Tom Froemming

Trevor May is out to recruit a hype man, but he may have his work cut out for him. The 29-year-old relief pitcher/DJ/E-Sports entrepreneur is searching for a dedicated Twins fan to come and make a lot of noise at Target Field next season. The problem? Minnesotans are a notoriously reserved bunch.May originally floated out his idea to introduce a drum or similar noisemaker on Twitter Tuesday evening, and even offered up a ticket to the volunteer drummer for every 2019 home game. When you think about a drummer in a baseball stadium, Progressive Field in Cleveland immediately comes to mind. Indians fan John Adams has pounded a bass drum at every single home game since 1973. But May’s inspiration was actually drawn more from the fans in Oakland. “I’ve been there (in Oakland) when they weren’t very good, obviously their attendance was lower than now, but those Bleacher Creatures are always there,” May said. “As a player, you notice it.” Those dedicated Bleacher Creatures at the Coliseum are a group of rowdy fans who occupy three sections. Even during their down seasons, this group consisted of 30-40 fans waving flags, shaking cowbells and just generally making all sorts of noise. “I know that me, personally, I feed off that,” May said. “It adds all kind of stuff to my game and I live for that. It makes the game more fun.” Scrolling through some of the responses May received to that original Tweet, you can see about a 50/50 split between people who love the idea and people who loathe it. Several people showed interest in joining the band, other’s threatened to boycott the stadium. May was the driving force behind creating “FortDay” at Target Field, an event that brought together a couple hundred fans of the video game Fortnite to watch May and some of his fellow E-Sports competitors play on the stadium video board, so he has some experience with the ins and outs of how things work. He acknowledged there were some logistical issues and security concerns to address. “It’s bringing them in that’s the problem, bringing extra stuff in,” May said. “I don’t think the noise itself is the problem, I think it’s when you open up to letting people bring that stuff in. My idea was to have a drum and keep it here … I’m talking about putting them way up in the right field stands.” Unlike his days as a starting pitcher, May has enjoyed being able to get hyped up and let things loose over shorter bursts out of the bullpen without having to think about conserving energy. “I love that. I think that’s why I really like relieving,” May said. “I struggle to keep that adrenaline going, that atmosphere going in my own head when I’m starting.” May mentioned former White Sox starter Jake Peavy and current Nationals ace Max Scherzer as a couple of rare examples of starting pitchers who are able to maintain a high-level of intensity and adrenaline over the course of a long start, but those types are a rare breed. May expressed gratitude for the support he’s received at Target Field, but that last trip to Oakland has him wondering what could be. “It just got me thinking about how to engage fans a little better,” May said. Click here to view the article

Willians Astudillo has been a brilliant ray of sunshine. In what was expected to be a gloomy final two months of baseball for the Twins, he’s not only provided plenty of light-hearted moments, but he’s also been a pretty damn good player, too. La Tortuga was at it again tonight, going 2-for-4 with a double and four RBIs. He's now hitting .357 with an .896 OPS.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Gonsalves: 3.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 56.6% strikes (43 of 76 pitches) Home Runs: None Multi-Hit Games: Polanco (3-for-5, 2B), Austin (2-for-4, 2 2B), Astudillo (2-for-4, 2B) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Austin .250, Astudillo .189, Magill .129 WPA of -0.1 or lower: None Download attachment: WinChart927.png The Twins currently have a better record since the trade deadline (25-27, .481 WP) than they did before they sent away all their “good pieces,” as Ervin Santana put it (49-57, 476 WP). Along with Astudillo, Tyler Austin — another guy who’s provided some post-deadline intrigue — also had it going tonight. He was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and three RBIs. Gabriel Moya served as the opener tonight and gave up a run on two hits. Stephen Gonsalves came in for the second inning and walked the first two batters he faced. Both those runners eventually came around to score. The Twins strung together a five-run rally in the third inning, as Joe Mauer hit an RBI double, Austin had a two-run double and Astudillo drove in two on a single. Despite gaining the lead, Gonsalves didn’t last long. He continued to struggle to hit his spots, walking a total of four batters, and threw only 56.6 percent of his pitches for strikes. From there, the bullpen was great. Matt Magill wiggled out of Gonsalves’ jam and pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Alan Busenitz was perfect in the seventh, Zack Littell pitched a scoreless eighth and John Curtiss followed suit in the ninth. Postgame With Astudillo Next Three Games Fri vs. CHW, 1:10 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Reynaldo Lopez Fri vs. CHW, 7:10 pm CT: Chase De Jong vs. Lucas Giolito Sat vs. CHW, 6:10 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. Carlos Rodon Last Three Games MIN 11, DET 4: Bats Bust Out, Bullpen Shuts Out Detroit DET 4, MIN 2: Mauer Reaches Milestone, Hildenberger Flops MIN 5, OAK 1: Gibby’s Arm, Cave’s Bat and Adrianza’s Glove Lift Twins to Victory Click here to view the article

