stringer bell

Coulombe seems to be getting the most out of his ability. I think command is the key component, given his limited arsenal. I would expect some regression to the mean, but if he continues to hit his spots and keeps being used in low to medium leverage situations, he probably has a job all year and is well worth the 700K he is being paid this year.

With the Paddack injury, Bundy is sixth in the starting pitcher pecking order IMHO. Ryan, Gray, Ober, Winder, Archer and then Bundy. Obviously Ober is still on the IL, so Bundy will get starts until either he or Paddack is ready to go. It might be necessary to continue with a six-man rotation if only to limit innings for Winder and perhaps Ober. With Gray not ready to go deep and Archer apparently unable to get past 4 innings, there remain too many bullpen innings and the Twins would seem to need multinnings from several relievers.

Well, it’s dead for everyone and relative to the rest of the AL, the Twins are second is the league in runs allowed, a mammoth improvement from 2021.

As highlighted on a couple of other threads, the Twins have turned out to have a fairly easy schedule. Houston would appear to be the toughest test for the remainder of the month. The Twins and Astros have identical records and are close in team ERA, run differential and runs allowed. The Twins currently have more injuries, but they are playing at home. It should be an interesting series. On the topic of pitching, we are approaching 20% of the season completed, certainly early, but the team has improved dramatically and it appears somewhat sustainable. They rank high in just about every key stat—runs allowed, WHIP, BB% and K%. There is never enough pitching, but the Twins have gotten good performance from almost all of the staff. I think they need to add a bullpen arm to get Pagán out of save situations and probably add a starter, too, particularly if Paddack is on the shelf for more than a couple weeks.

It really wasn’t “medical advice”. Bremer and Morneau seemed to be acknowledging that there was ongoing issues with his knee injury. I assume they are close enough to the team to have information that we fans don’t have.

Assuming that the position players return on schedule and without further incident, Godoy, Kirilloff and Lewis would be optioned to St. Paul in that order IMHO. There just won’t be enough playing time for Lewis if all but Sanó are healthy. Kirilloff needs to hit, but he could force the Twins to choose between himself, Garlick and Celestino.

I get that valuable players like Buxton and Correa are treated from a different perspective in regard to the Injury List. Also, it especially makes sense to be cautious (and limit innings) with pitchers. I remain perplexed about Buxton and maybe it is because of his injury history. A platinum glove center fielder shouldn’t be DHing so often IMHO and then also getting scheduled off days. Maybe it was the plan all along and perhaps the injuries that are limiting him wouldn’t be healed by a stint on the IL. But if the TV announcers are saying that he’ll have to “live with” a nagging injury it just seems wrong to both let him play at less than 100% and still not play him every day.

I guess you’re right, but they haven’t lost anyone to a DFA since the season started. My bad.

Overall, the Twins haven’t played as well as when they were on their seven game winning streak. They aren’t hitting or fielding as well as they were. Probably, that is a function of playing call-ups and backups. They have had the good fortune of playing Baltimore and Oakland. Outside of Bundy and Pagán, the pitching has been solid. Again it helps to be playing the O’s and A’s. I keep seeing a roster crunch on the horizon and it never comes. Buxton is supposed to be back midweek, Larnach and Garlick are supposed to be on the IL for the minimum duration and if they are back, there might not be room for Celestino, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The same for the 40-man roster. Sanó could be transferred to the 60-day list and Vallimont has not performed well enough to continue to be protected. Yet, the Twins haven’t made changes in their 40-man and almost every MLB team has.

It’s just that he was limited to about 15 innings last year due to elbow issues.

I just hope there’s no animosity between you and Squirrel. ?

Had ‘em all the way.

I agree. But I don’t think there is an answer in the system, unless you want to complete the conversion of Duran.

C’mon Pagán. I’ve got a tee time.

Except that Duran hasn’t thrown on back-to-back days ever.

Here we go.

I’ll write this before Chief responds—“yes”.

Pagán warming or Pagán warning?

Well, there doesn’t seem to be consistency. Correa and Buxton (particularly) have been carried although it was certain that they’d be out for some time, while Garlick, Larnach, Gray and Ober hit the IL when their unavailability looked to be less than 10 days. The larger question remains about Buxton—if he going to be out of the lineup frequently plus serving as a DH fairly frequently, perhaps shutting him down for 10 days to two weeks might be a better idea.

Productive outs—what a concept.

I guess I've felt the Twins were very prone to place players on the IL when they were unable to play for a day or two. I've also thought they were inclined to keep players on the IL perhaps longer than needed, such as with Sonny Gray, who was supposed to be on the Injured List for the minimum amount of time, and then he was out for an additional week plus. Now I am starting to really not know what is going on. Case in point--Byron Buxton. After the knee injury scare, he didn't play for over a week and then DHed and then sat out a game. So basically all Buxton did in a 10-day period was DH one game. Now Buxton was removed from a game and out of today's game with an off day to follow. It would be speculation to determine what is going on, but Tingler indicated his current injury is a hip problem (same as last year at this time?). Bremer and Morneau were speculating that Buxton's knee was still bothering him. We all know Buxton's extensive injury history and his immense value to the team when healthy, but is carrying him on the active roster with frequent DH days and days off better than placing him on the IL to get as right as he can be? I know it's not an easy decision, but I have to believe going in to every day with "will he or won't he" be in the lineup (and center field) really the way to go? Next case--Carlos Correa. I guess it was understood he wouldn't play at all in the series with the Athletics, but will he sit out more games after Monday? If he misses two series, wouldn't it make sense that he be put on the Injured List? If he can play against the Astros (and I'm sure he really wants to), it probably is a good move to avoid the IL for him and they got a look at Royce Lewis as a fringe benefit. Sonny Gray (and maybe Bailey Ober)--Both guys were originally diagnosed with minor injuries that would require no more than the minimum time on the IL. Gray spent 19 days on the IL and would have taken even more (scheduled rehab start in St. Paul) which changed to starting for the Twins. I haven't seen anything about Ober being activated and his 10 days are up before Tuesday's game against Houston. Alex Kirilloff--AK went from being in the preliminary lineup to the IL. He didn't stay on the list too long (three weeks) and he was sent on rehab to St. Paul and apparently recalled mostly because there wasn't anyone else on the 40-man roster. To me, this is a crazy quilt of decisions. There really isn't consistency in the decision-making process. One decision seems to prioritize long-term health of the player, another seems to prioritize winning today's game and a third seems to be about expediency. I don't have first-hand knowledge of any of these situations, but it's puzzling to me. Please comment and discuss.

Wow. Someone turns a corner and heads to the Injured List. I was speculating that the Twins would wait for the off day tomorrow to determine if someone would go on the IL, but hey, we get our third catcher back!

No Buxton, Correa or Larnach and they are all on the active roster. I’m guessing the Twins have only Jeffers truly available on the bench.

I think Wallner is still in line to be a functional major league player. I’ve seen a couple of good throws from him and he has major league power.

From the time he was optioned, the Twins were saying that he was on track to pitch in games in May.