It is in the midst of these frustrating times of repeated losses that I think Twins players & fans alike most miss Mike Redmond.
Month: July 2012
GameChat – Oakland @ Minnesota #2, 6:10pm
So I’m going to end up missing most of tonight’s game because we have friends in town and a dinner event planned.. However, I am feeling good about Cole tonight. I’m making a call that he has a stellar outing. (it’s not like I have never been wrong..)
That being said, the offense still has to do its thing and I have no strong feeling on their behalf whatsoever.. *crosses fingers*
Additional note: the Twins are honoring Camilo Pascual tonight by inducting him into the Twins Hall of Fame. He was one of the ORIGINAL Twins who came up to MN on the Washington Senators’ roster as a righty pitcher along with other names you might recognize.. Harmon Killebrew, Jim Kaat.. you know, real nobodies.. *snort* I really do wish I’d been alive back then to see that lineup play baseball.
| Oakland |
@ |
Minnesota |
| Weeks, 2B | Span, CF | |
| Smith, S, LF | Revere, RF | |
| Reddick, CF | Mauer, C | |
| Cespedes, DH | Willingham, LF | |
| Moss, RF | Morneau, 1B | |
| Carter, 1B | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Inge, 3B | Doumit, DH | |
| Pennington, SS | Dozier, SS | |
| Suzuki, K, C | Carroll, 2B | |
| Milone, P | De Vries, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Oakland | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 12 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 1 |
I confess… after that ugly first inning, I almost completely tuned out this game. It’s probably just as well. There were a lot of home runs hit, but only Josh Willingham’s was for our guys. I gather, however, that the Twins put it all together tonight. Bad pitching… bad hitting and baserunning… and bad defense. I’m not sure how you only score 3 runs on 14 hits, but if there’s a team that can pull it off, this is the one. Let’s see if they can salvage one game out of this series Sunday and avoid the sweep! – JC
Trading Season Opens: Prepare For Disappointment
It seems ridiculous at this point to suggest Twins fans need to be prepared for disappointment. We’ve been getting slapped in the face by disappointment for going on two years, after all, and we’re pretty much resigned to this team continuing to disappoint us at least through the rest of this season. A lot of fans are already accepting disappointment as a near-certainty in 2013.
How much more prepared for disappointment do we need to be?
A bit more, I believe, and soon.
Our collective eyes and ears are focused on Twins General Manager Terry Ryan, in anticipation of the deals he’s going to make to improve the future rosters of his team. Fans seem prepared, at this point, to part with pretty much anyone in a Twins uniform as they dream of the top prospects Ryan will extract from his fellow GMs in return. After all, if Ryan could get Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano (not to mention Boof Bonser) for AJ Pierzynski, just imagine the load he should pull in for Denard Span, right?
The Star Tribune put out a good piece a few days ago that gives some insight in to the mind of Terry Ryan. There’s a case to be made that with the extra wild card in each league this year, there should be plenty of interest in the players Ryan has to offer. But while it’s true that there are more teams that consider themselves contenders than there may have been in the past, there are also some factors working against the Twins.
The biggest problem for the Twins is that a lot of contending teams want the same thing they do… good starting pitching. Of course, the difference is that contenders are looking for arms that can help them immediately, while the Twins are happy to take on talent that isn’t quite ready for the big stage yet. Still, top shelf starting pitchers, whatever their age and level, are hoarded like gold by teams these days so it takes some combination of talented front line players and desperation on the part of the trading partner to extract that kind of talent in a trade.
The other thing working against the Twins now is the new collective bargaining agreement. In past years, a team could take on a half-year rental player who is going to be a free agent at the end of the season and, at the very least, the “buying” team might be able to get a draft pick or two in compensation when the player bolts after just a couple of months. Now, not only is it more difficult to get compensation picks, but those picks aren’t available at all unless the player wore your uniform all season.
This means that, for example, if the Twins don’t trade Francisco Liriano, they have to offer him something like $12 million on a one year deal in order to get a compensation pick for him if he turns them down. But if they trade Liriano, his new team doesn’t even have that option. So guys like Liriano and Matt Capps and anyone else not locked up beyond the end of this year are truly just rental players for any team acquiring them. That team is just getting their services for the rest of this season, where in the past they may have received those services PLUS compensation picks. Think about it… how much would YOU give up for 2-3 months of Liriano’s services?
