Cris E

Well at least he's being efficient. Not a lot of wasted pitches so far...

Miranda's arm looks better. Hope he didn't hurt himself on that throw.

Well they've hit some HR and held the Twins to 2 runs in the first two games, so they're not going to be completely terrible every day. (But they are 0-2 and down by 4 in the eighth today.)

A two gallon night!

Sombrero for Carlos, who is now on pace to strike out something like 215 times this year. Eat your heart out Joey G.

Welcome to MN, Mr Gallo.

Well no one can say Rocco hasn't changed his game to match the new deeper bench.

You don't get to just rewrite Maeda's contract though. He has to want to relieve, and he didn't when he was with LA and they put that contract together. Part of the reason LA was willing to trade him was that they didn't want him to start but we were willing to give him the chance. And when he pitched well it proved the Twins right, and when he broke down it proved the Dodgers right. I haven't heard from him lately, but I assume he still thinks he can be that guy from 2020 so he's probably not ready to go to the pen, meaning you'd have to give him some more incentive to change that contract which means you're extending a 35 year old coming off a serious injury before he proves his health? Color me skeptical. Pitch him as a starter until he thrives (yea!) or loses the job, then let him live with that contract in another role knowing he had a chance to earn the incentives and failed, and then take up any extension talks after you know how this year went.

Umpshow!

Grey went on the DL in April (hamstring) and June (pectoral strain) and then a season-ender in September. Each time he was brought back on a short leash to let him build some stamina and avoid further hurt: after the May injury his first two starts back were 4.0 and 4.1 innings, in June were 5.0 and 4.0 innings, and he never returned after September. He also had some short starts in July, but that's mostly because he wasn't pitching well: 5.0 IP and 3ER, 4.2 IP and 5 ER, 3.2 IP and 6 ER. But after about July 24 he was both effective and on a short leash. He made ten starts (plus the one bad injury game in Sept) and threw 90+ pitches 4 times and only one game with fewer than 20 batters faced but only two games with more than 22 batters faced. So I can see where the formula was both frustrating and effective: he couldn't stay on the field more than a month at a time before the all-star break, but he took the ball every time afterwards. But here's what you need to know about Sonny: in his huge 2019 season he made it to 25 BF eight times in 31 starts, and last year he made it 4 times in 23. He had games of 24, 26 and then 20 BF in May and then he went on the DL. When he went to 25 in July his next game 5ER in 4.2IP and 0 K. He had back-to-back 25 BF games in Sept and the next start he was lost for the year. Even when he was healthy in 2019 only threw 5.6 IP/GS and that wasn't on Rocco, that's managers watching him throw a lot of pitches per inning and often get hurt. But here's the difference between Joe Ryan and Sonny Grey: Ryan only had 6 starts where he threw fewer than 80 pitches: three where he gave up only 1 run, two where he gave up 3 or more, and opening day where he gave up 2 runs. Joe threw a lot of pitches, often inefficiently, and wasn't really handled with kid gloves. And he only went on the DL once, and it was for Covid. The other starters were on short leashes because they were either raw rookies or fragile Bundy/Archer reclamation pieces and Rocco was just trying to not push them too hard. If Sonny want to complain about pitcher usage in this context he can talk to Joe Ryan about those 90-100 pitches in five innings outings and then take a hard look in the mirror about how well he can handle more than two dozen batters.

There was a picture of the Saints old ownership group in the St Paul paper this morning. Man, 30 years must have been a long time ago because Murray looked incredibly young. They all did, really. Of course at the time I thought they were just a bunch of middle aged rich guys, but as I said, 30 years was a long time ago and perspectives change.

We're already looking at a traffic jam of good bat, weak glove infielders that could learn 1B with three weeks of practice and are almost certainly more likely to produce an OPS+ over 100 than Mr White. Have a great year, take a lot of pictures, enjoy St Paul, but please don't block the exits when my prospects need to head over to Mpls.

Lewis is the only one who has enough experience to come up and sit on the bench at all. He'll arrive as soon as he's ready and fill a utility role, playing where ever he can get an AB. The rest are young and need to play every day, so they are only coming up for a long term injury or trade situation. And Raya is waaay too young to even be discussing AAA.

The Twins didn't pick these guys out of the phone book, they were chosen because of their years of remaining control. Expect one or two to get deals (Mahle and/or Lopez depending on health and performance) and then an appraisal of how the younger kids are coming along will dictate how hard they go after Grey and Meada. Sonny has been very effective for a long time and there's no guarantee that our youth will end up any better or healthier than he is. After after 2022 Maeda would have to come pretty cheap to justify creating another Bunde/Archer shaped spot in the rotation. But I don't think he's going to be durable or efficient enough to be a regular six inning guy so I expect us to have better options when it comes time to review his deal.

