mikelink45

I cannot blame Buxton or any other starter. People get hurt and teams move on - check out the Yankees. But pitching is something that is not only easy to blame, but by all measurements - old and new - the pitching has been terrible. The starters have essentially pitched batting practice and waited for the relievers to take over. The construction of the team on the mound is really poor.

In a game like this I was looking for Rocco to have a quick hook for the rookie starter, but he let it go too long, then when he brought in Duffy we saw the real weakness in the BP - inherited runners score too frequently. Our BP ERA does not tell the story, add in inherited runners scoring and we have a real picture. So we continue the story line from last winter - who will pitch for us when it counts? Roll the dice.

Nice optimism, but hard to get enthused after another game where the starter gave up too many runs to allow our good offense to win the game. Hard to see our relief pitcher come back from exile with new enthusiasm only to see a critical HR in his one inning of work. Difficult to see Cruz go out for any injury. Hard to swallow the Dyson pill. Wishing our defense was not worrisome in critical situations. Not wanting to see Perez start another game, wishing Gibson could only start against mediocre teams. Hoping Pineda comes back soon. Wanting Graterol, Thorpe, Smeltzer to provide arm relief to a team that seems to have pitcher fatigue. Hoping Rocco gets the starter out before the other team builds a massive lead. Wanting some big wins against good teams because NY, Atlanta, and Cleveland have put our weaknesses on the bulletin board. I know this post does not follow your positive post, but I do appreciate your attempt to boost our fan morale.

I keep looking at the performances of the prospects and Luis Arraez continues to have the most frequent good stats. I love the way he plays and of course he will soon lose his rookie status and be off the list. I hope by then the top guys start hitting. 2019 stats Lewis .235 .288 .368 .657 Kiriloff 269 .330 .391 .721 Larnach .305 .376 .448 .824 Javier .162 .261 .306 .567 Gordon .298 .342 .459 .801 Jeffers .263 .334 .419 .753 Arraez .353 .426 .443 .869 Wallner .268 .359 .440 .800 Rortvedt .242 .337 .385 .721 Urbina .278 .380 .450 .830 Blankenhorn .292 .340 .503 .843 I know - minor league stats (except Luis) but they do matter to me and our top two need to boost their performance, Javier needs to drop and I am sorry Gordon is on the IL he needs to see the majors for a few days.

Okay a third and last post - May was not used for an extended time, then we read he is at 99.9mph and suddenly he is back. His straight heater made it quickly to the plate and quickly to the stands. May just is not trustworthy and this was not the game we should have started putting him into critical situations again.

Good comparison. Twice Gibson was asked to give us 6 after tough extra innings games and both times he struggled to four. Now we have a real threat to our lead and Gibson comes out flat again. He is not a pitcher for the post season and lets hope he does not pitch any crucial games in the rest of the current season.

You beat me to this. Two games he has left his starting pitcher in to "get innings" only to have them put the game out of reach. Both times the bats came alive to provide enough runs if the starter hadn't given up an avalanche. This is playoff baseball - Atlanta, Cleveland - are the types of teams we will see in the post season and we are showing how weak our starting pitchers are. I know it was a rare horrible start for Berrios, but Perez and now Gibson deserve no leash. I would rather see Thorpe or Graterol take those starts. I know Rosario had a chance to be a hero and we have seen him come through in those spots as well as flailing. I cannot fault him, we should not have been in such desperate straits. I do want to continue to praise Arraez. Someone asked if Carew could teach Rosario patience at the plate - all he has to do is watch Luis.

That is right. Pistol Pete is the biggest name in LSU basketball. Their basketball arena is named for him.

I am all for Thorpe taking Perez place in the rotation. Perez showed early promise but right now he is pitching like last year and that is not good for a first place team. We can start moving better pitchers into the rotation. I do not care if Perez is in the BP. Do we know if he can actually be better there? I am anxious for Dobnak to do well. We need to accomplish two things the rest of the season - get the best rotation possible to carry us into post season no matter what veterans lose out - and learn what our rotation could be next year when we lose our three starters to FA (who gave Perez two years?). This is very possible to do with the creative up and down movements. Right now Berrios and Pineda are our only sure playoff starters. And yes - bring up Graterol - let him throw heaters and prepare for next year while eating up some important innings.

I wish I had your optimism. Our starters have not been holding their own recently - if Berrios stinks the rotation stinks and I think we will get two well pitched games - one by Berrios. But more importantly, how is our Dysonless bullpen going to hold up? I would be satisfied with a split - I just do not want to end the series tied with the Indians. Based on the last month I also give the Indians the Manager advantage - Francona will be HOF eventually and Rocco is still learning how to handle his staff (sometimes that is what staff).

In this business planning needs to be started long before trade deadline - Spring Training is a time to address needs and they weren't. Romo was a good pickup and should have been the only one needed if we had taken preemptive action early on.

We need strong minor league records to translate to strong Twins records. So far we are not doing as well as we need. Since we only traded for a B and a C level reliever at trade deadline we have to have the minors fill our void.

I have put up the Blog I promised - https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11601-%7B%3F%7D/ I hope you enjoy the historic comparison.

