The news Friday about the death of Tyler Skaggs -- that the Angels pitcher died of a mix of opioid drugs and alcohol -- was saddening but not necessarily shocking.
Nor am I all that surprised by the suggestion from the Skaggs family that the evidence -- not (yet) public -- suggests that Skaggs got the drugs from a team employee.
The high-profile opioid deaths of Prince and Tom Petty followed a certain pattern -- two aging rockers whose bodies had been damaged by years of public performance. They were in pain, and they sought to mute the pain and still perform. Skaggs was a generation younger than them, but the performance imperative was no different.
We don't know if Skaggs was prescribed opioids by a team physician or if he went black-market for them. It may even have been a combination -- he may have been prescribed the painkillers briefly after a surgery, gotten hooked, and sought out a back channel for them after the official medical need for them had passed. That sequence is hardly uncommon in opioid overdoses.
I expect we'll learn more with the passage of time and further official investigation. I also expect that the commissioners office, and perhaps the players union, will take interest in what the Skaggs case reveals about the practice of baseball medicine.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Friday, August 30, 2019
Comedy Central
That's the derisive term somebody on MLB radio used Thursday to describe the AL Central. And there's no question that three of the four teams in the Twins division are bad. They expected to be bad, and at least two of the three expect to be bad in 2020 as well. (The White Sox might be the exception.)
But there are bad teams in every division. Won-loss records, after all, have to balance at exactly .500. For every game the Yankees or Astros or Twins or Indians win, somebody else has to lose.
Cleveland beat Detroit Thursday. The Tribe is now 15-1 against the Tigers. That is not a typo: Fifteen wins, one loss. Almost 19 percent of their wins have come against Ron Gardenhire's crew.
The good news for the Twins, I guess, is that Cleveland only has three more games against the Tigers. (The bad news is, Cleveland still has three games to go against the Tigers.)
The Indians are 12-7 against the Royals; no games left between Cleveland and Kansas City. And -- surprise -- they are 5-7 against the White Sox with seven games to play against Chicago.
The Twins, of course, start a four-game series in Detroit today. They enter that series with a season record of 8-4 against the Motor City Kitties. They're 9-3 against Kansas City, 11-5 against the White Sox.
All told, then, Cleveland is 32-15 against the dregs of Comedy Central. The Twins are 28-12. The Twins have a slightly better winning percentage against the three bottom-feeders while playing seven fewer games against them.
But there are bad teams in every division. Won-loss records, after all, have to balance at exactly .500. For every game the Yankees or Astros or Twins or Indians win, somebody else has to lose.
Cleveland beat Detroit Thursday. The Tribe is now 15-1 against the Tigers. That is not a typo: Fifteen wins, one loss. Almost 19 percent of their wins have come against Ron Gardenhire's crew.
The good news for the Twins, I guess, is that Cleveland only has three more games against the Tigers. (The bad news is, Cleveland still has three games to go against the Tigers.)
The Indians are 12-7 against the Royals; no games left between Cleveland and Kansas City. And -- surprise -- they are 5-7 against the White Sox with seven games to play against Chicago.
The Twins, of course, start a four-game series in Detroit today. They enter that series with a season record of 8-4 against the Motor City Kitties. They're 9-3 against Kansas City, 11-5 against the White Sox.
All told, then, Cleveland is 32-15 against the dregs of Comedy Central. The Twins are 28-12. The Twins have a slightly better winning percentage against the three bottom-feeders while playing seven fewer games against them.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
The Bomba countdown
The Twins hit three more homers on Wednesday. This puts them at 258 for the season, nine short of the single-season team record. And we're not out of August yet.
Even if the 2019 Twins don't advance in the October tournament -- and they very well may not, as they appear destined to play either Houston or the Yankees, two powerhouses with superior records -- this validates their remarkable season. They're going to shatter the single-season team homer record, perhaps by Labor Day. They stand to break the record for team slugging percentage as well.
I didn't particularly care for the off-season's add-homers, discard-walks approach from the front office. But I've been acknowledging for a while, and will continue to, that it has worked.
---
Byron Buxton is not off the disabled list. Eddie Rosario is not on the disabled list. The Twins replaced Lewis Thorpe on the pitching staff Tuesday with another pitcher, Randy Dobnak, as the Rochester shuttle keeps moving for a few more days.
Come September, the Twins can just activate everybody still on the shuttle: Thorpe, Devin Smeltzer, Kohl Stewart, Zach Littell, Sean Poppen, maybe Trevor Hildenberger. They can have a whole bullpen of low-leverage arms.
That will only matter indirectly. It will mean that Trevor May or Sam Dyson or Tyler Duffey won't have to pick up innings in blowouts, which in turn will mean they'll be kept fresh for the at-bats that matter.
Even if the 2019 Twins don't advance in the October tournament -- and they very well may not, as they appear destined to play either Houston or the Yankees, two powerhouses with superior records -- this validates their remarkable season. They're going to shatter the single-season team homer record, perhaps by Labor Day. They stand to break the record for team slugging percentage as well.
