Media reports are saying that Joe Mauer will be leaving Tuesday to head to Ft. Myers for “extended spring training” games and Tsuyoshi Nishioka has started “sprinting drills”. I’d like to feel more optimistic about the chances we’ll see Joe activated soon than I do. It’s just that we’ve been down this road before, yanno? But at this point, seeing anyone behind the plate for the Twins who can at least hit is weight would be encouraging!
Unfortunately, Kansas City Royals fans today got some sad news about one of their franchise favorites, pitcher-turned-broadcaster Paul Splittorf. Splittorf, who was a fixture on the mound for the Royals teams that were regularly winning the old AL Western Division in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has been diagnosed with both oral cancer and melanoma and his prognosis is not good. Twins fans can certainly relate and I’m sure I speak for all of us in expressing our sympathies to Royals fans, not to mention our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to Splittorf and his family.
Turning to tonight’s game…
It seems like just yesterday that we were all relieved that the Twins were finally ending a long road trip and returning to Target Field, where their fortunes would certainly turn around. It sounded good at the time.
Now our guys are back on the road. The good news, though, is that they are visiting the Mariners, who are struggling just about as much as the Twins are. Seattle has dropped six straight games (not as bad as the Twins’ 8 game losing streak, but it’s not good!), but they have rookie phenom Michael Pineda on the mound tonight, opposite Scott Baker for the Twins. It’s understandable if you aren’t familiar with Pineda, since there’s probably no team in baseball that gets less media attention outside their own market than the Mariners do. If you want to learn more about this guy before he faces off with the Twins, check out this USA Today article from a few days ago.
I don’t know how late I’ll be able to stay awake tonight, but let’s see if we can’t get things turned around and going in a more positive direction!
Let’s be fair and say that Michael Pineda has been shutting down a lot of teams, so give him his due. But the Twins aren’t even putting up a fight at this point. It’s sad to see. That’s nine straight, for those who are counting. The longest losing streak in over a dozen years. Ugh.
Things are just getting pretty desperate at this point in Twinsville. The inability of this team to score runs is reaching historic levels of ineptitude. I’m not even concerned any more with the team’s chances of winning the AL Central Division, I just want to start seeing some good baseball from them again. Let’s see if we can get something going today!
This is another one of those days when KL, Babs and I all have stuff going on that make it a challenge to be here when the line ups are released and get a chat post up, so I’m going to throw this post up a couple hours early and without line ups, but at least the Chatroll will be here for those of you who wish to congregate for the game.
Another excellent starting pitching performance that gets wasted due to (a) lack of offensive support and (b) one really bad inning of relief pitching. It was encouraging to see Nick Blackburn pitch so well and 13 hits is almost a week’s worth of hitting for the Twins lately (even if 11 of those were singles… it was still nice to see the Cuddyer HR and the Morneau double that was almost a HR). I guess we saw a slight flicker of what this team was supposed to be capable of today.
Jason Repko is rehabbing and Jim Thome is about to do the same, with Tsuyoshi Nishioka soon to follow. (I still don’t get the deal on Joe Mauer, but I suppose some day the facts about his mysterious malady will come out.)
I’m not sure where the others are, but I’m sitting out a delay at O’Hare airport in Chicago. Not sure how long I’ll be online, but I’ll at least put up the chat (a half hour late, perhaps) and someone can add the lineups later.
I was able to watch the last few innings of the game at O’Hare (funny how 4 hour delays give you time for that kinda thing). Not much to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere. It was good to see Delmon Young back in uniform, anyway. Sounds like Jim Thome may be returning soon, too. I don’t know if it will all be too little, too late, or not… but I’m pretty sure it will be more fun to watch these games when the rest of the “real” Twins get back on the field.
“You must not surrender. You may or may not get there, but just know that you’re qualified and you hold on and hold out. We must never surrender. [The Twins] will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive.”
Jesse Jackson at 1988 DNC (AP Photo-Ron Edmonds)
This is what it has come to… I’m resorting to channeling my inner Jesse Jackson.
For those of you too young (or too politically/socially disinterested) to recall, The “Keep Hope Alive!” quote in the first paragraph was the closing line from Reverend Jackson’s speech to the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta and he was assuring us that “America” would get better, not specifically the Twins (but if the shoe fits, right?). I may not have agreed with Rev. Jackson’s politics a whole lot, but my goodness the man could work a crowd!
