Tag Archives: Gibson

Game 26: A’s vs. Twins

DAY GAME ALERT!

Jharel Cotton (2-3, 5.00 ERA, 3.56 FIP) vs. Kyle Gibson (0-3, 8.06 ERA, 6.99 FIP)

The FIRST PLACE Minnesota Twins finish up the series against the A's at noon today. Quite a difference a year makes as the Twins were a depressing 7-18 at this point last year and, uhhh, it wouldn't get any better from there. It was starting to look like things were headed to 2016 there for awhile, but there's apparently nothing like the AL west (and the Royals) to help turn things back around. Even better, after the first two games of this series, the Twins are back to .500 at home.

Unfortunately, however, Kyle Gibson takes the mound today. I'm on record as preferring he lose his spot in the rotation to Berrios and be given a comfy seat in the bullpen. There's just something about the way he pitches that bugs me and the bad results certainly make that irritation seem much worse. Also, Berrios.

I don't know anything about Jharel Cotton, probably because he's only had 10 starts for the perennially irrelevant A's. It looks like he's struggling with command this year, walking 4 per nine. That should bode well for the Twins who've, from the eye test at least (too lazy to look it up), are showing a rather patient approach these days.

Game 157: Twins at Cleveland

Gibson (10-11, 3.96 ERA, 4.02 xFIP) vs. Anderson (6-3, 3.31 ERA, 4.43 xFIP)

Gibson's coming off his shortest and possibly worst outing of the season against this very Cleveland team. Hopefully he's got a mind for some revenge tonight as the Twins are going to need all the wins they can get since those other frickin teams keep not losing. Since the bullpen has been shaky of late, it'd be great to get a good 7-8 innings.

Opposite Gibson is the rookie Cody Anderson, owner of a shiny 3.31 ERA and a less shiny 4.43 xFIP. He's had some trouble striking guys out with just under 5 K's/9, so on paper this looks like a pretty good matchup for the Twins. It would also be nice if they could find the time to score in more than just one or two innings.

Game 135: Twins @ Royals

Gibson (9-9, 3.84 ERA, 4.06 xFIP) vs. Volquez (12-7, 3.53 ERA, 4.27 xFIP)

Upon brief perusal of stats, this appears to be a matchup of rather similar pitchers. mid to high 3's for ERA, slightly higher xFIP's. They'll strike out a couple guys, but not all of them. Volquez favors the flyball a bit more than Gibson, though, so hopefully the Twins can turn some of those into HR's. It'd be real nice if Sano could break out of this mini-slump and hit some balls hard.

I would also like to see Buxton in there today. (and everyday, but dead horse) I suspect we may not since Hunter's had some hits the past two games, though.

Game 93: Twins @ AMR’s Favorite Team

Gibson (8-6, 2.85 ERA, 3.75 xFIP) vs. Shoemaker (4-7, 4.85 ERA, 4.03 xFIP)

The Twins continue their Minnesotans-can't-watch-because-the-games-are-on-too-late road trip to face the Angels. Gibson takes the mound to try to get the team back on track after a heart breaking loss followed by a game that I think we can all just ignore and pretend didn't happen.

I expect Lucroy and Tulowitzki to suit up tonight with David Price getting the start tomorrow. I also expect a lively game log with a 9pm game time.

Game 84: Orioles at Twins

Gausman (1-0, 3.09 ERA, 4.22 xFIP) vs. Gibson (6-6, 3.04 ERA, 3.95 xFIP)

So last night was fun, although it is pretty funny to think about a low scoring game involving five home runs. And since the only one that actually caused any pain was Dozier's, I think that is more than enough proof that solo home runs do not, in fact, hurt.

It'd be great if Gibson could continue what has been a pretty good year so far. He's facing Kevin Gausman who started the year in the bullpen for the O's, now making his third start of 2015. Outside of that, I really don't know much else about him.

I presume Sano is to be an everyday player for the remainder of the year, which makes this season a lot of fun. I know it's a small sample size, but from everything I've heard or read, it sounds like he's plenty capable of handling major league pitchers. I'd love to see that first career HR make its way to the stands tonight, preferably with some other guys in the same uniforms on base.

Game 33: Twins at Tigers

Gibson (3-2, 2.97 ERA, 5.13 xFIP) vs. Simon (4-1, 3.44 ERA, 4.16 xFIP)

After a day off, the Twins get to head to Detroit for a series against the sometimes in first place, sometimes not Tigers. (currently not). Things haven't gone too swimmingly for the Twins against Detroit this year. Part of that could be things like letting Stauffer pitch to Cabrera (or anyone, but Cabrera especially). Of course, that can't happen this series.

Gibson looks to continue a pretty good start to his season. I am less optimistic he will tonight because it looks like he's been fairly lucky so far. He's striking pretty much no one out, even for a guy who doesn't really strike many guys out to begin with. That doesn't bode well if those FB's starting turning into HR's (6.5% HR/FB right now).

Fortunately, I think that first series of the season was the outlier for the Twin's offense, so it looks like they can, at least, score some runs against Tigers pitching.

I am assuming (hoping) Hicks will get the start tonight, although I can't seem to get any access to any lineup information because clicking "preview" on the Twins site sends me to season ticket information. Nice work guys.

Game 157: Almost Done Losing

The Twins are almost done losing for the year, so that's a positive. Tonight's meaningless tilt features Kyle Gibson (12-11, 4.64 ERA) hoping to be good Gibson going against some guy named Andrew Chafin (0-0, 1.64 ERA).

It would be great if the Twins could at least notch four more victories in this last week to hit 70-wins. The 7 at least looks a little better than the 6. It would be really great if the Twins could shore up this pitching staff for next season. The box scores from an offensive standpoint seem fun and encouraging.

I was sitting around relaxing on the couch last night after another long deck day and came a across a tweet from a certain brunch enthusiast about Vance Worley's success in Pittsburgh. The discussion below was pretty terrible, basically saying Rick Anderson should be fired because of this (and Liriano). In other words, between that and the way Joe Mauer gets slagged by the loudest people online makes me think this losing team is deserved.