Sweet Lou Hennessy, Cody Schoenmann, and Greggory Masterson are joined by the pride of Twins Daily Nick Nelson to go over the Twins recent 7-3 stretch. They also react to and analyze Edouard Julien’s demotion, and Gregg bemoans the institution of interleague play.
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[Music] hello and welcome to the twins off daily podcast brought to you by twinsdaily.com the premier spot for all of your uh independent Twins and minor league affiliate action uh from the twins organization I’m your host sweet Lou Hennessy for today’s episode and I’m gathered here with three incredible members from twinsdaily.com and we’ll go around the horn and introduce them right now first off the pride of twins daily Nick Nelson what’s going on man hey how’s it going L good to be here to be back since the first official episode I think I was on it’s it’s come a long way since then it’s you guys have Bumper Music uh production quality is off the charts very proud of you guys shout out it’s amazing what you can do on the bonus dime I’ll tell you that much uh to our next panel member is Mr Gregory T Masterson Gregory the pride of twins daily himself oh two Prides of twins daily oh man it is the month um hey doing good I do want to point out uh we still have not fully repeated a single lineup on one of these even though Nick is back for his second show Nick was hosting last time and I think that that counts as a diff different lineup I do have a lineup I have an ex spreadsheet an Excel spreadsheet goodness who gave me a podcast um an Excel spreadsheet with the lineup for every week and so we still have not repeated yet but someday we will you’re gonna you’re gonna trigger all the the Rocko haters talking about spreadsheets and lineups here Greg e get it ready that’s that was a lot of buzzwords that gets twins Twitter really riled up so thank you for that Greg uh going to the final member of our panel here the pride of twins daily Cody shonan what’s going on man yeah uh Happy pride month uh like earlier actually happy pride month um what’s the antonym of pride is it disgrace disgrace the shame sh I was saving Shame Shame of Quin daily I mean yeah yeah I love all of us being the pride yeah that you know what I I think we’ll take it and uh like you said it’s Pride month and uh we are we have plenty to be uh proud of here at twins daily uh we do some incredible work that we’ll promote later on but uh let’s jump right on into the episode today’s episode actually we are going to do it just a little bit differently than how we have been the past few weeks we are going to frontload our show with a lot of the baseball heavy you know baseball Centric jargon uh going deep in the weeds of uh Gregory’s and Rocco’s favorite spreadsheets kind of advanced analytics and good uh a good amount of analysis so we’re going to frontload that in the first half of our show before we slide into some of the sillier kind of more fun topics that we have nonetheless important but very silly uh so let’s uh jump right into it with the rapid [Music] recap so our last show was on May 23rd and that was 10 games ago for our dear Minnesota Twins and in that time they had a pretty successful stretch going seven and three uh so let’s jump right on into it what are our takeaways from going two- one against the Texas Rangers three in one against the Kansas City Royals and two and one against the Houston Astros let’s talk about who’s hot and who’s not uh Cody let’s start with you my friend what are some of your initial reactions from the last 10 games of Minnesota Twins action yeah I think one impressive element of their last uh 10 games is their ability to come back uh you know during the Texas series they were down what was it four runs and then they came back during that game kirov hit that big home run uh during the Royal series they were down in a couple games and they came back uh I think also four runs in that in one of those games too and then also in the Astro series I mean I guess yesterday but the day they were recording uh they were down in that game too and then you know Miranda tied it and then eventually they pulled the head so even like with last year’s team and this year’s team you know when when they’re heading games and the pitching is going well like they’ll kind of like go like they’ll they’ll roll with it and they’ll win those games usually pretty convincingly but when they’re like behind and when they’re down I feel like the twins have struggled coming back and like scoring three runs scoring scoring four runs and like with our fan base I think maybe in 2019 we kind of grew accustomed to like oh yeah the twins are down by three runs but they’ll come back they’ll hit home runs you know but that was you know one special year and then since then they’ve kind of I don’t know like what the statistics say I don’t have it pulled up but it seems like the twins do struggle to come back from when they’re when they’re down by a little bit so it’s been really encouraging these last 10 games to see them come back multiple times and win games while they were down even like late in the games when they’re down in the sixth down in the seventh they still kind of like overcome adversity and they they’re able to come back and win you know close GES yeah that’s a good point you know it kind of goes hand inand with the fact that think in the last 10 games we’ve kind of seen what happens when the different Departments of the team are kind of clicking at the same time that doesn’t mean that they’re going to go 10 and 0 but you’re going to see that they’re going to win these series uh you know it’s uh you see the lineup getting a few hits and scoring some early runs or coming back late like you say Cody and then the three losses that they have are kind of those games where it’s like okay they mustered three hits and also the starter gave up you know five earned runs and three and two3 Ines or something like that but uh we we’ll keep keep moving along here Nick what do you think what are some of your biggest takeaways of the last 10 games of Minnesota Twins action they’re winning Series right that’s what it’s all about I think they’ve won four Series in a row now since that rough week against the Yankees and Guardians um I think you know kind of maybe veering into the who’s Hot Topic what’s really stood out to me is the the bullpen over these last 12 games uh and games um they’re just they’re they’re just pitching well we saw again on Sunday uh Simon Woods Richardson comes pretty early in fifth inning they it over to the bullpen and they go to Five relievers who have just been so light out alala Oaker felbar Jax and Don um and they just shut it down I mean there’s gonna be a lot