LA Vikes Fan

Varland looked shaky but put up a decent line - 6 innings, 3 earned runs, 8 hits. Survived would be the word that I would use - never felt comfortable but kept us in the game. Ragans was dominant for KC. 7 innings, 1 earned run, 5 hits, 8 SOs, no walks Lewis' ground out with the bases loaded and 2 outs was the game. It was 3-1 at the time and the failure to score really ended it. Miranda and Santana looked pretty good at the plate. Everyone else mostly flailed away. Jeffers and Castro both looked bad in particular - gassed, and clueless at the plate. I think Castro badly needs a day or two off or maybe even 3 or 4. He's wearing down big time. Farmer has got to give us innings at SS or we have to find someone else unless Correa is back in the next day or so. Jeffers also looks beat down. Might be a good idea to give him a little breather by having Vasquez catch 5 of the 7 games on the road trip. Decent homestand at 4-3. One more against Cleveland and it would have been a great homestand. Problem is we are just a couple guys short from being able to sustain a long winning streak and I don't see a lot riding to the rescue except for Correa. Good news and bad news. The good news is that we're still exactly on track to win 90 games (actually at 67-52, we are on track to win 90.45 games). The bad news is that probably won't win the division. Probably will get us the 2nd or 3rd Wild Card. The 2nd gets us a matchup against the Yankees or Baltimore, and then probably Cleveland. The 3rd gets us a series in Seattle or Houston, then probably Baltimore. I'm hoping for either a Cleveland collapse that gives us the division or a fade to the 3rd wild card.

I thought I was wrong to call for Varland out after 5, but I wasn't. Look, we got 6 innings 3 runs from Varland. That's as good as it gets from him. Not horrible, kept us in the game. I guess it just feels like we have a chance of a much better outing from both Festa and Matthews than we do from Varland.

On paper, looks good, On paper. He was very lucky in the 4th and 5th to get out. That was probably the best we can expect from him.

Someone else needs to play SS for a game or two to give Castro a break. He's gassed and it's killing him (and us) at the plate. I know Farmer's range isn't the best any more but his shoulder should be ok since he had the IL stint. Get him in at SS and sit Castro. He's getting dominated.

Well, I stand corrected. Varland did make it through5 innings. Staggering with blood on his shirt, but through. Let's get him out of there now and keep ourselves in the game.

I hate to agree, but you're right.

Well, maybe this is why Varland doesn't throw as many strikes as he needs to be an effective starter. His strikes get hit too hard. I'm rooting for the guy but every time I see him pitch I can't escape the thought of "wouldn't this guy be a good late inning reliever pitching one or maybe two innings at a time?". Gotta think that is his future unless there is some way he can take one more step. Famous last words but I don't think he will last five innings today.

Garland did a good job getting through a tough first inning, especially one where Farmer should have made the play on the first "hit". Having said that, the huge difference between he and Matthews is jumps out at you. Matthews consistently throws strikes, Varland does not. I don't know if the answer is to back his velocity down a mile per hour or two so he can have more fastball command, or whether he just isn't going to get there, I like his stuff but until he throws more strikes he is a bullpen pitcher. I suspect the plan here is to give best at another start against the Rangers in Arlington, and Matthews another start in San Diego against a very good team, and see how they do. Maybe Varland gets one more start in the second game in San Diego depending on whether we can last that long with the seven man bullpen. Hopefully at least two of them perform well. Then we go back to the five-man rotation and one of the three is either in AAA as the sixth starter or in the bullpen. My bet is that Varland will be the odd man out.

Varland's biggest problem is showing up again. He just doesn't throw enough strikes. Even if he can get through trouble, he has to throw so many pitches that he has trouble getting through even 5 innings, much less 6.

Rosario is a different situation. We need a SS until Correa comes back. Castro is trying his best but he can't really field the position and his bat is going into the tank by playing every day. Rosario can not only play SS he's hitting .305/.331/.415 (.746). He's a clear upgrade over Martin. Rosario is worth a claim. By the way, the blogs for the Cardinals, Guardians, and Yankees are all making cases to pick up Rosario. We need to make a claim if only to avoid Cleveland picking him up.

To add to that, Castro needs a break. He's overexposed and has a mid .600s OPS over the last 30 plus games. He needs to get back to playing 4 days a week, not 6 or 7.

Agreed. Signing Hill means taking starts away from at least one of Festa, Matthews, and Varland. Hill doesn't help your bullpen at all - he adds to the strain because he is a 5 inning tops guy at age 44. You don't expose him a third time through the order. Those starts are much bettter used on the young starters who we will need next year.

