Month: August 2010

GameChat – Twins @ Indians, 6:05pm

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Quick injury updates:  Orlando Hudson is nearly done with his stint on the DL – he’ll be elligible to play on Sunday. 

Morneau is actually showing genuine signs of improvement!!  He’s had three good workouts in a row and is starting to step up the nature of the workout.  Gardy mentioned that if this continues, he’ll take workouts with the team in Chicago as a test.  If THAT goes well, he’ll begin a rehab assignment.  I really hope for the best with Justin and can’t imagine how frustrating this experience must have been for him.

Rauch is available to pitch tonight but they are planning to give Crain and Capps the night off.

Joe Mauer is STILL having some shoulder pain and they don’t expect him to catch again until Sunday so it will be interesting to see how long Butera goes before they give Morales a shot at catching and give Butera a day off.

Since I know my team so well, I don’t get toooooooo excited about series against teams with losing records – [insert comment about ‘any given sunday’ here] – BUT I am still hopefull that this is one chance to gain a little ground on Chicago.  This is just not the same Indians team that I thought I we would see this year.  But that being said, this isn’t exactly the Twins team I thought we would see this year either. 

After two EXCELLENT starts from Baker and Slowey, I’m really looking forward to what Liriano can bring tonight.  Right now, he’s working on a 21 inning scoreless streak.  His longest is 23 scoreless innings this season so it would be great if he could beat that tonight.  According to Joe C. at the Strib, “He might be the hottest pitcher in baseball, at 4-0 with a 0.63 ERA and 33 strikeouts in his past four starts.”  I also hope that the offense remembers to give him support like they did the other guys – never know what might happen if/when we hit the bullpen right now – we could end up needing more runs than we thought.  Let’s see what happens!

Minnesota @ Cleveland
Span, CF   Brantley, CF
Casilla, A, 2B   Cabrera, A, SS
Mauer, DH   Choo, RF
Young, D, LF   Duncan, S, DH
Kubel, RF   LaPorta, 1B
Cuddyer, 1B   Nix, J, 3B
Valencia, 3B   Crowe, LF
Hardy, SS   Donald, 2B
Butera, C   Marson, C
  Liriano, P     Gomez, J, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 2 6 10 0
Cleveland 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 7 12 2

 

This was one of those games that is REALLY hard to do a postgame wrap up for – crazy plays, maddening calls, uplifting timely hits, and depressing shots.  It had them all.

It didn’t start well.  Frankie just didn’t not have his usual stuff tonight – slider and changeup were working ok but he couldn’t locate the strike zone with his fast ball to save his life.  But in Liriano’s defense, the strike zone had this tendency to .. move around.  There is no way to say this nicely: the homeplate umpire sucked.  Whether this is why or not, he was a replacement guy up from AAA and I sure hope he spends a little time reviewing his calls from tonight because it really helps a game progress much better if there is SOME sort of consistency in the balls & strikes calls.

All that being said, the Twins offense kept leaving men on base again.  This is definitely a problem.  The runs we did get always seemed to come from the bottom of the lineup and sometimes in ridiculous fashions.  Drew Butera had two runs where he should have been out at home by a MILE and for some freak happenstance or another, he was safe.  The first one, the left fielder threw the ball into home plate and hit Butera on the backside instead of his own catcher.  The second time, the throw made it to the catcher but he dropped it when Butera came into home.

Drama was just the name of the game tonight.  Top of the 9th, Twins are down by 2 with a runner at 2B and Jim Thome came up to the plate as a Pinch Hitter.  He promptly hits one HIGH & DEEP – out to the OF fence where it manages to seek out the most difficult place to land somewhere in the vicinity of the yellow line and the railing and bounce back up and into the field of play.  I’m still very firmly of the opinion that it was a Home run but after a lengthy review, the officiating team came back out and ruled it a double scoring only one.  That, of course, meant Gardy was out for a little Showtime even though it’s definitely againt the rules to argue the call.  But after the stupidity of the playcall even after review I’m sure the boys appreciated him standing up for them regardless.  Although I will admit, this version of showtime was somewhat calmer than he’s pulled in the past but was greatly extended. 

And then Alexi Casilla came to the rescue though (again) and managed to tie up the game with a fairly entertaining hit.  Sadly, we couldn’t manage to get one more so it was up to the Indians…  Yeah, Matt LaPorta launched one just past where Thome had off of Matt Guerrier and the game was done all of a sudden. 

The Boxscore just can’t quite describe how things actually went tonight – hopefully the officiating improves for the rest of the series.  If you want to understand what I mean about the Home Run botched call, Ben Collin did a good write up and it saves me the trouble: Simple Physics.

Boyfriend of the Month for July is No Surprise. DY!

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Yeah, big shock huh? Delmon Young kicked some major butt in July (no doubt motivated by having to share the Knuckleballs Boyfriend of the Month award with Carl Pavano in June) and ran away with the BOM race last month. DY racked up six Boyfriend of the Day awards in July alone.

