Tom Froemming

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

Fair point. The Twins are among the lowest teams in GIDP%, per b-ref, but there aren't huge differences. The Twins are at 9%. They've had a runner at first and less than two outs 1,047 times and have hit into 94 double plays. The Royals have the worst rate at 13.5%. League average is 11%.

We were talking about successful sac bunt attempts. If you want success rate at bunting for a hit, Fangraphs has that. The Twins have a 31.7 bunt hit percentage over the past three seasons. That's fifth-best in baseball over that stretch. Not too many .317 hitters out there, either. But, those are all singles so it's a very empty .317 batting average.

And despite all their practice, the Twins have been bad at bunting. They're 26th in sac bunt success rate this year at 49%. That's an improvement from the previous two seasons when they ranked 29th both years (49% again in 2016 and 53% in 2015).

B-Ref tracks sac bunt attempts, though I don't know what their methodology is. Sometimes it can be tough to tell whether a player is bunting on their own/trying to bunt for a hit or if he was asked to lay down a sac bunt. Either way, according to their data the Twins lead the AL in sac bunt attempts over the past three seasons with 159. Cleveland is second with 151, followed by the White Sox at 143. But the average for AL teams over the last three years is 113. A few teams almost never bunt. Oakland (65), Boston (77) and Baltimore (78) all have bunted less than half as much as the Twins have.

Oh, I see. Well, no, there aren't any quotes anyone's going to be able to dig up about that, but committing to Molitor in that way really sent a message. It's entirely possible that the new regime requested that Molitor update his strategy and he simply replied "no thanks." Either way, if Falvey/Levine have any issues with the way Molitor is managing, I'm sure they have communicated that to him. Now whether he needs to listen is another story. Molitor has ownership on his side, so he can do whatever he sees fit as long as that's the case.

All the way back in July of 2016, Jim Pohlad was already insisting that Molitor would be the manager this year. Here's a link to a Chip Scoggins piece about it. It includes this quote: "They can do that (hire a manager of their choice) in the future if they want,” Pohlad said. “But for 2017, Paul will be our manager.”

I believe my final prediction was 71 wins, but obviously I was wrong either way. Anytime you're trying to figure out how six months of baseball is going to unfold, you're basically throwing darts. I don't wanna take anything away from Brandon, who made some excellent points/observations. He was dead on about Jason Castro. But he wrote that piece in January. A couple reasons he provides optimism for the pitching were Phil Hughes and Trevor May. He also foretasted possible contributions from Stephen Gonsalves, Kohl Stewart and Fernando Romero. What I'm trying to say is that even those who predicted 80+ wins had insufficient information to work with at that point. But that's part of what makes predictions fun. Part of what I was forecasting included a mid-summer fire sale. I thought if this club got off to a slow start, the Falvine regime would take the opportunity to really put their stamp on the org by trading Dozier, Ervin and firing Molitor. I figured the aftermath of that kind of shakeup would've been a really ugly second half. Again, I've already been proven wrong, but the Twins are at 74 wins as of today. Yes, I'd assume they'll be able to win at least six of their final 19 games to get to 80 wins, but I wouldn't count any chickens before they hatch. Baseball is weird. Even the mighty Dodgers have only won four of their last 20 games.

Welcome! I hope you and your loved ones are making it through the hurricane OK and that this place can be a healthy distraction from any real life issues Irma may be causing. It is pretty remarkable how far this team has gotten with so few reliable pitchers. Says a lot about how awesome the lineup has been, both on offense and defense. Here's hoping another couple pitchers can pull a Gibby and get hot out of the blue.

