Tom Froemming

Here are some highlights. It was nice to see some good defensive plays by the infield and some aggressive baserunning.

Fixed.

Possibly, but if it happens that probably means something else went horribly wrong. You are correct. He has a 1.064 OPS over his last 10 games. Four homers, a triple and a pair of doubles over that stretch.

Ben Rortvedt had a four-hit game for Pensacola, including a walk-off base knock in extra innings, Lewin Diaz stayed hot, Jimmy Kerrigan slugged two homers for Rochester, Wander Javier had a couple of extra-base hits and 2019 draftee Matt Wallner had three hits for E-Town. Come see what else happened across the system Friday.TRANSACTIONS LHP Jeremy Bleich assigned to Rochester. The Twins acquired him from Boston for cash considerations. He had a 5.59 ERA and 1.50 WHIP in 19 1/3 innings with the Red Sox’s Triple-A affiliate. RHP Jonathan Cheshire assigned to Pensacola. The Twins purchased his contract from the Atlantic League’s Somerset Patriots. He had a 0.55 ERA and 6.33 K:BB ratio in 16 1/3 innings pitched this year. Cedar Rapids activated RHP Carlos Suniaga from the IL. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 4, Indianapolis 1 Box Score Adam Bray: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 70.5% strikes (31 of 44 pitches) HR: Alejandro De Aza (1), Jimmy Kerrigan 2 (6) Multi-hit games: Kerrigan (2-for-3, 2 HR), Wilin Rosario (2-for-3, BB) Adam Bray, Sam Clay and Ian Krol managed to combine to hold Indianapolis to just one run, quite an accomplishment, considering the offensive boom in Triple-A this season. Bray set the tone, giving up just a pair of hits over the first four innings. The only run he allowed was on a solo homer. Clay followed with three perfect frames before Krol struck out five batters over the final two innings. Alejandro De Aza hit his first homer since joining the system and Kimmy Kerrigan added two home runs of his own. Kerrigan already has as many homers in 20 Triple-A games (6) as he had in 47 games in Pensacola this season. BLUE WAHOO BITES Pensacola 4, Mobile 3 Box Score Charlie Barnes: 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 71.7% strikes (66 of 92 pitches) HR: Lewin Diaz (6) Multi-hit games: Ben Rortvedt (4-for-5, 2B), Diaz (3-for-4, 2B, HR, BB), Trevor Larnach (2-for-5) The Blue Wahoos scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the fifth inning thanks to a Lewin Diaz solo homer. This game remained knotted up until Ben Rortvedt walked it off in the 10th. Rortvedt had four hits and drove in a pair of runs tonight. Charlie Barnes had a great start, giving up seven hits and no walks over seven innings. He had six strikeouts and surrendered three runs, though only one was earned. Jorge Alcala followed with two perfect innings in his first appearance as a traditional reliever this season. Jovani Moran managed to navigate around the bonus runner who starts the extra innings at second base, setting up the walk off. In addition to the home run, Diaz also had a double, a single and a walk. He now has a .950 OPS in his first 32 games at the Double-A level. MIRACLE MATTERS Lakeland 6, Fort Myers 0 Box Score Blayne Enlow: 7.0 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 68.2% strikes (60 of 88 pitches) HR: None Multi-hit games: Jose Miranda (2-for-4) Miracle starter Blayne Enlow got knocked around a bit in this one, but on the positive side, he did complete seven innings for the third time this season. Moises Gomez finished things off by striking out four batters over two perfect innings. Jose Miranda had the only two Forty Myers hits on the evening, both singles. KERNELS NUGGETS Wisconsin 10, Cedar Rapids 5 Box Score Andrew Cabezas: 3.0 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 64.6% stikes (42 of 65 pitches) HR: None Multi-hit games: Wander Javier (2-for-4 2B, 3B) Rough start for Andrew Cabezas tonight. That put the Kernels in a deep hole they couldn’t dig themselves out of. Wander Javier had a big night, hitting a double and his first triple with Cedar Rapids. The Kernels entered the bottom of the ninth down 10-1, but scored three runs before the first out of the inning was recorded. It was an encouraging sign there’s still some fight left in this team. E-TWINS E-NOTES Bristol 3, Elizabethton 2 Box Score Cody Laweryson: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Matt Wallner (3-for-5, 2 2B), Charles Mack (2-for-5), Seth Gray (2-for-5), Parker Phillips (2-for-5) Elizabethton entered the top of the ninth inning trailing 3-1 but put together a nice two-out rally. Carles Mack, Seth Gray and Parker Phillips all singled, scratching across a run. That brought up Matt Wallner, who already had three hits. Unfortunately, he hit a fly out to centerfield to end the game. Sawyer Gipson-Long gave up three runs over the first two innings, but the E-Twins pitching staff was outstanding after that. Cody Laweryson came in and covered the next five innings. He struck out eight batters. Dylan Thomas pitched a scoreless ninth. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Red Sox 10, GCL Twins 4 Box Score Regi Grace: 3.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Luis Milla (2-for-3), Jake Hirabayashi (2-for-4) STARS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Cody Laweryson, Elizabethton Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Ben Rortvdet, Pensacola TOP PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Prospects performed: 1. Royce Lewis (FM): 0-for-4, E (throw) 2. Alex Kirilloff (PNS): 0-for-5, 2 K 4. Trevor Larnach (PNS): 2-for-5, 2 R, 2 K 5. Wander Javier (CR): 2-for-4, 2B, 3B, 2 R, RBI, 2 K 10. Blayne Enlow (FM): 7.0 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 68.2% strikes (60 of 88 pitches), E (pickoff) 12. Nick Gordon (ROC): 0-for-4, K 15. Matt Wallner (ELZ): 3-for-5, 2 2B, RBI (assist, threw a runner out at home) 16. Ben Rortvedt (PNS): 4-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI 18. Jorge Alcala (PNS): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 68.4% strikes (13 of 19 pitches) 19. Misael Urbina (DSL): 3-for-4, 2B, 2 3B, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Indianapolis, 6:05 pm CT (TBD) Pensacola at Jacksonville, 5:35 pm CT (Griffin Jax) Fort Myers vs. Lakeland, 5:00 pm CT (Lachlan Wells) Cedar Rapids vs. Clinton, 6:35 pm CT (TBD) Elizabethton at Bristol, 5:30 pm CT (Prelander Berroa) GCL Twins vs. GCL Red Sox, 9:00 am CT (TBD) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the games. Click here to view the article