Great stuff Seth. What a pleasant surprise this guy has been. Sounds like he takes pride in his defense, takes to coaching and we saw that he's got some pop in his bat. You don't see a ton of 24th-round picks make it, but this isn't a guy I'm going to bet against.

The basic point I was trying to make was that it's not like all his numbers trended in the wrong direction this season. I suppose a better way of doing that would be to say he shaved his FIP down from 5.43 in 2017 to 4.19 this season or that he went from being exactly replacement level per FanGraphs last year to a 2.6 WAR player this year.

Jake Odorizzi failed to record an out in the fourth inning for just the second time all season, but he got plenty of support. The bullpen pitched six shutout innings and lineup exploded for 11 runs, all of which were scored in the first five innings. Congrats are in order for Paul Molitor, who picked up his 300th win as manager.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Odorizzi: 27 Game Score, 3.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 54.7% strikes (41 of 75 pitches) Home Runs: Field 2 (9), Austin (17) Multi-Hit Games: Astudillo (3-for-5), Polanco (2-for-4, 3B, BB), Grossman (2-for-4, 2B, BB), Field (2-for-4, 2 HR), Gimenez (2-for-4) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Duffey .212, Field .200, Austin .163, Grossman .152 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Odorizzi -.320 Download attachment: WinChart926.png This was Odorizzi’s shortest start since June 23 and just the second time all season he failed to at least record an out in the fourth inning. Things got off on the wrong foot right out of the gate, as Odorizzi walked the leadoff man on four pitches then nearly gave up an inside-the-park home run to Christian Stewart. Jorge Polanco made a nice relay throw to nail him at the plate. Odorizzi will end the year with a 4.49 ERA, the worst he’s posted over a full season in his career, but he also recorded 162 strikeouts in 164 1/3 innings pitched. That 8.9 K/9 is his highest rate since his rookie year back in 2014. Odorizzi gives the Twins three pitchers with 160 punchouts this season, joining Jose Berrios and Kyle Gibson. Coming into tonight, the only three Twins pitchers who’ve reached that mark since Target Field opened are Ervin Santana (2017), Phil Hughes (2014) and Francisco Liriano (2010). The last time the Twins had multiple pitchers reach 160 strikeouts was 1987 (Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven). To find the last time they had at least three pitchers reach that mark was in 1967 when they had four guys accomplish the feat (Dean Chance, Jim Kaat, Dave Boswell and Jim Merritt). As soon as Odorizzi exited, this game turned around. The bullpen held down Detroit, and in the meantime, the Twins’ bats heated up. Tyler Duffey earned the win, pitching two no-hit innings. Andrew Vasquez turned in a perfect inning of his own in the sixth and Addison Reed pitched a scoreless seventh before John Curtiss and Matt Belisle each turned in a perfect inning to finish things off. Tyler Austin hit a two-run home run in the first inning. Johnny Field hit a solo blast in the second and added a two-run homer in the fourth. Jorge Polanco capped the five-run fifth inning with a bases-clearing triple. Next Three Games Thu vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Francisco Liriano Fri vs. CHW, 1:10 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Reynaldo Lopez Fri vs. CHW, 7:10 pm CT: Chase De Jong vs. Lucas Giolito Last Three Games DET 4, MIN 2: Mauer Reaches Milestone, Hildenberger Flops MIN 5, OAK 1: Gibby’s Arm, Cave’s Bat and Adrianza’s Glove Lift Twins to Victory OAK 3, MIN 2: Willians Astudillo Collects Three More Hits Click here to view the article

