Tom Froemming

If that's the case, expect the Twins to sign Pablo Sandoval, who was DFA'd this morning.

In regards to Gonsalves' options, I'm really not too concerned. You don't wanna go around burning up option years all willy-nilly, but it's difficult for me to see a scenario in which down the road we're bummed we can't send Gonsalves back down another time. If his option years are used this year, next year and in 2019, I think everything would be ok. Then again, he'll still only be 25 on opening day 2020, so who knows. If they want to be cautious/conservative, I can't blame them for that, but it's not the route I'd go.

Season totals between Cedar Rapids (22.1 IP) and Fort Myers (16.2 IP): 0.92 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 14.3 K/9. That K/9 is tied for eighth-best in all of minor league baseball right now. Oh by the way, Luke Bard also is at 14.3 K/9 on the season. And, not that any concrete conclusions can be made off 39 innings, but Vasquez actually has reverse platoon splits. But really, nobody is hitting him (.451 OPS for RHB, .467 OPS for LHB). In 154 plate appearances against the 6-6 lefty, opponents have just two extra-base hits, both doubles.

Bartolo Colon Day was delayed almost two hours and the 44-year-old was not exactly sharp once Rochester’s game got underway. But Stephen Gonsalves, who Colon may be competing with for a rotation spot, had nine strikeouts and no walks in his five-inning start. Chattanooga put together a rally in the bottom of the ninth to walk it off, 18-year-old Wander Javier hit a milestone homer, Tanner English helped lead the Miracle to a doubleheader sweep and there was a bit of a dustup down in the GCLFind out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Thursday. RED WINGS REPORT Lehigh Valley 6, Rochester 1 Box Score Bartolo Colon, making his first minor league appearance since 2009, had a bit of a rough first inning. He labored, throwing 23 pitches, and gave up a run on a couple of doubles. To be fair, one double was on a ball Mitch Garver, playing left field for just the 11th time, should’ve caught. He had the range to get to the fly ball, but alligator armed the catch attempt. It appeared he may have been bracing himself for a potential impact with the wall. Colon pitched a 1-2-3 second inning before giving up a solo homer to J.P. Crawford in the third. He then walked the first batter he faced, Dylan Cozens, in the fourth inning. A couple more defensive mistakes allowed Cozens to advance to third. Colon was credited with an error on a pickoff attempt, though I’m sure first baseman Matt Hague would admit he should have caught that ball. Also, J.R. Murphy had a passed ball. Colon then walked old friend Pedro Florimon (who nearly hit a homer off him earlier) and then gave up a two-run double. Ending on a high note, Big Sexy struck out the final two batters he faced before reaching his pitch count limit. Colon’s final line on the evening: 3.2 innings, four hits, four runs, two walks, five strikeouts. He threw 76 pitches, 50 for strikes. It was his first outing since June 28 and the game was delayed almost two hours, so you could understand if he was a bit rusty and/or thrown off his regular routine. But still, he did give up a lot of hard contact. D.J. Baxendale and Alan Busenitz each pitched 1.2 perfect innings with two strikeouts. John Curtiss gave up two runs in the ninth, the first runs he’s surrendered with the Red Wings. Garver was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Tommy Field hit a double, drew a walk and drove in the Wings’ only run of the game. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 5, Jacksonville 4 Box Score The Lookouts entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by a run. LaMonte Wade led off the inning with a single. After Jonathan Rodriguez struck out, Max Murphy drew a walk and T.J. White hit a game-tying double that scored Wade. After Travis Harrison was walked to load the bases, Alex Perez hit a ground ball to first base that managed to score Murphy from third to walk it off. Stephen Gonsalves struck out nine batters over five innings, giving up three runs (just one earned) on six hits. He didn’t walk a batter for the third time in 11 starts this season. Randy LeBlanc kept his team in the game, giving up an unearned run over three innings. Paul Clemens pitched a perfect ninth. The Lookouts are now 58-33 (.637). MIRACLE MATTERS Game 1: Fort Myers 4, Charlotte 3 (7 innings) Box Score The red-hot Miracle were trailing 3-1 heading into the sixth inning, but they rallied back to win it, picking up their seventh straight victory. Tanner English started that comeback rally with a single and Mitchell Kranson delivered the big blow, a two-run double. Lewis