Brandon Warne

Surprises are great. They crop up when you least expect them and can frequently be a harbinger of the days to come. And if the 2015 season is any indicator, things are about to be a lot more fun in Twins Territory. This season was dotted with debuts of players that fans have been awaiting for years. First Eddie Rosario, then Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, even Tyler Duffey and finally Max Kepler. Even without the highly-anticipated debut of Jose Berrios — no doubt not far down the road — the Twins assimilated a group of high-end prospects that by and large hit the ground running. Sano won’t win the Rookie of the Year award, but in the words of Trevor May he injected some life into a team at midseason that was desperately looking for some punch. Sano and Rosario helped lock down a batting order that saw Kurt Suzuki bat in the middle on 37 occasions. Rosario, along with an awakened Aaron Hicks, an improved Torii Hunter and Buxton helped transform the outfield defense from downright brutal to around league average, depending on what defensive stats you believe. That’ll improve as Hunter sees less time in the outfield next year. And I know what you’re saying; what if he doesn’t come back? Well, that would also qualify as less time in the outfield next year. There’s still room for the outfield defense to improve even more, and that’s huge for a team that has quite a few prominent fly ball pitchers, like Glen Perkins, Casey Fien, Trevor May and Phil Hughes. Hicks’ emergence all but solidified that he’ll be starting in center or right field come Opening Day 2016. He hit .259/.333/.432 in 291 post-July 3 plate appearances — after coming off the disabled list — and flashed the loud tools he possesses far more frequently than he did in his first two big league seasons. Rosario also showed loud tools but is perhaps a bit too exploitable outside of the strike zone to sustain his 2015 success. He won’t have a Danny Santana-like regression, but it’s also worth noting that he finished the season with a .289 on-base percentage; four points lower than Hunter and what would be the 10th-worst mark in baseball had he accumulated enough plate appearances to qualify. He fell 28 plate appearances short. A disappointing development for the Twins in 2015 was the backsliding of Oswaldo Arcia, who put together 19 uninspiring games for the big club before getting injured and subsequently sent to Rochester once healthy. The time with the Red Wings was a catastrophe, as he hit just .199/.257/.372 with an 82-18 K/BB ratio. With the amount of outfield depth that has emerged as big league ready or close to it, Arcia is alarmingly close to being an organizational afterthought. The Twins have likely made up their mind on what’ll happen with him, but it wouldn’t be surprising if his future hinges on what Hunter decides. Arcia is out of options in 2016 and could in theory serve as the fourth outfielder with multiple center field options on the roster as is. Another disappointing development with the 2015 Twins was the obvious regression of Santana, who clearly couldn’t replicate the .405 BABIP-fueled 2014 line he put together. Santana’s value completely bottomed out, as he hit just .215/.241/.291, with all three triple-slash marks at least 100 points off his 2014 values. At this point, his best shot to carve out a role is as a super utility guy. It’s as if someone was saying that a year ago or something, but I don’t recall for sure … The 2015 season was the season of breakouts and improvements for the Twins, mostly. May and Kyle Gibson headlined rotation improvements, while Eduardo Escobar had a red-hot second half, and Hicks finally showed the Twins he was ready to handle a full-time role. But for all the improvements, there were significant fallbacks for players which hampered the Twins’ efforts, especially in the second half. The Twins got literally nothing from Ervin Santana