jmlease1

So I got to see this one from CF, which was nice, even if the bats were mostly silent and the weather didn't warm up until the 9th, but any day at Target Field is a good one even when the good guys lose. Really surprised to see an error given to Shoemaker on a pickoff; from my vantage point it looked like Sano closed the glove early and dropped it (which was a shame, because he had the guy nailed). But Shoemaker being fine through 4 and coughing it up in the 5th is not a good outing. He was very hittable today , even with the clean sheets in innings 2-4. Twins showed good patience at the plate, but once they got guys on base the heart of the order just couldn't get it done. Sano is going to get hammered (and looked slow on his swing) but Cruz was bad too and Refsnyder looked like he might be turning back into a pumpkin. Kirilloff was one of the only people who consistently looked good at the plate today when swinging the bat. The ducks were hilarious, especially seeing Jarrod Dyson's bemused reactions.

the goal for the Twins right now is just to win series and get healthy and see where they're at come the All-Star break. Scrappy win like this is a necessity. Larnach is off to a nice start; his track record in the minors always suggested he would be a plus offensive player and he's living up to it right now. It will be interesting to see how well he adjusts in response to changes from upcoming pitchers: now that teams are going to have some MLB tape on his, things could get a bit tougher for him. It's that readjustment that kinda shows what a guy will do. But this is why we took a pass on over-paying Rosario.

I just wonder if Jax will be able to get it done as a starter with only 2 pitches in MLB. When you can sit on the fastball and react to curve or vice versa, good hitters can really punish you. (see also, Buxton comma Byron) I'm a fan of his, but I wish he had one more pitch that he could effectively use to keep people off the slider and fastball. I'm ok with pitch counts on minor league pitchers in development, but 60 pitcher for Canterino is getting near the limit? Seems awfully low for the end of May, weather or no.

Interesting player. I think the real key for him is going to be when he makes the leap to AA and starts facing more advanced pitchers, but with the minor league season not happening at all last year it's going to probably take longer to shake out who are real breakout prospects and who isn't. Julien's approach at the plate is impressive and it'll be fun to watch him progress. Strike zone recognition is an important skill and if he can can keep that up while doing damage on pitches in the zone, we will find a spot in the lineup for him.

I was happy to see Pineda get out of that jam in the 3rd, because he was only in because the home plate umpire was squeezing the plate on him. (I appreciated LaTroy & Dick calling it out; frustrating when they pretend it's not happening). Not a strong game behind the plate from that guy, definitely inconsistent.

Joking around with Bremer about nightcrawlers and Bremer's fishing? When LaTroy tries yukking it up with Bremer about that stuff it usually feels forced, isn't terribly funny, and isn't as interesting as maybe he thinks it is. I'm not going to be one of those "stick to baseball" people, but you can tell when LaTroy is going for the laugh line and it's a distraction from his good analysis (especially about pitching). There's no doubt that LaTroy is a more natural presence on the mic than Morneau and that he's more animated. But the attempts at the laugh lines were one of the worst things about late-period Blyleven, and I'd hate for LaTRoy (who is talented) to go down that road with forced jokes. He's funny and personable without going for the forced line.

Sano has had a terrible March/April and a good May, but there's also some weird stuff in there to date. He's always been a player with pretty even splits, but this year he's gotten utterly destroyed by LHP, which has never been a problem before. Norm that out and his season looks a lot better. Contact levels and BA are low all over MLB, so in context Sano still looks frustrating to Twins fans but clearly there's plenty more where he came from. He's going to be a streaky hitter: it's who he is. But you can survive that. The contract the Twins signed with Sano is actually a smart one, because once he gets deep into his 30's and that bat speed slows down, he's almost certainly going to have longer cold streaks and shorter hot ones. But for now, he should be able to adjust and be a low-average, good on-base, great power performer who can play a solid 1B and cover you at 3B if needed. That's pretty good value. Yes, the K's can be maddening. But that's also part of the game right now. But he takes really good ABs, so it's not like he's flailing around. If they can find a way to keep him in a position to do damage on fastballs in the strike zone consistently...he's going to finish the year as an above-average 1B and an important power-producer in the Twins lineup. Will Kirilloff be ready to replace him? Sure, but as we've seen this year, you need depth. Trading Sano doesn't get you a lot in terms of MLB-ready talent; you're gonna get guys who are in A-ball with upside that will need time to develop. It makes no sense to me to trade Sano unless you think the team is a total disaster and needs a total tear-down, and I'm not convinced of that.

