69 thoughts on “Tiggers at Twins”

  1. Castellanos has been scratched. Marte is at third. I bet that lineup will draw some criticism if Twins win tonight, which they better with no Cabrera in the lineup.

  11. So, switching between RNC debate and the Twins. Wife and I are taking a swig each time someone says "Ronald Reagan". I am getting tipsy quick.

  23. How is it possible to not have a better pinch-hitter around* than Danny Santana?

    *I realize that Vargas is probably being saved in case needed later

    1. I've only watched a few games the past month, but I think Hicks has missed the cutoff in each one. Airmails a lot of throws.

      1. More like he doesn't have any fire in his belly and doesn't care about winning now that he's got that $23 million pay check he's just content to cash those. Worst contract in MLB history!!

        'Spoiler' SelectShow

  42. I find it hard to believe that there aren't 5 better pitchers at the non-MLB level of this organization that wouldn't be a better option than Dunce.

    1. He sucks.
      However, how many chances did the offense have to win the game?
      Though now that I've written that, it occurs to me that no one was particularly sharp tonight.

    2. You mean the guy with a 1.13 ERA in his previous 15 appearances? This game should have been long over before he got in the game. Twins made two huge mistakes tonight. First was Jepsen absolutely panicking on Victor Martinez's ground ball leading off the ninth and throwing it off balance in the dirt. That was terrible. Stand up and throw the ball! Would have had him out easily. Second was giving up the DH to pinch run in a tie game. That was really stupid. Plouffe is slow, but he's not crippled, and if the next three batters strike out, it does you no good anyways. Now we have to have pinch hitters for the pitchers and you have situations where Cotts looked great for an inning and throws just 11 pitches, but he has to come out because the Twins have to pinch hit for him. I'm fine with giving up the DH for a pinch runner if we're trailing and the runner represented the tying run. You have to go all out when you're behind and worry about the rest of the game later. But not only was Plouffe not the tying run, the game was already tied and Plouffe was already in scoring position. How much benefit is there for pinch running? For his career, Plouffe has scored from second on a single 56% of the time. Shane Robinson has scored from second on a single 58% of the time. Just a terrible decision there that really made it difficult for Twins to win even though the Tigers started using their bullpen in the fourth inning. That should have been a huge advantage. Hicks also made two big mistakes. First getting doubled off on a line drive to the outfield. I don't know where he was going. It makes me wonder if he lost track of the outs after the review of the error. Then he overthrew the cutoff man in the ninth, which allowed the go-ahead run to get into scoring position, which later scored and meant that Plouffe's double in the ninth only tied the game instead of won it.

      1. You'll forgive me if the reliever with a 1:1 ratio of BB:SO's on the season; with 8 BB's and 13 hits in those 16 innings you cited, doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence. I think he sucks.

        The rest of your analysis is on point.

        1. I agree he sucks, but he's been doing well lately and by xFIP he pitched well in that inning (I think it was 2.08). Molitor didn't really have significantly better options because of much worse decisions earlier. He couldn't bring in a reliever mid-inning because he didn't have a DH, etc.

          I was in a situation where I was trying to win, so I had to put a pitcher in an outfielder’s slot.

          Think about that for a while. I really though Molitor was smarter than that. He realized after the game, he had removed his 4-7 hitters in a tie game in extra innings. Yikes.

    1. I don't know what's so hard to believe. The Twins need a leader. Someone who will walk up to Duensing as he's warming up and say "you suck. go play first, I'll take it from here" and then go and strike out the side.

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