Nate Palmer

The culture point is an angle of this I hadn’t thought about. Just have to hope at this point he gets healthy and will be effective when he returns and that there isn’t any toughing out that creeps into the rest of the team.

With both the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves owning first place in their respective divisions, Monday night’s opening game of a three-game series brought back plenty of memories of the 1991 World Series. So much so that Dick Bremer brought to the booth his cufflinks from that World Series-winning season. At least for tonight we saw the same result as in ‘91 as the Twins won in walk-off fashion, 5-3.Box Score Jake Odorizzi: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 60.6% strikes (66 of 109 pitches) Bullpen: 3.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K Home Runs: Max Kepler (31), Miguel Sano (19) Multi-Hit Games: Luis Arraez (2-for-4) Top 3 WPA: Sano (.433), May (.255), Odorizzi (.247) Bottom 3 WPA: Duffey (-.131), Cave (-.093), Harper (-.089) Odorizzi started the game with two straight strikeouts giving the impression early on that being pushed back a day in favor of Devin Smeltzer on Sunday might pay off in big ways for the Twins. Although quickly the walks started to pile up and so did the pitch count causing everyone to wonder how long the starter would last. While Odrizzi’s pitch count piled up, for the other side Mike Soroka was dealing to start the game, flying perfectly through the Twins lineup the first time through. Soroka came into the game with the lowest home run rate by a starter. And it took the most anti-Bomba way for the Bomba squad to get a hit and eventually score. In the fourth inning recent Bomba leader Nelson Cruz reached on an infield hit with two outs, followed by an outfield hit by Eddie Rosario, and another infield hit by Marwin Gonzalez. It was then none other than rookie Luis Arraez who slapped a hit to left field to score Cruz and Rosario to put the Twins up 2-0. Freddie Freeman and Max Kepler traded home runs bringing the game to 3-1 score. Then a defensively sloppy seventh inning resulted in Acuna reaching, advancing to second on a passed ball, and scoring on a ball that got past Jake Cave in the outfield. Then an RBI single by Josh Donaldson tied the game at 3-3 midway through the seventh. Then in the eighth and ninth innings Trevor May slammed the door shut on the Braves with straight heat as he hit 99.8 mph on the gun. All of which set the stage for Miguel Sano. With two outs and Arraez standing on first Sano hit his 19th home run to center field that was such a no doubter Acuna was running to the visitors dugout before it even landed. Postgame With Baldelli Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet Click here for a review of the number of pitches thrown by each member of the bullpen over the past five days. Click here to view the article

Both would be good lands for the Twins. Especially like that they would be around for the rotation in 2020 as well. Good write up, Cooper!

The truth is too embarrassing, so we will go with your theory on this one. Freudian slip for sure!

As a Minnesota sports fan living in Wisconsin, I get asked on a regular basis why haven’t I just started rooting for the Packers. “They win, right?” is always the reasoning. I remind those I work with and my friends to remember my Minnesota fandom describes what I market to them as my greatest quality. I am loyal to a fault. Like Minnesota sports, you can drag me through some rough situations and if I find hope in you. I will stick by your side. That brings us to our Minnesota Twins. Their has been a lot of excitement paired with a lot of concerned questions surrounding what is happening right now with the organization. The excitement is a hope for a transition to more utilization of analytics in the operation of the team. The concern that seems most common, is why are so many individuals from the Ryan era still hanging around? I have a few “from afar” theories. First, I take from my own professional experience. In my career field, when and if I enter a new opportunity I always enter the situation with a time frame in mind where I simply evaluate. I don’t make any sweeping changes unless they are agreed on by the existing culture and my initial assessments. In my world that magic number ends up being 6 months, that number could obviously be much different in the world of the MLB. With that concept in mind, and without being in the front office each day, I wonder if Falvey and Levine are simply evaluating the people they have in front of them before making sweeping changes. Maybe the guys in place really embrace analytics but were always vetoed by a more powerful voice, or maybe the guys Falvey and Levine want in those positions are simply just not available at this moment. This far in, I will continue to give them the benefit of the doubt. Today, the 25 man roster has taken shape. Each and every year, there are gut and knee jerk reactions to this decision. While today is a date to mark on the calendar, this decision is always a somewhat temporary decision. I am more concerned about how the roster takes shape as we get through April and into May. If Park continues to hit like he has this spring in Rochester, and Vargas looks like he did for Puerto Rico and they aren’t flipping places. I will then get concerned. If Mejia struggles mightily and Duffey or Berrios look ready in April/May. Then I will get out my picketing signs. For now, I trust the process and will wait for Falvey and Levine to give me a reason to doubt them. The organization has obviously seen something with either Vargas or Park they want to see play out further and are letting their process ride a bit. It is important to remember, we just finished spring training which we always struggle to evaluate what performance means in these weeks. Now the Bullpen. Ok, even this very optimistic, loyal to a fault fan cannot find a good spin on that. The Twins simply need a lot of emerging pieces for that to work. I encourage patience my fellow fans. Even though that is what we have tried to have for losing season after losing season. This is a new group having to reshape a whole organization. And that does not happen overnight. Let’s give them some time. Let’s see how the roster shapes up through the season, how they draft, and how the trade deadline goes. As we enter next offseason we will hopefully be able to see more of the stamp that the Falvey/Levine regime will leave on the Minnesota Twins. (Of course, if you disagree with me that is OK. I will still listen to you and be by your side. Because I am loyal like that.)