GameChat – Twins @ White Sox #2, 7:10

Glen Perkins, this is your life!  ok, well at least this is your start.  At this point in your career, you aren’t going to get too many “second” chances like this and obviously, we all expect that Kevin Slowey will be back in his next start.  So this would be an excellent time to nail down that you are the new &  improved Glen Perkins.  I’m not one of your biggest fans but right now, I would be ecstatic if you could be a strong lefty arm for us – even if you take what had been Brian Duensing’s role in the bullpen eventually (that is just my own idea of what I think management might do if Perkins does well tonight).

The offense proved that they can bring it in Chicago and I hope that they give Perkins all the assistance he needs like they did for Baker last night.  It’s not really fair if they just leave him hanging.

If you haven’t heard or seen it by now, the Cardinals and Reds had a fairly entertaining brawl last night:

But JimCrikket realized that we here at Knuckleballs might be more entertained if the brawl involved our own boys of summer and did a little searching to see if he could find some Twins video. Would you believe that it’s hard to com by?? Here’s what he found!

But for REALLY entertaining brawl material, wouldn’t it be even better if we had Twins vs White Sox?!?!!??!

Twins v. Bitch Sox, the Brawl: a Reenactment

Now I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to tonight’s game… *giggle*

Minnesota @ Chi White Sox
Span, CF   Pierre, LF
Hudson, O, 2B   Ramirez, A, SS
Mauer, C   Rios, CF
Young, D, LF   Konerko, 1B
Cuddyer, 1B   Quentin, RF
Kubel, DH   Pierzynski, C
Valencia, 3B   Viciedo, DH
Repko, RF   Vizquel, 3B
Hardy, SS   Beckham, 2B
Perkins, P   Danks, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 6 2
Chi White Sox 0 2 1 0 3 0 0 0 x 6 6 0

 

Look, I understand that the WhiteSox don’t completely suck, so you’re going to lose a game to them every once in a while. I don’t LIKE it… but realistically, it will happen. Even if you play well, make the plays on defense, hit the ball well, every once in a while you’re still going to get beat.

But what I can’t stand is just flat out handing the BitchSox a ballgame. Questionable baserunning. POOR defense. Mental mistakes. and completely failing to get hits with runners in scoring position just drives me nuts.

Sure, the umpires had a bad night, too, as pointed out by John Bonnes in his TwinsCentric post, but when you play at a level so far removed from perfect, it’s tough to expect perfection from umpires.

Glen Perkins certainly wasn’t terrific but he got no offensive support and the defense seemed to be trying to outdo one another at making poor decisions and poor plays. Of course, Perkins himself made one of those poor plays so he’s not in a position to complain too loudly.

I suppose if you’re going to have bad games, you might as well have one bad game in every aspect of the game instead of doing different things poorly in multiple games.

Joe Christenson reported that Jose Mijares strained the outside of his knee and is likely headed to the DL. Perkins is likely to replace him as a lefty in the bullpen. JJ Hardy’s wrist is sore again but he thinks he can avoid the DL. Jon Rauch’s toe is black and blue, apparently from an injury that occurred on Tuesday.

All in all, just not a very positive night for the Twins. But Thursday is another day! Let’s just hope everyone got their bad game out of their system and Frankie will get offensive and defensive support on Thursday.- JC

Snappers Wrap

Tuesday night saw the finale of the Beloit/Cedar Rapids series and once again, things didn’t go real well for the Snappers as they fell to the Kernels 5-1. I stuck around through the 7th inning stretch but I couldn’t resist the urge to get home and watch the last half of the Twins/White Sox game.

Rather than give a whole lot of facts and figures from the game, I thought I would just post a few of the short video clips I recorded, with little or no commentary. Hope you enjoy getting a little taste of the Twins’ Class A Midwest League affiliate and I apologize in advance for the poor video quality. I’ve had this camera for about three years now, I think, and it’s the first time I’ve ever tried the ‘video’ feature.

The Snappers lone run in this game was accounted for by a Danny Rams home run in the 2nd inning (don’t you love it when the idiots sitting in front of you decide to stand up to let their ill-behaved kids change seats just as someone launches the ball over the LCF wall?).

 

James Beresford singled…

 

… and Beresford broke up a double play.

Rams catches a pop foul.

Aaron Hicks, out with an injured pinky finger, coaches first base.

Steven Liddle steals second base.

Despite a throwing error, the Snappers nail a runner at home.

Lance Ray singles.

Reggie Williams singles.

Daniel Santana called out on a bunt attempt… looks like he was still in the box to me.

Unless the Snappers find their way in to the MWL Playoffs (not totally out of the question yet, but they need to start kicking it in gear), this will be their last visit to Cedar Rapids for the season. I really enjoyed watching the effort they put out in the three series here this year and I look forward to seeing how they’ve matured by the time I see them in Spring Training in 2011.

****************************************

After the Twins finished putting on their woopin’ of the BitchSox Tuesday night, Seth Stohs of sethspeak.net invited me to join him for a few minutes in the second half of his Minor League Weekly podcast. We talked about my impressions and observations concerning many of the Snapper players I saw play here in Cedar Rapids this season (along with a couple of shameless plugs for Knuckleballs, of course). Ft. Myers Miracle pitcher Bruce Pugh was his guest for the first half hour or so of the program and I freely admit he was a heck of a lot more interesting than I was! Give it a listen, if you have some time today. Of course, I’d like to thank Seth for having me on the program. – JC