All Things 2020 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Looking to be a fun year again. Looks like a club with a lot of depth. I hope like hell they can finish the season.
 

Tonight it's Bieber with a zero ERA against Berrios with an 11 ERA. Maybe Jose can rise to the occasion.
 

Really fun to watch our bullpen.
Duffey and May look like they are about ready to tackle someone and then here comes Rodgers, cool as the underside of a pillow.
Game over.
 

golf said:
Really fun to watch our bullpen.
Duffey and May look like they are about ready to tackle someone and then here comes Rodgers, cool as the underside of a pillow.
Game over.
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I was worried Rogers would be rusty after sitting that many games. Nope. He would seem a smart candidate for an extension, even though that is usually a bad idea with relievers.
 

golf said:
Really fun to watch our bullpen.
Duffey and May look like they are about ready to tackle someone and then here comes Rodgers, cool as the underside of a pillow.
Game over.
Click to expand...
It's a deep bullpen too. Duffey, May, Romo, Clippard, and Rogers are all very reliable. And Stashak and Littell have shown they belong too (even though Littell got roughed up the other day).

By the way, Stashak has 29 strikeouts and just 1 walk in his MLB career.
 


Here we go. What comes out on top the next 4 games - their starters or our hitting/bullpen.
 

Sure hope this doesn't impact us, though it's only a matter of time.


Win Twins!!
 


Ope3 said:
I have to believe the Cleveland Baseball Team is pretty uneasy about using the same Visiting Clubhouse at Target Field.
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Sounds like they are disinfecting multiple times per day. The Twins probably have the greater exposure here.
 



Sano is off to his usual slow start and striking out 2/3 of the time again. Combined with some brutal defense last night (admittedly that was better than expected the first 4 games.) Might be time for a platoon with Gonzalez until he starts hitting.
 

as of about 1:30pm Friday, a Cleveland writer was reporting that the Indians players were meeting to discuss whether to postpone Friday night's game.

if this keeps spreading from team to team, MLB is in big trouble.
 

howeda7 said:
Sounds like they are disinfecting multiple times per day. The Twins probably have the greater exposure here.
Click to expand...

How comfortable would one be if the same Clubhouse staff working the Cleveland series also was there for St Louis?
 

Ope3 said:
How comfortable would one be if the same Clubhouse staff working the Cleveland series also was there for St Louis?
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True. I believe I read they were testing players daily but clubhouse staff only weekly which makes no sense (I may have my sports mixed up on that though.)
 



Game on, for tonight anyway.

I just enjoy every game like an In-N-Out Burger, never know when the next time will be that I get to have one.
 

Wow, the Indians' rotation is formidible. I've said it before: as long as they have that management team and (arguably) hall-of-fame manager--and same with the Twins--this is going to be a hard-knuckle rivalry.
 

Love him or hate him (and I think I know which applies for most GH'ers), he has a reasonable point worth mentioning:

https://www.startribune.com/reusse-...their-night-baseball-defy-pandemic/571975072/

Regional networks get their night baseball, defy pandemic in process
If this 60-game schedule is to be completed, the Twins will occupy nine out-of-town hotels and move in and out 11 visiting clubhouses. Why so much moving around and no bubble? Money.
...
So that question — why did baseball go this route rather than a “bubble” format?

No matter what logic might be offered, it’s this simple: night games.

The regional sports networks, or RSNs as known in the sports business, don’t want games at 11 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on a Wednesday in Milwaukee. They want three night games played all over, virus be danged.

And there is no sport more beholden to RSNs than baseball.

Much is made of MLB’s poor ratings for national telecasts, but add up 15 games on RSNs on cable, satellite or streaming services on a Wednesday night, that’s going to be a big number.
As is this: The RSNs paid $1.8 billion (low estimate) to major league teams last season, and that number was due to be $2.1 billion or larger in 2020.

The Twins are now in the low $40 millions from FSN — not large by MLB standards, but enough to make the bottom line work in a non-pandemic season.

What is the influence of those billions from the RSNs? The Twins were outdoors at Met Stadium from 1961 through 1981 and played a total of seven April night games. Cable was a rumor. You could see a Cubs game in the Scoreboard Bar, a 3.2 joint in East Bloomington, and that was about it in the late ’70s.
The Twins returned to the great outdoors in 2010. In Year 2, they played a night game on April 9, and again in 2018.

The RSNs say “Jump” and MLB teams say, “How high?” And in 2020, that has been high enough to get hit in the face with a pandemic.
 

howeda7 said:
Sano is off to his usual slow start and striking out 2/3 of the time again. Combined with some brutal defense last night (admittedly that was better than expected the first 4 games.) Might be time for a platoon with Gonzalez until he starts hitting.
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Your post was like washing the car during a drought to spur on the rain gods-Sano mashes two home runs in two at bats so far tonight, nice work Howeda!
 


MplsGopher said:
Love him or hate him (and I think I know which applies for most GH'ers), he has a reasonable point worth mentioning:

https://www.startribune.com/reusse-...their-night-baseball-defy-pandemic/571975072/

Regional networks get their night baseball, defy pandemic in process
If this 60-game schedule is to be completed, the Twins will occupy nine out-of-town hotels and move in and out 11 visiting clubhouses. Why so much moving around and no bubble? Money.
...
So that question — why did baseball go this route rather than a “bubble” format?

