Twinkie Town Talk: Tall humans and crappy humans edition

Hey Twinkie Town, I’m going to keep running the disclaimer at the top here a little longer. Treat this as your open thread for the day, and talk about anything you want (within reason and the community guidelines.) The topics here are merely suggestions.

Good Morning, your day-after-the-first-loss links are below.

In case you missed it yesterday:

These aren’t Gardy’s Twins, and even if they have a third catcher on the roster. Ben muses on the flexible yet fearsome nature of the current 25-man group.

Who are you? Who, who, tell me who are you? imakesandwichesforaliving (seriously, that is a pain to type out) brings us a great community discussion where we can get to know the person behind the screen name a little better.

The Twins lost, which sucks. One consolation—even if Trevor Bauer is a notedly terrible human being, he’s a pretty damn good pitcher, and Jake Odorizzi hung in there with him.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi are off to a great start to the season—in fact, they are only the second tandem of pitchers in history to rack up double digit strikeouts in the first two games of the season. The first were Randy Johnson (Hall of Famer) and Curt Schilling (another case of great pitcher, crappy human) back in 2001 for the Diamondbacks.

Nelson Cruz used the off day the other day to support another Minnesota team, taking in the Timberwolves overtime victory against the Lakers. After the game, he took some pictures with Karl-Anthony Towns, and apparently it is possible to make Cruz look like a not-large-human, as KAT towers over the slugger.

Today is Michael Pineda’s first start in a really long time. He’s excited for the opportunity, so hopefully he can do as well as Berrios and Odorizzi.

And in the rest the baseball world:

Old friend Aaron Slegers, who I keep forgetting isn’t a Twin, and who is also a very tall human, was DFA’d by the Pirates on Thursday, and acquired by the Rays yesterday. Reportedly the Buccos are receiving Cash Considerations, who is a toolsy outfielder playing in the Dominican Summer League in the deal.

Cleveland really, really did try to get worse this winter. Every guy they let go during the offseason seemed to have a great opening day, notes Lets Go Tribe.

Mascot races might be a little overdone these days, but the San Diego Padres have a special treat for all 37 people who are paying attention to them this season: Anchorman themed Mascot Races.

Tom Verducci wrote some great long-form for SI about how Trackman, Rapsodo, and other technologies are impacting the game of baseball. These are some of the technologies Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson is known for being a pioneer in the use of, and the Twins have heavily invested in this year.

Today’s discussion question:

Besides baseball, what’s your favorite sport to watch and why?