stringer bell

The top line is that the Twins are 9-4 and lead the AL Central by two games. They've outscored their opponents 58-34, the second-best run differential in the American League. 34 runs allowed is second-best in MLB while the 58 runs scored is 17th of 30 teams. Team batting stats are so-so at best--23rd in team BA and OPS, 17th in runs scored, 15 (T) in homers, 20th in walks and seventh (worst) in strikeouts. The pitching stats make up for the poor offense and then some: second in ERA, second in least walks, first in strikeouts, first in WHIP and a middling 19th in homers allowed. The defense has been very good--a few sparkling plays and very few forced or unforced errors. They have been charged with four errors total, about what the White Sox might do for a three-game series. Now for some thoughts on individuals: Pablo Lopez--Dare I say 'ace"? Each start seems to be better. After having the first four hitters reach, with two in and two in scoring position for his last outing, Lopez got out of that inning without further damage and set down a total of 23 straight batters. He's going deep in games, striking guys out and making adjustments as the games develop. What's not to like? Yeah, he got traded for a guy hitting .500. Sonny Gray--Two of his three starts were "meh", except he managed to keep the other guys from scoring. In between, he had a great start, fanning 13, and allowing only one run. The overall results are very good. He uses his entire array of pitches and gets outs, even when he doesn't have his best stuff. Joe Ryan--In another year, we'd be raving at his effectiveness. He is 3-0 with an ERA below 3. Ryan seems to have picked up velocity and is using his secondary stuff effectively. Jhoan Duran--Three for four in saves and the Twins won the game where he had a blown save. He allowed home runs in his last two outings, but mostly hitters don't have much chance against him. Donovan Solano--He's stepped in at first base for Joey Gallo and all he's done is hit, albeit without much power. Solano is hitting .342 with an OPS of .811 in 41 plate appearances. Remember when he was 2-25 in spring training? Neither do I. Trevor Larnach--After being far and away the Twins' best offensive threat in the first week of the season, Larnach has cooled off substantially. His numbers are now a .260 batting average, .716 OPS, with only two extra-base hits. Larnach leads the club in strikeouts (19) and IMHO has been victimized a bit by sketchy called third strikes. He also leads the club in walks. I would expect some good things from Trevor in the coming week or so. He's due to bust out again. Christian Vazquez--He has been very effective as a hitter in the bottom of the order. Batting average is currently .379 with an OPS of .954. The offense is a bonus added on to his solid work behind the plate. The catchers probably deserve some credit for the outstanding work of the pitching staff. Jose Miranda--The results haven't been great or even okay for Miranda so far. Miranda has started all but one game at third base (DHed in that game) and performed satisfactorily in the field, but so far the hitting has been a disappointment. He's hitting just .212 with 5 RBI and only one extra-base hit (a double). The OPS stands at .512, with five walks and nine strikeouts. Miranda has too good of a hitting pedigree for his struggles to continue much longer. Nick Gordon--Coming off last year's success for Gordon, many thought he deserved a regular role. Injuries have provided Gordon with regular at-bats, but so far the results aren't there. The batting average stands at .103 with a .253 OPS. Gordon has hit in tough luck and didn't strike out until his 32nd plate appearance, but if more players get healthy, Nick might see a lot of bench time. Gordon has played second base and left field defensively and done a nice job, especially at second, despite not having a good defensive reputation. The first 13 games have been very satisfying to this lifelong Twins fan. The pitching has been all that could be expected and more. They've managed a couple of late-game wins and looked like a solid defensive club. Certainly, the pitching will regress to the mean a bit and there will be some tough losses in the course of the long season. The club has managed well despite a lot of early-season injuries. It's my hope (and probably all Twins fans) that the injuries aren't as overwhelming as in the previous years and that this club can continue to do well. It should be fun!

May got Oakland’s first two wins in relief, but his numbers are pretty bad.

Roster scenarios with players due to come off IL: Kepler could be activated today. The obvious move would be to return Wallner to St. Paul. LH corner OF for LH corner OF. Gallo could be off the IL by early next week. It get stickier here. Garlick could be DFAed or Castro could be optioned. Or (gulp) Julien could be optioned back to St. Paul. Garlick would be exposed on a DFA and could elect free agency if unclaimed. Castro is currently the de facto backup shortstop and third baseman, although Gordon and Solano could fill those roles. On the pitching side, a demotion is due with Varland up today. Sands pitched two innings yesterday, making him unlikely to pitch today and most likely resulting in an option to St. Paul. If Varland is sent back to St. Paul, who replaces him on the active roster is unknown. I wonder if Josh Winder may be ready to be activated. Of course, a minor injury might keep both Varland and Sands on the active roster.

Someone woke up Brent Rooker. Three homers in two days. He’s hitting .333 with three homers and nine RBI.

I think the only reason to be concerned about Correa at this point is health.

Yesterday, both were playing for the Mighty Mussels.

Best wishes to Kyle Farmer. If he can come back in ten days to two weeks, it would be nearly miraculous. Position players 7-16 need to buck up and show they belong in the majors. I don't know if Correa will be ready tomorrow, same with Buxton. If both are unavailable, we have Miranda, Vazquez, Taylor, Gordon and Larnach from the original starters and two of them may have been displaced if Polanco and Kirilloff were ready to open the season. Those of us hoping to see Polanco and Kirilloff soon may be disappointed. Neither played for Fort Myers tonight, indicating they both will be playing every other day for a while. To expect anything better than the last week of April is asking a great deal.

Who had Jeffers, Taylor & Castro as the hitting heroes? Six hits between them including a double and triple and all the runs scored and driven in.

