Minnesota Twins Make it Official: It's Zebby Time!

twins fans it is zebie time there's a lot of news in the organization as a result but again it's zebie day we're going to celebrate by talking about it and talking about the Twins and Royals this is locked on twins you are locked on twins your daily Minnesota Twins podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your Team every day hello again and welcome back to locked on twins I'm your host Brandon Wen you can unfollow me on the tweets at Brandon W NE been watching the twins for three decades covering them about half that long and I'm joined by good pal and buddy Dave Brown talk to them Dave Brandon hi I'm doing fine I'm Dave Brown I've been in the baseball writers association since 2012 and I've been a baseball reporter since uh 1998 so about 25 years yeah hey we'll take it new new backdrop for you I'm just in the living room right now so corner of the uh different corner of the home by the way thanks for making lock on twins your first list in every day we free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as on YouTube and of course as part of the lock on podcast every your team every day love to hear from in the comments today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more as the playoffs wound down and the Sports Stop sportsing like we want them to uh we still have plenty of help from FanDuel this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer long at FanDuel just visit fanduel.com to get started Also let's talk about today's lineup because it has been released it does not include Byron buckton more details on that in a bit but against Seth Lugo the twins will go Willie Castro at Short Royce Lewis dhing Matt walner in left Jose Miranda at the Hot Corner Carlos Santana at first max Kepler in right Manuel Margo in Center Christian Vasquez behind the plate and Austin Martin at second base and that is The Supporting Cast for zebie Matthews and you can catch every pitch of zebie Matthews debut with the twins Hometown broadcast with Chris adury and I believe Paul Moler right now I love Paul Moler on the radio by the way on SiriusXM just download the sxm app and search twins it's zebie and Lugo first pitch is coming up just uh right around seven o'clock Central at Target Field I believe it's a 640 but I forgot to pull that uh before I got on the show but uh usually 6 640s for uh weekday games here before Labor day but think you're right I believe you're correct zebie debut pretty exciting uh no no buckon but we'll talk about that uh Louis vland in the clubhouse Bobby Nightingale reporting so he's going to start on Wednesday but uh first of all zebie up Scott blitt DFA down what are you thinking of zebie right now I know you are a little on the fence about bringing him up but uh it's now and it's time well his performance at Triple A was you know just kind of up and down the most recent one was much better than before uh you know it wasn't dominating like it like it was seemingly every time out in the lower levels um so I don't know I think the Royals are pretty they're I think they're ninth or 10th and runs scored in the league so they're not bad offensively better than I think people kind of expected coming into the year zebi uh probably his most effective pitch is a fast ball uh up in the zone and that's good these days you need to be uh good in in in that area you know you worry about home runs and that kind of thing and um so Salvador Perez is going to keep him on alert and I'm uh you know you look at the results that they got from David Festa uh out of the box and I I think you know we can hope that zebi keeps him in the game and the offense scores a few runs runs against Seth Lugo it's kind of a a tough pitching match up from that standpoint no they have before he's he's gotten their number once I think and the twins offens has come through it's tough not having Byron in the lineup um but I it's uh it's what uh they have to do because they weren't really uh they didn't have the front office didn't have the the the they they couldn't Grease the skids form with trade help at the deadline that's basically where we're at so it's not the most ideal time for a debut but we are and it's fun at least until it isn't yeah I think it's a good point that fest's you know first go round was certainly questionable but he kind of seemed to get his uh stop his wheels from spinning and finally get some traction and you know for the most part he's looked pretty good since then with zebie you're looking at a guy who just turned 24 in may end of May and so it's you know 20 age 24 for a pitching Prospect is kind of you can you can be you can you can def be defensively say that he's you know he's he's mature enough he's at a certain age where yeah you're probably not gonna break him if he comes up and struggles at first two starts you know where as a 19 20 21 year old that's a little dicer you got to be a little more careful pick your spots that sort of thing but in that event or in that vein zebie has thrown at three different levels this year 55 and a third is his most and that was at Double a um just a whirlwind just a fast promotion the last time I remember one this quick and being a guy who was you know reasonably young So Randy dub neck as an exception would be Matt Garza back in I think it was 2005 or no 2006 I think he was draft five but he played at a number of levels and then debuted and uh wasn't a twin for long though the the Del and Young trade was not long after that but meteoric rise aside I'm very eager to see what zebie has to offer it's a it's a great sign you know in general for um the organization that it's another prospect that they they've brought up and um you know we're not talking about a guy who you know this is