Tom Froemming

Things didn’t get off to a great start for the Twins Sunday afternoon, but oh boy did they end well. After spotting the Blue Jays a five-run lead, the Twins stormed back and not only caught Toronto, but ended up blowing them out.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot917.png Gibson entered this game on quite the roll, having pitched to a 1.38 ERA over his previous five starts. Matt Trueblood of Baseball Prospectus did an excellent overview of Gibby’s turnaround, and among the reasons for it he cited the fact that Gibby has been doing a better job of mixing things up, deploying a five-pitch repertoire. He seemed to have a feel for zero of those pitches in the early innings of Sunday afternoon’s game. Gibson walked four batters in the first inning alone and Josh Donaldson took him deep twice, giving him back-to-back multi-homer games. The Blue Jays jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and it was starting to look like the Twins lead for the second Wild Card spot was in jeopardy. But the offense erupted for seven runs in the second inning and Gibson found himself as he cruised through the next four frames. The bats would add six more runs in the fifth inning, allowing a low-stress day for the bullpen. The five earned runs and five walks make Gibson’s line look pretty ugly, but he only gave up three hits and had eight strikeouts over 6.0 innings. He didn’t allow a single base runner from the third through sixth innings. Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton got the comeback started by hitting back-to-back homers. The big blast of the day came from Joe Mauer, who hit a grand slam in the fifth. Later that inning, Rosario addd his second home run of the day. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: bullpen917.png Looking Ahead Mon: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Yankees (Jaime Garcia) , 6:05 pm CT Tue: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Yankees (CC Sabathia), 6:05 pm CT Wed: Twins (Bartolo Colon) at Yankees (Masahiro Tanaka), 12:08 pm CT Looking Back TOR 7, MIN 2: Pub Crawlers Have Best Night Ever Despite Twins Loss TOR 4, MIN 3: Pressley Fails To Pounce, Is Victim Of A Bad Bounce MIN 3, TOR 2: Buxton Blasts Walk-Off HR Click here to view the article

The Twins lost to the Blue Jays Saturday evening, but good luck trying to tell that to anybody at Target Field who was wearing a gorgeous red “From Worst To Thirst” shirt. We were all too busy having a great time to even notice (or maybe that was just me).Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot917.png The Twins may have lost Saturday night, but it could have been worse if not for a brave pub crawler. In the middle of the fifth inning, with the Twins already down 3-0, a brave man recklessly tore through Minnie & Paul’s reminding every fan he could possibly get the attention of that the Twins were in the process of being no-hit. Some fans met this news with disgust, but the brave town crier carried out his job, undeterred by the negative reactions, for he knew somewhere, somehow the Baseball Gods were listening. Thankfully, the brave work of that unknown man (it was Nick Nelson) paid off, and the no-hitter was effectively jinxed. Eddie Rosario blasted a homer run in the bottom of the fifth, his 24th of the season. What of the rest of the game? Well, never mind that. Rest happily knowing that there was many a pub crawler who had an excellent evening watching a meaningful Minnesota Twins game on a wonderful mid-September evening. Looking back to March, could you have asked for anything better than that? Yes, the Twins lost. Yes, the stadium was filled with Blue Jays fans. Does that make us all losers by association? … Wait, what were we talking about again? AL Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 82-66 (+5.0) WC2: Twins 77-71 Angels 76-72 (-1.0) Seattle 74-75 (-3.5) 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: Bullpen917.png Looking Ahead Sun: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Blue Jays (Joe Biagini), 1:10 pm CT Mon: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Yankees (Jaime Garcia) , 6:05 pm CT Tue: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Yankees (CC Sabathia), 6:05 pm CT Looking Back TOR 4, MIN 3: Pressley Fails To Pounce, Is Victim Of A Bad Bounce MIN 3, TOR 2: Buxton Blasts Walk-Off HR MIN 3, SDP 1: Rosario Hits Walk-Off HR in 10th Inning Click here to view the article

