Darius

Come on, Joe.

I thought Dozier would be all over that 2-0 fastball down Broadway. Good AB. Mauer v. Chapman w/ bases juiced and 1 down in the 8th, down a run, in a Wild Card battle. Does it get any better than this in the regular season?

True.

Gardner is putting on a baserunning clinic.

I'd take it. They have like 7 guys that would be our best reliever.

Garcia hasn't gone 6 with the Yanks.

That Yankee bullpen is absurd.

Ok, you're right, Dave. GarciaforCyYoung.jpg

You literally just used an even smaller sample size. lol. This guy.

Doesn't count, apparently. He's been masterful since the trade (if you subtract out half of his innings).

We can use whichever stat and sample size fits your narrative. DFA Rosario!

You do realize that Garcia has been awful since the trade, right? Or, do you really think the Twins would be getting this from him every night. DFA Rosario!

Fitting that the best start of his career will come against us tonight.

This team needs to learn how to fundamentally move runners over and take advantage of RISP and no outs. Cue pithy "troll" comments.

I think Escobar has done enough to show that he can play at this point. My only hesitation would be wanting to get Escobar a full-time position, as opposed to sitting on the bench 50% of the time in a utility role.

Donaldson is making like $20 mil per year, maybe slightly less (top of my head). Zero percent chance the Twins take on a contract like that, nor should they for a 33 year old on the downslope, IMO. Also, they're pretty similar hitters. Big power numbers, high on-base. Sano Ks more, but Donaldson Ks enough in his own right. Defensively, Donaldson has the edge. Overall, Donaldson is about 1 WAR better than Sano this year. Sano is much younger, much cheaper, under team control for the foreseeable future, and IMO will get even better. 1 win for a huge salary difference, that could return a serviceable starter AND a solid bullpen peice, just doesn't add up. That would be an awful trade. Then, as we watch Donaldson decline, or worse (retire, leave via free agency, etc), we get to watch Sano be one of the elite hitters on earth for the next decade. So far this year, I've seen: Calls to outright Gibson. He's carried the rotation since the end of July. Calls to trade Rosario for whatever pitching they can get. He's one of best LF in the AL, and has been one of the best hitters in the game since before the All-Star break (this take was on Sept 7, mind you, which is hilarious). Throw in the typical Mauer takes to frost th cake. And, the best of all. The high-end certifiable institutionalizeable take: for Granite to replace Buxton,and trade Buxton for whatever they can get at his lowest point. Buxton turned around to be a top 5 position player in baseball since July 4. I feel pretty good about what Sano will do going forward now that we got the first "He's a bum, get rid of him" take out of the way.

Molly just said in MLB Network that "he's not encouraged," and "getting him back at this point would be a bonus, not something I'm counting on." It's always something as an MN sports fan. Having him at DH would make this arguably the best lineup in the AL.

Bad news: Molitor just said on MLB Network that he's "not as encouraged" as he was at one point in the Sano injury, and that "it just doesn't seem to heal." He also stated "getting him back would be a bonus, but I'm not counting on it." Not exact quotes, but paraphrased from memory. Might be a little off.

It's is amazing. Most of these guys carrying the team were players that a lot of fans thought the FO needs to dump ASAP (Rosario, Buxton, Polanco, Mauer, Gibson, etc).

They got some good run out of Colon, I think it's over.

So who will be the head scratching PH in the 9th? Adrianza? Goodrum?

Tough way to give up that run after a great job.

Its scary to think of how good Buxton could be right now if he were healthy. What a gamer for gutting through a very painful injury. So, is there a reason why Sano can't DH and do the same? Sounds like he's got a sore shin. No structural damage that could be furthered by playing through it down the stretch? How badly does he really want to be out there? All honest questions, not casting stones (as I don't know what's actually going on). I heard Richard say on the telecast recently something to the effect of, "they will evaluate him, and if they're convinced he's ready....or more like convince him that he's ready...he'll resume blah blah blah." It was a little curious to me that he went out of his way to correct the wording to indicate it's Sano that has to be convinced and not the training staff/team management. Something about that whole situation just seems a little off to me. Anyone have any insight?

Can't forget Gibson either.

Back-to-back games with walk off home runs. Unreal. Rosario and Buxton were two guys who some (if not many) wanted to get rid of (for Granite, trade, etc), and those two have pulled this team from the grave and into the playoffs. What a year.