stringer bell

The Twins are below average in all three “true outcomes”. They aren’t the power hitting 2019 club, or the 2023 strikeout club. Individually the lineup doesn’t look bad, but with non-hitters on the bench. They haven’t put it all together and it seems as if one guy is struggling, he gets the key at-bats. Beyond the hitting, they aren’t a great fielding team and they are the slowest team in MLB. They need to be better than their opponents at advancing runners and hit with RISP, but outside of the hot 13 game stretch, they haven’t.

I don’t think Julien has totally “found it”, but he is currently hitting acceptably right now. I don’t know if he can help the Twins and they need tons of help right now. Sure, call him up, he’s a better option than Bride, but he’s not the key to righting the ship. The club has lost nine one-run games and their means for producing runs has been terrible. The pitching is in shambles.

I'm giving the Twins until they are down by three runs. That was three innings yesterday.

Comings and goings of obscure ex-Twins relief pitchers: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/tigers-to-select-dietrich-enns-for-thursdays-game.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/athletics-release-dylan-floro.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/cubs-select-michael-fulmer.html Enns pitched briefly (2 games) for the Twins way back in 2017. Floro and Fulmer were both disappointing trade deadline acquisitions, Fulmer in 2022, Floro in 2023.

Not really an ex-Twin, but given Lovelady’s success at St. Paul and the historic meltdown of the pitching staff, perhaps they should have promoted Lovelady and kept him in the organization.

I hope you are right on this. Lee is playing most every day because he's a switch hitter and I'm not sure either Rodriguez or Jenkins will get regular play against left handers when they make the majors. I also question how much the Twins believe in McCusker. Conditions forced his promotion (and addition to the 40-man) and it makes little to no sense to take him off the 40-man until or unless there is a need to move him.

From All-Star to minor leaguer. Relief pitchers are hard to count on.

Of note, McCusker is not crushing since returning to St. Paul. Currently the hottest Saints hitter is Julien.

That Buxton ranks only ninth among center fielders isn't really that disappointing. There are a lot of otherworldly defensive outfielders and almost all of them play center field. Bader has improved the outfield defense markedly and France has been in the neighborhood of Santana's defense in 2024. They've helped on the defensive side of the game. Brooks Lee doesn't have superstar tools, but makes the most of what he has. He's the Twins second best shortstop and second best infield defender.

Plouffe is singing the praises of Ryan. I think he's throwing too many pitches.

Pretty good stuff from the Brewers rookie. Might need to get him in the stretch.

The Weather Dome.

I think Buxton deserves and will be an All-Star. It would be a kick if he got elected, and I believe he should. In the end, it is just an exhibition and I seldom watch the game. I would like to see Buxton get the attention for his fine half season.

IMHO the consensus on this board is "give Larnach and Wallner a chance to hit lefties", thus the window wouldn't be open very wide for McCusker. However, the Twins have been in an interlude where they have faced a large amount of left handed pitching and not fared well, so if they want to give McCusker a bit more of a fair chance, that opportunity was in the past week. It is a pretty remote possibility that McCusker would become a difference maker, but probably a better chance than Jonah Bride becoming that guy. Tweaking on the margins isn't going to make much difference.