We Knuckleballers weren’t the only ones impressed with Delmon’s performance in July, however. According to The Sports Network, Delmon and Toronto’s Jose Bautista are sharing the July American League Player of the Month award.

Pavano, meanwhile, apparently believed duplicating the three BOD awards that earned him a share of the BOM prize for June would be enough to do the same in July. Silly starting pitcher.

Young is now in double figures for BOD awards on the year, tallying 11 awards with two months of games still to play. Pavano’s six BODs are good for second place, thus far, in the Boyfriend of the Year race. His grip on the runner-up spot is tenuous however, as Francisco Liriano finished July just one BOD award behind Pavano and has already made up the distance with an early August BOD.

Denard Span, Jason Kubel, Kevin Slowey and Denard Span round out the top 5 (and ties) with four BODs each through the end of July. (Slowey got the jump on that group with his 5th BOD Thursday.)

Will DY continue running away with the BOY race? Will The ‘Stache fend off the challengers for runner-up? Let’s just hope August brings a lot of wins and a lot of BODs! – JC

When is a Trade Deadline Not a Trade Deadline?

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Are you confused about the whole “July 31 was the trade deadline but it wasn’t REALLY the trade deadline” thing? Does thinking about the ins and outs of waiver trading give you a headache (or make you yawn) worse than UZRs, BABIPs and OPS+s all rolled in to one?

We here at Knuckleballs are going to try to make it all simple and easy to understand. After all, we’re nothing if not simple around here. So here are our “Waiver Rule Q&As for Dummies Knuckleballs.”

Q: I thought the trade deadline was July 31. Now I hear it’s August 31. Is there really a trade deadline at all?

A: No. There’s really no such thing as a trade deadline in Major League Baseball. A player can be traded any time. BUT (isn’t there always a “but”?) there are hoops that teams have to jump through that change on July 31 and August 31 that lead media types to confuse us simple folk by using the term “deadline”.

Q: So what are those hoops?

A: Here’s a rundown on the way the rules change on July 31 and August 31:

  • Through the deadline on July 31, teams could trade players to any team. July 31 is commonly referred to as the “non-waiver trade deadline.”
  • After July 31 and through the remainder of the season, players must first go through “revocable waivers.” This process involves:
    1. placing the player on waivers. At this point, any team may place a waiver claim on that player.
    2. If the player IS NOT claimed by any other team, his team can trade him to any other team.
    3. If the player IS claimed, his current team has 47 business-day hours to choose one of three options.
      • revoke the waiver and keep the player.
      • let the player go to the team winning the waiver claim for the waiver price of $20,000. The new team takes on the player’s current contract.
      • take up to an additional 48 1/2 hours to work out a trade with the team winning the waiver claim.
  • Any player acquired in a trade after August 31 is not eligible to be a member of his new team’s playoff roster that season.

Q: 47 hours and 48 1/2 hours? What idiot came up with those numbers?

A: I have no idea who came up with those numbers, but when it comes to idiotic things MLB does, I look first, last and always at Bud Selig.

Q: If more than one team claims a player, can his team can try to make deals with all of them?

A: No. The claim of any team in the same league gets priority over claims by any team in the other league. If that rule doesn’t determine who wins the claim, then the next criteria is based on current winning percentage of the teams making the claim. Lowest winning percentage wins the claim.

Q: Can a team just keep putting the same player on waivers and revoking those waivers over and over?

A: No. A team can only pull a player back from waivers once. If they revoke the waivers once and put him back on waivers again before the end of the season… and he is claimed by another team, then that team automatically gets the player (and his contract).

Q: Do teams only put players they want to get rid of on waivers?

A: No. Almost every player on every MLB roster will be placed on waivers in August.

Q: WHAT!?!?!? The Twins are going to waive Joe Mauer?!

A: Maybe. You see, every General Manager thinks he is clever, crafty, and really smart… and that every other GM is a total idiot. So they think that if they put ALL of their players on waivers, the dumb GMs on the other teams won’t be able to tell which players they want to keep, which ones they might want to trade, and which ones they might want to dump on another team stupid enough to take on an overpaid washed up pitcher who couldn’t strike out your great-grandfather.

Q: And this works?

A: Amazingly, sometimes… yes. You see, not many GMs are all that smart. At least not nearly as smart as those of us who blog about their teams.

Q: Can players with no-trade clauses in their contract get waived or traded in August?

A: Yes. A lot of them actually want to get he heck off of the sinking ship they’re currently playing for and get in a pennant race. But if a player is claimed by a team to which he has the right to reject a trade, his team is required to revoke the waiver unless the player agrees (usually for a hefty price) to waive the no-trade rights and join the new team.

Q: So do teams just automatically put all of their players on waivers August 1?

A: Some might.

