IndianaTwin

I’ve been on the “promote Keuchel for a couple of Ryan’s starts” bandwagon for a while. What is the actual status on Keuchel? We know that Keuchel opted out, but there have been several reports of the Twins having “a couple of days” to add him. Do they maintain exclusivity for a certain number of days? If so, how many? I note that Keuchel last pitched on Friday, and the Twins are two days into a stretch with 13 straight. They haven’t announced weekend starters. I’d welcome seeing Keuchel Friday night.

Motion appears to have been dismissed.

If Ryan struggles again tomorrow evening, I’d like to see him get an IL stint.

Things I’ve read would corroborate that the Twins have a few days. The opt-out date is not specifically tied to the trading deadline, though it could well be that the presence of that date was a factor in their jointly deciding on Aug. 1 as the opt-out date.

I don’t think the 40-man is an issue. DeLeon, Alcala and now likely Stewart would both be candidates for moving to the 60-day IL.

They also took an asset off our hands that provided some instant roster/dollar flexibility. 😀 (I'm not joshing about this -- I'm just trying to come up with a subtle phrase about what web site you can C4 more information on who I'm referencing.)

I don’t see them trading either Gray or Maeda. Contending teams aren’t going to mess with the mojo in their rotation. That’s a perfect way to alienate the clubhouse. Doing nothing is better than trading one of them. Joe Ryan has given up 16 runs in his last 19.1 innings over four starts. To resolve the Keuchel situation. I’m tempted to go with an IL stint for Ryan if there’s any sense of tired arm. If not, I’d still skip a start and give Ryan an intentional stint or two out of the pen.

Seems like we're getting a right-handed bat (who switches to a left-handed bat as appropriate) to fortify the lineup in a week or so when Polanco returns. And then another right-handed bat when Lewis returns. And I still think Buxton will right himself. I'm not that concerned about the offense -- anything that's sure to be an improvement will cost more than I'm interested in. There are enough potential parts to be able to roll with the hot hands. Something the FO has tended to do well is have a bullpen that grows in effectiveness over the course of the year. I was doing this in my head, but I think the bullpen has given up 10 runs in 40.2 innings since the break. That's a 2.21 ERA, and is hasn't felt like smoke and mirrors, wiggling their way out of jams by luck. That may or may not be sustainable, but it points to being headed in a good direction. I'm with Chief in pumping the breaks on assuming Thielbar and Stewart will be reinforcements, but they are two more parts to add to the mix. The sorting will continue, but with Duran, Jax, Pagan, Lopez, Balazovic, Moran, Ortega, Stewart, Thielbar and maybe Keuchel, etc., it feels like they have enough parts to be able to continue playing the hot hands there as well. I'd be glad to add to that, but don't feel the need to break the bank on a guy like Bednar with multiple years of control. Of names I've read, David Robertson has the most appeal. A particular thing I like about Robertson is that he can be used all over the board, from closer to setup. His ego doesn't appear to have Last year Robertson was traded for a Class A prospect ranked 26th on the Phillies list at the time and now projected as a 2024 ETA for the Cubs. On the Twins list this year. that is C.J. Culpepper, who is . I don't know anything about him, but if Robertson could be had for somebody in that range, I'd be on board.

Unfortunately, the Clevelanders were not able to help the Twins lower their magic numbers. If Zack Greinke played another season with the goal of getting to 225, he's not getting there very fast. Now 1-11 on the season.

When they were coaching him in Little League.

Tonight’s view.

As did George, apparently.

Was he on TV as well? He was just on radio for a half-inning. As Corey said, "It's clear he's not from Watertown, S.D." Jenkins also dropped in a couple of "Yes, sir/no, sir" responses as one can easily imagine from a North Carolinian.

It's a family joke that my son, a huge baseball fan, won his school's spelling bee and then was eliminated in the final five or so in the county bee when he missed the word "alkaline." 🙁

Sorry, I didn't/couldn't see it -- I read the article on my work computer, which blocks anything that comes from Twitter.

From the article: "The Cardinals are seeking young controllable pitchers and pitching prospects in return." They will have no interest in Kepler. If they trade OFs, it's because they already have too many of them.

I changed my mind after seeing this. I'm interested in Sutter, just for the entertainment value...

An observation, and a hope. Observation: In one of the past two years, I remember going to the work of looking through the Twins and other teams' trades and found that over the previous number of years, the Twins had made an above-average number of trades. They've also shown a willingness to start those moves earlier in the month, rather than wait until the last day. Nelson Cruz was traded on the 21st, Magill and Morin traded for on the 19th and Escobar traded on the 27th. And, of course, Jaime Garcia was traded for on the 24th, early enough to get traded away a week later. There was also plenty of waiver action related to freeing up roster spots, etc. Plenty more trades have happened in the last day or two of the trade windows, but I have to wonder if the fact that we haven't seen much activity so far may be part of leading us to a less-active trading season for the Twins this year. That leads to a... Hope: If this does lead to a trade season when they largely stay put with what they've built over the offseason, can we please not have articles and comments ad nauseum about stupid the front office is and how they are not committed to winning? Most of us already have our opinions one way or the other, and those opinions probably aren't going to change with seven more days of activity or inactivity. I can hope, right?

Yeah, that's the danger of sneaking in a comment during a break from work. 😄 You are, of course, correct. I meant to say, "...deplete themselves further for the rest of the year." But I do think there's an element of truth here. If Cleveland bails, that makes it less important to tweak for the rest of the season. And given the random nature of the playoffs, I'm always less about trying to tweak for the playoffs than I am for getting there.

If we're talking "Perfect 2023 Trade Deadline," let's add the Twins going at least 3-2 the rest of the week and Cleveland going no better than 2-4. That puts Cleveland four games under .500 and 5.5 games back and hopefully makes them fully enter "sell" mode, depleting themselves a little further for future years.

I was on the radio -- was the game-winner catchable?

Ftfy.

Listening to Jeffers with the post-game radio interview, I was glad to hear Jeffers use the word "plethora." It means a lot.

That looks pretty phenomenal, but I can't go to Seattle without loading up on chowder.

Remember folks, if you're going out for the celebratory Blizzard, Dove chocolate tastes better than their soap.