Cup of Coffee

May 23, 2013: Tiresome

37 Comments

The Twins are in a bad enough stretch that we're at the point where the casual fans on my social network feeds start with their opinions and analysis without substance. A month from now when the Twins' hopes are long gone, they'll stop pretending to care, but until then I'll be rolling my eyes.

37 thoughts on “May 23, 2013: Tiresome”

  1. Of course: through three starts, Francisco Liriano has struck out more batters than any of the Twins starters this year.

    1. Well, Glen Perkins is tied for the team lead in strikeouts....in 15.1 innings. Perkins is striking out everybody in sight, but that's still really bad.

      Pedro Hernandez is leading the team's starters in K/9 with 4.7. This team's starting unit is truly a special thing.

      1. But, a lot better than last year!

        I'm just about through the anger phase of this 2013 club. Acceptance is just around the corner.

        1. My anger phase lasted about 2 days, then I remembered my expectations... I still get a little frustrated when we don't score runs, but I don't get too upset when our pitchers get hit.

          1. I was frustrated with the off-season of (in)activity on the pitching front. Oh sure, we brought in some dudes and more importantly traded for some minor league talent, but would it have killed them to not pick the two lowest K/9 guys available? I mean, would it?

            Then to have to listen to Mackey assert on the radio that the pitching staff would be MUCH better... it kind of boiled over yesterday. He's got a lot of positives in terms of what he brings to the market overall, but he's also pretty stubborn when wrong. I much prefer the old (not as) fat guy that he shares his show with.

            I said in the pre-season predictions that they would lose 95 (my only prediction!). I think I'm pretty close to right on there. As the Twins forage through the DeVrieses, Dedunos, Walters, et al. of their system, we're going to see a lot of crappily pitched games, which will make this season decidedly not fun. I will vote with my pocketbook.

      2. Originally I was wondering if the relievers would strike out more batters than the starters. Now, it's obvious they will since the starters aren't going to pitch half the game.

        1. The starters are only getting 16 outs a game, so the bullpen has lots of opportunities.

    2. Liriano was taken out of the rotation after losing to the Angels on May 7 last year to drop to 0-5 with a 9.45 ERA. Once he returned May 30, he had a 2.84 ERA over his next 10 starts with a 77-28 K/BB ratio over 63 1/3 innings. It's been only three starts for Liriano this season and people (not SBG, but mainstream media) are acting like he hasn't done this well since 2006. It isn't that he couldn't dominate, it was that he couldn't be consistent. When he was right, he was great. When he wasn't, watch out.

      1. I don't think the Twins were wrong to give up on him. It's just a little salt in the wound that he's performed well to this point. I would be totally unsurprised if he walks six guys the next time out.

        1. I can understand why the Twins gave up on Liriano. I was and am sad that they did. The gnashing of teeth of the Stribbie types over the idea of bringing him back was incredibly dumb. He signed for peanuts in Pittsburgh. He was a headcase but he was our headcase. I'd have some hope of him coming out of the funk the uh, entire rotation is in unlike the new arms they signed. Sigh.

          Watching him dominate the Red Sox at the third game at Target Field was incredibly enjoyable. I miss you, Frankie. 🙁

          1. He signed a two year deal with the Pirates that was reduced due to injury. For the original price, I think the Twins were right to pass.

  2. Bummer. I was planning to listen to the Rock Cats game this morning, and now their stuck in a rain delay.

    1. The Rock Cats game is about ready to start. The Kernels game will be starting soon, too. I love morning baseball.

  3. One of the local radio guys is a Red Sox fan who was down at Target Field for the crap series last weekend in his Red Sox regalia. Apparently someone was heckling him about how the Red Sox can just go and "buy a player." He pinned the Twins' problems on paying their catcher too much money. I wanted to call in to dispute that ahem, dubious "fact" but I assume my pleas would fall on deaf ears as they do for others who feel that way.

    1. Even if it were true that the Twins paid Mauer too much (not true), it's not like the Red Sox haven't done that in spades.

      1. They just had the fortune of getting bailed out on their foolish contracts by Ned Colletti. He should probably just enjoy that fact.

        At least it's not as infuriating as watching every guy the Yankees pick up off the scrap heap turn into a freaking All Star.

  4. Eight games ago, the Twins were over .500 and were actually slightly underperforming their pythag. That seems like a long time ago.

  6. Dusty Hughes tweeted this today:

    Dusty hughes ‏@Dhughes29 23m
    It's been over two weeks now and no call from teams. I guess nobody wants a lefty who is too short and do t throw hard anymore. Steroid time

    Forget the steroid thing, which I assume was a joke. I can't help but feel sorry for guys like him. I know he wasn't much good, but we all have dreams, and it's sad when we see them die. I hope he'll go on to have a wonderful life and that eventually, he'll be able to look back and be proud of the fact that appeared in eighty major league games, which is still better than the vast majority of people do.

    1. It must be especially hard in sports when your dream ends at 30, or even earlier. I have a bit of a dream job since I get to work on some of the fastest computers in the world and to think that it could be over, completely, in a year is not something I would handle well.

      1. Be an editor or above. It's a permissions things to include the <script> and a few attributes in the blockquote.

  11. My cousin just posted a [fill-in-proper-adjective hilarious? infuriating? terrifying?] humble-brag on her BoF page, but sadly she didn't also Tweet it, so I couldn't send it to Harris from Animal Control. I do feel dirty for having just Googled to find my cousin's Twitter feed.

  12. White Sox have a good head trainer, if you judge that by days players spent on the disabled list. But look who is in second place in the AL for fewest days on the DL-

    That's not an exaggeration. According to data compiled by the team, from 2002-2012, White Sox players spent a total of 4,026 days on the disabled list. The average across baseball was 9,496. The next-closest team in the American League over that time span was Minnesota, with 7,805 days. The Texas Rangers had 12,803, more than three times as many as the White Sox.

    I'm wondering how that would change if the Twins actually, you know, used the DL properly.

    3. Seems like a pretty rough way to measure a training staff. A freak season-ending injury early in the season is going to cost you more DL time than a freak season-ending injury late in the season, but it's still a freak injury. Some of the pitcher overuse stuff, you could argue is on the trainers, but a lot of a pitcher's mechanics are really in the hands of the pitching coaches, not to mention years and years of muscle memory. My understanding is also that in the offseason, most players find their own trainers, which is another complicating factor.

      2. I thought it seemed overly simplified, too. Still, that is a pretty huge difference between the White Sox and the rest of the league, so there might be something to it.

Comments are closed.