In a rare intra-divisional trade, the Twins sent Delmon Young to the Tigers in return for high-A minor league pitcher Cole Nelson and a “player to be named later”. Nelson, a native of Edina MN, I believe, has mediocre (at best) stats for the Tigers’ Lakeland affiliate this season. He was a 10th round pick of the Tigers in the 2010 draft out of Auburn.
I’m hoping the PTBNL is the key in this deal. Often, that indicates the player has been identified but was signed less than a year ago. (Players can’t be traded by their original team until 1 year has expired.)
On the surface, it certainly doesn’t look like a strong trade for the Twins, but until the PTBNL is identified, it’s premature to cast a final judgment.
So Alexi Casilla’s return from the DL lasted exactly one game. He’s back on the DL and the Twins will be adding a new infielder, but they’re apparently looking at options beyond the group in Rochester who’ve bounced up and down all year long. Should be interesting to see who comes up. [UPDATE: Phil Mackey reports Trevor Plouffe is on his way back up to replace Casilla.]
Michael Cuddyer is still nursing a sore neck and may miss the whole series. LaVelle E. Neal III of the Strib reports that Drew Butera was taking ground balls at 2B before the game. This is what this season has come to.
I’m headed to Perfect Game Field here in Cedar Rapids to see the Kernels take on Kane County in Midwest League play, but here are tonight’s Twins/Tribe lineups and the GameChat window for anyone interested in hanging out during the game:
I have no idea what happened in this game other than what the boxscore tells me and it tells me that, outside of a gopher ball, Brian Duensing had a decent night, as did the bullpen guys who followed him. The offense did not, however, have a very good night. (Why does this keep sounding familiar?) – JC
I guess the “big news” today is about Scott Baker going on the Disabled List and Kevin Slowey being recalled from Rochester. Slowey will get the start on Sunday in Cleveland. I’m sure there’s a significant portion of Twinsville that is excited to see Slowey’s return and I’m happy for him, certainly, but I’m not feeling overly optimistic.
He should have Alexi Casilla backing him up by Sunday, however. Lexi is still on track to be activated Friday, the first day he’s eligible to return from the DL. Unless something unforeseen arises, Justin Morneau could be activated on Monday, in time for the series with the Tigers.
It definitely has a “too little, too late” feel to it, but nevertheless, it will be good to see Lexi and Justin back in uniform and on the field.
In the mean time, let’s see if the guys can put an end to this particular stretch of sucking time and maybe smack Erik Bedard around a little bit tonight. (When the hell did Boston get Bedard, anyway? Must have been while we were all hyped up over whether Denard was going to be a National, I guess.)
Eh. Might have been the most boring, long, drawn out 4-3 game I’ve ever sat through. Welcome to Red Sox baseball. Hard for me to imagine people actually LIKE watching that team play.
I drafted this post Monday afternoon and I honestly hoped I would see something in the Twins Monday night that would make me decide not to publish it. Alas, while there were at least more signs of life among some of the guys, in the end, it was more of the same.
With the humiliation of the past weekend behind us, the attention of many bloggers has turned to discussions of what the Twins should do in the future… and that makes perfect sense. There’s really nothing more to discuss in terms of improving this team’s chances of being competitive in 2011. The Twins will be fortunate to hold off the young Royals and avoid finishing dead last in the AL Central Division.
There have been some good recent posts elsewhere concerning what the Twins might look like in 2012 (we got a head start on that process that you can read by clicking here, in case you missed it). Others can be found here… and here… and here… and here… and here… and probably elsewhere by the time you read this.
Seth Stohs put a lot of thought in to a post detailing his suggestions for how the Twins should play out the season. He makes some good points. He also got me thinking about what I would do if I were in charge of the Twins through the rest of 2011.
I came up with one thing I would do immediately.
Change their home uniforms.
After the death earlier this year of Twins Hall of Famer, Harmon Killebrew, the Twins announced they would wear the 1960s “throwback” uniforms for all remaining home games, in Harmon’s honor. I think that was a nice thing to do.
I think it would have been nicer if they had decided to dedicate their efforts toward playing baseball in a manner that Killebrew, Oliva, Perry, Grant, Kaat, Allison and others of that era would have been proud of.
But the fact is, their performance on the field dishonors my memories of watching Killer and the others play baseball the way it was intended to be played. They aren’t worthy of wearing the same uniform and if I were in charge, they wouldn’t put those uniforms on again until they earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath.
