Tom Froemming

I think there are a lot of people who don't understand why a lot of Twins fans are frustrated. I guess I can only speak for myself, but I'm not so much mad that they're losing. I understand it would have been difficult to prepare for all the unforeseen things that have happened. What bothers me is how they've reacted and how they're going forward each and every day. When it's apparent it's just not going to be your year, you can do your best to make the most of it and try to get better for the future or you can trot out Bobby Wilson, Matt Belisle and Co in an effort to try to get to 82 wins and hope that Cleveland completely collapses. This is an organization that's simply far too comfortable with mediocrity.

They also signed Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey that offseason. I'm not so sure I'd classify that as an attempt at a complete rebuild. The weighted averages for both their hitters and pitchers were right around league average in 2013. The last time this franchise truly committed to a youth movement was 1999. That team sucked, but it was damn fun to watch and that investment in the young talent paid off in the long run. I'm not necessarily saying it's time to burn things to the ground to that level, but it'd be nice to see them really commit to a direction one way or the other.

Parker posted one on Twitter last night.

My only prediction is there will be fewer moves than everyone anticipates. If it was me calling the shots, I'd probably try to move even more than the five guys you've predicted are going to get traded. This organization has never committed to a fire sale/tear down/rebuild, so I'm not going to hold my breath. I'll guess that Duke and Lynn get dealt for very underwhelming returns. Everybody else stays.

Jose Berrios is out to prove his first half was no fluke. Well, this was a good start. Berrios set the tone with seven excellent innings, leading the charge in what was a shutout victory for the Twins. Eduardo Escobar hit yet another double and even added a three-run blast to cap things off. Image courtesy of © Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports Jose Berrios is out to prove his first half was no fluke. Well, this was a good start. Berrios set the tone with seven excellent innings, leading the charge in what was a shutout victory for the Twins. Eduardo Escobar hit yet another double and even added a three-run blast to cap things off. Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Jose Berrios: 81 Game Score, 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 9 K, 1 BB, 63.7% strikes Bullpen: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 K, 0 BB Lineup: 3-for-9 w/RISP, 5 LOB WPA of 0.1 or higher: Berrios .451 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Wilson -.176 Let’s go around the horn … First Base There were a couple things that just gave you the vibe this was going to be the Twins’ day. First, they actually won a replay challenge. In the fifth inning, it appeared Taylor Motter had been picked off. He broke from first, the pitcher threw over there and Motter was called out on the throw over to second. Instead, the call was overturned, as the tag missed. The Twins couldn’t score that inning, but the sixth led off with Joe Mauer sending a pretty routine fly ball out to left field. Teoscar Hernandez just flat out dropped it, Mauer hustled into second and would later score the first run of the ballgame. Nice to see some things break the Twins’ way for a change. Second Base Jose Berrios had a great night. Take a look at this awesome overlay of his changeup and curveball: https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1021917211819167744 How!?!? How do hitters ever even make contact off him? That’s disgusting. La MaKina pitched seven shutout innings, gave up just four hits, walked one and racked up nine strikeouts. Trevor Hildenberger and Ryan Pressly followed suit with scoreless innings to complete the shutout. Third Base Eduardo Escobar had been on a bit of a cold streak heading into this game. Over his previous 28 contests, Esky was hitting just .200/.289/.320, but here’s hoping tonight is a sign of things to come. Escobar was 2-for-4 with a double and a three-run homer that served as the finishing blow in the top of the eighth. Home Plate In addition to this game going very well, there was a lot of positive Twins-related news today. Addison Reed threw a bullpen and Phil Miller of the Star Trib reported that “it sounds like he’ll be off the disabled list in the next day or two.” Byron Buxton took batting practice with Rochester today, the first time he’s been able to participate since suffering his hand injury. Ervin Santana will make his 2018 debut with the Twins tomorrow. The cherry on top of all that positive injury news was that Miguel Sano had a very nice game with the Red Wings, going 1-for-2 with a pair of walks and an RBI. He even added a couple of nice plays at third base. ***UPDATE: It was reported after the game that in order to make room for Santana on both the 25-man and 40-man rosters Taylor Motter was designated for assignment. Postgame With Escobar https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1021937611705741312 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 54-46 MIN 46-53 (-7.5) DET 43-60 (-12.5) CHW 36-64 (-18) KC 31-69 (-23) Next Three Games Wed at TOR, 3:07 pm CT: Ervin Santana vs. Sam Gaviglio Thu at BOS, 6:10 pm CT: TBD Fri at BOS, 6:10 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games MIN 8, TOR 3: Twins Cruise Over Toronto KC 5, MIN 3: Royals Sweep Twins, Butera Hits Inside-the-Park Homer (Seriously) KC 4, MIN 2: For Sale View full article

We now know the corresponding move. Fort Myers just announced Lewin Diaz is headed to the DL with an injured thumb.

