2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 71: Twins at Reds

177 Comments

Today, Scott Diamond goes up against Mike Leake, an okayish righty. On the upside, I should be able to see this entire game unless it's another crushingly long rain delay like last week. Sadly, though, this will be the end of me being able to listen to the Reds feed unless I switch allegiances. I like the Reds pretty well and all, but that ain't happening. After this series, the Twins tangle with the White Sox, so it's a precipitous drop in announcer quality.

If it seems I'm too infatuated with announce teams this year, well, it's because the home team has been at the bottom of the standings all season long. Still, 28-42 seems like a best case scenario considering where they were a month and a half ago, and after all, they're the only Minnesota Twins we have. Here's hoping a few more slightly-above-.500 months can get this team to 81 wins somehow. Hell, that could win the division...

177 thoughts on “2012 Game 71: Twins at Reds”

  2. Joey Votto is very impressed with Morneau getting out there and grinding it out when he had to be feeling concussion symptoms. Ugh, Joey, that isn't a good thing.

  4. Butch Jones, a college football coach, is in the booth. To listen to him talk, team chemistry and "a championship culture" are more important than any other thing. Ugh.

    1. Did you see the video the other day where Mark Cuban destroyed Skip Bayless? It was pretty awesome.

          1. I go back and forth on Cuban. Sometimes, I think he's a bit of a blowhard. In this case, though, he is absolutely right. Bayless seems to be arguing that he's right because he's right. Cuban is arguing based on facts. Obviously, all of those threes that Mike Miller hit during game 5 had nothing to do with LeBron's state of mind.

            1. I don't mind that Cuban's a blowhard. Since he's right, his manner doesn't matter much to me. Plus, in this case he knows he's arguing with someone who's far too dumb to understand how to use anything but soft, squishy bullshit, so laying it on thickly is his only chance to make something of the conversation.

              Bayless is just awful. This was thoroughly enjoyable.

              1. I feel like you could give a 3 credit course in sports journalism, the idea of which is to train somebody how to use cliches and have them generate narratives from a random number generator. After that course, you'd have any number of people who could adequately replace Bayless.

                1. I was going to attempt to break down Bayless's analytical style, and I expect it would have come out sounding something like this.

                  1. Bayless is right though that Ibaka should have come harder. It was crunch time, but Miami wanted it more and in the face of excruciating pressure he disappeared.

                    1. If Bayless had wanted it more, he could have overcome the pressure Cuban put on him.

        3. That was the most shocking, incredible video I have ever seen. I had no idea Stephen A. Smith could sit for 6 minutes without shouting.

          2. This is the funniest godamn thing I've read today, though I haven't read the whole game log yet.

        4. ESPN took a half way decent sports morning show (I love the laid back sports and non sports ways of Cold Pizza) and made into a jerkier version of PTI.

        5. Who's the poor sumbitch that has to sit between Skip Blayless and Stephen A Smith? That dude's career hasn't gone the way he planned.

            1. It's more than that, claiming credit for the actions on court.
              I don't want to re-listen to the whole thing, but there was something in it that put me off a bit.

      4. Yeah, that thing I said about you having all the points should now apply to all the points ever.

    1. And thank you to Mike Leake for keeping that inning short so Morgan left the Twins booth.

      1. Yeah, definitely the easiest one I've ever gotten from the opposing feed...although, thinking about it, I think another feed I've watched has asked the same question verbatim.

  13. I saw a stat on (the revamped Sunday morning edition thats worth watching) Baseball Tonight that Ben Revere is the only position player who has played at least 100 games that has not hit a HR. Some dude from Houston got his first HR this past week.

    1. Brian Bixler? Jose Morales is at 96 games with no homers, so he might eventually join Revere on the list.

    1. There's no way Liddle has EVER had someone thrown out by that much. The runner wasn't even in the frame when the catcher received the ball.

    1. Okay, the announcers say that the 3B coach had decided that running on Willingham specifically in a close game with two outs was the one chance they'd take for an offline or weak throw. You win this round, Mark Berry.

  21. even though Morneau 'did his job' by hitting it to the RF side and advancing the runners, he is still not hitting the ball with any authority.

    1. If the Twins announcers aver that the weak grounder to the right side was "his job," then wow, I am not ready to listen to the Twins feed again tomorrow.