Thorpe struggled, giving up three runs on six hits over four innings. He walked three batters and had three strikeouts. Alex Robinson pitched a perfect fifth and stuck out the side in his FSL debut. Per the team’s Twitter account, he hit 98 mph. Keaton Steele pitched a scoreless sixth before Sam Clay came in and locked down his sixth save. Brandon Lopez was 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and a run. Along with his big lead off hit in the sixth, English also drew two walks and stole a base. Game 2: Fort Myers 5, Charlote 3 (7 innings) Box Score Have yourself a day, Tanner English! This time the 2014 11th-round pick finished off a big inning, hitting a two-run triple to cap a big fourth inning. The Miracle scored all their runs in that frame, as Jaylin Davis also hit a two-run triple and Sean Miller had an RBI single. English also led off the game with a single and stole another base, giving him 15 steals with Fort Myers. He also swiped six bags during his time in Chattanooga, and is 21-for-24 in stolen base attempts this year. Brady Anderson went five innings, giving up three runs on six hits. He had a pair of strikeouts without giving up a walk. Andrew Vasquez pitched the final two innings, striking out five batters. The big lefty has now thrown 16.2 scoreless innings for the Miracle and has 29 strikeouts against just three walks. Make that eight straight wins for the Miracle. KERNELS NUGGETS West Michigan 3, Cedar Rapids 2 (10 innings) Box Score Gorge Munoz led off the sixth inning with a home run. The Kernels manufactured their second run of the inning without the luxury of a hit. Aaron Whitefield walked, advanced to third on an error and scored on a Lewin Diaz sac fly. Munoz made a pivotal error at shortstop in the bottom of the tenth, which was followed by a walk-off double. Evan Sanders made his second start for Cedar Rapids, holding the Whitecaps to one run over 4.2 innings. Tyler Beardsley surrendered another run over his three innings of work. Hector Lujan suffered the loss. He gave up three hits and struck out two over 1.2 innings. The Kernels were outhit 12-3. Trey Cabbage hit a double and Ben Rortvedt singled. E-TWINS E-NOTES Burlington 5, Elizabethton 4 Box Score Wander Javier hit his first home run in the United States, a two-run shot that came with two outs in the ninth inning. Andrew Bechtold, a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft, was 2-for-2 with two walks and an RBI. This year’s ninth-rounder, Mark Contreras, was 2-for-4 with a double and scored a couple of runs. Melvi Acosta gave up five runs over 4.1 innings, but his bullpen was outstanding. Jovani Moran threw 2.2 scoreless innings, giving the 2015 seventh rounder 11.1 shutout innings this season. Jared Finkel pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Orioles 9, GCL Twins 5 Box Score Left fielder Roni Tapia was the standout hitter for the Twins, going 2-for-4 with a couple of doubles, three RBI and a run scored. Second baseman Emmanuel Morel also had a pair of hits before he was ejected in the ninth inning after being hit by a pitch. There were a total of eight hit batsmen and a couple of ejections in this one. The benches cleared at one point. Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press was in attendance, and shared some of the aftermath on his YouTube channel. Mike also shared some video from a chat with GCL manager Ramon Borrego and Royce Lewis yesterday. Pedro Garcia started and gave up four runs on six hits over 4.2 innings pitched. He got three strikeouts, and while he didn’t walk a batter, he did hit two, threw two wild pitches and was called for a balk. Juan Mojica surrendered five runs in his 2.1 innings (he hit two guys and threw two wild pitches, as well). Jose Bermudez held the Orioles scoreless over the final two innings, but he also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Stephen Gonsalves, Chattanooga (5 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 R, 0 BB, 9 K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Tanner English, Fort Myers (3-for-6, triple, 2 BB, 2 RBI, 2 R, 2 SB) FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester at Lehigh Valley, 6:05 pm CT, Justin Haley (3.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) Chattanooga vs. Jacksonville, 6:15 pm CT, Kohl Stewart (3.73 ERA, 1.51 WHIP) Fort Myers at Charlotte, 5:35 pm CT, David Fischer (3.72 ERA, 1.40 WHIP) Cedar Rapids at West Michigan, 6:00 pm CT, Clark Beeker (2.71 ERA, 1.01 WHIP) Elizabethton at Burlington, 6:00 pm CT, Charlie Barnes (2.53 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) GCL Twins vs. GCL Red Sox, 11:00 am CT, TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Thursday's games. Click here to view the article

