bighat

He could be scary good - alas, by reaching his potential at an older age, the Twins may not be able to extend/sign Bux for the future and another team will reap the benefits. I've always worried that Bux would reach his true potential with another team. That said let's enjoy the heck out of it. Even when healthy, his bat was still a question mark. It appears that's no longer the case. If Bux is healthy, he's a good bat to have in the lineup. Particularly love that he struck out 3 times on Monday, but came back to go 3-for-4 the very next day on three singles. That quick rebound was unheard of before.

This is like what, the Twins' 3rd bullpen game of the year? Hill and Bailey, were encouraging in their only outings but c'mon, WTF already. I'm not panicking, with half the teams making the playoffs and every team getting a 3-game series right out of the gate in the playoffs, the Twins have as good of a chance as anyone of getting hot at the right time. But this team is far from dominant. Lots of holes.

This is a good point. I am okay with a change. To me, I like the overall theme of the logo (two baseball players shaking hands over the river) and I hope that stays. No biggie if they want to make the race of the players Latino, Black, Brown or Green. All good.

If Donaldson doesn't rebound, Adrianza is going to be our 3rd baseman with Marwin still filling his role of playing everywhere (including spelling Sano who is striking out at his old-fashioned alarming rate). This new guy can spell Adrianza and Arraez once per week. The other 4-5 teams who were in on the Donaldson bidding war are feeling VERY relieved they backed out. It's still early in his contract but so far, a big dud.

Another one-inning-wonder for the Twins. They seem to score maybe 1 or 2 innings per game max, and they never tack on runs late in a ballgame. That said, a much-needed win. Eddie has had a GREAT year so far, and so has Randy Dobnak. Nice to see Rogers come back after the blown save with a nice inning as well. Let's take 2 of 3 in MIL.

Two words: La Tortuga.

Bingo. So why not wait until 2021? The Cardinals have played 5 games so far. FIVE. There are several other teams that have been affected by this virus. Let's say you trade Royce Lewis for Dylan Bundy (okay, that would never happen but let's just say that it does). A week later, the entire team comes down with Covid-19 and are placed in quarantine.....and oh yeah, it's the PLAYOFFS. So what happens? Is the league going to wait for 3 weeks to start the playoffs because the Twins are sick? No. They'll be DQ'ed. 2020 should be treated as a year where you play the hand you were dealt. Do NOT give up anything of value to help you this year only. Absolute waste.

THE BRIGHT SIDE: It stings losing three in a row, but as others have said, 10-5 is still where the Twins are sitting right now. If you look at this from another perspective, here's a quote about the Twins from the STL newspaper website, as they're discussing the Cardinals 5 total games played this season: "Their only other games were two losses to the AL Central leading Twins, a powerhouse team that is once again running away with its division." That was written last night, after the Twins 3rd straight loss. Yes, Minnesota is still considered a "powerhouse" by most people on the outside looking in. I didn't expect much out of Jake last night. Happy to have the guy back, hopefully this was just shaking off rust. Two words: Byron Buxton. THE BAD SIDE: Rocco's carefree managing style is bugging me. Resting the "A" team (Cruz and Arraez Friday, Polanco Saturday) and rolling out Poppen, Wisler, Thorpe, Smeltzer, and Theilbar this series. Earth to Rocco. These games count, Rocco! You don't get more points for beating Cleveland. Garver's just looking awful in every way right now. We all want him to succeed but it might be time to start curbing our expectations a bit. League appears to have figured him out OR he's just lost whatever mojo he had last year. Looks to be a shell of his former self in every aspect. Possible one-season wonder. Time to give Avila the reins and bring in Astudillo to take some more of Garv's at bats away.

Hope you're right! Yeah I was just looking at worse-case scenarios there. I think Mitch is good enough to figure it out, but it's really hard to watch when a guy like that just looks lost at the plate. As you mentioned, the entire offense is struggling - which I think puts more pressure on everyone, and as fans we all probably find it easier to groan a bit louder at the guys who haven't contributed yet.

