Game 24: tigers @ twins

If you ignore the crazy awful 0-9 start, the Twins are a .500 team. That seems about right. It's disappointing to be staring at a 7-16 team, but I would guess that it'll even out quite a bit over the course of the season.

Also, the Twins might be getting below average production from almost every spot in their lineup, but one position hasn't been a problem...

Rk 1B
1
MIN
0.5

JMIVGABB, indeed. He's gotten on base in every game so far, and has gotten on base twice in 14 of them.

Today, Tyler Duffey will try to provide some stability in what has suddenly become a topsy turvy rotation. Remember when everyone was wondering where Duffey and Berrios were going to fit, and who was going to falter first? Yeah. Good times.

Twins on Leaderboards

Batting Average - Núñez - 10th (.382) *
On Base Percentage - Mauer - 1st (.451) *
Games Played - Mauer & Sano - t-10th (23)
Plate Appearances - Dozier & Mauer - t-7th (102) *
Triples - Suzuki, Núñez, Buxton & Mauer - t-8th (1)
Bases on Balls - Mauer - 2nd (20)
Bases on Balls - Sano - 4th (16)
Strikeouts - Sano - 2nd (22)
Stolen Bases - Núñez t-5th (5)
Singles - Mauer & Núñez t-10th (18)
Runs Created - Mauer- t-9th (18)
Times on Base - Mauer - 1st (46)
Hit By Pitch - Núñez - t-2nd (3)
Sacrifice Bunts - Rosario & Murphy - t-1st (2)
Sacrifice Bunts - Dozier, Duffey, & Buxton - t-7th (1)
Intentional Walks - Mauer - 1st (5)*
Intentional Walks - Escobar & Rosario - t-9th (1)
Caught Stealing - Núñez & Santana - t-7th (2)
AB/K - Mauer - 9th (8.9)
AB/HR - Park - 8th (12.4)
Outs Made - Dozier - t-7th (74)*

  • Núñez' batting average adjusted down to .323 by adding outs required to qualify in plate appearances.
  • This would be Mauer's highest OBP ever. At present, he's over 40 points ahead of second place.
  • Mauer has been on base 17 times more in the same number of plate appearances. Move Dozier down in the batting order until he gets things figured out.
  • Five intentional walks. For the guy batting before Sano. Wow.
  • In the same number of plate appearances, Mauer has made 57.

WHIP - Nolasco - 4th (0.904)
BB/9 - Nolasco - 2nd (0.976)
BB/9 - Hughes - 10th (1.780)
Games Pitched - Fien - t-3rd (12)
Games Started - Hughes - t-1st (5)Complete Games - Hughes - t-1st (1)*
Hits Allowed - Hughes - t-10th (32)
K/BB - Nolasco - 2nd (8.000)
Losses - Hughes - t-1st (4)
Losses - Gibson & Jepsen - t-7th (3)
Wild Pitches - May t-1st (4)
Wild Pitches - Perkins, Milone, Santana, & O'Rourke - t-10th (2)
Hit By Pitch - Gibson - t-9th (2)

  • Hughes' "complete game" was the rain-shortened 6 inning game. He's one of 6 pitchers (only 2 in the AL) credited with a complete game so far.

The only pitcher doing much in the way of positivity right now is Ricky Nolasco.

Sure.

Makes sense.

Happy Birthday–April 30

Dave Eggler (1849)
Charley Jones (1850)
Jack Sheridan (1862)
Jumbo Brown (1907)
Chet Laabs (1912)
Ernie Tyler (1924)
Ken Retzer (1934)
Ray Miller (1945)
Phil Garner (1949)
Tracy Ringolsby (1951)
Jeff Reboulet (1964)
Ryan O'Rourke (1988)

Jack Sheridan was the first home plate umpire to crouch behind the catcher in the style that umpires do today.

Ernie Tyler was the umpires’ assistant for Baltimore Orioles home games from 1960 through 2010.  He went from opening day of 1960 through July 27, 2007 without missing a game, a streak of 3,769 games.  He missed two games that weekend to go to Cooperstown for the induction of Cal Ripken, Jr. into the Hall of Fame.

Ray Miller was the manager of the Twins in 1985 and 1986, replacing Billy Gardner and being replaced by Tom Kelly.

Tracy Ringolsby has been a baseball writer since 1976 and was given the Spink Award in 2005.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to Rhubarb_Runner's brother.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 30

Prince & The New Power Generation – The Beautiful Ones

"The beautiful ones you always seem to lose..."

AMR also noticed the embarrassment of riches of Prince videos right now. I've been wanting to play them for years only to be stymied time and time again. I appreciate the outpouring of amazing live performances out there right now, if only so we appreciate the depths of his talent and awesomeness.

Here he is with noted Twins fan Misty Copeland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3DaE75tEl4

h/t AMR

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Game 23. Detroit at Minnesota. 7:10pm.

The NFL started its THREE DAY draft yesterday. 3 days to go through 8 rounds. The over coverage of every slightest bit of smoke GMs send out (99% of it is false info) gets blasted on ESPN. One tries to tune out the sports nets, but it gets filtered trough social media. Its all very annoying. Am I'm saying this as a person who still likes to watch football (although my fandom is waning the older I get). I do dislike everything else that surrounds the game.

Why am I bringing this up? I am very happy that baseball's draft hasnt become this huge spectacle of banality. I get heavy coverage of the first round, and to an extent the second (its where the bigger contracts are offered) but after that, its just a bunch of names and the hope that a few of them sign to fill out minor league rosters and hope you hit a gem.

This is all a half formed idea, but it comes down to this : I really dislike draft coverage of all sports.

 

On to the game.  If you take out the 0-9 start to the season, the Twins are 7-6. Thats not bad! Most games have been watchable (although heart pounding and clenched teeth when the Twins have a lead late and the bullpen starts to come in). Maybe the Twins can claw their way to .500 by the 4th of July.

I am also very happy Joe Mauer is back to Joe Mauer Super Baseball Player . Coming into the game he is leading the American League in OnBasePercentage (.459) and is just off the leaderboard in OPS (.907).

Friday Music Day: New Music

Having a kid hasn't slashed as much time from my hobbies as I might have expected so far (subject to change, obviously). I still play a fair number of video games, I will watch baseball, and I still listen to quite a bit of music.

The one thing I don't do nearly as much anymore is find NEW music. I almost always did that late at night after Linds went to sleep. Anymore, I'm just as tired as she is, so around the time I'd be perusing blogs and whatnot, I'm falling asleep on the couch, instead.

As a result, I haven't really heard a lot so far this year. The Operators album is pretty sweet, the new Mitski song is good. New M83 is deeply cheesy and odd....yeah.

Any recs?

Also, drop your ten.

Happy Birthday–April 29

Frank Hankinson (1856)
Ernie Johnson (1888)
Mickey McDermott (1929)
Steve Ridzik (1929)
Ed Charles (1933)
Luis Aparicio (1934)
Akira Ohgi (1935)
Tom House (1947)
Rick Burleson (1951)
Bob McClure (1952)
Ron Washington (1952)
Steve Crawford (1958)
John Vander Wal (1966)
Sterling Hitchcock (1971)
Rafael Betancourt (1975)
Tony Armas (1978)

Akiri Ohgi was a long-time manager in Japan, winning nearly a thousand games.

Rick Burleson was drafted by Minnesota in the eighth round in 1969, but did not sign.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to Papa MagUidhir.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 29