Kyle Drabek
v
Nick Blackburn
The MLB preview said Drabek struggled with his control in his previous starts, walking five. I expect he'll end up walking the Twins hitters that can actually take walks, leaving the rest to flail at his pitches out of the zone.
Nick Blackburn
v
Hector Noesi
Twins still have a chance to salvage something from this road trip with a win today.
Carl Pavano
v
Jason Vargas
Since the Twins saved up all their runs from the last three days, I expect a hit parade tonight.
| Dude | TZ | DRS | UZR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mauer (C) | -2 | -1 | N/A |
| Doumit (C) | 1 | -1 | N/A |
| Parmelee (1B) | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| Mauer (1B) | -1 | 1 | 0 |
| Morneau (1B) | -1 | 0 | -1 |
| Casilla | 1 | 6 | 3 |
| Valencia | 3 | -2 | 0 |
| Carroll | -1 | 3 | 2 |
| Willingham | 2 | -3 | -5 |
| Span | 0 | 7 | 2 |
| Plouffe | -1 | 2 | 0 |
| Doumit (RF) | -2 | -1 | -1 |
| Total | 0 | 10 | 0 |
Overall, I would say most have been roughly average. Casilla, Carroll, and Span have all been good at their respective positions. Willingham has been not so good in left and Doumit questionable in right. This is all what we expected though.
Valencia I think needs more time before we determine if last year's -18/-13/-6 is his talent level or if it was an off year. All three liked him in 2010 (+3/+5/+6), so there's some hope there.
Mauer's numbers at catcher are almost entirely because of stolen bases. If one or two runners were instead thrown out, I think he would be rated as average.
Finally, I think it bears mentioning that all three divorce position from how good the player is at the position. Mostly, this is okay. However, it is an issue with B-R's 'dWAR' rating, which I do not like. It makes it easy to forget that a -10 shortstop (say, Plouffe) is equivalent to a +5 corner outfielder. Not exactly equal, but pretty close in fielding value.
Everett Teaford
v
Carl Pavano
Everett Teaford is making a spot start for Danny Duffy. He recently transitioned from a starter to a reliever in the minors and while it helped, he does turn 28 next year. Today, he's doing a Swarzak. Except Swarzak is a bad starter in the majors and Teaford was a bad starter in the minors. The Twins have a chance!
Liam Hendriks
v
Matt Moore
Hendriks is four months older than Moore and made his debut eight days earlier. Moore is awesome, so that means some will rub off on Hendriks, right?
I note that the Twins are currently in fourth place in the division. They're also tied with the Angels. And the Yankees are trailing the Orioles, awesome. Finally, the Nationals are leading the NL East. And you all laughed at my World Series prediction.
Matt Harrison
v
Anthony Swarzak
Last season was crap, but the Twins managed to beat the AL champions five of the eight times they played including three out of four in Minnesota. The bad news: Swarzak pitched in that game. The good news: the loser was Duensing, who went two innings and gave up seven runs. Swarzak went the next six, giving up only two runs.
Harrison also lost in the homestand, in the one game where Liriano was awesome. That was the game where Harrison got hit in the head, the Twins decided to score a bunch, and messed up Liriano's groove. Don't mess up Swarzak's groove and 158-4 stays in sight.
Day game alert!
Carl Pavano
vs
Jake Arrieta
I had some stuff written about the offseason, but it seems irrelevant now. It sucks going into a season knowing that finishing at .500 would be a success. I think the front office knows there are problems, but thinks there is no point throwing money at a few extra wins. And I am okay with that.
I recognize that about 28 of the teams actually need to have down years. It is very hard to maintain success over many years; you need everything to go right. However, now we get to play the waiting game. Will this be just a "retooling" or a rebuild?
Here's to everyone returning to form, a great draft, and Ryan swindling trading for undervalued assets. I love baseball, but not never-ending losing.
Since the Wolves are doing rather well this year and I like polls, time to gauge what people think will happen in the second half.
The Wolves will finish with __ wins
Total Voters: 25
Loading ...Will the Wolves make the playoffs?
Total Voters: 27
Loading ...There was some consensus behind sponsoring a player on baseball-reference.com. There's enough money in the WGOM piggy bank that if the community wants it, we could sponsor a player or two.
First, a poll whether the community wants to do it. I'm thinking the total amount spent on sponsoring pages will be $50.
Should we sponsor some pages on B-R.com?
Total Voters: 28
Loading ...While we're here, we should also discuss who or what to sponsor. Nominate your choices below and in a few days, I'll put up another poll to vote on what will actually be sponsored. Also, don't forget the message that will be displayed with the sponsoring. We have 255 characters to abuse.