Scoreless in Seattle.
You can't win if you don't score. That's pretty much all one needs to say about this game. Correia pitched well. Arcia got a couple of hits, raising his average to .224. I don't know if I'd say he's been on a hot streak, exactly, but since bottoming out at .198 on June 22 he's gone 12-for-41, which the computer tells me is an average of .293. Four of the hits have come in his last two games, so this may or may not mean anything.
In the Twins lineup last night, the highest batting average was Eduardo Escobar at .264. No one else was above .250, with the next highest batting average being Trevor Plouffe at .242. At the start of the game, five of the starters were batting below .220. I know batting average can be overrated, but that's still not very good. When you trot out a lineup like that you can't be surprised when you don't get very many hits, and the Twins didn't.
Terry Ryan said the other day that the Twins would be sellers at the trade deadline. Dazzle said that remark wouldn't sit well in the clubhouse, but really, can anyone be surprised? The Twins are ten games below .500 and ten and a half games out of first. What would people expect?
The problem, of course, is that the way a lot of these guys are playing, I don't know how many players they have that anyone would want. The obvious candidate to go is Willingham, but he'll just a bat off the bench for a good team, so I doubt you'll get much for him. Morales might be traded, but after the first week or so he's basically done nothing, so again, all you're really talking about is a bench bat. Suzuki would be a good trade candidate, but it would be a very un-Twins move to sell high, so socal is probably right that he'll be extended rather than traded. They'll trade him in a year or two, when he's hitting .220. Correia has pitched well after the first month of the season and might draw some interest. Unless Terry Ryan can work some magic, though, I don't see the Twins getting much help from deadline trades.
Meanwhile, the Bob Wills portion of the season continues. Phil Hughes goes for the Twins tonight, and they really need him to get back to pitching like an ace if they're going to avoid another second-half disaster. It's time for the Twins to start that season-ending seventy-four game winning streak. We'll just have to settle for 113-49.
That magic might be money. They are already on the hook for the salary so paying the salary after trading the players hopefully will get more than just warm bodies back.
Because Mauer, amiright?!
Came here to say exactly this. Looked at the lineup and box score before hitting the hay last night and thought, it doesn't matter how well Correia pitches, he'll lose 20 games easily if he doesn't get any help from the offense. In the past month (6 starts), he's averaging 6.1+ innings and has allowed only 11 ER with opponents averaging .232/.295/.338 against. Yet he's gone 2-4 in that span. No surprise considering this:
Run Support
Being sellers means you are looking to the future. Suzuki is not the catcher of the future, and in fact one of the best hitters (with more upside than Suzuki) is catching in AAA right now. I don't disagree with you and socal, but this to me underlines why I have little confidence that the promise of
20152016 will ever come to pass.In case I wasn't clear, if I was the GM, I'd be looking to trade Suzuki. I just don't think that's what the Twins will do.
That's how I read it. And I am expressing my wish that you were the GM.
If only for this move alone: Secondy-seconded.
Jeff A for Terry Ryan and a player to be traded later. Giterdun, Billy Smith!
Padre for GM. Me likey.