April 2014 – Page 4 – Knuckleballs

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #3, 12:05pm

Posted on 6 April, 2014 by CapitalBabs

So this is Nolasco’s chance to improve the fairly poor impression that I got out of him from his first start. Is it fair that I have only seen him pitch once and I’m disappointed? Probably not but baseball isn’t really what I would call a fair sport – it’s an “any given day” kind of thing. So here’s his chance to be different than last week.

It’s also the Twins chance to win a series and/or achieve .500 status.. I’m just going to start that from the beginning of the year this year and just make that my goal.. if they can do .500 or better, I’ll call it a successful year. Again with the “not fair” but I don’t care.

I will only be catching bits and snags of today’s game because my family is throwing a “meet the baby” party to celebrate the arrival of Miss Margaret. For the record, baby showers are all about mommy… Meet the Baby parties? yeah, I might as well not exist. I’m only there to make sure that if there is a hunger emergency, her pleasant demeanor is maintained… maybe that’s why I’m in a “the world isn’t fair” mood today! 😉

Minnesota	@	Cleveland
Dozier, 2B		Morgan, CF
Mauer, 1B		Swisher, 1B
Willingham, LF		Kipnis, 2B
Colabello, DH		Santana, C, 3B
Plouffe, 3B		Brantley, LF
Kubel, RF		Chisenhall, DH
Suzuki, K, C		Gomes, Y, C
Hicks, CF		Murphy, Dv, RF
Florimon, SS		Aviles, SS
Nolasco, P		Masterson, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	2	3	1	0	3	0	0	1	10	9	0
Cleveland	0	2	0	3	1	1	0	0	0	7	15	1

So my bits and pieces turned out to be the first inning… I have no clue other than the boxscore what happened after that.. but look, the boxscore says we WON!

It also says that Nolasco wasn’t trying to impress me and wouldn’t have even if I had been able to watch… ouch.

BUT Colabello looks like he had another great RBI day. HE impresses me so far this season. I made him BOD!

Sunday Morning Comic Relief

Posted on 6 April, 2014 by CapitalBabs

Courtesy of Kbro – which sadly couldn’t be any more accurate for those of us here in MN who are looking forward to our home opener tomorrow after 10 inches of snow on Friday!

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #2, 12:05pm, Fox Sports 1

Posted on 5 April, 2014 by CapitalBabs

My apologies folk – we’re a bit out of practice for the season yet and apparently I’m the only watching to see if there’s a game going. I was unfortunately out shopping too late to get the gamechat up on time.

At any rate, if you’re having trouble finding the game on your usual channels, that is because it’s apparently on whatever is Fox Sports One in your area. Good Luck figuring that out. If you don’t know (I certainly didn’t), go to: http://msn.foxsports.com/watch/foxsports1

Minnesota	@	Cleveland
Dozier, 2B		Morgan, CF
Mauer, 1B		Swisher, 1B
Willingham, LF		Kipnis, 2B
Colabello, DH		Santana, C, DH
Plouffe, 3B		Brantley, LF
Kubel, RF		Cabrera, A, SS
Pinto, C		Murphy, Dv, RF
Hicks, CF		Gomes, Y, C
Florimon, SS		Chisenhall, 3B
Gibson, P		Carrasco, P

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

TWINS WIN!

Yes miracles can happen! It’s amazing how well things go when the pitching is kick ass…

However, today’s BOD is granted to Ron Gardenhire to congratulate him on his 1000th career win!

GameChat – Twins @ Indians, 2:05pm

Posted on 4 April, 2014 by CapitalBabs

I desperately need baseball to distract me from the 8 in of new snow outside my front door. yeesh..

Soo…. That’s quite the lineup we’re facing.. I think that is a feeling Twins fans should get used to. We’ll just have to see how Pelfrey looks facing them…

Minnesota	@	Cleveland
Dozier, 2B		Morgan, CF
Mauer, 1B		Swisher, 1B
Willingham, LF		Kipnis, 2B
Colabello, DH		Santana, C, 3B
Plouffe, 3B		Brantley, LF
Arcia, O, RF		Cabrera, A, SS
Suzuki, K, C		Murphy, Dv, RF
Hicks, CF		Gomes, Y, C
Florimon, SS		Chisenhall, DH
Pelfrey, P		Salazar, P

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

yep… that was a whole hell of a lot of “looks vaguely familiar”…

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox #3, 1:10pm

Posted on 3 April, 2014 by CapitalBabs

so… last chance to leave a mark on the White Sox so far..

For the record, it’s stupid cold out there again and here in MN, we’re supposed to get anywhere from 5 to 10 inches of snow tonight depending on where you live.. *SIGH* Spring is stupid.

Glad I have some baseball to watch…

Minnesota	@	Chi White Sox
Dozier, 2B		Eaton, CF
Mauer, DH		Semien, 3B
Willingham, LF		Abreu, 1B
Colabello, 1B		Dunn, A, DH
Plouffe, 3B		Garcia, A, RF
Arcia, O, RF		De Aza, LF
Pinto, C		Ramirez, Al, SS
Hicks, CF		Flowers, C
Escobar, E, SS		Garcia, L, 2B
Hughes, P, P		Quintana, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	3	0	2	0	2	1	2	10	9	1
Chi White Sox	0	1	0	0	3	4	0	1	0	9	13	1

Ok THAT was one weird game of baseball – and not just because the Twins actually won…

You start with an odd set up for baseball when a player strikes out but gets to 1B on a wild pitch – but isn’t unheard of. The oddness escalates when that player then gains 2B on an error – believe it or not, obstruction during the worst played rundown I’ve seen in ages. So yeah, the player that struck out is now on 2B… that was what really set the table for the rest of the game to follow.