Bartolo Colon had been remarkably consistent since joining the Twins, but he had a stinker of a Sunday afternoon in Kansas City. He gave up six runs in the second inning, giving the Twins very little hope to escape KC with a series win.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot910.png Big Sexy lasted just 1.2 innings, but lucky for the Twins they had a couple of fresh long relievers to choose from. But Colon wasn’t the only Minnesota pitcher feeling the Sunday blues right now. John Curtiss got rocked for four runs while recording just a single out. The big blow was a three-run blast to Brandon Moss. Curtiss was among the best relievers in all of the minor leagues this season, but after five big league appearances he holds a 19.64 ERA. Kennys Vargas was 2-for-2 with a two-run homer and a pair of walks. Ehire Adrianza, who started in left field, was the only other Twin to collect two hits. Dillon Gee pitched 3.0 shutout innings of relief. Not much else to say about this one. The Twins got crushed. They’ll have tomorrow off to lick their wounds and prepare to host the Padres for two games. Standings Both the Yankees and Angels games were still in progress at the time this published. At the moment, the Twins sit 3.0 games back of New York and hold a 1.5 game advantage over Anaheim. 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: Bullpen910.png Looking Ahead Mon: Off Tue: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Padres (Travis Wood), 7:10 pm CT Wed: Twins (Ervin Santana) vs. Padres (Dinelson Lamet), 7:10 pm CT Looking Back KC 5, MIN 2: Molitor Pushes All the Wrong Buttons in Loss MIN 8, KC 5: Rosario Drives in 4, Hildenberger Holds it Together MIN 4, KC 2: Comeback Complete Click here to view the article

The Twins gave away a pair of outs by bunting and ran into a couple of more outs trying to steal bases, but this was still a tied ballgame heading into the bottom of the eighth. There, Paul Molitor decided to put the game into the hands of the struggling Buddy Boshers. The game wasn’t tied for much longer after that.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot99.png Eduardo Escobar led off the third inning with a homer, which was followed by a Jason Castro single. Robbie Grossman, who was 6-for-13 with two homers in his first four games back from the DL, laid down a sac bunt to advance Castro to second. Yes, that same Robbie Grossman who has a .379 on-base percentage since joining the Twins. “Thank you,” replied the Royals. Brian Dozier struck out and Joe Mauer grounded out to end the inning. The next inning, the Twins got burned again, but this time for trying to be too aggressive. Eddie Rosario was thrown out trying to steal second base with one out. That burned, as it was followed by back-to-back singles by Byron Buxton and Max Kepler. The really weird thing was it happened again. In the sixth inning, Rosie got another one-out single, and again got thrown out trying to steal second base. Buxton, the very next batter, hit a homer. Ouch. Oh, and there was more bunting, too. With the score tied at 2-2 in the top of the eighth, Mauer hit a leadoff single. Jorge Polanco bunted him over. Yes, that same Polanco who is hitting third, has been hotter than the sun … wait ... I feel like I’ve done this bit before. Predictably, the Twins would not score that inning. Pretty much all you need to know about the bottom of the eighth inning was that the Twins used five pitchers. I feel like with that information you can pretty much conclude how well things went, but here are the gory details: Ryan Pressly was the first man out of the bullpen, and gave up an 0-2 single to Lorenzo Cain to lead off the inning. He walked the next batter on four pitches. In came Boshers. He threw one pitch, giving up the go-ahead single to Eric Hosmer. Tyler Duffey was up next. He gave up an RBI double to Salvy Perez. He then intentionally walked Mike Moustakas to load the bases. There were still no outs at that point. The next man in was Taylor Rogers, which was pretty confusing. Boshers had been on a terrible slide heading into tonight's game, having given up six earned runs over his previous four innings. Opponents had a 1.154 OPS against Buddy over that stretch. With that given, it was assumed Rogers must not have been available to face Hosmer earlier in the inning, yet here he was, entering the game after things had gotten a bit out of hand. Rogers got Brandon Moss to line out. One pitch and his night was done. Ah, September baseball. Alan Busenitz became the fifth pitcher of the inning, and gave up a sac fly before striking out Alex Gordon to end the inning. Sometimes a manager pushes all the right buttons and pulls all the right levers and things still just don’t work out. This doesn’t feel like one of those times, at least not to me. Is hindsight 20/20? Am I way off base? You’ll have to let me know. Jose Berrios did a nice job of limiting damage over his 7.0 innings tonight. He only stuck out one batter, gave up eight hits and walked two batters, but the Royals were only able to score two runs off him. Rosario, Buxton and Castro each had two hits. Buxton also drew a walk. Standings The Yankees won, so the Twins trail the top Wild Card by 2.5 games. At the time this published the Angels were 1.5 games behind the Twins, but were also losing 8-0. Cleveland won its 17th-straight game and has now tied Houston with the most wins in the AL with 86. 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: Bullpen99.png Looking Ahead Sun: Twins (Bartolo Colon) at Kansas City (Jason Vargas), 1:15 pm CT Mon: Off Tue: Twins (Aaron Slegers) vs. Padres (Travis Wood), 7:10 pm CT Looking Back MIN 8, KC 5: Rosario Drives in 4, Hildenberger Holds it Together MIN 4, KC 2: Comeback Complete MIN 10, TB 6: Twins Prevail Thanks to Big Error Click here to view the article

