Latest / Twin Cities Territory / UH OH! Joe Ryan is hurt, and the Twins have another big problem

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UH OH! Joe Ryan is hurt, and the Twins have another big problem · Twin Cities Territory

0:01
Speaker 1: Joe Ryan is hurt. The Minnesota Twins opening day starter
0:06
Speaker 1: left Sunday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays after just
0:09
Speaker 1: two batters with issues with his right elbow, and Dan
0:13
Speaker 1: Hayes of the Athletic Minnesota is here to tell us
0:16
Speaker 1: more about that. And just the second, I'm Zach Pierce,
0:18
Speaker 1: also of the Athletic Minnesota and this is Twins Citi's
0:21
Speaker 1: territory on the File Territory Network.
0:24
Speaker 2: Dan.
0:25
Speaker 1: Joe Ryan started the season as the twins top pitcher,
0:28
Speaker 1: has pitched like it all season. This is a really
0:30
Speaker 1: tough blow for the Twins. What do we know about
0:32
Speaker 1: his injury?
0:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a highly concerning, potentially devastating news for
0:38
Speaker 3: the Twins. We don't know that much yet because right
0:41
Speaker 3: now Joe Ryan's being evaluated and that means an MRI
0:44
Speaker 3: is coming. But anytime you leave the mound with right
0:48
Speaker 3: elbow soreness, and that's what the Twins reported today, that's
0:51
Speaker 3: about the scariest thing you can have and it's something
0:54
Speaker 3: that the Twins experienced with Pablo Lopez a little bit
0:56
Speaker 3: more than two months ago. Joe Ryan threw nine pitches.
0:59
Speaker 3: He got to strike out with the first batter, second
1:01
Speaker 3: batter walks, walks on six pitches, immediately signals to the dugout.
1:08
Speaker 3: And you know, Joe Ryan's a guy that's very in
1:10
Speaker 3: tune with his body. He's he's always had this s
1:13
Speaker 3: where two years ago when he had the major injury,
1:16
Speaker 3: the terris major strain in the shoulder, he immediately knew
1:20
Speaker 3: signaled it, walked off the mountain that cost some forty
1:22
Speaker 3: nine games. When he had the back injury, the lower
1:26
Speaker 3: lower back tightness in spring training, didn't try to push
1:29
Speaker 3: it came out. So I mean, at this point, all
1:32
Speaker 3: we have is speculative information, but it's.
1:35
Speaker 2: Not good and and it comes at a time when
1:38
Speaker 2: the Twins are already tight reeling.
1:41
Speaker 3: It's been a rough, you know, stretch for them, and
1:44
Speaker 3: it would be devastating to lose him.
1:46
Speaker 2: For the rest of the season or a couple months.
1:50
Speaker 2: So I mean, we have to hold out to see
1:52
Speaker 2: what it is.
1:53
Speaker 3: But this is potentially a very serious injury and really
1:56
Speaker 3: wouldn't harm the Twins for this season.
1:59
Speaker 1: And the MRI except for tomorrow.
2:01
Speaker 3: Is that right, Dan, I'm guessing I'm not at the
2:04
Speaker 3: ballpark today, and typically, I mean, it's possible they got
2:07
Speaker 3: him in today.
2:09
Speaker 2: Before before the day ended, but it wouldn't shock me
2:13
Speaker 2: if it was Monday.
2:14
Speaker 3: We should have some kind of news definitely by Tuesday
2:17
Speaker 3: when the Twins open a series in Washington against the Nationals.
2:20
Speaker 2: But you know, man, this is you know, they.
2:23
Speaker 3: Got lucky a couple of weeks ago with Mick Abel
2:25
Speaker 3: it was just light inflammation in his right elbow. And again, Joe,
2:29
Speaker 3: Ryan's not the guy, the kind of guy that pushes things,
2:32
Speaker 3: so it's possible that he felt something along the lines
2:36
Speaker 3: of inflammation. And that's all this is gonna be. But
2:39
Speaker 3: is seriously concerning. And you could tell Twins people reacting
2:44
Speaker 3: just via text on Sunday. You know, it's it's the
2:47
Speaker 3: scary one, especially when you already lost Pablo Lopez. The
2:51
Speaker 3: Twins went into the season with Pablo. With Joe, you know,
2:55
Speaker 3: there have been some people outside that thought maybe you
2:57
Speaker 3: trade them or not after last year's trade deadline, you
2:59
Speaker 3: can continue to tear down the Twins.
3:01
Speaker 2: Instead said let's go at this. This the water the.
3:04
Speaker 3: Al Central you know, not always but quite often is
3:08
Speaker 3: watered down, and we could compete with the pitching we have.
3:11
Speaker 3: And here you are, you know, on May third.
3:15
Speaker 2: And potentially You've got neither of them.
3:18
Speaker 3: And that is no matter what games you've seen out
3:21
Speaker 3: of Tas Bradley and Mick Abel and no matter how
3:24
Speaker 3: good Bailey over has been of late, and Connor Prelip
3:27
Speaker 3: looks promising, no matter all of that stuff, you know,
3:30
Speaker 3: adding Joe Ryan to the list of injuries would be
3:33
Speaker 3: you know, it's it would be very significant in hurting
3:37
Speaker 3: this team's chances because Joe Ryan is an All star
3:39
Speaker 3: you know, he came back from that injury last year
3:43
Speaker 3: the Terry's Major, costing forty nine games at the end
3:45
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty four. We saw what that did. Not
3:47
Speaker 3: having Joe Ryan every five days. The team collapsed after that.