I didn't particularly care for the off-season's add-homers, discard-walks approach from the front office. But I've been acknowledging for a while, and will continue to, that it has worked.
---
Byron Buxton is not off the disabled list. Eddie Rosario is not on the disabled list. The Twins replaced Lewis Thorpe on the pitching staff Tuesday with another pitcher, Randy Dobnak, as the Rochester shuttle keeps moving for a few more days.
Come September, the Twins can just activate everybody still on the shuttle: Thorpe, Devin Smeltzer, Kohl Stewart, Zach Littell, Sean Poppen, maybe Trevor Hildenberger. They can have a whole bullpen of low-leverage arms.
That will only matter indirectly. It will mean that Trevor May or Sam Dyson or Tyler Duffey won't have to pick up innings in blowouts, which in turn will mean they'll be kept fresh for the at-bats that matter.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Notes from the weekend
It was nowhere near as productive a homestand for the Twins as I expected. They split six games with two bad teams. The sun was shining and the hay was there to harvest, and they didn't take advantage.
The saving grace is that Cleveland actually lost ground to that span. And Cleveland lost their second-best position player, Jose Ramirez, to a broken hamate bone.
Now comes a 10-game, three-team road trip that begins with those same two bad teams, plus Boston. I want 7-3 from that trip.
---
Byron Buxton started what is expected to be a short rehab assignment in Cedar Rapids on Sunday. The idea seems to be that he'll play again today in CR, then report to the Twins on Tuesday in Chicago.
His reactivation may be be corresponding move to the Sunday demotion of Lewis Thorpe. Or not. Eddie Rosario is still on the active roster despite his hamstring injury, and they might opt to put Rosario on the DL retroactively and bring up another pitcher.
Buxton would certainly help the defense, although he doesn't play infield, and that's where the bulk of the fielding issues have been.
---
Those Players Weekend uniforms were awful.
The saving grace is that Cleveland actually lost ground to that span. And Cleveland lost their second-best position player, Jose Ramirez, to a broken hamate bone.
Now comes a 10-game, three-team road trip that begins with those same two bad teams, plus Boston. I want 7-3 from that trip.
---
Byron Buxton started what is expected to be a short rehab assignment in Cedar Rapids on Sunday. The idea seems to be that he'll play again today in CR, then report to the Twins on Tuesday in Chicago.
His reactivation may be be corresponding move to the Sunday demotion of Lewis Thorpe. Or not. Eddie Rosario is still on the active roster despite his hamstring injury, and they might opt to put Rosario on the DL retroactively and bring up another pitcher.
Buxton would certainly help the defense, although he doesn't play infield, and that's where the bulk of the fielding issues have been.
---
Those Players Weekend uniforms were awful.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Squirrelly
 | |
| The "Rally Squirrel" goes five-hole on Max Kepler. (Image from @Twins Photography twitter and Brace Hemmelgarn.) |
The squirrel that has darted around the Twins' home grounds the last two nights captured most of the attention that didn't go to Nelson Cruz's slugging Tuesday night, but let us also note the pitching prowess of Michael Pineda.
Four runs in seven innings isn't all that impressive, but six hits and zero walks are.
Both Pineda and Kyle Gibson on Monday night had crooked-number inning that involved a homer with men on base. Pineda got more run support than Gibson did, so Pineda gets a W and Gibson an L.
Gibson's ERA for the season is significantly higher than Pineda's, but the underlying numbers aren't nearly as different.
I think a lot of Twins fans are currently more comfortable going into a Pineda start than a Gibson one. I know I intuitively am. But intuition isn't necessarily accurate. I don't know who the Twins would rather start in a playoff game, Gibson or Pineda. But they have more than 30 games to go before that decision gets made.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Contemplating Tyler Duffey
Tyler Duffey has been credited with the win in each of his last three appearances, including Friday and Saturday. (The Friday one was initially awarded to Sam Dyson and changed the next morning.)
"The Doof" -- that's what will be on the back of his Player's Weekend jersey -- is the rare Twins reliever who hasn't gotten a save. But he's 4-1 with seven holds, he's only blown one lead this year, he hasn't been charged with a run in almost a month, and he seems to currently be the preferred get-out-of-a-jam option in the middle innings.
Duffey has ridden a roller-coaster for his career. The Twins drafted him out of Rice University -- where he was a closer -- and made him a starter. He had 10 down-the-stretch starts in 2015 in which he was one of Paul Molitor's more reliable rotation arms.
And then it fell apart for him. In 2016 he got 26 starts and pitched to an ERA of 6.43. That did for him as a major-league starter.
In 2017 Molitor used him successfully for about two months as a multi-inning reliever with rest between outings. Then Molitor, dealing as he generally had to with a thin bullpen, tried to cut back on the rest. Duffey's ERA was 2.10 after his appearance on May 28; he finished the season at 4.94.
