51 thoughts on “September 7, 2019: Graterol”

  3. Graterol is a rookie who has played at 4 levels this season. As much as we want him to be an instant savior, I'm not stressed. Let the kid pitch a few more innings before we rush to judgment. 🙂

    1. If the Twins had played decent defense in that inning, I'm not sure any runs would have scored. I know they weren't technically "errors" but that groundball to Cron could have been a double play. And the infield single off Sano was playable.

      1. Don't forget the third wild pitch of the game. Castro and Garver seem incapable of blocking anything anymore.

    2. Or if they could score more than two runs. That they won on Thursday and lost in extra innings yesterday is thanks to some fine pitching.

          1. I'm starting to resign myself to the inevitability that they'll end up second to the Yankees. It's, apparently, the natural order of things.

            1. A lot of the Twins power hitters are hurt (Kepler, Cruz) or not playing much (Schoop). And Arraez and Adrianza are hitting well but ain't going to be increasing that total much

  4. I have seen 769 different people pitch in a MLB according to my spreadsheet (again, acknowledging that I'm missing a whole bunch of games pre-1995ish). Graterol is the only pitcher I have seen face 4 batters without recording an out over his entire career.

    (Of course, one of those batters was intentionally walked after two pitches. I have also never seen a pitcher face 3 batters without recording an out. I'm sure Graterol will get someone out at some point with me in attendance, so Mike Henneman, Alan Mills, and Zach Putnam can jump back to the top of that list). Also, Hildy lowered his ERA with me in attendance last night to 8.88, so good for him...

    1. Pineda was initially tagged with an 80-game ban—standard procedure for first-time offenders—but an appeal brought that number down to 60 after providing evidence that the substance in Pineda’s system was not used as a masking agent for PEDs.

      Interesting. So why did he take it?

      1. Presumably he did not obtain it while under a doctor’s care, or he would’ve had a therapeutic exemption. So, that’s a very good question, sean.

      3. Whatever happened, it was really stupid, either by him for taking something without letting people who should know better know about it or by the people who should know better.

            2. Twins' starter ERAs since July 1:2.88 — Michael Pineda4.95 — Jake Odorizzi5.11 — Kyle Gibson5.37 — Jose Berrios5.68 — Martin PerezPineda was the only starter keeping the rotation from imploding. Lewis Thorpe and/or Devin Smeltzer are capable fill-ins, but this is a mess.— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) September 7, 2019

              1. Losing a starter (to illness/injury, ineffectiveness, or to suspension) was entirely within the scope of predictable events at the deadline. Sure, Toronto apparently never circled back on Stroman after asking for the Moon, and Greinke has some sort of personal grudge against Minnesota. Be that as it may, Falvey & Levine didn’t address that vulnerability, and now they’ve lost one starter to each of those outcomes. Berríos might make it back to pre-July form, but Pineda’s gone & Gibson is out until who knows when.

        1. You ever go back and watch that series? Viola and Blyleven look like they're throwing batting practice compared to pitchers today.

      4. Who the heck is our third starter in the playoffs now? Perez? Smeltzer? The bullpen?

        You're envisioning a problem that might not exist.

    4. I don't see how the Twins win a playoff series without him. Try to win games 12-8, I suppose, but that's pretty tough to do in the playoffs. With Berrios' struggles, Pineda and Odorizzi were the only reliable starters we had. It's very hard to win in the playoffs with only two reliable starters. It seems like it's going to be impossible with one.

      1. Crazy things happen in the playoffs. Twins won the World Series with Les Straker as their third starter. If Perez pitches like he did in April, if Gibson pitches like he did last year, if, if, if. Certainly, this is not good news and the odds are worse now, but nothing is ever impossible in a SSS in baseball (just ask the guy who lost $50k betting on the "sure thing" of the Astros earlier this year). Given the recent history of the Twins in the playoffs, it's hard to hold any hope, but the reality was the Twins were going to be underdogs in the playoffs regardless.

        2. They were going to be underdogs, but it was at least possible to hope that they'd put things together to win a short series. I suppose technically it's still possible--you're right, it's baseball and things happen--but it's hard to come up with a realistic scenario for it.

          1. I guess the most realistic scenario is that Berrios suddenly starts pitching like Berrios again, Odorizzi pitches well, and we somehow scramble around to win a high-scoring game or two when they don't pitch. But it's hard for me to see that happening.

  9. Trout got the night off. He pinch-hit late. Was intentionally walked. Then he was pinch ran for.

    Good work if you can get it.

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