The Twins got swept in both games of today’s 7-inning game doubleheader, losing 8-2 in Game 1 & 4-2 in Game 2.
The only real highlight was DH Nelson Cruz hitting a HR in both games for his 12th & 13th of the season.
In Game 2, they had runners on 1st & 2nd with no outs in the top of the 7th but grounded into a 5-4-3 double play then struck out looking to end the game so they at least had a chance to tie the game and maybe more but they just didn’t come through today.
Stats & Highlights from today’s game are here:
Game 1 – https://www.mlb.com/gameday/twins-vs-tigers/2020/08/29/631458#game_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=631458
Get ’em Tomorrow! Will the Twins respond?
We’ll see how they respond tomorrow with RHP Kenta Maeda on the mound at 12:10pm on FOX Sports North.
Detroit will send their #2 prospect and top pitching prospect RHP Casey Mize to the mound. He’ll be making his 3rd career start and he’s been hit pretty hard in his previous 2 starts. He started 15 games at AA ball last season so he’s yet to pitch in AAA but it’s the only way he can get some actual real baseball games in this season so Detroit is putting him in there to get him some experience. They obviously believe in this kid but time will tell if it’s the right decision to give him a shot against the best players in the world. Is his makeup strong enough where if he pitches bad the whole time, it won’t affect his future?
Prospect Development during a Pandemic
This is just another strange aspect of this shortened season being played during a pandemic with no minor league baseball. The Royals have a couple of their top pitching prospects in their rotation, too: RHP Brady Singer & LHP Kris Bubic. It’s an interesting move for young teams looking to the future. It does bring up the topic of what will the league do for minor-league baseball?
What if this pandemic goes into next season? Will they find a way to hold minor-league games somewhere? The biggest question with that is probably the money it would cost to do it. It would likely have to be put on by the MLB & it’s teams but you’d think they’d want to do that to get their prospects back on the field so they can continue to develop instead of literally going a year (or another year) with no games to challenge them and see where they are at in their development.
The Minnesota Twins have 7 minor-league affiliates. That’s a lot of prospects who are not getting any work in this summer.
A Minor Bubble
How about a bubble or two or probably more? Hopefully, all 30 MLB organizations are thinking about what they can do and have several plans for both their Major & Minor-League teams. They might not need any plan but they have to be planning for anything and they’re currently dealing with their Major League teams playing through this pandemic so they’re learning about what works and maybe more importantly, what doesn’t work.
Could they do a regional bubble for each level? Or each league, maybe? I did a quick look and for the Twins teams, there are 14 teams in the AAA International League, 10 in the AA Southern League, 12 in the High-A Florida State League, 16 in the Low-A Midwest League, 10 in the Rookie Appalachian League and 18 in the Rookie Gulf Coast League. There are other leagues, too, but those are the leagues for the Twins and this is very hypothetical so we’re just going to go with that for now.
The NHL had two bubbles for 24 total teams, 12 in each bubble & they’ve proven it can work as they haven’t had one positive test since they’ve been in there. It’s taken a lot of very strict protocols to get it done so you’d have to make sure every player understands the importance of those protocols (Cough-Clevinger & Plesac-Cough) & the role it plays for their safety and the safety of everyone else. They might still have to shorten the season to do fewer games because even a 10-team league would have to try to find a way to do 5 games per day and at roughly 3 hours per game, it’d be pretty impossible so they’d have to do 2 sites or have days off for 4 teams each day. Some minor-league complexes do have multiple fields so they could make it work that way and stagger the games.
Like I said it’s all hypothetical but it does make you wonder what they could do if this pandemic is still a problem in February & March when teams would normally start Spring Training.
Do you have any ideas about the minor-leagues and how they could continue developing in a pandemic? Could things change based on what they’ve done this year, too?
Panic Time?
Some people are almost panicking about the Twins losing to Detroit and how they somewhat struggled against KC (5-5 in the season series) but it’s still too early to panic in my opinion.
The Minnesota Twins might get 3B Josh Donaldson back soon. RHP Michael Pineda is eligible to return on Monday (or Tuesday since a game had to be postponed) and have had a lot of injury issues. There are 26 games remaining and the Trade Deadline is Monday.
Trade Deadline
We’ll see if the Twins do anything via trade. A rumor had them asking the Los Angeles Angels about RHP Dylan Bundy. Will that turn into something? We’ll definitely let you know.
Those are our ‘Takes! What are your ‘Takes! We’d love to hear from you so comment here, or on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
