Timberwolves

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In their last three Playoff losses to the Memphis Grizzlies, the Minnesota Timberwolves led by double digits in the 4th quarter. All that means is that Memphis was the better team, for as long as I’ve been watching pro basketball, the only quarter that matters is the 4th. You can go further and say, all that matters is the last five minutes–or less. This is in contrast to baseball, where, once the Twins fell behind 5-0 in the first inning last night the game was basically over.

Still, there was much to be cheered about if you were a Minnesota fan. First, of course, was their entry in the Playoffs as the 7th seed, when no one predicted them to be a Playoff team this year. Just as encouraging was the performance of their two youngest players, Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels, both drafted in 2020. Edwards, amazingly only 20 years old, was the best player on the court in the first half, scoring 20 points on driving layups and long three-pointers. Although not so dominant, he performed credibly the rest of the game. McDaniels, only recently back from injury, scored a season-high 24 p0ints off the bench and was ferocious on defense, as well. Their futures are bright.

The third T’wolf who distinguished himself–and there were really only three–was backup point guard Jordan McLaughlin. D’Angelo Russell bricked his first three shots and did little to ignite the offense. When McLaughlin entered the game the difference was palpable. Everyone moved with more purpose and his deft passes set up his teammates in rhythm for easy baskets. Plus, he shot 4-for-5 himself. Timberwolf coach Chris Finch obviously noticed the difference, as he replaced Russell with McLaughlin in the 4th with the game on the line. What this means for the future is anyone’s guess: I know too little of NBA economics to understand the significance of Russell’s “max” contract, but he has been a disappointment, as he was elsewhere, and if the Wolves could get value in a trade I’ll bet they would take it.

The other “max” contract belongs to Karl-Anthony Towns, who apparently earned his over the course of his best year in the pros. (I hadn’t watched a Timberwolves game before last night, but followed them daily in the paper and on highlights shows.) Towns, however, had a spotty record in these playoffs, turning in a no-show for every good performance. Last night was another clunker. Memphis used a quick double-team to stymie his offense, and you wonder if this will be a recurring problem in years to come. Moreover, he was responsible for two of the three key plays that finally turned the game in the Grizzlies’ favor: a flagrant foul on a sloppy block attempt and a misbegotten three-point effort from far out, the kind of “hero play” that Coach Finch had warned about. (The third dagger was Minnesota-native Tyus Jones’s 24-second-buzzer beater with one minute to play that turned a 1-point lead into 4.)

No one else made a significant contribution, pro or con, and by this I refer to Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverly and Jarrod Vanderbilt. Bench players who contributed substantially over the course of the season–Taureen Prince, Jaylen Nowell, Naz Reid–never left the bench, and it remains to be seen how or whether any of them–not to mention Jake Layman, Josh Okogie, Bolsenaro–will figure in the team’s future plans. One hopes that Prince and Nowell, in particular, will develop and create a solid core that can capitalize on the Playoff experience that Edwards, McDaniels and McLaughlin now have. Oh, and one hopes the T’wolves can add a rebounder: Memphis outrebounded Minnesota 56-37, including 17-6 on the offensive boards. That, better three-point shooting, and experience made the difference.

Twins Preview ’22

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Hope springs eternal, which is the main reason I’m looking forward to the Twins season. They definitely upgraded themselves in several places, notably adding Carlos Correa from the Astros at shortstop. Gio Urshela from the Yankees will be an improvement over Josh Donaldson at 3rd, if only because expectations won’t be so high. And then, of course, if Byron Buxton doesn’t get hurt, that could be the biggest plus of all.

Pitching is the biggest unknown, because the makeover is almost total. Of 16 pitchers, 13 have been added since last year’s opening day. I happen to like Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober, two almost-rookies who throw hard and fearlessly, but they have no track record. Sonny Gray, the new ace, had better be good. Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy have been good, but not recently. The Twins have a record of hopeful signings that don’t work out–Matt Shoemaker last year being the most recent and worst–and management must be aware of this history, for they traded for another starter, Chris Paddack from San Diego, yesterday. The Twins will go with a six-man rotation until they see which one isn’t working. (And they sent Devin Smeltzer to St. Paul, despite a flawless spring, to keep stretched out and ready.)

