All Things 2024 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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July 31: RHP Brock Stewart (right shoulder strain) placed on 15-day IL; RHP Trevor Richards added to 26-man roster

Stewart only made two appearances back in the Majors before he landed back on the IL with a recurrence of the right shoulder issues that had already kept him out of action for nearly three months from the beginning of May to the end of July. Manager Rocco Baldelli had said that Stewart felt pain in the shoulder during his Monday outing against the Mets, after which he was placed back on the IL -- though Baldelli would not commit to Stewart's season being over.
The move made room on the 26-man roster for Richards, who was acquired as part of the Twins' lone Trade Deadline deal on Tuesday.

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I wonder if Brock will ever throw another MLB pitch -
 

more on why the Twins didn't make trades - from The Athletic

Another issue facing the Twins, team sources said, was the lofty asks of in-division foes. The Twins engaged the Tigers for Flaherty and the White Sox on Fedde. But both rival clubs centered their demands on packages that began with one of prospects Brooks Lee, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez, a price point that the Twins considered a non-starter.

Team sources said the Twins were in serious discussions with the Toronto Blue Jays about Kikuchi when Houston blew their offer out of the water late Monday, leaving team officials to mirror some in the industry who believed the Astros paid a significant premium. Indeed, Houston shipped three major-league-ready players to the Blue Jays for Kikuchi, and just like that the Twins were denied a pitcher they had identified as one of their top trade targets.

no deal is better than a bad deal in my book. but that requires nuance, which is apparently not allowed on social media or for certain media personalities.
 


Gopher_In_NYC said:
I wonder if Brock will ever throw another MLB pitch -
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That seems a tad dramatic, but it's a safe bet he's done for the season. They need to bite the bullet and put Varland in the bullpen. He's behind Festa/Dobnak and at least one other for the 5th starter spot.
 

howeda7 said:
That seems a tad dramatic, but it's a safe bet he's done for the season.
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“I wonder” = a musing, a thought, a question

Not a declarative statement 😉
howeda7 said:
They need to bite the bullet and put Varland in the bullpen.
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There is likely a reason he hasn’t been brought up yet. Doesn’t mean he won’t be in the future.
howeda7 said:
He's behind Festa/Dobnak and at least one other for the 5th starter spot.
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Hopefully it has now occurred to Mr. Varland thst he’s not viewed as a major league starter, at least at this juncture, and he should be grateful to be on an MLB roster and reaping those reward - instead of cocking off and saying blithely (as he did at the start of the season), “Starters get paid,” when you don’t have an MLB resume to justify such balderdash - yougens sometimes have to learn their lessons the hard way 😎 - I definitely did😃
 
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Swing the bat. It’s AAA everyone is there for themselves not for the team to win. If you won’t swing in AAA you won’t swing in the majors.
 






TRF Guy said:
The Twins made the best trade in franchise history on this date in 1989, sending 1987 World Series MVP and reigning Cy Young Award winner Frank Viola to the Mets for five pitchers, including Kevin Tapani and Rick Aguilera.

Fun Fact: Tapani led the 1991 World Series Champion Twins with a 6.8 WAR (as calculated by Baseball Reference), while Aggie saved 42 games.
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Great trade. David West was supposed to be our feature acquisition and he ended up being a bust.

One could easily argue trading Pierzynski (to make way for Mauer to take over catching) for Nathan and Liriano was just as good of a trade.
 


TRF Guy said:
The Twins made the best trade in franchise history on this date in 1989, sending 1987 World Series MVP and reigning Cy Young Award winner Frank Viola to the Mets for five pitchers, including Kevin Tapani and Rick Aguilera.

