Author Archives: Jim Crikket

Here Come the Landed Gentry

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“Thank God that stretch of scheduling is over. Things are bound to turn around now that our guys get to play some ball against a team that can’t seem to get out of its own way.”

Here in Iowa, I seem to be hearing something akin to that comment in stereo… both from Twins fans to my north and Royals fans to the south.

Slugerrr

The Royals just recently managed to halt a 12-game losing streak and while the Twins didn’t let things get that consistently out of hand, it wasn’t for lack of trying on their part. They’ve played poorly enough that it COULD have happened. As a matter of fact, while the Twins were letting the Red Sox sweep them out of their own ballpark, the Royals have put together a small (extremely small) winning streak… having won their most recent pair of games over Cleveland.

But the Twins have home field advantage this weekend, right? Well… they’ll play the games at Target Field, but that may not be an advantage. The Royals have a 5-4 road record this season. That’s right, all five of their wins have come on the road. They’re 0-10 in front of their hometown fan(s).

Like the Twins, the Landed Gentry are having a few health issues with their rotation. Tonight’s starting pitcher, left-hander Everett Teaford, has been the team’s long reliever, but he’s standing in for fellow lefty Danny Duffy, who’s dealing with “minor elbow tightness.” Duffy should be damn glad he’s with the Royals and not the Twins. If the Twins’ crack medical staff came up with that as a preliminary diagnosis, it would probably turn out to be a malady that would eventually require amputation.

Pitching hasn’t really been the big problem for the Royals, however. In fact, most of their staff have stat lines that Gardy and pitching coach Rick Anderson can only drool over. No, so far, the Royals’ biggest problem has been that they’ve got a roster of position players who have a reputation for being, “promising, good young hitters,” but many of them have thus far only demonstrated that they are indeed young.

Alex Gordon, Mitch Maier and Eric Hosmer all wish they could start hitting the ball as well as Alexi Casilla does. Think about that.

Other Stuff

I’ve been traveling for work most of this week, so I’ve been a little out of touch, but there are a couple of other items I want to touch on this morning.

The Tigers have released Brandon Inge after handing his 3B position to Miguel Cabrera and the experiment of converting Inge to a second baseman made Cabrera look good as a third baseman, by comparison. Of course, Inge hasn’t helped his cause by hitting almost nothing.

The Twins are reportedly having discussions about whether they should look in to bringing him aboard. The Tigers are on the hook for everything above that portion of his salary equal to the pro-rated MLB minimum salary, so financially it wouldn’t be a hit. The theory seems to be that it would also send a message to Danny Valencia.

But what would that message be? “Wake up tomorrow in Rochester, Danny, because your position here isn’t guaranteed. We can find guys who can’t hit and can’t field pretty much anywhere and, unlike you, some of them have lots of tatoos.”? Look, I’ve never been the biggest Valencia fan, so I’m not averse to finding a replacement. I’d just kind of prefer that it be someone… hmmm, what’s the word I’m looking for here?… GOOD?

The Twins do need to do something and do it soon. I’m not generally one to call for action just for the sake of appearing to take action, but sometimes the local fan base does need to be assured that the front office has noticed that things suck on the field. And based on the number of empty seats in Target Field already this season, the Twins may fast be approaching that point. By the end of last season, fans demonstrated that they won’t pay a bunch of money to go to Target Field to watch bad baseball. They already seem to be making the same statement even before the end of the first month of the season this year.

Over at Twins Daily, in case you’ve missed it, they’ve begun an “Adopt a Prospect” program where members are encouraged to “adopt” one Twins minor league prospect and regularly post updates on that player’s activities and performance. It’s really a very cool way to recognize the hard work these young players put in, most of the time for very… very… little pay. They all have a Big League dream, but that road is long and hard and not terribly rewarding except for the lucky few who reach the top.

If you haven’t already adopted a prospect, there’s still time and a lot of hard working players still available. But even if that’s not something you feel inclined to do, you should still stop by the thread and read up on the 60+ players that have been adopted already.

Because I know you’re curious… I’ve adopted infielder James Beresford, currently with the AA New Britain Rock Cats. James is another player out of the Twins’ Australian pipeline.

