Latest / Twin Cities Territory / Matt Wallner sent to Triple-A, and Zebby Matthews throws a gem

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Matt Wallner sent to Triple-A, and Zebby Matthews throws a gem · Twin Cities Territory

0:01
Speaker 1: Matt Walner goes to Triple A. Saint Paul Zebbie, Matthews
0:06
Speaker 1: tosses a gem in his season debut. Byron Buxton has
0:10
Speaker 1: a sore hip flexer, so do I plenty of other
0:13
Speaker 1: topics to talk about today on Twins Study's Territory, our
0:16
Speaker 1: Minnesota Twins podcast here on the Foul Territory Network. I'm
0:20
Speaker 1: Zach Pierce of the Athletic, joined by the Athletics Minnesota
0:23
Speaker 1: Twins beat writer Dan Hayes, and we hope Tyler Duffy
0:27
Speaker 1: will be joining us soon as well. We do have
0:29
Speaker 1: visual confirmation that he is in a coffee shop in Mexico,
0:33
Speaker 1: but has not been able to connect yet. Anyway, let's
0:36
Speaker 1: get right to it, Dan, the big news of the
0:39
Speaker 1: first three days or the last three days, besides the
0:43
Speaker 1: Twins winning another series, this one over the Marlins, was
0:46
Speaker 1: Matt Walner headed down to Triple A. What can you
0:49
Speaker 1: tell us about that situation?
0:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's something that we kind of probably
0:54
Speaker 2: saw coming for a little bit here.
0:56
Speaker 3: Matt Walner struggled the whole.
0:58
Speaker 2: Way, and it kind of feel like this is hism.
1:01
Speaker 2: He always has been a guy that has struggled. In
1:03
Speaker 2: April and gets hot as the season goes along, so
1:06
Speaker 2: it's not shocking that he struggled, but he's striking out
1:08
Speaker 2: a career high at thirty nine percent right now, and
1:12
Speaker 2: Austin Martin got really hot. It's just been off to
1:15
Speaker 2: an incredible start at the plate, and when you combine
1:17
Speaker 2: those two things, it just kind of he's throwing the
1:20
Speaker 2: Wallner's defense has been pretty bad metrically. By one measure,
1:24
Speaker 2: he is the worst outfielder Basemore, tied for the worst
1:27
Speaker 2: outfielder in baseball. By another, he's the third worst. So
1:31
Speaker 2: he's not been playing great defensively. He's really struggling at
1:35
Speaker 2: the plate to the point where he's had a tough
1:37
Speaker 2: time putting the ball in play. And when Austin Martin
1:40
Speaker 2: is getting on base and leads the league in on
1:42
Speaker 2: base percentage, it's a pretty much you know, Derek Shelton said,
1:46
Speaker 2: their day, Austin Martin's earned this and it's a chance
1:49
Speaker 2: to get Walner right. He had the option remaining, so
1:53
Speaker 2: they sent him to Triple A to go get right.
1:55
Speaker 2: But you know, this has been something that they've at
1:57
Speaker 2: least kind of looked at. They give him a couple
1:59
Speaker 2: of days off of two weeks ago and they were
2:01
Speaker 2: hoping it would turn him around. He didn't, or he
2:05
Speaker 2: did briefly off of that, and I think that kind
2:07
Speaker 2: of staved this off. But also there was just there's
2:10
Speaker 2: been so many things going on that they gave him
2:12
Speaker 2: extra time. He didn't do much with it. You know,
2:15
Speaker 2: in his last fourteen at bats, Walner struck out eleven
2:18
Speaker 2: times before being an option. So it's something that they
2:20
Speaker 2: clearly want him to kind of go and take time
2:22
Speaker 2: to get right, especially when they have someone that they
2:25
Speaker 2: feel like they deserve to be in the lineup right
2:27
Speaker 2: now over him, So you know, it's kind of a
2:30
Speaker 2: no brainer at this point.
2:32
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three and twenty four, Dan Walner was
2:36
Speaker 1: one of the Twins' best players by a lot of measures,
2:40
Speaker 1: wins above replacement, he was over to both years on
2:43
Speaker 1: Baseball References measure, looked like he was going to be
2:47
Speaker 1: a future mainstay in the lineup. I'm sure he's talked
2:51
Speaker 1: a little bit about his struggles in the last two years.
2:54
Speaker 1: Obviously it started last year a bit a drop off,
2:57
Speaker 1: and then this year a much bigger drop off. At
3:00
Speaker 1: what has he said or what has the team said
3:01
Speaker 1: about how he's taken a step back.
3:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean still like, this is the guy that
3:07
Speaker 2: came in with an eight twenty nine career ops. So
3:09
Speaker 2: even when he struggled a little bit last year, thinking
3:11
Speaker 2: it with twenty two homers in the last two months
3:13
Speaker 2: this season, he was very good again. And that's he
3:16
Speaker 2: woke up those last two months, and I think he
3:18
Speaker 2: helped to carry that over into this year. I mean, look,
3:21
Speaker 2: there's a lot of moving parts with that swing. He's
3:23
Speaker 2: a guy that's always gonna get challenged by the high fastball,
3:26
Speaker 2: and he's not great at hitting the high fastball.
3:29
Speaker 3: And I think that as.
3:31
Speaker 2: He's kind of the league has figured him out a
3:33
Speaker 2: little bit and has taken advantage of it, and early
3:35
Speaker 2: on in the season he's just shown that he's a
3:38
Speaker 2: slow starter. So this is something they did in twenty
3:41
Speaker 2: twenty four. They sent him down even earlier in April.
