Cardinals manager’s comments about Twins rookie should fire fans up

A second youth movement is attempting to purify the waters of the Minnesota Twins roster, but this time it's on the defensive side of things.

Last year Royce Lewis, Edouard Julien, and Matt Wallner led a turnaround that powered the Twins first postseason victory in almost two decades, and it's a group of young pitchers trying to do the same this season.

Injuries have plagued the Twins' starting rotation, with Anthony DeSclafani getting ruled out for the season before Opening Day and both Joe Ryan and Chris Paddack now potentially done for the year as well. That's placed an extraordinary amount of pressure on the staff to figure a way out of things, and it's been the arms of Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa, and Zebby Matthews that have done an admirable job of doing exactly that.

Matthews has specifically been a revelation this year. He rocketed up Minnesota's list of top prospects and unexpectedly made his debut earlier this month. So far he's made three starts, and has managed to lower his ERA in each one, now owining a 3.00 ERA and a 1.000 WHIP in 15 innings of work.

His most recent outing was by far his best, as Matthews shut down the St. Louis Cardinals by finishing with seven strikeouts and just one earned run. His start was ultimately spoiled by a late error that led to a 3-2 loss, but he still caught the attention of the opposing dugout.

Cardinals manager gives Zebby Matthews an incredible endorsement

After seeing him this weekend, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol had nothing but high praise for Matthews.

“It’s a live arm, man. I know it’s not a household name or you’re not facing fill-in-the-blank, Scherzer, Nola, Wheeler. That guy right there, that was impressive," Marmol said.

That's a huge endorsement, especially since we don't often hear this sort of thing in the middle of a season. Usually a team is focused on itself and what happened -- rightfully so -- which makes Marmol finding time to mention Matthews by name even more awesome.

This also isn't the first time that an opposing dugout has heaped some praise on a Twins pitcher.

Earlier this year Bryce Harper went out of his way to give Bailey Ober some praise after facing him in Spring Training, which ended up being a precursor to what has been a phenomenal season.

Ober has arguably turned into Minnesota's best pitcher this year and his arm is one the Twins are going to ride down the stretch of the season. Hearing Marmol shout out Matthews in a similar fashion to what we heard from Harper about Ober seems like good company for the rookie to keep.

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