BOD – Page 15 – Knuckleballs

GameChat – Minnesota Twins @ Kansas City Royals, 7:10pm

Posted on 4 June, 2012 by Eric Pleiss

Should be a fun night in the chat as the Twins look to win another series from a Central Division foe AND the MLB First-Year Player Draft is in full swing.

MLB.com is running live draft coverage over at their website, and all signs point towards the Twins drafting the toolsy high school outfielder Byron Buxton out of Georgia. Baseball America rates him as the best talent available in the 2012 draft and with the Twins unlikely to turn their team around in the immediate future, fans should not be concerned about the lengthy development time of a high schooler. After the #2 pick the Twins still have 4 more of the top 75 picks, and they will likely add a couple of college arms and then look for middle infield depth.

UPDATE: TWINS TAKE BYRON BUXTON WITH THE 2ND OVERALL PICK.

Oh, and here are the line ups for the game, which is being played tonight, not 3-5 years in the future (who would have thought: the Twins have 3 hitters hitting .280+ at the top of the line up and Joe Mauer has the day off to nurse his thumb):

Minnesota Twins	@	Kansas City Royals
Span, CF		Gordon, LF
Revere, RF		Giavotella, 2B
Willingham, DH		Butler, DH
Morneau, 1B		Moustakas, 3B
Doumit, C		Francoeur, RF
Plouffe, LF		Hosmer, 1B
Dozier, SS		Escobar, A, SS
Casilla, A, 2B		Dyson, CF
Carroll, 3B		Quintero, C
_De Vries, P		_Smith, W,

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	2	1	0	1	3	1	0	2	0	10	12	2
Kansas City	0	1	0	3	0	1	0	0	2	7	8	1

Cole DeVries picked up his first Major League win by surviving five innings. He wasn’t great, but he also had some pretty erratic defense behind him at times. The bullpen came through yet again and the offense tagged Royals pitching for 10 runs on 12 hits.

Once again, there was no shortage of Boyfriend of the Day candidates. Josh Willingham, Justin Morneau and Trevor Plouffe went deep. But in the end, we’re going with co-BOD awards for Ben Revere (3 hits, 2 runs, 2 RBI, and a stolen base) and Jamey Carroll (3 hits and a walk in four trips to the plate including a triple, 2 runs, 2 RBI, and a stolen base). Those are some good numbers! – JC

GameChat – Minnesota @ Cleveland #3, 2:05pm

Posted on 3 June, 2012 by CapitalBabs

I think it says an awful lot about our young pitchers (ie PJ & Diamond) that I look forward to their starts a whole lot more than I do our veteran guys.. I think it would be great to take another series – this one in the division. Whether or not we really have a chance to be competitive in ANY thing this year, even the weak ass Central Div, I really enjoy the GAMES we play when we win..

So what I think I really mean is – winning is fun, let’s do it.

Minnesota	@	Cleveland
Span, CF		Choo, RF
Revere, RF		Kipnis, 2B
Mauer, DH		Cabrera, A, SS
Willingham, LF		Lopez, Jo, 3B
Morneau, 1B		Brantley, CF
Doumit, C		Duncan, DH
Dozier, SS		LaPorta, 1B
Plouffe, 3B		Cunningham, LF
Casilla, A, 2B		Marson, C
Diamond, P		Masterson, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	1	0	1	1	0	0	2	1	0	6	11	3
Cleveland	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	3	9	1

As Babs said above, winning really is fun… so much more fun than losing… and when the wins come against divisional rivals, that’s even better. The Twins won 6-3 and, in the process, took two of three games to claim the road series at Cleveland. I have to say THIS is was the kind of baseball I was hoping to see more of when the season opened. Guys did what it took to get on base, took extra bases, move runners over and drove runs in when the opportunity presented itself to do so.

Yes, there were more errors than we’d like to see and the starting pitcher wasn’t exactly one that many of us expected to be relying upon when the season started, but since pretty much every member of the expected rotation has failed in their roles so far, I’ll take a good start out of pretty much anyone. We will have to hold our breath a little bit to find out how Joe Mauer’s injury is. He reportedly sprained his right thumb late in the game and is “day to day.”