Jim Souhan’s Opening Day column stressed the importance of having an effective closer, citing the failures of Alex Colome last year as souring the entire 2021 season. In response, later that day the Twins traded their projected closer, Taylor Rogers, their most effective reliever the last three years. The theory must be that you don’t overpay for a “closer,” because you never know who can do the job (until you try them), and Rogers was in his free-agent year. Maybe Tyler Duffey will do the job; maybe one of the young guys will emerge; or maybe the lack of closer will torpedo the year. (Then again, if the Twins don’t get the lead, the lack of a closer is immaterial.)

As for the rest of the squad, I’m excited to see if Alex Kiriloff is the real deal. Max Kepler consistently plays below potential and I expect more of the same. Luis Arraez is a sure .300 hitter; I hope he gets to play. One option is first base, still manned by the perpetually frustrating Miguel Sano, His home runs are great, but are they worth strikeout after strikeout? I worry that putting Sano and Gary Sanchez in the lineup together will produce a black hole.

In sum, there are reasons to be optimistic about the Twins this year: Correa, Gray and Urshela represent bold moves. But when you look around the division, all the other teams seem to have improved themselves, as well, and they finished ahead of Minnesota last year. And the Twins’ Central Division is, far and away, the weak sister of the American League. So much for baseball as a zero-sum game.

Super Bowl ’22

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The Rams’ 23-20 win over the Bengals was basically a defensive showcase, with most plays going nowhere. There were, however, about ten plays that stood out and provided all the conversational fodder that was needed, and the game, as had the preceding six playoff contests, came down to the final two-minute drill.

The biggest single play, for me, was the stop by Aaron Donald when the Bengals had third-and-one on the 50-yard line with 30 seconds to play. He reached around a blocker and pulled the running back backward. The officials, in my view, also gave the Bengals a bad spot, but the runner would still have been short. If the Bengals had made the first down, they would have had three cracks at throwing at least a ten-yard pass to get in field goal range. Fourth-and-one was simply too desperate a situation and Donald’s coup de grace was no surprise.

The unwarranted defensive holding call on Logan Wilson, who had just spectacularly knocked down a pass to Cooper Kupp at the 2-yard line on third-and-goal was the next biggest play. To say that it compensated for the officials missing offensive interference on the Bengals’ second touchdown is fair, but in the moment it seemed more decisive. Had the Bengals not committed a helmet-to-helmet hit on the next play in the end zone, the Rams would have had 15 difficult yards instead of 1 to get their winning score. The simultaneous holding by the Rams affected the play in a way the personal foul did not, so they weren’t quite equal.

It’s too bad that an almost penalty-free game ended up with three consecutive penalties costing the Bengals in the final minute, as it inevitably leaves a sour taste in the mouths of Cincinnati fans and somewhat dilutes the greatness of Matthew Stafford’s final drive. But in a way it makes American football comparable to real football, what we call soccer, where fans almost expect a game to be decided by a referee’s call, often bad. That’s part of the game.

The other big plays were the Bengals’ failure to make a 4th-and-1 at midfield, leading to a Rams field goal; while the Rams, specifically Kupp, made their 4th-and-1 to keep the winning drive alive. Conversely, the Bengals one trick play, a halfback pass by Joe Mixon, succeeded, while the Rams’ version of the Philly Special, with Kupp passing to Stafford, failed laughably.

There was only one memorable offensive play all day: Jamari Chase’s one-handed grab of a 45-yard pass from Joe Burrow with Galen Ramsey draped over him. (Again, the officials inexplicably gave the Bengals a bad spot, about four yards further from the goal line, which may have contributed to their inability to convert a touchdown.) Rather, it was the defensive line play that stood out, for both teams. For me, the game ball should go to the Rams’ defensive line, with Aaron Donald in the lead.

Flores v. Goodell

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Some sports columnists are lauding ex-Dolphin coach Brian Flores for challenging the NFL for its dearth of Black head coaches, and commissioner Roger Goodell has said he finds it “completely unacceptable” that the roster of Black coaches has been reduced to one. Critics point out that 70% of the NFL players are Black, as if that requires that a larger percentage of coaches be Black, although no one is quite saying that percentage need by 70%. “Lack of diversity” in the head-coaching ranks is tossed about as a self-evident offense.
But in my view, “diversity” in this context is meaningless. Yes, if you have a company or a political body or a committee, it is valuable, even important, that diverse voices and backgrounds be included. The days of ten white males making decisions that affect others are, or should be, over. But the 32 NFL head coaches are not one body. They do not get together and make decisions. Each runs a separate organization. There should be diversity in their staffs, and there is; but that is within an organization. Each owner has the right, and the obligation, to choose the individual he thinks will do the best job running his team, without any consideration of what the other 31 owners are doing. The idea that any team should hire a Black coach because the other teams haven’t is absurd.