That way they find out quickly who might be interested in making a deal for which of their players. They also think there might be a chance teams will be so overwhelmed by the volume of waived players that they might overlook some players, making it more likely those players will completely pass through unclaimed and thus able to be traded to any team.

But other teams, especially those that are still deluding themselves (and their fans) in to thinking they still may have a shot at the playoffs, may wait until later in the month when even the most delusional GM has to admit his team sucks and he should start sending through waivers the dead weight he gave obscene contracts to two years ago.

Q: Do teams really want every player they claim or do GMs sometimes claim players just to keep another team from getting that player?

A: GMs do occasionally make preventive claims. They may claim a player they don’t really want in order to keep a team with a better win percentage at the time from getting him. If they win the claim, they won’t make any attempt to make a trade for the player and assume the player’s current team will simply revoke the waiver and keep the player. Sometimes it backfires, though, and the GM gets stuck with a player (and a contract) he and his manager (and owner) didn’t really want. Oops.

Q: You said you would make this simple to understand. You lied. My head still hurts.

A: That’s not a question, but maybe we can come up with an example that will help.

Let’s say the Angels put closer Brian Fuentes on waivers 47 hours ago. If nobody has claimed him, the Angels can trade him to anyone they can make a deal with.

But let’s say he has been claimed by several teams who think he could help their bullpen this month and in the playoffs… the Phillies and Rockies in the NL and the Rangers, Rays and Yankees in the AL. Now what happens?

First, forget the Phillies and Rockies because teams in a player’s current league get priority over teams in the other league, regardless of their records. Their only shot was to hope no AL team claimed Fuentes.

Next, we look at the winning percentages of the Rangers, Rays and Yankees. The lowest is currently the Rangers so they win the claim on Fuentes.

Now the fun starts.

What do the Angels do? If they think they’ve gotten all the use they can out of Fuentes this year, they may simply let Texas have him (and shed the $3 million or so still owed on his 2010 contract). If they aren’t willing to just let him go and get nothing but the claiming price of $20K in return, they revoke the waivers.

If the Angels believe they’re still in the playoff hunt and don’t want a team in their own division to have Fuentes, they pull him back and keep him. But if they are ready to concede they have no shot this year, they’ve got 48 1/2 hours to finalize some kind of trade with the Rangers.

If Texas really does want Fuentes, they’ll offer some sort of package of low level minor leaguers and probably try to get the Angels to eat some of Fuente’s remaining salary in a trade. If their intent was simply to keep potential playoff opponents from getting Fuentes, they’ll just tell the Angels, “No thanks.”

Let’s assume the Angels end up keeping Fuentes. Now fast forward 3 weeks to the last week of August and see that the Angels are so far back that even the rosiest colored glasses in Anaheim recognize there’s no shot in 2010. They see playoff contenders still out there who need bullpen help and they have no use for a closer to whom they still owe about $2 million. What do they do?

They may put Fuentes back on waivers. Now, any team that claims him knows that there’s a reasonable chance they may get him. If one of the contenders really feels he’ll help their bullpen and has $2 million burning a hole in their pockets, they’ll make a claim. Otherwise, he’ll go unclaimed and the Angels are free to try to get whatever they can for him in a trade with any team. Whether by claim or trade, if he becomes a member of his new team by August 31, he’ll be eligible for the playoffs with his new team.

Q: Did you say something? My eyes glazed over after, “Now the fun starts.”

A: Yeah… I said the Twins just put Joe Mauer on waivers.

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This information was gathered from Cot’s Contracts and various other sites. If any of it is wrong, it’s not the author’s fault. It’s never the author’s fault. Ever. – JC

GameChat – Twins @ Rays #4, 11:10am

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This is it.  This is the final game of the series.  After that marathon pitching battle last night, I would really like to come out and play well today.  Mauer tried throwing this morning and the shoulder is still sore so he’s not ready to catch yet.  Butera will be going for the 5th day in a row.  My hope is that Slowey will continue his good pitching and not shake off Butera either.  He has to let his pitcher run the call and not let himself get tied up in his own head.  Win TWINS!!!

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay
Repko, CF   Rodriguez, S, 2B
Casilla, A, 2B   Crawford, LF
Mauer, DH   Longoria, 3B
Young, D, LF   Aybar, W, DH
Kubel, RF   Joyce, RF
Cuddyer, 1B   Johnson, D, 1B
Valencia, 3B   Upton, B, CF
Hardy, SS   Brignac, R, SS
Butera, C   Shoppach, C
  Slowey, P     Davis, W, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 8 15 2
Tampa Bay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 6 5 0

 

*dies laughing*  No, really, I’m still laughing.  What an utterly ridiculous series of events!  For those who couldn’t see the game because they are gainfully employed, this is going to be hard to convey and the boxscore simply does not do it justice.