Exactly. We don't know because nobody, fans included, really talks that much about ownership's influence on the team. Sure, somebody will call them cheap every now and then, but beyond that it's nada. As far as I'm concerned, this thread could just as easily be titled "Does Twins ownership owe us an explanation?"

Jeffers hit .422/.543/.578 during his time with the E-Twins. The Twins' second-round pick in this year's draft, Jeffers was spending most of his time at DH, but he also caught in 10 of his 28 games with E-Town. Rodriguez, a 38th-round pick in last year's draft, hit .254/.322/.446 for Cedar Rapids. He's been primarily playing first base (35 starts), but also has 14 starts behind the plate.

Cedar Rapids just announced that Ryan Jeffers has been promoted up from Elizabethton. Ben Rodriguez is on his way up to the Miracle to make room on the Kernels' roster.

Sorry if somebody already went here and I missed it, but what about ownership? It's entirely possible that Derek Falvey and Co. are simply carrying out the game plan as built by ownership to the best of their abilities. Now I'm not saying ownership is saying go sign Matt Belisle or anything specific like that, but they may have instructed the front office to do what it can to keep winning as many games as possible and they may also have been urged to consult with Molitor when it comes to roster composition decisions. Since some of the moves made don't make a lot of sense from a purely baseball operations/big picture baseball standpoint, I imagine that ownership influence has got to have something to do with it. This ownership group has always been averse to selling/tanking/rebuilds. So, let me take a stab at providing potential answers to your original questions through that lens ... 1.) Buxton situation playing through broken toe. (For that matter, not giving him any time in Rochester after long DL stint) We felt pressure to get Byron back on the big club because it felt like we were losing ground in the division and he gives us the best chance to win ballgames. 2.) Belisle He's a player who Paul Molitor trusts. He adds value by being a leader, but is also a dependable person day-in and day-out. We have some talent in Triple A, but none of those pitchers has proven to be dependable. We're so far back in the division right now that we can't afford to lose games on experiments. We know what we're getting with Belisle. 3.) Use of relievers (see Magill, Belisle, etc.) Paul has leaned heavily on the top guys in the bullpen because he'd rather "dance with the one that brought you" so to speak. If we're going to lose, we'd rather it be because an established player faltered rather than throwing a guy into a new situation and expecting him to succeed. Magill provides depth and versatility, but we feel he's best serving as multi-inning insurance in the event one of our starters has a short outing. 4.) Wilson love Bobby is a guy the pitching staff loves to throw to and Mitch Garver is still getting a feel for the big leagues. We want to put our starting pitchers in the best position to succeed. Much like with Belisle, we know what we're getting with Wilson. Long story short, I believe ownership's desire is for the Twins to try to win as many games as they can, regardless of future development/implications. So that's the task at hand for the front office. Should that be the goal right now? I don't think so. Will that still be the goal a couple weeks from now? Probably not. I suspect sooner or later ownership will be ready to flip the switch and accept the fact this is a rebuilding year. For the time being, I think they're just holding out hope that Cleveland has a collapse.

