2019 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Twins need to get to the all star break and they need it fast. They trying there best to blow the AL Central lead. only 6 up on Cleveland right now.
 

FWIW- Twins are 54-32. Indians are 48-38. each team has 76 games left.

So, if the Twins go .500 the rest of the year: 38-38 - that means the Indians would have to go 45-31 - a .592 clip - to pass the Twins. Indians are currently playing at a .558 clip.

Twins are still the favorites. Either the Twins would really have to hit the skids, or the Indians would have to play .600 ball the rest of the season.

Having said that, I think it's going to turn up the heat at least a little bit on Falvine to make some kind of a deal for pitching help in the next two or three weeks.
 

The offense has been stagnant for weeks. Time to shake it up.

Move Buxton to lead off. Buxton, Polanco, Kepler, Cruz, Rosario and fill in the rest based on who's playing.

And pull the trigger on a MadBaum/Will Smith trade ASAP.
 

howeda7 said:
The offense has been stagnant for weeks. Time to shake it up.

Move Buxton to lead off. Buxton, Polanco, Kepler, Cruz, Rosario and fill in the rest based on who's playing.

And pull the trigger on a MadBaum/Will Smith trade ASAP.
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The problem is when they aren't hitting homeruns, they suck at manufacturing runs. It's not against the law to make a productive out.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
The problem is when they aren't hitting homeruns, they suck at manufacturing runs. It's not against the law to make a productive out.
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Unfortunately, we are now in the era of the "three true outcomes." - which are the home run, a walk, or a strikeout. small ball, bunting, running, the whole "National league" style of play is vanishing in front of our eyes.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
FWIW- Twins are 54-32. Indians are 48-38. each team has 76 games left.

So, if the Twins go .500 the rest of the year: 38-38 - that means the Indians would have to go 45-31 - a .592 clip - to pass the Twins. Indians are currently playing at a .558 clip.
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The problem with your comment of Cleveland playing at a .558 clip is that is for the entire season. Obviously they are playing WELL above that clip for the last 30-45 days.

Both teams win again today, one more day to the break. Cleveland has little margin for error, which is about the best thing going for the Twins. A 4-6 game skid, or a 2-8, 3-7 ten game sting for the Indians would be awfully hard on them at any point in the next month or so.

Every series they play against the Indians is going to be huge. If they can win tomorrow, and come out of the break and take at least 2 of 3 from Cleveland to start the second half, that would sure help jump start the 2nd half
 

Twins enter the all star break with a 56-33 record. Lead the AL Central over Cleveland by 5.5 games. Loss today 4-1 to the Rangers.
 


Breakin' The Plane said:
The problem is when they aren't hitting homeruns, they suck at manufacturing runs. It's not against the law to make a productive out.
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Truer words rarely spoken. Today’s boner squandered a run we had in the bag; and in hindsight cost us the game. Just bad baseball.
And all that spitting in the dugout is simply disgusting!
 



Mejia can be out-righted now. If someone claims him, God Bless.

I'd give Cleveland even odds on winning the division.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
The problem is when they aren't hitting homeruns, they suck at manufacturing runs. It's not against the law to make a productive out.
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How did the "productive out" garbage/mantra suit us for the last 20 years under the Kelly/Gardenhire/Molitor regimes? The last thing I want to see this team is go back to the hit a double, roll one to second base to move the runner, and then try to hit a fly ball to score one run at a time. Late in the game when one run is needed to win the game, perhaps. Otherwise...no.
 

howeda7 said:
Mejia can be out-righted now. If someone claims him, God Bless.

I'd give Cleveland even odds on winning the division.
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Howie......are you making your Gopher basketball like call "division race over"?
 

golfing18now said:
Howie......are you making your Gopher basketball like call "division race over"?
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It's not that time yet. Maybe if they get swept next week-end. I do believe the same thing applies. When you have a huge lead like that, if you lose it, you're probably not getting it back.

They just need to get to 7/31 with a 4 game lead or more. The Indians schedule from mid-June through July is ridiculous. 29 of 32 against losing teams. In August it reverses.
 
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howeda7 said:
It's not that time yet. Maybe if they get swept next week-end. I do believe the same thing applies. When you have a huge lead like that, if you lose it, you're probably not getting it back.

They just need to get to 7/31 with a 4 game lead or more. The Indians schedule from mid-June through July is ridiculous. 29 of 32 against losing teams. In August it reverses.
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I agree. Truthfully, the Twins just need to find a mini-run at some point that gets them to 30 games over .500 and play .500 the rest of the way. If they do that, they will be in the play-offs one way or another with 96 wins.
 

