IndianaTwin

Did you include Dobnak's $3M? I think the number is actually over $37M. Right now the Arb increases are Ober, Ryan, Duran, Jax, Stewart, Sands, Jeffers, Lewis and Larnach. Others who are Arb-eligible are Tonkin, Alcala, Lovelady, Clemens, Bride and Miranda.

After a rocky start, Lopez getting through six was huge, particularly with needing an extra inning from the bullpen.

Start each word with a capital letter and I think that would work well as his new nickname.

Or at least tie it.

You expected English?

Darrell Evans did spend a fair amount of his career playing for the Giants.

Realistically, the Orioles wouldn't be interested in Paddack. They are likely out of it, so why would they want only a partial year of a back-of-the-rotation pitcher? Paddack is only of interest to a team that says, "We're a smidge short on the pitching side and could use one more arm to nudge us over the top." Injuries happen. I think there's too great of a likelihood that if the Twins trade Paddack now, come July they'll be saying, "We're a smidge short on the pitching side and could use one more arm to nudge us over the top."

Plus, if you take out Paddack's clunker like you did Ober's, his ERA is down to 3.41.

Also, Basallo has been hurt and hasn't caught yet this year.

Here's the wins: April 23: Entered in the top of the seventh with bases loaded and one out, ahead 2. Sac fly scores 1. Allows triple and sac fly in the eighth to tie the score. Nats score in bottom of the eighth. April 25: Entered in top of the ninth, down 1. Goes 1-2-3 and Nats score twice in the bottom of the ninth. April 29: Entered in top of ninth, two outs, runners on second and third, down one. Gets the out. Nats score twice in bottom of the ninth. May 4: Enters in bottom of the sixth, tied. Gets all six batters in two innings, Nats score three in top of the seventh. May 6: Enters in top of the seventh, ahead 1, one out and runners on first and second. Single, single, groundout, single with runner thrown out at home. Nats now down 8-6, but score four in the bottom of the seventh to go up two. He does go 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth. So the 1st and 5th were when he blew the lead and then vultured a win. In the other three, he did his job and vultured. Looks like it's been feast or famine. In the "bad outings can ruin a reliever's ERA" department, he's given up 10 of his 14 earned runs in three games, including Wednesday, when he got the dreaded "Pitched to three batters in sixth" line in the box score. In his other 14 appearances, he's thrown 15.1 innings, with 9 hits, 3 walks (0.786 WHIP) and 4 earned runs. (2.35 ERA).

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.