Finally, if these troubling times make you yearn for memories from a better time in Twins history, it’s not yet too late to enter our “100,000th Visitor Contest,” with a chance to win a very nice framed Kirby Puckett memento. Just give us your guess as to when you think visitor number 100,000 to our site will be stopping by.

That’s enough for this morning… let’s hope the Twins get the ship righted a bit over the weekend and that May is much better for our guys than April has been.

– JC

Twins Still Mismanaging Injuries

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When the Twins demoted former General Manager Bill Smith and put Terry Ryan back in charge last fall, one of the first issues the fans and media raised with Ryan was with regard to the medical staff and, in particular, how mismanagement had resulted in some really poor use of the Disabled List. Ryan indicated there would be changes to how things were done, but, in the end, made no staffing changes in that area.

Early on this season, it’s hard to see evidence of improvement. In fact, this past week, we have seen evidence that the Twins are just as capable of screwing up DL decisions as they were a year ago and this time it cost them a ballplayer.

Starting pitcher Nick Blackburn left the game on Saturday, April 14, when he experienced “cramping” in his pitching shoulder during the 6th inning. The next day, Ryan reported that Blackburn had undergone an MRI that was “normal,” and that Blackburn felt, “OK… stiff.”

Jason Marquis was being reactivated so the Twins had the luxury of giving Blackburn an extra day or two of rest. But, of course, that’s not what they did. They wanted to have him throw a bit to make sure the shoulder was “OK.” Then, they wanted him to throw a full bullpen session on Sunday to REALLY make sure he was “OK.”

After all of that, they announced Blackburn would take the mound for a start this Thursday, April 26… twelve days after he left the game during his last start. [CORRECTION: Blackburn will start TUESDAY, 10 days after his last start. The point remains, the Twins will get one more start out of him than they would have had he been put on the DL – JC]

It will be nice to get Nick back, of course. But that’s only part of the story.

When Marquis rejoined the team in New York, the Twins had to make room for him on their roster. They chose not to put Blackburn on the 15-day Disabled List, but instead designated infielder Luke Hughes for assignment, knowing full well it was likely that Hughes had demonstrated enough ability to swing a baseball bat that he’d be claimed by another MLB team.

Ultimately, that’s exactly what happened. Hughes was claimed by the Oakland Athletics over the weekend.

What did the Twins benefit from losing Hughes? Blackburn gets a start on Thursday Tuesday instead of having to wait THREE FIVE more days to make his next start.

Look, Luke Hughes is not likely to become an All Star infielder in Oakland. With Brian Dozier knocking on the door in Rochester, maybe Hughes’ days with the Twins were numbered anyway. But by mismanaging yet another medical issue, the team essentially gave away a Major League level infielder so that Nick Blackburn could pitch after resting his shoulder 12 10 days instead of 15 days.

Oh, and by the way, the Twins medics still have no friggin’ clue what caused Blackburn’s shoulder to “cramp” in the first place.

In the mean time, the team has two starting infielders, Danny Valencia and Alexi Casilla, who have been completely and utterly lost at the plate (both have an OPS under .520). No, Hughes hadn’t done anything yet to indicate he might do better, but then he’d only gotten to the plate 11 times in the four games in which he’d seen action.

My point isn’t to suggest that Luke Hughes was too good to lose… but he was too good to lose simply because the Twins still haven’t figured out how to manage their medical situation and use the Disabled List appropriately.

Terry Ryan, you still have some work to do on that score.

– JC

GameChat – Twins @ Rays #3, 12:40 pm

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As bad as the Twins looked last night, they still have a chance to win this series over the Rays. All they need is to play good baseball and have Francisco Liriano pitch well.

Yeah… I know… but hey, it COULD happen!

Liriano is one of the guys definitely on the hot seat with the Twins (as I discussed in a post earlier this morning), but he’s far from the only one.

The line up looks pretty familiar. Justin Morneau’s still DHing. The sore foot apparently is well enough to hit, but not yet to the point where they want him on the field manning 1B. Clete Thomas seems to be establishing himself as the regular right fielder… though it’s hard to see exactly why that’s the case. I suppose maybe his defensive abilities out there are better than Ryan Doumit’s, but we need to keep expectations in check offensively. I can’t help but wish Joe Benson was hitting better than .180 in Rochester. Ah well.