3:51
Speaker 3: And you know there were other injuries that played into that,
3:53
Speaker 3: but not having Joe Ryan and Byron Bucks and Carlos
3:56
Speaker 3: Carea killed them that year. He was able to have
4:00
Speaker 3: only there was no surgery needed, and he was great
4:03
Speaker 3: last year. He performed exceptionally well, came back and got
4:07
Speaker 3: rid of all the concerns about that possibility of injury.
4:10
Speaker 2: One hundred and seventy.
4:11
Speaker 3: One innings, three forty two, one hundred and ninety four strikeouts.
4:14
Speaker 3: He hadn't even been all that great this season, he's
4:17
Speaker 3: got three seventy two ARRA. He's said at times that
4:20
Speaker 3: he has felt off in terms of his mechanics and
4:24
Speaker 3: worried about the mechanics more than anything, but physically felt
4:27
Speaker 3: great and even with that kind of, you know, feeling
4:31
Speaker 3: a little bit limited, and Joe Ryan had forty strikeouts
4:34
Speaker 3: and thirty eight and a third innings and took the
4:35
Speaker 3: ball every.
4:36
Speaker 2: Time, and you know, it was basically the guy they're
4:39
Speaker 2: relying on.
4:39
Speaker 3: So something that you know, I know Twins fans were
4:45
Speaker 3: over the top upset about it on the internet after
4:47
Speaker 3: it happened, and it's it's reasonable for them to be
4:50
Speaker 3: that way because just that possibility is gary.
4:54
Speaker 1: You mentioned Pablo Lopez, you mentioned the entire starting rotation. Basically,
4:58
Speaker 1: it has still been a strength for this team. We've
5:00
Speaker 1: talked about it many times on the show. Despite Lopez
5:03
Speaker 1: being out. Great year from todj. Bradley, from Bailey over
5:07
Speaker 1: mc abel was showing some good stuff before he was injured.
5:10
Speaker 1: Connor pre Lip has looked good coming up. If Joe
5:13
Speaker 1: Ryan has to miss extended time, Dan, where do the
5:16
Speaker 1: Twins turn, Who's the next man up or what do
5:19
Speaker 1: you think the plan might be?
5:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, we got to look at what it
5:23
Speaker 3: possibly could be. Today Andrew Morris stepped in and reserved
5:27
Speaker 3: there and went I think three and two thirds. Really
5:30
Speaker 3: good performance from him, and he does have started background,
5:34
Speaker 3: but he's also not as built out right now, and
5:37
Speaker 3: it wouldn't shock me maybe if they went to Zebbie Matthews,
5:39
Speaker 3: who's had a couple of good turns at Triple A's
5:42
Speaker 3: pitched deeper into games and has been a major league
5:45
Speaker 3: starter just and I'm wondering that because Andrew Morris has
5:49
Speaker 3: had some success in the bullpen, and we're gonna get
5:51
Speaker 3: into that in a minute, but this bullpen can use
5:54
Speaker 3: anything right now. It's it's already on fumes that we're
5:59
Speaker 3: just into May, and Morris has been good and shown
6:02
Speaker 3: that potentially, especially with that whole Dinner Night, that he
6:06
Speaker 3: has a seventh eighth inning role in him, you know,
6:11
Speaker 3: along with the baby steps, along with the fact that
6:13
Speaker 3: he is gonna need to kind of have.
6:15
Speaker 2: His handheld just as he gets used to this bullpen job.
6:20
Speaker 3: I wonder if they'll just keep going with him, and
6:23
Speaker 3: because Debbie Matthews is where he is, that's probably my guess.
6:27
Speaker 3: But again, this is all speculative. We don't know how
6:31
Speaker 3: long Joe Ryan's out for. We'll have more on that
6:33
Speaker 3: in the coming days. But it's not a great area.
6:37
Speaker 3: It's the uncertainty has to be driving Derek, Shelton and
6:40
Speaker 3: Jeremy's all crazy because here they are. You know, we
6:45
Speaker 3: mentioned Pablo Able's on his way back, and I think
6:49
Speaker 3: he's getting there, but he's still not giving back yet.
6:53
Speaker 2: David Festa is another guy that they were looking at
6:56
Speaker 2: as a starter going into the season. He is getting
6:58
Speaker 2: towards the point of bullpens in his rehab. But is
7:03
Speaker 2: he gonna be a reliever? Is he give be a starter?
7:05
Speaker 3: I don't know, but you're potentially down four guys right now.
7:09
Speaker 3: And every team likes to boast its starter depth, but
7:14
Speaker 3: when you're cutting in that deep this early, it's definitely troubling.
7:19
Speaker 2: Dan.
7:19
Speaker 1: One of your season preview articles on The Athletic about
7:24
Speaker 1: this team was basically telling fans to enjoyed Joe Ryan
7:29
Speaker 1: while it lasts, because the thinking was he would be
7:32
Speaker 1: one of the top trade deadline targets for a team
7:36
Speaker 1: that clearly has shown a willingness to tear the team
7:38
Speaker 1: apart already with what the action at last season's deadline.
7:43
Speaker 1: Of course, too early to know exactly how bad this
7:45
Speaker 1: injury is going to be or to what extent it
7:47
Speaker 1: will affect his value, but certainly throws a wrench in
7:52
Speaker 1: those plans if there's any amount of time missed or
7:55
Speaker 1: any amount of concerned lingering from this injury, which there
7:57
Speaker 1: almost certainly will be just because of the nature of
7:59
Speaker 1: the thing that his throwing arm.
8:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, and I did not expect it to be
8:05
Speaker 3: five weeks. The Twins fans got to look at Joe Ryan.
