Tom Froemming

I don't expect him to hustle to first on that play, but even if he was at the very least "dogging" it, he's probably safe. Any effort toward first base would have been nice, even if it was merely at a Miguel Sano homer trot pace.

This was one of those Eddie Rosario adventure games. You know the ones. Rosie can do it all on the diamond, and he played a big role in the Twins picking up a win tonight. But, he does stuff on a regular basis that leaves you scratching your head, which also happened tonight.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot44.png With the Twins trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth, Rosario made a great throw to gun down Gregory Polanco at the plate. It was a huge momentum-shifting play in this game. Who knows what may have happened if the Pirates both extended their lead and extended that inning. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen44.png Next Three Games THU vs. SEA, 3:10 pm CT SAT vs. SEA, 1:10 pm CT SUN vs. SEA, 1:10 pm CT Last Three Games PIT 5, MIN 4: Lynn Surrenders Grand Slam in Twins Debut MIN 7, BAL 0: Berri0s MIN 6, BAL 2: Good Gibby Rides Again! More From Twins Daily Blackmon's Deal With Rockies Sets Precedent For Dozier Cold Front: Breaking Down The First Twins Homestand Win A Party With New Twin Logan Morrison Click here to view the article

Thanks to Seth's handy-dandy The 2018 Sixth-Year Minor Leaguers article, we know Rainis Silva is going to be a free agent at the end of this season unless he's added to the 40-man roster. He hadn't even made it to Fort Myers yet, so that seemed like a long shot. I'm sure that had a lot to do with why they were willing to part with him.

Looking at the Statcast data, it certainly appears the umpire did an excellent job of calling balls and strikes in that first inning. If anything, he gave Lynn three extra strikes that were out of the zone. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?game_pk=529465&type=away_pitchers&chart_view=pitch&chart_type=sbp&inning=1&count=&batter_hand=&pitcher_hand=&filter=

Adam Turman did a huge mural in that space and shared a time lapse of it on YouTube:

You only get one opportunity to make a first impression. Isn’t that unfortunate? Here’s how Lance Lynn’s tenure with the Twins started: walk, RBI double, walk, strikeout, groundout, walk, grand slam. Five-run first inning. He settled in, the bullpen worked out of jams and the bats got going, but the team’s comeback attempt fell just short.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot42.png Trouble in the first frame is nothing new for Lynn. Over his career, the burly right-hander has a 5.11 ERA in the first inning and a 3.04 mark from there forward. Those splits were even more exaggerated last season, as Lynn posted a 5.79 ERA in the first and 2.93 in all other innings from there on. Fittingly, Lynn settled in after his rough start and held the Pirates scoreless for the next three innings he was on the mound. He only gave up three hits, but he also walked six batters. Brian Dozier got the Twins on the board in the sixth inning with his third home run of the season. He’s now on pace for 121 home runs this season. The Twins tacked on three more runs that inning to pull within a run of Pittsburgh. Eduardo Escobar and Max Kepler each delivered a two-out RBI double in that rally. Minnesota had a great opportunity to tie things up in the seventh. They had two on with nobody out, but Dozier grounded into a double play and Joe Mauer flied out to end the threat. Miguel Sano led off the eighth with a walk and advanced into scoring position on a two-out walk by Max Kepler, but Byron Buxton grounded out to end that inning. The comeback may have fell short, but it gave the bullpen another opportunity to work in a close ballgame. Taylor Rogers made his first appearance of the year, pitching a scoreless inning. Trevor Hildenberger helped alleviate concerns over his poor spring and shaky first outing by pitching a 1-2-3 inning today. Zach Duke also pitched, recording both of his outs on strikeouts while walking a pair of batters. He’s now thrown 1.2 innings and has six strikeouts. Baseball math. Addison Reed entered the game with two down in the seventh and walked the first batter he faced on five pitches to load the bases. He retired the next batter to end the threat. Reed stayed out there for the eighth inning and worked out of trouble again. He opened the inning by walking the leadoff batter and then gave up an infield single. The next batter laid down a sac bunt (thank you!), then Reed struck out Josh Harrison, intentionally walked Gregory Polanco and got Startling Marte to ground out, leaving the bases loaded for the second straight inning. Any way Lynn can get a mulligan on that grand slam? Otherwise it was a solid effort from the Twins. They battled admirably in both their losses so far this season. Postgame With Molitor Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen42.png Last Three Games MIN 7, BAL 0: Berri0s MIN 6, BAL 2: Good Gibby Rides Again! BAL 3, MIN 2: Opening D’oh! Next Three Games WED: at PIT, 5:05 pm CT THU: vs. SEA, 3:10 pm CT SAT: vs. SEA, 1:10 pm CT More From Twins Daily Twins Rotation Is Starting Strong Twins at Pirates Series Preview Gleeman & The Geek, Ep 362: Opening Week The Twins Almanac for April 1–7 Click here to view the article