After last night against the Royals (where Garver struck out in the 9th on 3 straight pitches without swinging), Mitch is now batting .111 with 13 strikeouts in 27 at-bats. He's striking out half the time, and only has 3 hits all year. I'm worried, yeah. Garver has 2020 to figure this out and he probably will only play in 30 more games this season, max. He doesn't get things fixed, he's looking at becoming a clear-cut backup moving forward, maybe a platoon right-handed hitting catcher who just plays against left-handed pitching. A stat-line of .224 with 6 HR and 21 RBI might be a typical season for Mitch over the next few years as he bounces around trying to find work before retiring and heading back to coach in New Mex.

Twins pitched Smelzter, Theilbar, Wisler and Poppen. Read that again. Smeltzer, Theilbar, Wisler and Poppen....and they somehow held a team to 3 runs! And the Twins LOST because they couldn't score off Jake Junis and Greg Holland. Yuck. Donaldson going to the IL and won't be back for probably 2 more weeks. Completely disappointing, no sugar-coating it. This is why other teams wouldn't give him 4 years, and it didn't even take 2 weeks for the Twins to get stung by this guy. Sure he's a good guy, a great player, and a solid veteran presence. Doesn't mean we can't be disappointed in what's happened so far with him. Sano is striking out 50% of the time and he's hitting .135 now. I know some people like to save this kind of comment and wait until he hits a home run and say "are you bashing him NOW?" - well, no, I wouldn't be. I would be cheering like any Twins fan. But his numbers speak for themselves, they're frankly among the worst in the entire league at this time. These giveaway games are annoying. But hey, half the league is going to make the playoffs, and there's really nothing major to gain from having the best record. The Twins may not win the division and it's going to be Chicago, not Cleveland, that finishes in 1st.... Good news: Hey how about Byron Buxton, folks! He's trying to carry this offense the past few games, at least someone's out there hitting.

From the "Nobody Cares About Your Fantasy Team" files: I have Maeda and Rogers on my fantasy team. Not only did Rogers get the loss AND blow the save, but he cost Maeda a win. And the Twins lost. Gutted! The bright spot was that this all happened during the day while we were at work, so by bedtime I was over it. This would have been tough to swallow for fans if it were 10:00pm. Honestly this was just a "that's baseball" loss. Those three balls hit against Rogers were seeing-eye grounders. Maybe if Donaldson's at 3rd base he makes the play on that Reynolds double, being a veteran he may have guarded the line closer.

No Sano, no Buxton, no Donaldson. Is the lineup better with Gonzalez, Cave, and Adrianza right now?

They were 3rd last week too!

Honestly there really doesn't seem to be a plan - now I could be wrong, but it's just the vibe I'm getting. I'm getting the feeling that MLB is just thinking "Hmmm, this is not good. Welp, let's see what happens".

Twins on pace to go 48-12 here. Look on the bright side: if the season is cancelled the Twins won't have to face the Yankees, and we can grow old spinning yarns about how the 2020 World Series championship was stolen by a virus. OR maybe if we get through all 60 games, MLB will take notes from the EPL and just give the title to the regular season champ!

Gotta tell ya what, boys: Looks like the only thing this team has to worry about is the Coronavirus, 'cause there isn't another team in this whole Central League/Division that's going to give the Twins too much trouble this season. Playoffs is another story. But yep, they are who we thought they were.

Hit the bullseye - the MLB came up with all of these safety nets so that they could play through a clubhouse spread of this virus. And now, instead of using the fire escape they built, they're panicking and making things worse. Know what shoulda happened? Every team should have had an entire 30-man "B Squad" that practiced and played simulated games in a bubble. Positive test on the "A Squad"? They're all subbed out, and - in the case of the Cardinals, for example - the B Squad flies to Milwaukee and plays the Brewers. You could have a lot of good AAA guys who could stay sharp that way. And the season could roll on. Yeah, I'm sure there would be some issues with service time and all the money and 40-man roster stuff would have to have been hashed out. But honestly this would have been the best idea.

