Tom Froemming

It seems like a lot of people are interpreting "buy" as in all-out go for it mode. I don't think the team needs to shoot for the moon and sell off the farm. If they could just get a seventh inning guy better than Duffey (who has a 7.59 ERA over the last four weeks) and a fourth starter better than then guys they've been rolling out there (Twins starters not named Santana, Berrios or Mejia have a 6.68 ERA this season), that would dramatically improve this team. Does it make them favorites? Good golly no, but it gives them a great shot to catch Cleveland. One thing about the postseason is it shortens your roster. More off days means you can rely on fewer starting pitchers and fewer guys in your bullpen. You could go with a three-man rotation. Kintzler and Rogers could be available nearly every night. Last year, Cleveland made it to Game 7 of the World Series with Trevor Bauer and Josh Tomlin in their rotation. Ryan Merrit made a start for them, for cripes sakes! They were able to use Allen and Miller in 10 of their 15 postseason games. This Twins team is nowhere near as good as the 2016 Clevelanders, but I do think they deserve a shot. A seventh-inning guy and a fourth starter would give them that shot, and I don't think it would cripple the system.

I voted sell in the poll, based on logic. This Twins team wasn't built to win. It would make sense to squeeze some value out of the veterans by selling them off to further build for the future. Compare the Twins roster objectively to the other teams in the race and you find some serious deficiencies. BUT Baseball doesn't make sense. It's frequently completely illogical. There's only 68 games left and the Twins are only a half game out. There are a lot of teams that were built to win this season that would kill to be in their spot. If the Twins can win the division, the only thing standing between them and World Series glory is needing to win 3 of 5, 4 of 7 and 4 of 7 again. We all know this, we know how the postseason works. But when I really take a step back and look at it I think "man, any team can beat any team 3 of 5 or 4 of 7." So I'm changing my vote to buy, just so long it doesn't mean completely draining the system. We'll just have to trust that the front office can correctly value our prospects better than the teams were trading them to.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the kind words (and assistance) That's as high a compliment as you could give me. I really appreciate the fact that everybody who built this thing up to where it is today has allowed me to take the ball and run with it as much as they have. It's really an honor for me just to be on here, so I'm really happy people are finding value in the content I'm adding. It hasn't been long, but so far so good. I don't honestly know if I could've kept something like this up last season, but how fun is this? You guys ... it's July 19th and the Twins are a half game out of first place!!! I spend plenty of time poo-pooing the roster and picking at the Twins flaws, but we're 94 games into this thing and the team is right there. This is awesome.

I'm fresh outta bells and whistles, would you settle for a kazoo and a wind chime? FYI, I also just added a really fun postgame interview with Zack Granite, via FSN North's YouTube page.

It's up now. Let's just say this was a road game for me, so I didn't have all my usual tools at my disposal.

The Twins picked up their first series win over the Yankees since 2013, as Jose Berrios pitched into the seventh inning and Miguel Sano delivered a big two-out, three-run home run. The victory also put Minnesota just a game behind Cleveland (at least for the time being) in the AL Central standings. Al together now! And we can build this thing together …Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx719.png The bats finally broke out and had a big inning, tallying six runs in the second frame. What's even more impressive is all six runs were scored with two outs. Zack Granite delivered a two-run single, Eduardo Escobar followed with an RBI base knock and Sano capped things off with a three-run homer. Yankee starter Jordan Montgomery got ahead of Sano 0-2, but he hung him a juicy curveball. Bartolo Colon's presence seems to have ignited some interest from certain parts of the fan base, but um, this Sano guy is worth the price of admission on his own. Maybe he doesn't have the freak show appeal since he's only 24 instead of 44, I don't know. The Twins also had a pretty exciting player on the mound, as well. Berrios, who's only 23 himself, cruised through six shutout innings. The Yankees finally got a run off him with two down in the seventh. His final line: 6.2 IP, six hits (all singles), one earned run, two walks, five strikeouts and two hit batsmen. Jose tried a season high with 108 pitches (65 of which were strikes). Tyler Duffey got the last out of the seventh inning with a strikeout, Taylor Rogers pitched a scoreless eighth (ho-hum) and Trevor Hildenberger finished it off with a clean ninth. There was some more curious lineup construction from Paul Molitor in this one. Jorge Polanco was the DH and went 0-for-3 and left three men on base. He's now 1-for-27 over his last nine games. Robbie Grossman started in left field and made an error. I guess things are always going to be a bit dodgy when you've got a 13-man pitching staff. At the end of the day, it was a big series win by the Twins over the Yankees. Good vibes all around. Postgame With Granite This is fun. After delivering his first two RBI as a big leaguer, Granite got a nice ice water shower via Brandon Kintzler. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen719.png Thursday Off The Twins get to ease back into things in the second half, as Thursday will be the first of three days off between now and the end of the month. They'll host the Tigers for three games over the weekend. Click here to view the article

BUST ......................