8:09
Speaker 3: You think it's more like the trade deadline, which I
8:12
Speaker 3: think is August third this year, And I mean, it'll
8:17
Speaker 3: be interesting to see what they were gonna do if
8:19
Speaker 3: he's healthy, whether or not they hold on to him
8:22
Speaker 3: or move forward and deal him. But it's certainly something
8:26
Speaker 3: that's on the table. When you trade ten guys off
8:28
Speaker 3: the major league grouster like you did last year, you
8:30
Speaker 3: put the writing on the wall. And I don't think
8:33
Speaker 3: from a business standpoint, in a season where you're saying
8:35
Speaker 3: it's an important year for the franchise to regain trust
8:39
Speaker 3: of its fans, you can't come out in spring training
8:42
Speaker 3: or in the offseason and say we're trading Joe Ryan
8:44
Speaker 3: because you know, those people that are paying for those tickets,
8:47
Speaker 3: they get pretty angry when you.
8:49
Speaker 2: Put up the white flag so early.
8:50
Speaker 3: So to me, it always like we're gonna try, We're
8:54
Speaker 3: gonna give this the good old college, try and see
8:57
Speaker 3: what we can do, because this division historically is weaker
9:00
Speaker 3: than the others, and sometimes you catch lightning bottle, you get.
9:04
Speaker 3: They expected a lot of their young guys on the
9:06
Speaker 3: position side to step forward, and and if that happens,
9:10
Speaker 3: you can be competitive if you have good starting pitching.
9:13
Speaker 3: You know what this means at this point, it's unfortunate.
9:18
Speaker 3: I mean, look, the trade deadline could get really.
9:21
Speaker 2: Boring right now.
9:22
Speaker 3: Actually when we when we think about it, because if
9:25
Speaker 3: Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez are sideline, and we know
9:28
Speaker 3: Lopez is out till you know, sometime early next season,
9:33
Speaker 3: the Twins, who do they get trade, It's going to
9:35
Speaker 3: be a few potential free agents departing free agents, that
9:40
Speaker 3: kind of thing.
9:41
Speaker 2: This really puts a damper on it if they if they.
9:44
Speaker 3: If Joe Ryan's out for the season, So it's pretty
9:48
Speaker 3: you know, after Saturday, which was just a ugly, ugly loss,
9:53
Speaker 3: it's a pretty ugly weekend, and this is after the
9:55
Speaker 3: Twins had a nice victory on Sunday, I mean they did.
10:00
Speaker 1: We will talk about that.
10:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, bullpended its job today eight and two thirds. But
10:04
Speaker 3: you know, it's hard to get excited when you know
10:08
Speaker 3: what the potentially, you know, the big the big hit
10:11
Speaker 3: that potentially is coming.
10:13
Speaker 1: They can't win a game when their starters throw six
10:16
Speaker 1: innings or more of just beautiful baseball. But when the
10:18
Speaker 1: only last two batters, then then we can win.
10:22
Speaker 2: The Uh.
10:24
Speaker 1: The trade deadline thing is just it's fascinating. I think
10:27
Speaker 1: I think it was Friday Show, one of our shows
10:29
Speaker 1: last week. We talked about Tom Pollad's insistence on you know,
10:33
Speaker 1: wanting to commit to giving the fans the team they deserve,
10:37
Speaker 1: and I said, then, like, you can start by just
10:40
Speaker 1: not tearing down the parts that are good about this team,
10:43
Speaker 1: mainly the starting pitching. And this might force his hand
10:47
Speaker 1: to not be able to do that. If if these
10:49
Speaker 1: injuries are that bad that that no one's going to
10:51
Speaker 1: want to give up a haul to bring in an
10:54
Speaker 1: injured starter for the stretch runs. So we will talk
10:59
Speaker 1: more about the Twins win on Sunday, which did manage
11:01
Speaker 1: to salvage a split of the weekend series with the
11:05
Speaker 1: Blue Jays, but there were a lot of ups and
11:07
Speaker 1: downs along the way. A really rough boat bullpen outing Saturday.
11:10
Speaker 1: They barely hung on to it on Sunday as well,
11:12
Speaker 1: albeit pressed into a lot of extended work because of
11:15
Speaker 1: Ryan's injury. We'll talk about some hitters heating up, notably
11:19
Speaker 1: Byron Buckston who just can't stop hitting home runs, and
11:22
Speaker 1: more when we get back on Twin Cities territory.
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12:29
Speaker 1: Back here on Twins City's territory, the Twins came away
12:34
Speaker 1: with a series split, a four game series split with
12:36
Speaker 1: the Blue Jays this weekend. Dan. They are now fifteen
12:40
Speaker 1: and twenty for the second year in a row after
12:42
Speaker 1: thirty five games. I feel like there's been a lot
12:44
Speaker 1: of days like that where I've heard it's the same
12:47
Speaker 1: record they had last year at this time, and here
12:49
Speaker 1: we are again at fifteen and twenty, fourth place in
12:51
Speaker 1: the Al Central, still trying to kind of get back
12:55
Speaker 1: on the winning track after that stretch of eleven losses
12:58
Speaker 1: in thirteen games, but overall all a little bit of
13:02
Speaker 1: everything in in this series with the Blue Jays. That
13:04
Speaker 1: great game on Thursday night to start things off. They
13:06
Speaker 1: had bullpen issues, most notably on Saturday Sunday of course
13:10
Speaker 1: the injury to Joe Ryan, which we talked about but
13:12
Speaker 1: still managed to put together a win. What were some
13:15
Speaker 1: of your notable takeaways from the series, Dan.
13:20
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, we'll get into it more when duff
13:23
Speaker 3: gets here, but the bullpen was really bad on Saturday.
13:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, we should.
