Episode 43 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
Kyle Gibson, Spring Training 2013. Photo Credit: Betsy Bissen
Eric and Cody talk recent Twins happenings, including a struggling bullpen, an awful PJ Walters, and whatever it is that is going on with some Twins Minor Leaguers in the Futures Game.
The two are then joined by Seth Stohs from TwinsDaily.com to talk about all things Twins Minor League and what fans can expect from Kyle Gibson as he makes his MLB debut on Saturday.
After the break the boys talk beer, baseball, and the news.
The Twins, according to legend, are afraid of the Yankees. And you know what, after some quick post-season exits at the hands of the Yankees, that is a pretty easy narrative to build. Add in the fact that the Twins have struggled to beat the Yankees in the regular season, despite the Twins having fairly successful regular season teams for most of the 2000’s, and you begin to see how that narrative continues to grow.
Johan Santana
In the 11 years between 2000 and 2010 the Twins compiled a .537 winning percentage, going 957-826. During that same span the Twins went 25-57 against the New York Yankees, a .325 winning percentage. Take out the 77 games against the Yankees and the Twins are 163 games above .500 instead of just 131. That is a significant bump. During that same time period the Twins played the Yankees four times in the post-season, managing to win just two games, while losing 12, swept in 2009 and 2010. That brings the Twins’ 11-year record against the Yankees to 27-69 (.281). That is bad, almost as bad as the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119), the worst team of the last 50 years.
During that same 11-year span the Yankees were 1060-718, only had a losing record against one American League team (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 45-54), and won two World Series titles (and losing in the World Series two other times). So clearly the Yankees were a better team than the Twins over that same time period, but the Yankees’ .596 winning percentage is not so much larger than the Twins’ .537 that you would expect the Twins fail so miserably against the Yankees during the span.
Assuming each team’s regular season winning percentages represented their true talent over those 11 years, the Yankees should have beaten the Twins only about 53% of the time, not the nearly 72% clip they had over that same span. So what gives? Why did the Yankees perform so well against the Minnesota Twins, especially in the post season?
For me, it comes down to roster construction, and specifically the postseason pitching rotations, where teams often turn to only their top three or four pitchers.
The Twins, with a lack of depth in their starting rotation chose to go back to their ace on four days of rest, facing elimination in Game 4. The Yankees, alternatively, felt strong enough to run out David Wells (4.14 ERA, 4.3K/9, essentially a league average pitcher in 2003 despite his 15-7 W/L record) knowing that should they be pushed to a decisive Game 5 they could turn to Mike Mussina, their ace, against Brad Radke (4.49 ERA and a pitch to contact friendly contact rate of 82.2%).
So while you would certainly expect the Twins to score more than 3 runs over their final 3 games in this series, outside of Santana the Twins certainly did not have a rotation that could even dream about keeping up with New York (and remember that the Kyle Lohse of 2003 (4.61 ERA) is a far cry from the pitcher he has been over the past three seasons).
They have a lot of fun talking Twins news, beer, and general baseball weirdness. They’re kind of a big deal.
88 more minutes of pleasure.
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!
Episode 41 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
On Episode 41 Cody and Eric talk about some high profile prospects earning a Minor League promotion, review the draft and prospect rankings infused with new talent, and talk about Denard Span and Ben Revere taking the field against the Twins. They discuss the release of long time MiLB favorite Anthony Slama, and they try and figure out who is the Twins’ best starting pitcher (protip: they have no idea!).
Down on the Pond this week is James Beresford, and on Beers from Around the World it is the return of BREADY BEER!
The boys then go Around the League and answer a couple of email questions. All together 88 minutes of pleasure for your ears.
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!
Episode 39 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
The trifecta of bad “beer”
Cody and Eric must hate themselves, because there is not other reason they would be watching bad baseball and drinking bad beers. But alas, here they are, for another week, with another bad team, and more Twins banter.
