Monthly Archives: July 2012

2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game Logs: Game 103 White Sox @ Twins

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Francisco Liriano

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Nick Blackburn

Francisco Liriano was probably my favorite post-Santana pitcher, Kevin Slowey excepted. If Johan brought me back to baseball after taking a couple of years off Frankie made me pretty nuts about baseball again. 2006, I think we can all agree, was just about the most magical season for the Twins since 91. No Twins team grabbed the attention of Minnesota fans and made them care like that team.

Report from Baseball-Reference.com.

Look at those numbers. Dude was incredible.

And now he plays for the White Sox.

Tonight's game is going to be probably one of the stranger games I will have watched in the past few years. Seeing Frankie dressed in those awful grey and black colors, hearing Stribbie's boo him like he was Joe Mauer, knowing that he is going to make Morneau look like Adam Everett at the plate. It is going to be weird.

Frankie, it was good to know you. If it wasn't for you in 2006 I probably wouldn't have been so nuts about this team that I would have started google-ing Twins blogs, lurking around some of them (Will Young and this new wpa stat, Seth and his access to minor league players, Gleeman doing Gleeman stuff, and Batgirl being super fun) until I found one that had all of that in one place that I just couldn't resist from posting on any longer.

Thanks again Frankie, because of you I am here. Now leave some sliders hanging for your old pals, will ya?

2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 102: Chicago Quintanas at Minnesota Dudes

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First Pitch - 7:10 p.m. CDT
Television - FSN
Lineups

So the Pale Hosers are leading the AL Central and the Twins are, mercifully, out of the cellar at last (thank you very much Kansas City, Cleveland with the assist). We'd all like that situation to be reversed, of course. After all, the White Sox are to the Twins as Jesus Quintana is to The Dude -- a perverse, repugnant arch-nemesis with nary a redeeming quality who nevertheless demands a miniscule measure of grudging respect. I'd like nothing better than to have the kind of starting pitching that the Sox have enjoyed this year. But sometimes you just have to roll the balls that life gives you and hope it's enough to give the pins a good stir.

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Miscellaneous, MLB

Messing Around with the 1987 Bill James Abstract

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Last November, Sheenie and I were in Duluth for a wedding and wandered around town.  We stumbled upon an antique store that had a massive collection of books on the second floor.  Eventually, we ended up leaving with about $40 in books (which mean about fifteen books).  Among the ones I snagged was The Bill James Baseball Abstract 1987.  I slowly flipped through it in recent months and found a few items particularly interesting.

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