13:27
Speaker 1: We should mention Tyler Duffy was in transit when we
13:31
Speaker 1: decided to do this emergency Sunday afternoon podcast in light
13:35
Speaker 1: of Joe Ryan's injury, so he will hopefully be joining
13:37
Speaker 1: us for the last part of the show, but for
13:39
Speaker 1: now you're stuck with us. But sorry, Dan, continue the bullpen.
13:42
Speaker 2: No, yeah, exactly, I mean that bullpen.
13:45
Speaker 3: Look, we knew the bullpen was gonna be challenging going
13:49
Speaker 3: in to the season, and it's certainly played out that way.
13:54
Speaker 3: Eight runs given up on Saturday really puts a damper.
13:56
Speaker 3: Eight runs in the eighth inning, and that was after
13:58
Speaker 3: justin topa given up in the earlier run too. So
14:02
Speaker 3: hey man, Derek, Derek Shelton, I don't envy his job
14:06
Speaker 3: right now because I don't know who is the trusted guy,
14:08
Speaker 3: and I really want to get Tyler's thoughts on on
14:10
Speaker 3: this when he gets here, So we'll just move on
14:12
Speaker 3: from that. There was some good signs the starting pitching,
14:15
Speaker 3: uh pre lip was great, you know, like I thought
14:19
Speaker 3: that was a very good performance.
14:20
Speaker 1: And obviously he was on Saturday, he was in line
14:22
Speaker 1: for the weeks.
14:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, five and five innings, two runs, again, just looking good.
14:29
Speaker 3: And that followed up the Bailey over Thursday. So I mean,
14:34
Speaker 3: you know, Simon Woods Richardson another rough start on Friday,
14:38
Speaker 3: and you know, there we I think we had kind
14:41
Speaker 3: of talked about it with Able potentially coming back, what
14:44
Speaker 3: what could the rotation look like? And and Simon Woods Richardson,
14:50
Speaker 3: you know, has not had a good run.
14:52
Speaker 2: He's had a rough run. I think he's so in
14:54
Speaker 2: five and I think his area is above six fifty
14:56
Speaker 2: is right there.
14:58
Speaker 3: That's the kind of yeah six four, that's the kind
15:01
Speaker 3: of thing that typically you're looking potentially to replace, and
15:05
Speaker 3: who knows, with what's going on right now.
15:07
Speaker 1: They might need him.
15:08
Speaker 3: They might need him, and and that's how baseball works sometimes,
15:12
Speaker 3: but they need him to get going because he has
15:15
Speaker 3: been at times a very consistent starter. And you know,
15:17
Speaker 3: it's it's somewhere around a four going into the year
15:20
Speaker 3: was like a four one five career era or four.
15:22
Speaker 2: To two to two, but it was he just always was.
15:26
Speaker 3: There to give them six and three runs and keep
15:29
Speaker 3: them in games. And that's It's not great on paper,
15:34
Speaker 3: but it when a team knows the guys got go
15:37
Speaker 3: out there and they're not gonna you know, he knows
15:40
Speaker 3: how to bear down and keep them in games. That
15:43
Speaker 3: that helps and it matters, and it eats innings to
15:46
Speaker 3: keep your bullpen, you know, fresher. But you know, so
15:51
Speaker 3: a little bit of a mixed bag with the starting pitching,
15:53
Speaker 3: and obviously Joe Ryan was an incomplete but I liked
15:56
Speaker 3: what we saw from Andrew Morris over the course of
15:58
Speaker 3: the series, the Thursday hold and then coming in in
16:01
Speaker 3: a pinch on Sunday, and I'm sure he'll be down
16:04
Speaker 3: now for a couple.
16:05
Speaker 2: Of days just because he came.
16:07
Speaker 3: He just had to get ready and go and through
16:11
Speaker 3: fifty plus pitches. I think it was fifty six or
16:13
Speaker 3: fifty seven.
16:14
Speaker 2: Really good job.
16:17
Speaker 3: The offense was a little all over the place, but
16:20
Speaker 3: there were good signs. Luke Keishaw his last seven games
16:24
Speaker 3: is hitting two ninety two, but is his on bas
16:27
Speaker 3: is three seventy nine and his slug is like foro
16:29
Speaker 3: to eighty in that span. We're seeing him start to
16:32
Speaker 3: show in two doubles and Sunday's win and got the
16:35
Speaker 3: post game player of the Game interview, and you know,
16:38
Speaker 3: if he's on base, putting pressure on and Byron Buckson's
16:42
Speaker 3: doing what he's doing, you have an offense that can
16:46
Speaker 3: keep you in games. And we saw the Twins offense
16:49
Speaker 3: win games for them early this season, even Sunday, you know,
16:52
Speaker 3: it was a one nothing lead and they had the
16:55
Speaker 3: three double inning that especially to four nothing, and that
16:58
Speaker 3: was just enough. They need to are doing that again.
17:00
Speaker 3: They need to give breathing room so the bullpen doesn't
17:03
Speaker 3: feel all the pressure and they need to kind of
17:06
Speaker 3: keep going. They need a bunch of bats to wake up,
17:09
Speaker 3: you know, Matt Wallner, royce Lewis, Cody Clemens. Clemens had
17:13
Speaker 3: a double in order to a double. Yeah, Walner had
17:16
Speaker 3: two hits, the opposite field hit. That was a good
17:18
Speaker 3: sign from him. Royce Lewis is struggling right now. The
17:22
Speaker 3: average is below one eighty.
17:24
Speaker 2: And you know, just not doing royce Lewis things. At
17:28
Speaker 2: this point.
17:28
Speaker 3: They desperately need him to be him this group still
17:32
Speaker 3: needs to get going. They haven't done an offensive rhythm.