There were several good performances today. Josh Willingham, Brian Dozier and Trevor Plouffe all had multi-hit games and Glen Perkins & Matt Capps shut out the Tribe for an inning each out of the bullpen. But today’s Boyfriend of the Day is starting pitcher Scott Diamond. He not only gave the Twins a Quality Start by giving up just three runs in seven innings of work, but exactly ZERO of those runs were earned, lowering his ERA to just 1.86. – JC

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #2, 6:10 pm

Posted on 2 June, 2012 by Jim Crikket

Let’s see of PJ Walters can keep up the good work he’s been doing since arriving in Minnesota. The Twins are going to need all the pitching help they can get, as it appears that Carl Pavano could be headed to a stay on the Disabled List.

TWINS	@	INDIANS
Span, CF		Choo, RF
Revere, RF		Kipnis, 2B
Mauer, C		Cabrera, A, SS
Willingham, LF		Lopez, Jo, DH
Morneau, 1B		Brantley, CF
Doumit, DH		Kotchman, 1B
Dozier, SS		Damon, LF
Plouffe, 3B		Chisenhall, 3B
Carroll, 2B		Marson, C
_Walters, P		_Tomlin, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	4	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	7	12	0
Cleveland	1	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	4	9	0

Whew. The Twins finally get a win this season over the Tribe. Scoring four runs in the first inning was a great start, but PJ Walters couldn’t hold that lead and it was all tied up after five innings. Fortunately, the Twins weren’t done scoring, while their bullpen successfully shut out Cleveland over the final four innings.

The BOD award came down to a split vote, so tonight we have three winners sharing the award. Brian Duensing relieved Walters with two out in the fifth and kept the inherited baserunners from crossing the plate and went on to pitch 2 perfect innings. On the offensive side, Trevor Plouffe and Joe Mauer not only both homered, but also each drove in three of the Twins’ 7 runs. For their efforts, Brian, Trevor and Joe are our Boyfriends of the Day.

GameChat – A’s @ Twins #3, 12:10pm

Posted on 30 May, 2012 by CapitalBabs

So we have already won the series – in dramatic fashion no less – but I would LOVE a real series win that might involve brooms in one form or another.. what about you?

Of course, today is the return of Liriano to the starting rotation – for however long – and I have to admit that I don’t have a lot of confidence in that…

Oakland	@	Minnesota
Weeks, 2B		Span, CF
Cowgill, LF		Revere, RF
Reddick, RF		Mauer, DH
Gomes, J, DH		Willingham, LF
Donaldson, 3B		Morneau, 1B
Suzuki, K, C		Dozier, SS
Barton, 1B		Casilla, A, 2B
Crisp, CF		Butera, C
Pennington, SS		Carroll, 3B
Ross, T, P		Liriano, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Minnesota	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	x	4	6	0

That, ladies and gents, is what they call a sweep!

I know it’s not something Twins fans are too familiar with (at least from the sweeper, point of view) and granted that the A’s are not exactly the ’27 Yankees, but it still feels pretty damn good.

I was good to see Josh Willingham send yet another ball deep to left field and he could make an argument for a second consecutive Boyfriend of the Day award. Alex Burnett and Jeff Gray combined for three innings of no-hit (and more importantly, no-run) relief, so they earn themselves some fancy desserts, as well.

But “the Franchise” version of Francisco Liriano made his first appearance of the season in this game, throwing six shutout innings, giving up just three hits, while walking only two hitters and striking out nine Athletics! That’s the Frankie we’ve been waiting to see and we hope to see a lot more of him in comings weeks. It’s certainly the BOD version!

GameChat – Athletics @ Twins #2, 7:10 pm

Posted on 29 May, 2012 by CapitalBabs

First, I would like to thank the Twins very much for that lovely win as a present for my birthday yesterday. However, I would also like to remind them as I turned 40, the whole year needs a bit of lifting I’d think. My request is merely that they win more often than they did last year as a way to celebrate my 40th year!

