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I have been really concerned with the defense. The problem with communicating this in the second half is that it takes time for the stats to drop - a good first half can mask a bad second half for a significant period of time.

In previewing this series we need to look at some starling Twins stats too. only Baltimore has allowed more home runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings than the Twins’ 55. We now have 85 errors and have allowed 58 unearned runs. We have five blown saves in August.

Nice exercise - It challenged me to think about the lineup in different ways. I like yours but what if we just did it by OBP? Here is how it would look (I am too lazy to go lefty/righty for this exercise). Plus I am looking at the time when Buxton and Cruz are back in the lineup. I actually like the way this looks. Castro has a 330 and should be in there but with Cruz back there is no place for him to play Arraez 420Cruz 384Adrianza 380Polanco 357Garver 346Kepler 339Sano 336Castro 330 (Cron Loses out at 321 because Castro would catch Garver at 1BGonzales 316 (sub Buxton 314) Or if we went with OPS Cruz 1.035Garver 960Sano 885Kepler 874Arraez 862Polanco 344Rosario 836Buxton 827Castro 824 Just putting them in by either of these statistical measurements and not moving them for any other reason they are two good lineups By HR it is a little different Cruz 32Kepler 32Rosario 26Garver 23Sano 21Cron 19Polanco 17Schoop 16Gonzalez 14 Different look, but the fact is our batters have a lot of talent and you can pick a lineup out of a bag. It comes down to pitching and defense!

So nice to see so many prospects having a good day on the same day! We need that to offset the worry that is inherent in being a Twins fan.

No need - they just need his heater!

Do not let the average innings per start deceive us. Yes we push the starters to make QS. But in doing so we have also been letting them get us behind by allowing 4 - 6 runs in order to get those innings these do not qualify as 6 inning, 3 runs quality starts, but reflect on average innings per start. There are so many stats and I get weary digging through the limited ones I understand, but I do know that the eye test is still valid and I have seen to many shaky starts by Perez, slightly less bad starts by Gibson, but I would not trust him in a big game, and Odorizzi has been hot and cold. In the end it is Pineda and Berrios. Berrios should be extended, Pineda - two years maximum. And why is Perez the starter who still has another year on his contract?

We need him badly. https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11608-playoff-pitchers-where-do-twins-rank/ The pitching staff is almost a daily litany of frustration and we still have a lot of games left before the playoffs The problem with Pineda is health, just like Buxton. Can he hold up the rest of the season and if we extend him, can he hold up beyond this season. Quality starts is not a high enough standard, but it is a start - Twins starts and Quality starts Berrios 24 - 17 Pineda 21 - 11 Gibson 25 - 9 Perez 24 - 9 Odorizzi 23 - 7 Smeltzer 4 - 2 Stewart 2 - 1 That is a total of only 56 QS in 120 games! That does say something!

Is there a lesson we are overlooking - it might not be just Rogers who cannot pitch well on consecutive days. It has been a long time since the Polanco fielding conversations, but it might be hard to ignore when games like this happen. We continue to be a 500 team - please bring on the also rans.

I could not resist putting up this Home Run Derby between Harmon Killebrew and Rocky Colavito. In this contest the two who had tied for the HR championship of the AL faced off. It is preceded by Harmon taking the crown from Mickey Mantle - And followed by a contest Harmon lost to Ken Boyer - a third baseman who belongs in the Ken did not last long - his next challenge was Hank Aaron who took over the program. It is so amazing to see these greats playing for $2000 - chump change today. It is also fun to see Harmon, pre-Twins days in his Senator's uniform. These are great players without the science of today. I love watching them. Nostalgia - enjoy.

I have hoped for Gonsalves for the last two years, but what I have seen in MLB has not impressed or encouraged me. I think Thorpe is our starter hopeful, although if we let our FA walk we might need Gonsalves with Thorpe. I am not a believer in Smeltzer, but right now he would be the third of the young starters for me. It seems like Graterol is destined for the Pen or I would have put him in the threesome

We have watched Rocco let too many pitchers load the bases and put us in trouble. A quick hook is required in these situations. But to blame just Rocco is to overlook a Bench Coach that everyone raves about (why?) and a pitching coach. No one mentioned it yet, but Perez gave up no earned runs! Which is a bigger shock - that he did this based on his season to date or that he did it with all the runners and action that he allowed the Brewers throughout the game?

I do not think he will win for many reasons - it is a power year, he was an unexpected rookie phenom and has not grabbed the headlines of Guerrero and others, but he is definitely my ROY. I love the balance he has given the lineup, the extremely professional approach to the team, his attitude and his consistency. He has beaten out a good veteran for 2B and I look forward to a long career. I know he was not rated in our top 20 prospects until this year and I doubt if he made any other lists.

