Notes from the weekend

That was a couple of ugly series the Twins played in Chicago, first losing two of three to the lowly Whtie Sox, then getting swept by the Cubs.

The Cubs are a quality team, or at least a quality lineup, and Wrigley Field in hot weather has long been known as a hitter's paradise, but what befell the Twins pitching staff was not acceptable.

The Monday print column this week is a (superficial) once-over on the most likely trade candidates on the Minnesota roster, written on Saturday before Lance Lynn laid his egg on Sunday. When I said in the column that Lynn and Jake Odorizzi would deepen the playoff rotation of most contenders, particularly in the National League, I had the Cubs in mind as one of those teams. (Also the Milwaukee Brewers, who the Twins play next.)

The Cubs have, however, seen a lot of Lynn in the past -- he spent his previous major league seasons toiling for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cubs division rival -- and he has not fared well in Wrigley. He certainly didn't Sunday. The carnage -- which included Lynn failing to cover first base -- pretty much wrecked the improvement he had made in his ERA over the past month.

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The Twins DFA'd Felix Jorge over the weekend in the process of shuffling their roster (making room on the 40-man roster for Willians Astudillo).

Jorge made two appearances on the major league roster last season, but has been largely sidelined this year (just three innings, all at the bottom rung of the Twins stateside affliations.)

Assuming that at least one of the Twins veteran starters gets moved this month -- and I do so assume -- it seems safe to say that Jorge is not likely to benefit.

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The Twins, beset by heat-related illnesses, finished Saturday's game with an outfield of Logan Morrison is left, Astudillo in center and Robbie Grossman in right.

Aaron Gleeman speculated on Twitter that that might be the worst defensive outfield in major league history. I have no idea how one might attempt to measure that, but it's certainly an alignment that would seem to be an invitation to triples.

I have a memory of attending a 1997 game in the Metrodome in which the Oakland A's started an outfield with Jason Giambi in left, Geronimo Berroa in center and Jose Canseco in right. However, a check of Baseball Reference's gamelogs suggest that never happened. Berroa didn't play any centerfield that year (or, apparently, ever). Giambi was the A's regular leftfielder that season (accommodating Mark McGwire at first base and Canseco, in his second go-around with Oakland, as the DH), and Berroa played a lot of right field before being traded in late June. Any outfield with two of those three in it was bound to be brutal afield.