Time to start bringing those offseason hobbies into the forefront, methinks.
47 thoughts on “August 7, 2011: Something Else”
I went to a late showing of Captain America last night (After that pickoff attempt at third going into left field for run made my decision a lot easier). Its always a good thing when you leave a theater and feel you got your money back because the movie is good.
So the highlight of yesterday's game was that in the first break after _elm_n's pathetic attempt at Lillibridge's homerun, the PA system played "Jump" by Van Halen. Just phenomenally snarky.
wow, I didn't catch that. Hilarious.
I suggest they choose something from this list next time they have occasion to gently poke DY after a "defensive" play.
TomPelissero Gardenhire says Slowey would be "in the mix" next year if still with #Twins. "It's up to him if he wants to come up and be a part of it."
maybe the Twins got little interest for Slowey at the trade deadline, and what with the shakiness of the rotation now, they're going to hope he becomes Perkins: Part II
Slowey just needs to be the original. It was the sequel that the Twins tried to force him into a different role that sucked (and caused him injury). He just needs to be himself and he'll be fine.
i was more posting this for the "it's up to him" part.
Yeah, is that "He can be here if he'll pitch out of the bullpen", or what, exactly? He's starting in Rochester, so that doesn't seem likely. This is why I'm getting a little frustrated with Gardy. I'm seeing plenty of attitude over this situation, and I can't say it's been from Slowey.
Slowey doesn't do a radio show on Sunday or talk to the media everyday either. I'm guessing if Slowey wasnt such a wad about pitching in relief he'd be in the rotation by now.
And by "wad about" you mean "injured when" right?
He's not injured now. Twins sure could use some help out of that bullpen.
As bad as this season has been, spooky, the Twins/Gardenhire do know SOMETHING about baseball, enough for me to trust that there's something really wierd going on with Slowey.
Slowey obviously knows a lot about pitching, too.
The point is, you couldn't possibly know who's at fault here, but you've taken the side of the management, who have made awful trades and moves completely based around personality. As a Twins fan, I should never have to know that Gardenhire doesn't get along with intelligent people, but he sees to it that they're gone.
Well, you don't know what really happened either, and you've taken the side of the player. Why? Because he's intelligent and because Gardenhire is stupid. Oh I see.
It's not that I've taken sides, but ignoring the way that these things have gone down in similar situations in the past would be folly.
See, this is why it's pointless to talk about anything with you. Besides your total unwillingness to consider facts from the past, you always eventually pull this same "Oh I see" passive-aggressive bullshit when things don't go your way. You act like a total baby if anyone gives you the slightest bit of resistance on your opinions.
Calm down. I wasn't exactly expecting a warm reception for my opinions on the Slowey situation when I posted this here.
I'm all for criticizing the team when it's warranted, I just don't think it's warranted here. I am of the opinion, based upon everything I've read and everything I know about the Twins, that this situation is mostly Slowey's fault. Is that alright with you?
I have been calm. Don't backtrack now as if you weren't the instigator here.
I don't care what you think about the Slowey situation. I find it surprising that anyone would use the Twins media to prove anything true, but ultimately I don't care what you think either way. My problem with you isn't that we disagree about baseball-related things, it's that you intentionally wind people up and throw out your passive-aggressive statements when you do it, like a child would.
Which, by the way, you just did again.
Obviously Gardenhire knows a thing or two about baseball. Also, at times it's been clear that Gardenhire will allow a player's attitude to overshadow consideration of his talent. This happened before with Bartlett and Garza. I'm sure those guys weren't so fun to deal with in the clubhouse, but they were also productive players. If the starting pitchers were throwing well right now, maybe you can keep Slowey out of the rotation on the basis of character, but it doesn't seem like the team is in a strong enough position to be overlooking Slowey because it's hard to get along with him.
I'm not trying to wind anybody up. I just disagree with people, in fact with most people I know, about Slowey. The only insults I'm throwing around are towards Slowey, not towards anybody on this board. You claim you don't care what my Slowey opinion is, yet you are the one throwing insults at me personally for some reason. I don't get it. IS THAT TOO PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE FOR YOU???
