Happy Birthday–June 24

Billy Nash (1865)
George Harper (1892)
Rollie Hemsley (1907)
Jim Mills (1919)
Wally Yonamine (1925)
Don Mincher (1938)
Ken Reitz (1951)
Doug Jones (1957)
Tom Klawitter (1958)
Doug Bernier (1980)
Phil Hughes (1986)

Jim Mills spent almost his entire adult life involved in baseball in the Carolinas.  He played college ball at North Carolina State, played minor league ball for nine seasons in the Carolinas, managed in Carolina minor leagues for six seasons, umpired in the Carolina League for two seasons, was in minor league front offices in the Carolinas from 1956-1971, and was president of the Carolina League for seven years.

Born in Hawaii, Wally Yonamine was a star in Japan from 1951-1962, stealing home eleven times.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–June 24

2013 Game 72: Twins at Indians

Oh, good, Pedro Hernandez is back and he's on the hill today! Amazingly, he's by far the more successful this year of today's two pitchers, as Carlos Carrasco (0-2, 8.40) should help to make this a high-scoring affair.

It seems like there's very little to say about a team hovering just under .500. It's not bad enough for mockery and they're not good enough that it's reasonable to talk about the playoffs. So, we wait for the young kids to turn this thing around, and wonder what kind of pitching the Twins will get in return for guys like Willingham and Morneau. I've never been the rosterbating type, so I'll leave that to everyone else.

Mauer's currently holding off a run from Wieters for the All-Star Game starting spot. This is in no way a reasonable thing, so I'm considering voting for the first time in several years. But, I'll probably blow it off in the end.

This appears to be the MLB.tv free game of the day.

Happy Birthday–June 23

George Weiss (1894)
Jack Smith (1895)
Karl Spooner (1931)
Dave Bristol (1933)
Tom Haller (1937)
Dave Goltz (1949)
Marty Barrett (1958)
Jim Deshaies (1960)
Hensley Meulens (1967)
Josh Byrnes (1970)
Mark Hendrickson (1974)

George Weiss was the general manager of the New York Yankees from 1948-1960.

Dave Bristol managed four different teams from 1966-1980.

Josh Byrnes is the general manager of the San Diego Padres.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–June 23

Game 71: Twins @ Clevelanders

Walters vs. Kluber

I've got a bad feeling about this one. The high-strikeout, low-walk pitchers seem to be eating our lunch this season (anecdotal. no facts or proof to back this up.)

Maybe the Twins will surprise us, though. After all, they do still have Joe Mauer on the team. As you'll see in a moment, he's pretty good at baseball.

Twins on Leaderboards

rWAR - Mauer, 8th (3.3)
rWAR, Position Players - Mauer, 5th (3.3)
Offensive rWAR - Mauer, 4th (2.9)
Defensive rWAR - Florimon, 2nd (1.9) (!??)
Batting Average - Mauer, 4th (.328)
OBP - Mauer, 3rd (.410)
OPS - Mauer, 7th (.902)
Hits - Mauer, t-8th (88)
Doubles - Mauer t-2nd (23)
Triples - Hicks, Dozier, and Escobar, t-10th (2)
Bases on Balls - Mauer & Willingham, t-8th (37)
OPS+ - Mauer, 6th (149)
Times on Base - Mauer, 5th (125)
Hit By Pitch - Willingham, 1st (12)
Hit By Pitch - Plouffe, t-4th (5)
Sac Flies - Morneau, t-4th (5)
Intentional Walks - Mauer, t-6th (5)
Caught Stealing - Dozier, t-2nd (5)
SB% - Florimon, t-9th (87.5%)

BB/9 - Correia, 2nd (1.325)
Games Played - Duensing, t-4th (35)
Games Played - Fien, t-6th (34)
Saves - Perkins, t-5th (18)
Home Runs Allowed - Correia, t-5th (15)
Hits Allowed - Correia, 3rd (102)
Earned Runs Allowed - Pelfrey, 6th (48)
Wild Pitches - Roenicke, t-7th (6)
Games Finished - Perkins, t-6th (25)