Otto von Ballpark

And we can do that, even after optioning Duffey, by putting Ervin Santana on the DL retroactive to his last start. Then you could recall Duffey to start Saturday. Ervin would be eligible to come off the DL in time for his following start, next week. The only reason to resist optioning Duffey is if you were also going to resist DL'ing Santana if he can't start Saturday, which would be rather insane -- who lets a SP miss two consecutive turns through the rotation without any kind of DL stint? Or if they wanted Duffey to join the bullpen in a few days, but that doesn't seem likely with the promotion of Meyer to the pen, and in any case doesn't address the priority of bullpen need of the next few games.

What's up with Gibson? He was the scheduled starter for tomorrow...

Sure. I could see a stacked team calling up a prospect to sit on the bench for 15 days as a reward/mentoring/initiation type thing. But obviously the current Twins aren't stacked in the outfield. And Kepler was already rewarded/initiated with a call-up late last season. And he needed the playing time -- he played 2 games at AAA, a critical next step in his development as he looks to show 2015 wasn't a fluke, before he got the call to sit around Minnesota. Nor does it appear there were any great veteran outfield mentors around, if that's your bag. And of course, is his first 12 games on the MLB roster this year, he gets 1 start -- and it's against a LH SP. And we sac bunt to set up an intentional walk to bring him up in a critical spot against said LH SP... arg... It was just a weird way to treat a top prospect, however you slice it -- either promote him and play him, or don't mess with him. I hope they are not headed down the same path by promoting Meyer to some nebulous emergency arm role, just when he seemed to be on a roll as a SP at AAA again.

I don't know if there is anything for Duffey to argue or "win" -- this situation is common enough, I doubt it rises to the level of grievance. If the pitcher can't take his next turn in the minor leagues, the team rescinds the option at that point and puts him on the MLB DL retroactively. What they generally don't do is carry him in limbo on the MLB roster, unavailable to pitch when you need fresh arms, and with a 2 man bench, waiting to option him once his bruise heals up.

If anybody else wants to try the VPN route, I heard that the "developer version" of the Opera web browser now has a built-in free unlimited "VPN" (although technically it is really just a proxy): https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/04/25/opera-adds-a-sort-of-vpn-to-its-browser/ That said, I wouldn't exactly trust the security of any data going out over a free VPN/proxy. If I used one, I would change my MLB.TV email and password to something completely different than my normal online accounts, and I'd only use Opera for MLB.TV and nothing else. But still, it's probably easier than dealing with free proxy lists and manually configuring them on your system.

That's the kind of the point of the criticism. Top prospects shouldn't be promoted as stop-gaps, particularly not as stop-gap bench players.

Some might consider a Dick & Bert alternative as an upgrade by itself.

And you can already experiment with in-market Twins streaming by using your DIRECTV credentials to log into the Fox Sports Go site/apps: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/21810-fox-sports-go-wtf/ Obviously a different interface going through FSGO rather than Sling/Vue, but it's an option to try Twins streaming before you sign up for Sling or Vue (both of whom offer 1 week free trials, by the way).

Again, I don't think this is true. There are lots of examples of teams optioning pitchers who are possibly injured, then later rescinding the option to retroactively put them on the MLB DL when the injury is confirmed. See my post listing them upthread: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22174-article-roster-shuffle-buxton-and-kepler-out-meyer-and-santana-in/page-7?do=findComment&comment=469999 It appears the Twins want to keep Duffey for other reasons, even though he can't pitch the next couple games, or that they possibly want to scratch/delay Santana's next start without putting him on the DL and they only want Duffey to replace him. Either one seems like a pretty suspect reason to leave your bench and even your bullpen (assuming they are looking to debut Meyer this season in mop-up duty) short for a series.

Preseason, Fangraphs had the Twins projected at 77.8 wins. Today they have them projected to finish with 74.3. Playoffs odds dropping from 14.6% to 4.2%: http://www.fangraphs.com/coolstandings.aspx I think that is basically just using our preseason projection over the remaining games, with some adjustments to our depth chart, perhaps. They also have a "Season to Date Stats Mode" that drops us further to 72.3 projected wins. Just found 538's projections, they had the Twins at 78 wins and 23% playoffs preseason, and now we are down to 71 wins and 7% playoffs: http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-mlb-predictions/

Any player can be added to the 40-man and recalled immediately, at any time. There is no in-season benefit to putting a prospect on the 40-man, but not the 25-man.

How does carrying 6 starting pitchers (our starting five plus Duffey) help with that? That's why the Twins had 14 pitchers last night, not because they added bullpen help.

Another update: DISH Network has finally come to an agreement with Fox Sports, apparently. They now appear among the supported providers on both the web site and app, so you can log in with DISH credentials and stream the Twins. Also the Fox Sports Go site/app appears to have undergone a bit of a facelift. Not sure if it added any features, but was a bit less clunky in my brief testing. Comcast customer are still out of luck, however.

Sure, no argument there. And that's on the Twins for their failure to evaluate properly. But Bryant was likely deemed ready by the Cubs even without those AAA PAs.

That supports my point. The Cubs plan for Bryant, dating back probably to the start of the 2014 season, was based on service time. NOT meeting some threshold of minor league development time. If he got injured in his first AAA game in 2014, and returned in the spring of 2015 with the same spring / early season performance, I strongly suspect he would have been promoted at exactly the same time.

