Month: August 2010

GameChat – A’s @ Twins, 7:10 pm

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It’s really good to have our boys back home and I hope that the weather cooperates while they are here!  I think everyone in MN would be glad for a short break from torrential rain.  So Morneau is improving but Gardy announced today that they aren’t talking time tables with him anymore – they want to make sure that he’s ready and so far he still hasn’t had any symptom-free days – at least he’s not feeling bad until he gets home now.  If you want a full recap of life for him right now, Phil Mackey did a great write-up today.

Unfortunately, news about Mijares is not as good.  He’s got more than a sprained knee – it’s a torn meniscus and requires surgery and he’ll be out 4-6 weeks.  Ouch.

TC Bear announced today on twitter that he & Bert Blyleven planted trees over at the Luce Line trail today for all the bats Twins pitchers have broken so far – he said the broken bat total right now is at 131.  At 100 trees per bat, that’s a lot of new canopy!  Here’s a pic!  Bert is supposed to talk about it in the FSN pregame if you are able to watch the program.

Coming off the series win in Chicago, I’m sure that the team morale is high.  Let’s hope that Pavano does a very Pavano job and that our offense keeps up the good work.

Oakland @ Minnesota
Crisp, CF   Span, CF
Barton, D, 1B   Hudson, O, 2B
Suzuki, K, C   Mauer, DH
Cust, DH   Cuddyer, 1B
Kouzmanoff, 3B   Kubel, RF
Ellis, M, 2B   Young, D, LF
Davis, R, RF   Valencia, 3B
Carter, LF   Casilla, A, SS
Pennington, SS   Butera, C
  Gonzalez, G, P     Pavano, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Oakland 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 14 2
Minnesota 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 x 4 5 2

 

That was a CRAZY game – some INCREDIBLE defense and amazing plays and then some absolutely head-banging plays.  But it all worked out to give Carl Pavano win #15 which puts him in a tie for first place in the American League!  In the postgame interview, he FINALLY expressed what it is about Drew Butera that he connects so well with – they are both Italian.  But he did mention that he’s a bit angry with Drew for shaving the mustache off.  AND he really enjoyed the walk-on music that Target Field played for him tonight – the theme to Mario Bros!  And even TC “grew” his mustache in honor of the big guy’s start tonight.  Carl’s not sure what it is about his mustache that has elicited such support from the fans but I think I speak for all of us when I say, if you keep winning, we’ll keep loving the ‘Stache! (at least metaphorically)

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The most incredible play of the night was a GORGEOUSLY executed suicide squeeze bunt between Drew Butera and Danny Valencia.  Wow.  Butera’s bunt was perfect and I swear that Danny was 2/3 of the way to homeplate with his leadoff before Butera even made contact.  VERY well done boys.  For that play alone, they both have a special bakery prize – their very own “BUNT” Cake!! Hope they really enjoy it!

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SECOND, there were inumberable plays tonight where our boys sacrificed the body to make the play – Lexi, Spanky and Hudson all really laid it out there – literally.  But none came up with blood on the uniform, met with the trainer and stayed in the game the way Michael Cuddyer did.  For that grit and determination, Knuckleballs awards him the very rarely offered GOLDEN BANDAID!  Thanks for all you do, Cuddy!

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Additionally, the bullpen came out AGAIN and in some high pressure situations, kept the Twins in the lead and allowed us to walk off the field with the win.  Since there was still a bit of roughness that I am worried is attributed to dehydration after the keg they got last night, they will have to live with rootbeer floats tonight instead of the other kind.  And Jesse Crain – for coming in with the bases loaded and nailing it down anyway, you get yours in a tall, frosty mug straight out of the freezer with an extra scoop!  We really enjoy it when you come in and do stuff like that!

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Of course, all this leads up to who did we vote to get the BOD!?!  For that we go back to the beginning.  In addition to that absolutely gorgeous squeeze, Valencia went 2/4, with a double, a run, and 2 RBI.  For that, he has earned today’s BOD!  Viva La Valencia!

