Western SD Fan

I've said this on various threads this year. I just don't see anything changing unless the players themselves do something or the team is sold. I don't see any help coming from the FO. I don't see Rocco & Co. either possessing the answers nor the intestinal fortitude to demand anything from the players.

Great DP by Varland!

Twins caught a break. It looked like it should have been overturned there. Just not enough angles to confirm.

Willi! Now Correa just has to stay out of the DP.

Lee is still on that fishing boat from yesterday.

Seems depressing that it's possible that Ryan can pitch a CG and make one mistake and it'll cost him the game.

I would suggest that the Tigers still have their own warts. Javier Baez, for the good year he is having this year, is still a bust of a signing for Detroit. They are still paying Kenta Maeda $10M to not be close to the team. Throw in Alex Cobb and his $15M on the IL doing his best Tyler Mahle impression and that just about equates to a bad Correa and Vazquez. This iteration of the Tigers reminds me of the Astros ten years ago or a team that we have seen before: the early 2000's Twins. A young group breaking in together, growing up together, and playing together. Mix that in with some veterans either acquired through trade or FA signing (Shannon Stewart, Jose Offerman, Carlos Silva).

"Though he doesn’t think it’ll result in a trip to the injured list, Bailey Ober acknowledged knee and hip discomfort is playing a part in mechanical issues that have resulted in reduced fastball velocity" - Dan Hayes, the Athletic I had to go look up the exact quote that was used in the article as there seems to be a game of telephone being played to separate the two issues from each other. If this quote is to be believed, then yes, he has knee AND hip discomfort AND it's affecting his mechanics. I'm no doctor, nor pretend to be, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night so take my opinion for what you paid for it. I suspect that the Twins staff already know the timetable it would actually take for Ober to come back to 100% and its likely season-ending (think Topa last year or Tonkin this year). As many of us have commented, there are no more quality arms in St. Paul to bring up and I'm also suspecting that the FO also knows this but aren't willing to waive the white flag yet and put Ober on the IL or subject the pitchers in St. Paul to a task they aren't ready for yet. With that being said, Ober should be put on the IL because continually tweaking with his mechanics to match his pain level serves no one. It doesn't serve the team now and won't serve him later and will be used against him when it comes to arbitration negotiations in the upcoming offseason. That brings us to what we should do? If my suspicion is correct and the eventual fix is some form of season-ending surgery, but Ober can pitch through it until then, I'm unsure the FO will make a change until they decide they are out of the playoff race and then he will magically have season-ending surgery. It's not uncommon for athletes to have nagging injuries that they play through that restricts their movement or their abilities. Again, using Correa's own plantar fasciitis as an example that wouldn't be fixed until after the season, but could be played through with proper treatment. I do believe this is why they signed Gillespie, to eventually take over for an IL stint from Ober or a Paddack trade as a rotation placeholder until the arms from St. Paul improves enough to be given a chance at the ML level. One final idea would be to use Adams with an opener. Difference between Adams and the pitchers they have tried the opener idea on (SWR and Festa) is that Adams is used to coming into the middle of a game as they are currently piggy backing him with Raya. Raya gets the start and Adams gets the 6-9th innings.

Thanks for doing the research. I was going to suggest Jax but went back and looked and he was drafted in 2016 before the regime change. I remember his selection in the 3rd round as being controversial as the AF wouldn't let Jax out of his commitment. Since our pitching "pipeline" is supposed to mimic the Cleveland pipeline, it would be an interesting article to compare the two side by side. I also believe the Cleveland pipeline has been largely over-hyped as they don't seem to have similar success outside of Cleveland (Civale, Bauer, Kluber, Plesac) which may suggest the greatest power that Cleveland has in their pipeline: pitching coach Carl WIllis.

And that is quickly becoming a definite possibility. The last thing that Lewis really has is his confidence and I believe that if the FO ends up shattering his confidence by continually bringing him up quicker than necessary, he may end up being Bride 2.0.

That's my fear for rushing him back up. Lewis will have to play on a regular basis in order to get his timing back. I'm concerned Lewis will again go for an 0fer Twenty-something, and we will again be languishing because we rushed him back so soon because he will be another hole in the lineup already full of holes.

