Twins Hotspot

Delmon Young getting better.

2010-05-13T08:43:00.003-05:00

If you've been watching the Twins in May, you've noticed a nice hot streak by Mr. Delmon Young. Since he got here, I've been toying with the idea of buying a jersey. But in the wake of big-time trade talk the past two offseasons, it's been hard to commit (plus the often putrid offense/defense). But if he keeps on his current pace, I don't think the Twins will be able to help but keep him around. And if you point to April as a reason to temper my excitement, I'll simply say he's a known slow starter. Which he is. The important thing is that we notice trends in his statistical production… so here's some info to chew on:

Delmon Young now has 13 hits in May.

Last year, he had a total of 13 hits in ALL OF May.

Also, he's doubled his extra-base hits (from 6 to 12) in just nine games this month.

Young had 14 hits (63 AB) in April this year, and has 13 in nine games (31 AB).

2008 K/BB ratio (April/May): 35:17 (208 AB)
2009 K/BB ratio (April/May) - 37:5 (109 AB)
2008 K/BB ratio (April/May, so far) - 10:8 (94 AB)

Since August 1, 2009 (281 ABs)…

32 extra-base hits
12 homers, 47 RBI
.298 batting average/.323 OBP

PREVIOUS 280 ABs From late 2008 to July 31, 2009

14 extra-base hits
77-for-280 .275 BA, .297 OBP
4 home runs, 35 RBI

The fact of the matter is that we're witnessing a turnaround in altogether approach at the beginning of the season. The past two years he's struck out over 30 times in April/May while walking 17, then five times. This year he's clearly made more contact and honed his strike zone discernment (just 10 strikeouts halfway through May). This - of course - has allowed Young to swing at better pitches and when he DOES make solid contact, the ball is jumping off his bat and finding bleachers or green space more often than ever before as a Twin. If it took a journey like this for Young to realize some of that massive potential, then it'll have been worth it. Because he's coming out the other side of the tunnel a new, more productive player.

Guys I'm watching.

2010-04-30T12:31:00.003-05:00

In the wake of the Twins' second-straight loss and Nick Blackburn's mystery "is-it-an-injury-or-is-it-a-family-issue" thing, I decided to check out a month's worth of minor league stats to see if there's anyone cooking right now. I'll give you the bad news first: if you're hoping there's some little-known starting pitcher waiting to throw quality innings at the major-league level, you're not going to find him. Because you've probably already seen what Jeff Manship, Glen Perkins and others can do. And it's not really that great. But when you look at lower levels, you find a wealth of fun young talent outside of the Ben Revere's and Aaron Hicks' of the world. If you take a closer look, this is what you'll find…

Anthony Slama, RP, AAA Level
Everyone's heard about this guy by now, but it's worth mentioning that against all odds (he's a "fool you", not an "overpower you" kind of pitcher), Slama is leading the Rochester Red Wings in strikeouts in a relief role. He's recorded five saves, and would be a great choice to sub in for any of Jesse Crain, Sean Burnett or a few other relievers who've screwed the pooch this year. By the way, batters are hitting just .109 off him to start the year… I realize it's early, but he's displayed this kind of dominance at every level for the past three years or so.

Dustin Martin, 2B, AAA Level
I'm not saying Martin is the next big thing at second base, but he's shown quite an improvement in plate discipline this year in 16 games. He's got a 9:12 strikeout to walk ratio going right now (.424 OBP), where last year it was 39:92 (.319 OBP). Also, he hit a total of five homers in AAA last season, but has three this year. Looks like he's growing as a player, and he just turned 26, so there's reason to believe he could make an impact with the Twins.

Trevor Plouffe, SS, AAA Level
It's too early to evaluate a guy like this because there's not as stark a contrast to last season's totals like our guy Martin above. But in 20 games this season, Plouffe has only a 7:7 K/BB ratio (.367 OBP compared to .313 last year). And he's stolen two bases already compared to three in all of 2009 (118 games). He's making a little noise, so I'll keep an eye on him.

Brian Dinkelman, 2B, AAA Level
His power stroke hasn't come in yet, but the 38 doubles and eight homers in 2009 kind of caught my eye. Dinkelman is patient at the plate too, so far having recorded a nice .404 (13:11 K/BB) On-base percentage through 20 games played. He doesn't run much either, but I'm looking for a sign that the home runs might increase this year. He's 27 this year, and it's time to shine.

David Bromberg, SP, AA Level
Bromberg earned a promotion with a sizzlin' 2.70 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 8.7 K/9 performance at High-A Fort Myers in 2009, and has responded well this year to souped-up competition. In his first three starts - 18 innings - he's given up just 13 baserunners and struck out 17 batters. Just two earned runs, as well. Impressive!

Bobby Lanigan, SP, High-A Level
Through four starts, it's pretty apparent why the 22-year-old Lanigan breezed through Elizabethtown and Beloit last year. He's struck out 20 batters and allowed two earned runs through 22 innings in 2010. Also, Lanigan has allowed just 20 baserunners, giving him a pretty dominant base from which to POSSIBLY leap to New Britain later this season.

Kyle Gibson, SP, High-A Level
A lot of people know Gibson's name… he was a highly-rated prospect in last year's draft, and has performed accordingly in 30+ innings at Fort Myers. In fact, he just threw a complete-game shutout his last time out, with six strikeouts and one hit allowed. Gibson's first start of the year was a little bumpy, but from that point on he's given up just 21 baserunners in 27 innings. And struck out 21 batters. He'll be in New Britain by year's end.

Liam Hendriks, SP, Low-A Level
Hendriks showed some signs of being really good last year with a solid K/BB ratio and K/9 ratio. Gotta love a guy who refuses to give free passes and limits balls in play. This season in Beloit, he's been downright dominant with 26 Ks in 22 innings and just nine TOTAL baserunners allowed. One earned run in four starts, as well. Somehow he hasn't factored into a decision yet so his record is 0-0, but don't let that fool you. He's been absolutely filthy thus far.

*****

Can't wait to watch the Twins face off against Cleveland this weekend. I'm a little worried about how bad the hitting looked over the past 14 innings or so, but then I remembered that we're actually a pretty solid scoring team, and that we'll probably sweep the Indians this weekend. Because they suck.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Different is better.

2010-04-22T07:55:00.003-05:00

It's April 22, and I realize the season started like 2-1/2 weeks ago. But this blog doesn't run on MLB time, so I'm starting now. And if this is your first time reading Twins Hotspot, you should know we do lots of things differently around here. You won't get point-by-point game reports or minor league updates every day. But I do care about that stuff… it's just that I package it differently and simply am not "in it" to make money. You won't ever see pesky ads around here, though I probably write as well as most other Twins blogger guys. I just do this stuff because I love the Twins and am excited about their successes and feel the disappointment when they lose. From Game 1 to the Playoffs, I hang on just about every pitch. Which means I'm a damned mess during games.

For the record, I haven't been to the new Target Field yet. Maybe you've heard about the place. And there are a variety of reasons why (in no particular order):

Laziness - The Dome was a lot easier to get to from St. Paul. Just hop on 94 West and you're there in 10 minutes. That means the ticket office was more convenient, parking was faster and the tickets themselves weren't nearly as "hot". So now I have to put more effort into it. Not cool.
Cost - I'm not poor. But I'm not exactly a "man of means" either. So Twins games are on the priority list, but not the IMMEDIATE priority list, budget-wise. I've got a family to feed! And these games are significantly more spendy than Dome games.
Nostalgia - I was at Game 162 last year… that beautiful Sunday when all was right in the world. The Twins won, the Tigers won, and we set up what turned out to be an unbelievable showdown between the two a couple days later. I want to always remember the Dome like that. Homer Hankies flying, people screaming their guts out, and Papa John's deep-dish pizza. Do they still have that? I love that stuff. Anyway, this part of it has been the most difficult for me. Walking into Target Field is going to alter the way I think about the Twins… for years we've had the crappiest facility, the boiler room of the league. Now, with the state-of-the-art building, there's going to be a new mentality. My new son will never see the inside of Metrodome (assuming the Vikes leave soon). I'll get over it soon - we have tickets to the May 9 game - but I may never recover from having a beloved sports landmark erased from existence.

*****

Speaking of things that are different, last night was the first time I'd seen Liriano pitch this year. The first thing I noticed - and I was positively GIDDY when I saw it - was that all of his motion was positive. No jerking around during the delivery. No falling off the mound. Just fluid, straight-toward-the-plate movement. I loved it. I actually bounced on the couch a little bit when I was watching. My wife can vouch for that. Plus, I kept him in a fantasy baseball league, so that's going well. All together, it's 15 shutout innings in a row with 14 Ks over that span. Plus two wins (which don't matter, but do look good).

Also, the team looks to be on quite a roll, with 11 wins in 15 games, and a chance at a sweep at noon today vs. Cleveland. Scott Baker vs. Mitch Talbot. Feels like a mismatch. Looks like a mismatch. Must be a mismatch.

More writings and thoughts and stats to come!

What is going on?

2009-09-24T11:04:00.002-05:00

Last I checked, the Twins were dead and gone. Now they're…GASP!… 2.5 games back with ten left, including a four-game set in Detroit next week that looms especially large. I don't really know what to say about all this, but I'll just keep moving my fingers over the keyboard in hopes that 1) clear thoughts, 2) insightful points and 3) good grammar all flow nicely.

Since the last post on this blog, the Twins went from "Nail in the coffin" to "Lazarus-like" in a matter of 20 days. When they slumped to a 4-7 start to September, I was ready to throw in the towel, I'll admit it. But then Minnesota did something they hadn't done since the first half: get consistent starting pitching. Suddenly, Brian Duensing was our new Kevin Slowey, Carl Pavano settled down and Nick Blackburn reverted to pre-Break form. And Scott Baker - aside from a minor meltdown last Sunday vs. Detroit - has been lights out of late (last eight starts, 3.35 ERA, 1.117 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, .220 BAA). The result was a complete turnaround in fortunes, as the team rattled off nine wins in their past ten games to put themselves in position to challenge for the division.

But that's not all. See, the Detroit Tigers had a nice seven-game lead, and you don't lose a lead like that, this late, unless you collapse. And after reaching a season-high 14 games over .500 on September 6, that's exactly what they did, dropping nine of their next 12 games before winning the finale in Minneapolis and bashing Cleveland twice this week.

Here are the facts:

The Twins play Kansas City six times and Detroit four times.
Sounds like Francisco Liriano will be taking Jeff Manship's spot in the rotation Sunday, which means he'll once again pitch vs. KC in the final weekend of the season.
Denard Span is likely to return to the lineup Friday night, just in time to get a few game-action cuts before heading to Detroit
Duensing, Pavano, Blackburn and Baker will pitch against the Tigers
We are missing Justin Morneau and Joe Crede
Michael Cuddyer is extremely streaky, and is currently batting .381 with 5 homers and 16 RBI during the team's 10-game hitting streak. The previous 10 games? He batted .179 with 2 homers and five RBI. Watch out for a slump…
After batting .213 during the first five months of the season, Nick Punto's bat has come alive to the tune of .327 during September. What's more, Matt Tolbert is hitting .364 this month in the eight-hole. That's right folks, THE PIRANAS ARE BACKKKK!!!!
Jason Kubel has been especially bad lately - batting .219/.282/.486 over the past ten games.

Alright, every game is big now… Detroit plays today at 6:05 p.m., too. I'll be listening to it. Talk to you guys soon!

Absolutely blown away.

2009-09-03T16:14:00.003-05:00

Joe Nathan is about as much of a performance "lock" as you'll find on the Twins roster. Except Joe Mauer. In 53 innings, he's sporting a 2.36 ERA with 70 strikeouts. The guy has 35 saves. He's nearly untouchable. And yet, yesterday afternoon, he took a elephant dump on the mound when we had the White Sox in a choke hold. And it wasn't just your run-of-the-mill blown save. He did it spectacularly, giving up back-to-back bombs to Gordon Beckham and Paul Konerko. Oh, and it didn't end there… he then walked two batters in a row before Ron Gardenhire realized the game hadn't ended in a 2-0 win, like he planned when he sent Joe to the mound to start the ninth. Oooff! Stomach-punch, baby!

And it's not like the season is over, but it's been over 24 hours since that second home run cleared the left field wall, and I'm still reeling. Really up in arms over this whole thing. I can't concentrate at work, my food tastes weird and my tooth even hurts. Things just don't feel right.

Thankfully, the Twins play a three-game in Cleveland this weekend. And the Indians are ripe for a butt-kicking after being swept by Detroit from Tuesday-Thursday.

Carl Pavano duels with Jeremy Sowers Friday night, then Scott Baker takes the mound Saturday against Justin Masterson. Then Sunday, we've got Nick Blackburn facing David Huff in the finale. Three very winnable games with -- I think -- our three most-trusted pitchers on the mound.

If this team has any designs on the division, they'll take 2-of-3 this weekend, and possibly sweep.

I'll be watching as much as possible, so hopefully these guys give me some reason to believe Wednesday was a complete fluke.

Pathetic Performances, Vol. II

2009-08-14T07:58:00.005-05:00

I listened to the Twins game at work yesterday and could hear it in John Gordon's voice: Carl Pavano is WHO WE THOUGHT he was. If you didn't have a chance to read my larger post on Wednesday, I spoke about Pavano's horrific numbers against teams under .500. For a review… 41 2/3 IP, 7.52 ERA. And that was before yesterday's seven-inning, five-run ugliness. I was impressed that he managed to get through seven frames, and it was encouraging that he got better after the first time through the Royals' order, but by that time, the damage had been done.

The hitters can't be let off the hook either. What a horribly vanilla performance. Four runs, all driven in by Mauer. The team coaxed seven walks and picked up eight hits, but left nine men on base, including Orlando Cabrera's absolutely backbreaking bases-loaded double play to end the sixth. Mind you - three of the previous four batters were walked. Kansas City did their very best to gift-wrap a series win, but instead got their first one since late June. On top of all that, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede piled up zero hits in 11 at bats.

We can't expect the offense to produce big numbers every night, and against truly awful teams like KC, four runs of support should be enough. But they weren't, and the Twins completed a stretch of 3-12 baseball since their season-high four-game winning streak from July 26-29.

As a matter of fact, since their high-water mark of three games above .500 (43-40) on July 5, the team has spiraled into oblivion, going 12-19 since that point. Our saving grace has been taking 5-of-6 from Chicago, which is probably the reason for higher-than-normal fan morale. So that's why I still care… I was under the impression I was still full of hope, but it turns out the weight of beating Chicago makes me feel like less of a loser. Because hey, if we can beat them, then we can beat lots of different teams, right? Of course, now that they've added Alex Rios and Jake Peavy, we're probably going to struggle a bit more.

I think this stings more because it came on the heels of such an uplifting start from Liriano.

Alas, we must move on.

Cleveland comes to town on with 12 wins in their past 20 games and a combined 6-3 record vs. Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota over that stretch. Some of that was with Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez, but Lee only pitched twice in there - both outings were wins.

In our most recent series against the Indians, the two teams traded blowout wins before Cleveland took the rubber match by a score of 2-1 on the "strength" of Fausto Carmona's six innings of one-run ball. The Twins really helped him out though - grounded into 12 outs, including two double plays. Worst of all, the team completely wasted a really good outing from Nick Blackburn … he pitched into the seventh inning and gave up just two runs in the loss. He'll pitch Sunday and hopefully duplicate his success (Two starts, 1-0, 2.02 ERA).

Against Detroit and Anaheim - two of the better-hitting ballclubs in the American League - in his past two starts, Anthony Swarzak showed his true colors. If you want the numbers… a 24.75 ERA and 4.25 WHIP with no strikeouts in four innings. He's not a dominant stopper or even especially effective starter. He's a Bobby Keppel… a Brian Duensing. My guess? When Perkins' shoulder calms down, he'll replace Swarzak in the rotation (came out yesterday that he will not need surgery… it's just tendonitis). Maybe in September. Swarzy looked capable against the Cubs and had nice outings against Oakland/Anaheim back-to-back, so there's some talent there, but nothing consistent. He'll go Saturday vs. Cleveland's David Huff.

Tonight's starter, Scott Baker, pitched three scoreless innings before falling apart in Detroit last Sunday. The longball bit him again as he gave up a solo shot to Marcus Thames and a three-run job to Miguel Cabrera. It's been the story of Baker's season and a summation of his poor outings. He almost always starts strong, then crumbles into a fine powder when he starts to get hit. But before I throw him under the bus any more, I should mention the previous 26 innings where he went 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 24 Ks. He'll face Justin Masterson, the gem of the Cliff Lee deal.

Funny how quickly a rant can turn into a miniature weekend series preview.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the post and I'll be back soon. Thanks for reading!

Franky comes though; Pavano up at noon

2009-08-13T07:44:00.006-05:00

I got pretty lucky. On Monday, my friend Craig offered me box seats to last night's Twins game, and of course, I accepted without reservation. But on Monday, I could never have known what I'd be treated to in that climate-controlled cavern… yeah, the free drinks were nice, but Francisco Liriano's pitching performance was infinitely better. I was giddy the entire time, texting friends about how "vintage" he looked. There was a certain confidence and mission-mindedness about him that I hadn't seen since '06. Icouldn't believe what I was seeing. Seven innings, eight strikeouts, one run given up. HE'S NOT DEAD YET!

Yes, I know it was against the putrid Royals.

Yes, I know it was in the near-always-friendly Dome.

And yes, I know that pretty much anything resembling not sucking would have blown me away last night after Tuesday's abomination.

But I, and we, as Twins fans can't be satisfied with one sparkling start. That wouldn't be fair after what this a-hole Minnesota team has put us through recently. We need MORE. And we need Carl Pavano to provide us with the punctuation mark on a series win today. I chronicled his terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad stats against sub-.500 teams in one of the three August 12 entries. In short, we shouldn't be surprised by a Nick Blackburn-like (post-All Star Break) outing today. And just how bad has Blackburn been in the second half of the season? Check this out:

Five starts… 0-3 record…8.87 ERA (23 ER in 23-1/3 IP)… 2.100 WHIP… players are .407/.426/.638 COMBINED batting against him…

I could go on for a long, long time. Oooohh… just found another stat:

He gave up 1 HR per 51.8 batters faced in the first half… Is giving up 1 HR per 28 batters faced in second half.

What the hell is wrong with this guy? Is the sinker not sinking? Is his arm tired? Are contract negotiations throwing off his concentration (rimshot!…a la The Common Man)? We might have to go to a four-man rotation with the bullpen pitching every fifth day. Or maybe get John Smoltz?

***Special thanks to Joe Crede for restoring my faith in his power bat last night. Somebody please put him in a padded room from now till today's day game.***

Twins day game today at 12:10 CST! Enjoy! Thanks for reading.

Anthony Slama PROMOTED!!!

2009-08-12T17:51:00.003-05:00

From LaVelle E. Neal at Star Tribune.com:

Class AA New Britain righthander Anthony Slama has been promoted to Class AAA Rochester to replace Jeff Manship, who’s now with the Twins.

Slama, in 51 games at New Britain, was 4-2 with a 2.48 ERA while saving 25 games in 28 opportunities. He walked 32 batters in 65.1 innings but struck out 93 and held opponents to a .2o1 batting average.

There's also a fun story about Slama and some other, lesser call-ups that occurred today. This made my day... hope it makes yours too!

Jeff Manship promoted

2009-08-12T12:34:00.003-05:00

One other note - the Twins just promoted AAA pitcher Jeff Manship for pitching depth after placing Glen Perkins on the 15-day DL recently. Manship is 4-2 with a 3.22 ERA in 50-1/3 innings pitching with Rochester so far this season. He started the year with Double-A New Britain and was promoted after 13 starts at that level in 2009.

Maybe there's room for Anthony Slama to move from AA now? Why he's been allowed to dominate without promotion is beyond me. In his past 13 innings pitched, he's struck out 20 batters and allowed just two earned runs on 13 baserunners. I'd like to kick Bill Smith about now.

Talking myself into the Twins

2009-08-12T09:13:00.010-05:00

After reading that headline, you probably think I'm insane.

Maybe I am.

But I believe that with just 50 games left in the major league baseball season, Carl Pavano, Francisco Liriano and Scott Baker will lead our Twins to a Central Division championship. And before you crucify me and call me a bleeding-heart homer-idiot-stupid head, consider that the Minnesota offense ranks ninth in the MLB and sixth in the American League. The hitting is there, but can the pitching get up to snuff in time?

Of our remaining schedule, we play 60% of the games against teams with sub-.500 records. And that against such teams (CLE, KC, TOR, BAL, OAK), our pitching staff looks like this:

Vs. teams with sub-.500 records, 2009

Liriano - 41 IP, 4.17 ERA… the recent setback vs. Cleveland pushed his ERA over the 4.00 mark. Otherwise, he's had some very good starts. And I KNOW you remember how he finished 2008 (if you don't, let me help… August 3-September 21 - 61 IP, 2.05 ERA, 1.076 WHIP, 55 Ks). This is the same pitcher with a worse mindset. He's not hurt. A couple of solid starts could get him rolling.

Blackburn - 51 IP, 4.94 ERA… majorly affected by last night's blowout vs. KC and the implosion in Oakland a couple weeks back.

Pavano - 41-2/3 IP, 7.52 ERA… funny, Pavano can't pitch against bad teams, but has been magnificent against the likes of Detroit (30 IP, 1.48 ERA), Chicago (22-1/3, 2.42 ERA), Boston (6 IP, 2 ER) and New York (13-1/3, 2.70 ERA). I will now skip any sort of analysis, because this could be beyond explanation. Either way, I call it a wash, because 13 of our 20 remaining games vs. teams with above-.500 records are against CWS and DET. The thought is that he should be good enough not to get pounded by those same bad teams the rest of the season while remaining proficient against the Pale Hose and Motor City Kitties.

Swarzak - 22 - 2/3 IP, 4.37 ERA… he's really been up and down all year anyway. I don't trust him and I don't trust Perkins.

Baker - 53-2/3 IP, 3.83 ERA… if anyone thrives on bad-hitting teams, it's Baker. He'll strike 'em out and put up zeroes through most of his outings.

I think I just talked myself into a division title. Did I talk you into it?

