2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game Logs: Game 23 Twins @ LAaAAAAAAaAa

158 Comments

Franciso Lirano
v
Jerome Williams

Mrs. Buffalo is currently watching Cupcake Wars. How many different ways can you possibly make cupcakes? Let's take a look, I see 8 of them:

1:Trout- This dude only has 5 career home runs. That is only 1 more than Drew Butera. What a cupcake.
2:Callaspo -Career slugging percentage? .384 For a frame of reference, Tom Prince, in his two seasons with the Twins, had a .371 slugging percentage.
3:Pujols - A .265 OBP this season? You know who can beat that? Chris Heintz and his career mark of .268
4:Hunter- This guy is a bozo. I am not even going to bother looking at his numbers.
5:Trumbo- A career .294 OBP for the LAAA slugger. You know who can beat that, besides most people? How about Dave Engle with a career .316 mark.
6:Kendrick- The second baseman has a 87 OPS+ this season. This looks suspiciously like Tim Laudner's career mark of 84.
7:Wells- The only thing worse that Veron Wells this season? Vernon Wells last season. His numbers compare unfavorably to Pat Borders' season with the Twins.
8:Aybar- This season with the Angels Aybar has one stolen base. This is exactly as many as Jeff Reed had in his career with the Twins. Dude was a catcher. What a cupcake this Aybar is!
9:Iannetta- This guy is actually having a hell of a season.

LAAAAA is hitting like a bunch of back up catchers. What a joke.

158 thoughts on “2012 Game Logs: Game 23 Twins @ LAaAAAAAAaAa”

  1. How many different ways can you possibly make cupcakes? exactly! I cant get into Cupcake Wars. Chopped on the other hand, I love.

    I hope the Twins score early and often.

  3. Years from now, which will we remember more fondly: the Sean Burroughs Era or the Bret Boone Era?

      1. I think the most comedic(ally inept) era ever as a recent Twin was the Darnell McDonald Era. It still shocks me that someone who could look SO terrible has managed to stick with the Red Sox.

        1. A -21 OPS+. Wowsers. I still prefer Phil Nevin, if only for his desperately pathetic comments about wanting to sign a long-term deal with the Twins only to be out of baseball days later.

        2. That one baffles me, too. His minor league numbers aren't good, he looked totally overmatched when he was with the Twins, I figured he was back to the minors for good.

    4. The Boone era will be more memorable because the team was competing at the time. The Burroughs era seems like a mash-up of the Tony Batista era and the Jeff Cirillo era, with a lot less PT.

  4. I note that Jamey Carroll must be deemed no longer grindy enough for the 2-hole.

  7. I thought that was gone when it left the bat. The Twins have programmed me to expect the worst at all times.

    2. Plus it's Pujols, so any swing like that with a trajectory like that is *always* gone. Dude really is slumping.

  13. That went about half as far as the donger that Clete Thomas is going to jack tonight.

  19. Solo home runs don't hurt. The check is in the mail. I didn't know the gun was loaded.

  22. Did anyone make anything good tonight? I got really creative: a piece of chicken covered in garam masala, grilled on the George Foreman. It went great with basmati rice, cooked with a giant dose of garam masala.

    Note: I really like garam masala.

    1. Super ridiculously meaty lasagna at the Young house. Delicious.

    4. Mrs. Twayn made lasagna, garlic bread, and salad. I added red grapes and mixed nuts for dessert.

          1. Everything is coming up roses in Phoenix, apparently. Congrats to the kefirs.

  23. It's taken a while for Casilla to be "comfortable" batting second? Roy, what do you think has happened every year of Casilla's career? He's batted second every, single, year. Including 2006 when he had just 6 PAs.

  28. Interesting how the Angels seem to mount a threat every inning, while the Twins have to be content to at least get a hit every inning. IT DOESN"T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS, FRANCISCO!

  32. I think Roy Smalley is ok as a analyst (I like that he breaks down a swing, and notices defensive positioning), but man, he just talks and talks.

      1. I'm very encouraged by the fact that the Twins batters are seemingly terrified of working the count. After all, the Twins batters are very critical to the team's future.

  33. I was gonna stay up for the Twins 8-run fourth, but I think I'll just catch it in the morning instead.

    1. I was just going to post something similar, only more profane and bombastic.

        2. I didn't hear him argue it, but it's kind of true if you limit your scope to 2012. You might even argue Liriano is more important in a relative sense because the Twins' SP depth is worse than the Angels' 1B depth.

  35. I think this season so far has shown us why teams pay a lot for starting pitching.

      1. Maybe trade Liriano for a pitching machine - but one of those tricky pitching machines that throws nothing but sinkers.

  37. The Twins have now allowed at least four runs in 13 consecutive games and at least three runs in all 23 games. That's pathetic.

  38. Shout out to the jack ass in the rally monkey hat.

    This game is well out of hand already, but this is a terrible call by the umps to put him at third.