Contrast this with the “debate” over whether Biden should name a Black woman to the Supreme Court. Republicans, conveniently overlooking Clarence Thomas (and Amy Coney Barrett), are screaming that Biden must pick based on qualifications for the job, not because of someone’s gender or color. The Supreme Court, however, is precisely the venue where diversity, per se, matters. There is no “best person for the job.” There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of lawyers who are qualified and could handle the job (most third-year law students felt this way). What is important for the Supreme Court, once basic qualifications are established, is that its members reflect the society that will be impacted by its decisions. There are constituencies besides Black females that could claim they should be represented, but this is a good place to start. The over-representation of Catholics cuts the other way.

Flores claims that the “Rooney Rule,” the NFL’s rule that two minority candidates must be interviewed for any head coaching job, is a sham. I’m sure some teams treat it that way. But so what? The Rooney Rule has no legal force. The league can’t make any of its owners hire anyone. All it can do is make them take a look. If a Black coach thinks he is being used, he doesn’t have to agree to the interview. Some interview, somewhere along the line, may open some eyes. It’s better than nothing, which is what existed before. There is a discussion to be had as to why there are so many more white coaches, but that’s for another day and another place.

Baseball’s Future

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With the drumbeat for change louder and louder, and with the field of traditionalists shrinking more each year, it seems inevitable that changes, some major, will be made to the sport of baseball in order to increase fan interest and watchability by, among other things, speeding up the game. Indeed, in my youth a two-hour game was seen as the model, with most clocking in around 2:30. Now, anything under three hours is considered unusual, and four-hour marathons are not uncommon. Beyond length, the other common objection is lack of action, as batters try for home runs, pitchers for strikeouts, and fun things like triples, hit-and-runs, bunts and steals have become rarities. Not to be left out of the discussion, therefore, I herewith offer my suggestions, as a long-time traditionalist, of changes I would like to see to save, if not improve, our former national pastime.

1. Electronic Strike Zone. Keep the home plate umpire, but have balls and strikes called by an automatic ball-strike technology. Now that every TV broadcast shows whether and where a pitch actually crosses home plate, it is frustrating for the viewer, let alone the player, when the human umpire calls a bad pitch a strike, and vice versa. It detracts, rather than adds, enjoyment to watching the game.

2. Curtail Shifts. Require a team to keep two infielders on each side of 2nd base. I was hoping that players would end the unfortunate practice of overshifting simply by hitting to the opposite field, or even bunting, but Max Kepler insists on trying to hit a home run every at bat and seeing his average fall toward .200. To the extent that the shift takes away offense, which is its purpose, it takes fun away from the game.

3. Pitch Clock. Experts say this is the surest way to speed up a game, and certainly no one enjoys watching pitchers who dawdle and belabor every delivery. If, say, the pitcher has 20 seconds from receiving the ball to delivering the next pitch, the clock runs until the pitch is thrown, not just the windup or stretch. By eliminating the pitcher’s holding the ball for five seconds to throw off the baserunner’s timing, you will also get rid of the batter’s asking for time, stepping out and starting the whole thing over. A suggestion has been made to have a clock for the batter, as well, but I don’t think that’s necessary. If the pitcher has a 20-second clock, he should be allowed to throw the pitch any time after 15 seconds, regardless of whether the batter is ready.

4. No DH. I’m the last one to come around on this, having grown up a National League follower, but the pitcher’s time at the plate is generally the least interesting part of a game. It also disrupts the action around it, hurting the chances for the number eight hitter to get a good pitch and putting a crimp in one out of every three offensive innings.

5. Eliminate Replay for Oversliding. When a baserunner beats the tag at second or third but his foot separates from the base for a split second, instant replay will show if the fielder maintained the tag and the runner then gets called out. First, this is an injustice: if the runner beats the tag he should be awarded the base. Second, it discourages the safer feet-first slide and rewards the hands-first slide, which results in injuries and is a bad model for kids. Third, it slows the game as it leads to time-consuming instant replay review. Unlike the bang-bang play at first that gets reversed, there is no satisfaction here in “getting the call right.” It’s not a call that, before instant replay, was even a part of the game. My fix: allow replay only when the umpire has called the runner out, which would prevent injustice. If the umpire doesn’t detect any separation in real time, no replay.