Love this! Dying to see Garver on the Twins. I think he can co-exist with Castro and Gimenez on the same roster, assuming they carry a four-man bench. Have any thoughts on David Hurlbut? His numbers a very similar to Slegers'.

The thing to keep in mind about Jose Quintana is these are his future salaries: 18: $8.85M 19: $10.5M 20: $11.5M A pitcher of his caliber at those prices is an incredible deal. Archer is also on a team-friendly deal. He's only owed $34M over the next four seasons. Stroman and Gray will be going through arbitration, so they have less cost certainty, though they'll probably still be relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things. Why would any of these teams trade these guys unless they were absolutely blown away? The White Sox should be shooting for the moon. What motivation do they have to get rid of Quintana?

Boy, I didn't know there would be so much debate over when it's appropriate to use the phrase "not too shabby." Dictionary.com gives the definition as quite good or highly acceptable. The league average OPS is .750, so I'd say .788 is not too shabby (especially for a 24-year-old), right?

Thank you! Fixed.

Kyle Gibson got clobbered for seven runs, posting his shortest start since returning from Rochester. The Twins will limp into the All-Star break having suffered two-straight losses, but what a first half it has been as a whole. The Twins are 45-43, just three games out of first place in the AL Central. Who saw that coming?Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx79.png Download attachment: TopPlays79.png Gibson gave up seven runs over just four innings. The Orioles got nine hits off him, drew two walks and struck out only once. We’ll get to more on him, but first you gotta see this catch Zack Granite made in his first Major League start: Gibby had an 8.20 ERA when he was sent to Rochester earlier this season. Upon his recall, he’s pitched much better, but still just barely good enough to hang on to a rotation spot. In his nine starts between returning from Rochester and today, Gibson had a 4.59 ERA and opponents were hitting .290/.362/.500 (.862 OPS) off him. It seems likely the Twins would rather not have to count on him every fifth day, but even with the addition of Bartolo Colon there aren’t tons of other options. Max Kepler had a double, a triple and drove in a run. He’ll coast into the break with a .266 average and .788 OPS. Not too shabby. Robbie Grossman also had a pair of hits and Kennys Vargas hit a double. Those were the only five hits the Twins got on the afternoon. The team managed to put up a four-spot in the second inning thanks in large part to Ubaldo Jimenez struggling to find the strike zone. He hit a batter and walked three more, including issuing a free pass to Brian Dozier with the bases loaded. Grossman singled, Kepler hit his double and all the sudden the Twins went from down 5-0 to trailing by just a run. It felt like another game in which the Twins were going to rally back against Baltimore, but a big four-run fifth inning from the Orioles put things back out of reach. Tyler Duffey surrendered two runs out of the bullpen. After getting off to a great start, Duffey has really struggled heading into the break. Over his last nine appearances, the Duff Man has given up 12 earned runs over 10.1 innings (10.45 ERA). Ryan Pressly threw two perfect innings with a couple of strikeouts. Trevor Hildenberger gave up the first two runs of his big league career and Phil Hughes pitched a perfect inning and picked up a couple of K's. Monday The Twins are off for the next four days for the All-Star break (hence the lack of the bullpen usage info today). I don't think there's any way to put a negative spin on the first half, as any Twins fan would've happily taken this before the season started, but it's worth noting that the team's run differential dropped to -60 after today's loss. With the July 31 trade deadline looming, it will be fascinating to see how Derek Falvey and Thad Levine approach their first deadline with the Twins. I’ve only been doing these recaps for a little over a month, but the positive response has been overwhelming. Thanks to Seth for letting me take a crack at these, and for filling in a few times. And, of course, thanks to all of you for reading and commenting. The funnest part about doing these has been knowing that when I finish my article, that’s just the beginning of the conversation. As always, if you have any reflections from this game -- or even the entire first half of the season -- please share them in the comments. Click here to view the article