They sure made this one look easy. It was shades of 2017, as the Twins offense broke out with eight runs through the first five innings of this game, making for a low-stress night at the ballpark. How low-stress? Well, there was a leverage situation so low that Paul Molitor even used Matt Magill! Seriously though, sale or no sale, Twins Territory could use one of these more often. Image courtesy of © Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports They sure made this one look easy. It was shades of 2017, as the Twins offense broke out with eight runs through the first five innings of this game, making for a low-stress night at the ballpark. How low-stress? Well, there was a leverage situation so low that Paul Molitor even used Matt Magill! Seriously though, sale or no sale, Twins Territory could use one of these more often. Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Adalberto Mejia: 46 Game Score, 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 K, 2 BB, 60.8% strikes Bullpen: 3.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 K, 3 BB Lineup: 4-for-14 w/RISP, 6 LOB WPA of 0.1 or higher: Escobar .189, Morrison .168, Mauer .165, Mejia .101 WPA of -0.1 or lower: None Let’s go around the horn … First Base RUNS! After scoring just 4.26 runs per game in June, the Twins are now averaging 5.74 runs per game so far in July. During that great run the 2017 Twins’ offense went on from August forward, they were averaging 5.86 runs per game. Both Joe Mauer and Mitch Garver had three hits on the night. Logan Morrison hit his 12th home run and drove in three. Max Kepler his his 13th homer, a two-run shot, and made a great catch in center. Eduardo Escobar was 2-for-3 with a triple, a walk and two RBIs. Second Base Adalberto Mejia did his job, but he didn’t exactly have the type of performance that’s going to force the Twins to keep him on the big league roster. He managed to hold the Jays to one run over 5 1/3 innings, but he also gave up eight hits and walked a pair of batters. With Ervin Santana’s return slated for Wednesday, Mejia’s likely going to be headed back to Rochester. Mejia topped out at 95.2 mph and tallied eight swinging strikes, but he only got three strikeouts as Toronto also fouled off 18 pitches and put 21 balls in play. His line would have been worse is the bullpen didn’t clean up the mess he made in the sixth. Speaking of which ... Third Base I don’t think Matt Belisle is going anywhere. The guy has carved out a role, and you know what? He’s been good at it. Coming into this game, Belisle had only allowed one of the 11 runners he’s inherited score. He took over for Mejia tonight with one out and the bases loaded and managed to strand all those runners, meaning he’s only allowed 7.1 percent of his inherited runners to score since he’s joined the Twins. For comparison, Zach Duke has allowed six of his 11 inherited runners to score (54.5 percent) and 13 of the 23 runners Trevor Hildenberger’s inherited have scored (56.5 percent). Home Plate Watching a blowout sure gives you some time to think. Let’s talk about bullpenning vs. having an opener. I think tonight’s game is a good example of some of the issues you can run into when you try and cover an entire game with your bullpen. Relievers, in general, are a little unreliable. If you need to run out five different pitchers over the first six frames, as Toronto did tonight, chances are one of those guys is not going to have his best stuff working. In this case it was Tim Mayza (four earned over 1.1 innings) and Joe Biagini (three runs in an inning). The funny thing was once Jaime Garcia finally got into the game for Toronto he threw three perfect innings. Hmm … maybe he should have started … Anyway, having an “opener” is a bit of a different concept. You have a reliever pitch the first innig and roll right into your traditional “starter” in the second. The Twins are experimenting with it in the minors, which I like, but I’m not so confident that’s a great strategy either. What I’d be interested in seeing a team try is having their starter go through the lineup twice, then have the first guy out of the bullpen take a full turn through the lineup. After that you start mixing and matching in the later innings and using your relievers in shorter bursts. Just a thought. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 54-44 MIN 45-53 (-9) DET 42-59 (-13.5) CHW 34-64 (-20) KE 30-68 (24) Next Three Games Tue at TOR, 6:07 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Ryan Borucki Wed at TOR, 3:07 pm CT: Ervin Santana vs. Sam Gaviglio Thu at BOS, 7:10 pm CT, TBD Last Three Games KC 5, MIN 3: Royals Sweep Twins, Butera Hits Inside-the-Park Homer (Seriously) KC 4, MIN 2: For Sale KC 6, MIN 5: Maybe It’s Better Off This Way? View full article

Twins | 44-53 overall, 15-31 on the road, 5-5 in their last 10 Adalberto Mejia, LHP | 0-0, 9.00 ERA, 2.25 WHIP, 0.33 K:BB Blue Jays | 46-52 overall, 27-25 at home, 5-5 in their last 10 Luis Santos, RHP | 0-0, 7.88 ERA, 1.88 WHIP, 2.25 K:BB Lineups: Additional notes: This is just the second start Mejia will be making for the Twins in 2018 after making 21 starts for the big club last season. He's been pitching well down in Rochester, posting a 3.32 ERA and 1.19 WHIP while averaging 8.8 K/9. Unfortunately, Mejia is coming off his worst start of the year with the Red Wings. He gave up seven runs in six innings of work last Tuesday. The Jays were hoping Marco Estrada was going to be able to come off the DL and start tonight, but they're having to go with Plan B instead, as Luis Santos is making his first career start in what's going to be a bullpen game. Santos, 27, has made five appearances out of the Blue Jays' bullpen this season. The Twins are 19-39 against the Blue Jays since 2010.