Eddie Rosario

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Eddie Rosario’s three-run homer off Walker Buehler in the Braves’ clinching NLCS victory over the Dodgers was one of the greatest at-bats I’ve had the pleasure to witness. It reminded me of a classic home run by David Ortiz, the details of which I can’t recall, except that it was in an even more dramatic, climactic point of an even more important game. Both Rosario and Ortiz had the benefit of being charismatic, personal favorites of mine, and both, of course, were famously former members of the Minnesota Twins. I understood why the Twins let Rosario go after he regressed in 2020 from his peak season in 2019. He was maddeningly erratic in his performance: while he was often the Twins’ best clutch player, steadiness was not one of his virtues, and he would go from throwing out a baserunner to throwing to the wrong base. And he was a streaky hitter with little regard for the strike zone when he swung. Furthermore, the Twins had three young outfielders in the minors, at least one of whom could replace Rosario at a much lower salary. (While the play of Kiriloff, Rooker and Larnach, when not injured, probably justified this decision, the subpar year of Max Kepler made one wish he had been jettisoned instead.)
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Rosario’s style of play and I was sorry that he showed little in the first half of 2021 when he played for the Indians, except to the extent I rooted against Cleveland as a Twins division rival. I hadn’t focused much on Rosario’s time with the Atlanta Braves until the playoffs began and he started getting game-winning hits. By the time he faced Buehler in the 4th inning of Game 6 Rosario had established himself as the hitting star of the NLCS. His hits had been timely and plentiful: with two 4-hit games he set a record, and with 13 hits he was one short of the single-series playoff record, which had been reached only in full seven-game series. The setting, albeit in only the 4th inning, was packed with early drama. The game was tied 1-1; runs had been in short supply all series; and both sides could believe that an early lead would be decisive.
The rally started with two outs. Buehler, the Dodger ace pitching on three-days’ rest, had light-hitting catcher Travis D’Arnaud 1-and-2. A strikeout for out three seemed to be in the cards. But D’Arnaud worked a walk, bringing up the pitcher’s spot. To the amazement of the TV announcers, manager Brian Snitker sent up a pinch-hitter for Braves pitcher Ian Anderson, one of their best pitchers who had been effective over three innings. The pinch-hitter was Ehire Adrianza, another former Twin. Not only was Snitker taking out one of his best pitchers, he was using his primary reserve–in only the 4th inning! With a slow runner on first and two outs, it hardly seemed much of a rally or decisive moment in the game. Yet somehow,  Adrianza, who had made outs in all his previous pinch-hitting appearances in the series, fisted a broken-bat double to rightfield. It was suddenly a moment of drama for Rosario, already 1-for-2 against Buehler.
The at-bat itself was full of drama. Rosario swung and missed at the first two pitches, sinking into an 0-and-2 hole. He fouled off the next offering from Buehler. He didn’t bite on an outside pitch. Then he fouled off two more pitches, barely staying alive. But you sensed, the more pitches he saw, the better chance he would have. With each pitch, the tension racheted up a notch. On Buehler’s seventh pitch, an inside fastball, Rosario turned and drove it down the rightfield line, inside the foul pole, a half-dozen rows into the stands.
There was one moment of drama still to come, when Luke Jackson gave up a single, walk and double to the only three Dodgers he faced in the seventh and Tyler Matzek had to strike out three in a row to maintain a two-run lead, but Rosario’s home run effectively decided the game and gave the National League pennant to the Braves.

Playoff Preview

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I’m looking forward to the Astros-Red Sox ALCS with pleasure, the Dodgers-Braves NLCS not so much. What a contrast in personalities and style of play. Both AL teams can flat-out hit, up and down their lineups, aided by the DH, too. Both NL teams had trouble scoring–and there weren’t a lot of dominant pitchers causing the problem. The Red Sox scored 26 runs in their three victories; the Dodgers’ 2-1 nailbiter last night was similarly emblematic. It may also be a gross generalization, but the NL squads seem unusually white, even whitebread. Any team featuring two Turners and a Taylor is pretty bland (or pretty Southern California) in this era. I don’t know a lot about the Braves, but their star is Freddie Freeman! By contrast, Boston, the last team to integrate, is led by Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers and Kike Hernandez. The Astros themselves could qualify for the Latin World Series, with Altuve, Gurriel, Correa. Alvarez. There’s a lot of attitude, enthusiasm and flair on both teams. And whereas playoffs often come down to a hot pitcher, that role has been diminished by managers who take their starters out at the slightest slump, even in the 2d or 3d inning.
So bring on the bats and let the games begin. And even if there is no play as exciting as Randy Arozarena’s straight steal of home for the Rays, I’m expecting highlights aplenty from the American Leaguers, and a bit of a snooze from the Nationals.