TWINS

@

 RAYS
Span, CF Jennings, LF
Carroll, SS Zobrist, RF
Mauer, C Pena, C, 1B
Willingham, LF Longoria, 3B
Morneau, DH Keppinger, DH
Parmelee, 1B Upton, B, CF
Valencia, 3B Rodriguez, S, SS
Thomas, C, RF Gimenez, C, C
Casilla, A, 2B Johnson, E, 2B
  _Liriano, P   _Niemann, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 5 0
Tampa Bay 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 1 x 6 5 1

I’m not sure what it says when an outing where Liriano gives up 5 funs over 5 innings is considered an improvement, but whatever it says, it can’t be good. I don’t see a solution where Liriano would be salvageable to the point where he starts actually helping the Twins again. The best they might hope for is to find some way for him to stop hurting the team so damn badly. I give him one more start and if we see nothing different, it’s time to make a pretty drastic decision.

Offensively, the only highlight to speak of was Ryan Doumit’s pinch hit bases-loaded base hit to drive in the Twins’ only two runs of the game. WTG, Ryan. – JC

Twins On The Hot Seat

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As the Twins near the end of the first month of the season, things aren’t going very well. True, few fans really expected that things WOULD be going well, given the combination of last season’s record and the brutal April schedule that MLB saddled them with. Nonetheless, we can’t really be blamed for being disappointed with some of the performances we’re seeing on the field, thus far.

Given the way their most recent season or two have gone, we all had legitimate questions about what we could expect out of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and even Denard Span. We theorized that, if those three guys could somehow prove to be healthy, this team would have plenty of offense and that alone could allow them to threaten to play .500 ball. Guess what? All three players have been healthy and productive… but the team has still managed to lose twice as many of their first 15 games as they’ve won.

So, who’s to blame? More specifically, who’s roster spots… and perhaps even who’s future in Major League Baseball… are on the line already in this young season? Honestly, the list of underachievers on this Twins team so far is so long that it will be a challenge to list all the players with their heads on the chopping block in one post. But let’s try. We can certainly cover the names at the top of the list.

Alexi Casilla

Alexi Casilla – I’ve always loved Lexi. I admit to that bias, going all the way back to his time here in Cedar Rapids with the Kernels. He’s traditionally a slow starter, so it’s hardly a surprise to see him hitting below .250. But he’s not getting on base at a much higher rate and his fielding has been frustratingly inconsistent. With Brian Dozier hitting over .300 and sporting an .841 OPS through Saturday, you have to wonder how long Lexi’s leash is, at this point.

Of course, Dozier can only play one position and Casilla isn’t the only Twins infielder performing at a disappointing level. Which brings us to…

Danny Valencia – Unlike Casilla, I’ve never had a warm and fuzzy feeling toward Valencia. There’s something about his personality that just rubs me the wrong way. Then again, I don’t need to “like” a player to appreciate their talents if they’re contributing a little something to my favorite team’s success. So if Danny would… say… hit the friggin baseball once in a while, I’d overlook the whole personality thing. But he hasn’t done that. Not this year and, really, not last year. So exactly why should we assume he’s entitled to a regular position in the Twins line up?

Brian Dozier

Dozier could take his spot just as easily as Casilla’s. Either Casilla or Jamey Carroll would likely be an upgrade at 3B over Valencia defensively, making room for Dozier in the middle infield somewhere.

In fact, if the Twins really wanted to send a message (or if they could find another team foolish enough to take one or both of Casilla and Valencia off their hands), there’s another infielder in Rochester more than holding his own. Mike Hollimon was somewhat impressive during a short stint with the Big League club in Spring Training and he’s carried that production in to the season. He’s only hitting .256, but he’s getting on base and hitting with a little pop. In other words, he’s doing the things Valencia is supposed to be doing… and isn’t.

But let’s be honest, there’s one guy who’s Big League future is in even graver danger of coming to an end. We’re speaking, of course, about…

Francisco Liriano – Remember when he was known as “The Franchise”? If he’s been saving his money, maybe he’ll be able to buy a Popeye’s Chicken franchise, but his days as a starting pitcher for the Minnesota Twins are running short.