That should temper fans’ expectations for the return that Ryan is likely to get for Liriano and Capps.
It demonstrates why Denard Span and Josh Willingham are likely much better trade chips. For that matter, the contract extension Ryan Doumit recently signed moved him from the “rental player” category and on to the list of players that could return something of more value.
But the Twins can’t just trade away everyone of value on the market. They need to put a team on the field next season and it needs to be a pretty good one.
I agree with Howard Sinker’s view that the Twins can’t just tear this team down and start over. Fans are not going to accept that and they shouldn’t. The everyday line up the Twins put on the field is close to being good enough to compete. What’s missing is exactly what everyone knew was missing last offseason… pitching. Specifically, at the top of the rotation. It should have been addressed last season and it MUST be addressed before Opening Day 2013. Being “penny wise” this off season won’t be “pound foolish”, that foolishness will be measured by the ton.
Since Target Field opened, the Twins have been the hottest ticket in town. For the past year or more, that’s been as much about the Vikings, T’wolves and Wild being less than highly competitive as it has been the quality of the product the Twins put on the field and the remaining luster of their new digs in the Warehouse District.
But that’s about to change. The Wild made blockbuster signings, the Vikings got their new stadium approved and even the Pups look like they may be getting more serious about fielding a real basketball team right next door to Target Field. If Terry Ryan and his bosses don’t want find out just how quickly the Twins can become an afterthought at the bottom of the area’s list of major entertainment options, they need to get this team turned around starting in 2013, not years beyond that.
That process starts now. I believe Francisco Liriano has quite possibly pitched his last game in a Twins uniform. His value will likely not get any higher than it is right now after his 15 K performance Friday night. He won’t bring back anyone likely to be a top of the rotation guy next year, but he should fetch a role player that can improve the roster or a higher pitching prospect that perhaps is still down in the Class A ranks.
I would love to see Denard Span stay a Twin for years to come. I really like the way he goes about the game and he’s a quality individual. But he’s the one guy on this roster that offers the combination of the ability to bring immediate help to the rotation in the form of Big League ready starting pitching AND he plays a role with the team that they arguably have in-house replacements available to step in and play in his absence. Ben Revere can lead off and play centerfield. He’s not Denard Span, but maybe he’s close enough to do the job adequately.
Beyond that, if the Twins can get useful returns for Capps or anyone else not penciled in for a major role in 2013, fine. Just don’t expect to be overjoyed with the return coming back. Willingham and Doumit could get something of value, but they shouldn’t be dealt unless someone offers an absurdly one-sided deal. Justin Morneau isn’t going to be in great demand unless the Twins agree to eat pretty much all of his remaining contract and honestly, the Twins don’t have a replacement for him yet anyway. All three of these guys fill roles that you would just have to go back on the market to replace over the off season and I guarantee that replacing Willingham’s production and Doumit’s versatility will be more expensive this time.
Of course, if anyone wants any of the remaining pitchers on this roster bad enough to offer anything of real value in return, as unlikely as that may be, TR should probably make the deal before that other GM comes to his senses. There’s nobody on the pitching staff that can’t be replaced. Even Scott Diamond, who’s been incredibly successful, has to be available for the right price. I have a suspicion you might be selling high on him. As much as I like him, I’m still having trouble believing he’s going to maintain this kind of success over time.
Yes, trading season is upon us and it’s almost certain that Terry Ryan is going to be right in the middle of it. Just keep expectations in check. It’s not like he’s the chip leader at the table and the rules have changed enough this year to make everyone just a little less certain about how to play the game.
– JC
Fun & Games are Over..
Last night’s game proved that the All Star break is done as we are back to Twins baseball as we know it. It was a very familiar outing..
However! To distract ourselves from less than enjoyable memories, we still have a BOOK to give away!! In contest Part I we asked for submissions for what to call a hypothetical memoir belonging to one Tater Mashin’ Jim Thome.
Part II means you get to vote on your favorite title submission – the person with the most votes, gets a free copy of the Steve Aschburner biography of Harmon Killebrew: Ultimate Slugger – courtesy of Triumph Books.
Here’s your choices:
I will release the results and announce the winner on Monday!
GameChat – Oakland @ Minnesota, 7:05pm
And we’re back to baseball!! err.. almost. Once again, it appears there may be a slight delay to the start of the game but it should go through fairly quickly and should be clear to go after that.. maybe.. it’s Minnesota so it could change..
