IndianaTwin

No. Including that if you look at the last 30 games, the Twins have the best record in the bunch. Post-All-Star Break may show a similar story. And that the teams are so tightly packed that intentional losing could risk not making the playoffs at all.

Texas has 87 wins and the Twins have 83, but the Twins have the tiebreaker with a 4-3 regular-season edge. Thus Texas at 2-5 and Twins at 6-0 gives the Twins the No. 2 seed. Unless Texas has been surpassed by either Seattle or Houston. If there is a tie for the West lead and either Toronto or Twins are at the same number of wins, the divisional tie is settled first, before any tiebreakers that relate to seeds and/or wild card inclusion. My nit has been picked, but I agree that the Twins are highly likely to be the No. 3 seed. Elsewhere, I do hope that Houston/Seattle goes 2-1, one way or the other, and that the race goes until Sunday so that they are inclined to use Verlander and Castillo that day. Since I'm begging, let's keep Toronto in it until the end as well, so they are inclined to use Gausman on Sunday.* *While I'm at it, may each game go at least 12 innings.

1. I'll highlight and agree with any comment that includes your last paragraph. It's great to be discussing five good options, rather than clamoring for who's available. 2. I agree on at least considering the possibility of 22 games. Even with that, with off days and how the schedule lays out, there's no need to use the 5th starter, unless you want to make a swap for injury or other reason. 3. However, that does mean that you could have up to five starts for your No. 4 starter. Good as Ober has been, I just don't see them planning him having another regular season start and then up to five more in the postseason. That could easily be another 30 innings on top of the 132.2 MLB and 22.2 in the minors. That would be 185 total. I think that puts him in the bullpen. Personally, I'd prefer they started Keuchel Tuesday night and planned for a couple innings of Ober and a couple from Paddack, no matter the game situation. 4. So Ryan and Maeda as Nos. 3 and 4, in some combination. As noted above, I lean toward Maeda at 3, but either is very defensible. 5. I think we'll have our clue by Friday night. Ober-Lopez-Gray are announced to get the Oakland series Tuesday-Thursday. Staying in order would give Maeda and Ryan on Friday and Saturday, each on five days' rest. Either one could come back the following Thursday, Maeda on five days and Ryan on four. IF the plan is to go with Ryan in Game 3, I think we'll see Ryan get this Friday's game, which he could do on four days rest. That would mean going on four days rest THEN five, rather than five then four. 6. See point 1. I'm glad to even be having the discussion of whether Keuchel belongs on the roster. I'm with pretty much everyone above in saying "no," but it speaks to their depth. I think he gets a "thanks for your service/rest the other guys" courtesy start on Sunday.

He had been warming up and planning to come in before the rain delay. They went with Varland instead. If Paddack's in the box score, I'm guessing that means he had been announced. He didn't pitch, however, so I wonder if a rain delay negates the requirement to face three batters or end the inning.

I think he's the first guy out of the bullpen on Tuesday, no matter the situation. Or maybe the first guy out with a clean inning. The goal this week is to see whether they want to put him on the playoff roster.

I get that it would be hard trying to remember Granite.

1. I don’t know. I got the 18th number from Stew. 2. I don’t know. I assume it’s pretty unusual, but if there have been enough instances to have 18 homers happen, it can’t be the most unusual thing in the world. If it happened even once out of every 20 plate appearances, that would be 360. 3. I don’t know. (I’m not much help. 😄)

Facebook tells me that six years ago today, I was at a baseball game in Detroit. It was a game when Zack Granite became the 18th known player to hit a home run as a "nothing" positionally. He had entered the game as a pinch runner, the team batted around and he hit a homer. He then stayed in the game and played left. In conversation with official scorer Stew Thornley, he said that the scorer has to make separate entries. Granite first was a pinch runner, then a "nothing," because he had yet played defense, and then a left fielder. He said that the box score typically just lists it as "Granite, pr-lf," but the underlying Game Day information will have it differently. His baseball-reference.com splits page lists it thusly, as "Other": Definitely one of those, "You can go to a baseball game and see something that you've never seen before" moments. Additionally, the next day was Brusdar Graterol's debut. No one was there, so tickets were cheap and I sat right behind the Twins dugout. I remember thinking, "Holy crap -- 100 mph is LOUD when it hits the glove."

47 posts in the Game Thread. That's gotta be a low-end record. Players weren't the only ones taking the day off after clinching! EDIT: I guess this is 48.

Facebook tells me that six years ago today, I was at a baseball game in Detroit. It was a game when Zach Granite became the 18th known player to hit a home run as a "nothing" positionally. He had entered the game as a pinch runner, the team batted around and he hit a homer. He then stayed in the game and played left. In conversation with official scorer Stew Thornley, he said that the scorer has to make separate entries. He first was a pinch runner, then a "nothing," because he had yet played defense, and then a left fielder. He said that the box score typically just lists it as "Granite, pr-lf," but the underlying Game Day information will have it differently. His baseball-reference.com splits page lists it thusly, as "Other": Additionally, the next day was Graterol's debut. No one was there, so tickets were cheap and I sat right behind the Twins dugout. I remember thinking, "Holy crap -- 100 mph is LOUD when it hits the glove."

Yeah, I heard that about the broadcast crew last night as well. That seems weak.

