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Tom Froemming

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  1. Right, I think the big difference in how you view things right now comes down to whether you want to focus on who they got or whether you wanna focus on who they didn't. I was strongly on Team Greene, but Lewis has crazy high upside, too. Sounds like a very complete, well-rounded player. I'm excited. If I look at Rooker's numbers too long I have to start fanning myself. Before anybody gets in an uproar about Leach, I'd encourage them to take a look at some of the video. Both his body and his mechanics look really good for a 17-year-old. There's a reason why Texas wanted him. If people didn't like Day 1 of the draft, hey, I get it. But I think it's pretty silly to try and say with certainty today that the Twins have had a bad draft, or that whatever strategy you think they had didn't pay off. For all we know, things may have worked out exactly as they intended.
  2. Let me borrow you my rose-colored glasses real quick ...
  3. When the Twins lose, they really lose. Adalberto Mejia got hammered for nine runs, eight of them earned, over 3.2 innings and things didn’t get much better after that. It was the fourth time in the last 13 games the Twins gave up at least a dozen runs. How is this still a first-place team?Mariners 14, Twins 3 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WX612.png This one got out of hand in a hurry, as you can see from the sad, sad win expectancy graph. Mejia just didn’t have it today, and was forced to stay in a while in an effort to help protect the bullpen. From the below map via Baseball Savant, it looks like Adalberto struggled with command. Lots of balls too far off the corners and lots of others right down the pipe. Download attachment: MejiaMap.png The bullpen was bad, again. Chris Gimenez had to pitch, again. Alex Wimmers gave up a run on three hits and two walks over 1.1 innings. He was optioned out after the game. It’s possible Ryan Pressly will be on the way back (0 ER, 7 K in 4 IP at AAA), but no official announcement has been made, so who knows. Breslow gave up a pair of homers. Sigh. UPDATE: Tuesday Twins (Kyle Gibson, 6.52 ERA) vs. Mariners (Christian Bergman, 4.03 ERA) Gibson is coming off his best start of the season against these Mariners. He featured his curveball much more than usual and it’ll be interesting to see if he leans on that pitch again. He actually has a 2.65 ERA over his last three starts. The Twins beat Bergman his last time out. The right-hander has also been pitching well of late, posting a 1.50 ERA over his last three outings. AL Central Standings Twins 32-28 Cleveland 31-29 (-1) Detroit 30-32 (-3) Kansas City 28-34 (-5) Chicago 27-35 (-6) Click here for today’s minor league report. While you’re at it, check out the Twins Daily draft day thread, read up on top pick Royce Lewis and get yourself familiar with other new draftees Brent Rooker and Landon Leach. Click here to view the article
  4. Mariners 14, Twins 3 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) This one got out of hand in a hurry, as you can see from the sad, sad win expectancy graph. Mejia just didn’t have it today, and was forced to stay in a while in an effort to help protect the bullpen. From the below map via Baseball Savant, it looks like Adalberto struggled with command. Lots of balls too far off the corners and lots of others right down the pipe. The bullpen was bad, again. Chris Gimenez had to pitch, again. Alex Wimmers gave up a run on three hits and two walks over 1.1 innings. He was optioned out after the game. It’s possible Ryan Pressly will be on the way back (0 ER, 7 K in 4 IP at AAA), but no official announcement has been made, so who knows. Breslow gave up a pair of homers. Sigh. UPDATE: https://twitter.com/DWolfsonKSTP/status/874485322117251072 But, Buddy Boshers deserves a special mention as a silver lining. He pitched a pair of scoreless innings and has his ERA down to 1.64. The team could desperately use another relief arm it could depend on, maybe Buddy’s the guy. To be fair, the bats didn’t exactly have a stellar day against Yovanni Gallardo (6 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5K), either. Brian Dozier went 3-for-4 with a double. Joe Mauer hit a nice two-run double. I suppose another positive is that Jorge Polanco returned from bereavement to pinch hit for Mauer late in the game. He stayed in at shortstop, forcing Ehire Adrianza over to play first base, a position he’s played once in his entire professional career. Of course Gimenez was going to end up pitching in this one. He gave up a pair of runs in the ninth. This was his fifth appearance on the mound this season. He’s only caught 19 games, played first in three others and got an inning in at third once. I think it’s time we call him a two-way player. Who needs Hunter Greene or Brendan McKay? https://twitter.com/theaceofspaeder/status/874470531461808128 Tuesday Twins (Kyle Gibson, 6.52 ERA) vs. Mariners (Christian Bergman, 4.03 ERA) Gibson is coming off his best start of the season against these Mariners. He featured his curveball much more than usual and it’ll be interesting to see if he leans on that pitch again. He actually has a 2.65 ERA over his last three starts. The Twins beat Bergman his last time out. The right-hander has also been pitching well of late, posting a 1.50 ERA over his last three outings. AL Central Standings Twins 32-28 Cleveland 31-29 (-1) Detroit 30-32 (-3) Kansas City 28-34 (-5) Chicago 27-35 (-6) Click here for today’s minor league report. While you’re at it, check out the Twins Daily draft day thread, read up on top pick Royce Lewis and get yourself familiar with other new draftees Brent Rooker and Landon Leach.
  5. Those numbers are based on the average fielder. The bulk Statcast catch probability data is available over at Baseball Savant. It's based upon the hang time of the ball and the distance the fielder had to cover to get to it. The percentages come from historical data on similar plays from the last two seasons. So basically what they're saying is on similar plays over the past two years the outfielder was only able to make that catch 44% of the time. And, you're right, Buxton made it look pretty routine. Guy is amazing.
