Western SD Fan

This is Rojas's last AAA start in 48 pitches: Does not look like he's ready for the show yet. His 2025 campaign in St. Paul was 27 1/3 innings and a 6.59 ERA. I'm not suggesting he will be a bust. I am saying he's probably not ready to face an MLB lineup.

And as much as 7 runs, 6 earned is bad for the ERA, he still gutted out 5 innings and didn't put undue pressure on the bullpen. As we are currently seeing with Banda now, more bullpen outs are not the answer.

When there is someone who can replace him. Right now, there is no one who can replace him in St. Paul.

I would be curious how many defensive runs saved that they estimate Wallner has due to the arm strength. Maybe he gets an extra out or two? My eyeballs tell me that the estimated outs saved is not worth the outs he is creating in the batter's box.

I'm willing to suffer through Larnach's defense at this point just to get his bat in the lineup, even facing a lefty, Larnach's bat has at least shown some kind of life.

We all knew that this was a possible outcome going into the season given the defense. The game is not over yet. Everyone has a clunker. Hopefully, we can limit damage and keep ourselves in the game.

I had suggested that the Twins were doing well against lefties since the hitters have just been seeing the ball from that side with all of the AB's they have taken against lefties this year. Watching the game last night, Molitor quickly told me that I was full of it when that question was broached during the game. Molitor's opinion was that since many lefties have odd release points, that you're never really used seeing the ball. I would also think that the Twins will probably come back towards the mean at some point in the season. I just hope that they don't go back so far as looking helpless against any lefty. I also wonder the effect hitting coach Keith Beauregard and veterans such as that Josh Bell has had on the team. Bell is a professional hitter and may be more accessible to the younger hitters than Correa. I could be wrong about that. They have been discussing player dinners and player events this year. We never heard about these types in previous years.

Yes. My bad. Cleveland refuses to give the Twins sole possession of 1st. I fixed it!

Nah. Bullpens are like backup QB's. The less you see them, the better your team is.

Cleveland still refuses to give up sole possession of 1st. Ahead of the Cardinals 5-4 going to the bottom of the 9th.

I would say there could be some truth to that. On the other side, Shelton seems to be more of a clubhouse voice than Rocco. They stated during the pre-game that even during the year that he was Rocco's bench coach that it was Shelton that walked through the clubhouse. I remember them suggesting that Rocco and Falvey spoke nearly every day and there had been more than one question asked on whether Falvey was actually running the lineup.

I would say you're more correct about Jax than Abel. If you believe you are a good closer away from a WS run, you likely still make that trade. Especially if you stand a chance at resigning him, like Philly does.

My prediction will be that he will face IKF in the 8th, then be replaced by Rogers since the next 2 of 3 batters will be lefties.

I think he also see there are now players in his rear-view mirror who could replace him in the near future. He really hasn't faced that pressure yet in his career. He is also in his last pre-arb year and that probably mounts some pressure to perform, and he is not making the adjustments.

Great outing by Abel! Come out for the 7th?

Amazing how much his defense is not discussed when he starts to heat up. Some other players on the team could take notice. 🙂

While the Twins did not score, the fact that they made Gray work is still great for the team as it is looking more and more possible he won't get past the 4th inning.

A little reverse psychology, Twins pitchers have been plagued by patient lineups the past few years. Glad to see the Twins lineup finally doing it to some opposing pitchers.

I believe that he will, but I will say that his leash continues to get a little shorter each time he comes back and doesn't produce. If you believe the Culpepper is right around the corner, I could see Culpepper playing both SS and 3B to get continued playing time.

Abel showing off those PFP skills! Refreshing from a Twins pitching staff!

Plouffe has not made it a secret that he has been communicating with both Wallner and Royce on a consistent basis, giving them advice on the career spot they are currently in. Plouffe is probably the best person for it as he went through the struggle both of them are currently in. Whether they are listening to him or not is different story.

I just wanted to give a time stamp for you in case anyone else wanted to listen to it. If you look up Skor North Twins Show on YouTube, it was on today's show with Trevor Plouffe at 33:31.

That was one of my issues last year when Royce was struggling was that they kept him in such an important position in the lineup. He needed to be dropped in the order, especially when it was apparent that he wasn't ready when he came back from injury since he never really had a spring training in 2025.

Great job on the article and great research @Cody Schoenmann. My main concern with Larnach was that he appeared to be a redundancy of Wallner and having them both out there would negatively impact the lineup. In previous years, both in the same lineup would be similar to being trapped in a Bermuda Triangle where AB's go to die. Additionally, in previous years, there was little base stealing or even going from first to third on a single, neither could seem to hit with RISP, or hit enough HR's to make up the difference. The way a potential lineup was constructed also gave the idea that there was not going to be enough AB's for all of the LH bats. Credit the schedule that led us down a path that we haven't had to cross that path yet. Shelton has definitely brought in a new philosophy and the players have responded. As of now, this does not look as bad as it did before the season started and some of us (me included) may have overreacted. The Outman situation is untenable, but we have had players like him before such as Keirsey Jr and Billy Hamilton, although I agree that Roden needs to replace Outman as soon as possible.

SWR has entered the chat. Here is an extreme example that Rocco likely pulled his starters too early. Minnesota Twins vs Houston Astros Box Score: June 15, 2025 | Baseball-Reference.com SWR on the mound goes 5 innings, 58 pitches, 38 strikes, only faces 17 batters. Not even twice through the order! SWR has only given up 1 walk, 1 hit, and 4 K's and still gets pulled after 5 innings. Most conventions would suggest, even in a 1-0 Twins lead at the time, that he gets to keep pitching until the Astros show some signs of life. Twins went to the bullpen, and even with their studs in the bullpen coming in (Stewart, Varland, and Duran), still cough up the lead and eventually lose. I would suggest that Rocco's lack of trust in his starters led to the overuse of the bullpen. When you overuse anything in life, they are prone to being broken down eventually. Shelton has worse starters, by comparison, and his trust in his starters have kept the bullpen as fresh as they can be considering they are nearing the end of a streak of 15 days without a day off. I use the late 2010's Cleveland teams as my example. They had a great starting staff of Kluber, Bauer, Carrasco, and Tomlin. They also had great relievers like Shaw, Allan, Miller, and McAllister. The hype at the time was that all they had to do was get through the 6th inning with the lead and the game was essentially over. A great starting staff that could go at least 6 innings in a game helped shorten the game for them and make the bullpen more efficient and effective.