With all the gloom and doom in Twinsville these days, it occurs to me that maybe a little dose of Jackson-like oratory might just be what’s called for (setting aside, for the moment anyway, the inconvenient fact that at the time Rev. Jackson gave his 1988 speech, Michael Dukakis had about a 20 point lead on George H. W. Bush in the polls… so Jackson’s speech didn’t exactly motivate the Democratic faithful enough to drive Dukakis to the White House).
I’m not sure I’m the one to turn to for motivational oratory these days, however. I not only have not posted a lot of commentary here, lately, but I’ve all but completely stopped posting comments on other blogs and podcasts. It’s not that I’ve given up on the Twins. Quite the contrary. I believe that when the “real” Twins get healthy and join Denard Span and Jason Kubel in the line up, this team will bounce back.
What I have given up on are many so-called “Twins fans”. I understand the frustration because I feel it, too. I don’t particularly enjoy watching the Twins lose game after game any more than anyone else does.
But I simply can’t tolerate the volume of the insane (and often inane) opinions regarding the reasons for the Twins’ poor showing, thus far. I listen/read some of the stuff out there and I just want to yell, “It’s the injuries, stupid!” Seriously… does anyone with half a brain think that Bill Smith, Ron Gardenhire or any other member of the Twins management should have EXPECTED to have Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Joe Mauer, Delmon Young, Jim Thome, and Jason Repko all on the Disabled List at the same time?
You want to know why the Twins can’t win more ballgames? Go back and read this post from Jim Mandelaro, in which he posts the opening day lineup for the Rochester Red Wings. Let me know if you find these names familiar… Ben Revere, Trevor Plouffe, Luke Hughes, Rene Tosoni, Rene Rivera. That’s right, five members of the Red Wings’ opening day lineup are currently getting regular playing time for the Minnesota Twins (and their opening day starting pitcher, Anthony Swarzak, made a brief cameo appearance for the Twins, as well). The Twins’ bullpen also has been littered with guys who started the season in Rochester.
I think we all have every reason to be surprised that the Minnesota Twins find themselves with the worst record in baseball, 11 games behind the leaders in the AL Central, as we reach mid-May. But that’s just it… it’s not so much that the Twins are in that position… but rather the Rochester Red Wings are 11 games out in the AL Central and that really shouldn’t surprise anyone.
I know, I know… this is all just “making excuses” for the Twins’ ineptitude. That’s fine, if that’s how you choose to feel. But if you’re one of the people who refuse to acknowledge the role that injuries have played in the Twins’ results, thus far, then there’s a pretty good chance you’re just one of the “fans” who carry so much hate in your heart for everyone in authority with the Twins organization, that you actually come across as being happy about the team’s current struggles, because it allows you to pump up the volume on your “fire/trade/release everyone” rants. If that’s the kind of fan you are, congratulations, I guess. Enjoy yourself… but don’t expect me to listen to your BS.
Denard Span, one of the more prolific Tweeters on the Twins, posted this on Wednesday night: “Before I talk about the heat winning… If ur a genuine twins fan plz be positive and have faith in us bc we haven’t lost faith in ourselve”
Count me in, Denard.
Nobody associated with the Twins likes the way things are going right now and it’s fair to point out when players fail to perform up to expectations. But if you want to be fair, when you point out that six Twins are hitting below the “Mendoza Line” (.200 BA), you probably should also point out that only one of the six was expected to fill a starting role this season, while the others have had to fill in for injured regulars. And in the further interest of fairness, you could mention that three of the six were supposed to be playing in Rochester this season. But, hey… what fun is being “fair” when you can be negative?
This really isn’t rocket science and Tiger manager Jim Leyland knows it. “It’s pretty simple,” Leyland was quoted by media. “When your horses are at the vet, that’s not good. When they’re on the track, that’s good. Their horses will be on the track here shortly.”
I believe that when Mauer, Nishioka, Young, and Thome get back in the line up, this team will score runs. They will win games. Will it be enough to overcome this awful start? I don’t know. Maybe… maybe not. But they’ll be fun to watch again and I’ll enjoy doing so.
It was a long and not-so-successful road trip, but the boys are back in town tonight and facing the Detroit Tigers. I don’t care what the Indians and Royals are doing at the moment, I still believe it will be the Tigers and White Sox that are likely to be the strongest competition for the Twins in the AL Central. That makes this series all that much more critical.
Glancing at the tweets, blogs and other social media reports, apparently Joe Mauer is taking some BP swings (and will be having a presser before the game tonight), Trevor Plouffe has a mild hamstring strain that will keep him out of the line up today and tomorrow, and tonight is Francisco Liriano’s first start since his no-hitter.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d really like something to cheer about tonight!