The lead changed hands a couple times and Twins fans rarely expect anything good when they lose the lead in the late innings of a game. But due to the offensive heroics of both Chris Colabello (6 RBI) and Oswaldo Arcia (winning RBI), even the most cynical among us were pretty excited about the result – ESPECIALLY Arcia.during his 8th inning triple.

For their shared offensive glory (and especially since it appears that Cola is Arcia’s interpreter of choice), they share today’s BOD honors! Yay for the first BOD of the season!

Episode 77: A real live baseball player from the Major Leagues, Hot Dog!

Posted on 3 April, 2014 by Eric Pleiss

The highlight of this week’s episode is an interview with Twins’ relief pitcher Casey Fien. We discuss the path his career took as he made his way from a 20th round draft pick to an Opening Day roster and what his strategy is when he’s out there on the mound. You can follow Casey on Twitter, @CaseyFien.

Look at this guy, so happy to be on the podcast!

You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here.

Besides talking to notable relief pitchers, we also spend some time “Down on the Pond” looking at the Opening Day starters for each of the Twins full-season minor league affiliates, and a hitter from each squad as well as they prepare for Minor League Opening Day on Thursday, April 3.

To find out who took home the first regular season honors for Twins hitter and pitcher of the week you’ll have to give us a listen, and there were actually a surprising number of candidates who’ve gotten the lumber out early this season despite what we’ve been saying during Spring Training.

Oh, and the trees are coming back to Target Field. Heck yeah!

You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan, and you can find Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) and read his writing at PuckettsPond.com!

If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes. Ratings and reviews keep our beers cold.

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox #2, 1:10pm

Posted on 2 April, 2014 by CapitalBabs

Let’s see if we can’t do a little better today than we did in the opener.. unfortunately, I don’t know that I expect better pitching which could end up being the story of the season… (just like the last three..)

But it’s a new season right? We all get a fresh start – even Kevin Correia.

Minnesota	@	Chi White Sox
Dozier, 2B		Eaton, CF
Mauer, 1B		Semien, 3B
Willingham, DH		Abreu, 1B
Kubel, LF		Dunn, A, DH
Plouffe, 3B		Garcia, A, RF
Arcia, O, RF		De Aza, LF
Suzuki, K, C		Ramirez, Al, SS
Hicks, CF		Flowers, C
Florimon, SS		Garcia, L, 2B
Correia, P		Paulino, P

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

ok, what happened to that fresh start?

gotta say that game felt awfully familiar.. a lot like yesterday. Correia let some in in the first couple innings but settled in after that to a fairly solid and respectable outing. Nothing spectacular but nothing egregious – pretty much like last year. We had some pretty solid hitting from Suzuki and Plouffe – but some ridiculously bad fielding from Plouffe and some unforgivably bad “bunting” from Kurt kind of knocked those positive feelings for a loop too.

What WASN’T familiar was Perkins blowing a save – and blowing it of his own accord because yeah, those were NOT good pitches.

That left us with a tie and extra innings.. and then some wild pitching from Deduno that proved less “effective” than he would like gave the White Sox the chance they needed to take the win.

Yeah, that frustration also feels awfully familiar…

Meeting the 2014 Kernels

Posted on 2 April, 2014 by Jim Crikket

It was “Meet the Kernels Night” at Veterans Mermorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids Tuesday night, giving local fans and media a first look at the 2014 version of the Twins’ Class A Midwest League affiliate and giving the Kernels players their first look at chilly Iowa April temperatures.

After the media portion of the event, players and coaches mingled with fans on the concourse to chat and sign autographs. Then, they shed their parkas for a brief workout.

The cold temperatures meant a pretty small turnout from the public and that’s unfortunate, but understandable. The more unfortunate fact is that the weather forecast for Opening Night on Thursday (and Friday, for that matter) makes the proposition of actually getting baseball played a little dicey.

A year ago, it seemed like the weather was forcing doubleheaders every week for the first couple of months across the Midwest League and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start the season with a twin-bill (or two) over the weekend, as well.

Manager Jake Mauer, along with hitting coach Tommy Watkins and pitching coach Ivan Arteaga met with media for a few minutes, as did four members of the new Kernels roster: Kohl Stewart, Aaron Slegers, Mitch Garver and Chad Christensen. They all arrived in the media room wearing their newly-issued Cedar Rapids Kernels parkas.

Nothing says “play ball” like new team parkas and portable gas heaters in the dugout!

The field staff and players that met with the media had some interesting things to say and I’ll try to write a follow up story with quotes later this week, but for now you just get a little sense of flavor of the evening from a few pictures.

Left to Right: pitching coach Ivan Arteaga, hitting coach Tommy Watkins, manager Jake Mauer

2013 1st round draft pick Kohl Stewart — Kohl Stewart

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