Danchat

He did let Maeda go out for the 9th to get a no-hitter against the Brewers in 2020, but he lost it and we ended up giving up the lead... but he didn't get any outs.

Dang, Ryan. He's gone into the 100s before, he should be given a shot to finish it out. It'd be pretty understandable if they wanted a reliever to finish it out, though.

I think it's worth noting that the initial Arraez trade rumors started with something along the lines of the Marlins offering just Lopez for Arraez and the Twins rebuffed them, but getting Salas was the deal-maker. We'll have to see how Salas pans out to be able to fully evaluate the trade, seeing as how he was considered to be a top 10 prospect for the Marlins. The third player is a lottery ticket.

Here's hoping he stays at AAA and we don't need him.

Fun fact: Duran has given up just 2 earned runs in the past 18.2 innings.

I'll follow that up with a prediction - Lopez will finish the year with an ERA under 3.80, and he will also pitch at least 170 innings on the season.

Have you seen our AAA pitching? It’s pretty bad, their best starter would be Headrick who just got drubbed, SWR is a disaster and Dobnak has a WHIP of almost 2. The manager means nothing when your players are bad.

I have confidence that Lopez will turn around and be a fairly good starter going forward (confidence in Pablo, not the Twins)... but maybe don't trade the reigning batting champion in his prime. The front office wisely sold high on a few guys in early 2022 (Garver, Rogers, Donaldson), but it turned out Arraez didn't reached his ceiling in 2022.

Eh, did you watch any baseball from 2011 to 2016? The 2011-14 teams were garbage while the 2016 Total System Failure was an abomination on the eyes. The pitching we have is way, way better than what those teams had. Then again, we are potentially facing a third straight losing season, getting close to matching the 4 straight losing seasons from 2011-14... Bold of you to assume there even is a DFA clock on him!

Never thought I’d see a 41 mph pitch induce a GBDP! Man, Kluber is cooked.

Seems like the training staff has put the kibosh on Buxton playing CF. Edit: Ninja'd by Mike who posted the same tweet 30 seconds earlier... you win this round!

He might be a DH-only, so it'd be nice if a certain someone could start playing in his natural position rather than DH...

It's disappointing seeing Varland begin to crater like this. I wonder if it's a "hitters figuring him out" problem or just the fact that his stuff isn't quite good enough? I mentioned he had the look of a legit MLB starter in a post a couple weeks back, and while that was still as a #4 or 5 starter - this isn't a good look. And then we finally get to see Balazovic pitch for the first time with the Twins... it's hard to believe it took him so long to make it up here. The dude's already in his final option year! I can't say anything that hasn't already been said about the hitters. I'd rather see the young players struggle in the majors than the veterans, and it's incredible how much rope Kepler has gotten. I'm just about done with Gallo, but his OPS is still high enough that he'll probably be given the entire rest of the season to try and prove that the FO was right to sign him. He's just flat-out not a good hitter like Sano - he'll contribute with walks and a hit XBH rate, but the frequently of awful at bats is so high that it prevents him from moving runners or doing anything against pitchers with nastier stuff. The dude has 3 career sac flies!! In almost 3000 plate appearances!!! Having the easiest schedule in baseball is nice, but that doesn't mean you will automatically win a majority of those games. Good teams will lose a series every once in a while to a bad team, but I think we've seen enough from the Twins to know that they aren't good. Not bad, but clearly not going anywhere.

It's inexcusable that Wallner isn't in the majors right now. Kepler is a sub replacement level hitter and the team needs a jolt, and we may as well figure out if Wallner can handle the majors now rather than later.

The restricted list? Hmmmm... There might be a story here, or perhaps a personal emergency of some sort?

Gallo is the last guy you want up with runners on, he just takes too many uncompetitive at bats.

Heck of a bullpen game!

Assuming we are talking about Wentz, he had 7 once and he also hit 6 once (19 total starts). Yikes!

Getting out of this only down 2-1 would be a win...

Absolutely, Castro's speed on the basepaths and ability to play multiple positions decently well gives him utility over Kepler - not to mention that his career OPS, which is pretty bad, is still better than Kepler 2022-23. Oh, and he can at least play CF (even if he's not great at it) while Kepler simply won't anymore.

I see Rodriguez and Martin as the primary locks. Enlow is probably back on the 40 man after getting removed. Severino is a tricky one because I think this will be the third year he is eligible, he makes sense as a trade candidate. Camargo fit the free agent market last year and returned on a MILB deal, and doesn't seem to be valuable enough to be protected. Funderburk and Grace are middling minor league relievers who don't need to be protected. Feels like we have a couple of these relievers reach AAA every year but then never end up doing anything, whether it be Mason Melotakis, Tom Hackimer, Jake Reed, etc.

So, we ready for Pagan to defend another 2 run lead in the 8th? 🤪

Dang, they are jumping on Williams! GAME!!!!

Gallo is the king of failing to get RBIs, no surprise there

We praise a lot of moves here, but regardless we need to judge moves by the results. It is also way to early to judge the Buxton move.