It's weird, Molly seems to have a really difficult time trusting relievers, but then once he does, it's ride or die. He'll keep rolling with that guy even through a big slump. Some of that "stick to your guns" mentality can be productive over the course of a long season, but it's clear this is more than just a blip on the radar for Trevor. He's really fighting it right now. I would've liked to see Reed get a look over some of these other guys on the roster, but, it's fair to point out he's had a 4.0 BB/9 rate in the minors the past two seasons and his 2.18 K:BB ratio over that span is not very promising. Still, it'll be a shame if he moves on to another org without at least getting an audition with the Twins.

I have a confession to make: I was rooting against Joe Mauer. In my defense, it was only for a short time. I just really didn’t want him to become the Twins’ all-time leader in times on base while on the road, so I was pulling against him. But it was just one time, OK? And, you know, all the other kids were doing it … Mauer ended up tying Harmon Killebrew for that distinction in Oakland, and wasted little time breaking the record at Target Field, leading off the bottom of the first inning with a single.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Stewart: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 64.0% strikes (48 of 75 pitches) Home Runs: None Multi-Hit Games: Mauer (2-for-4, BB), Polanco (2-for-5, 2B), Cave (2-for-4) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Stewart .431 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Grossman -.134, May -.134, Forsythe -.182, Hildenberger -.507 Download attachment: WinChart925.png It seems Joe is going to leave us all hanging on the whole retirement thing, but the milestone hit provided a great opportunity for him to be acknowledged by the home crowd. Mauer ended the night 2-for-4 with a walk and scored both runs for the Twins. Kohl Stewart was very good tonight, and has been really good this month. In four appearances, he’s only given up three earned runs on 10 hits and nine walks over 20 1/3 innings pitched (1.32 ERA, 0.93 WHIP). While it’s not like he’s exactly been dominant over that stretch, recording 13 strikeouts, he’s also only allowed one extra-base-hit, a double. He relied heavily on his two-seamer tonight, as to be expected, and was excellent at getting strikes with that pitch. Of the 41 two-seam fastballs he threw (according to Baseball Savant), 30 were for strikes (73.2 percent). That allowed him to lean on his four other offerings more as show-me/chase pitches. He threw his changeup seven times, all of them ending up out of the strike zone. Yes, a lot of Stewart’s success has come against some of the bottom teams in the league, but seeing his 500-pound fastball be effective against major leaguers and his other four pitches keep guys off balance is a very encouraging sign. He’ll definitely face some stiffer competition than he did tonight, but there’s also so much potential for Stewart to get better. Things have to get better with Trevor Hildenberger, right? He took over for Stewart in the eighth and allowed Detroit to tie the game on a Nicholas Castellanos RBI single, which was followed by a Niko Goodrum go-ahead single. Hildy yielded to Trevor May from there, but two more runs came in on a James McCann double. All four runs were charged to Hildenberger, who has now given up 28 earned runs in his last 27 innings pitched. The fact that Hildy was pitching the eighth in a one-run game would indicate he’s been removed from the closer role. Next Three Games Wed vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Matthew Boyd Thu vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Francisco Liriano Fri vs. CHW, 1:10 pm CT & 7:10 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games MIN 5, OAK 1: Gibby’s Arm, Cave’s Bat and Adrianza’s Glove Lift Twins to Victory OAK 3, MIN 2: Willians Astudillo Collects Three More Hits OAK 7, MIN 6: Khrush Davis Walks Off Twins Click here to view the article

Thanks for reading everybody! The walk-off losses put a negative spin on the series, but the Twins gave Oakland everything they could handle. It's a positive sign, and nice to see some of these guys get a taste of a playoff-type atmosphere on the road. I'd take Berrios, but Gibby has been more consistent. Berrios has three more starts in which he recorded a game score of 40 or lower than Gibson this season. On the flip side, Berrios also has four more starts with a score of 65 or higher than Gibby does. I don't think Ehire hits enough to be a regular. He's hit .259/.312/.387 in 540 PAs with the Twins the past two seasons, that's an 88 OPS+. A good offensive team may be able to get away with that from its shortstop, but I think the Twins are going to need all the help they can get at the plate next season.