  6. Giants 13, Twins 8 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) It would probably be an appropriate time to write a eulogy for Matt Belise’s pitching career, but nobody would take any joy in that. It’s been a good run, he’s been a big leaguer for 14 years, but after getting rocked for four runs in 0.2 innings, his ERA is all the way up to 8.59. With his reputation, I’m sure he’ll have no trouble staying in the game as some type of a coach if he so chooses. No roster moves have been announced, but you have to figure it’s only a matter of time now. What's gone wrong for Belisle? Well along with an increase in walks (BB percent is up from 3.8 in 2016 to 13.6 this year), he's giving up more hard contact and more fly balls. That's a recipe for disaster. Info below via Fangraphs: Craig Breslow, one-upped Belisle by giving up five runs in the eighth. He had been pitching fairly well prior to tonight’s meltdown, but almost exclusively in low-leverage situations. Both Belisle and Breslow were added over the offseason in large part to add leadership to the bullpen. We'll see just how much the team values that leadership based on how much longer they stick around. The big intrigue leading into this one surrounded Nik Turley making his major league debut. Things got off to a rough start, as the 27-year-old lefty gave up a pair of runs in the first inning. His teammates picked him up by tying the game in the bottom of the first. Turley settled in some after that, but he only pitched four innings, giving up four runs on eight hits. He had four strikeouts and did not walk a batter. Brooks Baseball had Turley maxing out at 95 mph, and he managed to get eight swinging strikes on 73 pitches (10.95 percent whiff rate). It wasn’t a great start by any means, but he probably won’t be taking the next flight to Rochester, either. Lord knows Turley’s traveled enough this season. Here’s a look at all the transactions he’s been involved in so far this season, via MiLB.com: Eduardo Escobar had a big night, going 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBI. Byron Buxton had two hits, one of them a home run, and also made a four-star catch, according to Statcast. https://twitter.com/_dadler/status/874001464561106949 Here’s the catch, via FSN on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/874000159868207104 Today Twins (Adalberto Mejia, 4.18 ERA) vs. Seattle (Yovani Gallardo, 6.26 ERA), 7:10 pm CT This will be a rematch from Wednesday, which the Mariners won on a walk-off homer. Seattle scored three runs off Mejia over his five innings pitched, but only managed a pair of hits (both home runs) off the lefty in that contest. Gallardo went seven innings in that game, giving up five runs. He’s pitched well at Target Field over his career, logging a 3.65 ERA over four starts. AL Central Standings Twins 32-27 Cleveland 31-29 (-1.5) Detroit 30-32 (-3.5) Kansas City 28-34 (-5.5) Chicago 26-35 (-7.0) From Yesterday’s Game Unfortunately, some of the really cool, fun stuff I like to look at isn’t always available right when I write these up. Here’s Kennys Vargas’ monster homer at AT&T Park from Saturday with a Target Field overlay vis ESPN's Home Run Tracker:
  7. How much does veteran leadership cost? Well, on Sunday afternoon it cost the Twins nine runs. Matt Belisle and Craig Breslow got crushed, blowing a game the Twins were leading 5-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh. Despite the ugly loss, it’s a pretty amazing time to be a Twins fan right now. The team is still in first place after going 6-4 on a West Coast road trip and tomorrow they’ll finally be making their choice for the No. 1 pick in the draft. Byron Buxton even had a good game today!Giants 13, Twins 8 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WX611.png It would probably be an appropriate time to write a eulogy for Matt Belise’s pitching career, but nobody would take any joy in that. It’s been a good run, he’s been a big leaguer for 14 years, but after getting rocked for four runs in 0.2 innings, his ERA is all the way up to 8.59. With his reputation, I’m sure he’ll have no trouble staying in the game as some type of a coach if he so chooses. No roster moves have been announced, but you have to figure it’s only a matter of time now. What's gone wrong for Belisle? Well along with an increase in walks (BB percent is up from 3.8 in 2016 to 13.6 this year), he's giving up more hard contact and more fly balls. That's a recipe for disaster. Info below via Fangraphs: Download attachment: Screenshot 2017-06-12 at 6.57.51 AM.png Craig Breslow, one-upped Belisle by giving up five runs in the eighth. He had been pitching fairly well prior to tonight’s meltdown, but almost exclusively in low-leverage situations. Both Belisle and Breslow were added over the offseason in large part to add leadership to the bullpen. We'll see just how much the team values that leadership based on how much longer they stick around. The big intrigue leading into this one surrounded Nik Turley making his major league debut. Things got off to a rough start, as the 27-year-old lefty gave up a pair of runs in the first inning. His teammates picked him up by tying the game in the bottom of the first. Turley settled in some after that, but he only pitched four innings, giving up four runs on eight hits. He had four strikeouts and did not walk a batter. Brooks Baseball had Turley maxing out at 95 mph, and he managed to get eight swinging strikes on 73 pitches (10.95 percent whiff rate). It wasn’t a great start by any means, but he probably won’t be taking the next flight to Rochester, either. Lord knows Turley’s traveled enough this season. Here’s a look at all the transactions he’s been involved in so far this season, via MiLB.com: Download attachment: TurlyTransactions.png Eduardo Escobar had a big night, going 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBI. Byron Buxton had two hits, one of them a home run, and also made a four-star catch, according to Statcast. Today Twins (Adalberto Mejia, 4.18 ERA) vs. Seattle (Yovani Gallardo, 6.26 ERA), 7:10 pm CT This will be a rematch from Wednesday, which the Mariners won on a walk-off homer. Seattle scored three runs off Mejia over his five innings pitched, but only managed a pair of hits (both home runs) off the lefty in that contest. Gallardo went seven innings in that game, giving up five runs. He’s pitched well at Target Field over his career, logging a 3.65 ERA over four starts. AL Central Standings Twins 32-27 Cleveland 31-29 (-1.5) Detroit 30-32 (-3.5) Kansas City 28-34 (-5.5) Chicago 26-35 (-7.0) From Yesterday’s Game Unfortunately, some of the really cool, fun stuff I like to look at isn’t always available right when I write these up. Here’s Kennys Vargas’ monster homer at AT&T Park from Saturday with a Target Field overlay vis ESPN's Home Run Tracker: Download attachment: VargasTF.jpg Click here to view the article
  8. I think I saw Seth say somewhere that he's more like 20-25 pounds bigger now. I really wish that they would either keep those updated or say the last time that was accurate was. So many guys have inaccurate listings.
