Let’s see… what’s new?
Jim Thome and Jason Kubel have been claimed on waivers (reportedly both by the BitchSox). There’s a shock. Now we just wait to see if either the claiming team(s) or the Twins are actually motivated to make deals. If the claims were made more for the purpose of blocking other teams from getting those guys, the Twins would have to decide whether to let them go for nothing but a little salary relief or pull them off the wire.
If the Twins let either player go without getting anything in return, they’d essentially be telling the fans who have already bought tickets for the rest of the home games that the team is more interested in saving a couple of bucks than putting anyone casual fans have even heard of on the field. It would be a bonehead move from a PR standpoint.
Which, now that I think about it, probably makes it all the more likely to happen.
I’m really not sure how much I’ll watch tonight or the rest of the season. I’m a bit of an Orioles fan (and if the blackout rules don’t change, I still may very well become an Orioles fan/blogger starting in 2012), so I have some level of interest in these games. But there is absolutely no effort being demonstrated by the Twins at this point, so you have to ask, “why should we care if the team doesn’t?”
For those who do, here are the line ups. The Orioles actually have exactly the same batting order as Tuesday night. Is that allowed? Has anyone told Gardy? In fact, other than Thome DHing while Kubel moves up to the #3 spot in the order while Joe Mauer takes another day off, the Twins line up looks pretty similar, too. Gosh, I wonder if the results will be any different.
| ORIOLES |
@ |
TWINS |
| Hardy, SS | Revere, CF | |
| Markakis, RF | Plouffe, SS | |
| Jones, Ad, CF | Kubel, LF | |
| Guerrero, DH | Morneau, 1B | |
| Wieters, C | Cuddyer, RF | |
| Reynolds, Ma, 1B | Thome, DH | |
| Andino, 3B | Valencia, 3B | |
| Reimold, LF | Hughes, L, 2B | |
| Adams, R, 2B | Butera, C | |
| _Guthrie, P | _Slowey, P |
SO the Twins lost 6-1.
One damn run.
Again.
Wow. Shocking, eh?
The Oriole pitching staff of Palmer, McNally, and Cuellar have pretty much shutdown the red-hot hitting of the Twins these first three games this week. Oh Wait! That was back in 1970. The 2011 Twins got shutdown by three Oriole pitches that I have never heard of. I know, the Twins packed it in a couple of weeks ago. This pathetic effort (and I use that word loosely) is embarrassing. I hope they get swept today. Swept in a 4 games series in their own park by one of the worst teams ever assembled.