After a pair of big wins on big blasts, the Twins fell Friday due in large part to an unlucky bounce. Bartolo Colon got off to a nice start on Big Sexy night at Target Field, but things started to go a bit south and the bullpen couldn’t stop the bleeding. Ryan Pressly failed to pounce on a bunt and gave up the go-ahead single on a ball that deflected off his leg.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot915.png With the game tied at 3-3 with two outs in the seventh inning, Josh Donaldson sent a comebacker right toward Ryan Pressly. The ball ricocheted off Pressly’s leg and shot toward the hole between shortstop and third base. Jorge Polanco, who had broken toward where the ball had been hit, could merely watch the go-ahead run cross the plate as he retrieved the ball. The Blue Jays bullpen did an excellent job of making that one-run advantage hold up, combining for 2.2 perfect innings. The Twins led 3-1 heading into the top of the sixth, but Colon started to run out of gas and Pressly couldn’t quite contain the Jays. Big Sexy gave up a solo homer to Donaldson in the sixth, but had a very manageable pitch count. He opened the seventh by walking the leadoff man and giving up a double to the next batter. On the very first pitch Pressly threw, he was unable to bounce on a bunt (there goes that word again), and gave up a single. With the bases juiced, he managed to retire the next two batters, but Donaldson’s tough-luck comebacker was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Colon gave up four earned runs on five hits and two walks over 6.0 innings. He had just one strikeout. Brian Dozier was 2-for-4 and hit his 31st homer, which was the Twins lone extra-base hit. Byron Buxton was also 2-or-4 and stole his 26th base. Tyler Duffey had been scuffling, but he held Toronto scoreless over the final two innings. AL Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 81-66 (+4.0) WC2: Twins 77-70 Angels 74-72 (-2.5)* Friday game still in progress when this published. Seattle 74-74 (-3.5) 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: Bullpen915.png Looking Ahead Sat: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Blue Jays (Marco Estrada), 6:10 pm CT Sun: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Blue Jays (Joe Biagini), 1:10 pm CT Mon: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Yankees (Sonny Gray) , 6:05 pm CT Looking Back MIN 3, TOR 2: Buxton Blasts Walk-Off HR MIN 3, SDP 1: Rosario Hits Walk-Off HR in 10th Inning MIN 16, SDP 0: MIN 16, SDP 0: Twins Hit 7 HRs, Set New Record Click here to view the article

Per b-ref, he's 5-for-5 vs. LHP. Byron doesn't need to know the stats, that's not his job. That's on the manager and his staff to know that stuff. Not saying they don't, they may have been fully aware of all the numbers and just decided to bunt instead.

I don't think there's any way Eddie Rosario, of all people, is ever thinking bunt. Dude oozes confidence, loves the spotlight and had just hit a walk-off homer the previous night. I think he'd have loved the opportunity to hit in that spot. Also, Toronto was prepared for a bunt in that situation (no outs, man on first, one-run game) so trying to bunt for a hit is a poor strategy there. It's not like you were going to catch them off guard.

Just throwing this out there ... Runners are 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts against Aaron Loup this season and 13-for-15 since the start of 2014. Their catcher, Luke Maile, is 16-for-51 in throwing guys out over his career (31.4%), which is above league average.

Fixed Thanks Brock, I appreciate it. Being able to contribute to Twins Daily for me is kinda like if your favorite band asked you to join them on tour or something like that. This has been a ton of fun.

Good teams find a way to prevail. Good players do, too. Byron Buxton hit a walk-off homer in the 10th inning, giving the Twins walk-off wins on consecutive nights. Matt Belisle blew the save in the ninth inning, giving up a solo homer, and Paul Molitor made some curious decisions in the eighth but luckily at the end of the day none of that matters much.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot914.png Might as well get right to it, here’s video of the walk-off homer: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen914.png Looking Ahead Fri: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. Blue Jays (J.A. Happ), 7:10 pm CT Sat: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Blue Jays (Marco Estrada), 6:10 pm CT Sun: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Blue Jays (Joe Biagini), 1:10 pm CT Looking Back MIN 3, SDP 1: Rosario Hits Walk-Off HR in 10th Inning MIN 16, SDP 0: MIN 16, SDP 0: Twins Hit 7 HRs, Set New Record KC 11, MIN 3: Big Dud from Big Sexy & Co. Click here to view the article

Both those guys were outstanding, but just didn't make quite enough starts to break into the top 5 for me. Turley only made 13 starts in the minors, pitching 64 innings in that role. I think Clark Beeker's scoreless inning steak was longer than that. LOL Ok, that's exaggerating a bit, but I did think the guys who performed over a bigger sample deserved some more consideration. Though, obviously going with Gonsalves, that wasn't the deciding factor for me either. Again, this one was really difficult for me.