Yeah, that stuff came out after I had already posted this and now it seems to be all anybody wants to talk about. For those who didn't catch the game or haven't heard about it yet, with one out in the ninth inning Chance Sisco dropped down a nice a shift-beating bunt single. Berrios had already given up a hit, so it's not like that was to break up the no-hitter. I had the same reaction as you, Carole. I didn't think much of it. They were down 7-0, it was the batter's job to get on base. Mike Berardino shared quotes from Dozier, Rosario and (in his game story) Berrios where they all said something along the lines of "we didn't like that" or "that's not good baseball." My Guess is the Twins thought it was a cheap, gimmicky move by Sisco to do that in the bottom of the ninth in a 7-0 game ... but it seems the same thing could be argued about putting on an extreme shift in the bottom of the ninth in a 7-0 game. In their quotes, the Twins seemed more annoyed than actually upset about it, but I don't know what they expected the guy to do. If a Twins hitter was in that same situation, I'd have wanted him to do the same thing. Hell, Rosario put down a nice shift-beating bunt himself earlier in the game

After an ice-cold start with the bats through the first 26 outs of the season, the Twins turned it on for the rest of the series, hitting seven home runs over the last two games of the series. The Twins now shift their focus to the Pittsburgh Pirates. This will be the Twins first trip to Pittsburgh since 2016, when they swept a two-game series.Series at a Glance Download attachment: Glance.PNG *Win Odds from FiveThirtyEight Minnesota Twins Logan Morrison is still looking to get his season going, after going 0-for-11 in Baltimore. Unfortunately for Morrison, the Twins will not have the luxury of the designated hitter in Pittsburgh. With the offday between the two games in the series, he might only get a chance as a pinch-hitter during the series. Probable Starting Pitchers RHP Lance Lynn Lance Lynn will be making his Twins debut on Monday in Pittsburgh. Last year was a strong year for him, coming back from Tommy John surgery, with a 3.43 ERA over 186.1 innings. In terms of pitching style, Lynn works a lot like Bartolo Colon, in that 90% of his pitches last year were either a two-seam, four-seam or cut fastball. RHP Jake Odorizzi Jake Odorizzi shined in his first Twins start on Opening Day, going six shutout innings, with seven strikeouts and just two walks. Odorizzi featured a healthy mix of fastballs up in the zone and splitters low in the zone to keep the Oriole hitters off balance. Pittsburgh Pirates It is a new era in Pittsburgh this season, after the Pirates traded away both Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole in the offseason. The Pirates are a team that doesn’t have high aspirations for a postseason run this year, as they are in one of the best divisions in baseball. However, this doesn’t mean that they are a team that can be overlooked. Probable Starting Pitchers RHP Jameson Taillon Download attachment: Taillon.PNG *2017 Stats The Pittsburgh Pirates are very excited about the future of Jameson Taillon in their rotation. The tall righty features a power fastball, along with a solid curve and an okay changeup. Taillon didn’t have as strong a season last year as he did his rookie year, in 2016. A big reason for this was Taillon got “BABIPed” to death, as his .352 BABIP was the highest of any pitcher with at least 120 innings pitched last season. RHP Ivan Nova Download attachment: Nova.PNG *2017 Stats Ivan Nova’s 2017 season was a tale of two halves. In the first three months of the season, Nova was the leader of the Pirates rotation with a 3.08 ERA over 108 innings. However, from July on Nova’s ERA ballooned up to 5.58. Nova struggled with his command in his first start of 2018, giving up 3 walks and 6 hits over 5 innings against Detroit. Players to Watch Starling Marte, CF Last season was a rough year for Starling Marte. First, he was suspended for 80-games after testing positive for PEDs. After he came back, Marte wasn’t the same hitter that he had been in years past. His 91 wRC+ was a career low, and he slugged just .379, after never having slugged below .437 in his career. Corey Dickerson, RF Corey Dickerson got off to a blazing start in 2017, earning himself his first career All-Star appearance. However, Dickerson struggled down the stretch and was inevitably designated for assignment by Tampa in a move to save money on their payroll. Dickerson was eventually traded to Pittsburgh in exchange for two minor leaguers and cash. Josh Bell, 1B Josh Bell is one of the promising young players in the Pirates lineup. With the Andrew McCutchen era over in Pittsburgh, the Pirates are looking for a new face of their franchise and Josh Bell has the ability to become it. There isn't much for pop in the Pirates lineup, but Bell is a hitter who has the potential to become a perennial 30 homer guy. Bullpen Comparison Download attachment: Bullpen.PNG (2017 Stats) *Reflects Minor League Stats Paul Molitor wasted no time seeing what he has with the three new relievers in the bullpen, throwing all three on the opening day. Even though they gave up all three runs in the Twins loss, they still looked pretty good. Zach Duke gave up two runs, though of the six batters he faced he struck out four, and another reached on an intentional walk. Addison Reed pitched two perfect innings with two strikeouts, and Fernando Rodney did an excellent job getting the Twins out of a jam in the 10th before being brought out for a second inning and surrendering a walk-off home run. The Pirates bullpen features one of the best relievers in the game in Felipe Rivero, whom they acquired in a trade that sent Mark Melancon to the Nationals at the 2016 trade deadline. However, after Rivero, the Pittsburgh bullpen leaves a little to be desired. If the Twins can get the Pirates starters out of the game early, they will have a chance to take advantage of perhaps the weakest spot on the Pirates team. Zone Charts courtesy of baseballsavant.com More From Twins Daily Twins 2018 Position Analysis: Starting Pitcher Predicting Minnesota's Early Season Schedule Twins Starting Pitcher Projections for 2018 Click here to view the article