not skin this is not someone on that level nor is it someone who was taken at the front of the draft so it's good for uh the scouts and for the entire organiz that that like you said it's kind of a metor rise and it's it's it's fun but you know my only deal is there's like business Beyond uh you zebb's development there's more about more than him going on right now there is uh the team trying to keep pace and and overtake Cleveland and keep Kansas City off its back and it's just tough to uh you know I I go back to my earlier point about you know it would be nice if they had been able to make a a move at the at the deadline and as as I've said other times we can't worry about that now because uh really the only hope for any kind of Veteran assistance at this point you know signing Rich Hill unless the Red Sox did that already or the the Rangers putting someone like Andrew Heeney on uh on waivers which has been talked about so yeah right now it's it's zebie and we roll with zebie and then it's Lou and we roll with Lou it's not ideal because it's um you know it's the penet race and we don't know what they're going to be able to give the the twins so we just gotta deal with it so something I'll be monitoring and I wrote this for Access twins that went up Monday was that last week twin starters averaged a hair under five innings per start I think it was like 76 pitches per start and that's not likely to go up with a guy like zebie Matthews entering the rotation or if Louis varlin takes his regular turn more than just these couple times so we've talked about you know the churn and the uh the stress being placed on the Cleveland Bullpen the twins have not been put through the same ringer but you know the pressure of games now also probably factors into guys being mentally wore out as much as physically and so I'll be keeping an eye on how um how the bullpen and rotation work in conjunction with each other here uh down the stretch run I've been saying for a while that the uh the Guardians are going to there's going to be a piper to pay for the luck they've had with offense but also you know like CL Emanuel class great pitcher maybe the best closer in the league uh has gone three days in a row and can you imagine Roco using I mean maybe we'll we'll have to imagine it in September but can you imagine Don or Jack going three days in a row I mean that's not something that he was he's going to do even if the team needs it um because he's got the future on the mind so I have to think that that is going to come back to uh help the the the Guardians regress a little bit and the twins have an advantage there we'll see if they're able to take advantage of it yeah we will and so that brings us to our first break uh when we come back I have a little bit of a question on Varin because I noticed something in his numbers that pequ my interest also twins backfilling with some pitching Prospect promotions that have really uh got people talking so we'll take a quick break and then when we come back we'll discuss those things first we got to talk about iata it's summertime you're getting sandals sunscreen and snacks 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use code locked on MLB again that's ibata IBO TTA in the Google Play or App Store and use code locked on MLB and FanDuel it is summer and it means that some of our sports are going out the window and they're not Sports in the way we want them to so it's mostly just baseball there's some WNBA football is ramping up but FanDuel understands your polite and understands that you can keep your uh Sports needs fulfilled by hanging out with them um and this summer they're hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily all you got do is open the app and dream up bets anytime you're in the mood that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer long so head over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of your summer for your twins they're plus one and a half and a minus 205 on the spread the money line is minus 124 for your twins and an over under of eight and a half it's zebi and Seth Lugo as we stated so visit fanduel.com to look at the odds for you and FanDuel is an official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball all right Mr Dave uh so Louis varland coming back on Tuesday probably means they're gonna send out Josh Winder but this is what I'm observing from Louie at Triple A a 53.6% ground ball rate now a guy who has Homer issues is going to want to keep the ball on the ground more just by virtue of physics like oh give up a lot of homers why don't we start keeping the ball on the ground and you know hard contact on the ground certainly less damaging if hard contact is your issue and if you're giving up homers it probably is um that's his highest in any area any level since he had a 47.1% when he threw 47.1 innings in low a back in I think it was 2021 and so he jumped up to high and it dipped to 38.1% so it wasn't as though he sustained that level to level but he has shown the ability to induce grounders in the past before but again not to this level either with what we've seen from various people whether it's bloggers writers whatever about how varlin seems to Tinker semif frequently with his repertoire I don't know I think if he could become more of a ground ball guy he becomes imminently more intriguing as an option for this rotation and and eventually maybe for the bullpen I do feel I'm pretty confident that and I think I I had a feeling about this earlier in the season that Louie was going to be a member of the the the bullpen come playoff time I think that is there's nothing that I've seen that has dissuaded me from that uh you know how many starts are the the twins going to need to get from him you know I can see I can