in the first half due to a suspension, while the second half saw virtually nothing from Ricky Nolasco and not a whole lot from Phil Hughes, who struggled with velocity and home runs throughout the season. Glen Perkins was perfect in save opportunities in the first half and headed to Cincinnati as an All Star; then did the following in the second stanza: 7.32 ERA, 1.88 WHIP and 1.068 OPS against. Kevin Jepsen, and to some extent May, filled in admirably down the stretch in the late innings, but the Twins need Perkins to be right going into 2016. It’s also not positive that Joe Mauer’s first mention comes nearly 800 words into this piece. Mauer hit just .265/.338/.380 — considerably worse than the average AL first baseman — and at times struggled just as badly on defense as offense. With three years and $69 million left on his deal, the Twins are surely hoping he’s got a Justin Morneau-like resurgence in him. Unfortunately, the Twins aren’t moving to Coors Field anytime soon. To strip the season down to nuts and bolts, the club was basically fantastic in May (20-7, .741 winning percentage) and meh otherwise (63-72, .467). That boils down to a 76-win pace over a full season, which is worth noting not because those wins in May can be taken away, but that it’s pretty close to how advanced statistics — such as BaseRuns, etc. — felt the Twins would and should have played this season. There’s plenty to be said for a plucky bunch proving the pundits wrong, but moving into the offseason the Twins’ brass should take the opportunity to make a few moves to better position the team into the future. Bringing Hunter back at a reduced role and salary would be tolerable, but on both fronts would probably have to be considerable on both ends. Addressing the starting rotation is probably not much of a priority for the first time in nearly a half decade, as there are quite literally up to eight sensible options for next season’s rotation. The bullpen will experience considerable turnover no matter what happens, but most obvious long-term answers will come from within for this bunch. The team may look to add an arm or two, but it’ll probably be like they usually do, which is on the minor league side. It worked with Jared Burton, Casey Fien and countless others — even Blaine Boyer this year — so the club isn’t likely to break the mold there. The one thing the club absolutely has to do is address the catching position. A veritable plethora of options will be at Terry Ryan’s fingers, whether he chooses to go the platoon route (A.J. Pierzynski and Brayan Pena make sense there) or if he wants to drop a ton of money (Matt Wieters) or resources (maybe San Francisco’s Andrew Susac?). But one thing is clear: the Twins need to supplement Suzuki, who was named to the Sporting News’ Anti-All Star Team for 2015. Between regressing significantly offensively and defensively — no starting catcher threw out a lower percentage of attempted base thieves — it became clear in 2015 that the Twins need to make an upgrade. The one other thing that would make some sense is for the Twins to pursue a top-end talent. The Twins roster is made up almost exclusively of solid players at their respective positions, but bringing in a top-tier talent like Jason Heyward makes a lot of sense if the club is willing to spend the money. I can hear you scoffing, but if the Twins want to take the next step, it makes sense to drop money in the team while players like Buxton, Rosario and Sano are in the cheap portions of their contracts. I’d place the likelihood at less than one percent the Twins sign anyone to a huge deal, but I’m just suggesting that’s what I’d do. The 2015 Twins season was a rousing success, but I think the brass needs to be proactive to keep from slipping backwards a bit in 2016. Will they do it? We have a long, cold winter ahead to find out. Cold Omaha is now on 92KQRS and 93x, catch this content where it originated here.