To start with, Kevin Slowey was amazing.  He pitched a BEAUTIFUL game (very similar to Bakers but even faster).  He really had the Rays lineup off-balance in ways that were obviously frustrating them – poor Kelly Shoppach tried to break his bat over his knee after one particular strike out.  He got ALMOST all the way through the 8th inning before he started to struggle a bit – kind of wish he’d stayed out there because he couldn’t have done any WORSE than the relief pitching that came out.  Our bullpen was taxed and tired after the last three games so it was wonderful that Slowey did what he did. 

The Twins offense got to Davis early and hard getting 4 runs in the first inning and sending all 9 hitters to the plate.  In the following innings, Davis managed to refocus but we still tagged the Rays with another couple runs and kept the shutout going until the 8th inning.  That was assisted hugely by some GREAT defensive plays that contrasted greatly with the defensive miscues from yesterday.  But defense and pitching kept the Rays frustrated for a good portion of the game…  and then came the 8th inning. 

Slowey didn’t seem to be working as successfully with the strike zone and started letting men on base after he gave up a solo HR.  Jesse Crain was brought in and he couldn’t get an out to save his life and by the time he walked in an additional run to make the score 6-2, he was pulled and Mahay came in.  Um… yeah, ouch.  Mahay ended up giving up a grand slam to Bartlett who came in as a pinch hitter and tied the game.  All of Twins fandom felt their hearts crack as yet another stellar starting pitching outting ended in a no decision. (We really have to do better to support our starters wehn they do so well guys!)  Matt Capps came in and FINALLY got the last out.  That left one inning left to try to take the game back even if it was too late for Kev.

Twins hitters once again managed to make something happen to get on base even without Mauer who was walked intentionally twice.  The truly entertaining part was Kubel coming up with runners on the corners and 2 outs.  He REALLY wanted to hit that long HR and be the hero…  well, he hit it hard, that’s for sure – straight up.  The ball ended up bouncing off of the inner-most metal catwalk and bouncing back down into the infield in what was the luckiest play to go the Twins way in a long time.  The Rays infield simply had no way to play the ball as it ricocheted back down to almost the pitchers mound.  There was a lot of dropped jaws on the faces of players from both teams and much broadcaster reading of the rules so that fans knew what the heck counted as what.  But EVERYONE knew that was just a lucky bounce that went our way irregardless of what it bounced off of.  So Kubel ended up getting us that winning RBI off a hard hit single into the sky. For that, he and JJ Hardy and Jason Repko all get pastries for timely hitting.

However, the two highlights of today won’t really show up in the final stats.  The first was that no decision of Kev Slowey’s which was a beautifully pitched gem and the other was some consistently miraculous fielding from Alexi Casilla including the final out that didn’t even look humanly possible.  Especially since their accomplishments seem to lose impact in the final stats, the Chat voted them CO-BOD’s today.  Thanks you so much for your hard work and excellent comebacks from two players who have known what it is to struggle.

 

GameChat – Twins @ Rays #3, 6:10

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In the way of injury updates, I’m going to suggest checking out LaVelle’s bit from the Strib today because he covers a lot of our known concerns right now.  To summarize, Mauer is going to continue to DH until his shoulder feels 100%, Morneau is continuing his workouts and improving and, down in AA, Ben Revere took a pitch to the face last night and could have broken bones – awaiting an update.

So, for tonight, we are two games down in a four game series.  After two losses in a row, I really believe that the Twins need to get on the stick and figure out a way to beat the Rays.  Given the tightness of the race between the Rays and the Yankees for the AL East, if we can’t beat the Rays, we have a real problem when it comes to the post-season (assuming we get there) since we already know there is a tendency to give it up to the Yankees when we play on their turf.  Yes, I am still the optimist that sees the Twins not only taking the AL Central from the White Sox (again 😉 ) but with chances to go all the way through to October.  But this series is really a good measure for whether or not the talent we have right at this moment can do that – injuries and all.

All that said, the Twins have to get to David Price which is no small task.  AND Scott Baker has to be able to take it to the Rays hitters and get OUTS instead of walks and runs.  Let’s go, guys.

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay
Span, CF   Zobrist, 1B
Casilla, A, 2B   Crawford, LF
Mauer, DH   Longoria, 3B
Young, D, LF   Joyce, RF
Cuddyer, 1B   Johnson, D, DH
Valencia, 3B   Jaso, J, C
Repko, RF   Upton, B, CF
Hardy, SS   Rodriguez, S, 2B
Butera, C   Bartlett, SS
  Baker, S, P     Price, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 R H E
Minnesota 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 10 0
Tampa Bay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 0

 

Holy crap that was quite a game.  Scott Baker was TOTALLY robbed of the decision tonight.  It was an outstanding pitching duel – especially against one of the best pitchers in the game right now.  I greatly disagree with D&B, Baker did NOT match Price pitch for pitch, he out-pitched him fairly dramatically – throwing far fewer pitches inning for inning and shutting the Rays out for 8 full innings.  Sadly, Matt Capps could NOT convert the Save and I have to admit that I thought to myself, “Rauch could have done THAT.”  Of course, he couldn’t since he was back at the hotel during tonight’s game battling an allergic reaction on his hands.

