Danchat

I was kinda hoping Busenitz would get to pitch in this one. He's kinda just been hanging out on the roster, not really getting used. He's appeared in just one game since July 26th.

It's basically an hour and a half war movie that is non-stop action and incredibly brutal. Fantastic cinematography and it looks the part - everything looks real, no fakey CGI. It's basically what Pearl Harbor should have been (no stupid plot and unnecessary bloat), but I'm no "war movie fanatic", so that's just my 2 cents. I've heard it's amazing in IMAX, so if that's an option, I'd try that.

Just got back from seeing the movie Dunkirk, and holy cow we've scored 9 runs and 5 homers? Wow!

Sorry about that, I mixed the year up. Stupid me!

I hope that the Twins will have the bullpen at a state in 2018 where there isn't room for Hughes to be a reliever. Right now I would have Hildenberger, Rogers, and Pressly as locks and Boshers and Duffey as most likely on the team. That leaves 2 spots open - one hopefully for a free agent closer (none of these guys should be closing) and another for a potential FA add or young guy like Busenitz/Curtiss/etc. We have plenty of guys who can relieve - we really don't need Hughes in that mix.

I found it interesting how this team is basically the same while subtracting the catchers, Plouffe, Tonkin, and Milone. There aren't that many differences except with most of the guys maturing and playing better. (Plus I don't think last year's team was that bad... poor defense + bad manager + bad luck (look at Pytha. W-L) and they were better than their record stated.)

Lineups Brewers Matt Garza ® 1. Domingo Santana ® RF 2. Ryan Braun ® DH 3. Travis Shaw (L) 3B 4. Jesus Aguilar ® 1B 5. Hernan Perez ® LF 6. Manny Pina ® C 7. Orlando Arcia ® SS 8. Keon Broxton ® CF 9. Jonathan Villar (S) 2B Twins Adalberto Mejia (L) 1. Brian Dozier ® 2B 2. Max Kepler (L) RF 3. Miguel Sano ® 3B 4. Joe Mauer (L) 1B 5. Robbie Grossman (S) DH 6. Eddie Rosario (L) LF 7. Byron Buxton ® CF 8. Jason Castro (L) C 9. Jorge Polanco (S) SS

Probable Starters: Matt Garza (5-5, 3.68 ERA) vs Adalberto Mejia (4-5, 4.30 ERA) 1. Today’s Special Event I’ve whipped up a little game on Sporcle, a website for quizzes. If you click the link below, you can try and remember which 25 players where on the Twins roster on the same day one year ago. Can you go 25 for 25? Go ahead and try and post your score in the comments! (Rules: You have 4 minutes to guess all 25 players and you can eliminate them by typing in their last names. Good luck!) https://www.sporcle.com/games/Danchat0/twins-8817-roster 2. Twins Pitchers Summer Stats Let’s look at how Twins pitchers have fared from June to August so far, and perhaps we will find some interesting things in their stat lines. (stats come from Baseball-Reference’s Game Logs) (ERA, WHIP, K/9) Ervin Santana 4.84, 1.386, 7.6 Kyle Gibson 4.97, 1.563, 5.8 Jose Berrios 4.30, 1.304, 8.0 Adalberto Mejia 4.19, 1.508, 7.5 Bartolo Colon 7.88, 1.719, 4.8 Bullpen Matt Belisle 1.67, 1.037, 7.0 Trevor Hildenberger 2.70, 1.050, 9.9 Ryan Pressly 2.66, .836, 8.4 Buddy Boshers 3.97, 1.323, 7.5 Taylor Rogers 4.32, 1.28, 7.92 Tyler Duffey 5.55, 1.52, 8.1 -Thoughts- Wow, has this bullpen improved or what? Belisle, Hildenberger, and Pressly have been lights out since June and they’ve done a great job at keeping runners off the bases. Rogers and Boshers have been alright as of late, even with Rogers’ slump the past few weeks. Duffey has definitely struggled and you have to wonder what’s up with him. I think he will stick as a reliever but he’s found himself near the back-end of the bullpen. Meanwhile, looking at the rotation, Ervin hasn’t been very good this summer. He’s been regressing back to his FIP (4.79 on the season) and seems to be reverting into the #3 pitcher he has always been, not the ace we had for a few months. Gibson has been replacement level but not as bad as in the first half, Berrios has been alright but he can get better, and I’m a bit concerned about Mejia. He has failed to pitch in long starts and finds himself pulled by the 4th or 5th inning – he needs to allow less baserunners and throw less pitches per inning/batter. I’m not buying Colon’s success – he’s clearly better than he was in Atlanta but he’s still not very good. The one thing he does do well is throw strikes and give up almost no walks – so far he’s been Hughes-esque in that department. 3. Lineups Paste here 4. Examining Matt Garza After having a dismal 2015 and 2016 season, Matt Garza is having a far better season in 2017. Here are his numbers: 2015-16: 5.18 ERA, 4.60 FIP, 1.54 WHIP, 6.3 K/9 2017: 3.68 ERA, 4.03 FIP, 1.25 WHIP, 6.1 K/9 Garza’s numbers are looking a lot better thus far and it’s thanks to giving up less walks and hits. (10.6 hits per 9 IP from 2015-16 compared to 8.5 hits per 9 IP so far in 2017). He’ll give the Twins a run for their money today as they’ll need a better start from Mejia to defeat the Brewers. Alright Twins… let’s get back over .500!

Thanks for this stat. This is why many of us are infuriated by Molitor's penchant for bunting - we have a lot of players on this club who are terrible bunters but he still insists on bunting constantly.

I don't know how, but they found a way to win both these last two games. I keep expecting them to find a way to lose, but hey, I'll take it! This bullpen has been a strength the last week or so... not sure if it'll continue to be so.

Pressly with a one run lead... I know he's had some good outings, but I just can't trust him to hold this lead. Crossing my fingers...

Gotta love how our two best OBP guys fail to get on base with runners on there. *sigh* At least Polanco is starting to collect to hits.

I like this Suter guy, he doesn't waste time in between pitches and he gets outta there fast. If there's anything I can't stand, it's a slow and laborious pitcher who takes way too long to throw the ball.

Whoa, I think he lost an "a", let's just hope he doesn't lose that first "n". Yup, I'm on board with you there, it would have been really helpful to get another bench player up. We've had 2 complete games in the last 5 days, we don't need an 8 man bullpen.

When we signed Belisle I stated something along the lines of "he could end up closing", and now it's actually happening.

I beg to disagree. While he wasn't bad out there, he was missing the strike zone more than usual and had nearly reached 100 pitches by the time he was pulled (5.1 IP). That final "zero" was thanks to Boshers as Gibson left guys on 1st and 2nd with one out.

The last 13 batters (both sides) have failed to reach and we have a very quick game. Hamels is really good, so is Pressly when things are working for him.

Another not quite bad enough start that won't get Gibson benched.

I was about to say the same thing. Adrianza at 1B and Giminez at cleanup? No thanks.

Just got to the game, and now it's pouring. Good thing our seats are partially covered. Hope we can still play ball tonight.

This probably guarantees Colon the rest of the season in the rotation, whether it be a good or a bad thing...

Isn't there a difference between numbers and math? Here I've thought throwing around numbers was OK but if you dare add or multiply any of them you get swiftly banned.

Fun fact: Colon's given up 8 hits in each of his 4 starts.

Wow, a 3 double game for Andrus.

That's why you put a guy like Rosario ahead of Gimenez so you can hit those OBP guys (Joe and Robbie) in more often.