17:35
Speaker 3: They've been very good at times, they've been very slow
17:37
Speaker 3: at times, and they've just been a streaky group and
17:40
Speaker 3: doesn't feel like we've seen them at their full potential,
17:42
Speaker 3: and you know, that would help a lot, just help
17:46
Speaker 3: alleviate some of these other issues that they get magnified
17:49
Speaker 3: when the offense struggles because the bullpen is constantly pitching
17:53
Speaker 3: for its life in tight games and inevitably somebody's going
17:57
Speaker 3: to blow it.
17:58
Speaker 2: It's just how it works.
17:59
Speaker 3: It's not you don't have six lockdown guys, seven lockdown
18:02
Speaker 3: guys down there. And so it's good to see that
18:06
Speaker 3: group kind of have some big hits in Sunday's game
18:10
Speaker 3: because they need it, and you know they have the
18:11
Speaker 3: day off on Monday.
18:12
Speaker 2: But started a big road trip.
18:15
Speaker 3: Washington and then at Cleveland coming up, and especially that
18:19
Speaker 3: second half, you really want to play well against the
18:22
Speaker 3: Guardians and show what you can do in Division.
18:27
Speaker 1: Andrew Morris in his major league debut season six games now,
18:32
Speaker 1: three times they've asked him to go three innings or more.
18:35
Speaker 1: Another time was two and two thirds. Every time at
18:38
Speaker 1: least at least four outs recorded in the last two
18:42
Speaker 1: games today Sunday and then also the series opener against Toronto,
18:47
Speaker 1: the first two times that he's not allowed to run
18:51
Speaker 1: so far this season. So a strong weekend for him
18:54
Speaker 1: for sure, And he talked about the hitting situation Dan.
18:58
Speaker 1: One guy who is definitely a wake up on the
19:00
Speaker 1: right side of life these days is Byron Buxton. And
19:06
Speaker 1: we have a visual look at that first thirteen games
19:10
Speaker 1: of the year. We were talking about what's wrong with
19:13
Speaker 1: Byron Buxton and he either heard us and didn't like
19:16
Speaker 1: it or just decided to start going on a tear.
19:20
Speaker 1: He was actually over three hundred in his last eighteen
19:23
Speaker 1: games before Sunday. This is updated as of Sunday stats.
19:26
Speaker 1: But hitting two ninety eight ops, over won, ten homers,
19:31
Speaker 1: thirteen RBIs in the last nineteen games. Just a silly
19:35
Speaker 1: stretch of baseball for Byron Buxton, and the Twins have needed.
19:38
Speaker 2: It, so yeah, yeah, they have. And we've talked about
19:43
Speaker 2: this where Byron Buxton is what.
19:47
Speaker 3: Would it look like if he get to play full
19:49
Speaker 3: seasons that kind of thing, And you know, we got
19:52
Speaker 3: a taste of it last year with one hundred and
19:54
Speaker 3: twenty games played. He was electric thirty two homers, you know,
19:59
Speaker 3: came close to thirty t thirty that last month. He
20:01
Speaker 3: slowed down the stone bases. But and he's only got
20:04
Speaker 3: two so far this year. But maybe that's keeping him
20:07
Speaker 3: in the lineup because he's not running as much.
20:10
Speaker 2: I don't know.
20:11
Speaker 3: What I do know is I see a dynamic player
20:14
Speaker 3: out there, and he's not quite the elite defender in
20:18
Speaker 3: center field that he was because he's not making maybe
20:22
Speaker 3: all the diving catches that he used to the ones
20:25
Speaker 3: where he put his body in harm's way, but he
20:27
Speaker 3: certainly tracks down a lot of balls in the gap and.
20:30
Speaker 2: Makes it look really smooth.
20:32
Speaker 3: And I think when you look at that, you're taking
20:35
Speaker 3: that player and you wish you could both build the
20:37
Speaker 3: whole plane out of Byron Buxton's because he is, uh,
20:41
Speaker 3: he's dynamic man, and he's fun to watch, and he's
20:45
Speaker 3: one of those guys that April has always been a
20:48
Speaker 3: tricky month for him, but he put on a great
20:50
Speaker 3: show and he really did figure it out in twenty
20:52
Speaker 3: nineteen how to get going from the start, and then
20:55
Speaker 3: he had, you know a little bit of inevitable injury
20:57
Speaker 3: stuff happened here and there, and like but you know,
21:00
Speaker 3: he two years ago when he got to one hundred
21:02
Speaker 3: games played in the twenty twenty four season, he had
21:05
Speaker 3: said this was a big deal, and fans didn't get it.
21:09
Speaker 2: It was at the end of that.
21:10
Speaker 3: Collapse, and Byron was kind of really proud of what
21:14
Speaker 3: he accomplished. Is the first time since twenty seventeen he
21:16
Speaker 3: had played one hundred games, and it was a mindset
21:19
Speaker 3: thing because if he could get it, do one hundred,
21:22
Speaker 3: then he could grow again and go up. And he
21:24
Speaker 3: got one twenty last year. I'm sure he wants more
21:26
Speaker 3: than one twenty this year. He is a difference maker
21:30
Speaker 3: on the field for them. And you know the home
21:33
Speaker 3: run on Saturday, I think it was a slider, It
21:35
Speaker 3: was away, and he just put it in the right field,
21:38
Speaker 3: in the little flower box in right field. That's a
21:40
Speaker 3: strong strong man to be able to do that because
21:43
Speaker 3: there aren't very many opposite field home runs hit. I
21:46
Speaker 3: remember Mitch Garver hitting an opposite field home run into
21:48
Speaker 3: that flower box in twenty nineteen when we had the
21:51
Speaker 3: juiced ball and the Twins, you know, set the all
21:55
Speaker 3: time MLB home run single season record, tied with the
21:57
Speaker 3: Yankees for three oh seven. That's the time I really
22:00
Speaker 3: remember I'm sure there's been a couple since then, but
22:05
Speaker 3: doesn't really happen very often, and so Byron Buckston doing
22:07
Speaker 3: that just shows kind of, hey, look for that pitch. Wait,
22:11
Speaker 3: wait wait, put a good swing on it and it
22:13
Speaker 3: goes out, and especially if it's warming up, he could
22:16
Speaker 3: be in line for some really exciting home run totals this.
