Twins

6/21 PREGAME NOTES: La Makina v. Holmberg, Twins-Indians in P.R. and Injury Updates

It’s a glorious day at Target Field with almost no clouds in sight as the Minnesota Twins prepare for game two of a three-game set against the Chicago White Sox. Both teams will hit the road after Thursday’s 12:10 p.m. tilt, with the Twins taking on the Indians for a weekend series at Progressive Field. It’s righty Jose Berrios on the mound for the Twins against lefty David Holmberg for the White Sox.

More on that in a bit.

It’s game No. 69 of the season, and it’s also Star Wars night. There’s a Brian Dozier Stormtrooper bobblehead that is being given away as part of a special ticket package, and there are also shirts being given away (adult medium or extra large) to the first 10,000 fans.

This was the scene at Target Field last year:

The Twins announced on Wednesday that they’ll be taking their show on the road — to Puerto Rico, in fact. Next season, the Twins will play the Indians in a two-game series at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, P.R. on April 17 and 18. The Twins will be the home team in the series. Neither team has ever played in Puerto Rico before, though both sides boast a significant amount of talent from the island. The Twins have Berrios as well as slugger Kennys Vargas and outfielder Eddie Rosario, while dynamic Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor is also from the island. In fact, other than Houston’s Carlos Correa, Berrios is the second-youngest player from Puerto Rico currently on an MLB roster.

Hiram Bithorn Stadium honors the first Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs in 1942. The stadium was built 20 years later, and in 2014 was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The stadium seats 18,264 fans and has hosted an NBA game, the MLB season-opening game in 2001 (Rangers-Blue Jays) and even part of the home schedule for the Montreal Expos in 2003 and 2004 prior to their move to Washington D.C. due to sagging attendance at Olympic Stadium. A number of World Baseball Classic games and qualifiers have also been played at the stadium.

These will be the first regular-season games in Puerto Rico since the Mets and Marlins played there in 2010.

“The Minnesota Twins are honored to visit Puerto Rico and represent Major League Baseball in this international showcase,” Twins President & CEO Dave St. Peter said in a press release. “The Twins look forward to joining MLB and the Cleveland Indians organization in celebrating Puerto Rico’s rich baseball heritage and growing influence on our game.”

LISTEN: Don’t forget to check out Midwest Swing from Tuesday, as Brandon and Dan Hayes from CSN Chicago broke down this series!

“It is a dream come true for me to play in Puerto Rico,” Indians All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor said via a release as well.  “When the Montreal Expos played in Puerto Rico, I remember going to those games and thinking to myself, ‘I would love to be here playing in front of my country and people.’  Now that we have the opportunity next April, it is a dream realized for me.  These will be the most memorable regular season games of my career, for sure.”

Vargas appeared giddy when asked by media about the potential to play in his homeland, and perhaps even hit a homer in front of fans there:

Here’s how the Twins will line up against the White Sox and Holmberg:

Here’s how the White Sox will counter:

Berrios has been absolutely brilliant for the Twins so far this season. Through seven starts, he’s allowed more than three earned runs just once, and he’s allowed just two earned runs in each of his three starts in June (2.79 ERA). One statistical oddity is that he’s gotten 17 or 18 looking strikes in all seven of his starts. It’s not necessarily statistically significant — swinging strikes tell more of a tale of dominance — but it’s interesting to me, nonetheless.

The key for Berrios has been command of his fastball, as it has allowed him to pitch ahead and thus throw more of his solid breaking and offspeed stuff. Berrios is throwing first-pitch strikes 59.9 percent of the time this season compared to just 55.2 percent last time, and even a small adjustment like that can reap huge rewards. He’s also getting swinging strikes 10 percent of the time, as opposed to just an 8.2 percent rate last year.

Check out how some of his numbers look against his contemporaries:

An interesting article that went up today at Baseball Prospectus by Matt Trueblood — who has appeared on the Midwest Swing podcast in the past — suggests that an improved arm slot has aided Berrios in his success this year as well. You can find that here, and it’s well worth your time.

Holmberg — the 25-year-old lefty — is making his 17th big-league start, but just his fifth in a White Sox uniform. The Sox actually took him in the second round of the 2009 draft and traded him a year later with Daniel Hudson to the Diamondbacks for Edwin Jackson. Three years later he was on the move again, this time to the Reds in a three-way trade which most notably saw Heath Bell and Ryan Hanigan going to Tampa Bay. He spent spring training with the Atlanta Braves this year, was released at the end of Spring Training and was snapped up by his original organization on March 31. The plan was for him to be organizational depth, but injuries to myriad starting pitchers — such as James Shields (now healthy), Carlos Rodon and Dylan Covey — have forced the White Sox to get creative.

That means starting Holmberg, who had posted a 0.87 ERA over his first 10.1 innings (eight appearances) out of the bullpen this season. His four starts have been fairly decent, though he still is sitting in the range of 75 pitches and hasn’t recorded an out in the sixth inning yet. However, he’s done fine in limited exposure, allowing a slash line of .197/.286/.361 in his four starts with a 3.71 ERA. He’s not much of a swing-and-miss guy — 5 percent whiff rate — and he’ll roll some grounders (45.6 percent), though he was much more of a groundball guy as a reliever (48.1 percent) than as a starter (44.2 percent).