A few hitting notes…

On his current five-game hitting streak, Delmon Young is batting .333 with two home runs and four RBI.
Since July 31 (10 games), Joe Mauer is batting .476 with two doubles, three home runs and 12 RBI. Over that same span, Justin Morneau has gone the other way a bit, hitting just .220 with two homers, two doubles and eight RBI.
In August, Nick Punto and Alexi Casilla have combined for seven hits in 40 at bats (.175) while a very capable counterpart - Brendan Harris - is 5-for-15 with a homer this month.
Joe Crede should be back in the lineup today.
Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Bookend victories

2009-07-27T08:13:00.003-05:00

Ever gotten a Christmas present you really didn't want? A couple of years ago, I got a zip-up sweater from my parents that wasn't my favorite. I held it up and muttered "huh...". Without saying another word, everyone knew that A) I didn't like it and B) I was too courteous to say so. And they haven't let me live it down, either. But hey, the wrapping paper was nice, and it's the "thought" that counts, right?

Much like that scenario, the Twins wrapped up their 10-game road trip with a win Sunday, leaving most fans with a nice taste in their mouths despite the 4-6 west coast swing. They wrapped up that turd of a trip with wins, but there's the issue of the proverbial sweater… the nuts and bolts of their journey. And it was an ugly one, where the pitching was horrid, for the most part. Interestingly enough, Anthony Swarzak emerged unscathed, with a 1.98 ERA in 13-2/3 innings in his two starts. But there weren't many bright spots outside of him. Most disappointing was the week-long collapse of our bullpen.

Joe Nathan saved the first three wins of the trip before blowing Friday's game. Jesse Crain got beat down on Friday in extra innings. R. A. Dickey gave up at least one run in each of his past four outings, ballooning his ERA to 4.05 from 2.83 on July 11. Even the previously untouchable Bobby Keppel was touched for four earned runs (Mon., Thu.) before pitching two shutout innings Sunday. But the good thing is that most of our relievers are good enough to bounce back. And we have some guys going pretty well, like Matt Guerrier, who's only given up ONE earned run since May 26. The key now is to keep them fresh with good starting pitching, so that they'll be of use to us in September.

Speaking of pitchers that are "of use", here are my top 6 Twins pitchers who scare me the least when taking the mound. I'll probably do this every week or two for the rest of the season.

Joe Nathan - He's the king of the staff unless the Twins trade for Halladay (not happening) or Cliff Lee (seems exceedingly unlikely). Too bad our best pitcher doesn't start.
Kevin Slowey - The fact that our most consistent starter is on the DL indefinitely should be very alarming for Twins fans. He may even need surgery to remove the bone chips in his wrist. If this were Perkins, I think we'd all feel better. But it's not. And Swarzak can't fill this hole forever. Slowey gave us good innings and rarely got into ugly jams… also struck out enough batters to get OUT of rougher innings.
Matt Guerrier - He's been the second best reliever all year long. Thanks for the nice comeback, Matty G.
Jose Mijares - Would have been ranked a bit higher if he hadn't given up earned runs in two of his past three outings.
Scott Baker - Baker is the Ace of the starters right now - he's really the only guy with enough control and decent "stuff" to face the best competition. And even he got into some major trouble in his last start (10 baserunners, five innings). The problem is that against the best offenses, he lacks the major "out" pitch to get out of an inning, so the pitch count gets ugly in a hurry because opposing batters just foul everything off.
Nick Blackburn - Blacky gives you innings and generally doesn't get destroyed. You can't ask for much else from a guy who doesn't strike people out and lacks devastating movement on breaking balls.

Here's LaVelle E. Neal's preview of the upcoming White Sox Series.

Have a great night - go Twins!

Kind of a Rough Week

2009-07-24T10:22:00.005-05:00

The Twins have been battered since this past Sunday, giving up an amazing 43 runs in five games, including 32 in a three-game series with Oakland. Not only were the starting pitchers remarkably terrible (aside from Liriano/Swarzak on Sunday/Tuesday), the bullpen sported a 12.55 ERA in the four losses. The hitting has really be fine - we're scoring runs at a decent clip, so that's not really to blame. So it looks like we're left with starting pitching as the major problem, if only because the 'pen only just faltered over the past seven days. Let's dive in and dissect this mother.

Kevin Slowey (DL - Back next week to start for Perk) - After a dismal start to the year where he was shelled for five runs in consecutive starts, Slowey calmed down and was pretty much the Ace of the staff. From April 18-June 19, he struck out 60 batters in 73 innings while limiting the opposition to a .280 BAA and posting a 3.44 ERA. Then the wheels fell off in his two most recent starts, presumably because of the wrist soreness he was experiencing. We hope. This, however, is a guy I trust.

Francisco Liriano - In June, a better version of F-Bomb showed up, and that's exactly who we need the rest of the way. His full-season stats may not recover from the terrible start to

2009, but from June 5 to July 19, he shaved off 1.27 runs off his ERA, and struck out 49 batters in 49 innings. Couple that with a nice little .238 BAA, and we're cookin' with gas. As a matter of fact, Liriano has gone less than six innings just twice in his past eight starts. I won't hide the truth though - he's walking WAY too many batters, a problem that has led to short outings and unnecessary runs. The thing with Liriano is that the strikeouts mask his control issues, and that's something most guys on the staff can't do.

Scott Baker - For Baker, there was a clear turning point in June. He had just come off three consecutive starts where the opposing team blasted two home runs, and was facing Cleveland. Bake proceeded to strike out ten Indians in seven innings of two-run ball. Next game? He struck out eight in eight innings in

that super-weird game in Oakland when the team went into the ninth up 10-0, then won 10-5 in scary fashion. Fast forward, and Baker - despite two straight games where he gave up five earned runs (CHW/NYY on July 7/12) - has a 3.94 ERA and 57 strikeouts in his past 61 innings. He's also consistently giving the team a chance to win.

Nick Blackburn - It's been documented elsewhere, but Nick Blackburn is getting VERY lucky as

a ground ball pitcher this season, and it's a major reason for why he's been so good thus far. His strikeouts are down from a year ago, yet his ERA and WHIP are much better than 2008. The answer? His BABIP is almost 30 points less than last year. The same balls simply aren't finding holes. The defense is better with Crede manning third base, and that probably helps a bit, but not that much. Thus, he'll get hammered on occasion like he did Monday. Of course, if any pitcher left that many balls up in the zone, they'd get pounded too. All that said, you gotta love his stats from May 10-July 5… a 1.98 ERA in 81 innings. Without Blacky, the Twins would be at least 7-8 games behind in the division. Instead, they remain just 2.5 out.

Glen Perkins (Shoulder injury, might be placed on DL) - It's hard to hammer Perkins right now because of his shoulder injury. It's possible the malady led to some ugly performances, but either he's got some MAJOR issues, or he's just been bad since that early-season hot streak. When you look through his post-April outings, you can only point to one that was a legitimately dominant start - June 26 at St. Louis. Since April 26, he has an embarrassing 7.16 ERA in 60 innings pitched. Clearly not the guy he was last year, or people have figured him out. If you're looking for a guy to send to the bullpen when Slowey gets back, this is your man.

Anthony Swarzak - Our up-and-down rookie has flashed enough talent for me to believe he deserves to stay in the rotation when Slowey gets back. He's only made seven starts, but has better strikeout potential than Perkins and seems to have a better plan of attack. One flaw is that he has a much shorter leash… the managment must be babying him a bit still, as he's been pulled at 4-1/3 innings or less three different times. Overall, he seems to AT LEAST not get smoked by lower-echelon teams, and gives us a chance against the better ones.

So after all that, I contend that Perkins needs to leave the rotation in lieu of Swarzak for the balance of the season. But honestly, there isn't a whole hell of a lot of difference between he and Perkins right now. Let's hope for a solid weekend of baseball as we march toward the top of the Central division!

Pathetic Performances, Vol. I

2009-07-21T10:31:00.007-05:00

And, with last night's abortion of an outing, I decided to begin a running series called "Pathetic Performances". Whenever the Twins leave me speechless after a mind-numbing comedy of errors, I'll write about it the next day. Deal? Deal.

You've probably heard a lot of really bad reactions to the Twins' 14-13 loss last night. The pitching was bad. The hitting, after the first three innings, was bad. The play at the plate was bad. All in all, a disgusting way to finish what was supposed to be a fun night for Twins fans to relax and enjoy the ball-bashing 3-4-5 combo of Morneau, Cuddyer, Kubel. They're fun. :)

So let's dive in and find out how bad Monday's game really was.

Pitching

Twins pitchers faced 48 batters and struck out zero. ZERO.
Starter Nick Blackburn, despite getting spotted an 12-2 lead, kept trying to get ground balls and - unfortunately - kept missing spots and leaving the ball up in the strike zone. Altogether, he gave up 13 hits and 7 earned runs, and they weren't dribbling grounders. The Athletics were SMOKING the ball all over the place.
The previously untouchable Bobby Keppel gave up three earned runs, and didn't even have the decency to record an out.

Batting

Granted, there's a lot less to talk about here, but there were still some really bad spots. Like Denard Span and Nick Punto (last night's no. 1 and no. 2) going 1-for-10. They scored a combined TWO runs on a night where the 3-4-5 guys went 10-for-13. Unacceptable, and another reason to continue the search for an offensive threat who can bat no. 2.
Alexi Casilla went 0-for-3, and is 1-for-17 since his return to the majors. He clearly has one foot out the door already.
In Denard Span's six at bats, he saw just 19 pitches. That's BARELY three per plate appearance. Inexcusable for leadoff man to go up there hacking.

Alright I'm done.

Another game tonight, with - hopefully - a better result.

Mollifying the Mob

2009-07-07T16:32:00.011-05:00

All I've heard over the past few weeks is how every bullpen in the major leagues is looking for help, how most of them are overworked and struggling. And guess what: it's false, at least for your hometown nine, the Minnesota Twins. You may contend that they had a lot of trouble early in the season, and you'd be right. The thing is that since mid-to-late May, we found a group of arms that get to Joe Nathan with consistency. And lo and behold, since May 21, the team is 24-17 and moved into second place in the Central Division. And Nathan? He's got 16 saves over that span after notching just six in the previous seven weeks.

Let's have a look at our fearsome five - our quintet of bat-missing mavericks who've combined to lock down late innings in reliable fashion. And I'll present them as different types of meat, because I'm grilling out tonight. (stats as of Wednesday night, July 8)

Filet Mignon: Joe Nathan. You can't screw it up… filet mignon is great no matter how you cook it. You don't need spices and you don't need sauces, but when you add them, it still improves. In the same way, Joe Nathan is a masterpiece of a pitcher, but with a sound bullpen around him, he becomes all the more lethal to the opposition. Since May 21, Nathan has tossed 18 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball, and he's been about as dominant as anyone could hope for with an astounding 28:2 K/BB ratio over that span. Folks, when a pitcher doesn't put runners on base, and strikes out exactly half of the batters he faces, he can't be touched. That's what Nathan is doing, and when the other guys bridge the 7th and 8th inning gap, the game is virtually over.

Pork Tenderloin: Jose Mijares. If you cook a tenderloin just right - maybe let it sit in a brine a few hours, then grill it up - then you're bound to enjoy a juicy, delicious dinner. But pork is a fickle meat… you have to watch it because overcooking makes it taste like a boot. Señor Mijares came to the dinner table a little too often this past offseason, but has since returned a different man after a little Triple-A seasoning. When used in the right situations - a change of pace or against lefties - he's become dominant since May. Consider that he's only given up two runs in the past 16 games. Pretty solid for a guy who came to Spring Training looking completely unready to face major-league competition.

Burgers: Matt Guerrier. Everyone can make a burger, but not everyone can do it right. You can slap together a patty in five seconds, or add sauces and spices to the mix before flames ever char the meat. Matty-G learned this tough lesson last year… nibbling is great if you have pinpoint accuracy, but when you miss, the results can be disastrous. Thus, Guerrier came into 2009 with a different plan - make 'em hit the ball and let your defense do the dirty work. Since late May, he's thrown a larger percentage of strikes (69% in 2009 vs. 62% in 2008) and as a result, walked batters far less. This, of course, has led to less runners on base when he does give up the inevitable hit. Since May 20, Guerrier has even held batters to a .191 batting average against and just three extra base hits in his 20 innings pitched.

Beef Jerky: R.A. Dickey. When you're looking for a snack, beef jerky almost always fits the bill, but in large doses, can provide you with horrible gut rot. And we know Dickey is the same way, baffling batters with that wicked knuckler for an inning or so after the starter has been removed. Of course, when he's asked to go through the lineup more than once, the lack of velocity catches up with him. Still, since May he's posted a sparkling 2.45 ERA and struck out 14 batters in his 18 1/3 innings pitched.

Chicken: Bobby Keppel. Always good, and goes with everything. I like what I see with Keppel, and I'd like another helping, please. In his brief major league cup o' coffee, he's appeared four times and thrown 11 1/3 scoreless innings, with three of the outings spanning over two full innings. He's becoming a reliable option in the bullpen, and that, of course, is a good thing.

Enjoy your Friday before the White Sox series starts!

The plight of the underdog

2009-07-04T09:33:00.004-05:00

Everyone loves an underdog. Especially me. As a fan of Minnesota sports, I've become accustomed to spouting phrases like "we never get respect" or "no one believes in us". This mentality has worked to galvanize the Minnesota Twins fan base in such a way that we pool our dreams together and hope it'll be enough - with some good ol' fashioned talent and scrappiness - to win. But I'm not talking about a franchise today, I'm talking about a player named Delmon Young and his winding path toward relevance.

Ever since he was a young kid, baseball has been easy for Young. Take this excerpt from a 2003 USA Today article as proof:

"Young, 17, hit .544 with seven home runs and 28 RBI and was intentionally walked 26 times this season for Camarillo High School. Young, 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, has starred at the high school level for several years and shown great power potential and patience at the plate, an outstanding arm and good speed."

He then went to Tampa Bay's minor league system and thrashed A, AA and AAA pitching for the first two seasons (2004-05), posting a ridiculous 51 home runs, 53 steals and 214 RBI with a .318/.368/.533 batting line. Clearly, the kid was ready for a bigger challenge, and in 2006, Delmon got his shot at the major leagues.

The results have been mixed since hit insertion in the Tampa Bay lineup. Young's famed plate discipline has yet to materialize, evidenced by a career major league 67:288 BB/K ratio. He's seemed to swing and miss extremely often, and is currently going through his worst year as a baseball player with just three home runs and a sickly .264/.292/.346 batting line. Years of lofty expectations have caught up with Young, and people are getting impatient. He's finally become an underdog.

Tack on his dubious bat-throwing incident, along with the infamous Garza/Bartlett swap that landed Young in Minnesota, and even the biggest Twins fans have found reason to throw him under the bus.

This isn't a hopeless situation though - Young has a history of meteoric rises in the second half of the baseball season. "DY" batted .300/.344/.435 in the second half in 2008 with 8 homers. In 2007, he cranked out a .302/.326/.405 line. And since June 9 this season (15 games), he's scorched MLB pitching to the tune of a .322/.328/.503 line with two home runs and 10 RBI. Up to that point (36 games, April 6-June 8), he had only managed a meager .236/.275/.268 with one home run and 14 RBI.

There's a lot of talent in Young's bat, and maybe - just maybe - he'll begin to realize his potential in front of a fan base who understands how to embrace even the least-talented (Mark Madsen), moronic (Randy Moss, Fred Smoot), and disrespectful (Latrell Sprewell) athletes.

Droppin' an F-Bomb on Y'allz

2009-07-01T18:26:00.006-05:00

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's inconsistency. The Twins, while sitting at 41-39 after today's win at Kansas City, would seemingly be the model of consistency if you look only at their record. After all, winning half your games means you are demonstrating an inability to sustain success. A lot of factors play into the team's ragamuffin end results, not the least of which is Francisco Liriano's glacial metamorphosis into something resembling a starting pitcher.

Of course, at age 25 and coming off Tommy John surgery, Frankie has had to relearn his arm slot, which anyone can tell you takes more than a couple tosses in the bullpen. And yet, after a horrid rollercoaster 6.60 ERA through the first two months, the F-Bomb has started to return.

In June, Liriano busted out a 3.77 ERA with 30 strikeouts in his 31 innings pitches. What's more, his BAA (batting average against) fell considerably in the month of June (.231) as compared to April/May (.296). All of this, of course, was highlighted by Francisco's tidy (97 pitches) seven-inning, six-strikeout performance this past Sunday in St. Louis. He even managed to strike out Albert Pujols once, and that's only happened 31 other times in 264 at bats this season. Good stuff.

If this is the Liriano we're going to get from here on out - the efficient, confident guy we can trust - then our Twins, as a whole, will take a turn upward.

Oh, and speaking of inconsistency, I apoligize for the ridiculous two-month hiatus on this little ol' site. If the inspiration isn't there, it's always best to put a lid on your output.

Thanks for reading!

Another Manic Monday

2009-04-27T23:30:00.002-05:00

After taking two out of three from the Cleveland Indians this past weekend, I thought our hometown club might be ready for a little streak of success, but alas, they were not. Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn pitched admirably on Friday and Saturday, but the next two starters couldn't keep the momentum going. Glen Perkins gets a pass after the way he started the season, but our club will rarely win when the starter puts us in an early four-run hole. Scott Baker was effective, but still lacked the total control he exhibited at times last season. Here's a statistical look...

A few Baker-related notes:

Strikeouts: In his first two games, Baker managed to punch out just five batters in 8.2 innings, but in Monday's start, he K-ed seven men in six innings. I expect him to continue to keep the walks down if only because they've never been an issue before, and his enormous WHIP is sure to shrink as he returns to normal strikeout rates. Baker's K/9 last year was 7.4, and he had a sweet little 3.32:1 K/BB ratio as well. Despite the fact that he lost again, the way Baker changed speeds and hit corners was encouraging.
Duration of start: Going six innings and 99 pitches also bodes well for Baker's immediate future. He got into a little trouble at times, but Gardy left him alone. Baker bounced back after an awful first inning to keep the team in the game. He battled tonight, and churning out six frames helps out the bullpen. Hopefully they'll get another rest tomorrow with Liriano pitching.
The way runs were scored: Baker gave up seven homers in his first two outings, but didn't throw any gopher balls on Monday. In fact, his homers-per-nine innings rate was about 1.0 from 2007-2008, so while he has a slight propensity to give up the long ball, Baker he'll start to get more ground balls and Ks to limit batters' opportunities to take him deep.

***

Since my public humiliation of Joe Crede last Friday, he's actually picked up the pace, going 5-for-16 (.312) with two homers and three RBI. Not that Crede has to bash the snot out of the ball all the time, but we just needed something from the guy.

Big game tonight - hopefully Liriano can be a losing-streak stopper for our local nine against James Shields. Game time is 7:10.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Get a Whiff of This

2009-04-24T09:32:00.002-05:00

Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel and Denard Span have done a pretty nice job of keeping the Twins lineup afloat lately, but as we saw Wednesday and have witnessed in the past, you need more. We were supposed to get more from a healthy Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede, but they've been worse than the bottom-of-the-barrel replacements we inserted in 2008. And I'm not sure how much longer we can allow Alexi Casilla to slap grounders toward expectant fielders at the top of the order. Granted, some of our problems will be alleviated when Joe Mauer returns in seven days, eight hours, 15 minutes and 12 seconds, but overall plate discipline can't be expected to be "good" all of the sudden, right?

Consider that the Twins have five players with double-digit strikeouts, but only one of those has more than one homer. It's widely held that power hitters' strikeout totals are downgraded a bit because they generally make up for their whiffing ways with numerous bases-on-balls. The thing is, our "power hitters" (aside from Morneau/Kubel) aren't hitting home runs, and aren't making up for it by getting on base. Additionally, a decent on-base percentage stands at around .330, and only a few of our regulars have even eclipsed that mark so far. Check out some stats:

Joe Crede (.167 Average/.286 On-Base/.310 Slugging) - Crede has been pretty tragic at the plate, aside from the home run he hit down in Chicago a few weeks back. In 42 at-bats, he's already struck out 12 times, and if it weren't for his glove, he'd be sitting the bench in favor of Buscher (who has at least shown some semblance of patience). The good news? Crede is hitting .286 against left-handers so far this season, and he'll face lefty Aaron Laffey on Sunday. Also, his career numbers say he'll eventually hit right-handers with greater consistency. Hopefully sooner than later.
Michael Cuddyer (.207/.254/.310) - Seems like Cuddy couldn't hit a soft-toss marshmallow with a cubicle wall about now, and would be playing a lot less if Carlos Gomez still had a pulse. The Magician is striking out three times as much as he's walking (11:4 K/BB), and we can only hope he'll heat up once May comes around.
Delmon Young (.229/.289/.343) - The only good thing that I can draw from Delmon's slow start is that he already his a towering home run this season. If you remember, he didn't go yard until June 7 a year ago. I'm probably the least worried about Young though, because if there's one thing he's going to do, it's hit for average. Expect a string of two-hit games to boost his average back up to .270 or so. Maybe it'll be accompanied by a little power.
Alexi Casilla (.184/.231/.224) - Casilla is known for going through rough stretches at the dish, but going 2-for-27 over the past nine games simply is NOT going to get it done. I'm expecting Brendan Harris to get some at bats shortly - he's actually been swinging it pretty well so far this season and isn't a terrible fielder. The problem is that Gardy knows how poor our pitching is right now, and likely won't sacrifice defense for a mildly-hot bat.

I'd write about Carlos Gomez, but he isn't playing enough to stir up anger.

Anyway, we're playing the Cleveland Indians this weekend… one of only three teams whose pitching has been worse than ours so far (6.31 ERA/1.642 WHIP). Good news! No Cliff Lee this time around. Of course, Cleveland still has Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner (looks pretty solid so far) and Victor Martinez heading up the no. 3 offense in the league to date. With the way our arms have looked thus far, it could be a recipe for disaster.

Your weekend pitching match ups:

Fausto Carmona (1-2) vs. Nick Blackburn (0-1)
Carl Pavano (0-2) vs. Kevin Slowey (2-0)
Aaron Laffey (1-0) vs. Glen Perkins (1-1)

I wouldn't be surprised if the Twins win the series, but I'd be floored if we gave up less than 15 runs in these three games. Anyone else ticked off that Slowey has two wins and Perkins has a loss? Ugh.

Enjoy the weekend, and remember that I'll start writing more often in May. Thanks for reading!

Son of a Pitch; Angels Preview

2009-04-17T13:28:00.008-05:00

Since I last posted, the Twins have gone 2-5 against the White Sox and Blue Jays. Not only have they gotten off to a decidedly dubious start, but they were obliterated in four of the five losses. By a total of 35-5. In four games. FOUR GAMES. Did I mention we gave up 35 runs in four games?