Francisco Liriano

We all know that Spring Training numbers are not necessarily predictive of regular season performance (if they were, Luke Hughes would be in his second year as a starting infielder for the Twins instead of awaiting word of his fate after being Designated for Assignment last week), but how in the world does a pitcher go from giving up just four runs on 10 hits in 18 Spring Training innings to the level of suckage we’re seeing out of Frankie now? An 11.91 ERA? 22 hits and 9 walks in 11.1 innings? Really?

Liriano’s facing the Tampa Bay Rays today… a Rays team that isn’t shy about swinging at pretty much anything that’s thrown near the plate. If he can’t put something together resembling a decent start against these guys, it might be time to think about moving on. Maybe Frankie can be effective out of the bullpen. Pitching one inning at a time gives a pitcher less to think about and, in his case, that has to be a good thing, right?

But who would replace him in the Twins rotation? It’s not like the organization is brimming with high level pitching prospects. Scott Diamond, however, is sporting a nifty little 3-0 record in Rochester, with a 1.47 ERA. If you don’t like Wins and ERA as measuring sticks (and, really, who does?), that’s fine. He’s also struck out 14 hitters and walked only 5 in his 18.1 innings of work and fashioned a nice 1.200 WHIP. He’s given up only one home run.

With Dozier and Diamond looking very good in Rochester, the Twins have some options… and while it’s only the end of April, we’ve seen enough of Casilla, Valencia and Liriano over the past several seasons to pretty much know that they are who they are… and who they are is not terribly good.

– JC

GameChat – Twins @ Rays #2, 6:10 pm

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Congratulations to former Twin Phil Humber

First things first… a huge CONGRATULATIONS to former Twins pitcher Phil Humber. It’s not easy for us to congratulate a White Sox player for anything, but Humber tossed a perfect game at the Seattle Mariners this afternoon and that deserves some respect. Humber always seemed like a good guy during his days with the Twins and I like seeing good things happen for good people who work hard. It’s a sad bit of irony that Humber probably turns out to be the best player the Mets gave up in the Johan Santana trade… and the Twins didn’t even get the benefit of his talents.

On to game two of the Twins/Rays series and Justin Morneau is back in the line up, albeit as the DH. Carl Pavano is on the hill. Let’s wrap up the series tonight!

TWINS

@

 RAYS
Span, CF Jennings, LF
Carroll, SS Zobrist, 2B
Mauer, 1B Pena, C, 1B
Willingham, LF Longoria, 3B
Morneau, DH Scott, DH
Doumit, C Joyce, RF
Valencia, 3B Upton, B, CF
Thomas, C, RF Molina, J, C
Casilla, A, 2B Rodriguez, S, SS
  _Pavano, P   _Shields, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 5 3
Tampa Bay 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 x 4 8 0

That didn’t go well.

Carl Pavano deserved better. Alex Burnett certainly deserved better. ‘Stache should have been out of the 6th inning long before all the damage was done and Burnett did exactly what a relief pitcher is supposed to do… induce ground balls. But that presumes the guys behind him will turn those ground balls in to outs occasionally. Presumptions like that are risky with this crew.

I don’t like to over-react to a single game, but I’ve seen just about enough of a couple of the Twins infielders. I also had a bit of Scotch at the local bar where I watched the game and my patience lessens when said bar runs out of the good stuff by the 6th inning and I have to resort to drinking the house brand. If I hadn’t found a new fellow-Twins fan to commiserate with at the bar, the scene could have gotten ugly.

Ah well… Sunday we’ll see a new and improved Francisco Liriano (who should be VERY well rested, since he pitched fewer than 3 innings in NY this week) and our guys will come away with a series win… right? right? (Just nod your head and agree, please.) – JC

GameChat – Twins @ Yankees #4, 6:05 pm

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Let’s take this series. Phil Hughes has been far from “good” this season, so the Twins should be able to get some hits again. The question is whether Anthony Swarzak can hold the Yankees hitters in check.