3:43
Speaker 2: I think they sent him down two weeks into the season,
3:46
Speaker 2: and you could see how he finished that year.
3:48
Speaker 3: He came alive and you know, the eight twenty nine
3:51
Speaker 3: career ops.
3:52
Speaker 2: I think that equates to like a one thirty or
3:54
Speaker 2: a one to twenty seven ops plus for his career.
3:57
Speaker 2: We talked about a guy with good production, even though
3:59
Speaker 2: he's just never driven in runs. He said a ton
4:01
Speaker 2: of homers his fifty one homers. I'm sure this is
4:06
Speaker 2: definitely tough for him because he projects to be a
4:10
Speaker 2: middle of the order bat, a guy that can drive
4:12
Speaker 2: in a ton of runs, and we've never really seen
4:14
Speaker 2: him be an RBI guy. You know, he hits the
4:16
Speaker 2: home run, but there was a stretch last year where
4:20
Speaker 2: he didn't have an RBI single for a couple of
4:22
Speaker 2: months to the end of the season. Like when he
4:25
Speaker 2: got one in April this year, it was the first
4:27
Speaker 2: one since I think August third of last year, and
4:30
Speaker 2: before that it had been a long time. So it's
4:34
Speaker 2: a weird mix because he hits that long ball and
4:37
Speaker 2: he can get hot. He's just he is what a
4:39
Speaker 2: streaky hitter pretty much is, do you know what I mean?
4:42
Speaker 2: Like he shows us these two great months and these
4:46
Speaker 2: two pretty awful months, and trying to find that balance
4:49
Speaker 2: has been challenging for him. But you know, at this point,
4:53
Speaker 2: it just got to be the spot.
4:55
Speaker 3: Where they couldn't ignore it.
4:57
Speaker 2: And it's crazy because he's not being placed by Alan
5:01
Speaker 2: Roden or Emmanuel Rodriguez or Walker Jenkins all three of
5:05
Speaker 2: those guys are hurt. They brought up Brian Bridler to
5:07
Speaker 2: give them another right hand back. Kreidler can play a
5:09
Speaker 2: little bit of outfield. I assume that this will mean
5:12
Speaker 2: that James Outman gets more games. James Outman started in
5:17
Speaker 2: Thursday's win and had three RBIs had a big day.
5:20
Speaker 2: That was his twenty ninth birthday. You know, Walner, I'm guessing,
5:23
Speaker 2: you know, he's twenty eight. I'm guessing he wants more
5:26
Speaker 2: and I think you know, he's proven he can go
5:28
Speaker 2: do this and find it and get back. The question
5:32
Speaker 2: is will there be a seat for him if Jenkins,
5:35
Speaker 2: Rodriguez or Rodent gets healthy and comes back, and you
5:39
Speaker 2: know those guys, I think Rodriguez is the closest of
5:42
Speaker 2: the three. But if those guys get hot down there too,
5:46
Speaker 2: what's not to say the twins wouldn't potentially try that.
5:48
Speaker 2: You know, Walner has the resume, so maybe he gets
5:51
Speaker 2: the nod at first over those guys. But it's getting
5:55
Speaker 2: to be that point where you're wondering, you know, it's
5:57
Speaker 2: musical chairs, the music is stopping. Are there going to
5:59
Speaker 2: be enough states left for everyone? It's it's definitely the
6:03
Speaker 2: crunch is catching up for the left handed hitden outfielders.
6:07
Speaker 1: And you mentioned Austin Martin's solid year so far, Dan,
6:11
Speaker 1: here are the numbers on that. In thirty eight games
6:14
Speaker 1: so far this year, three thirty three average, four point
6:17
Speaker 1: fifty four on base percentage four twenty nine slugging eight
6:20
Speaker 1: eighty two oh ps and that on base percentage is
6:23
Speaker 1: the best in Major League Baseball right now. So impressive
6:27
Speaker 1: start for Austin Martin. And we are joined now by
6:31
Speaker 1: Tyler Duffy, who made it live from Mexico. As you
6:36
Speaker 1: can see, we'll talk. We'll get an update from him
6:38
Speaker 1: on that situation in a bit, but for now, it's
6:39
Speaker 1: Tyler curious. We talked about this a bit with Royce
6:42
Speaker 1: Lewis and him having his struggles and sitting out for
6:45
Speaker 1: a couple of days, but it's gone to a higher degree,
6:48
Speaker 1: I guess. With Matt Walder now heading back to the miners,
6:51
Speaker 1: what's it like for a player when they have a
6:54
Speaker 1: setback like he's having right now.
6:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's tough, you know, it's one unfortunately. You know,
7:00
Speaker 4: we've been watching more games Fry than most fans and
7:04
Speaker 4: you can kind of see it coming, you know, there's
7:06
Speaker 4: a lot of the swinging decisions and things like that.
7:09
Speaker 4: It's just kind of been building and you know, they're
7:11
Speaker 4: still relevant, they're still in the hunt, and they've got
7:14
Speaker 4: to give these guys chances who are seemingly ready. You
7:18
Speaker 4: know that you've got these guys on your roster for
7:20
Speaker 4: a reason. And just because you go down for a week,
7:23
Speaker 4: you know, it could literally be a day.
7:25
Speaker 2: You know.
7:25
Speaker 4: There were times when I would get optioned and somebody's
7:28
Speaker 4: back would flare up and I would get on the
7:29
Speaker 4: flight the next morning. So it's it's never the end.