I want to toss out a quick qualifier… I know stats are bloated and ugly (or so pretty that it must be a mirage) early in the year, but when your bullpen rolls out the red carpet for the freaking Blue Jays in the Dome, it's time to mention a few things.

At a Glance:

In his profile on cbssports.com, Luis Ayala has a big ol' smile on his face, but that's probably the last time he shot anyone a grin. The guy is supposed to be our link to Joe Nathan, but instead has given up four earned runs in his past 3 1/3 innings and filled the bases with nine runners over the same span. I think we all knew he wasn't going to be a miracle worker, but even Eddie Guardado was better than that last year.
Against Seattle and Toronto, last year's Kevin Slowey could have been expected to keep us in the game and probably win one of the two contests. This year's Kevin Slowey gave up 24 hits, 1BB and 10 earned runs in 11 1/3 innings (2.205 WHIP and 7.94 ERA) against those mediocre lineups. Granted, the Twins left him in vs. Toronto for far too long, and he's already given up four homers (on pace for 60+... lol) after allowing only 22 last season. The fact of the matter is that he'll probably get a whole lot better.
It just seems like piling on to thrash Nick Blackburn, if only because he's our projected no. 5 starter, so I'll be nice. Despite his horrible statistical start (11 IP - 18 baserunners and a 1.6 k/9), Blackburn hasn't been the worst starter on the team. I think that's as good as I can do for a compliment.
And it's always a blast when you long reliever - in this case, Phil Humber - can't get anyone out. In his 4 1/3 innings of work this season, he's already given up six earned runs. And, of course, the runs don't bother me as much as how they're scoring… he's allowed 13 baserunners already, and if you're looking for an example of "playing with fire", he's exhibit A. Luckily, the Twins designated him for assignment today and signed Juan Morillo (horrible pitcher - has ZERO control with 55 walks in 59 innings of Triple-A ball in 2008) off a waiver claim..

The good news is that Francisco Liriano looks really solid and that Glen Perkins - despite the fact that the Twins' bats have collectively flipped him the bird in his first two starts - has dominated the competition. So let's all take a big breath and get a little perspective: we're 11 games into a 162 game season, and Joe Mauer isn't even back yet.

Speaking of Mauer, news broker earlier this week that he'll start a minor-league rehab stint next week, and try to return in about 7-10 days after that, barring a setback. He's been running without pain, and adding his bat into our lineup could be the fresh wind we need to get a little more consistent in our run production.

*****

Starting tonight, the Twins face the Los Angeles Angels for three games at the dome. The Angels are 4-5 on the season and are pretty banged up… Vladamir Guerrero is going to miss some time with a pectoral strain, and he'll most definitely miss the entire series… also, John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar and Ervin Santana will miss the series as they battle back from early-season injuries.

Friday's Starters: Nick Blackburn (0-1) vs. Dustin Moseley (1-0)
Saturday's Starters: Kevin Slowey (1-0) vs. Darren Oliver (0-0)
Sunday's Starters: Glen Perkins (0-1) vs. Shane Loux (0-0)

We all know about the Twins' streaky hitting thus far, and it's showing up in the stats, which is extremely convenient if you're a blogger. The team is no. 9 overall in hits, but aren't getting anyone home. They already have eight GDPs without Joe Mauer (ground into double play), they're third-to-last in the league in home run rate (1 homer for every 53.3 at bats) and have just 39 runs - good for no. 20 in the majors.

That's all for now. I'm writing tomorrow about our horrible hitting outfield. Something for everyone to look forward to!

Enjoy the game tonight - hopefully it's more than batting practice for those Anaheimers. Peace.

No support for Perkins

2009-04-10T13:37:00.002-05:00

I’m disappointed today. Disappointed that the Twins could squander a Glen Perkins gem. Disappointed that Delmon Young has only seven at bats in four games, and – even worse – zero hits. Disappointed that our supposed eighth-inning guy Luis Ayala has already given up two runs in three outings. And I’m disappointed that, after absolutely crushing the competition with runners on base in 2008, we left FOURTEEN (14, yup) guys on the basepaths to end an inning. Worst of all, we did it against Jarrod Washed-Up (Washburn). Makes me cry bitter tears.

I’ll tell you what – writing about this stuff really does help though. I get frustrated listening to/watching games, and this is how I blow off the steam. So thanks for making it a worthwhile venture by reading my opinions every once in awhile. ☺

Anyway, there’s more to be ticked-off about, namely that our no. 1 (Span), no. 2 (Casilla) and no. 3 hitters (Cuddyer) combined to hit 0-for-11, but thankfully Cuddyer drew a walk to save the crew from getting skunked. Against Washburn, a guy who sported a 4.70 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and went 5-14 in 2008. I don’t get it. Except for the fact that Washburn, that bum, has a career 2.76 ERA at the Dome. Maybe we should have tried to sign him.

The news wasn’t all bad yesterday, no matter how much I try to spin it that way. Glen Perkins really did a masterful job against everyone but Adrian Beltre, who ended up hitting 6-for-13 this series with two walks in the win. Perkins gave up just one early run and managed to keep the baserunners to a minimum after an excruciatingly eventful first frame. Gotta respect the guy’s will to battle back after a rough start. Maybe it’s Perkins, not Kevin Slowey, who finds a little extra mojo this season and becomes our reliable no. 3 arm in the rotation.

Now it’s off to Chicago, the site of Twins despair (2-8) last season. We’ll run R.A. Dickey out to the mound tonight against Jose Contreres, then watch Francisco Liriano do battle versus Bartolo Colón Saturday. On Sunday, Nick Blackburn matches up against Mark Buehrle in the third game of the series. I’m glad to miss Danks and Floyd, but we’ll get a couple doses of them later this year.

Notes:

The Rochester Red Wings got underway Thursday and saw Luke Hughes, Dustin Martin, Trevor Plouffe and David Winfree smack homers in the opener. Nothin’ like a few fireworks!
Left-fielder Matt Moses bashed a bomb for the Double-A Rock Cats Thursday in the team’s second game of the season, and it’s good to see him get rolling right away. In addition, Anthony Slama (one of my favorites) struck out three batters in a relief appearance yesterday, and remains one of the top bullpen arms in the minor leagues. Hopefully he’ll get more pub this season.

Twins play tonight at 7:11 p.m. vs. Chicago… beat those pale hose down!

Crappy start

2009-04-09T09:54:00.004-05:00

Yeah, we've won two out of the first three games, which probably should make me smile. But it really doesn't. Not when our starting pitching combines for an ugly 6.50 ERA, 1.333 WHIP and four home runs just 18 innings. I'll give Francisco Liriano a pass… he really did pitch well, giving up just four hits (two for homers) in the opener. He was pretty dominant otherwise.

But Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn have no excuse. TWENTY freaking baserunners? In 11 innings? Call it first-game jitters if you want, but I'm a little concerned. The earned runs don't bother me as much, because if you're playing with fire the way those two were on Tuesday/Wednesday, you're going to get burned. But we're playing the Mariners, folks. The Seattle Mariners. They had a combined .265/.318/.389 team batting line last year, and that was with Ichiro and Raul Ibanez. I'll give you ONE guess as to who hasn't been in their lineup the past three days… yup, it's Ichiro (illness) and Ibanez (on the Phillies).

Call me a "negative nancy", "grumpy gus" or "disgruntled duncan", but if this is what Slowey and Blackburn are offering, then I'll rebut with a polite "no, thank you." I could rail on these two for hours, but I realize we're three games into the season. I want to stress the point without belaboring it.

A couple of other thoughts:

Seattle outfielder Wladamier Balentien is a pretty solid prospect, but his name grates on me. It's pronounced VLA - DA - MEER, when it's clear it should be pronounced WALLA - DA - MEER. Personally, I prefer the later pronunciation. I'll work on this and get back to you.
The Twins had their first spotless night of relief Wednesday when Craig Breslow, Jesse Crain and Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth inning, respectively.
After a horrific two-game power outage, Justin Morneau and Denard Span blasted the Twins' first and second home runs of the season. Nice to see 'em get off the schnide.

Alright, that's all for today - check back tomorrow for another post!

Twins Hotspot is BACK!!!!

2009-04-01T10:47:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the Twins Hotspot in 2009! I've got no flashy updates planned, but I can promise honest, researched opinion as often as I find myself at the keyboard.

Going into the season, we have a few problem areas/things to worry about. Let's dive in.

Do we really trust Joe Crede to give us "punch" from third base? I’m skeptical at best… let’s put it like that. Yes, Crede slammed 17 homers and 55 RBI in limited at-bats in 2008, but no one would mistake him for a careful hitter. Cripes, in his best offensive season (2006), he walked 28 times. That places him outside of the top-200. Behind the likes of known-free swinger Rickie Weeks, to name one. Point being that if we expected a Twins-style hitter to walk through the door, we’ve got another thing coming. Toss in the fact that he’s played 97 and 47 games in the past two seasons, and I’m not ready to get all rowdy about our acquisition. To me, a successful season for Joe Crede begins and ends with health. If that happens, I expect 20-22 home runs and 65-80 RBI.

Can Delmon Young make the leap from platoon outfielder to everyday player? First of all, let me be clear… Delmon Young should be an everyday player. And for all the vitriol hurled at Young, he actually had a better season in 2008 than in 2007, when he drove in 93 RBI with 13 homers and looked like a big-time player in the making while destroying the Tampa Bay clubhouse. Consider that Young dropped his strikeouts from 127 to 102 in 2008. Or that he raised his BB count from 26 to 35 in 70 less at bats. Or that his .290 batting average and .336 OBP ranked #4 among regulars last season (more than half of the games played). He’ll continue to take better routes to the ball on defense, and we already know he has a cannon for an arm. And he’s 23 years old, 24 in September… give it a little more time.

Will Carlos Gomez' supposed commitment to plate discipline follow him into the regular season? This spring, Carlos Gomez has looked like a different player. In 50 at-bats, he’s belted three home runs, stolen eight bases, driven in seven RBI and most importantly, is hitting .280/.368/.580. He’s walked six times compared to eight strikeouts, which is a mark most patient hitters would be proud to own. Either way, it’s a far cry from his absolutely toxic 6:1 K/BB ratio in 2008. The question is whether this success will translate, because as we all know, Spring Training is not the end-all for projecting seasonal stats. But if, by chance, Gomez does get a ton better, we’ll all start breathing easier about the Johan trade.

How long is Joe Mauer really going to be out for? We all know Mauer is a top-3 catcher in baseball. Whether he’s going to produce while he’s in the lineup hasn’t been a question since his arrival back in 2004. The problem is that he keeps getting hurt, and it’s pissing everyone off. If it’s not a knee, it’s a hamstring… if it’s not a quad, then it’s his back. Check out this snippet from the Disabled List Informer – an absolutely wonderful injury source:
“See a pattern here? I do. Most injuries are on the left leg. As a clinician, what this tells me is that there is something predisposing Mauer to left-sided lower extremity issues. Usually, it stems from improper foot positioning, i.e. too flat of a foot, or too high of an arch. In most cases, it is that the foot on the involved side is flat, thus leading to altered mechanics up the chain (in the knee, hip, low back, and the associated muscles in these areas).”

Maybe there’s more wrong than we think? But aside from all this stuff is the back injury he’s currently dealing with, and the latest news from Twins writer LaVelle E. Neal is that he’ll miss most of April. But the real question is whether he’ll miss time because of nagging injuries after that.

Are we going to place our hope in a bunch of young pitchers again? Seriously? Don’t get me wrong, I love our starting pitching for what they provided last season. They soothed us all year despite injuries to the top two (Scott Baker – 1 month; Liriano – more than 3 months), when the front office laid waste to the fan base by letting Torii Hunter go, and traded Santana in late winter. So yes, I’m thankful and I love them. And I believe Liriano, Baker and Slowey will be just fine this season, but I’m not feeling Nick Blackburn and Glenn Perkins again. And it has nothing to do with Spring Training, where they’ve been really good. It’s just that they have such high WHIPs and such low strikeout rates that there’s seemingly no way they get this lucky again. Not to rain on the parade, but I’m expecting a regression.

Could the Luis Ayala signing be worse than 2008's Livan Hernandez signing? Which is worse: Never having a chance, or being really close, only to have something taken at the last second? Seems like most Twins fans would take the former over the latter from the different ways they treated Livan Hernandez and Matt Guerrier last season. They both had good moments and bad ones, but on the whole, Guerrier was light years more destructive than Hernandez because the piss-poor starts he spun were near-impossible to come back from. When Guerrier had a bad game, he gave up three hits and an earned run to snatch victory out of our grasp time and again. Enter Luis Ayala, who could be every bit the choke artist Guerrier turned out to be after July 4 last season. Looking at 2008, you can see why Washington/New York were so eager to part with him, what with a 5.71 ERA and 1.454 WHIP in 75 2/3 innings. That, and a pretty pedestrian 50 strikeouts (5.94 k/9).

Is this the year Joe Nathan gets hurt? I’m sorry to bring this up, but Nathan had shoulder problems in 2000, and is dealing with them again this spring. I mean, the guy is 34 years old, and an injury wouldn’t be completely out of the question after six straight malady-free campaigns. Right?

There’s little chance our division will be worse than last year. From the looks of things, Cleveland and Chicago will be our main competition, but Kansas City is on the rise and Detroit probably can’t get further than the rock-bottom they hit last year. Cleveland gets Fausto Carmona, Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner back from injury, and while they lost CC Sabathia mid-season, they should be ready to role with now-stud pitcher Cliff Lee leading the way. Sizemore, Peralta and up-and-comer Shin-Soo Choo along with Ryan Garko and Kelly Shoppach all look like solid bats. Chicago lost Carlos Quentin and almost the division after his wrist injury in September. With him, they were probably going to win the Central by 3-4 games. Tack on the fact that Ken Griffey Jr. and Nick Swisher gave them nearly nothing down the stretch/all year and you can see how good this team really is. Thome, Dye, Konerko, Quentin and Alexei Ramirez should all scare you. Thank god we stole Joe Crede! Kansas City remains a rag-tag group, but you can’t deny that their young hitters are going to continue to get better, and their pitching (Meche/Greinke) is finally able to shut people down on occasion. And closer Joakim Soria might be the best in the league (yes, better than Papelbon/Nathan/Rivera). Detroit lost Jeremy Bonderman for a large portion of 2008, and Gary Sheffield/Curtis Granderson struggled with injury at times, as well. Most of all, the team couldn’t get anything consistent from Justin Verlander, Nate Robertson or Kenny Rogers, which led to their undoing. I expect Detroit to struggle again without any reliable bullpen help (Brandon Lyon, Fernando Rodney), but one has to think they would improve a bit with a full season from their key players.

Alright, let's get ready for another Twins season, but be mindful of the things that COULD go wrong! It's really the only way to be a fan… loving our team while acknowledging the deficiencies. Home opener is on April 6, and I'm SUPER jacked-up for it! Plenty more to come.

Twins sign Guerrier, Ayala

2009-02-07T17:09:00.003-06:00

I'm glad the Twins locked up Matt Guerrier for another season. For all the tongue lashing I unleashed this passed season, it should be noted that "Matty G" pitched pretty well in the first half before completely falling apart. Overuse? Certainly possible.

What we DO know is that he'll be in uniform along with Luis Ayala, who comes to the Twin Cities from the Washington Nationals after posting a pretty ugly 5.74 ERA and 1.450 WHIP in 2008. He did, however, show much better in previous years, and it appears our beloved Twins believe he can regain that form.

If he pans out, then our bullpen begins to solidify. If not, we could have the same roller-coaster second half again. Let's hope for the former.

Incredible!

2009-01-25T11:04:00.003-06:00

I haven't written a word about the Twins on this blog since October 1, 2008. And the only reason I can think of is that I was going through a few stages of grief. Well, it's January 25, and I've finally passed through denial, indifference, weeping and now I'm getting my feelings out on paper. Or something like that.

A few thoughts:

The Twins need to sign Joe Crede RIGHT NOW. I'm not sure what the hesitation is, but there's no way they should be willing to settle for Buscher/Harris again.
I think I like our team coming into the season. The pitching was pretty good last year, but we'll need another bullpen arm. Hopefully Mijares is ready to roll. The hitting produced enough runs most of the time, and, of course, I'll talk about this in more detail as the season approaches.
I'm not sure how hard it is to do, but this blog ended up on Lavelle E. Neal's Star Tribune blog list. That was cool.
The plan is to post pretty regularly during the season this year. I started sometime in June or July last season and it worked out well. We'll play it by ear for the time being.

Have a great day!

Too Painful to Write

2008-10-01T08:52:00.003-05:00

It's never fun when your team gets knocked out for the season, but it's a lot less fun when they're eliminated before the playoffs begin. Feels unfair... feels numb. Time to turn our thoughts completely to football and basketball now, where the Wolves and Vikings look better than last season and hold some promise.

But first, some responses to yesterday's post and a closing thought for the 2008 season.

From Jason in Illinois - "F*** the coin toss. How can you not have a tie breaker like season series determine who gets the home field in the one game playoff. If that was in the Metrodome, we would of won easily."

I agree, Jason... this coin toss crap has got to go. These games at the end of the year are too important not to be determined by a worthwhile statistic or measure.

From "Ignateous" guy from CBS.Sportsline.com - "Offensively, the Twins were an absolute disgrace for this game. The hitters had no plan and even less patience. They couldn't lay off of any of Danks junk. Why fly all the way to Chicago only lay a big egg?"

It's very difficult to breathe right now... maybe I shouldn't have done this so soon...

From "Ramius7" guy from CBS.Sportsline.com - D@mnit, that is two postseason opportunities pissed away in a row. Getting swept out by Oakland two years ago with Barry Zito's last good start and now this. On a side note, there goes any chance of Mauer or Morneau @ MVP. They both needed to step up during KC or this game and neither did.

And the "Silver Lining Award" goes to "Ramius 7" guy.

From "jigga023" guy from CBS.Sportsline.com - Delmon Young again showed why he will never be that great of a hitter. He can't lay off anything in the stadium. He is a guaranteed out and will swing at any first pitch offered. Him leading off the 8th was like starting the 8th with an out.

Morneau folded under the pressure for the last week or so. He didn't do anything.

Not much of a showing last night, but a good season overall. Here's to next year.

Well said, my friend... we didn't get the hitting we needed, and that's pretty much all it amounted to. The pitching was incredible.

I'll leave you with a photo and some links...

This was sent to me by a friend, Al, whose friend did a quick piece of artwork last night. It's a masterpiece. Glorious.

If you need some cathartic streaming radio, KFAN.com will be available all day...

A decent story that might help...

Another blog to read today...

I'll be writing a season wrap-up at some point before retiring for the season... probably will write about some offseason posts as well. And feel free to check out my other blog, The Pulse. It's basketball-related.

Have a wonderful day, and get ready for Fort Myers in 2009! We're Comin'!!!!

White Sox... Washed With Red Clothes!

2008-09-30T13:54:00.002-05:00

After a season of toiling, battling, scratching, clawing, and stretching for the top of the division, it all comes down to one game. One starting pitcher. One lineup. Plenty of second-guessing? Remains to be seen. All I know is that I'm terrified that Nick Blackburn is pitching this game. I'd rather have them pitch Mijares, Nathan, Liriano, Baker and Breslow in succession for some sort of "über-pen" makeshift pitching performance than have "Big Game" Blackburn heave his gas can of an arm to the mound tonight. All he does is give up hits... and yes, I understand that he's good SOMETIMES, but not good enough to pitch with the season on the line. I'm upset about this.

That, and the fact that Justin Morneau is in a major slump at the worst time of the season. Maybe the off day will have done him some good. We can only hope. He's just one RBI behind Hamilton, so it's not like he's not going to be focused (aside from the do-or-die status of tonight's match up).

The lineups haven't come out yet, and I expect to see them around 5:00 from Star Tribune's web site. That's usually where they pop up first. Joe Christensen has been great about getting them up all season long.

Quick Stats:

White Sox starting pitcher John Danks is 2-3 with a 6.88 ERA in seven games vs. the Twins this year.
Winds should be around 10-15 mph blowing OUT of the stadium (dead center) at the Cell this evening. Blackburn needs to keep the ball down all night.
Justin Morneau is batting .158 (6-for-38) in his past 10 games.
My friend Ryan Wilson is a huge Sox fan. Anything you write in response to this post will go in a mass email to his inbox tonight.

Enjoy the game... pray it won't be the final one... GO TWINS!!!!!

Not "Burned" This Time

2008-09-25T10:48:00.004-05:00

I'll say it: I thought Blackburn was going to destroy our chances at the playoffs, but after his mediocre-but-entirely-necessary five-inning performance last night, I'm convinced it's Glen Perkins who should be shut down for the year. Or at least till 2009... he's got very little - possibly nothing - left.

It's going to be a short entry today, but I just wanted to review the top 10 list of "Reasons the Twins Can Sweep" I came up with Monday...

Bullpen - Aside from the obligatory Matt Guerrier explosion, our 'pen has tossed five scoreless innings so far this series. Fortunately, it seems as though Gardy has given up on "Matty G" in pressure situations, and Jose Mijares has been a godsend.
Joe Nathan - Made things a little interesting last night, but saved the game. Chances are they'll need him again tonight... Gavin Floyd awaits.
Scott Baker pitching the opener - Baker was dominant in the series opener, and set the tone for what has been a HUGE performance by the team.
Morneau's recent slump - He's 2-for-6 with a walk and one RBI, and the team needs him to come up big tonight.
Joe Mauer- The backstop extended his hitting streak to 12 games Tuesday before going 0-for-4 last night. It's telling that the team has been able to score runs without their no. 3 and no. 4 hitters producing. They're due.
The Span Spark- It seems that Span may have slipped into regression mode... he's 1-for-8 in this series with two strikeouts, and his average has dropped 15 points since the Baltimore series.
Home Advantage - Still lookin' good... the team is 7-1 vs. CWS in Minnesota this year.
Casilla's home splits - Apparently, Casilla didn't get the memo that he's supposed to hit at home. Also 1-for-8 during this series.
Vazquez and Buehrle's vs. MN woes in 2008 - The top two CWS pitchers (in name only...) combined for a 6.54 ERA and 1.818 WHIP in 11 innings over Games 1 and 2. We all know that Buehrle was markedly better, but he didn't help himself in allowing 12 baserunners.
Dye Slumping - Turns out Dye has faltered in a big way this series, going 0-for-8 so far. He's been horrible the entire month, sitting at .222/.284/.296 with 15 strikeouts in 81 at bats. His absence is killing the Sox.