The Twins have been searching for answers in the rotation all year. From bringing in Ryan Vogelsong for spring training, to giving looks to guys out of the indy leagues and waiver wire claims, the front office has tried to be creative. Bartolo Colon? Why the heck not. There was plenty of intrigue surrounding Colon’s Twins debut, but at the end of the day he looked pretty much exactly like you'd expect from any pitcher who recently got released.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx718.png Download attachment: TopPlays718.png To be fair, Colon actually looked great through the first three innings, shutting out the Yankees. He gave up just a couple singles and struck out Aaron Judge, Matt Holliday and Gary Sanchez. Big Sexy ran into a little trouble in the fourth, giving up a run, before coming a bit more undone in the fifth. Colon gave up a single and a pair of doubles to open the fifth frame before being removed. The scored was tied 3-3 upon his departure, but Ryan Pressly allowed an inherited runner to score. Bartolo’s line at the end of the day: 4.0 innings, eight hits, four earned runs, no walks, three strikeouts. He got released by the Braves for registering an 8.13 ERA and 1.78 WHIP. He has a 9.00 ERA and 2.00 WHIP with the Twins, but I’m sure he’ll get another start. Which is fine, the Twins have tried just about everything else outside of promoting Fernando Romero or Stephen Gonsalves, so why the heck not I guess? Bartolo did his thing, throwing almost exclusively fastballs that mostly failed to even flirt with 90 mph. You wouldn't expect him to change at this point, right? Info below via Baseball Savant: Download attachment: ColonGraph1.png Miguel Sano smashed a frozen rope for a homer, his 22nd, and also hit a double. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen718.png Wednesday Twins (Jose Berrios, RHP) vs. Yankees (Jordan Montgomery, LHP), 12:10 pm CT Montgomery has been tough on lefties this year, holding same-sided batters to a .171/.244/.415 (.659 OPS) line. He’s getting his first taste of the majors this year, and has fared quite well, posting a 3.78 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 8.5 K/9. July has been a tough month so far, as he has a 5.27 ERA over three starts, two of which he failed to complete five innings. Of course, Berrios seems to have hit a speed bump of his own of late. He has a 6.63 ERA over his last four starts, giving up a .943 OPS to opposing hitters. He lasted just 1.2 innings and gave up seven runs (two earned) to the Astros last time out. Jose has been much better at Target Field (2.86 ERA, 0.87 WHIP) than on the road (4.46 ERA, 1.41 WHIP), so lets hope some home cooking does him good. Click here to view the article

Max ranks third among right fielders in both defensive runs above average and UZR/150, trailing only Mookie Betts and Yasiel Puig. That zone profile is pretty impressive. Nice to have some hot spots both up and down in the zone, inside and outside too.

Pinch hitter Eduardo Escobar delivered a go-ahead single in the bottom of the eighth that would end up as the game winner, Adalberto Mejia was rock solid yet again and the backend of the bullpen locked it down for a Twins victory. Over the Yankees!Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx717.png Download attachment: TopPlays717.png With the game tied at two in the bottom of the eighth inning, Joe Mauer hit a leadoff single and Miguel Sano followed with a single of his own. Max Kepler came up next and struck out to end a strange at-bat. Max showed bunt on the first pitch, which he took for a ball. He then swung through the second pitch. He missed on another bunt attempt for strike two. Enough of that nonsense right? Nope, he was showing bunt again on the next pitch despite having two strikes. He pulled back to take ball three before striking out swinging on a foul tip. Kennys Vargas was due up next, but instead Paul Molitor turned to lefty killer Eduardo Escobar (.902 OPS vs. LHP entering tonight) to face southpaw Caleb Smith, who was making his major league debut. Escobar lined a single to left that scored Mauer from second. That was followed by an Eddie Rosario double that plated Sano. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen717.png Tuesday Twins (Bartolo Colon, RHP) vs. Yankees (Luis Cessa, RHP), 7:10 pm CT Cessa, 25, will be making his fourth start for the Yankees this season. Over 94 innings in the big leagues the past two seasons, he has a 4.31 ERA and 1.17 WHIP, but he’s also surrendered 19 homers (1.8 HR/9). Well, it’s happening. Bartolo Colon is going to start for the Twins, which will become the 10th team he’s played for. Big Sexy was released from the Braves after he had an 8.14 ERA over 13 starts. He also struggled in his only appearance in Rochester, giving up four runs over 3.2 innings. Click here to view the article

