377 thoughts on “2012 Game 57: Chicago Cubs at Minnesota Twins”

  1. Meeting my dad for the game. He tried to take light rail but he missed the one and only train at his stop. He did not realize this until the pay station took his eight dollars for a train that was never coming.

  3. I will root for the Twins day in and day out and I have aspirations for a division title each year until the Twins are mathematically eliminated. With that said, man, I have a tough time getting excited for a PJ Walters start.

  9. The first game I can watch in a week! Yes!

    We're in a two-run hole against the worst team in the league already, but I'm just happy to be here, I guess.

  13. Dick mentioned that Morneau had no walks in 53 at bats. Dick, I can guarantee you that in the entire major leagues, no player has any walks in all of their at bats.

  14. Wait, what? In the promo for the All-Star game, it shows Andre Ethier "representing" the Dodgers. Seriously? Ethier?

    1. Year after year I shake my head at the All-Star promos, and wonder when they were shot. I remember one year where three of the five guys shown missed it either because they were injured or sucked that year.

      Not that using Ethier over Kemp makes any sense regardless, but the promos are always perplexing.

    2. do you mean the Andre Ethier who leads the Dodgers with 2.4 rWAR (to 1.5 for Kemp)? That Andre Ethier? Crazy talk. Granted, he's only hitting 305/366/531.

      Kemp has nearly 100 fewer PA. Yea, he's been great at the plate. But he's missed a lot of time.

  17. NBBW and I just got rear ended going south on 35w in Minny.
    Dude behind us got nailed by a fast truck behind him.

    Thankfully no one was hurt. New rental and now heading west to go car camping. Stopped at Bumps in Glencoe.

    Just ordered brinner.

    1. Oof, sucks. Person behind me got hit by someone not paying attention in bumper-to-bumper traffic last summer. I was very thankful she left plenty of room in front of her to not hit my still quite new car.

  18. "Mather just using his speed to basically run this ball down."

    Opposed to Delmon using his lack of speed to pick up the ball at the fence?

  21. Coors, trying to insinuate your beer into a movie trailer doesn't make me want to drink it.

  22. "If you take away something that's below the average, the average improves!"

    Yes Bert, it's weird how that works.

    1. I don't know why this made me think of this, but here's a weird mathematical fact.

      It's possible for player A to have a higher batting average than player B two years in a row, yet player B has a higher batting average over the two year span!

  25. The top five interleague teams are all AL teams.

    Bert suggests the Twins are so good at it because the Twins are more of an NL-style team. No, Bert, the NL-style teams are mostly below the AL teams.

    He goes on to explain "NL style" means good fundamentals. I don't know where to start.

    1. Coomer's chiming in on this! Ooh, this should be good.

      It's because of pitching and defense, and that's how NL teams are built, he says. Okay, geniuses, so why do all the other damned AL teams beat the NL all the time?!

      1. I was thinking the same thing. If you're beating up on a set of teams, it means you aren't playing like them but better. I think Dick's explanation might be closest: coincidence combined with Twins generally playing well this time of year. Plus the bias of the Twins being good for most of the years in the sample.

        1. Yeah, it's exceedingly simple. "The Twins were good for most of those years and the AL is generally better than the NL." But hey, any excuse to cite fundamentals is a good excuse for Coomer and Bert.

          I am glad they're giving me some laughs in my first game with the Twins feed in ages.

        2. It's often taken the Twins 2 months to figure out which offseason signings were dead weight and jettison them.

  26. MLB.tv has decided to stop working for me again. I don't know what the problem is. My PS3 can stream netflix in HD with no problem.

  27. National League teams, as opposed to American League teams, try to have good pitching and defense. Also, you cannot have good defense without good pitching.

    It is this kind of analysis that keeps me coming back to Dick, Bert, and the Coom Dog.

    1. Also, was Ben Revere even on the Twins when they were good for 2 weeks last June?

      1. ACK! Bert just said Revere reminded him of a young Kirby!

        1. How about that? I would have never guessed Revere had 481 PA last season.

        2. Also, I figured the winning streak last year was mostly Tonosi.

  28. Bert 'I dont want to label people' (referring to Revere)
    a minute ago, you labeled the entire Twins team as an NL style team.

        2. That sounds like a tremendous promo waiting to happen. First 1,000 fans get a laser in their eye!

  43. sean, is it true that 9 out of 10 times a runner on third scores with 0 outs?

    2. Last year, with a runner just on third, there were 2552 PAs and 945 runs scored in those PAs. That includes 68 home runs.

      1. That sounds like it only counts when there are still 0 outs, right? A runner on third with no outs can still score after somebody makes an out.

          1. The run expectancy matrix says 0.544 run expectancy at the beginning an inning and a 1.433 run expectancy with a runner on 3rd and no outs. That would seem to suggest that 90% is about right.

            2. run expectancy matrix doesn't tell you the odds of getting at least one run, it tells you the average number of runs scored in those circumstances.

  47. Walters with a 5.19 FIP before this game. I think it's going up a bit after this.

    3. From wikipedia:

      Reviewers who viewed an early preview screening at the December 2011 Butt-Numb-A-Thon in Austin expressed negative reactions to the film, with two attendants saying it was worse than the first Ghost Rider film, and one even going so far as to say that this film makes the first look like The Dark Knight in comparison.

      I did see the first one. At least, I saw part of it before I turned it off. I can't imagine how bad that movie must be.

  66. Cubs broadcast can't get enough cutaways of Paul Molitor and the girl sitting next to him.

  68. Dick Bremer acted like that ball was hit into the upper deck, here its a double play!!!!

  88. "No one has hit more home runs since May 15th"
    Yes, because once it hit May 15th, Soriano decided to hit a bunch (plus one more) of homers.

