mikelink45

Thanks for the retrospective. I would like to see Celestino instead of Jake Cave on the current roster. I know that Cave is a vet and we should ignore his terrible stat line (except for the one big homer), but what I like is Celestino's defense and if Buxton goes out again I would like a real CF out there. Alcala looks like a rookie right now. I hope he will pull it together because he has the pitches to succeed.

I loved the Dyson on base activities - not because I wanted the Twins to lose, but I am tired of station to station baseball. I love the stolen base, the hit and run, the active pursuit of runs and the use of speed. We have speed, but we do not utilize it because some stathead said it was bad. So many factors come in to play. Dyson really shook up the Twins - that cannot be measured. I hated that we lost, but boy that was fun.

Some players are so unlucky with injuries. As a person who has had too many replacements and operations from my years backpacking, climbing, skiing, and canoeing I know how frustrating injuries can be. The difficulty for the Twins is that we really do not have an adequate 3B replacement. Marwin is great as a fill in, but he is utility and should not be a regular. Adrianza is even less of a good replacement for extended times. Is it time for Blankenhorn to get a try out? I would. Good luck to Donaldson, I hope he is back soon. For the Twins good luck too. This was a great signing and I would hate to have it backfire and cause them to be more cautious in the future.

I am ready for an infusion - Kiriloff and Rooker? Cave down. Who else?

I had to look at the RP chart and Romo and Rogers have not been over used. i hate it when we blow it with the bad teams. But it started early. Except for one bad pitch was a mantra we used earlier with Berrios. That is what professional pitchers are supposed to avoid.

They all worry me. Today we lost to the Pirates and they are really bad. One or two in a slump we can handle, but this is too many. I am shocked by Arraez and confused by Donaldson. Sano and Buxton have never registered high on my trust meter. Garver was someone I really had high expectations for. We are two games from 1/4 of the season. Keep that in mind. This 60 game or less season is really a challenge.

Not sure why, but Randy Dobnak got me thinking about the odds of ever being a major league player. According to MLB stats there have been 18, 918 to play in the majors since 1871. I do not know if that is accurate – who does? Does it include the Negro leagues? Does it include the female league? No those last two are not included. It does not include the independent or the minor leagues, but even if it did it still represents such a small percentage of the population. There are 328.2 million people in the US according to the census. If all of the players who ever played in MLB were playing now they would still be just 5.7% of the population and we have a game that draws from all over the world. Out of this group 333 are in the hall of fame – 1.8%. It is a demanding game. Only 21 players have gone from drafted to the majors with no stop in the minors. When MLB heartlessly cancelled the minor league season there were 160 teams and towns impacted and about 8000 players. In the majors there are 30 teams and 60 players on their lists 1800 total. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/sports/baseball/minor-league-baseball-season-canceled.html I try to imagine how many players are let go or retire and how many are signed each year. Baseball America https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/how-many-mlb-draftees-make-it-to-the-majors/ says that about 900 players are signed each year. Since they do not create new leagues for them we must also lose 900 a year. Wow – talk about crashed dreams. The same article said, “from 1981-2010, 17.6 percent of players who were drafted and signed ended up making it to the majors.” And “Only 9.8 percent of draftees who signed have managed to register 0.1 career WAR, which is roughly 83 players per season.” What about undrafted players? There will be many more this year with the aborted draft that was held. I cannot find a number for all the undrafted players – of course before the draft everyone was in that category. But I did find this list that includes our own Dan Gladden and HOF pitcher Bruce Sutter and HOF outfielder Larry Walker - https://www.mlb.com/cut4/best-undrafted-players-in-mlb-history-c278967168 plus some more really good players. Which brings me to my final stat – there are 750,000 Uber drivers in the US and we have only one former driver in the big leagues – Randy Dobnak. Think of those odds – 1/750,000 and then 5.7% of the current US population having ever made the majors. Hat’s off to Randy. Enjoy every pitch. The ride might turn into pumpkins eventually, but he is already among the luckiest and most achieving.

Is Balazovic now on the 60 man list? I thought he had not been added. Personally I would prefer Kiriloff or Larnach to Cave. I pitching staff is really doing well and it has carried the team so far. I would like to know the true story on Hill and Bailey and Odorizzi. We need at least one of them to join the Berrios, Maeda, Dobnak rotation. Only a few bats seem alive - We have only five players batting 250 or better - one is Gonzalez who is supposed to be the utility man and a second is Avila our second string catcher.

I agree on Buxton's fielding, but I think that the panel really overreached trying to justify his hitting. He is not league average as a hitter, let's be honest with that. He has two of six years above 250 average. Two years with 314 OBP - his high. Give us reality, don't stretch the praise for our players.

I have to say that Berrios still does not look good. These are the Pirates. I need to see much more from him after these three starts. He not bad, but he is pitching like a number 3 for me.

Thorpe is a puzzle, starting with his ST absence. This should have been his year. He was ready the end of last year and now he just has not looked like the pitcher we hope will be in future rotations. I am sure Wes is working on this. Thorpe and Smeltzer were supposed to be with Dobnak in the reserve corp, but only Dobnak has taken the ball and made the most of it. After these three, who would be the next rotation arm in the system? Would it be Poppen or is there someone else in St Paul. I still wish Balazovic was there.

In a short season everything is magnified. I am not worried about Garver. But I am worried about Buxton and wondering if Jake Cave is the right choice for the fourth OF spot. I know it is hard to get the topics that fit every reader in a season like this. I think it was a good speculation and maybe we will all watch more closely now.