Miguel Sano is a 24-year-old hitting .279/.372/.545 and is on pace to slug 39 homers this year. Tough to get too bent outta shape about a guy like that, but I do share some of the concerns of others. I don't care so much about the strikeouts as I do about how they're happening. If he was being overly selective, waiting for pitches to clobber, that would be one thing. But instead, he's swinging through a lot of pitches. His contact rate is just 63.2 percent, which is the third-worst in baseball. I'd be willing to bet that number improves drastically as he gets more and more experience. It's easy to forget how young and relatively inexperienced he is. Sano is actually younger than Zack Granite, and he was really zipped through the minors.

The Twins got an early lead thanks to Miguel Sano’s 21st home run of the season, but were unable to add anything else on the rest of the contest. Not that there weren’t opportunities, the team left 11 men on base. Adalberto Mejia went 6.2 innings but gave up four runs, including two on one of the most depressingly impressive homers you’ll ever see.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx78.png Download attachment: TopPlays78.png The Twins were 15-5 in games in which Sano homers coming into today and Baltimore starter Wade Miley had really been scuffling, posting a 11.69 ERA in his previous six starts. It felt like only a matter of time before the offense broke through, but it never happened. Miley gave up eight hits and walked three batters over his 5.2 innings of work, but all the Twins had to show for it was the lone run. That’s bad news, as Baltimore has a formidable back end of its bullpen. Sure enough, the Twins managed just one hit, struck out seven times and couldn’t draw a single walk over 3.1 innings against the O’s pen. Sano was 2-for-4 with that blast (see below) and a walk, but he also struck out two more times. He was already leading all of baseball in Ks, of which he now has 120 this season. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen78.png Sunday Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Baltimore (Ubaldo Jimenez), 1:10 pm CT Jimenez got bounced to the bullpen earlier this season, but has made four starts since returning to the rotation. Over that stretch he has a 6.45 ERA. Lefties are killing Jimenez this season, hitting .280/.373/.674 (1.047 OPS). He’s given up 19 homers this year, 14 to left-handed hitters. But, for whatever reason, Ubaldo has been really tough on the Twins over his career. In 69 career innings, Jimenez has a 3.13 ERA vs. Minnesota. His numbers at Target Field are even more impressive: 1.81 ERA, 1.23 WHIP over seven starts. Gibson’s season got off to a nightmare start, but he’ll have the opportunity to end the first half on a high note. Over his last four starts, Gibson has a 3.52 ERA. It hasn’t been pretty, but the Twins are 8-7 in games started by Gibby this season Click here to view the article