I didn't say anything I couldn't substantiate, vt. I'm not trying to be insulting, really, but you have a long history of acting that way and I'm tiring of it. Also, where did that last sentence come from? You didn't say anything passive-aggressive there. Do you know how it's defined?
This stops here. I don't think there's any reason to put everyone else through this hopeless conversation.
To anyone unfortunate enough to brave this whole thread, we've cleared it up via email. So, happy ending. No, not that kind.
Yeah, I thought about the fact that we don't hear from Slowey a whole lot being part of the reason that it seems like Gardy is the issue, but that's not completely true. Slowey could be tweeting or posting complaints all the time if he was really such a malcontent, and I'm not aware of that happening.
It blows my mind that you continue to give Gardenhire the benefit of the doubt on this. When has he shown himself to deserve the benefit of the doubt on personnel decisions?
I just can't believe that management would turn their back on THE NUMBER TWO STARTER in Twins (recent, at least) history in win percentage*, particularly when the starting rotation has been so flaky. Whether he didn't want to pitch in the bullpen or whatever, it shouldn't have even been an issue. At this point, no matter whom is to blame, they should let bygones be bygones and stop overpaying starters let Slowey back again.
*yes, "wins" can be a questionable stat, but that's one of the stats that the Twins management hangs their hat on. Number one is Johan, but you already know that.
Plouffe, Tolbert and Nishioka at the bottom of the lineup. We should have no problems scoring runs against Peavy, right?
Dude, yr not getting a _el.
I really, really hope there's a contending team out there that needs a right-handed bat and doesn't doubt _el's talent.
I'm not sure anyone doubts his talent. Unfortunately, I think they don't doubt that there's little of it.
apparently, my mom was on the same flight as bert back from o'hare yesterday. she congratulated him on the induction, and showed him a picture of Pete in twins gear from her phone. she told me bert thanked her, gushed over Pete, and made her promise to buy Pete some swag from his wife's line of "circle me, bert" clothing.
made her promise to buy Pete some swag from his wife's line of "circle me, bert" clothing.
After that kind of experience, I probably would.
That "Blyleven in 2011" logo looks better and matches my sentiments more closely.
Things are danged expensive though. $25 is about $10 too much for a T-Shirt.
Wait, he was giving your mom the hard sell? He should have promised to send you something on the house.
I have two tickets to the Twins-Bosox game on Wednesday Aug 10th that I'd like to sell. They are in section 313 row 10, which is right behind home plate and offers a pretty good view of the entire ballpark.
I'd like to get face value is which $28 a piece, but make me an offer. contact me here or at freealonzo at comcast dot net
I'm so happy I chose to go to the gym today rather than participate in that. No, not the Slowey thread ;-). the clusterf*** of a ballgame.
It will get better, kids. I promise. Someday.
I'm with ya. 3 hours at the hospital seems a much better time than that game. (nothing serious, just a follow-up visit for BP related things. It should have only taken about half an hour, but you know how doctors are.)
If anyone's still interested, Justin Morneau continues his rehab assignment with the Rochester Red Wings this evening at 5:15 Central. The game can be found here.
My interest in the 2011 season in waning, but my interest in Morneau's long-term health is still as high as ever, no matter his future with the Twins.
Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, Minor Details will be back tomorrow, but I'll just say that Rochester won 8-0 and Morneau went 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs. This makes him 4-for-13 as a Red Wing (.308).
good news on both fronts, Padre. Here's hoping that you are done with rising creeks for this year too.
Go Rochester! Mandelaro had a blog post two weeks ago about how terrible Rochester has been and whether they might dump the Twins. Their contract ends after next year and he talks about a few possibilities.
No offense to Rochester, but what exactly do they expect if they want to be a AAA team? That level always gets stepped on the hardest by its parent club. If anything, it seems at times that the Twins keep injured players on the bench (rather than the DL) for too long, which probably minimizes AAA call-ups to some degree. Elite prospects are never really going to stick long at AAA and a bunch of AAAA players is really the best they can hope for in terms of trying to win their league. So, you want your players to be good, but not too good, and you want your parent club to be good enough to fill your roster with talent but at the same time not so good that they are in contention at the end of the season and might need to call up some players when you are heading into the stretch drive of the season.
