April 17, 2025: Steamy

The water heater that came with our house has been a champ. I'm a little embarrassed to tell you the year it was installed actually, but though not on the top of its game, it's always been at least serviceable. The last place we rented once had a water heater emergency that I'd like to avoid (and that's also the last time I remember being able to call an owner and say, hey, take care of this; I miss that).

Anyway, two questions:

  • Name a current or former Twins player that's never been outright good, but has at least been goodish now and then, but also never outright bad. Bonus points for someone that maintained that until the end of their career.
  • Uhh, any recommendations for a natural gas water heater replacement? Again, it's working "fine", but better to replace before it's a problem. I have no dog in the tank vs. tankless fight.

Happy Birthday–April 17

Alexander Cartwright (1820)
Cap Anson (1852)
Tom Needham (1879)
Jake Daubert (1884)
Buzz Arlett (1912)
Solly Hemus (1923)
Tsutomu Wakamatsu (1947)
Denny Walling (1954)
Craig Worthington (1965)
Marquis Grissom (1967)
Gary Bennett (1972)
Ryan Raburn (1981)
Jed Lowrie (1984)
Deolis Guerra (1989)

Alexander Cartwright was instrumental in developing the rules for the game of baseball.

Buzz Arlett was a star in the low minors from 1934-1941, and probably would have been for several more years had World War II not intervened.  He had a career average of .319 with a slugging average of .480, but never played above Class C.

Tsutomu Wakamatsu was a star in Japan from 1971-1989, making the all-star team eleven times.  His career average of .319 is second to Leron Lee on the all-time list of players with at least four thousand at-bats.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 17

Minor Details: Games of April 15

ST. PAUL SAINTS 2, IOWA CUBS 1 IN IOWA

Reese McGuire singled home a run in the third, but the Saints came back with a Carson McCusker two-run double in the fourth.  Saints pitching took it from there, striking out nine and walking only one in the game.

Batters:  Luke Keaschall and Emmanuel Rodriguez were each 2-for-5.  Carson McCusker was 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs.

Pitchers:  Zebby Matthews struck out seven in five innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk.  Travis Adams pitched four shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks and striking out two.

Opponents:  Carlos Perez was 2-for-3 with a double.  Jonathan Long was 2-for-4.  Javier Assad struck out four in 3.1 innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk.  Brooks Kriske struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Record:  St. Paul is 6-7, in eighth place, 4.5 games behind Columbus.

TULSA DRILLERS 3, WICHITA WIND SURGE 0 IN TULSA

It was scoreless until the fifth, when John Rhodes singled home a run and another scored on an error.  Rhodes singled home another run in the seventh.  Wichita drew six walks but had only five hits, striking out ten times and stranding nine runners.

Batters:  Aaron Sabato was 2-for-3 with a double.  Ricardo Olivar was 2-for-4.

Pitchers:  Ricky Castro struck out four in 3.2 innings, giving up two hits and two walks.  Michael Martinez pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opponents:  John Rhodes was 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs.  Chris Newell was 2-for-4.  Peter Heubeck struck out eight in four shutout innings, giving up one hit and three walks.  Lucas Wepf pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and two walks and striking out one.  Christian Suarez pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.

Record:  Wichita is 6-4, tied for third with Northwest Arkansas, one game behind Arkansas and Springfield.

PEORIA CHIEFS 6, CEDAR RAPIDS KERNELS 2 IN PEORIA

Cedar Rapids scored two in the first, one on a bases-loaded walk and the other on a wild pitch.  Peoria came back with one in the second and took control with a four-run third.  Brayden Jobert had a two-run single in the inning.

Batters:  Billy Amick was 2-for-4.

Pitchers:  Starter Jeremy Lee pitched 2.2 innings, allowing four runs on five hits and two walks and striking out two.  Logan Whitaker pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opponents:  Brayden Jobert was 3-for-4 with two RBIs.  Johnfrank Salazar was 2-for-3 with a walk and a run.  Zach Levenson was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.  Dionys Rodriguez pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and two walks and striking out two.

Record:  Cedar Rapids is 6-4, in second place, one game behind Quad Cities.