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox #3, 7:10 pm

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Sometimes it gets a little old starting every game chat with an injury update but after yesterday, yeah, we need to cover a few things.  Mijares is going to the DL with a sprained knee and they officially called Manship back up to take his roster spot.  I’m still not sure what that means for Perkins – and I don’t think they have quite figured it out yet either.  Because we have yet another pitcher who can’t pitch right now.  Jon Rauch screwed up a toe in such a way that even Gardy is talking/wincing about how “ugly” and black & blue it is.  Really?  How are we supposed to keep fielding a team this way?!  The good news on the pitching front is that Slowey is throwing in the bullpen and feeling good so he’ll do his next start just fine.

As far as our fielders go, JJ Hardy did leave last night’s game because of a sore wrist.  However, he says he’s going to play through it and it doesn’t require him to spend any time benched.  We’ll see if Punto is ready to come back tomorrow but from the looks of things, it would be a good thing if he’s ready.

** update from Joe C: Punto and Morneau are planning to work out with the team on Friday. Punto will be activated this weekend. That would ALSO be very good news. **

Considering that we are now back in that tied spot for the division lead, I would love it if Frankie could bring it in that way we all know and love and get us back into that first place spot by ourselves.  Again, that will require some freaking RUN SUPPORT!!!  Let’s get to it!

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

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 1 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 6 11 0
Chi White Sox 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 9 1

 

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  We’re back in first place and we own it!  I would like to make sure that we keep that same attitude playing the A’s.  But that was just a good game all the way around.  They battled quite a bit and they had to EARN this win but it was unbelievable to see the nasty come out in Liriano when he needed it – got himself out of 3 bases-loaded situations.  He wasn’t perfect tonight but I have always measured my respect for pitchers by how they perform when they aren’t having their best day – this was a HUGE game for Liriano.  Orlando Hudson and Kubel both hit Homeruns tonight but Kubes… his was a 3 run shot that just seemed to put the nail in the coffin.  And huge kudos for the bullpen – especially Matty G – for coming in and slamming the lid down a little earlier than we’d like to see them out there. 

So, for all the happiness in the Chat – it was a REALLY tough call for the BOD voting.  In the end, here’s how we broke it down:  Hudson gets an ice cream cake for that homerun in the first inning – nothing like setting the tone.  The bullpen gets a Keg and a Family bucket of KFC for being so finger-licking good!  Matty, first cup’s on me!  And finally, because we refuse to take the fun out of a good debate, we chose to assign CO-BOD status to both Kubel and Liriano for being really good at their jobs and keeping the morale of the team up where it should be.  Thanks boys!

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox #2, 7:10

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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

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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.

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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

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox, 7:10

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Hope you enjoyed your off-day but now we’re back to Twins baseball!

As several of my favorite bloggers have pointed out, we are down to the final 50 games of the season!  And the Twins are officially tied with the White Sox for first place in the Central Division.  That makes this series especially exciting!!  We have 9 games left against the White Sox and every single game is going to count!  If you want to know how much it counts, I really encourage you to read the piece Seth Stohs did for TwinsCentric: 50 Game Season begins tonight!

As far as injury updates go, Joe C was actually kind enough to go check on Nick Punto since I asked!  He’s progressing well from the hamstring strain and is eilligible to come back on Friday.  It’s not known for sure if he’ll be ready to go but it’s at least possible.  Morneau is not going to join the team in Chicago afterall – but he’s continuing his workouts.  Tolby is getting better too – gonna start a rehab assignment.  I’m not sure what is going to happen when all our utility infielders are back on track – we seem to have a few extra now.

Anyway, let’s hope that Baker has his stuff tonight.  He’s going to need to really bring it because the White Sox are going to show up loaded for bear.