I wish the front office types were more available to the media. The manager makes himself available both pregame and postgame more often than not. While I don't find myself defending Molitor too often, I do think it's a little unfair he's almost always the guy with the microphone in his face. Part of the job I suppose, but still ... Anyway, if you want to hear from Thad Levine, he was the guest on this week's Inside Twins, which is available here: http://www.mlb.com/fan_forum/podcasts/index.jsp?c_id=min A few things in regard to the media: -You can ask all the questions you want, but getting concrete answers is a different story. Just listen to the Levine interview linked above. He completely dodges the question on buying or selling, saying they're trying to make good baseball moves instead. Thanks for that golden insight onto your process, Thad. To be fair, there are some valid reasons why a team would want to avoid transparency in order to maintain a competitive advantage. -Everybody with FSN basically works for the team. They're essentially PR people. They will never try to rock the boat. -Gutless? Ask Torii Hunter how gutless Mike Berardino is Still, I get what you're saying. The team has been bad, there have been lots of questionable decisions, you'd think there would be more questions about those decisions. But the beat writers also have relationships to maintain. If you really want to know how teams feel about the media, I think it's worth looking back at Reds manager Bryan Price's 2015 blowup on beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans. I'm not saying anybody with the Twins deep down wants to go on a rampage against the media or anything like that, but I do think teams want/expect certain things out of the media, and what they definitely do not want is for the media to be thinking/asking questions that a fan may ask. Again, the reason behind that is because transparency can put you at a disadvantage. If Levine went out and said "Oh yeah, we're totally in fire sale mode. Everything must go!" well that's going to hurt the Twins in trade discussions. But, from a fan's perspective, it's still frustrating to not really know what's going on. All I can say is that actions speak louder than words. Should be an interesting next week and change.

What’s more embarrassing than getting swept by the Royals? Getting swept by the Royals on a Drew Butera three-run inside-the-park home run. I think we’ve hit rock bottom. I mean what could be worse than this? Is Ricky Nolasco going to get signed by the Blue Jays and pitch a perfect game against the Twins next week or something? Image courtesy of © Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports What’s more embarrassing than getting swept by the Royals? Getting swept by the Royals on a Drew Butera three-run inside-the-park home run. I think we’ve hit rock bottom. I mean what could be worse than this? Is Ricky Nolasco going to get signed by the Blue Jays and pitch a perfect game against the Twins next week or something? Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Jake Odorizzi: 72 Game Score, 6.0 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 8 K, 1 BB, 67.0 % strikes Bullpen: 2.0 IP, 3 ER, 0 K, 2 BB Lineup: 1-for-4 w/RISP, 3 LOB WPA of 0.1 or higher: Dozier .107 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Hildenberger -.349 First Base Before we even get to the game, there is quite a bit of roster news to go over. Logan Morrison was activated from the DL, and as a corresponding move Willians Astudillo was optioned back to Rochester. Morrison started at first base and hit fifth in the Twins order, going 0-for-3 with a run-scoring groundout and a walk. There figure to be plenty more transactions in the coming days, as Adalbero Mejia (who is scheduled to start tomorrow) and Ervin Santana (who’s scheduled to start Wednesday) need to be added to the active roster. Santana will be coming off the 60-day DL, so the Twins will even need to create a spot on the 40-man roster for him. Second Base The Twins have had a very strange year when it comes to replay, and Sunday they had yet another one that left some people scratching their heads. Jake Cave sent a line drive out to left field and Alex Gordon appeared to make a really nice diving catch. The slow-motion replays seemed to tell another story. Here’s the video: https://twitter.com/MLBReplays/status/1021112942018875392 The ball definitely bounced, however, it’s possible that it still hit the thumb side of Gordon’s glove and simply bounced inside his mitt. It’s hard to say for certain by the replay above, but I’d be willing to bet if there was a better angle it would show that ball hit the grass first. The call stood, but what do you think? Third Base So, this happened … https://twitter.com/Royals/status/1021131625994825728 … I don’t wanna talk about it. Home Plate You know what, let’s just not talk about anything having to do with this game. Or this series. Matt Magill was not used at all in Kansas City and hasn’t pitched since July 10. He’s only pitched three times this month. Sure, some of that is due to the All-Star break, but Magill only appeared in five games all of last month. https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/1021131166898958336 Alright fine, we’ll talk some about the game. On the plus side, Jake Odorizzi was really good, giving up just two runs (one earned) on two hits and one walk while striking out eight batters in six innings of work. Max Kepler hit his 12th home run of the season. Also, um … Alan Busenitz pitched a scoreless eighth inning. That’s all I got. The Twins could only muster three hits and racked up 10 strikeouts. Joe Mauer had a particularly rough afternoon, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. UPDATE: After the conclusion of this game it was announced that Busenitz was being sent back down to Rochester to make room for Mejia. Matt Belisle is bulletproof. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 54-43 MIN 44-53 (-10) DET 42-58 (-13.5) CHW 34-63 (-20) KC 30-68 (-24.5) Next Three Games Mon at TOR, 6:07 pm CT: Adalberto Mejia vs. TBD Tue at TOR, 6:07 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Ryan Borucki Wed at TOR, 3:07 pm CT: Ervin Santana vs. TBD View full article

