The boy made a "worm bin" at a recent Earth Day celebration. It's basically exactly what it sounds like. Once we get it going, it should take care of most of our appropriate food waste. Unlike a compost bin, it seems so weird to me to have a bunch of worms going to town for us, but kind of cool too.
Monthly Archives: April 2019
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.
Gary Clark, Jr. – Pearl Cadillac
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2019 Game 25: Baltimore Tater Tossers vs. Minnesota Mashers
So baseball teams are hitting a lot of home runs so far this year, about five percent more than in the most prolific season ever for dingers, and that in the coldest part of the season when balls aren't supposed to carry so well. Apparently the balls have lower drag, which would mean the stitches are not as raised. That would also impact pitchers' ability to get better movement on their throws. Few teams in the game right now are mashing the baseball as well as our own hometown nine. After just a month of games, the Twins have the third highest batting average in baseball (.269), behind only Houston and St. Louis. Their on-base percentage is much lower, 13th in the majors and only nine points above average. But the boys have been bringing out the boomsticks with the team sporting a .514 slugging percentage, the best in the game, and that's good enough to put them atop all teams in OPS at .849 as well. While Eddie Rosario has been en fuego at the plate, it's actually Jorge Polanco who leads the team in OPS at 1.033. Shoot, Eddie's .970 OPS isn't even good enough for second place, which is held by Nelson Cruz at 1.022, one step ahead of Edisito. In fact, the only regular position player on the team right now with an OPS+ below 100 is Marwin Gonzales, who sticks out like Michael Pineda's butt with a 30 OPS+ (Adrianza's sucking the nipple nearest the ass with an OPS+ of just 14). But Rosario does lead the American League in home runs with 11 (third in MLB), and is second in the league in ribeyes with 24, which averages out to one run poked in per game.
On the mound, Jose Berrios is the team's clear ace with a record of 4-1, a 2.97 ERA, 41 strikeouts and only 8 walks. Not only is he pitching the best, he's pitching the most, logging one out above 39 innings pitched, 13 more that the second best innings eater on the team, Martin Perez. Today the Twins send Kyle Gibson to the hill for his fifth turn through the rotation. He's been inconsistent at best, compiling a 6.10 ERA over 20.2 innings. For a guy who seems real reluctant to pitch to contact, he's done his fair share of it, and he's given his share of free passes, too, which accounts for his 1.500 WHIP. Hopefully the offense can provide him plenty of support today and allow him to be more aggressive in the strike zone, which should let him pitch deeper into the game. Not a bad bet considering nearly half of the Twins home runs this year have come at the hands of Baltimore pitchers. The Orioles today are starting Dylan Bundy (who according to BR is a rare switch hitting pitcher). Bundy has no wins and three losses in five starts with a 6.56 ERA. He's also given up one home run for every ten outs he's managed to notch. The sky is fair at Target Field today, a high temperature in the upper 50's is expected, the concrete is most definitely dry and the boomsticks are fully loaded. Play ball!
Hot Hot Heat — You Owe Me An I.O.U.
Those who played MVP Baseball 2005 will recognize this one. There's no live versions of this on-line, but this music video is so bizarre it's worth showing.
Thanks for letting me play a few songs this week!
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Happy Birthday–April 28
Red Lucas (1902)
Charlie Metro (1918)
Tom Sturdivant (1930)
Jackie Brandt (1934)
Pedro Ramos (1935)
Tom Browning (1960)
John Cerutti (1960)
Russ Morman (1962)
Luis Quinones (1962)
Barry Larkin (1964)
Jim Poole (1966)
Jorge Sosa (1978)
Sean Douglass (1979)
Yoslan Herrera (1981)
David Freese (1983)
John Gaub (1985)
Dillon Gee (1986)
John Gaub was drafted by Minnesota in the twenty-fifth round in 2003, but did not sign.
April 28, 2019: Memories Past
I'd say we got a good 4-5" out here. It brought back stirring memories of... like a few weeks ago.
2019 Game 24: Orioles @ Twins
That Houston series was "disappointing", per se, but after that first game, it just seemed like they let some good opportunities pass then by. The bullpen looked weak and the Twins' aggression at the plate began to look very exploitable.
As it turns out, facing the Orioles is the best medicine. Last night, Alex Cobb pitched like he's trying to top Bert's home run record by the All Star break, and the Twins took advantage. At the very least, this seems like a team that can beat a lesser opponent.