Pitcher WAR last 365 days per FanGraphs 1. 8.4 Max Scherzer 2. 8.1 Jacob deGrom 3. 6.4 Lance Lynn and Gerrit Cole

Lynn has been one of the best, if not the best pitcher in the American League this season, bro. If being interested in him is stupid, I guess that's a trait I'm looking for in a front office. I understand that Lynn didn't endear himself to the fan base last year, but is it possible the main reason for his struggles was signing in mid-March? After all, he was a good pitcher before 2018 and is now looking really good again. There's a much larger sample of him being good than there is of him being bad. Also, he's only owed less than $20MM the next two seasons, that could be a massive bargain.

Correct. WPA is 100% based on context. Here's a breakdown of how he got there: -.025 for striking out to lead off the third inning in a 1-1 game -.025 for hitting into a fielder's choice to record the first out of the fifth inning in a 3-1 game +.002 for hitting a bases-empty double in a 9-2 game .000 for hitting a two-out, bases-empty double in a 10-2 game Once Nelson Cruz homered to put the Twins up 5-1 in the fifth, their win expectancy was already all the way up to 96.2%. Jose and Poppen pitching well ensured that number stayed very high, giving little opportunity for hitters to account for much WPA no matter what they did.

And on the defensive side, I was always taught to "peel" in a rundown situation like that. Once you get rid of the ball, you get the heck outta there. You're right, it probably was the right call by the book, I just don't recall ever seeing that before. Much more fun to be able to look back and say "hey that was weird" in a blowout victory. Thanks for the feedback. These are basically a dish I'm working on in my test kitchen right now. I'm still not sure what the right mix of ingredients is yet or if they'll ever end up as staples on the main menu, but it's fun to play around with some new flavors.

I haven't been paying attention to them specifically, but I'm not so sure Arizona sells. Looks like they actually have the third-best run differential in the NL.

