In case you haven’t watched lately.
Escobar is hitting everything in sight and playing a good shortstop.
Tyler Duffy is pitching very well after a tough first start.
Sano is going to hurt a fan in the outfield that gets hit by one of his line drive homeruns.
Glen Perkins is not the closer.
It’s Sept 1st. and the Twins are contending for a wildcard spot.
It’s heating back up for sure! Sano is the real deal, man he can rip the hell out of the ball. 
Your last sentence says it all. Truly a hell of a pleasant surprise this year to see the Twins contending for a playoff spot on Sept. 1st. And all indications are that we’ve got some legit solid players for years to come (just please don’t screw it up!).
This umpire sucks !!!! 
Correction………looks like Perkins is back as the closer.
BINGO must be in the front row for that MONSTER Sano shot last night.
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Two observations:
1) The Twins are playing better despite how bad Torii Hunter and Byron Buxton are playing.
2) Escobar at SS might be the real deal, he has no fear and is a classic overachiever. Anyone remember a similar infielder for the Twins a decade ago by the name of Luis Rivas. The Twins waited years for him to develop and he never did…underachiever. Meanwhile Esco is sitting right under their nose as they have spent the past couple years looking for his replacement. Until someone does – let him play…
Hunter is a mess right now. Play Rosario, Hicks & Buxton and see how things go. Getting Buxton and Hicks right is more important then winning games.
At this point I don’t think Hunter is helping them win any games. He certainly doesn’t play the field remotely as well as Hicks or Buxton can right now. He is too slow, BUT, his leadership is good.
When Hicks is healthy, Torii should sit in favor of Hicks.
I think the 162 game season is proving too much for Hunters age. Sano’s numbers for two months are pretty darn impressive, 41 rbi’s and 14 homers! Their future is looking pretty bright. Hughes needs to get healthy now.
So Brian, do they make the playoffs?
Add one more HR for Sano!
“So Brian, do they make the playoffs?”
I don’t think so. IMO they are trotting to many “iffy” pitchers out there. You never know what you are going to get, either from the starters or bullpen.
If they get in they would get the number 1 wild card correct? Thats likely whoever finishes 2nd in the East. So you either get Tanaka or Pineada from the Yankees or get bludgeoned by the Blue Jays. I don’t see the benefit of either scenario other then a few bucks in the owners pockets.
Lets get the kids some experience and hope Ryan can somehow get some pitching for next year.
Just my opinion which is good as my fishing skills. 
That’s the issue – too many iffy pitchers. It’s almost irrelevant they make the playoffs as a Wild Card team. They don’t have the starting pitching to dominate enough to move to the next round. AND the playoffs favor the teams with 3 legitimate starters. Problem is, the Twins don’t have the 3 dominant starters to go deep in the playoffs. So go back and hope Berrios can become one of those, or get another power arm via trade/free agency.
Centerfield is a good comparison. They almost have too many right now, but it’s a good problem to have. Create the same problem with the starting staff and you might have a real contender…
Pitching baby, pitching …
3-0 win tonight. Sano another monster HR.
Mauer is next to worthless unless he gets on base ahead of Sano.
ET
Milone looked good. I’d have to make the case for him as a “crafty” lefthander. I think he had 7 Ks and I didn’t see him top 88 mph. Great night to watch a baseball game. Quick pace, comfortable weather. I was a little surprised by the attendance as we’re at least in the playoff hunt. Scoreboard said 22K but seemed more like 18K.
What do you all think of the big prospect, Jose Berrios, getting shut down after his next start in AAA? The starting staff has been far from solid, so I dont exactly see why he never got his shot. He will finish the season with less that 170 IP this year.
He is shut down because he is a drug offender and was suspended last year. 170 innings is a lot of innings. What purpose does it serve to bring him up and abuse his arm with more innings? At BEST he should pitch triple A next year and be a Sept. call up.
If you watched Don Mattingly (Dodgers) last night he let Kershaw go 134 pitches. Sure they were playing the Giants, sure they have no bull pen, however they are pitching that kid to death. Look at the amount of innings he has pitched, the amount of strikeouts. I would be willing to bet he ends up hurt next year. These pitchers can’t throw the number of pitches they do year after year and not hurt their arm.
My opinion only.
In a way Sano reminds me of that one time Twin in his youth David Ortiz
Good thing they kept Sano in the minors so long, he obviously wasn’t ready for the big leagues……………
Good thing they kept Sano in the minors so long, he obviously wasn’t ready for the big leagues……………
I believe you said the same thing about Kenny Vargas last year didn’t you?
He is shut down because he is a drug offender and was suspended last year. 170 innings is a lot of innings. What purpose does it serve to bring him up and abuse his arm with more innings? At BEST he should pitch triple A next year and be a Sept. call up.
If you watched Don Mattingly (Dodgers) last night he let Kershaw go 134 pitches. Sure they were playing the Giants, sure they have no bull pen, however they are pitching that kid to death. Look at the amount of innings he has pitched, the amount of strikeouts. I would be willing to bet he ends up hurt next year. These pitchers can’t throw the number of pitches they do year after year and not hurt their arm.My opinion only.
