yarnivek1972

Over 30 this inning. Yuck. Zero command is what I’m seeing.

8 pitches. Likey.

Wasn’t Redmond fired the same offseason as being named MOY? Edit: I guess it was Girardi.

Thank goodness Joey Bats is no longer with the Jays.

My guess is not soon. Many reasons. One, Lynn is the first starter the current regime signed as a FA (other than Colon). Hughes is a guy they inherited. Two, Lynn has actually pitched well as recently as last year. He could still become serviceable. Three, you can’t make every struggling starter a mop up man. You hopefully only need one.

Of course, there’s 60 pitches and there is 60 high stress pitches. If he’s allowed 6 runs, good chance they’re high stress. Kinda have to take it game by game. The other school of thought is if you leave a struggling starter out there to “take one for the team”, you can wear out your position players having to stand on the field for long innings. Also, it sends the “white flag” message and your players may “check out” rather than trying to still compete in the game.

My guess is that who gets sent down will depend on who gets worked hardest Tuesday. Obvious candidates are Hildenberger, Rogers, Magill, Duffey and Curtiss in no particular order. Does Magill have an option? Not that I would be concerned about losing him. Just wondering.

At what point will people stop saying it’s early? Losing 5 of 6 to Tampa and Cincinnatti is not something a contender does.

Just because you don’t care how much Hughes (or anyone else) makes, you can be sure Jim Pohlad does. I’d say it’s pretty clear by now that the decision to not eat his salary prior to the season came from him, as I predicted in other threads.

The problem is that Duffy’s numbers were the best among the AAA relievers. And he has actually had some success at the MLB level. If his numbers didn’t translate, what does that say about the other guys down there, who have little or no MLB experience?

It’s a red later date in the yarnivek household. Mr. and Mrs. yarnivek have been working toward adopting a child or children for several years. Today we met the girl we hope to adopt for the very first time. It is going well. So, I may not be in forum much this weekend.

Maybe we should ask Jason Castro why he isn’t calling it more. He supposedly works magic with pitching staffs. That’s why he’s being paid $6 mil per year. Right?

I stopped reading after that. Not sure what Addison Reed you have been watching. Save for one pitch, he’s been pretty much lights out. He’s pitched in 11 of 20 games which is WAY too many. And already 13 IP. 20 games. 13 IP. That puts him (and Ryan Pressly btw) on pace for 105 IP. Concerning is an understatement.

btw, are we done giving credit to Castro for his handling of the pitching staff? It seems to me if some are going to give him credit when they do well, he needs to accept criticism when they do poorly. Roughly 2/3 of the staff have pitched poorly.

What would the Nat’s want for Kintzler?

Of course that happened. Why wouldn’t it?

I don’t think Sano will post a better obp than Kepler this year, or frankly any year going forward. Max looks extremely confident and comfortable at the plate. Not so much a dig on Sano. I just think Kepler will break out this year in a big way and not look back. 8 strikeouts. The only Twin with fewer is Mitch Garver with 7. He has the same number as LaMarre and Adrianza. He actually has a pretty low BABIP of .265. But that is in line with his career mark. I think the next step for him will be learning the ability to use all fields and get that BABIP closer to .300. 17 hits. 10 for extra bases. He is locked in and raking in a big way.

Sorry if you have addressed it elsewhere, but I am curious as to what you mean by this. I was exceptionally high on Chargois after 2016. I had him pegged as a potential closer someday. His 2016 MLB stats don’t LOOK that great, until you look more closely (which I did during the 2016-17 offseason). I seem to recall terrible outings in his first couple MLB appearances, but after that the numbers were pretty good. I was really disapointed when he went down last year as I felt he could really have been an impactful power arm late in games.

{begin rant} IMO, it is time to stop using the postponements as an excuse. The Twins have basically played a regular schedule for a week now. The offense has looked terrible in 5 of the 7 games. Outside of Berrios who ran into a hammer of a lineup, the starters have been beyond dreadful as a whole. Way too many pitches outside the strike zone. Way too much solid contact on balls in the zone. Twins fans may have to acknowledge that the reason Odorizzi and Lynn came so cheap is because they aren’t that good. Sure, they are better than some of the deadbeats the Twins trotted out last year like Santiago and Turley but that really isn’t saying much. Other than Reed and Pressly, the pen might be worse than last year, and that is saying something. At least last year when the Twins went to the 9th with a lead, they won nearly all the games. The Twins only hope IMO is for Erv to come back and pitch like he did last year. If he does not, the Twins will be buried by July. Here’s a serious question: Does Sano have an option remaining? Maybe a couple weeks down in Rochester will wake him up to the fact that no one is guaranteed a job at the MLB level unless they perform. I’m not questioning effort or conditioning as some here have. But the results don’t lie. The guy is not getting better. He’s getting worse. That’s a BIG problem for this organization. If he doesn’t become an upper echelon middle of the order hitter soon, the Twins chances for a championship with this core of players is next to zero IMO. Call up Petit. He’s played some 3b at the MLB level, although it might make more sense to slot him at SS and slide Escobar to 3b. It would require a 40 man move, but that’s fine. I’m more than done with the Tyler Kinley experiment. That brings up another point. As far as I can tell, the only position players on the 40 man who are not currently on the 25 man are Buxton, Cave and Granite, all of whom are outfielders. What exactly does Falvine plan to do WHEN (not IF) an infielder gets hurt? Or a catcher? I don’t think the Twins have ever not had a third catcher on the 40 man before this year. Poor roster management yet again. {end rant}

This just in: The Twins are still not close to the level of the elite teams in the AL.

We’ll hide our thermometers...

I think saying Kinley only being the mop up man means it doesn’t matter is a statement that fails to see the big picture. If someone else were in the mop up role (right now most likely Hildenberger), it would ripple through the entire pen and likely put everyone into better roles. Rogers and Duke, for example, are both being used in situations where they have to get RHB out and neither has the ability to do so. They are being used against them because they lack enough solid arms to use in higher leverage spots. Not HIGHEST leverage, just higher. Quite frankly, a team should always be looking to replace it’s worst reliever. There is no doubt that is Kinley. There is also zero doubt that the Twins have several better pitchers. Kinley hasn’t had success above A ball. The Twins have probably 20 guys that have besides those on the MLB roster. The basic job of the general manager is to put the best 25 players he can on the field. If he isn’t doing that, he is setting his team up to fail.

My wife does daycare in our home. I always get funny looks when I tell the babies that they won’t find the answers to their problems at the bottom of a bottle. Their look suggests that they strongly disagree.

So, gameday is calling these mid 70 specials by LaMarre “changeups”. Uh, I’m guessing more likely his best fastball.

Playoffs? Are you kidding me? Playoffs?