No one seems to be able to agree on who's an ace pitcher, but I think we would all agree that Jose Berrios pitched like one on Sunday afternoon. Brian Dozier homered on the first pitch of the game, the Twins scored four in the first frame and Berrios cruised to his first career shutout.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot41.png Berrios had some tough acts to follow. Jake Odorizzi and Kyle Gibson combined to throw 12 shutout innings, limiting the Orioles to just two hits in the first two games of the season. Berrios was even better. Jose pitched his his first shutout, which was also his first career complete game, and gave up just three hits and one walk. He struck out six hitters and only needed 107 pitches to finish off the O’s. He was aggressive, efficient and his curveball looked especially untouchable. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen41.png Next Three Games MON: at PIT, 12:05 pm CT WED: at PIT, 5:05 pm CT THU: vs. SEA, 3:10 CT Most Recent Game Recaps MIN 6, BAL 2: Good Gibby Rides Again! BAL 3, MIN 2: Opening D’oh! More from Twins Daily Predicting Minnesota's Early Season Schedule As Rosario Shows, Raw Power Comes In Many Forms Reed Is All In On The Super Bullpen Strategy Click here to view the article

Absolutely, the fastballs are just all about setting up the breaking pitches. Of those 58 fastballs he threw, he got just two swinging strikes (3.4%), but he got 14 whiffs on his 44 curves/changeups/sliders (31.8%). That's insane! He didn't have all his pitches working for him tonight, but he made it difficult for batters to get comfortable (as you suggested). Here is the breakdown of what he used tonight per Baseball Savant: 29 four-seamers, 29 two-seamers, 22 curveballs, 18 changeups and four sliders. He typically throws more sliders than curveballs, so it'll be interesting to see what he leans on in his next start.

How ‘bout that Kyle Gibson!? Gibby pitched six no-hit innings and struck out six Baltimore batters. Ryan Pressly recorded another five outs before the Orioles finally broke up the no-no. The bats also had a big night too, as the Twins hit their first three homers of the season.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot331.png This was Gibson’s first start of the year, temps were in the 50s and he entered the game with a 5.66 ERA at Camden Yards in four career starts. He struggled to hit his spots at times, and by his mannerisms on the mound you could tell he wasn’t pleased with his command. And he still shoved anyway. A big narrative about Gibson’s second-half surge revolved around the use of his four-seamer. Earlier today, Matthew Lenz did an excellent job at detailing some of those key changes he made. Gibson established his four-seam fastball in the early innings. Over the first three innings tonight, he used that pitch 38.2 percent of the time (21 of 55 pitches, per Baseball Savant). He switched gears over the final three frames and only threw the four-seamer 17.0 percent of the time (8 of 47 pitches). Hard to argue with the results. At the end of the day, Gibson actually had a 50/50 split between four- and two-seam fastballs thrown (29 of each). In total, Gibson threw 40 curveballs and changeups and got 13 swinging strikes on those pitches. Excuse me while I wipe the sweat off my brow. Gibby was lifted after throwing 102 pitches. Pressly came in and carried the no-hitter until the O’s finally broke through with a single when there were two outs in the eighth inning. Oh! I almost forgot about the dinger party! Miguel Sano hit the first Twins homer of the season … Click here to view the article