The idea of a AAA team's record really meaning anything kind of baffles me. I think it's fun to go watch minor league games, but the fun is in the games, not in the standings.
Last year, the problem was often playing short several players. Players were called up to MLB, but no one was called up to replace them.
No real disagreement, but I will point out that minor league teams are businesses, not just subdivisions of the parent club.
I don't know how they've done it, but the Sacramento River Cats have been consistently successful in the standings and, not unrelatedly, at the gate, for the past decade. 9 division titles (and running away with another one this year), 5 conference titles, 4 PCL titles and 2 AAA titles since 2000. 8 straight years of leading all of minor league baseball in attendance.
and this despite frequent player movement to the big club. So it certainly can be done. The organization has been committed to putting a good product on the field, filling out the roster with the occasional AAAA veteran stud (e.g., Graham Koonce, 2003 PCL MVP; Jason Grabowski; Matt Watson; Jack Cust -- although he eventually proved to be a quality MLB player for a few years; etc.), and pushing through good, young talent (CarGo, Andre Ethier, a host of pitchers).
Matt Watson was a good case in point. He got cups of coffee in 2003 with the Mets, 2005 with the A's and again in 2010 with the A's (at age 31). Meanwhile, he put a really tasty 302/383/499 slash line over 7 seasons in AAA, including 307 games with the River Cats. What's a guy got to do to earn a real shot?
Sure, I know that minor league teams are businesses, I guess my main point is just that I think they'd be a bit naive to think they'll have it a lot better under someone else.
The one thing I don't know is how much input the minor league club gets on anything. It seems like you might get to influence the AAAA segment of the roster if you went and hired your own scouts. Surely the Twins (or any other team) realize that most of their system is just filler in order to sort through the real prospects, and they probably don't have a big problem with having red filler or green filler.
I actually listened to the last couple of innings. Imagine my surprise when the AAA club was mauling the opposition.
Not to harsh your mellow, but a certain roster spot is taken up by the Great Babe Pluth: AAA terror--MLB stiff.
I went to a late showing of Captain America last night (After that pickoff attempt at third going into left field for run made my decision a lot easier). Its always a good thing when you leave a theater and feel you got your money back because the movie is good.
So the highlight of yesterday's game was that in the first break after _elm_n's pathetic attempt at Lillibridge's homerun, the PA system played "Jump" by Van Halen. Just phenomenally snarky.
wow, I didn't catch that. Hilarious.
I suggest they choose something from this list next time they have occasion to gently poke DY after a "defensive" play.
maybe the Twins got little interest for Slowey at the trade deadline, and what with the shakiness of the rotation now, they're going to hope he becomes Perkins: Part II
Slowey just needs to be the original. It was the sequel that the Twins tried to force him into a different role that sucked (and caused him injury). He just needs to be himself and he'll be fine.
i was more posting this for the "it's up to him" part.
Yeah, is that "He can be here if he'll pitch out of the bullpen", or what, exactly? He's starting in Rochester, so that doesn't seem likely. This is why I'm getting a little frustrated with Gardy. I'm seeing plenty of attitude over this situation, and I can't say it's been from Slowey.
Slowey doesn't do a radio show on Sunday or talk to the media everyday either. I'm guessing if Slowey wasnt such a wad about pitching in relief he'd be in the rotation by now.
And by "wad about" you mean "injured when" right?
He's not injured now. Twins sure could use some help out of that bullpen.
As bad as this season has been, spooky, the Twins/Gardenhire do know SOMETHING about baseball, enough for me to trust that there's something really wierd going on with Slowey.
Slowey obviously knows a lot about pitching, too.
The point is, you couldn't possibly know who's at fault here, but you've taken the side of the management, who have made awful trades and moves completely based around personality. As a Twins fan, I should never have to know that Gardenhire doesn't get along with intelligent people, but he sees to it that they're gone.
