The Twins Series

[Just Regular]

The reigning AL Central champions are off to a slow start.    They arrive off 3 games in 2 days thanks to a Friday rainout, and the Tigers rallied for 4 in the 8th yesterday off their usually sharp bullpen.    Both their Top 2 relievers threw Saturday-Sunday, so may be down tonight.

We catch them at a moment of Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis and Jhoan Duran absence.     Byron Buxton after DH'ing exclusively in 2023 is back to playing some CF.

Edouard Julien is a fun baseball amateur story - he's a French Canadian who went to Auburn and was a top player there on a team that included Gunnar Henderson's older brother.

Like us in the Milwaukee series, it is the bottom of the rotation to start, and circles back to the Ace for the series finale.

Irvin v. Varland

Grayson v. Paddack

Wells v. Pablo L.

Twins Arms leapfrogged Orioles Arms to grab the MLB K-BB% lead entering play today - both are analytical towards Arms, and generally teach their Bats to lift and pull with rigor.    Minnesota's team batting average can run low - it is a MLB worst .185 as their sluggers eye the OPACY flag court.     

Austin Martin is one of the guys over the Mendoza Line, and is earning some of his first regular MLB run currently.    Martin was the reputed #2 out of Vanderbilt the 2020 draft year when Elias bypassed him for Kjerstad, who commanded a bonus ~$1.75M smaller.    Those savings helped the Orioles get Coby Mayo and Carter Baumler signed late.

Edited April 15 by Just Regular

[Moose Milligan]

Gotta take 2/3. 

[Frobby]

The Twins are pitching well, but not hitting.   Here’s Cole Irvin’s and Tyler Wells’ chances to get back on track. 

[Tony-OH]

45 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Gotta take 2/3. 

Not sure it's a "gotta" thing, but I think the goal is always to take 2 of 3. If you get a sweep it's the cherry on the top. 

[Fiver6565]

So we go from a very hot offense coming in here, to a quite cold one. Let’s hope the results match the latter because they certainly did on the former. 

[interloper]

Not having Yelich didn't seem to hurt Milwaukee, so I'm hesitant to put too much into missing Correa. 

We have to pitch and play defense. We did a pretty terrible job of both in the Milwaukee series. 

[Moshagge3]

Good test for Irvin and Wells. O's are 7-0 when Burnes or Rodriguez starts, so they're 2-6 when anyone else starts.

[.500_OR_BETTER]

Maybe, just maybe... one of these games - we won't have to play from behind early.

We should be able to easily snag 2 out of 3, but if the lineup starts clicking it could be an easy sweep.

[Moose Milligan]

2 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

Not sure it's a "gotta" thing, but I think the goal is always to take 2 of 3. If you get a sweep it's the cherry on the top. 

Correct.  And I know it's still early, but the Yankees are 2.5 up on us.  They're playing the Jays who are disappointing as usual but can also give someone trouble.

I'd really like to be in first place by the time our series starts with them on the 29th.

[DirtyBird]

1 hour ago, .500_OR_BETTER said:

Maybe, just maybe... one of these games - we won't have to play from behind early.

It was a nice early lead we had on Saturday

[Tony-OH]

10 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Correct.  And I know it's still early, but the Yankees are 2.5 up on us.  They're playing the Jays who are disappointing as usual but can also give someone trouble.

I'd really like to be in first place by the time our series starts with them on the 29th.

I guess I don't start scoreboard watching until June at the earliest. Obviously we don't want the Yankees or anyone else getting off to a great lead, but the key is for the Orioles to win series. this team is not perfect, but it's very good and will be fine. 

[btdart20]

I'm glad we miss Joe Ryan.  

[DenPA2002]

For the record, the teams we've played have a combined 47-30 record. Not the easiest of teams thus far.

In fact, I took a flyer on Pitt and KC to win pennants @ 100-1 and 65-1.

Meanwhile the Yanks have play 35-45.

It's early but gives some context.  

[Moose Milligan]

47 minutes ago, DenPA2002 said:

For the record, the teams we've played have a combined 47-30 record. Not the easiest of teams thus far.

In fact, I took a flyer on Pitt and KC to win pennants @ 100-1 and 65-1.

Meanwhile the Yanks have play 35-45.

It's early but gives some context.  

IIRC, the Pirates started off hot last year too before cratering.  

The Royals are in a poverty division, I like their chances better.

[Just Regular]

Minnesota may also be an okay yardstick what it looks like if Rubenstein's Orioles settle around 20th in MLB payroll.

Fangraphs today has 2024 MIN there on the dot at $128M.

The 2023 team finally got the playoff monkey off its back, and spent just over $150M in that effort.    This winter they did not really try to retain Sonny Gray, and are replacing him with lower cost pitchers.     Jorge Polanco was also dealt off the top of the deck.

The market did support the Carlos Correa splurge, and the ALDS berth is the high achievement so far with perhaps Correa's best funded team in the rearview mirror.   Correa now at age 29.5 was enjoying having his foot speed back in the early going, but had the oblique strain this past week that has him off the board this series.