stringer bell

Last day of a 15 games in 15 days stretch. The Twins have a relatively rested bullpen and with the day off tomorrow (and another on Monday), just about everyone should be available. Most of the right handed hitters get another start. I wonder if Wallner is the left handed hitter in the lineup. There are often lineup surprises on day games after night games, so I wouldn't count on Shelton putting in a "copy and paste" righty heavy lineup.

The Twins have accomplished more in April of 2026 than I thought they would in the entire season. That is holding first place by themselves, and reaching four games over .500.

Annnnd the Cardinals tied the score in the last of the ninth.

Abel lowered his ERA from 6.08 to 3.98 with the seven scoreless innings.

If he continues to be successful, he could fill in at any of the infield positions vs. right handed pitching and become a platoon player. IMHO, replacing Lewis and Lee a couple times a week and perhaps Keaschall occasionally works. Also, if Clemens continues below the Mendoza Line and Gray keeps hitting, he could be an option at first base.

Through 17 games the Twins have 265 at-bats vs. left handed pitching. Through their first 17 games the Detroit Tigers have 51 at-bats vs. left handed pitching.

Gray has been great so far, but it is only 27 plate appearances. He is a 30-year-old career minor leaguer. I'd wait a bit before giving him that much playing time.

Dozier hit 80 homers at Target Field. Buxton passed him late last year.

It was for a while IIRC! I was at Target Field on a day he hit two bombs, one was the second longest ever here (again IIRC).

I said before the first pitch of the season that the team as composed should do well against left handed pitching and they proceeded to struggle mightily against decent, but not elite, left handed pitching. Now against elite left handed starting pitching, they have knocked out Skubal, Framber Valdez and Crochet. They also hit around two other lesser lefties. The key to their success vs. left handed pitching has been the switch hitters. Caratini has been their first baseman vs. lefties and his slash line (against LHP) is .438/.391/.829. Bell, who was dreadful last year vs. southpaws is .324/.433/.757 and Lee is .333/.560/.893. Most switch hitters are stronger from the left side because they see so many more right handers. That hasn't been the case for the 2026 Twins. The team offensive numbers are shocking considering where this team was last year and how they started this year. They are within a few runs of leading all of MLB in runs scored (Twins have scored 92, leaders have 95), they are tied for second in homers despite their top HR guys having only 3. Their splits with the bases loaded, runners on, runners in scoring position are among the best in baseball. Finally, they've hit a lot of three-run homers and a grand slam. If, and it's a huge if, they can continue to score like this through the All-Star break, one commodity that is pretty easily attainable is relief pitching, especially guys in their free agent walk year. That is getting about three months ahead of the game, but we can dream can't we?

It looks like Cleveland will win and stay tied with the Twins, but for a few minutes they will be alone in first place.

No words!

That could be a disabling injury for Wallner.

Give me Molitor and Perkins for the analysts every time.

Lefty on the mound.

Good sequencing, lots of walks and much improved productivity with runners on base. In the Toronto series, the Twins put about 95% of their offense into three innings and scored 18 runs in those three innings, actually enough to sweep the series. Toronto OTOH put tons on runners on base and couldn't get them home, particularly on Sunday. The Twins have hit two months worth of three-run homers and one grand slam in two weeks. They haven't banged into a high number of double plays despite having a lot of guys reach first base and a lot of slow runners hitting with those runners on first base. Will this good fortune last? I doubt it. It is fun when it all works.

I've been on the Martin bandwagon since last year. He came back from injury and some Triple A time with an excellent approach at the plate and much-improved defense in the outfield. After seeing a lot of him late in the 2025 season, I thought the obvious comp was Steven Kwan and I continue to have that opinion. Yes, he lacks power and his base running has been a mixed bag, but the skills he shows in getting on base are legitimate and very valuable. Because he is a top quartile runner, I expect the base running will eventually become a strength. It is a pretty small sample size, but Martin has positive defensive marks this season in left field and last season (post trade deadline when he was used regularly). I would think he would now be an acceptable backup in center field with the better jumps and routes he has demonstrated in the last nine months. The main question to me is whether Austin Martin should be a "regular", a guy that will get over 500 PAs if he stays healthy. I think that despite their nice current run, the Twins are positioned to find out. ,

I expect Kreidler plays third against the tough lefty. The Twins are facing four more left handed starters in the six-game homestand if the schedule holds. That would be 13 lefty starters in the first 22 games. Incredible.

Position changes are fascinating. Some work, some are disasters. I would speculate that if Rodriguez or Jenkins shows he’s in the majors to stay, that then might be time to discuss moving to a corner with Buxton. im not sure Culpepper is a shortstop long term, but he’s got better tools than Lee, so he should keep playing the three infield positions.

I have seen this for a while. There are a number of posters waiting for their whipping boy (Wallner, Lee and Outman are the popular choices right now) to fail. This is a flawed team with several soft spots, which I’m sure will be exploited during the season. The whole has been greater than the sum of their parts lately and they’ve been fun to watch. Credit to the manager and the coaching staff so far. With good health and a couple of bullpen breakthroughs, they just might have a winning season.

Four more lefties in the coming week. That would be 13 LH starters in the first 22 games.

Yeah, I'm watching that score. Last year, the Twins were tied for first place after six games (2-4 record) never to take the lead. It looks like this year, they will be tied after 16 games.

Kaat won 93 games after he left the Twins and pitched for ten more years. He won 20 games twice for the White Sox and had two 7 WAR seasons. Maybe a typical player would be on the downside, but when Kaat was released he had a lot in the tank. I am convinced that Carew would have won more batting championships if he had stayed with the Twins. He was a great player for the Twins, not so much for the Angels. Calvin was a throwback. The Twins didn't win as often as they should have because he wouldn't pay the freight and he was slow to get into free agency. We all know baseball was his livelihood, but he needed to spend more to stay competitive.

The Waseca stuff was the last straw for Rodney, so it wasn't all about money. it was about money with Bert and Kitty.. We'll probably never see another owner who is truly his own GM.

Cautionary tale. In both 2024 and 2025, the Twins had big early winning streaks after slow starts that convinced many that they were legitimate contenders. Complaints about Rocco even slowed down. It seems there aren’t any really good teams in the AL, but I don’t think the Twins are contenders even without any dominant teams. I’m glad they’ve shown some spark and maybe there will be some decent crowds Calvin knew baseball and he had a number of great players, but drove three Hall of Famers (Kaat, Carew, Blyleven) out of town in their primes This is a different era. The Twins should have enough resources and talent to be contenders most of the time. I still think this is a transition year and we’ll see a lot of turnover whenever baseball starts after the 2026 World Series.