of talk about Miranda and the role he played in that win but the bullpen won that game I mean they won by one run 11 and four and one run games now uh so huge props to the bullpen a lot of people only talk about relievers when they’re struggling so want to make sure we’re shouting out these guys especially Griffin Jacks I mean d has closed has like converted seven straight saves since that hiccup in Cleveland but Jack has been I mean the core numbers the ra and stuff are good but if you look at like the underlying FIP and and XC uh he’s among the best in the league so I really think we should talking about Jack in that conversation absolutely and that’s so interesting that your point really ties into Cody’s point you know uh the comeback doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have a bullpen that can stick it and uh stick The Landing so uh yeah really interesting Dynamic there Gregory what do we think man what’s uh what’s your thoughts over the last 10 games you know I’m going to draw back to Cody as well uh though Cody last week or last was it a week ago last time we met 10 days ago Cody I I believe at the end of the show said something to the effect of I would just prefer just normal series like we don’t have to go on a seven game losing streak and then a 12 game winning streak and just just win series just go two in one just be normal just feel okay uh and even you know obviously I would have loved for the twins to have rattled off 10 in a row but going seven and three and winning each series that’s awesome from a fans’s perspective that uh it makes it a little bit easier to just watch the game and enjoy it not feeling like uh every time the twins are winning you’re like oh geez are they gonna go on this big run and your hard star is pounding and every time that they lose you’re like oh here it goes again so I I I did enjoy that from that stretch in terms of and I don’t necessarily want to quite jump into the specifics of who’s not who’s hot who’s not but there are a lot of names on the offensive side that you know going into this stretch we had a lot of questions about a few of them um have not still been hitting but okay I’ll just go through some names over the last 10 days Alex kof has been killing the ball Trevor lck has been killing the ball Carlos Santana has been really good Ryan Jeffers has woken back up Manuel Margot like all of these guys who a week and a half ago we were all saying like oh gez like are are they cooked is it over for these guys are they too old is kiroff too old at 26 or 27 or how what whatever he is um it’s great to see that handful of guys and there there are a couple that we’ll get to later that uh have not been hitting still but like the top five names over the last week week and a half were all guys that we were saying I mean a lot of them were in the are they going to be sent down uh discussion are they going to to be DFA discussion um so it is it’s great to see those bats in specific kind of come alive that’s a really good point in uh that collection of names I think we should put a pin in that because it leads to our big inning topic which is coming up later but let’s move on into minor leakers who have caught our eye in the last couple of weeks uh it’s been kind of an up and down season for a lot of our Minor League affiliates but we’ve gotten some encouraging signs uh from some of our top prospects and even some maybe lesser known prospects who are really putting up some solid numbers uh Cody who do you have as a minor Leaguer who has caught your eye in the last couple of weeks Cody there there I guess it’s it’s really been nobody I’m sorry I’m gonna cck happens every time Nick joins I don’t know why okay I’m going to leave and I’ll come back I apologize ni curse let’s move on over to Gregory then Gregory what do you think who is a minor leager that has caught your eye over the last couple of weeks here over the last couple of weeks and you know I’m gonna I’m gonna keep up with the the theme where I just name off minor league pitchers who aren’t actively pitching anymore but I don’t believe that we have one time in the first five episodes of this show even the pre-episode before that we started episode zero I don’t believe we’ve once mentioned zebie Matthews I’m sure that there’s a a twins off daily podcast historian out there who’s screaming at uh at their iPod in Turkey where we are the number one baseball podcast of course yes um I’m sure that maybe it has come up but zebie Matthews has been unreal this year um over he’s made eight starts and he’s got a 1.59 erra he has two box and 55 strikeouts and that sounds great but actually it’s worse than he had been doing at one point I believe he was like 51 to zero uh then he gave up a couple walks and struck out a couple people so it went from like Infinity to the next game it was something like 53 to one and now it’s a low low 27.5 he’s kind of falling off the map but he’s on the developmental list I don’t know if we’ve gotten a reason I’m sure that it has something to do with just giving his arm a break he’s a young guy he’s been pitching really well it’s not like he’s on the injured list I’m sure that it’s just giving him say like a week or two to work on something maybe cut down those dang walks because he’s just let that go arai but that’s uh that’s a name that if uh if you’re sitting at home and you’ve never heard of Zebulon Matthews I suggest you look him up uh he’s some we can get excited about just an 80 grade name just the name itself Zebulon I think that’s awesome uh so zebie Matthews you know he’s one of those he’s kind of the poster child right now for the delayed pitching pipeline that uh twins Twitter seems to go get all up in a tizzy about seemingly every year that oh when Derek faly was hired as the twins president of baseball operations he promised us that he would build a pitching pipeline that was all internal and that’s just not how how rosters are constructed anymore but I do think it is important to uh you know look into um the kind of development practices of an organization and this is one that you know there is a global pandemic that’s that really uh shortened things up uh kind of through the through the organization all 30 organizations through a loop uh so now we’re kind of seeing the fruits of this internal pitching pipeline that so many seem to be begging for um Cody now that you’re back with us my friend friend who do you have as a minor leager who has caught your eye over the last couple weeks yeah I’m on my phone now so hopefully this works but um you sound great I’m pulling a Greg here and I’m gonna talk about a guy who actually hasn’t played yet uh so relief piture Jeff Brigham uh he’s returning this week for the St