stringer bell

A couple golf courses opened around here on St. Patrick’s Day. I played 18 then and 9 more a week later. Since then, nothing until Monday (decent day, but chilly). Yes, the wind has been brutal and it is blowing hard again today. Sorry to continue to complain…….

Now that Garlick is on the 40-man, there probably isn’t any regular time for Celestino. He could be a pinch runner and defensive replacement and fill in for Buxton, but that isn’t much of a role for a young guy. Gordon is probably the preferred option to pinch run and he can cover center if Buxton needs a day.

The clouds are not so forbidding now, although I wouldn’t call it sunny here outside of Rochester. It has been a brutal stretch of weather which gnaws at me when the golf clubs are in the back of my car. It’s time to be outside.

Well, here I am doing my second intro on the seventh game of the season. I didn't plan for it to go this way, but one never knows. It is supposedly baseball season, but looking outside, I'm not so sure. I got up this morning and it was snowing. Yeah, I know, it sometimes snows in April in Minnesota and it can be cold and gloomy on any given day BUT not every freaking day! It's the 15th of the month and there has been snow in the air at least nine of those days. It was 66 degrees almost exactly a month ago and it hasn't been close to that in over four weeks and the weather is supposed to get better as we head through spring. And the wind! Okay, end of rant. Better to complain about the weather than my favorite baseball team. By the way, the forecast for Boston today is mid-60s, breezy and sunny. That sounds pretty good. The Twins play Boston today for their home opener. This is game one of a four game wraparound series against the Sox. This is the third straight opponent that won 90 or more games in the previous season, so not an easy schedule at the start of the year. I don't often cheer for the Rose Hose, but I was with them when they dispatched the Yankees in the opening round of the 2021 playoffs. This is a tough lineup to face, stars at most positions and they have added a high-profile free agent (Trevor Story) to play second base. The injury bug has hit the Twins with two players they were counting on to step up this year--Jorge Alcala and Alex Kirilloff--both hitting the injured list with injuries that look like they could be long term. After a little roster manipulation, the Twins have added two outfielders--Trevor Larnach and Kyle Garlick--and subtracted a pitcher, down to 15 on the staff for the next two plus weeks. It is anyone's guess what the active roster will look like when they cut to 26 players on May 2. Lineups: Minnesota (2-4) @ Boston (3-3) HITTERS H-AB RBI HR SB AVG B. BuxtonCF 5-23 4 3 1 .217 L. Arraez3B 5-16 2 1 0 .313 C. CorreaSS 4-19 1 1 0 .211 J. Polanco2B 5-21 3 1 0 .238 M. KeplerRF 3-18 2 1 0 .167 G. SanchezDH 4-18 5 1 0 .222 T. LarnachLF 0-1 0 0 0 .000 M. Sano1B 0-19 0 0 0 .000 R. JeffersC 3-13 0 0 0 .231 HITTERS H-AB RBI HR SB AVG E. HernandezCF 4-26 3 1 0 .154 R. Devers3B 9-26 5 1 0 .346 X. BogaertsSS 5-19 1 0 0 .263 J.D. MartinezDH 6-22 4 1 0 .273 A. VerdugoLF 6-20 4 1 0 .300 T. Story2B 3-13 1 0 0 .231 B. Dalbec1B 4-19 1 1 0 .211 J. Bradley Jr.RF 2-15 3 0 0 .133 C. VazquezC 2-14 1 0 0 .143 PLAYER W-L ERA WHIP IP H K BB HR J. Ryan 0-1 4.50 1.50 4.0 2 4 4 1 N. Pivetta 0-1 6.35 1.24 5.2 4 4 3 2 Apologies if there are any formatting errors. Hey, both teams start off CF, 3B, SS. Weird.

I don't blame the Twins for using the rules as they exist and while it wasn't fair to Rodriguez' bubble gum card, he was/is a minor league starter (IIRC) so pitching four innings shouldn't have been too much of a stretch. Rodriguez got a chance to show what he had against a great major league team. Any of the 30 teams can interpret the information from his appearance (as well as his career arc) and decide whether he is worth picking up. Not the worst outcome for him.

Seth, TD ranked Martin as the #1 prospect in the system. You've seen a lot more of him than I or most of the fan base has. How close do you think Martin is to being a big-league ballplayer? Do you think both Miranda and Lewis are closer?

Yeah, I'd like to know what the evaluation is and what the plan is. If he can help the team in the next year+, I would think it would be as an outfielder. There are four players for the three infield spots (Arraez, Urshela, Correa and Polanco) and two prospects at AAA (Miranda and Lewis). What I am getting is that Martin isn't as close to ready to help this club as I thought.