News over the week is that Capps has been re-instated. Now that he’s off the DL, the Twins optioned Kyle Waldrop back down to AAA to make room. Reportedly, he’ll ease back into his full workload by doing setup work instead of closing for a bit. There’s also rumors out there that he might be moving to the Blue Jays but that’s not something I can substantiate for you right now.
Let’s hope that the boys are all ready to get back to baseball and are ready to up their game for the second half. That would be fun… I hope that we have the good Frankie tonight!
| Oakland |
@ |
Minnesota |
| Crisp, CF | Span, CF | |
| Weeks, 2B | Revere, RF | |
| Reddick, RF | Mauer, DH | |
| Cespedes, DH | Willingham, LF | |
| Carter, 1B | Morneau, 1B | |
| Gomes, J, LF | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Norris, C | Dozier, SS | |
| Inge, 3B | Butera, C | |
| Hicks, SS | Carroll, 2B | |
| Griffin, P | Liriano, P |
| Oakland | ||||||||||||
| Minnesota |
If rumors are to be believed (which is always a tenuous concept at best) Matt Capps is not the only Twins pitcher who may have a different uniform tomorrow morning. Word is that this may very well have been Liriano’s last game as a Twin. Boy did he make it a doozy. He made people ponder Santana’s single game strike out record and watch to see if he could get there. He didn’t but 15 k’s is NOTHING to sneeze at. Sadly, in what seems to be the eternal dichotomy of Franky’s performances, he gave up enough runs to get the loss anyway. Of course we’ll let you know if there is more news coming sooner or later but for the first game back, I was hoping for a little better.
The 2nd Half
Coming off a disappointing road trip before the All-Star Game in which the Twins lost of couple of heart breakers to the Texas Rangers, the Minnesota Twins are likely to aggressively look for offers for many of their current players. While the Twins are “only” 11.0 games out of first place, they are still 13 games under .500 and would have to go 45-32, playing .582 baseball. Only the New York Yankees, the Texas Rangers, and the Washington Nationals played .582 baseball or better before the All-Star Break, so the Twins are looking at a monumental climb just to get back to .500.
David Goldman, Associated Press
Realistically the Twins would need to approach not just 81 wins to compete in the Central, but something more like 86 wins to win the division (assuming the White Sox Cleveland or Detroit do not play much better in the 2nd half), which would mean going 50-27 in their remaining games. That simply is not happening with the Twins’ current pitching staff. Even if the good Francisco Liriano shows up and Scott Diamond continues to impress, Cole De Vries and Samuel Dedunoare still in the starting rotation!
So what would a realistic record look like going down the stretch? The Twins are 18-17 since June 1, which is a lot closer to the mediocre team many thought the Twins would be heading into the season, than the 18-32 baseball the played before June. In their remaining 77 games, the Twins have 43 games against the AL Central and just 17 left against the AL East and the AL West. Even if the Twins’ front office trades off a couple of their more valuable players, the Twins should still have a decent opportunity to play within a game of .500 baseball against the AL Central teams, going 21-22 the rest of the way. Against the East and West the Twins played very poorly in the first half, posting a winning record only against the Oakland Athletics (3-0). I do not think they’ll be as bad as they were in the first half, and if they manage to go 15-19 against the rest of the AL I will not be surprised. Maybe that is a little bit of a rose colored prediction, but this team has shown in the past month+ that they are capable of putting together stretches of competitive baseball.
That would put the Twins at 36-41 in the second half, and a record of 72-90 to finish the season. That is only 9 games better than the 63-99 the Twins were a year ago, but if the front office is building towards future success, I will be willing to accept the lumps in 2012 in hopes of a brighter future ahead.
For the traditional little boy in all of us…
If there was such a thing as a baseball lottery, this might very well be the top prize. In Defiance, Ohio, a man in his 50’s is put in charge of his dead aunt’s estate after she died. The dear lady was a bit of a pack-rat – kept EVERYTHING – which it appears was a trait she inherited from her father. Carl Hench ran a meat market before he died in the 1940’s. Apparently, in 1910, he received a promotional set of baseball cards which he apparently put away, never to be seen again – well not for 100 years or so anyway.
