All posts by Daneekas Ghost

2012 Twins Game Recaps

Game 1 Recap: O’s 4 – Twins 2

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MINNESOTA 2 -- BALTIMORE 4
Lowest WPA - Pavano (7 IP, 4 R, 2 BB, 1 SO), Doumit (0 for 4), and Plouffe (0 for 1)
Highest WPA - Span (2 for 4)
Fangraphs - MLB Recap

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Ron Gardenhire turned to Rick Anderson and asked, "Is Duensing ready?" Anderson frowned and picked up the bullpen phone, speaking only a couple of words. After hanging up the phone, he returned to Gardenhire's side. "Ronald, he's ready, but I have to seriously question why we would use him in this situation."

"This is the perfect time to use him, late in the game, score's tied, Adam Jones is a dangerous hitter coming up."

Anderson blinked in confusion, "Tie game? Ronathan, it's not a tie game. And Adam Jones is right-handed, wouldn't you rather have Duensing come in to face Markakis for the lefty-lefty matchup?"

"Who?"

"Nick Markakis, the right-fielder."

"What are you talking about? Look, it's 0-0 in the eighth inning and I don't have time to do some ridiculous comedy routine with you and your made up ballplayers. We had a bad year last season, and I want to start this off right."

"Made up..? 0-0..? Wait, what do you think happened in the first inning?"

"We walked Hardy, then Pavano got a groundball or two and we got out of the inning. Pavano looked pretty good today, nice to see all those groundballs turning into outs isn't it? Just the one Hardy single on a groundball, but then he got Jones and Wieters and got out of it."

"Rontell, I think we need--"

"No time, got to make the pitching change now. Back in a second. And Rick? We don't need our bullpen walking people, talk to this Gray kid when he comes in, will you?"

Gardy made his way to the mound, and Scott Ullger made his way off the bench to join Anderson at the rail. "What was that about?"

"I think Ronwin has completely blocked Nick Markakis from his memory. He doesn't remember the 2-run homer in the first, or the RBI triple in the sixth, and I bet if we ask him, he won't remember Markakis' lead-off walk leading to a run in the fourth either. What are we going to do?"

"Send him home" Ullger said.

"I'm worried he wouldn't be safe there"

Ullger stared blankly, "Why would that matter?"

"Memory loss could be the sign of any number of serious problems. No, I think we should keep him here and try to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't forget anyone else in this game."

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To this day Ron Gardenhire believes that Josh Willingham's ninth inning donger won the 2012 season opener for the Twins, Rick Anderson has never corrected him, he figured it was a long season, it's probably best not to get too caught up in one result.

NHL

Weekly Wild Whangdoodle – Games 1-3

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Another season has kicked off for the Wild, with quite a few new faces.  A quick rundown of those who migrated to the State of Hockey to begin the 2011-2012 NHL season.

Dany Heatley - Traded to the Wild from San Jose for Martin Havlat as the search for Marian Gaborik's heir continues.  Heatley has the potential to pot quite a few goals and he can be a power-play wizard.  The question is whether he will get enough chances to make the difference that a top-notch goal scorer can.

Devin Setoguchi - Traded to Minnesota from San Jose on draft day as part of a big deal that sent Brent Burns to the Sharks.  He's averaged 24 goals/year the last 3 seasons, and the hope is that his pairing with Koivu and Heatley will yield him plenty of opportunities to match or exceed those totals.

Brett Bulmer - Made the jump from Canadian Juniors straight to the opening day NHL roster.  He was a 2nd round pick of the Wild's in 2010, and he's only 19.  More of an energy guy than a goal scorer, and I'd expect him to spend some time in Houston this year, but it's a fun story that he made the team.

Nick Johnson - Spent last year with the Pittsburgh AHL affiliate before coming to the Wild.  Nothing special, but could be a role-player.

Darrell Powe - Traded to Minnesota from Philadelphia for a 3rd round pick (2013).  Checking-line winger, adjusted plus/minus and Corsi don't think much of him, but I haven't seen enough to really say anything.

Contrast those additions with the loss of Mittens, Brunette, Burns, Havlat and Madden.  The biggest impact on the offensive side might end up being a healthy Bouchard and Latendresse.  If those guys are healthy and productive, I think this team could be somewhere around a league average offense, which would be a nice change.

Defensively, they are about the same, although they lose the puck-moving of Brent Burns, they look to Marco Scandella and some younger guys to provide that.   They should be alright but nothing spectacular in that respect.

So average offense, and a passable defense, does that spell playoffs?  It's within the realm of possibility, but I think things need to break right (no injuries, some breakout seasons, etc.).

Continue reading Weekly Wild Whangdoodle – Games 1-3 →

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 155 Recap: Twins 3, Mariners 2

A win, an honest-to-God win.  I haven't seen on of these on my recap day since....

(goes to check the archives) ....

(scrolls further back in the archives) ....