Falvey has a knack for answering questions by not saying a whole lot. It can be kind of frustrating, but it's also a good trait to have in a guy running your front office. If he comes out and says the bullpen is a disaster, I don't think that's going to help him in trade negotiations. Looking back on the transactions made under this regime, most have come out of nowhere. No whispers floated out on the rumor mill prior to a deal going down. So I don't expect there will be much out there leading up to a move. Will they make a big one? Only time will tell. This front office definitely seems motivated to create a long term, sustainable winner, so that makes me feel like a Lewis/Kirilloff trade is highly unlikely, but who knows? Again, I think Falvey is very purposeful in how he communicates through the media and doesn't have any interest in tipping his hand.

As we continue to close in on the July 31 trade deadline, we'll be starting a thread each morning here at Twins Daily that focuses on a different topic. Yesterday we discussed the bullpen, today we'll shift the focus to the rotation. Should the Twins be seeking a starting pitcher?The first question I’d like to ask is should the Twins add a starting pitcher to the rotation? As of Thursday, there were 58 American League pitchers with 70 innings. In terms of FIP, Twins starters ranked 13th (Berrios), 17th (Odorizzi), 21st (Gibson), 24th (Perez) and 27th (Pineda). In other words, the entire rotation was in the top half of that sample. To put that into perspective, the Astros have three guys inside the top 27 (Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander and Brad Peacock), Cleveland has two (Shane Bieber and Trevor Bauer) and the Yankees only have one (James Paxton). Sounds really good right? I agree, however, this only tells us what has happened so far. FIP is a good predictor of future success (well, at least better than ERA), but the unknown element is whether or not the other contending teams in the AL will make significant additions to their rotations over the coming week. While the Twins rotation flexes in terms of depth, the other top teams in the AL have much more formidable pieces at the top. Can that still work? Yes, I think it can. We only need to look back to last year’s Milwaukee Brewers for proof. That team had a similar solid but unspectacular rotation that relied more on its depth. Jhoulys Chacin was the ace of that staff, though Wade Miley was very good when healthy. Neither of those guys can hold a candle to Berrios. That Milwaukee team managed to beat the Cubs in a Game 163 to take the NL Central with 96 wins. The pitching matchup was Chacin vs. Jose Quintana. The Brewers then swept the Rockies, giving up just two total runs in those three games. They even pushed the Dodgers all the way to a Game 7 in the NLCS behind a rotation of Miley, Chacin and Gio Gonzalez. The big difference is Milwaukee had an excellent bullpen, though it wasn't comprised of costly big-name arms. The Twins will need to upgrade their pitching staff, nobody is going to argue with that, but I’m not so convinced they really need to add a starter. Let me know what you think. The second thing I’d love to year your opinion on is if the Twins do acquire a starting pitcher, who gets booted to the bullpen? I think this is a tricky question. Might it actually come down to matchups? Berrios is clearly the No. 1 guy on the staff, but things get very fuzzy after that. Odorizzi went to the All-Star Game, but he has a 7.99 ERA over his past seven starts. On the other end of the spectrum, Pineda has a 2.93 ERA in his last seven outings. Gibson has been steady, but never spectacular. Perez has by far the worst WHIP on the staff, but he's also the only lefty starter. Deadline Discussion The big news of the day was that Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic confirmed the Mets are considering offers on Noah Syndergaard.Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote that "The hardest sell for the Mets baseball operations department leading up to the trade deadline is not persuading suitors to make substantial offers for Edwin Diaz and Noah Syndergaard. It will be convincing ownership to accept such a deal if it reaches a level perceived acceptable."La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune confirmed the Twins not only have interest in Snydergaard, but according to his sources, the Mets are asking for both Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff.Rosenthal also made reference to "the growing possibility" that Trevor Bauer and Matthew Boyd would not be traded in a recent piece for The Athletic.Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported that "according to a source with knowledge of the team's plans" the Giants are poised to be buyers and "it's all but certain" Madison Bumgarner will not be traded.Cody wrote about how it's important to avoid impulse trades, such as the one Pittsburgh made to acquire Chris Archer last year. Cody also tabbed Zack Greinke as the starting pitching target of his ideal deadline.Andrew took a look at what it would take to acquire Marcus Stroman and made the case that the Twins should make a deal for Mike Minor.Cooper offered up a couple of under the radar options for the rotation: Sonny Gray and Robbie Ray.Should the Twins be aggressive on the starting pitching market? Would you trade Lewis and Kirilloff for Syndergaard? Who transitions to the bullpen if there is an addition? And if you hear any more rumors today, please feel free to pass them along. Click here to view the article

Some highlights here. This was kind of a weird game. There was a strange interference call that turned a sure out into basically a leadoff double, but Jose managed to pitch around it. Anyway, all the bombas, Berrios Ks and Buxton doubles are in here if you're interested.