They wouldn’t wear their more recent home white uniforms, either.
Seeing the 1991 World Series Champions introduced before the three games over the weekend could only make Twins fans cringe even more when those guys left the field and we had to watch the current group try to play the actual games. Following Jason Kubel’s 1st inning home run on Friday night, we were treated to 26 innings of baseball during which the Twins scored exactly one run. I have no doubt that if you put uniforms on Hrbek, Gagne, Larkin, Gladden, et al, they’d have managed to get more than one run across home plate in those 26 innings.
Watching the current Twins stretch and play catch (the few that were even visibly out of the dugout or clubhouse) during the pregame introductions of that team made it clear to me that this team: (a) has no regard for these 1991 heroes, or (b) is embarrassed to be compared to them. I suspect it may be both, but it certainly should be the latter.
They probably aren’t comfortable being compared to that 1991 team and one can hardly blame them. Who among this group would tell his team mates, “Get on my back, I’ll carry you!”, like the man that was honored before Sunday’s game? Joe Mauer? Yeah, right.
So put away those white pinstripe home jerseys, too, boys. You’ll wear those again when you at least demonstrate half the effort and heart that the champions who wore them before you showed us.
I’m sure the Commissioner would frown on us sending you out to play in plain white t-shirts, which is pretty much what you deserve, so we’ll let you wear those navy jerseys.
Play like 1997? Dress like 1997
Better yet, do we still have some of those gawd-awful red ones the Twins wore back in 1997? You know the ones… the DQ jerseys… the ones that we all laughed at while the team was losing 94 games. Yeah, dress this group up in those for the rest of 2011. Then again, guys like Paul Molitor, Brad Radke and Rick Aguilera wore the DQ jerseys that year, so I’m not even sure the current crop deserve to have these on their backs. But I guess they have to wear something.
Oh… but one more thing… take the names off the back (that’s at least one thing they got right about the “throwback” jerseys) at home and on the road. If the fans don’t know who you are by looking at you, then do something that will make us want to look up the number to see who you are. We didn’t need names on the uniforms to know who Killebrew, Oliva, Puckett, Hrbek and Blyleven were.
Maybe by the time 2012 starts, the front office can come up with something new and fitting for these guys to wear. Does Rochester have any of those “Star Wars” jerseys left or did they auction them all off?
If it were up to me, I’d tell these guys, “You’ll get your REAL Twins uniforms back when you show a little pride in being given the honor of wearing the uniforms of Killebrew and Puckett. That’s pride, not ego. Either learn the difference or get the hell out of here. I’m tired of seeing too much of the latter and not nearly enough of the former.”
The Twins try to avoid getting swept out of their own ballpark by the rival White Sox today.
Jim Thome is again in the line up, still 2 home runs short of 600 and, of course, Joe Nathan still needs one save to break his tie with Rick Aguilera at the top of the Twins’ career saves list.
I’ve had a good time up here in the Twin Cities, going to ballgames and spending some time with friends trying to figure out how to fix what’s wrong with our Twins. It looks like we’ll have the better part of two months to discuss that topic because the days of this team playing meaningful games are pretty much over. This team is playing for pride now. That’s pride, not ego. There’s a difference… and it’s a difference some of these guys may still need to learn.
Delmon Young and Danny Valencia get a seat on the bench today and I can’t say I’m sorry about that. I’m just sorry there aren’t any better choices to put in their places. Babs is traveling today and I’m not sure if KL will be around for today’s chat. I have to go check out of the hotel and if I can find a ticket for a reasonable price, I may watch a few innings before heading home.
Wow, do I know how to pick a series to drive up to see, or what? The Twins score 3 runs in the first game Friday night and a total of one more run over the next 26 innings. As Manager Ron Gardenhire pointed out, they managed to commit more errors than score runs this series. Pretty humiliating. But why do I get the feeling the players aren’t nearly as humiliated by their crappy play as the fans are? I’m still waiting for any kind of sign that any of them give a crap.
It may have taken longer than we anticipated, but we finally have a winner in our 1991 Anniversary DVD contest. “Rick” may not have been correct with his prediction of when Joe Nathan would get his record-breaking save, but who cares? It may never happen at this rate. So based on the random selection process we posted Friday morning, Rick is our winner.
Rick, we need you to email us your mailing address so we can pass it along to the good folks who are sponsoring these contests and get your DVDs in the mail to you. Click the “Contact Us” link up above for our email address.