you can see the talent I mean the guy throws hard he competes well um it's just a matter of refining those secondary pitches after his fast ball but still you can get a lot you can get away with a lot with a well-placed fast ball I mean that was Greg maddox's Mantra you know he's not Greg Maddox but it's still true for any pitcher so if I mean tinkering is fine but if he can put his fast ball in the right place and get through five innings that's uh that the best that we can hope for from anybody in in his position and I think going forward just as long as his confidence is okay and his arm is fine he he's he's a guy that for for three batters at a time six batters at a time is going to be somebody that is going to be able to help them come playoff time that's not what they're that's not where we're at yet but uh you know I I certainly can see why he thought he would be he would make a good starter someday you can kind of see where he's going with that but you know are the results there yet I'm not persuaded but we'll we'll see couple pitcher moves to look at to uh Matt Bowman released from Triple A St Paul not due to numbers he exercised his opt out we'll be interested to see what happens there I've heard he's got a lot of balls in the air as far as what'll happen if he doesn't land a major league deal somewhere so just keep an eye on that again a lot of teams will release guys and then bring them back if they find the market a little cold I don't know if that's going to be the case with Bowman but um you know we'll see they had until Monday to add him to the 40-man roster and did not do that Scott blew it df8 after making an appearance on Monday not a not a ton to glean from his appearance I mean he got all three outs got a strike out but I'll be curious to see if he clears if he stays I can't remember if he's I would assume he's been DFA before but um certainly possibly hasn't he's out of options though so he had to be DF he couldn't just be optioned whereas uh a guy like Randy dobnak still had options so they wouldn't have had to or didn't have to DFA him to move him down though with that said DFA dob neck would make sense due to his salary though with that said you still have to get rid of blue it dob neck's already down so it's it's a lot to kind of process but um neither of those two moves mve the needle too much for me uh what say you keep in mind too that these uh are exercises the teams everybody pretty much in the league is going going through right now you know there's no trading there's minor league trading but there's no trading of major league players there's all kinds of guys going on waivers and uh being let go and being brought back so if you it's kind of a it's a crowded that that could go back into you know what you were saying before about pitchers finding spots and other organizations there are lots of guys out there who you know if if a team is of a mind that oh yeah maybe the grass is greener over there let's bring that guy in or they'll be thinking ah you know what he's not any more talented than anybody we already have either on our 40 or in our sphere so uh these guys are kind of clogging up uh the market if you will the free agent Market on uh pitchers and so forth a lot of guys out there so if long story short I think the twins can get these guys back and get them through uh waivers or whatever the process is just because there so many other guys on so many other teams out there that uh you know that those teams are already preoccupied with yeah and it's not entirely unlike the end of spring training when there's a big glut of players because teams who are adding are also subtracting and so there's a lot of calculus of play there uh quickly before we go to our last break because I got a lot I want to get to in the final segment uh Harold Ramirez don't call me Harold Ramis got DFA by the Nationals today any interest there um even this year heting lefties has not been great 85 weighted runs created plus good batting average just not that much pop I would like to say that uh you apparently were right about Victor Robles speaking being Let Go by the Nationals he was uh well he look good right now on the twins wouldn't he yeah he would would um although I'm not I'm surp I'm I'm not person I don't know how long this is going to last I I'm very happy for him that he's worked out a two-year deal but we'll see we'll see we'll see how long it goes for I I I think he got he had a lot of run with the Nationals and they let him go you know sometimes teams make mistakes with guys and maybe he just needed to change a scenery and it it would have been fine if it was the Twins and he apparently I mean he'd be better than Mark Margo or you know some other Austin Martin out in the Outfield and things like that especially now you know buckton goes through uh a situation where he's got a bad hip and uh is out for a little bit of time time it would have been nice to have him but uh Harold Ramirez completely different situation I think he doesn't really do much for me we talk about guys like you know I've saw some conjecture about oh it would have been nice to have Spencer steer out there and things like that you know right-handed bat and so forth and that would have been nice uh but I'm not that excited about hitting Harold Ramirez I'm just and that's a nickname I don't mean like we're going to hit him uh that's a nickname that sometimes he has I I don't know no h hdden Heralds is not another Victor roess situation well and if there's a lot to be said for Dancing with the Devil you know whether that's talking about manwal Maro being in the organization now or the the Nationals knowing what they know about roess and being like yeah we're done with this guy so there's always uh you know a lot of chatter