[edit: Babs] It’s been said a lot by various media sources today but that’s because it’s a freaky number: the Twins haven’t won a series in NY since 2001. A) that does effect my expectations (lowers them) and my anticipation (raises it). B) God, it would be good to get past that kind of mark for this team. C) No one would have expected that of this roster so it kind of goes back to JC’s post earlier today. Who IS this team??

TWINS

@

 YANKEES
Span, CF Jeter, SS
Carroll, SS Granderson, CF
Mauer, C Rodriguez, Al, 3B
Willingham, LF Cano, DH
Morneau, DH Teixeira, 1B
Doumit, RF Swisher, RF
Valencia, 3B Ibanez, LF
Parmelee, 1B Martin, C
Casilla, A, 2B Nunez, E, 2B
  _Swarzak, P   _Hughes, P, P

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E
Minnesota

4

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

6

10

0
NY Yankees

3

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

x

7

13

1

… ok, yeah, if you had asked me before this series started if I’d be happy splitting with NY? I’d have said “HELL YEAH!” is that really the truth? it would have been at the time for sure.  But coming this close to doing what hasn’t been done in over a decade? That would have been so cool to WIN!!!! *Sigh*

Pitching kind of sucked tonight from the starters.. Swarzak just didn’t have good location tonight and whenever he made a mistake, that Yankee lineup never missed.

Curtis Granderson certainly took advantage of anything left even remotely in hittable range tonight.

All that being said, it was a very close game. Jamey Carroll and Ryan Doumit had pretty good nights, Hammer didn’t screw up in the field, and Alex Burnett had another good outing. There were definitely positives to be had.

I wonder what is going to happen in Florida…

Two Weeks In: Who Is This Team?

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I swear if there’s one thing I’ve grown more tired of than people using small sample sizes to “prove” how good or bad a player is, at this still-early point in the season, it’s people who do so while even admitting that they’re using small sample sizes. Let’s be brutally honest here, statheads, stats over a single two week period, even if it’s the first two weeks of the season, are almost completely worthless.

That’s one reason that, despite the disadvantage I have of living in blacked out Iowa, I’ve made considerable efforts to hang out in the local Cedar Rapids sports bars as often as possible this month. This allows me to actually watch the Twins, rather than just look at the box scores, to judge who’s doing well and who isn’t. Naturally, it also gives me the opportunity to purchase overpriced beer and fried food, but that’s just a sacrifice I’m willing to make for my team and our readers.

One thing about having a blog like this is that you eventually feel compelled to write something, even if almost everything you have to say has most likely been expressed elsewhere. With that said, here’s what I think about what I’ve seen of the 2012 Minnesota Twins:

I don’t know what to think.

Are they the team that might just as well have been using toothpicks for bats in their opening series sweep at the hands of the mighty Baltimore Orioles? (That’s the American League East Division LEADING Baltimore Orioles to you, Mack!) Or are they the team that took two of three games from Albert Pujols’ Angels? Or the one that got swept by Joe Nathan’s new buddies from Texas? Or the guys that have taken two out of the first three games from the Evil Empire in Yankee Stadium, no less?

It’s probably just stating the obvious, but since that’s one of the things I do best, here’s a rundown of a few things we probably have found out about this season’s edition of the Twins:

Spring Training numbers mean zip, zilch, nada, not a friggin’ thing.

  • Remember all those good vibrations we were getting in March from Francisco Liriano? Three starts in to the season and he’s the same head case he was last year. Maybe he’ll turn things around yet, but man has he looked bad after being pretty much unhittable in Ft. Myers.

    Luke Hughes, we hardly knew ye
  • For the second season in a row, Luke Hughes put up very impressive numbers in Spring Training. The same Luke Hughes who’s now been Designated for Assignment because the team needed his roster spot for Jason Marquis on Wednesday and Hughes is out of options. I suppose he COULD pass through waivers, but expectations are that some team will claim him and he’ll get a chance to join another organization’s Big League roster. Best of luck to Luke (unless he ends up with the F’ing Yankees or White Sox, of course).
  • There was a lot of hand-wringing in Spring Training over Justin Morneau with many people pretty much writing off his career. He’s attacking the ball at the plate with an intensity we haven’t seen since before his head came in to contact with a Blue Jay knee at second base almost two years ago. Three home runs in the two games he’s played at Yankee Stadium so far this week isn’t too shabby.