  9. Jaylin Davis has been bringing the thunder ever since arriving at Cedar Rapids late last season, but tonight he also made a beautiful catch to help lead the Kernels to victory. Stephen Gonsalves and Lachlan Wells both picked up a “W” and John Curtiss was electric (as always) out of the Chattanooga bullpen. Find out what else happened around the Twins' minor leagues on Saturday.RED WINGS REPORT Syracuse 8, Rochester 6 Box Score Wings starter Yohan Pino got lit up in this one. Over 1.2 innings, he gave up five runs on eight hits, three of them homers. Rochester battled back to make this one interesting, but fell short. Mitch Garver connected for his fifth home run of the season, a solo shot, and drew a pair of walks. Matt Hague was 3-for-5 with two RBI. Zack Granite had a multi-hit game streak snapped, but had a nice game, going 1-for-2 with three walks. D.J. Baxendale saw his ERA jump to 3.99 after giving up three runs over 3.1 innings out of the bullpen. Kam Mickolio was perfect over the final four innings. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 6, Montgomery 3 Box Score Stephen Gonsalves needed 96 pitches to get through five innings, but he battled his way through to put his team in position to win. It doesn’t hurt that he was backed up by a spectacular bullpen. Gonsalves struck out six and gave up three runs on five hits and walked a pair of batters. Nick Anderson threw two perfect innings, notching a couple of strikeouts. John Curtiss came on in the eighth with the Lookouts up one. His untainted 0.00 ERA appeared to be in jeapordy as he gave up a leadoff double. Curtiss induced a foul pop out and struck out the next two batters to protect the lead. Chattanooga added two runs in the top of the ninth to give Curtiss some wiggle room in the bottom of the inning. He wouldn’t need it, of course, as he retired the Biscuits 1-2-3 for his 12th save of the season. Ryan Strausborger hit his first home run for the Lookouts, a go-ahead two-run bomb in the third. T.J. White was 2-for-4 with a double and drove in three runs. Nick Gordon, LaMonte Wade and Travis Harrison each walked twice, as Chattanooga drew nine free passes. This was a huge game for Chattanooga, which entered the day tied with Montgomery in the standings. The Lookouts now trail the first-place Tennessee Smokies by just a half game. The first half ends June 18. And it sounds like they’re getting some reinforcements. Randy Rosario is being sent back down from the Twins. And then there’s this from Dereck Rodriguez’s Twitter account: Coming off a rocky start in which he gave up six runs, Eduardo Del Rosario bounced back to hold the Bees to two runs over six innings to pick up the win. He struck out four batters and walked one. Caleb Hamilton hit his fifth home run of the year to give the Kernels the lead in the sixth inning, immediately followed by Davis’ dinger. Ariel Montesino was 3-for-4 and Hank Morrison had a pair of hits. Out of the bullpen, Ryan Mason, Alex Robinson and Hector Lujan each pitched a scoreless inning. The win secured Cedar Rapids’ two-game lead in the Midwest League Western Division. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – John Curtiss (2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, save) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jaylin Davis (2-for-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI) SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Syracuse, 12:35 pm CT, Matt Tracy (appears he’ll be promoted, he’s listed as the starter in the bottom of this Syracuse game story) Chattanooga at Montgomery, 5:35 pm CT, TBD Fort Myers OFF Cedar Rapids vs. Burlington, 2:05 pm CT, Max Cordy Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday's games. Click here to view the article
  10. RED WINGS REPORT Syracuse 8, Rochester 6 Box Score Wings starter Yohan Pino got lit up in this one. Over 1.2 innings, he gave up five runs on eight hits, three of them homers. Rochester battled back to make this one interesting, but fell short. Mitch Garver connected for his fifth home run of the season, a solo shot, and drew a pair of walks. Matt Hague was 3-for-5 with two RBI. Zack Granite had a multi-hit game streak snapped, but had a nice game, going 1-for-2 with three walks. D.J. Baxendale saw his ERA jump to 3.99 after giving up three runs over 3.1 innings out of the bullpen. Kam Mickolio was perfect over the final four innings. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 6, Montgomery 3 Box Score Stephen Gonsalves needed 96 pitches to get through five innings, but he battled his way through to put his team in position to win. It doesn’t hurt that he was backed up by a spectacular bullpen. Gonsalves struck out six and gave up three runs on five hits and walked a pair of batters. Nick Anderson threw two perfect innings, notching a couple of strikeouts. John Curtiss came on in the eighth with the Lookouts up one. His untainted 0.00 ERA appeared to be in jeapordy as he gave up a leadoff double. Curtiss induced a foul pop out and struck out the next two batters to protect the lead. Chattanooga added two runs in the top of the ninth to give Curtiss some wiggle room in the bottom of the inning. He wouldn’t need it, of course, as he retired the Biscuits 1-2-3 for his 12th save of the season. Ryan Strausborger hit his first home run for the Lookouts, a go-ahead two-run bomb in the third. T.J. White was 2-for-4 with a double and drove in three runs. Nick Gordon, LaMonte Wade and Travis Harrison each walked twice, as Chattanooga drew nine free passes. This was a huge game for Chattanooga, which entered the day tied with Montgomery in the standings. The Lookouts now trail the first-place Tennessee Smokies by just a half game. The first half ends June 18. And it sounds like they’re getting some reinforcements. Randy Rosario is being sent back down from the Twins. And then there’s this from Dereck Rodriguez’s Twitter account: https://twitter.com/DereckrodRF3/status/873709716043689988 MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 5, Tampa 1 Box Score Nelson Molina socked a first-inning grand slam and Lachlan Wells pitched into the seventh inning to pick up the victory. The homer was Molina’s third of the season, which may not sound like much, but he only went deep twice last season in Cedar Rapids. Wells had been scuffling a bit, posting a 7.07 ERA over his previous three starts. He went 6.2 innings, and gave up one run on five hits. He had six strikeouts and did not walk a batter. The Molina slam was especially key because the Miracle only managed three other hits on the night, though they walked seven times. Alex Perez was 2-for-4 with a double, a run and an RBI. