All Things 2024 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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note for the record - after the Twins swept a 4-game series from the White Sox, the Whiteys have won 2 in a row over Tampa Bay. Whiteys now with 5 wins on the season, and on pace to finish with a record of 30-132.

The Mets-O-Meter is getting nervous.
 


TRF Guy said:
Harmon Killebrew hit his 400th career home run in the top of the first inning of an afternoon game in Chicago on this date in 1969.

Rod Carew hit a two-run homer in the seventh to give the Twins a 4-3 win.

All told, Killebrew hit 573 home runs, fifth-most in MLB history at the time of his retirement. He hit 84 as a member of the Washington Senators, 14 as a Kansas City Royal in 1975, and 475 in a Twins uniform.
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The stories about Killebrew were true. One of the nicest person I’ve ever met.
 

howeda7 said:
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Say what you will about Vasquez’s hitting, but he is a heck of a D catcher; calls a great game and that caught stealing of Trout in Friday’s game was a thing of beauty.
 






Pablo Lopez as AL Cy Young talk may have been a bit premature. He badly needed a "get right" game. This isn't it.
 

Lopez having a meltdown in the 5th after getting the first 2 batters out with only 3 pitches.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Pablo Lopez as AL Cy Young talk may have been a bit premature. He badly needed a "get right" game. This isn't it.
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His stuff was good, just had that bad inning again. Couldn’t locate. None of the hits were hit especially hard. The two home runs came on pretty good pitchers pitches.

I think he’ll be fine.
 




a few facts and figures:

2 consecutive games with at least 17 hits.

7-game winning streak is longest for the team in almost 13 years.

1st time since 2006 Twins have had at least 10 hits in 7 consecutive games.

Twins now in middle of AL standings. 7 teams with better winning % and 7 teams with worse winning %.

Twins' team batting average up to .238 - in 19th place in MLB. in 15th place in runs scored. 11th in OPS.
 


Ted Williams made his home debut with the Minneapolis Millers on this date in 1938, connecting for three hits, including a monster home run that landed on the roof of a building across Nicollet Avenue from the ballpark.

Two days later, he hit two home runs and a double, and had six RBI.
 

TRF Guy said:
Ted Williams made his home debut with the Minneapolis Millers on this date in 1938, connecting for three hits, including a monster home run that landed on the roof of a building across Nicollet Avenue from the ballpark.

Two days later, he hit two home runs and a double, and had six RBI.
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Pretty amazing that pretty much by any metric, 2 of the 10 greatest players ever (Mays & Williams) both played for the Minneapolis Millers.
 

Ober appears to have taken a massive leap forward this year based on the following info -

Ober won’t have another chance to face the Royals before late May, but in the meantime he’s responded to the season-opening stumble with a dominant four-start stretch that ranks among the best of his career. Culminating with Friday’s road win over the Angels in which Ober tied a career-high with 7 1/3 innings, he has a 1.48 ERA since the Kansas City clunker.

He tossed five innings of one-run ball versus the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers, surrendered a total of one run in back-to-back six-inning starts against the rival Detroit Tigers and no-hit the Angels into the sixth inning. Overall, across four starts, Ober posted a 24-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 24 1/3 innings, giving up zero homers and a .136 opponents’ batting average.

Don’t let his mediocre-looking 4.21 ERA mask the fact that Ober is pitching better than ever. His fastball is averaging a career-high 92.3 mph, his changeup is generating a career-best 42.6 percent swing-and-miss rate to emerge as a real weapon versus left-handed hitters, and he’s seamlessly incorporated a new cutter as part of what is now a five-pitch arsenal for the 6-foot-9 strike-thrower.

“It’s been great,” Ober said of his new cutter. “It feels good right now and I feel like the main thing I’m able to do with it is get it glove-side. Be able to locate it in to lefties and away to righties. And that is really setting up everything else. I’m able to throw my slower, bigger breaking ball off that and get the changeup fading away.”

Ober has quickly gained confidence in the cutter as a go-to pitch versus righties and lefties, throwing it 26 percent of the time, second to only his fastball. And rightfully so, as opponents have done little against it, batting just .200 with one extra-base hit. It’s another useful tool for Ober, who has consistently improved his velocity and refined his individual pitches since debuting in 2021.

Ober tends to fly under the radar because he lacked the raw stuff in the minors to rank as a top prospect, but he’s been one of the most effective starters in Twins history with a 114 ERA+ in 62 starts. In the past 30 years, only Johan Santana (175 starts, 141 ERA+) and Ervin Santana (85 starts, 116 ERA+) have made more starts with a better ERA+ than Ober in a Twins uniform.
 