it fills digital column inches on MLB trade rumors or whatever to talk about guys getting DFA and oh they used to be a prospect and first- round pick and all that so let's do this let's take our uh final break and then when we come back back we've got a lot of lot of things to get you backfill on the minor league side and a couple questions from listeners that hopefully we can find time to get to you can get supplies from the site for the skilled trades it's supply house in the middle no it's not it's supplyhouse.com it's the reliable way to order Plumbing HVAC and 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Mr Dave the back fill I was talking about with the pitching is Andrew Morris is going to St Paul CJ Co pepper is being bumped to Witchita Morris now mlb.com still hasn't updated their Prospect lists right no okay so it's uh that's why there was a big uproar about that at the deadline where it was like why are MLB Affiliated reporters referring to prospect lists that aren't updated even though it's you know well into the prospect season Etc ETA y ya what teams told them to do it like that not makes you wonder Andrew Morris was at number 18 um call Pepper number 10 there's been some people who have been pretty high on call Pepper I think I've seen him higher on some lists uh again those probably just updated lists he came back from a forearm issue on July 31 and if we uh you know just kind of dig into some of the numbers these guys like this is the pitching pipeline that everybody kind of complains about in the midst of a bayy Ober start with absolutely no no sense of irony but um Morris at uh this is another guy three level jumps in the same season he started at high uh absolutely dominated with a 215 ra 10.2 strikeouts per nine 1.7 walks per nine and then uh follow up at Witchita age 22 season so he's not particularly old for the level strike up her inning two walks per nine and has given up between the levels three homers in like a 100 Innings pitched uh pretty exciting pitching prospect that I feel like may not get the digital ink that some guys get uh between him and C pepper it's hard not to be excited about the future of this pitching uh group and beyond that uh getting back to the organization the staff the the scouts uh the people who develop prospects it's been a really good couple of years you see what's been going on with Jacks and what's been going on with o you already mentioned um and how David Festa has come along and zebie Matthews getting a start zebie Matthews is a great I mean there's a there's a pennant race going on a Division race going on but no matter what happens with zebie Matthews within reason here for the rest of the season it's been a remarkable year of development for him it's been huge for his for his career and that reflects well on the thing the kinds of things that the twins are trying to do that you know it's I think some people maybe get caught up too much well I mean you get caught up in whatever you want uh some people like focus on the minor leagues to maybe the the detriment of the major leagues this is just how fans are sometimes or what interests them and that's fine but if you look at the future you know aside from the penet race that's going on it's pretty bright because not only because they have these guys who are pitching well but it means that the twins know how to develop them and so there'll be more guys and you know they're not all going to be necessarily healthy or they're not all going to hit their uh their goals as far as um you know what they think uh their careers will look like so the more guys you have in the pipeline the better but it's a really encouraging lots of encouraging signs at all levels major league and down through the minors so there's a lot of reason to be happy beyond the final score of today's game whatever it is yeah uh Morris a fourth round pick Co pepper a 13th round pick they're finding them everywhere over in one place and you know the the rotation to start the year for the most part was uh external guys you know Pablo was from somewhere else and and Joe Ryan was from somewhere else it takes a village to build a pitching staff and if anybody says well what about Cleveland look at the pitching staff when they were good all those guys came from someplace else you know Cory clubber was a trade Mike levinger was a trade he who should not be mentioned is a trade um any number of those guys all came across somehow or another and you still deserve credit for de developing the player I almost said developing the person but forget that um Byron buckon right hip discomfort what's your level of concern oh by the way wait wait wait Christian McLoud was also sent back from Triple A to uh to double a as one of the moves so another pitching Prospect to keep an eye on anyway back to Buck why would they go uh why would they reverse that I thought he had been doing well home runs have been really sticky so I think it was probably just one of those temporary things they got a couple guys that they have like on the tripa a shuttle and sometimes it's a guy in a ball who's like just very average and sometimes it's a guy where you're like let's get a look at this guy well you asked about that the whole sending guys back down so forth makes me think of uh Edward Julian but you asked about buckton my level of concern we have a Julian question by the way after this so oh good that's a that's nice Serendipity or Kismet I can't remember seg segue I my son has one but it is it's funny buckton concern no I don't think so I mean it's not um his knee so I mean that would concern me hip is just you know he's been uh diving around he's been hitting balls he's been running hard he this is just something that happens from time to time I don't think