Danchat

He's been playing in the majors since 2010.

This kinda applies to most players on the Twins right now.

I loved Tonkin's reaction to that horrendous play. At least on the next batter he was able to get the double play.

It's good to see Escobar hitting well after coming off the DL. It's just been singles, but I'll take that over what most of the team has done so far...

I just don't get how Jepsen, May, and Pressly have all been terrible. Is their water poisoned or something?

You make a fair point. Hughes should be under tremendous pressure and Ricky's next in line. Hughes should go to the DL and Nolasco should move to the bullpen. I think Nolasco could do better in the bullpen, and that should be his final chance to stay on the roster.

And Jepsen will probably keep his closer role...

Wow. Right when the Twins try to rally, Suzuki takes three straight strikes, and all of them were definitely in the strike zone (yes, even that last one). Ugh.

I'm checking in a little late. Can the "Nolasco's rebounding!" narrative die now? He's been pretty terrible in May.

This move is fine and all, but if the Twins want to call up a lefty reliever, why not Buddy Boshers? He's 5 years younger than Burnett and he's got a 1.42 ERA with a 9.9 K/9. I suppose the advantage with Burnett is that he has some major league success, but I'd rather go with the younger guy who's pitching really well.

I understand selling high, but the Twins were one of the best teams in the AL when Dozier was on fire. You don't trade your best batter at that point of the season - even if the haul would be great, it would be a slap in the face to the fans who finally wanted to have this team go into all-win mode. Also, he was in the first year of a four year deal, so there was no way they were going to trade him. Teams almost never trade guys in the first year of a deal that's at least three years long.

It's interesting that the narrative (at least from Dick & Bert) is that "the young guys are struggling to hit". And then there's Dozier, who's hitting terribly but is facing absolutely no pressure, unlike the young players.

Yeah, I'd say Iowa or Nebraska.

Yeah I don't understand that commercial. Did people think dogs weren't welcome in Wisconsin? I still don't get why most commercials are so terrible.

We're 7 innings in and the Twins have 1 hit?! Pathetic... It's too bad that Polanco, one of the better hitters on the team, is probably going down to AAA tomorrow when Escobar comes back up.

I don't think Phil Hughes read my letter.

Game Thread, Blue Jays v. Twins May 22 1:10pm Starters: Marcus Stroman (4-1, 4.23 ERA) v. Phil Hughes (1-6, 5.70 ERA) 1: Phil Hughes Oh boy… here we go. So Hughes had a pretty good outing a few days ago, but he was pulled at around 75 pitches. Then Trevor May came in and blew the game. There was some debate about what should have happened. I myself can understand why they pulled him. Hughes was about to go up against the meat of the Blue Jays’ lineup and Molitor wanted May to face them instead. The problem is that apparently at around 75 pitches, Hughes is losing velocity due to shoulder fatigue. So, does that mean he won’t go past 80 pitches today? If so, Hughes should be immediately DL’d until he can throw more pitches without shoulder fatigue. What’s the point of throwing pitches in a lost season for Phil Hughes? He should rest his arm until he can pitch. He’s under contract for another 3 seasons after this one, so he shouldn’t waste his injured arm now 2: Marcus Stroman Stroman only got in 4 starts in 2015 but he’s made it this far into the season without any problems. Here’s his career stat-line: ERA 3.57 (FIP 3.09), H/9 8.4, HR/9 0.5, BB/9 2.1, K/9 7.1 If Stroman can continue to improve on his career numbers (it’s his 3rd season in the majors), then he looks like a valuable asset to any team’s pitching staff. None of his numbers really stick out to me, so that’s all I have to say about him. 3: Lineup Analysis Blue Jays 1. Jose Bautista ® RF 2. Josh Donaldson ® 3B 3. Edwin Encarnacion ® DH 4. Michael Saunders (L) LF 5. Troy Tulowitzki ® SS 6. Justin Smoak (S) 1B 7. Russell Martin ® C 8. Darwin Barney ® 2B 9. Kevin Pillar ® CF Twins 1. Brian Dozier ® 2B 2. Eduardo Nunez ® SS 3. Joe Mauer (L) 1B 4. Trevor Plouffe ® 3B 5. Byung Ho Park ® DH 6. Robbie Grossman (S) LF 7. Oswaldo Arcia (L) RF 8. Kurt Suzuki ® C 9. Danny Santana (S) CF I don’t have many things to say about this lineup. I do think it’s interesting to see Arcia playing in RF, the position that was his back in 2014. I thought it was an odd move when Torii Hunter was signed and Arcia had to play LF instead of RF. I think Oswaldo might be a better fielder in right. 4: Eduardo Nunez He’s the savior of yesterday’s game, and Nunez has been hitting out of his mind so far this season. Right now, Nunez is batting .331/.367/.492 with an OPS of .859. That’s pretty darn good especially considering the fact that’s been playing every day for the last month. He would be in 5th place in the American League for batting average (He’s nearly had enough plate appearances to qualify). With Joe Mauer’s decline in the past couple weeks, Nunez is this team’s best hitter by a wide margin. I would guess that in a month or so, Nunez’s numbers will come back down to earth. However, with baseball being so unpredictable, who knows what will happen and when it will happen. So maybe Nunez will compete for the AL batting title. It could happen! 5: Jose Bautista Dear Phil Hughes and relievers who might pitch tonight, Please don’t throw any pitches that Bautista can hit. I don’t care if you walk him 4 times, just please don’t give him another home run. Yours Truly, Danchat