I join the other responders - his approach in the batter's box is horrible and we talked about having an amazing lineup 1 - 9. With Josh Donaldson out, Garver struggling, Sano struggling with an occasional power outburst, Jake Cave is riding on one good at bat so far this season, and Buxton no better than a pitcher in the nine hole the lineup is no where as powerful and potent as we predicted. Thanks pitchers. But Buxton has now been around a long time - six years in MLB. He currently has a -0.2 WAR. We all want him to succeed, we want him to be the star that Luis Roberts is now predicted to be, but we grasp at straws. The season is now 1/6th complete. In a short season the slumps are even more difficult to deal with. I am all for keeping him healthy in the field, but if his fielding goes down even a little his lack of hitting becomes even more unacceptable.

I feel bad for Wade - would rather it was Whitehead

I would love to see Wade, Rooker, Kiriloff or Larnach take Cave's place for a while.

I worry about that too - the Cinderella syndrome - teams get hot and cold at different times in the season and the chance for a poor team to rise to the top is too great for me to feel good about it. It is like Hockey - a hot goalie can carry a team and a staff Ace can propel a baseball team in a short series.

With minimum games and the potential that not all the teams will play 60 games the playoffs get quite interesting With the 16 game playoffs who is in and who is out? Based on percentage: American League Yankees, Twins, Athletics are the division leaders Second place teams: Baltimore (really), White Sox, Astros Next two – wild cards – best percentages Cleveland and Detroit (yes Gardy’s gang) National League First seeds: Atlanta, Cubs, Rockies (really) Second group: Miami (yes only three games), Milwaukee, Dodgers Wild Cards: San Diego, San Francisco Wouldn't that be fun?

sorry to hear Bailey is on IL - I sure hope it is not covid related. Dobnak is remains in the rotation. If Odorizzi is back we are set, if not who takes the extra start? Poppen, Thorpe or Smeltzer? I hope Thorpe.

NO - I hate openers. We just had a posting about our depth of rotation and suddenly we do not trust Homer to pitch against the Indians. Start Thorpe or Smeltzer. One of them has to eat some innings so start with the first. This is the shiny new tricycle on the block - openers - and I predict it will be put back in the garage to rust in a few years. BP games are simply ways to wear out your BP. With all these games in such a short season the BP will have plenty of time to get innings.

I love the pen, but I also love starters to go seven and I hate openers. What a joke - is this just to continue to make BP ready for any inning? I just cannot imagine how this is an advantage - and I know I am really old - but put a good pitcher out there, let them pitch until you need a reliever. Is Clippard going to go 7? No - you will need someone after him to stretch out the game by going multiple innings - so start that person. Yes the top of the order is the toughest - guess what if the next pitcher is going to stretch out the game they are still going to face the top of the lineup once or twice. So that is my rant. We currently have a good rotation to go with at good pen - I like that.

Brusdar 5 games, 0.692 whip, 2.08 ERA, 4 Inn, 4 Ks. Not ready to who is Brusdar, but I do like Maeda. My question is - why not let him pitch another inning or two. Do we really need to give our BP work? Great win, but the offense still does not look right - it seems like we have timely eruptions from different portions of our lineup, but nothing consistent through the entire group.

We have had Marlins, Phillies, and now Cardinals test positive. We have had replacement games with the poor Yankees having to play the highly rated Orioles. Monday the Postponed games were - Yankees at Phillies; Orioles at Marlins. Tuesday - Postponed games: Yankees at Phillies; Orioles at Marlins. Wednesday - Postponed games: Phillies at Yankees; Orioles at Marlins. Replacement game: Yankees at Orioles. Thursday - Postponed games: Phillies at Yankees; Orioles at Marlins. Replacement game: Yankees at Orioles. Today - Postponed games: Cardinals at Brewers; Phillies at Blue Jays; Nationals at Marlins. Weekend games already postponed (both Saturday and Sunday): Phillies at Blue Jays; Nationals at Marlins. And the Cardinals just left Minnesota. The Blue Jays are postponed and do not even have a home to go to. If MN is postponed will it be during the Cleveland Series and the Pirates. The first set is fine, but lets not lose out on Pittsburgh. In a 60 game season that is 12 postponed games. The end of September the playoffs are scheduled to follow the jampacked season. So we will have teams at this stage who have played 50 - 60 games. No guarantees. Fair? They are ready for double headers now with 7 inning games - how about triple headers with 5 innings each? Four game sets at three innings each? Or we just roll dice and pretend it is an APBA season. Oh yes, the question (s) - if this blows up in the next week or two - do the stats still count or will Bieber and others be short changed. I mean the games are regular season like the counting stats for Upton's 300th HR, does Kelly's suspension go away, Does Cabrera lose his three HRs as he goes for 500 or the hits as he looks for 3000?

I cannot imagine how the athletes prepare for both a game and a cancellation. It is not possible to ignore the facts swirling around the game.

Covid is really messing with everything. I did a blog on this https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11958-%7B%3F%7D/ before this announcement because we all have to be aware - it was actually the second of the blogs related to Covid. I just worry that we underestimate its true significance. Trying to make sense of numbers I posted this yesterday on my Facebook page: My accounting: Minnesota Deaths have now passed the population of Lakefield and are just over the population of Aurora. The number of cases now exceeds the population of Edina. US cases now exceed the total population of Kentucky our 26th largest state and is about to pass Louisiana. US deaths now exceeds the population of Kansas City Kansas. World Cases have now equaled the population of the Netherlands

If there is a star of the game in a loss it has to be Arraez. I want him higher in the lineup. He was the only one who really challenged Bieber. Bieber looks great with that amazing pitch ability against guys swinging from their heels, but Arraez could have had three hits. He is patient, he looks over the field and he puts the ball in play. I will take this kind of batter any day. Challenge the fielders, understand what the pitcher is doing. It may not last but right now he is channeling Carew, Gwynn, and Brett. And by the way, his defense is up a notch too.