Holmberg sits in the high-80s with his fastball — mostly four-seamers — but will rely heavily on a changeup (about a quarter of the time), a slider and a curve. None of his pitches have double-digit whiff rates, but the changeup is probably the pitch to watch. He’s thrown it 24.1 percent of the time, and it’s the only pitch he has a whiff rate on above 6 percent (9.7 percent). The widespread belief among baseball fans is that guys like this — soft-tossing lefty with no film on him — give teams trouble, but the honest truth is he shouldn’t give the Twins anything they can’t handle. We’ll see if that comes to fruition. Holmberg faced the Twins in relief on May 9, tossing two scoreless innings at Guaranteed Rate Field with a strikeout and one hit allowed.

Injury Updates

Hector Santiago started for the Rochester Red Wings on Wednesday and threw three shutout innings. Santiago threw 57 pitches (34 strikes) with two strikeouts and two walks. “He was in the 89-92 mph range,” manager Paul Molitor said. Molitor added that he didn’t have a pitch breakdown for Santiago, though he assumed he worked with his full complement of offerings.

Phil Hughes worked a clean fifth inning, allowing no hits but walking one batter. The plan for Hughes was to throw one inning or 25 pitches — whichever came first — and he ended up throwing 19 pitches (10 strikes). “He was 90-91 mph,” Molitor said about Hughes, whose average fastball velocity with the Twins before his injury was 89.4 mph, per Fangraphs’ PITCHf/x.

“I wasn’t really sure how I’d feel coming out of this,” Hughes told reporters after the game. “I had only threw two bullpens and had been off for close to a month. I felt pretty good in the pen warming up and coming in was just trying to feel my way through things. The command was a bit spotty, but overall I think I felt like I accomplished what I wanted to do. I think this will be the biggest test — throwing back-to-back days — and seeing how that goes.”

Hughes said that it’s hard not to press to try get back to Minnesota quickly. “You want instant results and you want to get back as quickly as possible,” he said. “By the same token, you know that it just takes time and that you have to trust the process and do everything in a responsible manner so you don’t reinjure anything. That’s the hardest thing, because I want to get back and contribute.”

For the most part, Hughes was satisfied with the velocity readings. “I was pretty satisfied with that,” he said. “I thought I’d have a little more — to be honest — in just those short spurts, but I think that’ll pick up as we move along.”

Hughes also touched on pitching out of the bullpen when he returns to the Twins. “I’ve done it in the past and been pretty good in the role,” he said. “Obviously it’s not an ideal situation, but if I can contribute in any way possible, then I’ll take it. Obviously, the bullpen isn’t where I want to be long-term, but if I can help us this year, I’m up for it.”

The Twins also signed right-handed pitcher Dillon Gee to a minor-league deal. Once situated, I’m told he’ll be in the rotation at Triple-A Rochester. He has significant big-league experience with the New York Mets and a little time with the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers. Here’s our full story on that signing.  

Notes and Quotes

  • The Twins are estimating 29,000 fans in attendance for Star Wars night.
  • The Twins are 3-6 so far on this nine-game homestand.
  • The Twins snapped a four-game losing skid with Tuesday night’s win.
  • Twins starters have an ERA of 8.94 on this homestand, while relievers are at 3.89.
  • Fourteen teams are striking out more often than the Twins this season (21.4 percent). The team directly ahead of them on the list is the White Sox (21.7 percent).
  • The Twins have fallen out of the top spot as far as walks by an offense. They’re now at 10 percent, behind both the Cubs and Dodgers are 10.2 percent.
  • The Twins have been almost exactly an average offense, as the team has a collective wRC+ of 99 (100 is average). Only 10 teams are better, with the Astros (121) and Yankees (117) dominating the field.
  • Molitor on the opportunity to play in Puerto Rico: “I think it’s an opportunity for the Twins organization to be a part of some of the things MLB is trying to do to expand our game. It seems to be a really good fit, at least given current rosters of Cleveland and ourselves as far as players who’ll have the opportunity to represent Puerto Rico and go down there and wear a Twins uniform but certainly be proud of playing in their home land in a major-league game…we think the weather will probably be better there than in Minnesota in April (laughs)”
  • Molitor on what he told Vargas before Wednesday night’s game as far as his hands are concerned as part of his swing: “It wasn’t anything that was over enlightening or game-changing. It was just an observation I’ve made watching him take batting practice over the last handful of days. I kind of challenged him with a question that made him think about it a little bit, and some things he was thinking right handed as compared to left handed. You never know how that’ll resonate. We got into a conversation, and when talk about hitting, it’s always a good thing.”

Listen to Brandon every week on Midwest Swing
subscribe on itunescold omaha podcast network

Twins
Minnesota’s New Relievers Have Intriguing Breaking Ball Offerings
By Lou Hennessy - Mar 16, 2024
Twins
Griffin Jax Is Ready To Become Minnesota’s Next Elite Arm
By CJ Baumgartner - Mar 13, 2024
Twins

Why Are So Many Twins Pitchers Throwing Gyro Sliders?

The Minnesota Twins are starting an organizational trend. Much like the sweeper last season and the splitter this season, pitchers add or tweak pitches to fit league-wide […]

Continue Reading