We should know better by now than to count out this Twins team. Felix Jorge gave up homers to the first two batters he faced and Baltimore built a 6-0 lead. But despite not having the luxury of hitting a home run themselves, the Twins rallied back to score nine unanswered runs to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. Heck, they may have even pulled this one all the way back out from the belly of defeat.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx77.png Download attachment: TopPlays77.png Trailing by six runs with just a few days to go until the All-Star break, you could understand if maybe the Twins were going to ease up the rest of the night. Instead, they put together maybe their finest inning of the entire season. The fourth frame opened up with Miguel Sano making a diving stop to his left and firing to first for the out. Trevor Hildenberger, who earned his first major league victory tonight, retired the next two batters on strikeouts. In the bottom of that inning, the Twins strung together four-straight singles followed by a Chris Gimenez hit by pitch with the bases loaded. What was remarkable about the inning was how the team grinded out at-bats. When they were down by six runs. In early July. Robbie Grossman, Sano, Kennys Vargas, Eddie Rosario and Chris Gimenez all worked a full count in that inning. Vargas and Rosario each had eight-pitch at bats. But even with all that work, at the end of the inning the Orioles were still leading 6-2. Manny Machado led off the top of the fifth with a single, but Hildenberger induced a 5-4-3 double play. Jorge Polanco made a fielding error on the next batter, but Hildy managed to get him a second chance and Polanco responded by cleanly fielding a Mark Trumbo grounder and throwing to first for the third out. The fourth inning may have been their finest, but the fifth was the most fun. Brian Dozier hit a leadoff triple, Grossman doubled, Sano reached on an error and Kepler singled. Then Vargas, who was just called back up to replace an injured Joe Mauer, delivered a game-tying double. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen77.png Saturday Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Baltimore (Wade Miley), 1:10 pm CT Miley got rocked in his last start, as the Brewers lit him up for seven runs over 1.2 innings. Over his last six starts, Miley has an 11.69 ERA and hitters have compiled a .387/.468/.604 line (1.072 OPS). Over his last four starts, Mejia has a 2.01 ERA, but his WHIP is 1.39. He’s struggled to keep leadoff hitters off the bases this season, giving up a .443 OBP to the first batter of each inning. But he’s also been excellent at finishing off innings, as opponents have just a .552 OPS with two outs. He’s also been great with runners on, limiting opposing hitters to a .176/.258/.241 line (.499 OPS) with men on and a .173/.270/.231 line (.501 OPS) with runners in scoring position. Click here to view the article