Well, you don't know what really happened either, and you've taken the side of the player. Why? Because he's intelligent and because Gardenhire is stupid. Oh I see.
It's not that I've taken sides, but ignoring the way that these things have gone down in similar situations in the past would be folly.
See, this is why it's pointless to talk about anything with you. Besides your total unwillingness to consider facts from the past, you always eventually pull this same "Oh I see" passive-aggressive bullshit when things don't go your way. You act like a total baby if anyone gives you the slightest bit of resistance on your opinions.
Calm down. I wasn't exactly expecting a warm reception for my opinions on the Slowey situation when I posted this here.
I'm all for criticizing the team when it's warranted, I just don't think it's warranted here. I am of the opinion, based upon everything I've read and everything I know about the Twins, that this situation is mostly Slowey's fault. Is that alright with you?
I have been calm. Don't backtrack now as if you weren't the instigator here.
I don't care what you think about the Slowey situation. I find it surprising that anyone would use the Twins media to prove anything true, but ultimately I don't care what you think either way. My problem with you isn't that we disagree about baseball-related things, it's that you intentionally wind people up and throw out your passive-aggressive statements when you do it, like a child would.
Which, by the way, you just did again.
Obviously Gardenhire knows a thing or two about baseball. Also, at times it's been clear that Gardenhire will allow a player's attitude to overshadow consideration of his talent. This happened before with Bartlett and Garza. I'm sure those guys weren't so fun to deal with in the clubhouse, but they were also productive players. If the starting pitchers were throwing well right now, maybe you can keep Slowey out of the rotation on the basis of character, but it doesn't seem like the team is in a strong enough position to be overlooking Slowey because it's hard to get along with him.
I'm not trying to wind anybody up. I just disagree with people, in fact with most people I know, about Slowey. The only insults I'm throwing around are towards Slowey, not towards anybody on this board. You claim you don't care what my Slowey opinion is, yet you are the one throwing insults at me personally for some reason. I don't get it. IS THAT TOO PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE FOR YOU???
I didn't say anything I couldn't substantiate, vt. I'm not trying to be insulting, really, but you have a long history of acting that way and I'm tiring of it. Also, where did that last sentence come from? You didn't say anything passive-aggressive there. Do you know how it's defined?
This stops here. I don't think there's any reason to put everyone else through this hopeless conversation.
To anyone unfortunate enough to brave this whole thread, we've cleared it up via email. So, happy ending. No, not that kind.
Yeah, I thought about the fact that we don't hear from Slowey a whole lot being part of the reason that it seems like Gardy is the issue, but that's not completely true. Slowey could be tweeting or posting complaints all the time if he was really such a malcontent, and I'm not aware of that happening.
It blows my mind that you continue to give Gardenhire the benefit of the doubt on this. When has he shown himself to deserve the benefit of the doubt on personnel decisions?
I just can't believe that management would turn their back on THE NUMBER TWO STARTER in Twins (recent, at least) history in win percentage*, particularly when the starting rotation has been so flaky. Whether he didn't want to pitch in the bullpen or whatever, it shouldn't have even been an issue. At this point, no matter whom is to blame, they should let bygones be bygones and
stop overpaying starterslet Slowey back again.*yes, "wins" can be a questionable stat, but that's one of the stats that the Twins management hangs their hat on. Number one is Johan, but you already know that.
Plouffe, Tolbert and Nishioka at the bottom of the lineup. We should have no problems scoring runs against Peavy, right?
Dude, yr not getting a _el.
I really, really hope there's a contending team out there that needs a right-handed bat and doesn't doubt _el's talent.
I'm not sure anyone doubts his talent. Unfortunately, I think they don't doubt that there's little of it.
apparently, my mom was on the same flight as bert back from o'hare yesterday. she congratulated him on the induction, and showed him a picture of Pete in twins gear from her phone. she told me bert thanked her, gushed over Pete, and made her promise to buy Pete some swag from his wife's line of "circle me, bert" clothing.
After that kind of experience, I probably would.
That "Blyleven in 2011" logo looks better and matches my sentiments more closely.
Things are danged expensive though. $25 is about $10 too much for a T-Shirt.