Paul Saints and so before the season started I wrote a piece on Brigham about how how I think he can more or less be like a Hidden Gem for the Twins and he could provide Bullpen depth uh unfortunately before the year started he did get injured and he’s been out since um I can’t recall the specific injury but um he’s he’s he’s going to rejoin the Saints pretty soon um so this offseason he noted that he joined the twins because a he’s really good friends with Pablo Lopez they were teammates in Miami and they had a pretty close connection and also B the twins approached him and kind of said the certain things they could help him with his pitch mix and how to help him become a better pitcher uh and the and the most specific thing that they did with him was tell him they could refine his cutter to make it like a extremely effective third pitch uh so he used to be with the Mets and he was with the Marlins before and he struggled with both of them as a relever I think he has like like a career ER erra over six but in this spring training he performed really well his stuff plus was off the charts um you know usually when you read The Stuff Plus chart if the pitches are over a hundred they’re usually pretty good and you know his cut his sweeper and his fast ball were all like like 110 or higher so he was really impressive this spring so I’m really excited to see Jeff Brigham come back I think he’ll like instant instantly become one of the Saints best relievers and I could see him joining the uh twins you know pretty soon honestly Cody when you started your response saying that you were gonna pull a Greg I started sweating man I didn’t know where that was going to go like did Cody descend into madness what is happening here but uh briam that’s a good answer man like you said with his cutter and slider I feel like we’ve been seeing the twins um decision makers really opt to try to either get uh Personnel that can throw both a cutter and a sweeper or a bigger slider or develop that with some of their arms here so that’s a really interesting name to keep an eye on he is if I remember right he is not on the 40 man roster right he would require somebody being removed for yeah they would need a either 60-day iil or DFA but yeah he’s not on the 40 Man sure okay well so good name to keep on our radar Nick I know you got plenty of sorry I do sorry uh I do want to point out what one of the things that Cody said was that part of the reason he signed with the twins is because he played with Pablo Lopez who knows how serious that is but that is something that we’ve heard from the twins uh before which is just I just want to point that out that’s a that’s a good habit to get into is to have a good reputation around the league uh so I just wanted to point that out gas up the twins while they’re winning yeah remember like the specific points where that a ram disliked Pablo as a person but B uh Pablo kind of advertised the Twins and and he essentially said like they could help you a lot they help me they help me you know develop my sweeper they help me perform you know the best ever per performed in my career so basically the idea was was he kind of sold the twins to Brigham and that’s why Brigham chose the twins on a minor league deal nice yeah that’s cool hopefully that can uh that’s a trend that can continue on down the road here Nick who do you got who’s caught your eye yeah so we have a top prospect tracker on twins daily that our writers all vote on and we try to keep it updated in real time we update the rankings every month um and we update the blurbs every few months so I just went through today actually and was writing up all the the updated blurbs and looking at all of our top 20 prospects and I got to say like broadly there’s a lot of good things happening in the Twin system I know that the top two prospects missed the whole two months they’re finally now getting back into action but you look throughout the rest of the top 10 it’s a lot of guys that are young for their league and you know if they’re not putting up outstanding numbers they’re at least holding their own and I think that was what really struck me is like there’s not a lot of players who look like they’re really out of their element at the level that they’re at um if I was to call out one specific guy I think David Festa is a guy that I think really should be talked about right now he’s pitching amazing in Triple A we talked about that FV pipeline this is a guy who was drafted in like I don’t know eth 13th round a few years ago or something like that um and has really just developed in terms of his stuff his velocity and I he’s just nasty I don’t have any specific numbers handy at the moment but I mean he’s putting up massive strikeout numbers in triple a no one can really touch him um his walks were an issue before starting to dial that in and I think that’s um an important thing to note when you look at someone like Chris adic um that’s pitcher who strikes me as he had these ups and downs he’s coming off his second Tommy John surgery his most recent outing another kind of rough one velocity down he’s at like 60 pitches he’s on Pace for like 170 Innings and he’s thrown 27 total in the last two years so I know Cody perkle one of our many uh Cody’s on the twins daily writing staff wrote an article this weekend talking about the idea of maybe calling up Festa to fill in for a spell um and giving Paddock a break I recommend checking out that article and uh yeah so Festa is a guy that I’m really ey right now yes Cody perkle some would call him the pride of twins daily I believe yes when are we gonna get another Gregory with three Gs never only for one that’s really interesting that you brought up Nick that’s really uh really interesting that you brought up Chris Paddock uh last week in the Press scrum he was talking about how he was approaching the 60 inning uh Mark for the season which is the most that he’s thrown in the last three years or so due to uh his surgery and coming back from that and some of his rehab process there and obviously being in the bullpen at the end of last year Nick do you get the sense that David Festa is the next name to come up if somebody like Chris Paddock were to go under um yeah I mean I think so like who who would really be ahead of him at this point I think he looks pretty polished um you know Louis varland maybe he’s looked okay he’s he’s had his moments I think still working on things that would probably be between those two I how much they want to push Festa but he looks like he’s ready for the challenge yeah it would be exciting to see for sure and I think it would get a lot of people tuning in because he’s he’s on a real heater with uh Triple A St Paul right now that’s