IndianaTwin

It's basically a way of identifying who had some of the big plays. It also doesn't include defense (I think). In Lee's case, two of his three stikeouts came with no one on and the other was in the first inning, so they didn't create much of a negative to counteract his double lifting the Twins from a 58.9 percent chance of winning to 93.9 percent. France got his by having two RBIs that moved the needle somewhat and Jax by being the lockdown guy in the 8th with the game tied. The reason he got more than Duran was that he pitched when it was tied. He got more than Topa because Topa pitched the seventh. I wouldn't say it means "nothing," but I consider it just an enjoyable little tidbit that quickly identifies who came through (or didn't) in some clutch situations.

Yes.

So Brooks LEE gets the game-winning hit on the day we are introduced to Pope LEO. Coincidence? I think not. I think I'm going to like this guy.

St. Louis has the day off.

I’ll go ahead and answer my own question. Bader appears to be available both offensively and defensively.

Molitor wasn’t great when he filled in, but Perkins was a wonderful change of pace.

It’s been a while since I’ve complained about Gladden, though that may be because he’s been off a lot lately, but ”Pop up behind home plate — let’s pause 10 seconds for station identification.” Good job meeting FCC regulations, but did Jeffers catch the pop up?

Apparently Bader was sick last night. Any word on his availability today? With how much he's played, it would be a bit surprising for him to have two consecutive days off.

IT Junior reports that with St. Louis defeating Pittsburgh this afternoon, the Cardinals have won their last four games played during a papal conclave, including 2005 (Benedict XVI), 1978 (John Paul II) and 1963 (Paul VI). The Cardinals went 0-3-1 1914 when Benedict XV was elected and 1-2 in 1903 when Pius X was elected. The remaining five conclaves since 1900 happened outside of the baseball season. The Padres lost during the 1978 conclave and won in 2005. Meanwhile, the football Cardinals have lost both of theirs played during conclaves, though both of those were called on television by Notre Dame alumni (Joe Boland in 1958 and Paul Hornung in 1978).

Roster worthiness on Carson aside, the person who deserves a promotion, by the way, is the one who came up with "McCrusher" for the Saints' social media stuff.

(EDIT to add: CHP, I think we were typing simultaneously, so these aren't in response to your last couple posts. And in some cases, I'm echoing what you said.) I suspect we're not that far apart, CHP. I think it would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall in these management conversations. "Let's do this, unless this happens. But if this and this happens, then let's go here. Because of this, let's consider this possibility. Whoops, such and such just got DFAed elsewhere. Let's grab him and see if he can give us a week until this guy comes off the IL. Crap -- that guy got hurt, so now we have to do this." Sounds like you have a better handle on the St. Paul guys than me. Are Fitzgerald and Prato significantly better than Clemens, for example? If so, I'd be with you that Clemens wasn't worth signing. I've sorta pictured him as even with them, in which case I was (a little bit) okay with signing him, since it basically just nudged Fitzgerald and Prato one spot down the "I hope we don't have to use him, but he's a breathing body for the future" list. I think it will be telling to see how Clemens plays into future transactions and how long he lasts. As I mentioned above, it's seemed like the Twins have been more willing to use roster churning on the pitching side than on the hitting side. We're numbed by guys like Margot and Gallo, but they were signed in the offseason with an intentional role on the roster. We may or may not have agreed with the signing and they may or may not have successfully fulfilled their assigned role. But hanging on to those guys feels different than Clemens. Whatever they are doing now, those guys at some point had some MLB success and there can be some kind of hope (and again, we may not agree on how much hope there was) that they might again. In Clemens' case (and even Bride's), maybe there have been some, but I can't think of many of these midseason DFA-level pickups, at least those who have overstayed their place on the roster. With Clemens, for example, I think he survived Monday because Julien has stunk, not because Julien had options. If Julien or Miranda or maybe even a Martin -- someone that they've once had confidence in and who's on the 40-man, starts to perform in AAA, I'd hope they would bring him up, even if it means DFAing Clemens. And I'd add that if Fitzgerald or Prato demonstrates a likelihood of outperforming Clemens at some level, I'd say the same. Because of the 40-man issues and no prior record of success, it probably takes a bit more to get the promotion. If one of those happens and they DON'T DFA a crummy Clemens, I'd agree with you in saying they are overplaying that card.