7:32
Speaker 4: It's just simply a little speed bump, and you know,
7:35
Speaker 4: it's a time, like I said with Royce, it's a
7:37
Speaker 4: time to go back and like reset for a second.
7:40
Speaker 4: You know, take all the pressure off, you know, go
7:42
Speaker 4: take some VP on a field, get some balls out
7:44
Speaker 4: of the stadium. You know, just get to feeling good
7:46
Speaker 4: about yourself. You know, I doubt he's there long. You know,
7:50
Speaker 4: he's a big, strong guy who can absolutely smash Baseball's
7:54
Speaker 4: like he seems to go get comfy again and come
7:57
Speaker 4: back with a new attitude. You know, maybe a little
7:59
Speaker 4: little anger behind those swings, and you know, like I
8:03
Speaker 4: said with Royce. You know, it's just sometimes you need
8:05
Speaker 4: a little reset and then a new light in the
8:08
Speaker 4: light at the end of the tunnel, and you know things,
8:11
Speaker 4: things tend to work out for you.
8:14
Speaker 1: The Twins did win the finale on Thursday against the
8:18
Speaker 1: Marlins to take their second straight series. They're now twenty
8:21
Speaker 1: and twenty four solo third place in the AL Central,
8:24
Speaker 1: three and a half games back of Cleveland. We will
8:27
Speaker 1: talk about Zebie Matthews, Byron Buxton and a little more
8:31
Speaker 1: right after this word.
8:35
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Speaker 1: All right, we are back and Dan Hayes and Tyler
9:43
Speaker 1: Duffy if you, if you have noticed, have different backgrounds
9:46
Speaker 1: than normal. Dan is at is that midway midway? Okay,
9:51
Speaker 1: it is midway on his way to Minnesota for this
9:54
Speaker 1: weekend series against the Brewers. Tyler is is on assignment
9:59
Speaker 1: in Mexico and is currently trying to find a quieter
10:01
Speaker 1: spot to talk to us from. Looks beautiful there, that's
10:04
Speaker 1: for sure. Maybe that works. Let's see, it's better still
10:10
Speaker 1: a little.
10:10
Speaker 4: Bit of motorcycles and birds.
10:14
Speaker 1: Motorcycles and birds. All right, we can deal with that.
10:17
Speaker 2: We got a competition going for who's got the most
10:19
Speaker 2: annoying background possible. Me and duff between my farmers tan
10:25
Speaker 2: holding my phone for dear life and uh and uh.
10:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a challenging show.
10:32
Speaker 1: Here, Zach, it is where to the best weekend. They
10:35
Speaker 1: might revoke my privileges if publishing these videos. If this
10:39
Speaker 1: keeps up, we'll see.
10:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, Dann, we were talking the break.
10:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. We were talking
10:46
Speaker 1: about Austin Martin obviously steps into a much bigger role
10:51
Speaker 1: now with with Matt Walner not delivering as the Twins
10:54
Speaker 1: had hoped. Last two games since our last podcast, he
10:57
Speaker 1: was four for nine, two doubles, three RBIs so far.
11:00
Speaker 1: We showed the stats before the break as well. He's
11:02
Speaker 1: been stepping up.
11:04
Speaker 2: He has been and look, this is something that he
11:05
Speaker 2: started last year after the trade deadline, he got the
11:09
Speaker 2: finally playing time consistently. You know, Austin Martin's been the
11:12
Speaker 2: major is off and on for a couple of years now,
11:14
Speaker 2: but it was always in a utility role before and
11:17
Speaker 2: never getting consistent bats.
11:18
Speaker 3: And last year, basically starting in.
11:20
Speaker 2: August after that deadline, they put him in every day
11:23
Speaker 2: and said hey, here kid go and he's just taken
11:25
Speaker 2: it and run with it. And one thing that has
11:27
Speaker 2: keyed this is he's really just gotten back to himself,
11:31
Speaker 2: Which is funny because there's some similarities with the way
11:34
Speaker 2: that Byron Buckson really got going, which was iron Buckson
11:36
Speaker 2: decided in twenty nineteen to stop listening to everybody else
11:40
Speaker 2: and just do what got him to that point, and
11:44
Speaker 2: he became an offensive force. Now in Austin Martin's case,
11:46
Speaker 2: you know, bucks and the power and the athleticism was
11:49
Speaker 2: always going to be there.
11:50
Speaker 3: Martin's not really a power guy. They tried to have.
11:54
Speaker 2: Him change his swing so they could tap into some power.
11:57
Speaker 2: They thought if they got him with the ball earlier
12:01
Speaker 2: in his in his swing, that they could get more
12:04
Speaker 2: force and drive the ball further. That really kind of
12:07
Speaker 2: sidetracked him for a little bit. But talking to him
12:09
Speaker 2: in spring training, he said, look, I don't care. They
12:11
Speaker 2: were trying to get.
12:12
Speaker 3: The best out of me.
12:13
Speaker 2: That was like advice designed to get the best version
12:16
Speaker 2: out of me. The hope was and you showed that graphic.