Alright, I'm done now... another post coming tomorrow, regardless of the outcome.

Hanging On By a Thread

2008-09-22T14:15:00.002-05:00

At the beginning of the just-completed 10-game road trip, the only thing I wanted was to stay close. Sure, I'd have LOVED to pull into a tie or better with our south-side rivals, but it's better to be realistic. And it was realistic, based on schedules, that we'd be within three games in the final week of the season. Yeah, maybe we should have been better, but here's the reality. It's a six-game sprint to the finish, and we have a yet another golden opportunity to inch closer to a fifth division title in seven years. Folks, we're this close to seeing it happen!

The Tuesday starters will be Scott Baker (9-4, 3.69 ERA) and Javier Vazquez (12-14, 4.32 ERA), Wednesday night features Nick Blackburn (10-10, 4.15 ERA) and Mark Buehrle (14-11, 3.87 ERA) and the series finishes up with Kevin Slowey (12-11, 3.85 ERA) vs. Gavin Floyd (16-8, 3.84 ERA).

I'm just gonna throw this out there... the Twins need a sweep. If they don't, they'll be relying on Cleveland and possibly Detroit to bail them out, and that's a bad place to be. Cleveland has won six straight, mind you, but they're certainly not a lock to knock out the hated Pale Hose. In light of this fact, here are ten reasons the Twins can sweep this series:

The bullpen has found new life in a mixture of Dennys Reyes, Jose Mijares and Craig Breslow. In the past six games, the trio has combined to throw 15 innings, giving up just two earned runs. In addition, they've struck out 14 batters and given up just seven hits. Maybe we do have a bridge to closer Joe Nathan.
Speaking of Nathan, he's now converted two saves in a row - both against the Rays this past series. He looks to be back on track, which is exactly where we need him.
If there's anyone other than Liriano we'd want to start this series off, it's Scott Baker. After a rough patch, he's got a nice 3.02 ERA over his past six starts (38 2/3 IP).
Slugger Justin Morneau is coming off an ugly 3-for-15, NO RBI series vs. Tampa Bay, there's a very good chance he turns it around at home (or continues to struggle... but we're trying to stay positive!). Suffice it to say that if he's to win the MVP, he'll have to earn it over this three-game set.
Catcher Joe Mauer is batting .391 in September, his best month of production so far... in fact, he's currently on an 11-game hitting streak and is batting .521 over his past 11 games. Oh, and he's leading the batting title race by .006 points now!
After a brief 1-for-17 slump in the middle of the road trip, right-fielder Denard Span bounced back with a 6-for-17 (.353) weekend series vs. the Rays.
Home Cookin: The team is 49-26 at home compared to a 35-46 finish on the road. (I know, that was an easy one).
Speaking of production at home, 2B-man Alexi Casilla is batting .333 at home compared to .261 on the road. The team could really use him as a spark at the top too - he batted a pretty poor 7-for-32 (.219) on the 10-game trip.
Javier Vazquez and Mark Buehrle, the series' first two opposing pitchers, have a combined 3-2 record with a 5.57 ERA and 1.597 WHIP against Minnesota in five starts this season. So they've not had a lot of luck against us. The onus is on the Twins' pitching to get the job done.
For some reason, I'm always terrified of Jermaine Dye when we play the White Sox, and he's in a huge slump right now. Dude is batting .242 with no homers and just six RBI in September (19 games). That, after hitting 32 homers and driving in 83 RBI in the first five months.

I'm spent... that's all for now!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the games this week!

Twins Talk Via Email

2008-09-19T13:54:00.006-05:00

So my friend Troy and I traded emails all morning and it struck me - "Why not just post this string of emails instead of writing today?" If you can believe it, I actually did the research on the stats I used. I'm such a dork, even in emailing.

*****

Jamaal: That was an incredible comeback... is this the turnaround?

Troy B Balego:    Plus now Joe Mauer is leading the league in hitting and Morneau is leading in RBI

Jamaal: Wow... Miguel Cabrera is charging hard though... 18 HRs, 64 RBI in the second half.   Morneau has 9 HRs and 60 RBI in the second half... batting just .290. Turns out his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) is a TON lower in the second half (.279). That just means the balls he hits in play aren't falling for hits nearly as much as they did in the first half (.347).   

Troy: Still, I tinhk if the Twins win the divsion he has to be the choice. Can you beleive how Josh Hamilton has fallen off? Dude has like 20 RBI second half of the year. Wonder if he's back on the yam yam.

Jamaal: I doubt he's doing drugs, but the RBI probably stopped coming as frequently as soon as Milton Bradley became Milton Bradley and kept getting hurt AND Ian Kinsler went down with that groin injury. That really hurt him.   Hamilton has 10 HRs, 29 RBI in the second half.   

Troy: Kinsler getting on base is what made him and the team go. I never thought Morneau would pass him in RBI total. He was like 30 behind at one point.
          
Jamaal: Morneau had like 68 at the break, and Hamilton had 95. You're right though - Kinsler was freak. IS a freak.   

Troy: I would love the Twins to find an infielder like Kinsler to be on the team. We need that more than anything.
 
Jamaal: Agreed - it'd be nice to pick bring up a solid SS or sign somebody. I'm still touting that Garret Atkins idea though... TOTALLY could work. I don't mind Buscher as a backup, but I don't believe he's good enough to get us over the top.

Troy: I just wish we'd have someone come up through our famr system that was good. We enver have any shortstop or 2B prospects that pan out. We need sometinhg like that. Or a 3B for that matter.

Jamaal: Well, Luke Hughes is a possibility at 3B next year... he was quite good at AA and AAA.

Troy: He wasn't that impressive, was he?

Jamaal: In double-A, Hughes batted .319 with 15 homers, 40 RBI in 285 at bats (70 games).   In triple-A, he batted .283 with 3 homers and 21 RBI in 106 at bats (29 games). He'll need another year at Triple-A, but he could totally play for us in the second half next year, or in 2010. He struck out too much in Triple-A, but I'm guessing he'll probably settle in next season.

Troy: That's not bad but not “wow” either. Ben Revere - who is a Denard Span type player - hit almost .400 this year. I wonder if he could play 2nd, 3rd or short?

Jamaal: Right, but Hughes projects to be a 25-80 guy at 3B, which is better than what we have now. He could probably hit 30 at his peak.   Revere is an outfielder, and got hurt mid-season... he finished with a .379 batting average after struggling BIG TIME after coming off the DL. He ended the season on a six-game hitting streak, going 10-for-26 (.385). Stole 44 bases this season though... totally looks like a leadoff guy in like 2-3 years or something. He's only 20 years old, and he played low-A ball this year.   

Troy: What about Bushy though? 

Jamaal: No one cares about Buscher.

Troy: He held hiks own for a while at least. Mike Lamb set the bar pretty low though.

Jamaal:   Eh... he held his own vs. righties, yeah! 4 HRs, 40 RBI and a .333 average against RHP.   Of course, in 50 ABs vs. LHPs, he's batting .205 with 6 RBI and 12 Ks. I could totally see him platooning with someone though.

Troy:   He should learn to be a switch hitter. next Chipper Jones?????          

Jamaal: Nah... how about just improve?

Troy:  We should start calling him Chipper Buscher for inspiration

Jamaal: We'll call him Chip... we've got a good vibe with him.

Troy: Call him Chip Buscher in your next blog. Talk about his jammed tmumb or something. We can totally get this started.

Jamaal: That might catch on.

Troy: Well do it already. I haven't received Twins Hotspot in days.    

Jamaal: I’ve been busy…

Troy: Yeah, sending emails to me… lol.

Jamaal: You're right though - everything I would have put into a blog I wrote to you... I mean, you saw all the stats I was throwing out...  

Troy: Just copy our email string into a blog. You can put my name in there.

And that’s just what I did… Thanks to Troy for opening up to the blogging world. Of course, I was copying and pasting our email string before I got his permission in that last message… seemed like the right thing to do. Enjoy the game tonight, and thanks for reading!

Treading Water

2008-09-16T08:38:00.002-05:00

Seems like we were in the same place last week... oh, wait -- we are. Still 1.5 games behind Chicago, the Twins are doing their best to stay afloat. We said 90 games would win the division - looks like a certainty now with only 12 games left. In fact, the division winner might not even reach that mark. Since I last wrote, the Twins have gone 2-2 and the White Sox have gone 2-2. The problem is that we can't just keep pace... we need a surge - however small - forward. Winning these next two games in Cleveland would be an excellent start, especially with the seemingly unbeatable Francisco Liriano (Since Aug. 1: 5-0, 1.57 ERA) and better-late-than-never Scott Baker (Last Five: 2-1, 2.38 ERA) going Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. The Tampa Bay series later this week is looming large, and will have a HUGE effect on playoff match ups and playoff berths. I said it before, and I'll say it again - a 5-5 road trip is necessary to even have a chance at the playoffs. They've already got two wins, and I wouldn't bank on more than two at Tampa Bay. The time to get some wins is NOW.

I thought it'd be fun to but out a little "who's hot?/who's not?" for today...

HOT List

Delmon Young - Young has batted 8-for-23 over his past six appearances, scoring five runs. Unfortunately, he hasn't been especially "clutch", as he's only driven in one run in the past week despite +.300 batting averages for both Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel.

Justin Morneau - The MVP candidate continues to do his thing, totaling 15 bases over his past seven games, including a home run and seven RBI.

Denard Span - Span blasted two homers on Saturday, his 5th and 6th of the year. Unfortunately, our leadoff man has gone 0-for-9 since then.

Liriano (see above)

Brian Buscher - Despite only playing in five of the past seven games, Buscher has been killing the ball, going 6-for-14 (.429) over that span.

Dennys Reyes - Looks like Reyes is in one of his "hot streaks" again... he hasn't allowed a run in his past four appearances, though he did give up a game-winning hit vs. Kansas City last week.

Craig Breslow - He's been the best reliever outside Joe Nathan (who hasn't pitched since 9/11), as he's on a current eight-appearance scoreless streak (8 IP).

Cold List

Nick Blackburn - Seems like Blackburn was fine until Sunday in Baltimore, when he got ripped for six runs and nine hits in just four innings of work. He'll try to right the ship this weekend in Tampa Bay.

Glen Perkins - It's possible that Perkins is breaking down, and you can rest assured that he'd be the guy going to the bullpen if the Twins make the playoffs. Perk is a deceiving 1-1 over his past four outings, but has a 7.40 ERA and 1.645 WHIP over those starts.

Joe Mauer - He'll probably bounce back in short order, but Mauer is experiencing a mini-slump... batting just .217 over his past six games.

Alexi Casilla - Last, Casilla has been just as lifeless as Mauer these days, with just one hit in his past 15 at bats.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day! Game Time is 6:10 tonight!

9/11: Twins vs. Royals Live Blog

2008-09-11T10:40:00.000-05:00

This is our THIRD live blog of the season, and it should be a fun one!

Back to Good

2008-09-09T22:05:00.005-05:00

Just call 'em the Blue "Jayson Kidds", because they're dishing some sweet assists of late. Toronto knocked off our rival White Sox not once, but twice Tuesday to help bring our beloved Twins closer to the mountain top. First, A.J. Burnett baffled the ChiSox for seven innings before Scott Downs and B.J. Ryan closed out Game 1. The second battle featured young righty Jesse Litsch (who shutout the Twins last week), who proceeded to perplex and disable the Pale Sox bats for seven innings in the 8-2 nightcap win. And tomorrow, Cy Young candidate Roy Halladay pitches against the Sox as the Blue Jays try for their season-high 11th win in a row.

In addition, Chicago's Paul Konerko (batting .356/.473/.632 with 6 HRs since August) left the game with what looked like an awful knee injury. And while I'll never revel in someone else's pain, I won't deny that Konerko's departure from the lineup makes things easier on Minnesota.

Oh yeah, and the Twins won too. And if you didn't see it, the whole thing was glorious.

Nick Blackburn tossed seven innings, giving up just two runs and six hits while striking out three. What's more, Dennys Reyes and Jesse Crain combined to pitch two shutout frames (a rarity in relief these days...) as the team won 8-2.

Justin Morneau bombed his 23rd home run of the season, along with driving in his 119th RBI of the year. As a matter of fact, Joe Mauer - the team's top hitter - was the only guy without a hit on the night.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. The team made up 1.5 games in the standings like it was nothing... and nothing has come easy lately. One more thing... looks like Michael Cuddyer might be of assistance in the season's final week, according to Joe Christensen.

So enjoy your day, Twins fans. We can exhale a bit... we can afford ourselves a smile... we're in this thing.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day! Remember... there's a LIVE BLOG THURSDAY!!!

Quick Post

2008-09-09T13:32:00.004-05:00

This post won't get out to subscribers, but I just had to comment on the Blue Jays/White Sox day game. I'm really hoping Toronto gives CWS a dose of what they gave us. Burnett, Halladay and Shawn Marcum are pitching three of the four games this series. Could be an opportune time for the Twins. It's a day/night double-header, by the way, with the second game starting at 7:11 p.m. The first game is going on right now.

It's never a great feeling when you're counting on other teams to lose, but at least it's only one team, you know? We could be the Yankees right about now... blech.

Twins start at 7:10 this evening... Nick Blackburn vs. Brian Bannister.

Last thing... LIVE BLOG THURSDAY during the day game! Be sure to check it out!

Thanks for reading, and have a great night!

A Lost Weekend

2008-09-08T09:16:00.003-05:00

Even the Tigers know Minnesota sucks right now. We thought our team needed a little home cookin', and Friday, Francisco Liriano devastated Detroit, allowing Twins' Fandom thoughts of a sweep. I'll even admit that after the seventh inning on Saturday, I was entertaining the idea that our team could rip through the homestand without sustaining so much as a loss. Then the "Grim Reaper Crew" (GRC) happened. And by that, I'm talking about our stable of relievers that we just KNOW are going to blow the game when they come in. And Saturday, Dennys Reyes came in with one out and served up a game-tying, two-run shot. Then, after he waddled off the mound, our boy Matt Guerrier proceeded to allow ANOTHER two-run dinger to give Detroit the lead at 6-4, and eventually the game.

Led by Guerrier, Boof Bonser, Jesse Crain and Reyes, the GRC have sabotaged game after game with their late-inning antics. Bonser is going the wrong way right now... Reyes/Crain combined to lose the game Saturday in stomach-punch fashion... Eddie Guardado is embarrassing. For god's sake - the bullpen is something like 1-7 in since the 14-game road trip. In fact, only Crain and Craig Breslow have been bearable lately, as the rest of the non-Nathan relievers own a 13.00 ERA over the past seven days. If you thought Pat Neshek's injury was devastating at the time, look at us now... look at us now.

And Sunday, Glen Perkins gave the team a chance to win for five innings before succumbing to the longball, giving up a homer and three total runs in the sixth. The Tigers tacked on a couple more runs vs. Bonser in the seventh, effectively ending the game. I'd like to fight Bonser right about now.

On top of all this, the White Sox gained a game on us this weekend to push the lead to 2.5 with 19 games left... hopefully they won't be able to solve the Blue Jays and A.J. Burnett tonight (7:11 p.m. CST). Toronto has been on fire in September, winning eight straight after sweeps of Minnesota and Tampa Bay. They're in "spoiler mode", and I'm hoping they keep that mojo workin'.

Despite all this negativity, the Twins get Kansas City for three games starting Tuesday, where they'll send Nick Blackburn (9-8, 3.71 ERA), Kevin Slowey (11-9, 3.75 ERA) and Francisco Liriano (5-3, 3.33 ERA) to the mound against Brian Bannister (7-14, 5.56 ERA), Kyle Davies (6-6, 4.59 ERA) and Brandon Duckworth (2-1, 6.60 ERA). That's right, we're not even going to see Gil Meche or Zack Greinke. It's like they're throwing the series. Seriously.

Thanks for reading today, and GO VIKINGS!!!

Let's get PUMPED UP!!!!

2008-09-05T16:39:00.002-05:00

In the wake of the Twins' victory tonight on the strength of Francisco Liriano's pitching, I thought I'd let my boy Van Halen do the talking. I'm pretty fired up right now!

A Bunch of Dogs.

2008-09-04T23:15:00.008-05:00

P.M. Update: Carlos Quentin may be done for the year!

On a night when I couldn't have cared less whether the Twins won or lost, they played so poorly that it ruined the NFL's opening night for me. And that's hard to do, considering I have Brandon Jacobs (21 car., 116 yards) and Plaxico Burress (10 rec., 133 yards) on a few fantasy teams, and they played pretty well. What a bunch of quitters. We'll need more fight than this to overtake the White Sox, who are now 1.5 games up on our beloved baseball club.

Quick stats:

Minnesota pitchers tossed just 2/3 of an inning that didn't scare me.
Twins batters combined for just four hits against Jesse Litsch, who has a season WHIP of nearly 1.300. That means we should of at least gotten 6-8 hits over nine innings, because our hitters are relative underachievers. Four hits? Barf.
The team scored 4.71 runs per night during the 14-game road trip, but scored zero runs yesterday.
After notching runs vs. such prominent pitchers as John Lackey, AJ Burnett and Ervin Santana, the Twins allowed Litsch to baffle them. Unbelievable.
Justin Morneau and Alexi Casilla both left a total of three men on base.

Here's how it happened: Kevin Slowey gave up 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings while striking out three. He only gave up three runs, which - in theory - gives the team a chance to win, especially after Craig Breslow (good 1/3 inning) struck out Toronto's Joe Inglett to end the inning. Thing is, Slowey was ineffective. Ten baserunners in less than six innings? That means he got lucky, folks. But with the way he's been pitching lately, I can't be all that mad. Of course, Jesse Crain came in and gave up a homer - that's 5 ER in his past 3 2/3 IP (uh, oh). Then came the other solid 1/3 of an inning from Dennys Reyes, who got Adam Lind to ground out. From there, Bobby Korecky (3H, 1BB, 4 ER, 1/3 IP) and Phil Humber (3H, 1 ER, 2/3 IP) brought us home with an abysmal five-run eighth inning to give Toronto a comfortable 9-0 lead. Hopefully that wasn't as frustrating to read as it was to write.

Of the Twins' four hits, Denard Span accounted for half of them, including a leadoff single that was completely wasted by Casilla's follow-up double-play ball. The team didn't even manage a baserunner after the fifth inning. That's right, Jesse-freaking-Litsch retired the final 13 batters.

And with that, the 5-9 road trip comes to an end. A bitter, trying end. And the Twins return home with their tails between their legs, beaten to a pulp by a middle-of-the-road team.

But the great thing about baseball is that you move on to the next day, the next team, the next series. The team needs a clean slate and some familiar scenery. Maybe the Metrodome will cure what ails. Minnesota faces Armando Galarraga (12-4, 3.17 ERA) Friday, Justin Verlander (10-15, 4.74 ERA) Saturday and Chris Lambert (0-1, 6.75 ERA) Sunday. For the Twins, Francisco Liriano (4-3, 3.45 ERA), Scott Baker (8-4, 3.66 ERA) and Glen Perkins (12-3, 4.08 ERA) will try and keep the Tigers at bay until the bullpen collapses in eventual Twins losses. Please guys - Joe Nathan, Crain, Reyes, Bonser, Breslow, etc. - prove me wrong.

Thanks for reading, and have a nice weekend! I'll try to write once, but it's no guarantee with the first Sunday of the NFL season + another college football Saturday coming up. I'm pretty much comatose from 11 a.m. Saturday to 10 p.m. Monday every week.

Short Rant

2008-09-04T12:00:00.003-05:00

I can't write a whole lot today, if only because I'm sure to punch a hole through anything/anyone if I start getting worked up again. Last night was a pitching and fielding abomination. A complete meltdown. A glimpse of hell.

Our starter, Nick Blackburn, had pitched six very good innings and had a nice 3-2 lead after Joe Mauer cleared the bases with slicing double to the left-field gap. Things felt pretty good at that point... then they turned to crap. Blackburn started the inning off well enough, getting two of the first three batters out, which left Kevin Mench on second base with two down. That's when Nick Punto - normally a sure-bet to make an inning ending play - biffed on a hot grounder to short. The ball bounced off his glove and arm, but somehow he didn't knock it down. Mench came around to score, tying the game at three. Folks, if Punto makes that play, the inning is over and it's possible that none of the following happens.

Five pitches later, Matt Tolbert makes a beautiful stop at third base, but fails to connect with Justin Morneau on the throw. The ball ended up in the stands, which thankfully stopped the runners from advancing. Then, inexplicably, Gardenhire removes Nick Blackburn from the game with just 84 pitches thrown. There is no more ridiculous move that could have been made in that situation. Quick Recap: Blackburn gets (seemingly) two ground-ball outs, then is removed from the game? Was he pointing a gun at Tolbert? Did he lunge at Punto with a knife? Why take him out? He's still effective, the bullpen obviously isn't capable of closing out games... what was the deal? Dammit, I'm getting pissed off again.

As we all know, Matt Guerrier pitched 1 1/3 innings of spotless relief before giving way to the suddenly-helpless Joe Nathan, who once again barfed up a terrible performance when the team needed a pick-me-up. Forget the Pridie error... Nathan hasn't looked good for over a week... he's letting tons of men reach base, and isn't giving himself a chance to close out the game (read: isn't giving the TEAM a chance to win). I'd never suggest a change with the kind of pitcher he is, but this is getting ridiculous. The bats are producing and the pitching can't hold down an opponent? AARRRRGGHHHH!!!!!

Here's a sweet post from someone named "The Wombat" in the CBS.Sportsline.com Twins message board area:

Well, hindsight being 20/20 and all, maybe we should have done more for the bullpen at the trading deadline. Regardless, there's no debating where to lay the losing record from this road trip.

Starters

4-2; 80.9 IN; 89 H; 30 R; 27 ER; 17 BB; 52 SO; 3.00 ERA

Relievers

1-6; 31.8 IN; 30 H; 17 R; 15 ER; 10 BB; 23 SO; 4.25 ERA

1-6?!?!?! Incompetence hardly describes this. I would've been happy with a 7-7 record coming out of this road trip, and we should have been able to accomplish that. Bullpen my ass. Try Pig pen.

My sentiments, exactly.

The 11th inning loss was tough to take, but none of that crap would ever have happened without the earlier bloopers.

Sometimes, I wonder why I even bother to watch. Slowey vs. Litsch tonight at 6:07 p.m... hoping for better things. I'll be watching football.

I'll try to write something more coherent tomorrow... thanks for reading!