for sure but um let’s move on to our next topic here which is the big inning Something That We’re debuting it’s going to be our big talking point what’s kind of the big question going on with uh the Minnesota Twins at the moment and we’re recording this on Sunday night Sunday June 2nd and there’s been word after the uh finale against the Astros that it appears that Edward Julian is being sent down to make room for Royce Lewis who is returning uh from his quad stream um and it looks like he will be in New York to meet the team we have not heard anything official we should make that clear but after the game today reporters were saying that Julian had a meeting with Roco in his office where they chatted for a while and when he came out a lot of the veteran players and some of the other players on the twins uh were coming up to him and uh you know giving him lots of support and uh putting their arms around him and stuff so it looks like that is going to be the move for Tuesday uh so let’s jump right into it uh what are our you know some of our initial thoughts here Nick I want to start with you uh let me know what’s your feeling and I want to know what should the twins have done or could they have done instead of this move instead of uh jettisoning Edward Julian back to Triple A yeah I I personally don’t like it um I understand the reasoning behind it I understand the goal here is to preserve death um but I just look Julian has been slumping for like a month uh prior to that he was dominating the league for like I don’t know what five months um he’s been he’s still got very good overall production I don’t know that it’s going to be super productive for him to go down to the miners I mean he’s got one of the best eyes in the major leagues already doesn’t swing at anything outside of the zone now he’s going to this automated balls and Strikes system I don’t think anyone’s really going to give him much to hit I think I assume he’ll probably just a walks uh and it’s like why not just let he’s a 25y old player who’s got Major League experience the twins at their best are going to have Edward Julian in the lineup against right-handed pitching um and you know just even in coming week they’re facing five righties and one Lefty you’re getting rid of a guy who I truly think is one of their best bats against righties regardless of a 30 game slump so this to me I mean I don’t think they would have done it if they weren’t their hand wasn’t somewhat forced but I still I mean to me either Margo or farmer I understand that you’re connected to them because of the money and the veteran depth or whatever but you’re just kind of delaying the inevitable I think at this point at some point these guys are going to move out the twins have internal depth that can replace them and what kind of message does it send I mean Julian through all of his slumping is like slightly below average offensively and by the way has been great defensively I think he’s a better defensive player at second base than Castro and probably Farmer at this point so he’s bringing value even while he’s slumping um I truly think he’s their best option at second base so I don’t love it I think it makes the team weaker I think it’s an unfortunate thing to do to a guy who’s had a bad month after just really playing well for an extremely prolong period of time and who should have the opportunity to get right in the major leagues you brought up the names um Manuel go or as Gregory likes to call him Mr Meo um and also Kyle farmer do you think that this would be the move that they made if it was the same situation just one month later if we’re talking about the end of June beginning of July and Rey is coming back from his injury uh and these guys are still putting together the same numbers do you think they make the same call or do you think it’s something else I think yeah I think I think the the former I think that uh if this was a month later if they were more confident in Brooks Lee his back being in good shape Lee has been back on the or Lewis has back on the field his quad looks good I mean understanding the sort of precarious situation of those guys’ Health at this point I guess I understand why you want to keep Kyle farmer around um I don’t know I mean I guess they still like Margo to some extent he’s still hitting lead off against left-handed pitchers so and he’s played a little better lately um but you know these guys have no future here uh the monetary aspect and the veteran sort of experience really seems to be the only thing keeping them here and it’s like let’s just go with the young guys they’re the ones that are going to care SC you yeah that’s a good point so speaking of young guys uh I’m going to shoot this over to Gregory Gregory now that uh Julian is the third youngster who played pretty pivotal roles for the twins last year to be optioned back down to the minor leagues I’m talking about Julian Matt walner and Louis varland out of those three who do you think is the most likeliest to return and make the biggest impact for the team I think it’s Julian uh I I think that like if we want to jump over to walner and varland right now I think walner you know has a incredibly high ceiling and an incredibly low floor it’s part of part of that is that he swings the bat like at the 99th percentile he swings hard and so if you’re a guy like that you are going to live and die by the amount of contact you make and so if you are swinging hard you’re going to miss a lot of balls and you are going to potentially strike out 50% of the time like walner did so I think that there’s a ton of variance there that you don’t have necessarily with Julian because he’s always gonna have that high floor I also think that there is a more direct path for Julian to come back up varland again you know if he figures stuff out he can definitely be a rotation piece but Woods Richardson is playing pretty well right now even if he’s not going to throw the ER that he has right now for the rest of the year he’s looked solid you know we already mentioned Festa as another option I I would assume Louis varland is back in the rotation at some point this year but I also think that by the end of the year he’s going to be back in the bullpen getting ready for September so he he’ll make a an impact there but yeah for Julian you know and I’m I’m kind of in the same boat as Nick in terms of I don’t fully get sending him down I you know I I want to say I I trust in the organization that they’ve identified something that he needs to work on and that it is something that he can work on at triaa however if he gets down to triaa and everybody’s just pitching around him and he gets you know even more passive who knows uh how that’s going to go or if