Turn Aoki's two-run double into an out. Whether it was a poor jump by Rosario, poor positioning from the coaching staff or a little bit of both, that ball needs to be an out. The hit probability on a ball like that is only 35 percent, per Baseball Savant. After the inning was extended, Gibson walked a guy after what should've been the third out. Also, Marisnick had no business coming around to score in the seventh. He scored from second base on a ground out to third. So that minuses out a hit, a walk and three runs from Gibson's line. Leaves him with this: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. Pretty great performance against by far and away the best offense in baseball.

RHP Bryan Mitchell will be starting for the Yankees today. He has 5.06 ERA over 12 games with the Yankees this year, all of them out of the bullpen.

I agree with this. I'm not a doctor, I have no evidence that suggests it is risky to let Romero continue to pitch, but the longer he's throwing the more and more nervous I get. The team is clearly concerned about overusing him, limiting his pitches/innings, so why continue to push it? I have already reached out to the Empire to see if I can borrow that thing they froze Han Solo in. Gonna ship it Chattanooga. We'll melt Romero out of the carbonite around spring training.

The Twins lost a tough game at Houston, but there were plenty of bright spots across the minor league system on Sunday. Fernando Romero delivered another strong, albeit brief start and Brent Rooker hit his seventh homer. Plus, the Kernels finally busted out of their hitting slump, scoring eight runs in a victory. Oh, and how could I forget, it was Sean and Poppen (h/t Jeremy Nygaard) in Fort Myers once again.Find out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Sunday. RED WINGS REPORT Lehigh Valley 4, Rochester 3 Box Score J.R Murphy hit a solo homer, but the Red Wings could muster only three other hits and Tim Melville had his worst start for Rochester. Over 4.1 innings, Melville gave up four earned runs on seven hits. All that’s a shame, too, because the bullpen was phenomenal. Craig Breslow retired both batters he faced, one on strikes. Mason Melotakis gave up a hit over his 0.2 shutout innings. Alan Busenitz was particularly impressive, striking out four of the five men he faced. John Curtiss finished things off with a perfect inning with two strikeouts. The Wings were rallying in the eighth, as Matt Hague reached on an error with one out, and would scored on an Edgar Corcino double. ByungHo Park drew a walk, but the Iron Pigs were able to turn two on a Tommy Field grounder to third to end the threat. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 5, Jacksonville 2 Box Score Fernando Romero held the Jumbo Shrimp to two runs over his five innings of work, striking out six in the process. Romero threw 82 pitches, 54 for strikes. It was the third-straight start in which Romero pitched exactly five innings despite not eclipsing even 90 pitches. It would appear he’ll be on a pretty strict innings limit for the rest of the season. The Lookouts were trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the second, but a big two-out rally led to Chattanooga tallying three runs in the inning. Travis Harrison had the big hit of that frame, a two-run double. Nick Gordon had a nice night at the plate, going 2-for-5 with an RBI and a stolen base, but he also made his 19th error of the season. Jonathan Rodriguez and Max Murphy also had two hits each. Ryan Eades followed Romero with three shutout innings and Paul Clemens pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 6, St. Lucie 3 Box Score The Miracle improved to 17-5 in the second half behind another great start from Sean Poppen, who lowered his ERA with Fort Myers to 0.55. Poppen held the Mets to one run over 6.1 innings and racked up five strikeouts while walking just one batter. Zander Wiel hit a two-run homer, his eighth of the season, and the following players got two hits a piece: Sean Miller, Mitchell Kranson and Jaylin Davis. Kranson has had a nice first 20 games since being called up from Cedar Rapids, hitting .304/.360/.430 (.791 OPS). Tom Hackimer, who has a 0.96 ERA of his own, got the last two outs of the seventh. Alex Robinson gave up two runs over the final two innings, striking out three in the process. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 8, South Bend 4 Box Score The Kernels snapped a season-high five-game losing streak with a much-needed offensive explosion. Cedar Rapids had scored just four runs total in their previous six games, but they managed to tally two runs before even recording an out in this one. Aaron Whitefield led off the game with a walk and stole his 20th base of the season. Joe Cronin followed with a walk and Travis Blankenhorn delivered a two-run triple. Lewin Diaz plated Blankenhorn on a groundout. Diaz was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Amaurys Minier hit a three-run homer in the third inning, his second of the year with the Kernels Anthony Marzi had a three-run lead before even taking the mound. He improved to 3-0 on the season by holding the Cubs to two runs over six innings. Marzi, who the Twins signed out of the Atlantic League, now has a 1.37 ERA and 0.71 WHIP over his first three appearances in the organization. E-TWINS E-NOTES Greenville 8, Elizabethton 4 Box Score Brent Rooker hit his seventh home run of the season in just his 21st game played, but it was one of only four hits on the day for the Twins. Shortstop Jordan Gore delivered the other big knock, a three-run double. Edwar Colina gave up three runs over 4.1 innings, Rickey Ramirez was rocked for four runs in his 1.2 innings and Jared Finkel gave up a run over two innings. This was a big game in the landscape of the Appalachian League, as the loss dropped E-Town to a half-game back of Greenville in the West division. GCL TWINS TAKES Scheduled off day. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Sean Poppen, Fort Myers (6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Amaurys Minier, Cedar Rapids (1-for-4, HR, BB, 3 RBI, 1 R). MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Charlotte, 4:05 pm CT, David Hurlbut (3.44 ERA, 1.40 WHIP) Rochester “at” Charlotte (in Rochester), Game 2, Aaron Slegers (3.75 ERA, 1.36 WHIP) Chattanooga vs. Jacksonville, 10:15 am CT, Felix Jorge (3.14 ERA, 1.30 WHIP) Fort Myers vs. St. Lucie, 10:05 am CT, TBD Cedar Rapids at South Bend, 12:05 pm CT, Eduardo Del Rosario (4.48 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) Elizabethton at Greenville, 6:00 pm CT, Huascar Ynoa (5.06 ERA, 1.81 WHIP) GCL Twins vs. GCL Rays, 11:00 am CT, TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Sunday's games. Click here to view the article

