I guess the “big news” today is about Scott Baker going on the Disabled List and Kevin Slowey being recalled from Rochester. Slowey will get the start on Sunday in Cleveland. I’m sure there’s a significant portion of Twinsville that is excited to see Slowey’s return and I’m happy for him, certainly, but I’m not feeling overly optimistic.
He should have Alexi Casilla backing him up by Sunday, however. Lexi is still on track to be activated Friday, the first day he’s eligible to return from the DL. Unless something unforeseen arises, Justin Morneau could be activated on Monday, in time for the series with the Tigers.
It definitely has a “too little, too late” feel to it, but nevertheless, it will be good to see Lexi and Justin back in uniform and on the field.
In the mean time, let’s see if the guys can put an end to this particular stretch of sucking time and maybe smack Erik Bedard around a little bit tonight. (When the hell did Boston get Bedard, anyway? Must have been while we were all hyped up over whether Denard was going to be a National, I guess.)
Eh. Might have been the most boring, long, drawn out 4-3 game I’ve ever sat through. Welcome to Red Sox baseball. Hard for me to imagine people actually LIKE watching that team play.
I drafted this post Monday afternoon and I honestly hoped I would see something in the Twins Monday night that would make me decide not to publish it. Alas, while there were at least more signs of life among some of the guys, in the end, it was more of the same.
With the humiliation of the past weekend behind us, the attention of many bloggers has turned to discussions of what the Twins should do in the future… and that makes perfect sense. There’s really nothing more to discuss in terms of improving this team’s chances of being competitive in 2011. The Twins will be fortunate to hold off the young Royals and avoid finishing dead last in the AL Central Division.
There have been some good recent posts elsewhere concerning what the Twins might look like in 2012 (we got a head start on that process that you can read by clicking here, in case you missed it). Others can be found here… and here… and here… and here… and here… and probably elsewhere by the time you read this.
Seth Stohs put a lot of thought in to a post detailing his suggestions for how the Twins should play out the season. He makes some good points. He also got me thinking about what I would do if I were in charge of the Twins through the rest of 2011.
I came up with one thing I would do immediately.
Change their home uniforms.
After the death earlier this year of Twins Hall of Famer, Harmon Killebrew, the Twins announced they would wear the 1960s “throwback” uniforms for all remaining home games, in Harmon’s honor. I think that was a nice thing to do.
I think it would have been nicer if they had decided to dedicate their efforts toward playing baseball in a manner that Killebrew, Oliva, Perry, Grant, Kaat, Allison and others of that era would have been proud of.
But the fact is, their performance on the field dishonors my memories of watching Killer and the others play baseball the way it was intended to be played. They aren’t worthy of wearing the same uniform and if I were in charge, they wouldn’t put those uniforms on again until they earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath.
They wouldn’t wear their more recent home white uniforms, either.
Seeing the 1991 World Series Champions introduced before the three games over the weekend could only make Twins fans cringe even more when those guys left the field and we had to watch the current group try to play the actual games. Following Jason Kubel’s 1st inning home run on Friday night, we were treated to 26 innings of baseball during which the Twins scored exactly one run. I have no doubt that if you put uniforms on Hrbek, Gagne, Larkin, Gladden, et al, they’d have managed to get more than one run across home plate in those 26 innings.
Watching the current Twins stretch and play catch (the few that were even visibly out of the dugout or clubhouse) during the pregame introductions of that team made it clear to me that this team: (a) has no regard for these 1991 heroes, or (b) is embarrassed to be compared to them. I suspect it may be both, but it certainly should be the latter.
They probably aren’t comfortable being compared to that 1991 team and one can hardly blame them. Who among this group would tell his team mates, “Get on my back, I’ll carry you!”, like the man that was honored before Sunday’s game? Joe Mauer? Yeah, right.
So put away those white pinstripe home jerseys, too, boys. You’ll wear those again when you at least demonstrate half the effort and heart that the champions who wore them before you showed us.
I’m sure the Commissioner would frown on us sending you out to play in plain white t-shirts, which is pretty much what you deserve, so we’ll let you wear those navy jerseys.
Play like 1997? Dress like 1997
Better yet, do we still have some of those gawd-awful red ones the Twins wore back in 1997? You know the ones… the DQ jerseys… the ones that we all laughed at while the team was losing 94 games. Yeah, dress this group up in those for the rest of 2011. Then again, guys like Paul Molitor, Brad Radke and Rick Aguilera wore the DQ jerseys that year, so I’m not even sure the current crop deserve to have these on their backs. But I guess they have to wear something.
