MLB Daily: Break Up the Twins! Starling Marte's Fantastic Catch; A Salute to Jimmy Paredes

Welcome to MLB Daily on a Thursday. We are as confused as everyone else that the Twins are tied for first place ….

What the …?: The Twins finished off a sweep of the Red Sox and thanks to a four-game losing streak by the Royals, Minnesota is tied atop the AL Central at 28-18. This comes as a surprise and the general consensus around the web is bemused confusion considering the team began 2015 losing six of its first seven games and looked destined for last-place in the division.

All Star closer Glenn Perkins is 18-for-18 in save opportunities, which makes some sense. Then again, the guys in the bullpen behind him are all hovering around the 4.00 ERA mark. Go figure. Brian Dozier is a solid, power-hitting second baseman with seven home runs. Trevor Plouffe has shown flashes in the past. Torii Hunter is actually contributing with seven home runs and — amazingly — 14 walks in 164 at bats.

If anything jumps off the page its that starting pitchers Kyle Gibson and Mike Pelfrey are both well above the average in ERA+ at 152 and 149 respectively. The caveat here is that both are striking out less than five per nine and their FIPs are over 4.00. The crazy thing about baseball is sometimes these type of guys regress to their career mean, or sometimes they have a career year.

Odds are this is nothing more than a blip on the radar for Minnesota, but if you’re a Twins fan you enjoy the ride, especially considering guys like Miguel Sano and Bryon Buxton have yet to factor in and Joe Mauer is batting .276 with one homer. Baseball is and forever will be weird.

Senior Circuit All-Stars: Yesterday we did some quick American League All Star voting. Here’s the National League with the leading vote-getters listed first.

Catcher: Yadier Molina, St. Louis … my pick: Buster Posey
First base: Adrian Gonzalez, Los Angeles … my pick: Gonzalez
Second base: Dee Gordon, Miami … my pick: Gordon … although it’s surprising the St. Louis voting bloc hasn’t pushed Kolten Wong, who is also deserving of consideration, to the top.
Third base: Matt Carpenter, St. Louis … my pick: Kris Bryant, why not?
Shortstop: Jhonny Peralta, St. Louis … my pick: Brandon Crawford … who somehow is leading all shortstops in WAR.
Outfielders: Bryce Harper, Washington, Matt Holiday, St. Louis; Giancarlo Stanton, Miami … my picks: Harper, Stanton, Justin Upton (a flip of the coin over Joc Pederson)

Star Power: The growing trend in baseball for building a roster is 4-5 players in the $15 million dollar per year or more range and going from there. This year the Mariners have around $38 million tied up in Felix Hernandez and Nelson Cruz. The pair delivered in a 3-0 win over the Rays at the Trop. Hernandez went the distance and Cruz hit a three-run homer in the ninth off Brad Boxberger.

Rays starter Chris Archer allowed two hits over eight innings, striking out 12 and justifying his lofty status in our “Ace Draft.” Archer, 26, only makes $1.6 million this year. Tampa doesn’t have the resources to pay high-end players so they stay competitive through team-controlled players from the farm system. Ideally if you can mix both strategies, sort of like the Cardinals do, you’re in great shape.

And quickly before moving on, perhaps some credit to Cruz. He was previously easy to dismiss for a) playing in Texas b) his Biogenesis connection and c) playing in Camden Yards. Hitting 18 home runs before June with the Mariners is no small accomplishment given the track record of free agents in the Pacific Northwest.

This is a GREAT catch: Starling Marte robbed Christian Yelich yesterday in Pittsburgh, as the Pirates won their sixth straight.

There are so many highlights available instantaneously with baseball nowadays that it’s easy to gloss over great catches, but Marte needs to be remembered for this one. Jumping up backward while going full speed into the wall? Impressive.

The Kid from Miami: Meanwhile …

Hammer Time: Noah Syndergaard, the 22-year-old Mets rookie pitcher, picked up a win and homered Wednesday vs. the Phillies. His home run was a shot to center at Citi Field and came close to hitting the apple.

The Mets are toying with a six-man rotation in order to keep Syndergaard around and, in part, to lessen the load on Matt Harvey. For better or worse, Syndergaard picked up the nickname Thor. Like it? Hate it? Is Marvel going to sue for royalties? If nothing else it reminds me of an old episode of Curb featuring Malibu from American Gladiators.

Speed demon: It’s not everyday you see a 6-foot-3 dude steal home plate, but that’s what Jimmy Paredes did last night vs. the Astros in Baltimore. Yeah it came on a double-steal but why split hairs, it’s a fun play no matter what.

Paredes is hitting .353/.376/.581 on the season and deserves to make the All-Star team on merit. He’s also helped Baltimore offset the loss of Cruz and injuries around the infield, notably Jonathan Schoop.

This & That: Matt Adams will miss 3-4 months with a quad injury, a big blow for the Cardinals. Mark Reynolds will get the bulk of the playing time at first. … Max Scherzer out-dueled Jon Lester, finishing with 13 strikeouts in a Nationals 3-0 victory which saw Bryce Harper homer again. …

[Something about a Yard]