Kyle Gibson against the Houston Astros looked like a nightmare matchup for the Twins on paper, but against all odds Gibby delivered what was honestly a pretty solid start. The Twins also slugged a pair of homers off Houston starter Mike Fiers, but a series of suboptimal defensive plays cost the Twins dearly in this one.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx716.png Download attachment: TopPlays716.png Gibson’s line of six innings pitched and four earned runs doesn’t look very impressive, but the biggest hit he gave up was on a ball that Byron Buxton catches in his sleep. With Buxton on the DL and Zack Granite on the bench, it was Eddie Rosario manning center field. It’s not like Eddie made an error, and to be fair he’s accustomed to judging balls off the bat in left field, but he did not take the best route to the ball on Nori Aoki’s big two-run double. The fastest way from Point A to Point B is a straight line, right? Well, Rosario’s first few steps were more straight toward right field than back to toward the wall, costing him an opportunity to possibly make the catch. Adrianza’s homer was his first as a Twin, and he was the only guy on the team with a multi-hit game. Mike Fiers racked up 11 strikeouts without issuing a single walk. The Twins managed to scratch across a run in the ninth of closer Ken Giles, but the comeback attempt fell short. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen716.png Monday Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Yankees (TBA), 7:10 pm CT The Yankees had a doubleheader Sunday in Boston, so this may be a good time to catch the Bronx Bombers. Those games were started by CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka. Luis Severino pitched Saturday. In five starts since getting destroyed by Seattle, Mejia has a 2.79 ERA over 29 innings. He’s pitched into the sixth inning three-straight starts. The big lefty has struggled at Target Field this season, posting a 5.62 home ERA vs. 2.31 on the road. Click here to view the article

His main issue has been a rising hard contact rate. That number has increased from 26.6% to 33.6% to 41.9% over the past three seasons. That is the sixth-worst hard contact rate among all relievers this year (Pressly is second at 45.6 and Breslow is fourth at 42.6, yay Twins!!!). Duffey's fastball averages 91 mph, so it's not like he's going to overpower hitters. His K:BB ratio is solid, 3.50, so it's all about contact management. He actually has had reverse platoon splits the last two years, which is really weird for a guy known for a great curve and a subpar changeup. For his career, RHB have an .899 OPS off him compared to just .694 for LHB. Looking at his zone profiles over at Brooks Baseball, it looks like RHBs are killing him anytime he pitches inside. My guess is that batters are just laying off most anything that looks like it's going to the outer half, basically eliminating that curve ball, and sitting on a fastballs on the inner half. Long story short: He's gotta find a better way to keep hitters off balance. This was really strange. My initial reaction was that somebody -- Castro or maybe Santana -- should've been shouting to Mauer to let the throw come through, but the play was basically right in front of him. He should have been able to tell there was going to be a close play. My guess is Mauer just lost awareness of where he was in the field and was under the impression he was closer to the mound. I think the runner would've been out, but thank goodness at the end of the day it didn't matter. That's most likely his end role, but it's pretty difficult to make a definitive judgement on a guy after 15 plate appearances, especially his first 15 PAs as a big leaguer. The five walks definitely stand out, but Ervin has pitched to a 3.08 ERA over his last four starts (26.1 IP). Again, I wouldn't put too much stock into Granite's first 15 plate appearances. While there have been plenty of complaints about his lack of good contact, at least he's putting the ball in play. He has yet to strikeout.

