All posts by nibbish

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."

Game 8: Rangers at Twins

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

Game 2 Recap: Orioles 8 – Twins 2

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 Game Number 2: Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles

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?

Game (1 of 2): Twins and Clevelanders

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.

Game. Cleveland vs. Minnesota

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?

Game 138: Twins at Angels

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.

Game #(insert game number here): (insert AAA joke here) vs. (insert detroit or large cat joke here)

("Man this team is bad" joke)

(half-hearted statistical analysis detailing just how bad things have gotten)

(oh, wait... we're batting against Verlander today? We're even more out of luck than usual.)

(Make 190-pitch complete game joke.)

(links to these two Gleeman tweets detailing how the Twins aren't very good at anything)

(threaten to volunteer to do house work with the wife instead of watching game, only to chicken out later because the work she's got planned sucks, and bad baseball is better than no baseball until the 8th inning when we've only got ONE FREAKING RUN AGAIN)

(Delmon Young joke)

(snarky condolences to anyone who watches the game)

I mean, if the Twins can phone it in, why can't I?