Now that the short-season leagues have been underway for a little while we’re starting to see some new names emerge. One of those has been Jovani Moran, who struck out six-straight batters over two perfect innings Friday. And while Hunter Greene was finally signing with the Reds, Royce Lewis was busy hitting a couple of doubles in what was already his ninth professional game. Oh, and there were some significant transactions, too.Find out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Friday. TRANSACTIONS Joe Mauer was placed on the DL with an ailing back, leading to Kennys Vargas being called back up from Rochester. Surprisingly, that was the least interesting of the team’s three big transactions on the night. During the Twins game it was announced the team has signed 44-year-old Bartolo Colon to a minor league deal. He’s on his way to Rochester. Last, but certainly not least, was the huge news that Zack Granite was being called up to make his major league debut. With the All-Star break upcoming, the Twins have no need to carry a fifth starter. So Felix Jorge, who started for the Twins Friday night, is being sent back down to Chattanooga to make room for Granite. UPDATE: Edgar Corcino is also getting a promotion up to Rochester. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 6, Tennessee 1 Box Score At this time last season, Andy Wilkins was playing with the Milwaukee Brewers. Tonight, he had a huge game for the Lookouts, hitting a three-run homer to go with a pair of doubles. Edgar Corcino has had an excellent season, earning a mid-season All-Star nod, but he hasn’t been a big source of power. Well, the Puerto Rican right fielder popped his second homer of the year, a two-run shot, and was 2-for-4, pushing his average to .299. Jonathan Rodriguez also had two hits for the Lookouts. Nick Gordon was not in the lineup for Chattanooga. Randy LeBlanc held the Smokies to one run on three hits and a walk over six innings. He struck out four batters. Randy Rosario threw two scoreless innings. At this time last season, Paul Clemens was playing with the San Diego Padres. Tonight he pitched a scoreless ninth inning of a 6-1 game for the Lookouts. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 6, Palm Beach 5 Box Score Fort Myers was leading 3-1 before Williams Ramirez gave up four runs in the top of the fifth. It appeared he may have blown the game for the Miracle … for about 10 minutes. Fort Myers stormed back with three runs in the bottom of the inning, putting them up 6-5 for good. Sean Miller and Jermaine Palacios opened the bottom of the fifth with consecutive walks, but the next two batters were retired. With two outs, Palacios stole second and Miller scored on a throwing error. Brandon Lopez plated Palacios with a double, then Kevin Garcia drove in Lopez with a single. Mitchell Kranson hit his first home run with Fort Myers, a two-run shot in the first inning. Miracle starter Brady Anderson gave up one run over four innings. Michael Theofanopoulos picked up his fourth win after tossing two scoreless innings. Alex Muren threw a scoreless eighth and Tom Hackimer registered his second save by pitching a perfect ninth with two strikeouts. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Peoria 2 Box Score Shortstop Gorge Munoz hit a two-out, two-run double in a big fourth inning for the Kernels. That gave Clark Beeker a 5-1 lead, not that he needed that kind of cushion. The Davidson product put together his seventh start in which he went at least five innings and gave up one or no runs. Beeker improved his record to 8-2 after surrendering one run over six innings. He gave up just three hits and a walk. Alex Robinson earned his second save by pitching 1.1 perfect innings with three strikeouts. Aaron Whitefield and Lewin Diaz each had two hits. Munoz also drew a walk and stole a base in this game. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 5, Johnson City 0 Box Score Charlie Barnes, the Twins fourth-round pick this year out of Clemson, was excellent. He threw five one-hit innings, striking out seven batters while issuing one walk. He was pulled after 65 pitches, 45 of which were strikes. The crazy thing is that he wasn’t even the most dominant E-Town pitcher Friday night. After Juan Gamez threw two scoreless innings, Jovani Moran came on for the Twins. Here’s how the 20-year-old Puerto Rican lefty’s two innings went: BB, K, K, K, K, K, K. Moran now has 16 strikeouts in 8.2 innings this season. Filthy. Jose Miranda drove in three runs, Mark Contreras had a pair of hits and Brent Rooker had the team’s only extra-base hit, a double. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Red Sox 10, GCL Twins 5 Box Score Hunter Green finally signed with the Reds today. Meanwhile, Royce Lewis went 2-for-4 with two doubles and a walk in what was his ninth professional game. The Twins No. 1 pick has gotten off to a great start, hitting .324/.419/.58 (.986 OPS). Akil Baddoo drew four walks (!) and scored twice. Catcher Jhon Alvarez was 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. Twins starter Petru Balan struggled, giving up four runs over 1.2 innings, and the bullpen didn't do much better, though Zach Featherstone finished things off with a scoreless inning. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Jovani Moran, Elizabethton (2 IP, 0 hits, 6 Ks) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Andy Wilkins, Chattanooga (3-for-4, HR, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, 2 runs) SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Syracuse, 6:05 pm CT, Aaron Slegers (4.08 ERA, 1.40 WHIP) Chattanooga va. Tennessee, 6:15 pm CT, TBA Fort Myers vs. Palm Beach, 5:05 pm CT, Cody Stashak (3.84 ERA, 1.12 WHIP) Cedar Rapids vs. Peoria, 6:35 pm CT, Griffin Jax (0.00 ERA, 0.57 WHIP) Elizabethton vs. Johnson City, 5:00 pm CT, Bryan Sammons (1.59 ERA, 0.88 WHIP) GCL Twins vs. GCL Red Sox, 9:00 am CT, TBA Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Friday's games. Click here to view the article

Thank you. Garver is 26 years old and Granite is 24. Having him on the bench isn't going to hurt their development. And they'd both better learn how to be bench players because that's more than likely gonna be their future roles. Also, being on the 40-man roster already, they're both burning an option year whether the Twins call them up or not. And in regard to Norris, he has crazy reverse splits this season. RHB have a .680 OPS while he's held LHB to a .408 OPS. That's probably a fluke/small sample issue, but the point is that it's not like he's death to right-handed hitters. Also, it's not like you're only able to pinch hit in the ninth. There were other situations in which it would have made sense to go to the bench late. Escobar led off the eighth against a RHP. His OPS vs. right-handers is just .662 (it's .949 vs. LHP).