What’s amazing is that they were found in the attic of his home where they’d been for who knows how long in near-perfect condition! His grandson, Karl Kissner, found them in a metal box under an old dollhouse in the process of sorting through everything collected and kept by his aunt. It took him awhile to figure out exactly what he had and started going through the process to have them authenticated.
Included in the collection are several names you and I know well – Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Cy Young among many others. There are more than 700 cards total in a series that is called E98. All other known copies of Honus Wagner cards show obvious wear while this one is graded a 10 (as new). This is every collectors DREAM. The entire collection is expected to net the 20 grandchildren who are sharing the proceeds between 2 and 3 million dollars. The best 37 are expected to be sold at auction in Baltimore at the National Sports Collectors Convention on August 2nd so if you really want one of them (and have a LOT of liquid resources) you have the opportunity to add it to your own collection. The rest will be offered in small batches over the next few years in order to avoid flooding the market.
Something like this makes me wonder… given my own pack-rat-like tendencies, I wonder what might happen to my husband’s collection of 1991 Twins and other baseball cards that we just recently reacquired. Our grandkids might be very, very lucky. Isn’t that what just about every little boy (or girl) dreams about when he starts collecting baseball cards?
GameChat – 2012 All Star Game featuring Joe Mauer & RA Dickey? 7pm
Of course I’m very glad that Joe Mauer is at the All Star game – more importantly, I’m very glad that his PLAYING has actually deserved a spot at the All Star game. Would I like to have more than one representative? Of course. Do I think we have other players that are as important to the Twins as Joe Mauer? Absolutely – especially since this IS a team sport people. Do I think that a team’s MVP is the one who should represent them at the ASG? no, not necessarily. If voted on today, is Joe Mauer the Twins MVP? Maybe… Who cares? That’s who’s there for us and I’m glad that it’s someone who is hitting the ball well right now – good for everyone all around.
I am much more intrigued by someone else’s story and the controversy that surrounds where he plays in the game.. NL Pitcher, RA Dickey. I’ve always had a soft spot for him because I really enjoyed watching him play as a Twin. I thought he was good for us, fit in well here and I would have liked to see him stick around. That’s just not how the business of baseball works though sometimes so I have followed his career after he left us and am AMAZED at what he’s doing with the Mets this year. And I’m not alone. The fact that he’s not the starting pitcher has really angered and baffled a LOT of NL fans. I think Matt Cain is also an incredible pitcher and is equally deserving of consideration so I’m not as flummoxed as some east coasters seem to be. I see that not every CATCHER is prepared to handle a Knuckleballer so it makes a lot of sense to start a more traditional pitcher if you think your starting catcher might not be up to the game. More smart strategizing than deliberate slight. This is what you do when you put together a lineup after all.
I planned to do a little profile on RA before tonight’s game just because he’s always been a favorite around here – both for the namesake pitch, his personality and his originality. In fact, I fully intend at some point to feature a review of his autobiography Wherever I Wind Up here on Knuckleballs at a later date. But in my research, I actually found a really well-written piece that I decided to share with you instead – in its entirety which is something we rarely do here. Skip to the bottom if it doesn’t interest you but I find his story to be fascinating.
From NPR:
Pitcher R.A. Dickey’s Tale Is As Wild As A Knuckleball
July 9, 2012
R.A. Dickey’s career as a major league pitcher has been as unpredictable as his signature pitch, the knuckleball.
And on Tuesday night, the New York Mets’ 37-year-old phenomenon will hit a new pinnacle: the pitching mound at baseball’s All-Star Game.
He won’t be starting for the National League — manager Tony La Russa chose Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants for that honor. But the manager says says Dickey will pitch.
This guy isn’t the best story in baseball because he’s the best pitcher in the National League. If anything, Dickey is the pitcher he is because of his story. He believes there is a direct line between the pitches he throws and the person he is, which is the only time you’ll ever hear his fluttering knuckleball compared to a “direct line.”
Back in 1996, Robert Allen Dickey was a first-round draft pick of the Texas Rangers as a conventional flamethrower. He was 21 years old and about to be paid more than $800,000 to play the sport he loved.
“[I] flew down to Texas to sign my contract, throw out the first pitch … do all the things that I dreamed about doing my whole life as a baseball player. The first thing I had to do when I landed was head over to the doctor’s office to get a physical, and it was there that they kind of were alarmed at what they saw,” Dickey says.