I think a good start would be to give young Mr. DeVries a bit better support in his second start than they did for his first.

Oakland	@	Minnesota
Weeks, 2B		Span, CF
Cowgill, LF		Revere, RF
Reddick, RF		Mauer, DH
Smith, S, DH		Willingham, LF
Inge, 3B		Morneau, 1B
Ka’aihue, 1B		Doumit, C
Suzuki, K, C		Dozier, SS
Crisp, CF		Plouffe, 3B
Pennington, SS		Casilla, A, 2B
Parker, J, P		De Vries, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	7	2
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	7	0

Nothing like taking as long as absolutely possible before getting the game-winner, right? Cole DeVries walked a few more guys than I’d like to see, but he did OK for his second start as a Big Leaguer. The bullpen was less than perfect, but they kept the game close. Then in the 9th, a single here, a walk there, a very poor bunt attempt on top of those, and a fielders choice led up to one mighty swing of the bat by Josh Willingham. That game winning 3 run HR with 2 out in the bottom of the ninth gave the Twins their first walkoff win of the season… and earned Willie the BOD award. – JC

GameChat – Oakland Athletics @ Minnesota Twins 1:10pm

Posted on 28 May, 2012 by Eric Pleiss

Happy Memorial Day, Twins fans.

For me, Memorial Day weekend was always a time when our family went on a camping trip. In the last three years I have been camping about 15 times. Mostly overnight trips, but a few week long adventures in the boundary waters. I just love camping. Something about spending time in the woods, sleeping in a tent and cooking food with a fire that really excites me. But here’s the thing, those last 15 times I have been camping, it has rained EVERY TIME. Not just passing showers or an occasional drizzle. I’m talking about wind and thunder and lightening and everything. I tell people that if they need rain all they have to do is invite me on a camping trip. And that has me thinking about the Twins.

Despite the Twins’ tough early schedule it seemed like the Twins were catching a lot of teams while they were down. Twins played the Red Sox and Yankees and Angels and the Tigers this season and each team was struggling to string together stretches of good solid baseball. Enter the Twins. It seems like every time one of the Twins’ opponents really needs to turn things around the Twins are more than happy to do it. So MLB owners, if your team is struggling, all you have to do is invite the Twins to town.

Oakland was 22-21 before their current 5 game losing streak, perfect time for them to visit Minnesota…

Here are the line ups for the Twins and Athletics:

Oakland Athletics	@	Minnesota Twins
Weeks, 2B		Span, CF
Crisp, CF		Mastroianni, RF
Reddick, RF		Mauer, C
Gomes, J, DH		Willingham, LF
Inge, 3B		Morneau, 1B
Suzuki, K, C		Doumit, DH
Ka’aihue, 1B		Dozier, SS
Cowgill, LF		Plouffe, 3B
Rosales, SS		Casilla, A, 2B
_Blackley, T, P		_Diamond, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	4	10	1
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	2	x	5	6	2

How about that, a Twins win! What a great birthday present for our very own CapitalBabs! Happy birthday, Babs, hope you enjoyed that one as much as the rest of us.

MorneauAndCaptain — Serious Boyfriend of the Day material! (Photo: Craig Lassig/AP)

Scott Diamnd pitched pretty well through the first 6 innings before running into trouble in the 7th and being lifted after just one out. The bullpen gave up a run in the 8th but the Twins battled back with two runs in the bottom of the 8th thanks to a Justin Morneau double that scored Joe Mauer and a sac fly from Ryan Doumit to score Josh Willingham.

For his RBI double Morneau is today’s BOD. What a swell guy.

-ERolfPleiss

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox, 7:10pm

Posted on 22 May, 2012 by CapitalBabs

There isn’t much I can think of to say about today’s game other than.. I REALLY like it when the Twins beat the White Sox more than just about ANY team except the Yankees – and even that is debatable.