What is wrong with Javier? .161 .269 .296 .565 in the last ten games he is hitting 139. Is there an injury, a reason for this terrible season? He has now played in 62 games.

I have no answers, but I think everyone in the system has to be on call. No holding back because we already did that at trade deadline.

I am very concerned because he is the only pitcher we have that I truly feel confidant with. Why don't they use the IL rest for him when we are in a stretch of poor teams? I am sorry - I know why - no one else is reliable.

Good catch, I intended to include that and missed. Glad you posted.

I agree, but how does our rotation and pen match the others? We did not match well with Cleveland this past series.

I have said this in another post, but your excellent summary makes me think it again. Since we have this charter flight from Rochester (just kidding) lined up lets use it more. Start Thorpe, start Littell, Start Smeltzer. Pair them with Gibson, Perez, Pineda, Odorizzi and Berrios - in other words ready two starters per game and stop letting starters give up 6 - 9 runs. I do not know if there are any other Minor league starters who can fill this role (Graterol?) Bring up Graterol - it is a chancy thing, but we did not take any chances in the trade deadline so reach down and go for it. Short relief with his power should be good. Fix the Outfield - Cave is not doing it and putting infielders out there is not doing it. Even more than Larnach and Kiriloff I would like to see a really good CFer who can bring some defense back. These are not outrageous moves. Arraez had demonstrated what a young player potentially can do.

Is there a place to find how many outs at home plate a team has made? It feels like we have had a lot recently - not just Adrianza, but Cron...

If the playoffs started today – these are the teams and their top three-man rotations. Which would you choose? I have them listed as I would rank them. Starting three for the playoffs 1. Houston – Verlander, Cole, Greinke 2. Cleveland – Bieber, Clevinger, Kluber 3. Tampa – Morton, Chirinos, Glasnow or Snell if he returns 4. Yankees – Tanaka, Paxton, German or Happ 5. Twins – Berrios, Pineda, Odorizzi Houston has Aaron Sanchez and Wade Miley, Cleveland has the two rookie pitchers we just saw, Yankees have CC Sabathis, Tampa will make something up, and the Twins have Gibson in reserve. NL – 1. Dodgers - Ryu, Beuhler, Kershaw 2. Nationals – Strasburg, Scherzer, Corbin 3. Braves – Teheran, Soroka, Fried 4. Cubs – Lester, Hendricks, Quintana 5. Cardinals – Mikolas, Wainwright, Flaherty The Cardinals have Wacha and Hudson in reserve, the cubs have Yu Darvish (on Boy) and are we glad we lost that signing battle, the Nationals have Annibal Sanchez, and the Braves hope Dallas Kuechel will be dealing by then. Pick your poison. The Twins rotation might be as good as the Yankees and Cardinals, but beyond that it is a guess and the Bullpen is the next question. Chapman or Rogers? This keeps the Yankees above us. Not that Rogers and Romo are not doing well, but I think Rogers is wearing out and who do you trust in a tight game against a really good lineup after them? Bullpen: AL 1. Yankees – Chapman and Ottavino 2. Houston – Osuna and Pressley 3. Cleveland - Hand and Perez 4. Twins – Rogers and Romo 5. Tampa – Pagan and Roe NL 1. Dodgers – Jansen and Baez 2. Washington – Doolittle and Suero 3. St Louis – Hicks and Miller 4. Braves – Jackson and Swarzak 5. Cubs – Strop and Kintzler Yankees ahead by a large margin in BP, then Houston with Dodgers and Cleveland equal and the rest are hard to rate. What is interesting is that three former Twins are in these BP pairs (not counting our own two). That is it. Houston is my pick at this point based on pitchers and the Nationals and Dodgers tied for NL side.

What I have as my complaint is not the poor decision to go for home, but Rocco not recognizing that Rogers just threw 2 innings yesterday and this is Cleveland, this is playoff baseball. If Rogers is off just a little there is no leeway. Where was the next BP arm in line? Why did we let the bases get loaded. This was another poor pitch management decision by Rocco.

Yes it is time - the FO gave us Parker and Perez as the new big additions to the pitching staff before the season and Romo and Dyson in season. They are one for four. But they have shown they will DFA players so time to say they messed up and move on. Not sure it if is Smeltzer or Thorpe, but either one had the potential to do more than Perez.

Matt Wallner really jumps out at me. I expect him to be pushed up soon. .281 .366 .466 .833 with 5 HRs is a really great debut.

