Mill1634

Polo starting to heat up is great news

BRING THE RAIN

Berrios is pitching horribly

Twins extremely lucky to escape that inning only down one...Berrios isn't fooling anyone and getting hit hard

That was the worst best double play I've ever seen

Buckle down Berrios...can't let this one get away.

Rough day for the top 20 prospects

Exactly what was needed to start off this series and potentially kick things into gear (if it's gonna happen, it's going to be now). Garlick is one hit in the margin for this FO, and he's shown that against LHP. Cruz seems to be in a bit of a funk right now, but I think he'll be just fine. Nice to see Polo, Cruz, and Kepler all provide a spark tonight, they'll be key without Buxton and AK. Shoemaker did enough to earn another start, and Stashak did the opposite. That spot needs to turn into Giabult/Sparkman/Law/Anderson/Thorpe etc until someone proves that they can get outs. Stashak was so good last year, but his control is gone and he's getting hit hard.

TWINS WIN!! exactly what was needed to start off this series and potentially kick things into gear (if it's gonna happen, it's going to be now). Garlick is one hit in the margin for this FO, and he's shown that against LHP. Cruz seems to be in a bit of a funk right now, but I think he'll be just fine. Nice to see Polo, Cruz, and Kepler all provide a spark tonight, they'll be key without Buxton and AK. Shoemaker did enough to earn another start, and Stashak did the opposite. That spot needs to turn into Giabult/Sparkman/Law/Anderson/Thorpe etc until someone proves that they can get outs. Stashak was so good last year, but his control is gone and he's getting hit hard. Until tomorrow, Go Twins!!

Roster Move: The Minnesota Twins placed Byron Buxton on the 10-day IL prior to the series opener with the Detroit Tigers with a grade two hip flexor. This is a less severe injury to the same one that White Sox outfielder Luis Robert just suffered, and will cause him to miss 3-4 months. Buxton is not expected back in 10 days, and is likely out for "weeks." The Twins have selected the contract of OF/1B LHH Trevor Larnach, and have DFA'd LHP Brandon Waddell to make room on the 40 man. The Pitchers RHP Matt Shoemaker (1-3, 7.83 ERA, 14 K's, 23 IP) vs LHP Tarik Skubal (0-4, 6.14 ERA, 18 K's, 22 IP) The Twins will give the ball to Matt Shoemaker once again, and in what may be his last start for the Twins. Nobody has came out and confirmed this, but the Twins sent down Randy Dobnak earlier in the week with the goal of stretching him out. The most likely candidate to be placed is Matt Shoemaker, who has not been very good in 2021. Shoemaker returns to his hometown to face the Tigers, which is who he made his Twins debut against. The Tigers turn to once top prospect Tarik Skubal, who has also been bad. Skubal has given up 8 home runs in only 22 innings, and gave up the long ball 9 times last year in 32 innings pitched. Skubal relies on a mid-90s fastball, a slider that he throws to both handed batters, and a curveball that he only tosses against righties. He also relies on a split-finger fastball against righties. The split is his best pitch, with a whiff rate of 31 percent. The fastball has been crushed this year, with opponents slugging in the .630s against it. The Lineups Twins LF Kyle Garlick R 3B J. Donaldson R DH Nelson Cruz R C Mitch Garver R 2B J. Polanco S 1B Miguel Sano R RF Max Kepler L SS A. Simmons R CF Jake Cave L Tigers RF R. Grossman S DH J. Schoop R 3B J. Candelario S 1B M. Cabrera R SS Niko Goodrum S 2B Willi Castro S CF JaCoby Jones R LF Akil Baddoo L C G. Greiner R The Twins leadoff with Kyle Garlick, who has had good success against southpaws this season, followed up by JD and Nelson Cruz. Mitch Garver, who has started to heat up lately, will hit in the cleanup spot, followed by infielders Jorge Polanco and Miguel Sano. With the injury to Buxton, the Twins are going to have to lean on Max Kepler and Jake Cave, even against left handed hitters, who hit in the bottom third of the order, with Simba sandwiched in between. You'll notice that Larnach is not in the lineup, which I suspect is because the Twins are facing a lefty. I would bet that we see Trevor get his first MLB AB sometime in the middle innings, when the Tigers bring in a righty. With the injury to Buxton, it leaves a lot of questionmarks in fans minds in an already down year. Losing an MVP caliber player is not the recipe to clawing your way back, and if the Twins don't, we will likely see a sale in July. I released part one of my blog yesterday, ranking the Twins MLB roster by trade value. Vegas Odds: Twins -145, Tigers +125, O/U is set at 9 runs This Day in History - 2008: Carlos Gomez becomes the eighth Twins' player to complete the cycle and the first since Kirby Puckett accomplished the feat in 1986 when he beats out an infield single in the team's six-run ninth inning of their 13-1 rout of the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. The Minnesota outfielder's rare feat was only the ninth reverse natural cycle, collecting hits in reverse order of total bases: home run, then triple, then double, then a single. Pick to Click: The bringer of rain brings some rain while rain is falling in the Motor City. Go Twins!!!