My ballot would be Hinch, Cash and then Molitor.

If you haven't listened to any of these yet, LISTEN TO THIS ONE. Let's just say it's a big-time guest: https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-5-terry-ryan-interview

HEY! WE finally got hold of the audio from the Terry Ryan podcast. If you haven't listened to any of these yet, start here! https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-5-terry-ryan-interview

Episode 10 Brandon and Cole discuss the Twins' doubleheader yesterday, playing the game the "right" way, baseball culture vs real life, fights in the clubhouse, justice in the game, and more. https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-10-play-the-game-the-ri

Brandon and Cole discuss the Twins' doubleheader yesterday, playing the game the "right" way, baseball culture vs real life, fights in the clubhouse, justice in the game, and more. https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-10-play-the-game-the-ri

You can be forgiven if you don’t remember what exactly happened on Sept. 6, 2010. The Twins defeated the Royals by a 5-4 margin at Target Field. Jeff Manship got the win, Matt Capps the save and the Royals — under the direction of a man in his first year at the helm of the team named Ned Yost — fell to 57-80, 23.5 games out of first place. Give up? On that day, the Minnesota Twins won their 81st game of that season. It’s not really remarkable because the Twins won 13 more games by the end of the season and ended up playing in the first and only playoff games Target Field has ever hosted. But little did anyone know that it’d be another five-plus years before the Twins would win game No. 81 in any season after that. That feat was accomplished Monday night for this year’s team, as the Twins defeated Corey Kluber for the second time in less than a week, and basically left the Tribe’s playoff chances on life support. In an odd quirk, Manship factored (somewhat) in both games, as he warmed up for the Indians in Monday night’s game. He’s got a 0.97 ERA in 30 appearances working mostly low-leverage middle inning relief. So I thought … how about a look at what has changed since the Twins last won at least 81 games? First, let’s look at the lineup from back on that day in 2010: 1. Denard Span CF 2. Orlando Hudson 2B 3. Joe Mauer C 4. Jason Kubel RF 5. Michael Cuddyer 1B 6. Jim Thome DH 7. Delmon Young LF 8. J.J. Hardy SS 9. Matt Tolbert 3B Starting Pitcher: Kevin Slowey Other players who saw action that day include Jason Repko, who spelled Kubel in the outfield, as well as pitchers Randy Flores, Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain and of course, Manship and Capps. Kubel and Thome both homered in the game, and future Twin Dusty Hughes threw the last 3.1 innings in relief of starter Sean O’Sullivan for the Royals in the losing effort. Man, things have changed. So what else has happened in that time frame, both in the baseball world and otherwise? Consider: Justin Morneau It can be easy to forget he was on that 2010 team before suffering the concussion that quite frankly has derailed his career since. He was never again the same with the Twins and again battled those issues this year with the Rockies. Morneau has luckily been able to come back and play 17 games in September this year with the Rockies — and hit .377/.450/.509 besides — but he most certainly faces a murky future with a $9 million mutual option looming as well as his mid-30s. It wouldn’t be stunning to see the Rockies go in another direction, unfortunately. Mauer In a twist of cruel irony, Morneau’s direct replacement at first base has been someone who has battled an all-too-familiar issue. And Mauer has gone from a superstar catcher worth every penny to a first baseman who’s merely a shadow of his former self at the plate, drawing the ire of people from all across the board who might suggest he’s soft to the fact that he was never all that good to begin with. Mauer won’t have the benefit of moving to Coors Field to get his bat back, and entering his age-33 season next year, it’s worth wondering if that’ll ever happen. The odds are clearly not in favor. Phil Hughes The Twins signed Phil Hughes from the Yankees