Written by Saw this last night – yes, I’m one of those late night channel surfers who LOVE the Red Green Show! But you’ll love it. It might even be the best 5 minutes of your day (if you have to rewind and watch that knuckleballs part again!)
Posts in category General
Get Your Votes In Before Time Runs Out!
This is a reminder post for a couple of opportunities for Knuckleballers to participate in! Afterall, it’s an off-day (much necessary for both team & fans) so what else do you have to do? It’s not like we have lives, right?
First, don’t forget to put in your guesses to win this amazing collectible memorial for Kirby Puckett. I’ll happily ship it to you if you win! We are coming up on the big 100,000 visitor mark far more quickly than I would ever have guessed.
See the original post to submit your vote so that we have all the contest guesses in one place!
AND we can’t forget to go support Lindsay in the MLB FanCave! Having her there has definitely given us all sorts of entertaining moments in Twins games that are somewhat lacking in that particular feature lately. Gotta love the bullpen doing the shark thing just to say hi to her during games!
Go VOTE and make sure we keep her around!
Coming Up On The Big 100,000!
We’ve been trying to come up with a way to celebrate the landmark visitor and tried to find out if we could determine who that lucky person was going to be… yeah we aren’t that technologically savvy. But we still wanted to celebrate hitting the mark so…
It’s time for another Knuckleballs contest!
We have a gorgeous prize available – a framed Kirby Puckett memorial that was donated by my brother (HUGE Puckett fan).
Hopefully, that whets your appetite to play along! So here’s what we’re going to do.
You can see the current visitor count at the top right-hand column of the main page. You can even get a good summary of the visit history if you click on it.
Next, I’m looking for three pieces of information for you to offer:
A) The DAY you think we’ll hit 100,000.
B) The HOUR you think is the likely time to hit.
and lastly, the tie-breaker
C) Where in the world you think that visitor is going to log in from.
I can guarantee you that we never thought this was a mark we would hit when we started.. just wasn’t something that even occurred to us. But here we are and we hope you guys get to celebrate with us!
The Twins aren’t alone in NY! They have Lindsay!
Our favorite representative Twins fan must be having the time of her life as she watched the Twins kick a little Yankee patooter (finally) last night! That’s the good news.
Of course, the voting for who gets to stay in the FanCave continues so we all want to do our part to make sure Lindsay gets to STAY! So GO VOTE!
I haven’t found any limit on how many times it will let me vote yet so I think you should all go out there and make sure that she gets to stick around.
Good Luck, Lindsay!!!
GameChat: Twins @ Orioles, 12:35 pm
Written by We’re still awaiting our first win of the season here in Twins Territory, and what better day than Easter?
I don’t tend to analyze the day-to-day lineup changes, but today’s lineup is a bit different than we’ve seen so far, sitting Danny Valencia and Alexi Casilla to give Sean Burroughs and Luke Hughes some playing time.
| Minnesota |
@ |
Baltimore |
| Span, CF | Chavez, En, LF | |
| Carroll, SS | Hardy, SS | |
| Mauer, 1B | Markakis, RF | |
| Morneau, DH | Jones, Ad, CF | |
| Willingham, LF | Wieters, C | |
| Doumit, C | Johnson, N, DH | |
| Burroughs, 3B | Betemit, 3B | |
| Hughes, L, 2B | Davis, C, 1B | |
| Revere, RF | Andino, 2B | |
| Swarzak, P | Hammel, P |
At least it wasn’t a no-hitter or shutout, as jamar said in chat…
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|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
| Minnesota |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
| Baltimore |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
x |
3 |
6 |
0 |
Sunday Morning Comic Relief
As a Twins fan, I can relate.. Happy Easter everyone!
Twins Predictions
Real live baseball (in America) begins tonight, before ramping up on Thursday, leading to the Twins’ opener on Friday in Baltimore. With opening ceremonies in mind, here are the Knuckleballs Twins Predictions for 2012:
Pitcher of the Year: Scott Baker (minor early season DL stint not-withstanding) Baker was the best of a bad Twins pitching staff in 2011, despite missing chunks of the season on the Disabled List. I couldn’t tell you why I think he’s going to be healthy and productive this year (which already seems like a bad idea), but I think he will be great. Jim Crikket thinks that Francisco Liriano will be the best pitcher of the year. His spring numbers were very positive, he limited his walks and earned plenty of strike outs. Unfortunately, if you look back just a little farther to his Winter numbers, they’re terrible. Let’s hope the recent results tell more of a story for 2012.
Hitter of the Year: Justin Morneau ”Morneau is swinging like I haven’s seen him swing in a couple of years. Vicious cuts.” – Jim Crikket Again, these are only Spring Training at bats, but ever since Morneau flipped the switch and hit two home runs in a game a couple weeks ago he’s been a man on fire. Moving into the DH position and focusing solely on hitting seems to be working for Morneau. Success in 2012 will help distance Morneau from his 2010 concussion and he could be playing first base everyday by the All-Star Break.
Defender of the Year: I wanted to select Alexi Casilla as the defender of the year, hoping against hope that he will remain focused, healthy, and attentive at second base and play more than 100 games for the first time in his career. Jim wanted to go with Denard Span, because for the Twins to succeed in 2012 Span is going to need to cover huge amounts of ground in the left field and right field gaps (gaps which are now wide open with the move to put Josh Willingham and some combination of Trevor Plouffe and Ryan Doumit in the corners).