Yankees Lose

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The Yankees’ 2021 season came to a fittingly ignominious close with a convincing 6-2 trouncing by the Red Sox in the Wild Card Play-In game last night. I say “fitting,” because the punchless Yankees deserved no more after scoring only 7 runs in their final four “must-win” games and being outclassed by the Tampa Bay Rays, their potential playoff opponent, both in the last weekend and over the course of the season.
The Bombers’ offense came down to two home runs around Fenway’s Pesky Pole, neither of which would have gone out of any other Major League ballpark. On the other hand, Giancarlo Stanton hit two rockets off the Green Monster, both of which would have been home runs elsewhere. Their only “rally”–two hits in a row–started with another infield single by Aaron Judge. I say “another” sarcastically because Judge won the crucial season finale against the Rays with a ground ball to second that was officially scored a single, even though he would have been out by ten feet had the second baseman thrown to first. With one out and the game-winning run coming in from third, the infielder had no choice but to throw home instead. It was still a classic Fielder’s Choice for scoring purposes, not a hit, and I’m still awaiting an explanation.
Judge’s single was followed by what the commentators agreed was the key play of the game. (For me, however, the key play was Xander Bogaerts’ two-run homer in the 1st inning, which set the tone of the game.) Judge tried to score on Stanton’s double off the wall and was thrown out at home plate by a perfect relay from centerfielder Kike Hernandez to Bogaerts. Alex Rodriguez stated definitively that Judge should have been held at 3rd–indeed, he should have known on his own to stop there–and when the play-by-play announcer tried to suggest that the issue was debatable, A-Rod told him he was wrong. In my view, however, it was the right play. Judge was barely out, maybe by half a step. A less than perfect relay and he would have been safe. How many times is such a relay less than perfect? Way more than half, from my experience. Bogaerts had to field the ball cleanly (it came to him on one hop), turn and fire a strike under pressure. All Judge had to do was run. If Judge had stopped at 3rd, his fate would have been left to Joey Gallo, whom A-Rod had continually called the “safe landing strip” for Red Sox pitchers. In other words, they should steer clear of Judge and Stanton and pitch to Gallo whenever they had the choice. Based on his average, the chance that Gallo would get a hit was maybe one-in-five, and marginally better that he would somehow get the run home. As it was, he popped up to shortstop, and Judge would have been stuck at 3rd, unless the next batter hit safely–a one-in-four proposition, going by averages alone. The 50-50 chance, if not 65-35, that Judge had of scoring on Stanton’s double was greater than the odds of his scoring by stopping at 3rd. But A-Rod and the commentators who followed him all claimed that Yankee 3rd-base coach Phil Nevin had blundered.
The other happy takeaway for me was the failure of Gerrit Cole to last more than two innings in the Yankees’ most important game of the year. They paid him gazillions to be the best pitcher in the league, and he wasn’t. This gave me hope, once again, that you can’t always buy the pennant; that no matter how much the Yankees spend, they can be beaten. Conversely, the Red Sox got a dominant 1-2-3 8th inning from Hansel Robles, whom the Twins had picked up on the cheap and who was useless in Minnesota earlier this year. Go figure.

The Save

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Traditional baseball statistics are being devalued, as their relationship to actual player value is rightly questioned. A pitcher’s won-lost record is now regularly described as unimportant. One current example is the pitcher who pitches four shutout innings in a 7-inning doubleheader game but doesn’t qualify for a win, even though, percentage-wise, he has contributed more innings to his team’s victory that the pitcher who goes five innings in a 9-inning game.
I have previously criticized the rules for a “save” as being capricious and arbitrary, and Wednesday’s Twins win over the Cubs (9/22/21) provided a glaring example. Alex Colome, the Twins’ dubious closer, was brought on in the 9th to protect a 5-2 lead, the minimum margin eligible for a save. Before recording the third out (on a swinging strikeout in the dirt), he had given up a double, two singles, a walk and three stolen bases, but only two runs. For this less-than-stellar performance he was awarded a save. The three relievers before him gave up a total of one hit and no runs, but Colome got a save, not them.