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Burlington 3 Box Score Jaylin Davis, the Midwest League home run leader, smashed his 12th tater of the season. He also hit a double and made this sensational catch: https://twitter.com/MiaOBrienCBS2/status/873720223261765636 Coming off a rocky start in which he gave up six runs, Eduardo Del Rosario bounced back to hold the Bees to two runs over six innings to pick up the win. He struck out four batters and walked one. Caleb Hamilton hit his fifth home run of the year to give the Kernels the lead in the sixth inning, immediately followed by Davis’ dinger. Ariel Montesino was 3-for-4 and Hank Morrison had a pair of hits. Out of the bullpen, Ryan Mason, Alex Robinson and Hector Lujan each pitched a scoreless inning. The win secured Cedar Rapids’ two-game lead in the Midwest League Western Division. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – John Curtiss (2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, save) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jaylin Davis (2-for-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI) SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Syracuse, 12:35 pm CT, Matt Tracy (appears he’ll be promoted, he’s listed as the starter in the bottom of this Syracuse game story) Chattanooga at Montgomery, 5:35 pm CT, TBD Fort Myers OFF Cedar Rapids vs. Burlington, 2:05 pm CT, Max Cordy Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday's games.
  11. Kennys Vargas hit the third-longest home run in baseball this year, Brian Dozier added a two-run blast of his own, Jose Berrios pitched his way out of jams all afternoon and the bullpen slammed the door as the Twins beat the Giants 3-2.Twins 3, Giants 2 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WE610.png In Berrios’ turbulent 2016 season with the Twins not much went right, but one thing he struggled with in particular was getting the third out. It seemed he could never stop the bleeding. He gave up an .840 OPS with no outs, .817 OPS with one out and that ballooned to a 1.132 OPS with two down. Berrios has been better all around this year, but the dropoff in two-out OPS has been dramatic. With no outs, opponents have had a .638 OPS, with one out a .604 OPS and with two outs opposing batters had just a .398 OPS entering today’s game. Jose was not very efficient today, but he finished off innings. The Giants loaded the bases with one out in the third inning, but The Machine was not about to crack. He struck out Brandon Crawford. He struck out Hunter Pence. Inning over. Here is some info on those two at-bats: Download attachment: CrawK.png Download attachment: PenceK.png Berrios ran into trouble again in the fifth. Eduardo Nunez led off the inning with a walk, followed by a Brandon Belt single. Nunez scored on a Posey groundout. With Belt at second and one out, it was deja vu all over again. Instead of unravelling and giving up a big inning, Berrios struck out Crawford, struck out Pence. Inning over. Berrios had eight strikeouts over 5.1 innings. He gave up two runs on six hits and three walks, throwing 97 pitches in the process. Kennys Vargas got the Twins on the board in the fourth inning by slugging the third-longest home run of the season. Here’s the data from MLBBarrelAlert on Twitter: Brian Dozier hammered a two-run shot the next inning to put the Twins up. The heatmap below via Baseball Savant shows how Dozier has been pitched so far in 2017. No surprise, teams are staying down and away. Download attachment: DozierZone.png Whether they intended to or not, Giants pitchers gave Dozer a few pullable pitches on the inner half of the plate. He made sure they paid for it. Download attachment: Dozier.png Tyler Duffey got the last two outs of the sixth, and pitched the seventh. Matt Belisle handled the eighth and Brandon Kintzler picked up his 17th save. The bullpen threw 3.2 perfect innings. Also, Chris Gimenez stole a base. Postgame With Molitor Today Twins (Nik Turley) at San Francisco (Matt Cain, 4.87 ERA), 3:05 pm CT Turley, who grew up in California, will be making his major league debut. He had a combined 2.05 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 14.4 K/9 between Rochester and Chattanooga this season. Lee Roth of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle wrote a great profile of Turley, highlighting his last start in which he dominated the Yankees Triple A team. Cain has been very good at home this season, posting a 1.82 ERA in six starts (8.40 road ERA). AL Central Standings Twins 32-26Cleveland 30-28 (-2.0)*Detroit 29-31 (-4.0)*Kansas City 27-34 (-5.0)Chicago 25-34 (-6.0)**Saturday games still in progress at the time of publishing this article. Click here to view the article
  12. Twins 3, Giants 2 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) In Berrios’ turbulent 2016 season with the Twins not much went right, but one thing he struggled with in particular was getting the third out. It seemed he could never stop the bleeding. He gave up an .840 OPS with no outs, .817 OPS with one out and that ballooned to a 1.132 OPS with two down. Berrios has been better all around this year, but the dropoff in two-out OPS has been dramatic. With no outs, opponents have had a .638 OPS, with one out a .604 OPS and with two outs opposing batters had just a .398 OPS entering today’s game. Jose was not very efficient today, but he finished off innings. The Giants loaded the bases with one out in the third inning, but The Machine was not about to crack. He struck out Brandon Crawford. He struck out Hunter Pence. Inning over. Here is some info on those two at-bats: Berrios ran into trouble again in the fifth. Eduardo Nunez led off the inning with a walk, followed by a Brandon Belt single. Nunez scored on a Posey groundout. With Belt at second and one out, it was deja vu all over again. Instead of unravelling and giving up a big inning, Berrios struck out Crawford, struck out Pence. Inning over. Berrios had eight strikeouts over 5.1 innings. He gave up two runs on six hits and three walks, throwing 97 pitches in the process. Kennys Vargas got the Twins on the board in the fourth