Ted Talks (Minnesota Twins June 16th)

Ted Talks is BACK! Ted Schwerzler is back, our insider to the Minnesota Twins is back and giving us his insight. The Twins are huring in the rotation, there's guys that need to step up, who will that be? Fine out on this newest ep.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ted Talks by Ted Swetzlers have brought to you by
Paul Bunyan Communications providing fiber optic fast Internet up to
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They're serving the Pamidgian Grand Rapids area since nineteen fifty two.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
The return of Ted Talks Twins is upon us. Ted
Schwetzler Minnesota sportsfan dot Com at tl Schwarz on Twitter,
catching up on really where we're at in the Twins season.
It's been a roller coaster thus far, the early collapse,
than the middle winning streak, and now back to something
of a collapse. The Twins are off on Monday as

(00:36):
they go from Houston to Cincinnati. The weekend was an
ugly one. They get swept by the Astros two straight walkoffs.
Joan Duran has been great all year. He's worked through
that different diminished velocity. He's not just reliant on that
heavy heater anymore, using a lot of splinkers, and he's
been one of the best relievers in baseball thus far.

(00:59):
Was named the Reliever of the Month for May, but
does get walked off by Houston in consecutive games. Unfortunately,
the Twins did their pitching staff no favors as well.
The lineup scored just three runs on Saturday and Sunday combined.
After the blowout in Game one bat Or. Obviously worse

(01:22):
news than just the losses on the field, the Royce
Lewis again has a hamstring strain. This one's being called mild,
as opposed to the moderate one he suffered during Grapefruit
League action. That one kept him out of action for
two months. I would bet we probably don't see him
until the All Star break at this point, which is
really unfortunate. He had gotten off to a slow start,

(01:43):
but had been really on a heater since the start
of June, and the play he got hurt on as well.
I mean that was a single he probably could have
had a double on and ends up pulling up on
the way to first. It's just a myriad of injuries
for such a talented young player that it's hard not
to feel bad for him as he continues to just

(02:04):
be crushed by circumstances out of his control. Byron Buckston
also got plunked on Saturday, hit on the elbow, it
looked like it got most of his elbow guard, and
then he did steal a base after getting to first,
comes out of the game as the inning flips over,
and then he was scratched from the lineup on Sunday,

(02:25):
which is not great to see. He's been incredibly healthy
this year as well, outside of the collision that caused
both him and Carlos creata miss time with concussions. The
Twins will hope to get him back against Cincinnati. I
don't see that one being a long term thing, and
he's been the team leader in f War. He is
their likely All Star candidate right now. If the Twins

(02:47):
are going to stay afloat, it's going to be because
Byron Buckston is healthy and producing. On the prospect side
of things, Walker Jenkins has been out for basically all
year deal with a ankle injury. Had spent the last
week or so with Fort Myers on a rehab assignment.
He will go back to Double A Wichita on Tuesday,

(03:10):
and I believe it'll be his third game of the
season with them having hit the injured list after the
first two. Minnesota is really gonna have to turn things
around if they want to stay competitive in the postseason
picture and make it even a question as to whether
a ownership group that's looking to sell wants to invest

(03:30):
in the team at the trade deadline. Right now, they're
nine games back in the division, but the Ale Central,
as good as it looked out of the gate, has
been a kind of a joke of a division the
last handful of weeks. Detroit has stayed at least consistent,
winning at a good clip, but Minnesota, Cleveland, and Kansas

(03:51):
City just continue to lose together. Twins are on a
four game losing streak, Cleveland's on a three game losing streak,
in the Royals have lost six in a row. It's
it's not a great way to get back into contention,
and it's certainly not a good way to substantiate the
wild card either. Right now, the Twins are a half
game back in the wild card situation. Tampa Bay, Toronto,

(04:13):
and Seattle all hold those spots. So it's early yet,
but with how bad the Twins ebbs and flows have been,
there's been no real level of consistency, and unless they
can find that, it's gonna be really hard to convince
ownership or the front office that the team has stain power. Obviously,
the pitching is a problem right now, with both Pablo

(04:35):
Pezanszbbie Matthews on the injured list, Chris Paddock, Simeon Woods, Richardson,
David Festa. They really have to go out and prove
it on a nightly basis. Bailey Ober has to show
he's not hurt and it is a mechanics issue, and
Joe Ryan is gonna have to look like a herculean
cy Young type. So if the Twins are gonna close

(04:57):
out the month on a good note, they're gonna have
to put this bad baseball behind them and look to
wrap up a quick three game series with Cincinnati and
then return home for some home cooking against Milwaukee and
Seattle that hopefully results and wins. We will check back
in next week.