2014 Twins Game Logs

2014 Game 40: Seattle Mariners at Minnesota Twins

68 Comments

Chris Young
v
Kyle "No More Staff Ace" Gibson

Last week the Twins were in fourth, almost fifth, place. This week they are in third, almost second or fourth, place within the division. The Tigers remain as far ahead of the Twins at last week. I am okay with that and if it remains true for the rest of the season, I will be more than okay.

Chris Young has a 2.63 ERA but a 4.80 FIP. The Mariners have a good defense, but not that good. Time for the Twins to initiate some regression to the mean.

68 thoughts on “2014 Game 40: Seattle Mariners at Minnesota Twins”

  1. Its probably not true, but it seems like every first inning for Kyle Gibson is a high pitch inning.

    1. I havent looked at the leaderboards in a while.
      Plouffe came into the game leading the AL in doubles

    1. Didnt Tom Brunansky made a slight modification to Dozier's approach/swing last year and that when Dozier took off?

      1. If he truly turned him from a middling middle infielder into one of the upper echelon second basemen in the American League, then I hope he has the job for a very, very long time.

    2. 1.9 fWAR so far this year. A three or even four win season is definitely possible.

  19. I mean, Suzuki is obviously not going to keep this up (if he maintained, it would be his highest OPS over a full season by 100 points), but it's been fun having him in the lineup (and equally fun that it hasn't come at the expense of playing time for Pinto).

      2. Yep. He's swinging at everything whether it's a strike or not, and he's just not that good of a bad-ball hitter to keep it up. His career minor numbers basically mirror Florimon's. And that includes last year when Escobar went off for an .880 OPS in 188 PAs at Rochester.

  31. Eduardo Escobar is second on the team in doubles
    He only had 80 plate appearances coming into the game

  35. So the past few weeks I have finally been able to watch some games. All statistical analysis aside, I will toss out some observations.

    There seems to be a bit more of an edge (a little fire in the belly) to this team. Dozier and Plouffe seem to be stepping up as young leaders like guys like AJ and Doug M. were at the beginning of our last resurgence. Suzuki may not keep up this tear at the plate he is on, but if he bridge the gap this year until Pinto solidifies his defense, he probably wont hurt the team. Nice to have a couple of options at shortstop. I think the Escobar/Santana competition is going to yield a decent contributor to the team for years to come. I do think that down the road, both Hicks and Arcia will find some consistency and be mainstays in the lineup.

    Phil Hughes and Kyle Gibson will finally give us some competent starting pitching, with occasional streaks of dominance. Nolasco will get better. Corriea will level out and be serviceable. By July 1, Meyer will be up and we will have some semblance of an adequate rotation. I like our bullpen.

    We may not make the playoffs, or even finish at .500, but I think this is the year that some tough questions are answered. Next year, we probably see Sano and maybe even Buxton and Rosario. We probably no longer pick up guys like Fuld, or Nunez and we enjoy more depth than we have had in years and years.

    Of course, I am an optimist.

    2. If Buxton doesn't need surgery, and that's a big if with this team's luck and/or bad medical staff, then he'll be up before Sano, who will likely start in AA next year.

      1. Buxton would have to have one huge AA/AAA season (post injury) for him to begin next season at the major league level..

        Sano has had his big AA season already, should be back swinging a bat late in the season and into fall leagues. If he hits well this fall, I could see him making the team next spring.

        Lots of ifs and unknowns there, but that is how I see it falling out.

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