Minnesota @ Chi White Sox
Span, CF   Pierre, LF
Hudson, O, 2B   Vizquel, 3B
Mauer, C   Rios, CF
Young, D, LF   Konerko, 1B
Kubel, RF   Kotsay, DH
Cuddyer, 1B   Ramirez, A, SS
Thome, DH   Quentin, RF
Valencia, 3B   Castro, R, C
Hardy, SS   Lillibridge, 2B
  Baker, S, P     Garcia, F, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 1 4 1 2 0 2 0 2 0 12 14 1
Chi White Sox 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 6 10 0

 

*still giggling*  Yes, you read that boxscore correctly.  You see that bit where it says we got 12 runs on 14 hits??  Yeah, 5 HOME RUNS, BABY!!!  I’m really a small ball girl – I love the running of the bases and smart hits and steals and good bunts.  But you really gotta love it when the Twins go to the long ball in Chicago so successfully!!!  We really got to Freddy Garcia right off too.  And the offense was ON it from the top of the order to the bottom.  Thome was having a LOT of fun against his former team – obviously one of the homeruns but more surprisingly, a DOUBLE!  Mauer was 3/5 with 2 runs and once again was a triple short of the cycle.  Kubel had one of the homeruns and 3 WALKS!!  EVERY starter got a hit tonight – it was an offensive buffet supporting a very solid Scott Baker.  He struggled early and gave up three runs in the 2nd inning but pulled himself back into focus and kept them stalled out from then on.  Obviously, that 40th bday party y’all threw for Jim Thome got everyone on the same page!  I love it!  As Kbro pointed out, the image to remember from this game is of Ozzie Guillen with the face/palm.

With all the fireworks from the bats tonight, there was a LOT of discussion about who actually earned tonight’s BOD (including a snide mention of Freddy Garcia 😉 ) so just for giving us so many to choose from, the whole lineup gets an all-you-can-eat buffet of baked goods.  But the actual BOD honors as voted go to Michael Cuddyer!  It’s been awhile for him but going 2/5 with a homerun and 4 RBI is nothing to sneeze at.  Good job boys! 

*** Post game note: in order to make room for Glen Perkins to come out to pitch for Kevin Slowey tomorrow, the Twins sent Trevor Plouffe back down to Rochester after the game.  That’s pretty much to be expected I think right now.  Some had asked, “why not Morales?” and my answer is that Gardy still likes that bench bat that doesn’t take away his DH if he’s got Mauer in that spot instead of behind the plate.  Gardy won’t give that up until he has to.  At least we are now back to 12 pitchers on the roster.  I’m just guessing but I really don’t think that Perk will go back down.  When Kev comes back, it will be interesting to see what happens. ***

Twins History Lesson: August 9-15

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It seems to me like this week’s History Lesson* is loaded down with a lot of “lasts”. I suppose it is getting to be the time of year when we’re going to see more and more of those. They don’t call these the “dog days of summer” for nothing, I guess.

Is August 9 ALWAYS an off day? There really were only a couple of items of any interest taking place on the 9th and those were both back during the Twins first decade in Minnesota:

Rich Rollins

1962: You know how fun it is when the current Twins get big games out of the “new kids” on days when the studs don’t perform up to expectations? That kind of thing is hardly new to the Twins. On this date in 1962, those “new kids” were 3B Rich Rollins, who went 2 for 6 with 4 RBI, and 2B Bernie Allen who went 4 for 6, also with 4 RBI. They led the Twins to a 12-10 win over the Kansas City A’s.

1967: On the flip side, you know how much it sucks to see the Twins build a nice big lead throughout the course of the game, only to see them give up a huge inning that sends the game in to Extra Innings? That’s not exactly new, either. On August 9, 1967, the Twins coughed up a 7-0 lead, giving up 7 runs to the Senators in the 7th inning. The Twins would lose the 5 hour, 40 minute game in the 20th inning, but that’s not the most remarkable part. Check out these stats for a couple of the two teams’ RELIEF pitchers: The Twins’ fourth pitcher, Al Worthington, threw 8 and 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, striking out 8 and giving up just 2 hits (Jim Roland threw the last four innings and got the loss). But Worthington’s performance was only good for second best that night. Washington’s fifth pitcher, Darold Knowles, went 10 innings, striking out 10 and giving up just 3 hits. He didn’t get the W though as Dave Baldwin tossed the final 3 innings.