inning by slugging the third-longest home run of the season. Here’s the data from MLBBarrelAlert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLBBarrelAlert/status/873648308635480065 Here’s the highlight via Statcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/statcast/status/873652831408062465 Brian Dozier hammered a two-run shot the next inning to put the Twins up. The heatmap below via Baseball Savant shows how Dozier has been pitched so far in 2017. No surprise, teams are staying down and away. Whether they intended to or not, Giants pitchers gave Dozer a few pullable pitches on the inner half of the plate. He made sure they paid for it. Tyler Duffey got the last two outs of the sixth, and pitched the seventh. Matt Belisle handled the eighth and Brandon Kintzler picked up his 17th save. The bullpen threw 3.2 perfect innings. Also, Chris Gimenez stole a base. Postgame With Molitor Today Twins (Nik Turley) at San Francisco (Matt Cain, 4.87 ERA), 3:05 pm CT Turley, who grew up in California, will be making his major league debut. He had a combined 2.05 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 14.4 K/9 between Rochester and Chattanooga this season. Lee Roth of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle wrote a great profile of Turley, highlighting his last start in which he dominated the Yankees Triple A team. Cain has been very good at home this season, posting a 1.82 ERA in six starts (8.40 road ERA). AL Central Standings Twins 32-26 Cleveland 30-28 (-2.0)* Detroit 29-31 (-4.0)* Kansas City 27-34 (-5.0) Chicago 25-34 (-6.0)* *Saturday games still in progress at the time of publishing this article.
  13. Thanks Jerr. I'll keep writing 'em if you keep reading 'em, deal?
  14. You are correct. When Castro is catching: 3.69 ERA, .708 OPS against When Gimenez is catching: 6.76 ERA, .886 OPS against He throws four pitches, but ... ... this is also true. According to Baseball Savant, Ervin threw just two changeups last night. Everything else was fastball or slider.
  15. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s … Ervin Santana? Santana put together a superhuman effort, pitching a Maddux (shutout with less than 100 pitches) and had a bases-clearing double in the Twins tidy 4-0 win over the Giants.Twins 4, Giants 0 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx69.png You don’t make it through a complete game on just 91 pitches by dilly-dallying around. As one would expect, Santana was very aggressive on the first pitch. Download attachment: Erv1stPitch.png Image above via Brooks Baseball The pitching performance was great to see, but it was a shocker to see Erv also contribute the biggest hit of the evening. Here’s a link to the highlight at MLB.com. Download attachment: ErvHit.png Image above via Yahoo Sports I guess Erv decided he'd be aggressive on the first pitch at the plate, too. Robbie Grossman was 3-for-4 with a double. Brian Dozier went 2-for-4 with a walk and drove in a run. Recent rumors have the Twins taking Brendan McKay with the No. 1 overall pick in Monday’s draft. He’s been a great two-way player at Louisville … maybe the Twins are onto something here. Santana can be the new SP/DH and Chris Gimenez can be the catcher/closer. McKay would fit right in. Plus, you don’t have to worry about how many pitchers you have in the bullpen if everybody plays both ways. Just sayin'. Some big news broke at the conclusion of this one. Nik Turley, a former indy ball pitcher who has been a strikeout machine this season, will be called up to make his major league debut Sunday. The 27-year-old lefty is coming off a performance in which he struck out 15 batters, 14 on swinging strikes, in six innings. Postgame With Santana Postgame With Molitor Today Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.76 ERA) at San Francisco (Jeff Samardzija, 4.29 ERA), 3:05 pm CT Getting the third out was seemingly impossible for Berrios at points last season, as opposing hitters had a 1.132 OPS off him with two down. This season? Totally different story. He has limited opponents to a .121/.216/.182 (.398 OPS) line. In just nine plate appearances, Eddie Rosario has homered off The Shark twice. AL Central Standings Twins 31-26Cleveland 30-28 (-1.5)Detroit 29-31 (-2.5)Kansas City 26-34 (-6.5)Chicago 25-34 (-6.0)Check out the minor league report from Friday night’s action. Click here to view the article
  16. Twins 4, Giants 0 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) You don’t make it through a complete game on just 91 pitches by dilly-dallying around. As one would expect, Santana was very aggressive on the first pitch. Image above via Brooks Baseball The pitching performance was great to see, but it was a shocker to see Erv also contribute the biggest hit of the evening. Here’s a link to the highlight at MLB.com. Image above via Yahoo Sports I guess Erv decided he'd be aggressive on the first pitch at the plate, too. Robbie Grossman was 3-for-4 with a double. Brian Dozier went 2-for-4 with a walk and drove in a run. Recent rumors have the Twins taking Brendan McKay with the No. 1 overall pick in Monday’s draft. He’s been a great two-way player at Louisville … maybe the Twins are onto something here. Santana can be the new SP/DH and Chris Gimenez can be the catcher/closer. McKay would fit right in. Plus, you don’t have to worry about how many pitchers you have in the bullpen if everybody plays both ways. Just sayin'. Some big news broke at the conclusion of this one. Nik Turley, a former indy ball pitcher who has been a strikeout machine this season, will be called up to make his major league debut Sunday. The 27-year-old lefty is coming off a performance in which he struck out 15 batters, 14 on swinging strikes, in six innings. Postgame With Santana Postgame With Molitor Today Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.76 ERA) at San Francisco (Jeff Samardzija, 4.29 ERA), 3:05 pm CT Getting the third out was seemingly impossible for Berrios at points last season, as opposing hitters had a 1.132 OPS off him with two down. This season? Totally different story. He has limited opponents to a .121/.216/.182 (.398 OPS) line. In just nine plate appearances, Eddie Rosario has homered off The Shark twice. AL Central Standings Twins 31-26 Cleveland 30-28 (-1.5) Detroit 29-31 (-2.5) Kansas City 26-34 (-6.5) Chicago 25-34 (-6.0) Check out the minor league report from Friday night’s action.