A few days ago they were third with RISP. SSS at the start of the year.

Yep, where to play him? Until Polanco returns, I’m guessing he gets second base.

A nit to pick here—“reconstructed” wouldn’t be the proper description for a for arthroscopic surgery that I recall being classified as “clean-up”. This is the puzzler to me—that a 29 year-old physical specimen doesn’t recover in six months from arthroscopic knee surgery.

I haven't been on board with the plan for Buxton for both of the last two years. I am trying to figure out what the issues are and why the Twins are proceeding as they are. The injury that the Twins are trying to manage with Buxton appears to be knee tendinitis, which he suffered with all last year (even before the ill-fated slide in Boston). Buxton had surgery after his season ended on the troublesome knee. The other issue that might be chronic is a hip issue, which forced him on IL in both of the last two years. Buxton, as we all know, has a long history of injury and the Twins may be trying to avoid another injury by limiting his risk--no outfield and only selectively being aggressive on the bases. The one part of the management plan for Buxton that might make sense is that if the wear and tear of being a full-time center fielder is what makes him hyper-susceptible to injury, then it would make sense to limit the wear and tear by giving him rest days and keeping him out of the outfield. What doesn't make sense to me is whether his knee is whole right now. It's pretty rare that a player has a knee surgery and that joint is still such a problem. We haven't gotten to see his great speed on display much, but it does appear that he still has it. That would be an indication that the knee isn't standing in his way. In 2021, Buxton only played in 61 games, but he was "full go" when playing. In those 61 games, he put up a BWAR of 4.6. Extrapolating those 61 games to 150 and that WAR total is an otherworldly 11.5--MVP caliber, better than Aaron Judge last year. It doesn't appear that we will see Buxton "full go" for an entire season.

All true, but I'll take 1-0 over 0-1.

Here is the Wikipedia quote Players who are on the 40-man roster but become injured while on optional assignment with a minor league team are placed on the minor league IL, but not on the major league IL. One problem this poses is that a player who is injured in the minors and who would be placed on the major league 60-day IL cannot be placed on the 60-day, meaning the 40-man roster spot is not freed up.

I found something on Wikipedia about the 60-day IL not allowing players injured in the minors to be taken off the 40-man. Of course, I don’t know if it’s accurate or applies to Canterino, but I know for sure the Twins had similar 40-man issues and carried Enlow on the 40-man when he was recovering from TJ surgery.

They had the exact same situation with Enlow a couple years ago and never put him on the major league 60-day list.

In another thread I opined that Wallner will probably never be a major league regular. I think the Twins are going with Gallo at first because he’s pretty capable there. Their two long-term first basemen would be Kirilloff and Miranda, especially since both Lee and Lewis are on the horizon as possible third basemen. Perhaps they will try to move Julien to first, and if they do it would indicate that the future isn’t very bright for Kirilloff.

SSS, but López looks very good. He’s been getting the bottom of the order more often than not, but has taken care of business. I doubt that Duran will be asked to pitch in three straight games, so I would guess he’ll get a few save opportunities.

St. Paul seems to have a runs-friendly ballpark. Lots of homers and lots of high scores. Also, it seems based on balls are a major concern for the Saints. Julien does fan a lot, but draws a lot of walks and puts up a satisfactory batting average. I could see him leading off at DH (with Buxton in center) in a month.

Four straight starts of six innings or more, none less than five. In today’s baseball, that is going deep. The Twins are pitching extremely well, and a good thing because the hitting has been spotty and, so far, possible replacements in St. Paul have been less than dominating. Maeda’s first three starts this year will be against Alcantara, Cease and Cole. Welcome back Kenta.

He’s got plus power, good speed, great throwing arm. Hmmm, sounds a lot like Joey Gallo. No, I don’t think he’ll be a regular on a major league team. Not enough contact at the plate and currently a lot of rough edges in the field. He was born the same year as Kirilloff and Larnach and to me he is clearly less skilled than both of them, although he’s been healthy and the other two have had their last two seasons curtailed by injury.

Jeffers made an absolutely perfect throw today to nab a base stealer. I haven't seen many throws like that from him. If his throwing improves, I think he's pretty solid as a defender.

The score was 5-1. What is the "backend" of the bullpen? To me, the backend is the highest leverage guys. Yes, like most every team, the low leverage guys are not sure things to do their jobs. Alcala struggled with control, but shows good velocity and he has had success with his breaking pitches. I'm not terribly disappointed in his performance, Pagan is going to be a lightning rod for criticism as long as he is with the Twins. Moran needs to avoid walks and work ahead in counts to make that changeup a put away pitch. Mahle was certainly not great, but gave up a bunch of soft contact hits, two to Abreu, an infield roller by Dubon and the broken bat two-run single to McCormick. The homer went 354 feet, not exactly a moonshot. That's four straight starts of six innings or more for the starters. Getting the lineup healthier and more productive has to be priority number one.

Boy, I didn't think there was any problem with game-calling in '22. I thought Twins' pitchers overall overachieved considering the talent level.

It appears that Correa needs a day. Gallo is nicked up. Jeffers has started every third game (and hit very well), so this is a "B" lineup, throwaway game? You go with what you have and this is the best the Twins can do today. The alternates this year are pretty good players. I'm not delighted they are playing as much as they are, but injuries happen. I don't want to make this personal, it isn't, but there's honest criticism and there's falling back on wildly stretched narratives. No manager goes out and tries to lose a game. No manager goes solely on printouts and spread sheets, etc. It's really hard to beat a good team three times in a row and the Astros are a good team. I hope a couple of guys can do damage against Hunter Brown, whoever he is. Mahle needs to pitch deep and well.