Western SD Fan

Another thing to consider is, if the Twins need to replace SWR in the rotation, their options are limited. As was suggested in another tread today, bringing up McCaughan, Dobnak, or Morris also requires a 40-man move so to have an extra one in their back-pocket isn't the worst thing in the world.

Unfortunately, this was an end to a chapter that had to happen. He was out of options and was going to be DFA'd when they finally made the move to put Wentz on the active roster. The Twins didn't do him any favors by continually shifting his role in the bullpen, especially in 2024. He was a late inning guy for a while, then he had to pitch 2+ innings, then he was sent down to the minors. It just needed a role and that didn't happen to him last year. For 2025, he was a mop-up guy that couldn't even get outs in that role. I'm sure he is the perfect change of scenery candidate. I'm also glad they got something for him, I hope you enjoyed Minnesota Mr. Alcala and good luck.

I'm ok with Duran coming out here. You need to lock down the wins in front of you. We have been panicking for a week now. First Pablo, then Zebby, then SWR and a horrible game last night. This win calms things down for the moment, or at least keeps us from hitting the eject button.

Well Byron, I wish you could hit for the cycle, but I don't want to see another at-bat from you tonight. That means the Twins squandered a 4-run lead in the top of the 9th.

Music reminds me to go look for the remote so I can hit the mute button.

Changing subjects to something we can all agree on: this horrible MLB Green commercial. I looked it up, Earth Day was April 22nd this year. Why do we have this commercial?!?!?

I was starting to think there was an Alcala effect going on here, but it has seemed to relax at the moment.

Someone needs to break up the Blue Jays. They just swept the Cardinals since leaving Minnesota. Now 13-3 in their last 5 series.

I have learned the ways of the Rocco that I can almost see the future. I'll let you determine whether that is good or bad. /s

Pitch count for Festa: 86. I'm hoping for a seventh inning appearance, but I doubt it. Especially since he is still building up his arm from fatigue earlier this year.

Strikeout! Still at 95 mph!

Good news! Correa can't hit into a double play this at bat!

Can't blame the ump on that one. He made a call; it was very close. Call on the field typically stands.

Pitch count at 76. Maybe. Rocco just doesn't like bringing in relievers in the middle of an inning if he can at all help it is my concern.

Correa did watch. He watched right into a GIDP.

does Correa have foot issues again? that was the excuse the last time he hit into so many double plays. Is it possible that a batter can just forfeit his AB, call it a strikeout, and go sit back and watch the game?

Now for a clean inning from Festa. So far, so good.

Ziggy on the call!!!

I want to say LaTroy Hawkins did it last year for some reason? But I could be way off so don't take that as gospel.

Correct. Hopefully it stays as solo HR's. Those can be come back from. The grand salami, not so much.

I find it interesting that they moved Correa down to 6th in the lineup. And as I type this, Festa delivers a steak sammich to Semien.

I agree. I don't think they would have bothered keeping Alcala on the staff this long to just jettison him now when there have been opportunities to do it earlier this season. I'm not sure Alcala will actually accept an assignment in St Paul unless he clears waivers and there are no other MLB teams willing to give him a ML contract.

Another thing to consider is that many of the current players and many players in our youth programs are concentrating on one sport instead of playing multiple sports. Each sport uses different parts of the body. As a reminder, I believe Mauer played 4 sports and had a full ride scholarship to Florida State and Bobby Bowden to be his QB before being drafted by the Twins. I'm sure we all agree Mauer made the right choice. My point is that the different parts of the body that were really taxing on Mauer playing baseball weren't used as heavily in the other sports he participated in while he was still able to stay in game shape by his other sport participation. I see the effects of this even as low as HS sports in very rural communities. Even in these rural communities, many HS students have access to travel teams, sports therapy programs, camps, etc. so these muscles, ligaments, joints, etc. are never truly rested to the point they can recover, and IMO leads to injuries at a higher rate and continue to get younger.

I'm also curious if managerial styles also play a role in getting or missing calls by umpires. No, this is not a criticism of Rocco and his managerial style. What I mean is some managers are more vocal about certain calls than others. Examples include Boone with the Yankees, Cora with the Red Sox, Counsil with the Cubs, and Schneider with the Blue Jays come to mind. Do they tend to get more calls than the average and does their constant chirping leave something in the minds of the umps. Just a question and I reiterate that this is NOT a criticism of Rocco here. Rocco has plenty of things that I'm upset with him about, this is not it.

This is Raya's starts since May 1. This comes out to be a 9.13 ERA and 1.72 WHIP and the underlined start was today. I'll let someone else calculate or find the advanced statistics. Very scary to bring to a ML staff, even in the bullpen. Maybe if they channel him in and has him focus on 2-4 innings, the numbers could come down. Either way, I don't see Raya coming up in the next week and by the time Raya may be ready to come up, we may not need him for the specified purpose we are exploring now. IP H R ER HR HB BB IBB SO 3.0 3 4 4 0 0 5 0 2 1.0 7 6 6 1 0 1 0 0 2.2 3 3 3 0 0 5 0 2 4.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 3.2 2 4 3 1 1 0 0 7 3.1 6 7 7 1 2 2 0 7 5.0 2 0 0 0 1 3 0 3 22.2 23 24 23 3 4 16 0 28