Rookie of the Year: Chris Parmelee/Liam Hendriks If Parmelee continues to hit like he did last September and this Spring he’ll be a top choice for the Twins’ best rookie. The other candidate, who made the 25 man roster and will open the season in the starting rotation is Liam Hendriks. Hendriks was probably slated to come up after 5-10 AAA starts, but because Scott Baker and Jason Marquis are not ready to start the season Hendriks gets a chance to showcase his skills earlier than anticipated. If he keeps his spot in the rotation when both Baker and Marquis are back you’ll know he’s pitching well and on track to steal a Rookie of the Year award from Parmelee.
Most Valuable Player: Justin Morneau The engine that makes the Twins go is Joe Mauer, but Mauer is even better with a healthy Justin Morneau hitting behind him, forcing pitchers to attack Mauer allowing him to hit doubles all over spacious Target Field and driving in runs for the Twins. If Morneau comes back and is indeed the hitter of the year, selecting him as the MVP will be as much about what he does as an individual, as what he does in the lineup to help those around him.
Comeback Player of the Year: Francisco Liriano Obviously Justin Morneau is a candidate here if he hits well and helps the team succeed, but after a horrendous 2011, if Liriano returns to his 2010 form he’s one of the best players in baseball. If Morneau and Liriano are both All-Stars, this team will be lucky to two potential comeback players on their squad.
Expected Record: The Marcel projections peg the Twins for just a 70-92 record, relying heavily on the Twins’ 2011 results as a predictor of 2012 success (and a heavy dose of regression to the mean). Even if Joe Mauer’s Cindarella Spring Training Clock strikes midnight and he turns in another injury plagued 2012, simply trading Drew Butera for Ryan Doumit means turning a -1.2 WAR into a 1.2 WAR, 2.4 additional wins, and that’s not even factoring in upgraded seasons the Twins are likely to receive from Denard Span, Alexi Casilla, Jamey Carroll (vs. Tsuyoshi Nishioka), Danny Valencia, and at least half of the Twins’ pitching staff. Assuming then that the 70-92 record is the worst that the Twins could do in 2012, what is a reasonable expectation for the Home 9? My best guess, 82-80, Jim Crikket is more optimistic, suggesting even 86-76 for the Twins. Either way, the Twins are going to be competitive, entertaining and might even be relevant in September. Will any of this come to pass? I don’t know, but we’ve got 162 games to find out. Bring on the baseball!
Things Ben Revere is Unlikely to Do
Apr02
2012
Written by Eric Pleiss
2012
Written by Eric Pleiss
Photo credit: Jim Crikket
Yesterday, during the Twins’ Spring Training loss to the Red Sox at JetBlue Park, Ben Revere threw out a runner at the plate from left field. Well, kind of. Jacoby Ellsbury tripled and the ball bounced away from Valencia at third into shallow left field. Ellsbury, thinking the ball had skipped into an area void of defenders, took off for home. Revere, racing in from left, scooped up the ball and threw a rocket to home plate, catching Ellsbury by three or four steps. If you’re scoring at home, that’s an outfield assist.
While Spring Training stats do not count, Revere throwing a runner out, from anywhere, is a note worthy occurrence, given his weak throwing arm and previous performance (3 assists in 2011, and none of those, as far as I can remember, involved throwing a runner out at home plate).
With that in mind, here is a list of things Ben Revere is unlikely to do in 2012:
1. Throw out a Runner at Home Plate. As mentioned above, Revere’s arm is weak (4/100 per Fangraphs), and if he is not playing every day, his chances of even being in the right situation are limited, at best.
2. Hit a home run. While Revere has shown that he can occasionally hit a home run (or 2), he has never hit a home run in the Major Leagues, and has just 5 home runs in his entire Minor League Career (with a career high of 2 at Single-A Fort Myers). While Revere might eventually hit a ball over the outfield fence, his speed could allow him to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park home run, thus ending his HR drought. However, Revere only hit 5 triples in 2011, despite his speed, and might not have enough at bats to even match that total in 2012.
3. Have an on base percentage above .335. While he will never hit for power, Revere’s Minor League numbers indicate that he has great on base skills, posting a career .385 OPB, though he has never played a full season at AAA. Revere’s biggest asset is his speed, and as a 4th outfielder, he will have plenty of opportunities to showcase his defensive tools, but for the team to put that speed to use offensively Revere will need to get to first base. If he is not playing regularly, Revere may struggle to find a rhythm, having never been used consistently as a reserve. While Revere posted a .310 OBP in 2011, that number was helped significantly by a late season push that saw Revere hit .311/.342/.368 in September and October. If Revere wants to be the Twins’ leadoff hitter and centerfielder of the future, he’ll need to come close to Denard Span‘s career OBP of .361.
4. Says something interesting on Twitter. While Ben Revere (@BenRevere9) has almost 3 times as many Twitter followers as fellow Minnesota Twin, Glen Perkins (@Glen_Perkins), he rarely, if ever, says anything noteworthy. The most exciting thing he’s tweeted in the past 30 days is this. Really, Ben Revere? Trading in the Statue of Liberty for Tim Tebow Tebowing? Meanwhile, Glen Perkins has not only spent Spring Training on a quest to hold and photograph himself holding sharks, he also interacts with fans and other Twitter users on a regular basis. Definitely worth a follow.
What else might Ben Revere not do in 2012? Steal 40 bases? Run a marathon? Eat 50 In and Out burgers? Who knows!