Everything is Terrible, Thanks

2008-09-03T10:34:00.006-05:00

There are some losses that you can get over, and then some you just can't. The Twins' loss last night falls under category #2, if only because they're completely unreliable lately. It's obvious that Toronto is a good team in one of baseball's better divisions, but blowing a 5-1 lead after four innings is pretty awful. Our pitching is good enough to put away middling teams, and they didn't deliver last night. Glen Perkins didn't help himself at all, giving up four runs in five innings and demanding that the bullpen pitch the rest of the game, but still... you've got to keep it together for 5-6 innings to have a chance. Boof Bonser and Matt Guerrier took steps backward, Bonser giving up the go-ahead two-run shot in the sixth inning, while Guerrier let in an insurance run later in the game. The worst part is that the White Sox lost to the Indians again and are doing the best they can to hand us the division lead. Minnesota continues in its stern refusal. (If you're getting this blog in your email, it's going to cut off here... simply click this link and read the rest!)

The hitting was pretty decent... I mean, they put up five runs, which is generally enough to win. No fault there - everyone except Randy Ruiz and the struggling 3B platoon got a hit, and you can't really ask for much more. Clamoring for increased scoring is just greed and grasping for straws.

The most alarming thing about this outing is that Perkins, who has a season BAA vs. righties of .272 vs a .349 mark vs. righties, allowed a righty-dominated lineup to tune him up. Perkins gave up 10 hits and a walk in just five innings. What's worse, he allowed SEVEN line drive hits, which ties his highest mark of the year. People were smoking the ball last night, and Perkins didn't have a chance. Good news though - Perkins' season stats don't support this horrible trip to the mound, so hopefully it's just a bad game, not fatigue.

Tonight, Toronto's A.J. Burnett will try to dazzle Minnesota hitters while Nick Blackburn tries to hold off a hot Toronto lineup. I'll trudge my way over to the television yet again, and I'm hoping for better things...

Other Stuff: Alex Rios broke out of a slump by pounding a home run as part of a two-hit night for Toronto... Twins slugger Justin Morneau is quickly closing on Texas OF Josh Hamilton for the RBI lead. Hamilton has 121 while Morneauzie has 109 - Hamilton led by over 30 at the all-star break. Is the MVP a possibility?... After throwing a scoreless inning in his first game with the Twins, reliever Eddie Guardado has given up four earned runs in 1 1/3 innings since. Yikes.

Thanks for reading... Go TWINS!!!

A North-of-the-Border Salvage?

2008-09-02T10:44:00.004-05:00

At this time of year, we're just glad to have hope. Hope that our team won't betray our season-long emotional investment. Hope that injuries won't derail a run at the division. Hope that the bats don't cool down at the wrong time. Hope that the White Sox lose every pivotal game. Hope that the season doesn't end on September 28 this year.

September baseball means something, and this first series in Toronto will set the tone. Tonight, Glen Perkins (12-3, 3.96 ERA) faces young gun David Purcey (2-5, 5.53 ERA), who struck out a career-high 11 in his last start. Wednesday will be a stiff test for the Twins as they draw strikeout artist A.J. Burnett (16-10, 4.48 ERA). Minnesota will counter with Nick Blackburn (9-8, 3.75 ERA), and then send Kevin Slowey (11-8, 3.70 ERA) to the hill in the series finale Thursday afternoon. His mound opponent will be Jesse Litsch (9-8, 4.01 ERA), who has been up-and-down from the minors this year.

Toronto, as a team, has actually been pretty good this year. They stand at 71-66 right now, and are ahead of last season's pace despite sitting at no. 4 in the American League East behind Tampa Bay, Boston and New York. The problem has been consistent pitching behind Halladay and Burnett. They've gotten good starts from Marcum and earlier this season from Dustin McGowan, but injuries have derailed a fragile situation. There just wasn't a whole lot in the minors to keep the the Toronto in contention.

Series notes: Toronto got OF Vernon Wells back from the disabled list in early August, and he's gone on to punish pitchers since his return to the tune of a .338/.398/.635 hitting line with six homers and 21 RBI in 19 games... 2B Alexi Casilla had never hit more than three home runs in a season during his minor league career, but inexplicably has six in just 290 major-league at bats this year... Justin Morneau is back. After a horrible start to August, he's hit safely in seven of his past eight games (15-for-35, .429 BA, 2 HRs, 9 RBI)... Normally an offensive spark for Toronto, Alex Rios is in a mini-slump lately, hitting just 3-for-19 over the past four games with three strikeouts and zero walks... The Twins will likely see a lot of lefty reliever Scott Downs against Morneau, Mauer and Kubel this series - Downs has given up just one run since July 5, a span of 23 2/3 innings (21 outings)... Last, starter Kevin Slowey has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over his past five starts, going 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA and 1.000 WHIP in 31 innings. He's also been able to strike out 30 batters over that stretch, including two double-digit strikeout games in the past three.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the game tonight!

Laborious Road Trip

2008-09-01T09:09:00.005-05:00

And on the 18th day, the Twins rested.

Happy Labor day, everyone! Minnesota just completed their "17 games in 17 days" stretch, and are officially through the dog dayz of summer. There are only 25 games left on the 2008 schedule (13 away, 12 home), and with the Twins trailing by just a 1/2-game to the White Sox at the beginning of September, that Sept. 23-25 series is gathering momentum as a possible season-altering match up. I don't know about you, but I'm making plans to be in attendance for at least one of those games. It's not every year that you get to watch your team play their way into a division title.

So if you've been watching religiously, you know the Twins have struggled to a 5-6 record through 11 games on this ridiculous road trip. You also know that they could very well be 9-2 with devastating come-from-behind losses to Anaheim (2), Seattle (blown save) and Oakland (blown save). The once-untouchable Joe Nathan went through a tough stretch, and it was to be expected at some point, but against Oakland and Seattle? Horrible timing.

All in all, it's been a disappointing stretch of games, but six games this week vs. Toronto and Detroit (Chicago Sox play Cleveland/Los Angeles Angels) give the Twins yet another opportunity to get a grip on the division lead. The team has to know these chances won't keep coming around. It's do-or-die time, and luckily, a few farm hands might put Minnesota over the top:

September Call Ups:

OF Jason Pridie - Anyone who's paid attention to Triple-A has noticed this speed/power outfielder all season long. He was probably one of the most obvious call ups with the way Carlos Gomez has been playing (offensively) lately. Pridie has a good, solid bat and a fundamentally sound defensive approach. He'll likely get some random ABs in September and could supplant Gomez in the outfield rotation with some luck.
SP Phil Humber - If you've been following this blog for the past few weeks, Humber has dominated the "minor league notes" section. Since a three-week stint in the bullpen, he's pitched out of his mind and deserved the big-league call. Seems that the minor league staff found his weakness and corrected it.
RP Bobby Korecky - Korecky has a few major league innings already this year, and wasn't all that great back in May. He'll get a few innings here and there to keep the other bullpen arms fresh, and will likely be auditioning for a shot to join the Twins next season.
SS Matt Tolbert - Tolbert is back from the disabled list after a lengthy rehab assignment. He'll join Brendan Harris and Nick Punto in a shortstop-by-committee approach.
RP Jose Mijares -This lefty was actually slated to pitch for the big club this season before sustaining injuries in a vehicular collision earlier this year. He's been quite good in a quick rise through the minors this past month.
3B Matt Macri - In my opinion, Mike Macri is less deserving of a call than Luke Hughes and Garrett Jones, but positionally, the Twins need more help at third base. I suspect the team wanted Hughes to get some more time under his belt at Triple-A/Arizona Fall League before handing him a role in the Twin Cities.
C Ryan Jorgensen - He's not especially gifted, but Jorgensen will provide depth behind the plate.

Snubs: Garrett Jones, RF, Rochester; Luke Hughes SS/3B, Rochester; Alejandro Machado 2B/SS, Rochester; Ben Julianiel, Closer, New Britain; Steven Tolleson 2B, New Britain; Dustin Martin CF, New Britain.

I'll be back tomorrow with a Minnesota/Toronto series preview... enjoy the tail-end of your Labor Day weekend!

"Must NOT-see TV"

2008-08-29T08:38:00.005-05:00

I played basketball last night, so I was feeling a little tired around 8:45 and thought I might go to sleep after a couple innings of the game. But nooooo, I had to call a friend and go to his place and watch the entire 3-2 Twins loss in HD. I really could have used that few extra hours, too. Instead, I witnessed an offensively sluggish team struggle to hit vs. lefty Dana Eveland. Seemed like J-Morneau was hitting the ball hard, but right at people every time. So annoying. And Brendan Harris looks lost at the dish right now. And that Jason Kubel at bat in the ninth inning... good lord. Horrid. Take a pitch, buddy. I wish there were some easy answers, but I can't think of anything aside from getting new players. This Athletics ARE who we THOUGHT THEY WERE, and we LET 'EM OFF THE HOOK!!

The good news, however, is that Nick Blackburn - 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER - managed a nice bounce-back outing after getting beaten up a bit this past weekend by Anaheim (10 hits, 2 BB in 4 2/3 IP). The bullpen even looked OK until the ninth when left a pitch up for Kurt Suzuki, who deposited it into the left field gap for the game-winning hit. Boof Bonser kept up the resurgent month with a scoreless 1 1/3 inning outing - he's got a 2.92 ERA in 12 August innings after racking up a 8.73 ERA in 22 2/3 combined June/July innings.

And if you get a chance, on SportCenter or otherwise, try to get a peek at the Casilla-to-Punto double play from last night. One of the most incredible plays I've seen in awhile. I'll try to find the link.

Here's hoping for better things tonight - it's Kevin Slowey vs. Dan L. Meyer. I always feel better about a matchup where the opposing pitcher regularly uses his middle initial in print. What a tool. Only authors and politicians can get away with that.

That's all for now!

Minor League Notes:

New Britain got some SWEET pitching last night. Starter Jeff Manship went six scoreless innings, allowing just five baserunners while striking out seven. Ben Julianiel pitched 1 1/3 innings to record save number 25.
Beloit (Low-A) Starter Mike McCardell baffled Kane County for seven innings, striking out four batters while allowing six men to reach base. Aside from his horrible outing late last week (5 ER in 6 2/3 IP), McCardell has looked ready for a promotion.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Finally, a fresh post.

2008-08-27T15:49:00.006-05:00

Sorry for the delay... being that this isn't an official blog, and I'm a regular guy sort of messing around, I'm prone to writer's block and apathy. And inactivity due to disgust at my favorite team's performance.

So I'm relieved. The Twins, after blowing four straight games they easily could have one, finally pulled a victory out of thin air Wednesday. It was a good win, a tough win. Starter Glen Perkins wasn't all

that great on the mound, but then again, he didn't have to be spectacular vs. a very vulnerable Ryan Feierabend/Mariners bullpen. The Minnesota bats teed off for six runs on 14 hits, and kept the pressure on until scratching for three eighth-inning runs, and eventually the win. On the heels of an ugly stretch of games, the Twins bounced back, and that's all you can ask for. The team got lucky that Chicago faltered a bit against Baltimore, and now goes head-to-head vs. the Red Sox this weekend. Now let's see if Minnesota can make up ground against another beatable team in Oakland.

Mariner Series Notes: DH Randy Ruiz hit 4-for-11 with his first MLB homer during the series, and is batting .340 in 47 at bats since his call up... Despite going 5-for-14 (and a current four-game hit streak) in the Seattle series, Justin Morneau failed to notch an RBI, leaving five men on base... Minnesota is 5-4 against the Mariners this season, a team that has the worst record in the American League... Twins starters threw 19 2/3 innings during the series and had a decent 3.66 ERA, 1.47 WHIP. The problem is, they only struck out 4.11 batters per nine innings, which leads to a ton of trouble when you allow that many baserunners... After scuffling through the entire month of August, reliever Matt Guerrier now has 4 1/3 scoreless inning streak over his past four appearances. Hooooorrrray Matt!

Oakland Series Preview: Let me just start by saying I hate Oakland. Really. Maybe it's because they have a similar mindset to the Twins, but they just seem like a bunch of A-holes. Led by Frank Thomas, of course. And I hate that they're using all left-handed pitchers, too. That's bush league.

The first game of the series is tonight at 9:05, and the Twins will run Nick Blackburn (9-8, 3.78 ERA) out there to face Dana Eveland (8-8, 4.30 ERA). Friday night, Kevin Slowey (10-8, 3.74) will try to continue his four-game "two runs or less" streak against a very hittable Dan L. Meyer (0-2, 5.95 ERA). The Saturday night 8:05 p.m. "prime time match up" will feature Francisco Liriano (4-3, 3.83 ERA) and Dallas Braden (4-3, 4.13 ERA), who squared off in the Metrodome last week. Sunday afternoon at 3:05 p.m., Scott Baker (7-4, 3.75) will try to get back into the win column, but he'll have to do it against Greg Smith (6-13, 3.90 ERA). Here's hoping for the first road sweep since interleague play!

Minor League Notes:

Rochester (AAA) starter Phil Humber put up another excellent start, going seven innings and allowing just two runs last night. Aside from one meltdown on August 7, Humber has pitched like a completely different person since mid-July, and looks ready for major-league competition. We'll see if he's asked up next week.
Last, Matt Tolbert hasn't looked great in his minor league rehab assignment, going just 1-for his past -11 at bats and batting .265 over his past ten games. However, he's still scheduled to return to the big leagues in September.

Thanks for reading, and I'll be sure to post something after the game tonight!

Guardado to the Twins!

2008-08-25T14:25:00.006-05:00

You were probably as shocked as I was to hear the news, but Eddie Guardado is once again a Minnesota Twin. Not exactly the kind of bullpen help we were looking for, but as a setup man, he's been above average (.198 BAA). He even earned the "closer" role in Texas earlier this year, which doesn't mean a whole lot when C.J. Wilson is your stopper, but it's a role nonetheless. In 2008, Guardado has a decent 3.65 ERA, including an ugly 5.19 ERA and .355 BAA (batting average against) in August. Clearly, the closer role does not suit him.

Still, the Twins probably believe that their need for another left-handed arm in the bullpen outweighs his recent struggles. In return, the Twins gave up Elizabethton (rookie ball) closer Mike Hamburger (1-2, 4.17 ERA), who was named the league's top reliever this year.

More coming later, including a Twins-A's series preview! Enjoy your afternoon!

Give 'em a Mulligan

2008-08-24T00:06:00.006-05:00

Just a quick reaction from tonight's game...

I'm not one for low expectations, but the 7-5 loss to the Angels tonight was a forgone conclusion. There was no way we were walking out of Anaheim with more than three wins, that's for damn sure. Not that Jon Garland scares me... he's a panty-waist sissy boy if there ever was one. But like I said yesterday, our pitching, no matter how good, isn't going to hold this lineup down all series. Goodness - we held them to ONE RUN over 21 innings on Thursday and Friday combined! They almost deserved a break. So we'll run it back at them tomorrow in hopes of an improbable series win. Case closed.

I mean... sure, Nick Blackburn didn't help himself by allowing 12 baserunners in less than five innings, but the defense behind him biffed two plays that likely keep the damage to a minimum if they're made. Notice Blackburn only had three earned runs, though six crossed the plate while he was on the mound. You can't give Anaheim anything... they'll cut your throat and take the rest before you can say "Magic Kingdom".

I refuse to let this game get me down though - five runs should have been enough to get the job done, and mental mistakes let it get away. Good news though... the White Sox lost, so we hold our 1/2-game lead going into the series finale at 2:35 CST Sunday.

For those of you who voted in the poll, I wonder what you expected from this series. I thought they'd lose two or three games, then steamroll Oakland, Seattle and Toronto in bounce-back fashion for a 9-5 trip. Maybe I'm just overly optimistic, but this weekend makes me think 10 wins are a possibility if they can pull it off tomorrow. As scheduled, it'll be Kevin Slowey vs. Ervin Santana - another really good pitching match up.

Quick Notes: It was fun to see Alexi Casilla bash a home run to open Minnesota's scoring - it was his first dinger since June 27... One of the bigger boneheaded moves of the night seemed to be when Gardy pulled Carlos Gomez (2-for-2 on the night) for Mike Lamb (never faced K-Rod) to face Francisco Rodriguez with just one out in the top of the ninth inning. Lamb proceeded to strike out. Gomez couldn't have done that? ... Justin Morneau is now batting .213 in the month of August with just one home run and 12 RBI ... The bullpen's scoreless streak was stopped at 11 innings after Boof Bonser (2 2/3 IP, 2H, 1 BB, 1 ER, 2K) offered a "tater" that Mark Teixiera deposited into the right field stands.

Minor League Notes and a "real" post coming tomorrow evening. Have a great morning!

Perk's Peak

2008-08-23T07:42:00.011-05:00

In just seven percent of their games this year before the Angels series - or nine out of 126 contests - Twins starters have lasted eight or more innings. Now, in the most important series of the year to date (vs. the team with the best record in baseball, no less), Scott Baker and Glen Perkins go eight innings apiece in back-to-back wins. If that's not good timing for 8+ inning starts 10 and 11, I don't know what is. Perkins, as he always does, started batters of with first-pitch strikes, then simply let them put the ball in play in the manner he deemed fit. Soft grounders, lazy flies and pop ups were king. Conversely, Friday's opposing starter Joe Saunders (who is very similar to Perkins) has shut teams down time and time again en route to a team-high 14 wins. It's just that the batted balls fell in for the Twins.

One of those "batted balls" was Delmon Young's ninth home run - a two-run job - of the season that gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead in the fourth. Later, Denard Span would tack on a three-run shot - his third of the season - to push the lead to an insurmountable 9-0 advantage in the eighth inning.

I've noticed that the Twins are hitting the longball a little more frequently than earlier in the year... lo' and behold, it wasn't a figment of my imagination.

Duration	HRs per game	Runs per game
August	0.85	5.63
Pre All-Star Break	0.68	4.86

As you can see, they've cranked up the juice a bit lately. It's funny though - the Twins are scratching tooth & nail for every homer they get, while the White Sox have 41 homers in 20 August games. Incredible. Oh, and speaking of the White Sox, they got ripped by Tampa Bay last night 9-4, and the Twins' win pushed them a 1/2-game ahead in the standings.

Tonight, we'll face a guy we should pummel in Jon Garland... he'll take the mound vs. Minnesota's Nick Blackburn, who tossed eight excellent innings vs. Oakland in a loss Monday. Hopefully he can keep the good times rollin', but I'm not convinced we can keep this powerful Angels lineup in check for much longer. Check it out at 8:05 tonight!

Twins Notes: SS Matt Tolbert went 1-for-4 with a strikeout in his fourth rehab start at Triple-A Rochester. He's been decidedly unimpressive ... Dennys Reyes pitched the ninth inning in relief of Perkins last night, and the non-closer bullpen arms now have 10 straight scoreless innings (three games) after posting an awful 4.64 ERA over the past 30 days.

Minor League Notes:

Looks like Phil Humber is right as rain after struggling through the first half of the season. Against one of the best-hitting Triple-A teams around - the Pawtucket Red Sox - Humber pitched a complete-game, one run masterpiece. Humber gave up just one run on five hits while striking out eight batters. In addition, Humber is now 5-1 with a 2.61 ERA, 0.828 WHIP and 8.75 k/9 IP since coming back into the rotation on July 23.
New Britain right fielder David Winfree blasted his 19th homer (T-4, Eastern League) of the season last night, and now has 87 RBI (no. 3, Eastern League) on the season.

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

Torii Claus

2008-08-22T06:39:00.011-05:00

I give Nick Punto all the credit in the world for the bomb he smoked off Justin Speier in the top of the 12th inning last night, but Torii Hunter catches that ball 99.79 times out of 100, folks. Lemme give you a quick recap: Hunter is a seven-time Gold Glove center fielder. He had p-l-e-n-t-y of time to find the ball, get to the spot and make the grab. Yet he doesn't, and the epitome of our franchise - Nick Punto - ends up with a "triple" with nobody out. Hunter would like to wish you and yours an early, yet equally Merry Christmas.

As you probably know, Denard Span went the other way for a single down the left field line that ended up being the game-winning hit. But that wasn't even the story of the night.

Did I mentions that Scott Baker is my freaking hero? I don't use the word "freaking" a lot in my writing (I save it for emphasis in speech), but he was dominant last night. It makes me wonder if he's once again locked in, and ready to bring his "A" game every night the rest of the season. Because in eight innings against the Anaheim Angels (best lineup in baseball), Baker was virtually untouchable. He gave up just one run - a solo shot to Mark Teixiera in the bottom of the first inning - and five hits while walking two and striking out six batters. He went toe-to-toe with a top-five AL pitcher in John Lackey, and while he didn't win the decision, he certainly didn't look out of his league. Impressive, yet somehow, not the story of the night.

If you stayed up to watch the entire game, you know who I'm talking about. Matt Guerrier stepped onto the mound in the ninth inning, and what followed was something we hadn't seen for weeks... a full inning of scoreless work for our "setup" man. Two, actually, and it came at the perfect time. This, from a guy who had given up 14 runs over his past 6 1/3 innings (nine appearances, 19.90 ERA) and recently received four days off due to absolutely horrid pitching. I savored every pitch he threw last night, and maybe - just maybe - this road trip is what he needed to get back on track.

Of course, if you look at the appalling numbers our bats came up with, you'd probably have a big-time negative spin on last night's event. For me, good pitching was enough... there's no way we go an entire series stranding 18 base runners a game. It was disheartening to see Morneau and Casilla come up empty time and again, but I'm going to forgive and forget - we face Cy Young candidate Joe Saunders tonight, and there's no time for sulking.

Twins Notes: With another two-hit night last night from Nick Punto, the utility infielder now has a nine-game hitting streak. What's more impressive is that he has eight multi-hit games over that span, and moved his batting average back up to .282 from .256 on August 11... Denard Span's on-base percentage finally creeped over .400 on the year last night - Carlos Gomez' remains quite a bit lower, at .287... Jesse Crain pitched a scoreless 11th inning as the bridge to Joe Nathan, who picked up his 34th save of the year... For all the talking up we did, Delmon Young's bat sure hasn't backed it up lately - he's batting .056 over his past four games (1-for-18)... Last, Matt Tolbert busted out the lumber last night with two hits in four ABs for New Britain. He's now batting .300 for the Rock Cats and will be up in 10 days or so.