12:19
Speaker 2: You know, the slug is thirty points below the on base,
12:22
Speaker 2: and the on base is really absurdly high right now,
12:25
Speaker 2: and there's obviously some regression in there coming. But he
12:29
Speaker 2: was always going to be a guy where the on
12:31
Speaker 2: base was the thing and the slug was never going
12:34
Speaker 2: to be that much, and they just they hope to
12:36
Speaker 2: tap into something because he has such nice mechanics. It
12:39
Speaker 2: didn't work, but now he's back to being the guy
12:42
Speaker 2: that is a bat to ball guy. He's got an
12:44
Speaker 2: outstanding eye and we've seen it. He's one of those
12:47
Speaker 2: guys that challenges pitches and usually gets them right. He
12:50
Speaker 2: knows his zone well and that's allowed him to and
12:53
Speaker 2: it's one reason why I think he will at least
12:56
Speaker 2: continue to perform. Look, there's some regression in there with
12:58
Speaker 2: his balls on play. Again, right handed pitching, it's absurdly high,
13:03
Speaker 2: but the good eye should keep him getting on base,
13:08
Speaker 2: patient at bats, waiting for his pitch, and he uses
13:10
Speaker 2: the whole field.
13:11
Speaker 3: So there's still reason to believe that.
13:14
Speaker 2: You know, even if he drops off, Austin Martin can
13:16
Speaker 2: be like a three p fifty on base percentage guy
13:18
Speaker 2: and the Twins would absolutely take that. That's great given
13:22
Speaker 2: the defense that comes with it. He's a good athlete
13:24
Speaker 2: out there. You know, there's some questions still with his
13:28
Speaker 2: base running. We've seen some plays. He should have scored
13:31
Speaker 2: him that double yesterday in the first inning. He got
13:33
Speaker 2: a bad read on the ball. It was a tough play.
13:36
Speaker 2: We've seen him makeouts on the bases but you know,
13:39
Speaker 2: there's everything that we've seen from him the last four
13:43
Speaker 2: months essentially since the trade, that line has been positive
13:46
Speaker 2: and driving towards him getting consistent playing time.
13:51
Speaker 1: Tyler, this feels like a team on which it will
13:55
Speaker 1: be very easy for a lot of players to get
13:57
Speaker 1: a shot to sort of show what they can do,
14:00
Speaker 1: and Austin martin Is is taking advantage of that. So far.
14:03
Speaker 1: What have you seen from him?
14:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's like Dan said, he's been around for a minute.
14:08
Speaker 4: It's hard for those guys when you you especially you're
14:11
Speaker 4: taking a first round, second round guy, sorry, and you know, say, hey,
14:16
Speaker 4: welcome to the big leagues and you're gonna play five
14:18
Speaker 4: positions and you're gonna hit in a different spot every
14:20
Speaker 4: day of the week, and you're gonna pinch hit against
14:22
Speaker 4: a closer, and it's like, you can't expect the guy
14:25
Speaker 4: to just settle in.
14:26
Speaker 2: You know.
14:26
Speaker 4: The guys that do, obviously are the great. You know,
14:31
Speaker 4: Jake Cave comes to mind, this guy who he'd get
14:33
Speaker 4: called up and it's like, hey, we've got sale today,
14:35
Speaker 4: and it's like, you know, what do you want the
14:37
Speaker 4: kid to do? You know, literally, and so sometimes you
14:40
Speaker 4: just it takes a minute and you know we're seeing
14:42
Speaker 4: him settle in. He knows the strikes them like you
14:44
Speaker 4: can't teach that. You can work on it things like that,
14:46
Speaker 4: but guys just have that. And so you know, the
14:48
Speaker 4: on base, like Dan said, it's it may come back
14:50
Speaker 4: to reality. But at the same time, like he is
14:53
Speaker 4: who he is, He's gonna keep growing, He's gonna keep
14:55
Speaker 4: getting bigger and stronger. You know, it's just one's he's
14:59
Speaker 4: settling into a good role and you know he can
15:02
Speaker 4: become a mainstay. And you know, like when a guy
15:04
Speaker 4: like Buck goes down for a minute, you know you
15:06
Speaker 4: need somebody to kind of step up. Is he going
15:08
Speaker 4: to be that guy?
15:09
Speaker 1: You hope?
15:10
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's the beauty of our game is
15:13
Speaker 4: you know, anyone could show up any day and be
15:15
Speaker 4: the hero. And you know, right now he's kind of
15:17
Speaker 4: carrying some weight for the Twins and you know, hopefully
15:20
Speaker 4: he can keep that going. And you know, next man
15:22
Speaker 4: up is kind of always as they the you know,
15:24
Speaker 4: row the boat, I think it was at one point.
15:26
Speaker 4: You know, it's just everybody's got to do their part
15:29
Speaker 4: and you know, to contribute to some wins and three
15:32
Speaker 4: games out of first place in the central I mean,
15:33
Speaker 4: that's that's all you can really ask for at this point.
15:37
Speaker 1: Not a bad start for a team that was supposed
15:39
Speaker 1: to be terrible, I suppose. Uh. And part of that
15:44
Speaker 1: success or at least not as bad as we thought,
15:48
Speaker 1: is due to starting pitchers coming out of the woodwork
15:52
Speaker 1: to put up good games, including Daniel Zebulon Matthews, who
15:58
Speaker 1: shined with seven inning or shown shined shown.
16:01
Speaker 3: I think he's shown shine.
16:03
Speaker 1: Seven innings pitched this is Thursday, Thursday afternoons game, his
16:07
Speaker 1: season debut. Seven innings, pitch, five k s, four hits,
16:10
Speaker 1: no earned runs, and added to the list of impressive
16:14
Speaker 1: Twins starts this year. We showed a stat a week
16:19
Speaker 1: or so ago about how the Twins are among the
16:21
Speaker 1: league leaders and starting pitcher outings that last at least
16:26
Speaker 1: five innings and allow to earned runs or less. There's
16:28
Speaker 1: another one from Matthews last night. Dan, He's not an
16:32
Speaker 1: entirely new face. He obviously pitched quite a bit last
16:34
Speaker 1: year for the Twins, but today or Thursday was certainly
16:39
Speaker 1: the most encouraging sign yet.
16:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was good consistency there. His stuff is really good.
16:45
Speaker 2: It's really about commanding it, and he's shown in the minors,
16:48
Speaker 2: he's excellent command. When he's been the majors, he's actually
16:51
Speaker 2: had some walk issues, which is probably a little bit
16:54
Speaker 2: of like trying to just rush it up there get
16:57
Speaker 2: some extra velocity, you know, out stuff guys. But the
17:01
Speaker 2: thing is he's a really good mix and the Twins
17:03
Speaker 2: are good at getting their guys pitch mixed usage. They
17:07
Speaker 2: they can handle that, So it's really about getting confidence.
17:11
Speaker 2: This was a good game for him. You mentioned it,
17:15
Speaker 2: So another guy coming up. Look if we had said
17:17
Speaker 2: the start of the season, Pablo Lopez was gonna be down,
17:20
Speaker 2: and then nobody knew what.
17:21
Speaker 3: TODs Bradley was gonna be. But TODJ.
17:23
Speaker 2: Bradley turns into this and then goes down, and mick
17:25
Speaker 2: abel starts strong and he goes down. You look at
17:28
Speaker 2: all those injuries. The fact that the Twins have been
17:30
Speaker 2: able to bring up Connor pre Lip able for Lopez
17:33
Speaker 2: and have him be as good as he was before
17:35
Speaker 2: he got hurt and now Zebby this is some decent depth.
17:40
Speaker 3: This is you know we're talking about when you think.
17:42
Speaker 2: About pre Lip and Matthews is the seventh and eighth
17:46
Speaker 2: guys out of the original rotation, and this kind of stuff.
17:49
Speaker 2: It's a good thing. The twins have had this and
17:51
Speaker 2: they were hoping this would be the case. Now they
17:53
Speaker 2: are up against it. Right now with his depth, they
17:56
Speaker 2: have no more room for injuries. They absolutely could use
18:00
Speaker 2: one of the other guys getting healthy, whether it's Able
18:02
Speaker 2: or Bradley, and maybe put Simeon Woods Richardson in the
18:04
Speaker 2: bullpen or a long man roll or spots start role
18:07
Speaker 2: as they manage Connor pre Lip. So they are totally
18:10
Speaker 2: up against it. But the fact that they can keep
18:12
Speaker 2: turning these guys out as good. And I know, Duff,
18:14
Speaker 2: you were texting us yesterday watching Zebbie. What what did
18:17
Speaker 2: you like? What'd you see from him?
18:20
Speaker 4: I mean, the line speaks for itself. The no walks,
18:23
Speaker 4: that's huge.
18:24
Speaker 5: You know.
18:24
Speaker 4: It's like you said, sometimes you come up and you
18:27
Speaker 4: want to do a little extra. You want to, you know,
18:29
Speaker 4: make your point, make a statement. Sometimes you just got
18:33
Speaker 4: to go pitch, you know, like I remember vividly my
18:36
Speaker 4: first outing, you know, my debut against Toronto was not great.
18:39
Speaker 4: And then next one I came up in Michiganst. Cleveland
18:42
Speaker 4: and you know, I went I think it went seven
18:44
Speaker 4: before I gave up a hit and it was like,
18:47
Speaker 4: just do that. You know, you don't need anything extra,
18:49
Speaker 4: you don't need to invent something new overnight. It's just
18:52
Speaker 4: go attack with your same stuff. They're still using wood bats,
18:54
Speaker 4: they're still humans. It's still ninety feet sixty feet six sitches.
18:57
Speaker 4: So you know it's last you're you know, he's a rookie,
19:01
Speaker 4: you know, getting his feet wet, all that good stuff.
19:02
Speaker 4: And now we had a full Big league to uhh,
19:08
Speaker 4: I see myself.
19:09
Speaker 1: You're good losing Dan.
19:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, we lost Dan. Uh yeah. So you had had
19:16
Speaker 4: a great camp and you know you got option and
19:18
Speaker 4: that's part of it. And and now he's moving on
19:20
Speaker 4: and you know he's taking that next step and so
19:23
Speaker 4: hopefully this call up is a permanent one. I know
19:25
Speaker 4: that's what he's thinking. You know, it's it's time to
19:28
Speaker 4: make decisions tough for the front office. That's all you
19:30
Speaker 4: can do as a player is is show up and
19:32
Speaker 4: make their decisions after you pitch every game tough. And
19:36
Speaker 4: you know that's good for the team when you do that,
19:38
Speaker 4: and it's it's great for everybody, you know, and it
19:40
Speaker 4: builds competition, it keeps everyone motivated, and uh, you know,
19:44
Speaker 4: going seven and you're you're welcome back. Is is never
19:46
Speaker 4: a problem.
19:49
Speaker 1: Okay, we got d thank goodness. Uh, anything else to
19:53
Speaker 1: add on zeb Dan.
19:57
Speaker 2: You know, it's gonna be interesting to see what they
19:58
Speaker 2: do these next couple day just because I haven't seen
20:02
Speaker 2: the starting lamps. It looks like I'm guessing free lips Saturday.
20:07
Speaker 2: They don't have a day off again until maybe Thursday,
20:11
Speaker 2: so ZEBI probably will get another turn here in this rotation,
20:16
Speaker 2: just based off of the other day. But you know,
20:18
Speaker 2: it is a good start, and I think we'd seen him.