August 10 has been an active date in Twins history and has witnessed a couple of those “lasts” I referred to at the beginning of this post:

1971: Harmon Killebrew became a member of what was still an elite club at the time when he notched his 500th career home run off Baltimore’s Mike Cuellar in the first inning of their game at Met Stadium. He also hit #501 off Cuellar in the same game, but the Twins lost to the O’s 4-3. Killebrew was the 10th player in history to reach the 500 HR mark.

Kent Hrbek

1994: The Twins’ 17-7 win over Boston on this date was not only the final regular season game of the year (due to the players’ walkout that would ultimately lead to the cancellation of the rest of the 1994 season, including the World Series), it was also the day Twins Territory said good-bye to #14. Kent Hrbek went 1 for 5 but knocked in 3 runs in the game, but Kirby Puckett brought the heavy lumber, going 2 for 3, scoring 4 runs and driving in 7 more. Since nobody really knew for sure how long the walkout would last, there was no certainty about this being Hrbie’s final game. As a result, he didn’t get the proper ceremonial send off he deserved. Typical of Twins crowds, however, they sent Hrbek in to retirement with standing ovations before each of his final two plate appearances.

The early 1980s Twins’ general era of futility may have been perfectly epitomized by pitcher Terry Felton. On August 11, 1982, Felton broke the MLB record for most losses at the beginning of a career without recording a win when he and the Twins dropped a 6-3 game to the Angels. Felton would go on to lose 16 straight games (13 in 1982, along with his 0-3 career record going in to that season). Felton would never win a Major League game and left baseball with the record for most career losses without a win (16) and the most losses in a season without a win (13). How bad were the Twins that year? Felton actually had an ERA of 4.99 and a WHIP of 1.491. Not great by any means, but not 0-13 material. The Twins lost 102 games in 1982 so there were plenty of L’s to go around. Let the record also show that Felton did record 3 saves in 1982.

August 12 has seen a few more positive events in the organization’s history:

1979: It can’t be easy to throw a 10 hit complete game shutout but that’s exactly what Twins pitcher Jerry Koosman did on this date against the Oakland A’s. Good thing, too, because the Twins only managed to push across one run in support of Kooz.

Harmon Killebrew, HOF

1984: Harmon Killebrew’s journey to Cooperstown was fittingly completed as Killer was inducted in to the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Don Drysdale, Pee Wee Reese, Luis Aparicio and Rick Ferrell.

August 13 has seen it’s share of fond farewells among other items of note on that date:

1970: If you were a pitcher with a no-hitter going against the Twins, the last guy you wanted to see come to the plate was Cesar Tover. On this date, for a record-tying fourth time in his Twins career, Tovar accounted for the only hit against an opposing pitcher. The Twins lost 1-0 to the Senators and pitcher Dick Bosman. Jim Kaat gave up the one Senator run (it was unearned) for the loss.

1986: The Ron Davis era came to a close in Minnesota as RD wass traded to the Cubs, along with Dewayne Coleman in return for shortstop Julius McDougal, and pitchers George Frazier and  Ray Fontenot.

1995: Kent Hrbek got the formal “thank you” he deserved as the Twins held a ceremony to retire his number 14.

Brad Radke

2006: Pitcher Brad Radke threw 7 shutout innings at the Blue Jays before turning the game over to Matt Guerrier and Joe Nathan to complete the 5-0 shutout. It was Radke’s 148th (and last) regular season W.

Now that Twins fans are having so much fun in Target Field, it’s fair to ask why the Twins ever moved out of Metropolitan Stadium in the first place. Perhaps one clue can be found in the box score of the Twins’ final doubleheader played at the Met on August 14, 1981 against the Seattle Mariners. Paid Attendance: 5,630.

August 15 has seen a couple of trades of note. In 1993, the Twins traded 3B Mike Pagliarulo to the Orioles for a player to be named later (which became pitcher Erik Schullstrom) and 14 years later on the same date in 2007, we said good bye to Ramon Ortiz as he was shipped to the Rockies for infielder Matt Macri.