Hawkins is good when he's focused on the game. He's bad when he's trying to do a comedy act with Bremer. I think he's learned some of the wrong lessons from the Blyleven era. LaTroy has great knowledge and an excellent voice, but he's getting distracted too often by going into the stand-up routine. Colome has got to stop throwing the ball down the middle of the plate. When he's working the edges, he's fine, good even. Then he tosses a meatball down the middle and gets killed. Really surprised to see him such a mess; this is uncharacteristic for him and he's not really that old.

Yeah, I'm on the "rogers made a good pitch" train. Not super worried about him. The bigger issue in the bullpen is finding enough guys that can be counted on right now; not sure Waddell is a solution. Lot of walks in the bullpen right now, and a lot of guys looking very hittable. right now there's 3 relievers with the kind of WHIP that makes you comfortable seeing them come out of the bullpen: Rogers, Robles, and Alcala. Duffey is conceding too many BBs in relationship to his Ks. Stashak & Thielbar are getting the Ks, but the former is walking too many and the latter is giving up hits too easily. Colome is a complete mess right now. But it's also still very small samples for all of these guys: we're talking results over 8-11 innings. It wouldn't take much for any or all of them to get on a roll. Good to see Maeda get through it even while not sharp. I think he'll be fine, just needs to keep pitching through it. (Hopefully the warmer weather helps a little?)

Can't really blame Rocco for pulling Big Mike after 5 with him getting a knock on the arm. Too bad, he was really pitching well, with only 1 mistake to Santana. Otherwise he was really rolling and looked set to cruise through 7. Kirilloff showed exactly what we were hoping for from him; he didn't miss the first one by much, either! What, about 8 feet from three dingers? His approach at the plate is great, he's stinging the ball, nice to see him get the results. Amusing to see him try not to crack a smile after that first one, but you could tell he was excited by how fast he ran up on Cruz, lol. Congrats to Ben Rortvedt, a player I've always liked and have been rooting hard for. A little surprised to see him miss that foul pop-up, because he's so sound defensively, but I'm guessing a little unfamiliarity with the park got him. It'll be interesting to see if he can hit enough in MLB. I hope he can, because the defense will play and he's a nice platoon partner for Garver/Jeffers. He had a very nice first game: a walk, a hit, scored a run, knocked in a run and caught a very nice game behind the plate. Hope this is a sign of good things to come! Glad to see Alcala got through 2 innings to wrap this up; he's been a bit HR-happy so far, but otherwise everything else looks good with him and I wouldn'r mind seeing him get some higher leverage usage. but if this is how he's going to go, it's nice to see him take care of two innings easily and save the rest of the 'pen a bit.

It's a lot more fun around here after a win. I liked the Happ signing at the time, but didn't think he'd be this good. Glad to see at least one move that worked! (Simmons worked too) This team has been so incredibly frustrating so far. The talent is still there, but April has been such a mess of screwups and guys just flailing that you had to wonder. I still don't know why exactly the bullpen is such a mess, and until we start seeing consistent production from guys NOT named Buxton, Arraez, Donaldson, and Cruz we're just not gonna be there. But maybe, just maybe we're starting to see them get it together? Maybe some warmer weather, night games, and fans in the stands will start helping this crew get it together before the season implodes.

Nick Gordon has been snakebit. I'm really happy for him that's finally getting a chance, and I think he's a quality player when healthy. There's no doubt in my mind that he can hit well enough to be a viable MLB player. He just needs to stay healthy. The floor on him is a quality utility guy with the potential to be a quality starter. If he doesn't get hurt, I'm convinced we would have seen him in 2019; he was playing as well as Arraez at the time and Arraez seized the opportunity when Gordon went down. But I think Gordon would have been the pick if he'd been healthy. Good break for Arraez, tough beat for Gordon. Looking forward to seeing what he can do.

Alcala has been used for 2 innings a few times already in his young career, so maybe the 2-inning late relief idea is one that's going to be used a bunch? I'm not opposed to it, I think we have some guys with that capacity. Probably not a bad idea to test Colome's comfort/ability early in a low-leverage spot.

Nice win in the home opener. Seattle's a bad team, but you gotta beat up on those too. Still not wild about the bullpen useage; I just think you're wasting a roster spot by carrying 14 pitchers. But happy to see Alcala out there again. I'm a big fan of his and hope he gets consistent use and in some higher leverage situations. Berrios & Buxton. Love seeing those guys carry the team, just hope we can keep both of them for the next 5 years.