20:24
Speaker 2: He's had some issues at Triple A at his area.
20:26
Speaker 2: I think was four seventy two coming into yesterday at
20:28
Speaker 2: Triple A, so it's he's not been perfect down there.
20:31
Speaker 2: But man, he looked really sharp for that first one
20:34
Speaker 2: and gave the Twins a big boost in a day.
20:37
Speaker 2: We've talked about them needing to take advantage of these
20:40
Speaker 2: rubber matches and close out winnable series. They've gotten the
20:43
Speaker 2: first win in quite a few series and then lost
20:45
Speaker 2: the next two games. To see them do this, especially
20:48
Speaker 2: after disappointing loss on Wednesday night when Simin Wood Richardson
20:53
Speaker 2: gave up to eight runs, it's definitely a good bounce back.
20:56
Speaker 2: A good step, and especially because a real challenging teams
20:59
Speaker 2: coming in like Milwaukee.
21:01
Speaker 1: Connor prelip is scheduled for Saturday.
21:05
Speaker 3: Yes, Bailey over Sunday. I think Bailey over Sunday.
21:09
Speaker 1: Joe Ryan tonight Friday night. The other topic that we
21:14
Speaker 1: wanted to get to guys Byron Buxton was a late
21:18
Speaker 1: scratch on Thursday due to hip flexer soreness. Is that right, Dan?
21:25
Speaker 3: Yeah?
21:25
Speaker 2: And look, I'm gonna be up front here.
21:29
Speaker 3: I was not there.
21:30
Speaker 2: I got word that that's what it was, hip flexer soreness.
21:33
Speaker 2: So I'm going strictly off reports from the guys who
21:36
Speaker 2: were there. I saw Bobby Nightingale tweet or he's on
21:40
Speaker 2: Blue Sky if you're wondering where his tweets have gone.
21:44
Speaker 2: He said after the game that Derek Shelton said buck
21:48
Speaker 2: had already started to feel better. It was something when
21:52
Speaker 2: he was rounding the bases on Tuesday night and had
21:55
Speaker 2: to slow down. He started to feel some soreness in
21:57
Speaker 2: the hip. Now as he was supposed to DH on
22:00
Speaker 2: the Thursday game. Byron Buckson's been amazing so far. He's
22:04
Speaker 2: played in forty forty four games for the Twins so
22:06
Speaker 2: far this season, but the hip has been something in
22:09
Speaker 2: the past that has bugged him. The last time that
22:14
Speaker 2: he seriously went on the aisle was in twenty twenty four.
22:17
Speaker 2: It was a hip issue and it cost him about
22:19
Speaker 2: a month. So it's something to monitor. It's not something
22:22
Speaker 2: to just brush off without questioning.
22:25
Speaker 3: The fact that he.
22:26
Speaker 2: Said he's feeling better is a good sign. If it's
22:29
Speaker 2: another day, that's great. But you know, they're gonna have
22:33
Speaker 2: to trust Byron Buckston to kind of be upfront with
22:37
Speaker 2: them here, and they're also gonna have to trust their
22:38
Speaker 2: own judgment as to how long they can go without him.
22:41
Speaker 2: It's always an interesting mix because you're talking about the
22:44
Speaker 2: best player on the team and a dynamic impact player
22:47
Speaker 2: in a series that promises to have a ton of
22:50
Speaker 2: people with Milwaukee coming to town and two dollars beers
22:53
Speaker 2: on Friday, that's gonna be an interesting Como's ye, it's
23:00
Speaker 2: going to be, you know, I mean, trying to keep
23:02
Speaker 2: him on the line tonight is going to be very challenging,
23:05
Speaker 2: especially if he thinks he's getting better. But we'll see
23:08
Speaker 2: how it plays out later today.
23:09
Speaker 1: For sure, we talked a lot at this podcast's inception
23:15
Speaker 1: about how this is the season where everything would have
23:18
Speaker 1: to go right for the Twins to be competitive. Dan,
23:20
Speaker 1: I think that was the theme of your preview article
23:23
Speaker 1: on the Athletic. Yeah, it hasn't for sure, obviously, Matt
23:29
Speaker 1: Wollner's regression, Royce Lewis's issues, the injuries have been piling up.
23:33
Speaker 1: Tyler like how the team has been feisty despite all
23:38
Speaker 1: of that. How frustrating does it get as these little
23:40
Speaker 1: injuries already are piling up after forty four games.
23:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's one. You know, you see it daily, especially
23:47
Speaker 4: a guy like Buck. You show up to the field
23:49
Speaker 4: and sometimes you don't even know stuff happens till the
23:51
Speaker 4: next day. You know, guys will have a little dang
23:54
Speaker 4: you leave, go home, and you show up at so
23:56
Speaker 4: and So's in a boot or whatever. You're like, well,
23:58
Speaker 4: that's not good, you know, or you see the new
24:00
Speaker 4: guy in the locker room. You know, it's it's tough
24:04
Speaker 4: at times, but at the same time, the game keeps going,
24:07
Speaker 4: you know. It's it's just like we're talking about Royce
24:10
Speaker 4: talking about the you know, your replacements and things like that.
24:13
Speaker 4: Baseball never stops. It's a freight train that just kind
24:16
Speaker 4: of goes and you're either on it or you're not.