I’ll get to it in a later blog post, but I personally don’t think Cruz value is insanely high. When you think about it, only 15 teams can use him, and at least 5 of those teams aren’t really trying to win (Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, seattle, Texas). Those are all no goes. The Yankees have Stanton and the Astros have Yordan. Boston has JDM. Cross them off the list and thats 8 teams that won’t do it. Oakland isn’t spending money on the DH. 9. White so. Likely aren’t interested unless yermin goes cold. And the angels are committed to othani. The most likely destination is Toronto, imo, but I wouldn’t expect a ton in return. There’s a reason Cruz was on the market for so long.

Like east coast twins said, this is only part one, so going over some guys who have little to know value prospect wise. Simmons is not in that category and will be featured in part 2, sometime early next week

With a disappointing series against a bottom three team in baseball, and an 11-19 record 30 games into the year, it's hard to not ask the question of "who's still going to be here" come August 1st. In an attempt to figure out who has value and who doesn't, and what type of team may take a stab at some Twins, I created a blog post ranking the Twins pieces by value. How would you rank the Twins MLB players by trade value, and who do you think will realistically be moved barring a drastic turnaround?

I said it in the game thread, but this team simply isn't a contender. I know they're battling injuries, but the core group of young players made an appearance today. Max Kepler provided a homer, but has been bad nearly all year, and is unusable against left handers. Buxton is very, very good, but often injures. I'm not sure you can hold that against anyone in particular, but when two of your best three hitters (Donaldson and Buxton) are not durable, you're taking a huge risk. Willians is a fun player, but he's nothing more than league average. Miguel Sano's timing is absolutely atrocious, and Jorge Polanco and Mitch Garver have both taken steps back. The bullpen that many had questions about appears to be one of the worst groups in baseball, and the former manager of the year looks like a deer in headlights when his team isn't smashing the MLB home run record. I'm not going to be done watching this team, but it's time for many of us, myself included, to reevaluate are expectations. This team isn't going to make the playoffs, nor are they going to push for a playoff spot, barring a drastic turnaround, which is honestly just optimism with nothing to back it up. The Twins are likely going to have some tough decisions to make come July, and I tried to rank who we could see go, following a 1-3 series against a bottom three team in the league.

