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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Yup, and for what? 1 extra inning out of Odorizzi? It's not like he was going the distance or anything close. We were going to need at least 4-5 innings from our pen anyway, so asking them for 6 wouldn't have been that big of a deal.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    You'd need another starter Saturday then, and Smeltzer would only be on 2 days rest.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    I noted yesterday that Norfolk is the Orioles AAA affiliate, and they seem to be playing like their parent club. The Norfolk starting pitcher last night has an 0-9 W-L record, with an 8.39 ERA for the season.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Cleveland is 2-1 vs NYY, 2-1 vs BOS, 2-2 vs HOU. The Twins are now 1-2, 2-3, and 4-3 against those same 3 clubs. What drags down the CLE record vs 500+ teams is a 1-5 mark vs Oakland and 1-3 vs Tampa, all accumulated while they were sputtering in May. Back then, Cleveland still had Gonzalez (OPS+ 47) and Martin (OPS 60+) in their regular lineup, both since DFA'd, and were missing Clevinger (as well as Kluber who is still out). Oakland still had ace Frankie Montas back then, whom the Twins missed in July while going 3-4 vs OAK. And even so, 4 of those 5 CLE losses to OAK were by only 1-2 runs (shades of the close Twins series) and they're now done with OAK for the season (and only play Tampa 3 more times). No argument that Cleveland has played a light schedule that will get tougher, of course. But I'm not sure it's accurate to simply say "they've struggled against good teams" on the basis of that 15-21 record. FWIW, B-Ref shows SoS (Strength of Schedule) and indeed Cleveland has the lowest in the AL so far, at -0.6. But next lowest is the Twins, at -0.4.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Veterans rarely have any hard innings limit, even coming off of surgery. They'll proceed with caution, but I'd be shocked if they moved Pineda to the pen for this reason.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Isn't it a seven man pen today, including Torres? There are 8 relievers on the roster, and the only one truly unavailable would be Smelter, no? Thorpe could even provide some length again, if needed.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, I'd vote for one of the starters who didn't pitch. How does that Rush song go? "If you choose not to pitch, you still have made a choice"?
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    In fairness, how many of those games were when they were trotting out Hanley Ramirez and Carlos Gonzalez, or when Jose Ramirez forgot how to hit for awhile, etc.? No doubt it will be more of a challenge, though, especially if they don't upgrade via trade.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    With all the practice they are getting, this FO should be able to DFA anyone!
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Smeltzer started Saturday, so is on short rest (3 days)?
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    It's real, and it's fantastic: https://twitter.com/glenperkins/status/1153882953392504832?s=20
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Best as I can tell, it is just rest for Kepler. Perhaps the earlier lineup was erroneous?
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Could be, although Dobnak isn't yet Rule 5 eligible this winter (unlike Smeltzer and Poppen, for example, or even Stashak and Eades who were already eligible).
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Updated lineup (Cave instead of Kepler): 1. M Garver (R) C 2. J Polanco (S) SS 3. N Cruz (R) DH 4. E Rosario (L) LF 5. M Sanó (R) 1B 6. M Gonzalez (S) RF 7. L Arraez (L) 3B 8. J Schoop (R) 2B 9. J Cave (L) CF https://www.mlb.com/twins/roster/starting-lineups
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Torres doesn't have any options left, so if you want to remove him from the 25-man, you have to remove him from the 40-man too. Similar to Morin, Magill, etc.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    That's all fair, except other posters were claiming there were numerous other egregious calls last night, and/or that they all went in the Yankees favor. Those things can be false, but you're right, it still doesn't necessarily excuse the Duffey call.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Doogie said Smeltzer this morning: (My guess for the corresponding move would be Stewart sent down.)
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Unfortunately, Sanchez was already 0-for-10 the last 2 games, with 2 DPs.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't know about that -- over those 4 games, Romero had 6.1 IP, 6H, 4 R, 3 BB, 9 K, 1 HR, 1.42 WHIP. (The ERA looks nice because 3 of the runs were unearned.) It's not a terrible line, but nothing too special either.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    This was from last night's game recap:
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    The Yankees swapped out short reliever Holder for long reliever Cortes. (They also DL'ed Sanchez.)
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    It's probably exacerbated by the AAA competition, though. I wasn't sure of Norfolk's parent affiliation, but looking at the score, I guessed Baltimore and I was right. I also guessed they were using older non-prospect pitchers to give up most of those runs, and sure enough, they were both 27 year olds, drafted in the 29th and 34th rounds 5 years ago, with terrible stats at AAA this year after middling stats last year. Not to take away too much from the accomplishments of our AAA hitters, but these are not pitchers they will get to face much in MLB. (Unless we play Baltimore, perhaps )
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't know. I think it's unexpected in a matter of degree (98 win pace, record HR pace), but otherwise, I think we absolutely should have expected to contend this year. Maybe we expected to be a few games behind Cleveland instead of a few games ahead, or even with Cleveland, or in the wild card race, or on a 86-90 win pace, but I think we should have expected to be in this general position in 2019, with a prime-age team ready to strike. (And I'd argue we had enough prime-age players -- Kepler, Polanco, Rosario, Berrios -- that there was a fair chance we'd beat those expectations a bit too.) 2001 was a bit of a surprise. 2015 and even 2017 too. But there's no way the FO should be surprised by the 2019 results, to the extent that they don't know how to approach the in-season trade market.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Less than a year younger, actually, but Adrianza is definitely cheaper.
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