All Things 2024 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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On what Dick Bremer later called "one of the most enjoyable nights ever at Target Field," childhood cancer survivor Devin Smeltzer pitched six shutout innings in his major league debut on this date in 2019. He threw 69 pitches—53 for strikes.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
He has helped the team so much this year.

Gotta keep him at 3B though, he stays so healthy there.
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He pretty much single-handedly broke an 18 game play-off losing streak last year. But just think of the prospects we could get...

I don't particularly care whether he plays 3B and he's not more likely to get hurt playing LF, but you don't ask one of your best players coming back off an injury to switch positions. There's plenty of ways to keep Miranda in the line-up and he's not that great at 3B. He can either DH or play 1st with Kiriloff moving to LF etc.
 

howeda7 said:
He pretty much single-handedly broke an 18 game play-off losing streak last year. But just think of the prospects we could get...

I don't particularly care whether he plays 3B and he's not more likely to get hurt playing LF, but you don't ask one of your best players coming back off an injury to switch positions. There's plenty of ways to keep Miranda in the line-up and he's not that great at 3B. He can either DH or play 1st with Kiriloff moving to LF etc.
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Did we win a championship? And my whole point to trading Lewis is that he’s basically still a top tier prospect. I wouldn’t trade him for more prospects, I’d trade him for an OF or a SP who would play immediately. Similar to Arraez for Lopez.

Kirilloff is also a terrible OF and shouldn’t be playing there.
 
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howeda7 said:
He pretty much single-handedly broke an 18 game play-off losing streak last year. But just think of the prospects we could get...

I don't particularly care whether he plays 3B and he's not more likely to get hurt playing LF, but you don't ask one of your best players coming back off an injury to switch positions. There's plenty of ways to keep Miranda in the line-up and he's not that great at 3B. He can either DH or play 1st with Kiriloff moving to LF etc.
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We can afford to trade Royce with Steer and Encarnacion-Strand in our prospect pipeline.
 

some injury/minor league notes from the Strib:

Twins prospect Brooks Lee had his rehab assignment transferred to Class A Fort Myers on Monday after playing five games in the Florida Complex League. Lee had nine hits in 20 at-bats with two doubles, a walk and two strikeouts. He could join St. Paul as early as next week.

• Pitcher Josh Winder, who was sidelined in spring training because of a scapular stress fracture, formally had his rehab assignment ended Monday and he was optioned to Class AAA.

• The Twins promoted 2023 second-round pick Luke Keaschall to Class AA on Monday. Keaschall, 21, batted .335 with seven homers, 12 doubles and 21 RBI in 44 games at Class A-Advanced Cedar Rapids with more walks (30) than strikeouts (29). He added 14 stolen bases in 15 attempts.

Keaschall is listed as a 2nd-baseman. Bats right-handed.
 


TRF Guy said:
On what Dick Bremer later called "one of the most enjoyable nights ever at Target Field," childhood cancer survivor Devin Smeltzer pitched six shutout innings in his major league debut on this date in 2019. He threw 69 pitches—53 for strikes.
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He’s still only 28 years olds and per baseball reference page, he’s in the Marlins farm system. He still has a career MLB record of 9-5!

These types of stories are why baseball was and always will be my favorite sport.

www.baseball-reference.com

Devin Smeltzer Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Devin Smeltzer. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
 


TNGophfan said:
4 of 9 starters tonight at or below Mendoza line. I really hate this all right handed line-up while you leave your arguably best hitter (Kepler) on the bench.
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I get platooning Julien and maybe Kiriloff. Sitting Kepler all the time for Margot is just moronic.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
some injury/minor league notes from the Strib:

Twins prospect Brooks Lee had his rehab assignment transferred to Class A Fort Myers on Monday after playing five games in the Florida Complex League. Lee had nine hits in 20 at-bats with two doubles, a walk and two strikeouts. He could join St. Paul as early as next week.

• Pitcher Josh Winder, who was sidelined in spring training because of a scapular stress fracture, formally had his rehab assignment ended Monday and he was optioned to Class AAA.

