yarnivek1972

That depends on how you define "expendable". If you think the Pohlads are going to eat the $35 mil or so remaining on Hughes' contract, I think you are very mistaken.

I looked at the numbers going back to 2013. Don't know if his numbers from A ball or lower have much relevance. Kind of a mixed bag. It looks like he definitely hits for more power left handed. But in some seasons he hit for a higher average right handed. That actually is the case at the MLB level. His ISO as a RHB is .150 ish and it is over .200 as a LHB. Disclaimer: BR lumps minor and major league splits together in their minor league splits page.

Maybe don't pitch him there.

Eduardo Escobar shouldn't be pinch hitting for anyone. Let alone a guy who is capable of launching one into the seats. I am quite aware that Vargas had 5 LOB. He also has has 5 HR and 15 RBI in 50 AB. He needs to keep getting his swings. Sooner or later, he'll find his right handed swing. Slot him behind Sano for an entire month and I bet good things will happen.

Paul Molitor needs to get out of his way. Pinch hitting Eduardo Escobar? REALLY??? I get Vargas has not hit LHP THIS year, but in his career that is actually his better side. Dumb. Just absolutely DUMB

I remember one game maybe 10 days or so ago. In the span of 20 minutes Vargas made two plays that it perhaps would not have surprised me to see him not make. One was a catch and tag after Sano made a bare hand pick up and throw. The other I believe was a low throw from the pitcher. No one expects Vargas to be Doug Mientkiewicz. Just make the plays he should make. If he's as good defensively as say Prince Fielder or Ryan Howard that will probably be good enough because he will hit enough to compensate for it.

Taylor Rogers needs to show he can get RHB out before being considered for a shot as a starter. He couldn't do it in the minors, which is why he was moved to the pen in the first place. In the majors, RHB have an OPS about .250 higher than LHB against Rogers. The split isn't nearly as glaring this year as it was last year, YET. But the year is young.

The Mariners didn't start their existence in the Kingdome. Lots of spring rain in Miami too. Of course, the Marlins have only been around for 25 years. Nevermind, I guess they did. The Pilots didn't play there, but that was only one season.

Maybe I should have been more specific. Are you concerned by the walk rate all of a sudden being WAY out of whack with his career? One start. Meh. Two starts. Still meh. This is 4 consecutive starts where he has walked a LOT of guys.

And therein lies the difference between players protected by the MLBPA and those who are not.

Whew

Well, the Rockies are winning time of possession.

The "wild pitch" was a strike three that bounced slightly away from Castro, but far enough to allow the runner to advance. The scorer has to rule something.

Think Robbie catches that? lol

After narrowly losing out on pitcher of the month in April, Ervin Santana has been a substantially different pitcher in May. No one expected him to finish the season with a sub 1 ERA. However, for his entire career, he's been just under 3 BB per 9 IP. In April, Ervin walked 10 over 5 starts in 35 innings, which would be slightly lower than his career BB per 9 IP. In May, he has already walked 15 over 4 starts in just 26 innings, a disturbing 5.2 BB per 9 IP - almost double his career rate. I'm not ready to stick a fork in him just yet. After all, in two of those starts, he was able to pitch around those walks and not allow any runs. In two, he was not and allowed 5 and 6 runs respectively. Clearly, no pitcher can be consistently effective at the MLB level walking 5 guys a game. If this were still April, I might chalk it up to cold weather. But, I don't believe cold weather has been an issue in any of his May starts. I did not see his start this afternoon, but did see the other 3 he made this month. A lot of those walks contained multiple pitches that were not close. Some were, of course, but many were not. I don't think he's being squeezed or "just missing" for the most part. In a lot of cases, he's missing badly. That's also disturbing. If he misses out of the strike zone badly, he could start missing IN the strike zone badly. You only need to ask Kyle Gibson what happens if you do that. The Twins are a long shot contender even if Ervin Santana pitches as well as he did last year. If he continues to walk 4-5 guys a game, the Twins have no shot. The Twins and Santana need to get on top of this before it becomes a bigger problem.

Those numbers for Vargas are better than Mauer's the last 4 years. He's the guy that should sit more.

Just curious and I only noticed because Lachlan is my guy and I had already posted in adopt. But your article said 92 pitches for Wells, while the box score said 90 even.

Think Lachlan Wells' complete game tonight will alter the rankings? Full update on Lachlan Wells, here.

Is it considered poor form to actively campaign for "my" guy to be minor league pitcher of the day? Lachlan Wells followed up a solid start last week with a complete game 4 hitter tonight against the Clearwater Threshers, leading the Fort Myers Miracle to a 3-1 victory at Hammond Stadium. Wells walked 2. It was an ominous beginning. Lead off hitter Zach Coppola doubled to lead off. A bunt and an infield ground out plated him. After the double, Wells retired 7 straight, mostly on groundouts. A one out ground ball single broke up the string in the third. A walk followed. Two more ground outs, and Wells was out of the jam. A walk by Wells in the 5th was erased attempting to steal on a strike-em-out throw-em-out double play. Wells allowed 2 singles in the 7th, but escaped the 2 on, 1 out jam by inducing a rare fly out and yet another grounder. After that one out single in the 7th, Wells retired the final 8 hitters in order, finishing the game with an impressive total of just 90 pitches. He struck out 4 and recorded 15 groundball outs. Yes, fifteen. You can get that kind of a total when you record all 27 outs. Daniel Kihle provided the offense with a 3 run HR in the 3rd. Lachlan Wells improves to 2-5 and dropped his ERA to 3.51. Here is the boxscore. Way to go Lachlan Wells!

I'm curious to what radar you are looking at. I am at weather.com. It agrees with Boof.

They said on radio that the game will not start on time.

I'm in Winona, so all I have is radar. It shows light rain at the stadium now. Future radar on weather.com shows the heavy stuff starting at about 8 and not letting up until midnight. 8. So, maybe 3 innings, if they are quick. Again, if I'm the Twins, that's the nightmare scenario. You burn Ervin for 5 days and still have to play two tomorrow.

I'm looking at future radar and it seems to show that rain intensity will heighten at about 7:15, become spotty for a bit, but then intensify for most of the rest of the night. The worst case scenario of course is having Santana start and have it washed away. Not only do you burn Ervin, now you probably have to play a DH with him starting neither game. Up until the first pitch, it's the Twins decision. If I were them, I'd postpone.

They certainly don't have any lhp that can go through an order fully. No lefty reliever they have (and that actually includes Boshers and Melotakis) that has established ability to retire right hand hitters.

That second homerun is the only HR Melotakis has allowed to a LHB in his time at AA, which goes back to 2014, pre-injury. Some 150 AB against LHB.