Mill1634

Only Dick and Smelly could derive that a reliever is going to be successful after seeing him go 4 innings and give up 4 runs on 2 homers.

If you're a righty sitting in the low 90s, you have to have a great offspeed pitch, and be able to locate your fastball with perfection. So far, Ober looks like he can do neither

He's going to have to, because his defense certainly isn't going to do any favors to keep him on the field

Larnach runs like a 6'5" 12 year old who hasn't finished puberty yet

What players are you most looking forward to seeing in the 2nd half of this lost season? It's likely that we will see a fleury of trades come July, and that means the Twins will have to fill most of these holes from within. I wrote about some players we are likely to see in August and September, starting with starting pitchers

Wrote about some players the Twins are likely to use the second half of this season to evaluate, including tonights starter Bailey Ober.

The Minnesota Twins find themselves doubled up in the loss column at the time of this post, at 13-26, and the biggest controversy is whether Yermin Mercedes should be able to swing 3-0 against Willians Astudillo. If that doesn't tell you how this season has gone, I'm not sure what will. I've already wrote about players that we could see traded, as well as ranked all the Twins MLB roster by trade value. I expect many of those moves to be made in July, although some could roll in earlier, especially with all of the injuries around Major League Baseball. When all of these expected moves come around, the Twins are going to have to fill these holes with players from the minor leagues, or possibly by players coming in from the trades. This series will take a look at the players the Twins front office will want to take a longer look at come late July, August, and September in order to put themselves in a position to succeed in 2022. RHP Randy Dobnak Dobnak came into the Twins organization as a feel good story, and even started a playoff game for the Twins. He also signed a 5 year extension this past offseason, which locked in financial security for the former Uber driver, and gave the Twins a cheap depth option for the foreseeable future. However, there is questions around Twins territory on whether Dobnak is an MLB starter, or more of a long man. With expected trades of JA Happ and Michael Pineda, and the likely DFA or move to the bullpen for Matt Shoemaker, the Twins will have plenty of chances to evaluate some of the AAA starters. Dobnak should, and likely will be, the first option to fill the hole. Dobnak relies on pinpoint control over his sinker, and a very good slider to pair with the sinker. In order to be an effective MLB starter, Dobnak will have to develop a reliable third pitch, with the changeup being the most likely. Even if Dobnak isn't a long term starter, he will be on the opening day roster in 2022. LHP Lewis Thorpe Lewis Thorpe is a former top prospect out of Australia, but certainly hasn't met those expectations thus far. The key to Thorpe being a useful arm in the major leagues all rely on his fastball velocity. Last season we saw Thorpe's velocity fall below 90, which was not the norm for him, and unsurprisingly, he got shelled. However, there were signs of hope for the southpaw during spring training, where he said he "refocused mentally and physically" and the results backed it up. Thorpe was sitting in the low 90's during spring training, but that has suddenly disappeared. During Thorpe's two spot starts thus far, he's once again sitting 89.7 MPH on the fastball, and shared that he's going through a dead arm phase. If Thorpe snaps out of his dead arm, and regains his velo, he has a chance at a starter to pair with his very good slider. However, if the fastball velo is only sustainable in short stints, a move to the pen seems inevitable. We'll get an answer on this question during the dog days of the 2021 summer. RHP Bailey Ober As I'm writing this article, Bailey Ober is pitching the first inning of his MLB debut. Ober is a big, right handed arm who stands at 6 feet 9 inches, but doesn't have the velo that matches the body. The Twins drafted Ober in the 12th round in 2017, which is the same draft where Royce Lewis was the #1 pick. The fact that Ober has already made his MLB debut, despite being a 12th round pick, means he's outperformed expectations. Bailey was added to the 40 man roster this past offseason, despite not throwing in a live game since 2019. Ober has four quality pitches, with the fastball sitting in the upper 80's, and the lower 90's on occasion. His best putaway pitch is a changeup, which moves with a lot of armside run. He also features a slider and curveball, but neither project as anything more than an average pitch. Despite the fastball not cracking 90, it has a lot of carry on it which allows him to successfully pitch in the upper part of the zone. With the next wave of top arms coming to Target Field soon in Johan Duran and Jordan Balazovic, Ober will have to perform well to stay apart of Minnesota's long term plans, as he is a starter or bust.