that will be beneficial I’m not a hitting coach I can’t diagnose and figure out what exactly he needs to do but I do think that he has the most direct path right back to the team Willie Castro I’m assuming is going to be the everyday second baseman and the TM would prefer to not have Willie Castro be the everyday anything maybe he’s an everyday player especially against right-handed pitches but probably not an anchor in the lineup at second base Kyle farmer has not been impressive on the weak side that doesn’t have as much to do with Julian but if you’re trying to get more production out of the team having Julian back up I think if he’s able to figure it out I don’t think that he’s going to be down there for terribly long of course brooklee might also emerge that’s a weird that would be a weird situation a lot of cooks in the kitchen but I think Julian is the be uh most likely of those three to come back and have a strong effect on the team I agree with you and I actually have a prediction that Edward Julian is going to be back up in the major league roster or on the Major League rer I should say by our next Twins off daily podcast which is uh I believe June 17th it’s in just a couple weeks from now but you know I don’t want to wish you know I don’t want to throw any of this into the air so I’m knocking on wood like crazy here I think somebody’s GNA get hurt and I think Julian’s going to be in the best position to come right back up uh when that happens so I’m not rooting for anyone to get hurt anything like that but I’m just saying it it would be the most twins thing possible to happen and I I imagine that he’ll be back Rel L soon Cody let’s move on to you my friend um Greg already kind of touched on what do you think the game plan will be for play at second base going forward so let’s give you this what are some Silver Linings of this move what’s what’s gonna be beneficial for the Twins roster in general having to send Julian down are there any Silver Linings do you think um I mean I suppose you could look at it from the lck and kiroff angle they they’ve been very hot lately so I actually have a pulled up so um I think a lot of the reason why the twins sent down Julian is due to recency bias so in May for the whole month lck had a 75 WRC plus uh kiroff had a 74 WRC plus and then Julian had a 44 WRC plus but then if you look at the last 10 games lck had a 169 WRC plus kiroff had a 203 and then Julian had a 72 so you know it was a really big discrepancy and I remember last time we were on um with Sherry she said that she thought larck would be the person sent down and I think we all kind of collectively agreed on that um and you know going into this Astro series I kind of had that same mentality that I thought it was going to be larck but then you know he kind of showed out he hit two home runs and he produced really well and you know kiroff is doing similar too he’s producing extremely well you know at least in the last 10 games so I think a silver lining is like kind of has propelled them to made them every players you know mean not against lefties but you know against the righty kiroff will DH or he’ll play first or he’ll play left or L will play left or he will DH and it’s kind of like the first real extended run lck has had in the majors and this is the first time kof has been fully healthy you know for a exent amount of time so if you want to look for a silver lining I think it’s positive that lck and kiroff are having these opportunities we can kind of get actual answers to see if there are long-term options for the twins um kind to what Greg said too you know I I like the idea of Castro second but I feel like you know having Castro play one position you know never kind of really works out very well um you know him um a shortstop you know to replace Kaa him at third place to to to replace Lewis um you know it’s kind of like there’s always like this kind of like unfortunate thing but maybe you know it could be quite possibly that Castoro performs really well at second base you know he’s a good infield def so I think second base could like you know benefit benefit him a lot um we’ll see how he is as as a double play partner with carea that’ll be really interesting to watch you know he has a really strong arm so he has a stronger arm than farmer stronger arm than Julian so maybe Castro performs really well in second and he kind of can become a fixture there I I mean I doubt it I think his his value comes in being super utility player but yeah I mean Silver Lining wise I would say uh definitely getting kiroff and Ln who are both hot now more opportunities stay in the lineup yeah and I I do want to say that uh Castro was Detroit’s everyday second baseman as recently as 2021 believe he played about 110 games there uh or somewhere between 90 and 110 so he he definitely has experience there he did not look great there uh but it seems like his defense has started I don’t know it it seems like it’s been better since he got to Minnesota than it was in Detroit yeah it’s a very astute observation my friend that’s uh it’s very well done I think that we’ve uh really hit the nail on the head with this move or apparent move I like I said we’re not sure that this is what’s going to happen but it’s looking it’s looking that way for sure any other last thoughts before we move on to our next segment from anybody anything somebody wanted to throw out there regarding this potential move well one thing that I would like to say that is maybe I guess kind of an exciting Silver Lining of it as discussed Lou was um the twins are going to have some Heavy Hitters waiting in Triple A they got Julian down there now Brooks Lee will be rejoining them possibly this week I know he’s in single a on a rehab Now Matt walner has been looking a lot better lately I think he’s got like four homers in his last six or eight games he homered in each of the last two games and what’s exciting to me about Matt wner is he’s really cut down the strikeouts and lifted up the Walks Like the plate approach is looking a lot better so um and maybe Emanuel Rodriguez will be up in the second half too so that that Saints lineup is going to be locked and loaded with some MLB ready Talent if there is an injury or eventually probably to push farmer and Margo and these guys out I don’t think their time is long if people stay healthy that’s a good point people you got to buy your tickets for these Saints games because it’s going to be a fun little roster here over the next few weeks you brought up Brooks Lee uh he’s hit at a few different levels in his rehab stins uh as he comes back from his I believe there was a slip disc in his back or a herniated disc something pretty pretty significant but Brooks Lee in