stringer bell

ESPN says 9:07, so close enough.

If the Twins bring up Contreras or any other center fielder or pursue Aaron Hicks, that will tell us (the fans) that they aren't going to use Buck in center field any time soon. I didn't know Taylor's back issues were ongoing. Without Gordon, there really isn't much depth in center.

Tried Pagán Wednesday and Jax last night, neither could hold up. I don’t think they have many better options right now. Someone suggested that maybe Ryan should have taken the seventh. They must not have seen the rockets the Angels hit in the sixth. Pagán hadn’t blown a game with the lead this year until Wednesday. I don’t know if they can give Jax many more chances right now—his slump has been going on for a while—but getting him going is pretty important going forward. With Alcalá, Moran and Jax all performing below expectations, somebody has to step up.

Aaron Hicks got the DFA tag from the Yankees today. He's still a good fielder (I think) and a switch hitter who is historically better as a RH hitter. Should the Twins be interested, especially given his struggles the last two years?

The Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves had so-so teams that made the right moves and got healthy and won World Series recently. They didn't look special until late in the season, or maybe in the post-season. I don't think we can make judgments in May about who is championship material. That said, the flaws on the Twins right now are pretty apparent. They need a more consistent and deeper lineup and a deeper bullpen. Adding Polanco, Kirilloff and Lewis to the Opening Day roster could make the lineup pretty good if their top-paid players can start playing like All-Stars. Finding enough bullpen arms is also crucial.

Pretty apparent the last two games the plan was to have Lopez pitch the eighth and Duran pitch the ninth if they had the lead, but both days the seventh inning guy (Jax) gave up the lead.

I think he's a one-inning guy, but I think we'll see Oliver Ortega sometime (maybe soon) and while the stats don't jump off the screen, I thin he would be a capable middle guy.

So many strikeouts!!

I think that is what it is. It appears that Polanco is questionable to play for several days. BTW, Gallo is okay. Rocco said that he doesn’t experience pain like normal humans (paraphrased)

Julien replaced in the fourth inning of St. Paul’s game. Plane to catch?

Not fair! I’m asking about availability and stating that it is frustrating if players are unavailable but on the active roster.

Trout had a day off in Cleveland, too.

BTW, game time is 8:38 Central.

I guess we don’t know about availability for those not starting. Frustrating to have players unavailable, but still on the roster.

I don't think a Twin has had a 4-hit day. Kirilloff was 3-3 with two homers in one of the Cubs games.

Official: Twins website has Gordon on 10-day IL and Kyle Garlick activated. No other moves. ESPN reports Polanco will not be playing tonight. Edit to add or possibly correct: ESPN's comment was about Tuesday's game which incorrectly said that the Twins were playing against the Twins. No word if Polanco is out of the lineup tonight.

Sounds a lot like TK-speak and I don't mean that as a criticism. In the Dodger series, we saw two players (Farmer and Vazquez) try to and succeed hitting the ball to the right side. Farmer advanced a guy who scored without a hit and Vazquez got a single. When you're down a couple in the late innings, a single or a walk might be just as good as a homer and much easier to get. I think there is something to be said for a "two-strike approach". That said, it is hard to make contact in today's game. Even Luis Arraez strikes out more than the old timers did. More velocity and different and sharper breaking balls makes it a tough job. Maybe some moderation in the approach at the plate can help the players make a bit more contact with really damaging exit velo and hard-hit rate.

I might think just the opposite--if these guys are so prone to strike out, small ball wouldn't work well. As we've seen with the bases loaded stuff, getting runners to third doesn't guarantee scoring runs. Home runs do guarantee scoring runs. On the flip side, somehow reducing strikeouts and increasing contact would be desirable, especially if the power numbers don't wither and die.

Wondering about the lineups for tonight and tomorrow. If Polanco isn’t playing, he should go on the IL IMHO. I’m pretty sure Gallo and maybe Larnach also are on the bench at least once in the first two games. Garlick will probably get two starts as well.

