92 thoughts on “August 13, 2013: Look at all those Thirteens”

  1. Just got the aces through the years banner. None of those guys are with the team anymore. Apparently, if you are position player who is asked to pitch, get the house on the market NOW.

  3. Multiple speculative rumblings in the mainstream media that Sano could be in Minnesota before end of season.

      1. One of the beat writers speculated that an infielder would be called up (suggested Sano) because they traded Jamie Caroll, but they activated Ramirez instead.

  4. Going to tomorrow's game with someone from a potential Japanese client (but not a client of our area, so we get to point my hours at the game to a different division). He's a fan of the Hanshin Tigers... which happens to be Tsuyoshi Nishioka's current club... where he's hitting .275/.340/.362 this year.

    3. Hey, me too. I promised my daughter I'd take her this year annnnnnnnnnnnnnd somehow it's almost over. Or at least school starts in a couple of weeks.

        1. Sounds perfect. It's actually the first game she'll remember so I splurged a bit on the tickets. Well, I found a good deal on Stubhub. I want to sit close enough that she's not too bored. WHERE DO I FIND THE MALT CUPS?

          2. How old is she for the "...first game she'll remember..."? My daughter will be 2 this month and I'd like to take her to a game this summer, if only to say that I've taken her to a game. I know she won't remember it, but my wife and I will.

            1. Both of my kids ended up going to games before they were 1. I'm toying with the idea of taking Aquinas (4 in September) to a game this summer yet, but our recent trip to the Moondogs game has me leaning against it. He'll remember it, but it might not be fondly if he gets bored...

                2. When my son was 5 months old, we took him to a game in the Metrodome for that very reason. He slept through at least four innings, but he was there.

            2. She's 5. I probably could've taken her last year too but I feel like we're the odds of us making it past, say, the 6th inning are much better this year.

              The first games I remember for sure were at Tiger Stadium when I was probably 5 or so. Though I have vague memories of a night game at the Met and math tells me I couldn't have been more than 4.

            3. That's kind of what I thought. I have no memories of specific games until I was probably 6 or 7, just fuzzy images of a sea of empty blue bleacher seats.

              1. My daughter got to see Matt Capps pitch, which resulted in him blowing a three run lead in the ninth and my daughter crying for about 10 minutes.

                Spoiler SelectShow

                1. Perkins passed him on the Twins all-time save list with his last one. He's just a handful away from passing the immortal Bill Campbell for 10th place.

            5. in ky first remembered game, mickey mantle pinch-hit and walked in about his last season. so I was around five.

  5. Does anyone happen to know the record for most scoreless innings at the start of a career? I'm sure it's more than 17.1, but how much more? Is Albers anywhere close?

        1. There appear to have been 11 pitchers since 1916 to start their career with two consecutive shutouts. It'll take a bit to see how they did in game three.

          1. Looks like several pitched in relief before, so striking them. The best appears to be Dave Ferriss. Ferriss started with 22.? scoreless innings (no play-by-play available). He gave up two runs in game three, another shutout in game four, one run in game five, and another shutout in game six.

    3. B-R's Play Index unfortunately focuses on games instead of innings, so it's hard to say. Brad Ziegler had 3839 scoreless innings to start his career. Thielbar had 19.2 innings, so Albers has a bit to go to match him.

        1. For Twins starting pitchers, Swarzak had the record before Albers broke it. I have no idea about league-wide.

          Albers only needs a couple more innings to break Thielbar's record for most scoreless innings to start a career (19.2, I believe).

    4. Thanks, guys. That was a lot easier than going to the trouble of actually looking it up myself.

  6. I'm reading that Morneau has been put on waivers. I understand that tons of guys (literally--well more than 2000 pounds of them) get put on waivers, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything. Still, if the Twins do want to trade him, while he's hot would be the best time to do it.

    1. Totally agree Padre. Rehashing a pre non-waiver deadline discussion, but I'm still okay with moving him. That being said, with the August he's having, I wouldn't mind bringing him back next year with some sort of incentive laden deal.

      1. I never mind those incentive laden deals... when the team has to pay out the incentives.

        1. Except that in baseball, incentives can only be about games played, innings pitched, plate appearances, etc. and not any actual performance in those events.

          1. Yeah, but there's a pretty strong correlation between innings pitched/plate appearances, etc. and actual performance.

            1. Yeah, there's another one where meeting the incentive isn't a guarantee of any sort of success.

          3. Yeah, the last thing you want to do with Morneau is encourage him to get on the field no matter what. He has a long history of playing when he isn't healthy enough to be of any help to the team. I wouldn't mind a deal that has just one year guaranteed so he can boost his value. If the Twins are still not in contention next year, they could then trade a productive Morneau for more than what they could have gotten this year. Any option would have to be a team option with a small buyout.