I doubt we'll see many promotions until after the trade deadline. There could be quite a few guys coming and going, so it seems to me like it makes sense to keep things the way they are unitl you know which opportunities open up. So that's just another reason why the next couple weeks should be really fun to follow.

Sounds like everything is gonna be OK.

Miguel Sano played his first game since being called up to Rochester. Fernando Romero and Blayne Enlow were on the bump. Brent Rooker and Zander Wiel stared for Chattanooga, Alex Kirilloff and Ben Rortvedt did damage for Fort Myers and (of course) Ryan Jeffers and Chris Williams continued to be the bash brothers for E-Town. However, it was a Cedar Rapids outfielder who tallied the most total bases on the evening (and probably not the one you’d assume). Come check out what happened across the minors Saturday. Image courtesy of Seth Stohs, Twins Daily (photo of Blayne Enlow) Miguel Sano played his first game since being called up to Rochester. Fernando Romero and Blayne Enlow were on the bump. Brent Rooker and Zander Wiel stared for Chattanooga, Alex Kirilloff and Ben Rortvedt did damage for Fort Myers and (of course) Ryan Jeffers and Chris Williams continued to be the bash brothers for E-Town. However, it was a Cedar Rapids outfielder who tallied the most total bases on the evening (and probably not the one you’d assume). Come check out what happened across the minors Saturday. RED WINGS REPORT Norfolk 5, Rochester 3 Box Score SP: Fernando Romero (7.2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K) HR: None Multi-hit games: Gregorio Petit, Jordan Pacheco Fernando Romero got off to a terrible start, opening this game by walking the first two batters he faced. He then gave up a single to load the bases with nobody out. The Tides tallied three runs in the first, but Romero was able to recover and pitching into the eighth inning. Miguel Sano, in his first game since being promoted from Fort Myers, started at third base and went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. He drove in a run on a ground out. Rochester’s lineup is in desperate need of a boost. Over their past six games, they’ve managed to scratch across just five runs. This was their sixth-straight loss and the Red Wings are 3-12 in their last 15 games. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 12, Mobile 10 (11 innings) Box Score W: Tyler Jay (2.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) SP: Dietrich Enns (5.0 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K) HR: None Multi-hit games: Zander Wiel, Brent Rooker, Mitchell Kranson, Jaylin Davis, Jimmy Kerrigan Lookouts manager Tommy Watkins has seen a couple of his better leadoff options promoted up to Rochester, but he may have found his new tablesetter tonight. First baseman Zander Wiel hit first for Chattanooga tonight and was 3-for-6 with a pair of doubles, a walk and scored all four times he was on base. Brent Rooker, who hit directly behind Wiel was also 3-for-6 with two doubles and a walk. He also drove in three runs. That’s a nice one-two punch right there. This was a crazy game. Mobile led 6-1 after the first three innings but Chattanooga managed to storm back and tie the game at 7-7 in the eighth inning. This one went into extras, and while the Lookouts were able to score in the top of the 10th, the BayBears answered with a run of their own to send this game into the 11th. Chattanooga responded with a four-run inning. That surely would be enough, right? Yes, but Mobile didn’t go down quietly. They managed to score twice before the game finally ended. Some of the numbers are just silly. The Lookouts were 9-for-27 with runners in scoring position. They had 17 hits and drew nine walks, so there was just constantly traffic on the bases. Jordan Gore made the jump all the way up from Cedar Rapids earlier this month, but he’s fitting right in. Tonight he hit a triple, drove in three runs and drew three walks. As you’d imagine by the score, there was a lot of bad pitching, but Andrew Vasquez kept rolling along. He was the first man out of the bullpen for Chattanooga and struck out five of the seven batters he faced. Sam Clay struck out three batters in his two innings of scoreless work. MIRACLE MATTERS Lakeland 8, Fort Myers 2 Box Score SP: Andro Cutura (3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) HR: Ben Rortvedt (3) Multi-hit games: Alex Kirilloff Starter Andro Cutura ran into trouble in the fourth inning and the Ryan Mason, who’s been having an excellent year, got knocked around in the fifth, putting the Miracle behind 8-0 after five innings. The Fort Myers lineup wasn’t able to dig out of that hole, but there were a couple strong performances. Ben Rortvedt hit a two-run home run, his third already with the Miracle in just 28 games. Rortvedt only had five home runs in 161 pro games prior to being promoted to Fort Myers. Alex Kirilloff was 3-for-4 and scored a run. