Tom Froemming

Darn it, you're right. Trash that whole thing. Updating this now. Sorry, my brain is absolutely fried from a busy weekend. Hosted my daughter's first B-Day party Saturday and then spent hours yesterday tearing my house, garage and wife's car apart trying to find lost keys that ended up being in her robe pocket.

Correct! Good catch, thank you. I have updated this on my spreadsheet so it's correct in tomorrow's recap.

Last Sunday, it seemed obvious the Twins just couldn’t hang with Cleveland. After a four-game sweep in which the Twins relinquished the division lead, it appeared the team was destined that to be looking up at Cleveland for the rest of the season. Well, that feeling lasted all of a week. Minnesota’s pitching shined, especially the bullpen, as the Twins swept Cleveland to take back the top spot in the AL Central.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx625.png Download attachment: TopPlays625.png Eddie Rosario had a monster game, going 3-for-4 with a homer and three runs scored. He made an excellent base running read on a Jason Castro double that allowed him to score and made a nice play in the field. Eddie has about as many games that make you go “man, this guy can play” as he does that make you go “man, can this guy just go away?” What better poster boy could you find for a first-place team that has a -38 run differential? It’s pretty crazy how big of a home/road split Rosario has this season, but I think it’s just a fun stat rather than something you can actually draw any concrete conclusions from. He was playing very poorly away from Target Field prior to this series. Here’s Rosario’s home vs. road OPS broken up by season entering today: Download attachment: RosarioGraph.png Here was Rosie’s home run, which was his 10th of the season: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen625.png Monday Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.67 ERA) at Boston (Chris Sale, 2.85 ERA), 6:10 pm CT Is this a pitching matchup, or what? Among American League pitchers with at least 50 innings, these two rank fourth and fifth in ERA and Sale is second in WHIP (0.90) with Berrios just behind in third (0.91). The Twins have always been a thorn in Sale’s side. He has a 4.37 ERA against Minnesota over 113.1 innings in his career. That’s his worst ERA against any team he’s faced more than twice. Berrios was very efficient in his last two starts, completing eight innings in both of them. AL Central Standings Twins 39-34 Cleveland 39-35 (-0.5) Kansas City 37-37 (-2.5) Chicago 33-41 (-7) Detroit 32-42 (-7.5) Click here to view the article

That is correct, thank you. I've been scrounging around for additional details on how that went down. Looks like it was a double steal (T.J. Dixon took second) with two outs and Wander Javier at the plate. Pretty daring move, they must've caught the Braves napping.

Yep, sorry I just took what was off MiLB.com. Checked a recent release from the team and it looks like it'll be Dereck Rodriguez in Game 1 and Fernando Romero in Game 2. Thanks for catching that.

