Otto von Ballpark

I don't know that the Twins made any egregious blunders in assembling this year's pen. Colomè perhaps, but otherwise the 2021 issue seems to be coaching more than acquisition. Duffey, Stashak, and Alcala (and perhaps Thielbar) were all effective, high-K relievers in 2020, but have not performed up to expectations in 2021.

First *road* series win since April 7. We won 2 out of 3 with the Royals at home in a series which concluded on May 2nd (actually our only home series win of the season so far).

Another way to phrase it might be, I am surprised the Rays pulled the trigger on the deal right now, if this was the return. Looking around the league, it seems like a lot of teams are set at SS, or don't have much incentive to upgrade right now. Might be further complicated by the Rays being a clear AL pennant contender -- they might not mind getting full WAR value back in return, but they certainly don't want to bolster a potential wild card / postseason competitor at the same time! Usually that would mean waiting until the deadline, or even the offseason, to actually make a deal. But I guess the Rays were ready to evaluate Walls, ahead of the expected promotion of Franco next month? FWIW, the Rays always seem best positioned to maximize reliever value too, so I don't know that they need the return to become SP or elite relievers to do well in this trade (although that may impact a WAR evaluation of the deal).

I'm the guy that doesn't mind the system. In the offseason, it's pretty much just a paper transaction until it's time to report to spring training -- no games lost. It can affect future housing plans, etc. but even without DFA limbo, those things are usually in flux for minor leaguers anyway. During the season, the biggest downside might be losing up to a week of game action. Although getting MLB salary/benefits/service time while in DFA limbo is probably a good trade-off for most of these guys. By my calculations, the Twins DFA of Blankenhorn was basically like a $15k bonus for him (the net increase in MLB salary over AAA salary during the DFA period); the Dodgers DFA should net him another $15k. Losing a week of games sucks, but the service time can help too -- looks like Blankenhorn only had ~11 days service time prior to being DFA'd; by the end of the Dodgers DFA, his service time will likely have more than doubled up to 23 days -- not insignificant when 43 days qualifies a player for the pension plan. I'm not without sympathy for these guys, of course. I'd love to see the DFA/waiver period reduced again, to reduce the games lost, but still give the players the same 6-7 days salary/service time. Encouraging team-arranged/provided housing is good too.

Looks like Pineda is penciled in to return on Wednesday anyway:

Sano has supplanted Donaldson at 3B in the starting lineup. Still no Polanco or Cruz.

Dobnak would be in line to start on Wednesday with normal rest, and the Twins have an off day scheduled for Thursday. So in theory, the Twins wouldn't need a 5th starter again until Tuesday June 1st. (Although they may choose to use a 5th starter earlier.)

Correct, Thorpe could be recalled again anytime, as his 10-day minimum optional stint was already satisfied before he came up for the doubleheader. And yes, Pineda has already been sent to the IL, retroactive to May 16. So he'd be eligible to return anytime beginning Tuesday this week (although I don't know when he will be ready).

I suspect the Rays have been trying to trade Adames since the offseason and haven't been able to get any higher value offers for him. I guess Adames has a pretty high K rate lately, but it may just be that teams are hoarding their prospects a bit more right now? Even Adames' conservative ZiPS projection of 2.0 WAR should be pretty attractive from a 25 year old SS who hasn't quite hit arbitration yet. From the Rays perspective, Adames starts making money in this upcoming offseason, and the Rays had 3 infield prospects doing well at AAA: Walls (who got the call-up to replace Adames), Brujan, and consensus #1 overall prospect Franco.

Preface: This is the first time I've ever been asked to write a game thread intro! Can you believe it? Over 18,000 posts at this site, and not one of them has been invited -- until now! In keeping with this momentous occasion, I have breaking news to share: according to team sources, the Twins poor performance so far this season has actually been intentional. The team was attempting to replicate the situation faced by the old hapless Washington Senators, and thereby attract the attention of the Devil to make a deal, à la Damn Yankees (the musical and film, not the rock supergroup). However, the Twins now believe that such a deal if off the table, as the Devil has since partnered with Marc Lore to buy a share of the basketball Timberwolves instead. Any poor performance by the Twins going forward will be the result of a different fanciful story. Today's Transactions: The Twins have placed Kenta Maeda on the 10-day IL and recalled Nick Gordon. Cleveland has placed Franmil Reyes on the 10-day IL (one day too late according to Maeda). Infield prospect Owen Miller, acquired from San Diego in the Mike Clevinger trade last season, has been added to the roster and will make his MLB debut in place of Reyes at DH in the starting lineup today. Owen Miller stats at Baseball-Reference To make room for Miller on the 40-man roster, Cleveland transferred Roberto Perez to the 60-day IL, which ensures that Perez will be out of MLB action until at least July. Twins (16-29, 5th place, 10.5 GB) Starting pitcher: J.A. Happ, LHP, 2-2, 5.35 ERA Lineup: 1. 2B Luis Arraez L 2. DH J. Donaldson R 3, RF Max Kepler L 4. 3B Miguel Sano R 5. 1B A. Kirilloff L 6. C Mitch Garver R 7. LF T. Larnach L 8. CF Refsynder R 9. SS A. Simmons R Cleveland (24-19, 2nd place, 1.5 GB) Starting pitcher: Zach Plesac, RHP, 4-3, 3.93 ERA Lineup: 1. 2B C. Hernandez S 2. SS Amed Rosario R 3. 3B Jose Ramirez S 4. CF J. Luplow R 5. LF E. Rosario L 6. DH Owen Miller R 7. RF H. Ramirez R 8. 1B Yu Chang R 9. C A. Hedges R

It's exceptionally challenging to throw the ball onto the tee!

