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2012 Twins Game Recaps

Game 15 Recap: Clete vs. the Sombrero

Clete had been waiting for the call for exactly one week. He still remembered being brought in to Leyland's office that morning.

"Clete, we need you to turn trader to are team."

"Sir, I can't do that, you're like brothers to me."

"This mission is even more critical than playing fifth outfielder. The Twins don't seem dangerous, but our mystics have seen the future, and left unchecked, they will win the division by one game. You must get in there and find a way to stop them."

"How will I know when it's time?"

"You'll know, Clete. You'll know."

The problem was, he didn't know. He had no idea which at bats were important, which moments could possibly make a difference in the long term scheme of things. Therefore, he decided to strike out constantly. Then, one week later, the opportunity he'd been waiting for fell into his lap. The enemy had staged a small rally, and was within striking distance. Suddenly, Clete knew, this was his chance - but he had struck out so many times before, had he missed his chance?

As it turned out, Gardy was drunk, so Clete stood at the bat and looked ridiculous striking out.

Somewhere in the stands, Leyland smiled and whispered "I knew you could do it, kid" as he brazenly disobeyed Target Field's smoking policy.

2012 Twins Game Log

Game 15: Twins at Rays

240 Comments

The internet connection is extremely spotty at my house right now, so instead of giving you the well thought out, well researched behemoth of a game log intro that you all deserve, I'm going to spout off random things that I like and dislike about the team without backing any of it up with anything resembling a fact.

Likes

  • Burton's Splange - He threw one or two last night, and when that pitch is on, it's a thing of beauty. He seems like a good pickup about 10% of the way through the season, and looks like he could be a decent late inning option. I wasn't expecting to say that about any of the offseason relief pickups, but none of them have been failing to live up to what I'd hope for (Grey is finally letting the rest of the team's pitchers wins a few games, Maloney hasn't tripped on the pitching rubber or picked any fights with fans or umpires, there might be someone else I'm forgetting, but the fact that he's not springing to mind means that I probably haven't been cursing his name too often, so... uh... keep being invisible, other relief guy).
  • The Porkstar - My Reds fan buddy noted how nice it was that the Twins finally had a free agent signing work out. I could have punched him for his condescending tone, but instead, I simply nodded my head in agreement. Willingham's been good with the bat, and he's only the second worst outfielder I've seen play for Minnesota over the last five years. Once you factor in that they had to get rid of Delmon Young to make it so that they could go out and get him, and it's not just a net positive - I can confidently say that it's the best thing that's ever happened to this team.
  • Mauer/Morneau - I was concerned about Morneau for a bit there in the first few games, but he seems to be taking much better swings over the last few games. Mauer's been solid as he ought to be; I just wish he were just a little bit more manly, because seriously, it's got to be bringing the team down.
  • Having a middle infielder simultaneously batting second and not sucking - Carrol's D is much better than I expected (no one show me any +/- numbers, I don't want to see if I'm wrong on this one. It's also really nice to not have a black hole batting second. The hits are starting to come, and I love the patient way the guy bats. They've got 3 guys at the top of the lineup that bleed the pitcher dry. Very cool.
  • Span - It's really nice having him back as the leadoff hitter. Now that Baker's probably gone forever, I'm tempted to say that Span's my favorite Twin.

Dislikes

  • Casilla - I'm pretty sure that the stats don't bear me out on this, but I find myself constantly unimpressed by Casilla. I know he's the replacement-level guy who's just a placeholder at this point, but I find myself going to the kitchen to get a snack when he comes up. If my diet is going to succeed, I need someone else there.
  • Starting pitching - I was slightly (probably stupidly) hopeful coming into the season. The idea of Liriano pitching well, Baker doing what he always does, Pavano eating innings, with some combination of who cares and someone else filling out the last two spots meant that the Twins would likely be getting 2 or 3 strong starts per time through the rotation. The quality start stat is an awful way of looking at anything, but if Pavano bombs tonight, we'll have gone 5 games without seeing a single start that was even halfway decent. With Hendricks, Blackburn, Swarzack, and Liriano (who seems to be intent on showing that 2011 was not his floor) behind Pavano, I have zero faith in the rotation - and more worryingly, no real hope for anything in the future to patch things up. The idea of being just close enough at trading season for management to go get a "proven winner" puts a chill in my bones.
  • Capps - He hasn't exactly exploded into tiny pieces yet, but it's coming, my friends... oh yes, it's coming.

Pavano* takes on Shields* tonight.

