Thrylos

He has one option left. Regardless the Twins should go with the pitchers who give them the higher probability to win.

A couple of May videos regarding his performance at Rochester last night:

Former Diamondbacks' and Cubs' C, lefty Miguel Montero was DFA'd by the Nationals and is a free agent. Well worth it upgrade over Bobby don't call me Brian Wilson. Brings in not only post-season experience (and a ring) that is sorely missing by this team, but a left hand bat as well. And the price in prospects is right.

Unless Santana and/or May prove that they are better than another pitcher currently in the rotation, they should be in the pen and/or AAA for rehab (Santana) or option (May). Lynn is the weakest link right now, followed by Odorizzi.

Nobody accused Zulgad to knowing anything about baseball and Mackey has dislearned what he knew...

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- In a cold May evening about 5 years go, give or take a week, I witnessed one of the most dominating pitching performances I have seen in person: Twins' first round draft pick in 2009, righty Kyle Gibson, about a year removed from his return from Tommy John surgery, shut down the Lehigh Valley IronPigs with a three-hitter, carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning. This was when the Twins were on their way to another season flirting with 100 losses and were conflicting reports regarding Gibson's pitching, so I really wanted to see what Gibson could do. In person. Here is how I described his performance 5 years ago: I was very lucky to be there because this was a magnificent pitching performance by Gibson. I came in with an open mind and nothing to expect and I left a strong believer in that Gibson is the best starting pitcher the Twins have today. A bit about his performance, and I am not going to get into things like numbers, which you can read elsewhere: He had four pitches that he threw when he wanted with a great command. His fastball was his primary pitch and was sitting from 92-94 all night long. It spiked to 95 a few times and went to 91 a couple. It was at 94 in the 9th inning as well. in the first 5 innings he mostly threw his fastball and his slider, which ran from 84 to 86 and really kept the IronPigs' hitters off balance, causing a lot of swings and misses. Have to mention that Gibson had impeccable command of the fastball: he would locate it up and down and inside and out. And throw it at the dirt when he wanted to. In the latest innings he started throwing more his change up that was running from 81-83 mph with a good late motion; also he featured a tight slow curve (78-80 mph) that I did not realize he had. He threw that pitch a few times late in the game. He was totally on top of his game today. In addition to what he did on the field, a thing that really impressed me was his composure in the dugout, knowing that he was having a no-hitter: he was sitting there cheering his teammates and clapping when they were batting, instead of being "in his own world" and apathetic about the game. This was a dominating performance that, I think that won him his first trip to the majors. Frankly, I thought that I will witness history and it was that close... After the game ended, Gibson was interviewed in the dugout after the game, and when that was done, I yelled something like "Great game! See you in Minnesota soon, Kyle!" towards him, and he smiled and dismissed the Minnesota part with a hand gesture. My answer was a "We'll see!". LENIII penned this about that game the next day: Class AAA Rochester righthander Kyle Gibson had his best outing of the year on Sunday, taking a no hitter into the eighth inning before finishing with a three-hit complete game shutout as the Red Wings beat Lehigh Valley 11-0. Gibson needed just 93 pitches for his gem – 58 were strikes, 35 were balls. He walked two and struck out eight as his record Improved to 3-5 with a 3.25 ERA In retrospect nobody noticed the fact that Gibby threw only 62% of his pitches for strikes or noted that it might have been something undesirable, because you cannot argue with the results. Fast forward a bit over a month. June 29th. I was happened to be in the East suburbs of St. Paul that week for work. A friend of mine who is a season ticket holder treated me to one of his tickets at the Delta sky360 club, so I got to witness, Gibson's first major league start. In that game, he beat the Royals (who were actually starting Wade Davis) in a six inning, 8 hit, 5 strikeout, 2 run performance. He threw 91 pitches and 64 for strikes (70%). The next several years have been up and down for Gibson, until his 3 game demotion to Rochester last season. He came back and pitched 11 games, of which the Twins won 9, striking out 8.4 per 9 innings, and walking about 2.1 per nine, while throwing only 63% of his pitches for strikes. And nobody thought that this was a bad thing. In 8 games that season, of which the Twins have won 5, he has been striking out 10.1 per nine, walking 4.4 per nine, and throwing 59% of his pitches for strikes (which only some Twins' TV broadcasters think its a bad thing, based on the comments in his Angel's start.) What happened to that Kyle Gibson of five years ago in my back yard, and what happened for him to slowly appear to be back? My hypothesis is that Kyle Gibson got Ricked and Neiled out of shape, being forced to be a pitcher he is not. Both Rick Anderson and Neil Allen, his previous pitching coaches have been stressing "pounding the strike zone" and inducing soft contact either with the sinker or the changeup. And this approach had been a top to bottom approach in the organization, in the previous Twins' front office. Change happened and it is a good thing. The new pitching approach throughout the organization is try to get ahead of the count and then let them chance, either outside, or inside or high. And this has been working for Kyle Gibson who went back to his roots. In Saturday's game against the Angels, he even brought back his rarely thrown and ever rarer for strikes curveball when he faces certain batters the second time. That description up there of his performance with Rochester, against Lehigh Valley five years ago, would be pretty close to what he did against the Angels, save a hit or few... Gibson has been pitching to his strengths and it took an organizational overhaul to allow him (and the rest of the Twins' pitchers) to do that. Other than Fernando Romero who pitched only two games and will be the Twins' future ace, Gibson leads the Twins' starters in ERA, FIP, K% and K/9, fWAR, and is second only to Berrios in innings pitched per start. It seems that Gibson is finally the pitcher we all thought that he will be five years ago. Better late than never, and I hope that it is here to stay. And a parting food for thought about those who might be bothered by the strike percentage and Gibson's walks: This season Gibson's K/9 and BB/9 numbers are up there. The pitcher who struck out the most batters in baseball, has a career 9.5 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9, both worse than Gibson's numbers this season. Not that Gibson is close to Nolan Ryan; however strikeout pitchers walk hitters as well, and hitters strike out often on balls and hit strikes. It is ok. Results are what matters.