What does this week hold in store for 2010? Well a sweep of the WhiteSox would be a good start, right?! The number of trades in our look back at this week reminds us that we can still see new faces on the roster at this time of year, as well. – JC

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*We pull this information from a few different sources, including (but not necessarily limited to) Dave Wright’s excellent book, “162-0, The Greatest Wins!”, as well as some  internet sites like “Twins Trivia” and “National Pastime”.

A Snapper Weekend

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As I mentioned in my little essay about minor league baseball on Saturday, the Twins’ Midwest League (low-A) affiliate, the Beloit Snappers, are in Cedar Rapids taking on the Kernels in a four game series that runs through Tuesday. I’ve been to the first two games of the series, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon and I’m hoping to get out to the Tuesday game, as well. Monday’s game is a noon start so that would could be a bit iffy. (The blogging gig hasn’t blossomed to the point where I can quit my day job… yet.)

Saturday night, I was at the game with family and friends and friends of family, so the social aspect was fine. It was a pleasant enough evening, just a bit on the humid side, but nothing compared to what it was a week or so ago (or what it would be on Sunday). But the game itself was among the more difficult professional games to watch I’ve been to in a while.

Snapper/Kernel games are always a bit of a challenge for me, anyway. I’m a Kernels fan, of course, since they’re my hometown team. But when the Snappers come to town, I also look forward to seeing the Twins’ young prospects do well. So I root for the Kernels to win and the Beloit players to do well individually.

Pitcher Pedro Guerra and Danny Rams (1B)

Saturday night, the Kernels won the game 10-4, and it wasn’t among the better efforts I’ve seen out of the Snappers.  Top prospect Aaron Hicks, had a nice double down the LF line in the first inning and I got to see Pedro Guerra get his first start since being called up to Beloit. The Snappers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead through two innings. Guerra had a respectable debut, though he didn’t throw the ball particularly hard. He gave up a couple of runs in the third inning and left after giving up a walk and a double to the first two hitters he faced in the 5th.

That’s when the wheels fell off.

The Kernels sent 8 players to the plate in the 5th inning while taking a 7-5 lead in what had to be one of the longest half innings I’ve witnessed all year, purely in terms of time elapsed. Deliberate pitching, hitters stepping out of the box over and over, an error or two and a pitching change made that half inning drag on forever.

There aren’t many bright spots among your pitching staff in a 10-4 loss, but Nelvin Fuentes entered the game in the bottom of the 7th and went on to strike out 3 in two scoreless, hitless, innings to finish the night. It was also a tough night for the Snappers in the field as they ended up being charged with 5 errors on the game. Second baseman Reggie Williams had a nice night at the plate, going 2 of 4 with a double (that I thought should have been ruled a triple).

After doubling, Aaron Hicks takes his lead in front of Kernel SS Jon Karcich

But the great thing about baseball is that there’s always another game tomorrow. In this case, the Snappers bounced back from Saturday’s 10-4 loss to win Sunday afternoon 10-9. Yes, they did still have some pitching issues and yes, they did rack up 4 more errors, so it may not SEEM like it was much of an improvement, but I’ll guarantee it was a happier clubhouse after the game than the night before.

Pitcher Martire Garcia and 3B Reggie Williams
Danny Rams leads off behind Jeremy Cruz and in front of Jean Segura after a walk. He added a 2B and a HR in the game.

For the second straight game, Beloit manager Nelson Prada sent a pitcher to the mound for his first start as a Snapper. Sunday, it was Martire Garcia making his MWL debut. Garcia got off to a bit of a rocky start the first two innings but settled down and hung a couple of zeros on the board for the Kernels in the 3rd and 4th innings before calling it a day.

Nelson Prada's not telling the umpire a fish story

Of course, Prada didn’t see much of Garcia’s performance as he was tossed early in the bottom of the first inning for arguing with the home plate umpire over whether a Kernel double down the RF line was fair or foul. That left the team in the capable hands of Twins fans’ old friend Tommy Watkins, who’s the Snapper hitting coach.