This week they cover the Twins news, do a lenghty look at the Twins regulars now that the season is 25% of the way over, and they decide that Joe Mauer and the bullpen are the only things going well for the Twins (ummm duh!).
The round out the podcast with FOUR bad beers, their bored, tipsy, silly friend Tricia, and as always, a trip around the league.
Ninety-nine minutes of audio pleasure.
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!
Episode 38 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
Dalton Hicks
This week Cody and Eric dive into the poor pitching management of Ron Gardenhire, Joe Mauer‘s hit-streak amid a season filled with strike-outs, and then we discuss the possibility of seeing Kyle Gibson in a Twins uniform and the outside shot of a 6-man rotation in Minnesota.
We name our Twins hitters and pitchers of the week, and then go Down on the Pond and talk about Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernals first basemen Dalton Hicks.
We finish up the podcast talking about beers from Europe and making a trip Around the League (including a fabulous Korean bat flip).
Only an hour of fun this week, but we’ll be back next week with a special patriotic Talk to Contact in honor of Memorial Day.
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!
Episode 37 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
On Episode 37, Cody and Eric are joined by Baseball Prospectus‘ Jason Parks to talk about the Twins Minor League system. Jason Parks has plenty to say about Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, as well as some of the pitching prospects.
Before Jason Parks comes on to the show, Cody and Eric go through the Twins news, including the pitching performances of Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey and Scott Diamond; Joe Mauer’s Fenway expertise, and the explosion that is Oswaldo Arcia.
To close out the show the guys name a Listener of the Week, go Down on the Pond with Michael Tonkin, and regardless of what they’re drinking (juice?!) they take a quick tour of the biggest news stories around the league.
80 minutes of fun!
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!
Sorry about getting this up at the last minute. Knuckleballers are busy today!
The big news in this game is Clay Buchholz and his maybe, kinda, sorta, might be cheating by having what may or may not be a foreign substance on his non-throwing arm.
Once again, the Twins had opportunities to win this game. When you get two men on base and have your third, fourth and fifth hitters in the order coming up, it’s reasonable to expect at least one of those runners to be driven in. When all three strike out, it certainly constitutes a lost opportunity.
Brian Dozier deserves kudos for his dramatic game-tying home run, as does Anthony Swarzak for his three innings of shutout relief work. It’s a shame it all went for naught. – JC
Episode 36 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
Cody Christie (2nd from left) enjoys a recent tour of the Talk to Contact office space with a few of his close, personal friends.
Talk to Contact is proud to bring you another episode packed full of Twins talk. This week Cody and Eric discuss the magic of Kevin Correia, Ron Gardenhire‘s mismanagement of the pitching staff, Gardy’s tenure with the Twins, when and why it might be time to cut ties with Mike Pelfrey, and generally blather on about all things Minnesota.
We’re joined this week by the Rochester Red Wings play-by-play man, Josh Whetzel, whose broadcasts are streamed online at Sports 1280 WHTK, www.whtk.com. He gives us a quick run down of who’s hot and who’s not in Triple-A, and identifies some names to watch for in the not-to-distant future.
More or less shennegians this week when we go Down on the Pond, take some questions from the internet, and name Brad Swanson (@bridman77) the Listener of the Week.
Tune in for almost 100 minutes of Twins radio gold.
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!
The Twins start their second series of the season against the Detroit Tigers just a single game behind MoTown in the AL Central standings. The Twins took two of three in the season opening series with Tigers despite dropping the Opening Day game against Verlander. The Twins get off a little lighter tonight facing Max Scherzer. The Twins will counter with the wildly ineffective Mike Pelfrey who is still less than one year removed from Tommy John surgery.
The Twins will need to get the bats going tonight in order to pick up a victory.
One really bad inning and it’s a loss to the Tigers. Not really much more to say about it than that. Pelfrey looked pretty good two times through the Detroit order, but that wasn’t good enough.