Good stuff, but there are some issues here: There seems to be a misconception that control and throwing strikes is a good thing. However, command (the ability to put the pitch where you want to, including in the dirt or running inside) is really what is important. There are 3 things that make Romero's sinker a plus plus pitch: - The fact that he hides it really well in his delivery and hitters cannot see it until it is too late (this is true for all his pitches) - It is a really "heavy" sinker. These day's "heavy" can be explained by spin rate - and in a sinker it is downwards. Multiply that spin rate with that velocity, and if one does not barrel it and hits it with a thinner part of the bat, that bat is a goner. - That movement. And it is not a bad thing. It is a great thing. Mariano Rivera made a Hall of Fame career throwing a single pitch with a lot of movement that seemingly neither he nor the batters had an idea where it was going to go. But he could command his cutter like Romero can command his sinker. About that slider: I suspect that some of those "two-seamers" in the statcast graph were actually sliders. In the St. Louis game I saw at least a couple at 91 mph and one at 92. If his average according to statcast is 87, it does not count those. So it might be a data issue. Re: the 10+ mph diff between the fastball and change up: It is really not necessary for a RHP. And there is no need to go far, Odorizzi's change is closer to his fastball velocity than Romero's, for example. What is really cool about Romero's change is the movement. It looks like a screwball, and has the same effect. Tails in to right handers and out to lefties, opposite to a slider. Not sure about the grip of his change. If he was taught by Rodney as allegedly is the story, it should be a circle change. Movement is the key for Romero's success. And no hitters can compensate for unexpected movement If in the future he develops a slower pitch like a curve ball or a palm ball, it might help it might not. Odorizzi is using his curve as a change up, effectively...

Dozier needs to eat some pine right now. Petit has been swinging a hotter bat and the Twins should go with him. Any other player with a .134/.194/.224 slash line, -0.560 WPA, -8.81 RE24 since the beginning of the Yankees' series would had. He is hurting the Twins right now and Molitor should quit playing favorites

Re: Rooker: This season so far has been a learning season for him. Here is a split that describes the best his season: .379/.486/.483 6 BB 7 K (35 PA) when ahead on the count .108/.108/.135 0 BB 17 K (37 PA) when behind He chases garbage that pitchers are throwing once they get ahead. This is AA. Hugh jump from A+. So he either needs to let it go and not chase junk (strike 3 looking is the same as strike 3 swinging) or start swinging early in the count. Just a hiccup. Not concerned at all. He will be fine in another month or so.