over the winter prior to the 2014 season. What’s notable about this? Hughes started and won Game 3 of the American League Division Series in 2010 at Yankee Stadium, bouncing the Twins from their most recent playoff run. The opposing starter in that game? Free-agent-to-be lefty Brian Duensing. AL Central Every team in the AL Central has finished over .500 since the Twins last did. The White Sox were 88-74 in 2010 and 85-77 in 2012, the Tigers were at least .500 in every season but this one, the Indians were over .500 the last two seasons and everyone remembers the story of the Royals a season ago. Or perhaps even more apt, how dominant they’ve been this year. Terry Ryan The Twins former GM returned after things went sour during the Bill Smith tenure. Ryan returned after a four-season hiatus which saw Torii Hunter walk as well as the Twins dealing the likes of Johan Santana (after just four months on the job for Smith), Matt Garza (less that two months in for Smith), Carlos Gomez and, in a cruel twist of fate, Mr. Hardy as well. It’s not fair that these moves are often the hallmarks of Smith’s tenure — he also signed Max Kepler and Miguel Sano, and traded for Hardy in the first place — but it’s certainly what is remembered most. Skipper The Twins also dismissed manager Ron Gardenhire after four 90-loss seasons, replacing him with Hall of Famer and existing bench coach Paul Molitor after an exhaustive search led to interviews with the likes of (at least reportedly) Joe McEwing, DeMarlo Hale, Sandy Alomar Jr., Gene Glynn, Doug Mientkiewicz, Torey Lovullo and others. Gardenhire was the second-most tenured manager at the time of his dismissal — Angels manager Mike Scioscia stands alone — but the worst four-year stretch in franchise history was too much for the Twins brass to ignore, even with a year remaining on a two-year extension. For as bad as the last four years were under Gardenhire’s direction, he still finished his career at the helm of the Twins with a 1,068-1,039 record — 29 games over .500. The .222 playoff winning percentage still looms large in the minds of Twins fans, however. Hunter Oh yeah, he left and came back. So did Guerrier, Kubel, Jason Bartlett, Yohan Pino and … well, no, that’s about it. Even the Minnesota Vikings… …made the playoffs since the Twins last finished over .500, and did so with Christian Ponder at the helm. Christian Ponder! Four Teams… …have represented the American League in the World Series in that time frame, including the Rangers (twice), Tigers, Red Sox and the Royals. Oddly enough, just two National League teams — the Cardinals and Giants — have played in the Fall Classic. USA The Twins last won 81 games more than a full year before we remembered the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And we’re already moving onto the 15-year anniversary next year. Time flies, folks. Oh, and by the way Bin Laden was killed in 2011. USA, Part II Two Olympics have been held — London (Summer) 2012 and Sochi (Winter) 2014 — since the Twins last won 81 games. The United States was first in the medal count in London and fourth in Sochi. USA, Part III Obama won reelection. It wasn’t particularly close. Twitter Twitter has blown up since the Twins were last particularly good. There were fewer than 50 million active users when the Twins won game No. 81 in 2010; now, there are an estimated 316 million users, a more than six-fold increase. Even the Pope is on Twitter. Actually, he’s got a few accounts. Miners The Chilean miners were rescued over a month after the Twins won game No. 81 in 2010, after 69 days following the cave-in of a 121-year-old mine. Now? They’re going to be the subject of a feature film called “The 33” starring Antonio Banderas which will be released in the United States on Nov. 13, 2015. The End of the Mayan Calendar Apparently that ended on Dec. 21, 2012. The world didn’t. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Countless other world events took place, like the Boston Marathon Bombings, Pope Benedict resigning, Nelson Mandela dying and even Ebola outbreaks. All told, fans had to wait 1850 days between seeing the Twins win 81 games in a season. Was the wait worth it? I sure hope so.