that time is hitting 400 with an on base percentage of 44 7 uh in that time which is very very encouraging he’s somebody who the Twins were very excited to get into the major league roster um coming into this season so uh that will be very exciting to continue to monitor that’s for sure but for right now let’s move on to our NE next segment which is hold on I’ve got I’ve got something big to say uh oh hold on hold on hold the Julian got sent down so now farmer and Castro are the only two second basemen on the roster can anybody tell me who on the roster will not be playing second base is it Jose Miranda Jose Miranda will not be playing second base please stop asking stop saying it he made 160 star in the miners Greg just throw them back out there who cares yeah great he also started it short stop have what we what are we doing here the same people who are complaining about Jose Miranda’s butcher defense at third base are like maybe he could play second crazy I just had to say that I also do want to now that I’ve taken the phone uh I do want to point out that the people who are asking for Christian Vasquez to get out of the uh lineup as often as he is you might want to pay attention to uh Royce Lewis coming back at minimum we’re probably going to see less Christian Vasquez catching against left-handed pitchers because you’re going to have Miranda likely either Miranda or Santana if you really want to give Santana a day uh a half day off and have Miranda at first base you can do that but those guys are going to be your first base DH mix that’s gonna bump Jeffers into catching I would say probably every game against a lefty uh that also is going to probably lead to a left-handed Corner outfielder starting one of lck kiroff or Kepler so if you’ve been also bemoaning the fact that Kepler has a 400 batting average in 20 plate appearances against lefties you can celebrate Kepler will likely be in the lineup against left-handed pitchers and I am super excited I’m super excited there’s going to be like in the next week it’s GNA happen farmer is still being used as a pinch hitter that’s basically all he’s doing he’s a pinch hitter and he’s a platoon partner with Ed Julian he’ll probably be a platoon partner with Willie Castro if they’re keeping him on the roster I wrote a piece at twins daily about that’s literally all that he’s doing now he’s not a defensive replacement he’s not the top backup something to watch as you’re looking at Future roster crunches but at some point Kyle farmer is going to pinch hit for Trevor lck Alex kiroff or what’s the other guy’s name Kepler thank you in game and it’s going to lead to a meltdown because Castro will already be in the game at second base more than likely you’re going to see uh Manuel Margo pinch hit before him but you’re gonna eventually see Kyle farmer come in to hit for one of those Corner outfielders move Castro into the Outfield uh farmer would play second base and there is going to be an absolute meltdown and as annihilist I’m so here for it I I can tell I can’t I can’t see you right now Greg but I can tell you got like a little vein bulge out from your temple uh it’s like a grinch smile that’s playing out across his face right now I just say also it was it was a little surprising that uh the twins didn’t get rid of Kyle farmer because historically speaking the poads never missed an opportunity to displace a farmer hey all right all right moving on we got editing ability on this that’s a good call in trouble all right here how about this before we get in any more trouble let’s move on to our next segment which is picks to [Music] click as you may remember each week we pick a different category uh that we track until the next episode uh so for example the category was most strikeouts by a twins reliever uh between our last episode which was on May 23rd and today so um our four members of the panel that week were myself Gregory Cody and Sherry Sherry ended up picking Griffin Jax who had five strikeouts I picked Yan Duran who had four strikeouts Cody you picked Josh domont in a little bit of a Dark Horse he only he had a pretty successful stretch honestly but he only got one strikeout and Greg unfortunately you picked Mr Bosley who did not Pitch a single inning after that so with that Sherry gets on the board with her first win and that leads us to our alltime standings where Lou and Greg are tied to top with two wins each Sherry has one Matt Brun has one Nick and Cody are still looking to get on the board uh but they will have their chance this week uh with our new picks which will be highest win probability added for pitchers between now and our next show which is June 17th so we are trying to pick the pitcher who uh when it gets down to it gave their team the best uh opportunity to win um oftentimes you’ll see this go to a lot of relief pitchers because they are in a lot of high leverage situations you know close and late where uh any sort of slip up will really affect the outcome of the game uh and Fang grafts puts together these this win probabil win probability added figure uh which is really interesting to look at so let’s jump jump right on into it let’s start with you Cody which twins pitcher do you think will have the highest win probability added between now and our next show yeah so I’m pretty embarrassed um I’m like objectively horrible at this um I’ve been on every episode but one and I just I I can’t even come close to winning um but until now this time this time I’m gonna go with a safe pick uh try to get on the board I’m gonna go with uh Diego Castillo um yeah so he’s been really impressive his uh is is it two appearances now I think he’s he made with the twins um since being getting his contract purchased um I’ve been really impressed with him um I think he might already have earned the opportunity of like like a high leverage role maybe not like you know maybe not an eighth inning with a one-run lead but maybe like you know seventh inning maybe even eighth I mean I don’t know twins the twins do tend to push people pretty quickly through the bullpen hierarchy so um yeah I was being factious earlier it’s not a safe pick um I’m gonna go with kind of a Dark Horse again and go with Diego Castillo for this one love it he’s somebody who’s really caught my attention recently Nick Nelson let’s go to you my friend who do you think will have the highest win probability added for pitchers between now and the 17th Griffin the fireman uh he’s going to step up in some big maybe here in New York and Pittsburgh and and come through for the twins with that sweeper that’s a good call I I had a feeling you were going to take him he’s been absolutely massive for the twins recently and uh he looks like he’s going to