Western SD Fan

I can root for the team and their success. I can be mad at the Pohlads for mismanaging a team for decades. I purchased MLB.TV so yes, I'm putting money in the Pohlads' pockets, and I don't care. I'm a fan of the team and I'm going to enjoy that to the best of my ability. In terms of spending, they have already exceeded expectations by not forcing a trade of players like Castro to stay under what was the off-season reported payroll cap. I'm sure the leaked reports about potential local buyers walking away due to the price is a negotiating tactic, much like the Ishbia's seemed to be this past off-season. Just for closure, I would like a sale to be sooner rather than later.

Paddack will be tagged with a loss he really didn't deserve. He did his job.

Yes/No would be the better response. 😂

Over/Under that Buxton is activated for tomorrow's game and Bader will be available.

I'll give the 'way too much credit to Rocco' response here and suggest he did it to calm Stewart down. He just gave up a dinger, a single, and shot putted a pickoff throw.

We used to have the Mendoza line, but I think they should rename it the Lewis Line since Lewis would have to go on a long hitting streak just to get back above the Mendoza Line.

Especially when they just finished explaining that Clevenger had reverse splits against righties (Correa excluded).

IIRC from reading the injury update on Wallner, they wanted him to be able to complete two games in the field without any discomfort before activating him. Since the minors don't typically play on Monday, I would surmise that Wallner would be activated for Friday's game in Seattle. Buxton is travelling with the team so it's all when doctors clear him to play. Edit: I wish they would have taken that much care with Lewis before activating him.

To be clear, I've been on the Trade Paddack camp since the offseason. With that being said, Paddack has exceeded my expectations so far this season. One of my biggest issues with advanced metrics is that it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Paddack is bound to have a clunker where he gives up 4-6 runs in less than 5 innings and then all the people quoting the advanced metrics will come out and scream that he is now regressing towards the mean whenever that clunker start arrives. The historic issue with Paddack has been that he throws too many pitches and can't get through 5 innings. This year he is averaging just under 5 1/3 innings pitched and hasn't thrown under 5 innings since April 6th, his second start. My ultimate question is who do you replace Paddack with at the moment? SWR: you just sent him down to St. Paul for being a worse version of Paddack. Zebby: he currently doesn't seem to be able to command his pitches effectively enough to get through 5 innings. Festa: he is coming back from arm fatigue, so I don't see him getting anymore run than Paddack for a while. Can all of this change by the deadline? Of course. But for now, we should enjoy riding with the Sheriff until the horse collapses and just be ready for that collapse with a contingency plan.

Lewis may be the case of the organization panicking and rushing him back too soon. When Lewis was activated off the IL (May 6th), the Twins were 15-20 and the season on the brink after the Cleveland series although some optimism was blossoming taking 2 of 3 from the Red Sox as the start of the thirteen-game winning streak. The excitement that Lewis was coming back even was the focus as a ticket-selling advertisement. Lewis's line while on rehab was: 23AB, 4H, 3R, 1 RBI, .174/.167/.384. His play in St. Paul while on rehab was clearly not ready for recall as we are seeing with a much more patient approach with Wallner with a similar hamstring strain as Lewis. As for Lewis not running 100%, how many years have we heard this conversation about Buxton about playing with reckless abandonment and eventually getting injured. Ultimately, the best ability on the field is availability. If Lewis cruises into second instead of stretching out for 3rd, that's fine. We have seen it with many players including Buxton and Correa do the same thing as the expectation is they can score from second on a sharp single. Earlier in the season we were praising Buxton for his resurgence as this was the first offseason that he had where he was not recovering or rehabbing from an injury. We haven't seen this from Lewis yet as it seems like he has always been recovering from an injury of some sort. Now that the Twins have turned their season around (for now of course), my hope for Lewis is that: 1) he can either figure it out on the Twins roster with possible extra days off since the roster has healed up to the point where he is not needed in the lineup every day just to make out a roster. Definitely moving farther down in the lineup (6-9) until he finds his stroke again, 2) he is placed back on the IL if there is something still lingering with him that he cannot gear up to 100%, 3) or, he is optioned back to St. Paul to work on his swing and timing similar to what we have seen with Larnach and Wallner with the expectation that he will be recalled when ready. Many of the best players in the game had to get sent back down at some point in their careers so hopefully Lewis would take this as a way to fix things out of the limelight.

Leadoff walks finally pay off for us!

This brings back memories of the Fernando Rodney Experience.

Hrbek would have also helped Witt Jr off the ground as well.

I don't have a problem with them advertising to sell tickets. My concern is that they may have sacrificed his rehab stint to sell tickets and Lewis and team are paying for it.

Now makes me want to go spread a bunch of plastic bags out into the wind.

This. You're right that he was not ready to come back from AAA. The season was teetering on the brink when he was brought back up. Someone in an earlier thread made the comment that bringing Lewis back at the speed they did was designed to try to sell tickets. You could go back and watch that as soon as he was recalled from St. Paul that they were advertising ticket sales saying "Royce is back!".

1/2 Credit on the call! Just Bader instead of a Vazquez GS.

Especially with Lewis. Before this stretch, his star burned so bright in between injuries that the expectations were probably set too high. Whereas you take Larnach, he had his ups and downs, sent back to the minors, corrected some things, and is looking more like a professional hitter every day. Since Lewis's star is so bright right now, it will be difficult to justify sending him down to St. Paul to work on mechanics.

I guess I should have driven to Minnesota today. I could have thrown that meatball to Salvy.

37 pitches in 4 innings. Wacha looking for a CG.

Drat! Bat needed to die a hero.

We were just setting up for the 9th. Clemens PH for Lee (who comes up 4th) and gets the walk-off hit!

Used to be that we would mock and ridicule players hitting at or below the Mendoza line. Now we dream of hitters trying to achieve that line.

This is the Rocco move I don't understand. Three pitches by Stewart and he's done. You try to give the benefit of the doubt that there is something we don't know such as hitting against Stewart's pitch mix as you try to navigate through batters. But it just seems like a waste to burn a pitcher with only three pitches thrown.

Many of these batters have wives and girlfriends, right? Seems like too many of these hitters are so nervous they can't even reach 2nd base.