The Twins managed to pull out a win at Houston despite Ervin Santana not being at his sharpest. Brian Dozier hit another leadoff homer, but Eddie Rosario had the big hit of the night, getting a two-run double on a batted ball that would result in an out 86% of the time. Taylor Rogers got his league-leading 22nd hold to set up for Brandon Kintzler, who recorded his 25th save.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx715.png Download attachment: TopPlays715.png Rogers has quietly established himself as one of the best setup men in all of baseball, and he came up huge tonight for the Twins. Tyler Duffey was called upon to handle the seventh inning. He retired the first two batters he faced, but eventually loaded the bases. Just when it was starting to feel like another bullpen implosion, Paul Molitor turned to Rogers, who escaped the jam by getting right-handed hitter Yuli Gurriel to ground out to Dozier. Rogers staying in for the eighth and set the Astros down in order. Brian Dozier slugged a home run on the very first pitch of this game, hitting a leadoff homer for the second-straight night. If the first two games are any indication, we could see Dozier have another special second half. Santana walked five batters, but he limited the damage to two runs over his six innings of work. Combined with his Memorial Day start, Ervin has now surrendered just three earned runs over 13 innings pitched against the deadly Astros lineup this season. Houston left the bases loaded in the second, fourth and seventh innings. Santana got a lot of help from his defense as Joe Mauer made a couple of nice plays in his first game back from the DL and Miguel Sano made an outstanding, run-saving catch in the fourth inning. Postgame With Dozier Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen715.png Sunday Twins (Kyle Gibson) at Houston (Mike Fiers), 1:10 pm CT Fiers is on a nice roll, registering a 2.65 ERA while holding opponents to a .636 OPS over his last 10 starts. He gave up multiple homers in five of his first seven starts of the season, since then he’s only served up three long balls in 10 starts. Dozier has a pair of homers off Fiers. In 10 starts since being called back up from Rochester, Gibson has a 5.40 ERA, has given up 10 homers and has 35 strikeouts against 25 walks. It’s only a sample of 63 plate appearances, but current Houston hitters have combined to hit just .179/.254/.286 (.540 OPS) off Gibson. Click here to view the article

FYI, just updated this to include video of the Polanco error.

The 2016 version of Jose Berrios showed up, unfortunately, as the Twins were once again handed a lopsided loss at the hands of Houston. Brian Dozier got things started off great, clubbing a lead-off homer, but the Astros eventually built a 10-1 lead and cruised to victory.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx715.png Download attachment: TopPlays715.png If Twins fans were a little shell shocked heading into a series at Houston, you couldn't blame them. Not only are the Astros the best team in baseball, but they also destroyed the Twins in a sweep at Target Field earlier this year. Welp, things didn’t go much better at Houston. Berrios lasted just 1.2 innings, giving up seven runs, though only two were earned. Jorge Polanco made an error with one out in the second inning, which ended up being an eight-run frame for the Astros. Dozier had an excellent game, going 2-for-5 with four RBI, but he was one of very few bright spots for the Twins. Zack Granite got his first MLB hit, a double, and drew a walk. Phil Hughes gave up three runs over 1.1 innings, but the rest of the bullpen was solid. Ryan Pressly (1.0 IP), Buddy Boshers (1.2 IP), Trevor Hildenberger (1.1 IP) and Matt Belisle (1.0 IP) combined for five scoreless innings. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen715.png Saturday Twins (Ervin Santana) at Houston (Joe Musgrove), 6:10 pm CT Musgrove has been scuffling of late, giving up 18 runs over his last 15 innings pitched. His changeup, which he throws about 12 percent of the time, has been getting crushed of late. Opponents are slugging over 1.000 on that pitch since the start of June per Brooks Baseball. Ervin ended the first half on a high note, throwing a complete game in a 2-1 loss to the Angels. Santana pitched well against the Astros on Memorial Day, holding them to two runs (one earned) over 7.0 innings. The bullpen blew that game in spectacular fashion, giving up 14 runs over the final two frames. Carlos Correa is 5-for-7 with a home run and a double off Ervin over his career. Click here to view the article