America FYeah.....
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Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 

howeda7 said:
It's not that time yet. Maybe if they get swept next week-end. I do believe the same thing applies. When you have a huge lead like that, if you lose it, you're probably not getting it back.

They just need to get to 7/31 with a 4 game lead or more. The Indians schedule from mid-June through July is ridiculous. 29 of 32 against losing teams. In August it reverses.
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Yeah Cleveland has a stretch coming up where they play Houston, Oakland, Minnesota, Texas, Boston, and NYY in a row.
 

Sid: Twins get rested for key series at Cleveland

While Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco went 1-for-2 with an RBI single and pitcher Jose Berrios threw a scoreless inning with two strikeouts in the American League’s 4-3 win at the All-Star Game in Cleveland on Tuesday night, the rest of the Twins roster got a much needed rest.

Yes, the All-Star break came at the right time for the Twins, even if that seems odd to say for a team that is 23 games over .500 at 56-33, has the fourth-best record in baseball and is only 1 ½ games behind the Yankees for the best record in the American League.

But the team just went through a tough stretch. After its 5-4 win over the Royals on June 16, it was 47-22 and had an 11-game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central.

In their final 20 games before the break, they went 9-11 and played five extra-inning games, including a 4-3 win over the Red Sox in 17 innings and a 5-2 loss to the Rays in 18 innings.

They also dealt with injuries to Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Marwin Gonzalez, C.J. Cron, Willians Astudillo and Jake Odorizzi.

That the Twins went 9-11 while dealing with all of that facing teams such as Boston, Tampa Bay, Oakland and Texas would not have looked as bad if the Indians hadn’t gone 14-5 after June 16 and gained 5 ½ games in the standings, leaving them just 5 ½ games behind at the break.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said that kind of schedule could easily cause a slump, but he was proud that his team didn’t let that happen.

“I don’t think we were in a slump at all,” Baldelli said. “It was definitely a difficult stretch in a lot of ways. Our team, I think, is pretty resilient and has done a nice job getting through it. A difficult stretch of games and played relatively well. We will take it. Over the course of a long season you are not going to stay hot for six months. And our guys have taken a spot that could have been a very difficult time for us and turned it into a lot of positives.”

http://www.startribune.com/twins-get-rested-for-key-series-at-cleveland/512614322/

Win Twins!!
 

A big come from behind win for the Twins tonight!! A statement game.

Win Twins!!
 

BleedGopher said:
A big come from behind win for the Twins tonight!! A statement game.

Win Twins!!
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Good to see them cash in finally on one of the multiple runners on base and less than two outs situations. Thank you replay.
 

GopherJake said:
Good to see them cash in finally on one of the multiple runners on base and less than two outs situations. Thank you replay.
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I'm shocked they overturned it. Gopher football/basketball will have to pay for that.
 

The rollercoaster of comments about the Twins last night on twitter was pretty funny. There were lots of "epic failure", "they're going to get swept" and "the front office needs to be fired for not making any pitching moves" (even though hitting has been the issue as of late, not pitching) comments when they went down 3-1.
 

I was checking in on the game during the early innings and Gibson never looked confident to me. Way too much time between pitches.

Taylor Rogers was dominant. I was prepared for a sweaty, 20 minute 9th inning. He made it a snoozer.

Biggest win of the year, by a mile.
 

jamiche said:
I was checking in on the game during the early innings and Gibson never looked confident to me. Way too much time between pitches.
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The funny thing is his stuff looked really good. Lots of movement and Cleveland wasn't really hitting the ball that hard for the most part. But like you said, he just didn't look confident in his stuff for some reason. Make them beat you with their bats, especially a team like Cleveland that doesn't score a lot of runs generally.
 

Meija is DFA'd to make room on the 40-man roster for Odorizzi. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
 

Sid: Twins owner Jim Pohlad fired up - and fearful - of playoff push

Jim Pohlad took over as Twins owner in 2009, and in his 10 years of ownership he has watched the team get swept by the Yankees in the 2009 and 2010 American League Division Series and watched them lose in the American League wild-card game to those same Yankees in 2017.

He has yet to see a playoff victory.

But the first half of this season has been one of the most surprising in franchise history as the club raced off to a 56-33 record before the All-Star break and then began a key series in Cleveland with a 5-3 victory Friday.

They are on pace to match the greatest record in Twins history, 102-60 by the 1965 Minnesota Twins, who lost the World Series in seven games to the Dodgers.

Pohlad said that even he couldn’t have predicted this kind of start to the 2019 season, but that’s baseball.