Minnesota	@	Chi White Sox
Span, CF		De Aza, CF
Revere, RF		Beckham, 2B
Mauer, C		Dunn, A, DH
Willingham, LF		Konerko, 1B
Morneau, 1B		Pierzynski, C
Doumit, DH		Rios, RF
Dozier, SS		Viciedo, LF
Casilla, A, 2B		Ramirez, Al, SS
Carroll, 3B		Escobar, 3B
Walters, P		Floyd, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	4	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	9	9	0
Chi White Sox	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	5	0

I’m just not in a wordy mood today I guess – and yes, make all the cracks you want about how rare that is. That aside, tonight was a GOOD win.

We beat the White Sox!
They didn’t use the Assbats! Thank goodness they packed the good ones.
PJ Walters can really pitch!

Wow, it’s great to have a lot of runs and have guys hitting the ball hard & deep but I’m always a pitchers girl at heart and to see a guy go a complete game and get a W just warms my heart in ways I can’t describe. Even with all the offense, unanimous BOD vote goes to our boy, PJ. (and I would like to point out that it’s his second consecutive BOD during starts.. dude is on FIRE!)

PJWalters2 — photo credit: Leon Halip/Getty Images North America

GameChat – Twins @ Brewers #2, 3:10pm

Posted on 19 May, 2012 by CapitalBabs

My guess is that everyone wearing a Twins uniform is feeling pretty good right about now. And they should be. I really hope they get to the point where they realize that they really like this feeling of working together, playing good ball and getting wins. Even more importantly, I look forward to the time when they can win ball games that don’t involve the opposing teams hiring circus clowns for the field.

As for today’s pitching, all reports are that Pavano is feeling good enough that he supposedly even declined the cortisone shot they had proposed. I don’t know if that is good news or bad news for today but I like the sound of recovery…

Minnesota	@	Milwaukee
Span, CF		Hart, C, RF
Revere, RF		Morgan, CF
Willingham, LF		Braun, LF
Morneau, 1B		Ramirez, Ar, 3B
Dozier, SS		Lucroy, C
Casilla, A, 2B		Weeks, 2B
Butera, C		Green, T, 1B
Carroll, 3B		Maysonet, SS
Pavano, P		Gallardo, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	5	8	0
Milwaukee	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	4	9	2

My guess about today’s game is that the boys all felt like they started early enough on a Saturday, they might as well play a little longer into the evening so they just kept letting things get tied up… Pavano was on a pitch count but still managed to pitch a full 6 innings which we needed. His velocity isn’t all that much higher than it was but he definitely was pretty solid.

And BOD for today? Finally an easy one. Across the board we had great outings and yes, Drew Butera STILL leads the team in Batting Average since he’s up to .375 if my count is accurate. And Matt Capps put another Save notch on his headboard. But when a game keeps getting tied up, the guy who BREAKS the tie? He gets to be BOD. That is you, Trevor Plouffe!

GameChat – Twins @ Brewers, 7:10pm

Posted on 18 May, 2012 by CapitalBabs

And we have arrived at that point of the season we call INTERLEAGUE PLAY! Ok, there’s a lot of controversy about in-season interleague play but I’m going on the record as loving it. I LIKE that there are two leagues. I LIKE that there are different rules and strategies and that we get to see them during the season.

You are entitled to have your own opinion and I’m ok if it’s different than mine – but it won’t mean that I enjoy the Milwaukee matchups every year any less and admit it, you like it too.

Now we just have to find out if Diamond can bunt… LOL

Minnesota	@	Milwaukee
Span, CF		Hart, C, RF
Dozier, SS		Aoki, CF
Mauer, C		Braun, LF
Willingham, LF		Ramirez, Ar, 3B
Morneau, 1B		Lucroy, C
Plouffe, RF		Weeks, 2B
Casilla, A, 2B		Ishikawa, 1B
Carroll, 3B		Izturis, C, SS
Diamond, P		Estrada, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	2	0	0	0	2	2	1	4	0	11	16	0
Milwaukee	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	11	4

Are we allowed to just keep saying “wow”?? It’s really hard to believe that boxscore belongs to the same team we’ve been watching all season. Not to mention that tonight officially makes a win STREAK! It’s the first time we’ve hit 3 consecutive wins this season I think. hard to believe that little details like that are so hard to come by sometimes. There was just a ridiculous amount of hitting tonight – from up and down the lineup.