YES - Bullpen, starter - either way it helps. We have gotten rid of a lot of chaff in the BP, but we did not pick up anything to replace it (sorry Dyson - you are not my dream reliever) and we have Perez and Odorizzi spinning balls the wrong way in the rotation so bring him up!

Perez giving us six innings has no value when he gives away the game in those six innings. With all the call ups and send downs just replace a pitcher when he stinks whether Perez or Berrios. What are we waiting for? The season is on the line right now.

Nick Nelson's excellent look at Byron Buxton and his injuries made me think about who would be a counterpart to him and his career so far and Pete Reiser immediately came to mind. Called Pistol Pete long before Pete Marinovich, he was a sensation. Read this paragraph from his Wikipedia Page - "In 1941, his first season as a regular starter, Reiser helped the Dodgers win the pennant for the first time since 1920. He was a sensation that year, winning the National League batting title while leading the league in doubles, triples, runs scored and slugging percentage. He was also named a starter to the All-Star team and placed second in MVP balloting. On July 19 of the following year, Reiser crashed face-first into the outfield wall in St. Louis, trying to catch what turned out to be a game-winning inside-the-park home run by Enos Slaughter of the rival Cardinals in the bottom of the 11th inning. The loss cut the Dodgers' lead over the Cardinals to six games." Reiser missed only 4 games with his concussion - we are better at recognizing the effect today - and he only batted 244 for the rest of the season dropping his average to 310. Now to continue the comparison - here is another excerpt from Wiki -- "Reiser gave great effort on every play in the field, and was therefore very injury-prone. He fractured his skull running into an outfield wall on one occasion (but still made the throw back to the infield), was temporarily paralyzed on another, and was taken off the field on a stretcher a record 11 times." Eleven times! Can you imagine. Today Nick gave us Buxton's injuries from the last two years. April 18, 2018: Placed on DL due to migraines May 20, 2018: Placed on DL due to fracture in left toe (suffered on foul ball during rehab stint) July 14, 2018: Placed on DL at AAA due to left wrist strain (suffered swinging the bat) August 1, 2018: Placed on DL at AAA due to lingering issues with left wrist June 18, 2019: Placed on IL due to right wrist contusion (suffered on HBP) July 16, 2019: Placed on IL due to concussion-like symptoms (suffered on impact with ground on diving catch) August 3, 2019: Placed on IL due to left shoulder subluxation (suffered in collision with OF wall) Pete could not change and neither can Byron. They have to play their own style. Even if destruction. Reiser went into the military in WWII and injured his should while playing army ball. He had to give up batting switch handed and he had to learn to throw with his opposite arm, but he came back! SABR describes this - "Once he was chasing a fly ball and burrowed right through the thick hedge that formed the outfield wall—and down a ten-foot drainage ditch on the opposite side. He separated his shoulder and couldn’t throw. So he simply switched to a right-handed glove and threw with his left arm, as he had in Elmira in 1939." He later said: "It wasn't as serious as the head injuries, but it did more to end my career. The shoulder kept popping out of place, more bone chips developed, and there was constant pain in the arm and shoulder." How good was he? SABR says "At fifteen, Reiser sneaked into a St. Louis Cardinals tryout, where he out-threw and outran more than 800 other boys. He was disappointed when he returned home without a contract, but later a Cardinals scout, Charlie Barrett, visited the Reiser home and explained why they hadn't made a big deal about Pete at Sportsman’s Park. The Cardinals didn't want word leaking out to the Browns, with whom they shared the ballpark, or anyone else. The scout also admitted they’d had their eye on him since grade school. The Cardinals knew Pete wasn’t old enough to sign to a contract, so they got permission from George Reiser to hire the boy as a “chauffeur.”" Now we hear a lot about Byron and how he should slow down, let balls go, but perhaps the ending of the SABR article should be heard. "by the early 1950s most teams had either installed warning tracks or at least planned to, and some stadiums were also starting to pad their walls. The first padded wall at Ebbets Field was made of cork. Given how hard Reiser hit that wall, it is doubtful anything other than modern foam cushioning would have saved him. "Alas, in the heat of the moment, Pete Reiser just never could pull up and play it off the wall. Every fly ball was his to catch, and catch them all he would—or kill himself trying." Byron is not Byron if he fails to chase the ball and make a full effort. We just have to hope the Twins find more padding and luck goes his way. Here are some more big leaguers who suffered from injury filled careers - some very good players. Bob Grim - injures took his career after a rookie 20 win season with the Yankees BO Jackson - played in NFL and MLB and was a real treat till a hip injury in NFL Herb Score was a star pitcher until Gil McDougal hit a line drive to Score's head. Mauer and Morneau taught us about concussion. Sandy Koufax had arthritis and elbow injuries and played with pain as long as he could Alan Trammel missed a seasons worth of games to injuries during his 20 year career. J R Richards was striking out batters when Ks were not common and was cut down by a stroke. Kerry Wood and Mark Prior - just think what the cubs would have been if injuries had not ruined their careers. Mark Fydrich had only one year to make his significant mark on baseball You can not legislate injuries. No rules can eliminate the dangers for men who are taught to always play hard. We just have to hope Byron is lucky and that he keeps impressing us with his speed and determination.