And his hitters were doing their jobs at the plate (if not so much in the field). 1B Danny Rams and CF Aaron Hicks brought the big lumber. Rams went 2-3 with a walk, double and a home run. He also scored 3 runs. Hicks was 3-4 with two doubles.

Tommy Watkins signals pitches to his catcher

Once again, the pitchers struggled a bit, but lefty reliever Matt Tone managed to shut the Kernels out in his two innings (the 7th and 8th) of relief. That allowed Beloit the cushion to withstand a 9th inning rally and hang on to their 10-9 win.

It was one long, hot day at the ballpark for these guys following a very long game the night before.  We’re approaching mid-August. It’s hot. They’ve been playing baseball virtually every day since they reported for Spring Training over five months ago. But that didn’t stop Aaron Hicks and Steven Liddle from diving for balls in the outfield (Liddle also showed off his arm on an impressive throw to the plate) or Reggie Williams from diving for hard ground balls down the line at 3B or James Beresford and Derek McCallum from hanging tough on double plays at 2B. And Josmil Pinto caught a day game in oppressive heat and humidity after catching the game the night before. The execution isn’t perfect, but there’s no doubting their effort and that bodes well for the future of our favorite Major League team.

Finally, just because we’re all Tommy Watkins fans, one last picture of Tommy positioning his outfielders from the bench Saturday night. – JC

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #3, 12:05

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YAY!  I can post the gamechat today!!!  AGAIN, my apologies for missing you all last night.  At least we have today.  (doesn’t that sound like a taudry romantic drama? about baseball?)

Ok, injury updates:  The good news is that ‘Lando is BACK!!  Joe Mauer is BACK to catching – which is great news for Butera who has really earned the day off.  And even better, Lexi’s little experience last night will not require a stint on the DL.  He has a bone spur on his ankle but no soft tissue damage or fractures so … they’ll let him play when the soreness is gone.  But that means that Plouffe, who would have been sent down to make room for Hudson, has to stay to back him up, and it’s Anthony Slama who draws the short straw.  I’m sure we’ll see Slama again fairly soon.

The bad news is that Kevin Slowey is dealing with some pain on the back of his elbow and he’ll be skipping his next start.  Sounds like they’ll be bringing up Perkins to make a start in his spot – and both Liriano and Pavano would like an extra day of rest as the rotation flows so I think the math works out.  Perkins will start on Wednesday against the White Sox if I’m still on target.

The MIA bit is that I haven’t heard a word about Punto’s recovery and if he’ll come back on schedule or not.  I’m definitely going to ask around and see if I can find out.

On to today’s game!  Duensing is out there again and I think he will do well today.  I sure hope it’s still cooler in Cleveland than it is in Minnesota.  And I can’t say that I will miss the throwback uniforms from yesterday.  I still think the hats were cool though. Span is getting a day off and Repko i sout in his spot – from how Span looked at the plate last night, I think that is a very good move. He needs a mental reboot.

Minnesota @ Cleveland
Repko, CF   Brantley, CF
Hudson, O, 2B   Cabrera, A, SS
Mauer, C   Choo, RF
Young, D, LF   Duncan, S, DH
Kubel, RF   LaPorta, 1B
Cuddyer, 1B   Marte, A, 3B
Thome, DH   Crowe, LF
Valencia, 3B   Donald, 2B
Hardy, SS   Marson, C
  Duensing, P     Huff, D, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 5 6 1
Cleveland 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 0

 

Well it was REALLY good to get the win today and the series win as well!!  Duensing was a bit rough in the first inning and gave up 3 runs and the defense was a bit rough behind him for a couple innings too.. and there was NO offense from the Twins to speak of.  However, they got their rhythmn together and all three parties managed to get things going. 

Duensing turned in brilliant innings 3-7 and even came out to start the 8th for the first time this season.  ‘Lando had a GREAT day back and even got the game-tying hit.  For that, they both get pastries for doing such a great job.  Gamechat elected Jim Thome as our BOD today though for really getting the offensive ball rolling with a 2 run HR that in NO WAY left room for doubt or review.  Thank you so much  Mr. Thome!