For a moment it appeared the Twins bullpen might falter Friday night against the Royals, but Trevor Hildenberger, some nifty infield defense and key insurance hits from Robbie Grossman and Joe Mauer boosted the Twins to their third straight win. Both the Eds -- Eddie Rosario and Eduardo Escobar -- had big nights, and Byron Buxton amazed once again with his speed and defense.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Download attachment: Snapshot98.png The Twins had built an early 5-1 lead but saw that advantage slip. Ervin Santana wasn’t in top form, giving up four runs over five innings, but Hildenberger got this game back on track. Tyler Duffey and Taylor Rogers made a bit of a mess in the seventh inning, combining to give up three straight singles to open that frame. Hildenberger entered with runners on first and second, no outs and the Twins clinging to a one-run lead. He got the first batter he faced to ground into a double play and put Lorenzo Cain away to end the threat. Up 6-5 in the top of the eighth, the Twins got a big RBI triple from Grossman and a run-scoring double from Mauer to open up some breathing room again. Hildenberger stayed in and delivered another scoreless inning in the bottom of the eighth. Matt Belisle pitched a perfect ninth inning with two strikeouts to earn his seventh save. Eddie Rosario played a huge role for the Twins in building up their early lead. He ended the night 2-for-4 with his 21st homer of the season, a stolen base and four RBI. Eduardo Escobar also homered, his 16th of the year, and was a triple shy of the cycle. Jorge Polanco drew three walks. Oh, and Byron Buxton did some things. In the third inning, he unsuccessfully tried to bunt his way on. Why was that noteable? Well, per StatCast, his home-to-first base time was the fastest they ever recorded for a right-handed hitter. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen98.png Looking Ahead Sat: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Kansas City (Jake Junis), 6:15 pm CT Sun: Twins (Bartolo Colon) at Kansas City (Jason Vargas), 1:15 pm CT Mon: Off Looking Back MIN 4, KC 2: Comeback Complete MIN 10, TB 6: Twins Prevail Thanks to Big Error TB 2, MIN 0: Too Little, Too Late Click here to view the article

Here's the deal with Gibson ... Opponent's OPS w/2 Outs Career through the 1st half of '17: .735 2nd half of '17: .552 There are some other things going on, but his ability to finish off innings of late has been huge.

You know, that hadn't even occurred to me. My guess was they were letting Jorge either take a rip at "his pitch" if it came or seeing if Minor was going to fall behind, tipping the scales in Polanco's favor. I just re-watched that play, it's certainly possible that was Jorge bunting on his own. The only guy I could find who has the Almighty Access who bothered to even write about it was Phil Miller of the Strib, but he just noted how rare it was for a third hitter to sac bunt. Nothing on where the decision came from. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com even wrote an article all about Polanco's ninth inning heroics, but nothing on the bunt. If anybody comes across something elsewhere, please share it. Thank you.