Per Joe C:
Revere CF
Plouffe 2B
Mauer C
Kubel DH
Valencia 3B
Parmelee 1B
Benson RF
Tosoni LF
Nishioka SS
Some thoughts:
Gardy must really hate Plouffe's defense at shortstop. Is it really worse than Nishioka's?
Slowey should really like the outfield defense today. I don't know how good Tosoni is at LF, though TZL rates him as +3 so far this year. Nonetheless, with Revere in CF and Benson in RF, this is going to be a no doubles night.
This is the first time Mauer has caught since August 20.
Good luck Hendriks. You have long odds tonight. Actually, I expect the Twins to score 11 runs. I mean, of course they have to break out with the AAA lineup, right?
The Twins have a one game lead over the Royals for last place of the annual worst division. At 57-79, they are just three losses from guaranteeing a losing year. Averaging each entry for the poll, I get ~70 wins as the expected number. That means they'll win 13 out of their final 26 games. Nope, not happening. Extrapolating their current record out nets them 10 wins, which means a top five draft pick next year. Here's to a strong draft class next year and loose purse strings. It may be our only hope.
Since this is a lost season, it means the expanded rosters in September take on new meaning. The Twins haven't called up many players in recent years, but they haven't had many lost seasons in recent years either. Calling up players would serve two purposes: get (some) people interested again and allow the Twins to evaluate players at the major league level.
The Twins have one spot free on the 40-man roster, hence the catch-all "other" choice. Some brief info on the four minor leaguers that haven't played for the Twins yet is below the poll.
Slowey finally gets a real chance to pitch. I still expect him to be traded this offseason. Though, with Gibson presumably getting Tommy John surgery, that might make the Twins hesitant to trade him. Yeah, I still see him being traded anyway.
Last time Masterson faced the Twins, he threw 104 pitches. 103 of them were fastballs. I'm a little skeptical they were all fastballs, since the velocity range was 89.9 to 97.7. Let's check his pitch selection this year. BIS says a mere 0.8% of his pitches have been change-ups, while MLBAM says 0.1%. Okay, maybe it really was 103 fastballs. Depressing.
Pavano meanwhile... it's not too pretty. He hasn't been terrible, but below average for a 35 year-old pitcher with another year on the contract. He'll be worth more than two wins, but by virtue of eating a lot of innings.
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