stringer bell

Gasp! AK gets an AB vs. a lefty....and gets a knock.

The early pinch hitting is the thing I disagree with the most, especially with 13-man pitching staffs.

Sanchez hitting like he did for the Twins.

Two pitches changed this game quite a bit.

The way things are going, it is sure to be overturned.

New pitcher?

Paddack won't get past 4 innings.

95-96, looks pretty close to me.

And now they steal second, I suppose.

At least the team is seeing more pitches this inning.

Ho-hum, scoreless inning for the Sheriff.

There goes Paddack's Gold Glove.

Kirilloff hit the exact same grounder yesterday. This time it snuck through.

Except maybe better testing.

Buxton is the DH and Wallner rides the pine. Castro in center field, with Farmer getting a start at third. While I was disappointed with the output against Junis yesterday, if the Twins struggle against the journeyman Ross today, it tells me they are in a real hitting funk. It is crucial to get to the starter because Milwaukee has a really good bullpen.

HITTERS H-AB HR RBI SB AVG E. Julien2B 2-13 0 0 0 .154 A. KirilloffLF 4-14 0 1 0 .286 B. BuxtonDH 4-14 0 3 0 .286 M. KeplerRF 1-8 0 0 0 .125 C. CorreaSS 3-12 0 2 0 .250 C. Santana1B 3-15 0 0 0 .200 W. CastroCF 1-11 0 0 0 .091 R. JeffersC 0-11 0 0 0 .000 K. Farmer3B 0-6 0 0 1 J. ChourioRF 6-16 0 3 1 .375 W. ContrerasC 5-15 0 2 0 .333 C. YelichLF 6-15 2 3 2 .400 W. AdamesSS 5-16 0 2 1 .313 R. Hoskins1B 4-14 1 4 0 .286 S. FrelickCF 1-13 0 0 1 .077 G. SanchezDH 0-3 0 0 0 .000 J. Ortiz3B 1-8 0 0 0 .125 B. Turang2B 7-14 0 1 6 .500 Both starters making their season debuts. Ross hasn't pitched in the majors since 2021.

With the exception of making adjustments around the All-Star break, that is what they do. Either you're in the rotation or you aren't. Piggybacking makes for more problems than it solves, which is why it is so seldom done in any kind of long-term setting. No one in the AL started more than 33 games, so skipping starts for back-end rotation guys to get the #1s and #2s more starts really doesn't happen much.

From what I can see, the players on the '23 Twins hit 68 homers in 1668 plate appearances (4.01%), The team homered at a rate of 3.75%, a very negligible difference. Santana, who is so far a regular, homered at a 3.7% clip last year, while Margot was well below with 1.2%. If the Twins give the guys with high home run frequency more plate appearances (Julien, Wallner, Buxton, Lewis), they may equal or beat their homer total this year, if more PAs go to Martin and Margot, they probably won't.

Santana hit 23 homers by himself last year, Margot only hit four.

If it is a hitter's count, they won't chase as readily. Varland's stuff is good enough, but not good enough to be 2-0, 3-1 and 3-2 all the time. It is the same for all but the most dominant pitchers, throw strikes and make them swing at your pitches.

The Twins have a lot of good position players. They’ll score enough runs. I am much more concerned about their pitching. Hitters are much more predictable and reliable.

The bullpen isn’t depleted with all the off days. Bouncing pitchers around in the first week of the season seems very much shortsighted to me.

It’s really immaterial at this point. No one will get skipped or anything. I think the Twins will try to limit Paddack’s innings whether he’s fourth or fifth in line.

No, I mean making two outs on three pitches before Julien came up. It was a virtual certainty that Julien would take the first pitch after Varland had thrown 25 pitches in the previous inning.

It's a lot easier to challenge hitters when ahead in the count.