Fun Fact: Tapani led the 1991 World Series Champion Twins with a 6.8 WAR (as calculated by Baseball Reference), while Aggie saved 42 games.
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Tapani might have been the team's best pitcher during the regular season that year. Morris and Erickson get most of the attention, but Tapani had a lower ERA and WHIP than both of those guys.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Tapani might have been the team's best pitcher during the regular season that year. Morris and Erickson get most of the attention, but Tapani had a lower ERA and WHIP than both of those guys.
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first half of the season, Erickson was by far the best pitcher on the team - and one of the best pitchers in MLB. 12-2 with a 1.39 ERA. then he started to have some arm problems and battled through the rest of the season.

finished the season 20-8 with a 3.18 ERA. never won more than 16 games in a season again. the human elbow was just not constructed to throw a hard sinker the way Erickson did. but for three months, it was glorious.
 




The White Sox lose again and are now on pace to lose 123 games this season. That would pass the Mets 120 losses in 1962 for the most in modern day baseball history. The Cleveland Spiders lost 134 in 1899.
 



big weekend coming up. Twins play the White Sox 3 times starting Friday - Cleveland has a 4-game series with Baltimore starting on Thursday.
 


Buster Olney said on PTI, that he wouldn’t be surprised if some teams releases players after they fall out of playoff contention, just as the Angels did last year.
 
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
Buster Olney said on PTI, that he wouldn’t be surprised if some teams releases players after they fall out of playoff contention, just as the Angels did last year.
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We’ll see. It seems the 2023 Angels were a rather unique situation, first going all in on player additions to try to convince Ohtani to stay, then when that blew up in their faces in August, they desperately wanted to get below the luxury tax threshold.
 

The Twins sent Doug Mientkiewicz to the visiting Red Sox as part of a four-team trade on this date in 2004. (Reminiscent of the Aguilera trade in 1995.)

Mientkiewicz went 2-for-4 against the Twins at the Metrodome that very night. (Twins won 5-4 on a Jacque Jones homer.)
 

GopherVotary said:
We’ll see. It seems the 2023 Angels were a rather unique situation, first going all in on player additions to try to convince Ohtani to stay, then when that blew up in their faces in August, they desperately wanted to get below the luxury tax threshold.
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Agreed.

Being the irrational optimist I am, I’m hoping/wishing 🫰that a decent arm falls in our lap, as the ultimate inexpensive rental pickup.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Agreed.

Being the irrational optimist I am, I’m hoping/wishing 🫰that a decent arm falls in our lap, as the ultimate inexpensive rental pickup.
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Every team behind the Twins in terms of winning percentage would have dibs prior to them making such a waiver claim.
 


Ope3 said:
Every team behind the Twins in terms of winning percentage would have dibs prior to them making such a waiver claim.
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Thank you for your thoughts.

Yes, I’m familiar with how the process functions, unlike ballpark beer prices - although I had a pretty good beer can collection in my youth - including an unopened can of Billy Beer.

The point I was attempting to make, was the Guards who were roughly in our spot last year IIRC, did find some decent players via the waiver wire.

As a chap who prefers his eggs sunny 🌞 side up - I will hope fate intervenes in a positive fashion for the stretch run.
 


Interesting info on Pablo’s last seven stellar starts

López generated 17 swings-and-misses in 103 pitches and struck out seven, limiting New York to two earned runs and three hits. Over his past seven starts, López has a 2.86 ERA with 55 strikeouts, 10 walks and only four homers allowed in 44 innings, lowering his overall ERA from 5.63 to 4.65.

“It’s been good the way I’ve been feeling on the mound,” López said. “It feels like myself. That rhythm, a lot of times when you feel out of sync, that translates to pitches not doing what they’re supposed to. Location not being there. It’s been a lot of work, a lot of consistency with routines, feeling good, feeling strong, being healthy, hearing the feedback from every department within the organization. It’s been a team effort.”

The improvement shown by López over the past six weeks is one reason the Twins feel good about their rotation. As they see it, of the aforementioned trade targets, only Flaherty, if he stays healthy, or Kikuchi, could crack their top three in a playoff rotation.
 


Offense this season is on pace to score 1200 fewer runs, with 800 fewer HRs than last season.

League wide BA, .243, is tied for the lowest in MLB history

 

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