Your description of "it wasn't even close" isn't very close itself. Keep in mind the zone is three-dimensional (and the box you see on TV isn't "official"). In fact, on closer inspection, it looks like the umpire deserves credit for calling it where it crossed the front of the plate, not where it hit the catcher's glove. Here's that pitch crossing the front of the plate on TV: Here's a 3-D illustration of that pitch up to the front of the plate from Baseball Savant: Here's how it was recorded clipping the zone on Gameday: And finally, Karinchak's whole strikezone plot from BrooksBaseball.net (which shows a wider "effective" zone as oppose to the strict rulebook zones above) -- the called strike to Sano is the red square on the bottom border, setting up the lower swinging strike: Really a well-executed pitch/sequence by Karinchak too.

Duffey spent time in the minors in 2016, 2018, and 2019. So by opening day 2020, even though Duffey had played in 5 MLB seasons by that point, he only had about 3 and a half years of MLB service time.

Yes, Maeda was hurt:

Blankenhorn DFA’d again too.

I'm not so sure. Nothing against Berrios, but his career high ERA+ is 122, and he's at 103 over 2020-2021 so far. He reminds me of Zack Wheeler -- a solid guy that teams will pursue in FA, but not necessarily deal a top prospect package for. I remember the 2019 Mets dangling Wheeler at the deadline but ultimately held on to him. He's been great for Philly so far, 153 ERA+, but it's a bit riskier to part with prospects rather than cash if a team is hoping for that kind of improvement.

I'd say the difference in returns (between a 2 month rental, or 1.5 season acquisition) could be significant. Especially for players who may not dominate in a short sample, but whose value may be more evident over time like Berrios. (And while Buxton certainly looked dominant over a short sample this year, his permanent health concern might push his value closer to the Berrios model.) Plus, you can only extend a qualifying offer to a player if they play the full season for you. So a team trading for Buxton or Berrios at the 2022 deadline couldn't use the QO as leverage to negotiate a new contract, and they wouldn't get any draft pick compensation if they failed to re-sign them. That could change a bit in the upcoming CBA but it's still a factor in the equation right now.

Duffey's not a pending free agent, and probably isn't particularly valuable at the moment. (Happ is a pending FA but I'd guess he is similarly low-value -- no need to trade him unless we want to free up the roster spot.) The 2018 Twins traded 6 guys around the deadline. Plus they had a few more projected trade candidates like Morrison and Ervin Santana who were derailed by poor performance and health. And performance and/or health could still knock a few guys off your list by the deadline too.

There's definitely an imbalance in the costs/benefits of strikeouts. For pitchers, you list the benefits that drive them to pursue strikeouts as a top priority, and there isn't really any downside to that approach for them. For batters? They'd likely have to sacrifice power to try avoiding strikeouts, and the trade off isn't worth it (especially facing pitchers geared toward maximum strikeout ability).

Nice that it is the free game today! No purchase necessary, just create a free account if you haven't already. But if anyone still wants to purchase a full MLB.TV subscription, there could be a notable discount offer around Memorial Day. (They just had it for 50% off a few days ago, but that offer already expired.) Also, the minor league streaming package MiLB.TV is available for just $20 here: http://www.milb.tv/yearlydiscount If I'm not interested in any particular live MLB game, I've been having fun just bouncing around to random close minor league games the past couple weeks.

Homers were off the charts in 2019, but batting average was still low (although up slightly from 2018) and of course K% was at an all-time high (since broken). The underlying trends were still there, perhaps exacerbated by the changing baseball. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=np&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2021&month=0&season1=1961&ind=0&team=0,ss&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=1961-01-01&enddate=2021-12-31&sort=1,d&page=1_61

What's especially impressive is that ground balls tend to roll the opposite direction in Thorpe's native Australia.

It would hurt less if we could win one of these lotteries sometime!

Someone has to be sent down after a doubleheader, but it doesn't have to be the 27th player added. Also, serving as a 27th player does not reset the 10-day minimum required for optional assignments. (And both Thorpe and Dobnak are past 10 days on their current assignments, so either could stay up after the doubleheader if the Twins wanted.) I think they are simply giving Dobnak regular turns in the AAA rotation, which didn't line up with him making this start, while Thorpe is just being deployed as a swingman.

There wasn't much of a choice today. The only other option was the Thursday after the all-star game, but that would involve rescheduling dozens of different flights as the team will be spread out over the break, and then they all have to play in Detroit the day after anyway -- not much different than this week. Changing travel arrangements for a large group with only a few hours notice is actually pretty difficult. Much easier for the Twins to add a game with 2 months to plan for it. Also, a doubleheader in July with advance notice (and fewer/no COVID restrictions) will easily generate more revenue than a Monday afternoon game in early May scheduled with less than 24 hours notice.