“Things can change a lot in a year,” he said. “We saw it happen in ’11 [when the Twins went 63-99]. After the successful 2010 season [when the Twins went 94-68], we went the opposite way. This year it has gone the opposite way of 2018. I can’t explain it. Maybe [Chief Baseball Officer] Derek [Falvey] or [General Manager] Thad [Levine] or [President] Dave [St. Peter] or you can explain it, but I can’t.”

Even with the great start, Pohlad is no different from many Twins fans. He is concerned that the club went 9-11 over its final 20 games before the All-Star break.

“I think we all know that the season is long and there is going to be ups and downs,” Pohlad said. “I mean, am I worried? I get worried any time we lose a game, even one.”

What about the fact that the AL Central leaders started the post-break schedule with a three-game series against the second-place Indians, a team on their schedule 13 times in the second half?

“Cleveland is a great team, a great organization, and they have some great young players that are really producing for them right now,” the Twins owner said. “Maybe people didn’t think they were going to produce so quickly, but it is happening because they are such a good organization. They are definitely a competitor.”

Yes, the Twins have watched a division lead that at one point stood at 11½ games dwindle, but they still hold a division lead and are more than 20 games over .500.

http://www.startribune.com/twins-owner-jim-pohlad-fired-up-and-fearful-of-playoff-push/512687682/

Win Twins!!
 

Charley Walters: Twins aren’t interested in short-term rentals

Although the division-leading Minnesota Twins continue their hunt for improved pitching for the second half of the season, it doesn’t appear that they’re much interested in rental players. The Twins are more focused on pitchers whose contracts they can control for at least one year.

That would include Toronto starter Marcus Stroman and closer Ken Giles, both 28 years old and both salary arbitration eligible next season. That would seem to eliminate rental starter Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants. Bumgarner, 29, pitching for $12 million this season, definitely will be traded and can become a free agent after the season.

The Twins also are seriously considering pitching from within their minor league system. That would be starters who would move to the bullpen in the major leagues. Included would be Lewis Thorpe, the big Australian left-hander who struck out seven in five innings against the Chicago White Sox in his recent major league debut, then was dispatched back to Class AAA Rochester, as well as lefty Devin Smeltzer, who pitched six scoreless innings in his debut against Milwaukee and is back at Rochester.

It’s not necessarily Triple-A pitchers the Twins are considering, either. They could reach to Double-A and even high-A for help. Those would be pitchers with fastballs in the mid-to-high 90s-mph range.

Byron Buxton’s hitting philosophy?

“Don’t try to hit the ball over the fence, try to hit it through the fence,” the Twins’ center fielder said. “It’s a mindset to stay through the ball longer. If you try to hit homers, it doesn’t happen. It’s just something that triggers me to stay within myself.”

Buxton has nine homers while hitting .253.

https://www.twincities.com/2019/07/13/charley-walters-twins-arent-interested-in-short-term-rentals/

Win Twins!!
 

Twins pick up the second win in a row at Cleveland, with Berrios pitching tomorrow. A sweep sure would be something!

Win Twins!!
 

ESPN: Kepler homers in 5 straight at-bats vs. Bauer

Max Kepler has Trevor Bauer's number.

Kepler connected for home runs his first two times up Saturday night against Cleveland's hard-throwing starter, giving the Minnesota outfielder five homers in his past five at-bats against the right-hander.

Kepler homered three times off Bauer in Minnesota's win on June 6, while also drawing a walk.

He made it four homers in four straight at-bats with a leadoff shot Saturday night, then connected in the second inning, one batter after rookie Jake Cave homered off Bauer.

Bauer finally got the best of Kepler in the fourth, striking him out, but only after Kepler hit a deep foul ball into the upper deck in right. He finished the night 2 for 5 as the Twins beat the Indians, 6-2, to move 7½ games ahead of Cleveland in the AL Central.

According to Elias Sports Bureau research, Kepler matched the longest streak in the expansion era for homers in consecutive at-bats against one pitcher. Carlos Delgado did it against Jorge Sosa (2003-04), and Frank Howard connected against Bob Hendley (1963-64).

Kepler has 13 career homers against the Indians, including 11 at Progressive Field.

He also had a three-homer game in Cleveland as a rookie in 2016.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27183735/kepler-homers-5-straight-bats-vs-bauer

Win Twins!!
 

Nice win. But the fact that they used Rodgers 2 innings last night and with a 4 run lead tonight speaks volumes. They need 2 relievers badly, even if they're rentals.
 

BleedGopher said:
Twins pick up the second win in a row at Cleveland, with Berrios pitching tomorrow. A sweep sure would be something!

Win Twins!!
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Huge win! Going in, I thought one was important, two would be fantastic. A sweep would be incredible, and would definitely break the hearts of some Tribe followers and hopefully a few in their clubhouse
 

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