Monday marks the Twins last off day before the end of the season, and provides a good chance to take a step back and survey what lies ahead. Minnesota opens a three-game series with Cleveland coming to town, with Tuesday marking the first of seven remaining games between the Twins and the Tribe. So essentially, more than half the Twins’ remaining 13 games come against Cleveland, a team which has underachieved virtually the entire season, but finds itself a mere 1.5 games behind the local nine. The series matchups don’t favor the Twins, either. Danny Salazar takes the mound for Cleveland Tuesday night, and he’s proven to be one of the most physically gifted pitchers in the American League, with 9.7 strikeouts per nine, a league-average groundball rate and a 3.48 ERA to go along with legit 95 mph heat. His changeup (27.2 percent whiff rate) is absolutely devastating as well. Things get no easier with Corey Kluber starting on Wednesday. And while he’s taken a bit of a step back — far less than most think, however — from last year’s Cy Young pace, he’s still had the Twins’ number all season long. He’s held them to a .085/.128/.146 batting line with a 1.38 ERA across three starts. In 26 innings, he’s allowed only 11 baserunners. Cody Anderson starts on Thursday, and while he’s a total wild card — he’s faced the Twins just once, and they smoked him — keep in mind that manager Terry Francona was willing to bump Trevor Bauer from the rotation to keep him in there. After a rough August, Anderson has a 1.78 ERA in four September starts. And if that isn’t tough enough, the upcoming four-game series with Cleveland promises to be just as tough. Not only are the odds good that the Twins will get Kluber again in the series opener on Monday, but that’s four games in a row down the stretch against the team which ranks fourth in the AL in starter ERA, first in strikeouts and second in FIP. It’s pretty easy to make an argument that this rotation and the Rays’ are in a dogfight to be the best in the AL. It’s not certain which Tigers team the Twins will find at Comerica after the first Cleveland series, but there are a couple things at play here. The Twins lost two of three to Detroit at Target Field last week, and this is probably a Tigers team that hasn’t totally forgotten the thrashing they took to end last season. The Twins took two of three from the Tigers in Detroit in mid-September last year and split a four-game series to end the season with two blowout wins when they were jockeying for position in the playoffs. The Tigers were summarily bounced from the playoffs in three straight by the Orioles and find themselves fighting to get out of the cellar at the present time with a 69-79 record — a game back of fourth-place Chicago. The other team in the Twins’ way of the end of the season is Kansas City, and while an 11-game lead wouldn’t suggest a team needing to get things together, it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride for the Royals for awhile now. The Royals are 7-13 in their last 20 games and now are battling with Toronto for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Royals have a two-game lead as of this writing, and of course at this point it’s unclear where that’ll stand when they invade Target Field from Oct. 2-4, but ultimately it’d be ideal for the Twins if they have nothing left to play for. The odds don’t seem to favor it, however. So what’s a realistic need for the Twins record-wise in the 13 games that remain? Fangraphs’ Cool Standings presently gives the Twins a 6.1 percent chance of making the playoffs, and an expected final record of 82-80. That’s progress from the last four seasons, but disappointing to be sure. Not many teams get to the cusp of the playoffs after a rough stretch and revel in the fact that they almost made it, even if that represents considerable growth. Cool Standings projects 89 wins for the Yankees and the top Wild Card slot; the Twins would have to finish 13-0 to match that. So … that can clearly be ruled out. The projections suggest 85.4 wins for the Astros and 82.7 for the Angels; we’ll round to 85 and 83 for mathematical ease. At 76-73, the Twins would need to go 9-4 to match that projection for the Astros — and maybe 10-3 to be safe — and that’s assuming the Halos don’t flip the script. Going 7-6 would be enough to beat their projection and the Angels’ as well, but that would only claim the third Wild Card spot which, as of this writing, doesn’t exist. In short, the Twins are going to have to go all Chris Sale on Corey Kluber and friends if they’re going to punch their ticket into October. Well, further into October. The odds don’t favor it, but that’s why they play the games. This content originated at Cold Omaha here; please consider clicking through to support it.

