Hosken Bombo Disco

Recommending a full paragraph break between ‘Griffith’ and ‘2019’ - sincerely, your editor

Ninja’d by Salvy Perez… not gonna do it

Ninja’d by Chief …

Centaur Greek Mythology Kirby Puckett

Ninja’d by Chief (of all people)

[Opens photoshop]

We had a little league game once. One of our batters early in the game pulled a deep fly ball that was well foul. (Well, a “deep fly ball” relatively speaking.) Pulled it in the air, but definitely foul, into the trees or parking lot or something. The home plate umpire, probably just a kid not out of high school, signaled “Fair ball” lol gonna be one of those nights, we all thought.

Nobody is comparing those players. It’s that the winning organizations are willing to live with the risk of the player walking away at the end of the season without feeling the need to get something for them. In exchange for not trading the player, the team competes for a World Series.

I thought that last out of the third was a three run bomb but I guess the wind dragged it back into play. Good thing.

Santa Claus told me — this was way back in 1979, but I distinctly remember it— but anyway, Santa told me that he wasn’t shaving his beard until the Vikings won a Super Bowl. Then he did that creepy Santa ho-ho-ho laugh and said “Merry Christmas, kid.” Just thought I’d share…..

I did that last summer. Here was my list: Rogers, Duran, Alcala. Yes I was already counting on Duran’s move to the big league bullpen, before it was cool. I was wrong about Thielbar. Thielbar did pretty well this year, generally speaking. So what is your group for next year? As little as I like him, I would include Jorge Lopez, along with about 4-5 others, including a dedicated 2-3 inning guy. Maybe that’s Maeda? But that leave 4 or 5 open slots for them to find or develop another back end guy to go with Duran. I actually think their bullpen might be half way respectable in 2023. Not yet totally respectable, mind you, but half way. They have to do the work, and not just assume someone will emerge.

And as a full blood Minnesotan, Catholic, and Twins fan, I have already blamed myself for any possible misunderstanding that might or might not have existed between us here

also @Riverbrian

Definitely going for the guilt trip

I see a lot of bad Taylor Rogers outings (including one tonight) but I really wonder if people posting all the Pagan-Rogers comparisons really think the Twins were better off with Pagan.

Not me. On a similar note, I made the point elsewhere that based on the logic of trading Berrios and Rogers, when they did, the front office should also be looking to trade Gray, Mahle, and Maeda this offseason. Would you agree?

The game threads are poorer in your absence!

I have no opinion about Mahle or Montas but want to point out to people that Taylor Rogers is actually doing pretty well this season. All the Tweets we saw comparing Rogers and Pagan’s Earned Run Averages during the month of July or whatever have painted a very misleading picture. The back-to-back day appearances have hurt Taylor Rogers’s ERA, as they did here in Minnesota, otherwise it looks to me that he has done just fine. Rogers would have really helped the Twins bullpen in 2022. I guess I’m in the minority about the Berrios trade, too. I think Martin and Woods Richardson have big question marks. Berrios would have helped this team in 2022 too. There must be a way to strike a balance between being upbeat about the state of the franchise but also not giving people unrealistic expectations.

One of the last games I have attended at Target Field was in the 2013-2016 era when Grienke was with Arizona and good, Arizona came to Minnesota, and yeah the Twins knocked him out early that day too. Edit: It was Aug 19, 2017 https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN201708190.shtml

Oops I just posted a version of this in another thread a moment ago. Thanks for this thread @cHawk. Anyway, here goes.. Kenta Maeda is probably not going to pitch to his 2020 numbers in 2023. He is going into his final season, has plenty of wear and tear, and is getting up there in age now. What Mike Sixel said: Maeda might be better off as that long man candidate we often talk about, though he won’t like it (starting pitchers still see themselves as starters going 7 innings). Expect little from Maeda, and be pleasantly surprised, Tyler Mahle will also coming off injury and best to not expect too much, One more season of team control. Sonny Gray, like Maeda and Mahle, is also going into his final season of control. Gray is unhappy because he is of the old school mindset that starting pitchers should pitch 6 or 7 innings. I expect he will ask for a trade and why wouldn’t the front office oblige? They traded Berrios and Rogers ahead of their final seasons. “Get something for him” is a popular refrain here among Twins Daily writers, though not necessarily as popular among the Twins Daily rank and file readership. Of the group consisting of Maeda, Mahle, and Gray, I expect zero starting pitchers to materialize. If one does,,then that is good. The younger guys are more exciting to think about. Between Ober, Winder, and Varland, I expect one maybe even two to be effective and healthy by the time the team breaks spring training. Counting on all three would be wishful thinking. Two of them is possible, but safer to assume one. Then you have Joe Ryan. So, before we see what happens in the offseason, I will generously expect something like this five man rotation going into 2023: … Mahle or Gray (maybe Maeda) Ryan … Ober or Winder or Varland (or unexpected young guy) Again, that is being optimistic about Gray or Mahle that they will 1) be healthy, and 2) actually perform at that level of a #2. By the way, Yu Darvish is absolutely pitching his guts out right now. He would be going into his final season in 2023 if the Twins had offered that sixth season before 2018. A couple of readers have suggested that the front office places value on pitchers with concerning injury histories, since they come with a cheaper price tag and can in theory be rehabilitated. Its a good observation; it sure looks like to me that’s what’s happening. So the front office will either need to abandon that approach or be better at identifying the right pitchers if this is going to turn into anything. Pitchers with medical concerns do not command the big contracts like Yu Darvish, Jose Berrios, or Zack Wheeler earned. That leaves us with another pairing of one year free agents in the mold of Bundy/Archer or Happ/Shoemaker or Pineda/whoever to fill out the last two spots in 2023. So no, no ace, no top number one guy, to fill that top spot. But if everything regarding pitching breaks in the Twins favor in 2023, that top of the rotation pitcher won’t be necessary. That’s the way I see it, anyway.

Kenta Maeda is probably not going to pitch to his 2020 numbers in 2023. He is going into his final season, has plenty of wear and tear, and is getting up there in age now. He might be that long man candidate out of the bullpen that we are talking about. Expect little, and be pleasantly surprised, Sonny Gray and Tyler Mahle are also going in to their final seasons, so by the logic of trading Rogers and Berrios, I would expect one of them to be traded this offseason, and expect the other to be either unhappy or hurt. Yu Darvish is absolutely pitching his guts out right now. He would also be going into his final season in 2023 if the Twins had offered that sixth season before 2018. Winder, Ober, and Varland will probably all be competing for spots out of spring training, but it’s yet to be seen with any of them. Counting on all three to make the rotation is wishful thinking. Joe Ryan is under control and not too shabby. So there’s that. So that’s two starting pitchers that I count as of now that you can write down in ink, for the rotation, heading into 2023. Joe Ryan, and one from the younger guy group.

Someone in the front office is trying to figure out how this season went sideways

I feel like if you (not you, but someone!) if someone plotted all the MLB teams Win-Loss record on a bell curve, for each season, that this season would look less like a bell than most seasons. As of now, the Twins are the only team within 2-4 games of .500 and the NL team closest to .500 are the Giants at 69-77.

I’ve watched the second half. When does the Cousins era end?