I thought the New Look was replacing half our roster with Cincinnati Reds and buying up all the remaindered Miami Marlins "M" gear.

MN is building a team for baseball reasons, and not basing many decisions on cost. They went out and traded for pitching they liked that was still controllable. They picked up a couple free agents that filled their needs and fit their profile. They got some depth to put a floor under the roster to avoid ever having a 2022 season again. They signed a huge ticket free agent to go with Buxton, their other star. More importantly Joe Pohlad came out and separated himself from Jim by making longer term offers, by not flinching at the bigger salaries and by talking about raising the payroll when the time comes. I agree with whoever it was above who said that this is a fine November piece but feels kind of tone-deaf in the current moment after adding Correa, Lopez, Gallo and not trading away the expensive vets during last year's collapse. This is a good looking club and I'm excited about the winter's work. Regarding San Diego: They can spend like this for a number of reasons that extend beyond "crazy owner" tropes. The biggest reason is that the Padres are only pro sports team in town. They have colleges and pro volleyball, sure, but for corporate seats and stadium sponsorship they own the market. Further, the cost of living in San Diego is quite a bit higher than in the Twin Cities so people are inured to paying lots for parking, tshirts, etc. I think I saw a Cost of Attending an MLB Game piece from a couple years ago where San Diego was down near the Twins, but there's little reason for that. Payscale.com estimates SD is 46% more expensive to live in than here. I think there's very little difference in income for the middle third of teams and it's just owner's choice to pick a payroll size. Does St Louis really make that much more money than MIN or do they just reinvest more of it? The remarks when Jim passed the baton to Joe were telling, inasmuch as the words and deeds both indicated they can do more in this market. I just wonder how the new broadcasting model that's starting to emerge finally turns out. That's going to be important for everyone over the next 2-20 years.

"Home runs and walks are not taking what the game is giving. You need to see the new opportunities and hit through the infield, steal a base, score on a weak fly ball to right. Play smart, not analytical." - Rocco, maybe.

I'm a reader, not a watcher. If the info is important put it in the description of the vid, but sound is not compatible with work.

The Twins prefer hitters. They mostly figure they'll figure out the defense later, but if a guy can't hit he can't play. Also, if a bat-first guy like Jeter can win a shoebox full of rings as a SS then they can find a way to make their best prospects fit into a defense built around Correa and Buxton.

Larnach is more than just a fringe guy. He was a top 100 prospect for a couple years after being chosen #20 overall in the 2018 draft. His numbers might be fringe now but he's a young guy who lost a key year of development to covid and then had the last two torn up by injury. We can still expect him to develop more given his shortened seasons since 2019. Last spring he was hitting .299/.375/.515 at the end of May when he got hurt, which is a sign that he's probably going to hit better than a utility infielder.

Polanco has real MLB home run power, and precious few of the kids are expected to bring that any time soon. I expect him to be starting at 2b the rest of this season and next year when camp opens too. They can try to seize the job then, but this lineup isn't the 2019 squad and you do want a couple guys that can jog the bases 20-25 times a year. Right now Buxton will hit when he plays, Correa and Miranda are both in that 20 HR area, and then it gets dicey. Polanco has a huge role in this offense and won't be traded away lightly.

Belt and suspenders. This move means little in and of itself, just that the front office doesn't want its underwear hanging out in public like past year. When you have a bunch of AA guys that need to prove themselves you don't just hand them jobs. You block them with orange cones and make them take the jobs, and if they can't beat out Donovan Solano or Kyle Farmer then they belong in AA or AAA.

This team is all about health. Last season showed what the worst case scenario would look like, so in response they got a new trainer, shored up the depth, traded a hot piece of Batting Champ for a big improvement in the rotation, and let the bullpen ride. Odds are we can't have lightening strike that often in the same locker room two years in a row, so we should get some regression to norms for some of these guys. But I've read the Book of Job, so I'm only hoping for a division crown, nothing more.

The Twins knew exactly what they were getting from San Diego in early 2022. At that time the Padres 2021 Manager Jayce Tingler was Rocco's new bench coach and he was part of the whole transaction.

Has he always pulled this much, or was some of this related to his injuries, an attempt to drive the ball more and not have to run as much with the bum leg?