Vanimal46

I would rather see 71 year old Tom Kelly in Zubas as a stogie in his mouth feeding the pitching machine instead of position players throwing 40 MPH floaters. If I were at Target Field and saw Nick Gordon warming up on the mound, I’d walk to the car.

I’m not sure position players will hurt their arms when they’re throwing 45 MPH floaters to home plate. I would love to see a team decide to bat around and score 20 runs because a position player is in there. Because the way things are trending, it’s making a mockery of the game. We’re better off having a concede/forfeit rule in place than continue seeing position players pitch every week.

Multiple times today I was bracing for the worst. Still can’t believe Joe Smith wiggled his way out of the 7th unscathed. - Excellent start by Smeltzer. 6+ innings in 6 of his 8 starts. Keep it up! - Nice to be back tied for the division lead - Cleveland’s true colors will be showing soon. Good luck navigating through 7 double headers with a 13 pitcher staff.

The St Paul Saints won 7-1 as well. The org is off to a strong start already. Balazovic 3 shutout innings 2 hits 3 K.

The Twins scored 5, 10, and 1 runs this series. Obviously the game we score 1 is a winner.

Intentional jinx?

Falvey and Levine seem like sharp enough people to see that there are 2 unusable relievers wearing a Twins uniform right now. Thornburg hasn’t pitched in well over a week and Duffey is a mop up guy.

Duran warming up for the 8th. 6 out save here we come!

IT’S A MIRACLE!

It’s gonna be a miracle if we get out of this unscathed.

Nothing keeps the blood pressure elevated more than a pitch to contact reliever like Joe Smith.

And now the hyperventilating begins.

6 clean innings by Smeltzer. You love to see it!

Trading someone 1 year into a new 7 year extension is a horrible look for the organization. He also has a full no trade clause for the next 4 seasons. Saying he’s not really helping is also short sighted. He’s helped a lot this year already.

No.

Smeltzer is dealing today.

There was a time in baseball history where throwing in the towel and using a position player to pitch was a rare sight to see. Heck, I’m sure people tuned in to witness the comedy and see a position player actually try on the mound. For example, Jeff Francour pitching 2 innings in 2015, topping out at 88 MPH and mixing in 4 different pitches to boot. Or Ichiro Suzuki taking the craft seriously, throwing 87 MPH and mixing in 3 different pitches during his outing in 2015. And of course, Willians Astudillo who threw mid 70s and the infamous 40 something MPH eephus. Back in 2011, we only saw 8 appearances by position players on the mound. The number has exploded in recent years. 2017: 65 2018: 78 2019: 90 2020: 50 2021: 95 2022: 23 as of June 1. Can’t find exact number up to June 23 It’s also not just the sheer number of position players pitching that’s making this once novelty incredibly boring. The way they’re now pitching is 10 year old little league status. If position players are now being informed not to try at all on the mound and throw 40 MPH floaters, what are we doing here? It’s no longer entertainment. The problem is only going to continue getting worse with the rule in place to have a max of 13 pitchers on staff. Teams will continue to throw the white flag down or up by 6 runs to save their bullpen arms for another game. Paying fans will watch professional baseball players lob pitches 40 MPH for an inning or 3. And the product will suffer.

As if we needed more bad news…

Correct. The last 2 fresh arms available were the mop up guys Duffey and Thornburg. Maybe Jax would have done better with a clean start to an inning, but I doubt it. It didn’t look like he had much to offer tonight. I don’t know where the assistance is going to come from internally. Alcala is still a couple weeks out if he doesn’t have another set back. Maeda feels like a major wish to be back pitching soon. Strotman has been a bust. Henriquez and Enlow are just 40 man filler not ready for prime time.

The highs and lows during this game was crazy. Really disappointing that 10 runs wasn’t enough to win. Even more disappointing that the bullpen gave up 7 runs from the 7th inning on. I still hold the belief that Cleveland is playing extremely lucky baseball and it’s not going to last throughout the summer. It will all even out. The question is, can we cobble together a bullpen internally and keep the ship from sinking over the next month?

This loss stings. 10 runs wasn’t enough for a win. 2 blown leads by the pen. Seemingly no internal options to help keep the bullpen afloat until trades become a reality.

No one is selling right now. Gonna have to remain afloat for the next month with internal options.