36 thoughts on “September 12, 2024: Suicide Mission”

  1. I've embarked on an amazing new exercise routine this week. It involves the peperoncino forgetting some key thing at home (on Monday it was his daily pills, today it was the piece of paper with his schedule and new band lock combination). I realize minutes after he's started walking to school that he forgot the thing, and then I throw on my sneakers and race through the neighborhood until I catch up with him. Sure is invigorating!

    1. Literally laughing out loud.

      The best part is how they also yell at you when you ask if they remembered something before they leave. "Of course I have it! I wouldn't forget something like that!" Or is that just us?

      1. Oh, man. I got yelled at when I brought him the pills on Monday because "it doesn't really matter if I miss a day." And while he's not going to drop dead if he misses a day, it does seem prudent to take an allergy pill every day during peak allergy season...

  2. Ohtani now three home runs and two stolen bases from 50-50. His season has gone from "he might be able to reach it" to "maybe 60-60 will happen".

    1. The Twins are doing a Bark at the Park game on the 24th. I wish I was working that game, I would have volunteered for the dog section.

  5. Luis Arráez Has Stopped Striking Out | FanGraphs:

    The last time Luis Arraez struck out was August 10, a full month ago. He struck out the day before that as well. As of Tuesday morning, Arraez has played in 42 of the Padres’ 46 games during the second half of the season, and he has struck out exactly twice. No other qualified player has struck out fewer than 15 times since the All-Star break. Please take a moment to think about that. It means that the player with the second-fewest strikeouts has struck out 7 1/2 times more than Arraez.

    Arráez has been playing with a torn ligament in his thumb since July 25th. As the season winds down, I’m watching closely to see if he can pull off three batting titles in a row (last achieved by Miguel Cabrera in 2013) with three separate teams (never before accomplished). If Arráez can do it, he will be the first Padres player to lead the league since 37 year old Tony Gwynn hit .372 to capture his last (and fourth consecutive) batting title in 1997. Captain Video also had a separate streak of three consecutive titles in 1987–1989.

    1. If Arraez can avoid striking out four more times over the next 17 games, he’ll be just the second player to join this list since 1979. The first player? Tony Gwynn, who in 1993 struck out four times over 208 second-half plate appearances while batting a crisp .400.

        1. I've moved on at this point. Reading more about his batting profile has convinced me he is both unique and in a precarious position. If he hits the ball better or worse, he will do worse. It's not a profile that bodes well for aging. Him being in the NL means I can fully enjoy watching him from a distance and not have to think about anything else.

          1. 11-23 in his last 5 games. All singles.

            I miss him. But, yea, I have moved on.

            Still, his number 2 similar through age 26? Tony Gwynn.

  6. Ha -- I love seeing article titles like Is Rocco Baldelli the worst manager in Twins/Senators history? being thrown around. Is he an undeniably genius skipper? No. Is he Billy Gardner? Hell no. There's nothing like a cold spell to wring out the headline hyperboles.

    1. Thinking about how most below the age of 30 either outright don't remember 9/11 or have only vague child memories of it, how many managers do Twins fans even remember? Kelly took over in '86 and there have been only three more since then. The people writing these headlines are unlikely to be over 50 and thus remember the pre-Kelly managers. This is a very long way to wonder where Baldelli ranks as a Twins manager.

      1. What’s even more wild is that the title references the Senators, meaning the headline writer was aware of pre-Minnesota franchise history, but didn’t bother to check whether the question sounds stupid on its face in light of Joe Cantillon’s .347 winning percentage and 139 games under .500 low-water mark or Cookie Lavagetto’s Twins-worst -113.

        But even confining ourselves to post-Ray Miller/Billy Gardner era, the title is total clickbait crap:

        Manager W-L% G>.500
        Rocco .530 52
        Gardy .507 26
        TK .478 -104
        Molitor .471 -38

        1. I think TK's record needs to be looked at differently since the Twins were in the West, not the Central. Gardy's teams feasted on a weak division.

          1. And, to shade the FZ, TK came in at the tail end of a terrible era, whereas Gardy benefitted from the cupboard not being bare.

            1. TK to Gardy: “Count the Rings.”

              Agree with you both. I think Gardy drove me up the wall further & more frequently than Molitor ever managed, adjusting for expectations.

              1. I imagine TK would have had he been managing during a shift in general baseball paradigms. (although whether he would have used Jason effin Tyner as a DH is impossible to know)

          1. It's above average, but only 28.2 ft/s. Buxton is at 29.6 ft/s for instance. That said, Martin still ranks third on the team. Helman, in a small sample size, has 28.6 ft/s sprint speed.

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