I wish I would have seen a few more winners at the ballgame Friday night, but it was not to be.
I was seated way out down the RF line tonight so the pictures aren’t terrific, but they aren’t nearly as bad as the Twins’ brand of baseball, so I’m not going to apologize too much.
This was the line to get in Target Field at 3 pm... 2 hours before gates openedMy line, around to the back of TF for Gate 14 wasn't nearly as longThe 1991 World Series ChampionsOzzie enjoys a chat with some of the 1991 TwinsLooking for Twins highlights? This is pretty much it. Kubel homered in the 1st inningYes, I did get my bobblehead and yes, I opened it.
That’s it for tonight, folks.
Looking forward to a bit better game Saturday night.
First things first. Apparently the Twins entered in to a conspiracy of sorts to prevent our DVD giveaway contest from proclaiming a winner. Almost two full weeks after announcing our contest to give away a set of Twins 1991 Championship Season DVDs to the person who could correctly predict the game in which Joe Nathan would break the team record for saves, he still hasn’t had an opportunity to accomplish that feat.
So, as we indicated in the original contest post, we’ll determine the winner on a random basis from among the 15 readers who entered our contest. Here is how we will go about declaring a winner:
Below is a list of those who entered the contest. Next to each name are two numbers I’ve assigned randomly from numbers 1-15 and 16-30. The winner will be the person assigned the number that is equal to the total runs scored by the Twins and White Sox in the first game of their upcoming series in Minnesota.
AW: 5, 20
Max: 9, 30
Shaun Streich: 15, 28
BobZ: 10, 24
MukMuk: 1, 17
bob miller: 3, 16
mark: 14, 27
lecroy24fan: 7, 23
Trish: 13, 29
Melissa: 12. 21
AW: 2, 19
E: 6, 22
UpperDeck: 4, 25
David: 11, 26
Rick: 8, 18
(If the Twins and Sox get in to a real slugfest and score over 30 runs combined, we’ll just add 30 to the numbers assigned to each entrant above and declare the winner on that basis. I refuse to let the Twins’ ineptitude draw this thing out any further!)
BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH: JULY
Remember back last month when the Twins didn’t suck? I know… it’s not easy sometimes to remember back that far. But trust me, in July the Twins did win some ballgames and after each victory, our GameChat folks bestowed a Boyfriend of the Day award on the Twins player they felt was most deserving of recognition for their efforts in that particular game. As is our tradition, we then tally up those BOD awards each month and pronounce a lucky Boyfriend of the Month.
This one wasn’t really even close.
Danny Valencia, Brian Duensing, Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer each were honored with Boyfriend of the Day awards twice in July but for the first time this season, one player racked up four separate BODs from our GameChat contingent. Glen Perkins has been clutch when he’s been called on in tight situations. We just wish we could see a few more of those opportunities going forward. But for his outstanding work in July, Glen Perkins is da BOM!
Now that the non-waiver trade deadline has passed, there’s a little more time to stop and take a breath. I admit that I generally really enjoy the days and weeks leading up to the trade deadlines, both the one we just went through and the waiver-deal deadline that comes up at the end of August. That’s the date by which players have to be on a team’s roster in order to be eligible for post-season play with that team.
The Twins were particularly interesting to follow this month because of all the uncertainty concerning whether they were buyers or sellers or, as some of us have begun to suspect, have very little clue which they are or should be. But regardless of what any of us think about the Twins’ front office and their performance during this critical period, the fact remains that this particular trade deadline period is over… and I find myself a little burned out on writing about the Twins.
Partially as a result of that fact, my focus has begun to shift a bit to other areas and today I’m going to take a little detour off of the Twins highway.
As I’ve indicated before, I’m also a Vikings fan as well as a fan of Iowa Hawkeye athletics. The whole labor issue thing with the NFL has frankly soured me a bit on professional football, but I’m sure that by the time the Vikings play their first game, I’ll be taking a glance at their roster to see who’s still here and who isn’t.
But I’ve been really getting geared up for college football. I’m a Hawkeye season ticket holder, which means I can also put in for tickets to road games. I’ve received word I got a pair of tickets for the Hawks’ visit to TCF Stadium this fall, but, alas, I apparently don’t donate enough $ to the I-Club to have earned tickets to their game at Nebraska. I’m kind of bummed about that. The game is scheduled for the Friday after Thanksgiving and we’re kind of hoping that becomes a big traditional game. I’m going to try to get tickets through other avenues, because I hear Lincoln, Nebraska is a really nice place to spend a couple of days in late November. Besides, they’ve decided they’re going to play for a trophy or something… how cool is that? Yes, I know pretty much EVERY Big Ten contest involves a trophy these days, but this contest even has a NAME… “The HEROES GAME”. How can a guy not want to go see that?!
