Written by WELCOME BACK JJ HARDY!!!
Yes, I have a special soft spot for Mr. Hardy that existed WELL before his actual time with the Twins and continues now that the Twins FO was short-sighted enough to let him go even though they knew that the Japanese star they were paying a fortune to woo was going to need to assimilate into a new style of play…
Ok, there are a few other things to cover from today’s news:
- Jim Thome & Jason Kubel were put on waivers today.
- don’t have a heart attack – all teams do this and most of the players will actually go through waivers this month and seldom does anything come of it.
- The fact that it was done this early does hint that the Twins want to have some time to work out a deal for either one.
- I would miss both players but I think we all knew this was coming for both of them. Thome deserves a final shot at the Series and Kubel is actually decent trade bait so he’s worth putting out there to test the market. Especially since we don’t HAVE to let anyone have them if the right situation doesn’t present itself.
- We have a new pitcher available to us tonight. Lester Oliveros has been called up from Rochester to fill the spot made by the likelihood that Nick Blackburn will go on the DL. In case the name, Oliveros, isn’t familiar to you, he’s the PTBNL that we got in the Delmon Young trade. *crosses fingers* I hope he works out well!
- Nishioka and Morneau are still out with physical difficulties but you’ll notice that Cuddyer is back. I’m hopefull that whatever lingering neck pain he might be dealing with won’t be too much of a limitation.
| Baltimore |
@ |
Minnesota |
| Hardy, SS | Revere, CF | |
| Markakis, RF | Plouffe, SS | |
| Jones, Ad, CF | Mauer, 1B | |
| Guerrero, DH | Cuddyer, RF | |
| Wieters, C | Kubel, LF | |
| Reynolds, Ma, 1B | Thome, DH | |
| Andino, 3B | Valencia, 3B | |
| Reimold, LF | Hughes, L, 2B | |
| Adams, R, 2B | Butera, C | |
| Britton, P | Pavano, P |
| Baltimore | ||||||||||||
| Minnesota |
JJ Hardy sure seemed to like being back here – hitting his 24th HR of the year. Sadly, it didn’t seem like Twins offense could get it’s butt in gear to do the same thing. There was one fantastic Twins moment however. Ben Revere made a very remarkable “Hunter-like” nab at the wall that seemed to surprise even him – it makes for a good watch!
The only other drama the Twins could manufacture (besides pissing me off with more LOB) was Danny Valencia getting himself tossed in the 8th inning and Gardy getting into it with Wendelstadt (again) and getting himself sent to join Danny. The hat toss was a real thing of beauty though!
