Rosterman

Just HAD to get that extra inning out of rookie HENRIQUEZ in what had developed into a close game, eh, Rocco?

The Twins jumped Wander Javier to AAA. This is sink or keep fall for Wander. WIll the Twins see enough of him in St. Paul to add him to the 40-man, or does Wander...wander off to other psures. Palacios or Javier, that could be the question!t

If we can get some decent work out of him in the next three seasons, it will be worth it. The problem is he may be passed by so many others and never ever get anotehr chance.

I would love to see Peacock and Sisk added, in place of a couple of guys who won't be around in 2023. Could Peacock be a worthwhile piece in '23? You don't know if you don't give him a try! Here's my list of the 1`4 Twins that will probably be gone from the roster in the off-season. Do you agree? Archer, Bundy, Fulmer, Rodriguez, Romero, Sanchez, the Hamiltons (2), Sanchez the Catcher, Leon, Correa, Sano, Cave, Contreras. You alwys need a couple of bodies to move off if you sign a free agent or three. Guys on the bubble are: Coulombe, Megill, Sands, Smeltzer, Stashak, Palacios, Garlick. You make a hard decision if Thielbar will still be production in '23. You have to make arbitration decisions on Urshela and Pagan. Balazovic and Henriquez stay because they still have promise and are...young. You lose Balazovic as he will be a minor league free agent. Not alot of names to add now from the minors. Helman, Williams, Woods-Richardson, Sisk should be considered. Julien and Isola are the only possible danger guys at AA. Do you pick up Bundy's option? Go after Fulmer? Bring back Leon on a minor league contract and have him teach guys how to bunt? Is Sands a starter or a relief arm? Do you keep Coulombe and Stashak on minor league deals (and Romero, too). And, do you find a way to add Cotton to the 40-man roster...again?

THE TWINS DON'T GIVE UP. THEY DO HUSTLE AND PLAY BALL. NOT ALWAYS SMOOTH AND PRICISE, BUT THEY ARE STILL IN THE GAME. Both sides had pretty weak lineups as the game got into extra innings. I kept seeing that these are guys you like your relief pitchers to face with a runner starting on second. All the "bench" players were in the game. Cleveland pretty much blew thru their bullpen in the game. It was a godsend that the Twins did add Rodriguez, a long relief arm who could've kept going until the game ended. A heartbreaker, after the...dare we say...strange comback. Five Twins in the line-up hitting under .200 in the end. Two more on the bench after playing at some point in the game. Man, that line-up is weak. It was a nice run. Hard to believe that the Twins were dominating as the teams now ahed of them were struggling, as the Twins are doing right now. Always next year. I'm now starting to wonder who the Twins really need to add to the 40-man? Probably a catcher, although not sure if they need to add Chris Williams. The rest would comne from AA. DO they keep a space for the injured Canterinbo? Should Enlow stay? Julien added? Any of the others going to Arizona ready to be grabbed? At this point, I would swamp out a couple of arms and let Balazovic and Henriquez get a couple of major league games by season's end, especially after the St. Paul season ends. We will see.

MAN, ALMOST LET VARLAND THROW 100 PITCHES AND GO THRU THE BATTING ORDER A COMPLETE THIRD TIME. Still wonder how the Twins, sad to say, screwed up and didn't get Varland any throwing innings in St. Paul, even a two-inning stint in relief last Sunday or Tuesday. SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE A REGULAR HABIT WITH ALL THE ROTATION ARMS, RIGHT? Work that third time. Get 100 pitches. A pitcher is going to give iup hits or runs in some appearances. It is a given, folks. Just like a bullpen arm is going to make mistakes or be part of mistakes. Heck, now...if Sanchez had pitched yesterday with the same numbers, the Twins would've won the game, and all those "other" bullpen arms would be avalable fer sure today. Pagan takes the hit in the second game, September 17th prediction. I'm pretty speechless about the collapse of the Twins. Is is worthwhile to try and win second place, have more wins than losses, or just send out guys to play ball. Give situations and at bats and innings mainly to those who will be part of 2023. If throwing-in-the-towell, might as well figure out a way to let Balazovic and Henriquez get major league innings, Sands work out of the pen, and if Helman or Williams MIGHT in in the plans for 2023, bring them up at the expense of guys who won't be on the 40-man. What do the Twins have to lose?

I would love to see Peacock and Sisk up here rather than Pagan and Sanchez right now, considering Baldelli won't use either of the vets in a game...instead wearing out the good bullpen arms.

I keep thinking about the, forgive me, lame replacements we have for these three players right now on the roster, and can't wait for the return.

Okay, got a double-header tomorrow. Can pretty much use any of these guys in at least one of the games. But, Sanchez and Pagan? What are they, chopped liver? Not travelling with the team? During the Royals series they were watching games in St. Paul? Hell, with a 3-run led I would HAVE TRIED Pagan (on a very short leash). Yes, Thiebar got a bad error. But, forgive me, I love Jax...but he seems to have problems with runners on base (i.e. see the dreaded 10th inning with a runner on second). This is where you pitch Duran to get you out of the inning (if he would stop bouncing the ball). Moran was up and throwing at one point when Ober was still on the mound. I'm waiting to see the s*&tstorm of pitcher usage in tomorrow's double-header...especially if we have a couple of rookies pitch like there is no tomorrow (as Ober happily did today). The Twins had this game...and the guys they threw up a the plate in the 9th were......wait, where's Garlick? Oh, IL-list. I guess Kepler isn't worthy of being a pinch-hitter....

Question is, will Austin Martin go to AAA?

SWR is soooooo young. Between him and Ronny Henriquez, plus Balazovic, the Twins have three young studs. If they make "The Show" is the question.