Still way too early to know if it was the wrong decision. If Baddoo finishes the season hitting .215 is it still the wrong decision? It's possible that even after that outcome it was the right choice for BOTH teams to have made the right decisions. None of this is made in a vacuum and it can't be assessed based simply off of how well Baddoo does or doesn't do. From the Twins perspective, you have to also consider it against the players they chose to keep. (The most likely candidates to get left off if you protect Baddoo are Celestino and Smeltzer it seems, and I'm absolutely convinced either would have been snapped up; Celestino in Rule 5 and Smeltzer on waivers.) Baddoo had a good chance of not getting drafted in Rule 5, but the Tigers took a flyer on him. Heck, depending on hos the season goes, it's still possible Baddoo ends up back with the Twins: Detroit has to carry him on the 26 man all season or offer him back to the Twins. Who knows what will happen by July? This is a case of the Rule 5 draft working the way it's supposed to be. A guy puts in the time in the minors but hasn't made it on an 40-man roster yet (blocked, injured, struggled, etc) and this draft gives him an opportunity to make a run with another club. It's a challenge with kids who come in at 16-17 and may not be developed enough to really know what you've got when they become eligible, but thems the breaks. Good luck to Baddoo. It will be interesting to see whether he or Celestino has a bigger impact in MLB, because now they're kinda linked.

Hard for me to say they gave up too early on Baddoo; it's just the 40-man is starting to fill up with better prospects and Baddoo missed last year, so the twins didn't have a lot more to go on. From the Tigers perspective this is a smart move: you're going nowhere, take a flyer on a player with some upside in the Rule 5 draft. You can afford to give him 300+ PA in MLB right now to see if you've got something and if it turns out he's not actually ready/able to play at this level (at least right now) you're out very little. He's a lottery ticket. From the Twins perspective not-protecting him was a reasonable risk: he didn't play in 2020 because of the pandemic, the most recent playing year for him wasn't great (injured and not terrible effective), and he's never taken an AB above high A. So there's a decent chance no one takes him, because the only teams that might are ones like the Tigers, who stink and aren't really trying to win this year. While there's more of those teams than there really should be...there's still not that many. I can't blame them for picking Celestino over Baddoo to protect, and that's really where I think it came down to. Celestino is the better fielder and could step in and credibly man CF defensively for the Twins right now if Buxton goes down for a lengthy period. Baddoo probably had the more advanced hit tool and definitely better power projection, but at the time it was unclear which one might end up the better hitter, especially after baddoo's injury-filled season. there's no doubt in my mind that celestino gets taken if left unprotected: it's easier to stash a defensive specialist on a roster for a year. Even a more competitive team might take a flyer on that, especially with a 26-man roster. There's more room to work. Baddoo is making the most of his opportunity so far. good for him. He's not going to hit anywhere near this all year, of course, so check back after he's got 100 ABs or so.

solid start for what should be a good team. Can't say I love having 9 #@$^%#^%@#$# pitchers in the bullpen, though. It's just a waste. Hard to complain too much about a team that's only lost in extra innings so far.

I hate the 8-man bullpen. Even in this day and age where starters get pulled in the 5th or 6th inning, you still end up with a guy in the 'pen who pitches once a week at best in the 8-man bullpen. Thank goodness they expanded the rosters to 26 so you can actually still have a 4-man bench. Nice to start off a Detroit series with a dominant win and nice to see Polanco get off the schnide.

Nice sunday win. It feels weird to say it, but I really hope Buxton had the trots. That's unpleasant and kinda gross, but literally passes quickly. And having had one before I wouldn't wish a migraine on anyone ever. Nice to see a few guys who had been scrabbling a bit to start the season get it going a little, and I loved what I saw out of Alcala. Him being able to lock the Brew Crew down like that was lovely and keeps the bullpen in good shape for monday. Arraez is just a hitter. he'll do great hitting leadoff and made a couple of nice plays in the field at 3B today. funny to hear Bremer & Morneau talk about the MKE radar gun being fast. Sure seemed that way to me too.

