stringer bell

Did Berríos just beat both Cy Young Award winners in succession?

With the two days off in the coming week, there is no need to do a bullpen game, but in lining things up for the playoffs, I suppose they might. The playoffs start on Tuesday and there aren't any off days. The Twins did clear a 40-man spot when they outrighted Littell, so I think they can add Bailey if they want to.

The Twins only need one more win to clinch the postseason, or losses from Detroit and Seattle. Tough to imagine that they will catch the White Sox, who still lead by three games plus have the tiebreaker. Houston is below .500, so also tough to imagine them falling behind them. Cleveland trails the Twins by two games plus the tiebreaker. Looks like a fifth seed and a trip to the Bronx.

In today's Three True Outcomes era, ABC baseball isn't the way to go. Witness the series against the Cleveland club. Cleveland took extra bases, advanced runners, got sacrifice flies and lost every game because the other guys (the Twins) slugged the ball. Both teams last night struggled to hit with runners in scoring position. The key AB was the fake bunt/swing away single the scored the eventual winning run. Chicago defied the odds by getting the heart of the Twins order out when the game was on the line (multiple times). Actually, I wish that the Twins would be better at small ball. In my mind they are at a bit of a disadvantage when playing a low-scoring game because they are so dependent on scoring via the home run. Winning the game on someone's legs (like the Buxton walkoff infield single) is so rare.

One of those games? It seemed like it to me, when Madrigal's blooper fell in just inside the line about 120 ft. from home plate. The Sox tempted fate a bunch of times with Cruz up and he failed each time. Most days that isn't going to happen. Abreu didn't have a big impact either (one of those games). I like Taylor Rogers a lot, but as Chief said, his pitches haven't been as effective. It doesn't look like there's anything wrong with his arm, the velocity is there, but the command isn't what it was last year or the year before that and he's facing far fewer teams. I don't know who would be a replacement--I've seen slippage from Duffey and May and I'd hate to count Clippard or Romo closing games with the <90 mph fastballs. It's interesting to see the Twins resting guys through this crucial stretch of the season while Chicago and before that Cleveland send out the virtually the same lineup every day. I really wanted the Twins to take 3 of 4 from the White Sox (and take the division lead) and now that means they'll have to win the next three.

Maybe I'm a traditionalist, but it appears to me that roles available for next year for Rooker would be platoon/4th outfielder and backup at first base and DH in the event of injury. Honestly, having a guy with limited defensive ability and flexibility is not my idea of good roster building. It is also unknown whether Rooker can perform well with sporadic playing time (probably my main complaint about Cave), so unless the roster is really juggled next year, I don't see a role for him. Also, the Twins currently have Kepler, Rosario, Cave, Wade, Kirilloff and Larnach as corner outfielders and Cruz and Sanó to cover first base and DH. There aren't enough roster sports for all of the corner outfielders. The shortened season might have kept the team from dealing with the logjam, but something probably needs to be done by Opening Day of 2021.

Too bad for Rooker. He has looked good at the plate in his limited big league at-bats. That said, he may have been on his way back to St. Paul (either him or Wade) with Kepler being ready to come off the Injured List. 21 plate appearances isn't enough to know how good of a hitter he is or will be. I will say that his stint was encouraging, but doesn't make him a centerpiece for future Twins teams.

Wade's skill set is not as desirable as it would be in other eras. If he had more power or was a true center fielder, I'd like him more for the Twins. They have a lot of LH batting corner outfielder types in the top of their system, so he may end up playing (and succeeding) for someone else.

I see the White Sox as having the better future of the two teams competing with the Twins for the division title this year, but I don't think they are as good a team as the Twins right now. Obviously, they are in first place and four of their players have been outstanding--Anderson, Abreu, Robert and Jiménez--but I don't think their pitching is very deep, nor their bench. Cleveland has to decide what to do with Lindor (almost certainly a Mookie Betts type of trade) and they just haven't developed much of an attack. They have had tremendous luck and success developing pitchers. Former Twin Carl Willis must be some kind of magician. They bring up middle of the road prospects and they become first tier pitchers. For this season, the enduring image I'll have of Chicago unless they do something memorable from here on in, is the way they kicked the ball around at Target Field. Poor defense and poor fundamentals. I know the Twins have made their share of defensive mistakes, but nothing like what I saw out of the White Sox. To me, that is what makes them a step less formidable than Cleveland and still not as good as the Twins. Of course, if Chicago wins the series with the Twins this week, they'll likely win the division. I don't think they'd sustain over a full season, but we'll never know about that.

Reminiscent of Cleveland's domination of bad teams last year, particularly Detroit. I'm not convinced Chicago is that good, but the Twins will have to beat them at their park to secure the lead.

Cleveland looks like they'll be the wild card almost for sure. They Twins are 3.5 ahead and have a tiebreaker advantage. It's pretty hard to make up 4.5 games in only 13 games. They trail Chicago by 4.5, but get to host the White Sox later this month. Now the Twins get the White Sox in Chicago. A split gives the Twins the tiebreaker advantage and three of four gives them the division lead and a tiebreaker advantage. It should be fun!

Romo calls a lot of attention onto himself. I can see why he irritates opponents. As Squirrel said he needs to be able to take abuse if he calls so much attention to himself.

Maeda has been excellent. His ERA isn't close to Bieber's, but he has been both efficient and effective. His WHIP is the best in baseball. When he has exited mid-inning, Twins relievers have allowed runners to score, also he has given up some multi-run innings. Maeda is 11th in IP, 18th in K's per inning and 11th in ERA. In this abbreviated season, I think that is "ace territory".