We are approaching the statistical halfway point of the Twins' season. The club is at .500, just slightly worse than pre-season prognostications. However, they've reached that mark by being bad, then excellent and most recently poor again. I will give my grade for all players on the roster, including those on the Injured List, but not counting those who are currently optioned to the minors. Pitchers Danny Coulombe. Grade A- superior performance and exceeds expectations, but missed time. Jhoan Durán Grade B+ very good performance, met expectations. Downgraded due to recent rough outings on the road trip. David Festa Grade C numbers are average because of inconsistency. Probably in line with expectations. Griffin Jax Grade C- performance is quite a bit below expectations. High ERA and several losses, but several dominating outings. Pablo López Grade B- very good performance, but currently on IL with a multi-month injury. Had pitched up to high expectations. Zebby Matthews Grade C. Coming off his best two outings when he, too, was injured. Inconsistent performance in line with expectations. Bailey Ober Grade C- recent slump has hurt his numbers to markedly below expectations. Chris Paddack Grade B- slow start and two recent subpar outings. In between, he was excellent and far exceeding expectations. Joe Ryan Grade A- Outstanding performance probably above high expectations. Cole Sands Grade C+. Down a bit from last year's surprise breakout. Probably unfairly a bit below expectations. Brock Stewart Grade B Started on IL, a bit rusty to start, but he's mostly been very good, in line with high expectations. Justin Topa Grade B He's been active all year and performed pretty well, probably a bit above expectations. Louis Varland Grade A. Very good performance, far exceeding expectations. He's carried a heavy work load with no hint of fatigue. Joey Wentz Grade Incomplete. Recently acquired. Tough to evaluate. Should have low expectations due to his track record. Simeon Woods Richardson Grade C-. Lost his spot in the rotation and is back due to rotation injuries. Below his performance last year and expectations. Position Players Ryan Jeffers Grade C-. Jeffers has not broken out in his age 28 season. He is slightly above average as a hitter and is not strong defensively. Expectations for a guy starting his fifth full season would be higher than he has achieved. Christian Vázquez Grade C. After two years of substandard offense, expectations for his hitting should be at rock bottom and that is precisely how he has performed. He has struggled a bit according to defensive metrics, but is still well regarded. Jonah Bride Grade C. Acquired after he was DFA'd, he started with a rather display of hitting, but has regressed to below replacement level. Bride has not exceeded the truly low expectations of a DFA pickup. He has fielded pretty well at third base. Willi Castro Grade B-. After establishing himself as either a super-utility player or multi-position regular, Castro has hit very well, especially recently, and has exceeded expectations. He hasn't played good defense and he hasn't been a base running asset. Kody Clemens Grade A-. Another DFA pickup, Clemens has hit very well for the Twins and played a decent second base with some reps in the outfield and first base. He has far exceeded the meager expectations that were on him. Carlos Correa Grade D. He's plaBryed solid defense, but has been a failure at the plate thus far. He was expected to remain elite at the plate and been a huge disappointment. If the Twins are to contend, he has to play like an All-Star the rest of the season. Ty France Grade B-. France is coming off a poor season and has bounced back. He is a classic case of mediocre overall performance being far better than expected. Kudos for his defensive improvement this year and good hitting in clutch situations. Brooks Lee Grade C+. He's currently on an 18-game hitting streak and has shown himself to be a capable infield defender. Lee hasn't lived up to top prospect expectations however and has revealed his tools are not those of a star player. Royce Lewis Grade D. He's missed most of the season and when playing hasn't looked like a potential superstar, breaking the Mendoza line in his last game before injury. Pre-season expectations were probably comically high. Harrison Bader Grade B. Bader has been a little bit better than advertised and expected. He's a fine outfielder who has adjusted to left field extremely well and he has hit for and OPS+ of 114 so far. Byron Buxton Grade A. Yes, he was on the Concussion IL for two weeks and has missed a couple of other games, but he has mostly played every day and despite some slumps and strikeout binges, he has performed at an All-Star level, showing elite power and speed. Truly great to watch him play. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. Grade C-. Keirsey is in the role of late inning defensive replacement and pinch runner. He appears to be a good defender, but has been caught stealing too often to be a base running asset. He hasn't lived up to expectations as a hitter, being one of the worst in MLB, but has played good defense. Trevor Larnach Grade C+. Larnach hasn't been the far above hitter a bat first corner OF needs to be to guarantee playing time, although he has hit slightly above average. He's gotten a lot of at-bats against left handers with mixed results and generally has played about up to expectations. Matt Wallner Grade C-. Missed a bunch of time due to injury. When he was injured he was probably the Twins' best hitter, but now has slumped. He has not reached the lofty expectations laid on him and like Correa, if the Twins are to be contenders, he will have to pick it up.

Well, Castro has hit very well recently and his numbers look superior to either 2023 or 2024. Unfortunately, it appears 2023 was an outlier for defense and base running as Willi hasn’t approached his contribution in those areas since. The Willi Castro of this year, with negligible base running value and below-average defense is still valuable, but not as much as ‘23.

Two righties, one lefty (Saturday).

Well for one thing, Martinez is a so-so RHP. The Twins especially struggled on the road trip against left handed pitching. One would think that having Buxton, Correa and Lewis on the roster would make a daunting challenge for lefties, but here we go again.

Good day for the offense. Every player got at least one hit, seven scored runs and seven had RBI. That isn't going to happen every day, but having a majority of guys going decently should get 4-6 runs per game. Getting some big hits with runners on would really move the needle for run-scoring.

The Twins need to decide whether they are selling. All of the above players have pretty good value for this club.

The two others widely projected to be stars this year, Lewis and Correa, haven't produced much at all. I think that's the answer to the query.

Lovelady did very well for the Saints. He was released because he activated his contract opt-out. Perhaps a mistake to let him go?

I like the lineup. I think it's the best they can do with their roster vs. a RH pitcher. Get some walks and bunch some hits, score seven or more and let Paddack cruise.

I am with Lewis where I was with Buxton two year ago--I doubt that he can sustain health for anything resembling a full season. Royce wasn't able to sprint after returning from the IL and reinjured the same hamstring running out a double. I don't know how he can become the player he looked like when he debuted. I was wrong on Buxton. I thought the knee and hip maladies would keep him from being close to maximum for the rest of his career, but he's shown elite speed and acceleration this year. I hope I'm wrong about Lewis, but each IL stint tells me he'll never be really free of lower body injuries.

This is all speculation on the far less than sure thing that Gasper really can hit major league pitching. If he is a .750-.800 OPS hitter, he is an improvement over Bader, Clemens (another guy we can speculate about), Vázquez and just about anyone else on the roster. Moving people around to give him a chance can be done and not having Bader strike out four times would be nice. If Mickey Gasper can't hit and is given another 75 at bats, at least he was given a chance. I'm sure McCusker would want the same and so would Keirsey. They all are too old to be prospects who have done good things in the minors. That until this weekend all three of those guys were in St. Paul says that the front office doesn't think they can be productive hitters. They're probably right, but raking in AAA is all Gasper (and McCusker) can do. Rewarding them with a fair shot would be nice, but we know life and baseball isn't fair.