      2. I think it's fairly obvious they mean "doing his job" as in "doing the minimum required here" which is to "at least" move the runners up a base. Of course his job is to try to get a hit there but are you saying the guy didn't do his job because he made an out? That kind of thinking gets hall of famers booed routinely.

  23. Not listening, but I've become a pretty big Provous (sp?) fan already. He's even made Dazzle far less annoying--except when Danny's doing PbP. That's still pretty dreadful.

    1. Of course. You can't pull a pitcher when he has only 70 pitches. Unless you're the Rockies.

  31. Reds fans booing that that curve ball 3 feet off the plate wasn't called a strike.

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  45. Heh, did anybody hear Gardy congratulating Span when he entered the dugout?

    "Nice running there, Spanny."

  48. Good thing Span pinch-ran for Mauer, as I'm sure he wouldn't have been quick enough to make it home.

    1. Willingham probably would have caught and passed him, making an out instead of scoring a run.

    2. C'mon sean, that's absolutely the correct move by Gardy. Mauer's been hobbled by a sore leg and it would be ridiculous to lose because you didn't bring in a fast runner if Willingham or Morneau had singled. Gotta fire the bullets you have.

      1. It's exactly opposite what DIDN'T happen the first game, when Dusty was skewered for leaving Rolen in and he didn't score from second on the single. Just blame Willingham for not keeping it in the ballpark today.

      2. Then why is he playing? At catcher no less. He legged out a double yesterday as well, so it can't be feeling that badly.

        Finally, a fast runner rarely makes a difference in these situations.

        1. When you're trailing in the ninth or later, you pull out the stops. You can't leave a guy in there because you are thinking ahead to an inning that won't exist if you don't tie it up in the first place. Even when Mauer is completely healthy Span is a faster runner. Plus, Mauer has been told to take it easy on the basepaths while he heals. The Twins needing Mauer to hit later in the game in that situation is less likely than a faster runner making a difference in that situation.

    1. We've already wasted half of his DL trip trying to decide if he needed to be there.

        1. Yes, that's the point. The Twins can't make it retroactive to when he really should have last pitched, which was June 15, or half a DL trip.

    1. I would loved to hear the conversation between Carroll and Casilla at the end there.

      "Dude, what the hell was that?"
      "Man, don't even...I'm in a lot of pain right now"

  75. Mauer's OPS now at .850. Number of seasons in a Twins uniform that Torii Hunter had an OPS north of .850: one. His OPS+ coming into today: 136. Hunter's career high: 128. As of right now, Mauer leads the AL in OBP. He's on pace to provide $21.52 million worth of value.

  76. With Willingham adding more to his value today, I wondered the best and worst FA signings lately. FA signings are from ESPN FA Tracker, Values from Fangraphs.

    First Year Player Contract ($M) Worth ($M) Difference ($M)
    2012 Willingham 7 10.1 3.1
    2012 Carroll 2.75 6.6 3.85
    2012 Doumit 3 2.6 -0.4
    2012 Marquis 3 -3.1 -6.1
    2012 Zumaya 0.85 0 -0.85
    2012 Burroughs 0.525 -0.7 -1.225
    2012 Burton 0.75 1.4 0.65
    2011 Nishioka 9 -6.2 -15.2
    2010 Thome 1.5 13 11.5
    2010 Pavano 7 12.4 5.4
    2010 Hudson 5 13.8 8.8
    2010 Condrey 0.9 NA -0.9
    2009 Crede 2.5 8.2 5.7
    2009 Ayala 1.3 0.5 -0.8

    These values are only for the first year of each FA contract, not cumulative. Also not included are the Twins re-signing their own FA's. This is only new players.

      1. Remember that one time some people had a big argument over whether Orlando Cabrera was any good, and then the people who were arguing that he was realized they were thinking about Orlando Hudson?

        (Or was it the other way around? People argued about Hudson, then the people who said he sucked realized they were thinking about Cabrera?)

    3. When Willingham does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.

        1. So, leftover/vegan nacht tonite - fried tofu w/ chili sauce, broccoli, bok-choy, mushrooms, and snap-peas, along with egg fried quinoa. Mas fina!!

  77. Scott Diamond will win the Cy Young Award! Josh Willingham is going to the Hall of Fame!

    And the Twins are still on track for 120-42!

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