IndianaTwin

But if somebody is going to be abysmal, it might as well be Chicago.

We get Later and Norm Cash?

Earl was also generally an eschewer of the sac bunt, using it 16 percent less than the league average.

MLB OPS with runners on base = .744 Twins OPS with runners on base = .826

Though technically, the other four teams in the division have found more.

I like the Royals lineup. Yikes.

Interesting that folks want to dump an outstanding fielder in Kepler, based on his only having one truly good season, a 123 OPS+ which happened to be in his age 26 season. Beyond that, he's had a 109 OPS+ in the Covid year and five seasons between 93 and 98. Yet there's loyalty to Gordon, who had a 112 OPS+ in his age 26 season and has had another 269 plate appearances that work out to an OPS+ just over 60. He's nowhere as good defensively as Kepler, though he can play multiple positions. I'm just not seeing it.

Wow. What a strike zone.

Rocco knew he’d get hammered on TD if he did it.

It counts as a disengagement for the pitcher.

Yes.

Sunny and 72 here. Well, if by "sunny" you mean the lights are still on in the office. And by 72, it means the air conditioner is working. But when I walk out the office door in a few minutes, it's to drizzle and 53, pretty typical for the next three days' forecast.

This actually doesn't seem that complicated. Our last six games have been started by: Tuesday: Gray Wednesday: Ryan Thursday: Maeda Friday: Mahle Saturday: Lopez Sunday: Ober Our next three starters are listed as: Monday: Gray Tuesday: Ryan Wednesday: Maeda It seems pretty likely that Mahle starts Thursday and Lopez Friday. If they don't send Ober down immediately to bring up another reliever, he's likely to stay around all week and pitch on Saturday. If someone gets shelled and the bullpen is depleted, they could still option him and go with Gray and Ryan on normal rest on Saturday and Sunday. Sure looks like they've switched to a six-man rotation without announcing it that way. They've hinted going the six-man route, and if they're going to do that, now is the time, since they are in a string of 13 straight games. I'm guessing it stays that way for the time being and will be resolved in one of several ways: 1. One of them is forced to the IL at some point, and it seemlessly shifts back to a five-man rotation. 1a. A variation on this is if they decide to skip a start for someone who appears to be tired. And once we hit June, that's easy to do, since there are four off days in the month. 2. One of them stinks on several occasions and gets pulled from the rotation. With each of them having some level of cache, I don't see this one as likely, but Ober is most likely, given his rookie status. 3. All of them stay healthy, pitch spectacularly, and Twins Daily readers break out into spontaneous rejoicing and praising of the front office. That last part seems unlikely, since, well, this is the Internet.

No doubt we’ve got recency bias with last night being so fresh, but yeah, I suspect Moran would be the guy sliding to the 8th Man Shuttle if Sands or Headrick would take a step forward. As JKCarew notes, it also would seem logical to slip Headrick back into the St. Paul rotation, thinking of this in the vein of having a couple extra days between starts. He’s had one start and one relief appearance in St. Paul this year.

Sounds like Headrick is just the third Twin to get a save in his MLB debut. Michael Nakamura in 2003, but I haven’t heard the other name.

I don’t disagree with you. It just seems to be the nature of the beast with the 8th spot in the bullpen. I’m guessing a Sands-Headrick-Megill shuttle until one clearly pushes himself up the ladder or out of the mix.

I think it’s likely. He threw 47 pitches, so he’s probably out until at least Sunday, so they’d be playing a body short.

Maybe, but I suspect he’s back to St. Paul in favor of Megill, since Sands hasn’t been down 10 days yet.

As you were saying…

Reminds me of a story from the 1962 (I think) Mets. Spanish-speaking shortstop has a couple collisions with the English-speaker center fielder, despite the CF calling him off. CF is taught to yell, “Yo lo tengo.” Next fly ball, CF is indeed coming in, yelling his newly-learned phrase. And is clocked by the left fielder.

It being the middle innings, I’m visiting the other team’s radio broadcast. They noted that Turner has a gold and black “21” on his cap. Apparently all Roberto Clemente Award winners get that honor. That’s cool.

Yes, they said that part of the documentation when the appeal was sent in was that no other outfielder has been charged an error in that situation.

Provus reports that Gallo's batting average went up more than 50 points while he was on the IL. The Twins appealed an error on a ball he hit in the opening series in Kansas City, and it was changed to a hit. Going from four hits to five in 18 at bats lifted him from .222 to .278.

New strategy. Start Ryan as an Opener in every road game, so we can score several in the top of the first.

Did you not mention Julien and his OPS+ of 11 because you were already assuming he'd lose out by being optioned when Polanco is activated? He seems like an obvious candidate for losing playing time. It's hard to imagine Larnach also not being affected. And a nitpick is that Kirilloff doesn't have to be rushed, in that he has the ability to be optioned.