Tom Froemming

Dick Bremer is suggesting that Torii Hunter and David Ortiz participate in this year's home run derby.

That appears to me to have been an excellent call by he ump. He got into great position.

Kyle Gibson so far tonight: 15 four-seamers, nine curveballs, eight two-seamers, five sliders, three changeups.

Cleveland lost to the Yankees 7-4.

Blake Snell's ERA by inning: 1: 1.42 2: 1.42 3: 2.37 4: 1.53 5: 4.76 6: 1.17 7: 2.25 Some early runs would be huge.

This has already been covered.

I guess first pitch is tentatively scheduled for 9:05. I may need to switch back from beer to coffee.

Kyle Gibson is heading out to the bullpen to get warmed up, so it would appear this one will get started eventually.

Per the Red Wings, Buxton was lifted due to an "apparent hand injury"

Eddie Rosario lost out on the final vote to get into the All-Star Game, but in the end is he really a winner? I mean, if my day job was like "hey Tom, you can either take four days off or we can send you out to Washington, where you'll probably have to do a bunch of extra work" I know what I'd pick. Then again, maybe things for a desk jockey are slightly different than a professional baseball player, I dunno.

The grounds crew has rolled out the tarp. It appears this one may be delayed.

I probably should have mentioned that Logan Morrison was placed on the DL with what they're calling a "left hip impingement" and Ehire Adrianza was activated back off the DL to replacement.

Twins | 41-49 overall, 26-21 at home, 6-4 in their last 10 Kyle Gibson | 3.59 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 8.8 K/9, 3.9 BB/9 Rays | 48-44 overall, 22-27 on the road, 7-3 in their last 10 Blake Snell | 2.09 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 10.2 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 Lineups: Additional Notes: The Twins have been playing well of late, but the Rays arrive at Target Field red hot. They’re on a five-game winning streak in which they’ve outscored their opponents 31-13. Here’s how weird the American League is in 2018: Despite being six games better than the Twins, the Rays are actually farther away from a playoff spot (9.5 games back in the Wild Card) than Minnesota right now (8.5 games back in the Central). So even though Tampa Bay is four games over .500, they’re in pretty much the same position as the Twins as we head closer and closer to the trade deadline. Darren Wolfson tracked down Twins GM Thad Levine and got some updates on Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton. Here’s the video on Twitter:

I asked because you said "If your recent second round draft pick is 18th in your system, your system is either crazy loaded, or he is underrated, or he is a bad pick." So it sounded like you were trying to say that typically a recent second-round pick should expected to be ranked higher than 18th.

As simply a thrown in, not a major part of a deal at all, I'd be happy if they were able to land Christian Bethancourt. Remember him? Athletic catcher with a big arm, former top 100 prospect for the Braves. He got traded to the Padres and they decided to give him a try as a reliever. Well he's back behind the plate, and is playing well with Milwaukee's Triple A team, (.300/.336/.502 with 12 HRs and a 44 CS%) though that's in Colorado Springs, meaning the power numbers may be deceiving. With his track record, you'd think the guy was 36, but I was shocked to see he's still only 26-years-old and he could be controlled through arbitration for three more years. Again, not a guy who you make as a centerpiece by any means, but a player who I think makes some sense as a target for the Twins.

This is a fun game to look back through the play log over at FanGraphs. After that Salvy homer, the Twins' win expectancy was just 25.9%. Then, despite holding a 5-4 lead at the time, they had just a 39.9% win expectancy before Pressly worked his magic to get out of that jam. Dozier's two-run blast swung the Twins' win expectancy all the way up to 89.8%. Such a huge sing there in the sixth inning.