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 7, Lansing 5 Box Score W: Blayne Enlow (6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) HR: Jean Carlos Arias (5) Multi-hit games: Robby Rinn, Jean Carlos Arias, Jared Akins Blayne Enlow was in control and the Kernels put up a six spot in the fifth inning of this one. Jean Carlos Arias got Cedar Rapids on the board with a solo homer in the second inning and then capped off the big rally in the fifth with a run-scoring triple. Enlow completed six innings for the third-straight start and has never had to eclipse 80 pitches over that stretch. The only runs he gave up were unearned, so Enlow’s ERA sits at 3.16 on the season. Arais was hands down the offensive star of the game, but Robby Rinn had two hits and drove in a pair of runs and Jared Akins also had two hits. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 7, Princeton 6 Box Score W: Pedro Garcia (4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 K SV: Seth Pinkerton (1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) SP: Josh Winder (4.0 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) HR: Chris Williams (9), Ricky De La Torre (2), Micheal Helman (1) Multi-hit games: Ryan Jeffers, Ricky De La Torre, Michael Helman Michael Helman, a member of the 2018 draft class, hit his first professional home run and it was extra sweet because it put the E-Twins up for good. A second baseman out of Texas A&M, Helman also had a single. Ryan Jeffers was 3-for-4 with a double and scored twice, of course, because that’s what he does. Jeffers is now hitting .422 with an 1.121 OPS. Chris Williams hit a home run, because that’s what he does. The Clemson product now has nine dingers for E-Town. Shortstop Ricky De La Torre hit his second homer of the season. Josh Winder had a rough start, giving up six runs on eight hits over four innings, but Pedro Garcia bailed him out with four frames of one-hit ball and the bats mounted a comeback. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Red Sox 7, GCL Twins 6 (10 innings) Box Score SP: Andriu Martin (4.0 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K) HR: None Multi-hit games: LaRon Smith, Yeison Perez The Twins held a 6-4 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth but the Red Sox managed to tie it up and then won this one in extras. Victor Tademo and Kidany Salva each drove in two runs, LaRon Smith had three singles and Yeison Perez was 2-for-3 with a double. It’s actually a little crazy that the Red Sox scored only seven runs. Five Twins pitchers combined to surrender 17 hits, they walked four batters and the defense committed four errors. STARS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Blayne Enlow, Cedar Rapids Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Jean Carlos Arias, Cedar Rapids TOP PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed. Please note that this Prospect Summary has been updated. 1. Royce Lewis (FM): 0-for-4, K 2. Alex Kirilloff (FM): 3-for-4, R 3. Brusdar Graterol (FM): Did not pitch. 4. Nick Gordon (ROC): 1-for-4, RBI, K 5. Stephen Gonsalves (ROC): Did not pitch. 6. Trevor Larnach (ET): 1-for-4, K 7. Brent Rooker (CHAT): 3-for-6, 2 2B, BB 3 RBI, R, K 8. Akil Baddoo (CR): 1-for-5, R, 2 K 9. Wander Javier: Out of for the season 10. Zack Littell (ROC): Did not pitch. 11. Blayne Enlow (CR): 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K 12. LaMonte Wade (ROC): 0-for-4, K 13. Travis Blankenhorn (FM): 0-for-4, 3 K 14. Lewis Thorpe (CHAT): Did not pitch. 15. Ben Rortvedt (FM): 1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, R 16. Yunior Severino (ET): Did not play. 17. Lewin Diaz (FM): 1-for-3, BB, 2 K 18. Ryan Jeffers (ET): 3-for-4, 2B, 2 R 19. Jacob Pearson (CR): Was used as a late sub, only pinch ran and played left field. 20. Luis Arraez (CHAT): 1-for-2, R SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Norfolk, 12:05 pm CT: Zack Littell Chattanooga at Mobile, 5:05 pm CT: Lewis Thorpe Fort Myers: Off Cedar Rapids at Lansing, 12:05 pm CT: Jordan Balazovic Elizabethton vs. Princeton, 5:00 pm CT: TBD GCL Twins: Off Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the games. View full article