have no shortage of opportunities to keep it going Mr Gregory who do we got my friend I am going to go and I think that in the future we might need to Institute a new segment on this podcast called where in the world is Jorge alkala because it seems like every single time we meet he’s in one Twin City or the other but he’s back up in Minnesota right now he had a really good stretch since we last spoke and I think if we’re talking WPA we’re going to be looking for somebody who they might look to put out a fire potentially he uh came in with a man on today I think he’s moving pretty quickly up the bullpen hierarchy not into like the the super special roles but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s maybe three or four right now on the on the on the pecking order I’m I’m I’m looking to Jorge Alcala to come into a few games where there is a man or two on and you know they’re they’re only up one run and he’ll weasle his way out of it so that that’s my pick that’s a good pick because you know what I was looking at the leaderboard over the next 10 days for our last category which was most strike outs by a relever and he has nine in that uh 10 game span he’s been really big since coming back up so Alca is a great pick I’m going with the big man Yan dur because I think he’s you know naturally a high leverage reliever will have the greatest opportunity to have a um positive win probability added then again they also have the risk of having a negative one and he’s somebody who is susceptible to the home run but I’m putting my money that he’s going to have another successful stretch and get this I think he’s going to make a push to be a possible American League Allstar for the first first time this year I think he’s got the Marquee name and the offerings that pitchy ninja loves looking at or loves displaying on uh his Twitter account um if his velocity continues to Trend up as it has been the last couple games I know it’s been kind of up and down but if he can get that back on track I think that he’s going to be one of the Premier relievers uh featured in the All-Star Game this year so we have our picks now let’s move on to our next segment the return of Gregory’s grapes watch out the floor is yours my friend why don’t you go ahead and just give a quick uh explanation of the segment and give us your gripe for the week my friend yeah this Gregory’s gripes is brought to you by anyone please sponsor us uh so Gregory’s gripes is a segment that we like to do where old Greg has has something on his chest or bone to pick uh some sort of cliche metaphor s figure of speech I’m ticked off and I’ve got some uh I’ve got some grinding in my gears so here’s my gripe for this week I in the year of Our Lord 2024 we have advanced past the need to present statistics as Al versus NL I don’t want to hear somebody say oh they’ve the fifth best bullpen in the league and then you’ve always got to ask okay is that the American League or the major leagues the designated hitter rest its Soul I’m still upset that they did away with the designated hitter that’s G who whoa whoa the pitcher hitting pitcher I love the designated hitter I love the double switch I love the guy who’s like his whole job is just to go in and get one plate appearance a day I love that that like Julio Franco could still be in the league I’m telling you that much and we’ve unbalanced the schedule why do we need what we everybody uh everybody already goes through plays every team I don’t think that we need to keep Distributing these two leagues I don’t think that we just if if I say you’ve got the 10th best offense in the league that should mean you’re the top 10 I don’t need to say oh actually that means you’re in the bottom half because we’re only talking about the American American League they’re pretty much the same also I hate the fact that there is inter league play I want them to go back to Al only playing Al and NL only playing NL make the World Series special again okay Grandpa let’s get you back to your Matlock we’ve done enough your ears I I don’t think you believe that last one I don’t think you genuinely believe that last one no I I do not I do not like inner League Play go back to an unbalanced 14 and 16 TMS I love if if there is going to be inter league play it should be like that one weird week in July I thought that it was special that the team if if we’re if we’re gonna do in League Play then why have two MVPs Grandpa’s got a good point over here but I’m really worried that next week he’s gonna come back and he’s gonna be like movie theaters are too loud or something I don’t know but anyway Gregory thank you very much for getting that off your chest the next question is for you the listener do you have a gripe that you’d like to air out please hit us up on Twitter twins off daily or gregt Masterson he would love to hear any gripes that you have but now we’re going to cruise on over to our last segment which is the [Music] closer so our good friend Cody is going to be the host of The Closer this week and he we have another segment called stump the shown Cody the floor is yours my friend Stu the shown is brought to you by Darren mastriani do you live in the Greater Twin Cities area are you in need of of a financial advisor do you have a soft spot near heart for Scrappy bearded former MLB out leaders well look no further Darren masani is the man for you Darren masani is a financial adviser for Edward Jones in the Twin Cities area and he’s here to serve you he had a career W RC plus of negative 36 but he will put you in the positive what it Cody how many times do I have to tell you no free ads oh sorry yeah um that was an Impulse I’m sorry um as we all have that was totally understandable it happens to me all the time I have to plug X twins yeah yes no that wasn’t actually that wasn’t an actual ad um Darren masani is is a real financial advisor you can check him out um but yeah we have nothing to do with him legally speaking um yet okay yet yes is welcome to pay us iners for this promo yeah absolutely all right let’s jump on into stump the sh what do you got for us yes so stump the shown we played it once but basically the idea of stump the Schwab I will name a category and we will go around and everybody will list players or you know any other uh you know category I suppose they would fit it so for example say if I said players who have hit a home run for the twins this season and you said max Kepler you’d be right but if you said Aaron judge you’d be wrong because he’s not a twin right so basically we’re going to go around and whoever um answers it correct um you know for the longest is the winner and as soon as you answer incorrectly or don’t know somebody you’re out okay so this week’s