The Royals scored three runs in the first thanks to a Twins blunder and a Sal Perez blast, but Lance Lynn righted the ship, the bats got rolling and the bullpen had an outstanding game. Minnesota pulled out the victory, tying its biggest comeback of the season, and also sealed the series win over Kansas City. The heroes were Ryan Pressly, Brian Dozier and Bobby Wilson. Believe it. Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports The Royals scored three runs in the first thanks to a Twins blunder and a Sal Perez blast, but Lance Lynn righted the ship, the bats got rolling and the bullpen had an outstanding game. Minnesota pulled out the victory, tying its biggest comeback of the season, and also sealed the series win over Kansas City. The heroes were Ryan Pressly, Brian Dozier and Bobby Wilson. Believe it. Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Lance Lynn: 36 Game Score, 5.0 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 6 K, 3 BB, 57.9% strikes Bullpen: 4.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 K, 0 BB Lineup: 3-for-7 w/RISP, 9 LOB WPA of 0.1 or higher: Dozier .399, Pressly .227, Wilson .208, Cave .144 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Lynn -.275, Escobar -.107 Credit to Lynn, he got back on track despite the awful start to the game. He struck out the leadoff man, gave up a single, but then appeared to induce a potential inning-ending double play. Instead, Jorge Polanco couldn’t handle the feed at second and everybody was safe. Perez went down and launched a three-run homer on a ball that was below the zone. From there, Lynn gave up just one more run through five innings. Lynn went back out for the sixth inning and opened things up with a hit-by-pitch followed by a walk. Ryan Pressly came in and hit a batter of his own to load the bases with nobody out and the Twins holding just a one-run lead. Pressly retired the next three batters he faced to keep things clean in the top of the sixth. The bats provided some breathing room in the bottom of that inning, as Brian Dozier hit a two-run homer and Logan Morrison added a solo shot. Wilson had a great day at the plate. For real! He hit an RBI single with two outs in the second inning, added a run-scoring double in the fourth frame and then singled in the seventh. Altogether, the Twins had 15 hits with three from each of Wilson, Dozier and Joe Mauer. Jake Cave was 2-for-4 with a triple. After Pressly’s impressive Houdini act in the sixth, Zach Duke followed with a scoreless seventh and Alan Busenitz, who was activated as Addison Reed hit the DL, handled the final two frames. Busenitz gave up a solo homer with two down in the ninth. Next up for the Twins is a four-game series against the Rays at Target Field to close out the first half. After getting off to a bit of a sluggish start, Tampa Bay has gone 20-10 over its last 30 games. 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 49-41 MIN 41-49 (-8) DET 40-55 (-11.5) CHW 30-61 (-19.5) KC 26-66 (-24) Next Three Games Thu vs. TB, 7:10 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. Blake Snell Fri vs. TB, 7:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Nathan Eovaldi Sat vs. TB, 1:10 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Chris Archer Last Three Games KC 9, MIN 4: Slegers Slayed by Royals MIN 3, KC 1: Minnesota’s All-Star Shines MIN 10, BAL 1: Twins Pick Up First Sweep of 2018 View full article

Got any favorites in Milwaukee's system?

The big challenge he'll face is there are just a ton of 1B/corner OF types in the system right now. One thing he's got in his favor is a lot of those other guys hit left-handed. Either way, I like Zander, he's a fun player. Much more athletic than you'd expect for a guy his size (listed at 6-3, 232 on MiLB). He's 20-for-25 on stolen base attempts for his career and last night he picked up his 16th career triple. That means Wiel has a better stolen base rate than speedsters like Zack Granite and Aaron Whitefield, plus he hits triples at nearly the same rate as Granite and far more often than Whitefield. That's a rally silly and mostly meaningless stat, I know, but it's a fun one.

Let's change that. All aboard the hype train! I'll start this off by saying I don't think anybody would have thought Brian Dozier would hit 40 home runs or Eduardo Escobar would potentially threaten to break the single-season doubles record. Jose Altuve is one of the best players in baseball, Max Muncy is going to be in the home run derby ... none of us know anything But seriously, Rortvedt is the only catcher in all of High A right now who's not old enough to legally drink and he's still managing to post a slightly above league average slash line. The whole thing about the FSL being a tough place to hit has been a message that's been really well delivered throughout the list so far, but it's also worth noting that it's been scientifically proven that the minor league ball doesn't travel as far as the version they use in MLB. It's really stupid that's the case, but it's something to keep in mind. Blankenhorn's numbers may not jump off the page, but he's slugging .406 in a league where .368 is the average. He's been a really streaky hitter throughout his career so far. He needs to learn how to hit lefties and be more consistent, but if it all clicks he's going to be a lot of fun. Wade and Thorpe's numbers speak for themselves. I compiled my list almost a month ago, and as I said earlier there wasn't much that separated my 7-15 range of guys. If I re-ranked everybody today, those two may have ended up a few spots higher. Looking at Wade through Twins-colored glasses, it certainly does appear that his future here is that of a bench player. There's a lot of competition for corner OF spots, but this is a career .293/.403/.439 hitter we're talking about who has 35 more walks than strikeouts over his career. Enlow is nearly three years younger than league average for the MWL and has not faced a single batter who's younger than he is. The results aren't outstanding, but he's being challenged and is at the very least surviving. In summary, it's clear that all five of these guys are future Hall of Famers