Like their parent club, the Beloit Snappers played extra innings Monday. Unlike the Twins, however, the Snappers actually managed to get some hits with runners in scoring position and thus avoided getting swept out of Cedar Rapids with a 5-4 win over the Kernels. Thunderstorms during the morning threatened to delay the Snappers “getaway”, but the two teams got started on time and completed their 10-inning game in just under three hours.
The 20+ mph wind that blew in from right-center field most of the game made for some interesting (and entertaining) defensive plays, but rather than just write about this game, I thought I might try to tell the story with pictures and even a short video.
Snappers shortstop Daniel Santana got things going for Beloit by lining the second pitch of the game over the left-centerfield wall for a leadoff home run.
Daniel Santana homers to lead off the first inning
Leftfielder Nate Roberts collected three hits, scored a run and stole two bases on the day, then added a sacrifice bunt to move Andrew Leer in to scoring position in the top of the 10th inning.
Nate Roberts leads off in front of Kernels SS Jean Almanzar
Also contributing three hits to the Snappers attack was centerfielder Wang-Wei Lin, who put the Snappers ahead 3-0 in the 5th inning with an RBI single to right field.
Wang-Wei Lin moves away from Kernels 1B Brandon Decker
Starting pitcher Adrian Salcedo didn’t give up a hit until Kernel 1B Brandon Decker reached on an infield single in the 4th inning (on a backhand play that Snapper 2B Derek McCallum would likely admit he should have made). Salcedo was regularly hitting 93 mph on the stadium radar gun and was dominating the Kernels through 6 innings.
Adrian Salcedo was all but untouchable for 6 innings
The wheels fell off for Salcedo in the 7th inning, however (or more accurately, they fell off for the Snapper defense behind him), as the Kernels batted around, scoring four runs (only two earned) to tie the score at 4-4. Clinton Dempster relieved Salcedo with bases loaded and two out and gave up an RBI single and a sac fly before getting the final out of the inning.
Dempster was more effective over his remaining two innings of work, facing the minimum six hitters.
Clinton Dempster collected a blown save AND the win
That’s where the score remained until the top of the 10th inning when Leer let off with a single to left field, was moved to 2B by Roberts’ sacrifice bunt and on to 3B by Michael Gonzales’ second single of the day. Daniel Ortiz’s groundout to second base was deep enough to easily score Leer.
All that remained was for relief pitcher Matt Hauser to nail down the save. He made it a bit interesting, giving up a walk and a single (almost makes it seem like the Twins actually teach their closers to do that, doesn’t it?), before getting the final Kernels out to finish off the Snappers’ 5-4 victory.
Matt Hauser talks things over with catcher Matt Parker
The Snappers make their next (and final) trip to Cedar Rapids for a three-game series July 30-Aug 1, but both teams are off to good starts in the first half of the season and have real shots at the Midwest League post-season.
One of the great things about baseball is that at every game you go to, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see or experience something for the first time. My trip to Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids Saturday night was a prime example.
BJ Hermsen
The Twins’ low Class A affiliate, the Beloit Snappers, are making their first of two trips to Cedar Rapids this weekend to take on the Kernels (affiliates of the Angels). Both teams are over .500 so far this season, so the series has some potential. Added to that, the Snappers’ starting pitcher Saturday was BJ Hermsen, a “local boy” from Masonville, Iowa (about an hour from CR).
The game started out routine enough… the Snappers scored first with an unearned run in the second inning, before Hermsen got touched for a two-run HR by Kernels’ 3B Jeremy Cruz in the bottom half of the inning.
Michael Gonzales, the Beloit 1B, put his team back ahead in the 3rd inning with a two-run HR of his own. Gonzales launched a line drive over the 400 foot sign in dead center field. It was an impressive HR, but not even close to the most impressive HR I’ve seen Gonzales hit here in CR. I saw him jerk one down the RF line last summer that I think might still be in orbit.
The 3-2 lead lasted just until the 4th inning when things got a bit interesting, on a number of fronts. Hermsen started struggling a bit, giving up four consecutive base hits and a long SAC fly, all of which resulted in three Kernel runs. But Hermsen survived the inning and actually pitched two more innings, facing the minimum of six hitters in those innings.
But the damage had been done and by the 5th inning, the Snappers had Martire Garcia loosening up in the bullpen. From our seats in the first row, just to the outfield side of the Snappers’ dugout, my son and I had a good view of Garcia as he warmed up, just to our left. The bullpens here are in the field of play (like the old Metrodome bullpens), and we laughed a bit about how parents were taking some chances letting their kids lean against the wall right next to where Garcia was warming up, because he was, shall we say, not finding the catchers mitt consistently.
