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Tuesday Twins: Organization experiments with “bullpening”

Imagine the Fernando Rodney Experience in the first inning — it might happen! Plus pace of play, managers, and more.

By Maija Varda
Minnesota Twins v Toronto Blue Jays
Using Fernando Rodney in the first inning would certainly speed things up over, say, Lance Lynn.
Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

‘Ello mates! Here are the links:

  • The Twins recently did a curious thing in their minor league system: they tried out the new trend of “bullpening”, when the team uses a reliever to start the first inning. In this case, it was Trevor May who pitched the first inning for the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings on Sunday, then was pulled from the game.
  • The Star Tribune recently found that, including extra-innings games, the Twins have had some of the longest average game times in the majors this season. Looking even further into it, Michael Rand found the biggest reason for the lengthy games. I don’t want to give away who the culprit is, but let’s just call him Lance Lynn. Oh, whoops, that spoonerism didn’t really work, huh?
  • Over at the Hardball Times, Greg Simons imagined which MLB team would win if they all were their actually nicknames in some kind of throw down, all-out battle. The Twins surprisingly made it pretty far! (I’m just looking for good news here, ok?)
  • Fangraphs recently ran a community poll about what people thought of MLB managers, and Jeff Sullivan wrote about the results. Though Paul Molitor won the AL Manager of the Year award last year, he wasn’t quite so popular over at FanGraphs.
  • Eduardo Escobar was the Twins’ recipient of MLB’s Heart and Hustle Award! It’s an award for grit or something, so of course Ed won.

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