h2oface

Sano. Who replaces Maeda will not be getting his roster spot, but somebody elses 26 man spot. From MLB Rumors - Aug. 23: As expected, the Twins placed Maeda on the 10-day injured list due to right forearm tightness. The placement is retroactive to August 22. Miguel Sano was reinstated from the paternity list and will take Maeda’s spot on the active roster.

I can't remember the exact number, but the FO had the 40 man down to 33 or 34 at one point around the rule 5, I think. Several spots, more than 3 for sure, and I could be wrong, but at one point, as they were dropping players off the roster and preparing for the rule 5, I think it there were 7 spots open. Then they starting signing junk pitchers, most that have long since been gone, or still suck in AAA (like Ian Gibaut (7.38 ERA in 26 games with St Paul) from the Rangers and left-hander Brandon Waddell from the Pirates -just two of the many.) Right there are your spots for Baddoo and Wade. The spots were there. More than enough. The FO just blew it for junk pitching.

Joe Ryan is 25. tic toc. Time to get him in the show. Immediately if not sooner. Jose Miranda. St. Paul is in the play-off hunt? Really? So, I hear over and over and over from the writers and so called experts how what happens in the Minors when it comes to a winning team doesn't matter. It is not about a team winning, it is about process and development. But all the sudden, it isn't, toward the end of the season? Right. Time to see if he can do the same thing he has done at AA and at AAA without a lull. Immediately if not sooner. Moran? I guess. Just about everytime I look at the boxes lately and he has been pitching he is giving it up and not looking so great, but I have not really been following his whole season. So sure, let's see him. He is already 24 and a lefty. I would rather see him than the Vincent's! (just checked out game logs... last 4 games.... gave up runs in 3 of them, 5 earned total, in 7.1 innings, 6 hits, 2 homers, 6 walks, 10Ks, 2 blown saves) Martin? Unless he is moved to AAA, he cannot be brought up this season anyway. Teams can only move players up from AAA this year (or the Taxi-squads, but I don't know if they are still doing the Taxi Squads now)

Right. That's what we need. Mr "circle of awareness", Cheatin' A.J. Hinch. Good plan.

Standing: 5th Place in AL Central (18.0 GB) 5th place sounds and reads so much gentler that LAST PLACE! Back in the Cellar again! I feel so dirty.

Not being able to get on top of the high heat wasn't that extraordinarily bad. I can't believe you are likening Polanco to Donaldson at this moment in time. One guy is Mr. Walk-off, and actually tried to hit the high fastball and put it in play....... and the other has been Mr. Watch-it, and was, in my opinion, certainly more egregious, if either was, for not protecting the plate and zone with two strikes and the bases loaded - looking at the close strike, watching the change up without at least an attempt at tipping it foul with a protective late flip of the wrists. And Polanco's 8th inning homer meant he has no quit in him. I don't find that meaningless. I don't ever find MLB home runs "meaningless". Some are way more important and clutch, but a homer is always a good and meaningful at bat. Yes. Polanco gets a well deserved pass on this sequence, and Donaldson does not. Exactly.

Gerrit. Gerrit Cole. It's an unusual spelling. I need to rabbit hole that name. I would go with Garrett as the most familiar. This made me curious as to its roots.

I was really hoping JD would get to Cole. Too bad.

Yup. Postponed already. Like a snow day in Virginia, when they close the schools for the next day from the weather forcast (but many times, it is a nice day). But Hurricanes and floods.... nothing to mess with. Good call. They had to shut down the big Central Park Reopening Concert early today, too!

That's because they never have anybody (only Berrios has made it in the last 5 years, and they just traded him away) that is ready that comes from their system. Talk all you want about the prospects. That is the fact. Bring Ryan up before he becomes part of this system, and see what he's got, at 25, before the Twins can mess with him.

Truth is very often hard to take, and excuses will always be made.

Garcia fits right in. 3 inherited runners with one out. That's a tough spot, for sure, but the visitor here did the worst job. All three runners scored. Maeda lost it, sure, but it looks like maybe for the next season as well..... forearm tightness is TJs child. That was the last we will see of Kenta for the season, and my bet is most of next, if not all. Donaldson has lost his thirst for the big hit. Walks are a part of his game, but to have two strikes on you (and not just today with the bases loaded in the 5th), time after time, he will take that close pitch instead of protecting the plate and fouling it off or putting it into play. With the bases loaded, you cannot hunt the walk, especially with the count 1-2. The team needs you to at least protect the plate and not just watch it (and he watched 2 in a row for 2 called strikes). And they were both even strikes. He looked foolish whining . I hate watching Luke Voit. Team after team. Players after players. This Yankee thing for the Twins is downright sickening. I hope the game doesn't get rained out tomorrow, and Gil shoves it down the FO's throat and shuts us out, and Cave starts and wears the golden sombero. A showcase of their choices. They deserve it.

I watched those Olympic games Ryan pitched live.... they started at 3am in California. They should just bring the guy up and let him rip. He was classic cool. And when he got the plate umpire to fist bump him between innings..... some kind of kool.

