Monthly Archives: April 2011

Keeping Track

Minor Details: Games of 4/19

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Rochester 3, Buffalo 1 in Buffalo (Game 1—scheduled 7 innings).  Rene Tosoni hit a two-run double to give the Red Wings all the runs they needed.  Anthony Swarzak threw a complete game, allowing one run on four hits and a walk.  Tosoni also singled.  Brandon Roberts had two hits.

Rochester 2, Buffalo 0 in Buffalo (Game 2—scheduled 7 innings).  The Red Wings again scored two in the first, this time on a Trevor Plouffe home run.  The call-up of Eric Hacker made this a bullpen game.  Yorman Bazardo pitched the first three, allowing two hits and a walk.  Jeff Manship got the win with two scoreless innings.  Phil Dumatrait got the last out to get the save.  Rochester had only three hits in the game.

New Hampshire at New Britain.  Postponed.  No makeup date has been announced.

St. Lucie 11, Ft. Myers 2 in St. Lucie.  The Miracle got eleven hits but only two runs.  Chris Herrmann had two singles and a double.  Aaron Hicks singled and tripled.  Nate Hanson had two hits.  Ryan Mullins lasted only three innings, surrendering five runs (four earned) on six hits.  Shooter Hunt was the only pitcher to emerge unscathed, allowing a hit and no walks in one inning while striking out two.  Edgar Ibarra gave up four runs on six hits and a walk in just one inning.

Beloit at Wisconsin.  Postponed due to snow.  Tonight’s game has already been postponed as well.  The games will be made up as part of doubleheaders on May 18 and May 19.

History, Minnesota Twins

April 20, 1998: Random Day in Twins History

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I used a random number generator to pick a season from the past with the idea that I would quickly highlight the Twins history that occurred today in that year.  The generator sent me to the year 1998.

Oakland 3, Twins 2 - BR boxscore

In front of just 5,000 people (many entering complements of Eddie Guardado), the Twins lost 3-2 to the Oakland A’s in Oakland.  Brad Radke pitched seven strong innings (and threw 122 pitches – more than Gardy will likely let any Twin throw this entire season).  The loan run scored against Radke occurred on a delayed double-steal (although Kurt Abbott was not credited with a steal of home for some reason, he scored after Sandfrog got himself caught in a rundown after starting to second base on a pitch).

LEN3, perhaps listening to someone else in the press box reported that “Radke was entertaining as well as an enigma.  His pitches were good, but he left many of them up in the zone” (emphasis added).

After Radke departed, Greg Swindell entered and allowed a two-out, two-run homerun to rookie Ben Grieve in the bottom of the eighth to blow the game.

Offensively, the Twins managed just two runs despite fourteen baserunners because a Pat Meares double (already his eighth of the season) was the team's only extra base hit.  “We had a couple of chances to add on some runs [Monday], but we didn't and it came back to haunt us,” explained Tom Kelly in a statement exactly the same as one that a Tom Kelly Random Quote Generator would have created.

The loss dropped the team’s record to 7-11 despite the Twins having outscored their opponents 109-85 to that point.

Other Twins notes: Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey was granted permission to proceed with an investigation of possible antitrust violations by Major League Baseball.  Humphrey’s ultimate motive was to force the Twins to open their books in order to determine whether the team’s threat to relocate to North Carolina was plausible.  He clarified that he had not yet discovered any violation of the law, but he was simply requesting documents to determine if teams (businesses) were acting in concert in order to pressure cities to fund stadiums.  Ramsey County Judge Margaret Marrinan explained in her ruling that the United States Supreme Court had drastically narrowed Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption in the 1972 Curt Flood case.

Oh, and WASTE Ron Coomer missed the game because he broke his right, big toe the previous day after fouling a pitch off his foot.  He was back in the lineup the following day.

What did you think?  Should I try to work this into an occasional feature?

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–April 20

Tommy Dowd (1869)
Charlie Hemphill (1876)
Charlie Smith (1880)
Mike Mowrey (1884)
Dave Bancroft (1891)
Roy Hofheinz (1912)
Preston Gomez (1923)
Tom Hutton (1946)
Milt Wilcox (1950)
Doug Clarey (1954)
Floyd Chiffer (1956)
Don Mattingly (1961)
Greg Brummett (1967)
Dan Smith (1969)
Todd Hollandsworth (1973)

Dan Smith was drafted by Minnesota in the twenty-second round in 1987, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 20 →

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 17 Recap: Orioles 11, Twins 0

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Well. That sucked. "Staff Ace" Pavano was ugly, Nathan gave up a huge bomb in his first "low leverage" work since being relieved of closing duties, seemingly half of the team is on the shelf, and the bats are still made out of ass. I guess that's the bad news.

The good news is that there are 145 baseball games left in the season. The good news is that one of those games is tomorrow. The good news is that the Twins' east coast road trips are almost over. The good news is the offense can't possibly be this bad all year. The good news is that maybe the equipment manager will realize that he meant to order ash bats. The good news is that the White Sox have lost 6 in a row. The good news is that Tigers have given up 13 runs (and counting!) to the Mariners.

 

 

The silence is deafening.

 

Part of what I love about the WGOM, and a big part of what drove me to register and join the community, is that the people here are level headed (StatFreak101 excepted) and are comfortable riding out the ebb and flow of a baseball season. It is unfortunate that this isn't the prevailing attitude I hear about the Twins. Sports radio, the Star Tribune comment section, and lots of other Twins blogs are just frustrating to even look at. I assume a lot of this is due to the poor showings of the other professional sports teams, but this is a completely different team in a completely different sport. It sucks that this negativity rolls over for the Twins as well.

