Danchat

More innings like this, please! Thanks Jose.

Chief called it in the game thread in the 9th:

I totally agree. Sano's numbers look great and he's mashing a lot of the time. But when a guy like Adams or a reliever with some strikeout ability gets up there, it seems like Sano has no chance. He struck out twice in that AB (I think he went with the check-swing on the wild pitch) and I wish he could shorten up his swing when he's down in the count 0-2 / 1-2.

I'm not even sure what to think about AAA stats anymore. With the offensive spike, most hitters are crushing the ball and the average ERA is around 5.00, so it's harder to see how guys are going to transition to the majors. But you have to be pretty confident in your backups in case any position player gets hurt. You've got Arraez, Astudillo, Cave, and possibly even Gordon and Wiel in the wings - that's some solid depth!

Boy, Trevor has the potential to be a good reliever, he's just gotta figure out how to reign in his command. But I liked that they used him over Parker there, but I wonder what's up with Taylor... or Baldelli felt like playing with fire and giving May some high leverage experience. The bullpen has been shaky but the starting pitching recently has caused collateral damage. Getting some more innings from the starters would strengthen the bullpen.

Well done, Dick. I don't think I've ever seen anyone call a wild pitch before.

Who had Castro in 3rd place in the All-Star voting at this point? Anyone? You would have been laughed off the site if you claimed that! I don't know what happened to Castro, but I guess he's having a career year a season after having pretty major knee surgery. Who woulda guessed?

Well, it appears the Wes Johnson pixie dust has run out for Perez. He looks like the same guy back when he was in Texas...

At this point it’s way too early to evaluate the Falvine drafts. We have a ways to go before we know if they are good drafters / international prospect finders.

I'm intrigued in Smith, Watson, and Giles. I don't care as much about the extra years of control, as I'm thinking win-out, worry about 2020 and on later. I could see getting Giles in for a sizable haul of prospects and Watson for cheaper. What's trickier is the starter market... the options there aren't as clear-cut to me.

I'd like to see if Cave could continue his hot hitting in the majors, but I suppose there isn't a ton of room for him. He could join the carousel of HR hitting. I'm intrigued by Littell's move to the bullpen. We really do need to try throwing bodies at the bullpen and see if anything sticks. Our two best relievers at the moment (Rogers & May) were starters before having trouble at AAA and converted to relievers.

The word Tortuga is female - it doesn't matter what the gender of the person/animal is; in Spanish, words have genders. I never quite understood why, as I flunked out of Spanish class back in High School, but that's just how that language works.

With the breakdown of how things will work in Strat-O-Land, let's simulate another game. This is based off Friday's bout with the Tigers. Box Score Summary The Twins first inning saw singles from Garver, Cruz, and Cron, followed by a bases-clearing double by Marwin Gonzalez. It appears this offense is as devastating in Strat-O-Land as in real life. Pineda started off great with 6 of his first 8 outs being strikeouts... but then he got crushed by Christin Stewart, who knocked in a 2 run HR in the 3rd inning against him. The 4th inning didn't go much better with a single, double, and walk that loaded the bases. Pineda was able to get 2 strikeouts and a flyout to escape that mess. Polanco, who was 0 for 8 in Strat-O-Land thus far, lead the 4th off with a home run. The offense quieted down until the 6th inning arrived. Buxton reached on an error and Polanco doubled, followed by a pitching change and a walk to Garver. This loaded the bases for Nelson Cruz, who grounded out to third, but he did drive in a run to make it 5-2. Pineda turned in a good 6 inning start, and Morin delivered a perfect 7th. Things got very hairy in the 8th inning when Harper gave up a double to Cabrera and then two singles. I pulled him for Duffey, who had a groundball hit to SS but Polanco errored on it, and then Lugo hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4. Duffey then gave up a double to the 9th hitter, Jacoby Jones, and the Tigers tied it up. And if you thought that's where this ended... nope! Duffey gave up another double to Goodrum which gave the Tigers their first lead at 6-5, and then Stewart singled. I yanked Duffey for Parker who then gave up an RBI double to Nick Castellanos, which gave them a 8-5 lead. Wow... 6 runs, changing this from a Twins 3 run lead to a Tigers 3 run lead. Brutal! Garver hit a double in the 9th, but Greene shut the rest of the crew down, sealing a 8-5 win for the Tigers. Well that was disappointing! Darn, I felt like we had that one. I guess the game knows the Twins' bullpen is a weak spot in real life! We'll head into our next matchup 1-1 and hope for some better pitching.

Always cheer for whatever team is playing the Yankees. Even if it's Cleveland; they're so far back, I'm not afraid of them. I'm much more afraid of facing the Yanks in the playoffs.

It looks like DFA'ing Austin Adams was the right move, and now we get live batting practice against him!

Boy, I love this lineup. Even after a dud like yesterday, they just pick the bats back up and start kicking butt again. We've got 11 hits and we're not even out of the 4th inning yet!

