stringer bell

In his 0-24, how many long fly balls has Gallo hit? I remember one long fly, a whole bunch of popups and quite a few strikeouts.

1-0 feels like 4-0.

Good thing they got the DP.

Tight zone. As long as he’s consistent.

After all those fastballs, the breaker was tough to lay off.

Nothing but fastballs so far.

It looks like a passing shower. This is the worst for the home team. It probably won’t be raining at the scheduled time for first pitch, but it will rain within a hour from then. The Twins will probably protect the starting pitchers by delaying the start for at least an hour.

Especially if he was given medication for or during the procedure, it makes good sense to give him another day at least. I checked the official Twins team site and no changes were made on the active list as of 3:45.

Yes, that was through Saturday, I suppose. The White Sox scored 17 that day and the Brewers scored nine on Monday to pass the Twins. The Astros scored enough to pass the Twins, as well.

Comparatively high hitting with RiSP and hitting lots of multi-run homers have hidden how poor the offense has been overall this spring. The run scoring was poor on the road trip because they stopped hitting with runners in scoring position, or you could say they regressed toward the mean in that particular aspect. When the team is hitting .220 with a .300 OBP, they have to get a lot of those 30% that get on to score to be any kind of competitive. If they continue to hit .220 for another month, they'll probably be last in runs scored, as well. I don't think that will happen, but something needs to change. Maybe it's Alex Kirilloff, maybe it's Correa, maybe it's known streaky players like Gallo, Buxton or Kepler, but more offense needs to be generated.

Yes, regression to the mean is a double-edged sword when it comes to the Twins "offense" right now. I think they almost certain to raise their OBP and batting average in the coming months, but I think it is unlikely that they continue to get as high of a percentage of the guys that get on to score. Honestly, I'd settle for middle-of-the-pack run scoring if the Twins continue to be among the top three is run suppression.

I would think with the Twins' low OBP number and (relatively) high runs scored standing, that their number of runners left on base would be pretty low. I think every fan think their team leaves too many men on base. I googled LOB and this is what I found. Apparently, the Twins are second-best at not leaving runners on base. https://www.teamrankings.com/mlb/stat/left-on-base-per-game

When I posted this thread, I really thought there was a roster crunch among the position players. Ironically, now there seems to be much discussion about who to DFA/option with lots of candidates. Off the top of my head, I've seen calls for Miranda, Solano, Gordon and Castro to be demoted or DFAed. There are Kepler and Gallo critics, as well. Suddenly, about half of the active roster is suspect in the eyes of the TD faithful.

I don't see the pitching staff as incredibly deep now that Mahle and Maeda are out for indefinite, but longish periods of time. There aren't any reliable bullpen pieces in Triple A waiting for a callup. So, on the pitching side, I would imagine there will be regression, but the staff currently is probably second-best in all of baseball by almost every metric. On the position player side, I'm more optimistic, mostly because, by most measures, the offense has been among the worst in MLB. Regression to the mean should bring improved performance. Beyond that, the Twins have only had Polanco in the lineup for two weeks and Kirilloff for two days. By the end of the season, they will probably be the third and fourth-best hitters on the team. Royce Lewis could be ready in three weeks and I think that if they can find a place for him to play, Eduoard Julien can also add offense. Three more youngish players--Wallner, Larnach and Miranda--could find themselves and become big contributors. That seems to be a lot of ifs and maybes, but there are lots of players who could provide help. The depth that is missing in the pitching staff is there in abundance for the position players. Outside of the rotation injuries, where the Twins were very prepared for absences, the team's health is pretty good for a change. As mentioned, Royce Lewis could join the team by month's end, Kyle Farmer should be on the field this week and the other players on the Injured List likely wouldn't be on the active roster if they were healthy. To summarize, I like the Twins chances to win the Central. Playoff baseball is a bit of a lottery, but the Twins currently have as good a front three as anyone in baseball. I'd give them a good chance to win some games and maybe advance.

Don’t want to minimize how bad the hitting has been, but somehow the Twins rank in the middle of the pack (14th) in runs scored, which IMHO is the most important statistic.