And the Twins offense couldn’t seem to get it’s act together and again left hitters on base and in general committed a lot of defensive mistakes tonight.  FINALLY, after a leadoff walk from Lexi and Mauer moving him to 3B, Delmon Young got his first hit of the evening and got the winning RBI.  After that, Matt Guerrier came out for a second stellar inning and saved the win for the Twins in the 13th.  For that, he deserves a very cold beer in addition to the Save.  Thank you very much Matty.  However, Baker still rules the day and was voted BOD!  Wish we could have gotten you the Win, Scooter.

Predicting The Future… Another Game 163?

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Last year as the Twins came out of the All-Star break just barely above .500 and trailing both the Tigers and WhiteSox, I was reaching for something that would give me hope that our guys could still find a way to win the AL Central Division. My search led me to the Baseball Prospectus site where they plug some sort of algorithm in to their computers every morning to determine each team’s chances of winning their division and/or claiming the wild card.

Gardy and Ozzie. Will it be deja vu all over again? (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images North America)

Last year, I was heartened to discover those geniuses and their computers determined that the Tigers and Twins both had about a 40% chance of winning the Division and the White Sox about a 20% chance. Since the Tigers and Twins ended up tied after 162 games, I’d say they were pretty accurate! As I wrote at the time, in a guest post over at Howard Sinker’s “Section 220” blog at the Strib website, the reason the computers liked the Twins and Tigers so much more than the BitchSox came down to the Sox having a much more difficult second half schedule.

So I painstakingly went through the remaining schedule of all three teams and predicted the total wins I felt each of them would end up with. Yes… I could have just used the numbers that the BP computers spit out, but what fun would that be? As it turned out, I overestimated the Tigers’ wins by 4 and the Sox’ wins by 3, but I came within 1 game of predicting the number of victories the Twins would finish the regular season with. I wrapped up the post with, “…I’m going to say it means the Twins are not out of the Division race yet. Of course, it would help if the Twins added a key piece of the puzzle or two soon.” As we all now know, I was right!

Which brings me to today.

The Twins are a game and a half behind the Sox after Tuesday night’s games, but the computer over at Baseball Prospectus, as you would expect, gives Sox a slightly greater chance than the Twins of winning the Division, though just the day before, the Twins held a small advantage despite trailing the Sox by a game at the time. (Since the BP odds are updated daily, the numbers you see when you click their link will reflect the current percentages on the day you go look.) As of this morning, the WhiteSox have a 52.7% chance of winning the Division, while the Twins sit just behind them with 44.9%. The couple of remaining percentage points reflect that the Tigers remain mathematically relevant… barely.

So, given my uncanny talent for predicting the future, as I demonstrated last year, I felt it was my responsibility to once again carefully analyze each of the three teams’ schedules and let everyone know how this is all going to turn out. I mean, won’t it be a lot less stressful watching the games the last two months if we already know how the race is going to finish? (What’s that, you ask? Aren’t I conveniently overlooking the fact that I didn’t exactly nail the correct number of wins any of the three teams finished with last year? Yes. And shut up.)

Let’s start with the easy part. The Tigers are toast and could start selling off parts any day now.

They’re currently at an even 53-53 and starting with Tuesday’s doubleheader with the WhiteSox, they have 17 straight games against the Sox, Angels, Rays, Sox (again) and Yankees. I figure they’ll be fortunate to stay within half a dozen games of .500 by the time that stretch finishes on August 19. Things do get a bit easier for them after that, but even from that point forward, they have 15 games remaining with the WhiteSox, Twins and Rangers. I’m being pretty generous, I think, to predict they’ll claw their way back up to a .500 finish at 81-81.

Sorting out the Twins and Sox isn’t nearly so easy. If anyone is expecting one of these teams to suddenly distance themselves from the other any time soon, I don’t think they’ve looked at the schedule. I have… and I think this one is going down to the wire.

Putting pencil to paper (yes, I’m old fashioned that way), I see the Twins still trailing the Sox as they hit Labor Day, but by just a half-game. After leapfrogging one another through September, both teams will carry identical 88-67 records in to the final week of the season. In addition, both will go 4-3 that last week to finish 92-70. The Twins’ best hope to avoid their third 163 game season in a row may be that the Red Sox, who will have most likely been eliminated much earlier, can summon the pride to put a torpedo in the side of the Sox’ pennant hopes during their 4 game series in Chicago at the end of September.