FORT MYERS MIGHTY MUSSELS 9, BRADENTON MARAUDERS 4 IN FORT MYERS

Fort Myers scored four in the third to take a 5-1 lead.  Jose Rodriguez had a two-run triple in the inning.  The lead stretched to 9-2 through eight.

Batters:  Jose Rodriguez was 2-for-3 with a triple, a run, and two RBIs.  Peyton Carr was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.  Poncho Ruiz was 2-for-4 with a walk and a run.

Pitchers:  Starter Michael Carpenter struck out three and walked three in two innings, giving up one run and two hits.  Liam Rocha pitched a scoreless inning, walking one and striking out one.  Brady Feigl pitched a scoreless inning, walking one and striking out one.

Opponents:  Axiel Plaz was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs.  Yordany De Los Santos was 2-for-4 with a double.

Record:  Fort Myers is 5-5, tied for second with Lakeland and Tampa, one game behind Clearwater.

TODAY'S TILTS

11:00  Wichita (Chase Chaney, 0-0, 7.71) at Tulsa (Chris Campos, 0-0, 6.75)
12:08  St. Paul (Andrew Morris. 0-0, 0.00) at Iowa (TBD)
6:05  Bradenton (Clevari Tejada, 0-1, 11.57) at Fort Myers (Christian MacLeod, 0-0, 0.00)
6:35  Cedar Rapids (Ty Langenberg, 0-1, 7.71) at Peoria (Juan Salas, 0-2, 7.71)

April 16, 2025: XI

Work is making the move to Windows 11, and since I'm one of the "techy" people (I use that term extremely relatively; I am just compare to the rest in my office), I'm a part of the trial group making the switch today. I've been clicking the ignore upgrade button for a long time now on my home PC, so we'll see how this goes. Whenever MS makes "improvements" or "upgrades", they always get rid of a lot of simple but very useful functions in the process. Can't wait to see how much of a pain is the new version.

Happy Birthday–April 16

Dutch Leonard (1892)
Paul Waner (1903)
Babe Phelps (1908)
Pete Hughes (1915)
Pete Suder (1916)
Joe Bauman (1922)
Rich Rollins (1938)
Bernie Allen (1939)
Garry Roggenburk (1940)
Jim Lonborg (1942)
Bob Montgomery (1944)
Bruce Bochy (1955)
Curt Young (1960)
Fernando Vina (1969)
Antonio Alfonseca (1972)
Kelly Dransfeldt (1975)
Nolan Arenado (1991)

Pete Hughes was a star in the low minors from 1937-1952. His incomplete career numbers are a .350 average and a .637 slugging percentage, but for some reason he never played above Class B.

Joe Bauman hit 72 home runs for Roswell in the Longhorn League in 1954.

Kelly Dransfeldt was drafted by Minnesota in the seventh round in 1993, but did not sign.

Rich Rollins, Bernie Allen, and Garry Roggenburk all played for the Twins at the same time. I wonder how unusual it is for a team to have three players who share the same birthday. They also all were born or raised in the state of Ohio. Rollins and Allen were also business partners for a while.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 16

2025 Game Log 18 – Mets at Twins

I think we have come to the conclusion that the Twins have had an ugly start to the season. Winning percentage under .300, ass bats signed up for an extended stay, key players injured, bad defense and poor baserunning on top of it all. It's especially disappointing since it's pretty similar to how the Twins ended the last six weeks of the 2024 season. Fans are voting with their pocket book too by not showing up at games. Last night had an announced crowd of just over 10,000 but by all accounts, maybe 7,000 in the attendance (granted it was a cold, blustery, wet night). With Wild and T-wolves in the playoffs and NFL draft in 9 days, probably even less attention granted to the Twins at least through April.

Bailey Ober on the mound and he's pitched well after his opening "I'm actually kind sick" first start. Tyler Migell (brother of former Twin Taylor Migell) for the Mets. So no relief in sight for the ass bats. Also the weather should be a lot better, although still in low 50s by first pitch.

Game time at 6:40 and this game is on "over the air" TV - FOX 9 (KMSP-TV).