jmlease1

I'm a big fan of Alcala, but he's a guy who is still learning how to pitch (not unusual, really). He's got a great fastball and the slider plays very nicely too but he's still learning how to set up hitters to get the K. He's got the stuff to get it done and I think he has the mentality as well. If he can develop the change as the off-speed offering to throw at lefties to play off his excellent fastball, then I think he'll be a terrific weapon in the late innings.

All I want for Cavaco this season is for him to just play a lot. If we get these kinds of flashes, then great, but I just want him playing every damn day. Nice outing by Sands. He's an interesting prospect, should be fun to evaluate him later this summer to see where he's progressing. Miranda seems to have unlocked something. Team officials have been high on him for a while, so this is nice to see.

I still think Donaldson will net positive by the end of the year, assuming he plays enough, but seeing him make defensive mistakes is surprising. The OF defense has been disgusting. Injuries are responsible for a lot of it (Buxton makes everyone look better, and a healthy Kepler is more than reliable) but holy cow. And it seems like any time they've asked someone to step in they immediately make a bad botch (Blankenhorn, Celestino, et al) and so many of their errors have been impactful. Are any of the pitchers fielding their position well? Polanco has been pretty good at 2B, that move made sense and works. But this team should be quality on D and they've been trash. It's been a huge part of why this is such a disappointing team.

Gleeman has reported a couple of times that Miranda is the prospect name that always comes up when he asks for a guy in the minors that people should get to know. Twins staff has been high on him for a while. Real possibility that his tools have come together in a way that applies on the field. Still early, but he's setting himself up to rise (eventual 3B replacement for Donaldson?). If he's able to control the strike zone and do damage on balls in the zone while limiting Ks like this, he'll be a nice prospect. Curious about his D.

Why? Broxton has been bad in Saint Paul to date, has little to no future at 31, and simply can't hit. Celestino probably isn't ready to face MLB pitching, but he's a legit prospect with a good upside. Broxton isn't going to help the Twins out of this funk or save the season, so they're better off giving ABs to real prospects than guys who aren't good and aren't on the 40-man. celestino (despite his rough start) is a quality defensive player. let's see what he's got.

It's one thing to endure a season where the team stinks. We've been through that before. But usually that comes in a year where you looked at the team at the start of the season and needed rose-colored glasses to see them as competitors. Usually, you've known when they weren't likely to be any good. This team should have been good. The moves made sense. They didn't have a lot of holes. They appeared to have depth. They had a track record of success. They had a cadre of young, rising players. And yet, they stink. The starting pitching is a mess, the bullpen is incredibly unreliable, the lineup can't score late, the injuries are lengthy, and basically every bad thing that can possibly happen seems to be happening. I really thought this team was going to be a contender, and they're trash. And that's what's really hard to watch.

Great to see Balazovic hit the field. Sucks to see Canterino head to the IL. Cabezas is off to a nice start in A+; normally I would think 24 is a little old for the level, but this is an odd year with no minor league ball last year. Like to see the K-rate come up a bit more, but the H/9 is certainly good enough and his control looks solid. Be interesting to see if he becomes an emerging prospect this season

It says something about this team that right now I see them give up a hit in the 9th and I'm immediately convinced they're gonna blow the lead. Not a lot of confidence in the bullpen these days...which I thought for sure was going to be solid going into the year. Hope the dinger from Sano is the start of another hot run for him.

I'd extend him if you can get a reasonable deal. It's all well and good to say "trade him and re-sign him in the off-season" but that doesn't always work. (Escobar, anyone?) Consistent starting pitching is hard to find and it's good to have some veterans in the mix as you develop your young players. Pineda has been good for the Twins. the complicated thing on giving up on this season and making deals is are you rebuilding or reloading when you do it. The Twins have a bunch of young talent on the cusp of the majors (Kirilloff, Larnach, Duran, Jeffers, etc), which makes a full-on tear down more difficult. Most of the prospects the Twins will get back in any deal, even a good deal, are going to be at A-ball. that's just a reality. Are you better off trying to do a reset on a year where the team is let down by the bullpen and decimated by injuries or throw the early, cheap years of some of those young guys out the window by ensuring the team isn't a contender in 2022 and likely not in 2023 either? Pineda is the perfect example of where this is a challenge: he's a veteran, but he's not old (i.e., Happ). he's got value, but as a pending FA the return is a more limited because he's a rental with no guarantees. If you don't think he's part of the future, if you don't think he's needed as a bridge for guys like Duran, Canterino, et al, and you think you can get real talent for him...trading makes sense. I would go the other way.

I still think Buxton is back and gets plenty of CF time, but Celestino will get a good look now that he's up. I doubt we see Broxton, Whitehead, or even Kerrigan. Frankly, I think there's more likelihood of seeing Nick Gordon in CF than any of these guys who are not on the 40-man right now. Celestino can defend out there and do it well; the question is whether his bat can stand up to quality pitching or if he's just an auto-out who can defend right now. But I feel good about his future. I still think the Twins stick with Buxton, but Celestino will definitely be a serious contender for the OF next season as his defense plays off the bench even if his bat doesn't develop as fast as we'd hope. Not seeing Royce Lewis get converted to OF yet, especially not coming off a significant injury. Seems foolish to ask someone to learn another position while trying to comeback from injury and not playing in real competition in 2 years.

25% of the Top 20 are on the injured list. yuck.

Great month for Miranda, who is setting himself up to potentially replace Donaldson in the future. I especially like seeing the BB/K numbers he put up; if he can keep from being a K machine while doing damage on pitches in the zone he's going to be a heck of hitter. he's been one of those players I was really worried missing a year was going to harm, but so far he's rising to the challenge. good for him! AA can be where guys really separate themselves as players and he's off to a very nice start. I'm curious about Whitefield; the D must be there if he can compete for Celestino for time in CF and even get an emergency call-up to MLB, but those K's make me nervous. he had a solid month at the plate but that's a LOT of whiffs.

Because they'll still be on the hook for another $18M+ over this year and next (including the buy-out for 2023) and get absolutely nothing for it? Sano is playing poorly again at the plate, but it's not like he's blocking anyone from getting ABs they need with all the other injuries. You have to try to get what you can out of him. hells bells, even going badly he still takes some walks.

I'd have Duffey in above Alcala. Duffey had rotten control in April and followed it up by being too hittable in May. Alcala is still giving up too many dingers and hasn't become the dominant, shut-down righty we've been hoping for (yet), but he hasn't been bad and at least he's still only 25. Duffey has regressed badly and looks like just another guy out there.

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.