It’s four days, and the Twins get two left handed starts against them, so it’s safe to assume that Garlick gets 50% or more of available playing time. I absolutely get your point about .210 hitters, however Exhibits 1, 2, 3 (Kepler, Gallo, Larnach) are among the Twins with above-average OPS (103, 103 and 144). If there’s somebody who can play adequate defense and hit better, they should be here and playing. I said this on another thread, it is not a good look to mess with prospects. To call up Wallner or Julien only to have them start maybe one game (and face Ohtani) and then immediately be sent out isn’t great for them. If Rocco is going to sit Polanco for a day or two, I’d definitely like him to go on the IL and give Julien a week’s worth of starts.

I think he's in line to get starts with the Twins and the team doesn't want him to be used sparingly and then have to stretch him out. Headrick had a good start yesterday and combined with the apparent struggles of SWR, he probably is #1 on the waiting in the pecking order for starts with the big club, meaning that if there's a doubleheader or the Twins want to give the rotation members an extra day when they've played a lot of games in a row or if there's an injury that Headrick would be a starter for the Twins. When he was called up earlier, the Twins had the depth of Ober and Varland, that is gone now.

I was thinking about posting in the thread that said the Twins had the worst team batting average, but actually maybe the discussion should be on the Twins' overall offense. The Twins rank 11th in MLB in runs scored (and runs scored per game). Their team OPS is 16th and it is fueled by slugging--they rank 24th in OBP and 25th in team batting average, but 14th in slugging percentage. The team ranks seventh in homers and is among the top teams in strikeouts. Run production, given the other numbers and their dreadful performance with the bases loaded, is actually really good. However, on balance, I don't think the Twins' offensive performance has been quite that good. First of all, they haven't been consistent. The Twins have had a high number of poor offensive games. I think I saw that they scored three runs or fewer in 20 of their 44 games to date, which happens to equal the number of games that they lost. Secondly, the Twins seemingly have had too many innings giving momentum to their opponents. Striking out the side or failing to score with the bases loaded and no outs are two pretty sure-fire ways to encourage the opponent. Thirdly, the offense doesn't put much pressure on defenses. The lack of a substantial running game and waiting for three-run homers doesn't force the other guys to make plays. There isn't much variety or diversity in the Twins run-scoring approach. Having more ways to score runs and better ways to get runs in bunches would make them a tougher opponent. We've seen glimpses of using other means to score runs of late--a couple of squeeze bunts and some intentional attempts to advance runners by hitting balls to the right side of the infield and even (gasp!) a few stolen bases. It's also more fun to watch although I'm told that certain people dig the long ball.

Garlick is the reported replacement for Gordon. I presumed this would be the call due to the short window before another outfielder (Kepler) will be activated and the fact that the Twins will face two lefty starters in Anaheim. The other part of this transaction would be what I would call "messing with prospects". Garlick is 31 and his MLB profile is pretty much set. The other players in St. Paul that are on the 40-man roster are all prospects to some degree. Would the Twins want to fly Julien or Wallner to Anaheim just to have them sit on the bench and then send that guy down on Tuesday morning? I don't think it's good use of service time or development for those guys. They also could have recalled Miranda, but it would be a real mixed message to send him back in four days. Kepler's pending activation (assuming Garlick is sent down) would leave the Twins with an extra left handed hitting corner outfielder (Larnach, Gallo, Kepler) and short a utility-type and alternate center fielder.

I guess I wasn't very clear. I wasn't agreeing totally or disagreeing totally. My point was that even in a lower leverage role there will be times when a reliever faces a high-leverage situation. The very best at manipulating situations still will have their #5 or #6 guy in what turns out to be a game situation. You said that Pagan had seldom been in that type of situation so far and I opined that it would become more frequent as the season moves along.

It is a virtual certainty that there will be more high leverage going forward. The rotation will get stretched and so will the bullpen and there will be more situations that can't be handled by the 2-4 preferred relievers. The Twins have been carrying a long reliever for most of the year who hasn't been considered for high leverage work. I don't know if other teams have stuck to having a long man and I expect that Rocco would use the long man in the event extra innings extended a game past maybe the 11th or 12th in some situation or if the (otherwise) last man was injured. Thielbar's injury and Jax' relative ineffectiveness at least temporarily moved Pagan into a higher leverage role, for which he has struggled.