Josh Willingham can hit baseballs really, really well. Yes, defensively, balls hit in his direction can turn in to an adventure, but this is a fan base that’s been watching Delmon Young in LF for a couple of years… we can deal with Willingham. Especially if he keeps hitting the ball consistently. You can’t get much more consistent than starting the season with a 12 game hitting streak.

Reports of the demise of Joe Mauer and Denard Span were a tad premature. Both are still really good at baseball. Mauer still hits in to too many 4-6-3 double plays, but as is the case with Morneau, we’re seeing a version of Mauer we haven’t seen on the field in far too long. Span looks poised to reclaim his spot atop the rankings of AL lead-off center fielders.

Jamey Carroll is pretty much exactly what we thought he was… a solid shortstop that will field the balls hit near him and make good throws to first base. If the position hadn’t been such a disaster last year, that might not be big news, but I enjoy not having to hold my breath every time a ground ball gets hit that direction.

Alexi Casilla is really bad… or really good… face it, none of us have figured that out for sure ever since the Twins got him in return for JC Romero. We still don’t know, but I like the Lexi that’s been playing in Yankee Stadium this week.

The bullpen hasn’t sucked. Again, faint praise, perhaps. But given the angst most of us felt about the situation and the fact that a couple of guys that were counted on to fortify the pen have either been injured or pushed to the rotation, things could be much worse out there. I’m a bit nervous about Glen Perkins, though.

So with all of this stuff going well, why the hell have the Twins lost twice as many games as they’ve won?

The answer, of course, is a familiar one. This team has a rotation that simply is not very good and the pitchers are being backed up by a defense that’s not much better. I don’t need two weeks worth of statistics to tell me that’s a dangerous combination.

Liam Hendriks and Anthony Swarzak have looked marginally promising. Carl Pavano looks to be what we all know he is… a marginal, but gutsy, innings-eater. Maybe Jason Marquis will be something similar. Nick Blackburn hasn’t been awful, but his ceiling isn’t terribly high, not to mention this “mystery shoulder tightness” thing he came down with this week.

The bottom line is that we still really don’t know what to expect from this team after two weeks. The rest of April will continue to be a challenge, due to the brutal scheduling this month and the iffy pitching situation, but there’s nothing like a couple of wins against the F’ing Yankees at their place to raise spirits a bit. Win another game to claim the series tonight and I may not be able to contain my giddiness!

– JC

Game Chat – Twins @ Yankees, 6:05 pm

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Justin Morneau plays first base tonight and Josh Willingham slips up in to the clean-up spot between Morneau and Joe Mauer, as Justin drops down to 5th in the order.

It’s also Carl Pavano’s first start for the Twins in Yankee Stadium. That should be interesting because he’s so beloved there.

TWINS

@

 YANKEES
Span, CF Jeter, SS
Carroll, SS Granderson, CF
Mauer, DH Rodriguez, Al, 3B
Willingham, LF Cano, 2B
Morneau, 1B Teixeira, 1B
Doumit, C Swisher, RF
Valencia, 3B Ibanez, DH
Thomas, C, RF Martin, C
Casilla, A, 2B Gardner, LF
  _Pavano, P   _Garcia, F, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 2 0 0 0 2 1 0 2 0 7 14 1
NY Yankees 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 9 0

Many of you younger Twins fans may not realize it, but yes the Twins ARE allowed to beat the Yankees! Young or old, not many fans have seen the Twins beat the Evil Empire lately, especially at George’s Monstrosity.

This was another team-wide effort. Our guys scored two runs in the top of the first and I jokingly asked the Chat group what the over-under was on how long it would take Carl Pavano to cough up the lead. I don’t think any of us imagined the answer would be four pitches, but that’s all the longer it took. But the three runs ‘Stache allowed in the first were all they got as he frustrated the hell out of Yankee hitters (and a few million Yankee fans, no doubt) for the next six scoreless innings.

Brian Duensing lit up the radar gun, hitting 95 mph several times, in the scoreless 8th and Matt Capps closed the door in the ninth.

Joe Mauer had three hits (two of them doubles, one in each corner of the OF), Justin Morneau celebrated his return to the defensive side of the field by launching a home run to dead CF.

