Hosken Bombo Disco

I thought so too. Actually I thought the batter looked fooled, looked like a late swing on an inside pitch, but good bat speed. The last hitter of the inning had a much better swing and contact on a fly ball to the fence, so call it a wash. I thought Ryan was fine. I don’t know. Looks like he has back-to-back starts lined up against Toronto later in the month, and the young Toronto lineup will get some extended looks at him. Maybe that will tell us something, maybe not. I can see why Tampa Bay traded Ryan—his fastball moves okay but he’s too dependent on it. I can also see how the fastball plays well with that deceptive arm slot. And he works fast, as a couple people pointed out in the game thread. I think he can become pretty good if he develops a secondary breaking pitch. I think the slider was better than the curve which I think is too slow to consistently fool MLB hitters.

Is there some faulty construction here? If you are going to state what the Twins did in the playoffs, shouldn’t you state what the Dodgers did in the playoffs?

Yup, Frankie Sweet Music Viola is not a data lover. However, I don’t see anything in that Tweet to disagree with. On another note, I was glad to hear Barreiro rake this organization this week over their hubris about pitching. I really hope the Twins bring in outside expertise this offseason and resist the urge to trade Buxton for pitching.

You entered into a dialog/agreement with the other poster. I wanted to be sure you knew. No hard feelings to either of you.

According to Baseball Reference, Brandon Kintzler was acquired by the previous front office. December 14, 2015: Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins. July 31, 2017: Traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Washington Nationals for Tyler Watson (minors) and international bonus slot money. @chpettit19 @prouster

Good post. That is a really interesting but depressing observation.

After the 2019 postseason debacle, part of my evaluation process for Twins pitchers is “Would I be confident with this player appearing in the postseason in the Bronx?” Going into 2021, the answer for me was: Berrios, Rogers, maybe Pineda and maybe Maeda. cross one more off that list.

Donaldson should have asked the umpires to check Cole for Spider Tack!

I kind of wanted to see Gil myself. Never seen him yet, not even a video clip. As it turns out, the Yankees will play Atlanta on Monday, where Huascar Ynoa might be lined up for the start. Gil versus Ynoa. That would give Pohlad and St. Peter a game to watch together up in their suite on the Twins offday. it even looks like its the free game of the day on MLB, so they wouldn’t have to spend any money on a subscription.

For the record I’m a huge Albers fan and loved his debut starts in 2013. I love pitching an love to watch guys who know how to pitch. Albers would be the perfect guy to pitch at AAA full time but who could also make the occasional fill-in start when the MLB team needs it. I hope he likes it here and sticks around.

There's a plan?

Too bad Kiermaier wasn't thrown out on that. It might have went down in the scorebook as a ground out to the second baseman. Oh well. A home run hit to an infielder is interesting too.

It’s a side discussion, but I completely agree. For roughly the same price as a Perez/Pineda combo, or Pineda/Bailey/Hill, or Happ/Shoemaker, the Twins could have had Darvish + another pre-arb pitcher making the minimum. For the same price. “Shoemaker’s contract is cheap, this is a no risk signing, because the Twins can just drop him if he doesn’t pan out” we see some version of that argument every year (no offense to any specific Twins fans out there!)

As it relates to Ober, I do agree with you. I don’t know about the data on his pitches but he has command and poise and takes the mound like he has a job to do.

After Jimenez hit his first homer, it was 3-0, or “three-nothing Sox, in Minnesota!” according to the White Sox announcers. “three-nothing Sox, in Minnesota!” To which, I offer: adventures in Video Captioning Silver Linings:

Re: New Look Rotation: As of now, how I see the 2022 rotation shaking out like this: 1. ? 2. ? 3. Maeda (optimistic) 4. ? 5. Ober I don’t usually care for one year “make good” pitcher contracts, but next year sure, go to town. Find a couple guys one year for cheap. I’m sure Pineda would come back, as well. So yes I do think Ryan slots into the rotation next season, and hopefully performs in a slot above where Maeda is. I’m not confident in the other two pitchers they traded for contributing in 2022 at this point. Speaking of Maeda. It seems like Maeda is starting to struggle with his ability to put hitters away? Same as several of you have mentioned about Jax not having that 2-strike strikeout pitch. Maeda is more and more looking exhausted after his starts, like he’s been wrung through an Olympic triathlon after not training for it, or something similarly grueling. Even after five innings he sometimes looks completely spent. He might need an extra recovery day between starts in 2022. I did not see how he came out of yesterday’s game, however. Speaking of Olympics. Interesting that the Twins traded for not one but two guys who were currently overseas when the trade was finalized. Did any other players on the Olympic team get traded? Maybe falvine has discovered a new market inefficiency? thank you all for letting me post and air my thoughts!

Polanco is hitting out of his mind right now, for a lost cause. I think it’s a fair question to wonder what kind of trade return he could have brought back at the deadline, or will bring back this offseason, that would help the Twins in 2023 or 2024.

Very cool!

Wainwright is definitely one of the better hitting pitchers. I'm just trying to add something interesting to the conversation.

I am bullish on Ober. I don't understand the premise of the article that he will only be useful as rotational depth, was selected late in the draft, and is on a pitch count for the rest of 2021. But that somehow he has the most to "prove." Sounds like the opposite to me. Headline and story writers need to coordinate? I'd like to just see him get his work in for the rest of the season. He will be a rotation piece in 2922.

Thanks for noticing! instead of naming the pitchers i tried to use a parallel construction to highlight how different the pitcher plate appearances were. Adam Wainwright's other plate appearance was in the 4th inning. Pineda couldn't put him away. The at bat extended to 10 pitches, required a mound visit by Garver, and resulted in a 108-mph exit velocity to Arraez which he grabbed but threw for an error. That hit by Wainwright was the second hardest hit ball of the game.

Broadcasters like Bremer always gush over "productive outs" even when the outs are made by power hitters. So then, not sure why, in an N.L. game, the Twins cannot plan ahead and ask a pitcher to make a productive out by sacrificing (Mentorship opportunity lost!)

The Cardinals pitcher came to bat twice in bunting situations. Laid down two sacrifice bunts. The Twins pitcher also came to bat twice in bunting situations. Grounded into double play in the first one, and then was lifted for a pinch hitter.