And we’re off! Well, sort of. The baseball season doesn’t really get into full swing here at Twins Daily until the minor leagues get underway. The first scheduled games are this coming Thursday, but here’s your chance to catch up on any minor league/prospect coverage you may have missed over the winter.Any conversation about minor league content from over the offseason has to start with the 2018 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook The book has been out awhile, but it’s never too late to pick up a copy for yourself or a loved one. Rarely a day goes by during the season where I don’t crack open my copy. The Prospect Handbook is available as a paperback (which I strongly recommended) or as a PDF/ebook. If you’re interested in a look inside of the book, check out this video. I start to talk about the book at about the 2:30 mark. And here is Seth’s article that announced the release of the book back in late December: Tenth Annual Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook Now Available. There was also a ton of content published at Twins Daily over the offseason. Let’s kick this off with the Twins Daily consolidated top prospect list: Twins Daily’s Top Prospects TD 2018 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Recap | Nick Nelson #1 Royce Lewis | Nick Nelson #2 Fernando Romero | Tom Froemming #3 Nick Gordon | Cody Christie #4 Stephen Gonsalves | Seth Stohs #5 Alex Kirilloff | Cody Christie #6 Wander Javier | Nick Nelson #7 Brent Rooker | Seth Stohs #8 Blayne Enlow | Nick Nelson #9 Brusdar Graterol | Tom Froemming #10 Akil Baddoo | Cody Christie Twins Daily 2018 Top 20 Prospect Countdown: 11-15 | Nick Nelson Twins Daily 2018 Top 20 Prospect Countdown: 16-20 | Seth Stohs Seth’s Reports From The Fort Kirilloff Excited For The 2018 Season Rooker Getting Into The Swing Of Spring Saturday On The Twins Minor League Practice Fields Seth’s Twins On Deck Podcast Episode 9 featuring Sean Johnson, Randy Dobnak and Terrin Vavra. Episode 8 featuring Royce Lewis, Steve Singleton, Trey Cabbage, Sean Miller and AJ Pettesen. Episode 7 featuring Dick Bremer, Jake Reed, Jordan Gore, Luke Pettersen and Pat Mahomes. Episode 6 featuring Cory Provus, Clark Beeker, Hector Lujan and Micah Coffey. Episode 5 featuring Charlie Barnes, Tyler Watson, David Banuelos and Alex Robles. Episode 4 featuring Zack Granite, Lewis Thorpe, Nelson Molina and Chris Blessing. Episode 3 featuring Zack Littell, Travis Blankenhorn, Bryan Sammons, Ryley Widell and Alex Boxwell. Episode 2 featuring Royce Lewis, Brent Rooker, Alex Kirilloff, Aaron Slegers and Toby Hanson. Episode 1 featuring Jonathan Mayo, Stephen Gonsalves, LaMonte Wade, Tyler Wells and Luke Pettersen. Seth’s Player Interviews Get To Know Twins RHP Prospect Bailey Ober Get To Know Twins Third Base Prospect Andrew Bechtold Get To Know: Twins Minor League Catcher Mitchell Kranson Get To Know Twins Outfield Prospect Jacob Pearson Catching Up With Infielder Sean Miller Catching Up With RHP Clark Beeker Catching Up With RHP Tom Hackimer Get To Know: Twins LHP Prospect Andrew Vasquez Tom’s Prospect Spotlight Series Zander Wiel Tom Hackimer Lachlan Wells Ben Rortvedt Travis Blankenhorn More Links! Wherefore Art Thou Romero? | Cody Christie Fernando Romero Is Healthy, Ready To Compete | Seth Stohs Adopt-A-Prospect Is Back!! | Seth Stohs Missing Pieces? Lost Minor League Players | Cody Christie The 2018 Sixth-Year Minor Leaguers | Seth Stohs Did Nick Gordon’s Second Half Turn Him From Prospect to Suspect? | Tom Froemming Three Prospects To Watch In 2018 | Cody Christie Importance Of The 2017 Draft | Cody Christie Twins Minor League 2018 Coaching/Coordinator Assignments | Seth Stohs What's Next For Kohl Stewart? | Cody Christie AFL Report – Week 6: AFL Season Comes to a Close | Steve Lein This coming Thursday is Opening Day for the Lookouts, Miracle and Kernels. The Red Wings play their first game Friday. Are you ready? Click here to view the article

Copy/paste: I'd certainly use him primarily as a lefty specialist, especially if you have seven other relievers at your disposal, but you're right in that it's not like he's been a complete train wreck against RHH.