I'm sorry I couldn't join you guys during today's thread. That 8th inning rally sure came outta nowhere! Anyways, I'll be writing tomorrow's game thread and this time I'll join you guys in the thread. Let's hope we can get a second win!

An addition for the Not So Fun Fact: Juan Centeno also has a 0.2 WAR.

Game Thread, Blue Jays v. Twins May 21 1:10pm Starters: Happ (5-1, 3.40 ERA) v. Dean (0-1, 4.50 ERA) 1: Pat Dean So, who is this Pat Dean guy? Let’s take a look at this AAA numbers from 2015 and 2016. AAA 2015 – ERA 2.82 – H/9 8.5, BB/9 – 1.8, K/9 – 4.9 AAA 2016 – ERA 3.00 – H/9 8.2, BB/9 – 1.8, K/9 – 5.0 The first thing that pops out to me is that K/9. In a full season of AAA last year, Dean struck out 4.9 per 9 innings (for those who don’t know, 4.9 is inordinately low). And this is in AAA! Yikes. This is one of the prime reasons why many people here at Twins Daily didn’t want Dean to be added to the 40 man roster. In my opinion, Dean definitely deserves a cup of coffee in the majors – he did have a great ERA with precise control and three shutouts – I don’t think he belongs in a major league rotation. Dean reminds me of a couple past Twins, namely: Anthony Swarzak: (career numbers) 4.45 ERA, 9.9 H/9, 2.6 BB/9, 5.6 K/9 Tommy Milone: (career numbers) 4.04 ERA, 9.5 H/9, 2.2 BB/9, 6.5 K/9 Yeah, I think Dean’s numbers might end up like these. Maybe he can hang on as a long reliever, but I don’t think he can do much more than that. But I do hope that he can show some promise for now, as the Twins desperately need whatever pitching they can get. Does anyone remember the last time the Twins faced J. A. Happ? I didn’t have the time to fact-check this, but I do believe it was last season when he was playing with the Mariners, starting at Target Field. I was actually at the game, and the Twins shelled him for 7 runs over 3.1 innings. Happ gave up home runs to Dozier, Rosario, and Hicks. Eddie Rosario also hit a 2B & 3B and ended up a single short of a cycle. Too bad only Dozier’s with the team right now. Happ was traded to the Pirates in what I thought was a head-scratching move, but the Pirates coaches are pitching wizards. Happ turned his Mariners 4.64 ERA – 10 Hits/9 – 6.8 K/9 into a 1.85 ERA – 7.4 H/9 – 9.8 K/9. Then he parlayed that success into a multi-year deal with his former team, the Blue Jays. So far Happ has performed pretty well, with a 3.40 ERA – 8.9 H/9 – 5.7 K/9. He’s not throwing quite as many strikeouts right now, but outside of that, he’s a solid starter who’s not going to wow you. The Twins will have their chances to hit off Happ, hopefully like they did last year. 3: Lineup Twins 1. Brian Dozier ® 2B 2. Eduardo Nunez ® SS 3. Miguel Sano ® DH 4. Trevor Plouffe ® 3B 5. Byung Ho Park ® 1B 6. Robbie