Twins record: 12-26
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MLB Game Wrap
To be honest, I did not watch much of this game today. When I first turned it on, the score was already 2-0. I heard there was a fair amount of _elm_n being _elm_n today. I also noticed that Jose Bautista had more at-bats in which he hit a home run than at-bats in which he did not. Instead, I paid more attention to the Phillies-Braves game on TBS, which was an intriguing pitching duel between Roy Halladay and Tim Hudson, and which featured what appeared to be actual major league baseball players in both teams' dugouts. Dan Uggla put the Braves ahead 3-2 with a homer off Doc in the bottom of the 8th and Craig Kimbrel pitched a damage-less 9th for the save.
On the bright side, I'm ready to see what glories the newly-begun Phil Dumatrait Era has in store for Twins Nation.
Ex-Twins Player of the Week: J.J. Hardy went 2-for-5 with a grand slam (off of fellow ex-Twin Rob Delaney) to finalize his slash line for the week at .400/.444/.640. If there are any other ex-Twins with worthy weekly performances, please direct your humble recapper's attention to them. (Programming note: The Twins Hitter and Pitcher of the Week Awards will be replaced by Ex-Twins Player of the Week for all subsequent weeks this season in which the Twins fail to win a game.)
My bad, the grand slam itself was off Cesar Ramos - Delaney just walked all three batters he faced right before he was pulled for Ramos.
I'm in favor of your decision on Ex-Twin Player of the Week, and for that matter, on recapping another game in the case of a Twins loss.
Why on God's green earth are we wasting a 40-man spot on Phil Dumatrait? Just because his throwing arm hangs from his left shoulder?
1.15 ERA and just 10 hits allowed in 15 2/3 innings. Decent K rate, but terrible walk rate. I imagine he's improved his walk rate lately. I can't imagine the Twins bringing up a guy that is currently struggling with control. Chuck James threw 2 2/3 innings today, or I would imagine he would have been called up instead. If/when Dumatrait sucks, hopefully James will be available.
The walk rate if frightening. I suppose I could go look for a game log...but who's to care?
I worry less about his 6.3 BB/9 this year and more about his minor league career 4.2 BB/9. Of course Dennys Reyes had a 5.3 BB/9 rate before coming to the Twins and had a 3.6 BB/9 rate over three seasons with the Twins, so I guess there's always hope.
I guess the optimistic thing to say about Dumatrait is that he's only had 45 career appearances as a reliever, so he might turn out to be a better reliever than he was a starter.
He's a proven closer*! Also, Chuck James pitched 2.2 innings today.
*at AAA**
**In 2011
Making a 40-man roster decision based on whether a guy pitched the day before is teh Stoopid.
It would not be the first move made since last summer that has made me scratch my head.
When Mauer's back they can DFA Rivera.
Plus, I think that Dusty and Hoey could pass through waivers (Or that we wouldn't mind if they don't), to get Charley Jimmie up here.
Or: Mauer can always go on the 60-day DL. /shudders
Hey at least we got Jim Hoey for JJ Ballgame!
*cry*
Yeah, this is still my least favorite move since DFA'ing Breslow for Henn.
It was frustrating since I felt all along that money would be used to sign Pavano, which seemed like a luxury. Breslow for Henn is probably right after this in my most hated moves in the last few years.
A buddy checked the score of this game a couple of times during our graduation ceremony today, letting us know how bad it was going but not why. Finally he looks over, informing me excitedly that the score was 11-3 in the 8th. I couldn't figure out why he bothered after the 8-1 score he reported after the 4th. Then he whispers, "Bautista is up, could be he hits his 4th home run of the day!" I had to smile thinking how nice it had been of Cuddy to hit his (tied for the team leading) 4th of the season yesterday.
We watched some of the "30 for 30" about Jordan playing baseball. It was pretty interesting. He has his own BR.com page. Also, my uncle and grandma are big NASCAR people, so the race at Dover was on the other channel. I wasn't too concerned about missing anything. It did seem like every time we checked in Bautista has going deep again.
I listened to about 2 innings of the game yesterday and then got sidetracked by the first lawn mowing of the season.
That said, the best part of the game that I heard was a foul pop back into the seats that went into the second deck and was dropped by a (female) fan down into the first row. After giving the play by play, Dazzle (I think) said, "and she's wearing a Delmon Young jersey." Gotta love it.