  17. Jermaine Palacios had himself a monster night in what is shaping out to be a special season for the Cedar Rapids shortstop. It was also a great night for Chattanooga, who pulled into a tie for their division lead as the first half is nearing a close. Find out what else happened around the Twins' minor leagues on Friday.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 9, Syracuse 3 Box Score Adam Wilk earned his first victory in the Twins organization, aided by a big day at the plate from Tommy Field. Wilk had a clean first inning, was then spotted a three-run lead, but gave it all back in the top of the second. To his credit, the 29-year-old lefty kept battling, and held Syracuse scoreless over the next four innings. Wilk ended the night having pitched six innings while giving up three runs on five hits and a walk. He struck out five. The game was tied in the bottom of the sixth when singles from Field, ByungHo Park and John Ryan Murphy produced the go-ahead run. Rochester later tacked on five runs in the eighth. Field was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, two runs and two RBI. Alan Busenitz followed Wilk with two scoreless innings before Drew Rucinski finished it off in the ninth. Zack Granite (2-for-5) had his eighth-straight multi-hit game. Mitch Garver started the game in left field, his first professional appearance in the outfield. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 7, Montgomery 4 Box Score Fernando Romero didn’t have his best stuff or command, but he was able to hold the Biscuits at bay. Romero walked five batters, but only surrendered three hits, limiting the damage to two runs over 5.2 innings. He tallied six strikeouts. Ryan Walker hit a go-ahead, bases-clearing triple in the top of the sixth. Nick Gordon was 2-for-5 with his 17th double of the season and drove in a run. Jonathan Rodriguez was 2-for-3 and drew a pair of walks. Both T.J. White and Dan Rohlfing had three hits on the evening. Montgomery scored four of about the flukiest runs you’ll ever see. The first two came on a chopper that should have been the third out of the first inning, but instead bounced off second base and into the outfield to go down as a two-run double. The last two came in the bottom of the ninth on a bases-loaded wild pitch that should have been a strikeout to end the game. Luke Bard and Mason Melotakis both recorded four strikeouts out of the bullpen. Bard pitched 2.1 innings. Melotakis technically only recorded three outs. Baseball math is funny sometimes. The win put the Lookouts in a three-way tie with Montgomery and Tennessee for the Southern League North division lead. MIRACLE MATTERS Tampa 2, Fort Myers 1 Box Score Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the ninth, the Miracle made a comeback attempt, but it fell short. The inning started with back-to-back singles from Max Murphy and Alex Perez. A couple of strikeouts were sandwiched between Trey Vavra reaching on a fielding error. The Miracle’s lone run came in on a bases-loaded wild pitch before Rafael Valera flied out to right field to end the game. Starter David Fischer went 4.2 innings, limiting the Yankees to just one run despite walking five batters. Andrew Vasquez had two strikeouts over 1.1 IP in his second appearance with Fort Myers. It was a tough night for the Miracle bats, as they managed just five hits (all singles) and a walk while striking out 11 times. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 15, Burlington 5 Box Score What’s better than hitting for the cycle? Whatever you want to call what Jermaine Palacios did Friday night. Palacios was 5-for-6 with two homers and two doubles. I suppose he “fell” a triple short of the cycle, but I’m sure he’s happy having to settled for 13 total bases on the night. Heck, let’s call that hitting a Palacios! The Kernels shortstop scored five runs and drove in three. Travis Blankenhorn was 3-for-6 with a home run. Lewin Diaz, Mitchell Kranson and Ben Rortvedt also had three hits each. Brandon Lopez had two hits, including a triple, as did Aaron Whitefield, who stole his 14th base. Clark Beeker gave up four runs but managed to pitch six innings, extending his streak of pitching six or more to seven-straight starts. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Adam Wilk (6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jermaine Palacios (5-for-6, 2 HR, 2 2B, 5 R, 3 RBI) SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Syracuse, 6:05 pm CT, Yohan Pino (4.50 ERA, 0.93 WHIP) Chattanooga at Montgomery, 6:35 pm CT, Stephen Gonsalves (2.45 ERA, 0.82 WHIP) Fort Myers vs. Tampa, 5:05 pm CT, Lachlan Wells (4.42 ERA, 1.25 WHIP) Cedar Rapids vs. Burlington, 6:35 pm CT, Eduardo Del Rosario (5.30 ERA, 1.52 WHIP) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Friday's games. Click here to view the article
  18. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 9, Syracuse 3 Box Score Adam Wilk earned his first victory in the Twins organization, aided by a big day at the plate from Tommy Field. Wilk had a clean first inning, was then spotted a three-run lead, but gave it all back in the top of the second. To his credit, the 29-year-old lefty kept battling, and held Syracuse scoreless over the next four innings. Wilk ended the night having pitched six innings while giving up three runs on five hits and a walk. He struck out five. The game was tied in the bottom of the sixth when singles from Field, ByungHo Park and John Ryan Murphy produced the go-ahead run. Rochester later tacked on five runs in the eighth. Field was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, two runs and two RBI. Alan Busenitz followed Wilk with two scoreless innings before Drew Rucinski finished it off in the ninth. Zack Granite (2-for-5) had his eighth-straight multi-hit game. Mitch Garver started the game in left field, his first professional appearance in the outfield. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 7, Montgomery 4 Box Score Fernando Romero didn’t have his best stuff or command, but he was able to hold the Biscuits at bay. Romero walked five batters, but only surrendered three hits, limiting the damage to two runs over 5.2 innings. He tallied six strikeouts. Ryan Walker hit a go-ahead, bases-clearing triple in the top of the sixth. Nick Gordon was 2-for-5 with his 17th double of the season and drove in a run. Jonathan Rodriguez was 2-for-3 and drew a pair of walks. Both T.J. White and Dan Rohlfing had three hits on the evening. Montgomery scored four of about the flukiest runs you’ll ever see. The first two came on a chopper that should have been the third out of the first inning, but instead bounced off second base and into the outfield to go down as a two-run double. The last two came in the bottom of the ninth on a bases-loaded wild pitch that should have been a strikeout to end the game. Luke Bard and Mason Melotakis both recorded four strikeouts out of the bullpen. Bard pitched 2.1 innings. Melotakis technically only recorded three outs. Baseball math is funny sometimes. The win put the Lookouts in a three-way tie with Montgomery and Tennessee for the Southern League North division lead. MIRACLE MATTERS Tampa 2, Fort Myers 1 Box Score Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the ninth, the Miracle made a comeback attempt, but it fell short. The inning started with back-to-back singles from Max Murphy and Alex Perez. A couple of strikeouts were sandwiched between Trey Vavra reaching on a fielding error. The Miracle’s lone run came in on a bases-loaded wild pitch before Rafael Valera flied out to right field to end the game. Starter David Fischer went 4.2 innings, limiting the Yankees to just one run despite walking five batters. Andrew Vasquez had two strikeouts over 1.1 IP in his second appearance with Fort Myers. It was a tough night for the Miracle bats, as they managed just five hits (all singles) and a walk while striking out 11 times. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 15, Burlington 5 Box Score What’s better than hitting for the cycle? Whatever you want to call what Jermaine Palacios did Friday night. Palacios was 5-for-6 with two homers and two doubles. I suppose he “fell” a triple short of the cycle, but I’m sure he’s happy having to settled for 13 total bases on the night. Heck, let’s call that hitting a Palacios! The Kernels shortstop scored five runs and drove in three. Travis Blankenhorn was 3-for-6 with a home run. Lewin Diaz, Mitchell Kranson and Ben Rortvedt also had three hits each. Brandon Lopez had two hits, including a triple, as did Aaron Whitefield, who stole his 14th base. Clark Beeker gave up four runs but managed to pitch six innings, extending his streak of pitching six or more to seven-straight starts. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Adam Wilk (6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jermaine Palacios (5-for-6, 2 HR, 2 2B, 5 R, 3 RBI) SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Syracuse, 6:05 pm CT, Yohan Pino (4.50 ERA, 0.93 WHIP) Chattanooga at Montgomery, 6:35 pm CT, Stephen Gonsalves (2.45 ERA, 0.82 WHIP) Fort Myers vs. Tampa, 5:05 pm CT, Lachlan Wells (4.42 ERA, 1.25 WHIP) Cedar Rapids vs. Burlington, 6:35 pm CT, Eduardo Del Rosario (5.30 ERA, 1.52 WHIP) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Friday's games.
  19. Kyle Gibson had his best outing of the year, Jason Castro homered, Brandon Kintzler got right back on the horse and the Twins out-gloved the Mariners to win late Thursday night.Twins 2, Seattle 1 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx.png Gibson kept it simple, essentially ditching everything but his two-seamer and curveball. That’s especially of note since the curve is usually Gibby’s least-used pitch (13.3 percent). Download attachment: GibsonPitches.png Image above via Baseball Savant Download attachment: Gibby2.png Image above via Brooks Baseball We’ll see whether this becomes a new trend for Kyle or if he simply had a better feel for that pitch last night than others. His catcher provided the big offensive blast of the night. Here’s a look at the Castro homer from @MLBBarrelAlert on Twitter:
  20. Twins 2, Seattle 1 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Gibson kept it simple, essentially ditching everything but his two-seamer and curveball. That’s especially of note since the curve is usually Gibby’s least-used pitch (13.3 percent). Image above via Baseball Savant Image above via Brooks Baseball We’ll see whether this becomes a new trend for Kyle or if he simply had a better feel for that pitch last night than others. His catcher provided the big offensive blast of the night. Here’s a look at the Castro homer from @MLBBarrelAlert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLBBarrelAlert/status/873014155716026368 Castro now has a 10-game hitting streak. One night after blowing the save, Brandon Kintzler was right back out there in the ninth again. He apparently heard the cries for more strikeouts, as he got Jarrod Dyson looking and Boog Powell swinging in a perfect inning. As much of a pitcher’s duel as it was, the difference of the game really came down to defense. The game-winning run scored on a pair of Robinson Cano errors on the same play in the fifth inning. Byron Buxton made an outstanding catch with two runners on to end the fifth. Taylor Rogers made a nifty snag on a comebacker to start a double play. Postgame With Kintzler Postgame With Molitor Today Twins (Ervin Santana, 2.44 ERA) at San Francisco (Matt Moore, 5.22 ERA); 9:15 p.m. CT Erv has looked a bit more human of late, posting a 4.28 ERA over his last six starts. Moore is having a rough go of it in his first full season with the Giants. What’s especially strange is lefties are killing the southpaw, hitting .385/.444/.785 (1.229 OPS) off him so far in 2017. AL Central Standings Twins 30-26 Cleveland 29-28 (-1.5) Detroit 29-30 (-2.5) Kansas City 26-33 (-5.5) Chicago 25-33 (-6.0) Be sure to also check out the Minor League Report.
