Western SD Fan

Smith spent more time jogging to the mound than he will going through the Twins lineup.

Don't take this as a callout. I'm using your post to ask the question. If this is what they are doing, why are prospects like Quick and Dasan Hill so highly touted? I understand they may have the tools to be a ML pitcher, but if they don't get a chance to truly stretch out, then what is the point?

This one is closer to the target:

If you would have told me that the Twins throwing essentially a bullpen game and we are still in it and held Cleveland to 4 runs? I would have taken it.

We could have an Aaron Bummer, but he just signed a minor league deal with the Royals.

I was surprised he was called out initially. I thought he was safe.

As much as it pains me to say, I hope someone is warming in the bullpen.

"Results may vary"

Gave the error to Messick. Wouldn't have expected that.

I don't remember which team had the fine system set up by the players. That's a fineable challenge.

It's a figment of your imagination. Go back to sleep.

Cleveland has such a high wall that wall scrapers are not allowed.

Tonight's lineup:

This was taken from the Skor North Twins Show on Friday when discussing untouchables in trades. They did an analysis of the players taken at a snapshot in time that were the top 15 prospects. A listener had challenged that we should not trade ANY of our current players in the top 15. This snapshot was taken from the Twins top prospects (per MLB pipeline) for 2020: #1 - Royce Lewis: Not realized the hype but can still be a solid ML player. Tough to swallow for a #1 overall draft pick. #2 - Alex Kiriloff: Out of baseball due to permanent injury. #3 - Trevor Larnach: Finally realizing some potential. Likely will never be a high-end contributor to a team. Should be a solid platoon bat. #4 - Jordan Balazovic: Out of baseball. Never truly materialized in any role. #5 - Jhoan Duran: Will go down as one of the best closers we have ever had. #6 - Ryan Jeffers: - Current catcher and one of the best in MLB Others include: Keoni Cavaco (Indy ball), Wander Javier, Blaine Enlow, Lewis Thorpe (out of baseball), Matt Canterino (only player hurt more than Buxton), Brent Rooker (A's), Akil Badoo (borderline ML), Matt Wallner (St. Paul), Gilberto Celestino (AAA-Texas) Out of that list, 10 have actually received ML playing time and only 5 are currently on a ML roster. This could be from drafting, development, or both. The point is I believe the organization holds onto prospects too long or doesn't do adequate enough assessments of them to figure out if they truly can help the organization. If you are truly going to go for it, you need to be willing to trade assets and prospects that other teams actually want. Not doing this has led us to trade deadline deals that involve Sam Dyson or Trevor Richards, if we were lucky enough to get that result. As to respond to the trade possibilities listed above, I'm not sure I do any of them. Peralta is going to require more than the Twins are willing to pay, in both cash and prospects. If you bring Gunner in, what do you do with Culpepper, or Lee, Clemens, Lewis, and possibly Roden, Martin, and Keaschall for that matter? One or two of that combination would have to be traded to make room for Gunner. For the last one, I am sticking with Royce as my guy at 1B. He is getting better at defense there and while he is not swinging the hottest bat in the lineup, his bat is not detrimental to the team like it was earlier in the season. I also get an extra year of arbitration with Lewis that I don't get with a potential trade of Garcia, Jr. I'm still in the camp of doing what Tampa Bay does at trade deadlines. Trading away expiring contracts from positions of strength and acquiring expiring contracts from needed positions. You don't sell out the farm, but you keep yourself in contention. Especially this year since we don't know what next year may bring.

so, you're suggesting that the slowest pitcher we put out there tonight was the most effective? 🤔

How close is Sands from being back? Is it possible that they would send someone down tomorrow for a spot starter, then replace that person with Sands the next day?

That's what I was going to say as well. That pitch was nearly a foot above the strike zone. You don't exactly think you're going to give up a HR with a pitch that high.

It would be interesting to see his pitch speeds at the end of the game. I think he may be overcooking his pitches. Throwing them too hard may cause his off-speed not to break as much as it should. That could be from the extra rest he was given compared to where he should have likely started after the ASB.

I had thought that if we split this series, we would still be ok to make a push for the trade deadline. Splitting this series really depended on Ryan giving a good outing, which isn't happening tonight.

Didn't he go on the IL almost immediately after that start as well?

I knew I should have put up a bet line on the date that the Twins will give up a first HR of the season to a player. I'm pretty sure I could have made money by now.

I watched the Cleveland RF pull a Keaschall and got too close to the ball and it bounced away from him. 🙂

Early thought: Rackley is giving Ryan a much more generous strike zone than he is giving Bibee tonight. Similar pitch locations are being called different.

Gave Lee a triple on that one. Official scorers are very generous now.

You can put the tv on mute and use the radio part of MLB.TV subscription and listen to the Cleveland broadcast