stringer bell

The team scored six runs in all three games against the Yankees. Turning the two-run games into four or five will net a lot of wins. If they consistently put up between four and six runs a game, they will be just fine.

Kirilloff has played on back-to-back days twice during his rehab. He took last night off, but is playing today and is 1-3 with a HBP. I think there may be questions whether he can handle playing every day or nearly every day, but his rehab ends on Sunday. If the wrist is well enough for him to be playing 5 days a week, the performance of the other corner outfielders/first basemen other than Gallo shouldn't stand in his way.

Looking at the numbers, the Yankees have scored almost exactly the same amount of runs as the Twins and their home park is home run friendly. They are missing two projected starters--Stanton, who was an All-Star last year and Donaldson and three top starting pitchers, so yes it is probably best for the Twins to have played them early.

I don't think either the organization or Rocco are anti-stolen base, but they have to have guys that put the odds firmly in their favor when attempting stolen bases and they don't have that with the players they have. The minor league teams are running a lot and this is with Austin Martin on the shelf. If the club isn't going to be top five in homers, they need to find other ways to score runs. They aren't top shelf in making contact to "get 'em over, get 'em in" and stringing together hits is hard to do in this high velocity, high strikeout era. I think it's a problem that having more athletic base runners can help, but the help isn't here yet.

After Cano came over last year, he got blasted as an Oriole, but they must have found something. The thing is that Cano isn't some early 20s youngster, I believe he's 29 and for elite command to be unlocked at that age is near miraculous.

I didn't like what happened to Maggi, but circumstances were different. The Twins didn't have a "safe" lead, but they also had less than a remote chance to make the playoffs and they were on the road. Maggi might not last much longer in Pittsburgh, but he got his one at-bat (equal to Walter Alston, one more than "Moonlight" Graham) at least.

The 2023 don't look to be a top power-hitting club. Buxton and Gallo would be the only candidates to hit more than 30 homers, when in '19, they had many more. Of the 13 position players, only Buxton has plus plus speed and with the caution used with him he doesn't display it often and not at all in the field. I would say that Solano, Farmer, and Correa are below average and they are guys that man middle of the diamond positions. Add in Miranda as below average as well. Comparing the Twins to their (likely) primary opposition in the Central and they are clearly slower at third, short, second, left and center. I realize that Cleveland is probably one of the faster overall teams in MLB. I'm not an advocate for them stealing more bases. I do think the lack of foot speed shows up on plays not made in the field and extra bases taken. I watched another fast team (Pittsburgh) close to embarrass a very fine Dodger team last night, pushing the envelope on the bases and also making some fine plays in the field. The Twins aren't blessed with those kind of guys (outside of Buxton) and it is a facet of the game where they won't excel.

Yes, I think the Twins will contend. I'm actually surprised at how poor Cleveland has played out of the gate and Chicago has already been hit hard by injuries and poor play. The Twins are demonstrating the best rotation in the division and it's not that close and in an offense-challenged division they lead in run scoring. Are there areas for concern? Sure. Overall health killed the season in 2022 and we are only roughly 1/6 of the way through this year, so no one can be confident that the Twins won't be derailed by injuries. Starting pitcher, infield and left handed hitter depth mitigates much of the risk of injury. Also, the prospect of reinforcements like Alex Kirilloff, Edouard Julien and Royce Lewis provides an even better buffer. The Twins aren't deep with relief pitchers. The four back-end guys with Duran as the anchor look every bit as good as the rotation, but the lower leverage middle relievers have been a concern across the board and there isn't anyone burning up Triple A pushing for a recall. I would say the defense has been satisfactory. We've seen a fair number of good plays, very few outstanding plays and some gaffes. I was at the game yesterday and it probably didn't change the result, but three or four plays that could have been made might have changed the type of game I saw. Specifically on defense, Miranda is probably below-average overall at third base, not a great arm, so-so hands and instincts, Correa is a very good defensive shortstop, with his length and arm making up for what is probably below-average range due to below average foot speed. Polanco can be very good at second, but his body of work is less than that, perhaps because of nagging injuries. Gallo has been okay at first, but he missed a couple of plays yesterday and a couple others have eluded him. I am pretty certain that Alex Kirilloff would and will be a superior overall first baseman. The corner outfielders have been good, although Kepler seemed a bit lost for a few days. Taylor is good, but not flashy in center. The catchers have been decent overall, Vazquez seems to have gotten good marks for his receiving skills and neither Jeffers or Vazquez has been taken advantage of by running games. As a team, the club lacks speed at key positions. They have very few threats on the bases and are range challenged in the infield.