In my eyes, that particular Giants team is well-suited to make one last run. Why not? Will it work? Who knows, but once their rebuild starts, there's a good chance it'll be long and painful. Plus, they can just extend MadBum a qualifying offer and collect the extra draft pick, that'll help them down the road. I could see it either way, but I'd bet there are a lot more Giants fans that want them to add than there are who want them to sell.

Maybe for one of MadBum or Smith, but not the pair. It's less about the offer in a vacuum than it is about what I'd expect other teams would offer. Someone else would beat that package.

The plan is for the main topic of conversation for tomorrow's thread to be on starting pitcher, so make sure to check back in.

Yeah, I'm sad that Dyson move didn't happen at that time when it appeared the Giants had every reason to sell. Well, from the outside looking in at least. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported today that the Twins "are interested in" Daniel Hudson. Now, as evidence by my love of Oberg, I can get behind under the radar types. Hudson? No thanks. Batters are hitting the crap outta the ball against him. His exit velo and hard hit % are terrible.

I've seen all sorts of the SP/RP trade ideas -- mainly MadBum+Smith/Stroman+Giles -- but I hadn't given much thought into reliever double dip move. That intrigues me. This Kennedy+Diekman idea you have would go a long way toward fixing the pen. And I don't think the cost would be so prohibitive that it would prevent the Twins from staying in on other bigger bullpen targets as well. I'm going to sound extremely Terry Ryan right now, but if I'm in this front office I'm getting at least one reliever in hand Monday at the latest. You can't go into the final 48 hours of the deadline with nothing at all when you really need multiple upgrades. Can you imagine if everything fell through? Oof. Anyway, Sam Dyson had been the guy I really liked a lot, but now that San Francisco is over .500 and just three back in the wild card, I'm not sure he'll be available. Mychal Givens from Baltimore is now my go-to guy in that second tier of relievers who should be available. Kirby Yates from San Diego or Felipe Vazquez of Pittsburgh would be great, but I don't think either of those guys gets moved until we're within 24 hours of the deadline (but what do I know?). One last really under the radar guy I'll throw out is Scott Oberg from the Rockies. He's been a very solid pitcher for them the past two seasons, has multiple more years of team control and that team is in a tailspin right now. I'm not sure they'll necessarily be shopping him, but I think that was also the case with the Twins and Ryan Pressly last year.

Odorizzi July 19: "Pitch count being low, I would have liked to have continued, but it's not my call. There'll be a time maybe that won't be the case, but I definitely had more in the tank." Baldeilli July 24: "OK, it's time."

I think it's pretty easy to second guess any of the pitching staff management today, but it would have been very difficult to predict Smeltzer being that good and efficient against the Yankee lineup. Keep in mind Devin's last Triple-A start only lasted four innings. He walked two batters, gave up a pair of homers did not strike out a batter and surrendered four runs. This was against the Gwinnett Stripers. He was great last night. Unpredictably great.

Jake Odorizzi, Jake Cave ... it was just a bad day to be a Jake. Really missing Byron Buxton right now.

Smeltzer down ??? up. Only guy who makes even a little sense right now is Sean Poppen.

This may seem impossible, but since the All-Star break, the Brewers, Red Sox and Braves all have worse bullpen ERAs than the Twins do. You made some compelling arguments for why things have been so quiet, Seth, but I am still really surprised nothing is happening. Anywhere. With teams like Texas, San Diego, Colorado and Pittsburgh having hit some rough slumps, it feels like the group of sellers is becoming more clear. Not sure I get why the reeeealy bad teams have held so long, seems like a poor strategy, but it's very difficult to speculate on that. Definitely feels like there are a few more potential sellers and a few less potential buyers than there were just a couple weeks ago.

This game was like one giant five-hour highlight reel, so here's a focus on Cody Stashak's Major League debut. Pretty crazy to say this, but he outpitched Taylor Rogers, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino and Aroldis Chapman last night. In a game where runs were being put up on the scoreboard left and right, he managed to pitch two scoreless innings, a feat no Yankee pitcher accomplished last night.