it's a big deal it stinks that he's not in the lineup right now it's not great timing but I don't have a high level of concern uh again remember we remember we talked about like Brock Stewart like it's great that that he's up now but now I'm thinking well is he going to be available come playoff time you know right October 1st then I would have some concern right now you know we we roll with a 26-man roster and you know they've been rolling pretty good it's about a three and a half for me personally right so what's your what's your deal with Julian uh old Greg I think you know who I'm talking about wants to know how do we feel about another round of Edward Julian if buckson hits the injured list I don't know well I hope he doesn't hit the injur list I mean Julian has you know I saw him do some left on left crime the other day on a highlight but there were there were a couple play appearances where it looked like he just like his batteries were on uh removed from his controller uh where he just stood and took a fast ball down the middle and that was questionable but also at the same time like maybe they just said Hey listen man go up there and track some pitches see what you see and uh report back like he's we don't necessarily know what his orders were you're right when he go up for certain bats he got he's got hits in sorry to interrupt but he has played I believe 11 games since going back down and H no 12 he has hits in 11 and it's his last 11 he's hitting 280 400 on base 500 slug that's 60 plate appearances 50 at bats so 10 walks 23 strikeouts still kind of scary but a couple homers five doubles I don't know I mean 480 babits certainly small sample I mean it's it is a small sample size but that is yes he's got lots of positive stats but also negative stats I I I do worry I didn't it was really unfortunate that they had the roster crunch issues around the San Francisco Series where guys were getting hurt they had to bring him back I I'm well before he was ready uh and then came and he came up and did not do well that could not have done any wonders for his confidence and I think that's where a lot of the issues that are that he has to work through he has to be you know confident against major league pitching and um you know he's he's still striking out a little too much and he's still like you mentioned the B beep as I like to call it a little too high a little too lucky with some of his hits um you know I I don't know if you hurt him anymore if he if he comes back I I think it would be here's what's tough he comes up again and then you send him back later you know if he doesn't do well and then you just compound it you you really risk the situation with him getting bad if he comes back and he's not healthy so you are not mentally ready to go and whatever so you better be sure with with uh with Edward yeah no for sure um and then additionally Josiah wants to know if buckon gets put on the Isle we love Josiah um would you sacrifice offense for defense and bring up deshun kiry from Triple H St Paul now uh couple things there kiry has a hilarious line um these are his month-by-month ops's for the full season 900 in April 976 in May 990 in June 479 in July now 912 in August uh he's a left-handed hitter he's 302 359 506 from the against righties but uh 236 347 377 from the left side not entirely helpless and still takes his walks against the lefties he kind of does like a Jason Tiner impersonation but oh Jason Tiner was he a piranha or piran adjacent briefly TW briefly a twin not particularly good but yes uh piranha adjacent 0607 era um would would that be interesting to you because here's the deal for me the 40 Man situation is a little messy but you could DFA do neck to make Rome if you put buckson on the iil and it would be a more natural fit if you wanted to do something in the Outfield I don't want to talk about buckon going on the I because I might believe in like making something Conjuring something into happening out of thin air if you talk about it too much which is very kind of a voodoo sort of thing uh and I don't I just don't want to think about him being hurt enough but let's just say that it's bad news and he's out for a significant period yeah that wouldn't be bad I I don't think I want to see uh Margo playing every day in center field or even Austin Martin there's really nobody want to see play every day in Center except maybe Willie Castro and he's a bit occupied at the moment yes that would mess things up uh but it would you know if if if buckton is out for a significant period of time again we don't think that's the case we're just we don't think that's the case Josiah is not uh someone given to KN jerk reactions so I I just I hope that's that's not the case I don't I don't believe it to be the case but if it is the case uh kiry certainly has in in other context has earned a chance at this point he's done well enough for long enough except for that July which we don't talk about hey we all made it out of July alive and so did he and he's turned it back around July alive sounds like high ali uh which looks like a lot of fun five alive yep I do actually uh you I think it's still in the freezer aisle if I'm not mistaken I thought you were gonna say it's still in your freezer in that case I would make room at this point yeah exactly might be five dead if you tried it yeah opposite of live five un alive Um well hey thank you everyone for hanging out with us it's zebie day we're all very excited by the time we speak to you again there will be copious zebie updates probably some bucks and updates and a bunch of other stuff but again thanks for hanging out with us he's Dave Brown I'm Brandon Warren and we say thank you so much and we'll see you tomorrow night tomorrow night tomorrow night tomorrow