You might be able to teach me where I can get stats that reflect a period of time - post all star break is what I want. Odorizzi just turned things around and that is great, however the third time through the lineup is disaster and he was again pulled in the middle of an inning, but Gibson and Perez have shown me nothing. The trouble with these league rankings is that they include the tanking teams so Detroit, KC, Miami, and other miserable teams that we can beat up on take up the bottom half of the list. If we are 5th in the AL it means 4 teams are above us and they will be the ones we see in the playoffs. I am most concerned with where we will be in the playoffs and right now it is Berrios, Pineda (still not going deep) and Odorizzi (two times through the lineup) and yes the BP has to step in for them. Perez and Gibson are becoming BP games. Okay I found the sortable stats - http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/stats/sortable.jsp?c_id=min#elem=%5Bobject+Object%5D&tab_level=child&click_text=Sortable+Player+pitching&game_type='R'&season=2019&season_type=ANY&league_code='MLB'&sectionType=sp&statType=pitching&page=1&ts=1565532458140&timeframe=d7&split=&last_x_days=7 In the last week (7 days) we have 5 players with 9 or more ERA. 5 with a WHIP over 2. In the last 30 days Berrios, Odorizzi and Gibson have 11,14,13 walks. Perez has 6.67 era, 1.67 WHip and they are batting .327 against him. And Perez has given up 11 HR in that time. Odorizzi 5, Gibson 4, Berrios 3, Pineda 2 during that time. Berrios has pitched 30.1 innings in 5 starts - ave 6 innings. He was 6+ before getting blown out in the last game. Pineda 24 innings - 4 starts - 6 inning ave Gibson 32.2 innings 6 starts 5 innings ave Odorizzi 31.2 innings 6 starts 5.1 innings Perez 27 innings 5 starts 5.1 innings BA against - Perez 327 Odorizzi 272 Pineda 250 Gibson 244 Berrios 241 The AL overall batting average is 253. So our BP has to work 4 innings most of these games.

11 1/2 game lead is huge, losing it by August 10 is terrifying. True, we have time left and Cruz will come back and maybe Buxton too. Jack Cave might be replaced by someone who can do better in MLB from our minor leagues and maybe we will strike gold with one or two pitchers as we allow the entire minor league system to audition for us this year, but still 11.5 games! That is a lead worthy of 7 percent of the season. So come on Twins. Beat the bad teams. I think most have given up on beat the good teams and get into the playoffs where, I am sorry to say, you will only be playing good teams. Do you remember the 1969 Cubs 4.5 games up going into September and then winning just 1/3rd of their games to finish 8 behind the miracle Mets? I know NY had a great year, but poor Chicago. By the way they had 4 players on that team go to the HOF. Or our old manager Gene Mauch and his 1964 team? They led by 6 1/2 games with 12 to play. They had Dick Allen and HOF Jim Bunning. They lost 10 Straight and St Louis went to the series! That hurts. Tied for the lead on the last day of the season the 2007 Mets blew the pennant and the Phillies won. The Mets had Pedro and Glavine in their rotation but went 1 - 6 to finish the season. Then in 2008 they fired their manager part way through the year and had a 3 1/2 game lead with 17 games to go. But losing 10 of 17 is not the way to the World Series. The 1951 Dodgers had one of the saddest losses - the NY Giants steam rolled right over them with a 37 - 7 ending to the season to tie and a playoff with the home run heard around the world and still being played every year. The Dodgers had been up 13.5 on August 11! Yes that is tomorrow. And then they went to the playoff game - one game to decide and lead 4 - 1 going into the ninth. Ralph Branca - not a bad pitcher - against Dale Long - not a great hitter - and a three run home run destroyed the Dodger's year. Lets enjoy 2009, the year the Tigers led by 7 games on September 6 over the MINNESOTA TWINS. We won 10 of 11 and Alexi Casilla put us in the playoffs! In 1978 the Red Sox led by 9 over the Brewers and 14 over the Yankees on July 19th. The Yankees went 52 - 21 and into a playoff. Anyone heard of Bucky Dent? Well the Red Sox fans will never forget him as he ripped the hearts out the Boston team. 2011 the Red Sox again were leading by 9 games over the Rays on September 1 and then played a 7 - 20 final month and lost the pennant to Tampa Bay. 1995 the Angels, who have been a playoff deprived team, led by a familiar 11.5 on August 9 and then the wheels fell off. going 12 - 27 and were put out of the misery by Randy Johnson in a one-game playoff. 1998 they had a 3 1/2-game lead in the division with 19 to play and lost 13 of their last 19. In 1987 the Blue Jays held a 3.5 game lead with 7 to go and could not win another game. The Tigers went to the playoffs. Where they would face the Twins. 2003 the Mariners had the best record in baseball, but (does this sound familiar?) they played just under 500 ball for the rest of the season and took the off season off. The 2010 Padres had a last half season collapse and after having just one three-game losing streak all season, the Padres proceeded to drop 10 straight. (Sounds too close to home). With a 6 1/2 game lead on August 25 they came the closest that the poor team could come to Post Season and watched Arizona go to the series. There are more where these came from. Painful I know but that is baseball. Let's go Twins - this is a list I do not want you to be on.