The good news is that this year’s Game 163 will likely be played at Target Field. The Twins currently own a 6-3 advantage in head-to-head games over the BitchSox, which means the Sox would have to win 7 of the remaining 9 games with the Twins to earn home field for Game 163. (Yes I realize that if the Sox win 6 of the remaining games with the Twins, the teams will have 9-9 records head-to-head. But in that event, the second tiebreaker is their respective records within the AL Central Division. The Twins are currently 27-15 in the Division and the Sox just 17-20. Let’s just say that if the Sox overcome that deficit, chances are there won’t be a need for a Game 163.)

So there you have it. Relax and just enjoy watching the rest of the games as we plow through the final two months of the regular season. We already know how it’s going to turn out so there’s no sense in getting all nervous until Chicago hits town and Scott Baker faces off with Freddy Garcia in Game 163 on Monday, October 4.

Of course, I could be wrong.

-JC

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P.S. On a totally unrelated, non-baseball, note, I just have to post a link to something Joe Posnanski posted earlier this week about the great decathlete, Rafer Johnson. I readily admit the bias that comes from being a Posnanski fan, but you should take the time to read Stories of an Extraordinary Life. It may be the best sports essay I’ve read all year. – JC

GameChat – Twins @ Rays #2, 6:10

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Tonight, Knuckleballs Chat is a Football-Free Zone!!

Ok, so we all knew that Carl Pavano was actually human so we had to expect that another loss was coming some day.  But it would have been nice if our offense could have stepped up the way we know they can.  Considering that it’s young Duensing’s turn today, let’s not let him down today boys.  Please??

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay
Span, CF   Upton, B, CF
Casilla, A, 2B   Crawford, LF
Mauer, DH   Longoria, 3B
Young, D, LF   Aybar, W, DH
Kubel, RF   Rodriguez, S, 2B
Cuddyer, 1B   Johnson, D, 1B
Valencia, 3B   Bartlett, SS
Plouffe, SS   Shoppach, C
Butera, C   Kapler, RF
  Duensing, P     Niemann, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 4 10 0
Tampa Bay 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 x 6 6 1

 

That was most definitely a crazy game – extremely frustrating, extremely exhilarating at times, and all together a challenging game to be a spectator for.  My guess is that it was a challenge for the starting pitching for both teams too..  that was more walks than I think I have seen in a month from either team.  Sheesh.  But Butera hit another HR in front of his daddy, there was a goofy-ass 6 player throwing circus for an out in the bottom of the 8th and in general, the Twins kept fighting in a way that I like to see.

See y’all back here tomorrow!

GameChat – Twins @ Rays, 6:10 pm

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After two sweeps in a row, I hope our boys are in the right frame of mind to take on one of the hottest teams in baseball right now.  I think this promises to be a very exciting series!  Let’s start it off right, Pavano!

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay
Span, CF   Jaso, J, C
Casilla, A, 2B   Crawford, LF
Young, D, LF   Longoria, 3B
Kubel, RF   Aybar, W, DH
Cuddyer, 1B   Joyce, RF
Thome, DH   Upton, B, CF
Valencia, 3B   Rodriguez, S, 1B
Hardy, SS   Brignac, R, 2B
Butera, C   Bartlett, SS
  Pavano, P     Hellickson, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 4 1
Tampa Bay 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 x 4 10 0

 

 Jeremy Hellickson, the rookie who completely baffled the supposed-to-be-powerful Twins offense Monday night in his Major League debut was given the traditional beer shower by his team mates and then given a ticket back to Durham, NC. Yes, the Rays are so good that they don’t need a pitcher who can shut down the Twins on 3 hits in 7 innings.

Fortunately for the Rochester Red Wings, they’re finished playing Durham this year. They saw enough of him in May. He beat the Red Wings twice that month. The game on May 3 got off to a good start as Matt Tolbert led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run off Hellickson. Danny Valencia would get an RBI double later in the game and those would be the only runs the Wings scored as they fell 10-2. Hellickson struck out 8 in 7 innings. On may 30, he also went 7 innings against Rochester in Durham’s 6-0 shutout, striking out “only” 7. He gave up only 4 hits in each of those games. That’s not much… but then it’s one more hit than the Twins managed against him last night in the same 7 innings. Maybe we needed Tolbert in the line up.

Too bad the Twins didn’t keep this Des Moines native in the upper Midwest! – JC

Twins History Lesson: August 2-8

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It’s not yet nearing the end of the season, but we can certainly see the end from here. The Twins are only half a game out of first place in the AL Central Division and there’s still a lot of baseball to be played. It won’t be long, however, before we won’t be able to say that.

I debated with myself about whether to post another Twins History Lesson this week, but then I realized the Twins didn’t lose a single game last week after I posted the Lesson for July 26 – August 1. I wouldn’t dare do anything to risk bringing this winning streak to a premature end! So let’s start the month of August with another trip down memory lane with the Twins.*

August 2:

1965: Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew was leading the AL in two of the three Triple Crown categories entering this date with 22 home runs and 70 RBI. After suffering a dislocated left elbow in a collision with Oriole Russ Snyder on August 2, Killebrew missed the following 48 games. As we all know, the Twins managed to win the American League pennant even without Killer in the line up for most of the last 2 months of the season.

