Perhaps Torii Hunter and the Angels are what the Twins need to break out of their season long funk tonight at Target Field. Then again, seems like we've said this every week since mid April...
Scott Baker has been decent, but not great so far this season. Control has been a problem for Baker in his last three starts, as he has walked 10 batters over 15.1 innings. Hopefully this trend will reverse itself and he can keep the ball in the yard.
Wasn't "Tyler Chatwood" one of the players for Hickory High in the movie "Hoosiers"? Chatwood pretty much jumped from AA to the Majors this season, as he has only made two AAA starts in his minor league career. He's a ground ball pitcher (46.0% GB rate versus 34.4% FB) who doesn't strike out many batters (4.4 SO/9, about in line with his minor league numbers). In other words, similar to Nick Blackburn but without the control. Chatwood throws a low-90s sinking fastball about 75% of the time, and mixes in a curve ball and change up.
Notes and lineups (when available) are after the jump. It's supposed to be in the mid 50s and raining tonight at Target Field, so hopefully they'll get the game in.
Notes:
- He's baaack! LaVelle reported yesterday afternoon that Jim Hoey is returning to the Twins, replacing Kevin Slowey. Apparently Hoey looked good in Rochester, with four scoreless appearances and 8 strikeouts versus 3 walks in five innings. Hopefully his second time in Minnesota will go better than his first trip.
- Yesterday, the Angels signed 1B/DH Russell Branyan, who was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks last weekend. He is expected to platoon with Mark Trumbo, and while his overall line (.213/.302/.447 with 2 HR in 47 AB) isn't very good against current Twins pitchers, he is 4 for 13 with three doubles against tonight's starter Scott Baker.
- The Colorado Rockies have designated 2B/3B Jose Lopez for assignment. I'm not a big fan of Lopez, as he earns $3.6M this season and is an out machine. But he's been linked to the Twins in the past.
- Dave Cameron at Fangraphs went on a bit of a rant regarding home plate collisions after Buster Posey's season ended with a torn ankle ligaments. While I understand where Dave is coming from here, frankly I don't have a problem with collisions. It's not as if the catcher is unprotected out there, and as long as the intent is to dislodge the ball and not aimed at injuring the catcher, then it's a good play IMO.