I'm to predict a win. 6-3. Mauer gets a double and a couple of RBIs, but Willingham's hit streak ends (he'll make a comment in the aftergame interview on how all that stuff is cool, but "it doesn't matter, so long as we get the 'W'").

* Both of them have presumably played baseball at some point this season, but if you want all those sexy stats, you'll have to look them up yourself, my computer is currently in a hate/hate relationship with any kind of site where I could look them up for you.

2012 Twins Game Recaps

Game 8 Recap: Twins vs. Run Expectancy Charts

The Twins won this battle handily. Run Expectancy put up a good fight, but the Twins persevered against the odds, stranding 15 runners on base (including 3 innings where they left the bases loaded).

"Our hitters were just clutch" Ron Gardenhire said in his post-game presser, "you gotta figure that some runs are gonna score with how many times we got guys out there on the basepaths, but our hitters dug in there, and made sure that those runners stayed where they belonged. I saw Doomy [Twins rightfielder Ryan Doumit] get up there in the fifth, and I didn't even worry, I knew he had it covered. This is a big win for our guys, now we just gotta get in the frame of mind to go out there tomorrow and do it again."

Indeed, the Twins accomplished most of their magic with some incredibly well-timed strikeouts and weak pop flies, frustrating REC's attempts to average things out. At times, REC just seemed snakebit.

"I don't want to talk about it" REC's manager stated after the game, "this loss doesn't even seem real right now... 21 baserunners, and only 2 score? Seriously. What the hell."

2012 Twins Game Log

Game 8: Rangers at Twins

230 Comments

Today, the Twins will be trotting out this lineup:

1. Span, CF
2. Caroll, SS
3. Mauer, C
4. Morneau, DH
5. Willingham, LF
6. Doumit, RF
7. Valencia, 3B
8. Parmelee, 1B
9. Casilla, 2B

If that lineup looks familiar, it's because it was the opening day lineup, and most likely the one the management hoping to get a lot of mileage out of. Whether or not this is the lineup that the team ends up with, and whether or not it's the one that shows some punch, it's worth noting that this is the third time they've used it in this young season. I'm sure you remember that the team used their opening day lineup precisely never after opening day, partially due to Nishioka getting hurt, then sucking horribly, partially due to a million injuries. What you might not be aware of is the fact that there were only 3 lineups that ended up being used 3 times over the entire of last year, and none that were used more than three times.

The Twins probably won't contend for anything this year, but at least it's looking like we'll have a fairly consistent lineup to see day after day. There's a bit of comfort in that.

Today, Nick Blackburn (4.04 xFIP, 7.50 ERA) tries to find a little bit more luck, while Yu Darvish (5.23 xFIP, 7.94 ERA) tries to show that his ugly first start wasn't the shape of things to come.

Total team record, 2-5
Saturday record, 0-1

2012 Twins Game Recaps

Game 2 Recap: Orioles 8 – Twins 2

4 Comments

I am not sad that I missed this game - like, even a little.

Let's rummage through the wreckage for positives...

  • Morneau had a good day. That's a good sign.
  • Perkins came in and devoured some folk.
  • Mauer displayed boyish charm and tough-as-nails leadership throughout the game.
  • Because of this, the Red Sox and Yankees are tied for last place, with three teams above them. That's could be a tough hole to get out of.
  • By all accounts, none of the visiting team committed any felonies while playing.

I really hate to think that Liriano showed us a great spring, just to go belly-up when it comes to the regular season, but again, I didn't watch.

2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game Number 2: Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles

224 Comments

New season, same result - 'meh' pitching, and 'too little, too late'  hitting.

I think Sean had it right last game log when he says that the front office knows what they've got, and they know that it's not happening this season. Fair enough, but I'm impatient - I want a World Series this year. Therefore, I've put together a little cheat sheet for how this team can be turned into a contender. If someone with connections could route this to the powers that be, I'd appreciate it.

Pitching

Obviously, the big problem is going to be pitching, so they must obviously trade for some strong starters, and some strong relievers. I've taken the liberty of drawing up some proposals.

  • DFA Jeff Gray (He's letting opposing batters reach at a ridiculous .667 clip. Thanks, but no thanks, Jeff.)
  • DFA Matt Capps (obviously)
  • Trade Brian Duensing for Roy Halladay (He's got an unsustainable rate of 27.0 k/9 going, so trade him while he's hot)
  • Arrange for Kyle Gibson to be fitted with a robotic arm (This whole recovery process is taking too long - time to speed things up a bit.)
  • Have some crazy, back-alley doctor remove all of Scott Baker's arm tendons (He can't strain them if they're not there, can he. Ivan'll put some rubber bands in there, or something.)
  • "Forget" Jason Marquis at the airport the next time he accompanies them on a road trip (This is a two part plan which may involve pretending that Target Field is closed for the season when he inevitably gets a taxi ride back.)
  • Once it gets to the later months, forbid anyone from telling Nick Blackburn that it's not May anymore.