Saturday night we had a walk-off single, a walk-off double and a walk-off hit batsman. Wait, what? Brent Rooker also hit his first professional home run in what was a big day for the bats in Elizabethton. Find out what else happened around the Twins' minor leagues on Saturday.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 5, Lehigh Valley 4 Box Score Leonardo Reginatto delivered a walk-off single that scored Tommy Field to put a positive end on a long night. This game started about an hour late due to rain and lasted nearly three and a half hours. Maybe Pat Venditte was up past his bedtime. The IronPigs’ ambidextrous pitcher gave up a single to Matt Hague, walked Field, walked Niko Goodrum and walked in the tying run with a free pass to John Ryan Murphy. Lehigh Valley brought in a fifth infielder, but Reginatto sent a line drive to center to end it. Zack Granite did not have a multi-hit game. You know you're rolling when that’s newsworthy. He did, however, go 1-for-4 and drew a walk. Reginatto had three hits and drove in two runs. Matt Hague was 2-for-3 and drew a pair of walks. Mitch Garver was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Field and Goodrum also had two hits. Rochester could’ve made this easier on themselves, but they left 15 men on base. All’s well that ends well, I suppose. Chris Heston got the start and struggled, giving up four runs on nine hits and three walks over 4.1 innings. The bullpen trio of D.J. Baxendale (1.2 IP), Phil Hughes (1 IP) and Ryan Pressly (2 IP) combined for 4.2 shutout innings. Pressly had three strikeouts. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 3, Pensacola 2 Box Score There are a lot of ways you can win a baseball game, but a walk-off hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded has to be one of the weirder ones. Chattanooga was held in check all game, entering the ninth trailing 2-0, but a big rally capped off by a Levi Michael HBP gave them the W. Edgar Corcino led off the ninth with a walk, followed by singles from LaMonte Wade, Jonathan Rodriguez and Andy Wilkins. T.J. White was intentionally walked and Michael took one for the team to win it. Felix Jorge went 7.2 innings and struck out seven batters while walking zero. He gave up a season-high 11 hits, but just the two runs. Randy Rosario threw 1.1 scoreless innings. MIRACLE MATTERS Florida 4, Fort Myers 3 Box Score The Miracle pulled within a run of the Fire Frogs on three separate occasions, but their comeback attempt was stymied by a bullpen that combined to throw four shutout innings of two-hit ball, striking out six batters with no walks. Brady Anderson gave up four runs over 5.2 innings. He walked four and gave up six hits, three of them home runs. Michael Theofanopoulos pitched the final 2.1 innings, holding the Fire Frogs scoreless white tallying four strikeouts. The Miracle had only four hits, with Jermaine Palacios going 2-for-4 with a stolen base and a run scored. Max Murphy and Kevin Garcia had the only other hits, and all four were singles. KERNELS NUGGETS Quad Cities 3, Cedar Rapids 2 Box Score The Kernels got out to a 2-0 lead thanks to Amaurys Minier. Playing in just his second game with Cedar Rapids, the Dominican hit a solo homer in the second inning and an RBI double in the fourth. Domenick Carlini got off to a good start, but gave up a two-run homer in the fourth inning and a solo shot in the fifth. That was all the offense the River Bandits needed. Carlini gave up three runs on five hits over five innings and he had five strikeouts. Ryan Mason struck out three batters over two scoreless innings and Alex Robinson had two K's in his inning of work. Lewin Diaz, who was DHing with Minier playing first, hit his 22nd double of the season. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 8, Danville 7 Box Score What a day Matt Albanese had. Hitting a two-run double to give his team the walk-off win is impressive enough, but the Twins’ seventh-round pick from 2016 was 3-for-3 with two walks and swiped home on a double steal in the eighth inning. Perhaps you heard during the draft coverage that Brent Rooker can hit a little. Well, the Twins’ 35th overall pick, Rooker was 4-for-5 with his first professional home run, a double, a couple RBI and a walk. He played left field. Trey Cabbage hit a homer and scored three runs. All the offense was needed, as Moises Gomez was shelled. He gave up six runs (five earned) over 1.2 innings. Out of the bullpen, Carlos Suniaga (3.1 shutout innings, four K's) Blair Lasko (one run over three innings) and Calvin Faucher (struck out the side in the ninth) were able to keep the Twins in position to come back. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Felix Jorge, ‘Nooga (7.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Matt Albanese, E-Town (walk-off hit, 3-for-3, 2 doubles, 2 BB, 2 RBI, 2 R, SB) SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Lehigh Valley, 12:35 pm CT (Tim Melville, 2.79 ERA) Chattanooga vs. Pensacola, 3:15 pm CT (Dereck Rodriguez, 18.00 ERA) Chattanooga vs. Pesnacola, Game 2 (Fernando Romero, 3.27 ERA) Fort Myers at Florida, 4:05 pm CT (Anthony McIver, 2.27 ERA) Cedar Rapids at Quad Cities, 5:15 pm CT (Clark Beeker, 2.99 ERA) Elizabethton vs. Pulaski, 5:00 pm CT (Melvi Acosta) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday's games. Click here to view the article

Gibson hasn't been great, but it's worth mentioning that the team is 5-2 in his starts since returning from Rochester. He's giving them a chance. Every time he pitches I'm like "well, I'm sure that'll be the last time they have to do that." Sooner or later I'm going to be right.