You forgot Fulmer. Quite a few names that won't be here, probably, in 2023, not to mention Contrearas, Strotman. The Twins are 12-over with the 60-day IL.

This way his contract is his call. He can stay with the Twins and get paid. Maybe a return to 40-man (do the Twins then still have options)?

Randy Dobnak put on waivers to free 40-man spot. Imagine the Twins are adding back Over.

According to Darren Wolfson and others, RANDY DOBNAK has been waived off the 40-man roster. His rehad had ended and if they were forced to make a decision on his immeditae worth to the team, or remove someone from the roster. By doing so now, if he is unclaimed, he will be assigned to the minors. If they waited until the off-season, he could've declared himself a free agent. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/09/twins-place-randy-dobnak-on-outright-waivers.html Don't fret, he's not going anywhere with the contract he signed with the Twins, that carries thru 2025 with three more option years. Granted, someone might take a flyer. But if no one does, Randy stays with the Twins and in St. Paul, collecting his major league salary for a few more years. But anyone hoping to see Randy on the mound at Target Field in 2022....

The Twins shall showcase Winder, Ober and, hopefully, Varland this weekend in Cleveland (too bad they couldn't get Varland a couple of innings of throws with St. Paul on Sunday or Tuesday). One, we get to see how they fare against a farily strong line-up. I imagine the loser of the three will become long-relief in the pen. The Twins will have to make two roster moves (Sanchez and Cotton). One coming off the 40-man. Although sicne he is healthy and HAS to be out of rehab time, the Twins have to make a decision on Dobnak and the 40-man.

I IMAGINE HE WILL BE THE ADD FOR THE DOUBLE-HEADER WITH CLEVELAND, WITH THE OPTION OF SENDING HIM BACK OUT, IF NECESSARY. dDPENDING ON HOW WINDER AND OBER PITCH.

I'm not sure about the reasoning of having Moran throw 40+ pitches and the need to have one of your lefties pitch two innings. Go for the "easy" win and use anotehr arm in the 9th.

When you start lining up the Top three starters, the closer, maybe two setup guys, and the line-up. The Twins now die in holding baserunners with pitchers AND catchers. They have nothing after the first two rotation arms, but those aren't top arms. The closer has shown weakness. You may have four other decent relievers, but they can't pitch every otehr day. The outfield is in shambles. There is no bench. How do you construct this lineup (Garlick leading off, Kepler batting clean-up). Hamilton has added nothong if you can't use. In September, when you need to play the best baseball ever, playing your worst. Sigh. Big Sigh.

Twins keeping Julien at AA hoping he will escape the Rule 5. Shows the Twins system is pretty darn rich. Canterino isn't even shown here (albeit he is out, now, for a season).

No one is going anywhere. Blame it all on injuries. I would feel better if the front office wasn't so BIG on saying they were going to be competitive in 2022. They did a big overpay signing, when no other free agents would come here. But something has to be done to keep players from going down, including in the minors.

In July the Twins were 10 games above .500 in a division that you could probably win with 85 victories. It actually looked like only one team MIGHT finish above .500. Strange when you play so many games within the division. (Stranger so in the East where all but one have a winning record). The Twins lacked a #1 starter. The rotation got out-of-whack so Ryan wasn't facing the best. But didn't matter. Getting the guys to 30 starts and pushing towards 150 innings for the year was the desire. Which is prep for the NEXT season, not to be competitive this season. Always felt the Twins would burn thru an Ober and Ryan and need to reinforce with, say, a Balazovic and Sands coming in to backend the rotation. In the end, like getting a full season of work out of the staff better. Cave was sitting in St. Paul drawing a major league salary. Umpteen players are on the disabled list, also drawing major league salary and service time. Celestino needed to play at AAA a tad more. The outfield was truly broken. I never considered Lewis a given for 2023. He got his feet wet, and than the Twins - in a need to play someone anywhere but where they may be best to play - broke him. The Twins have Lopez, Duran, Moran, Jax and Thielbar doing well. But they can't pitch every other day. Moran is a lefty (as is Caleb) who can face multiple batters - a plus going into 2023. All those AAAA signings stashed at St. Paul to cycle thru in a spot or two ended up just being more and more of Cotton and Minaya, both released how many times and not able to find work elsewhere. I'm most disappointed in the marketing of the team. Pushed to break 22,000 fans regularly in a gorgeous outdoor stadium, with lots of your players, close games, and all. Maybe it was the lack of vendors! P.S. In the end, the Twins couldn't defeat one of the weakest Yankee lineups ever. Go figure! Home runs, lots of stolen bases!

I imagine it was a chance to give both guys playing time, with Lee staying for the playoffs for Cedar Rapids. Yes, often these short advancements is because of a position-to-be-filled need. Usually happeens at catcher. Kyle Schmidt was the past bouncer in the minors. This year it has been Ernie Yake and Frank Nigro.

And is Austin Martin still in the mix, perhaps? Would Lewis be a bet to play in the outfield. Who knows how durable Buxton wil

YENNIER CANO got a one game call-up by the Orioles and pitched badly. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/canoye01.shtml BEN RORTVEDT was called up by the Yankees (after spending a good aprt of the season on the IL-list) but was optioned back out with no plate appearances. BRENT ROOKER had a short stay with the Royals. Not much of a major league season for the former Twins power-hitting propect. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=rooker000bre And JUAN MINAYA was released from St. Paul, but quickly resigned by the Twins on September 7th, and then somehow ended up on the roster of the Rochester Red Wings, which is now the AAA team of the Nationals. Go figure. After three seasons, Juan escapes the Twins.