I want to preface my comment by saying that Michael Cuddyer is my all-time favorite Twin. I think Miranda and Cuddyer is an interesting comparison. Cuddy was being groomed (when that wasn't a bad word) to be a major league third baseman in the minors. He came to the Twins when they were on the upswing and finding playing time was tough despite a good bat. Cuddy finally broke through at age 27 as a right fielder, a position he played sparingly in the minors. I never thought right field was Cuddyer's best position, but that is where he played the bulk of his time with the Twins. Miranda also came up as a third baseman. Out of necessity, he played a lot of first base his rookie year and after a slow start, he had a good year at the plate. Like Cuddyer, I don't think he is a long-term answer at third base and despite his good rookie season at an age where Cuddyer was fighting for playing time, I don't know if I consider him established as a hitter. He is going to have to be a considerably above-average hitter to get regular at-bats in the major leagues IMHO.

As I wrote on another thread, the timing is significant. Lewis can't be activated from the 60-day IL until late in May (the 29th?) and unless he has a medical setback, his rehab can't extend beyond May 31. When his rehab is over, the Twins will have to activate him. That means at that point they will have to make room on the 40-man roster and, much like Alex Kirilloff this week, decide whether to option him to the minor leagues or put him on the major league roster. If it wasn't possible that Lewis would be performing for the Twins by June 1st, they wouldn't have sent him on rehab. Jose Miranda should certainly be feeling the footsteps of #1 overall draft pick Royce Lewis with this news and the additional nugget that he'll be working at third base.

Royce is going on rehab assignment in three days. While there could be setbacks, but that he is going on rehab is significant. The clock starts on his activation from the Injured List and the Twins would have to use an option to keep him in the minors after May 31 and they will have to make room for him on the 40-man roster. If he isn't possibly going to be ready to play by June 1, there is absolutely no point to sending him on rehab

Solano is a one-year patch and depth piece. He hasn't performed much differently than expected at the plate, but the ball has found him and he hasn't caught it when he's been in the field. If he can't be trusted in the field, he doesn't have that much value at this point.

The Saints tried Miranda in left for a game or two IIRC. From what I recall it did not go well.

Yes, some bad at-bats for sure in today's game and the series. I won't categorize everyone as trying to hit a five-run homer, but when the pitcher is working the outside corner as much as Quantrill did, going the other way should be an option. There were a bunch of first-pitch swings and there seemed to be no adjustment as the game wore on. The first-pitch swings got zero hits, a lot of outs and quite a few strikes. Quantrill only got three real strikeouts, so maybe taking a few pitches wouldn't put the at-bats in jeopardy. I'll try to "big picture" the road trip and the road ahead. Right now, precious few are swinging well. Maybe Kepler, perhaps Taylor and /or Kirilloff, and several guys are really fighting it--Vazquez, Gallo, Miranda. The three best hitters all seemed to cool on the trip--Polanco, Buxton and Correa--and that makes a huge difference. The offense will improve, it just has to. Being patient, especially when the pitching has been so good, is difficult for us fans. I do fear that the team as put together right now, is too slow and too dependent on home runs. Everything would look so much better if a host of hitters were hitting to their career norms/expectations.

This is the earliest that Lewis could be sent out on rehab. Great news! He still might be optioned after his rehab ends, but he could be on the active roster before the month is over.

I don't think so. Both Castro and Gordon can play outfield. Farmer's #1 skill is his offense against left handed pitching. His #2 skill is good defense at second, short and third. Gordon is neither of those things, and Castro is a less well-regarded defender in the infield, as well. I don't know if it makes sense to have three utility guys among the 13 position players and that would signal the exit of one of them.

There are several choices with what to do with Miranda: 1) Let him work through it as the regular third baseman. 2) Reduce his workload by using Farmer as the alternate 3b, play him some at first and DH. 3) Option him to the minors or 4) place him on the Injured List, if there is still some problem with his right shoulder. Right now, playing Miranda essentially every day isn't working and the replacements give us no reason to be optimistic for an offensive surge. Kyle Farmer is a decent defender and very good against left handed pitching. Willi Castro is a utility player, with a lifetime 87 OPS+. Because of this, I think you keep Miranda on the team, for now, unless he is bothered by an injury. If there is an injury concern, I would hope the Twins give him ample time to heal up and then rehab to find his stroke. Miranda seems to be pressing mightily. He is jumping at pitches early in the count and making a lot of weak contact. He's not hitting line drives much and hitting plenty of grounders, leading to a lot of double plays. He has been poor in the field, both handling grounders and throwing. It is time for some sort of reset. If there was a better option in the wings, it could be a demotion, but I think he might lose some playing time and get some first base time. If I'm GM, I DFA Donovan Solano tomorrow.

All they need to do is hold Cleveland in the bottom of the eighth and then score a couple runs off of Class A.