While I’m on the subject, I just want to mention how excited I am about Nebraska joining the Big Ten Conference. I thought it was a good fit when it was announced over a year ago and I think it’s an even better fit after several months of reflection.
I’m not always a big fan of the people who run college athletics at any level, whether it’s the NCAA or the people in charge of the Big Ten (or even the people in charge of the Iowa Hawkeyes, but I’ll spare you all that particular rant today). But I have to say I think they got this realignment thing pretty much right, with the addition of the Cornhuskers and the way they divided up the schools in to divisions. No, I’m not fond of the “Legends and Leaders” division names, but off hand I can’t say I’ve heard suggestions I liked any better.
I don’t mention it often here, but I’m also not generally a huge fan of most of what I read in my local home town Cedar Rapids Gazette sports section. Some of the writers there do an OK job covering local and college sports, but I don’t remember the last time I read something and thought, “Wow… that was really good. I’m glad I read the Gazette today!”
Until a week or two ago, that is.
A local writer for the Gazette, Scott Dochterman, wrote a 10-part series about what the Big Ten Conference went through as they tried to figure out how to divide up the twelve schools in to two divisions. He interviewed conference staff and almost every school’s Athletics Director and while he didn’t come out of those interviews with any juicy stories of ADs in fistfights, he did manage to give readers a good look at the process and challenges that the decision-makers had to work through. I came away with a lot of respect for the way people set aside some parochial interests in order to do what was right for the whole conference. When you compare the way these people conducted themselves with what was reported about how the Big 12 poobahs comported themselves in the past, you really feel good about being a Big Ten fan.
The series doesn’t focus on Iowa, despite being authored by a writer who covers the Hawkeyes, so if you have an interest in Big Ten football, I highly recommend checking the series out. You can click here to go to a “Postcript and Links” entry, which includes summaries and links to all ten chapters of the series.
As for the Twins, I’m planning on driving up to the Twin Cities this weekend to catch at least some of the White Sox series, so I’m sure I’ll post some pictures and thoughts about those games at some point. I was hoping to have a chance to catch Jim Thome’s 600th home run, but the way things are going, I may have to settle for seeing Joe Nathan’s record-breaking save (since he and the Twins seem bound and determined to screw up our DVD contest!). It may also be the last time I get to see Ozzie in action if rumors of him managing the Marlins next season turn out to be accurate.
If you’re going to be in the Twin Cities over the weekend and especially if you’re planning on going to any of those games, leave a comment or drop me an email and maybe we can find a way to get together for a beer or something. The season may not be going the way we all hoped it would, but there still aren’t many better ways to kill a few hours than going to a ballgame and I’m going to do a bit of that this weekend.
(NOTE: The silver lining to the Twins struggles of late is that Joe Nathan still hasn’t broken the team career record for saves and that means you still have time to enter our contest for a chance to win a set of 1991 Twins WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP DVDs! Click HERE to enter!)
There’s still some baseball to play over the next two months and we can still fantasize about the Twins making another late season surge in the standings similar to what we saw in June. But with no help being brought in at the non-waiver trade deadline, hopes are fading.
If this team somehow pulls off a miracle and works its way back in to the AL Central race, I’ll have no trouble focusing 100% of my interest on the current season. But as things stand, I can’t help but take a little peek at 2012.
A lot was made this year about the Twins’ payroll growing to a record $113.2 million. With their shiny new ballpark and a guaranteed 3+ million fans filling those seats this season, GM Bill Smith had pockets deeper than ever before to work with in constructing a roster. He made some peculiar (and ultimately questionable) choices, but nobody could argue that the Twins were being “cheap”.
The Twins are, and will likely continue to be, among the more fiscally conservative teams in Major League Baseball. MLB clubs are not supposed to incur debt in excess of 10 times their annual revenues. That doesn’t seem like it would be a difficult standard to meet, does it? Well, apparently nine teams currently think it is. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Twins are nowhere to be found on that list. (That’s a good thing, by the way.)
Will Jason Kubel be back in 2012?