The M&M boys showed up in a big way getting hits & RBI the way we’d expect. Mauer broke up the tie in the 5th inning which basically broke game open. And Scott Diamond not only booked his 3rd Win as a Twins starter, he showed he knows which end of the bat does what too! He got his first big league hit AND a run which is rare enough from our bench much less our pitchers so I say all three of these boys deserve a tall frosty one courtesy of the city of Milwaukee.

Cheers boys!

But of course the real prize of the day was tough to come up with due to the team effort across the board. But Denard Span came in after dealing with some calf tightness and he came back in a BIG way. 4 hits, 3 RBI, 3 Runs and in general doing everything you want your leadoff runner to be doing! For all that, he has earned today’s BOD!

GameChat – Twins @ Tigers #2, 12:05pm, 1500espn & MLB.tv only

Posted on 17 May, 2012 by CapitalBabs

[edit] I LIED! The calendar doesn’t have this broadcast listed for FSN but it seems to be on the FSN list!! woohoo!

First of all, I feel it’s utterly appropriate to recognize that a year ago, today, we lost Harmon Killebrew. For the Twins fans and team, this was a HUGE loss. I think we are continuing to feel his absence both up in MN and in the minor leagues where he had such an impact on young players. You’ll always be missed Killer.

On to the game: today’s pre-game roster moves are not what anyone was actually expecting. After last night’s odd victory (both in on-field activity and record), we had some odd announcements. We expected to see Doumit moved to the DL after popping a calf muscle during the game and having Butera replace him defensively in the 8th. Turns out, he had an MRI and it was all good news! Doumit is day-to-day but could be available to DH very soon. Of course that means he joins the ranks of the bench-injured – a growing club with this team that includes Span and apparently Capps as well. In a rare move, the Twins actually did place someone on the DL – Nick Blackburn – with a strained left quad. That does explain the horrible 2 inning outing. However, the team brought up Ben Revere to take the open spot on the roster… color me a tad confused. I’m sure the decision regarding Revere was made when the team assumed they were losing Doumit for awhile. But I certainly didn’t expect to see the team go to 12 pitchers the day after we used the entire available bullpen to win a game. I think that we have a lot of pressure on Walters today.. let’s see what happens.

Minnesota	@	Detroit
Revere, CF		Kelly, CF
Dozier, SS		Dirks, LF
Mauer, 1B		Cabrera, Mi, 3B
Willingham, LF		Fielder, 1B
Morneau, DH		Young, D, DH
Plouffe, RF		Avila, C
Casilla, A, 2B		Boesch, RF
Butera, C		Peralta, Jh, SS
Carroll, 3B		Raburn, 2B
Walters, P		Fister, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	4	10	1
Detroit	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	3	4	2

The Twins won a SERIES!!! Detroit may lead the division at some point (probable) this season but their defense is going to have to improve for that to happen. BUT if you have the bats, solid defense and miracle of all miracles, a BULLPEN, you can go places!! Justin Morneau got 3 of today’s 4 RBI so I gotta say it’s really good to have him back. And you’ll never guess who leads the team in Batting Average right now.. yes, it’s DREW BUTERA! *dies laughing* Statistically, Drew was 3/4 today but actually got on base all 4 plate appearances due to an error.

But, as I mentioned in the pregame notes, the pressure for today was all on PJ Walters. Since our bullpen had to cover 7 innings last night, there wasn’t a lot of room for anything but a deep outing from our starter today. And while Detroit may do their best circus emulation on the field, they DO bring the big bats to the plate. It’s no easy job to face that lineup inning after inning. So while we offer our heartiest thanks and plates of pastries to Doc & Drew for their stellar efforts today, the BOD goes to the new comer, PJ Walters! Congrats on your first Twins win!