IndianaTwin

Actually, I'm with you in not minding it. It looks like we only need a No. 5 starter two times before Aug. 5. I'm fine with a two-game trial on a guy who had a 118 ERA+ last year: If he pitches well and we're still amazingly in it, great. We got a bargain for the stretch run. If he pitches well, but we've fallen out of it, he might bring us a low-end prospect by trade. If he pitches lousy, good riddance. And congrats on a great career that ended only behind Juan Marichal in wins by a Dominican. And even if he pitches lousy, we've gained enough time to fully stretch out Dillon Gee, who now has pitched 3, 5, and 7 scoreless innings at Rochester with a 0.87 WHIP, his only action since May. SSS sure, but of our long-shot waiver claims, I think he has the best chance of being a legit No. 4 or 5. He's only 31 and has shown some (albeit inconsistent) success. He would get three more starts before being needed on Aug. 5. Shucks, if Colon is really lousy on Tuesday, it will have at least bought Gee another start at Rochester. The Twins can actually arrange the rotation to have the second time they need a No. 5 be on the 25th, which would be Gee's normal day. And by Aug. 5 or so, we've got basically 45 games left to see where: The standings are. How the trade market dust has settled. Where all the prospects are in terms of innings limits and continued progression in the pattern that best suits their development. That could mean finish the season where they currently are, moving up for a few starts, picking up a few bullpen innings at a higher level, or whatever.

For what it's worth, Brad Radke is only seven months older than Bartolo.

But the bat is inching up. Shucks, if he goes 3 for 4 today he'll be hitting MY weight.

I'm pretty sure that it's accurate, because I read it on the Internet. Internet studies have shown that about 94.73 percent of statistics quoted from the Web were made up on the spot.

I always enjoy doing these kinds of things too. Buxton is also on pace for 164 strikeouts. But when I looked on baseball-reference, he had 21 singles that didn't leave a runner on second or when he didn't advance to second on an error. Similarly, 18 of his walks/HBP didn't move a man to second. His reaching on an error moved Rosario to 2B. I don't know how to check for any other situations, but that would suggest he was on first with second open about 39 times. In that context, 14 steals of second is pretty impressive -- more than 1 of 3 times resulted in a steal. Now if we could just get that number of times on first to increase, that projection of 28 steals could really increase!

That's what my uncle told me.

I'm going to hang around as long as you will let me.

What is this number string: 82-48-71-62-84-82-95. a: Today's Powerball numbers. b: Tonight's Bingo numbers at the local retirement home. c: The combination to my bike padlock. (It's a big padlock.) d: Ozzie Smith's season-by-season OPS+ numbers from the first seven years of his career, covering ages 23-29, when he finally started to put it together offensively. Hint: They told me in class that if I don't have an idea on multiple choice, go with the option that is noticeably longer or shorter than the others. That makes the answer d, which is correct. Star or not star, I don't care. Puff piece or not, I think we need regular reminders that he is still 23. And to paraphrase some college basketball coach talking about freshmen, "What's the best thing about a 23-year-old?" He becomes a 24-year-old.

I've always been a big Pujols fan, but that is one of the defining moments of his career in my mind. I wish the clip would continue to show the Astro dugout reaction. Andy Pettitte's mouth drops wide open as you see him just say, "Wow." Clemens sits there speechless. Of course, the reason I've always been a big fan of him is this. My auction fantasy league has a rule that you can keep a player from year to year by increasing his price by $5, as long as you want (with a minimum of $12 on the first keep). I bought him as a $1 rookie and then had him at $12, $17, $22, $27, $32, $37, and $42. First eight years of his career at an average cost of $24 in a $260 league, when he was putting up $40-$45 stats. (Unfortunately, I usually parlayed the savings on Albert into bidding $15 on the likes of Luis Rivas, but Rivas isn't the subject of the game thread, so we'll ignore that part.)

If your luck is like mine, he will immediately start to rake. So on behalf of Twins fans everywhere, thank you for taking one for the team.

Ervin.

Yep, he's just goofy enough to be hilarious. A few minutes ago... Benetti: "(Reading promo about getting games)... on all your supported devices." Stone: "Are there unsupported devices?" Benetti: "Yes, it's hard to get reception on your blender."

That's an area where I hope they didn't give a participation trophy.

Excellent post. You could add Greg Bird's .104 as a 24-year-old to your list, unless 48 ABs puts him below your threshold. Plus Yan Gomes (.171) and Kurt Suzuki (.160). What those three have in common with Brett Gardner (.182) from your list is that they are killing my fantasy team's average, with some help from Neil Walker (.206), Pablo Sandoval (.213) and Stephen Piscotty (.218). Thank God for Freddie Freeman.

And the guy on second usually has a bigger lead, right?

Sorry, only partial credit. You're missing the exponent 2 on the hypotenuse.

And I'm sure you told him where he could stick that suggestion...

My dad used to brag all the time, "I can tell you what the score of this game is going to be before it even starts." Yeah, Dad, you've said this one before -- 0-0.

What's our team batting average? Probably about .220, .221, whatever it takes.

I love Jesus too, but I would NEVER wear a White Sox shirt, period. In fact, there are basically two things that all the major world religions (and those who claim none) can agree on: 1. Treat others like you want to be treated. 2. Don't wear White Sox stuff.

in response to... Warning: The following link has some religion and perhaps a little politics implied, but I found it a very thoughtful essay from someone who I haven't particularly cared for as a TV host -- Tony Reali. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/03/04/ive-worn-ash-on-my-head-on-espn-for-16-years-this-year-was-different/?utm_term=.1c0dea72a1f5#comments We now return to your regularly scheduled mayhem.

Thanks. And I'd definitely concur if it that's late in the year.

Where do I find service time on the new layout for baseball-reference.com? Elsewhere, it looks like Berrios got 74 service days last year. I don't know the ins and outs on the CBA well enough. What is the date at which he'd save a year of arbitration eligibility? With 74 days, I'm guessing it's much further into the year than is practical to consider a factor.

Thanks for the behind-the-scenes insights.

He's got amazing speed, and I'd love to see him get 15 or more -- they are incredibly exciting to watch. About the only thing better is watching him get inside the park homers.* I'm thinking of it more in this context -- before getting sent down the last time, 4 of his 38 hits were for triples. In September, he had 29 hits, but only two of them were triples. Said another way, it was two triples in 113 plate appearances during September, which would be 10 in 565 PAs. That's too small of a sample to be meaningful, but I wonder if it's representative of teams starting to play him deeper as he demonstrated more power. I could see that continuing and becoming even more of the case. In addition, if he starts to hit more homers, he may nudge towards more of an upper-cut swing. Higher flies don't lend themselves to triples as much as line drives. More homers also means fewer balls still in play. But hey, I'd love it if this evening you'd post this email: "See, I told you so -- he's got three triples already, and it's only April 3!" *One of my all-time favorite baseball quotes -- a Braves announcer (Joe Simpson?) once said, "Watching Greg Maddux leg out a triple has replaced the Kentucky Derby as the 'most exciting two minutes in sports.'"