The Diamondbacks found a formula to get a very good season out of this guy as a 40-year-old. I'd think it would be wise to try and replicate his usage as best as possible. It's not ideal to be handcuffed into such a limited role, but I think that's putting him in the best position to be successful. I wouldn't have opened the 10th with Hildenberger in the first place, he had already warmed up earlier in the game. Why not let that be Rodney's inning? Or when Hildy needed to be bailed out, go to one of the four other relievers available and have Rodney pitch the 11th. Why carry all those guys if you're not going to use them? They're only playing six games over the next nine days. To have that deep of a bullpen and not dip into it is crazy to me.

Took a look at Fernando Rodney's game logs form last year. He made 61 appearances for the Diamondbacks and I don't think they had him pitch in multiple innings ever. Not once. He always either entered with a clean inning or finished off the inning and was done for the day. That may sound a little extreme, but it definitely seemed to work for Arizona and the guy is 41. Gotta give him a break.

Pretty insane that Jorge and Romero are the second and third longest tenured Twins pitchers.

Rodney is 41 years young Hildy warmed up in the fifth inning as Odorizzi's pitch count was on the rise. I don't think it's very often that a reliever warms up, sits down for over an hour, then warms up and pitches again. I think that could easily explain his struggles to find the zone. Maybe I'm wrong. Yeaaaaaah, that sucked. Someone prepare my catapult. We've got someone to launch out of Twins Territory

Whaddya think we could get for Dozier? Yup, we got 161 more of these jokers to go. Nobody cares about your fantasy team. He did not look comfortable against Bundy. Bundy is better than pedestrian, but the bats did not look good. Thank you Carole Rosie slid into first, dumb move, but a LOT happened in this game. The goal is to keep these things fairly tight. I think Rodney will be fine if he's only asked to pitch one clean inning. I don't think thing's will go well when he is asked to pitch in two separate frames in the same game like today. LALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALALALA

Jake Odorizzi turned in an excellent start in his Twins debut, throwing six shutout innings. Unfortunately, he got no run support and fellow new Twins Zach Duke and Fernando Rodney couldn’t hold down the Orioles. The only scoring from the Twins came in the form of a Robbie Grossman two-run pinch-hit single.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot329.png Duke is a left-handed specialist, not a setup man. Over the past four seasons, he’s averaged less than an inning per outing and only averaged 10.2 pitches per appearance last season and 12.5 the year before that. Paul Molitor decided to give Duke the seventh inning today. Already 16 pitches into his outing, Duke was left in the game to face the right-handed hitting Caleb Joseph with runners on first and second base. Two-run triple. Not the best way to start things off with your shiney new bullpen, Mr. Molitor. To be fair, Duke also racked up four strikeouts in the inning. The leadoff man swung through a wild pitch for strike three, Jason Castro couldn’t keep the ball in front of him and the batter reached safely. The hallmark of the 2017 Minnesota Twins was that they never died. No matter how bad things got, they always bounced back. If Opening Day is any indication, that attribute has carried over to this year’s club. The Twins entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 2-0 and Miguel Sano opened the inning with a strikeout. Eddie Rosario singled and advanced to second base thanks to a passed ball leading to a Logan Morrison walk. Eduardo Escobar struck out, continuing a trend of the Twins struggling to deliver with men on base. It all came down to Max Kepler. With the game on the line, Kepler fell behind 0-2. Over the next nine pitches, he put on about as good a display of professional, tough-as-nails hitting as you’re going to see all season. Max fouled off five pitches and ended up working a walk. That 11-pitch battle had to have worn down Baltimore reliever Brad Brach. Robbie Grossman pinch hit for Byron Buxton and delivered a game-tying bloop single. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days (includes the exhibition at WAS): Download attachment: Bullpen329.png Click here to view the article