At least we have our little corner of the internet. This winter was long and very difficult, for a number of reasons. Twins baseball was one of the things I was looking forward to the most to try to get out of that funk. The season hasn't exactly started well, but it's early. Hey, the Twins won two out of their last 3. If they do that for the rest of the season, they'll be in good shape. I look forward to enjoying (most of) the rest of the season with you all in game logs, riding out the ebbs and flows together.

Final Score: Baltimore Orioles 11, Minnesota Twins 0.
Twins Record: 6-11, 6.0 GB in the AL Central.
WP: Jake Arrietta (2-1) | LP: Carl Pavano (1-2)
Things I'm Looking Forward To: Not playing the AL East.
Already Pitched More Innings Than Clay Condry: Eric Hacker.

Keeping Track

Rock Cats Recap

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Where they stand:  New Britain is 7-4, second in the EL East, a half game behind Reading.

Who’s hot:  Joe Benson is hitting .372/.426/.581 in 43 at-bats.  Chris Parmelee is hitting .333/.362/.511 in 45 at-bats.  Cole DeVries is 0-0, 0.00, striking out ten and allowing just two hits and no walks in 7.1 innings (three appearances).  Steve Hirschfeld is 1-0, 0.82, allowing five hits and two walks in eleven innings (two starts).

Who’s cold:  Mike Hollimon is 1-for-26, giving him a line of .038/.167/.154 (his hit was a home run).  Allan de San Miguel is batting .167/.231/.250 in 24 at-bats.  Brett Jacobson has allowed five runs on five hits and three walks in five innings (three appearances).  Spencer Steedley is 0-1, 7.49, 1.94 WHIP in 5.2 innings (four appearances).  He has struck out eight.

Transactions:  Daniel Rohlfing was promoted from Ft. Myers to New Britain.  Danny Lehmann was promoted from New Britain to Rochester.

What’s next:  The Rock Cats have two more home games with New Hampshire.  They then go on the road for three in Portland, have an off day Sunday, and then have four in New Hampshire.

2011 Twins Game Recaps, View from the Ballpark

2011 Game 16: Twins 5, Orioles 3

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Weather: 67°F, partly cloudy
Wind: 2 mph, out to CF
Attendance: 13,138
Time: 2:50

Twins record: 6-10 (tied for last in AL Central, 6.0 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB Game Wrap

Highlights:

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Butera .224 (2-4, 1 2b, 3 RBI) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Hoey .236 (1.1 IP, K)
  • Jim Hoey's firefighting in his Twins debut
  • The Twins have now managed to string two wins together for the first time this season.

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Span, -.087 (0-5, 2 SO) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Mijares, .020 (0.1 IP, HBP)
  • Top 5 hitters in the order: 2-21, R, 8 SO
  • Tolbert: still batting second
  • Chris Guccione's kaleidoscope eyes

Given the night the top five batters in the order had, there's no way the Twins could have expected to win this game. Not with one of the four remaining spots in the lineup featuring a middle infielder with a bat -34.7 runs above average in 1108 career plate appearances. Not with one of the three remaining slots featuring a backup catcher, forced into a starting role, whose bat was worth -10.3 runs above average in 2010. Yet that backup catcher knocked in three of the evening's five runs and secured the win with what, thanks to some shaky ninth inning relief, proved to be a key run-producing double late in the game.
Continue reading 2011 Game 16: Twins 5, Orioles 3 →

Keeping Track

Minor Details: Games of 4/18

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Rochester at Buffalo.  Postponed.  Will be made up as part of a doubleheader this afternoon.

New Hampshire 7, New Britain 3 in New Britain.  The Fisher Cats scored five runs in the third inning.  It was the only bad inning David Bromberg had—he allowed five runs on seven hits and a walk in seven innings.  Evan Bigley singled and doubled.

Ft. Myers 6, St. Lucie 4 in St. Lucie.  The Miracle scored four runs in the seventh to take the lead.  The inning was aided by three walks and two errors.  Danny Rams singled and doubled and Nathan Hanson had two hits.  Daniel Osterbrock allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits and no walks in five innings.  Andrew Albers got the win, allowing a run on no hits and a walk in 1.1 innings.  Dakota Watts retired the final two batters of the game to get the save.

Beloit 4, Wisconsin 2 in Wisconsin.  The Snappers scored all four runs in the ninth to overcome a 2-0 deficit, hitting two doubles and then four singles.  Every starter had at least one hit, with Kyle Knudson the only Snapper with two.  Manuel Soliman gave up two runs on five hits and three walks in five innings while striking out seven.  Matt Hauser got the win with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, allowing a hit and a walk with two strikeouts.  Jose Gonzalez struck out the only man he faced to get the save.

Collectibles Spotlight

Twins Collectibles Spotlight: Shane Mack Baseball Cards

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I noticed a while back that the various baseball card companies have been pretty single-minded in their choices for front photos for Shane Mack's baseball cards. Shane was a favorite of mine, and if you collected baseball cards in the early '90s, you'd know that he was quite the hustler on the base paths. To the left is his 1991 Upper Deck card #188.

Continue reading Twins Collectibles Spotlight: Shane Mack Baseball Cards →