stringer bell

Gus Varland has a nice story as a Rule V guy who has made the Brewers' roster this year. He spent time on the IL and just came back to the Brew Crew and unfortunately was lit up last night (9 ER in 2/3 inning).

Lewis is on a rehab assignment with a 20-day window. He is on the 60-day IL and can't be activated until June 1. When he completes his rehab, he has to be added to the 40-man roster. If there was thought that he definitely wasn't going to be ready, there was no reason start him on his rehab.

Two ex-Twins in the same transaction: Fernando Abad selected by the Rockies as CJ Cron is put on the IL.

Angels have placed Rendon on the IL, meaning we'll see Gio at third, probably for the whole series. Honestly, I wish him well, just so long as the Twins win.

I don't know if any series in May answers questions for the season. Too much happens in the meantime.

Tough stretch of games and I think it's time for them to handle a left handed pitcher. I'm not sure that pitcher is Kershaw, but they also get Detmers and Sandoval in Anaheim.

Frankly, I don't want the Twins to be good enough to win the Central. I want them to be good enough to go toe-to-toe with any playoff team. The long playoff losing streak must end and personally I won't be satisfied with just making the playoffs.

If I recall, Erickson and Liriano both suffered injuries that impacted their seasons greatly.

40-man room was just made. Dereck Rodriguez apparently was DFAed and claimed by Atlanta. There is now room to add a player (Lewis, Celestino?) to the 40-man roster. Also, if they want to play it that way, they could add a non-roster pitcher.

The Dodgers are playing well right now, but each Twins starter has a decent chance to shut down any lineup. I don't think it is hopeless in either LA or Anaheim, but I think the Twins need to "win" the starting pitching matchups to have a decent chance to win series.

After their offensive explosion vs. the Cubs, the Twins are averaging 4.65 runs per game and above the mean. They are 11th of 30 in runs per game. I agree that the offense has not been consistent, and there have been far too many games with three runs or less.

The three Saints pitchers who pitched today and are on the 40-man roster all got knocked around. Winder yielded seven runs in one inning, Henriquez three in and inning and a third and Balazovic five runs (three earned) in three and two-thirds. Not exactly beating the doors down to get a promotion. I see the bullpen as being quite short and other than the addition of Stewart and some nice long relief from Headrick, the Twins haven't found reinforcements from St. Paul. I know the team liked Ortega, who has recently come back from injury and pitched okay, otherwise it appears the cupboard is pretty bare. We may yet see Randy Dobnak in a Twins uniform this year.

All of those bad offensive numbers improved quite a bit in the last two days. Beating up on the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th guys in an 8-man bullpen is the way to do that. I doubt that the Twins have had more one-sided victories than other teams with winning records, but I'm sure the naysayers will be reminding us that they "ran up the score" on a cooked bullpen and a position player. It won't be easy on the west coast. The Twins get Syndegaard, Kershaw and May when they face the Dodgers and get two lefties and Ohtani (I think) when they face the Angels.

All players can be outrighted once (without their consent) but it is doubtful Gordon would go unclaimed.

Maybe the Twins will end this game out of the basement in team batting average.

Six hits in the third. Great start.

Trevor gets to wear the vest!!

I don't think you can have too much pitching. Both the Twins' starters this year and bullpen so far bear that out.

That was the rip on Berríos, as well. Berríos is listed at 6’0”, but might be a bit shorter.

Close 3-2 pitch.

Keep that wrist healthy AK!!

Good first inning for the Twins. It looks like the wind might be holding up balls in the air. That's probably not good for a club that relies so heavily on the home run.

Call me a curmudgeon, but I really don't care how far Gallo or any other slugger hit the ball. I think that was some of the love for Miguel Sano and a bunch of other power hitters. The art of hitting a 360 foot homer is a lot more important to me than the ability to hit the ball almost 500 feet.

Louie looked pretty good in his last outing. The one before he left too many off-speed pitches over the plate. He's got plenty of fastball, but the off-speed stuff needs to be sharp.

1. I wrote a blog entry thinking about what a healthy Kirilloff could do for the Twins' lineup. I wore rose-colored glasses. 2. The Twins haven't been lucky with attendance this spring. Getting the Astros and Yankees while school is in session and the weather is questionable is a tough break. Cub fans have lifted the numbers this weekend for sure, but they probably would have had more people if it was sunny and 75. 3. The mlb commercials say that the new rules have increased scoring, stolen bases and excitement. The Twins really haven't been in on run-scoring and strikeouts issued and accrued have to be an all-time high for this Twins team. It is certainly a quicker game, but I don't know if the numbers are holding up for increased scoring . 4. I made a list of qualified hitters with a lower OPS than Correa. There are some notables--Brengman, Jose Abreu, George Springer, Andres Gimenez, Nolan Arendo, E Hernandez, Machado and Benintendi. Correa has been pretty bad, but he has some notable company. 5. I think there will be a bunch of roster moves with the pitching staff coming up. Sands failed to impress and threw more than 50 pitches, Alcala seems to need a reset if not longer-term demotion, and Moran still frustrates more than impresses. I can speculate some possible replacements--Jordan Balazovic, Oliver Ortega or maybe Headrick. The bullpen seems at least one or two reliable arms short.