19 games, 14 starts. 113.1 innings in the majors. 6 games in the minors. Apparently including 3 innings at some point earlier this year.

Sonny knows what's happening. I won't be surprised if he doesn't go more than five himself. And about four next Thursday to set up for the following Wednesday.

With the division clinched, acceptable. Let him throw six shutout innings and then beat up on the bullpen.

So why is Keuchel still on the roster if he's hardly gotten any innings lately? How about this -- the radio guys just said that Keuchel hits his 10 years of service mark today. That's a big deal. In addition to their commitment to depth that I referenced in my previous post, I think the FO is earning and has earned a reputation for treating players well and with dignity. I'm not saying that they entered into negotiations with Keuchel this summer with a commitment to getting him to that point, but I could very easily believe that they've been talking about it along the way, saying, "Dallas, winning the division and setting up for the playoffs has to be our priority, but if we can do that and get you to 10 years of service, we're going to try our best to do that." I've worked for good employers, and I've worked for great employers. That kind of stuff on the part of an organization goes a long way in moving an organization from a good reputation to a great one, and word gets around about you as an employer. If that was at all a part of the conversations with Keuchel, kudos to them. It will be a worthwhile investment for the long term.

No kidding. Think of how much better last year could have gone if they'd been able to run this level out of lineup in September. With how the Orioles have done, I'm assuming they're going to win all the "Executive of the Year" type awards, but I've been impressed all season (and offseason) with the FO's commitment to building depth. When they used the language of "sustainable," I think depth is a major part of their plan.

I don't think the plan on paper will be to give anyone x number of innings. Playoff stakes are such that pitchers by definition have a shorter hook than in the regular season. There's no real protecting the bullpen for tomorrow. There's no point to saying, "But we wanted to get xxxx at least x innings. Additionally, plan to see next Sunday's game thrown by Keuchel and any players currently on the roster who won't be on the postseason roster, so everyone in the bullpen will be fully rested. From the beginning, the question will always be, "Does my current pitcher give me a better chance of getting outs than the reliever I'd most likely go to?" If that means that Gray is at all off, even as early as the third, with one of Maeda/Gray/Ober available, it will be a quick hook.

I read that he did set a Saints record for strikeouts!

Not today, since he pitched yesterday, but they've got seven days to give it a try! Well, they can't do it Monday, and they don't want to do it next Sunday, but they could still do something like Tuesday and Friday if they have the opportunity. I'm guessing Duran will throw no more than about two innings during the rest of the regular season.

I was thinking of that. An advantage of the 28-man roster is that they CAN'T rest all the starters at the same time. 😃

1. Isn't it awesome that we have choices? And by choices, I mean generally good choices, not "who's still standing" choices. 2. I'm in the Maeda for Game 3 camp, but it's really, really close. I respect Maeda's past experience in the bullpen, but it was four years ago. I think the same thing that made him come up big in playoff relief will make him come up big as a Game 3 starter. 3. You can't play for the next round, but you can't ignore it either. Ryan is my Game 4 (ALDS Game 1) starter, so I don't want him on the Wild Card roster. So my only swap with you on the pitching side, Seth, is to have Ober in the pen rather than Ryan. 4. I'm with Paddack for the bullpen. All indicators are that he's been outstanding in his rehab. He hasn't pitched in a game for a long time, but it was "only" the beginning of last year. A factor in this is also that the Manfred Man rules go away in the playoffs, so I don't mind having both Ober and Paddack in the being able to go three or even four innings. And as RC's Birthday (which is the final day of the regular season, and if that's not a good omen, I don't know what is) notes, the "MLB Game experience" factor can be addressed with a couple innings against Oakland and a couple innings against Colorado. 5. The position player list depends on health, obviously, but I'm with you on including Buxton if he's remotely close. As you note in the comments, Seth, he's the most talented player on the roster. They are still showing Kirk Gibson highlight's for a reason. Even the threat of him pinch hitting has value. 6. The only other minor quibble is that I'd add a line down the middle of the page to divide the two columns.

I look at it this way -- Saints have a game Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A rehabbing player, particularly when you have been out a long time, is not going to play every day. So if he's going to play three games out of four, I play game 1, make game 2 the off day and then play games 3 and 4. Voila -- it just so happens that game 2 lines up with Friday night, when the team that he's been a major part of, has a chance to clinch. I was actually glad to hear that he was part of the celebrating. It tells me he has significant commitment to the team and that the team is committed to him in the long term, very much seeing him as part of their plans. And that doesn't even take into account that the training facilities are going to be better at Target than at CHS Field. I'm quite confident that he was able to do every part of his non-game rehab at Target Field, probably more effectively than he would have been able to do with the Saints. Edit to add: Don't freak out if he's seen with the Twins at their 1:10 p.m. start today. The Saints play tonight.

Depth was clearly the modus operandi in the offseason, so it’s appropriate on clinch night we have… Castro, 1-4, plus a walk. Big-time triple. 2 runs scored. Farmer, 2-3, plus 2 walks. Double. Two runs. RBI. Taylor, 1-3, plus a walk. 2 RBIs.

Uh, @Matt Braun, second paragraph = “Saturday”? Have I spotted a trend for you? 🤣 Seriously, thanks for your good and regular work in cranking out these postgames.

They are on 130-win pace since he first stepped in.