24:18
Speaker 4: And you know that's part of it. So you got
24:21
Speaker 4: to show up. You know, Chlty's having to make decisions
24:23
Speaker 4: every night Cront offices. You know, to that point, players
24:25
Speaker 4: are showing up. We're talking about Austin Martin. He's showing up.
24:29
Speaker 4: Who where am I playing today? Because sometimes just guys
24:32
Speaker 4: aren't there, and you know, it's the you try to
24:34
Speaker 4: embrace the next man up mentality. You know, it gets
24:37
Speaker 4: talked about a lot, but they're they're definitely in the
24:40
Speaker 4: in the heat of that right now, especially with the rotation.
24:43
Speaker 4: You know the pictures, it's been left and right seemingly.
24:46
Speaker 4: You know, somebody every day has got something. You know,
24:48
Speaker 4: Bucks he's gonna have his dings here and there. You know,
24:52
Speaker 4: I hate to laugh about it, but it's it reminds
24:54
Speaker 4: me of time when Mauer went on a tear for
24:57
Speaker 4: like three weeks. He hit like four hundred and he's
25:00
Speaker 4: doubles and doubles and doubles and like his legs started parking.
25:03
Speaker 4: It's like, dude's quit getting on base for a minute.
25:05
Speaker 4: You give yourself some time off. So there it's almost
25:08
Speaker 4: a break even it's like you're getting too many hits
25:09
Speaker 4: right now, you need to take a break. But you
25:11
Speaker 4: know it's one it's it's part of the game, unfortunately,
25:14
Speaker 4: and guys get dinged. But you know he's played, like
25:17
Speaker 4: Dan said, forty to forty four, and you know he'll
25:19
Speaker 4: take a little breather and he'll make sure he's ready
25:21
Speaker 4: for he comes back. He won't push it because he
25:24
Speaker 4: knows a week now is much more valuable than missing,
25:27
Speaker 4: you know, two months at the end of the season.
25:29
Speaker 4: So he's gonna do everything possible to get it right.
25:31
Speaker 4: They're gonna make sure he's ready and not push him.
25:34
Speaker 4: And you know, I think he'll be fine. But you know,
25:36
Speaker 4: it's it's like I said, it's it's the next man up.
25:38
Speaker 4: It's getting some new guys some at bats. Maybe you know,
25:41
Speaker 4: a guy that maybe they weren't planning on getting at
25:43
Speaker 4: bats and they become a mainstay. So it's a you know,
25:47
Speaker 4: put your jersey on and go play and see what happens.
25:50
Speaker 1: Byron Buxton is one of seven players since the start
25:54
Speaker 1: of last season with fifty or more home runs at
25:58
Speaker 1: thirty five last year, to go with his fifteen so
26:01
Speaker 1: far this year on roughly a sixty Homer paces, you know,
26:04
Speaker 1: depending on how many games he's able to play, which
26:07
Speaker 1: is astounding. Twins obviously would love to have him in
26:11
Speaker 1: the lineup as often as possible. This weekend will certainly
26:16
Speaker 1: put the Twins series win streak. I guess I can't
26:19
Speaker 1: call it a win streak yet. It's only two to
26:22
Speaker 1: the test. The Brewers come in one of the best
26:25
Speaker 1: teams in a tough division in the NL Central. But Dan,
26:28
Speaker 1: the Twins are getting a fantastic break in the series
26:32
Speaker 1: on the starting pitching front.
26:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, including Miami too.
26:37
Speaker 2: Like they didn't get Sandy al Contra there, they don't
26:40
Speaker 2: get to miss and they don't get Kyle Harrison here
26:43
Speaker 2: this weekend, So good break for them. I need to
26:46
Speaker 2: go catch my flight, so I will catch you guys later.
26:49
Speaker 3: But you know, it should be a fun weekend. Milwaukee
26:51
Speaker 3: is so challenging. They test you. They're going to run
26:54
Speaker 3: on them.
26:55
Speaker 2: They're gonna bunt, they're gonna put the ball in play,
26:57
Speaker 2: They're going to challenge that infield defense and how rough
27:00
Speaker 2: got infield defense is. So it's gonna be a very
27:05
Speaker 2: fun test. And I love how Minnesota crowds respond to
27:08
Speaker 2: the Milwaukee crowds because man, those two hate each other
27:12
Speaker 2: and this is a fun rivalry.
27:13
Speaker 3: And I'll let you guys talk about that.
27:14
Speaker 1: I'll catch you later, all right, Dan, we'll see you
27:17
Speaker 1: on Monday show Safe Travels Tyler real quick. But oh
27:21
Speaker 1: you're not Dan Hayes. Let's fix that. You could be
27:26
Speaker 1: Dan Hayes. This series you've talked about, like how fun
27:31
Speaker 1: it is to play in Cleveland, how the crowd gets
27:34
Speaker 1: into it. The Milwaukee series here feels like a special
27:37
Speaker 1: one as well.
27:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's another one. You know, the ones that cod
27:41
Speaker 4: to mine are like the Toronto's. You know, when you're
27:43
Speaker 4: close to home for somebody, you know, half the stadium's
27:47
Speaker 4: rooting for the other team. You know, even when you
27:49
Speaker 4: go out as a starter to just go warm up,
27:51
Speaker 4: there's a little buzz. You know, they're cheering for the
27:53
Speaker 4: other guys coming out of there, dugout things like that,
27:56
Speaker 4: and it's it's a fun when it's a hometown rivalry.