After ending the first half on such a hot streak, this Twins team sounded motivated to try to convince the front office it was too early for a fire sale. They’ve opened things up after the All-Star break with basically an ideal opponent to clean up against, but instead have dropped the first two games to the lowly Royals. Image courtesy of © Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports After ending the first half on such a hot streak, this Twins team sounded motivated to try to convince the front office it was too early for a fire sale. They’ve opened things up after the All-Star break with basically an ideal opponent to clean up against, but instead have dropped the first two games to the lowly Royals. Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Lance Lynn: 43 Game Score, 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 K, 6 BB, 55.9% strikes Bullpen: 3.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 K, 3 BB Lineup: 2-for-4 w/RISP, 6 LOB WPA of 0.1 or higher: Mauer .105 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Cave -.110, Polanco -.144, Dozier -.191 First Base Congratulations are in order! Joe Mauer led off this game with a double, giving him 415 for his career. The significance in that number? Joe is now the Twins’ all-time leader in doubles. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1020812242525097989 The very first double of Mauer’s career came at the Metrodome on June 9, 2004. He hit it off Steve Trachsel, who was pitching for the Mets that day. Second Base It’s not like Lance Lynn got pummeled or anything, he gave up three runs on three hits, but he had an ugly start. I mean this one was a complete dog. Lynn had already reached the 100-pitch mark after four innings, it took him 118 pitches just to complete five frames and he walked six batters, though to be fair one was intentional. Yuck. Third Base Unfortunately, the lineup performed not much better. Mauer had a great game, going 3-for-4, and Eddie Rosario was 2-for-4 with an RBI. The issue was the rest of their teammates combined to go 2-for-24 with three walks and 10 strikeouts. Brian Dozier was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and left four men on base, but that wasn’t even the worst of it. Jake Cave was also 0-for-4, but he struck out in all four of his at-bats. Again, yuck. Home Plate I’ll leave you with this question: Of the 14 players who appeared for the Twins tonight, how many of them do you expect will be on the team in another few weeks? Half? Both Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar’s names are floating around in trade rumors. Zach Duke seems like just the type of guy a contender would target to add depth to the left side of its bullpen. I’m sure Minnesota would love to find a taker for Lynn. If all hope of contention is dashed, it doesn’t make much sense to me why the team would keep guys like Bobby Wilson and Robbie Grossman around. That’s six guys right there. Who could be the seventh … Mauer? And that’s not to mention some of the other guys who didn’t play in this game such as Fernando Rodney, who’s been in the rumor mill, or Matt Belisle, who has no business blocking younger relievers from getting opportunities if this is going to be a lost season anyway. Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1020877505287385088 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 54-43 MIN 44-52 (-9.5) DET 42-58 (-13.5) CHW 33-63 (-20.5) KC 29-68 (-25) Next Three Games Sun at KC, 1:15 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Brad Keller Mon at TOR, 6:07 pm CT: Adalberto Mejia vs. Marco Estrada Tue at TOR, 6:07 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Ryan Borucki View full article

Wanna know what's really weird? Both those guys you mentioned were born on the same day, July 12. But Ober was born in 1995 and Leach in 1999. The biggest thing is there's about 50 pounds of weight difference between those two. Tyler looks like a football player and Bailey looks like he belongs on a basketball court, but you're right, they both look very comfortable on a pitcher's mound, especially for dudes their size.

