2011 Twins Game Logs

Game 69: Padres at Mauers

137 Comments

Back in game log 35, I made the statement "when the major leaguers on this team outnumber the minor leaguers, they might grab my interest again." In fairness, the scrubs started playing pretty well the last couple of weeks. It seemed for a little while there that I was marveling at the sheer wretchedness of that night's lineup every night, only to have them score a buttload of runs for our suddenly-rock-solid starting pitching staff.

That's all well and good, but now that things are gradually swinging back to "Minnesota Twins" rather than "Minnesota Red Wings", I'm finding myself genuinely excited by the team. Sure, we still have one too many players on the team named "Butera", and Jim Hoey is inexplicably still employed by a major league ballclub, but Tolbert is back to his rightful position as backup utility infielder! Dusty Hughes is elsewhere! Joe Mauer played in a major league game last night.

For all our pessimism earlier this season, we were still invested in just about every game. It looks like the Twins are ready to reward us.

Scott "All Star" Baker vs. Tim "Don't Look At My Record, Either" Stauffer

I expect Baker to have a very good game today, as he builds towards his All-Star resume (in vain, of course). I do not expect the same for his counterpart.

137 thoughts on “Game 69: Padres at Mauers”

  1. Tosoni and Hughes batting eighth and ninth, otherwise same lineup as Friday. Tosoni DHing, Hughes at first and Cuddyer in right.

    1. I'm kinda digging the Hughes at first experiment. Not over having a healthy Morneau, of course, but with Span out and the need for an extra outfielder meaning Cuddyer is a little more needed in RF, having Hughes available to play first instead of Tolbert or ??? has been pretty nice.

      1. Anything is better than Tolbert at first. Take your worst hitter and put him at the least important defensive position? No, thanks. I'll stick with ???.

    1. On the plus side, the Yankees/Cubs game that started at 3 is now finally into the 7th inning! So if there's a delay, you can watch the end of that.

        1. Also, every time I switch to FOX, my DVR tells me I'm watching Two and a Half Men. I know that's not what I'm actually watching, but it still makes me want to vomit a little.

    1. He is pretty spectacular in CF. If Span comes back and we decide to keep him in the lineup, I hope we leave him in center and move Dino over to right.

      1. You do realize that Span has been rated the best CF in all of baseball by pretty much every metric. Revere has been fun to watch, but his limp noodle of an arm belongs in left field. However, any combination of Span and Revere would be awesome.

  13. Game time temp in the armpit of hell, 108º. They're saying that we should expect some thunderstorms, but I don't believe it.

      1. this is the hottest and driest 8 month stretch in 117 years, and counting. This is insanity.

        1. We set a record for highest recorded low on this date, 81º. That's something like the dew point +9. Hot as balls.


  14. KKKKKKKKK
    K K
    K K K K
    K K K K
    K K K K
    K KK K
    K K K K
    K K K K
    K K K K
    K K
    KKKKKKKKK

        1. It was supposed to look like a K in a box. Unfortunately, the code tag doesn't seem to care how many spaces there are, just if there is one or not.

  16. Maybe this will work better.

    KKKKKKKKK
    K.......K
    K.K...K.K
    K.K..K..K
    K.K.K...K
    K.KK....K
    K.K.K...K
    K.K..K..K
    K.K...K.K
    K.......K
    KKKKKKKKK

    2. We're making fish tacos, followed up by a miller's high life, and a magnum double carmel for desert. Have I mentioned that it's 108º?

    1. Have some respect, Baker. I barely just got that up there and it's already obsolete!

  22. The Padres feed has been worshiping Bert for most of the last two innings. They joke about his homers given up, and the color guy says "It would be nice to go back in time and see how many of those were solo shots."

    Man, if only statistics were kept in this sport!

    1. Another good example of a solid player having a "personality" that "grated" on the organization.

        1. Either way, it's something that 1) I'm in no position (and I doubt you are, either) to know about, and 2) I could not care less about when it comes to, you know, being a good baseball player.

            1. Well, my whole point is, should it? I don't believe it should (or at least as much as it seems to).

              1. agreed on that point. i'm sick of every player having to be miss congeniality to stick with this club.

                    2. i was gonna try to throw up another one, but due to your speed, this guy dropped the ball.

              2. Painting a dude as a bad actor after you've let them go is a PR move at best. Save face with the fans by telling them that said dude is a d-bag.

                1. I wish the Twins would do it after they let them go- they didn't wait with Hardy to do it, and look what it did to his trade value.

                  1. Sure, I suppose that the Twins do it when they want to kick someone off the island, still just PR.

            1. The bottom line is this: The Twins are better today than they were yesterday, and many in the game find it curious that the Dodgers turned on Hudson with such conviction.

              There have been rumblings that Torre, an old-school type, grew disenchanted with Hudson’s chatty personality, but that doesn’t sound right. Hudson, in many ways, is old-school himself. He was one of the Dodgers’ hardest workers. He reacted to his benching with dignity, never complaining.

              Hudson continued to woof in only the way that he can, but it was eventually and somewhat surprisingly interrupted by one of the two left fielders that hadn't even moved when Hudson's ball sailed over their heads.
              "Hey," the unidentified Friar shouted. "Shut up already!"

              It's anecdotal, but there's plenty of stories that turn up on a Google search of "Orlando Hudson annoying". I'm with you on the fact that it really shouldn't matter (as long as you aren't Milton Bradley or something similar), but it seems Hudson (or his mouth, to be more specific) has worn out his welcome in at least a couple clubhouses.

              1. Thanks for these. I will certainly take the position that this kind of personnel factor weighs into the decision-making more than I'd like to see of many more teams than just the Twins. I single them out because I follow them the most, but it's certainly not limited to them by any means.

                1. And I think you're right about the Twins doing it more often than most other teams. Unfortunately, a lot of the players they do it to seem to also be solid major league contributors, which makes it even more irritating to the fans.

              2. Also, I'm assuming the first one you have there is from when the Twins first signed Hudson or early last year? It is interesting how this exact same thing gets spun early in the relationship compared to at the end. meat is probably right that it's really all just PR.

      1. He still hasn't figured out how to be a team leader and swing at pitches a foot off the plate.

    2. Danny doesn't cover the line? Gardy playing NL-management rules? Who the heck knows?

    3. Injury. Again. Strained bicep on the ball that rolled up his arm. Day-to-day. Again.

    2. We need his missus with the rolling pin when he blows a save. Or some fat redneck shooting a puppy.

  56. Those Capps appearances are a lot less intense when they're against the Dads.

  57. well, i gotta say, if historical trends hold (*knock knock*), this is a nice time to be cruising into interleague.

  58. LaVelleNeal
    And they have won FOUR games this year by the score of 1-0. #stribtwins

    wow

    1. This appears to be neither puppies nor fireworks, yet I find I cannot look away.

  60. Sorry I missed this one, kids.
    the MLB.com wrap might make Bert's head aspload:

    Baker had a lot of success up in the strike zone, while also getting the Padres hitters to swing and miss 18 times out of 80 strikes.

    "I've seen him before," said Padres manager Bud Black, who was the Angels pitching coach through the 2006 season. "The fastball has a little bit of life at the end. He was pitching at the top of the [strike] zone. It takes a lot of discipline for a hitter to lay off that.

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