27:59
Speaker 4: You know, there's so much Minnesota, Wisconsin, you know, hubbub
28:02
Speaker 4: going on. And you know, like Dan said, or get
28:04
Speaker 4: a little two dollars beers mixed in, like it'll make
28:06
Speaker 4: for a good night. You know, it's uh, you know
28:09
Speaker 4: we're gonna miss the big dogs fortunately, But like you said, dude,
28:12
Speaker 4: they're they're great teams. They're always that scrappy team. I
28:15
Speaker 4: feel like they're kind of the the NL version of
28:18
Speaker 4: the Twins. Like it's hard nos, you know, play good defense,
28:21
Speaker 4: play clean games. You know, bought them over, you know,
28:24
Speaker 4: back when I had Molly, like that was our game
28:26
Speaker 4: and we'd play each other and it was kind of
28:28
Speaker 4: like we were the same team, just going at it,
28:30
Speaker 4: you know, and it makes for a great series. It's
28:33
Speaker 4: it's one of those rivalries that you know, it's great
28:35
Speaker 4: for baseball and it's always been a fun part. And
28:38
Speaker 4: you know here in Uker and back before he had
28:41
Speaker 4: pass away, you know, calling the games. It's just something.
28:44
Speaker 4: It's just such a cool environment. I'm sure Corey will
28:46
Speaker 4: have something cool in the broadcast talking about him, you know,
28:49
Speaker 4: I know they spend a lot of time together. But
28:51
Speaker 4: it's it's a fun series. You know, there's always this
28:54
Speaker 4: atmosphere is gonna be great, the fans are gonna be great.
28:57
Speaker 4: And fortunately Press you know that there's two to be
29:00
Speaker 4: determines on the rotation spots for this weekend, so you know,
29:03
Speaker 4: Twins can hopefully sneak a couple out, and it's gonna
29:06
Speaker 4: be some hard pot games. I don't think you'll you know,
29:08
Speaker 4: I don't foresee a blowout happening, but you know, it's
29:11
Speaker 4: probably gonna be some more of those one run games,
29:12
Speaker 4: two run games. So we got to squeak out some
29:15
Speaker 4: wins late.
29:17
Speaker 1: Six' ten Pm central starts On friday And, saturday a
29:20
Speaker 1: one ten afternoon game On. Sunday, Joe Ryan, Connor Prelib
29:25
Speaker 1: bailey over as we, said is the starting uh order
29:29
Speaker 1: for The twins over the. Weekend real quick before we, Go,
29:32
Speaker 1: tyler as we mentioned our last on the last, show
29:35
Speaker 1: you are In mexico pitching For leonis THAT yuk attend.
29:38
Speaker 1: You you make your debut Tomorrow? Saturday?
29:41
Speaker 4: Tomorrow, yeah, Tomorrow so it's, yeah everything's lost in. Translation,
29:45
Speaker 4: YEAH i got down and then you know it's funny
29:47
Speaker 4: to show to the field and there's like two other
29:48
Speaker 4: new guys with me and bounce.
29:50
Speaker 1: Around you.
29:50
Speaker 4: KNOW i think our manager was replaced like, yesterday SO
29:55
Speaker 4: i didn't even get to meet him. Yet so it's
29:57
Speaker 4: LIKE i, said it's The Wild west done, here you,
30:00
Speaker 4: know and it's it's. Fun you, know guys are getting traded,
30:02
Speaker 4: released you, know. Signed you, know it's it's fun and
30:07
Speaker 4: you know it's all live on, YouTube so that's the best.
30:09
Speaker 4: Part easy to watch back home for the. Family so. Nice,
30:12
Speaker 4: Yeah so it's it's good settling in and you, know
30:16
Speaker 4: just getting, acclimated you, know like you, said a lot
30:18
Speaker 4: of birds and motorcycles and all that good. Stuff but,
30:21
Speaker 4: uh you, know but you you more, importantly you had
30:23
Speaker 4: the softball? Game is that? Tonight is that?
30:25
Speaker 1: Tomorrow it was last. Night it was a double header.
30:28
Speaker 1: INJURED i am so, sore it's. Unbelievable it had been
30:32
Speaker 1: about ten years SINCE i played, softball and h apparently
30:36
Speaker 1: your body ages in that amount of. Time so, Yeah
30:39
Speaker 1: i've stretched a lot. Afterwards it was, sad But i'm
30:44
Speaker 1: STILL i walked walked my kid to school, today so you,
30:46
Speaker 1: know it was it was, alright it was all, Right
30:48
Speaker 1: what time is the game?
30:49
Speaker 4: Tomorrow so normally they're here at, seven around seven, ten
30:54
Speaker 4: seven fifteen start. Times normally they push them back depending
30:57
Speaker 4: on where you're at because it's so hot in some
30:59
Speaker 4: of these, places is that the games will be at
31:01
Speaker 4: like seven thirty five. REGULARLY i think there's even eight
31:04
Speaker 4: pm starts in some of the, cities so late night action.
31:08
Speaker 4: Here definitely cheaper beers down here at the, games that's for.
31:11
Speaker 4: Sure so, anyways looking for a better discount for a
31:15
Speaker 4: baseball game south of the, borders that playing the way to.
31:18
Speaker 1: Go all, right, well we are just about out of
31:23
Speaker 1: time for. Today thank you everybody for. Listening if you
31:25
Speaker 1: like what you, heard please, subscribe toss us, alike leave
31:29
Speaker 1: us a. Comment we'd love to hear from. You thanks
31:32
Speaker 1: for listening to us On Twin Cities. Territory we'll be
31:35
Speaker 1: back with you On monday after The milwaukee series and
31:39
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you. Then thanks, Everybody bye, bye