All of these guys, and probably more, deserve baked goods galore for their efforts and certainly both Pavano and Mauer were worthy of Boyfriend of the Day consideration. But we’re going to reward defense tonight and Alexi Casilla just ooooozed defense! A slick, leaping turn of a double play and a diving stop of a ground ball up the middle followed by a glove-hand feed to SS Jamey Carroll were just two examples of his contributions. Just for good measure, he also doubled and scored a run. For all of that, Lexi, you are our BOD!

– JC

Alexi Casilla

Game Chat – Rangers @ Twins #3, 1:10 pm

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Gardy’s wasting no time getting the new guy in the line up. Clete Thomas is manning right field for the Twins today as Liam Hendriks gets his first start of the season.

RANGERS

@

 TWINS
Kinsler, 2B Span, CF
Andrus, SS Carroll, SS
Hamilton, CF Mauer, C
Beltre, A, 3B Morneau, DH
Young, M, DH Willingham, LF
Cruz, N, RF Parmelee, 1B
Murphy, Dv, LF Valencia, 3B
Napoli, 1B Thomas, C, RF
Torrealba, C Casilla, A, 2B
  _Feliz, P   _Hendriks, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Texas 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 4 10 0
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 3 7 0

Liam Hendriks deserved better. Let’s be honest here, Glen Perkins coughed up a big ole’ hairball today. We can certainly question whether he should have been used after throwing quite a few pitches in the Saturday game, but there’s no questioning that he completely bombed today. A walk, a triple and a home run and “poof,” there goes a 3-1 lead.

Clete Thomas, newly arrived from Detroit, did his best to impress his new team mates with a two-run home run in the fifth inning, to give the Twins a lead and Hendriks made it stand up through his six innings of pitching. Jared Burton threw a scoreless seventh, before Perkins came in to do his thing in the eighth inning.

Now, it’s on to New York this week and hoping for the best. – JC

Game Chat – Rangers @ Twins #2, 12:10 pm

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Kent Hrbek and his statue (Photo: Minnesota Twins)

Quite the way to start the day… the unveiling of Kent Hrbek’s statue outside Gate 14 at Target Field.

But what about the ballgame?

The Twins take on new Rangers import Yu Darvish this afternoon. It looks like a return to the original A line-up backing up starter Nick Blackburn.

Let’s hope for a little better result today! – JC

RANGERS

@

 TWINS
Kinsler, 2B Span, CF
Andrus, SS Carroll, SS
Hamilton, CF Mauer, C
Beltre, A, DH Morneau, DH
Young, M, 3B Willingham, LF
Cruz, N, RF Doumit, RF
Murphy, Dv, LF Valencia, 3B
Napoli, C Parmelee, 1B
Snyder, B, 1B Casilla, A, 2B
  _Darvish, P   _Blackburn, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Texas 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 2 6 13 1
Minnesota 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 13 1

The Hrbek statue unveiling turned out to be the highlight of the day for the Twins. Nick Blackburn pitched well enough in his 5.1 innings, but left with a stiff shoulder and is “day-to-day” which, as Twins fans recall from last season, means we’re unlikely to see him in uniform for a month. The bullpen didn’t do their job today, as Brian Duensing and Glen Perkins each coughed up a couple of runs (though only one of Perkins’ was earned).

But the real story of this loss was, once again, the assbats. Specifically the assbats that were used whenever runners got on base, which was pretty much every inning. Twins hitters, collectively, stranded 15 runners and managed only 2 hits in 16 at-bats with runners in scoring position. It’s REAL tough to win games with that kind of futility in the clutch.

Let’s see if they support Liam Hendriks a bit better than that tomorrow afternoon.

By the time Hendriks takes the mound, he’ll have a new team mate. Outfielder Clete Thomas, who was Designated For Assignment by the Tigers a couple days ago, was claimed today by the Twins. Scott Baker was moved to the 60-Day DL to make room on the 40-man roster for Thomas and after the game, the Twins optioned Ben Revere to AAA Rochester, where he’ll get steady playing time instead of sitting idle on the Twins’ bench, to make room for Thomas on the active roster. – JC