What they saw, or more accurately didn’t see, was a UCL — an ulnar collateral ligament. Dickey was born without that ligament in his throwing elbow. Doctors said he should be in excruciating pain just turning a doorknob, and yet he had no problem reaching 95 miles an hour on the radar gun.
But past performance didn’t matter to his new club. He was damaged goods, and 90 percent of his signing bonus was revoked.
It was a serious setback in the one area of Dickey’s life that was supposed to be a refuge. Dickey’s parents had divorced when he was a child. His father was distant as R.A. grew older, and his mother was loving but a drinker. He was, while still a boy, sexually abused by a baby sitter and a teenager from his neighborhood.
Even as Dickey entered his 20s, he struggled.
“I began to really hate who I was, and, you know, I was having suicidal thoughts and just all kinds of terrible things running through my mind. You know, I was using the unhealthy ways to escape pain,” Dickey says.
Eventually, Dickey found a few things that helped: his mind, his wife, his faith, and a pitch that’s impossible to own. But if you’re dedicated, it can be leased to great effect.
Learning To Throw Like ‘The Jedi’
A knuckleball is confounding, both going and coming, because it’s thrown with almost no rotation. The baseball’s laces interact with the air, turning it into a Godard jump-cut of pitches.
Currently, Dickey is the only regular knuckleballer in the major leagues. It’s a hard pitch to learn, but there is a fraternity of knuckleballers who can offer advice.
“The people that poured into me and lent me their wisdom and acumen were Tim Wakefield, Charlie Hough and Phil Niekro,” Dickey says. “And so speaking from that experience I can tell you that there’s nobody on this Earth that knows more about it than they do.”
Dickey calls those former major leaguers “The Jedi Council.” In addition to throwing a quirky pitch, he loves Star Wars and The Lord Of The Rings. He names his bats after swords in Beowulf, and the music he has cued up over the stadium PA when he walks up to bat is the theme to Game Of Thrones.
There’s also Dickey’s literary side. His revelatory memoir, Wherever I Wind Up, is clearly written by a lover of language who entertained thoughts of becoming an English professor.
And then there’s the side of Dickey that wants to teach others his recondite skill. Though Cy Young award winner Frank Viola is the pitching coach of the Savannah Sand Gnats, the knuckleball is as baffling to him as string theory. But Dickey eagerly passed along what he knew to minor leaguer Frank Viola III.
“He’s amazing,” the elder Viola says. “R.A. invited him to the games he pitched, invited him to his side sessions to watch; they planned on having Frankie tape a couple workouts and then sending it to New York and having R.A. look at it to critique it and get back to him. I mean he just shared his wealth with Frankie.”
Speaking of wealth, Dickey is in line to be rewarded with the first truly huge contract of his career. Last off-season, Dickey scaled Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for exploited women in Mumbai, then published his memoir. In it, he dwells on the interplay between his psyche and the knuckleball.
“Oftentimes the more cerebral you are about pitching, the more apt you are to make small changes that might take you out of where you really need to be,” he says. “So for me, there’s a fine balance between being self-aware and really believing in what you can produce on the field organically.”
So far, Dickey has produced back-to-back one-hitters, 10 straight wins, a 12-1 record and his first All-Star invite.
For opponents he’s produced befuddlement; for the Mets, he’s helped produce a winning record. And every fifth night he produces the only extant link in the chain of a confounding and fascinating pitch.
So, with all that? yeah, I’m looking forward to watching him pitch even if it is for the “opposing team”. At least he’s not a Yankee, right? 😉
| National League |
@ |
American League | ||
| C. Gonzalez DH | COL | D. Jeter SS | NYY | |
| M. Cabrera CF | SF | R. Cano 2B | NYY | |
| R. Braun LF | MIL | J. Hamilton LF | TEX | |
| J. Votto 1B | CIN | J. Bautista RF | TOR | |
| C. Beltran RF | STL | P. Fielder 1B | DET | |
| B. Posey C | SF | A. Beltre 3B | TEX | |
| P. Sandoval 3B | SF | D. Ortiz DH | BOS | |
| D. Uggla 2B | ATL | M. Napoli C | TEX | |
| R. Furcal SS | STL | C. Granderson CF | NYY | |
| M. Cain SP | SF | J. Verlander SP | DET | |
| NL All-Stars | ||||||||||||
| AL All-Stars |
OUCH! That just SUCKED for the AL. I’m pretty sure that no one expected such a tough outing from Justin Verlander – including him – but yeah, that was most definitely not his best.