Yes this sucks...

Here is what I am hearing: - He has been playing in EST games for a while now (fact) - He looks good (fact.) - The Twins do not want him and Lewis in the same team (hypothesis) - So they are waiting to promote Lewis to Fort Myers before Javier moves to Cedar Rapids (hypothesis)

Why? In his three year contract with the Twins, he missed half a season with his suspension and another half with his injury. We have no idea how he will be when he comes back and he is not getting any younger or better. I'd rather see other options (Gonsalves, Littel) for the back of the rotation in case of injury...

What's gotten into Gibson: a. He is thinking less, letting it go more and has more confidence. b. He is not afraid to throw balls. Like the rest of the Twins' pitchers this season. This has been the biggest transformation of the staff: Instead of "pounding the striking zone all the time" and inducing ground balls with either sinkers (Andy) or change ups (Allen), get ahead and then make them chase out the zone.

Not Santana. I just cannot see them picking that option up. So those 3, Pineda, Berrios and Romero will likely be the conversation for the Twins' rotation in 2019

Bet he will make better $ paid by the Air Force instead of getting paid by the Twins... Good news. Let's see how it goes.

.300/.337/.500: what Matt Kemp is hitting for the Dodgers. Wonder whether there might be an interest for a swap there. Hughes contract is slightly better and for the same length. Frankly, the one thing that the Twins should try to do is swap him for another bad contract hoping that the other guy would catch lightning in a bottle.

He is fine at 2B. Just has not played it much because the Twins do not rest Dozier that often. Not out of the realm of possibility that he will be the starting second baseman for the Twins in 2019...

Nah. Zander Wiel should, if you go by AA numbers

Anyone has an idea why Jake Cave is having a 40-man spot?

\ Because the starting shortstop is hitting .303/.351/.561 with a .381 wOBA and a 139 wRC+ and the starting second baseman .264/.340/.448 with a .347 wOBA and a 116 wRC+ in the majors. Unless you want him to play in a corner OF position, right now they are better players than him occupying the positions he can play. That's why.

A couple things here: - Unfortunately the sweep by the Yankees made a lot of Twins' fans to forget the sweep by the Rays, a bottom feeding team that allegedly "tanked" this season. Say whatever you want about the Yankees, but being swept by the Rays is inexcusable. - I'd disagree about the assessment that the current pitching stuff is the best the Twins can do. In addition to May and Romero in the farm (and I am not even counting Santana) who will likely be improvement over Lynn and Hughes in the rotation, pushing those 2 in the pen, the Twins can go out there and trade. That is an option. If we are saying that the Curtisses and Slegerses and Jays cannot be trusted to contribute in 2018, they should be trade bait and go before they get lost to waivers or Rule 5. - If I were the Twins right now, I'd keep a close eye on Kohl Stewart (forget his ERA) and potentially see what he can do in the pen.

2 out of 3 are doing ok. Jay is back from groin issues. Reed is out likely for a while with shoulder impingement syndrome... Matt Magill is doing better and likely the next reliever up

Here is a fact that you might find interesting. The Twins are in the middle of a seven game losing streak. Only 3 teams ever had a longer losing streak during a season (1953 Yankees with 9, 1990 Reds & 2006 Cardinals with 8) and ended up winning a World Series. Over reacting? Nah. Postseason contenders, such as we think the Twins should be, just do not have such losing streaks.

I think that this streak should be a good reminder for the next time the league asks the Twins to play two home games in Puerto Rico or another place. With that trip plus the weather cancellations these guys have been playing like they are on a vacation, Spring Training or something. Someone needs to send a message and Molitor is not the guy to do it, because he is not willing to sit his boys or change their roles...

Here is the formula for xFIP: As you can see it relies heavily on HR/FB%. Maybe you did not know that... So if someone has a 40 HR/FB%, xFIP is not a good criterion to predict future performance. Matter of fact, xFIP does not account for any of the 3 things I mentioned.... Maybe you did not know that either.