Calhoun would've got in a rundown, buying Maybin enough time to score before he was tagged out.

They were needlessly playing shorthanded, carrying nine bullpen guys only five days away from the All-Star break. Why is that necessary? They didn't need to bring a starter up, but they for darn sure didn't need to bring up another reliever, either. As much as I feel like Busenitz didn't deserve to be demoted in the first place, it would've made a ton more sense to call up an extra bat for a couple days. Poor roster management.

Thanks for sharing that. Whatever play was on, if there even was one, it definitely didn't look like everybody was on the same page. This is probably the most important thing. One way or another, the Twins should have been ready for this situation to arise. They certainly did not appear to be. What do you mean? They have nine relievers on the 25-man roster right now. That's a fact. I know it doesn't really matter at this point, it's water under the bridge, but I really wish somebody would've asked Castro and/or Dozier about that play. All I can find are quotes from Molitor from the postgame interview. I've been scrounging around through all the gamers and can't find anything. If anybody else digs anything up from Castro or Dozier, please share.

Y'all are going to have to let me know what you think of that double steal. My initial reaction was that Castro shouldn't have thrown to second. Maybe you pump fake there and try to pick off Maybin at third instead. But, looking at the replay over and over, I do think Dozier could've been more aggressive to the ball and gotten the throw out quicker. Terrible way to lose a game, either way.

Ervin Santana gave up a homer to Kole Calhoun on the third pitch of the game. The rest of the night he was lights out. Ervin pitched his fourth complete game, which is more than any other entire team in baseball. Poor decision making by Jason Castro and the lack of timely hits all around cost the Twins a victory.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx75.png Download attachment: TopPlays75.png Santana was brilliant, but the most pivotal throw of the game came from Castro. With runners at the corners and two outs in the sixth inning, Calhoun took off for second base. Castro threw down to second, but when Brian Dozier saw Cameron Maybin break toward the plate, he came in to cut the ball off. Unfortunately, his return throw back to the plate was too late. Castro’s throw would have easily beat Calhoun, but he had put on the brakes and was going to try to get into a run-down in order to buy Maybin time. It was a quick calculation Dozier had to make, but basically as soon as that ball left Castro’s hand the Angels were going to have the lead one way or another. The decision to throw down to second base at all in that situation was inexcusable. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen75.png Thursday Twins (Jose Berrios, 3.44 ERA) vs. Baltimore (Dylan Bundy, 4.02 ERA), 7:10 pm CT Bundy, the No. 4 pick of the 2011 draft, got off to a great start this season but has faded of late. In six starts since the start of June, he has a 6.61 ERA and opposing hitters have tagged him to the tune of a .950 OPS. Baltimore was 15-27 on the road entering today’s games. Berrios has had some hiccups in his past two starts, giving up nine runs over 11.1 innings. In a May 24 start at Baltimore, Berrios gave up homers to J.J. Hardy (who’s currently on the DL), Chris Davis (also on the DL) and Jonathan Schoop. Jose has basically split his time between catchers, but his numbers are dramatically better with Jason Castro. In 34.1 innings with Castro, Berrios has a 2.36 ERA, .463 OPS and hasn’t give up a homer. In 31 innings with Chris Gimenez, his ERA is up to 4.65, opponents are boasting an .809 OPS and he’s surrendered eight home runs. Click here to view the article