22:19
Speaker 1: Year, currently tied for seventh in Major League Baseball with
22:24
Speaker 1: his ten home runs. That's a six way tie for seventh,
22:27
Speaker 1: so it's crowded, but ben Rice, Kyle Schwarber, Matt Wilson,
22:32
Speaker 1: Jordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge, and Munataka mur Akami of the
22:36
Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox the only ones with more home runs
22:39
Speaker 1: this year than Byron Buckston. Dan, we talked a lot
22:43
Speaker 1: about the starting pitching already, obviously because of the Joe
22:46
Speaker 1: Ryan situation, but plenty going on in the bullpen too,
22:49
Speaker 1: and we should acknowledge here that we were hoping Tyler
22:51
Speaker 1: Duffy would join us for the show, but stuck in traffic,
22:55
Speaker 1: so we will get his thoughts on all this later
22:57
Speaker 1: this week, hopefully on Wednesday's show, But we hit at
23:01
Speaker 1: the bullpen issues over the weekend a bit Obviously it's
23:04
Speaker 1: been an ongoing theme throughout the season, but they also
23:07
Speaker 1: dealing with some injuries Cole Sands recently.
23:10
Speaker 2: Was it a forearm stream.
23:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, they've got some new folks cuckling in as well.
23:16
Speaker 1: What's the latest there with all that.
23:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a hit because Cole Sands was probably their,
23:23
Speaker 3: you know, one of the writings that they were looking
23:25
Speaker 3: to step forward. He had a solid run after the
23:29
Speaker 3: trade deadline last year, and he had been a really
23:32
Speaker 3: good performer in twenty twenty four. So you lose him,
23:36
Speaker 3: and that's a trusted guy that Derek Shelton could could
23:40
Speaker 3: count on, and you know, you look at it and
23:43
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, you bring up John Klein. Actually
23:45
Speaker 3: had a very nice debut on Saturday.
23:47
Speaker 2: Brooklyn parks John.
23:48
Speaker 3: Klein, And honestly, he's a guy I'm pretty excited about.
23:52
Speaker 3: I think we all were throws a hard fastball, but he's,
23:56
Speaker 3: you know, been a starter last couple years. He was unsigned.
23:58
Speaker 3: It's a really interesting story. But Froze five pitches has
24:03
Speaker 3: a good cutter, actually kind of looks like Louis Varland
24:06
Speaker 3: with the hat on the way he smiles. There's you know,
24:10
Speaker 3: he's he's gained some.
24:11
Speaker 1: Velocity last year. That'll make fans feel better. It kind
24:13
Speaker 1: of looks like Louis.
24:14
Speaker 3: Arl kind of like, you know, same distance North Saint
24:18
Speaker 3: Paul Brooklyn Park, not very both about the same distance
24:21
Speaker 3: from target field as each other.
24:23
Speaker 2: Like, hey, hey, you're looking at a guy that I
24:28
Speaker 2: think that like it.
24:31
Speaker 3: It's great for John Klein, but it's another guy where
24:33
Speaker 3: you are gonna have the baby steps with him, just
24:36
Speaker 3: like Andrew Morris, because John Klein was a starter until
24:40
Speaker 3: this year and I, like I said, I'm intrigued by
24:42
Speaker 3: that arm. So then now you have a bullpen with
24:45
Speaker 3: two guys who are young starters who are converting to
24:49
Speaker 3: the bullpen.
24:50
Speaker 2: You have some lefties. Anthony Bonda has struggled. We saw
24:55
Speaker 2: him struggle on Saturday. Louis Garcia is the guy that
24:58
Speaker 2: picked up off the street, and he does have ten
24:59
Speaker 2: years major league service time and he throws hard. But
25:02
Speaker 2: his first two games have been really rough. For the
25:05
Speaker 2: first game, he gave up the two runs in.
25:08
Speaker 3: The ninth inning of that bullpen implosion game earlier in
25:11
Speaker 3: the week, and I can't remember which day it was,
25:13
Speaker 3: but it doesn't really matter because a lot of these
25:15
Speaker 3: days have been bullpen implosion days and came in in
25:18
Speaker 3: the eighth inning of Saturday's game and Twins were ahead,
25:22
Speaker 3: and and here's what it all leads up to is
25:26
Speaker 3: that Derek Shelton doesn't have a lot of certain answers
25:32
Speaker 3: in that bullpen right now, and that can't be an
25:34
Speaker 3: easy chair to be sitting in him and the coaches
25:37
Speaker 3: trying to figure out, how.
25:38
Speaker 2: Are we going to do this? Like what what does
25:41
Speaker 2: it get take to get through this?
25:43
Speaker 3: Justin Topa came in to Sunday's game to get to
25:47
Speaker 3: save He got the you know, the first batter reaches
25:52
Speaker 3: and little blooper and then gave up a two run
25:55
Speaker 3: homer and all of a sudden, we have a really
25:57
Speaker 3: tense game and there was a lot of hard contact.
25:59
Speaker 2: Got out of it with a hard double playball. Justin
26:01
Speaker 2: Topa is one of the guys.