Oh… but one more thing… take the names off the back (that’s at least one thing they got right about the “throwback” jerseys) at home and on the road. If the fans don’t know who you are by looking at you, then do something that will make us want to look up the number to see who you are. We didn’t need names on the uniforms to know who Killebrew, Oliva, Puckett, Hrbek and Blyleven were.
Maybe by the time 2012 starts, the front office can come up with something new and fitting for these guys to wear. Does Rochester have any of those “Star Wars” jerseys left or did they auction them all off?
If it were up to me, I’d tell these guys, “You’ll get your REAL Twins uniforms back when you show a little pride in being given the honor of wearing the uniforms of Killebrew and Puckett. That’s pride, not ego. Either learn the difference or get the hell out of here. I’m tired of seeing too much of the latter and not nearly enough of the former.”
So I did most of my venting about horrible baseball the guys have been playing lately this morning.. That being said, I’m only done venting if they are done jacking it up in the infield and wussing out at the plate. If we can get guys to start playing good baseball, using the glove effectively and hitting the ball once in awhile, I will actually be able to let the rest of frustrations go relatively quickly. But errors, LOB and other jack-assery will just make me very angry for a very long time.
Congratulations are in order to Tsuyoshi and his wife – they have a brand new baby girl! Also, it means he’s out of the lineup tonight and that gives me a break to not have to grumble about my disappointments there either. I’m glad that everything went well and I hope he really enjoys fatherhood!
If you watched any or all of the games from the series against the White Sox this weekend, you likely have a feeling remarkably similar to a hangover this morning.. it sucks.
Whatever happened to the White Sox always losing in Minnesota? *sigh* If you really want to read a great summation of the series and the team reactions, you should check out Phil Mackey’s piece at ESPN: Ron Gardenhire ‘wondering what the hell is going on’
The depessing part of the weekend I think is – and just about everyone seems to agree – that this killed pretty much any hope of a comeback this season. It seems that the injuries, lack of front office forethought, and general circumstances have finally piled enough negatives in the balance scales that “hustle” and “playing our tails off” can do nothing to counteract the sink. Not even Justin Morneau coming off the DL and making spectacular moves immediately have time to salvage where the Twins now reside in the division.
Would I like to be proved wrong? Absolutely! I don’t mind being wrong upon occasion (it just doesn’t actually happen very often 😉 ). I do appreciate that the Twins didn’t just give up earlier in the season when things already looked.. bad. Do I want them to give up now? No. I think our guys have a lot of integrity and enjoy playing the game of baseball so I think they will go out there and attempt to win each game for itself because they like to win. Do I think it will be the same? No, we’ll see a difference in the playing attitude as the realizations sink in for each of our guys and it will be a kind baseball in Minnesota that a lot of current fans won’t recognize but some of us know well from a decade ago. It’s not as fun as the playoff chases but I throw this out there – it’s still BASEBALL people!
If the boys still play their game, we can still bitch and moan about this player’s lack of defensive ability, that players lack of effort or the managers idiotic choices. Honestly, we’d have been doing that ANYWAY!
I, for one, am going to let it absorb that the Twins are likely not recoverable in this season and then I’m going to sit back and enjoy baseball. If Twins fans can’t do that, than they are far too spoiled by the repeated successes of our team this decade and that’s a trap that Yankees fans fall into so I would hate to see that here in Minnesota. Do I expect any of us to LIKE it? No, I’m not asking that. But we still have a great thing going in the Twin Cities and we can watch baseball and enjoy.
Besides I’m used to the concept of a non-winning season. I’m a Vikings fan.
The Twins try to avoid getting swept out of their own ballpark by the rival White Sox today.
Jim Thome is again in the line up, still 2 home runs short of 600 and, of course, Joe Nathan still needs one save to break his tie with Rick Aguilera at the top of the Twins’ career saves list.
I’ve had a good time up here in the Twin Cities, going to ballgames and spending some time with friends trying to figure out how to fix what’s wrong with our Twins. It looks like we’ll have the better part of two months to discuss that topic because the days of this team playing meaningful games are pretty much over. This team is playing for pride now. That’s pride, not ego. There’s a difference… and it’s a difference some of these guys may still need to learn.
Delmon Young and Danny Valencia get a seat on the bench today and I can’t say I’m sorry about that. I’m just sorry there aren’t any better choices to put in their places. Babs is traveling today and I’m not sure if KL will be around for today’s chat. I have to go check out of the hotel and if I can find a ticket for a reasonable price, I may watch a few innings before heading home.