1982: The Twins took the worst record in MLB in to a game with the Western Division leading Angels and predictably were getting shut out 6-0 through six innings (the 5th and 6th runs coming on the strength of a 2-RBI single by former Twin Rob Wilfong). Tom Brunansky’s double and singles by Kent Hrbek and Gary Ward (combined with a bit of an Angel circus act) put three runs on the board for the Twins in the 7th. Another former Twin, Doug Corbett, was on the mound for the Angels in the 8th when Gary Ward’s 3-run HR brought the Twins to within 7-6. Ron Washington and Brunansky (who had been traded by the Angels to the Twins for Corbett and Wilfong) came through with runners on base in the 9th inning to give the Twins a 9-7 lead with the Angels coming to bat against Twins closer Ron Davis. I know what you’re thinking, but just to demonstrate that not everything he touched as a Twin turned to stone, RD sat down Don Baylor, Fred Lynn and Doug DeCinces in order to close out the win. Perhaps not the most important win in Twins history, but with the benefit of hindsight, it provided a glimpse of what Twins fans had to look forward to five years later.

August 3:

1969: Oriole pitcher Dave McNally was on a roll when he took the mound at Met Stadium to face the Twins. He had a 15-game winning streak during the 1969 season (and since he had won his last two games in 1968, his personal streak was actually 17 tames). The streak came to an end in Bloomington when Rich Reese powered the Twins to a 5-2 win on the strength of his pinch hit grand slam home run.

Joe Niekro and umpire Tim Tschida

1987: We could make a good case for the 11-3 win over the Angels on this date warranting inclusion in this post on the basis of Gary Gaetti’s night. He went 3 for 5, scored twice, homered once and drove in 5 RBI. But nobody remembers any of that (except, most likely, Gaetti). What we remember is umpire Tim Tschida approaching the mound and asking to see pitcher Joe Niekro ‘s glove and for him to empty his pockets… at which time an emery board flew to the ground and a piece of sandpaper was also discovered in his pocket. It would be Niekro’s only ejection in his 702 career game appearances.

2008: The Twins entered the day a half game behind the White Sox and sent Francisco Liriano to the mound to face Cleveland in his first start after being recalled from Rochester. Liriano had pitched poorly in accumulating an 0-3 record before being sent down to AAA in April. All he did upon his return this night was shut down the Tribe for six innings, enabling the Twins to win 6-2 and take over first place from the Sox, who lost on the same day.

August 4:

1985: Rod Carew blooped a single to left field for his 3,000th career hit, becoming the first foreign born player to reach that plateau. Unfortunately, rather than reaching the milestone as a Twin, he did so as an Angel, and got the hit off of Frank Viola in the third inning of a 6-5 Angel win over the Twins.

1993: Kent Hrbek became just the second player to reach 1,000 career hits in a Twins uniform.

1994: Exactly one year after his milestone hit, Kent Hrbek announced his retirement from baseball, effective at the end of the season.

1997: Twin pitcher Brad Radke went 7 innings to earn the W over the Blue Jays and, in doing so, recorded a win in his 12th straight start… a feat only Bob Gibson (1968) and Pat Dobson (1971) had accomplished before.

Kirby Puckett

August 5, 2001 was a bad day for Twins fans to be at the Metrodome (where the AC went out and the Twins lost to the Royals while the temperature in the ‘Dome reached 91 degrees), but a good day to be in Cooperstown, NY.

Dave Winfield

That’s where former Twins Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield  were being inducted in to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

August 6:

1967: Twins pitcher Dean Chance threw a perfect game that will not be found on any list of MLB perfect games or no-hitters because he “only” retired all 15 hitters he faced in a rain-shortened 5 inning, 2-0 win over the Red Sox.

1969: The Twins’ Dave Boswell ended the night with a trip to the hospital to get 20 stitches after being punched by Twins manager Billy Martin. Martin stepped in after Boswell and team mate Bob Allison had a bit of a scuffle.

August 7:

2005: Yes, we all had a good laugh at the Cubs’ Milton Bradley a while back when he lost track of the number of outs and tossed a ball in to the stands after catching it, thinking there were 3 outs when there were only 2. But I don’t recall anyone mentioning at the time that on August 7, 2005, the Twins’ Shannon Stewart did pretty much exactly the same thing. The Red Sox went on to score 5 runs in the first inning and beat the Twins 11-7.

2009: The Twins acquired pitcher Carl Pavano from Cleveland in return for a “player to be named later”.

August 8:

1074: The Twins-Royals game in Kansas City is delayed several minutes while the fans (along with the rest of the country) listen to President Richard Nixon’s resignation speech, as it was broadcast in the stadium. The game resumes after the speech concludes. The Twins go on to win 3-2 in 14 innings with Bill Campbell tossing 7 innings of relief to get the win as Tony Oliva’s sac fly drives in Rod Carew with what would be the winning run.