Watch the next two days get rained out, and the whole pitching fiasco wasn't even necessary. No need to give Maeda extra rest and then match him up with Cole. Why not give us a better chance to win and match him up with a different pitcher? If you are going to give games away, Baldelli, you may as well give away one you would probable lose even with your best lineup and starting pitcher (that the team has left, anyway).

Using heart is a bit cliche, and I am guilty, as the heart never thinks, feels, or believes. But that is what is common practice to use in situations like this. Desire and heart. The will to be. The fire in the heart. It certainly helps that body parts can do what the brain tells them to do, that is for sure. Pain is a mother.

All those predictive group think stats to site his failures, and how he is finished........ and it is his heart that wins out. Imagine that. The intangible is still the most important thing.

I am the last guy that wants to run a team like a fantasy/video game. I hate both and participate in neither. But many on this site do like to think that way, I agree. One season signings already know that they are there for one season. Not news. I read MLBTradeRumors daily, and the Twins are not even close to some of the teams and the moves being made. All teams are quick to pull the trigger in those cases, and should, I think. I never liked Colome, and never liked the signing, and if it wasn't for him blowing so many games for the whole first half of the seaon, Berrios and Cruz would still be on the team. Those are the guys that the FO played fantasy/video games with. Our long term guys. The last nine outings for Colome before this doesn't make up for the whole half season, so saying "1 bad outing" is ignoring the total of his sad contribution to this team. As for these guys are human - I agree, and feel for all the teammates that had to suffer through Colome blowing game after game after game this year. 25 of them to one of Colome. Polanco could easily move to short for the last 6 weeks, and we could have Miranda and his two hits a game on the team taking third and Arraez second, and it would make the team better for the coming season. Plus, Gordon should get some time there in the last 6 weeks. The FO already totally gave up on the season, so no need to not see what we have, and I don't mean the AAAA filler, but prospects running out of time and options. I know many like Pineda, but I don't see a PED convicted out of shape vet that takes forever to throw the next pitch as an inspiration and mentor to younger pitchers. And he is probably out for the rest of the season anyway. I hope the FO learned to go for a better pitching staff than they went for this off season. I seriously doubt that other players would feel that the Twins are too quick to cut the chord. They all saw how long they kept giving Shoemaker and Happ opportunities - way longer than they deserved. The fans deserve better than inning's eaters. They deserve upgrades, from the farm, and from free agency and trades. Not lateral moves, but upgrades. Pineda will not be signed by a contender, but by a team that doesn't expect to win. You watch. If the Twins resign him, that is not a good direction.

Some can't help but to fansplain. I agree with you. You said something simple, and the rest was projection. Colome spiked like 3 in a row, with each one getting worse. This new sitting down on the job that our catchers (and others) are doing is not helping. I called the WP on the game thread. I knew it was coming. It was Colome pitching.

Thorpe can play ball in Australia. He will be home, and near parents and family. Past history shows that is what he needs. I never saw the "stuff" that others keep talking about, and certainly never in a MLB game. They have held roster spots for him while letting guys not Baddoo, Ynoa, Anderson, Littell, and others go. Time is up. He can't even throw in the 90s now. Time is up. Colome, Simmons, and Pineda? Time to move on. This team does not need rental place holders. All will be free agents. Best of luck to them. Time to move on.

No. And neither can Tyler Duffey. He was a lot better when he weighed about 30 pounds less.

Captain Jax will get you high tonight And take you to your special island Captain Jax will get you by tonight Just a little push, and you'll be smilin'

Best way to score is to ignore Tony 'Rally Killer' Diaz, and head for home.

Middle or back of rotation. Serviceable strike-thrower. Add innings eater. Crafty. Etc. Etc. I get all that. And those terms always make me cringe. Especially if it is what one choses to fill their rotation with instead of young pitchers from the farm that could be so much better with time instead of just the same consistent innings eater, a term that one in baseball uses when they can't come up with anything better to say and want to be nice. I just want the Twins to shoot higher than to consistantly be all that. And I don't believe that inspiration comes from out of shape vets with a record that includes PED suspension.

I hope that is the last time Pineda takes the mound as a Twin. I don't wish him ill will, I just am tired of watching him pitch - the pace, the hat adjustments, and the homers. I am sure he will find another home, but probably not on a contender, and if we are a contender, it shouldn't be here, either. We have to look for better to be better. Pineda is filler, and always has been filler, in my book. And I am really tired of Thorpe and his lost velocity. I want to see Joe Ryan. I have seen Thorpe way too much already. Why is it that we always take all this time with the minor league pitchers that don't even have high ceilings? Over and over they are the next up it seems. Guys like Canterino will never be able to field a hit ball they way he finishes. Why can't pitchers end their wind up like Jim Kaat and Greg Maddux did?

"His <Rooker> power is not in doubt, but a .252 on-base percentage ain't gonna cut it, especially when you factor in the total absence of defensive value." I do give him credit for that incredible diving catch on Saturday. I guess one can't really say total absence of defensive value.