Jake Cave hit a two-run homer in the first inning, Kyle Gibson pitched into the eight inning and Ehire Adrianza made a trio of impressive plays at third base Sunday afternoon in Oakland to lead the Twins to victory. Another day, another Joe Mauer Minnesota milestone. With two hits, Mauer tied Harmon Killebrew for the most times on base in Twins history.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Gibson: 58 Game Score, 7.1 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 57.0% strikes (65 of 114 pitches) Home Runs: Cave (12) Multi-Hit Games: Mauer (2-for-4), Cave (2-for-4, HR), Adrianza (2-for-4, 2B) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Gibson .210, Cave .135 WPA of -0.1 or lower: None Download attachment: WinChart923.png Gibson pitched well, but with only three strikeouts he needed his defense for plenty of support. Adrianza answered the call, making a few slick plays at third base including one that resulted in a huge inning-ending double play. This was the sixth time this season Gibson has gone at least seven innings and given up no more than one run. He only accomplished that feat once in 2017 and three times in 2016. Cave’s homer gave Gibson some breathing room early. It was Cave’s 12th home run of the season with the Twins, he had six more homers during his time with Rochester. The Twins managed to string together a three-run rally in the fourth inning, making for a relatively low-stress day. Still, the fact the Twins managed to score five runs is pretty impressive considering their overall production for the day. Other than Cave’s homer, the only extra-base hit they had was an Adrianza double. They also combined for 10 strikeouts and didn’t draw a single walk. The Twins used four different pitchers in the eighth inning to face a grand total of five batters. Gibson pitched to the first two Oakland batters of that inning, then Tyler Duffey, Gabriel Moya and Trevor May each faced exactly one batter. It worked, the Twins kept the A’s off the board that inning, but it sure did slow things down. May stayed in to pitch a scoreless ninth. He retired four of the five batters he faced, two of them on strikeouts. Next Three Games Mon: Off Tue vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Spencer Turnbull Wed vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Matthew Boyd Thu vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Francisco Liriano Last Three Games OAK 3, MIN 2: Willians Astudillo Collects Three More Hits OAK 7, MIN 6: Khrush Davis Walks Off Twins MIN 8, DET 2: Gonsalves Stymies Tigers Click here to view the article