Minor League Notes:

Rochester's Luke Hughes lined two singles in five at bats, and Alejandro Machado boosted his batting average up over .350 with a three-hit night last night. Unfortunately, starting pitcher Tommy Shearn got destroyed for six earned runs in just five innings of work.
The double-A club had quite a night... four hitters (Ramos-4, Portes-3, Woodard-3, Ovalle-3) totaled 3+ hits and starter Alex Burnett threw six dominant innings, striking out 10 batters while giving up five hits and just one earned run.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day... another late-night game tonight!

Casilla back... Angels await

2008-08-21T08:54:00.007-05:00

Francisco Liriano is scaring me. You look at his 4-0 record, 1.14 ERA, .182 opponent batting average and very good 20 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings, and it feels good. It feels like Liriano is back. But he's not, and we all know it. The same dominance just isn't there - he's not throwing as hard as he was before, and might not ever get all the way back (yes, we all knew this was a possibility). Even more disturbing though, are the 10 walks in those near-24 innings. Folks, our "golden boy" is having trouble finding the strike zone, and though he'll miss the Angels and continue "tuning up" vs. the whipping boys of the American League for a bit, there's going to come a time when a patient team eats him alive. A few more Liriano stats:

He's thrown 401 pitches in 23 2/3 innings, which is about 17 pitches an inning - pretty inefficient. His fellow starters' numbers over the past four starts... Perkins (14.88 per inning), Slowey (16.01), Baker (16.8), Blackburn (15.4). Basically, he's giving himself the worst chance of ALL of our starters to go 6+ innings. Even Scott Baker, who's obviously struggling, has been a bit better.
While Liriano has thrown about 61% of his pitches for strikes since "The Call-up", fellow Twins starters have faired much better - Baker (69.6%), Slowey (68.6%), Blackburn (64.3%), Perkins (69.1%).

Anyway, despite all this, I went to bed last night with a good feeling - the Twins had won their fourth consecutive series, and six out of their past seven games. The starting pitching is looking decent and the bats lively... even the bullpen looked good yesterday. What's more, Alexi "it's a miracle" Casilla (4-for-7, RBI in two rehab starts) is back from his hand injury and will look to help spark the top of the order where Nick Punto faltered. The Twins optioned Brian Bass to Triple-A Rochester to make room. Good riddance. Casilla's at bats are much better than anything we have in the middle infield, and we have to hope he can hit the ground running this evening.

Conversely, I woke up this morning and that feeling was all washed away... I mean, we're going to Anaheim...we're facing John Lackey tonight... we're a game back in the Central Division. Our starters have to deal with Vlad/Tex/Hunter for four games... our hitters - if there's to be a comeback win - will have to hit vs. the only guy better than our closer in Francisco Rodriguez. It's a brutal way to start a road trip, but I suppose it's best to get the worst over with first.

Game 1, tonight at 9:05 p.m. CST, will feature Scott Baker (7-3, 3.91 ERA) vs. John Lackey (10-2, 3.22 ERA), and tomorrow evening Glen Perkins (10-3, 4.17) will take on 14-game winner Joe Saunders (14-5, 3.14). Saturday's pitching probables are Nick Blackburn (9-7, 3.71) and Jon Garland (11-8, 4.33), and the series finale will feature Kevin Slowey (10-8, 3.78) and Ervin Santana (13-5, 3.39). Needless to say, we'll have our hands full with these guys, but it'll likely be the toughest test we face - outside of the White Sox series and the @Tampa Bay in September - the rest of the year.

Thought you should know that Matt Tolbert is now 1-for-6 in two rehab starts for New Britain, and is expected to rejoin the Twins when rosters expand on September 1... Last, I wanted to mention that Boof Bonser is looking much better lately. John Gordon talked about some increased velocity yesterday afternoon (hitting 95 mph), and that can only mean good things for our bullpen. He's boasting a 2.79 ERA, .250 BAA, 1.344 WHIP and 8.38 k/9 in eight August appearances.

That's enough for now...

Minor League Notes:

2B/3B Luke Hughes belted two hits, scored twice and stole his second base as a Rochester Red Wing last night. His batting totals (.284/.373/.540) have dropped a bit, but he's still looking good.
Looking dominant, SP Anthony Swarzak moved to 4-0 with a 2.10 ERA/1.300 WHIP in five starts at the Triple-A level. Swarzak pitched one-run ball for six innings and struck out six batters while giving up just five hits. In addition, reliever Bobby Korecky now has nine straight scoreless innings, and racked up six saves and 9 Ks over that time period.
Matthew Fox, a starter for Single-A Fort Myers, has been quite good over his past four starts (2-0, 1.14 ERA, 1.183 WHIP in 23 2/3 IP), including his most recent outing where he pitched seven shutout innings, striking out five.
After getting blown up for eight earned runs in four innings on August 3, Beloit's Steven Hirschfield has been nearly untouchable. He's given up just three runs in the 21 subsequent innings, going 3-0 over that span.
Elizabethton 1B Jonathan Waltenbury hadn't hit for much power lately, but rocketed two homers last night to bring his total to 10 on the season. He's currently on 10-game hitting streak that has his batting average back up to .329 on the year.

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day!

Twins vs. Athletics In-Game Blog

2008-08-19T15:51:00.003-05:00

Here's our second in-game blog of the season. The Twins won 3-1 today, and you can see all the play-by-play commentary here! Be sure to look for the next live blog in a few weeks - thanks for reading!

Four steps forward, one step back

2008-08-19T07:29:00.012-05:00

First thing's first - I'm going to do a live blog tomorrow during the day game since no one beside MLB.tv viewers and people in Oakland can see the broadcast. You can listen to it on the radio, but you'll be able to read my live, in-game comments right here at the Twins Hotspot! Feel free to add you own comments as well - there'll be an easy way to do it right here on the site. On to today's post...

Going into last night's game versus Oakland, I had a bad feeling. The Athletics baffled Twins hitters until the eighth inning, when Joe Mauer tripled in Denard Span and advanced to home plate on a throwing error. It was a disturbing night all around. The team finally got a solid outing from a starter - Blackburn went eight innings and gave up only three runs - and received a decent inning of pitching from Craig Breslow to close out Oakland. Unfortunately, as has rarely been the case of late, the bats failed to come through over and over, leaving 14 men on base (Morneau - 4 LOB).

More than anything, it was an annoying game. How often does everything come together, only to fall short at the last minute? It's a buzzkill, a momentum drainer. But let's take a look at some positives on this dreary Tuesday morning:

1) Mauer busted out three hits last night, and now has an 11-game hitting streak. He's also batting .360/.443/.520 in the month of August with two homers and 10 RBI. Basically, he's on fire right now. What's more, Mauer is now second to New York's Xavier Nady for the Batting Average lead.

2) Denard Span has failed to hit safely in just two of his past 15 games, and has a current eight-game hitting streak. Span has three multi-hit games in his past four outings as well.

3) In the American League, the Twins offense ranks no. 6 in runs scored, no. 3 in batting average, no. 7 in on-base percentage, and in the bottom five of runners left on base. All very healthy totals.

4) Tonight's starter, Kevin Slowey, has a 2.36 ERA and 0.900 WHIP in his past four starts.

I hope that helped you get over the loss... it certainly helped me.

In other news, Twins infielder Matt Tolbert is expected to start a double-A rehab assignment today in New Britain. It's likely that he'll remain in the minors until rosters expand on September 1... Alexi Casilla played his first minor league game with Beloit last night and went 1-for-3 with a single, two walks and a failed stolen base attempt. Looks like he'll be ready to start in Anaheim this weekend... Adam Everett may be a candidate to hit the DL with a sore hand - it'd make room for Casilla, that's for sure... Delmon Young is day-to-day with a "jammed" ankle that he sustained in the fourth inning last night. He walked with a limp after the game, according to Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune.

Minor League Notes:

Rochester SP Phil Humber kept the great pitching going as he tossed eight innings last night, giving up just two runs on four hits whlie walking three. The Red Wing bats couldn't support him though, and he lost the decision. Still, Humber has a 2.97 ERA and 1.169 WHIP over the past 39 1/3 innings.
Over at New Britain, David Winfree continues to tear the cover off the ball - he's got homers in three straight games, and now has a five game hitting streak with 10 RBI over that span. In addition, 3B Daniel Valencia (two games in a row) and OF Dustin Martin homered last night for the Rock Cats.

Poll Update: In our most recent poll, it seems that the majority of you believe Jesse Crain should be the Twins' new eighth-inning man... we'll see which way the management goes once September hits. My money is on Bobby Korecky from Rochester.

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!

Three in a Row!

2008-08-17T08:48:00.006-05:00

Win the 7-6 late-inning comeback win over Seattle yesterday afternoon, the Twins set themselves up to sweep the Mariners today as Glen Perkins faces Ryan Feierabend. What's even more impressive is that the team is now a season-high 16 games over .500, a mark they never hit in 2007 with the likes of Torii Hunter and Johan Santana gracing the field. It's been an exciting ride, and to be in the division hunt is something that we, as fans, should be thankful for after such a disheartening offseason. And the fact that we did all of this in spite of Livan Hernandez is all the more awe-inspiring.

What hasn't been inspiring of late, however, is Scott Baker. He came off the DL in June and absolutely baffled hitters, but in his past five starts - including yesterday - Baker has seemed to lose his sense of the strike zone and is allowing hits at an alarmingly high rate with a 1.674 WHIP (34 hits, 14 BB) and 5.96 ERA in 28 2/3 innings. Baker has failed to get into the sixth inning in three of those starts, so not only is he hurting the team, he's also taxing the bullpen whenever he starts. Baker throws again on Friday in Los Angeles as the team starts a massive 14-game road trip, and there'll be no better time this season (barring playoffs) for him to start pitching well again.

We got some good news about Alexi Casilla and Matt Tolbert this weekend - both could play with the team in the coming weeks. Casilla took grounders, threw and hit off a tee Friday night and pounded some soft toss Saturdsay and is vying to return to the Twins at some point during this next road trip. Probably near the end of the month. Tolbert, on the other hand, will probably be a September addition to the team... no word on when, exactly, that will happen. Update: Alexi Casilla will begin a rehab assignment Monday, and should be back with the Twins on Wednesday.

Sunday Twins Notes: With four straight multi-hit games in a row, Delmon Young continued to slowly march his batting average upward - he's at .294 now and hasn't cracked .300 yet... Joe Mauer is 4-for-9 with a home run and 3 RBI ... found out that the new stadium is going to ROCK ... After batting just .136 so far in August, Justin Morneau came through with two hits yesterday to break a three-game hitless streak ... Just when you thought it was safe to put Jesse Crain on the mound, he gives up two earned runs on a hit and a walk - we need to rely on Crain, but he's making it awfully difficult ... Dennys Reyes, however, hasn't allowed an earned run in his past 10 appearances (since July 27), and has a 0.546 WHIP, 8.1 K/9 IP and incredible .111 BAA over those 7 1/3 innings.

Minor League Notes:

Rochester OF Jason Pridie went hitless on Friday to end his 20-game hitting streak. Pridie got the night off Saturday as well. In his stead, 2B/3B Luke Hughes belted his third homer of the year for the Red Wings, and continues to look quite comfortable at the Triple-A level.
With two home runs in his past three games, New Britain's Daniel Valencia has nearly matched his power output from high-A Fort Myers in the first half of the season. His .275/.320/.412 hitting line as a Rock Cat is decidedly worse, however. Teammate David Winfree now has 17 home runs on the season and has bashed three in his past seven games (11-for-30, .367 BA, 9 RBI).
24-year-old SP Yohan Pino has a 13-game scoreless streak for New Britain, and has two straight wins over that span, including an eight-inning shutout performance on Friday night.
Elizabethton center fielder Angel Morales has caught fire of late, slamming eight hits - four for home runs - in his past 14 at bats (four games) for a team-leading 15 homers and .329 batting average in the process. This kid is only 19 years old, so keep an eye on a possible quick rise through the organization.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the noon game today... SWEEP!!!

And we're back...

2008-08-15T09:57:00.005-05:00

After a nice day off for the Twins, Seattle is in town to start up a three-game set. If you remember, Minnesota was supposed to crush, dismantle, annihilate, dismember and pummel the Mariners last week, but the bullpen left their mojo at the Metrodome and we dropped two games at SafeCo. Fast forward to today, and things are a bit different, if only because Francisco Liriano (2-3, 6.55 ERA) is starting the opener. Liriano has a 2.00 ERA in 11 2/3 innings with 10 Ks since his call up. He's facing Carlos Silva (4-13, 5.93 ERA), who has been as hittable as current Colorado Rockies SP Livan Hernandez for most of the season. Of all the moves Bill Smith made, deciding not to re-sign Silva might have been the best.

The Twins miss Felix Hernandez for the second straight series, which has got to feel great.

In Game 2 on Saturday, the Twins are running Scott Baker (7-3, 3.78 ERA) out to the mound after he bounced back from three less-than-stellar starts vs. the Royals this past Sunday. He'll take on Ryan Rowland-Smith , a recent call up from Triple-A Tacoma. On Sunday, the Mariners are sending Ryan Feierabend to the bump in what will be his first major-league action of the 2008 season. Opposite Feierabend will be Glen Perkins (9-3, 4.07 ERA), who shut out the Yankees for eight innings this past Monday.

Other Series-Related Notes: After reaching a season high .292 batting average on July 31, Nick Punto has dropped 33 points and is down to .259 (.167 BA)... Since the Minnesota series last week, Raul Ibanez has continued to scorch the ball, going 9-for-27 (.333) with two homers and four RBI... A shaky July seems to be behind Twins reliever Jesse Crain, who has a 2.70 ERA and .208 BAA in seven appearances this month... Seattle SS Yuniesky Betancourt currently has a five-game hitting streak, and is batting .524 over that stretch... Twins closer Joe Nathan has only given up six runs all year (51 2/3 IP), and hasn't taken a loss all year long.

The White Sox begin a three-gamer in Oakland tonight at 9:10 p.m. The Athletics have lost 11 of their past 13 games, so we need them to get hot in a hurry... of course, we play them next week, so let's hope it's a short-lived surge. Go Twins!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the game tonight! Minor League update coming tomorrow! Subscribe to my blog via Email here!

George Michael

2008-08-14T00:13:00.006-05:00

I watched the Minnesota Twins take two games out of three versus the New York Yankees today without sending either Scott Baker or Francisco Liriano to the mound even once. Let me tell you, it's a good feeling when your favorite team comes through. Kevin Slowey (9-8, 3.97 ERA) got his season ERA under 4.00 for the first time in a month-and-a-half and the Twins won 4-2 on the strength of Delmon Young's second straight game with a three-run homer.

I'll be the first to say that I thought Young was a life-draining leech the first two months of the season. He came in on a white horse as the Twins' hitting messiah, and we all thought he'd be an adequate replacement for Torii Hunter. Not the same, mind you, but maybe one or two steps below our beloved center fielder. When he decided to go 230 at bats without a home run, and hit a very pedestrian .264/.323/.337 through May, I was sounding the "2007 bust alert" siren. Then something happened - the weather warmed up, and so did he. And now, two months later, he's one of the most productive bats in a lineup that sorely needed a boost. "DY" went 5-for-12 in the series with two home runs and six RBI, and we're all hoping and praying that he's going to make up for 60 days of spring malfeasance with a scorching end to the summer. I guess George Michael and Limp Bizkit were right... you really do "gotta have faith".

Adam Everett didn't play yesterday, but if he would have, he surely would have gotten a hit off Rasner. On my "official" scorecard, I gave him a hit just for showing up to the ball park. I'm sure he hit something out of the infield in pre-game batting practice.

The M&M boys did precious little damage this series... Joe Mauer went a respectable 3-for-7 with an RBI, but Justin Morneau hit just 1-for-11 with only one runner driven in. As a matter of fact, Morneau has been terrible in August, hitting a frigid .154/.314/.205 in 39 at bats since the Cleveland series on August 1. He hasn't homered over that stretch either. Of course, all this means is that he's incredibly due for a hot streak, and if it's all the same to him, I'd like if he saved it for the 14-game road trip starting next weekend in Anaheim.

It's an off day tomorrow, but the action cranks up again Friday night at the Dome when Francisco Liriano takes on former Twin Carlos Silva. I'm predicting a 23-2 Twins win, but I'll probably re-think that by game time.

By the way, the White Sox won again tonight, which - for the first time since last Saturday - meant there would be no daily lead change in the division. The Sox play at 1:10 p.m. vs. Kansas City tomorrow.

Last, Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com wrote that Raul Ibanez (Mariners) was claimed off waivers tonight. No word on who got him, but with the news that Cuddyer is going to be out for the balance of the regular season, he'd be a nice addition. Plus, Ibanez is eligible for free agency after the 2008 season, so there's no commitment to him past September/October.

A few more random Twins notes to end the night: Joe Nathan, among closers who meet my not-so-strict criteria of 40 IP and 15 saves, has the best ERA in the majors this season. Only Jonathan Papelbon (BOS), Mariano Rivera (NYY) and Joakim Soria (KC) have better WHIP numbers than the Twins' stopper... Kevin Slowey allowed a first-inning run today for the first time this season... Carlos Gomez is now among the top 10 strikeout kings in the MLB this season with 112. Adam Dunn, in contrast, has 123. I still can't believe this guy was leading off into mid-July. Excuse me while I go throw up.

Oh, and please do remember that you can subscribe by simply clicking here and entering your email address. Thanks!

Minor League Notes (truncated):

Rochester Red Wings CF Jason Pridie extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a single tonight vs. Syracuse. 2B/DH Alejandro Machado, however, was unable to extend his 21-gamer, going 0-for-4 on the night. 3B Luke Hughes (3-for-3) and 2B Matt Macri (3-for-3, 2 HRs)provided the fireworks though in the team's 5-3 win.
Both 2B Brian Dinkelman and SS Steven Tolleson tore the cover off the ball tonight. Dinkelman went 3-for-5 with a double and three runs while Tolleson shellacked a homer and two doubles to go a perfect 4-for-4 with three RBI. On top of that, Tolleson stole his twelfth base of the season.
After allowing 14 runs in his July 28 and August 2 starts (14.54 ERA), Beloit pitcher David Bromberg has bounced back with a vengeance. In his past two starts, Bromberg hasn't given up a run in 12 innings, and won both decisions. Last night, he went seven scoreless and struck out 10 while allowing just three hits (five baserunners - 2BB) for the Snappers.

Enjoy the Twins' off day! See ya tomorrow!

Guerrier Gone Wild

2008-08-13T09:48:00.005-05:00

Just a quick bit of housekeeping before I move it along: You can subscribe to this blog and get it in your email every day by clicking Here! Thanks...

I hope I never have to use Matt Guerrer in a headline again, but the way he's pitching right now is downright infuriating. I mentioned he had a disgusting 17.38 ERA in his past seven outings on yesterday's post... it's now up to 19.08 in his past 5 2/3 innings - eight outings - after allowing Alex Rodriguez and Xavier Nady to pop homers off him in the top of the 12th inning last night. It'd be one thing if Guerrier was allowing runs at an alarming rate in a mop-up role, but he's pitching important innings for the Twins and blowing games left and right. It wasn't just Guerrier last night though - Blackburn (6 hits, 3 BB, 4 ER) gave up a leadoff homer to Johnny Damon and struggled through 4 2/3 innnings, Bonser let in a run, and Jesse Crain coughed up one as well. An ugly, but still winnable game.

Joe Mauer was a late scratch last night with a stiff neck. No one seems to know how it happened, but he's questionable for the game today. The Twins missed his bat in key spots last night - the team left 10 men on base. Justin Morneau went 0-for-4 with a walk, and his similarly absent bat didn't help.

I'll try to focus on something more positive though. Delmon Young (3-for-5, 3 RBI) is waking up... when you hit a three-run shot off Marino Rivera, something is going right. That's two homers in his past four games and a .311/.351/.461 with six home runs and 30 battitng line since June 1 (51 games). Hopefully he can keep it going, because Michael Cuddyer ain't walkin' through the door anytime soon. And if he does, he'll be wearing an air cast on his right foot, so it won't help the team anyway. By the way, Adam Everett (1-for-4) got a hit again!

The Twins run it back vs. New York today in the rubber match. It's Kevin Slowey (8-8, 4.07 ERA) vs. Darrell Rasner (5-8, 5.28 ERA). Let's hope we catch the Yanks sleeping and win our second series in a row before welcoming Seattle back into town this weekend.

Minor League Notes:

They're still going... CF Jason Pridie (3-for-6) and 2B Alejandro Machado (1-for-5) kept their respective 19 and 21-game hitting streaks intact.
Phil Humber is finally in a groove for Triple-A Rochester, pitching like we thought he would at this level. Last night, Humber struck out 11 batters over 7 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits in the outing. Since coming back from a three-week bullpen stint, Humber has a 3.16 ERA, 1.245 WHIP and 36 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings.
Fort Myers reliever Anthony Slama continues to dominate High-A competition, as he boasts a sub-1.00 ERA and 13.92 K/9 IP. He's got a tidy little 0.953 WHIP as well.
On a current six-game hitting streak, 1B Rene Leveret is now hitting 10-for-24 (.416) with two home runs and 14 RBI. Oh yeah, and he went 2-for-5 with a homer and five RBI last night.
SP Mike McCardell of the Beloit Snappers kept the mojo going once again, striking out 10 batters over eight dominant innings to pick up his second win in a row and move to 9-3 on the year. He gave up just three hits and two runs - all in the first inning - before shutting down the Peoria bats. McCardell has a 1.86 ERA over his past four outings.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the noon game today!

Perk-to Bismol

2008-08-11T21:37:00.003-05:00

If Sunday's abomination was like pizza at midnight followed by indigestion, then Monday night's glorious showing vs. the Yankees was like Pepto-Bismol quieting a rumbling stomach. Glen Perkins' Herculean effort was exactly what Minnesota needed to get back on track after scuffling through their previous six-game road trip. Perk threw eight shutout innings and gave up only four hits while walking three. He also struck out four. And had his second child yesterday. Big couple of days for Perk. By the way, Joe Nathan worked a scoreless ninth inning to finish off the 4-0 victory.

The Twins' bats offered some decent support last night as well, and were led by... uh... Adam Everett? It's not a joke or a typo - the guy blasted a two-run homer off Yankee starter Sidney Ponson to open the scoring in the second inning. Everett is batting .353 with a homer and five RBI since coming back from Triple-A Rochester off a rehab sting. He's not exactly on fire, but the fact that the man hasn't been a black hole at the no. 8 spot is huge. And to think, we nearly designated him for assignment!