This one was clearly over in the top of the first. What an epic, epic disaster of a game, and a good look into the season. At least that one hurt the run differential so the twins fans/writers hanging onto the “unlucky twins” won’t have it in their favor. This team is absolutely horrible. The lineup has 2 really good hitters (Donaldson, Buxton when healthy) a good hitter (Cruz), and nothing after that. I think AK probably falls into a good hitter as well, but it’s still early and he’s hurt. Arraez is good as well, but not a game changing type of player. Polanco, garver, Kepler, and sano are an up and down roller coaster you expect out of rookie and 2nd year players, The pitching is absolutely horrible, and the depth that many thought they found off the waiver wire of MILB deals are all bad. Not shocking, considering they were available there for a reason, but for some reason we thought everyone was the next Matt Wisler (who is also bad now). It turns out at the end of the day, you get what you paid for, and right now we’re seeing the results of paying for mediocre talent and trying to turn them into average talent

This one was clearly over in the top of the first. What an epic, epic disaster of a game, and a good look into the season. At least that one hurt the run differential so the twins fans/writers hanging onto the “unlucky twins” won’t have it in their favor. This team is absolutely horrible. The lineup has 2 really good hitters (Donaldson, Buxton when healthy) a good hitter (Cruz), and nothing after that. I think AK probably falls into a good hitter as well, but it’s still early and he’s hurt. Arraez is good as well, but not a game changing type of player. Polanco, garver, Kepler, and sano are an up and down roller coaster you expect out of rookie and 2nd year players, The pitching is absolutely horrible, and the depth that many thought they found off the waiver wire of MILB deals are all bad. Not shocking, considering they were available there for a reason, but for some reason we thought everyone was the next Matt Wisler (who is also bad now). It turns out at the end of the day, you get what you paid for, and right now we’re seeing the results of paying for mediocre talent and trying to turn them into average talent.

Not a great sign when us fans have to attempt to be excised for JA Happ...

Allowing a run where the first 2 hitters handed you outs on 3 pitches is not great!

Horrible, horrible outing on a day where it was most needed with this upcoming stretch of games.

This ump is straight up flipping a coin on any pitch near the outside edge

This umpire needs DFA'd

ROBBY!

Say what you want about Garver, but he's a tough SOB

30 pitches, 0 outs, and the catcher is now hurt. Someone restart this game

This game is over in the first inning

Happ nibbling like crazy..

Sink or swim series here. PTC: Jorge Prediction: Twins 7, Sox 5

It does not matter who “initiates” the contact if the contact comes within the basepaths, unless you’re diving at a guy or something like that, which he didn’t. It’s on the fielder to get out of the basepaths, hence the name. Rortvedt didn’t do that. A veteran played a rookie like a fiddle. If you’re caught in a rundown, go find contact. High school coaches teach that, not because it’s cheap, because it works if the opponent allows it to. Like I said above, even if he doesn’t reach out, there shoulders are still making contact. Still interference however you want to spin it. take it from a guy a lot smarter than me if you must.

A bit of confusion by a few posters..Andrus most definitely flopped, yes. I don’t think anyone, even him, will argue that. However, it doesn’t matter if the runner falls over or not. Rortvedt doesn’t have the ball anymore, and is still in the basepaths. If any contact is made within the basepaths, obstruction or interference will be called on the defensive player. If he doesn’t fall over, it’s likely delayed obstruction and the play continues to play out, and if he’s tagged, he’s later granted home and a run anyhow. The flop didn’t look good, and certainly caused some confusion, but it doesn’t matter at all in the call. If he doesn’t stick his arm out, he’s still bumping shoulders with Rortvedt, which therefore leads to obstruction. This coming from a (high school) umpire.

The twins have had plenty of poor relief appearances this year, including some out of Duffey. Today was NOT one of those out of Tyler. He came in with the bases loaded and 0 outs. The hardest thing possible for a reliever. He gave up a ground ball that didn’t get to the dirt, a ground ball hit at the 3rd basemen that was then botched by the catcher, who you somehow are still being apologetic over, Andrus did the exact thing every base runner should do and got the call because that is the call in that situation. He flopped, sure, but even if he doesn’t and just runs into him, it’s still the cal. The flop had nothing to do with the enforcement of the rule, and got a lazy fly ball that would’ve been the third out of the inning. Outside of striking out the side, Duffey pitcher that inning to perfection. Being upset at the reliever seems like you’re just doing so because they’ve been bad basically all year, which is fine, but the 5th inning had less than <5% of blame on Tyler Duffey.

The flop was a stupid play messed up by the twins catcher. Sure it was a flop, but never should’ve even gotten to that point. Complaining about it is stupid. Complain about the catcher for not knowing what the hell he was doing. As for Duffey, he did his job PERFECTLY in that situation. Not sure how the two are equally unless you weren’t actually watching the game

And only one was his “fault” (and it wasn’t really, weak ground out) when he came in in literally the most difficult situation.