Max Kepler is in his age 31 season hitting .266/.341/.400 (.716) with 7 HRs. Very unlikely that he gets 3 years/$60m no matter who well he hits the last 2 months of the season. It also seems very unlikely he gets 3 years at this age. Teams just aren't willing to give that kind of years for ages 32 – 34 anymore, nor frankly should they unless the player is an Aaron Judge type. I think that $12 million a year is probably a little high and I don't see a team on the West Coast that needs Max's profile. The Dodgers, Padres, and Mariners don't need a corner outfielder, particularly one who is pretty average at the plate without much power. I see Max kind of going the Eddie Rosario way unless he stays with the Twins; a series of one-year deals, may be preceded by one 2-year deal, at somewhere between $8 and $12 million a year. I actually wouldn't mind if the Twins gave him one more year since I'm not sold on Wallner or Larnach as everyday players. I actually think Max is worth more to the Twins then he is to another team. I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed in Minnesota on a two year, $20-$24 million kind of deal. But given the other payroll raises that are coming up, I think it's more likely he either retires or winds up playing on a series of one-year deals for various non-elite teams.

You're absolutely right that the young pitching will determine this year and next. It's encouraging to see the baseball community ranking our pitching prospects as well as they do. Let's remember though that this is what we hired these two guys for; to create a minor-league system that constantly replenishes the MLB pitching staff since the organization either can't or won't spend the free agent dollars necessary to do so. That's what has been happening in Cleveland the last few years and that's the model we need to emulate. I get it that all of these guys are suspects until they appear in the Bigs and perform. Still, I actually have hope that some of these guys will get to the Bigs and perform. In the old days, my most optimistic view of most of our pitching prospects was that they could pitch in the minors for a few years before seeking other employment outside of baseball. If this works, this is the economic model that can keep us competitive. We spend our money on position players like Correa and Buxton, who salaries drop or drop off in a few years to be replaced by high salaries for Lewis and others, have two max starting pitchers making reasonably big dollars but who get locked up early so the dollars are little less ala Lopez, have maybe one bullpen guy with a decent sized salary closing, and have the rest of the pitching staff at least still in arbitration. It's a tough line to walk but having good pitching depth in the Minors is an absolute necessity to make this kind of a structure work.

In classic Twins fashion, we saved our run of poor injury luck for just after the trade deadline (not that we would've traded for anybody any good anyway), leaving the team short at some important positions. It's August, the time when a young Front Office's heart turns to that classic rebound refuge – the waiver wire. I thought it might be interesting to have a place where people can put in the names of anybody they think is available on waivers that would actually help the Twins either as AAA depth or on the current 26 man roster. I actually have three candidates: Ahmed Rosario - The Dodgers just put Rosario on waivers after trading for him due to a roster crunch when Mookie Betts came back. Rosario is actually hitting .305/.331/.435 (.746), and plays a decent shortstop and very good second base. I love me some Willie Castro at the plate playing second base or in the outfield, but he is no shortstop and we don't have one with Correa out. Rosario will get claimed on waivers with only $387,000 left on his contract for the year so we may not get a chance but I think he is definitely worth a claim and would make this team better this year. Martin can go back to AAA to make room on the roster. Also, having Castro go to centerfield may help us if Buxton is down for a couple of weeks with "right hip soreness". Jake Diekman - Left-handed relief pitcher waived by the Mets. Not having a good year this year, 5.63 ERA and 1.40 WHIP, but had a 3.34 ERA last year in 56 innings. He's 37 so maybe he's just falling off a cliff, but it's worth finding that out. He's passed through waivers so would only have to be paid the prorated share of the veterans minimum. I think he's definitely worth a call, particularly if you will go and pitch at AAA for a week or two for evaluation. We need a left-handed reliever – Okert is mediocre at best, Theilbar may be cooked, and Funderburk has yet to show his MLB worthy. I don't think Richards is going to solve the problem as a reverse split pitcher. Brad Keller - Boy, do we need starting pitching death desperately. One more injury and we are toast if we aren't already. Keller just opted to become a free agent from the Red Sox because they optioned him back to AAA when a couple guys came off the IL. He is only 29, and his history shows a guy who's a started a lot of games with a 4.5 - 5.10 ERA, doesn't walk very many guys, but doesn't strike out a lot either. Pretty Meh, but the Twins have taken guys like this and upped their velocity to make them better. I think he's definitely worth a try at AAA and would be a better sixth starter than Randy Dobnak. If you believe MLB Trade Rumors, there are several other veterans who could hit the waiver wire in the next couple of weeks as teams falling out of contention pare salary. Their list is of course behind a pay wall but if last year is any indication, we could see some prominent names whose contracts are expiring out there and available. I would expect some DFA news coming out of Texas, Toronto, Tampa, Miami, Oakland, and maybe even from Washington, the Angels, or the White Sox involving guys on expiring contracts that the team doesn't expect to have next year. We are frankly rapidly running out of players, particularly in the rotation, bullpen, and at shortstop. There ain't much at AAA that we haven't already brought up. Let's leave no stone unturned and try to find guys. I'd love to hear any other suggestions

Interesting concept, but I think the "second leadoff" position - otherwise known as the 9 hole in the lineup - is perfect for a player of Vasquez' abilities.