Yup, used five relievers to throw a total of 16 pitches in that game.

Just like Gabriel Moya on the reliever side, Zack Littell would've been the easy choice had all his stats this season come with the Twins. But just 41.2 of his 157 innings were with the Chattanooga.

The Twins were off on Monday

I had such a tough time with this one. There are guys who didn't even crack the top 5 who have legit cases for the top spot.

Eddie Rosario blasted a walk-off homer in the 10th inning to deliver a victory and put a happy end to what could have been a frustrating loss. Ervin Santana pitched 6.0 shutout innings and Matt Belisle threw the final 1.2 frames to pick up the win.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot913.png Standings The Yankees beat Tampa Bay, and remain 3.0 games in front of the Twins. At the time this published, the Twins held a 2.5 game advantage over the Angels, but they were beating the Astros 9-0. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen913.png Looking Ahead Thu: Twins (Jose Berrios) vs. Blue Jays (Brett Anderson), 7:10 pm CT Fri: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. Blue Jays (J.A. Happ), 7:10 pm CT Sat: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Blue Jays (Marco Estrada), 6:10 pm CT Looking Back MIN 16, SDP 0: Twins Hit 7 HRs, Set New Record KC 11, MIN 3: Big Dud from Big Sexy & Co. KC 5, MIN 2: Molitor Pushes All the Wrong Buttons in Loss Click here to view the article

See, it's really hard to rank a top 5! You couldn't even do it! Lol xPE treats all hits as equal correct? If that's the case I have a problem with that as an end all be all stat. There's also a bunch of stuff xFIP ignores. I also don't really love anything BABIP related, either. If you give up a bunch of hard contact, guess what, your BABIP is going to be high. It's not because you were unlucky. The opposite can be true too. Get a ton of infield fly balls, well then your BABIP is going to be super low. Are you lucky? Or are you just effective at pitching high in the zone? Maybe all that stuff is great in terms of being predictive, but these are year-end awards. We're not trying to forecast who will be best in 2018 or say whose success was more sustainable (or at least I wasn't). Those are great stats, no doubt, but all I'm trying to say is I don't like the idea of picking any one number in particular. And any time you have these sort of "Most Valuable" awards there is some kind of opinion/difference in methodology that comes into play, which makes it all the more fun.

Moya only threw 14.2 innings in the Twins system. For me that just wasn't enough. If he had put up those numbers all year with this org, yes, he would have easily been my No. 1 guy. Bard was excellent, but picking only five guys was extremely tough. Who would your five have been?

There have been more than 200,000 games in the history of Major League Baseball, but a team had never hit home runs in each of the first seven innings … until tonight. The Twins made history Tuesday at Target Field, accomplishing that feat in a blowout of San Diego.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Sanpshot912.png Brian Dozier got things started with his 30th homer of the year to lead off the first inning. Then it was Jorge Polanco in the second, Jason Castro in the third, Eddie Rosario in the fourth, Castro again in the fifth, Eduardo Escobar in the sixth and finally Kennys Vargas in the seventh inning. Seeing is believing: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen912.png Looking Ahead Wed: Twins (Ervin Santana) vs. Padres (Dinelson Lamet), 7:10 pm CT Thu: Twins (Jose Berrios) vs. Blue Jays (Brett Anderson), 7:10 pm CT Fri: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. Blue Jays (J.A. Happ), 7:10 pm CT Looking Back KC 11, MIN 3: Big Dud from Big Sexy & Co. KC 5, MIN 2: Molitor Pushes All the Wrong Buttons in Loss MIN 8, KC 5: Rosario Drives in 4, Hildenberger Holds it Together Click here to view the article

