stringer bell

Sigh.

"Cleanup hitter" Max Kepler.

Ruh-roh.

Twins are the biggest favorite today in all of MLB. It would be a shame to waste this matchup.

Bullpen depth is not something the Twins invested in. The in-house options from the minors have not “lit it up” so maybe we have to be patient with a guy with Morgan’s talents. The back end looks good, perhaps dominating. The Twins need better from Alcalá, Moran and Pagán.

We shall see, obviously. It doesn't seem to be a callup on merit, given his stats, so I don't think the Twins are obligated to give SWR innings. Hopefully, they'll be up by enough runs to give innings to SWR, Moran and Headrick, instead of using Thielbar, Lopez and Duran.

A few days ago I was defending Miranda in this thread. My patience is now officially being tested. Could the Twins send Miranda down when Farmer is ready and roll with Castro, Farmer, Solano as 3B and utility options?

Yep, terrible play. Here's the way I see it: Larnach charges and prepares to fire home, at the last minute he sees he has no play and tries to get the ball to the infield, but the ball slips and he threw a pop fly over the pitcher's mound. It wasn't charged as an error, but surely was and allowed the winning run to be in scoring position. My point is I do believe Larnach was aware of what he should have done, but too late and the hand grenade he threw to the infield did absolutely no good.

Yeah, the way I see it and the way Rocco addressed the issue this winter in Rochester (Twins Caravan) is that he (Rocco) wants a seven-man bullpen plus a long man. The long man is technically part of the bullpen, but it seems this role is for a guy who can pitch multiple innings (at least three) and then not be used for a considerable time. The other guys are able to be used every other day with some usage on back-to-back days. The long man would be used in the lowest of leverage situations. To go in that role, the long man has to be stretched out enough to go at least three innings and probably not be high enough on the prospect list that the front office will fret that their development and service time are mostly accruing while watching games. Another key element for the long man is the ability to trade places with somebody in St. Paul. The presence of an option makes a huge difference. So, with that theory in my head, I'm viewing transactions accordingly. They couldn't bring up an long man candidate to replace Headrick after his major league debut because of 40-man constraints and option rules, but when Maeda went down early, they needed to cover and brought up SWR as the long man while keeping Headrick on the major league team. Headrick isn't going to displace a "real" reliever nor is Woods Richardson long term. If the Twins want to demote Moran and replace him, they'll want another reliever and I don't know who that is. This is all my opinion of course--"I could be wrong now, but I don't think so".

Pagan--yes please, DFA him (he can't be "sent down"). On top of removing a totally unreliable reliever, a DFA for Pagan would open another 40-man roster spot. Julien--No place for the guy to play. Buxton is DHing for at least the next ten days and probably longer. Polanco is the second baseman.

I think the Twins want SWR starting in St. Paul. He's clearly more highly regarded than Headrick and I don't think the Twins want him to pitch once a week (or less) in lowest leverage situations and burn service time. If Headrick is ready to pitch again, they need only one long man and it would be him IMHO. As far as Moran being demoted, sure, if they can find somebody who is capable (and probably on the 40-man roster). My best guess for Moran's eventual replacement would be Josh Winder, unless the Twins slot Winder in the long man carousel.

With the 5.2 innings the bullpen pitched on Thursday after Maeda's injury and with Headrick still unavailable, they needed to have length available Friday and Saturday in the event of another short start. The available options on the 40-man were Balazovic, Megill and Woods Richardson, since neither Sands or Varland could be recalled so soon after they were sent down. Megill has been a one-inning guy, so the Twins chose Woods Richardson over Balazovic. I expect they switch out SWR for Ober on Sunday.

The Nats right fielder cost them a run but got it back and then some. I hope the Twins left fielder gets a chance to redeem himself.

Wow, the Nats might steal one here. Ugly.

It was my hope that the Twins would get another three-inning save from a just-promoted pitcher. It looks like we are going to have to go with the A-group instead.

Gallo—two true outcomes tonight.

Gopher ball. Ouch.

Another note on the tag-up. Jeffers looks trimmer and faster than he did at any time last year.

Yes, unless the hitter on deck is really hot and I wouldn't call Correa really hot right now.

Okay, the Twins seldom scored a run on a fly ball that shallow last year and certainly with Jeffers as the runner.

Taylor has tried to bunt three times and gotten it down three times.

More skilled defensive player.

Gallo showed some eptness.

Larnach called out (again) on a pitch out of the strike box. Welcome back Jorge. Batting 1.000!

Lousy weather, home playoff games for the local NBA and NHL teams and they are playing the Nats in April.