  92. Peeking in quickly. I'm going to the game tomorrow. If anyone is gonna be there, drop me a line and we can figure out a meet up?

      1. better than "stalin" castro, at least (also, ask cubs fans about their opinion of him lately).

        1. (also, ask cubs fans about their opinion of him lately)

          Any chance we can send them a proven closer for him even up?

        1. I've looked at that post every time I refreshed, and now, twelve minutes later, I finally got it. I'm definitely prime idiot material.

      2. Hawk is Swedish? Maybe I shouldn't be surprised- he and the chef do look and sound quite a bit alike.

          1. I knew I was setting something up there, but that exceeded my wildest expectations!

  100. Alex Burnett has pitched more innings out of the bullpen than any other Twin.

          1. i was there once. with my high school jazz band. we (amazingly and undeservedly) played jazz on the streets of new orleans. a chunk of white boys from MPLS. yyyyyup.

            still, it was amazing. i've seriously been thinking of a reason to go down there since i "know someone".

            1. You're always welcome. I'm pretty sure that the dread pirate and I can show you a good time around saint paddy's day.

                  1. All the amber alert signs from Houston to NOLA read, "Hurricane season is here, be prepared". I'm not scared*.

                    *yes, yes I am.

  108. MOUNTIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  117. i did not expect that to go as far as it did on that goofy little halfish swing.

    2. I was thinking the same thing, except I hadn't come up with the wild pitch scenario so I really thought it was worthless.

      1. But how many cases is that really useful? A short wild pitch or sac fly. Any hit would score a Molina and so would a medium-deep fly ball.

      1. I wish he would've puked on the catcher and went around him in the confusion.

  122. Did Sveum tell Mather to guard second base? He's all set up for the double play though.

  131. How many times this season does the go on contact play have to bite the Twins in the ass before they quit doing it?

  140. You know what they say...when you have a win 93.2% of the time, you won't get the win immediately 6.8% of the time.

    1. Sure they are. Their terribleness is almost completely equal. This thing is gonna go 22 at at least.

        1. Maybe in the bottom of the inning, we can bust out our rally monkeys together.

  145. Capps pitching at home in a tie ballgame. Gardy may finally have learned that lesson. Too bad about the other 3,849 lessons he needs to learn.

    1. I thought he had learned that a few years ago. It's away games the closer will still be saved for later.

    2. Two of Capps' losses came when he gave up a homer in the top of the 9th of a tied game.

  149. Philosofette on the Cubs blowing a save:

    "I remember learning baseball when it was impossible to blow a save" (referring to Nathan, of course.).

    She's also decided that the Twins remind her of Arrested Development now, with Parmalee, who makes her think of Gene Parmesean and Plouffe, which makes her think of "Poof" magazine.

    Yup, she gets both Arrested and baseball. I love her so much.

            1. I think the proper answer here should have been along the lines of "Maeby, but I don't think so".

            1. So long as it's only predating it, and not preconsumating it, I can deal with that.

              1. Also, I've had a few tonight, so I'm just going to come out and say that I'm pretty proud of this joak, so I'm gonna give myself a point.

  151. cubs announcers remarking on how the DH role makes the AL different from the NL. i guess that's true.

      2. It hasn't, its only been around for...*looks up first interleague game*...jeebus, interleague play has been around for 15 f***in years?

  154. Does Sveum really need to go back out to explain this? Can't he just make some obscure sign that says "do it again"?

  155. I dont know about his strategies and whatnots, but Dale Sveum has the look of a grizzled baseball manager.

  156. A lot of success? What was the Twins record otherwise?

    Oh yeah, wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    2. I'm so happy this game went one extra inning so you had more time to find that.

  161. WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

  164. I think Willingham is already somewhere in my top 10 favorite Twins of all time that I've actually seen play.

    1. dido.

      (i was going to go out and find an image for that, but realized i've already grossly abused the using materials you found elsewhere rules)

      1. Did I miss some hated of Summit? I may have mentioned that I have a close, personal friend that brews for summit, and that I balls their output. If this means war, then so be it.

        1. Its not so much hatred as a feeling that the owner may be a dick due to some comments he made regarding the taproom bill a while back. Also your comment you made about your friend's opinion of you drinking Surly. I just get the vibe that they care not for the craft brewing world. But yeah, really not hatred from me so much as I just don't ever feel much urge to purchase their stuff.

          1. meh. summit seems on par to goose island with me (minus GI's semi-decent belgiam lineup). i'm just fine with them being king craft in minnesota with surly being the unruly upstart.

            1. i'd counter this thought with the unchained series. Some of those beers have been off the hook. And, by off the hook I mean crazy good.

              1. ohhh yeah. i might have tried more had they been available to me. i thoroughly enjoyed what i had though. however, the GI brewpub kills the summit brewpub.

          2. The craziness of the taproom bill is that the founder of Summit started the process and Surly finished it. There are some (justified) raw feelings on both sides. I'm a fan of both products, but when I can buy 12 of one for (roughly) the cost of 4 of the other I'll take the quantity.

            1. technically, it's for 5.33, but your point is well taken. that said, it's still surly.

  167. Listening to Revere's interview, I predict he will soon become a reporter favorite.

  168. Mariners working on a combined no-hitter of the Dodgers. So far, seven innings completed with three pitchers.

      2. I guess League is the former closer now, so that makes a lot more sense. I mean, who uses a closer for five outs, even in a no-hitter?

    3. Wilhelmsen gets the final three outs. Extremely close play to start the ninth with Dee Gordon called out at first. The super slow motion makes it seem like calling him out was the right call.

  169. roughly 350 lte's for a Friday night game between 2 stinky teams. cool. coolcoolcool.

    1. I think the Twins have surpassed stinky and are aspiring to mediocrity.

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