Episode nine: As the Twins prepare for the home stretch, Brandon and Cole discuss the Wild Card race and Cole answers Brandon's questions about former teammates. https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-9

As the Twins prepare for the home stretch, Brandon and Cole discuss the Wild Card race and Cole answers Brandon's questions about former teammates. https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-9

Yeah, I was a little put off by his response.

Here's episode eight: We discussed the current state of the Twins, Minor Leaguers' pay (or lack thereof), and what's playing on their iTunes, among other topics. https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-8

We discussed the current state of the Twins, Minor Leaguers' pay (or lack thereof), and what's playing on their iTunes, among other topics. https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-8

I would like the paycheck, but somehow my shoulder is shredded. Not joking. I showed up to play baseball this spring and couldn't throw anymore. As a first baseman it isn't a huge deal....but how did it happen in the first place?!

With Hoey it was control, with Pelfrey I think it's command.

Prodded by a caller on his weekly radio show, Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor admitted the club was exploring their options with regards to the rotation spot of right-hander Mike Pelfrey. A number of factors make the situation difficult, including the shutdown of Jose Berrios, the presence of Tyler Duffey, and the current situations surrounding Phil Hughes and Trevor May. Image courtesy of Troy Taormina, USA Today Prodded by a caller on his weekly radio show, Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor admitted the club was exploring their options with regards to the rotation spot of right-hander Mike Pelfrey. A number of factors make the situation difficult, including the shutdown of Jose Berrios, the presence of Tyler Duffey, and the current situations surrounding Phil Hughes and Trevor May. To be clear, the presence of Duffey is simply just that he’s already promoted, and thus not a candidate to take Pelfrey’s rotation spot. May is not stretched out, as he’s worked as a reliever almost exclusively for over two months. There isn’t time, or really a place — short of using him during Chattanooga’s playoff run — to get him lengthened back out. Hughes isn’t healthy enough to return to the rotation yet either, otherwise he might be the natural choice to take Pelfrey’s rotation spot. A possible wild card in the situation is left-hander Logan Darnell, whom the club recalled after his last start with Rochester on Thursday. And if Darnell’s usage is any indication — he threw just 4.2 innings and 45 pitches in that start — he might in fact be the man for the job. A Rochester-based source indicated he was removed for reasons other than ineffect, and his spot to start lines up quite nicely with Pelfrey — who pitched (poorly) on Friday. Darnell has also been a man on fire of late. While he hasn’t pitched at all in the big leagues this year, Darnell took strongly to a late-season move to the rotation. Darnell started in his final five appearances of the season for Rochester and posted a 0.83 ERA and 28-7 K/BB ratio. Opposing batters hit just .185/.228/.210 off Darnell in that stretch, and he’s been especially stingy against left-handed hitters all season, allowing just one extra-base hit (a double) as they’ve collectively batted just .265/.327/.275. Opposing batters haven’t been as kind to Pelfrey, who has allowed a triple-slash line of .298/.354/.404. For context, just 27 of 154 qualified batters across baseball (17.5 percent) have a batting average that high across MLB in this depressed offensive era. Despite starting off well enough even with shaky peripherals, the wheels have come off for Pelfrey since his 2.28 ERA at the 11-start mark of the season. To that point, opposing batters had hit .254/.321/.331 against Pelfrey, which made up for the fact that he had just a 34-19 K/BB ratio through those 67 innings. It’s truly odd that a pitcher with good velocity and a solid splitter still gets barreled up to that extent, but it’s just the truth. Anyway, since mid-June it’s been rough for Pelfrey. Sure, there have been good starts here and there, but the aggregate numbers tell a pretty definitive story: 5.76 ERA, .331/.378/.459 slash against and just 42 strikeouts in 79.2 innings. Pelfrey’s groundball-heavy tendencies (No. 7 in AL at 51.9 percent) keep him from being an unmitigated disaster (just six home runs allowed), but there’s still way too much contact and damage being done. An enterprising team is going to put him in their bullpen, where he’ll turn into a very nice back-end option with a velocity uptick, grounders and what’ll likely be a strong jump in strikeouts. It just doesn’t appear that’ll be the Twins. UPCOMING The Twins are fortunate enough to miss ace Johnny Cueto in the series with the Royals, but won’t be as lucky with the White Sox series that follows. As it currently stands, the Twins are slated to face Chris Sale and Jose Quintana — two of the finest lefties in the junior circuit. And while the Twins have strangely owned Sale all season long — 6.30 ERA versus the Twins, 2.68 against everyone else — this is a guy who’d probably be the AL Cy Young if it weren’t for the fact that his team around him has been a huge disappointment. There is a silver lining here in the series, though: John Danks is slated to start one of the games as well. The Twins have absolutely obliterated Danks through the years (5.76 ERA), and that is even more magnified this season (1.188 OPS, 9.39 ERA). ALLEN vs ANDERSON It’s only the perception of the writer, but it appears that Twins fans have been far more supportive of current pitching coach Neil Allen than his deposed predecessor, Rick Anderson. Whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or even in sports bars, it seems as though fans have really bought into Allen, despite the fact that stats show a pretty interesting story. Here are the numbers for the 2014 rotation: 5.06 ERA/4.03 FIP 6.4 K/9 2.4 BB/9 1.0 HR/9 And now, 2015: 4.23 ERA/4.19 FIP 6.2 K/9 2.4 BB/9 1.1 HR/9 Even if you don’t want to buy FIP’s argument that this rotation is actually worse, it’s not as though you could pick out one or the other out of a crowd of numbers. And I’m not saying you have to believe this year is as bad as last year, but it’s pretty close. It’s just a simple exercise to see if perception mirrors reality. In this case, not really. This article was originally posted at Cold Omaha here; please click through to support the content. View full article