Wait, he was giving your mom the hard sell? He should have promised to send you something on the house.
I have two tickets to the Twins-Bosox game on Wednesday Aug 10th that I'd like to sell. They are in section 313 row 10, which is right behind home plate and offers a pretty good view of the entire ballpark.
I'd like to get face value is which $28 a piece, but make me an offer. contact me here or at freealonzo at comcast dot net
I'm so happy I chose to go to the gym today rather than participate in that. No, not the Slowey thread ;-). the clusterf*** of a ballgame.
It will get better, kids. I promise. Someday.
I'm with ya. 3 hours at the hospital seems a much better time than that game. (nothing serious, just a follow-up visit for BP related things. It should have only taken about half an hour, but you know how doctors are.)
If anyone's still interested, Justin Morneau continues his rehab assignment with the Rochester Red Wings this evening at 5:15 Central. The game can be found here.
My interest in the 2011 season in waning, but my interest in Morneau's long-term health is still as high as ever, no matter his future with the Twins.
Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, Minor Details will be back tomorrow, but I'll just say that Rochester won 8-0 and Morneau went 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs. This makes him 4-for-13 as a Red Wing (.308).
good news on both fronts, Padre. Here's hoping that you are done with rising creeks for this year too.
Go Rochester! Mandelaro had a blog post two weeks ago about how terrible Rochester has been and whether they might dump the Twins. Their contract ends after next year and he talks about a few possibilities.
No offense to Rochester, but what exactly do they expect if they want to be a AAA team? That level always gets stepped on the hardest by its parent club. If anything, it seems at times that the Twins keep injured players on the bench (rather than the DL) for too long, which probably minimizes AAA call-ups to some degree. Elite prospects are never really going to stick long at AAA and a bunch of AAAA players is really the best they can hope for in terms of trying to win their league. So, you want your players to be good, but not too good, and you want your parent club to be good enough to fill your roster with talent but at the same time not so good that they are in contention at the end of the season and might need to call up some players when you are heading into the stretch drive of the season.
The idea of a AAA team's record really meaning anything kind of baffles me. I think it's fun to go watch minor league games, but the fun is in the games, not in the standings.
Last year, the problem was often playing short several players. Players were called up to MLB, but no one was called up to replace them.
No real disagreement, but I will point out that minor league teams are businesses, not just subdivisions of the parent club.
I don't know how they've done it, but the Sacramento River Cats have been consistently successful in the standings and, not unrelatedly, at the gate, for the past decade. 9 division titles (and running away with another one this year), 5 conference titles, 4 PCL titles and 2 AAA titles since 2000. 8 straight years of leading all of minor league baseball in attendance.
and this despite frequent player movement to the big club. So it certainly can be done. The organization has been committed to putting a good product on the field, filling out the roster with the occasional AAAA veteran stud (e.g., Graham Koonce, 2003 PCL MVP; Jason Grabowski; Matt Watson; Jack Cust -- although he eventually proved to be a quality MLB player for a few years; etc.), and pushing through good, young talent (CarGo, Andre Ethier, a host of pitchers).
Matt Watson was a good case in point. He got cups of coffee in 2003 with the Mets, 2005 with the A's and again in 2010 with the A's (at age 31). Meanwhile, he put a really tasty 302/383/499 slash line over 7 seasons in AAA, including 307 games with the River Cats. What's a guy got to do to earn a real shot?
Sure, I know that minor league teams are businesses, I guess my main point is just that I think they'd be a bit naive to think they'll have it a lot better under someone else.
The one thing I don't know is how much input the minor league club gets on anything. It seems like you might get to influence the AAAA segment of the roster if you went and hired your own scouts. Surely the Twins (or any other team) realize that most of their system is just filler in order to sort through the real prospects, and they probably don't have a big problem with having red filler or green filler.
I actually listened to the last couple of innings. Imagine my surprise when the AAA club was mauling the opposition.
Not to harsh your mellow, but a certain roster spot is taken up by the Great Babe Pluth: AAA terror--MLB stiff.
So the Twins have their very own Brandon Wood.