Miguel Sano, Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario were unavailable to start and the Twins were facing arguably the best pitcher in the American League. But thanks to a plus performance from the pitching staff, a key managerial decision, big hits in big situations and amazing defense, the Twins pulled out a hard-fought victory anyway.Win Expectancy and Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx624.png Download attachment: TopPlays624.png There was a lot of great stuff to get to from this one, but nothing can beat how it ended. Check out this amazing diving catch from Byron Buxton to record the final out: Per Statcast, the catch probability was 49 percent. Buxton was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, but he made another tough catch up agaisnt the wall in the third inning. Taylor Rogers, who bailed out Belisle in the seventh and pitched a scoreless eighth, picked up his fourth win of the year and Brandon Kintzler earned his 20th save, with a hat tip going to Buxton for that beautiful catch. Mauer had an excellent game as the DH, going 2-for-2 with a double, a run scored and a pair of walks. Postgame With Gimenez Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen624.png Sunday Twins (Ervin Santana, 2.97 ERA) at Cleveland (Josh Tomlin, 6.07 ERA), 12:10 pm CT Tomlin has been struggling of late, posting an 8.76 ERA over his past three starts. Opposing hitters have hit .407/.435/.746 (1.181 OPS) off him during that span. Santana has also been having a rough go of late, but in his last five starts against Cleveland he’s 3-1 with a 1.72 ERA. AL Central Standings Cleveland 39-34 Twins 38-34 (-0.5) Kansas City 37-36 (-2) Chicago 32-41 (-7) Detroit 32-41 (-7) Yep, after all that’s happened the road warrior Twins will have Ervin Santana on the mound tomorrow with the opportunity to not only sweep Cleveland, but also move back into first place. Man, this team. Click here to view the article

Maybe the Twins should just play all the rest of their games on the road. Just a few days after completing a nightmare series against Cleveland at home, the Twins headed to their place and took Game 1 in convincing fashion. Adalberto Mejia threw five scoreless, Jorge Polanco hit a big home run and Trevor Hildenberger made his major league debut.Twins 5, Cleveland 0 Box Score Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx623.png Download attachment: WPA623.png Mejia’s struggles to give the Twins any kind of length continued. He labored through this start, but he delivered in the moments that mattered. Mejia pitched five scoreless innings, giving up just two hits, but he also walked five batters. In the bottom of the second and with Mejia having already issued two free passes in the inning, Jason Kipnis worked a draining eight-pitch walk to load the bases. Ball four looked awfully good. Download attachment: KipnisAB.png Neil Allen went out to chat with Mejia, meanwhile Jason Castro had a lengthy conversation with home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez. Once everyone took up the game again, Mejia struck out Erik Gonzalez to end the inning. It was a huge crossroads of the game. Mejia loaded the bases again in the fourth inning, but wiggled out of that jam as well. The Twins managed to score four runs in the top of the second inning, so for Mejia to give any of those runs back would have been deflating. The big blow came from Polanco, who smashed a two-run homer. Brian Dozier also had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI. Tyler Duffey pitched perfect sixth and seventh innings, striking out three batters, and Taylor Rogers threw a scoreless eighth. Hildenberger, the Twins Daily Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year the past two seasons, made his major league debut in the ninth. He struck out the first batter he faced and managed to throw a scoreless inning. Mejia broke 100 pitches for the first time as a big leaguer. Here’s a look at his pitches per start in 2017: Download attachment: MejiaChart.png Postgame With Hildenberger (via Mike Berardino) Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen623.png Saturday Twins (Kyle Gibson, 6.56 ERA) at Cleveland (Corey Kluber, 3.58 ERA), 3:10 pm CT The Twins have been fortunate enough to miss Kluber in their previous meetings with Cleveland. The Klubot is rolling right now, posting a 1.61 ERA and 0.71 WHIP over his last four starts. His K:BB ratio over that stretch is 9.75. In five career starts at Cleveland, Gibson has a 4.91 ERA and 1.48 WHIP. Edwin Encarnacion has a 1.516 OPS against Gibson over 18 plate appearances. AL Central Standings Cleveland 39-33 Twins 37-34 (-1.5) Kansas City 35-36 (-.3.5) Chicago 32-39 (-6.5) Detroit 32-40 (-7) Make sure to check out Cody’s Get To Know Trevor Hildenberger article from earlier today. Click here to view the article

Something exciting I missed: Buddy Boshers got 10 swinging strikes in his two innings of work. That's a ton! His whiff rate is now a team-high 13.8 percent. Unfortunately, he also gave up a pair of runs, but his ERA is still only at 2.81 over 16 innings pitched.

That's fair, I just think it would be valuable to this team to have a guy who could eat four innings in these blowouts. Is it too late to get Gimenez stretched out?

I put him in the very first one I did and thought "nah, nobody's ever gonna wonder if Gimenez is fresh" and took him out. But the way things have gone it's a legit concern when he's potentially not available. Justin Haley was probably only going to mop up innings and was likely to have some ugly numbers, but I think his absence has really hurt this bullpen.