Aaron Slegers faced 11 Kansas City hitters Tuesday night, seven of them recorded hits. He lasted just 1 1/3 innings and gave up five runs. That doesn’t give a team much of a chance to win a ballgame. The Twins’ bullpen did a nice job getting things pointed in the right direction until Addison Reed had yet another bad outing in the ninth. It was a bad loss to a bad team, but Cleveland may have had an even worse night. Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports Aaron Slegers faced 11 Kansas City hitters Tuesday night, seven of them recorded hits. He lasted just 1 1/3 innings and gave up five runs. That doesn’t give a team much of a chance to win a ballgame. The Twins’ bullpen did a nice job getting things pointed in the right direction until Addison Reed had yet another bad outing in the ninth. It was a bad loss to a bad team, but Cleveland may have had an even worse night. Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Aaron Slegers: 13 Game Score, 1.1 IP, 5 ER, 0 K, 0 BB, 65.9% strikes Bullpen: 7.2 IP, 4 ER, 8 K, 4 BB Lineup: 2-for-7 w/RISP, 6 LOB WPA of 0.1 or higher: None WPA of -0.1 or lower: Slegers -.381 Logan Morrison made one of the worst baseball plays you’ll see all year. Down 5-1 in the bottom of the second inning, he hit what appeared to be a leadoff double. Nice, right? Well, LoMo decided he’d try to stretch it into a triple and was thrown out. You just can’t do that. A rookie wouldn’t get a free pass for that kind of a mental error, let alone a veteran like Morrison. You’re down 5-1, there are no outs … honestly, dude what are you doing? Something has to be wrong with Addison Reed. He gave up three runs on three hits; a single, a triple and a home run. Since the start of June, Reed has surrendered 13 earned runs in 12 1/3 innings pitched. Reed’s average velocity on his four-seamer has been holding pretty steady over the past few years. He was right around 93 mph from 2014-2017, but he started out this season sitting more like 92 mph and things have continued to dip. Tonight, he topped out at 91.6 mph per Baseball Savant, but averaged 90.3 mph. Maybe Morrison and Reed need to go down to Single A too. On the plus side, Taylor Rogers was great in an extended appearance. He threw a season-high 37 pitches over 2 1/3 no-hit innings. He struck out two and walked one. Also, Brian Dozier hit his 14th home run. Not a great night for the Twins, but things aren’t exactly going swimmingly for Cleveland either. The led 4-0 heading into the ninth inning of their game tonight. Closer Cody Allen gave up three runs, and then a miscommunication played a part in the Reds scoring four more runs en route to victory. From Cleveland’s reporter from The Athletic: https://twitter.com/ZackMeisel/status/1016868521765232641 Uff da. That bullpen is a nightmare. Gotta love the AL Central. 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 49-41 MIN 40-49 (-8.5) DET 40-54 (-11) CHW 30-61 (19.5) KC 26-65 (-23.5) Next Three Games Wed vs. KC, 12:10 pm CT: Lance Lynn vs. Burch Smith Thu vs. TB, 7:10 pm CT: TBD Fri vs. TB, 7:10 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games MIN 3, KC 1: Minnesota’s All-Star Shines MIN 10, BAL 1: Twins Pick Up First Sweep of 2018 MIN 5, BAL 4: More Baltimore, Please View full article

Here's where the lines really started to blur for me. I felt like not a ton differentiated my personal No. 15 guy from my No. 7 guy in the system.