The Great Hambino

They might be on the slider now

Split the difference between third and home perfectly

One advantage of not having a closer: the 14 blown saves of Ron Davis from 1984 probably remains out of reach. Probably

If they really wanted to have some fun with the fans, they should've had the same teams open the season in DC

That outcome for Wallner was always gonna be a true one

Maybe the Reds are just a juggernaut 🤷‍♂️

Burning your bench in the 6th cuz of Anthony Banda

I didn't think Royce was gonna make that play. Nice job Royce (and Clemens)

I've been burned too often - when it comes to gymnastics gambling, I make Krusty the Klown look like Jimmy the Greek

Between this and preschool gymnastics, I’m not loving my sports viewing options at the present moment

It depends on the timeline we're talking about. The longer that timeline, the more optimistic I become If we're talking 2026, I'd probably take the over on the 69* wins I guessed coming into the season, but not much over *Selling at the deadline was baked into this figure

Juan Soto is eligible to come off the IL today - not clear yet whether or not he actually will Take your time Juan, make sure you're 100%. It's a long season

Old friend Sonny Gray with the Red Sox was just pulled mid-game in the third inning of his Patriots Day start against the Tigers with an apparent injury. Another old friend in Danny Coulombe replaced him

Still winless in 1-run and extra inning games

Yeah, I'd much rather play them when they're on fire

So Austin Martin is physically capable of hitting a RHP after all

I guess everyone in the bullpen needs a save before anyone can get their second

Congrats to Junior Junior for finishing his Doctor of Education education Also, thanks in advance for jinxing the Wild

He does a great job of not revealing the dirt he has on the front office

The shiznit? Good work Chief, I like this new feature

If Outman is sent down/out, his call-up replacement doesn't necessarily have to just assume his role. Especially with Kreidler around to offer cover in CF in a pinch (which has to be the only thing keeping Outman on the roster at this point), roles could be reshuffled in a way that results in the callup sharing time with Martin, Larnach spending more time at DH (or RF if Wallner needs his playing time scaled back), and Bell can play more at 1B. Clemens is the one whose playing time takes a hit. We can deal with what to do when Lewis is healthy when he's healthy. Are they still thinking he'll be back early next week? I haven't read or heard anything good or bad

It's important for the rotation to steal innings and outs from the bullpen whenever they can. You don't get to plan when you're inevitably going to get hit with back-to-back short starts that strain the bullpen. You can't pass up opportunities to balance that ledger. Especially when your bullpen is highly suspect

I'm seeing 16 steals of home for Rod Carew as a Twin instead of 14 (plus one as an Angel) Either way, that's about as untouchable as it gets. I'd be shocked if anyone in their career can touch the 7 he had just in the 1969 season

BBRef has a measure called game leverage index (gmLI) for all relievers. This measures how high or low the game leverage is relative to league average when a reliever enters the game - a lower number means lower leverage. So far the Twins are currently dead last in the AL in this figure, which means the bullpen hasn't really been put under too much stress. This tracks as they've only had one one-run game and one extra-inning game (they lost both of those games). So unless the Twins can continue to bludgeon teams offensively (only the Astros have scored more runs in the AL), the bullpen is going to have to step up in these high leverage situations in order to maintain their success. The sooner they can transition some potential high leverage weapons to the pen, the better

Beyond spending money to replace what was lost, teams like Milwaukee that have stayed at least moderately successful have someone internal ready to step up when they trade away a Corbin Burnes or a Josh Hader. Varland seemed to be potentially that guy for the Twins after Duran/Jax were sent away ... but then he got traded too. For me, that - not his place of birth - is what bothered me about his trade. It signaled to me that they were punting on competitiveness for the duration of the Lopez/Ryan contracts. So when they signaled their intent to remain competitive while not committing any real resources - internal or external - to replace what they lost in the pen, it got extra frustrating. They still haven't committed any internal resources to replacing the top end of the bullpen - the only relief outings made by anyone that could've been considered a starting pitching prospect at any point during 2025 have effectively been piggyback starts by Abel and Morris. Maybe they will do so as the season progresses with Festa or Zebby or Morris or others. The fact that the pen has been able to smoke-and-mirrors their way to some success so far has bought them some time, but I'm not sure how long that can hold up. I hope it does, and I'll enjoy it while it lasts, and I can at least see a path to competitiveness this year that I didn't see in the offseason, but I'm still wary of seeing a short-term payoff from last year's trades if they're not willing to do what's necessary to reinforce the top end of the bullpen. As @mickster noted above, there as of yet has been zero benefit provided to the major league roster from the Varland trade. Long-term payoff from the trades, on the other hand, is looking very very promising. Bradley looks like the best version of himself and Abel looks like a keeper too. And by sheer volume, someone from the haul currently in the minors is bound to break through as a valuable piece in the future