Well, it was 84 pitches, not 80 (and as noted elsewhere, it wasn't a perfect game since he drilled Wong), but I'm guessing that doesn't matter to you. What if he had been at 90? or 95? It's his first start of the year. But the true silliness is the idea that this will have any impact on whether Berrios will sign an extension with the Twins or walk when he hits free agency. do you really think this is going to eat at him? "Those bastards, I could have had a no-hitter but they made a priority of my long term health and career!" I think if it's May or later and he's got some starts under him he goes out for the 7th for sure. But they're not going to risk the season for one night in april, and that's fine. That's just the way baseball is played now, and I'm sorry if you're holding on so tight to a notion of "old school" baseball that it's ruining your enjoyment of the game, but the old ways aren't always best.

Because at that point the Twins were going to have to pitch minimum 2 innings to get the win. He drops Dobnak in there to pitch both the 10th and hopefully the 11th. since they knew it was 2 innings to win, he picked a guy he knew could go 2 innings easily. Weird game in watching the D fail like that because two of the bigger eff ups were from guys who are superior defenders (Simmons & Kepler, even though Kepler's was ruled a "double", that's a play he should have made and Morneau said so at the time). Hate to see them kick away a win like that, but good to see the bats look solid against a very good pitcher. Except for Garver.

You're only including one significant asset (Sano, who is coming off a down year) in that package and hoping to either improve 1B (which is the position you're including as the primary asset) or pitching (which everyone needs/wants). Smeltzer's value is unfortunately low. The twins see him as somewhere between 7th-10th as a starter for this year and he's got nothing in his most recent track record to really sell him as a prospect. Would someone take him? Sure, but it'd be to buy low and hope they can unlock something. Rooker has a valuable skill (big power) but the same holes that kept him from beating out Garlick reduce his value significantly in trade. You simply can't expect to upgrade the team without giving up real assets. I'm quite certain the twins FO would package those guys together to upgrade like you've outlined, but I'm also quite certain their not calling around on it because unless you find someone who is deeply in love with Sano's power they're gonna laugh you out of the room or throw scraps back. And trying to dump salary in a sano trade is simply not gonna happen: look at the rotten yield Colorado got for Arenado, a far superior player. Teams aren't taking on salary unless you're the Mets, Dodgers, or Yankees right now.

Rooker's problem is that outside of the huge power, he's got limitations in a number of other areas: poor defense, low contact rates, struggles with pitch recognition, etc. He did everything we could have asked him in his call-up last year, but it was a really small sample. He struggled in ST this year and it looked like his problems with breaking pitches was starting to really bite him. Garlick outplayed him this spring, so it looks like the Twins decided Garlick was a better platoon partner right now for Cave. I do think it's important to realize that Kirilloff wasn't really competing with Garlick: Kirilloff was competing with Cave for the starting spot and they were never going to run Kirilloff out as the backup there. They wanted a RH OF bat to back up the corner spots, which makes a lot of sense. I don't think anyone owes any apologies for moving on from Rosario; it's 100% true they would have had to pay him $10M to keep him and that's an overpay. How do we know? when offered the chance to have him at that price, every other team in the league passed, not once but twice. And then pride gets in the way, which is why Eddie has taken his talents to Cleveland on a contract the Twins probably would have paid.

I probably would have kept Rooker over Garlick, but we'll see how it goes. I like Rooker, but I'm not blind to the fact that he can really struggle against breaking stuff and MLB pitching is going to figure that out quickly. But Garlick seems to be just another guy to me, whereas Rooker does have an elite skill in terms of his power. But it's a move that can be fixed easily if it goes sideways, so not a huge deal and maybe the team sees something I'm not (other than the spring training performance) Astudillo is a really fun player. But he really doesn't have a defensive position; there's about 6 spots you can put him, but he's bad defensively at all of them. But as a 26th man...maybe you can accept that? I do think he's got real value as a pinch hitter in that he's a guy you can count on to put a ball in play. That can be very useful. But he hasn't shown that he can hit consistently in MLB, and needs to show that he can take some pitches. Is it better to have him on the bench or Rooker/Blankenhorn/*insert random SS who can't hit here*? I'll be honest: I'm just happy they didn't carry 14 %$@&%*#%$& pitchers...

what a shame about Mike Bell. That's just horrible and tragic. Seems appropriate that they played the game, though, considering what a baseball family he was part of and the baseball lifer he was. Gotta say, that news makes it a little harder to give a crap whether JA Happ is ready/not ready, washed up/doing veteran pitching things, or any of it. RIP, Mike Bell.