Couldn't agree more. Time to fire Rocco and hire a billionaire. Is either Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos available?

Castro and Martin don't play the ball hit to Lewis properly to cover second with that shift and we don't get the double play. Wind up giving up the run. We need a new SS; Castro can't play there. Dodgers just DFA'd Ahmed Rosario. He's hitting this year and plays middle IF including a decent S.S.. I think it may be time for a claim and, if we get him, Martin back to AAA.

A positive spin on this is that giving starts to guys like Matthews is exactly what this team should be doing. I started the year thinking this team was one year away from really contending and that this should be the year to get as many innings as possible for guys like SWR, Varland, etc, and as many ABs as possible for guys like Wallner, Julien, Miranda, etc. Then I saw them doing well after that poor start started to think let's get veterans so we can compete deep into the playoffs. The injuries we've recently had reminded me that were probably not quite ready for prime time in that way and that this year should be about finding whether we have the players to fill our three or four holes so that we can try to fill them from free agency if we need to. Two of those holes are the number four and number five starting pitchers. I'm all for giving Matthews a shot, and I would want it to be more than one start unless he gets blown out on Tuesday. It looks like SWR is developing into a strong mid rotation starter whos upside may even be higher. We still need another solid starting pitcher and I'm not sold on Chris Paddack or Varland. I think both will wind up in the bullpen eventually. I would love to see both Festa and Matthews get some regular turns down the stretch so we can see if either one of them can be all long-term starter beginning next year.

I like the piggyback idea and last night’s performance only reinforced my bias in favor of that approach once again, Varland looked great for about three or four innings, four innings last night, and then the wheels completely fell off. I think it is highly unlikely he is even going to be a “five and fly“ starter for the rest of this year. Maybe in the future, but not now. Putting him at the end of a rotation that has two other young starters who rarely go more than five innings is just going to be too much for the bullpen. I think we’re going to have to devote two people to the number five starter spot and go with a seven person bullpen. Maybe that second pitcher can be Randy Dobnak or Josh Winder, although I would try Zebby Matthews. The theory would be that both Varland and the second pitcher don’t pitch on any day except the fifth starter spot and are expected to give the team at least seven innings between them. I think it’s a solution much more likely to be effective than hoping that Varland morphs into a guy that can go five or six competitive innings regularly. If he has a start where he can go six innings, that’s great, and the second pitcher handles the last three.

Doubtful. Most likely only available Saturday or Sunday, not both.

Just saw that it's a Grade 2 Teres strain. Out for "weeks if not months". Ugh. Here's link - https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/08/twins-joe-ryan-teres-major-strain-injured-list-possible-season-ending.html Scott Blewett up for Ryan, Varland as 27th man, lee to IL, Farmer up. Why not Topa? This could get even uglier.

Have you heard or seen anything? Last I saw was 2-3 week type thing.

We'll know a lot more about Varland's fate after tonight's start. If he pitches fairly well, he's the #3 starter until Ryan comes back. If he stinks like he did earlier in the season, he goes back and doesn't come back up until it's time to put him in the bullpen. We also have to cover the KC game on Tuesday the 13th and neither Ober or Varland will have 4 days rest by that time. I think the first move is Ryan to the 15 day IL, Topa up today or sometime this weekend. The second move depends on Varland tonight. If he is good, he's back up to start on the 14th or 15th with the 13th likely a bullpen game started by Winder or Ober on 3 days rest. If Varland gets lit up tonight, Matthews is up to start on the 13th against KC, Ober goes on the 14th and we stay in a 5 man run with Varland or Matthews as the 5th starter depending on who shows better. We put Matthews on the 40 man if we need him by DFA'ing Dobnak. It's very unlikely anyone else will take his contract and he will accept an assignment to AAA to keep the contract. Best thing would be for Varland to pitch tonight like he has in AAA the last few times out but we do have options if he doesn't.

It's my understanding that if Varland comes up designated as the 27th man for a doubleheader they can send him back down and call him up without waiting 10 days. That's a "free" move. I agree, he is a better call than Dobnak now that we need a starter for Tuesday. The problem is that if he pitches Friday he won't be ready to come back by Tuesday so we'll have to find someone else. I think maybe Matthews on a piggyback might be a good approach. Give Matthews basically one or two times through the order, then Winder, and hope you've covered 6 innings. I think Matthews going much more than once or certainly twice through could be a recipe for disaster once MLB hitters see his stuff. His AAA results show that he isn't a finished product yet.