What will the Twins’ roster and payroll look like in 2012? I find that to be a very interesting question. Matt Capps, Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel and Jim Thome will be free agents and, despite his return to effectiveness, it’s still likely that the Twins will opt out of Joe Nathan’s $12.5 million option, making him a free agent, as well. How many, if any, of those players will be brought back?
That’s around $82 million being spent on less than half of your ultimate 25-man roster. Your entire starting rotation is accounted for (though let’s be honest, it could stand to be improved) and all but one of your eight defensive positions.
Of course, there’s no assurance all of these players will return in 2012. Bill Smith might have been unsure whether to be a buyer or seller in July, but if the Twins fall back in the standings this month, there’s a very good chance he’ll listen to offers for just about anyone who clears waivers (at least those not named Mauer) and anyone not traded in August could still find himself on the trade block during the next offseason. Also, would Casilla, Young and Liriano all be offered arbitration? I don’t think so.
It also would surprise nobody if the Twins made an attempt to keep some of their free agents. Kubel, Cuddyer and Nathan are having solid seasons. Would any of them accept a little less money to stay in Minnesota? We kind of assume Jim Thome may be ready to hang up the spikes if he reaches the 600 HR mark this season, but if he decides to play another year, would the Twins invite him back?
And then there’s the curious case of Denard Span. Despite being a productive CF and leadoff hitter, the Twins were obviously open to trading him at the end of July. If they were open to offers then, you have to figure they would be similarly open during the offseason.
I won’t be disappointed if the Twins bring back some of the current familiar faces fans have grown to know and love, but I will be disappointed if they bring back all or most of them. This team’s performance in 2011 has been less than expected and it hasn’t all been due to injuries. As Howard Sinker pointed out in this post over at Section 219, some of these guys failed to live up to past levels of performance.
The point is, the Twins are going to have an enormous amount of flexibility between now and the start of Spring Training, 2012. If they decide their revenues are likely to drop off in 2012, you could see an awful lot of these guys who have been doing the Rochester Shuffle this season playing significant roles in 2012 (not to mention a few that we’ve yet to get a look at in a Twins uniform). On the other hand, if the organization is confident that they can sustain a payroll close to what this season’s is (and with a waiting list of fans who want season ticket packages, there’s no reason to think they shouldn’t be confident), they should be able to afford to be significant players in the free agent market and if they are serious about regaining a place at the top of the AL Central Division, they’ll need to upgrade several positions.
I took the afternoon off from the office to sneak out to the ballpark and take in the final game of the Snappers/Kernels series today and it was well worth the penalty I’ll pay of having more work to do tomorrow.
The Kernels won the game 5-4 in 11 innings. Given the heat and the fact that I went straight from the office and thus was still in “business casual” attire, I really didn’t need a four hour extra innings game, but it certainly was entertaining.
Lefty Ryan O’Rourke threw six solid innings for the Snappers but was left with a no decision as his team mates committed four errors behind him (OK, technically only three were committed behind him since O’Rourke committed one of those errors himself when he lobbed a pick off throw to 1B well down the RF line).
The latter stages had everything a fan could want to see in a game. Strategic bunting, clutch hitting, diving catches, good baserunning, controversial umpiring, and a 9th inning manager ejection (the Kernels manager, Brent Del Chiaro… though Snapper manager Nelson Prada and 1B coach Tommy Watkins came close to getting early showers one play later, following what could best be referred to as a pretty obvious “make up” call).
In the end, the Kernels won the game on a walk-off HR down the LF line. If it was fair, it wasn’t by much, but it was called fair and that’s all that matters I guess.
Here are a few pictures of some of today’s action… I didn’t take as many as Sunday, but we have a few shots of guys who didn’t play in Sunday’s game.
Infielder Adam Bryant gets low at 2BOF Wang-Wei Lin gets some swings in during a catcher's visit to the moundCoach Tommy Watkins with instructions to Lin at 1BStarting pitcher Ryan O'Rourke deliversCatcher Tobias Streich glances toward the Kernels dugoutRelief pitcher Michael Tonkin delivers and SS Daniel Santana breaks to cover 3B as the hitter squares to buntLefty reliever Jose Gonzalez strides toward homeReliever Nelvin Fuentes gave up the game winning HR, though he and the Snappers weren't convinced it was a fair ballPinch runner Derek McCallum scored the tying run in the top of the 9th on a wild pitch as Tobias Streich gives him the "get down" sign