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #2, postgame

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WordPress.org FINALLY let me in!  My deepest apologies for the lack of game chat – I had everything ready to go and simply was never able to get the dashboard to login so that I could put up a post until now.

If you were unable to see tonight’s game, you should really check out some pictures in the paper or on the website because both Cleveland and Minnesota were wearing throwback uniforms in honor of the Negro Leagues.  If you watched the game on TV, aren’t you glad you don’t have to play baseball in that every day?! I hope that the weather in Cleveland was cooler than it is here in Minnesota!

 And I gotta say it made Pavano look MASSIVE.  I kind of feel bad for Mauer and the pitchers with all those sleeves.  The Indians unis weren’t nearly as dramatic as the Twins. The Twins were wearing unis modeled after the 1909 St. Paul Gophers – really different than any throwback uni I have ever witnessed before.  Final note on the uniforms: I really liked the HATS!  Now there is a white hat that works!

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 1 7 14 2
Cleveland 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 9 0

  

Pavano didn’t really appear to like the uniform very much and, like several of the pitchers, appeared to have cut the sleeves off at the elbows.  It wasn’t his BEST appearance but he actually did what I like best in pitchers – he still did the job on a night when he didn’t have his best stuff.  He got through 7 innings and only gave up 2 runs despite several hits and walks.  And the defense behind him wasn’t great.  There were some really beautiful moments and some absolute head-bangers.  Kubel managed to have two incredibly bone-headed fielding efforts that earned him two errors.  But he really tried hard to make up for it at the plate with a double, a homerun and a very timely walk. I would say that, overall, the offense really was the story of this game.  Kubel wasn’t the only one with a HR either.  Trevor Plouffe hit his first MLB homerun and it was a lot of fun to see.  In addition, Mauer was 4/5, Cuddy was 3/5, and even Casilla was 2/2 – until he kind of stepped on the catcher running into home and hurt his ankle.  We’ll see how that goes but it did look like he kind of jammed himself up a bit.  Gardy said that an xray tonight showed a bone chip in the ankle but they’ll get an MRI tomorrow morning to decide if it’s a long term or short term problem – and before they decide what to do with DL for Hudson or maybe Lexi.  

All together, they actually managed to string hits together and the LOB percentage was about 50% instead of the approximately 80% it has been several times lately.  Aren’t you surprised I did the math?!?!

Anyway, we have a Twins win and no chat with which to elect a BOD.  So I believe that leaves the choice to me. Normally, I would look at the RBI totals and see that Kubel’s two are the most in the lineup BUT after the two errors I simply can’t do it.  I decided to go with Mauer due to his .800 BA for the night, two runs and an RBI besides.  It’s been a LONG time since Joe appeared in the ranks of BOD and all I can say is, “it’s about time!”

Of Snappers and Kernels and Other Minor (League) Stuff

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I’m probably not going to be seeing much of the Twins games this weekend. It’s not because I’m frustrated by their lack of hitting (though I am), but rather because the Beloit Snappers (the Twins Low A affiliate) are in town starting tonight for a four-game series… their final visit to Cedar Rapids of the year.

This is the third trip this season that the Snappers have made to Cedar Rapids this season and I’ve managed to get out to watch over half of the games they’ve played here. The last couple of years, Beloit’s only made the trip down here one or two times, so I’m enjoying getting to see so many games featuring these future Twins.

I don’t know how many of you ever attend minor league games or even live in a community that has a local team. I can only speak for myself, but there really aren’t many more enjoyable ways to spend a summer evening (or afternoon, for that matter) and do so on a budget.

Perfect Game Field at Memorial Stadium, Cedar Rapids

I’ve attended minor league games in Florida (High A) and Arkansas (AA), in addition to Iowa and I don’t believe I’ve ever spent more than $10 for a ticket… and usually a bit less. The highest priced ticket at Memorial Stadium here in Cedar Rapids is $10. It will get you a front row seat by the dugout or pretty much anywhere in the first few rows behind home plate from dugout to dugout. $7 gets you and your blanket in to stretch out on the grassy Lawn Seating area next to the visitors bullpen area. My favorite food is a ribeye sandwich that is grilled in a tent right behind the Lawn Seating area. I think they hit me up for about $6 for that and it’s probably about the most expensive food item in the ballpark.