Prodded by a caller on his weekly radio show, Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor admitted the club was exploring their options with regards to the rotation spot of right-hander Mike Pelfrey. A number of factors make the situation difficult, including the shutdown of Jose Berrios, the presence of Tyler Duffey, and the current situations surrounding Phil Hughes and Trevor May. To be clear, the presence of Duffey is simply just that he’s already promoted, and thus not a candidate to take Pelfrey’s rotation spot. May is not stretched out, as he’s worked as a reliever almost exclusively for over two months. There isn’t time, or really a place — short of using him during Chattanooga’s playoff run — to get him lengthened back out. Hughes isn’t healthy enough to return to the rotation yet either, otherwise he might be the natural choice to take Pelfrey’s rotation spot. A possible wild card in the situation is left-hander Logan Darnell, whom the club recalled after his last start with Rochester on Thursday. And if Darnell’s usage is any indication — he threw just 4.2 innings and 45 pitches in that start — he might in fact be the man for the job. A Rochester-based source indicated he was removed for reasons other than ineffect, and his spot to start lines up quite nicely with Pelfrey — who pitched (poorly) on Friday. Darnell has also been a man on fire of late. While he hasn’t pitched at all in the big leagues this year, Darnell took strongly to a late-season move to the rotation. Darnell started in his final five appearances of the season for Rochester and posted a 0.83 ERA and 28-7 K/BB ratio. Opposing batters hit just .185/.228/.210 off Darnell in that stretch, and he’s been especially stingy against left-handed hitters all season, allowing just one extra-base hit (a double) as they’ve collectively batted just .265/.327/.275. Opposing batters haven’t been as kind to Pelfrey, who has allowed a triple-slash line of .298/.354/.404. For context, just 27 of 154 qualified batters across baseball (17.5 percent) have a batting average that high across MLB in this depressed offensive era. Despite starting off well enough even with shaky peripherals, the wheels have come off for Pelfrey since his 2.28 ERA at the 11-start mark of the season. To that point, opposing batters had hit .254/.321/.331 against Pelfrey, which made up for the fact that he had just a 34-19 K/BB ratio through those 67 innings. It’s truly odd that a pitcher with good velocity and a solid splitter still gets barreled up to that extent, but it’s just the truth. Anyway, since mid-June it’s been rough for Pelfrey. Sure, there have been good starts here and there, but the aggregate numbers tell a pretty definitive story: 5.76 ERA, .331/.378/.459 slash against and just 42 strikeouts in 79.2 innings. Pelfrey’s groundball-heavy tendencies (No. 7 in AL at 51.9 percent) keep him from being an unmitigated disaster (just six home runs allowed), but there’s still way too much contact and damage being done. An enterprising team is going to put him in their bullpen, where he’ll turn into a very nice back-end option with a velocity uptick, grounders and what’ll likely be a strong jump in strikeouts. It just doesn’t appear that’ll be the Twins. UPCOMING The Twins are fortunate enough to miss ace Johnny Cueto in the series with the Royals, but won’t be as lucky with the White Sox series that follows. As it currently stands, the Twins are slated to face Chris Sale and Jose Quintana — two of the finest lefties in the junior circuit. And while the Twins have strangely owned Sale all season long — 6.30 ERA versus the Twins, 2.68 against everyone else — this is a guy who’d probably be the AL Cy Young if it weren’t for the fact that his team around him has been a huge disappointment. There is a silver lining here in the series, though: John Danks is slated to start one of the games as well. The Twins have absolutely obliterated Danks through the years (5.76 ERA), and that is even more magnified this season (1.188 OPS, 9.39 ERA). ALLEN vs ANDERSON It’s only the perception of the writer, but it appears that Twins fans have been far more supportive of current pitching coach Neil Allen than his deposed predecessor, Rick Anderson. Whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or even in sports bars, it seems as though fans have really bought into Allen, despite the fact that stats show a pretty interesting story. Here are the numbers for the 2014 rotation: 5.06 ERA/4.03 FIP 6.4 K/9 2.4 BB/9 1.0 HR/9 And now, 2015: 4.23 ERA/4.19 FIP 6.2 K/9 2.4 BB/9 1.1 HR/9 Even if you don’t want to buy FIP’s argument that this rotation is actually worse, it’s not as though you could pick out one or the other out of a crowd of numbers. And I’m not saying you have to believe this year is as bad as last year, but it’s pretty close. It’s just a simple exercise to see if perception mirrors reality. In this case, not really. This article was originally posted at Cold Omaha here; please click through to support the content.

We talked about Fan mail, fantasy sports and had a really good laugh over a fan who sent coupons to Joe Mauer, of all people. Check us out: https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-7

We talked about Fan mail, fantasy sports and had a really good laugh over a fan who sent coupons to Joe Mauer, of all people. Check us out: https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-7

If you don't trade ABW2 it's because nobody is interested.

hey, here's a fresh new episode recorded today: https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-6

So we're still working on the audio from the Terry Ryan edition, but here's a fresh episode from Cole and me recorded just today: https://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-6