Twins baseball before noon for those in the Central time zone. I assume Gophers football has a game at Comerica later today or something.
Bailey Ober takes on Michael Lorenzen.
The best Tiger player for your future Immaculate Grid constructions is probably Jake Marisnick who's on his 8th big league team this season.
If we lose this series to the Tigers on top of the one last week ... well, that won't be great.
Colin Rea
vs
Bailey Ober
Well that was a fun ending. Let's do it again, except score those runs earlier and maybe allow the Brewers score several fewer.
Continuing the odd scheduling for this series, after the Twins successfully sold over 34 thousand tickets for a Tuesday night game, now how many can they sell for a nooner against the Brewers?
Sorry, forgot to put one of these together. As it's 4-0 in the first, perhaps I shouldn't bother...
This series marks the beginning of a very important stretch of games for the Twins. We're two games into a ten game stretch of games against our central division rivals where the only opponent with a winning record is....well, nobody. It's the Royals and the Clevelanders and the utterly terrible White Sox. Then things toughen up against the Padres and the surprisingly beatable Dodgers.
All the time, this is our time. 7 wins in these 10 games won't be enough. These are three of the four worst offense in baseball (the other, of course, is the Tigers). Allowing so much as a runner in scoring position against these teams is nearly unforgivable.
You hear that, Over? I want a perfect game today. A. PERFECT. GAME. Get it done.
All of a sudden the Twins are flirting with .500 after winning just one of their last seven games.
This Nationals series has been an exercise in frustration thus far. It doesn't seem like it should be so hard to beat Washington, but here we are. Can we chalk this up to the cold weather? Is it warmer today? Are there any other straws around that I can grasp?
Bailey Ober gets his first start of the year today, going against Patrick Corbin, who hasn't had a great start to the season. Ober has 4 starts at AAA and has been stingy with hits, walks, and runs allowed.
So we're in that "with a whimper" territory for the 2022 season. Ah well. We're gonna need to sweep the Sox to have a better record than them. If we can do that, I'll have a larger measure of peace for this season.
Bailey Ober
vs
Daniel Lynch
Let's take a look at the Twins traded away in the offseason, or deadline for Mahle, and how they performed compared to the players acquired.
Twins traded away this year:
| Name | PAs/IP | wRC+/ERA- | rWAR | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mitch Garver | 215 | 100 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Isiah Kiner-Falefa | 490 | 86 | 2.7 | 1.1 |
| Josh Donaldson | 495 | 101 | 2.6 | 1.8 |
| Spencer Steer | 64 | 84 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Brent Rooker | 36 | 15 | -0.5 | -0.4 |
| Taylor Rogers | 60.1 | 127 | -0.9 | 0.9 |
DRS likes Kiner-Falefa's fielding but UZR and OAA rate him as average. Similar with Donaldson but OAA agrees with DRS.
Rogers has replicated his 2020 season where he has a below average ERA but above average/good FIP. Although his FIP since the trade to Milwaukee has also been bad but it was very good with San Diego.
Acquired Twins this year:
| Name | PAs/IP | wRC+/ERA- | rWAR | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gary Sánchez | 425 | 87 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
| Gio Urshela | 495 | 112 | 2.5 | 1.6 |
| Chris Paddack | 22.1 | 105 | 0.2 | 0.9 |
| Emilio Pagán | 58.0 | 126 | -0.8 | -0.3 |
| Tyler Mahle | 16.1 | 115 | 0.1 | -0.1 |
Doug Allison (1846)
Lee Meadows (1894)
Johnny Wyrostek (1919)
Jack Harshmann (1927)
Ron Fairly (1938)
Tom Tischinski (1944)
Scipio Spinks (1947)
Mario Soto (1956)
Mike Munoz (1965)
Adam Johnson (1979)
Phil Dumatrait (1981)
Tom Gorzelanny (1982)
Howie Kendrick (1983)
Tony Sipp (1983)
Nick Vincent (1986)
Bailey Ober (1995)
Bailey Ober
vs
Tarik Skubal
Only two lefties in the lineup versus left-hander Skubal.
Lineup
Garlick LF
Sánchez DH
Polanco 2B
Urshela 3B
Larnach RF
Miranda 1B
Jeffers C
Palacios SS
Gordon CF
We are participating in No Mow May this year, and I've got to say it's really fun to have an actual ecosystem in our yard. We've got a ton of different plants and flowers, lots of birds and insects, a very Bailey Ober-sized bunch of dandelions and a few spots where you can tell small critters shelter at night.
We've also had neighbors inquire if everything is OK and if we need help, but no one has called the HOA on us yet. I don't know if we will hold out to memorial day, but it's been a very interesting experiment.
Bailey Ober makes his triumphant return today to face the Royals. I've haven't been impressed with KC. They kind of look like a mess, but not a fun mess that's good for bees and small wildlife.