Sometimes you just have to cling to the happy things in life like butterflies, rainbows and Willians Astudillo. The Twins’ rookie sensation was 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored, lifting his batting average up to .338 and his OPS to .877. From minor league free agent to your new favorite player, Astudillo has been a joy to watch. What about the rest of tonight’s game? What did you not understand about butterflies and rainbows?Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) De Jong: 42 Game Score, 4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 63.8% strikes (37 of 58 pitches) Home Runs: None Multi-Hit Games: Astudillo (3-for-4, 2B) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Astudillo .268, Duffey .169, WPA of -0.1 or lower: Cave -.105, Polanco -.115, Austing -.119, Hildenberger -.362 Download attachment: WinChart922.png Chase De Jong pitched well for the Twins, only giving up a two-run homer over his 4 1/3 innings of work. Paul Molitor went to the bullpen to get through the rest of the fifth before turning things over to Zack Littell. Littell retired the first six men he faced in order before giving up a pair of hits to open the eighth. The Twins played some excellent defense in the infield tonight. They turned a pair of great double plays and Jorge Polanco and Joe Mauer combined for a web gem that helped strand the go-ahead run at third base the eighth inning. The Twins headed into the bottom of the ninth inning with the game knotted up, thanks in large part to Astudillo’s game-tying RBI single in the seventh inning and the solid work from the bullpen. Tie game, bottom of the ninth? Oakland had the Twins right where they wanted them. Polanco failed to cleanly field a ball in the ninth that could have resulted in an out at third base but instead went down as his 13th error of the season. That turned out to be a critical mistake, as the game-winning run came in to score on a two-out wild pitch by Trevor Hildenberger. This was the 15th walk-off loss for the Twins, tying a franchise record. Things ended very poorly tonight. Polanco's error and Hildenberger's wild pitch both stung, but the bottom line is it's really hard to win if you only score two runs. De Jong now has a 3.97 ERA in 11 1/3 innings with the Twins and Littell has a 4.38 mark in the 12 1/3 innings he’s pitched since his ugly MLB debut. Andrew Vasquez made his sixth appearance for the Twins, hitting the only batter he faced on the foot. He’s faced just 13 men in those six appearances. Oliver Drake faced three hitters tonight and struck out two of them while issuing a walk to the other. His ERA is down to 2.60 with the Twins and he has 17 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings pitched. Tyler Duffey induced a huge double play and Taylor Rogers extended his scoreless appearance streak, retiring the only batter he faced. Butterflies, rainbows and Willians Astudillo. Postgame With Molitor Next Three Games Sun at OAK, 3:05 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. Trevor Cahill Mon: Off Tue vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Spencer Turnbull Wed vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Matthew Boyd Last Three Games OAK 7, MIN 6: Khrush Davis Walks Off Twins MIN 8, DET 2: Gonsalves Stymies Tigers MIN 5, DET 3: Odorizzi Turns In Another Quality Start Click here to view the article

The Twins went toe-to-toe with the postseason-bound A’s but couldn’t contain Khris Davis. Khrush put Oakland up 2-0 in the first inning thanks to his 44th home run of the season, then delivered a walk-off homer for No 45 in the bottom of the 10th inning.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Berrios: 47 Game Score, 5.2 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 56.7% strikes (59 of 104 pitches) Home Runs: Grossman (5) Multi-Hit Games: Cave (2-for-4, 2B), Adrianza (2-for-4, 2 2B) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Polanco .307, Adrianza 180, Rogers .165, May .105 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Mauer -.104, Petit -.144, Berrios -.159, Magill -.281, Moya .301 Download attachment: WinChart921.png The Twins fell behind 4-0 in this one but stormed back with six runs in the sixth inning. Robbie Grossman hit a two-run home run, Ehire Adrianza had an RBI double and Jorge Polanco delivered a bases-clearing double in that inning. Jose Berrios walked the leadoff man in the bottom of the sixth on four pitches. He struck out the next two batters, but with lefty Matt Joyce about to come up as a pinch hitter, Paul Molitor decided to turn the game over to lefty Gabriel Moya. The only problem was the A’s had approximately 73 other hitters on their active roster. OK, that’s just a lame September baseball joke, but Oakland did then swap out Joyce for lefty killer Mark Canha. It was a good move, as Canha blasted a game-tying two-run homer. The bullpens kept things locked up over the next three innings. Both Trevor May and Taylor Rogers pitched 1 1/3 innings of no-hit ball before Matt Magill gave up the walk-off home run. On the downside, Berrios is not ending things on a high note. Over his last eight starts, Berrios has a 5.49 ERA (24 earned runs in 39.1 IP). Also, Joe Mauer was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts tonight. On the plus side, Rogers is looking more and more like a relief ace all the time. His scoreless inning streak is up to 23 1/3 innings. Also, the Twins got a taste of what a postseason chase looks like, playing a hard-fought game in front of a rowdy Oakland crowd. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com relayed a bunch of depressing news via Twitter pregame. Miguel Sano was sent back to Minnesota to have his knee re-evaluated, Logan Forsythe was out with a sore knee of his own and Mitch Garver won’t catch again this year due to post-concussion symptoms. On a brighter note, Eddie Rosario’s MRI came back clean and Addison Reed has left the team to be with his wife, who is expecting their second child. Next Three Games Sat at OAK, 8:05 pm CT: Chase De Jong vs. Mike Fiers Sun at OAK, 3:05 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. TBD Mon: Off Tue vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games MIN 8, DET 2: Gonsalves Stymies Tigers MIN 5, DET 3: Odorizzi Turns In Another Quality Start MIN 6, DET 1: Stewart Impresses, Rosario Exits Due to Injury Click here to view the article