subject so 2014 was Ron Garden High’s last year with the twins um it was a pretty miserable season um eventually went to Moler and into the Roco era but okay so the topic for this week is position players M strictly position players who hit a home run for the twins during the 2014 season oh goodness okay I give you a couple seconds to think up some names and then so we’ll start off with Nick and then we’ll go Greg and then we’ll go Lou and then well actually back to me because um you know I I have the names in front of me but I don’t count but I will be participating in uh naming players but okay so do I list as many as I can or do I list one and then we rotate you you list one and then we go around yeah okay got it okay well I will start with Joe Mau okay Joe Mau is correct Kenny Vargas Kenny Vargas is correct 2014 Trevor plof let’s see here plof yep he was number three on the leaderboard okay uh Brian doer Brian doer LED them with 23 really okay okay okay um I’ll go with Aaron Hicks Aaron Hicks is correct he had one wow okay just skin and by Eduardo Nunes yep he had four Eduardo Escobar yep he had six okay okay um oswalo AR had 20 naturally oh there’s a throwback um I’ll go with Pedro floramon oh he was on that team but he had zero home runs Greg and Lou Greg who who do you got oh geez I don’t know can I or jup Terra um no jupa is not one so down to Lou can Lou wins he well Lou has to name somebody though and then he is the winner I got one I’m going to go with Kurt Suzuki an Allstar in 2014 jeez why did I think I was about to say Suzuki and then I thought no he was kind in 16 why did I think that sucks to suck Greg your memory is escaping you in your old age unfortunately well that was let me tell you about Earl baddy um his name just just for fun a couple obscure ones Eric frier had one home run who could forget Jordan schaer uh Jason kubel was on that team he hit a home run and the old uh kendri Morales the he was he was good but they traded him that God 2014 that was a beefy year there were some bulk on that team yeah Chris Pary oh B was Josh Willingham on that team still he was four oh man well that was a good one Cody that was a blast from the past a pretty unpleasant year for the twins for the besides that allstar game but some really fun names to really look back at but thank you very much for doing that we’re excited to play that again going forward here but let’s move to our postgame high fives and we’ll take a quick look at the up schedule for the Minnesota Twins so starting on Tuesday they are on the road for three games against the New York Yankees then they go for three against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh and then they come back home for three against Colorado and four against the Oakland Athletics so let’s just go around real quick anybody have any expectations or just some kind of thoughts on the upcoming schedule for the twins let’s start with you Mr Nick I mean obviously uh feeling a little nervous going into Yankee Stadium how could we not be right we’ve seen the twins rot get hit with some home run regression in recent days not a game not a great place to go when dealing with uh that kind of situation um the bullpen has been playing really good as I mentioned but probably do for a bit of a downswing so I’m a little nervous because the twins are really rolling last time played the Yankees a couple weeks ago and then it all fell apart they went into this six game or seven game death spiral so hoping they can hold it together really looking forward to seeing rice Lewis back in the lineup on Tuesday night and uh maybe that’ll change change the uh course of events here nice Greg what do you think what’s on your mind as we head into this stretch so going be the time that we met before the 12 game win streak the stretch where they went what 13- two I said that uh this is a point in the schedule where you should try to get fat off of Pittsburgh you know is not at the same level as Colorado and Oakland right now but you know after you leave Yankee Stadium you should be looking to make some hay somehow the twins have managed to fall back to like six games back of the Guardians after having the the lead for 15 minutes uh like three weeks ago so you know you really want to see them get fat off of this next series these next few series especially like Colorado and Oakland are an absolute joke there it’s it’s beautiful it’s beautiful to just watch baseball teams kind of struggle and flail and all those types of things except for when it’s the Twins and so you know I’m I’m looking forward to let’s get through Yankee Stadium let’s get some wins well said my friend well said Cody what do you think anything on your mind yeah so like to Greg’s Point um you know to face teams like Colorado Oakland are gonna be really nice to hopefully stack up some wins some Series wins um with the Pittsburg Series so it’s kind of like there’s there’s two sides of me so before the Pirates play the twins they’re going to play the Dodgers in a three-game series and in that series Jared Jones and Paul SK are going to pitch so it looks like the twins are gonna are going to miss Paul sches and Jared Jones which is which is great for the team and their offensive production hold on we we we lost you oh okay we can hear you now okay sorry where did I where did you hear me last uh they’re missing Paul SK and Jared Jones okay yeah so they’re pitching against the Dodgers this week um the fan of me I would have loved to seen skin and Jones against the twins like I’m really high on both of them they’re both young superstars and excited about them in their future but at the same time we’re lucky that the twins are going to miss them and um the the starting pitches aren’t up yet but it’s probably G to be like falter uh Mitch Keller so the twins kind of get lucky there so hopefully the twins can capitalize on that and take the series from Pittsburg as well very well said definitely something to monitor uh as we head into this stretch again the date of our next episode is Monday June 17th which by then we will have seen the Minnesota Twins City connect uniforms which I’m very excited to uh on aren aren’t those cream jerseys aren’t those City connects you know what that’s enough from you Greg that’s it so there’s always the possibility of an impromptu episode if there’s ever a rain out uh we will try to squeeze something out for you uh but until then we want to thank you very much for joining us on the twins off daily podcast please catch all of us on twinsdaily.com check in Daily there we always got something good ready for you so thank you very much for being here and as always stay sweet and let me be the first to wish you a very happy Royce Lewis [Music]