This award will not be a three-peat, and I think everyone’s thrilled about the reasons behind that fact. Trevor Hildenberger had won each of the past two Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Year awards, and was off to another incredible start, this time for Rochester. Just when it looked like he might be among the top choices for the award again, he got The Call. With Hildy quickly establishing himself as a reliable member of the Twins bullpen, the door opened up for someone new to earn the title. There was no shortage of candidates. It was a special season across the entire Twins minor league system, and there’s no way you can win as many games as they did without a collection of stellar bullpen performers. After all the votes were tallied up, it was a Top-5 finisher in last year’s voting who took the crown.Seven Twins Daily Minor League writers were asked to vote for the various awards. For the relief pitcher of the year, we each voted for five players. The player who was voted as #1 received five points, #2 received four points and so on with the #5 vote receiving one point. Results were tabulated and can be found below. Short profiles of our top five are to follow, but first, some players worthy of honorable mention. These players also received votes. Others Receiving Votes Sam Clay – Fort Myers – 40 G, 8-0, 9 SV, 1.38 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 65.0 IP, 42 H, 32 BB, 63 K (8.7 K/9). Also pitched in three games for Chattanooga. Of the 10 earned runs he gave up with the Miracle, six of them were from his very first appearance of the seasonMichael Tonkin – Rochester Red Wings – 31 G, 4-2, 5 SV, 1.73 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 41.2 IP, 31 H, 13 BB, 61 K (13.2 K/9).Alan Busenitz – Rochester Red Wings – 24 G, 3-0, 2 SV, 1.78 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, 35.1 IP, 19 H, 10 BB, 39 K (9.9 K/9).Todd Van Steensel – Chattanooga Lookouts – 36 G, 5-3, 0 SV, 1.38 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 58.2 IP, 42 H, 25 BB, 59 K (9.1 K/9).Drew Rucinski – Rochester Red Wings – 37 G, 2-6, 2 SV, 2.57 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 63.0 IP, 54 H, 10 BB, 57 K (8.1 K/9).Nik Turley – Rochester Red Wings & Chattanooga Lookouts – 14 G, 2-1, 0 SV, 0.81 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 33.1 IP, 18 H, 11 BB, 38 K (10.3 K/9). These are only his stats as a reliever. He also started 16 games.Alex Wimmers – Rochester Red Wings – 34 G, 7-3, 7 SV, 3.23 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 47.1 IP, 33 H, 11 BB, 48 K (9.1 K/9).Ryan Mason – Cedar Rapids Kernels – 29 G, 1-2, 0 SV, 2.01 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 49.1 IP, 54 H, 11 BB, 43 K (7.8 K/9).Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year Here are the top five vote getters for Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year. 5. Andrew Vasquez – Fort Myers Miracle & Cedar Rapids Kernels – 37 G, 4-1, 2 SV, 1.55 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 58.0 IP, 47 H, 21 BB, 85 K (13.2 K/9). A 32nd-round pick in 2015 out of Westmont College, Vasquez appears to be a nice find. He returned to Cedar Rapids, where he left off at the end of 2016, and dominated. At the start of June, the big 6-foot-6 lefty got the call up to Fort Myers and just kept on rolling. Lefties in particular struggled, hitting just .200/.297/.200 (.497 OPS) off him. Yes, in 75 plate appearances, no left-handed batter mustered an extra-base hit off Vasquez. And home runs? Forget about it. In 108.2 innings pitched as a professional, Vasquez hasn’t given up a single homer to anybody -- left or right. 4. Hector Lujan – Cedar Rapids Kernels – 42 G, 3-1, 17 SV, 1.33 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 54.0 IP, 41 H, 8 BB, 54 K (9.0 K/9). The Twins scouts did a really nice job with Westmont College in 2015. Lujan, who was a college teammate of Vasquez, was selected by the Twins in the 35th round that year. After a rocky first couple of seasons in the system, Lujan broke out this year and was a consistent force at the end of games for the Kernels. In fact, he led the Midwest League with 17 saves. What really sticks out for Hector is his impressive K:BB ratio of 6.75. He was able to average a strikeout per inning while issuing just eight free passes over 54 innings. Lujan was at his best during the stretch run for Cedar Rapids, as he gave up just one earned run over his final 20 innings. 