????If Maeda goes on the IL (very likely) there are two spots to fill. Winder could fill the long relief role and Ober/Varland fill the rotation spot. I doubt Winder would be sent down in four days, particularly since he hasn't had his option used for 2023. If the Twins wanted to add back a long man (Sands), they could send down Moran or DFA Pagan rather than sending Winder to St. Paul.

Yennier Cano has become a key bullpen arm for the Orioles. What magic are they able to work, first with Jorge Lopez, now with Cano and Danny Coulombe.

That's your default prediction?

Didn't want to "like" your comment, but totally agree. They need more than four relievers they trust in the BP.

With today's bullpens, at least seven of the eight arms there will end up in higher leverage games (up or down by two runs or less). Having guys more trustworthy than what Pagan and Moran have shown is a must in the course of a long season. It would be nice to add guys who aren't one-inning pitchers, since the four back-end guys won't be working multiple innings very often.

I didn't see Baldelli's comments to the media, but the mlbtraderumors.com report about Maeda seems to indicate that any injury that Maeda is suffering with is relatively minor. It has to be a major injury to put a player on the 60-day IL, so I doubt (so far) that Maeda will be placed on that list. It seems very likely that he'll go on the 15-day IL and that will allow for either Varland or Ober to take his place in the rotation.

I'm trying to figure out how the Twins can get a long man up for Headrick and also get Ober in time to make his next start. Headrick was optioned after going five innings today and I have to believe Ober will replace Maeda in the rotation. They could recall Winder right away I guess. There's probably no hurry to recall Ober and actually they can't unless someone (Maeda) goes on the IL.

Cruel reality. He did his job and his reward is to go to the minors.

Maggi is going to get in the game for Pittsburgh tonight. They're up 8-0 in the 8th and the bench coach just told him to get ready. Congratulations to a baseball lifer.

I don't know if the Twins front office bullpen management has cost them any games. It could be argued that if they handled the bullpen better in the first Boston game they might have won that game. I really doubt that they win the game that Maeda left early in Boston, but maybe. There isn't depth in their "front end " of the bullpen. They are riding four good to great bullpen pieces (Jax, Thielbar, JLopez and Duran) and the long guys (Sands and Headrick) have been fine. It is the trio of Alcala, Pagan and Moran that has provided heartburn and I don't see many alternatives. They'll try Stewart and keep going back to Pagan and Moran for now. I don't think they are good enough right now.

I figured a couple of regulars would be out for the day game after a night game. Buxton and Taylor out, with Miranda at DH. Castro at third base, Gordon in center field.

The rotation last year just wasn’t good enough to get to the sixth and seventh inning with any regularity. They weren’t going to push Archer beyond 18-19 batters and there were reasons every time a guy was pulled “early”. It seemed someone in the rotation was coming off illness or injury and was ramping up for the entire season. This year, the rotation has been both effective and healthy.

I don’t think there were many that wanted Coulombe at the expense of Acalá or Moran. Coulombe’s unusual contract provision of being able to opt out if he had a major league offer got him a major league job and he has run with it. If anyone says they wanted Coulombe for Pagán, hindsight is showing they are right so far.

Winder is giving every indication of being converted to relief with his rehab. Adding him for occasional multiple innings makes good sense.

The pitching has been outstanding so far this year and I think there's reason to believe it will be really good all year. What it means is they can make a bad play and still survive and also they don't always need four runs.

Luis Arraez is missing time due to a knee injury. Not sure if the Twins factored his durability into the trade, but it has been an issue for Arraez in his career.

Waiting for Maggi to make his debut. He is replacing a guy on bereavement leave, so he doesn’t necessarily have much time in his stay.