It was fun to get to watch RA finally come out for an inning. It wasn’t anything all that exciting but he did hit Konerko with a pitch which is kind of fun.. *grin*
I decided I was too tired to wait for who was finally decided upon for the MVP.. gotta admit, I didn’t really care all that much but it’s reportedly between Sandoval & Melky Cabrera.. whoever gets it, congrats.
Everyone Needs a Break
Considering the lack of any games of real importance going on in Major League Baseball at the moment, there sure seems to be a lot of “stuff” flying around the perimeter of the game, agitating the media which, in turn, agitates the masses (or is it the other way around? I’m honestly not sure).
I’ve tried to get fired up about some of it or at least interested enough to give a damn about any of it, but it’s just not happening. But I’ve been embarrassingly absent as a contributing member of this group of bloggers lately, so I’m determined to say SOMETHING about at least a few of the items that have passed for “news” in and around the Twins and the rest of MLB the past few days.
R.A. Dickey’s snub
Dickey deserved to be the starting pitcher for the National League in the All Star Game. He knows it. So does Tony LaRussa. So does Buster Posey, the catcher that the voters erroneously voted to start behind the plate for the NL. He deserves to start more than Matt Cain does. Even Matt Cain knows it and apparently said so out loud. In fact Dickey deserves to start more than Posey does, but that’s immaterial, I guess.
He’s not starting for one reason and one reason only. He throws an 80 mph knuckleball. Posey has seen it as a hitter, I would imagine, and since he’s apparently never caught even a 60 mph amateur version of a knuckleball, he’s none too anxious to learn how to catch Dickey’s for the first time in front of 40,000 fans and at least a handful of people who tune in to watch the ASG on TV.
As a former knuckleballer myself (though I doubt mine ever even reached the 60 mph level), I should be outraged at the injustice of this discrimination against Dickey. But I’m just not. Hopefully, he got to spend some time yesterday working in the bullpen with one of the NL’s catchers so neither party gets embarrassed out there when Dickey inevitably enters the game.
I’m really happy for the guy because he’s a great story, but I just can’t get worked up about the fact that he’s not starting the game.
Reggie’s dis of Bert, Puck and other Hall Members
I really stopped caring what Reggie Jackson said about anything the day he became a Yankee, but if there was one of these items that did get under my skin a bit, it was Jackson spouting off about how certain recent Hall of Famers didn’t deserve the honor of being enshrined in Cooperstown. The first Tweets I saw indicated he specifically referred to Bert Blyleven and Kirby Puckett. The next Tweet I saw pointed out that Reggie’s results when facing Bert in their careers were… well let’s just say that Reggie didn’t get to Cooperstown based on how he hit against Blyleven.
Eventually I saw that Bert himself Tweeted that Jackson had called to apologize, relying on the old, “my comments were taken out of context,” line of BS. But whatever, at least the guy apologized. He apparently did likewise to others that he lumped in to the “unworthy” category. Again, however, I just couldn’t get too worked up over this. After all, as much as I loved both Puckett and Blyleven as players, I have to admit that their on-field HOF credentials were both marginal, so while Jackson should probably keep that kind of opinion to himself, he’s entitled to it and it’s not an altogether unreasonable opinion. I don’t think the BBWAA gets it right all the time, either, and I’m actually a “big Hall” guy.
I did care enough, however, to seek out the actual SI article that the quotes came from. I came away thinking that it’s really too bad he said the stuff he said about the HOF, because the rest of the article is very good. Ironically, the underlying theme of the article is how Reggie has changed and no longer prone to making outlandish comments and feeding an oversized ego. Then he has to go and say that he’s going to get up in front of the HOF dinner next year and tell the other members that they all need to do something about keeping guys like Puckett, Blyleven, and others, out of their club in the future. It’s a shame.
Now we read that he’s been invited to stay away from Yankee Stadium for daring to say that A-Rod’s accomplishments are tainted because he admitted to using PEDs. Again, should he have given that quote, considering he’s still collecting a “special assistant” check from the Yankees? No. But he’s not exactly alone on an island with that opinion.
Anyway, it all just seems like more drama than it really should be.
