SwainZag

That's a very short list of pitchers who have put up a line like Gray did tonight. Dominant performance.

I actually disagree with you that the bullpen is a mess. While it's probably not the best pen out there, in close games they have gotten the job done a whole lot more times than not. ERA wise they are middle of the pack, but when you are 1/4 of the way into the season and only have 1 pitcher who would even qualify for the ERA title because of so many 4 inning starts, I would say the pen has pretty damn good so far, and that's with a lot of rookies taking the ball. That being said, I wouldn't mind bringing in another proven arm at some point this season.

It's already been said, but good teams find ways to win.... and this team has won a lot of close ones. While Buck's 3/35 slump is concerning, the team winning games without needing to rely on him is super encouraging. Luis Arraez is on another planet right now. While his .533 OBP is other worldly, in the last 5 games he's hitting .555 with an OBP of .652 with 9 runs scored.

Welcome aboard Todd! My brother and I were talking last night just how likable the Twins roster is, while I liked Josh on the team, getting rid of them definitely helped in that perception.

What's the big list of trades the current FO has made that are terrible? I get it if you don't like the Berrios trade, but flipping back through they didn't seem to miss badly on many trades, at least as of yet.

While finding a prototypical 1st baseman would be nice, I don't think it's that huge of a need. Arraez is been adequate defensively and his slash against RHP this year is .356/.460/.466. When a righty is on the mound, he is an absolute must to be in the lineup and the top of it. Hopefully AK can get it going and be the regular going forward.

If they both played the same position, then sure. Lewis isn't an outfielder. Garlick has a starting corner OF position against lefties, and as he should.

Garlick is hitting .294/.429/.824 against left handed pitching and that is why he is on the roster. Even though it's a SSS, he has a 145 WC+ against lefties for his career. He has carved out a very useful role for himself.

I would say Arraez is guy that helps chase down a postseason berth. IMO he's not a guy you trade looking for an upgrade.

Just an FYI, Duran threw 15 pitches Thursday night that are missing from the bullpen usage spreadsheet.

I want to see them jump on Rodriguez early tonight. Extreme fly ball pitcher who's velocity is down. This lineup is built to crush starters like this. A nice outing from Paddack would be encouraging as well.

Similiar to how Romo gets away with it as well.

With the Dodgers tomorrow and Archer on the mound, I can see the appeal of not using Winder in case things go south quickly.

First off, I am not going to comment on the accusations of the Twins manipulating anyone's service time. Before this past season Miranda had done very little to show he would have such success. He hit very well last season in 125 games in AA-AAA, but they had zero reason to rush him to the majors. I am a big Josh Donaldson fan. You fail to mention he missed 50 games in 2017 and 1 10 in 2018. He had a great 2019 season which led to the Twin to offer him the contract that he got. He played half the games in 2020 and missed a very important playoff game the Twins could have really used him for. He did play in 135 games last season and he was clearly not 100% for most if not all the season. How many times did we see barely limp into 2nd base on a double that should have been easy? He isn't getting any younger and his calf has been an issue. Our own Nick Nelson goes very in depth about Dondaldson's calf issues here. Where was the bad luck factoring in here? If Buxton had better luck he might have won MVP last year.

He also have been very injury prone and his defense has taken a big step back. His advanced metrics are based upon him being on the field 90% of the time. If you could guarantee that then yeah he would probably be worth keeping, but that's a huge if right now.

Those projections also have Donaldson getting 600 PA and Garver getting 500. If both stay very healthy then yes they are attainable, but both players have missed a lot of time over the last few seasons. Josh did get 543 PA last season, but how much of the season did he play hurt?

I love Buxton and think he has all the talent in the world. By far the most pure talent Twins in a long time. But unless you give him a highly incentivized contract based on actually being on the field.....is it worth it? If it were just a shoulder problem, or a wrist that kept acting up, I think it would be different. But Byron definitely is prone to getting injured...and it's not just playing the field. He has been hurt at the plate and on the base paths as well. In the last 4 years, which IMO age 24-27 is or should be prime years for a baseball player, Buxton has been on the field a shade less than 39.5% of the time. 215 out of a possible 544 games. How many guys get injured a ton in the early parts of their career only to start getting healthy the latter portion? I doubt it's that often and is usually the other way around. Also, it's not like he was iron man before he got to the Twins either. The issue comes in, what is Buxton worth if say....he can only play 50% of the team's games? He was incredible last season when healthy but even then he had career highs across the board. He did build on a nice 2020, but it's not like he has been putting up those wild 2021 numbers for years now. The Twins discussing what to do doesn't surprise me at all. I would love for them to sign him to an extension, but I do I blame them for seeing what some other team would give up? Not one bit. I do think they are a bit between a rock and a hard spot with him though. He knows when healthy he can put up MVP type numbers. The Twins know this too. They both know he hasn't shown the ability to stay healthy in his decade in the organization. Hopefully there's a sweet spot they can agree on.