3. Tom Hackimer – Fort Myers Miracle & Cedar Rapids Kernels – 43 G, 7-1, 13 SV, 1.76 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 61.1 IP, 30 H, 22 BB, 71 K (10.4 K/9). The side-arming right-hander is much more than a gimmicky pitcher, but we know from guys like Hildenberger and Pat Neshek that relievers who drop down can be extremely effective. Drafted in the fourth round out of St. Johns University in 2016, Hackimer had an impressive debut season, but really turned heads in this, his first full year of pro ball. Just two other minor league pitchers gave up fewer hits per nine innings pitched than Hackimer (4.4 H/9) while throwing at least 50 innings. Sidewinders are usually extremely difficult on same-sided hitters, and Hackimer is no exception. Right-handed batters hit just .113/.231/.121 (.352 OPS) off him this season. It’s pretty tough for relievers to earn Player of the Week honors, but Hackimer was honored by the Florida State League as it’s best pitcher for the week of July 3-9. 2. Nick Anderson – Chattanooga Lookouts & Fort Myers Miracle – 44 G, 4-1, 11 SV, 1.00 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 54.0 IP, 32 H, 10 BB, 57 K (9.5 K/9). The Twins signed Anderson, who went to high school in Brainerd, out of the Independent Frontier League in 2015. He had a 3.58 ERA in his first taste of the Florida State League last season, but returned to dominate the league this year and ended up being a key contributor in Chattanooga’s championship run. While he fell just short of the award this season, there’s no doubt Anderson was one of the best relievers in all of the minor leagues this year, let alone just in the Twins system. Among minor leaguers who threw at least 50 innings, Anderson ranked sixth in ERA and seventh in WHIP. Relief Pitcher of the Year John Curtiss – Rochester Red Wings & Chattanooga Lookouts – 39 G, 2-0, 19 SV, 1.28 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 49.1 IP, 23 H, 22 BB, 68 K (12.4 K/9). Curtiss’ year started with 22 scoreless innings for the Lookouts and in all he was charged with earned runs in just five of his 39 minor league appearances. The University of Texas product held opposing hitters to a .134 average this season, which was the second-lowest mark in all of the minors among pitchers with at least 40 innings. He also averaged 12.4 K/9 and didn’t give up a single homer while down on the farm. Minor league hitters were hopeless against him. The fact that the voting was so close is a pretty strong statement in regard to how many great performances there were in the system, as MLB Pipeline selected Curtiss as its lone relief pitcher on the 2017 Pipeline Prospect Team of the Year. Guess how many minor leaguers pitched at least 40 innings and had a lower ERA, lower WHIP and higher K/9 than Curtiss. Two. And here’s the part you’re really going to like: one of those two pitchers is also in the organization. That would be Gabriel Moya, who the Twins acquired from Arizona in a trade for John Ryan Murphy. It would have been interesting to see how the voting would’ve shaken out had Moya spent all year in the organization, as he had a 0.77 ERA, matching 0.77 WHIP, 13.4 K/9 and a Southern League-leading 24 saves this season. But just 14.2 of his 58.1 innings on the season came with Minnesota. Curtiss finished fourth in last year’s voting, one spot ahead of Anderson that year, too. He joined the Twins in late August and has gotten his major league career off to a rough start, but he appears likely to fill a role in the Twins bullpen for years to come. The Ballots In an attempt to be transparent, here are the votes from our Twins Daily minor league writers: Seth Stohs – 1) Nick Anderson, 2) John Curtiss, 3) Tom Hackimer, 4) Hector Lujan, 5) Alan BusenitzJeremy Nygaard – 1) John Curtiss, 2) Tom Hackimer, 3) Alan Busenitz, 4) Alex Wimmers, 5) Nick AndersonCody Christie – 1) John Curtiss, 2) Michael Tonkin, 3) Hector Lujan, 4) Sam Clay, 5) Drew RucinskiTom Froemming – 1) John Curtiss, 2) Andrew Vasquez, 3) Tom Hackimer, 4) Nick Anderson, 5) Alan BusenitzSteve Lein – 1) Nick Anderson, 2) John Curtiss, 3) Hector Lujan, 4) Tom Hackimer, 5) Andrew VasquezEric Pleiss – 1) Sam Clay, 2) Nick Anderson, 3) Todd Van Steensel, 4) Nik Turley, 5) Michael TonkinTed Schwerzler – 1) John Curtiss, 2) Nick Anderson, 3) Andrew Vasquez, 4) Tom Hackimer, 5) Ryan MasonFeel free to discuss. What do you think? How would you rank them? How would your ballot look? Click here to view the article