The Twins have just fallen to 11-19 on the season, including going 2-5 against arguably the two worst teams in baseball, the Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates. It's no secret that this season has not gone according to plan for anyone following the Twins, and unless a drastic turnaround is coming, which I'm not expecting, but certainly could happen, this team is going to find themselves as sellers come late July. it was debated last year whether the Twins should keep the core group of hitters in Polanco, Kepler, Garver, and Sano. Thirty games into the season, the answers seems to have been no, but we know that the Twins did. Of course everyone on this list isn't going to be traded, but I am willing to bet that a handful of them will be. I am only ranking players on the 40 man roster, so you won't see any Royce Lewis or Trevor Larnach's in here. Honorable Mentions RHP Matt Shoemaker Matt Shoemaker is more likely headed to the waiver wire rather than the tradeblock, but there is a route where Shoemaker stays healthy and starts to pitch well for the Twins. I'm not counting on it. Shoemaker has struggled with availability in years passed, but still been a decent back end of the rotation option. If he gets back to throwing with an ERA in the mid-4's, and the HR rate stabilizes, there may be a team willing to take a shot. LHP Caleb Thielbar Thielbar has been a nice success story since coming back for round two with the Twins. It appeared that he was going to retire from Major League Baseball, but instead he's turn into a nice niche weapon for Rocco. Thielbar relies on a mid-90's fastball, and a curveball below the speed limit. He isn't going to get much of a prospect return at all, but if he keeps his strikeout rate at 50% (he won't, but I do think 30% is possible), there will certainly be a team or two willing to trade for the southpaw. UT Willians Astudillo Say it ain't so! La Tortuga is a jack of all trades type of player who has a profile so far away from the average MLB hitter, that he's almost valuable. I don't think any MLB team is going to trust him to play behind the plate, and he certainly isn't a plus in the field, but an NL team could have interest in La Tortuga's bat to ball skills as a pinch hitter late in ball games. Much like Thielbar and Shoemaker, the prospect return is going to be almost nonexistent, but he has more than waiver wire value. 16. RH RP Alex Colome There's no doubt that the signing of Alex Colome has been a failure thus far. We've seen him blow multiple saves and get hit hard, and Rocco has recently used AAAA arms like Brandon Waddell in extra innings over an overly rested Colome. However, there is still plenty of time until July, and Colome can certainly up his value. He has closer experience, and front offices love that even if us fans think that saves are a useless stat. Colome isn't going to get much more than a flier type prospect, but he has value assuming he finds some sort of his pre-2021 version Prediction: San Fransisco Giants 15. RH 1B Miguel Sano Former top 10 prospect Miguel Sano came bursting onto the seen in Minnesota, and even made an ASG appearance in his third year with the ballclub, and had all-star level numbers in 2019. However, we've seen him struggle mightily the past year and change, especially with the strikeout. When Miggy is going well, he's crushing fastballs, but right now his timing is off. It's likely that Sano will find his timing eventually and go on one of his hot streaks, but they may be on another ball club, especially if Alex Kiriloff is back sooner than expected. I do think the leash is longer than some Twins fans hope, and the trade value is as low as it's ever been when you take into the fact that he's owed 11 million dollars next year, but a team could fall in love with the power Sano provides. Prediction: Not moved 14. S MIF Jorge Polanco In order for the Twins to be the contenders that we all hoped they would be this year, a lot hinged on this mans shoulders. We know that Jorge struggled with an ankle injury in 2020, but we all naturally assumed that the ankle would be ready to roll in 2021, and with that the gap power would come back. As we now know, Polanco still looks like he has the same bad habits that stemmed from the 2020 injury, and the contact rate has fallen. He's already struck out 22 times in 113 at bats. When Polanco made the ASG in 2019, he struck out only 18 percent of the time. We also know that he was moved from the SS position, and the advanced numbers don't like him at 2nd anymore than they did at SS. Fangraphs has him on pace to finish with a -5.0 UZR, assuming he fields 1,000 innings at 2nd. Prediction: Not moved 13. RH 3B Josh Donaldson The Bringer of Rain has been a quality player when he's on the field for the Twins, but the fact of the matter is that that is no given. Donaldson plays a great third base, and provides pop in the middle of the lineup, but we've already seen him hit the IL once this year with leg problems, which also caused him to miss a majority of the shortened 2020 season. Donaldson also has his contract hanging over his head, which is guaranteed for at least 2 more seasons at 21 million per year, with a team option in the 2025 season for 16 million. When you combine the health issues with the contract, I think it's very unlikely that a club takes a risk with JD, unless the Twins are willing to eat some salary. Prediction: Not moved 12. RH RP Hansel Robles Hansel Robles was brought in on a cheap prove it deal this past offseason, and so far this year the results are about as expected. Robles had the role of the closer position in Los Angeles the past few years, but he lost some fastball velo which limited his effectiveness. So far into 2021, the velo has came back to Robles, and he's been effective. Robles is likely a middle reliever on a world series contender due to the fact that he gives up the free pass too often, but he can thrive in his role while bringing that closer experience to the table. Robles advanced numbers from baseball savant are very inspiring, which give him a sub-.200 xBA, and an expected ERA of 3.44. Out of all the names on the list, I think Robles is the most likely, and the first of any Twin player to be traded. Prediction: Oakland A's

Losing 3 straight to the Rangers is bad. Really bad. It's time to accept that this team isn't a legitimate contender, and reevaluate your expectations when watching games. I'll still watch when I can, and enjoy the players that are on the team, but this team isn't anything more than a .500 baseball team the rest of the year.

Oh no

I hope for Roccos sake than Duffey doesn't blow this here

Rogers was too dominant to continue pitching?

Ah, yes. Lets pinch hit for the guy whos got on 3 times today, and his out was on a 3-2 count

Phil Cuzzi is atrocious

sigh

It's for stolen base attempts only...not for trying to turn a single into a double, etc. Make contact with the bag before the tag is applied and your safe. Simple as that. Easiest way to increase stolen base attempts, imo

Good outing from Big Mike. I hope Rocco allows him to face 7-8-9 in the 7th, but I'm not getting my hopes up

Sano with the hat trick...but that one has an * next to it. Phil Cuzzi is terrible