Today's opposing pitcher, Dan Straily, has been having any the same level of success as Cobb has -- that is to say, none at all. Hopefully, our batters can take advantage of that and hopefully Berrios has a tighter outing today than he has in his last few.
This seems like a very winnable game. Here's hoping it sticks to the script.
Minor Details: Games of April 26
Joe Cronin was a single away from the cycle.
2019 Recap: Game Twenty-three
MINNESOTA 6, BALTIMORE 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, April 26.
Batting stars: Nelson Cruz was 3-for-4 with two home runs, his fourth and fifth. Max Kepler was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourth. C. J. Cron was 1-for-3 with a home run, his fourth. Eddie Rosario was 1-for-4 with a home run (his eleventh) and two runs.
Pitching stars: Martin Perez pitched six innings, giving up one run on six hits and no walks and striking out four. Ryne Harper pitched a perfect inning, striking out one. Fernando Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Trey Mancini was 3-for-5 with a double. Jonathan Villar was 2-for-4 with a walk. Gabriel Ynoa pitched 3.1 innings, giving up one run on four hits and no walks and striking out one.
The game: With two out in the first, the Twins hit back-to-back-to-back home runs, with Cruz, Rosario, and Cron all going deep to give Minnesota a 3-0 lead. The Twins missed a chance to add to their lead in the second, as they put men on first and second with none out and did not score. In the third, however, Rosario singled, went to second on a ground out, and scored on an error to make it 4-0.
The Orioles, who did not have a baserunner through three innings, opened the fourth with consecutive singles, but a double play took them out of the inning. Meanwhile, Kepler homered in the fourth and Cruz hit his second homer of the game in the fifth to make the margin 6-0.
The Orioles sixth opened the same way their fourth had, with consecutive singles by Villar and Mancini. This time there was no double play, however, and a one-out single by Dwight Smith got Baltimore on the board at 6-1. They threatened in the eighth, as a Mancini double and two-out walks to Smith and Rio Ruiz loaded the bases. Trevor May came in and retired Hanser Alberto on a force out. Baltimore also put a couple of men on in the ninth but again did not score.
WP: Perez (3-0). LP: Alex Cobb (0-2). S: None.
Notes: Mitch Garver was 1-for-3 with a walk and is batting .400. Jorge Polanco was 0-for-4 and is batting .349. Willians Astudillo was 1-for-1 as a pinch-hitter and is batting .313. Cruz raised his average to .308.
Harper lowered his ERA to 2.45. Matt Magill made his season debut and pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up a hit and two walks but no runs, so his ERA is zero.
As you can see, the Twins hit five solo home runs in this game. I don't know what the record is for solo home runs in a game, but I'd think five has to be fairly close. If you just look at most solo home runs without getting any other kind of home run, it seems like it'd be even closer.
It was kind of lost in all the home runs, and kind of discounted because they were playing the Orioles, but Perez had another fine game. I was pretty skeptical about Perez when the Twins acquired him, and his first few relief appearances did nothing to dim my skepticism. In his three starts, however, he has pitched very well. He has pitched six innings in each game and has given up six runs, giving him an ERA of 3.00 with a WHIP of 1.17. He has struck out eleven and walked just three. We'll see if he can keep it going, but so far he's pitched quite well as a starter.
I don't know why A-Stud didn't start on La Tortuga night, but you can't argue with the results. I've said before that I have no idea how Rocco decides who his catcher is going to be on a given night, and that continues to be true. I assume he has a method, that it's not just random, but he doesn't seem to want to tell anyone what it is. And that's fine--he doesn't owe it to me or anyone else to explain how he chooses his lineup, and I haven't heard anything about any of the players complaining. Winning helps a lot with that, of course.
One can feel a bit for the Orioles fans. We've all rooted for some bad Twins teams, and we know it's not any fun. But there's nothing we can do for them, just as no one did anything for us when the Twins stunk. The Twins are doing what you're supposed to do with bad teams--take care of business and beat them. The Orioles will be good again someday, and I'm sure they'll return the favor to us if they can. That's just how it works.
Record: The Twins are 14-9, in first place in the American League Central, leading Cleveland by percentage points.
Projected record: We're still on track for 153-9!