26:02
Speaker 3: That they are the he's the most one of their
26:04
Speaker 3: most stable guys right now, one because he's been through
26:08
Speaker 3: it and can do this. But you know, it's Justin
26:11
Speaker 3: Tope's a guy that's always been like in his Twins tenure, hurt,
26:15
Speaker 3: He's had the knee stuff.
26:16
Speaker 2: He had several injuries.
26:19
Speaker 3: Over the last couple of years that have prevented him
26:20
Speaker 3: from staying out there long. He he's probably their hardest
26:23
Speaker 3: thrower from the right side, non starting pitcher version, just
26:28
Speaker 3: true reliever, But like can he endure? And that's the question?
26:33
Speaker 3: And what's Luis Garciaga give you? And Cody Funderburg looked
26:37
Speaker 3: pretty good on Sunday. Taylor Rogers gave him two and
26:40
Speaker 3: a third in a really big, herculean effort after Andrew
26:44
Speaker 3: Morris came out.
26:46
Speaker 2: He's been hit and miss this season.
26:48
Speaker 3: At times, and everywhere you look, there's just not you know,
26:53
Speaker 3: a lockdown guy. And the Twins were so fortunate to
26:56
Speaker 3: have guys that if they had a two or three
26:59
Speaker 3: run lead, they knew in the sixth inning that game was.
27:01
Speaker 2: Over because when you go to Louis.
27:04
Speaker 3: Barlin, then Griffin Jackson, then Joan Duran, you can get
27:08
Speaker 3: three pretty clean innings. And that's that was such a
27:11
Speaker 3: luxury that they just simply don't have right now. And
27:15
Speaker 3: they'll try and develop these young guys. I mean, I
27:17
Speaker 3: really do think there's a chance that Klein and Morris
27:21
Speaker 3: can be guys that pitch in winning situations once their
27:26
Speaker 3: bodies are used to throwing back to back days. Once
27:30
Speaker 3: they get adjusted to all of the life in the
27:33
Speaker 3: bullpen and being ready to throw any time that that
27:36
Speaker 3: phone rings, it's a different it's adjustment. It's a huge adjustment,
27:41
Speaker 3: you know. I remember last year one fan had said, well,
27:45
Speaker 3: why is Louis hitting the wall right now? It is
27:47
Speaker 3: like because he's never pitched this much, And they said, no,
27:50
Speaker 3: that's not true. Look at his inning total from the
27:51
Speaker 3: last couple of years. He's pitched way more than this.
27:54
Speaker 3: But that's so different to go out there once every
27:56
Speaker 3: five days and give five or six innings versus pitch
28:00
Speaker 3: one to two max Velocit innings on a Friday. See
28:05
Speaker 3: if you're healthy and ready on Saturday, come back into
28:07
Speaker 3: another game on Saturday, take a day off on Sunday,
28:11
Speaker 3: and then maybe you have to throw again on Monday.
28:13
Speaker 3: That is a totally different world than kind of going
28:17
Speaker 3: not as hard because you know you have to throw
28:19
Speaker 3: six innings. Starting pitchers don't max velocit. Don't throw max Velosi.
28:24
Speaker 3: I mean some do, there's no question, but not everybody does.
28:26
Speaker 3: There's a lot of guys that hold on to stuff,
28:28
Speaker 3: leave try to leave gas in the tank for later
28:31
Speaker 3: innings for big situations.
28:33
Speaker 2: It is an adjustment.
28:34
Speaker 3: And so right now, of your eight guys, you have
28:37
Speaker 3: two guys that are doing this for the first time.
28:39
Speaker 3: You have three lefties, which means you have matchup issues
28:42
Speaker 3: because you know, Cody Fronderberg can get some rities out.
28:45
Speaker 3: Bonda when he's at his peak, can get guys out.
28:48
Speaker 3: But Bonda is not quite at his peak right now.
28:50
Speaker 3: And so then you have Garcia, you have Topa, and
28:53
Speaker 3: I'm trying to remember who the eighth guy is. But
28:56
Speaker 3: you had the Cody Lorison injury earlier this season. Losing
29:02
Speaker 3: Cole Sands.
29:02
Speaker 1: Is tough for this Jared Acton was looking pretty okay
29:06
Speaker 1: he had injury.
29:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the with the Joe Ryan injury, it's like
29:13
Speaker 3: this Twins pitching staff in one form another keeps losing guys,
29:18
Speaker 3: and that is.
29:19
Speaker 2: That's tough on your depth.
29:21
Speaker 3: You you know, it's it's just going to be interesting
29:24
Speaker 3: because in a perfect world, maybe that fact when Klein
29:29
Speaker 3: came up, maybe Andrew.
29:29
Speaker 2: Morrise would have shifted to shorter stints. And then Andrew
29:32
Speaker 2: Morris because the Joe Ryan injury, pitches three plus innings
29:36
Speaker 2: on Sunday. It's now he's reset for a couple of days,
29:38
Speaker 2: and I don't think you can really go to him
29:40
Speaker 2: probably till I don't know, Wednesday or Thursday.
29:44
Speaker 3: You you don't want him to develop some kind of
29:47
Speaker 3: arm issues because of this.
29:48
Speaker 2: So it's all troubling.
29:51
Speaker 3: It's not good, and it's unfortunate because this is the
29:55
Speaker 3: area where the twins tried to cobble together. Now, they
29:58
Speaker 3: didn't know what direction they're going in the offseason until December.
30:03
Speaker 3: They didn't have any idea what the payroll would be.
30:05
Speaker 3: They didn't have a lot of payroll to work with anyways.
30:09
Speaker 3: You know, had they brought in a few more arms,
30:13
Speaker 3: it's no guarantee that this would have been any different.