Wow, do I know how to pick a series to drive up to see, or what? The Twins score 3 runs in the first game Friday night and a total of one more run over the next 26 innings. As Manager Ron Gardenhire pointed out, they managed to commit more errors than score runs this series. Pretty humiliating. But why do I get the feeling the players aren’t nearly as humiliated by their crappy play as the fans are? I’m still waiting for any kind of sign that any of them give a crap.
I’m off to go be tortured by being in FRONT of the camera instead of BEHIND it. I really hate having my picture taken but this whole fiance situation seems to require some pictures be taken. Hopefully we won’t take too long and I’ll be able to get here for the actual game. When I get here, I’ll add the lineups.
All I ask of the boys today is that they play better than yesterday… #$@#$%#$
It may have taken longer than we anticipated, but we finally have a winner in our 1991 Anniversary DVD contest. “Rick” may not have been correct with his prediction of when Joe Nathan would get his record-breaking save, but who cares? It may never happen at this rate. So based on the random selection process we posted Friday morning, Rick is our winner.
Rick, we need you to email us your mailing address so we can pass it along to the good folks who are sponsoring these contests and get your DVDs in the mail to you. Click the “Contact Us” link up above for our email address.
I wish I would have seen a few more winners at the ballgame Friday night, but it was not to be.
I was seated way out down the RF line tonight so the pictures aren’t terrific, but they aren’t nearly as bad as the Twins’ brand of baseball, so I’m not going to apologize too much.
This was the line to get in Target Field at 3 pm... 2 hours before gates openedMy line, around to the back of TF for Gate 14 wasn't nearly as longThe 1991 World Series ChampionsOzzie enjoys a chat with some of the 1991 TwinsLooking for Twins highlights? This is pretty much it. Kubel homered in the 1st inningYes, I did get my bobblehead and yes, I opened it.
That’s it for tonight, folks.
Looking forward to a bit better game Saturday night.
The boys are back in town.. and it smells like someone walked in dog do on the way into TF.. oh wait, that’s the WSox. Never mind. Moving on…
Other big news today is that the Twins apparently offered Michael Cuddyer a wo-year extension worth $16 million. At this point it appears that it’s early in the discussion and I think Cuddyer would like to wait until after the season to talk about it but I don’t think that precludes an actual deal at some point. However, I think it’s pretty much guaranteed that neither the front office or Cuddyer’s people will say anything at all to the media/public until something IS done. But at least it’s something to work with as far as number ideas.
So it’s the 20th anniversary weekend for the ’91 World Series! Yes, there have been lines outside the park to get tonights give-away bobblehead all day. It actually looks kind of funny given that particular play has been fairly well immortalized. I have you the better view because I honestly don’t think the front looks much like Hrbek. But I still understand the appeal of the statue. JC drove up for today’s game but I don’t know if he stood in line for the promotion or not. I know he’d want one though – he’s been drooling over the set since they announced it. However, from what those in line have said, the majority are probably going to try to SELL the darn thing so it will be readily available by tomorrow is my guess.
[EDIT] I guess JC DID stand in line or at least got there early enough because guess who got one!
The fun part is that they have all the players from the ’91 team gathering together for the celebrations.. It’s going to be fun for the fans to see them all out there I think.
As far as the actual game tonight goes, the good news is that Thome is down to 2 HR left to hit the big 600. It would be GREAT to see him do it here at home.. it would be even better to see him do it against the WSox. However, he’s not in the starting lineup tonight so if he’s going to get #599 today, it’s likely to be late in the game if Gardy pulls him in for some late inning power. I think I would like that.
You know who else isn’t in the lineup? Span. Yeah, that one is a bit more worrying. The boys didn’t get in to the cities until most of us were getting up for the day so I’m sure they are all a bit on the bleary side. Span was feeling a bit more than bleary and that worries me. For caution’s sake, he’s asked for the day off because he was feeling a bit woozy. During his rehab stint, he didn’t play games on travel days because travel has a strong effect. So raise your hand if it worries you a little bit that our boy recovering from a concussion is experiencing woozy symptoms. *raises hand* However, they are making no judgements at this point, just letting him rest a day. And that means Revere gets a day at CF.