Royals fans dis Cano
Speaking of things that are made bigger than they should be, apparently thin skinned Yankee fans took a major exception to the way the Kansas City crowd treated Robinson Cano during the Home Run Derby Monday night. Fans booed Cano loudly when he was introduced, mostly because after originally publicly stating that putting Royal Billy Butler on the Derby team would be the right thing to do, he changed his mind and didn’t select him after all. Of course, I think just the fact that he’s a Yankee makes him worthy of a pretty loud boo, but maybe Kansas Citians need more than that.
Anyway, not only did they boo him beforehand, but lustily cheered every “out” Cano made when the defending Derby champ came to the plate for his cuts in the first round. They got lots of opportunities to cheer, too, because Cano got completely shut out. No home runs in 10 cuts. With his dad pitching to him.
Anyway, Yankee fans apparently lit up Twitter with comments bashing KC fans’ treatment of Cano. I guess it’s easy to see why they’d be upset, though. After all Yankee fans are generally so well known for how politely they treat players of other teams, right? I guess the rest of us are all just supposed to acknowledge that anyone associated with the F’ing Yankees is entitled to be shown due respect.
Yeah, this is another not-so-big deal to me. Get over it and move on.
Prince Fielder wins the HR Derby
Yeah, I enjoyed watching the Derby. Prince Fielder can hit a baseball a LONG way. I also love the remodel job done on the stadium in Kansas City and it remains very high up on my list of favorite ballparks, so I enjoyed seeing it host the event. But neither the Derby nor the winner matter to me at all.
Mauer the lone Twins representative at the ASG
I’ve covered this before. Mauer deserves to be at the ASG, in fact the voters screwed up voting Ranger Mike Napoli as the starting catcher. I’d have liked to see Josh Willingham go, but there are just a lot of All Star worthy outfielders and very few catchers. And when you’re on a team that appears headed to its second consecutive 90+ loss season, you probably will just get one representative. Joe was the correct choice and anyone who doesn’t think so, while entitled to their opinion, is simply wrong.
By the way, Napoli is one of THREE former Cedar Rapids Kernels on the AL All Star Game roster. Napoli joins two other former Kernels (both now with the parent Angels) Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout. Trumbo represented well in the Derby Monday night and Trout is… well… if you don’t know who Mike Trout is, then you clearly care less about Major League Baseball than I care about the Home Run Derby.
Home Field Advantage
It’s been a decade now since the infamous tie game that led Bud Selig to decide that the ASG should matter more and declared that the winning league’s representative in the World Series would have home field advantage.
I swear I have heard this thing bashed on every sports talk show for a week. I feel like I should care, but I don’t. It’s not a perfect solution to the trend of these games becoming poorly played and poorly managed exhibitions, but after the sham of a Pro-Bowl the NFL put on a few months ago, MLB needs to make sure the game counts for something if they want players to give any kind of effort whatsoever… or even bother to show up.
And at least it gives me another excuse to post my favorite Bud Selig picture of all time.
That’s it… enjoy the All Star Game if you care to watch it. If not, hold on tight and we’ll begin the second “half” of this exciting Minnesota Twins season in a few days!
– JC
GameChat – 2012 All Star Home Run Derby, 7:05pm
AND WE HAVE A WINNER!
In a return to the form we all know and love so well, TC Bear has managed yet another victory amid his mascot colleagues. I don’t think we Twins fans really appreciate how hard that bear works to represent Twins baseball at its finest. Can you imagine trying to hit baseballs with paws not to mention that limited field of vision???
We just want to say CONGRATS and THANK YOU for all your hard work.
And now that we have the important stuff covered, we’re ready for the other Home Run Derby. If you’re planning to watch it, you can hang out and chat with others!
| Participant | RD1 | RD2 | RD1&2 | FINALS |
| Fielder | 5 | 11 | 16 | 12 |
| Bautista | 11 | 2 | 13 | 7 |
| Trumbo | 7 | 6 | 13 | – |
| Beltran | 7 | 5 | 12 | – |
| Gonzalez | 4 | – | 4 | – |
| McCutchen | 4 | – | 4 | – |
| Kemp | 1 | – | 1 | – |
| Cano | 0 | – | 0 | – |
Here’s the way things went down! Prince Fielder just KILLED the competition this year. He’s officially the first player ever to win the HR Derby representing both the NL & AL Leagues. Interestingly enough, both of his Derby wins were also in Missouri – one in St. Louis, one in Kansas City. Congrats Mr. Fielder!