• The Twins promoted 2023 second-round pick Luke Keaschall to Class AA on Monday. Keaschall, 21, batted .335 with seven homers, 12 doubles and 21 RBI in 44 games at Class A-Advanced Cedar Rapids with more walks (30) than strikeouts (29). He added 14 stolen bases in 15 attempts.

Keaschall is listed as a 2nd-baseman. Bats right-handed.
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Keaschall has played some OF in college and in the minors as well.
 





GopherVotary said:
Nice win against KC tonight. Correa with several solid defensive plays, another good start by SWR, four shutout innings from the bullpen, and a key manufactured run to add insurance in the 8th.
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The Vasquez > Correa caught stealing play in the 9th was sweet. Huge.
 

read a long article in The Athletic on the integration (sorry, bad pun) of Negro League stats into the official MLB database. this was done after a butt-load of research.

at this point, the researchers believe they have documented roughly 75% of all regular-season Negro League games with verifiable box scores. they are still trying to find more box scores to fill out the database. it is complicated by the fact that Negro League schedules were somewhat flexible. teams would play "league" games and exhibition games back-to-back, along with barnstorming games against local teams. they only count games where a box score can be verified. for some games, they have found newspaper reports and summaries, but without a box score. so they found a story claiming that Josh Gibson hit 4 HR in a game, but without a box score, they won't count that as official.

I have a book called "Only the Ball was White." it is a very interesting history of the Negro Leagues by Robert W. Peterson, originally published in 1970. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but a quick check of some used book resale sites like ThriftBooks shows that copies are available.
 



Senators slugger Harmon Killebrew shakes hands with President Dwight D. Eisenhower on this date in 1959.

Killebrew homered and scored three runs in the game, including the winning run on Hal Naragon's walk-off single in the ninth.
IMG_6449.jpeg
 

Here’s a good article from MLB regarding the addition of the Negro league stats.

A couple of interesting tidbits from the article -

Josh Gibson, the legendary catcher and power hitter who played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, is now MLB’s all-time leader in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS and holds the all-time single-season records in each of those categories.

“As Bart Giamatti, former Commissioner of Baseball, once said, ‘We must never lose sight of our history, insofar as it is ugly, never to repeat it, and insofar as it is glorious, to cherish it.” [You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free]





www.mlb.com

What to know about Negro Leagues stats entering MLB record

Major League Baseball’s embrace of the Negro Leagues is now recognized in the record book, resulting in new-look leaderboards fronted in several prominent places by Hall of Famer Josh Gibson and an overdue appreciation of many other Black stars. Following the 2020 announcement that seven...
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Here’s a good article from MLB regarding the addition of the Negro league stats.

A couple of interesting tidbits from the article -

Josh Gibson, the legendary catcher and power hitter who played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, is now MLB’s all-time leader in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS and holds the all-time single-season records in each of those categories.

“As Bart Giamatti, former Commissioner of Baseball, once said, ‘We must never lose sight of our history, insofar as it is ugly, never to repeat it, and insofar as it is glorious, to cherish it.” [You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free]





www.mlb.com

What to know about Negro Leagues stats entering MLB record

Major League Baseball’s embrace of the Negro Leagues is now recognized in the record book, resulting in new-look leaderboards fronted in several prominent places by Hall of Famer Josh Gibson and an overdue appreciation of many other Black stars. Following the 2020 announcement that seven...
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com
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Maybe I'm off the mark but integrating these stats feels like more of an attempt to lose sight of that ugly history. It's also just stupid for a lot of other reasons, but whatever.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Maybe I'm off the mark but integrating these stats feels like more of an attempt to lose sight of that ugly history. It's also just stupid for a lot of other reasons, but whatever.
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I think it opens them up to more baseball fans, especially causal, and celebrates their achievements; it would be interesting to see how many more searches are conducted for Gibson, Cool Papa Bell etc… from this date moving forward.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Maybe I'm off the mark but integrating these stats feels like more of an attempt to lose sight of that ugly history. It's also just stupid for a lot of other reasons, but whatever.
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I was probably 7 or 8 years old when I first heard of Josh Gibson and the incredible stats he put up in the Negro League. I can remember very specifically wondering why Josh never "decided" to play in MLB with the rest of the stars of the game.