Apologies for a muddled thought above. What I meant to say is that, of the two teams that the Twins are competing with to win the Central Division, I think Cleveland is the better team. This may or may not be proven in the shortened regular season. IMHO the Twins are better than either the White Sox or Cleveland and so far that has shown in their head-to-head matchups.

5-3 against Cleveland in the season series. The Twins need to win at least one more this weekend to clinch hold the tiebreaker, then beat the White Sox three of four. I think Cleveland is the better team despite a less-than-stellar offense. They pitch better than anyone, have a nice defense and have the top pitcher in the AL.

I've resisted comment here on this topic because I think it's complicated. No one statistic is the magic bullet and Eddie Rosario is a big league talent, without question. It makes no sense to me to bench him, reduce his role, or diminish his playing time with two and a half weeks to go. That certainly seems to be the consensus of those posting on this thread and I agree wholeheartedly. Eddie's best skill is as a run producer. We can have the debate about the value of RBIs, but Rosario wants (I think more than most) to be the guy at the plate when a big hit will change the game and he has produced on balance. Eddie is not a patient hitter. While he is chasing less, he still gets in "swing mode" quite often and will swing at everything, usually making contact, but not often enough making solid contact. His OBP and slugging are in the average range for a corner outfielder. I see nothing in the advanced metrics that predicts that he will be better than that. Defensively, his metrics are somewhere between average and poor. My eyes tell me he's covering more ground this year in the field than he did in the second half last year, but he seems to come up short on making great defensive plays more often than not. The arm is strong, but too often the throw goes to the wrong base. Also, it must be considered how many outs he has cost on the bases. I think it is far more than the extra bases he might have taken, so his base running is also a net minus. All of these factors result in a WAR that is mediocre. Is WAR a perfect stat? I don't think so, but it tries to give a comprehensive look at the overall value of the player. Also, as noted, Rosario has diminished value since his best year, 2018. Eddie's value doesn't match his salary and the projected salary he would get as an arb-eligible player next year. The Twins have at least three players who project to be better offensive players than Eddie (Kirilloff, Larnach and Rooker) and any of them would cost pennies of the dollar compared to Rosario in 2021. I believe one or more of the three will be ready for full-time major league duty next year, and if that is the case, it is time to say good bye to Rosario.

While the second game has to be a disappointment for the Twins, both Cleveland and Chicago had leads late and lost to inferior teams. If you're a "glass half full" person, the Twins come home after the doubleheader a half game closer to both of the teams they are chasing, having played on the road against an above .500 team. If you're a "glass half empty" type, the Twins had a chance to come home in first place facing a pitcher who has never won a start in 17 tries (some as an opener) and they had a 2-0 lead in a 7-inning game.

I just don't know how the short rest effected Dobnak. His problem was getting the ball in the strike zone and additionally the two hit batters really exacerbated an already bad situation. He had his normal velocity and the ball appears to be moving (too much?), but it was an ineffective outing. Reminds me of what happened to Hill a couple starts ago, where he had zipped through a couple innings and then couldn't find the zone.

The outfielder threw towards home and the ball was cut off. Often a runner will sacrifice himself to assure a runner scores, but that wasn’t really the case. This certainly wasn’t as stupid/foolish as running through a stop sign with nobody out, but on balance it wasn’t very smart.

Good points, but I don't think they tell the whole story. Buxton has a .241 OBP, compared to Gonzalez' .301. As far as guaranteeing a run because of Buxton's speed starting an inning on second base, yes he would be able to score on infield hoppers that wouldn't score the much slower Gonalez and a fly ball wouldn't have to be very deep to score him from third. However, given the low amount of contact that hitters produce and the fact that much of the time there is contact, the ball is popped up, I don't think the odds are appreciably higher with the speedster and Buxton never steals third base.

Unless the Twins activate Odorizzi for the doubleheader in St. Louis, they'll almost certainly do another bullpen game in one of those games. It is a bit more excusable, since they'll have two straight off days afterwards, so they won't have a compromised BP when they start their next series.

It looks like the Twins will be in third place, .5 games behind Chicago and virtually tied with Cleveland.

The Twins lost two of three to a good team in their home ballpark. That does not discourage me too much. It is a disappointment because they caught both Bieber and Clevinger when they weren't on top of their game and let them escape. Berríos also wasn't sharp, but did get 17 outs against the top-heavy Cleveland lineup. The offense continues to sputter, this series including Nelson Cruz. Getting back Donaldson will help if it is the 2019 Bringer of Rain. Same for Garver. Romo got hit and didn't have great command again. That's his third straight shaky appearance. I don't think he's a better option to close games than Taylor Rogers. Duffey pitched for the first time in a while and was lights out. I was concerned when his first pitch was a fastball at "only" 91, but he got his heater up to the mid 90s and struck out both Ramirez and Lindor on three pitches. Finally, let's hope Kepler is OK. In one plus inning he hit a homer and robbed the Tribe of multiple runs. He has a lot of value for this club.

The Twins had a good chance tonight against Bieber. It would have been nice to go up 2-0 against their closest pursuer, but the baseball gods usually even things out. They were quite fortunate to hold on the night before, so going 1-1 with Berríos on the hill for the rubber match seems about right.

For tonight, Romo, Clippard, Rogers and May are out, Thielbar, Wisler and Poppen, along with Alcala should be good to go. Duffey hasn't pitched in two days either. If Dick Mountain gives the Twins five innings, they should be good to get through the game. Columbe and Smeltzer also should be available, so having all of the pitchers seems to be the right thing to do.