Well, the next thing I know, with my attention turned back to the hitter, I feel something smack me in my left arm. Yes, one of those wild warm up pitches jumped the wall and hit me in the arm. See? There’s always something new at every game… I had never had that happen before!
But the baseball gods had my back. Garcia entered the game to start the bottom of the 7th inning and had barely thrown a pitch when the lights went dark… all of them. Another “first” for me at the ballpark!
It takes a while for lights to come back on, apparently, and that meant about a half hour “break in the action”. When play resumed, Garcia promptly walked the first hitter he faced. In fact, he walked two of the first three hitters he faced… which certainly didn’t surprise me.
Andy Leer
But Garcia struck out the fourth hitter of the inning and with Kernels at 2nd and 3rd base, the Snappers’ lone outstanding defensive highlight of the evening bailed Garcia out. Third baseman Andrew Leer may have had a tough night at the plate (never getting the ball out of the infield in four ABs), but he did a terrific Brooks Robinson impression on a hot smash down the line by the Kernels’ Cruz. Leer dove straight to his right to snag the shot, then jumped up and made a terrific one-hop throw to 1B, which Gonzales picked up perfectly to retire Cruz.
The Snappers ended up dropping the game 5-3 on what turned out to be a longer, chillier, evening than I expected to spend at the ballpark, but it was well worth it. I won’t be seeing Sunday afternoon’s game, but I’m planning on playing hooky from work Monday afternoon to catch the series finale. Hopefully, the weather will be a bit warmer and the Snappers a bit more successful!
The good news is that the Twins/RedSox game is one of FOX’s Saturday “national” telecasts today. The bad news (for me anyway) is that so is the Cubs/Reds game and that means Iowa will not be shown the Twins game. Ah well. The rest of you will get to see Brian Duensing take on the East Coast Bitch Sox, anyway.
The news coming out of Twins camp today is that Francisco Liriano’s next start, which was supposed to be on ESPN Monday night in the finale of the Red Sox series, has been pushed back to Tuesday. Why? Because he has a sore throat.
Does anyone else get the feeling the Twins are just making stuff up? I mean… pushing a start back because a guy has a sore throat two days before he’s supposed to pitch? His throat was too sore to do his bullpen session? And this coming from an organization with a $23 million catcher who’s going to end up missing two months with “leg weakness”? Seriously?
For now, let’s just sit back and see what Trevor Plouffe does today for an encore!
I didn’t see all of this game and, from what I did see, I didn’t miss much. The 3 hours or so of baseball wasn’t all that much less boring than the 2 hour and 7 minutes of rain delay following the 2nd inning. Kevin Slowey wasn’t bad in his return, pitching over four innings of decent ball. But the offense simply didn’t show up (stop me if you’ve heard this before). Sunday will be better, though… right? Tell me I’m right… please!
It’s game one of a “wrap-around” (Friday-Monday, “wrapping around” the weekend) series with Boston at Fenway and once again the Twins are showing some new faces in their lineup. Trevor Plouffe is plugged in at shortstop and Ben Revere in left field. Cross your fingers and hope for the best, gang, as Scott Baker faces off against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who has fought his way out of the Boston bullpen and back in to a starting role (at least for now).
I’d make some sort of comment about another Red Wing-heavy line up, but frankly it’s not like the “veteran” Twins are exactly showing up the kids at this point, so let’s see what Plouffe and Revere can do. I was actually glancing over the MLB All-Star ballot today and realized Jason Kubel is possibly the only Twin worthy of representing the Twins at this point. Maybe Denard Span, too.
Ah well… let’s tee off on the knuckler tonight, boys!
yeah, that was fun! Not only was it good to see ANY win at all but it was good to see the bats actually come out in a big way, win a 3rd straight game – we don’t seem to be doing that too much lately – AND this was our first win in Fenway since 2007!!!! Hello!?!
It was funny to see the ridiculous fielding from the Red Sox and it was great to see the way the guys all seemed to figure out Wakefield’s knuckleball pretty easily (just goes to show us knuckleballs aren’t so complicated afterall 😉 ). I could not believe that Francona came out to argue the Balk – was shocked to see the physical pushing match that I will stoutly defend Joe West actually started by chest bumping Terry – and wonder if that could have contributed to the whole team just being off their game tonight.
