Tag Archives: Andrew Albers

Wilkin Ramirez got the call to replace Jamey Carroll on the Twins’ roster. I bet there are a few guys in Rochester and New Britain wondering how the hell hitting .172 in your seven rehab games earns you a spot with the Big Club. I know Clete Thomas needed someone who could spell him occasionally in CF with the Twins, but jeez… .172? Really?

Aaron Hicks has been bad in AAA and so has Darin Mastroianni during his rehab and apparently they both claim to still be hurting a bit. If anyone ever tries to tell you that being the guy who is already on the 40-man roster doesn’t really mean much, don’t believe them for a second. The fact that Ramirez is on the expanded roster is the ONLY reason he’s wearing a Twins uniform tonight.

Two young pitchers on the mound in tonight’s game. Andrew Albers gets his second start and his first home start for the Twins and Danny Salazar goes for the Indians. Salazar, for those who may not be familiar, is a 23 year old fireballer. Look for mph readings in the upper 90s. Look for a lot of Twins to be walking back to the dugout shaking their heads.

Brian Dozier and Trevor Plouffe provided what little offense the Twins generated with home runs in the first and second inning, respectively. Babs pointed out that this is seven straight games that Dozier has an extra-base hit and he apparently trails only Killer and Tony O for the club record of eight straight, so that’s kind of cool company to be in.

But let’s be honest, the big news tonight was Andrew Albers.

What do you do for an encore when you pitch 8 1/3 shutout innings in your Big League debut? Of course, you follow that up with a complete game shutout in your debut before the home fans at Target Field.

I wonder how many times this guy’s been told he doesn’t throw hard enough or doesn’t have enough “stuff” to ever make it to the Big Leagues. Just goes to show what perseverance can do. I don’t know if he’ll have a short MLB career or a long one and right now I’m not all that concerned about it. I know he’s giving Twins fans a reason to pay attention and something to smile about and that’s not nothing.

I also know this makes two BOD awards for Mr. Albers.

It’s Tuesday so I am not here tonight but I thought I would still throw this out there for any of you fans who want to see if the Twins can do anything interesting in Kauffman besides have a bench player pitch an inning…

Btw, Carroll is back at his traditional place on the corner.. I’m ok with that.

The other interesting thing tonight is Albers MLB debut! Honestly, no matter what happens tonight, my guess is that he won’t be out-pitched by a 39-yo utility infielder.. just saying.

boy, howdy was THAT a game!!

I really can’t fault Twins fans if they didn’t tune in after last night’s drubbing but it’s awfully nice when they come back with a drubbing of their own.  Considering the Royals really haven’t made losing a habit since the All-Star break – especially against the Twins – this was a nice surprise. We actually HIT THE BALL! WE HIT IT A LOT!! AND THEY HIT IT REALLY FAR! They actually had three homeruns in tonight’s game – Dozier, Mornea and Colabello – which brings the Twins season total to 100. (which is more than the Yankees, I might add). Considering two of them were in the first inning – Doziers in the first AB of the game – it was a great way to come back and start and a huge surprise.

OMG though TALK ABOUT SURPRISES! I had high hopes for the kid coming up and making a good showing for himself since yeah, he couldn’t really be worse than the starters we have been running out there already.. but HOLY COW! He not only made a good show of getting Royals hitter after hitter out but he did it for what was temptingly close to a complete game shutout for an MLB DEBUT!!!! good gravy. Yes, he “only” went 8 1/3 innings but that is apparently four games for Correia so that’s well above my expectations. It was just a great game for any starting pitcher much less a kid in his first shot. Good on ya Alby! You have more than earned today’s BOD!