1987: Steve Carleton records the 329th and final win of his career in a 9-2 Twins win over the A’s. Carleton gave up 2 runs in 8 and two-thirds innings of work.

1988: Twins catcher Brian Harper went 4 for 4 and outfielder Dan Gladden went 3 for 5 to lead the Twins to a 7-2 win over the Tribe. But the real excitement came in the fourth inning with former Twin Ron Washington on 2B for Cleveland and Willie Upshaw on 1B behind him. Joe Carter ripped an Allan Anderson pitch deep to left field. It looked like the Indians would be taking the lead until Gladden managed to run down the line drive, turn, and throw a strike to second baseman Steve Lombardozzi to double off Washington. Lombardozzi then turned and threw to Gene Larkin at 1B to complete the 7-4-3 triple play.

Paul Molitor

1998: Paul Molitor joined an exclusive club as he stoles the 500th base of his career. With 500 SBs and 3,000 hits, Molitor joined Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins and Lou Brock in that club.

With that, let’s look forward to another big week for the Twins. I suppose it would be a bit much to expect another perfect week, but I’ll settle for winning 6 out of 7 games this week (it wouldn’t be so bad to lose ONE game to the Rays, I suppose), seeing Justin Morneau rejoin the team in time to sweep the Tribe in the weekend series at Cleveland, and reclaiming their rightful spot atop the AL Central Division. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

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

*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”.

 

Twins Are “Losers”? Say It Ain’t So!

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I’m still trying to get my head around all the trades that went down over the last few days. The folks over at MLBTradeRumors always do a terrific job of keeping up on who’s doing what and they put together a recap of the moves, by contending team. Here’s the AL Central:

So who were the winners and losers after all of this past week’s trades? That depends on who you ask.

ESPN’s Jason Stark:

Winners: Rangers, Padres, Yankees, Astros, Phillies, Nationals, D’Backs, Cards, Dodgers

Losers: WhiteSox, BlueJays, Orioles, Giants, Twins, Rays, Mets

MLB Fanhouse (AOL):

Winners: Yankees, Astros, Rangers, Nationals (“may have pulled off the heist of the entire trading season” by getting Ramos for Capps)

Losers: RedSox, Giants, Tigers

Hardball Talk (NBC):

Winners: Angels, Rangers, Phillies, Yankees, Pirates (honorable mention: Nationals, Padres, Dodgers)

Losers: WhiteSox, Twins, Giants, Cardinals, Rays (dishonorable mention: Astros, DBacks, Tigers)

Yahoo Sports:

Winners: Rangers, Angels, Yankees, Phillies, BlueJays, Mets, Dodgers

Losers: WhiteSox, Giants, Tigers, Twins, Cardinals, Rays

So to summarize… it seems most of the national media is agreement with most of the Twins blogosphere in that they feel the Twins overpaid for Matt Capps and overvalued the ‘save’ statistic. The good news is that the Twins AL Central competition is not viewed has having improved themselves much at the deadline. It’s hard to imagine Jhonny Peralta being a true “difference maker” for the Tigers and the WhiteSox appear to have a much higher opinion of Edwin Jackson than… well… pretty much anyone else.

In addition to feeling the Twins gave up too much for Capps, the media also seems to feel the Twins inability to acquire starting pitching help moves them in to the “trade deadline loser” category. But before we all retire to our caves sobbing hysterically about being fans of the “loser” Twins, let’s remember a few things.

First… the Twins Major League team IS better with Matt Capps. Those of us who want to see the Twins win THIS YEAR can look past the cost and point out that while Jon Rauch did a nice job of stepping in for Joe Nathan, Capps (and the extra 3-4 MPH he has on his fastball) is likely going to be more reliable at the end of games and Rauch makes the group of quality set up relief pitchers much deeper.

Second… keep in mind that the nonwaiver deadline has become a very soft deadline. All Much of the help that Bill Smith brought in to push the Twins toward the playoffs in 2009 (Cabrera, Pavano, Rauch, Mahay) was obtained after July 31 last summer. [Correction made thanks to commenter Deb who correctly pointed out that Cabrera was obtained pre-July31 last year and Pavano should have been included in the post-July 31 group. My bad.-JC]

The biggest improvements that can be made to the Twins at this point are the additions of Justin Morneau and Orlando Hudson. Hopefully, they’re both on their way back toward rejoining the team and in the mean time, I doubt Bill Smith plans to take the month of August off.

Oh… and as for the whole trade deadline winners and losers thing, keep in mind that the Yankees were on Jason Stark’s ESPN “trade deadline losers list” last year. They managed to find a way to overcome that label and finish the season in good shape.

So let’s not fold up the tent quite yet. – JC