What’s interesting is: Pre 1980 it is was common for starters to pitch double digit complete games in a season. Go back to Cy Young who played for 22 seasons and nearly all starts were complete games. In today’s game the league leader might have 5. The idea of a pitch count seems to have only been a concern for the past 20 years or so.
It would seem today’s arms can’t stand up to the strength training & PEDs.
The fatigue and burnout are interesting topics. In a way it reminds me of the Mille Lacs Walleye issue-that is, we all know there’s a problem and every person swears that everyone else is wrong and they have the best idea.
Bert Blyleven is interesting to listen to because (besides the occasional foul language) he’s “been there and done that” with lengthy starts and he’s never seemed to care for the way managers keep their starters on roughly a 100-pitch-per-start limit.
Anyway, the interesting topic for debate is, someone mentioned that Cy Young and others threw all kinds of innings, complete games, and starts on shorter rest. Also back in the day guys like Babe Ruth survived on hot dogs and beer. Guys like Kent Hrbek and Kirby Puckett, although I love them both, were a touch on the round side and did just fine. Yet nowadays, these in shape physical specimens seem to spend more time on the DL then ever. That’s weird because between all the technology, yoga, ice baths, therapy, resistance bands, smoothies, Bose headphones, etc. you’d think they’d be more durable than historical athletes but it seems like it’s the opposite.
I am wrong, it was Rosario.
I think there is some rationale to limit pitchers innings and numbers of pitches. But to the above points, I’m not sure I’ve seen a lot of hard data that suggests today’s pitchers last any longer than they did decades ago…
They do smoke more weed than in Babe Ruth’s era however ~
I don’t think there were nearly as many pitchers back then throwing mid-high 90s and I’d wager a lot less breaking pitches as well.
Ultimately, I think the human body was not designed to throw a baseball 100mph. You have to be a freak of nature to throw that hard, and an even bigger freak of nature to continue to throw that hard without serious damage to your arm/shoulder.
Edit: Going back to the Sano chat though, there is a really interesting story surrounding the Twins signing Sano a few years back. There is a documentary about it called Ballplayer:Pelotero. Here’s a quick synopsis:
“Sano was the big fish everyone wanted in 2009, but his asking price scared off a lot of teams. However, one team that was extremely interested was the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pirates knew they couldn’t give Sano the money he was asking for. Then all of a sudden there were reports that Sano lied about his age. The family felt this was an underhanded trick to scare away other teams and bring down the price so the Pirates and their scout Rene Gayo could sign him.
Sano’s mother even went as far as hiding a camera in her house before a meeting with Gayo. In the meeting, he told the family that “Unfortunately, this is the country of lies”. He basically told them he was Sano’s only way to get a visa to the US which he needed to be signed.
The MLB investigation was a peculiar one. It lasted quite a while and although he was eventually cleared as far as his identity, they said his age was undetermined. This meant they could not prove or disprove he was 16 at the time. But the most peculiar thing is when during a meeting with the MLB investigator (who is only there to investigate right?) told the family that if he signed with Pittsburgh the investigation would be over and there would be no suspension.
Sano didn’t sign with Pittsburgh. Late in 2009, he finally came to terms with the Minnesota Twins and received a $3.15 million signing bonus, which was a lower than the initial $4.5 million they thought he could get.”
Basically, it’s theorized that the Pirates leaked a false story about Sano’s age to decrease his value enough that they could sign him. Sano was partially vindicated and ended up signing with the Twins :).
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
Good thing they kept Sano in the minors so long, he obviously wasn’t ready for the big leagues……………I believe you said the same thing about Kenny Vargas last year didn’t you?
Haha not me! Although I’m not sure what the Pohlad apologists will go with for an excuse, was keeping him in the minors a “business” decision, or did they finally bring him up due to a “business” decision? I’m confused since I still like to think that, to quote Jim Mora, YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME! 
My point was we all thought Vargas was a beast and would be smashing homeruns for years to come. Turns out he has a hole in his swing and can’t hit his weight. The old timers all say you need 1500 at bats in the minors to find out if you can handle big league pitching or not. Anyway I saw no point in rushing Sano when Hicks had failed, Vargas was failing & Buxton needed time. But also at that time we didn’t know Rosario would get the at bats and make the impact he has. Twins are 12 back of Kansas City so they were not ever going to win the central. The wild card still needs to be settled.
It really doesn’t matter how they are playing games in Sept. that matter, it’s just nice they are.
Cool, now you have yet another reason to be a Seattle fan. Hopefully the kid appreciates what he accomplished, thousands of people would love to have just one at bat or to throw one big league pitch.Every year you hear of a guy who has played minor league ball for years and years and sets some obscure record.It’s a game that gets into your blood and never goes away.
I’ve seen some posts by him and he is very gratful for the opportunity.
There was a 3rd base coach for St Louis back in the day who was a Zych too, but that’s not the same.
Twins are pounding Chris Sale yet again. 6-0 bottom or the 3rd.
AMAZING!
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