  21. Ha! If they go on a 10-game losing streak or something crazy like that I'll take it as a sign from the Baseball Gods and stop. Something rattling around in my head, and it's absolutely due to hindsight being 20/20, is that Molitor could've totally just left Rogers in for the ninth inning. He had only thrown eight pitches, and two of the first three batters due up for Seattle were lefties. If there was no such thing as saves, or closers, I think that's exactly what would've happened. But "The Book" says you go to your closer there, so hard to make a case against bringing Kintzler in there.
  22. Let the hate flow through you ... LOL There were some bright spots if you're a glass half full type (Sano, Duffey, Rogers ... we'll toss Mejia in there, too). And the Mariners entered this series on a roll (this was their fifth-straight win, and they're 9-1 over their last 10), so give them some credit. But, on the other hand, the Twins have had some really ugly losses over their last 10 games. Sure, there was a nice series against a Trout-less (read: terrible) Angels team sandwiched in the middle, but if people wanna look at things with a glass half empty view, I get that too. For me, the key is avoiding the series sweep tonight. There's no shame in taking 1-of-3 at Seattle.
  23. What’s worse, getting blown out or losing on a walkoff? The past two nights against the red-hot Mariners, the Twins have managed to do both. It appeared Brandon Kintzler was on his way to securing the victory, but a two-out hit followed by Mike Zunino’s second homer of the game gave the Twins a heart-breaking loss.Seattle 6, Twins 5 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinExp67.png Top 5 Plays (via Baseball-Reference) Download attachment: Top5Plays67.png Kintzler opened the ninth by quickly getting two groundouts on seven total pitches. Ben Gamel hit a two-out single into center field on a 2-0 count to extend the game. Kintzler then fell behind Zunino 2-0, as well. Download attachment: ZuninoHR.png Image via Yahoo Sports The Star Tribune’s Phil Miller shared this interesting tidbit regarding Zunino’s two-homer game: Adalberto Mejia had a 5-2 lead as he entered the fifth inning, in which he gave up a run. In seven starts, Mejia has now factored into the decision in just two of them (1-1). Tyler Duffey gave up another run in the sixth, but managed to record seven outs. Taylor Rogers got the last two outs of the eighth, and was very impressive, topping out at 96 mph. Download attachment: Rogers67.png Image via Brooks Baseball The only Twins hitters who failed to reach base were Robbie Grossman and Byron Buxton, and the team went 3-for-4 with runners in scoring position. Miguel Sano hit his 15th home run of the season, a three-run blast (see below). The only other extra-base hit was an Ehire Adrianza double. Download attachment: SanoHR.jpg Image via ESPN’s Home Run Tracker The Twins made a number of roster moves prior to Wednesday’s game. Hector Santiago was placed on the 10-day DL and Jorge Polanco on the bereavement list. Kennys Vargas was recalled from Rochester and Chris Heston was claimed off waivers from the Dodgers. To make room on the 40 man, Nick Tepesch was released. Highlights Postgame With Molitor Today Kyle Gibson (7.23 ERA) vs. Christian Bergman (4.36 ERA) In three starts since returning from Rochester, Gibson has a 5.63 ERA. Current Mariners have hit .232./.286/.348 off Gibby, with their only home run coming from Jarrod Dyson, who has gone deep just nine times in 1,740 career PAs. The only Twins hitter who has faced Bergman, a former Rockies pitcher, is Adrianza (1-for-3). AL Central Standings 1. Twins 29-26 2. Cleveland 29-28 (-1.0) 3. Detroit 29-29 (-1.5) 4. Kansas City 26-32 (-4.5) 5. Chicago 25-32 (-5.0) Make sure to check out the Minor League Report from Wednesday’s action. And here's a link to last night's Twins Daily game thread. Click here to view the article
  24. Seattle 6, Twins 5 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Top 5 Plays (via Baseball-Reference) Kintzler opened the ninth by quickly getting two groundouts on seven total pitches. Ben Gamel hit a two-out single into center field on a 2-0 count to extend the game. Kintzler then fell behind Zunino 2-0, as well. Image via Yahoo Sports The Star Tribune’s Phil Miller shared this interesting tidbit regarding Zunino’s two-homer game: https://twitter.com/MillerStrib/status/872707782402744325 Adalberto Mejia had a 5-2 lead as he entered the fifth inning, in which he gave up a run. In seven starts, Mejia has now factored into the decision in just two of them (1-1). Tyler Duffey gave up another run in the sixth, but managed to record seven outs. Taylor Rogers got the last two outs of the eighth, and was very impressive, topping out at 96 mph. Image via Brooks Baseball The only Twins hitters who failed to reach base were Robbie Grossman and Byron Buxton, and the team went 3-for-4 with runners in scoring position. Miguel Sano hit his 15th home run of the season, a three-run blast (see below). The only other extra-base hit was an Ehire Adrianza double. Image via ESPN’s Home Run Tracker The Twins made a number of roster moves prior to Wednesday’s game. Hector Santiago was placed on the 10-day DL and Jorge Polanco on the bereavement list. Kennys Vargas was recalled from Rochester and Chris Heston was claimed off waivers from the Dodgers. To make room on the 40 man, Nick Tepesch was released. Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3OhJIEvubI Postgame With Molitor Today Kyle Gibson (7.23 ERA) vs. Christian Bergman (4.36 ERA) In three starts since returning from Rochester, Gibson has a 5.63 ERA. Current Mariners have hit .232./.286/.348 off Gibby, with their only home run coming from Jarrod Dyson, who has gone deep just nine times in 1,740 career PAs. The only Twins hitter who has faced Bergman, a former Rockies pitcher, is Adrianza (1-for-3). AL Central Standings 1. Twins 29-26 2. Cleveland 29-28 (-1.0) 3. Detroit 29-29 (-1.5) 4. Kansas City 26-32 (-4.5) 5. Chicago 25-32 (-5.0) Make sure to check out the Minor League Report from Wednesday’s action. And here's a link to last night's Twins Daily game thread.
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