Grossman (S) LF 7. Darin Mastroianni ® RF 8. Kurt Suzuki ® C 9. Danny Santana (S) CF Blue Jays 1. Jose Bautista ® RF 2. Josh Donaldson ® 3B 3. Edwin Encarnacion ® DH 4. Justin Smoak (S) 1B 5. Troy Tulowitzki ® SS 6. Michael Saunders (L) LF 7. Russell Martin ® C 8. Kevin Pillar ® CF 9. Darwin Barney ® 2B My thoughts: Oh goody, Brian Dozier is back to leading off while batting .208, but at least his OBP is .292. Dozier’s been pretty terrible since July of 2015, and he’s still batting leadoff… I don’t get it. Joe’s got a day off, and he probably needs it. No complaints there. Finally, we get an outfield of Grossman-Santana-Mastroianni. Yikes. I’m fine with Grossman getting another start, but Mastro has never shown an ability to hit in the majors. I don’t think he’s suddenly going to start hitting major league hitting. 4: The Twins Bullpen Ugh. I don’t want to be negative, but I want to take a closer look at the Twins’ bullpen and where their issues are coming from. Let’s take a look at stats from our struggling relievers: Kevin Jepsen: ERA 4.96 (FIP 4.93), H/9 11, HR/9 1.7, BB/9 2.8, K/9 6.6 Trevor May: ERA 5.14 (FIP 4.76), H/9 9.9 H/9, HR/9 2.1, BB/9 3.9, K/9 12.9 Ryan Pressly: ERA 5.25 (FIP 5.13), H/9 9.8, HR/9 1.5, BB/9 5.3, K/9 9.0 Michael Tonkin: ERA 3.43 (FIP 3.85), H/9 7.7, HR/9 1.3, BB/9 3.0, K/9 10.7 Analyzing these stats, I’m seeing a couple trends here. First off, everyone but Tonkin is giving up too many HRs. May especially. Another problem is with walks – Pressly has been struggling massively with giving up walks, and May’s numbers are troublesome, too. Tonkin’s numbers look fine, but he’s been a disappointment in pressure situations. I know May, Jepsen, and Pressly can be good relievers. But what’s going on? Have they thrown too many innings/pitches? Does Eddie Guardado have no idea how to coach the bullpen? Was the loss of Glen Perkins this devastating? 5: Not So Fun Fact! According to Baseball-Reference.com, Brian Dozier has a WAR of 0.2. After one game with the Twins, Robbie Grossman’s WAR is also 0.2. Anyways, thanks for reading. Enjoy the game and stay classy!

I think Sano has been hitting better as of recently, and his power has been coming back. The outfield is already full in Rochester, so there's no reason to send him down there. If anyone deserves to be sent down, it's Brian Dozier. Does he have any options left?

Don't tell me you watched the 2010 season and then entered cryogenic sleep thinking "2016 will be much better!" That'd be pretty disappointing.

And somehow, Robbie Grossman ends up with a 3B shy of a cycle. Man, baseball is weird.

What's up with May lately? He just hasn't been any good.

I think he's out of options. IMO DFA'ing him is preferable so that we can open a 40 man roster spot.