      2. Were you impressed by his May last year?

        .264/.317/.642, 60 PA -- Justin Morneau, May 2012
        .269/.296/.673, 54 PA -- Justin Morneau, 12 days of August 2013

        It's neat that he's had a hot stretch, but everyone has hot stretches. Despite his performance in August, he still hasn't matched his season averages from last year. I don't exactly think he should be run out on a rail, but he's not a good defender and he's been an average hitter for a couple of seasons now. He's not young. He has a really big platoon split for his career (.896 OPS vs .714 OPS) and lefty hitters are more prone to having a true big platoon split. If anything, his platoon split is getting worse:

        .283/.345/.481 -- Morneau vs. RHP, 2013
        .290/.371/.531 -- Morneau vs. RHP, 2012

        .216/.255/.299 -- Morneau vs. LHP, 2013
        .232/.271/.298 -- Morneau vs. LHP, 2012

        If you wanted to milk the last bits of value out of Morneau, you could start him against RHP and then have a platoon partner ready to pinch hit for him once the starter comes out of the game. The platoon split really kills his value off the bench in this era, where he'll almost be guaranteed to face a lefty pitcher in any meaningful late game situation.

        The Twins don't really have a good righty platoon partner for him at first base, so it just doesn't seem to make much sense to keep him around after this year. Plus--and I could easily be missing some examples of this--it seems as though no one actually runs a position player platoon any more, for reasons I fail to grasp. So if no one is going to use him in a platoon, then he's either a below-average position player or a poor bench player.

        If we're trying to catch lightning in a bottle next year, I'd rather give Parmelee the PAs--it seems more likely that someone would convince themselves Parmelee is solid up-and-comer than someone convincing themselves that Morneau is suddenly the hitter he was 2010 (or even pre-2010.)

        1. There you go throwing facts at a perfectly good, off-the-cuff comment!

          But seriously, when it's laid out so eloquently/logically, it makes me sad to realize how much he's fallen off. I guess I'm just susceptible to the emotional pitch of the party-line: "Only 3 home runs from overtaking Tony-O for 4th place on the Twins' all-time list!" and "Top-10 in games played and hits!" when evaluating his performance.

          Edit: Also, I'm likely late to the party, but when did the Twins/MLB start including the Senator's stats in the "all-time" list?

          2. I hope no offense was taken, you just got me to looking at Morneau's splits and my comment ensued. I think I wouldn't have written so much if there wasn't some part of me that wants to find a reason to keep him around.

            1. None at all! Just a bit disappointed about the reality of what's likely left in the tank. The recent home run surge apparently has me looking at Mountie through rose colored glasses.

        2. Plus--and I could easily be missing some examples of this--it seems as though no one actually runs a position player platoon any more, for reasons I fail to grasp.

          25 man roster
          13 pitchers
          3 catchers

          That leaves nine other players. No room in the roster for platoons!

          1. I know the Twins definitely aren't running any platoons, I'm just not sure if there are any 12-pitcher teams out there that might run a platoon. I haven't paid any attention to Oakland in ages, for instance.

                1. That's not a platoon in the truest sense, but Redmond started more games against LH starters than you would expect based on just random use. In 3 of his 5 seasons, he started more against LHers than he did RHers, so Gardy did at least try to use him in that manner. Obviously, he couldn't use Redmond strictly against LH because Mauer would need a rest at times when the Twins didn't face any lefties.

                  1. But there were times in a series where Mauer would face a lefty, then take the next day off versus a righty.

            2. Roughly speaking, I think the As are platooning Jaso and Norris at catcher, and Moss/Freiman at 1b.

  8. Reading that Jose Berrios has gone on the DL with a right elbow contusion and may be done for the season. Of course, "the season" is only about three weeks now, so it's not as bad as that sounds.

  9. And the player to be named later in the Drew Butera trade is...Miguel Sulbaran!

    All I know is what the b-r page says about him. He's a 19-year-old left-handed pitcher. He's from Venezuela, and has pitched in the Dodgers' organization since 2011. He's short but probably well-built: 5'10", 185 pounds. He's pitching for Great Lakes in the Midwest League--presumably the Twins will put him in Cedar Rapids. He has mostly been a starter. This year he's 6-4, 3.01, 1.25 WHIP. He's struck out 85 and walked 27 in 92.2 innings. I don't know that I'd be real high on him, but given that we were trading Drew Butera, I'd say he's about as good as we were likely to do.

    1. Seems like a pretty good return for Butera. Young for the league and decent numbers as a starter. Especially when you consider Butera hit .186/.297/.281 in his age 22 season in a similar league.

    2. I believe that one of the crazy rules in a PTBNL deal is that the P when N must not be moved within a league. So Twins can't move him to Cedar Rapids first. Or maybe that's the rule for waiver claims.

      2. I think the rule is that the PTBNL can't be from the same league as the player he's traded for.

    3. He seems like a relatively intriguing prospect. Certainly more than I expected them to get for Drew Butera. Jonathan Mayo rated him the Dodgers' 14th best prospect:

      A native of Venezuela, Sulbaran made his American debut in 2012. He pitched at three levels, reaching Class A Great Lakes for a pair of starts. He didn't pitch well there, but he's found much more success in his return in 2013, and, at 19 years old, he remains one of the younger starters in the league. Sulbaran has a good feel for his low-90s fastball and can add and subtract velocity from it as needed. His curveball is his best offspeed pitch and both his slider and changeup show promise. The Dodgers see Sulbaran, who gets a Wandy Rodriguez comp, as a starter, but his stuff could also make him a dominant left-handed reliever.

    4. milb.com's Midwest League transactions page says that Sulbaran has, in fact, been assigned to Cedar Rapids.

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