Twins “Progress” Report

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August 21. The Twins’ brief spurt of encouraging wins against Houston, Chicago, Tampa Bay and Cleveland is giving way to the all-too-familiar collapse when facing the Yankees, which leads to a sober reassessment of not only where they are, but where they could be next year. In rereading my preseason predictions on this site, I see I shouldn’t be surprised at the Twins’ lack of success, although I was overoptimistic in hoping for a .500 record. I mentioned that Sano and Buxton’s seasons would be decisive, and my warnings about the former’s strikeouts and the latter’s injuries appear prescient. The other place I was slightly offbase was in my hope that some unexpected rookie would show up and make a difference.
It is this last disappointment that is so discouraging when thoughts turn to 2022. Since Memorial Day the Twins have been holding open auditions, first for their minor leaguers and more recently for players obtained when they traded Jose Berrios, Nelson Cruz and Hansel Robles. Garlick, Kiriloff, Rooker, Larnach, Refsnyder and Gordon have all been offered extended playing time in the outfield. Granted, tryouts for the first two were cut short by injury, but only Kiriloff gave any hint that he could become a force, and “hint” may be putting it strongly. For now, I see a lot of Bobby Kielty/Dustan Mohr, let alone Kepler/Rosario. That leaves the outfield in the hands of Buxton, who apparently will want a long-term contract that only a profligate franchise – i.e., the Yankees or Dodgers – will give him.
Any infield starts with a shortstop, and the Twins’ move to upgrade the position with Andrelton Simmons has failed. Not only is he hitting like a #9 batter, his errors have led to losses and the Twins’ record as the worst defensive team in the league. He will be gone next year but, alas, not Josh Donaldson, who has the most expensive free-agent contract in Minnesota history. He has been playing hurt all year, and his history and muscle-bound body suggests this will not be unusual. The Twins are slow enough as a team without a 3B/DH who has to jog to first and needs a pinch-runner in a close game. The Twins aren’t without options at 3rd–Arraez and minor leaguer Jose Miranda come to mind–but they seem stuck with Donaldson. Arraez is their best and only .300 hitter, but Jorge Polanco, the team’s best clutch hitter, is set at 2B for now. Miguel Sano is a liability at 1B and on the basepaths, but he is a game-changer when his bat is hot. Unfortunately he is a black hole in the middle of the lineup 3/4ths of the time, and his future is behind him.
At catcher, Mitch Garver and Ryan Jeffers can both put up decent power numbers, but they are overmatched by quality pitching. Neither has shown any growth potential, which brings me to Max Kepler. He looked like a cornerstone of the franchise: a good outfielder, the best base stealer after Buxton, with an uncanny ability to open games with a leadoff home run. On the other hand, he strikes out too much, hits too many balls into the shift and this year is barely hitting above .200. Instead of getting better each year of his multi-year contract, he is shrinking. Regardless of pitching, if the Twins mounted a consistent offense they could be fun to watch. Instead, too many games this year have featured double-digit strikeouts.
As for the pitchers, they can’t overcome a lack of offense, but they do offer a scintilla of hope. Before the All-Star Game I had never heard of Bailey Ober or Griffin Jax, yet both seem to be capable Major League pitchers with room to grow. Charlie Barnes has had a couple good outings, if there’s room in baseball anymore for a crafty lefty. Kenta Maeda, before he got hurt today, looked like a dependable anchor. Silver medalist Joe Ryan, from the Rays, could be the real thing. And there must be a reason Randy Dobnak got a long-term deal. Relief pitchers can come from anywhere and have a good year, and the Twins’ reliance on Alex Colome and Hansel Robles shows, once again, that past performance by a reliever is no guarantee of future success.  The Twins are auditioning a half-dozen new relievers now that winning games doesn’t quite matter. If three stick, Taylor Rogers comes back and they can add one or two more, this area shouldn’t be an issue–and irrelevant if they can’t get a lead.
You like to see new prospects show up each year to give you hope for development and possible future stardom. By this measure, it must be fun to be a White Sox fan these days. For a Twins fan, not so much.