I’m not even mad Odor gave up a run. That inning was only 9 pitches long!

Remember when Gibson was supposed to be the #2 to Berrios and it would have been a mistake to trade him away when we had control over his 2019 season? So far he's been erratic and somewhat ineffective. I expect far more from him against the worst lineup in baseball. Suddenly with Perez falling apart, Gibson being mediocre, and Pineda being the definition of a #5 starter, I'm getting concerned for our rotation. The recent failure to pitch more innings is forcing the bullpen to cover more, and our pen isn't good in the first place. Eades looks intriguing so far. I hope they have the patience to ride out some early struggles, but 2 scoreless innings is great to see from the rookie. Magill doesn't have the ability to get anybody out right now - time for a really long IL stint or hand him his DFA papers. As much as we need another high leverage reliever, we could also use a couple more guys who can fill the not-as-important innings and not be horrendous like we've seen from Magill, De Jong, Adams, and so forth.

Mejia might be getting close, but I think Ronald Torreyes would be that guy. He's on AAA's inactive list if I remember right.

I gotta wonder how many people my age have even played Strat-O-Matic Baseball (I'm in my 20s). From what I can tell its popularity was back in the 80s, maybe even before then?

With Parker's fastball maxing out at 91 today, I wonder if a stint on the IL might be a good idea? I'm starting to worry he's going down the Addison Reed path. Maybe some rest would do him some good. Other than that, I can't remember the last time the Twins were able to crush bad teams like this more often than not. It feels like they've been near-perfect at that, at least since that series we lost to the Jays 3 of 4.

IMO Duran is justifying his high ranking Twins Daily gave him on the prospects rankings. He's consistently going 6-7 innings and has the stuff to be a really good starter. Right now I'd like to get some of those AAA bats some chances in the majors, like Cave and Wiel. Methinks Wiel is ready for a chance. Unfortunately, our major league hitters are doing so well we really don't need reinforcements. I could see Astudillo getting optioned for Cave. Update:

For those who may be new to this game, I’ll give a detailed breakdown. So when a pitcher faces a batter, three dice are rolled. The white die determines which card will be used; 1 to 3 summons the hitter card, and 4 to 6 summons the pitcher card. The two red dice will determine the outcome of the play. In a standard game, one would switch out the hitter cards for each batter and the pitcher cards during any pitching change. However, for my setup, I will be using the Master Hitting and Master Pitching cards. This prevents the need for a card for each player, which is also great because I’m cheap and hate spending money to buy more stuff! Here’s part of my custom-made hitting card: But how random and how varied can each player be if they’re all using the same card? The answer to that would be in the player’s skill level. At the current moment, here are the skills that are recorded: Hitting 1 to 8 (higher number being the better value) Power 1 to 8 Speed E to AA Fielding 1 to 5 Drawing walks 1 to 5 Strikeout tendency 1 to 5 And for the pitchers: Preventing hits 1 to 8 Preventing HRs 1 to 5 Allowing walks 1 to 5 Getting strikeouts 1 to 5 Here is an example; the current Twins squad: This roster was created with stats from Baseball-Reference with specific cutoffs for each rank for each skill. Now here is a picture of some of the cuttoffs: It can take a little while to come up with the teams since I have to research every single player, but this process helps me becoming more informed about other teams’ players If you’re unfamiliar with Strat-O-Matic baseball, there are also a few supplemental charts. There’s the X-Chart, which either sees a groundball or flyball get hit at a certain position that will be difficult to play. Great defenders will almost always make the play, but the poorer the fielder, the higher chance of an error or a hit (lack of range, I guess). Here’s a screenshot of the X-Chart: And there’s also the Strategy Chart. This determines how groundballs and flyouts will be fielded, and allows for managers to try bunting, hit-and-run, bringing the infield in, and more. Since I’m playing alone (is that weird to you guys?), I get to decide what strategy for each team might be the best. This also applies to pitching changes and offensive substitutions. Here’s part of the chart: With all this put together, let’s test a plate appearance and see how things work: In this scenario, Jorge Polanco faces Ryan Yarbrough. He rolls a 4-5, which goes to the pitching card, with the number 5. With this roll, the batter will groundout (though all runners on base will advance); however, if the pitcher is a #4 or 5 in strikeouts, the batter will strike out. Also, if the pitcher is a #1 or #2 hitting-wise, the batter will hit a single. Since Ryan Yarbrough is a #3 strikeout-wise and #5 hitting-wise, Polanco grounds out. I hope you understand how the Strat-O-System works a little better now, and I’ll be bringing you another game this weekend. Post any questions or suggestions you may have!

Well, he has already had Tommy John surgery, so he's just like most pitching prospects already.

It's nice to see Marwin having a great game offensively. He's looking like he'll be worth the investment after a pretty bad April. Now, who pitches the 9th?