What other young talent in the last 10 years have the Twins traded away or not signed? I suppose you could mean Rosario, but other than that you have to go back to Hunter and Santana and both of those happened nearly 15 years ago under a completely different front office. I am guessing either the Twins didn't think that Berrios is worth $25M+ per year long term OR they have a good feeling he wants to test free agency regardless and realized this probably is when his value is the highest and pulled the trigger. I am not sure how in the world you can call a 22 year old and the 5th overall pick LAST year who is holding his own in AA in his 1st year in the minor leagues a "failed pick." And for that matter, SWR is only 20 in AA, striking out 13 per 9. His control is a little suspect, but he is a Top 100 guy for a reason. Calling either of these guys failed picks is just crazy.

Were any of them desperate signings? Shoemaker is on a 1 year $2M deal brought in as depth starting pitching. Colome is coming a very good 5 year stretch and a 2020 where he was near un-hittable. He does have some control issues, but this was a move to bolster the bullpen. Robles was a buy low $2M signing after a pretty bad 2020 following a very good year in 2019. So far he has only allowed hits in 3 of his 11 outings and seems to be a decent signing. I don't see how any of these reek of desperation, they all had their purposes.

How is Rogers awful? He gave up a soft hit single that probably should have been an out and Gallo somehow muscled a 95 MPH fastball that was 6 inches inside and could have possibly hit him over the fence? That was much more a wow piece of hitter rather than an awful pitch. I have preferred a 3 run win over a 1 one run win, but they count the same in the standings.

Not the prettiest ending, but a win is a win that is 4 out of 5! Really nice to see Jorge hitting the ball hard and Alex continuing to smash. Very nice to know that Buck can have an off night at the plate and they can still pull out wins. A little worried about Arraez, hoping the concussion symptoms go away. They will surely miss his bat atop the lineup if he has to miss any extended period.

I agree. He was in control most of the day, only walked 1 and the slider was superb. Dozier did take advantage of Jose missing his spot pretty badly which resulted in the 3 on the board, but other than that I thought he was pretty sharp.

If you are in the hunt for the division/playoffs/world series you do not trade players for prospects at the deadline.

As for Colome, it was a lot of pitches but the cupboard was pretty bare after the pen through 4+ innings yesterday and Colome was the 5th reliever today. My only question is why was Duffy used in the 4th inning? If the starter is going to go 3, why not use someone who can go more than an inning that early...like Smeltzer and save Duffy in case you need him later. With Donaldson's calf issues I find it defensible that he would get run for there. I get taking his glove out was a risk, but I would rather see that than having your 35 year old, $23M dollar player re-aggravate or re-injury himself trying to score from 2nd or some collision at the plate when it was avoidable. It's April. I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers, but Blankenhorn has a lot more experience at 2B than he does 3B. 1900 defensive innings to 1200 in the minor leagues, and using advanced fielding stats he is a lot better at 2nd than 3rd. Yes, Arraez doesn't have a whole lot of experience at 3rd, but it was a throwing error. If Blankenhorn can't field routine grounders in the majors, maybe he doesn't belong here. Using Rocco as a scapegoat for 2 routine fielding plays is a reach for me.

I don't think anyone is looking for a "savior." Buxton, Cruz have been absolutely raking....while Arraez has been very good. Donaldson and Simmons have both missed nearly half the games so far. Even with Polanco, Sano and Garver stumbling out of the gate the Twins are Top 6 in the MLB in all AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS.....which is pretty astounding after the double header shutout this week. They are 2-6 in 1 run games thus far and 0-4 in extras, neither which are sustainable. This team is better than it's 6-11 record. They have a run of beatable opponents in the next 16 games.