2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 94: Indigenous Persons at Gardy’s Guys

167 Comments

According to the Yahoo preview, the Twins have now attained "surging" status, having won 12 of 16 to threaten to be a factor in the AL Central race.

This game matches up a guy who has a mug shot, but has yet to appear in a Major League game this year, vs. a guy who has no mugshot but has been the darling of the local media for being Not Kevin Slowey.

Huff has thrown 100 1/3 innings in 17 starts at AAA in 2011, with underimpressive peripherals (63:28 K:BB) but impressive outcomes (3.86 ERA, 4.01 FIP). He's a big-ish (6'2", 215 lbs) lefty with a mediocre fastball and a mix of other pitches. In 2009-10 with the Indians, he went 13-19 over 208 innings, with a 5.84 ERA, 5.12 FIP and 5.19 xFIP. Chosen in the supplemental round in 2006 out of UCLA, he doesn't quite qualify as a Jeremy, but he's close.

Stompsnake has bounced back and forth between the big club and Rochester this year, putting up good results despite missing few bats (19:11 K:BB in 40 innings with the Twins, 25:7 in 32 1/3 in Rochester). Hopefully he brought his smoke and his mirrors in his suitcase from upstate New York. In his last appearance for the Twins, on July 10, he held the White Sox to one run on four hits and two walks over six innings, striking out five.

It's a great day to play two, but it would be really nice if Songsack managed to go the distance in this one. How 'bout we get him some runs, boys?

Fun fact: Cleveland is 7-2 against the Royals, 6-10 against the rest of the division, including 1-4 against the Twins.

167 thoughts on “2011 Game 94: Indigenous Persons at Gardy’s Guys”

  2. Mauer to play first base in Game 1 and catch in Game 2. Thome DHing against the lefty in Game 1 because he's hit a couple HRs off him and Huff has been hit better by lefties in AAA. Lefties have a .929 OPS vs. Huff in his 208 career major league innings. I'm jonesing for a few more Thome taters so the national press can start following the Twins and Thome's quest for 600.

  4. I can't see any reason Huff wouldn't be a Jeremy (seriously, if a guy with his kind of pedigree isn't the definition of a Jeremy, then somebody needs to lay out a precise definition for once) other than the Twins have rocked him when he's faced them.

  15. What's the over/under for how many games it will take for Mauer's BA to surpass Cuddy's? Or his OBP, if you prefer?

      1. Quick calculations - if he gets 60 AB in 15 games and 20 hits, he'd be up to .284, which Cuddy could revert to. If he bats .400 over the 15 games, he'd be at .306 for the season. If he gets hot and goes 30/60, then he'd be at his rightful .339.

    1. Thanks to the US Ladies motivating me to get stuff done last week so I could watch the game, I'm all caught up and back to my "80% of the day sit on my butt with nothing to do" schedule, so a day game is welcome.

  18. I can watch Del's reaction to that Tomei hr every day.

    They should play it before every at bat for the rest of the season.

      1. I wouldn't doubt it, just questioning whether or not a more experienced first baseman like Luke Hughes might have had the knowhow to make the play.

  23. Single to center scores a run and the batter advances on the throw? C'mon Ben, hit the cutoff man!

  29. Good thing we have 75 men in the bullpen. Crapps should be good for about 4 innings of Grounsdkeeping, right?

  36. I didn't see this mentioned elsewhere today. Good news, eh?

    MINNEAPOLIS -- Less than three weeks since having surgery to relieve a pinched nerve in his neck, Justin Morneau will begin baseball activities this week.

    Twins head trainer Rick McWane gave an update on Morneau's progress Monday morning, and he said Morneau played catch Sunday without any issues.

    "He'll take some grounders," McWane said. "Swinging a bat will be the last thing, but he's ready to take ground balls, play catch and run around."

    2. Thanks for the update. The Mrs. is having essentially the same neck surgery in August and I've been giving her updates on Justin's status to help ease her fears on the impending surgery.

  41. coming back from commercial break, the Target Field loudspeakers were playing 'Cold As Ice' by Foreigner

  42. talking about throwing crap up against the wall

    Potential center field targets for Washington include B.J. Upton, Michael Bourn, Colby Rasmus, and Denard Span, writes Rosenthal.

    1. I want to mock this, but it kind of worries me. They wouldn't actually trade away Span, believing Revere to be an adequate substitute, would they??

  46. I would imagine, having never called a major league game in my life, that shutting the hell up and talking about 90% less than most current TV announcers do would make me one of the most popular guys in the booth today.

    1. Are you complaining about the fact that fans have become too lauding or complaining about the fact that for the Twins - a range of on foot is in fact a great play at first base anymore?

      1. It's just the superlatives used for good but not great plays. Mientkiewicz made GREAT plays at first base.

    2. When you're down 4-0 you need to make positives out of what you can. Keeps the audience interested.

  51. Huff not only gets out of the inning in 12 pitches - but throws those 12 pitches to 3 batters in less time than Swarzack spends on one batter.

  52. Seeing as how I throw with my left arm and can probably barely break 70 mph, I sometimes wonder how many shutout innings I could throw against the Twins.

    2. There's a booth at the I-Cubs that has three pitches with the radar gun for a dollar. I always consider seeing if I can still hit 70, but I don't want to expose myself to the humiliation of not being able to, or for my shoulder exploding because I over did it.

  58. I used to be so fearless so limitless and free
    Happy on my own and nothing really bothered me.
    I had desires to see the world, jump out of planes and fly
    And I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die

  65. Getting mowed down by a soft tossing left hander who can barely get the ball in the strike zone never ceases to be infuriating.

  67. Rochester managed to score 1 run in 7 innings against Huff back in May, but they weren't handicapped by playing with Butters.

  70. Its hard to pound on Bert for his chatter regarding the hall - he's campaigned for it for years and he is genuinely happy about it. With that said - I look forward to it being over and not hearing about it every broadcast.

  77. Capps's job is to wear out the Indians hitters so they have nothing left in the tank tonight

      1. Sure, Hoey isn't making as much. (even though I know the Twins would probably still be on the hook for Crisco's salary.)

  86. By the way Magoo, I was out in Cape Cod relaxing when I received your text the other night. Without any context whatsoever, I knew Crapps was involved.

    1. Ha. Hope I didn't bother you on your vacation. No one else at the bar understood what I was going through, so I had to vent to someone in the know.

  98. It may not have been a save situation, but it was the ninth inning, ergo dongers will be jacked.

Comments are closed.