Of course if you really want to live well, you can rent one of the available sky suites for you and a few of your closest friends. That will run you $500 plus food. I know that sounds like a lot, but I’m checking out StubHub for tickets for the Twins/Angels series in a couple of weeks at Target Field and I’ll easily spend $500 for some pretty mediocre seats for my family. So I guess it’s all relative.

Angels #3 Prospect Mike Trout

As for the baseball itself, the Kernels are usually pretty competitive and that’s the case this season as well. Their CF the first half of the season was Mike Trout, the Angels #3 prospect (according to Baseball America’s preseason rankings) who performed well in the Futures All Star Game last month and is already doing very well with his High-A team since being promoted. He’ll be arriving in Anaheim Stadium perhaps as early as September 2011.

The Kernels best pitcher, Tyler Skaggs, is a talented lefty who was also one of the Angels top 10 prospects. I say “was” because he signed his first contract with the Angels one year ago today… and by tomorrow he’ll be announced as the “player to be named later” heading to the D’Backs organization to finalize the trade that sent Dan Haren to the Angels. Trust me, that deal wasn’t nearly as one-sided in favor of the Angels as the ‘talking heads’ have made it out to be.

Alexi Casilla rehabbed as a Beloit Snapper

But this is a Twins blog, so let me just mention a few of the Twins prospects I’ve been able to catch on their trips to Cedar Rapids in just the past couple of years. In fact, let me start with the guy in the picture at the right, Alexi Casilla. Lexi played two rehab assignment games for the Snappers here in Cedar Rapids in 2008 before rejoining the Twins. But that wasn’t the first time we saw Casilla here. He was a member of the Kernels for a few games at the end of the 2004 season and for the first half of the 2005 season, before being promoted to AA. (He was traded from the Angels to the Twins after the 2005 season for J.C. Romero.) You might say he was a local favorite.

Twins #6 and #41 Prospects, Angel Morales and Anderson Hidalgo

Over the past two seasons, when the Snappers have visited Cedar Rapids, I’ve had the pleasure watching pitchers Steven Blevins, Liam Hendriks (14), B.J. Hermsen (15), Brad Stillings, Tom Stuifbergen (22), Daniel Osterbrock and Billy Bullock (28) pitch against the Kernels. I’ve seen position prospects Danny Rams (33), James Beresford (40), Anderson Hidalgo (41), Steve Liddle (47), Micahel Gonzales, Angel Morales (6) and Aaron Hicks (2) get their swings in. (Those numbers in parens indicate the player’s ranking in Seth Stohs’ “Top 50 Twins Prospects” list this past June.)

Cards #1 Prospect Shelby Miller

Of course, I don’t just go to games when the Snappers come to town. For example, a week or so ago, I went out to catch a game with the Cardinals’ affiliate, the Quad Cities River Bandits. While Trout is no longer with the Kernels, I did get to watch the Cardinals’ #1 prospect (according to Baseball America) Shelby Miller pitch against the Kernels. His catcher that day was the Cards’ #10 prospect, Robert Stock.

The Kernels play in a nice stadium and the Angels consistently send enough of their top prospects to CR to assure that the team is at least competitive. In fact, they won the first half division title this year so they’re already assured of a spot in the Midwest League playoffs next month.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll probably spend close to $1,000 for tickets, parking, food, hotel rooms and gas to take my family up to Minneapolis for the Twins’ weekend series with the Angels at Target Field (not to mention some time at the Renaissance Festival). I’ll have a great time, I’m sure.  But tonight and tomorrow, I’ll watch future Twins face off with future Angels about 2 miles from where I live and even after ticket, parking (which is free), food and a couple of beers, I probably won’t spend over $20 either day.

How can you beat that? – JC