It is only a week of games. The Twins faced a team that surprisingly won 90 games last year and another that won over 100, so the schedule was tough. They've faced four left handed starters out of the six games. Over the course of a season, it is usually about 70% right handed starters. The hitters have struck out 60 times in 52 innings of batting, while Twins pitchers have struck out 48 in 54 innings of pitching. They have hit nine homers and allowed seven. The Twins are next-to-last in team batting average and last in on-base percentage. Concerns--Sano, of course. Left field, especially now that Kirilloff is out and may be for a while. Injuries--the club was counting on both Alcala and Kirilloff to be keys in a successful season, both are out and might be for several weeks or even months. I can confidently say that the Twins hitting won't be this bad all season. Hitters are much more predictable and projectable than pitchers. The starting pitching has been a surprise, but remember it is very early. I'm hopeful the starters will be able to add an inning or two on their outings in the coming week and take some pressure off the bullpen. Probably the last five arms on this team won't be around in a month, so I'm not that concerned about Rodriguez, Jax and Romero. In summary, the record of 2-4 is disappointing, but not devastating. Let's see how the club does in the next couple weeks before burying them or judging World Series odds.

With the Twins and St. Paul not playing, not too many top prospects were in action last night. It is nice to see that only three of the prospects are on the injured list and only one on it for a long term. Good to see the Surge get a win and also see Varland pitch well.

Speculation on how the Twins can improve their team to contend during 2022. If they perform decently to the trade deadline, the choice may be moving a prospect or two in exchange for major league talent to fill a hole. Who would get dealt? I wonder if they let one of their top position prospects go. Specifically, do they view Miranda as the future third baseman and Lewis as the future shortstop. And what of Martin? I've imagined he would find a home in the outfield (probably left), but right now he's in AA and actually not doing too well, while playing shortstop. If it is a pitcher, it really could be any of them.

This is a recurring issue. While we see more of it with the home team, I think all teams deal with it to some extent. When do you play through some pain or discomfort and when do you go to the training staff and say "I can't go"? I don't think the Twins have all the answers and I don't think anybody really does.

Not fun with numbers. Miguel Sanó has the most at-bats without a hit in MLB. Also Byron Buxton is tied for fourth in strikeouts (10) while right behind (tied for ninth) are Sánchez and Sanó (9).

I wrote before the season started that the Twins were betting on Jeffers and Kirilloff to take the step of being full-time regulars. While Jeffers has looked okay in the early going, Kirilloff has not and now we know why. A few days ago I was thinking that the Twins were doing very well on the injury front and then on consecutive days Alcala and Kirilloff go down and both appear to be season-threatening injuries. Ouch.

I was at the game today and really didn't get a chance to track this game thread. Apologies if some of these topics were covered. From where I sat, Kershaw was tough. He had great command and was a master at changing speeds. I would suspect after playing past midnight last night, it was hard for the Twins to get going especially after being down 2-0 and then 3-0 after the first and second innings. Not much hitting going on for the entire team and that was exacerbated by giving Correa a day off. I thought that overall Paddack was okay. The first inning was pretty bad and could have been a disaster, but he survived to stay kinda in the game. The fastball was low 90s, pretty ordinary. Rodriguez was okay, I guess, until the three homers. He gives them length in the bullpen, I suppose. Jax got the fastball up to the mid-90s, but gave up a long homer. I don't have much confidence in either of those guys. Not many in the stands, which figures given the midweek day game and lousy weather. Quite a number of Dodger fans and they got loud when the home run balls left the yard.

I’m afraid I’m witnessing history.

The last two games have been "good Luis" and "bad Luis". Arraez was in the middle of everything good on offense on Sunday and played a solid third base. Monday, he had a tough day at third and did nothing offensively. Such is baseball. Given Arraez' unusual skill set, I think his usage has been about right. He should be in the lineup against right handed pitchers for certain. Against lefties, he is a mediocre singles hitter and guys like Urshela are better fits. Although, if all one needs to do is make contact, Arraez is pretty reliable doing that against southpaws.. Defensively, Arraez isn't going to win any gold gloves, but he is functional at second, third and in left field. I believe his knee issues are why the Twins don't want him patrolling the bigger area in left field. I don't like seeing a guy with such limited power as anything resembling a full-time DH, but I'm sure Luis will get some chances there. The positives that Arraez presents, plus his age, perhaps make him a trade chip. The Twins top prospects mirror some of his strengths (Miranda-positional flexibility. Martin-positional flexibility and on-base skills) so I do think he is replaceable. Arraez is fun to watch, plays hard and enjoys the game. He was third on the team in WAR last year (3.4 per BBRef) despite only playing in 3/4 of the games. He is an asset, but not indispensible.

Arraez had a tough inning, no doubt. I thought he played very well at third yesterday. Good fielders have made multiple errors in games or even in innings. Some days are like that.

Agree. What is “normal” discomfort and when is something wrong? Hope for the best, but reality is that this could be a serious issue.

There's a lot of middle relievers in the Twins' bullpen. I don't think there are a lot of good options right now.

Jeffers isn't good throwing out base stealers, but those three stolen bases were 99.9% on Winder.

Don't like the Twins chances of keeping it 1-1 here.

Add the accent and it isn't objectionable.

Yeah, he came through there and I'm not saying he's hopeless in those situations, but he couldn't get the ball on the ground (with his speed they aren't gonna turn two) and he couldn't hit it deep enough to get the runner home. There aren't many players who are nails in those situations and I don't think Buck is there at this point.

Arraez hit for Celestino. It is immaterial who went out to left.

Not trying to pick on Buxton, but I think he'll be a great offensive player (he's definitely a great defender and a great weapon on the bases) when he comes through more often in those game situations.