When is a loss maybe a win? Well, when you think it might be best for your favorite team to sell at the trade deadline, but a recent surge has kinda sorta put them back into the playoff discussion, in theory. The way I see it, Twins fans can’t lose right now. If the team wins, great. If not, maybe in the big picture that’s for the best anyway. Image courtesy of © Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports When is a loss maybe a win? Well, when you think it might be best for your favorite team to sell at the trade deadline, but a recent surge has kinda sorta put them back into the playoff discussion, in theory. The way I see it, Twins fans can’t lose right now. If the team wins, great. If not, maybe in the big picture that’s for the best anyway. Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Kyle Gibson: 43 Game Score, 5.1 IP, 4 ER, 5 K, 2 BB, 63.1% strikes Bullpen: 2.2 IP, 2 ER, 1 K, 1 BB Lineup: 3-for-13 w/RISP, 11 LOB WPA of 0.1 or higher: Garver .154 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Rosario -.111, Dozier -.143, Gibson -.154, Kepler -.300. After really playing around with things last season, I got these game recaps to a format I liked and haven’t changed them much over the course of this year. Let’s try something different tonight … First Base Nobody’s going to replace Platinum Glove Award winner Byron Buxton in center field, but Jake Cave has looked pretty darn good out there and tonight Max Kepler made a very nice catch at Kauffman: https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1020483630416531456 Second Base In 2018, sometimes it seems like up is down, left is right and third base is left field. Well, for a moment in tonight’s game that last part was actually true. Check out this crazy shift the Twins were using against Lucas Duda below. They sent Eduardo Escobar way out there and had a three-man infield and a four-man outfield. Bonus points for creativity, buuuuuuut … Duda hit a home run. https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/1020489590539513857 Third Base Kyle Gibson gave up four runs over 5 1/3 innings, but he pitched much better than that line would indicate. He induced what should have been an inning-ending a popup in the first, but Escobar had a hard time tracking it as he drifted out toward left field. It fell in for a two-out, two-run single. Per Baseball Savant, that ball had a hit probability of one percent. Ouch. Hunter Dozier added a solid double that scored a run in the fourth before Duda smashed his homer in the sixth, so Kansas City definitely had some well-struck balls against Gibby. Still, he threw 63.1 percent of his pitches for strikes, once again did a great job of mixing things up and got 16 swinging strikes on his 102 pitches. Not Kyle’s best performance, but under normal circumstances he would’ve given his team a very good chance to win. Home Plate That’s all fine and dandy, but at the end of the day the Twins lost to the worst team in baseball. It is what it is. Minnesota’s five runs came on a Kepler sac fly, a Mitch Garver triple, an Eddie Rosario fielder’s choice, a Brian Dozier groundout and a Garver bases-loaded walk. Altogether, the Twins left 11 men on base. Alan Busenitz surrendered two runs in the seventh inning that really came back to haunt the Twins. Still, KC led 6-1 at one point and the Twins managed to get the game-tying run to third base in the ninth after mounting a hard-fought rally. That’s gotta count for something, I guess. The Twins took some great at bats in the top of the ninth inning, but the one I enjoyed in particular was from Rosario, who represented the game-tying run. Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1020517042246438913 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 52-43 (Friday game still in progress) MIN 44-51 (-8) DET 41-58 (-13) CHW 33-62 (-19) KC 28-68 (-24.5) Next Three Games Sat at KC, 6:15 pm CT: Lance Lynn vs. Jakob Junis Sun at KC, 1:15 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Brad Keller Mon at TOR, 6:07 pm CT: TBD vs. Marco Estrada More From Twins Daily Miguel Sano Promoted to Triple-A Rochester GM For A Deadline, Part One Twins Owe it to Themselves to Look at Existing Talent in Second Half View full article