No matter what logic might be offered, it’s this simple: night games.

The regional sports networks, or RSNs as known in the sports business, don’t want games at 11 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on a Wednesday in Milwaukee. They want three night games played all over, virus be danged.

And there is no sport more beholden to RSNs than baseball.

Much is made of MLB’s poor ratings for national telecasts, but add up 15 games on RSNs on cable, satellite or streaming services on a Wednesday night, that’s going to be a big number.
As is this: The RSNs paid $1.8 billion (low estimate) to major league teams last season, and that number was due to be $2.1 billion or larger in 2020.

The Twins are now in the low $40 millions from FSN — not large by MLB standards, but enough to make the bottom line work in a non-pandemic season.

What is the influence of those billions from the RSNs? The Twins were outdoors at Met Stadium from 1961 through 1981 and played a total of seven April night games. Cable was a rumor. You could see a Cubs game in the Scoreboard Bar, a 3.2 joint in East Bloomington, and that was about it in the late ’70s.
The Twins returned to the great outdoors in 2010. In Year 2, they played a night game on April 9, and again in 2018.

The RSNs say “Jump” and MLB teams say, “How high?” And in 2020, that has been high enough to get hit in the face with a pandemic.
Click to expand...
He's not wrong, but neither are the RSN's. They aren't going to pay top dollar for 11 AM games on a Wednesday as most of us won't watch. If there's no one in the stands and no one watching on TV, are they playing just to play?

If they want a bubble format, they needed to find 3 locations with at least 4 stadiums each that can play simultaneously. It might be possible in SF-Oak/Chicago/NY utilizing the 2 MLB stadiums and minor league stadiums and college stadiums at Cal, Stanford and NW as others have suggested.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Wow, the Indians' rotation is formidible. I've said it before: as long as they have that management team and (arguably) hall-of-fame manager--and same with the Twins--this is going to be a hard-knuckle rivalry.
Click to expand...
Lose Kluber and Bauer from one year ago and not miss a beat.
 

Big win for the Twins tonight! Nice to see Sano come up with a few yard shots, hopefully he can pull out of his early season slump. If they can take the game tomorrow, that would be huge; taking 3 of 4 from the Tribe.

The 1st Place Minnesota Twins!
 

and the odd or interesting thing -
Twins are winning games despite the fact that Donaldson has done nothing, and now he's hurt. Garver is struggling. Sano was struggling until Saturday. Buxton got hurt and isn't hitting yet. Even Kepler has only 4 hits - albeit 3 for HR's.

So, the supposedly potent offense has yet to start clicking from top to bottom. And yet the Twins are 5-2, due in part to decent starting pitching and a lights-out bullpen.

if they can get more guys hitting at the same time, and maintain even decent pitching, that will be fun to watch.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
and the odd or interesting thing -
Twins are winning games despite the fact that Donaldson has done nothing, and now he's hurt. Garver is struggling. Sano was struggling until Saturday. Buxton got hurt and isn't hitting yet. Even Kepler has only 4 hits - albeit 3 for HR's.

So, the supposedly potent offense has yet to start clicking from top to bottom. And yet the Twins are 5-2, due in part to decent starting pitching and a lights-out bullpen.

if they can get more guys hitting at the same time, and maintain even decent pitching, that will be fun to watch.
Click to expand...
If one area was going to struggle early on, I’m glad it’s the offense because you know they’ll eventually get it figured out.

The one thing I don’t understand with the scheduling is why they aren’t playing longer series? The Twins now play 2 at home against Pittsburgh, then 2 at Pittsburgh. That makes no sense in this current situation. Play 5-game series home and away against the AL Central, then 4-game series at home against 2 in the NL Central, 4-game series on the road against 2 others, then split the 4 games with their rival (Milwaukee). Then there’s less traveling which I would think would decrease the chances of spread.
 

GophersInIowa said:
If one area was going to struggle early on, I’m glad it’s the offense because you know they’ll eventually get it figured out.

The one thing I don’t understand with the scheduling is why they aren’t playing longer series? The Twins now play 2 at home against Pittsburgh, then 2 at Pittsburgh. That makes no sense in this current situation. Play 5-game series home and away against the AL Central, then 4-game series at home against 2 in the NL Central, 4-game series on the road against 2 others, then split the 4 games with their rival (Milwaukee). Then there’s less traveling which I would think would decrease the chances of spread.
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Wonder if it has something to do with TV rights with the RSN’s? But I would assume the RSN for both teams gets to broadcast the game in those two markets.
 

MplsGopher said:
Wonder if it has something to do with TV rights with the RSN’s? But I would assume the RSN for both teams gets to broadcast the game in those two markets.
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Nothing to do with TV. They did the division schedules unbalanced and the inter-league balanced.
 

GophersInIowa said:
If one area was going to struggle early on, I’m glad it’s the offense because you know they’ll eventually get it figured out.
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Worth noting: they have a new batting coach this year. So it's not guaranteed that even the same lineup would end up with the same production as last year.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Worth noting: they have a new batting coach this year. So it's not guaranteed that even the same lineup would end up with the same production as last year.
Click to expand...
The old one is in town and we're going with a 2nd straight bullpen game. Could be dangerous. On the other hand, it's the Pirates.
 

There's a bleeping drone delay. Players were removed from the field as a drone buzzed the field.
 



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