Mauer (1-for-2, BB) and Morneau (1-for-4) drove in the other two runs, and the team moved back into first place as the White Sox dropped a game to the Red Sox 5-2 on the strength of a three-run top-of-the-ninth.

Best of all, it looks like Alexi Casilla will, in fact, return to the lineup as soon as September, according to Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune. Sounds like he could even be back by the time Minnesota leaves on their ridiculous 14-game road trip.

Tonight, Mike Mussina (15-7, 3.27 ERA) will try and put the Yanks' four-game losing streak to a halt vs. Twins starter Nick Blackburn (9-6, 3.60 ERA), who since July has posted a 3-2 record with a 2.76 ERA and 0.987 WHIP. The game is once again at 7:10, and can be seen on FSN North (or you can be like me and listen to it on AM 1500).

Minor League Notes:

I'm going to keep leading with this until they stop hitting - Alejandro Machado (2-for-4) and Jason Pridie (2-for-4) laced two more hits apiece for Rochester last night. Machado now has a ridiculous 20-game streak going, while Pridie has a nice little 18-gamer of his own. Pridie (.278 BA) and Machado (.378 BA) have raised their averages 24 and 100 points, respectively during their streaks. Machado stole his fifth base in Triple-A, as well.
After going 2-for-12 in his past four games, Fort Myers (Single-A) catcher Wilson Ramos drilled three hits in four ABs Monday evening, including a double. The 21-year-old is battting .280/.337/.432 with 12 homers and 67 RBI this year. Seems as though this catching prospect is overdue for a call up to the double-A level.
Shooter Hunt bounced back from a nasty four-hit, five-run, five-walk outing last week to pitch six solid innings last night for the Beloit Snappers. Hunt still managed to walk three men, but gave up just four hits and struck out two for his first win at the Low-A level.
The wheels have begun to fall off for solid prospect CF Ben Revere. The breakout Snapper has gone just six for his last 35 at bats (.171). He's still batting .379 this season, but something has gone horribly awry over the past week or so.
Elizabethton 1B Jonathan Waltenbury had gone 3-for-22 in his past six games before breaking out with three hits in five at bats last night. Waltenbury drove in two runs in the 7-6 loss.

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Tuesday!

Sick to My Stomach

2008-08-11T10:46:00.007-05:00

Aren't you just ill today? I know I am. Last Monday too. These Matt Guerrier-fueled losses are doing real damage to my psyche and ability to function as a normal human being. Last night, I couldn't even eat dinner, and that's a problem. Over his past seven outings, Matty-G has a 17.38 ERA. Folks, that's absolutely untenable. There's no way he should be in that eighth inning slot the way he's going, and really, we have the same problem we had before Liriano came up - a gap in the bridge to Nathan.

Now, I'm not going to say Crain or Reyes or others might do much better - I have VERY little faith in Jesse Crain - but how could they do worse? Guerrier was pitching decent, then he lost it. Against Seattle and Kansas City, no less! Possible solutions could be to bring up Bobby Korecky from the Rochester, but they'll probably do that in September anyway. They could also juggle the bullpen or pitch Nathan more in the eighth inning (last night would have been a perfect opportunity to do so). Chances are that they were saving Nathan for the Yankee series unless it was a one-inning save situation, but you've gotta make hay against poor teams. The Twins couldn't do that this week, and find themselves inexplicably behind the White Sox in the standings.

Saturday and Sunday went pretty well for our starters - Francisco Liriano and Scott Baker combined to throw 12 2/3 innings, and gave up a total of five runs (3.55 ERA) and 13 hits (16 baserunners - 1.263 WHIP) in their outings. Baker struck out seven batters and Liriano got five men out on strikes... two solid performances from guys we'll need high-quality production from the rest of the year.

The bats got the job done for the most part as well, putting up 11 runs in the final two games of the series in support of their starters. Delmon Young blasted his fifth homer of the year, and is batting .309 with five home runs, 31 RBI and three steals since June. He had zero homers and 15 RBI in April/May. We expected more power, but his bat has given Jason Kubel and Justin Morneau a bit of relief.

Today, the Twins get New York in a pivotal three-game series where they'll face Sidney Ponson (2.55 career ERA vs. Minnesota) tonight, 16-game winner Mike Mussina Tuesday and young gun Dan Giese in Wednesday's noon game. Minnesota will counter with Glen Perkins tonight, Nick Blackburn Tuesday and Kevin Slowey Wednesday. Should be an enjoyable series, and I'll be there on Wednesday... maybe I'll ya'll there.

Minor League Notes:

The major offensive threats for Rochester have kept at it, as Luke Hughes (2-for-4) bombed his second home run in four games last night for the Red Wings. Alejandro Machado singled in four at bats and now has a 19-game hit steak, while Jason Pridie continues to streak in August - he's batting .462 this month.
In two games over the weekend, New Britain 2B Brian Dinkelman scorched five hits in eight at bats to raise his average to .288 in 32 games as a Rock Cat. He batted .293 in 63 games at Fort Myers earlier this season, so it's an encouraging sign that he's handling the next level just as well.
Elizabethton CF Evan Bigley went 4-for-5 yesterday with two RBI, and raised his average to .316 on the year. Teammate SP Curtis Leavitt struck out 10 batters over six innings, but did not factor into the decision.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day! Enjoy the Yankees vs. Twins tonight!

Alexi Casilla/Pat Neshek Update

2008-08-09T16:55:00.004-05:00

I don't usually post little things like this, but it's good news - turns out Alexi Casilla and Pat Neshek could be back THIS season!

Lavelle E. Neal wrote about Neshek today, saying the reliever is beginning a throwing program, and there's a possibility that he could pitch for the Twins in September. That'd be a major boost.

The other nugget - Casilla's status - was found on CBS.Sportsline.com. They're saying that Casilla could take batting practice in as few as two weeks, which would eventually give the infield an obvious bump in production for the stretch run.

That's all for now... enjoy the game tonight! It's Liriano day!

Tough Break

2008-08-09T00:33:00.003-05:00

Just when it was time to celebrate, the Twins' spirits were dampened by news of Michael Cuddyer's non-displaced fracture sustained last night during his rehab assignment for Triple-A Rochester. This, in the wake of a nicely pitched 4-1 win over the Royals in Kansas City in the opener of a three-game set. Kevin Slowey (7 hits, 2K) tossed 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball, then five relievers including closer Joe Nathan sealed up the team's 64th victory of the year.

Denard Span banged out two more hits as the leadoff man, and Joe Mauer drove in a team-high two runs as the Twins kept pace with White Sox, who recorded a hard-fought 5-3 decision over Boston.

This was the "gimme" game in the series, and now Minnesota faces Zack Greinke and Gil Meche on consecutive days. Winning one of those two could be considered a nice accomplishment, but I'm sure the team is looking for a sweep after the debacle in Seattle just a few days ago.

A few brief Minor League Notes:

No. 1 and no. 2 hitters Jason Pridie and Alejandro Machado (17-game hitting streak) went 2-for-4 in Rochester's 3-2 win over Indianapolis. Garrett Jones added three singles in four at bats as well for the Red Wings.

Much more coming Sunday, including another Alexi Casilla update! Thanks for reading!

KC Masterpiece?

2008-08-08T08:34:00.010-05:00

I love barbeque as much as the next guy, but I'm hoping the Twins slow-roast the Royals this weekend. We've got Slowey (7-8, 4.21), Liriano (1-3, 7.16), Baker (7-3, 3.86) going three days in a row, and the Red Sox vs. White Sox (Sox lost last night!) series happening a little further north at U.S. Cellular. Could be an awesome weekend to be a Minnesota fan.

Kansas City is coming off a nasty pair of 8-2 losses at the hands of the Red Sox - this, after winning the series opener 4-3 on Monday. They'll toss Kyle Davies (5-2, 4.41) out there tonight, then counter Liriano with Zack Greinke (9-7, 3.93) and put Gil Meche (10-9, 4.17) on the mound Sunday. Davies hasn't generally gone deep into games, but isn't allowing much of late - the guy hasn't allowed more than three runs in over a month. Meche and Greinke are probably the most underrated one-two punch in baseball, and have combined for a 3.69 ERA and a 9 k/9 IP ratio over their past 12 (combined) starts. Greinke got beat up pretty badly by Detroit and Chicago a couple of weeks ago (12.00 ERA during those two), but Meche has extremely reliable since early June.

The Royals' bats have come alive too - they're hitting an incredible .310/.357/.457 as a team over the past six games. On the year, Kansas City's line is .263/.317/.392, so yeah, they're hot. DH Billy Butler and 3B Alex Gordon have led the charge, so watch out for them this weekend.

KC has a pretty young team, but they're good enough at times to knock unsuspecting opposition from their high horse. Luckily, the Twins lost two of three in Seattle, which probably knocked the pride out of them.

Other Twins tidbits to note: Denard Span is batting .400 with a homer and five RBI in his past five games... since being dropped to the no. 9 spot in the batting order, Carlos Gomez has been quite productive, batting .371 to raise his AVG and OBP nine points apiece... conversely, the speedy Gomez hasn't stolen a base since June 30, a span of 28 games... Michael Cuddyer pounded two hits, both doubles, for Class AAA Rochester last night in the third game of his rehab stint... During the Cleveland series on July 25-27, Brian Buscher played just one game, going 3-for-5 with a homer. Since that game, he's gone 3-for-20 with three RBI in six games... Adam Everett may possibly be the worst offensive player in baseball.

Minor League Notes:

It was a HUGE night for Rochester's offense on Thursday, and Garrett Jones (2-for-5, homer, 4 RBI)/Luke Hughes (3-for-4, homer, 2 RBI) take top honors. It marked Hughes' first Triple-A dinger in eight games with the team.
Well... maybe SS/2B Alejandro Machado had the best game of the night for Rochester - he went 4-for-4 to raise his batting average to .366 on the year (31 games). As a matter of fact, Machado has been scorching hot (.426) during his current 16-game hitting streak. What's even more impressive is that Machado has finally battled back from a torn rotator cuff injury that cost him all of 2007. He could definitely be a call up in September if he continues his stellar play at the dish and in the field. I think we all know how bad the bats are in our middle infield. There's no real power here, but the guy can get on base.
SP Cole Devries pitched five scoreless innings to earn his second win in a row for Fort Myers.
1B Rene Leveret bashed his second home run as a Beloit Snapper last night, and is hitting .424 in his past nine games. He's still striking out way too much though - he's got a 30:10 K/BB ratio. Ugly.
There's no doubt in my mind that Mike McCardell is ready for the next level. He struck out seven batters in eight innings of work last night to bump his record to 8-3 on the year. McCardell gave up two runs on five hits and a walk.
SP Bobby Lanigan registered his second straight strong outing for Elizabethton last night, going eight innings and allowing just one run on four hits. He struck out five and won his third straight decision.

Thanks for reading! Have an amazing Friday!

Salvage in Seattle

2008-08-07T07:51:00.006-05:00

If anything, the Twins have to be given credit for not being fully embarrassed by the Mariners during the first half of their six-game road trip. A comforting 7-3 win yesterday can be added to Denard Span's resume, however... the guy absolutely saved the team yesterday afternoon with a three-hit game (career-high 4 RBI) along with a sweet (game-saving?) catch to rob Adrian Beltre of a seventh-inning homer. I believe the Twins would have lost the game if not for that snag. They let Seattle come back on them twice in a row - and as we know, bad things come in threes. Turns out the "threes" were Twins' runs in the eighth inning, Span's hit total and amount of runs Blackburn (9-6) allowed.

Speaking of Nick Blackburn... another shaky start by one of our young guys vs. Seattle. He gave up nine hits and walked one man in six innings. Lucky for him, the defense put together a couple of nice double plays to get out of self-inflicted jams. We'll take this start over the first two from Perkins and Baker, but can we please get into the seventh inning without giving up six runs? It's tough to win a series when your starters allow a 7.13 ERA. We complain about the bullpen, but when we hand them this mess, there's a lot less room for error. Good lord.

Don't look now, but Brendan Harris has a hot bat! He's 11-for-25 over his past seven games, and during that stretch has belted six doubles, one homer and driven in five RBI batting in the no. 8 spot. Best of all, he's playing a very good shortstop/third base for the Twins, and that's what he's in the lineup for. You really can't ask for anymore than Harris is giving at this point.

I have to say I was livid when I saw Joe Mauer sitting on the bench. There's no Thursday game, yet he's unable to even DH? I understand that Randy Ruiz (2-for-5) needs his at bats, but we're trying to win games here. I suppose the Twins could have been looking at Mauer's lifetime .182/.471/.273 line vs. Jerrod Washburn, but still. Get that man in the lineup.

Michael Cuddyer went 1-for-6 vs. Triple-A competition last night as he played right field and batted cleanup for the Red Wings. His rehab stint is supposed to get him around 25 at bats, so it looks as though he'll be back with the big club in the middle of next week.

Anyway, the Twins have Thursday off, which means the bullpen gets a rest after being overworked of late. Seems like the starters rarely go seven innings these days. That's never a good sign, but a series vs. Kansas City generally cures what ails. You can see them at 7:10 p.m. on FSN North... pregame starts at 7:00. Let's hope for some Blyleven expletives!

Minor League Notes:

Tommy Shearn was absolutely unstoppable last night for Rochester as he threw seven scoreless innings vs. Lehigh Valley. Shearn - recently acquired from the Reds - struck out eight batters and allowed just two hits during the outing. The game only went seven innings.
Rochester's CF Jason Pridie stole his team-leading 22nd base last night, and went 3-for-6 in the doubleheader.
Second baseman Brian Dinkleman led a New Britian hit parade last night, going 3-for-5 with his second homer of the season. He's swinging a hot stick of late too - batting .444 over his past seven games with two homers and five multi-hit outings.
The Fort Myers Miracle had their game suspended due to a power outage, and they'll play it today at noon.
CF Ben Revere has just two hits in his last 15 ABs for Beloit, dropping his average to a still-lofty .390 on the year. He did, however, steal his team-leading 35th base of the year. He ranks third in the Midwest league in base thefts in 2008.
The Elizabethton Twins got pounded 13-5 by Bristol last night, but OF Evan Bigley continues to make a name for himself on the team. He's hit safely in seven of the past eight games and is hitting .394 with five home runs and 13 RBI during that span. Even better is his awesome 4:4 ratio over those eight games, which flies in the face of his 28:8 ratio on the year. He's on a hot streak, and could certainly play his way to Beloit this year or next.
Remember, if you have nothing better to do with the Twins' off day, you can always listen to a Minor League broadcast for free here!

And just for fun, and Michael Cuddyer card trick, courtesy of YouTube.com:

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day!

Fooled by Raul

2008-08-06T07:41:00.002-05:00

First of all, I was physically sick the past couple of days - Monday it was my stomach, and Tuesday it was my entire body going into shock after the late-night collapse the Twins dropped on us. Then again last night... and I can't stay quiet any longer.

Raul Ibanez is absolutely killing the Twins so far in this three-game series. He's gone 6-for-10 with two home runs and 11 RBI. That's right, ELEVEN RBI, my friends. And Matt Guerrier, who is simply not cut out for the set up role, has now given up eight runs in his past five outings. That's a sparkling 19.64 ERA over that stretch (3 2/3 IP). And it's not like the starting pitching has been any good either - Scott Baker(what happened?) and Glen Perkins combined to pitch 11 2/3 innings, giving up 11 runs on 21 hits and three walks. What the hell happened to our pitching on the trip out West? Add to it the fact that our bullpen has a four-run differential in its home/road ERA splits, and this seemingly powder-puff road trip to Seattle and KC could turn out disastrous.

The good news/silver lining in all of this is that the Twins' bats have actually been pretty good, providing 13 combined runs of support in the two losses. On Monday, J-Mo and Mauer each collected two hits, and Mike Lamb (3-for-6 in the series) even drove in a run. Tuesday was Kubel day, as Jason bashed his 15th and 16th homers of the season. Too bad it wasn't enough... it's like Guerrier is trying to keep it close or something. Unbelievable.

Nick Blackburn (8-6, 3.56 ERA) will try to salvage the Seattle series at 3:40 CST today... it's nice to have a day game after two late finishes. Blackburn has been the best starter of late, with a 2.21 ERA and sub 1.000 WHIP over his past six starts (including the NYY debacle!). He's probably our best chance outside of Liriano to stop the bleeding, and he'll face Jerrod Washburn (5-10, 4.77 ERA), who's been excellent in his own right lately before getting absolutely bombed for six runs and 13 combined base runners on August 1. I'll be listening at work... hope you all enjoy the game!

Last, it looks like Michael Cuddyer is going to be back next week (August 10 is likely) after a quick rehab stint in Rochester! Good news all around.

Let's talk Minor Leagues... it's been too long!

Daniel Valencia has kept hitting for AA New Britain, stroking three multi-hit games in his past four appearances - 7-for-18 (.388) over that period.
Also in New Britain, David Winfree has turned up the heat of late, batting .389 over his past 10 games, bucking the trend of his .239 season average. He's got eight RBI, a homer and four multi-hit games during this productive streak.
Looks like Jeff Manship is going to be chilling in Double-A for the rest of this season. He gave up another four runs on 10 hits with just two strikeouts last night for the Rock Cats. This, coming off a solid performance (6 IP, ER) in his last start.
It's nice to see a catcher with power, and Wilson Ramos (A-Fort Myers) flashed the bat again Monday night, hammering his 12th home run of the season.
Luke Hughes is batting .300 in 20 Triple-A at bats so far, and seems to be holding his own with two multi-hit games over his past four starts.
Jason Pridie is officially on fire in Rochester as he now has an 11-game hit streak where he's batted .396 and driven in nine runs as the leadoff man. He stole his 20th and 21st bases over that stretch as well, and is looking like a sure-bet to be called up Sept. 1.
Another recent call up to Triple-A, Anthony Swarzak, had himself a GREAT time Monday night, pitching seven solid innings to earn his second win with Rochester. Swarzak gave up just two runs and scattered eight hits and a walk while striking out five. That's now a 2.25 ERA over his first two starts... and the Twins keep pumping out pitching prospects...
With five homers over his past 10 games and a current .326/.387.582 hitting line for Elizabethton so far this season (44 games), it's pretty obvious that Jonathan Waltenbury is going to get a promotion at some point. He's been tearing up the league and pounded out two home runs last night, his seventh and eighth on the season.
Last, Cole Devries bounced back in a big way for Fort Myers this past Saturday, going six innings and striking out nine batters for his eighth win of the year. Devries allowed eight base runners and gave up two runs, but it was a far cry from his previous outing where he let five men cross the plate.

Thanks for reading - have a great day!

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Happy Liriano Day!

2008-08-03T08:19:00.001-05:00

Francisco Liriano represents everything the Twins organization tries to sell us. Namely, "Hope for the Future". Well, the future is now.

We can all pretty much quote his stats from the 2006 season (12-3, 2.16 ERA in 121 IP), and if you have a good memory, you can pretty easily recall his stat line from earlier this year (0-3, 11.32 ERA in 10 1/3 IP). Now, if you didn't know the second version of Liriano was coming off Tommy John surgery, you'd think he lost it. But his showing in Triple-A points to a man who has regained form, confidence, swagger and dominance. By throwing 118 innings of sheer precision, Liriano has re-established himself as the heir apparent to Santana's throne. He whiffed 108 batters and went 10-2 with a 3.28 ERA in his stint, and is ready for his start today.

He'll face Matt Ginter and the Cleveland Indians today (At 1:10 on your local WFTC station, Ch. 29). Chances are he'll fare pretty well, too - the majority of the team hits worse than .270 vs. left-handed pitchers and hasn't seen a healthy Liriano in nearly two seasons. Should be fun.

By the way, Kevin Slowey was very Radke-like in his performance last night, giving up a couple of two-run home runs, but pitching pretty decent in his six-inning, six-hit outing otherwise. He managed to strike out seven, but didn't get any run support in the 5-1 loss.

Cleveland's Paul Byrd generally has the Twins' number, and ran his win streak to three games, pitching seven sharp-as-a-tack innings. Byrd gave up just one run, but as predicted, gave the Twins opportunities with eight baserunners over that span.

Denard Span and Delmon Young each picked up a couple of hits while the no. 2-5 hitters went a combined 0-for-13. Certainly not a recipe for success.

We'll hope for better luck, and a series win today.

One minor league note today - Phil Humber of the Rochester affiliate dominated last night, going eight strong innings and striking out nine batters in a 4-1 win over Lehigh Valley. In his past two starts, Humber has pitched 20 2/3 innings, giving up just four runs. Looks like someone else may be pushing for a big-league callup in September...

Minor League Notes and more good stuff from the Twins Hotspot coming tomorrow!

Blackburn Keeps It Goin'

2008-08-02T09:01:00.001-05:00

The Twins got an excellent effort from SP Nick Blackburn last night - seven innings, six hits, one earned run and a couple of strikeouts got the job done as the Minnesota won 4-1 in the series opener vs. Cleveland. It wasn't an easy one, as the Indians starter Jeremy Sowers no-hit the Twins' bats for five innings before Brendan Harris doubled in the sixth and was driven in by Carlos Gomez. Joe Mauer added a two-run homer in the three-run eighth inning. Matt Guerrier and Joe Nathan (save no. 30) pitched scoreless eighth and ninth frames to close out the 61st win of the season. Unfortunately, the White Sox were able to make Ken Griffey Jr.'s debut a successful one as they stayed a 1/2-game ahead in the standings.

The best news of Friday, of course, was that Francisco Liriano and Randy Ruiz were called up to replace Craig Monroe and Livan Hernandez. Ruiz singled and scored a run in his first major-league game after 10 years in the minor leagues. You may wonder why a guy with a lifetime .302/.369/.524 batting line was doing in the minors for so long, but when you get suspended a couple of times for drug-related issues, the front office loses trust. So he finally got his shot last night, and will likely get some ABs until Michael Cuddyer gets back.

As of right now, it's looking like Liriano is going to start for Livan Hernandez on Monday, but there's been no official announcement as of yet. Today, Kevin Slowey (7-7, 4.00 ERA) is taking on Paul Byrd (5-10, 4.93 ERA) at 6:10 CST at the Dome. Byrd has been lights out for the past three starts to the tune of a 1.89 ERA. His 1.473 WHIP shows that he's more Livan Hernandez-like than his ERA shows, however, so the Twins should be able to get something going.