Huh? I spend several hours every day on TD, plus a couple other sites as well. I've got this mastered. 😀

I was okay with rolling the dice on Bride in the spot they were in and with what they currently had as infielders in St. Paul. He'd gotten off to a horrible start this year, but he had a 122 OPS+ last year in 272 plate appearances. Less interested in Clemens. I think if Julien hadn't fallen off the map, Clemens would have been booted instead. Something's going to change before this happens, but if Keaschall were magically healthy tomorrow, I'd think Clemens would be gone as well. I think they've been more willing to play the churning game on the pitching side (Jay, Staumont, Tonkin, Boushley, Bowman...) than on the position side.

Yes, Fitzgerald fits the term "organizational depth." I suspect that's the next step in Clemens' career progression. The injury to Lee and Julien's regression just delayed that a bit.

Sorry, I think you were typing this while I was editing my previous comment to include a Castro reference. I agree that a healthy Castro changes the perceived need for Kiersey. If the Twins are seeing it the same way, I suspect they'll give it a couple days with Castro to make sure he's good to go. At that point, particularly if the offense is still struggling, I'd be fine with sending Kiersey down.

Though they got a few starts, their primary role on the roster was still "backup infield depth," which McClusker can't provide. They had a total of five combined starts in a window of time when the return of Lewis and Castro was seen as imminent. Every one of Gasper's starts at DH, for example, was with the hope that no one would be getting hurt before Lewis arrived to give Gasper a demotion. Keep in mind that I'm not arguing for Kiersey over McCusker. I'm just saying that's the comparison the Twins are making. McCusker isn't fighting Bride/Clemens for a job -- he's fighting Kiersey. Right or wrong, it seems they don't (yet) see the upgrade from Kiersey to McCusker offensively to be worth the downgrade on defense/baserunning. I think the perceived improvement from Kiersey to Wallner is large enough that they would send Kiersey down in his place if he magically became healthy tomorrow. That's ignoring the health elsewhere. For example, having Castro available now also makes it easier to send Kiersey down.

Not trying to be flippant, but I think they see Fitzgerald's job as filling a defensive spot while the pitchers develop. In other words, any team is going to realistically have only so many prospects, so you need other players to fill out the roster so the prospects have enough guys around them to field a full team. Theoretically they could have brought up Fitzgerald rather than Clemens, but then you have to sign a Clemens to play in St. Paul. UNLESS, and here's where we turn to your development point. On one level, I can agree with you about a lack of development, BUT I also have to recognize that there are very few franchises that have a development system to the point where they have legitimate prospects in all positions in AAA. So, or example, I don't follow the minors closely enough, so forgive me if Anthony Prato is an actual prospect. But I'm guessing he's mostly on the St. Paul roster to cover injuries and to fill a spot because Walker Jenkins is perceived as not developmentally ready for AAA (and right now, of course, also injured). IF, for example, later in the season, Wallner and other major league OFs are healthy and Kiersey gets sent down AND Emma was healthy and productive AND Jenkins has earned himself a spot in AAA, Prato wouldn't get much outfield time. But those aren't the case, so you need Prato on the roster. Similarly, on the pitcher side, Dobnak's contract is a factor, but his primary purpose on the St. Paul roster is that true prospects like Festa, Matthews, Morris and Raya can't cover all the starts and no true prospects in Wichita have been deemed ready for AAA.