And if Meyer doesn't pitch tonight in relief of Nolasco, he will effectively miss his turn and may not be ready to start Sunday either (assuming he sees some relief work Wednesday-Saturday).

FYI, you can already stream games -- Sling ($20/month) and Vue ($35/month) both carry Fox Sports North now: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22039-sling-adds-fox-sports-north/

No way. The Cubs determination of Bryant's readiness had nothing to do with meeting some threshold of development time. Now, obviously, if Bryant had sustained a wrist injury in 2014 and hit like garbage when he returned from it, sure the Cubs probably leave him in the minors longer. But that is more like a lingering injury rather than lost development time. It does not appear that a lingering injury was the case with Buxton last June, though. Now, that obviously doesn't absolve the Twins of much -- they should have had other CF options last June and this spring, and it's their responsibility to effectively judge a player's readiness before promoting them -- but I think Buxton's struggles as a MLB hitter thus far are severe enough to suggest that any "rushing" isn't a huge factor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RybNI0KB1bg

Likely not true. See my reply to you on the other thread for numerous examples of teams rescinding options to retroactively put players on the MLB DL: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22174-article-roster-shuffle-buxton-and-kepler-out-meyer-and-santana-in/page-7?do=findComment&comment=469999

Thanks. Interesting. Here's the paragraph in question: "Right-hander Tyler Duffey, knocked out of Sunday’s start after taking a line drive off his throwing shoulder, went through all his normal arm exercises on Monday but the Twins trainers wouldn’t let him play catch. According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, he can’t be optioned back to the minors until he fully recovers from the bruising on the surface of his shoulder." As you can imagine, though, the CBA says nothing that specific, so I suspect this was the author's inference. The CBA is obviously much more general: "Players who are injured and not able to play may not be assigned to a Minor League club." But I've never heard of a player being kept in the majors until he is deemed healthy so he can be optioned. However, I have heard of players optioned who later had the option rescinded after being found unhealthy enough to play, and were retroactively placed on the MLB DL and awarded back pay and service time. It doesn't even require a grievance, teams seem quite willing and able to do this as necessary. A simple Google search for "baseball option rescinded disabled list" yields multiple results: Neil Ramirez, 2014 Cubs http://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/546120 Tyler Olson, 2015 Mariners http://m.mlb.com/news/article/123392352/seattle-mariners-tyler-olson-placed-on-15-day-dl-option-rescinded Cesar Puello, 2014 Mets http://justmets.mlblogs.com/2015/04/06/mets-rescind-outright-assignment-of-cesar-puello-placed-on-the-15-day-dl/ Rafael Montero, 2015 Mets http://risingapple.com/2015/04/30/mets-news-rafael-montero-to-dl-with-rotator-cuff-inflammation/ Jhoulys Chacin, 2012 Rockies http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/2012-05-07-113590609_x.htm I think the Twins are just disappointingly "cool" with wasting roster spots on players "in limbo" for no discernible benefit, unfortunately.

That's mostly due to Buxton's injuries. Do you think if, say, Kris Bryant missed half of the 2014 season due to injury, the Cubs would have kept him down for half the season in 2015 in the name of "development time"? Top prospects generally get promoted for factors other than meeting a requisite amount of development time. Maybe the better comparison would be performance levels? Buxton's 135 wRC+ in 268 PA at age 21 in AA probably compares pretty well with most of these guys too. And in his brief appearance in AAA last year, he acquitted himself pretty well too. Should the Twins have insisted he play a full season at AA? Or a half season at AAA? Does that really explain the depths to which his MLB plate approach fell this year?

They can add Turner, or any catcher, at a moment's notice if one of their MLB catchers get injured. No need to add them in advance of that. I actually don't mind carrying only 2 catchers on the 40-man roster, assuming you don't have 3 catchers worth rostering. Turner will require 40-man protection this winter (Rule 5 draft), as will Mitch Garver, so both could be options later in the season regardless. But probably not in April/May unless, like I said, a MLB catcher gets injured (or Murphy's play continues to be untenable).

I know they don't like to skip the 5th starter spot, but that could be an option with the off day Thursday and rain forecast for the rest of this homestand. Still, I'd guess they'd just let Milone make the start. TR's quote about Murphy clearly suggests they weren't planning to promote Berrios. Putting Meyer in the pen (and not using him, despite a relatively early exit by Milone) suggests they're not eager to give him a start. And while Duffey's spot start Sunday looked like it was due to timing (his turn lining up with Santana's), keeping Duffey around beyond that game seems to suggest they view him at the "6th starter" at this point, first in line for any rotation openings.

The rules page that I linked above indeed says "An injured player cannot be optioned to the minors" so that general idea is not in dispute. However, I believe you are wrong about the sequencing. Optioning a player has never required an absolute determination of health first, or every player getting optioned would need to undergo a thorough physical examination, every time. That is clearly not the standard practice. A quick Google search turned up what I think is the more likely process: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-tony-clark-will-watch-cubs-closely-20150227-story.html "The Cubs fell under scrutiny last summer when they optioned rookie reliever Neil Ramirez, who had a sore shoulder. But Ramirez's option to Triple-A Iowa was rescinded because injured players cannot be optioned, and he was placed on the major league 15-day disabled list." So, the Twins could definitely option Duffey. But if he was found to be unhealthy enough to play at AAA, he would be required to retroactively go on the MLB disabled list. The Twins do not have to roster Duffey until his arm is deemed fully healthy.