In 2018 he rode the Rochester shuttle and made just 19 major league appearances with an ERA of 7.20. Ugly.
He started this season that same shuttle, but once he came up a second time in May he's stuck. And his role has increased.
He has for years tried to pitch with two fastballs -- a two-seamer and a four-seamer -- but there wasn't much separation in velocity and he didn't get reliable movement with the two-seamer. It appears that he's largely junked that sinker this year. And his strikeout rate has spiked to more than 11 K/9 -- a statistical trait that makes him valuable with men on base.
Duffey is not closing games, but he's closing innings.
"The Doof" -- that's what will be on the back of his Player's Weekend jersey -- is the rare Twins reliever who hasn't gotten a save. But he's 4-1 with seven holds, he's only blown one lead this year, he hasn't been charged with a run in almost a month, and he seems to currently be the preferred get-out-of-a-jam option in the middle innings.
Duffey has ridden a roller-coaster for his career. The Twins drafted him out of Rice University -- where he was a closer -- and made him a starter. He had 10 down-the-stretch starts in 2015 in which he was one of Paul Molitor's more reliable rotation arms.
And then it fell apart for him. In 2016 he got 26 starts and pitched to an ERA of 6.43. That did for him as a major-league starter.
In 2017 Molitor used him successfully for about two months as a multi-inning reliever with rest between outings. Then Molitor, dealing as he generally had to with a thin bullpen, tried to cut back on the rest. Duffey's ERA was 2.10 after his appearance on May 28; he finished the season at 4.94.
In 2018 he rode the Rochester shuttle and made just 19 major league appearances with an ERA of 7.20. Ugly.
He started this season that same shuttle, but once he came up a second time in May he's stuck. And his role has increased.
He has for years tried to pitch with two fastballs -- a two-seamer and a four-seamer -- but there wasn't much separation in velocity and he didn't get reliable movement with the two-seamer. It appears that he's largely junked that sinker this year. And his strikeout rate has spiked to more than 11 K/9 -- a statistical trait that makes him valuable with men on base.
Duffey is not closing games, but he's closing innings.
Friday, August 16, 2019
Pineda, Smeltzer, Polanco
Michael Pineda came off the injured list and threw five innings Thursday. His first four innings were really good. His fifth was better than it looked. He was charged with three earned runs, but that's because the scoring rules say you can't assume the double play.
Jorge Polanco's throwing error, on that basis, cost the Twins bases but not an out. The reality is, if he makes an on-target throw, Pineda gets out of the fifth allowing just the lead off homer. Maybe he would have gotten the ball to at least start the sixth in that case, maybe not. He struggled to get his fourth out of the fifth and there wasn't any question that he was done after five.
That makes four errors in three games for Polanco -- two muffed catches, two errant throws. At least three of them have come on potential double plays. He really needs to clean it up.
Devin Smeltzer mopped up -- four innings, three earned runs and a save in a game in which he never had less than a six or seven run lead. The scoring rules say a pitcher who finishes a win with three or more innings holding a lead of any size gets a save. That sounds goofy, but Smeltzer at least saved the rest of the bullpen.
He becomes, incidentally, the eighth Twin credited with a save this season. I tried off the top of my head to list the eight during my midnight walk home after work and missed one. The eight: Taylor Rogers (18), Blake Parker (10), Sergio Romo (2), Ryne Harper (1), Mike Morin (1), Trevor May (1), Trevor Hildenberger (1), and Smeltzer (1).
Parker and Morin are both with the Phillies now, and Hildenberger and Smeltzer, with his immediate demotion after throwing 68 pitches, are in the minors.
Jorge Polanco's throwing error, on that basis, cost the Twins bases but not an out. The reality is, if he makes an on-target throw, Pineda gets out of the fifth allowing just the lead off homer. Maybe he would have gotten the ball to at least start the sixth in that case, maybe not. He struggled to get his fourth out of the fifth and there wasn't any question that he was done after five.
That makes four errors in three games for Polanco -- two muffed catches, two errant throws. At least three of them have come on potential double plays. He really needs to clean it up.
Devin Smeltzer mopped up -- four innings, three earned runs and a save in a game in which he never had less than a six or seven run lead. The scoring rules say a pitcher who finishes a win with three or more innings holding a lead of any size gets a save. That sounds goofy, but Smeltzer at least saved the rest of the bullpen.
He becomes, incidentally, the eighth Twin credited with a save this season. I tried off the top of my head to list the eight during my midnight walk home after work and missed one. The eight: Taylor Rogers (18), Blake Parker (10), Sergio Romo (2), Ryne Harper (1), Mike Morin (1), Trevor May (1), Trevor Hildenberger (1), and Smeltzer (1).
Parker and Morin are both with the Phillies now, and Hildenberger and Smeltzer, with his immediate demotion after throwing 68 pitches, are in the minors.
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