I'm not sure that signing Bride/Clemens is a fair comparison to not bringing up McCusker. The infielders on the roster when they signed those two were France, Julien, Correa and Gasper. They didn't need "a body" when they traded for/signed Bride and Clemens. They needed "a body who can passably play several infield spots." That's not McCusker. With a three-man non-catcher bench, you can't have a player short of Nelson Cruz who is a full-time DH (and we'll see, but it seems likely that Lewis may well be doing a lot of DHing). So a position is needed. The question then needs to be why Kiersey is up rather than McCusker. I don't know whether McCusker's defensive chops or his speed are anywhere close to Kiersey's, but it seems likely Kiersey's what's keeping McCusker in St. Paul.

It will also be interesting in that their next nine games are against Baltimore and San Francisco, one spot below and one spot above the Twins in steals, near the bottom of the list. Then they have three with Milwaukee, near the top of the list. Check back with me later, but my prediction is Jeffers Tuesday and Thursday against Baltimore this week and then since Thursday is an afternoon game, Jeffers on Friday and Sunday against the Giants. Then the next week, Jeffers on Tuesday and Thursday against Baltimore, but Vazquez Friday and Sunday against Milwaukee to get two of three in that series, since the Brewers run a lot. Book it. As a general rule with wanting to do "load management," but with also seeing Jeffers as the better bat, I've thought that a starting point is to have see Jeffers play every other day, rather than every other game. That would mean that in an even number of consecutive days, they would be equal, but in odd game stretches, Jeffers would always get the extra.

No problem -- the start of this season has had us trying to put a lot out of our memories.

I don't remember when the statement was made, but from April 15-May 2, Jeffers started 11 of 16 games behind the plate, including 9 of 12 from the 15th to the 28th. It's just been the last several days that they went back to alternating, with Vazquez getting both Saturday and Sunday. (It's also been in that last stretch, and a couple more, that they had lost another bat in Keaschal.) Enough has gone wrong that it's hard to see Lewis and Castro as the saviors to the season, but they do change the roster pretty dramatically. The last week, they had five guys they couldn't/didn't trust offensively -- Vazquez, Julien, Bride, Clemens, Gasper, Kiersey. You can't have a lineup without at least one of them in it. Now, with no Julien and Gasper, you have a bench of Catcher, Bride, Clemens and Kiersey. Keirsey hardly starts but he's even more the PR and defensive replacement for Larnach. Bride and Clemens can slide into being true spot starters, rather than either Bride or Clemens starting seven of the last nine days (plus four starts for Gasper and five for Julien in that window.

My take on Jeffers/Vazquez is that on Saturday and Sunday they prioritized Vazquez's defense over Gasper's, Julien's or Kiersey's bat. Given Cleveland's and Boston's seemingly running at will on Jeffers Wednesday and Friday, I took it as using Vazquez for defense and letting Jeffers DH. If you're going to have a black hole in the lineup with Julien, for example, you might as well have a black hole with Vazquez and improve the defense. That scenario, with catching Vazquez and using Jeffers as the DH, might be Gasper's saving grace on the roster, since his ability to be an emergency catcher does allow them to DH Jeffers without risking losing the DH by Vazquez getting hurt. EDIT: Based on what Vanimal just posted, apparently you can scratch my third paragraph going forward. I think the first two paragraphs still stand, however. And now that they have two more bats they can use as DH (or to shuffle someone else to DH), rather than using Jeffers there as much, it will be interesting to see how the Vazquez/Jeffers balance plays out.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be much of a surprise for Julien to get demoted. It wouldn't be much of a surprise for Clemens, Bride, Gasper or Kiersey either, but that's a different discussion. Specifically, yikes -- five guys out of 13 who are viable demotion/DFA candidates!

I'm not sure I've seen the names Eddie Bane and Harmon Killebrew used in the same sentence before.

There's a lot of baseball movies that I thought were great from the start and stayed there in my mind. This one is one that I thought was so-so at first, but have come to love. There's movies like Bull Durham and Major League that tell you up front that you're supposed to laugh (and you do, often uproariously). This one just invites you to sit down and enjoy yourself after a long (and too serious) day at work and you find yourself laughing and smiling all along the way, There's a lot of great lines, but what stands out to me are great facial expressions at different scenes. (And actually, James Earl James didn't particularly care for baseball, but thank God he acted like he did.)