Casilla was taking grounders today during BP and they say he’ll be ready to play when he’s elligible to come off the DL on the 12th. I am NOT a Lexi backer in much of any way but at this point, I think I would like to see the Twins send Nishi to AAA for a little more work on how we do things here when Casilla is back in the lineup. I know I’m must wishing to dead air though but.. after the last week of play, I really think it’s time.
I’m glad that JC got his bobblehead because that was about all that game was worth. Kube’s HR was fantastic but between the errors and bad pitching and general lack of good baseball, it wasn’t the best game. And yes, I think this game proved the other point I made in pregame – Nishi doesn’t get American baseball and needs to get it figured out. PLEASE send him down to AAA and let him figure out the nuances there!!
First things first. Apparently the Twins entered in to a conspiracy of sorts to prevent our DVD giveaway contest from proclaiming a winner. Almost two full weeks after announcing our contest to give away a set of Twins 1991 Championship Season DVDs to the person who could correctly predict the game in which Joe Nathan would break the team record for saves, he still hasn’t had an opportunity to accomplish that feat.
So, as we indicated in the original contest post, we’ll determine the winner on a random basis from among the 15 readers who entered our contest. Here is how we will go about declaring a winner:
Below is a list of those who entered the contest. Next to each name are two numbers I’ve assigned randomly from numbers 1-15 and 16-30. The winner will be the person assigned the number that is equal to the total runs scored by the Twins and White Sox in the first game of their upcoming series in Minnesota.
AW: 5, 20
Max: 9, 30
Shaun Streich: 15, 28
BobZ: 10, 24
MukMuk: 1, 17
bob miller: 3, 16
mark: 14, 27
lecroy24fan: 7, 23
Trish: 13, 29
Melissa: 12. 21
AW: 2, 19
E: 6, 22
UpperDeck: 4, 25
David: 11, 26
Rick: 8, 18
(If the Twins and Sox get in to a real slugfest and score over 30 runs combined, we’ll just add 30 to the numbers assigned to each entrant above and declare the winner on that basis. I refuse to let the Twins’ ineptitude draw this thing out any further!)
BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH: JULY
Remember back last month when the Twins didn’t suck? I know… it’s not easy sometimes to remember back that far. But trust me, in July the Twins did win some ballgames and after each victory, our GameChat folks bestowed a Boyfriend of the Day award on the Twins player they felt was most deserving of recognition for their efforts in that particular game. As is our tradition, we then tally up those BOD awards each month and pronounce a lucky Boyfriend of the Month.
This one wasn’t really even close.
Danny Valencia, Brian Duensing, Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer each were honored with Boyfriend of the Day awards twice in July but for the first time this season, one player racked up four separate BODs from our GameChat contingent. Glen Perkins has been clutch when he’s been called on in tight situations. We just wish we could see a few more of those opportunities going forward. But for his outstanding work in July, Glen Perkins is da BOM!
So tonight’s game is going to be a bit bigger challenge than we had originally had in mind – at least on paper. We’re going up against Dan Haren (eye candy) instead of the rookie Chatwood. Considering that Haren is kicking ass pretty well this year, I hope the boys are able to bring the bats to the game. That being said, it’s usually the less than adequate hurlers that the Twins make look like Cy Young so here’s hoping.
For those of you who follow the young kids, it appears Kyle Gibson might be headed for surgery. That would really suck for him to have to go through that so early in his career – especially when it showed so much promise. Surgery isn’t guaranteed yet but he’s definitely hurting and that’s never good for a pitcher regardless. Here’s wishing him the best no matter what he has to go through in the near future.
In the good news category, Justin Morneau has decided he’s ready for rehab games in AAA. Gardy would have liked a simulated game but Doc wants real baseball so he’s scheduled to play on Friday. Good luck Justin, we’re looking forward to having you back soon!
Tonight we have more lineup shuffling and Mauer back in the 2spot. With Revere sitting, we’re back with Delmon in LF – who says he doesn’t like DH’ing. Interesting. If he doesn’t like DH’ing, I highly recommend that he start working on his fielding a LOT more or he will be relegated to that position sooner rather than later. And we have more infield mixup going – the Nishi, Cuddy, Mauer combo seems.. unusual. Again, I’m hoping for a lot of offense since I’m not 100% confident on the defensive rhythmn.
Bad starting pitching, bad defense and very little hitting. Not much chance of winning with that combination. Babs’ stated lack of confidence in the infield Gardy put out there was well founded, as it turned out.
The only positive things I saw tonight were three scoreless innings of bullpen work by Phil Dumatrait, Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan. along with Jim Thome’s 598th career home run. – JC