So the risk of bringing Donaldson on board was due to calf injury problems, and he exited last night because of a calf injury. Yeesh. The Twins have a deep lineup and they also have a history of really shutting guys down at the slightest hint of injury (see: Buxton, Byron). I'd imagine we won't see Josh in the lineup for at least a week if not more. Great job Dobnak, what a luxury having this guy as the 6th starter who can fill in for anyone. The Twins may lose a couple pitchers to free agency and he's looking like he could be a real part of the rotation in the future. Avila outplaying Garver so far and it's not even close.

No Bux in the lineup eh?

I'll say this regarding some of the statements on the thread: 1. I think the "bubble concept" was impossible with MLB. The outdoor Spring Training sites are in Florida and Arizona, it's like 100 degrees there and if you're playing 3-4 games per stadium in areas like that, you've got lots of day games in unbearable heat. Sure, you could have picked 5 "regional sites" and just gone from there, but at that point you've only got like six teams playing each other all year. Baseball tried to do their best to have ACTUAL BASEBALL. The NBA is hosting a tournament, it's not even the same. 2. "Multiple Cardinals" really just means "two players". That's it. This isn't a Marlins situation. At least not yet, so let's pump the brakes on whether or not there's some kind of outbreak. 3. This is what the MLB bargained for when they set the season in place. They have disinfected clubhouses, they have players wearing masks, half the team isn't in the dugout, and they've got guys on a taxi squad so players can be replaced quickly. BUT they seem to not want to just let the wheels turn with the current system. I think reporters/media love to break this type of news and add about five exclamation points - BREAKING NEWS!!! like some kind of asteroid is on the way. Mass panic. ESPN does a full day of coverage. It's almost like if the Indians choose to play tonight, they are going to be considered reckless. 4. Should baseball just fold? Give up? Frankly I think they could power through if they were a bit less image-conscious and a bit more about playing ball. But like anything else right now, this is going to come down to Public Relations. Nobody wants to look like they're taunting the Boogeyman right now.

Locker rooms are disinfected - thus, if done properly, no Cleveland Indian should be worried about contracting Covid-19 from anyone on the Cardinals roster. Period. Game should be played - otherwise, if this is going to be PPD, just cancel the season.

2019 stats: Berrios started 32 games, tied for 3rd in the American League.Berrios had 200 IP which was good for 8th in the AL.Berrios ranked 4th in the AL with 21 Quality Starts (behind Verlander, Cole, and Bieber)Ranked 11th in the AL with 195 strikeouts. Do you know how many teams would KILL for a guy like that? Do you know how many teams in the American League even have a pitcher like this on their roster? If he were traded to any of the other 29 teams in the league, he'd be the #1 starter on like 75% of those teams. Is he Verlander? Cole? Kershaw? No, he's not. But those guys are Hall of Famers and only come along once in a lifetime. For all the Berrios bashers out there - what can he do to make you happy? Back-to-back complete game no-hitters? Look back at the numbers above, what's not to like?

Batting average basement dwellers: Sano .059 (1 hit, 8 Ks) Donaldson .143 (3 hits, 7 Ks) Garver .154 (2 hits, 8Ks) A total of 2 extra base hits between them. And they're not really having tough luck, their ABs and situational awareness at the plate has been awful. Yes it's early - does that mean we can't be disappointed?

Rogers looked VERY sharp. LaVelle E. Neal said on Twitter that getting 5 innings from Hill in a good appearance is all we should really expect at this point. He's got some mileage but he can still get it done and he did so last night. Watching Ponce de Leon pitch in those first two innings was painful. I am totally against a pitch clock, but then you see guys like that and you understand why it's under consideration. Cards can't be too happy leaving MPLS with 3 total runs after facing Homer Bailey and Rich Hill. Woof. The White Sox looked like a much more complete team than St. Louis IMO. Big series coming up.