to have won over the Minnesota Twins' fan base. After a slow start, he has hit well and has been given credit for being an outstanding defender at first base. Santana has been among the most durable baseball players among active players and has logged regular time for fourteen consecutive seasons, logging more than 500 plate appearances each season. Since becoming a free agent after the 2017 season, Santana has changed teams often--Philadelphia, Cleveland, Kansas City, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee and lastly he signed late in the off season with the Twins. At each stop, he was well regarded, but teams have chosen to look for other options at first base. The seeming answer is that Santana has a well-established floor, but really no ceiling. In looking a little deeper, Santana has notable platoon splits, hitting better against left handed pitchers every year since he had his first free agent contract. His productivity from the left side has been below average more often than not. Since he is a first baseman, better hitting should and could be found to replace him. In other threads, posters have made mention that Santana should be signed again to man first base in 2025. His contract this season was very reasonable ($5.25M for the season) and I would think that he'll be looking for more after defying Father Time for another season. I remain skeptical of relying on a 39 year old, who is not above average against three quarters of pitchers. At some point, Santana will fall off. If he were to agree for a similar contract and less than full-time duty, it might be worth it to bring him back.

Yet another lefty. I thought they were supposed to start 25% of games. Seriously though, this is probably the best chance for the Twins to beat SD.

It sounds like Gio will land on his feet. Braves lost Riley and are negotiating a major league contract with Gio. Good for him.

The same is true for Trevor Larnach. He’s slightly less than a year older than AK, so next year age and options will line up for Larnach in ‘24 and Kirilloff in ‘25. Nothing will or should be promised to Alex Kirilloff next spring and it will be up to him to show he can help the Twins next year and beyond, as Larnach has done this year. I’ve believed in Kirilloff for a long time, but his inability to stay healthy and productive has lowered my expectations. He probably will get one more chance and that is more than many players get.

Hindsight is 20-20. I was sure Rocco should have pulled López, but it worked out. Equally certain they should have pulled Alcalá, and it seems he should have.

Alcalá’s ERA went up almost a full run—2.15 to 3.09 in one appearance. He looked dominant yesterday, not so much today.

Provus doesn’t believe in jinxes, but he was tempting fate by talking about how well Alcalá was throwing.

I’ve never felt comfortable in this game. And now Garcia ties it.

I meant after 6 innings, of course.

Gutty effort by Pablo.

Get him out of there!

Big Plate Appearance here.

Limit the damage.

Cory Provus made a point to compliment the umpiring crew. I thought the home plate ump last night was excellent and the two previous seemed to give the Twins the majority of the 50-50 calls. Umpire scorecard gave the Thursday night home plate ump middling grades and the umps on Saturday and Sunday excellent scores. All three umps marginally favored Minnesota, with only Thursday being significant.

If I were a betting man (I’m not), I would put money on Texas today. It’s really hard to sweep a four-game series on the road and the Twins have gotten the majority of the breaks in three consecutive games. Karma would seem to be on the Rangers side. I hope I’m dead wrong on this and that López is sharp today. It won’t surprise me if the Twins are three back tomorrow.

This should be another interesting game. Pablo has been inconsistent this year, but there's probably a couple of great outings left in the tank for the regular season. I hope today is one of them. Mahle has already had an outing where he threw over 90 pitches, so I don't think he'll be pulled super early in this one unless the Twins blast him. Texas should be better than their record, but they seem to have used up all their good luck last year.

I wouldn't think Mahle will go more than six innings, perhaps less. The Twins have done a good job of scoring late to secure victories, but I'd welcome an early offense and comfortable win.

Because he still has an option year, I think the Twins hang on to Kirilloff one more year. Except for a sharp first half of April, he did not perform well, that is a fact. The Twins are almost certain to part ways with Max Kepler, meaning there will be room for another corner outfield left handed bat. IMHO, AK's predicament mirrors Trevor Larnach's coming in to this year. He won't have a place to play unless there is an injury or someone really slumps and may have to go to the minors to await his chance. Also in Kirilloff's favor is that top prospect Emmanuel Rodriguez has missed two thirds of the season and didn't get out of AA, so he is at best a midseason prospect for promotion. If the Twins do re-sign Santana, that will close another door on Kirilloff's future as a Twin.

I like Lewis at third and Miranda at first against right handed pitching. This also leaves the DH slot to Larnach/Wallner, both of whom have better numbers against right handed pitching than Santana. Miranda hasn't played much first base this year, but in the SSS, he's been fine at first base. Miranda also has excellent splits against right handers. Certainly for the last month, both Jeffers and Vázquez have regressed to the mean, but Jeffers has been the better hitter this season by quite a bit.

Just about everyone contributed today—all four pitchers, Julien and Vázquez with hits to start the rally, Martin with the bunt single, Castro’s bases loaded knock, Larnach homer, Farmer SF, Santana’s walk and run scored and Kepler’s double.