Batting

As we saw yesterday, hitting is going to be this team's biggest obstacle (except for pitching, because Lord, do those pitchers suck). Here's a few quick ways to change that.

  • Trade Alexi Casilla for a large potted plant (the plant can trip runners as they round second, and will likely provide a bit more hitting power)
  • Put Joe Mauer into a time machine, and tell him to retrieve 2009 Joe Mauer (It'll be sad to see 2011 Joe Mauer go, but we liked the other one better, anyway. Besides, this is the kind of sacrifice a leader has to make sometimes. Cuddy would go back in time to get 2009 Joe Mauer, and he'd probably bring back 2010 Justin Morneau while he was at it.)
  • Create an unholy Frankenstein mishmash of Ben Revere's legs and Denard Span's arm. (Den Spavere will be the greatest outfielder ever, while Bard Revan can be safely DFA'd)
  • Trade Chris Parmelee for Albert Pujols (The only worry here is that the Angels may not believe that Parmelee is as good as Dick Bremer says he is. In this case, we include Carl Pavano in the deal. Who says no?)

Until my brilliant ideas are brought to the front office, we're stuck with what we've got. What we've got today is..

F. Liriano (0-0, a disappointing 0 k/9, and a awe-inspiring, but probably unsustainable 0.00 ERA)
T. Hunter (0-0, 3.20 FIP, 0 ERA)

Normally, I'd say that the Twins are totally screwed, but come on... this is Tommy Hunter we're talking about.ZiPs has him projected for something like a 5.00 ERA. Even the Twins should be able to get some runs off this guy, right?

2011 Twins Game Logs

Game (1 of 2): Twins and Clevelanders

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Hey, doubleheader... why not?

So it seems that baseball's 200,000th major league game will be played today. They're counting the start of the actual National League as the first game, mostly because it's easier to place a direct date on it that way. If nothing else, it's kind of cool that much as it's changed over the past 140 years, there's still a certain heart at the center of the game that ties it all together.

Now, before I go all Field of Dreams on everyone and start misattributing everywhere, there are urgent matters to attend to in Cleveland. A win today would ensure that the race to the bottom will fall short of its "target". Much as I believe that this is the worst year of Twins baseball since the franchise got here, it would be nice the ragtaggers to win back at least that much of their dignity. Hell, if they sweep the doubleheader, they would only need one more win to avoid 100-losses. That would be.......something, I guess.

Looking into the crystal ball, we've got three opening day batters in our lineup (which, if I'm not mistaken is about the most there can be for the rest of the season, so the lineup's not getting nay better than this). Rivera gets to try to out-Butera Butera. Right now he's at a .406 OPS, so it'll be exciting to see whether he can push that into sub-400 territory.

Brian Duensing's on the mound, if he can make it through five and a third innings, he'll qualify for the ERA title. Then again, if he gives up 4 runs in those five and a third, he'll have the worst ERA for any qualifier, so... go Duensing?

David Huff pitches for Cleveland, he ate us alive his last time out, so maybe 1982 isn't safe, just yet.

2011 Twins Game Logs

Game. Cleveland vs. Minnesota

37 Comments

It's sort of sad that the Twins will never win another baseball game. I was a fan of the occasional win, but if I can't have that, I guess watching errors and strikeouts will have to get me by.

I'll be listening to this one, driving to Brainerd on a road trip with the wife. Since this one is obviously impossible, let's at least make it close.

Gomez vs Swizzlestick, who seems to be our best starter lately. Who knows, maybe we'll only lose by three?

2011 Twins Game Logs

Game 138: Twins at Angels

190 Comments

Of all the things I thought September would bring, runs wasn't exactly one of them. I'm not complaining, it's just that I wish they could try scoring some during games that I watch. Still, any lineup that insists on batting both Nishioka and a player with a OBP forever hovering around .300 can't complain about any runs they might score along the way.

Duensing takes on Weaver tonight. Normally, that would sound like a sure-fire loss, but Weaver's ERA has jumped up a half run since last month (still league leading at 2.28), and lately a lot more of his pitches have been turned into souvenirs (9 in his last 47 1/3 innings). Besides, Duensing was mostly watchable, and the Angels' lineup usually features at least one lefty... so...

Yeah, it's still pretty bleak.