Clemen and the geek

Clemen and the geek. Thank you. Talks baseball every week.

Because the Gleman and the Geek.

And welcome to Baseball Weekly with Gleeman and the Geek, sponsored by Ticket King.

I'm John Bonus of Twinsdaily.com. Across the table from me is Aaron Gleeman of NBCSports.com and Aaron Gleeman. Well, sir. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm okay. Yeah. All things being equal. All things being equal. Aaron had a little bit of adventure making it to the studio today. Yeah, for once I was like, I'm going to be here nice and early. Come in having had no mimosas for an entire afternoon, and my car wouldn't start. So that was fun. So you got the quick lift to the station? I did. Yeah, and here we is, John. Ready to talk baseball. That's right.

You know, we're not the only ones who had sort of an off day today. The Minnesota Twins had an off day today. Now they get a two-day break before they start the series versus the L.A. Dodgers, the first interleague series of the season for the twins. Yeah, they're getting, I mean, it's a little weird to have the back-to-back days off this early because you'd much rather have them in like, well, I guess, you know, that only matters if you're, have your sights on contending, sort of. But you would much rather have them in like August. Right. Except their pitching staff is sort of worn out. Oh, yeah. as much as a 13-man pitching staff should be, you know, three and a half weeks into the season or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, I was – I kind of lost track of exactly where the bench was and where the pitching staff was up until the Friday night's game. When it got to the eighth inning, they were trying to come back.

I think they had, I don't know, the runners on the corner or something, two outs.

Maybe the base is loaded two outs.

Pedro Floremon is about ready to step up to the plate, and I'm thinking, well, they're

going to pinch it for Pedro Floremon here.

And they do, and it's Chris Herman, who's batting 167.

And who actually in the minors has been pretty terrible.

He's been like a below average hitter in the minors. Right. And I thought, that's an odd choice to make. I thought, surely, there's got somebody better on the bench than him. Well, it's debatable if they had anybody better on the bench. Because here's the thing. When you've only got, when you've got a 13-man pitching staff, that means you've got a 12-man bench staff.

And when you've got a 12-man pitching staff, that means you've got a 12-man bench staff.

And when you've got 12-man – or 12-hitters. And when you've got 12 hitters, that means you've got your starting nine, and then you've got three backups. And those three backups are going to be the backup at catcher, the backup at shortstop, and the backup at center field. because you have to have all the positions covered.

And generally the backup at any of those three positions are going to be not great hitters.

Otherwise, maybe. at center field because you have to have, you know, all the positions covered. And generally the backup at any of those three positions are going to be not great hiters. Right. Because they'd be a starter. If you're a catcher or a shortstop or a center fielder and you can hit your starter and you make quite a bit of money and you're probably not on the Twins bench. Now, if you've got an 11-man pitching staff, that means you've got 14 guys on the bench. You're saying with two hitters on the bench. But when you've got a 13-man stab, you've got nothing.

So...

Well, and they also sound like... seven-man pitching staff. That means you've got 14 guys on the bench. You're saying with two hitters on the bench.

But when you've got a 13-man stab, you've got nothing. Well, and they also saw like Saturday's game, Trevor Plouffe, injured, leaves the game. Who comes in to play third base? Well, they bring in four-minus switch to Escobar, which you got a light-hitting shortstop then playing third base, I really don't know what they would do.

I mean, hopefully it's not a major injury for Plouf,

but I'm not sure.

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