Minor League Notes:

Luke Hughes and Jason Pridie banged out a couple of hits a piece in four at bats, and Hughes stole his first base at the Triple-A level.
Alejandro Machado smoked his second home run during a current 10-game hitting streak for the Red Wings. He's batting .400 over that span.
Fort Myers SP Matthew Fox (not the guy from LOST) pitched six shutout innings to get back on track for the Miracle after two sub-par starts. Fox gave up eight hits and struck out three in the no-decision.
Striking out batters hasn't been much trouble for Beloit Snapper Mike McCardell - he's K'd 105 men in 101 innings this year, and got another 10 last night. McCardelll went six innnigs and gave up seven baserunners (6 hits, 1 BB) on the evening. Over his past two starts, he's got a tidy 1.38 ERA and 0.615 WHIP. It's crazy though - he recorded a no-decision and a loss in those starts.

Thanks for reading, and have an excellent day!

Liriano, Ruiz traveling to Minneapolis!

2008-08-01T15:35:00.001-05:00

Just a short message, but a powerful one - Francisco Liriano is finally back with the Twins! The team is expected to release Livan Hernandez and Craig Monroe (surprise!) today to make room for Frankie and 1B/DH Randy Ruiz (17 homers, 68 RBI, .320/.366/.536). The good news about Ruiz is that he's been just a "smidge" worse against left-handed pitchers than righties this year, unlike Monroe, who's been unable to hit anything. Thanks to Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune for the update!

Liriano isn't going to pitch tonight, but I'm sure we'll get more information on all this as news gatherers get details. More coming tomorrow!

Liriano up? Livan gone?

2008-08-01T08:20:00.001-05:00

I covered the Twins in extensive detail last night, and here's the Live Blog to prove it!

Looks like I missed one thing though - Liriano isn't expected to make his start tonight, and could be up within the next few days for the Twins! Here's the latest from Lavelle E. Neal from the Star Tribune.

Luke Hughes called up...
After a season filled with sweet swinging and injury, Luke Hughes has finally reaped the benefits of a breakout offensive performance in 2008. Batting .319/.385/.551 with 15 homers and 40 RBI for New Britain on the year, Hughes proved he was capable of doing pretty much whatever he wanted at the dish. Hughes went 1-for-5 for Rochester last night and started at third base.

In addition, Anthony Swarzak moved up from Double-A on Tuesday, but there were no real notes to go off. Sorry for the delay on that information. He went five innings and struck out two batters, but let in just one run for his first AAA win vs. a tough Pawtucket team.

Other Minor Leauge Notes:

Riding a sweet 11-game hitting streak, Fort Myers catcher Wilson Ramos picked up his third multi-hit game in a row last night, bashing out four hits in five at bats with five RBI. Ramos has 11 homers and 64 RBI on the year for the Miracle, and as a 20-year-old catching prospect (his birthday is August 10), it would seem his best days are ahead of him. Watch out, Joe Mauer!
In his second start as a Beloit Snapper, Shooter Hunt was pretty wild (five walks), but got the job done. Hunt didn't allow a earned run and struck out nine batters for the second straight outing, picking up his second Low-A ball win in a row.

Live Blog tonight!

2008-07-31T18:00:00.001-05:00

I've got some time tonight, so I decided to to a live blog... follow along live, or check it out tomorrow! Enjoy!

"Livan" the rotation?

2008-07-31T08:52:00.001-05:00

So I sat in the "Family Section" last night at the Twins game and watched as Livan Hernandez threw nearly 80 pitches in four innings, essentially blowing one of the biggest games of the season so far. He didn't even give them a chance to win. From my lofty perch in section 216, I could see that both he and the fans have had just about enough of this nonsense. The question is whether the management feels the same way. I never dreamed I'd be pining for Kyle Lohse over this guy.

Anyway, the Twins dropped last night's game 8-3 in front of a crowd of over 42,000 paying customers. The White Sox fans got their money's worth, but we got hosed. Denard Span looked good leading off again with a couple of hits, and both Morneau and Delmon Young were good for RBI doubles. Thing is, when Livan is pitching, you need more. And that's a problem. Oh, and the White Sox were close to locking up Ken Griffey Jr. last night too, so that's great.

Speaking of problems, I decided to rank them last night because I was so frustrated.

Livan Hernandez - Everything about him makes me want to punch a wall.
Third Base - Buscher is cool and all, but we think we can contend for a division with the guy? Really? We need a real hitter in this spot.
Bullpen - I'm not sold on our relief situation, but it's not shockingly terrible, so it gets ranked #3.
Second base/Shortstop - When Brendan Harris and Nick Punto take the field, my stomach turns. Defensively, they're fine, but looking at Punto in the no. 2 slot is maddening.

If I keep talking about this stuff, I'm going to go berserk, so let's talk trade... as of 9:35 a.m. CST. Stay up-to-date on all rumors here.

The Twins are in the market for a second baseman, and have been talking to KC and Baltimore about Mark Grudzielanek and Brian Roberts, respectively. Word is that Roberts is basically untouchable.
The Mariners want Denard Span or one of our "Radke Clones" - Perkins, Baker, Slowey or Blackburn - for Beltre. Sounds like the Twins don't wanna bite. I'm a little miffed about their whiny attitude about moving pitchers in light of our terrible 3B situation, but maybe they'll budge before the end of the day.
Boof Bonser is being "dangled" (and I use that term VERY loosely) along with Craig Monroe. We'll see if the Rangers or Tampa Bay Rays try to acquire one of them today.
Best of all, it looks like Liriano could be coming up in a matter of days.

Minor League Notes:

The Rochester Red Wings pounded Pawtucket 8-3 last night, and RF Garrett Jones was a big part of the scoring surge as he bombed his 14th homer of the year. Jones is riding an eight game hitting streak right now, and has batted .419 during that stretch with two bombs and 10 RBI.
Rock Cats Luke Hughes, Daniel Valencia and Steven Tolleson each had multi-hit games last night in New Britain's win. Hughes has now hit safely in seven straight games, and looks locked once again after some injury problems earlier in the year. Valencia smashed his second home run in seven days, and is starting to look very comfortable in double-A ball.
Fort Myers RF Eli Tintor just keeps on hitting... he went 2-for-5 with two singles, and his streak is now at 13 games.
Daniel Osterbrock now has two ridiculous starts in a row for Elizabethton (Twins Rookie team), as he once again struck out 12 Greeneville batters last night. This time, he gave up three runs on six hits instead of shutting them out, but still managed to pick up his fourth win of the season.

Thanks so much for reading, and enjoy your (hopefully) trade-filled day!

Hurts So Good

2008-07-29T22:45:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a short post for now, but I'll add more later. I'll cut to the chase though - Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune just reported (20 minutes ago) that Alexi Casilla tore a tendon in his thumb and could miss the rest of the year. He also stated that Casilla's injury is similar to that of Matt Tolbert, and as we know, he's still out.

It's got to feel weird for Adam Everett, who was designated for assignment, then called back and asked to report to Minneapolis for today's game. No real word on the long-term fix for Casilla's spot in the order, but it's extremely bad timing... Casilla had been batting .313 at the 2-hole since early May. The likely "fix" is to have Everett play a "utility" role while Punto plays second base with Harris still at short. That'll free up third base for Buscher (or an acquisition), who has a decent bat.

The real good news is that the Twins won 6-5 tonight on the strength of a relatively painless bullpen performance and six gritty innings from Glen Perkins. Not to mention a timely three-run double from none other than Justin Morneau. Back within a 1/2 game... Livan Hernandez vs. Gavin Floyd.

Looks like the only real trade options for a third baseman are Adrian Beltre and Kevin Kouzmanoff as Hank Blalock went back on the DL last night with shoulder inflammation. He'll be eligible to return in mid-August, so any trade would have to go through waivers first.

No great minor league notes from last night, other than the fact that both Eli Tintor (12-game hitting streak) and Jason Pridie (seven multi-hit games in his past 10 - BA is .395 over that stretch) each collected two hits for Elizabethton and Rochester, respectively.

Afternoon edit... Looks like the Twins are dangling Boof Bonser to get Rich Aurilia in return from the Giants. I think they should just stay with Buscher if they're going to go that route.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy Game 3 of the Twins/White Sox tonight! Maybe I'll see ya there!

We're Comin'!!!

2008-07-29T11:39:00.000-05:00

I was sitting on 94 going east last night during innings 7, 8 and 9 of Slowey's complete-game shutout last night, and I have to be honest... I didn't expect it. And I'm not sure anyone did. The guy had allowed 15 runs in his past three trips to the mound (9.00 ERA), and looked nothing like the starter who blanked Milwaukee on June 29. But we were all wrong. Thing is, being wrong never felt so good!

The Twins knocked off Chicago 7-0 last night on the strength of Denard Span's first MLB homer and Morneau's 17th of the year. Gotta like the longball accounting for our runs once in awhile. And it was good to see Carlos Gomez jump into the mix as a defensive replacement late last night. He even hit a solid single (not a bunt!). The team said he might not play till next series, but I knew better! Crazy overprotective management.

One gigantic step forward for the Twins... three more sizable hurdles to come. It's Glen Perkins (7-3, 4.08 ERA) vs. lefty Chris Richard (0-0, 9.00 ERA) going at 7:10 CST tonight, and it should be a fun one.

Finally, a Michael Cuddyer update from Lavelle E. Neal of the Star Tribune - Cuddyer put a glove on his hand for the first time since June 28, and took 25 soft swings. He'll need more pain-free days before he can go on a rehab assignment, but the good news is that he's progressing. Mid-August is still a possibility, but it's looking more like late August for a return, at this point.

No update on the "Liriano" front, but with the trade deadline looming this weekend, there's a good chance he joins the team within the next seven days. He's scheduled to pitch for Rochester this Friday vs. the best team in the International League this year, Pawtucket (Red Sox).

Trade notes:

I'll be doing a "trade notes" sub-section of this blog until August 1st, and I'll update this part of the post as I get information.

11:53 a.m. - LaTroy Hawkins might be in a Twins uniform to "help" out the bullpen. I'm not a fan of this rumor, or the man named. For the Twins to even consider bringing Hawkins back, he'd have to promise not to throw ONE pitch. Just moral support .

Minor League notes:

Fort Myers OF Eli Tintor has a 11-game hitting streak going right now, and has hit .378 with one homer over that stretch, raising his average from .250 to .279 in just two weeks.
SP Phil Humber picked up his second win in a row last night, pitching 7 2/3 impressive innings for Rochester. Humber struck out 10 batters and allowed three runs on five hits.
Our favorite minor league speed and power guy, Rochester OF Jason Pridie, stole his twentieth base last night and belted two hits to raise his average to .259 on the season. Seems to be heating up... over his four-game hit streak, Pridie is batting .389.
I mentioned him earlier last week, but Jonathan Waltenbury is on FIRE for the rookie league Elizabethton Twins. He's homered in three straight games including last night's contest, and has a nice little seven-game hitting streak going (.428 over that span).

Series win... Sox looming

2008-07-28T14:34:00.000-05:00

It was a nice end to a crappy road trip, but we'll gladly take our two wins at "the Jake". Nick Blackburn looked great for seven innings, then Dennys Reyes promptly gave up the lead before the bats roared back and Nathan nailed it down for his 28th save. A win's a win...

It's not so much that I don't care about yesterday's win - it's more that the next four games are extremely important in comparison. Consider: The Twins are 4-7 so far this season against Chicago, and thankfully they won't have to play them at U.S. Cellular field again. However, Minnesota only gets seven more opportunities to take full game chunks out of "pale" Sox' lead from this point forward. It starts tonight when Kevin Slowey (6-7, 4.41 ERA) faces off against Mark Buehrle (8-8, 3.56 ERA, and killed the Twins his last time out).

It figures to be a tough series for a few reasons:

The Sox are sending lefties to the hill just about every night; our best hitters are left-handers
Chicago is scoring an unbelievable 6.8 runs per game over their past 11 outings. They average 5.04 a game for the season, so we know the bats are hot.
Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins and Livan each had pretty spotty outings last time they pitched.
Jim Thome. The guy has a lifetime .315 batting average against Minnesota and hits a homer every 11.8 at-bats against the Twins. He ALWAYS gets his.
The Twins' bullpen has been awful lately. Never good against an offensive powerhouse.

Other than all this, I'm pretty confident going into this pivotal series. To be honest, I'd feel a lot better if Liriano were up. Speaking of...

Francisco Liriano pitched yesterday, and I finally caught a radio broadcast! He pitched wonderfully through 5 2/3 innings before giving up a three-run dong to Scranton/Wilkes-Burre in the sixth. He finished with nine Ks and gave up four runs on eight hits overall. If you look at the box score, it really doesn't do him justice. He was in complete control for most of the day, but missed on some pitches and Scranton made him pay. I still say the kid is ready, and it looks as though the Twins need him now more than ever.

Other Minor League notes:

My guy Jason Pridie smoked another home run for Rochester last night, his 12th of the season. He continues to be one of the favorites for a call-up this September. If not for the sub-.270 average, he'd get more press.
After coming up big in his previous outing with a seven-inning, 8K performance, Cole Devries was swatted back to earth by Dunedin, who tagged him for eight hits and five runs in just five innings of work.
Another Elizabethton pitcher is on the radar - Daniel Osterbrock. Despite some up-and-down outings (given up 6 and 4 runs before last night), he's managed to strike out 52 batters in 40 1/3 innings thus far. Last night, however, Osterbrock was downright filthy as he punched out 12 batters in a seven-inning stretch of shutout mastery. He'll likely be up in Beloit or Fort Myers next year.

That's all for now... thanks for reading!

Fresh Bake(r)d Victory

2008-07-27T09:10:00.000-05:00

On a day when the Twins absolutely needed it, Scott Baker came through. Pitching five solid innings, Baker allowed the Twins bats enough time to amass a 9-3 lead and get him his seventh victory of the season. Too bad the team couldn't have gotten anything going in his two 1-0 defeats over the past couple of weeks.

And it can't be overstated that the bullpen did a pretty nice job in closing it out. Brian Bass and Craig Breslow pitched scoreless innings before giving way to Jessie Crain, who in typical Jessie Crain fashion, allowed the Indians to plate a runner. Of course, the score was 11-4 at that time, so the run didn't matter. Still, Crain has now given up runs in three of his past four outings. Thankfully, Matt Guerrier closed out the win with a scoreless ninth.

Aside from Baker's streak-busting performance and bullpen efficiency, Brian Buscher gave the Twins' brass pause in their search for a new 3B-man. Buscher went 3-for-5 with his third round-tripper of the season, and drove in a career-high five runs. While it wasn't spotlighted in any of the game summary articles, it has to be mentioned that Delmon Young also had a three-hit night with two RBI. Young's batting average is up to .297, good for fourth on the team. Going further, he's batting .342/.364/.479 in July and is becoming a rock-solid no. 6 bat for Minnesota.

Carlos Gomez worked out in a pool yesterday, and is feeling better, according to Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune.

In other Twins-related news, Francisco Liriano is pitching today vs. Scranton/Wllkes-Burre. Listen here at 5:05 CST today! Wilkes-Burre is a considerably more patient team than Toledo, Liriano's previous opponent, as they rank second in the International league in walks. The call-up could come any day now...

Minor League Notes:

Double-A third baseman Daniel Valencia ripped two more hits last night for his third multi-hit performance in a row. He's now 7-for-11 (.636) in his past three games.
Fellow Rock Cat Dustin Martin also banged out two hits to raise his average up to .292 on the season. In fact, Martin now has seven home runs and 18 stolen bases (T-5th in Eastern League) on the season.
Garrett Olsen hammered a homer last night for Single-A Fort Myers, snapping an ugly 1-for-18 skid. Since moving up to A+ ball in June, Olsen has struggled quite a bit, hitting just .172 in 32 games.
After his recent call-up from the Elizabethton Rookie League team where he allowed just one earned run in 19 innings while striking out 34 batters, 21-year-old Steven "Shooter" Hunt had an excellent debut for Beloit, striking out nine men in five innings of work. Hunt allowed a run and walked two batters, but all-in-all, the Tulane graduate is still golden. Certainly an arm to keep an eye on.
Last, Elizabethton first baseman Jonathan Waltenbury has pounded out four multi-hit games in a row, and has nine hits in his past 20 at bats (.450 BA). He's just 20 years old, and could soon be ready for a call-up to Beloit as he's batting .326/.388/.545 in 35 games this season.

Thanks for reading... have a great day!

Bruised Pride, Backsides

2008-07-26T08:52:00.000-05:00

Denard Span and Carlos Gomez are equally aggressive outfielders, and last night their zealous play netted them some minor, yet impactful injuries. For all the hoopla surrounding Gomez's "carting" off the field on a stretcher, he was released from the hospital last night with a sore lower back. He figures to miss a few games, then possibly come back during the White Sox series. Even better, Span's injury didn't even cause him to miss playing time.

Leading off last night, Span went 3-for-4 vs. Cliff Lee, which is no easy task. It's becoming more and more apparent that this should have been the move all along. He has a better feel for the strike zone and generally takes better at-bats as a result. Being that Span in CF is basically a lateral move, don't be surprised to watch Gomez lose tons of playing time when Michael Cuddyer gets back. He's earned it.

Livan Hernandez looked horrible to start the game, giving up five runs and six hits in just two innings. Then a funny thing happened: he settled down for six more scoreless innings as the team's rally fell short in the ninth. In fact, Hernandez allowed only six more hits and zero runs during the complete-game, 119-pitch start. While the loss hurt, it was nice to see the bullpen get another day off - that's two in a row now with the Thursday day off. I suppose this is why they brought Livan in... eat innings.

Tonight it's Scott Baker vs. Fausto Carmona at 6:05 this evening, and it's the team's best chance to win since Texas made the trip up to Minneapolis last weekend. Hopefully Baker is up to the task.

In addition, news came out that Francisco Liriano will make his scheduled Triple-A start on Sunday. Maybe the call-up is coming Monday...

Notes:

3B Daniel Valencia continues to hit well for New Britian (AA), as he went 3-for-4 with two RBI. He's batting .393 over his past seven games and looks to be hitting his stride after a promotion to Double-A earlier this year.
SP Brian Duensing isn't doing anything to hasten his big league call-up from Rochester - the 25-year-old lefty gave up 10 hits (for the second game in a row) and five earned runs in 61/3 innings last night. Not a pretty outing.

Thanks for reading!

New Series, New Life

2008-07-25T08:50:00.001-05:00

The great thing about baseball is that you start over every day. I mean, you have a running record and accumulating stats, but you get a clean slate... every batter starts out 0-0, every pitcher starts out with 0 balls and 0 strikes thrown.

And a clean slate is exactly what the Twins need after getting pounded in New York and losing a 1-0 heartbreaker this past Sunday to the Rangers.

Tonight, Minnesota faces Cliff Lee (13-2, 2.29 ERA), then Fausto Carmona (4-2, 3.10 ERA) Saturday - his first start coming off the DL - and Jeremy Sowers (1-5, 7.33 ERA) on Sunday. After that, we start a pretty important four-game set vs. the White Sox, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here. The Twins toss out Hernandez (10-6, 5.29 ERA) tonight, Baker (6-3, 3.26 ERA) tomorrow and Blackburn (7-6, 3.83 ERA) Sunday, assuming no minor-league call-ups occur. The team flipped Baker and Hernandez in the rotation, giving Livan and Scotty B. an extra day of rest.

No real news from the "big club" yesterday, aside from the fact that a Francisco Liriano sighting is imminent.

It's also been stated by ESPN's Jayson Stark that the Twins are, in fact, still looking for a third baseman.

Minor League Notes:

Kevin Mulvey pitched five solid innings for the Rochester Red Wings (AAA) last night and earned his fourth win of the season. Mulvey, however, has had a bit of an up-and-down season, but has maintained a stable 3.87 ERA on the year.
Prize acquisition (from the Santana Trade) Deolis Guerra (10-5, 4.56 ERA) continues to teeter between mediocrity and disaster in A+ ball at Fort Myers this season as he gave up four runs in five innings last night. In his past four starts, Guerra has struggled to a 5.48 ERA and 1.406 WHIP. He's not been terrible, but certainly could use more time at this level.
In all the commotion to pick up a higher-level third baseman, 3B prospects Luke Hughes (AA) and Daniel Valencia (AA) continue to play well. Valencia smoked his first home run as a Rock Cat last night (2-for-2), while Hughes went 2-for-4 to raise his average to .318 on the year.

That's all for now... Thanks for reading!

Off Day Blues

2008-07-24T13:28:00.000-05:00

This is the first post on this web site, but I have a few others on CBS.Sportsline.com, where I started this blog up Monday. Check 'em out! I'll be posting on both sites for another week or so, then moving full-time to this site. On with Thursday's post...

It's a quartet of losses for your hometown Twins! The day off couldn't come fast enough after an Alexi Casilla blooper cost the Twins an inning-ending double play (and the game) in the fifth inning yesterday. If you listened to or watched the game, you know that Glen Perkins proceeded to fall apart after the error, surrendering five runs before the sixth inning expired.

The Minnesota bats failed to show up this past series as well... they went a combined 24-99 (.242 BA) while leaving an eye-popping 45 men on base. FORTY-FIVE. Makes my stomach turn just to think about it.

Meanwhile, the three likely candidates to be sent to the bullpen to make room for Liriano each failed to make a case for their respective rotation spot. Perkins, Slowey and Blackburn were pretty bad at Yankee Stadium, which further muddles the situation... which one is going to move? All I know is I'm sick of writing about it, and a decision needs to be made.

The Twins send embattled starter Livan Hernandez to the hill to face AL All-Star starter Cliff Lee on Friday night in what could prove to be a decisive series for the Domers. Hopefully they can snap this awful four-game slide.

It's a short entry today, but there were some fun minor league rumbles last night:

The Rochester Red Wings, a day after Liriano went nuts on Toledo, got an offensive explosion from CF Jason Pridie and C Ryan Jorgenson. Both players smacked a pair of homers to lead the Twins' Triple-A affiliate to a 9-6 victory. Keep your eye on Pridie as well - he's got 11 home runs and 19 steals, and has been one of the better speed/power guys in the minors over the past two seasons. In fact, he finished with 14 homers and 26 steals in AA and AAA action last year. This 24-year-old has been on fire in June and July with 10 homers and 10 SB with 23 RBI while batting .293 in 46 games. Pridie could certainly be a September call-up.
Staying in Triple-A, Philip Humber has started to get going after a largely terrible year to date. He had a brief three-week stint in the bullpen after stinking it up on July 1 (eight earned runs in 1 2/3 innings), and bounced back with five scoreless innings last night. Humber allowed just five hits while striking out five, and hopefully is ready for a nice run of good outings.

Thanks again for reading, and enjoy the off day!