stringer bell

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 mixed bag of injuries as we approach the conclusion of the second week of play. The Twins have been hit hard in one area—left handed hitting corner-types. Kirilloff has been on IL since the start of the season, Kepler and Gallo added recently. Also on IL since the start of the season is Jorge Polanco, making it four presumed starters on the injured list. Polanco and Kirilloff have both started rehab assignments in Florida. On the pitching side, no one has been added since Opening Day, with Josh Winder also rehabbing for the club at Fort Myers. Ronnie Henriquez remains on IL and not yet ready for rehab. Paddack and Lewis remain on the 60-day IL with Lewis looking to start his rehab next month and Paddack shooting for a late-season return. i bumped this thread to ask the question, is it fair to think the Twins will not be further hampered by injuries than they are right now? Or put another way, they’ve used all of their position players on the 40-man roster, will it come to the point where they will need to dig deeper into their minor league depth? Max Kepler could be activated this weekend, Gallo has only a week to serve on his IL time and, as mentioned, both Polanco and Kirilloff are already on rehab assignment. I’m hoping the Twins next transaction is activating a player off IL and optioning someone to St. Paul. We shall see.

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.

Tampa is 9-0 this year, pretty impressive. However, I don’t think their schedule could be any softer. Detroit, Washington and Oakland are the first three opponents and none of them are guaranteed to not lose 100 games.

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.

Devin Smeltzer is back in the major leagues. His contract was selected today by the Marlins.