Youthful ignorance to the realities of American society and it's history sure was easier and more enjoyable than adulthood awakenings.
 

GopherVotary said:
Nice win against KC tonight. Correa with several solid defensive plays, another good start by SWR, four shutout innings from the bullpen, and a key manufactured run to add insurance in the 8th.
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From what I saw of him last year with his brief MLB stint and in the minors, I rolled my eyes pretty hard when reading that he was being counted on for depth at SP. But he's been as solid as you can expect a young pitcher to be at the back of the rotation. I still think they're in big, big trouble if they lose another starter to injury or ineffectiveness, but SWR and Miranda rebounding after a rotten 2023 are the two most pleasant surprises through two months.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
From what I saw of him last year with his brief MLB stint and in the minors, I rolled my eyes pretty hard when reading that he was being counted on for depth at SP. But he's been as solid as you can expect a young pitcher to be at the back of the rotation. I still think they're in big, big trouble if they lose another starter to injury or ineffectiveness, but SWR and Miranda rebounding after a rotten 2023 are the two most pleasant surprises through two months.
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They worked in the offseason on changing his arm slot and its resulted in adding couple miles an hour more to his fastball and it’s made him much more formidable, amazing what an adjustment like that can do.
 

I think - (could be wrong) - that the Negro League stats will be perceived in much the same way that Barry Bonds' HR record is perceived.

Some people accept Bonds as the HR record holder. Other see Bonds as tainted by PED's and still consider Hank Aaron the "true" HR record holder.

Likewise, some people will accept the Negro League stats as legitimate, while others will not regard those stats as legitimate, and will continue to consider the traditional MLB stat leaders as the true leaders.

I would feel better if the Negro League stats were complete. It feels to me as if they're asking us to accept those stats based on incomplete data. but I readily acknowledge the greatness of those players. there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from former MLB players who saw the Negro League players in action and played against them in exhibitions.
 

You won’t see a better catch in the outfield by SS than Correra just made against Frazier in left field 😮😮😮😮
 
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Instead of obsessing over lefty/righty matchups,maybe set up your rotation so Ober doesn't have to face the Royals. Good grief.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
I think - (could be wrong) - that the Negro League stats will be perceived in much the same way that Barry Bonds' HR record is perceived.

Some people accept Bonds as the HR record holder. Other see Bonds as tainted by PED's and still consider Hank Aaron the "true" HR record holder.

Likewise, some people will accept the Negro League stats as legitimate, while others will not regard those stats as legitimate, and will continue to consider the traditional MLB stat leaders as the true leaders.

I would feel better if the Negro League stats were complete. It feels to me as if they're asking us to accept those stats based on incomplete data. but I readily acknowledge the greatness of those players. there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from former MLB players who saw the Negro League players in action and played against them in exhibitions.
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According to what I read, only verifiable box scores were used to compile the data. What took so long was separating the barnstorming games and all-star games (which didn't count) from the league games (which did count). NPR had a story on this on "All thing Considered" on Tuesday.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
You won’t see a better catch in the outfield by SS than Correra just made against Frazier in left field 😮😮😮😮
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I made my first appearance at Target Field. That was the highlight. Wonderful evening for a ballgame though, sitting in the LF bleachers.

They had several opportunities to get back in the game, but lots of fails.
 


Ski U Mah Gopher said:
According to what I read, only verifiable box scores were used to compile the data. What took so long was separating the barnstorming games and all-star games (which didn't count) from the league games (which did count). NPR had a story on this on "All thing Considered" on Tuesday.
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correct. by "incomplete data," I'm referring to the fact that - at this point - the researchers have only been able to come up with verifiable box scores for roughly 75% of all Negro League regular-season games.

so 25% of the eligible games are not in the data base. that is a large enough cohort to impact career statistics. How many home runs did Josh Gibson hit in games where no box score is available? How many strikeouts did Satchel Paige record...etc?

in a perfect world, it would be nice if that figure was 90% or better.

and I am well aware of the irony that, if the Negro League games had been covered more extensively by the 'traditional' media, more of those box scores would be available. the games were segregated and to a large extent, coverage of those games was also segregated to black newspapers.
 



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