Stephen Gonsalves pitched the best game of his young major league career Wednesday afternoon, holding the Tigers scoreless over six one-hit innings. It was also a strong effort from the offense today, as four Twins had multi-hit games. This gave Minnesota a four-game winning streak, just one shy of tying its season high.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Gonsalves: 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 69.2% strikes (54 of 78 pitches) Home Runs: None Multi-Hit Games: Grossman (3-for-5), Adrianza (3-for-4, 2 2B), Austin (2-for-3, SF), Astudillo (2-for-4, 2B) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Austin .164, Gonsalves .157 WPA of -0.1 or lower: None Download attachment: chart.png The Twins used an opener again today, it worked out great, but I still think it’s curious how they’re implementing the strategy. Gabriel Moya made his fourth start of the season and Gonsalves served as the primary pitcher. I don’t really get stacking lefties in this case. Why not go with a right-hander in front of Gonsalves? Also, the only dangerous hitter in Detroit’s lineup right now is Nicholas Castellanos, who hit third today. He’s a right-handed hitter who has an .857 career OPS vs. lefties and a .753 mark against same-sided pitchers. Since that’s the guy you’re most worried about beating you, why not open with a right-hander? All’s well that ends well, I suppose. Moya pitched a scoreless first inning. He hit the No. 2 batter Christin Stewart with a pitch before giving up a single to Castellanos, but then managed to induce an inning-ending double play. The Twins tallied four runs in the top of the second, meaning Gonsalves inherited a 4-0 lead. The most impressive part of Gonsalves’ performance, especially considering how things have gone to this point, is how he went right after Detroit hitters. He walked only one batter and threw nearly 70 percent of his pitches for strikes. Gonsalves leaned a little bit more on his fastball, throwing that pitch 64 percent of the time. He averaged 89.9 mph on that pitch, but maxed out at 94. He also went with the curveball a little bit more over his slider today. That’s a fun pitch, a big looping curve that he throws at 73 mph. He got three swinging strikes on the 10 curveballs he threw, and Detroit hitters were able to put that pitch into play only once, and even that had a wimpy exit velocity of 62.8 mph. Through three and a half innings, the Twins had already built a 6-0 lead in an impressive display of offensive efficiency. They managed to score those six runs on just six hits and a walk, and even did so without the luxury of a home run. Robbie Grossman collected three more hits. He’s 10-for-23 over his last six games (.435 average). Ehire Adrianza also had three hits and living legend Willians Astudillo drove in three runs today. Tyler Austin followed a three-RBI game by driving in two more runs today. Addison Reed, pitching for just the fifth time this month, worked a scoreless eighth. The only downer from this one is that Alan Busentiz surrendered two runs in the ninth. Over his last seven appearances, Busenitz has given up 11 earned runs over just 4 1/3 innings pitched. He gave up only 11 earned runs in his 40 innings with Rochester this year. Next Three Games Thu: Off Fri at OAK, 9:05 pm CT: TBD Sat at OAK, 8:05 pm CT: TBD Sun at OAK, 3:05 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games MIN 5, DET 3: Odorizzi Turns In Another Quality Start MIN 6, DET 1: Stewart Impresses, Rosario Exits Due to Injury MIN 9, KC 6: Twins Swat Four Homers, Avoid Sweep Click here to view the article

MiLB PAs Prior to Reaching Double A 1,358 Walker 874 Palka (plus 100 in the AFL) 799 Arcia 261 Rooker Obviously, playing his college ball in the SEC helped prepare him for such a jump, but it's still impressive to me what he was able to do at Double A in his first full season. Also, I get Walker, but is comparing a guy to Palka or Arcia really that big of a dis? I don't think so. Palka has a 114 OPS+ for the White Sox this year. To put that into context, that's only a point lower than Eddie Rosario. Arcia had a 101 OPS+ during his tenure with the Twins, five points higher than Max Kepler's career mark. Here's something I find incredible: Arcia is still only 27-years-old!