    1. Yeah from where he was when it deflected it down he wouldn't have made it to third. 90 more feet awarded by the umps.

  40. I'm sure Angel Hernandez is going to make sure they get this call correct.

    1. I think the umpires got it right, but why is Angel Hernandez (the one farthest away) the one doing the talking there?

  41. I think there is a direct correlation between wearing stupid hats and interfering with baseball games.

  47. C'mon guys, this game isn't over! They just need to get some runners on base for big Clete!

  48. Got out of that, but Liriano has no location. Aybar popped up a fastball right down the middle of the plate.

  49. The flexibility of a third catcher > The flexibility of having a real bench

      2. Yeah, I didn't even want to go there. I'm probably as irrationally upset about the stupid "need" for a 3rd catcher as the Twins are irrationally concerned about losing the DH for part of an entire game.

        1. Having a third catcher used to sort of bother me, but what really bothers me is A) the third catcher is Drew F. Butera and B) the third catcher takes up 1/3rd of the bench, and another 1/3rd of the bench is unavailable due to injury.

  50. Does his last few years bouncing around AAA (including with the Twins) qualify him as Jeremy Williams?

        1. Yeah, I remembered that article when I saw the pitching match-up. Good set-up by the Dread Pirate, though.

  52. Coming into this game, Liriano had allowed the leadoff batter a .588 OBA and a 1.588 OPS. Tonight, the leadoff batters have reached four times in five innings with a home run, triple and two walks.

  54. Nice. Batting average on curveballs this season? That has to qualify as SSSSS or something.

  55. Well, if Trader Clete can't get on base, what chance do we have? I'm giving up on this one early, boys. I'll check out the wreckage in the morning.

  57. Yeah, he's pitching great, Roy. Five leadoff baserunners, including a homerun and a triple. Every inning he's gotten out of has been more the result of the batters doing nothing with BP pitches (or trying to make something out of bad pitches). He's behind in the count constantly, hitting no spots - ever. I gotta tell ya, I'm pleased as punch with this outing.

    1. What a weird piece of "analysis" by Roy. Right, Frankie's not falling off the mound throwing his 92 MPH fastball. But the results pretty much suck.

    2. Just the way the ball flies out of his hand you can tell he has major release point issues.

      1. It was weird listening to Roy commenting on how violent Liriano's delivery is, as if implying it was so smooth before. I distinctly remember a Strib spread when he was coming back in 2007 talking about how violent his delivery is and whether it can be changed or not (hint: not).

        1. Right. At his best, his delivery was violent as a b-horror movie. Everything about his mechanics seem just broken right now, though.

    3. It's odd to do so poorly with no one on base. Maybe he should pitch from the stretch for a couple of starts just to see how things go.

      1. Last year was more normal. He had a .652 OPS with the bases empty versus .822 with runners on. This year it's reversed, but it's 1.181 / .957. I think pitching with the windup is the least of his issues.

        1. I know it's likely SSS, but sometimes when a guy is struggling so badly overall, if you simplify his life a little bit, it can help. (Note: I am not really a pitching coach, but I play one on the internet!)

            1. I feel like back in the day, a team would have moved Liriano into the bullpen and put someone else in his rotation spot. Since, of course, back in the day relief pitchers faced more than one hitter at a time and could actually work themselves into the rotation by pitching well in long relief. (Which probably wasn't even called long relief since short relief wasn't really even a thing. 8 relief pitchers!)

  58. I'm staying, but I might disconnect mentally to prevent further psychological damage.

  59. Maybe we can Rookie of the Year 'em. Just intentionally walk everyone, then find wacky ways of picking them off.

    1. Or we can Air Bud 'em and at least get to enjoy seeing a golden retriever pitch for the Twins.

      1. Who was the pitch from The Sandlot? Let's put him in there.

        Also, holy crap, Dick Bremer just actually admitted that he missed a trivia answer. This breaks his streak. Top story on the four-letter, for sure.

  61. I like Carroll so far. He's solid.

    But the Twins had middle infield trouble because their general manager was short sighted and allocating resources incorrectly. I'm glad that they have some competent play at short, but let's not act like they did anything but plug a hole they stupidly created for themselves. I just get tired of Dick glossing over this kinda crap in the booth.

    1. Dick's a company man that touts the company line. I would suggest either muting him or making fun of him.

    2. I get that Dick is a homer, but I really don't expect him to go back two offseasons to criticize the team's roster management.

    3. Also, that GM is no longer here, so criticism would be unwarranted now.

  62. The groundout to flyout ratio for both teams tonight is 25-6. That's a lot of dead worms.

    1. Looking at the box score, just 3 hits with mostly ground balls feels a little unlucky. Only 3 strikeouts so far for the Twins, so at least they're making some contact.

    1. I don't think B-R expected for someone to search for consecutive non-shutouts. This query (and I'm on number two) is taking forever.

  71. And Span mocks his teammates by reaching for the third time in four PAs against Williams.

  73. And Kasilla strikes out to end the game on a pitch that Gameday said had a "Nasty Factor" of 11. I have little idea of the accuracy of that "stat," but c'mon. 11?

      1. They were so not nasty, you could probably bring them home to your parents.

  74. Now I'm kind of glad the Twins kept their pitching futility streaks going. It would have sucked to give up less than three runs in a game only to lose again.

  75. You know what this means, of course. We'll just have to settle for 145-17!

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