Western SD Fan

Nice job to hit it where they ain't! Nice defense by the Nats to keep the run for scoring.

Remember, we did just trade for a reliever from the Rays that will join us in Cleveland on Friday. The corresponding roster move is what I'm afraid of. I'm dreaming it's finally Garcia, but someone earlier tonight suggested Klein since he hasn't pitched much since being called up.

I hope so. Their bullpen is much better than ours.

I think I need to save this meme to my computer. I think I'm going to be using it a lot this season.

Somewhere deep in the depths of the bullpen, LaTroy Hawkins in curled up in a ball rocking back and forth wondering what he did in life to choose this path.

My theme songs for bullpen pitchers continue. In comes Garcia:

But our recent old friend Zak Kent is currently warming up in the Nationals bullpen. If he pitches as well for them as he did us, we still may be in this game!

The max is 13 pitchers on a roster, subtract the 5 starters, and you get a max of 8 pitchers. Now that was in the day before Common Core math so who knows today! 🙂

At least Topa cleans up after himself. He had to give up the gopher ball because the bases were too full. Once they were empty, he could get to work.

When Topa comes in, it will be:

This should be the theme song played for the remainder of the season when the bullpen comes into the game.

This may be a contrarian position. If this is Ober roughed up, I will take it. We are still in the game, and he gave us 5+ innings.

Didn't think about that. You are likely right, sadly enough.

Interesting, with the expectation of their new acquisition from Tampa going to join the team in Cleveland. Maybe this is the last we will see of Garcia?

We are still better off paying him $10 mil to get season-ending surgery than to pay him $33 mil and still have season-ending surgery. Plus, from a roster standpoint, we are now finding out what we have on the team. It may not be what we were hoping for, but bad answers are still better than no answers.

I can see why the Twins are willing to go down this road as it takes players like Morris, Festa, Matthews, etc. and allows them the opportunity to succeed in a more hybrid role if you haven't really given up on them as a starter yet and don't think they can be an effective reliever. I don't see this catching on until the rules are changed regarding a starter needing to go 5 innings to qualify for a win. Pitchers are very cognizant that their future pay highly depends on them being successful as a starting pitcher instead of a reliever. IMO, a pitcher will only really sign onto this if they believe that this is their only way to get to the big leagues. My other concerns are listed as follows: Warm-up procedure: Starters have their own routine and typically take longer to warm up than relievers. Does the second pitcher need to start with a clean inning, thus burning a reliever to bridge the gap while the "second" starter is warming up? Ineffectiveness: When does a manager go get his starter under this scenario? I understand that the outing where Abel came in after Ober was an aberration. It still does show a potential pitfall of this arrangement. Shelton was reluctant to go get Abel because he needed to get his work in when it was apparent that he did not have it that day. Do you go get the pitcher knowing you will burn two 'starters' and further stretch your bullpen to cover the outs that one of your paired starters couldn't get? I'm not sure this is a wise procedure for the major league roster. If you have a number of starters in the minors, getting everyone some work may be helpful for developmental purposes. Then you could work with everyone and possibly further stretch out your best pitchers if they are close to being called up.

I want to see Culpepper when it looks like Culpepper is ready. Culpepper is trending towards there, but there is not an injury and, although Lewis appears to be close to bottoming out, it looks like they want to give him every opportunity to get it back before sending him down to St. Paul. There is a scenario where both Culpepper and Houston can co-exist. I'm assuming by the time that Houston would be ready that we have moved on from Lewis and/or Lee. I believe I remember reading that they expect Culpepper to eventually take over 3rd and Houston would be the SS. But we are likely talking 2028 at the earliest.

Just seen a short from the Skor North Twins show that he quoted Dan Hayes. No structural damage and a clean MRI. Plans on missing a bullpen session. As of now, he is planning on making his next start on Saturday.

This is what I thought based on my trips to Target Field. Maybe the concession workers consist of the various chefs, cooks, and other workers that need to prep the work areas for the volunteers to work? I'm not sure about this at all.

My ultimate point was addressing the idea that signing any pitcher on the DFA market is equal or preferable to leaving Sim in the lineup. I have been consistent in my opinion that Sim, through all of his faults, is still the better option until we know what is going on with Joe Ryan and Mick Abel comes off the IL. To address the 2021 season, I would have been very concerned about Happ and Shoemaker. As for Maeda, Berrios, and Pineda, there was definite cautious optimism. The real question was how they would respond to a full season after the crazy 2020 Covid season. A simple search through this website would have given you that information. This was the pre-season analysis on TD from Nick Nelson, likely someone with more knowledge and smarter than I am. As you can see, the depth behind this group of starters was shaky at best, even in 2021 analysis. Less than a month into the season, TD writers were already discussing what happened to Maeda, as shown by the article below by Cody Pirkl. All of this to say that there were signs that the pitching staff would not be as up to the task as we had hoped. We had also still been living off the idea that the Bomba Squad would ride again and bail out a study, but questionable pitching staff.

I believe you are looking in the wrong year. In 2021, here is the pitching stats from baseball reference. The link is here: 2021 Minnesota Twins Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com In case the link doesn't work, here is a screenshot of the 2021 season. I encourage you to tell me where my analysis of the 2021 season is wrong as "awesome" Berrios got Cy Young votes for the season AND had the best WAR of any pitcher on the staff. It's reasonable to suggest that Maeda had a so-so season before he went down to Tommy John surgery. Pineda looks like what this year's Bailey Ober could turn out to be. A decent serviceable pitcher that will give you a chance to win games.

Revisionist history is awesome. We can take a trip back in the time machine. The year is 2021. The starting rotation out of spring training, in order of appearance, is Kenta Maeda, Jose Berrios, Micheal Pineda, Matt Shoemaker, and J A Happ. Berrios is awesome. Maeda and Pineda are serviceable and will give you a chance to win. Happ made 19 starts before being traded to St Louis with a 6.77 ERA and an ERA+ of 63. Shoemaker made 16 starts before being released and an 8.06 ERA with an ERA+ of 53. I would argue that the DFA starters could be worse than Sim since we have already tried that road and failed. Someone should ask Pete Maki and LaTroy Hawkins if they like the DFA squad they have in the bullpen and say "hey, we want that for the rotation too!" Currently, Sim has an ERA of 6.49 and an ERA+ of 68. While not good, it's still better than the scrap heap starters that we have picked up in the past and suggested we do again. Given the state of the rotation, until somebody comes up and proves they can replace Sim, you have to keep him in the rotation. One thing to remember is that he has no options left. If you want to shift him directly to the bullpen, he will have to figure it out in the bullpen while on the ML club. I struggle what you would suggest in the short term while Ryan is likely on the shelf. Stick Sim in the bullpen and do a bullpen day when his start comes up? Do a piggyback with Morris? If you believe a DFA candidate is better, can you identify one pitcher DFA'd or not signed that is better that Sim? I believe Abel is going to do another bullpen session today and then decide when he will go on a rehab assignment as he will have to ramp back up prior to joining the team. Zebby has been better, but he still has not gone more than 5 innings in St. Paul. There are no good answers but IMO leaving Sim in the rotation for now is the least bad of all the possible solutions.

Certainly not from my blood pressure.

Great timing for a day off. The bullpen could use it!

I still need to ask the powers that be on this website to have a teeth chattering emoji. Trust me, it will be well used.