Whatever. I don’t care. We WON! We HIT THE FREAKING BALL! Trevor Plouffe got a freaking homerun over the green monster in his first AB after coming back up to the big show to be our starting SS for awhile (maybe a LONG while at this rate). And Baker pitched his tail off – just for all you Gardy fans out there. Seriously, Baker pitched a FANTASTIC game. It was a beautiful thing.
In fact, those two guys caused quite a debate in the BOD discussion of the gamechat. You know what I like? When there are enough Twins players doing something marvelous enough during games that we get to debate who gets to be the BOD! So we enjoyed debating the various merits of both guys, how good the others were, back to the various merits of Plouffe & Baker, and enjoyed ourselves immensely in the whole process before deciding to encourage both good pitching and good offense by giving the BOD to BOTH players. Co-BOD’s today!
It’s a question that has to be posed, isn’t it? Is Fenway Park really worthy of “historic landmark” status or just a really old ballpark? And with the Twins starting their only series in Boston, now is probably the time to pose that question.
I went to a ballgame there a few years ago. I was in downtown Boston on business for a few days and I remember thinking I should make a point to get to a game because they were bound to build a new stadium there before long and I would like to say I’d been to a game at Fenway.
I don’t remember much about the game, but I remember my initial impressions of the ballpark when I walked through the turnstiles and made my way toward a concession stand to get a beer on my way to my seat. I think I could best sum those impressions up with, “What a dump.”
Things can get wet in the concourse (Photo: C. Laubenstein)
I don’t know what I was expecting. I didn’t expect it to impress me the way Camden Yards had done on my first visit there. But I recall thinking that the concourses reminded me a bit of Veterans Stadium in Cedar Rapids… the same Veterans Stadium that had to be torn down and replaced in order to allow the city to keep its low-Class A team in town.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I respect and appreciate the unique history of baseball in our country. So, from that standpoint, I can appreciate Bostonians’ reluctance to let go of this monument to their historic past. But then again, just how many “historic” moments took place at Fenway? It’s not like they racked up a ton of championships there. Generations of Red Sox fans were born, lived, and died without ever seeing a World Series Championship from Fenway’s home team.
Sure, some Hall of Famers called the place home, but that can be said of pretty much every old ballpark that’s been wrecking balled over the past century. It’s not an excuse for making today’s ballplayers and fans play/watch games in an antique. Or is it?
I think the “Green Monster” is just a romanticized quirk that was necessary because they built the ballpark on a plot of land that wasn’t big enough for a ballpark in the first place. It makes the leftfielder position for Boston probably the last remaining defensive position that most AL designated hitters could play, in a pinch. A shortstop with above average range and arm could probably just play deep enough to cover both positions. But if keeping that particular quirky ballpark fixture is so important, I would think a NEW ballpark could be built with a similar LF wall.
Remember to zip up, Manny?
They could even incorporate the manual scoreboard and the doorway that leads behind the wall (you know… the one Manny used to mistake for a bathroom door in the middle of innings) if keeping things like that mean so much to people.
As a matter of fact, this is pretty much what the owners of the Sox proposed to do a dozen or so years ago, but the outcry was so loud that the team sank close to $300 million in to a decade’s worth of “renovations” to the existing park, that supposedly make the park usable for another 40-50 years. Can you say “Money Pit”?
Of course, the Boston faithful are not alone in their irrational love for a ballpark that should have been demolished decades ago. Cub fans have pretty much the same relationship with Wrigley Field (and yes, having been to that ballpark, too, I feel pretty much exactly the same way about it). It probably makes even less sense for Cub fans to be so attached to their ballpark when you consider that they’ve won absolutely nothing at Wrigley Field during the lifetime of any fan still ambulatory enough to attend games there.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some great bars surrounding both Fenway and Wrigley. I’ve had a very good time at some of those bars. But yanno what? If you build a new ballpark, it’s just possible that there will be some good bars near the new place, too (as any Twins fan who’s enjoyed the local pre-and-post-game festivities around Target Field will attest to)!
Anyway… it’s their ballpark and I really don’t care all that much what they do with it. There’s just a part of me that believes that if the good folks in Boston would put their mind to it, they could come up with a new ballpark that would show just how much better they could do with that kind of project than George Steinbrenner’s monument to excess in the Bronx (and people would actually show up to watch games in a new Boston park, I’m sure, unlike what’s going on in NY). The prospect of that, alone, should be enough to make it worthwhile.
What do you think? Have you been to a game at Fenway? Am I being too harsh? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