Thursday was just a bad day for the Twins, no way around it. It started with a record-breaking rain delay, and when they finally got underway things went south in a hurry. To top it all off, the day ended with a hurried flight out to Cleveland.White Sox 9, Twins 0 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WE622.png Nik Turley was one of the feel-good stories of this season, but after Thursday’s thrashing you can’t help but feel bad for the guy. In his third career start, the 27-year-old former Indy leaguer recorded just two outs and gave up five runs off six hits, two of them homers. The nearly five-hour rain delay couldn’t have helped Turley’s preparation for this start, but it’s pretty tough to give a free pass to a guy who now has a 16.39 ERA. The bullpen had to mop up 7.1 innings, but thank goodness Chris Gimenez came to the rescue once again to save another arm from being used. It was Gimenez’s sixth pitching appearance of the year. When the Twins lose, they really go all out. The team was also shut out for the first time all season, so this one was just terrible all around. Not the way you want to head out to play Cleveland. The offense combined for 11 strikeouts and left 14 men on base. The team combined for seven hits, all of them singles. As you'd expect, the team is shuffling players around to try and get some reinforcements in for the Cleveland series. Click here to view the article

Well said, the hard part now is being patient just a little bit longer. That next stage you referenced, along with maybe a free agent addition or two, will be what pushes this team over the top. Sano is the longest-tenured player in that group you mentioned, and even he isn't going to be a free agent until 2022. Good things ... very good things are coming for this franchise and us fans.

Jose Berrios was brilliant, Miguel Sano hammered another mammoth home run and the Twins earned a come-from-behind victory Wednesday night. After getting hit like a pitching machine last season, this year Berrios appears to be earning his nickname, La MaKina.Twins 4, White Sox 2 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WE621.png Machine is typically spelled maquina in Spanish, but it’s pretty easy to see where Berrios gets the K from. Jose was tremendous, striking out eight batters while giving up two runs on just four hits. He was aggressive all night, as he fell behind 1-0 on only eight batters and 2-0 once. He issued just one free pass. In eight starts this season, Berrios has given up more than two runs only twice. The few times he pitched well last season, he still struggled to go deep into games, as he threw six innings just once over 14 starts. This season, he’s averaging 6.75 innings per start. Here was how he attacked hitters on the first pitch tonight: Download attachment: Berrios1stPitch.png And how he finished them off for strike three (all of which came on swings): Download attachment: BerriosStrike3.png Sano hit an epic opposite field homer in the third inning. After that, the White Sox had seen about enough, and intentionally walked him in his next two at bats. Here’s more on the Sano shot: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen621.png Thursday Twins (Nik Turley, 12.46 ERA) vs. White Sox (Jose Quintana, 5.07 ERA), 12:10 pm CT, Quintana is having the worst year of his career. The lefty is averaging 3.5 BB/9, over a walk above his career average. His HR/9 is also at a career-worst 1.3. Turley gets another shot to show he belongs in the rotation. Over his first two starts, he’s given up 12 runs on 17 hits and four walks over 8.2 innings. AL Central Standings Cleveland 38-32 Twins 36-33 (-1.5) Kansas City 35-36 (-3.5) Detroit 32-38 (-6) Chicago 31-39 (-7) Make sure to also check out today’s Minor League Report, which has updates on the rehabbing Hector Santiago and Phil Hughes. Click here to view the article

It was your typical Buxton four-star catch in that it didn't look like a highlight reel grab but all the data suggests the average major leaguer doesn't make the catch more often than not. It was a line drive he had to charge in on, made the grab on his feet. That was the first out of the second, which was big because the Sox led off the inning with a double. Baseball Savant lists the hit probability on that one at 74 percent.

Even more than overthrowing the cutoff man, it drives me crazy when he needlessly runs into outs. In the Cleveland series, he tried to tag up to second base with the Twins down 4-0 in the third. That showed he has no concept of taking game situation into account or feel for when to be aggressive. Of course, that's nothing new with Rosie. I like him, there isn't much he can't do. He has some game-changing tools: speed, arm strength, power ... but when do the mistakes end? Buxton and Kepler aren't going anywhere and even Grossman won't be a free agent until 2021. Not all these guys are going to be able to coexist in the same org much longer with Granite and Palka (once healthy) ready for a look in the majors.

Yes, the issues with the bullpen are much more about construction than management. Also, Twins starters not named Ervin are barely averaging five innings per start. They've had to ask a lot of an already shallow pen.

Yep, may need to give them a mulligan for April. Here are the standings since May 1: KC 27-20 CLE 23-22 MIN 23-22 DET 20-26 CWS 18-28