Twins 2023 Thread

they never said Lopez throws hard. all I heard was low 90’s but he was consistently 95-96 in the first inning. not too shabby

The Twins are BACK! Load the bases with 1 out and dont score LOL

JEREMY wrote:

Whats gonna happen first? Correas foot falls off, Kiriloffs hand, Meadas elbow, or all of Buxtons extremities?

I think your list needs a slight revision on what happens first:

our catchers throw out a runner
windmill watkins sending our slowest runner
a starter going 6 innings
pagan giving up a run

I would put Buxy getting nicked up too but that is almost a sure first thing.

eyeguy507 wrote:

they never said Lopez throws hard. all I heard was low 90’s but he was consistently 95-96 in the first inning. not too shabby

He throws mid 90s consistently.

BigWerm wrote:

David St. Peter was just on KFAN a bit ago. He said there’s really only 10, maybe 15 Ace’s in the league and while the Twins don’t have one, they also don’t have any 4’s or 5’s in the rotation, and had to send some really great arms down to the minors…………..

He’s not wrong. Sending Bailey Ober to the minors, a guy with a 3.21 ERA last season to the minors means you have some nice rotation depth.

Not to mention Louie Varland pitched really well when he was up at the end of last year too. Also starting at St Paul.

3 no hit innings to start the season by Lopez…..You can whine about plenty with this regime, but they actually improved the rotation tenfold for this season.

Gonna be a quick 1-0 game I guess.

That might have been the slowest I’ve seen Buxton look on that triple.

mahtofire14 wrote:

You can whine about plenty with this regime, but they actually improved the rotation tenfold for this season.

It appears so, still TBD, but my point was more regarding an Ace. Guess it depends on your definition, but I’d say there are a lot more than 10 ace’s and the Twins haven’t been close to having one since Johan/Liriano. And I’d bet a lot of money we have some 4’s/5’s rather than an Ace by the end of the year.

Don’t disagree with you. We don’t have an ace. I think Lopez has a shot at being a legit ace. Will he get there, who knows. He’s already exceeded anything any of our starters did last season in his first start. So I like it so far. I also think Gray is going to be really good this year. I’d say we have 5 starters that are 2-4 level starters. That’s better than anything the Twins have had since Santana. And even then it was Santana and nobody else.

eyeguy507 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JEREMY wrote:</div>
Whats gonna happen first? Correas foot falls off, Kiriloffs hand, Meadas elbow, or all of Buxtons extremities?

I think your list needs a slight revision on what happens first:

our catchers throw out a runner
windmill watkins sending our slowest runner
a starter going 6 innings
pagan giving up a run

I would put Buxy getting nicked up too but that is almost a sure first thing.

when windmill sent Larnach i thought there’s your answer! lucked out that throw was about 25 feet off the plate!
thought for sure Lopez would go 6 but Rocky says NOPE!

eyeguy507 wrote:

thought for sure Lopez would go 6 but Rocky says NOPE!

Normally it would annoy me but first start of the year and at 85 pitches, I’m ok with it. You usually get some quick exits first start or two. I’m shocked he let him even come out for the 6th so he could get his win. Last year Rocco would have said sorry, you can’t have it! I think Lopez would’ve asked to be traded if he did that to him today.

eyeguy507 wrote:

when windmill sent Larnach i thought there’s your answer! lucked out that throw was about 25 feet off the plate!

Same here. I thought here we go again….. I think Watkins just says Eff it, you’re all getting sent!

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eyeguy507 wrote:</div>
thought for sure Lopez would go 6 but Rocky says NOPE!

Normally it would annoy me but first start of the year and at 85 pitches, I’m ok with it. You usually get some quick exits first start or two. I’m shocked he let him even come out for the 6th so he could get his win. Last year Rocco would have said sorry, you can’t have it! I think Lopez would’ve asked to be traded if he did that to him today.

oh i get it. at this rate Lopez, Jax and Duran will have 80-100 appearances which shouldn’t surprise anyone really.

Well that went as I expected.

Very good pitching, struggled at times to get runs in, but a great start to the season.

mahtofire14 wrote:

That might have been the slowest I’ve seen Buxton look on that triple.

^^^x2

I was worried a bit when he fouled that one off his ankle later on.

Not happy with Kepler going 0 for 5.

mahtofire14 wrote:

That might have been the slowest I’ve seen Buxton look on that triple.

Ha I thought that too. When I saw the ball get past the CF, I thought he might have a chance at a HR. Almost could have been a play at third with a good relay.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Not happy with Kepler going 0 for 5.

I can’t say I’m surprised. I don’t think the shift being banned is going to help him or Gallo like some people think it is.

It appears so, still TBD, but my point was more regarding an Ace. Guess it depends on your definition, but I’d say there are a lot more than 10 ace’s and the Twins haven’t been close to having one since Johan/Liriano. And I’d bet a lot of money we have some 4’s/5’s rather than an Ace by the end of the year.

Can you name more than 10 Off the top of your head?

Verlander
Cole
Ohtani
Scherzer
Alcontera

That’s five legit ACES. That can still own lineups and go more than 7 innings. That’s it for me. The rest are all 2-4s. Real aces are unfortunately a dying breed.

I’d rather have 5 2-4’s than one true ace and a bunch of Dylan Bundy’s.

I told my son Buxton will hurt himself running the bases and he almost did on the triple. Caught his lead foot and damn near twisted his ankle.

deGrom
Beiber
Fried
Urias

Ok we are up to 9. 2 more?

Dutchboy wrote:

deGrom
Beiber
Fried
Urias

Fried and Urias maybe. Beiber has to get back to his normal self this season and DeGrom isn’t an ace anymore. Doesn’t stay healthy anymore and hasn’t been great when he has been for a couple years.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Ok we are up to 9. 2 more?

So are you trying to prove Falvey was wrong and that there is more or less than the 10-15 he stated? I can’t figure out what you’re trying to get at here, because we are obviously not coming up with many true aces.

Bigwerm stated there were a lot more than 10 aces. I am seeing if we can come up with A LOT more than 10. Or at least more than 10.

Not really trying to prove anyone wrong was more curious.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Bigwerm stated there were a lot more than 10 aces. I am seeing if we can come up with A LOT more than 10. Or at least more than 10.

Not really trying to prove anyone wrong was more curious.

I see. I didn’t say you were, just trying to figure out what we were trying to accomplish.

To me a ace is someone you hand the ball to for game 7. Bieber & deGrom have both done that for me. You could add Sale & Buehler if working on past performance. Your point of less than 1/2 the teams having a true ace is true. BTW, Liriano was never a ace in my mind. His teammate in Toronoto, Manoah has a chance but he needs to throw more games. How about the Brewers guys?

Ripjiggen wrote:

Can you name more than 10 Off the top of your head?

I don’t follow MLB close enough to know off the top of my head anymore. Here’s a list and Gerrit Cole is #14. And the last few World Series staffs seemed to have 2-3 or more Ace’s on each staff. 2020 Dodgers were Kershaw, Scherzer, Buehler, Urias, Bauer for example.

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/ranking-top-20-mlb-starting-pitchers-2023

Netguy wrote:

I told my son Buxton will hurt himself running the bases and he almost did on the triple. Caught his lead foot and damn near twisted his ankle.

He’ll probably have the rest of the series off to manage his workload!

Sale, Kershaw and DeGrom are not aces and haven’t been for probably 2+ years. Former aces yes. Manoah has a shot but I don’t think he’s ever been in a post season. Cole is still #1 in my book. The fact that hes 14 on that list is a joke.

Also DeGrom got lit up last night for what it’s worth, and actually so did Aaron Nola in the same game.