KANSAS CITY - The Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals baseball teams will play a series of games against each other this week, according to public documents released by both teams and confirmed by Major League Baseball officials. Continue reading 2013 Game 109: MN @ KC
While none of us have had a lot of recent experience seeing the Royals atop the Twins in the standings, there was a time when the more wrinkled and bent among us did. Back when pant-legs were still short and stirrup socks were long, when free agency and the designated hitter rule were busy destroying the game as we knew it, back before expansion and realignment and wild cards made a mockery of what winning a pennant was all about, and when lawns were gloriously free of trespassers, the Kansas City Royals were an elite ball club in the seven-team American League West, perennial contenders who made it to the more exclusive playoffs seven times between 1976 and 1985 and won the World Series in the final year of that stretch. (Suck on that sentence, Mr. Faulkner.) The Royals rosters back in those days were a litany of greats -- George Brett, Steve Balboni, Frank White, Hal McRae, Bret Saberhagen, Dan Quisenberry and Charlie Liebrandt to name a few. But then the team fell on hard times.
Continue reading 2013 Game 103: KC George Alexanders vs. MN Emily & Marens
Okay, I'll be completely honest. This picture represents the foundation of why I really, really don't like the Angels. Oh, I understand that my dislike is largely misplaced, that had Calvin Griffith not been a tightwad of Biblical proportion and, let's face it, more than just a bit of a racist, Carew might has spent his entire career with the Twins. Continue reading 2013 Game 96: Gemini v. Seraphim
Making assumptions is a necessary part of diagnosing mechanical problems, and of living life in general. But like most things, there are good and bad assumptions. Good assumptions based on empirical evidence, factual information, experience and knowledge can be quite helpful. But bad assumptions, as Robert Pirsig reminds us in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, are traps to be avoided as they can mislead, direct you down dead-ends, and greatly complicate the task at hand.
I had a pretty nice game log all ready to go today, but we won't be using it because it's on my laptop. I'm writing this on my backup PC, which I built about the same time that Gardy took over as manager of the Twins. It's slow. Painfully slow. Matt LeCroy slow. Sloths laugh at things this slow. But it's all I've got until I can eradicate the apparent malware that has basically bricked my laptop.
The Twins open a 4-game series tonight against the team we all love to hate. The Yankees send 41-year-old Andy Pettitte to the mound. We know what he can do. He's beat the Twins in his last seven starts against the hometown nine. The Twins counter with Scott Diamond, who has struggled in has past few starts while posting a 1-3 record since June 2nd. But for once it actually feels like the Twins match up pretty well with the banged-up Bombers sans ARod and the Cap'n. We'll see.
Play ball!
Mrs. Twayn: Turn on the TV, the game's on.
Twayn: No it isn't, the game's not on until tonight.
Mrs. Twayn: Turn on the TV, the game's on.
In other words, I spaced out the early game time.
I'm trying to imagine what it must be like to have a a tornado more than a mile wide with winds up to 300 miles per hour bearing down on you. The worst of the storm that devastated Moore, OK went south of where my Oklahoma City relatives live, and it's a bad one. Best wishes to everyone in the storm's path.
After a pretty miserable home stand against teams with stocking fetishes, the Twins take to the road for a little interleague play. The last time the Twins played the Braves in Atlanta the two teams were locked in an epic and immortal clash of talent and will to claim the world championship of baseball. This series doesn't promise to hold the same level of drama and intensity as that one.
To start this one off the Twins will trot Kevin Correia to the mound. With a a 4-3 record and a 3.35 ERA he's been as solid a starting pitcher as we have so far this year, and with all his time in the National League he should be able to avoid looking completely lost with a bat in his hand. The Braves send Julio Teheran to the mound tonight. Just 22 years old, Teheran has posted a 14-to-1 K/BB rate in his last 25 innings pitched, which would seem to indicate a decent level of control. We'll see.
Play ball!
I used to love to hate the White Sox, but that fiery passion has cooled considerably in the past few years. Now I just like to dislike them. For this I blame Ozzie Guillen, who somehow against all odds and expectations brought a new level of civility and respect to the formerly fierce and nasty rivalry. I blame Ozzie because this is America, and we all know that in America the way a person feels about anything can never, ever, ever be blamed on the person doing the feeling; it must be either God's will or somebody else's fault. Ozzie's outspoken admiration for the Twins' brand of baseball during his Chicago tenure cowed the South Side trash talkers, and for that I don't think I can ever forgive him.
Even casual fans, with proper coaching and education, are able to see that the Win is a flawed statistic for measuring pitcher performance. We can all take consolation in just how flawed the statistic is as the Twins begin a four-game series this evening at Fenway with Clay Buchholz taking the mound for Boston. Because Buchholz has notched six wins this year in his six starts and will be going for this seventh straight tonight. Earned Run Average is another pitching stat that's been maligned in recent years, though it certainly has more evaluative utility than the Win. So don't put too much stock in that 1.01 ERA that Buchholz will take to the mound with him, either. It's still early in the year, the sample size still small. And the fact that Buchholz is 3-0 with a 2.49 ERA against the Twins since 2010 shouldn't matter to you too much, either. Remember, numbers don't win games, players do. If you can repeat that mantra throughout the night about every ten minutes, in Joe Morgan's voice, you'll be just fine (or, ready for institutional commitment). There is still reason to hope for a Twins win tonight. Because just like warm weather in the spring, regression to the mean can come a lot later than you expect.
On the mound for the Twins tonight is Vance Worley, also tossing his seventh start of the year but with nary a Win to his credit and a 7.22 ERA to boot. But again, forget about the numbers. The beauty of this game is that anything can happen. Buchholz might get food poisoning or the gout. Somebody might shoot him in the arm with a tranquilizer dart during warmups. He could slip on a banana peel or some other less trite but equally slippery fruit rind and wrench his back. The point is that there's always hope. For Worley, who the Twins seem to be souring on a bit lately, the best hope is to keep the ball from flying out of the ballpark and to miss a heck of a lot more bats. Let's hope he can figure out how to do that tonight. And remember, hope is a good thing. It's just not a good basis for wagering.
Play ball!
Three weeks ago I was pretty much done with taxes, except for entering one form that my daughter needed to provide. After weeks of nagging, she finally sent it to me last Friday. I plugged it into the old 1040 today, and my refund got a happy ending. What's the lesson? Perseverance pays off. Maybe if the Twins persevere for the next five and a half months they could win the division. Probably not. But it's a good bet it will all come down to the pitching.
Today is Jackie Robinson day around the major leagues and you might see a number 42 here or there. I'll be going to see the movie on Sunday, so no spoilers, please.
Today the Angels send right-hander Joe Blanton to the hill, while the Twins offer Kevin Correia. Blanton in his last start gave up six runs in just over five innings, while Correia gave up three runs in eight innings and carried a shutout through the first seven. One move of note for the Twins, Oswaldo Arcia is called up before tonight's game to replace Wilkin Ramirez, who went on the three-day paternity list Sunday. I didn't even know there was such a thing.