This may be an unpopular opinion given that Bride's best contributions in the month of June have been his pitching prowess, but rushing Lewis back again seems like a bad idea and we have seen the results of this Nickelodeon Melodrama play out before earlier this year.

For context, let's look at the best pitching prospects/graduations that the Twins have drafted in the Falvey Era: Festa: Drafted in the 13th round, Ober: 12th round, Matthews: 8th round. Also, I am not trying to compare any of these pitchers to Skubal. Just pointing out that what we consider our best prospects were selected in later rounds and passed over by 29 other teams. I don't remember the last high draft pick pitcher that made it to the Twins. I guess you could consider Petty, who was traded to the Reds.

Didn't Paddack and Lee say they had a fishing trip planned in Miami tomorrow in an interview earlier this week? Paddack went less than 5 and Lee bounced into a DP so they both did their part to get ready for South Beach early.

Great job by Topa. Kept us in whatever game this will finish out to be and even allowed to pitch more than one inning!

Bader has a mutual option for $10M next year. Would like them to make that guaranteed to stick around for next year if they don't trade him.

Maybe not you. But there had been plenty of criticism on letting Thielbar come out for the next inning after getting his lefty batter out and then subsequently get pummeled as he now has to pitch to the required three batters.

93 pitches through 7 for Skubal. Think he will come out for the 8th? The way he uncorked and upped his velocity, I would suggest that he won't.

I would like to point out we complained and criticized Rocco & Co. for NOT using Caleb Thielbar as a LOOGY in previous seasons and let him go back out and pitch the next inning and get utterly shellacked.

Seems like there was an analysis done on TD on this exact subject. I believe he was negative OAA in every defensive position he played, except one, and I think it was 2B IIRC.

I would still bet that Skubal is on some sort of pitch count, but it's likely more nuanced than a hard stop after two times through the order or refuse to let him go over 100 pitches. Even Hinch would likely not want Skubal to go over 110 pitches in an outing.

They were able to resign Flaherty so there might be hope for the Motor City Kitties. Unless something changes in the next year or two, I see Detroit being a favorite in the AL.

Skubal is 45 pitches in the first 3 innings. Unlikely he will be allowed to finish this game in today's load management theories, even with AJ Hinch.

I believe the Twins are just stuck with Ober for the foreseeable future unless the training or medical staff finally stop him. My guess is that once Ober goes on the IL, the extent of his injuries will take him out for the remainder of the season as whatever they are giving him now isn't going to go away with extended rest and he'll likely need some kind of season-ending surgery. What are our options in St. Paul if Ober does go down? Newly acquired Gillespie? I see Gillespie as more of a back-end rotation guy that we use once we trade Paddack at the deadline to finish out the season and see what he has. Adams is intriguing and I would even be so bold as to suggest using the dreaded opener with Adams. My reasoning is that Adams is more used to warming up in the bullpen and coming in the middle of a game than Festa or SWR, who are more used to starting the game. Adams is currently stretched out for only 4 innings as he is being piggybacked with Raya in his last couple of appearances. You have an opener that can go 1-2 innings and pair with Adams to go 3-4, that still gets you at best through the 6th inning and then you can run your bullpen like normal. This may be a crazy idea, but sometimes you need to think of crazy ideas to try to get through the season. The final idea is even crazier and that is for the FO to trade for a pitcher. I don't see the FO itching at adding unless the Twins go on another magical 13-game winning streak in July.

@stringer bell I had this whole article written to respond to you detailing all the things that many of us see over and over again without being addressed or being addressed for lip service to the media (and fans) but nothing ever really happens. After thinking about it a bit more, I have come up with a more succinct response. The Twins, to most of us, are like an old friend with an addiction, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The few times it does happen seem to validate said addiction, so the Twins do not change. The difference between the Twins and an old friend, is that no matter how much we commiserate to them (on this site), they are not going to listen and try to get the help they need. That doesn't make us inferior as to our opinion. We want to see us being better with situations like tonight where we took the extra base or stole the extra base to get in scoring position. It definitely looked as if they were more focused as in previous opinions.