Ope3 said:
Pretty amazing that pretty much by any metric, 2 of the 10 greatest players ever (Mays & Williams) both played for the Minneapolis Millers.
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Then NIL came along and poof...all we had to show for ourselves was Mike Cubbage.
 

the baseball romantic in me would have enjoyed being around in the days when the Millers played in Minneapolis and the original Saints in St. Paul.

the Saints were a farm club for the White Sox from 1936-42, and then a farm club for the Dodgers from 1944-1960.

MLB Hall of Famers who played in St. Paul included Roy Campanella, Duke Snider and Leo Durocher. Other notable Saints included Ralph Branca, Gene Mauch and Don Zimmer.

The Millers were affiliated with the Red Sox from 1936 to '38. they were the top farm club for the NY Giants from 1946-57, and then the Red Sox again from 1958-60.

Millers' Hall of Fame alumni include Williams, Mays, Carl Yastrzemski, Hoyt Wilhelm, Orlando Cepeda and Monte Irvin. Other notable Millers included Felipe Alou and Al Worthington. Halsey Hall was the Millers' play-by-play man on radio from 1933 to 1960, and survived with his liver more or less intact.....

on major holidays, the MIllers and Saints would play a split double-header with one game in each city.
 




TNGophfan said:
Feel bad for Martin. Did everything asked of him and hit better than Farmer and Margot. Hope he's back shortly. I wondered if he could make the jump but I'd be happy with him now as utility guy.
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reading the tea leaves, it probably came down to Martin vs Miranda. Martin is clearly a better fielder, but Miranda is hitting better at this point. I believe both players still have options.....

following further research - Martin has all 3 option years available. Miranda is a little tricky. He has one option year left - but if he does not spend 20 days in the minors this season, that does not count as using an option year, so he would retain the option for next year. He only played 7 games at AAA, so as far as I know, he has not used his option for 2024. The Twins may be thinking that, if they keep Miranda on the major-league roster all season, then they retain his option for 2025.

If a player does not use an option year, it carries over. so if a player is added to the 40-man roster but never appears in the minors, that player retains all 3 option years. however, once you reach a certain point, you can refuse to be optioned to the minors (except on a rehab assignment).
 

short ornery norwegian said:
reading the tea leaves, it probably came down to Martin vs Miranda. Martin is clearly a better fielder, but Miranda is hitting better at this point. I believe both players still have options.....

following further research - Martin has all 3 option years available. Miranda is a little tricky. He has one option year left - but if he does not spend 20 days in the minors this season, that does not count as using an option year, so he would retain the option for next year. He only played 7 games at AAA, so as far as I know, he has not used his option for 2024. The Twins may be thinking that, if they keep Miranda on the major-league roster all season, then they retain his option for 2025.

If a player does not use an option year, it carries over. so if a player is added to the 40-man roster but never appears in the minors, that player retains all 3 option years. however, once you reach a certain point, you can refuse to be optioned to the minors (except on a rehab assignment).
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Thanks for info. More in-depth than I am willing to dive. What's your thought on Martin vs Margot? I like Martin better.
 

TNGophfan said:
Thanks for info. More in-depth than I am willing to dive. What's your thought on Martin vs Margot? I like Martin better.
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Margot has an option year left, but he has enough MLB service time to refuse demotion to the Minors. so Martin is easier to send down.

talent-wise, no question Martin has the brighter future. But Martin - I think - could benefit from playing every day at AAA for a few weeks. unless the Twins stay healthy all season..........Martin will be back at some point.

and Martin's eye-black drives me nuts. so I hold that against him.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Margot has an option year left, but he has enough MLB service time to refuse demotion to the Minors. so Martin is easier to send down.

talent-wise, no question Martin has the brighter future. But Martin - I think - could benefit from playing every day at AAA for a few weeks. unless the Twins stay healthy all season..........Martin will be back at some point.

and Martin's eye-black drives me nuts. so I hold that against him.
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At least his helmet doesn't fly off every time he runs anymore!
 

Twins now only have the 11th most Team Ks at the dish, so hopefully this trend continues.
 

TNGophfan said:
Thanks for info. More in-depth than I am willing to dive. What's your thought on Martin vs Margot? I like Martin better.
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Martin is more useful and it's not even close. He can actually play CF, he's a better hitter. He's a better base runner. I get not wanting to cut guys in April, but I really don't see what value Margot provides outside of being a switch-hitter. I'd still rather let Kepler, Larnach or Kiriloff start against a lefty any day than use Margot. He wouldn't be missed.
 

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