Ah, here it is - July 14 was the last time the Twins won on a Thursday (they moved to 6 games under .500 on that day, 6 games out of first).  Which reminds me, let's check out the day-of-the-week standings with 6 days and 7 games (double-header on Saturday, get excited!) remaining.

W L PCT
Sunday 10 14 .417
Monday 4 15 .211
Tuesday 10 12 .455
Wednesday 12 11 .522
Thursday 8 10 .444
Friday 8 16 .333
Saturday 8 17 .320

I would have bet and lost a large sum of money that there wasn't a day of the week over .500 this season.  I will note that Tuesday now has the longest losing streak at 8 games (going back to July 26).

 

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 130 Recap: Orioles 6, Twins 1

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4 - 24.

In 4 games against one of the two AL teams with a worse record than Minnesota, the Twins were outscored by 20 runs, Liriano and Cuddyer went on the DL, adpfhoubev- qf7ncs .......

[NARRATOR]:  It appears that your recapper has been overcome by the sheer disaster that was this series against the Orioles.  He didn't even get to Drew Butera starting all four games, the Twins' starters pitching a total of 15.2 innings, ad;kfhvbn ....

[2nd NARRATOR]: (Looks at two unconscious bodies) I ain't touching this.

 

 

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game Recap: Yankees 8, Twins 4

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NEW YORK 8, MINNESOTA 4
Record - 54-69 (4th in Central)
Highest WPA - Plouffe! (2 for 5), Nishioka (2 for 4, R, RBI)
Lowest WPA - Duensing (5.0 IP, 6R, 3 HR), Morneau (o for 4)

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My wife got a job yesterday, so we went out to The Burger Stand (I got a Smoke Burger with the Ad Astra Ale from the local Free State Brewery) to celebrate.  As a result, my viewing of this game is pretty much limited to the first inning plus some highlight clips.  On the other hand, I didn't have to watch a very good team beat a not very good team easily and we just theoretically doubled our yearly income as a family.

Add in the burgers and I think that's a win-win for me.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 111 Recap: Angels 7, Twins 1

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ANAHEIM 7, MINNESOTA 1
Record - 51-60 (4th in Central, 1.5 games out of 3rd, 8.0 games out of first)
Highest WPA - N/A
Lowest WPA - Liriano (5.0 IP, 7R, 10H, 2 BB) and the entire lineup (6 for 32, HR)

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Another frustrating game in a season that seems to be an exhaustive collection of frustrating games.  Knowing the kind of year Dan Haren was having, it was difficult to be optimistic about the Twins chances, but Minnesota left no doubt as to the outcome of this one.

The infield of non-infielders (well, 50% non-infielders anyway) had a very difficult time turning balls in play into outs.  Seeing as how this is kind of an important part of playing defense, it's not surprising things turned out poorly.  No errors were awarded, but it sure seemed like the Angels got a lot of extra outs.

F-Bomb was not particularly great.  Some of that was the defense behind him, some of it was his own fault.

In addition to the defense being subpar and the pitching being subpar, the offense was (say it with me) subpar.  While the Angels were building a comfortable lead, the Twins sent 22 hitters to the plate to record the first 21 outs of the game.  Jim Thome's 598th career HR leading off the 8th ruined the shutout, and seemed to open the floodgates as the next three hitters singled.  Those three singles led to no runs, in fact they lead to an out as Danny Valencia slid into Jeff "The Wall" Mathis and still hasn't touched home plate.  Add baserunning to the subpar side of the equation.

Add it all up and the Twins were well under par for the day.  Maybe they should take up golf.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 98 Recap: Tigers 6, Twins 2

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DETROIT 6, MINNESOTA 2
Record - 46-52 (4th in Central, 1.0 game out of 3rd, 6.0 games out of first)
Highest WPA - Cuddyer and Mauer (both 2 for 4) were the only positive WPA Twins
Lowest WPA - Jim Thome (0 for 3, BB, 3 SO) - Only one true outcome short of the complete set.
NOTES - Twins are 0-6 against Detroit this year.
Fangraphs
MLB Recap

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Not exactly the start to the series that the Twins were looking for.  Verlander was pretty good, and he dialed it up a bit after Cuddyer's leadoff triple in the second inning.  Strikeouts of Thome and Valencia along with a Delmon groundout to second (BOOM BITCH!) got him off the hook and kept the game scoreless.

Then it was a matter of Pavano trying to keep it close.  After a frightening 4th inning (bases loaded, one out) was defused by a double play, it seemed like a one-run deficit could be overcome.  Then a 2-run Brennan Boesch homer in the 5th extended the Tiger lead.  3 runs against Verlander seemed a tall order, but the Tiger bullpen has been pretty bad and my friend who is a Tiger fan wouldn't admit victory.

The sixth inning saw the Twins score on a string of 2 out hits, but the top of the inning had already yielded two more Tiger runs, so the deficit was only narrowed to four.

Beating Verlander is always a tall order, and it was one the Twins weren't up to last night.  Fortunately, there are three more games in the series, and no more Verlanders in the Tigers' rotation.