That could be, and guys who barrel up the ball more often are always going to have a higher BABIP than those who don't, so it's not all luck/things don't always even out. The only thing is if Arraez's BABIP were to drop, he's going to be providing very little offensive value. He's incredibly reliant on his balls in play going for hits. I just think Wade put together good at bats on a more regular basis. His process was better and the overall results were very similar. Wade also crushed him in 2 outs, RISP situations (Wade .297/.409/.459 in 88 PAs, Arraez .258/.338/.258 in 74 PAs).

Things got very challenging for me after the top 5. There's kind of a three-tier thing going on in my eyes. You've got the top three pretty clearly above the rest, then 4-5 in a tier of their own, but then after that you've probably got about 6-8 guys all pretty close. To me, that tier of guys were all essentially 6A, 6B, 6C ... On Jeffers, was just tough for me to justify putting a short-season guy up there this time around. Rooker was a different animal last season because he went up to Fort Myers and hit for power in the FSL, which almost nobody does. Again, those were two of the several guys I started to consider all the way up at six, it was very close. The big difference to me on Arraez and Wade was what happened with their balls in play. Arraez had a .338 BABIP and Wade's was .287. Wade was much better at hitting home runs, drawing walks and even held an advantage in stolen bases.

Jake Odorizzi followed up a one-hit effort against the Yankees by holding the Tigers to one hit through six innings before Detroit tacked on a few more hits and a pair of runs in the seventh. This was the first time all season Odorizzi delivered a quality start in back-to-back outings. He’s shaved his season ERA from 4.57 to 4.35 over these past two outings.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Odorizzi: 68 Game Score, 6.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 66.7% strikes (56 of 84 pitches Home Runs: Gimenez (2) Multi-Hit Games: Mauer (2-for-5), Polanco (2-for-4, 2B, BB), Austin (2-for-4, 2B), Gimenez (2-for-4, HR) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Odorizzi .240, Magill .151 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Sano -.118 Download attachment: WinChart918.png Odorizzi was aggressive tonight, needing just 84 pitches to go 6 1/3 innings. He only walked one batter and struck out six. It’s nice to see him finishing strong. Matt Magill took over for Odorizzi with one out and a runner on third in the seventh. He struck out the next two batters, getting swinging strikes on six of the nine pitches he threw that inning. He followed that up with a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Tyler Austin was back in the lineup after taking a game off to give his back a break after he tumbled over a railing in Kansas City. His presence was much appreciated, as Austin had an RBI single and a two-run double. Miguel Sano also returned to the lineup, playing for the first time since injuring himself on a slide Sept. 4. During the telecast, Dick Bremer noted that Sano hadn’t attempted a slide since the injury. Huh? You’d think it’d be a good idea to have the guy take some practice slides to make sure everything feels OK before throwing him into a game. Nick wrote a piece last night that touched on some of the questionable choices made by the Twins in concern to how they’ve handled injuries. Add this one to the list. Anyway, Sano looked terrible at the plate, striking out in all four of his at-bats. Trevor Hildenberger gave up a run on two hits in the ninth. He’s having a tough go of things of late, giving up seven earned runs in his last 2 1/3 innings. Postgame With Gimenez Next Three Games Wed at DET, 12:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Spencer Turnbull Thu: Off Fri at OAK, 9:05 pm CT: TBD Sat at OAK, 8:05 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games MIN 6, DET 1: Stewart Impresses, Rosario Exits Due to Injury MIN 9, KC 6: Twins Swat Four Homers, Avoid Sweep KC 10, MIN 3: It’s a Hard Road Click here to view the article