30:15
Speaker 3: Free agency is not the cure all but bringing in
30:18
Speaker 3: more options certainly would have been helpful, just because this team,
30:22
Speaker 3: you know, there's a lot of uncertainty. A year after
30:26
Speaker 3: you trade five guys away.
30:28
Speaker 1: There was a statistic on a broadcast. I want to
30:30
Speaker 1: say it was two weeks ago, maybe that I saw it.
30:33
Speaker 1: I wish I could remember when, but it showed the
30:37
Speaker 1: team leaders in saves and it was five different guys
30:41
Speaker 1: with one save, and here we are still. That's the
30:44
Speaker 1: extent of it. The five single saves from those five
30:48
Speaker 1: different relievers. Part of that is because the Twins have
30:51
Speaker 1: not played in a lot of games that ended close
30:55
Speaker 1: enough to be saved situations. This was actually their first
30:57
Speaker 1: one run victory of the season.
31:00
Speaker 2: Which is shocking.
31:01
Speaker 1: They were the last team in baseball to get there.
31:03
Speaker 2: This.
31:04
Speaker 1: I heard this on the Peacock broadcast, So blame them
31:07
Speaker 1: if it's yeah, if it's not accurate. But and that's
31:10
Speaker 1: a we talked about that a lot earlier in the
31:12
Speaker 1: season too. There were just a lot of games during
31:14
Speaker 1: the hot streak the Twins were scoring a bunch of
31:16
Speaker 1: early runs and the bullpen was coming in and not
31:20
Speaker 1: being so sharp. But it wasn't as noticeable in a
31:22
Speaker 1: you know, eleven to six game as it is in
31:25
Speaker 1: a in a one run loss. And so it was
31:29
Speaker 1: nice to see them hold on to one on Sunday,
31:31
Speaker 1: even if it did get a little hairy there in
31:34
Speaker 1: the ninth.
31:34
Speaker 3: But right, and by the way, that was got it
31:37
Speaker 3: correct you That was justin Topa's second save right there.
31:40
Speaker 2: So oh, we now have a two timer. Okay? Yeah,
31:43
Speaker 2: And you know.
31:45
Speaker 3: How like starting that live as the five timer club.
31:47
Speaker 3: I wonder if there was a little ceremony, yeah, clubhouse
31:50
Speaker 3: after the game to welcome justin Toba, de Bean.
31:53
Speaker 2: The first got to get Tuesdays.
31:55
Speaker 1: Was not thinking about how this is still last night's stats.
31:57
Speaker 2: I'm looking at yes, yeah, he and he barely got there.
32:02
Speaker 2: I mean there was some real hard hit balls. I mean,
32:05
Speaker 2: this series.
32:09
Speaker 3: Was rough for the bullpen, whether it was the nine
32:11
Speaker 3: runs Saturday, whether it was you know, they gave up
32:13
Speaker 3: three today, which given it was eight and two thirds,
32:16
Speaker 3: that was good, but.
32:17
Speaker 2: The back end of it gave up two in the
32:18
Speaker 2: ninth and it's uh, you know. The worst part is.
32:23
Speaker 3: I think fans tune out when they expect or or
32:27
Speaker 3: when they see those struggles. There's nothing more frustrating than
32:30
Speaker 3: seeing the game go and be well pitched for eight
32:34
Speaker 3: innings and then the ninth inning to go right. And
32:37
Speaker 3: it's that's just being a fan, and that's okay, like
32:40
Speaker 3: it's understandable. But when this team is desperate to try
32:44
Speaker 3: and win back its fans, this is the kind of
32:46
Speaker 3: stuff that is really challenging to do that because you know,
32:51
Speaker 3: nobody wants to watch six innings of good baseball and
32:53
Speaker 3: then three innings of crappy baseball and feel bad about
32:55
Speaker 3: the whole experience. You're not looking for development. As a fan,
32:59
Speaker 3: you're looking for wins, and they're in a spot now
33:01
Speaker 3: where it's going to be real challenging all season, and
33:06
Speaker 3: man lots to look forward to with about one hundred
33:09
Speaker 3: and twenty eight games in the seasons.
33:12
Speaker 1: That's right. Justin Topa gave up a homer to Okamoto,
33:17
Speaker 1: which everybody did this weekend. I think he had four
33:20
Speaker 1: homers over the weekend, and then two singles with just
33:24
Speaker 1: still one out in the ending Twins now cleaning to
33:26
Speaker 1: a four to three lead, and then got the double
33:29
Speaker 1: play ball to end the game and hang on. So
33:32
Speaker 1: Twins four to three winners. On Sunday, they improved to
33:35
Speaker 1: fifteen and twenty after splitting the series with the Jays
33:40
Speaker 1: ten and ten at home as well, so playing a
33:43
Speaker 1: little bit better at their friendly confines than elsewhere. And
33:48
Speaker 1: that's where they head now. They're off to Washington and
33:51
Speaker 1: Cleveland for a road trip this week. Nationals are sixteen
33:54
Speaker 1: and nineteen. First game is Tuesday. They're off on Monday.
33:58
Speaker 1: Todd Bradley, it's the ball and that one, followed by
34:02
Speaker 1: Bailey ober on Wednesday and Simeon Woods Richardson on Thursday.
34:06
Speaker 1: We will be back with you probably on Wednesday, possibly
34:09
Speaker 1: earlier if there is a significant Joe Ryan update to
34:12
Speaker 1: talk about, but until we see you again, thank you
34:15
Speaker 1: so much for listening. If you like what you hear,
34:17
Speaker 1: please like, subscribe, leave us a comment, listen to us
34:21
Speaker 1: wherever you can find your podcasts, or watch us here
34:23
Speaker 1: on YouTube. And thanks everybody, and we'll catch you next
34:27
Speaker 1: time on Twin Cities Territory