IndianaTwin

1. I get that it's hard to argue with WAR, but it's also hard to consider Gomez third-best with an OPS+ of 77. 2. Particularly noteworthy with Sano is that it came in little more than a half season. With a full season, he may have reached Mauer level. 3. Peter Gammons upon Hrbek's retirement: "If he had kept in better shape, he could have been a Hall of Famer. But we wouldn't have loved him as much."

Oh, gee. Here we go again. Was it Bash and Cash? Or Dash and Lash? Maybe Sash and Gash?

I always heard it as the Department of Needless Redundancy Department.

As a pastor, and specifically as a pastor who spends his time helping churches learn how to talk about money in healthy ways, I’m definitely stealing (see what I did there?) this one.

Always thought Ian Desmond should wear No. 22, just for what it would say on the back of his uniform.

I agree, to an extent. But, what are you going to do when you've only got four bench spots, one of which is reserved for the backup catcher? Guys have to play multiple positions. In reality... Jeffers, Vazquez, Julien, Miranda, Correa, Buxton and Kepler (and likely Lewis) only play one position. Farmer, Larnach, Margot and Martin have almost exclusively played two positions, with the latter three being two outfield spots. You could list Wallner as playing two spots when he was up, but he was really a LF who played some RF when Kepler was hurt. Kirilloff has played two outfield spots and 1b, but half his starts have been in left. He's really a LF and backup 1B who played some RF when Kepler was hurt. Castro is really the only person who has moved around a lot, splitting time between 3B, SS, LF and CF, but most of his starts at 3B, SS and CF have been as an injury replacement. The intent wasn't for him to play much at any of those three spots, but fortunately, he's been able to. In terms of the minors, I suspect you're especially referring to Martin. In 2021, it looks like Toronto was trying to decide whether he was a SS or CF, since he split time evenly. The Twins did the same after they acquired him. In 2022, the Twins tried to focus on SS. with 70 games at SS and 9 in the OF. That was at a time when they didn't have Correa signed for the future and Lewis was injured most of the year. In 2023, they had Correa signed long-term and they decided Martin wasn't a shortstop. They slid him down the defensive spectrum in terms of the infield to play half his games at 2B, which makes sense when you are thinking you may trade/non-tender Polanco and you aren't sure whether Julien is the long-term answer. But you hope Julien is the answer and you also have Lee and Miranda in addition to Lewis, so you use him the outfield. In the outfield, he split time between LF and CF, but that makes sense when you aren't sure how many games you're going to get from Buxton. You hope Martin doesn't have to play CF in the majors, but you want to be covered in case you need him there. And if you don't need him in CF because Buxton is healthy and you have Castro as the backup, then you want to get Martin some time in LF in case that's the only spot available. In 2024, from what we've seen, they've given up on him as an infielder. He's played both CF and LF, but his CF starts were mostly as backup to Castro when Buxton was out or as backup to Buxton when Castro was needed at SS for Correa. At best, Martin was intended to be the third string CF. In actuality, they wanted him to be fourth string, after Margot as well, but that hasn't happened. So yeah, they haven't committed to him playing a specific spot, but they almost couldn't. Had they done so and guessed wrong, they aren't covered in another spot. And with such a short bench, every team is going to need a Castro, so it makes sense to try grooming someone for that role. (Said another way, if Castro goes down, who gets his multi-position role?) I've only heard the radio and read the TD versions of Martin. I haven't seen him like you have. Frankly, it seems like he's never going to hit enough to be a regular, so focusing on one position wouldn't have been helpful unless he's going to be a Gold Glover. I don't think he was ever seen as that, even if he focused on one spot. Instead, being a utility guy is his most likely opportunity for success. But from what I've heard and seen, I'm not sure that's even realistic. I assume the Twins are intending for the Lewis/Julien/Lee/Kirilloff/Larnach/Wallner group to make Martin irrelevant. Unfortunately, they haven't done that yet and injuries have happened, so we've been stuck with more Martin than intended/hoped for. I hope we don't see any more of Martin. That's not because I have anything against him, I just hope that guys stay reasonably healthy and perform even at the midrange of their expectations. If they do, I don't see a spot for Martin. Even at his best, he seems like a Niko Goodrum. (Sorry -- that got much longer than intended.)

Since coming off the IL, Kepler has played in 24 of the team's 26 games. He's started 15 of the last 19 games and entered two of the remaining four. In the two games he didn't play at all, they got blown out in each. We won't know, obviously, but my hunch is that had the game situation called for it, he would have been used, but when you're down 7-0 or 7-1 after five and 11-0 or 10-3 after seven, I'm guessing Rocco decided to give him the whole day off. Plus Margot was actually 4 for 8 in RF in the two games Kepler missed. That seems like Kepler's playing pretty regularly.

Did the White Sox defense just show up to take over for Cleveland?

2023: 6-7 2022: 6-13 2021: 11-8 2020: 7-3 So 30-31 over the past four years entering this season. The 1-7 stretch over 11 days in September 2022 are so etched in our consciousness that they outweigh that they have been 29-24 otherwise.

The places below where there are red lines are days off, either by schedule or by manager's choice. DH stands for doubleheader. The highlighted games are days he didn't play the whole game, either being out early in a blowout (1), pinch hitting/running and staying in or coming in as a defensive replacement. So he did have multiple back-to-back (or more) outings. But Buxton's defense, today isn't a day off after one day of action, considering he played center and then DHed in St. Paul on Thursday and Friday. (I didn't see Buxton, so this isn't a reflection on how he looked, just a summary of when he's played.

They tied us.

Assuming that we hang on to lose, this will be the 22nd game out of 44 that is part of either a winning or losing streak that is five games or more. I don’t know if that’s a high percentage, but it sure seems like it.

I don’t think they should put the white flag on waivers. They may need to have it available for waving on another day.

I’m on the radio. Would any of our other first basemen pulled off the double play?

Or a spork if packing light.

Right after saying to myself how nice it is to have Perkins rather than Gladden as the color guy on the radio, Perkins is discussing Ober’s pitch count and says, “He’s hitting foul ball after foul ball after foul ball. That’s not a problem unless there’s two strikes.” Glen, the way it works is that after a player hits two foul balls, it’s a given that any remaining foul balls will happen with two strikes.

His overall stats speak to how bad he was early, but Farmer is 8 for 24, plus three walks, since April 27. It works out to a .949 OPS.

I like this approach.

Buxton can cover both center and right.

And no mountain in Mountain Lake, MN. Also, no actual rally in Rally Sausage. Too soon?

That’s quite a quintet of obscurity! Five worthy candidates. Thanks for including the back. On this set, it almost seems like I remember the back as well as the front. The comment on the Traded set had me wondering. Recognizing that they didn’t happen every year, what’s the most significant Twin card from a Traded set?

I haven't been a baseball manager, but as a manager in a lot of other situations, I've found that public humiliation is rarely the most effective way to motivate people for positive change. Another key part of managing people is knowing them well enough to discern what kind of accountability is going to be most helpful in which situation. We also have no idea what's happening behind closed doors. Look at today's lineup, for example. Might the fact that Margot is in center today rather than Castro be a part of the accountability equation? If I'm remembering correctly, last season Kepler had a couple mental gaffes in the midseason and later credited some significant conversations with Rocco as being key to his turning his season around.

To those crying for Castro not to be in center, you get your wish today:

There are other ways to hold players accountable besides benching.

That would be inconvenient, in that they have a home game tomorrow.