2018 Twins Game Logs

2018 Game 48: The Replacements at Mariners

51 Comments

Strange things are afoot at the Circled Dot. Despite cruising below .500 all season, the team still finds itself in second place in the AL Central. The pitching, which early in the year gave cause for indigestion, has settled in pretty nicely with both rotation and bullpen performing well. Over the course of the season, the hurling staff has notched a 4.22 ERA, good for an ERA+ of 101, or about as average as it gets. But while the pitching has trended toward improvement over the first two months, the offensive trend has been southbound with a bee in their pants and the boys are suffering through a serious case of assbats. Right now, the Twins offense combines for a total 4.7 WAR. As Beau points out in today's Cuppa, Mike Trout himself has delivered 4.9 WAR so far this year all by himself. I only eyeballed the math, but looking over the lineup the Twins offense right now is basically performing at replacement level. As a team, the Twins have achieved null VORP on offense in April and May. While some of that is driven by injury and actual replacement players in the daily lineup, most of it is simply under-performance. That's not sustainable for a team that wants to contend, and if not for the weakness of the division we'd be in an even worse position than we currently are. This is not a team that can win much with just a few guys contributing at the plate. It's time to burn every bat in the clubhouse and start over. Maybe sacrifice a chicken while they're at it. Berrios (5-4, 3.82 ERA) up against Leake (4-3, 5.46 ERA) on the mound today. I always feel like we have a good chance when José takes the hill.

Play ball!

51 thoughts on “2018 Game 48: The Replacements at Mariners”

  1. I was asleep for most of the last two games, so I declare that they did not actually happen.

  2. I think that unless Buxton, Sano, and Dozier get things figured out pretty soon, this season is going to fall apart. The Spiders aren't going to wait around forever.

  4. It's not really an "ambush" when all you do is hit a harmless fly ball to center field.

  6. Twins seem to be swinging early a lot. I have no idea if that's a good plan or not.

    1. I like it. As long as they get some good results from early count swings, it'll force their pitchers to nitpick early in the count. Then, if the hitters can be patient, they can get some good hitting counts.

      This is all predicted on getting some ambush hits.

  9. I sure hope Chris Herrmann doesn't continue the theme of "Ex-Twins punish their former team".

  13. Yeah, Dazz, I'm pretty sure Berrios didn't intend to throw it in the center of the plate. The ball doesn't always go exactly where you want it to, even when you're Jose Berrios.

  14. For Pete's sake, guys, quit griping about the shift. You sound like my grandpa shaking his fist at an airplane and saying that if man was meant to fly God would've given him wings.

  25. I don't think that Bobby Wilson is a starting lineup - grade catcher, but he seems like a far superior defensive catcher to Garver. Not "Drew Butera" kind of defensive catcher, either, where the consensus seems to be that because "he can't hit, he MUST be good at catching, or else why is he still here?"

    1. It would be a different matter if he hadn't given up a hard base hit, then walked a batter he had already struck out three times this game.

    1. career:
      237/286/375 vs RHB
      .274/355/390 vs LHB

      2018:
      225/286/254 vs RHB
      250/361/429 vs LHB

      Thanks, Obama. Dook threw what, 2 pitches?

    2. The only reason to take out Pressly if you're only going to let Duke pitch to one batter is if you're reasonably sure that Pressly is going to give Seager a home run. Possibly on purpose.

  28. Not that I mind being in Pressly to face Nelson Cruz, but the way the hitters have been swinging, and given that they're probably going to be facing two of the best closers in baseball in back to back innings, is it really a good idea to be running through the bullpen this quickly?

    Also, Pressly is a better pitcher than Duke and ARE YOU KIDDING ENOUGH WITH THE BULLPEN SWITCHES.

  34. No, Bert, we're not going to lose on "one mistake".We're going to lose because of several mistakes, by both pitchers and batters. The mistake by Reed is just the last one.

  35. I mostly listen on the radio, and so had forgotten how much nonsense comes out of the mouths of Dick and Bert.

    1. It's constant. I greatly prefer the radio guys. Dazzle gets a little goml, but at least he usually has a couple of interesting things to say in a game.

      Dick and Bert just say the same thing over and over and over again, and none of it has any grounding in the way the game is played, just the way they WISH it were played.

      1. I fully agree. I listen to a lot of teams' broadcasts, and I'd put Cory and Dan in at least the top third of baseball broadcast teams.

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