Sam "Ace" Deduno vs. Roberto "Don't Call Me Fausto" Hernandez
Twins arrived in Tampa 5 hours late last night due to mechanical problems with the plane. If they didn't show up, would anyone notice? If they sent the Miracle over to play in their place, would they have a better chance at winning? Will this Game Log have fewer page views than the latest Minor Details?
Sabathia vs. Walters. This would be one of those games where I would actually expect the Twins to win just because they shouldn't, which is the beauty of baseball. However, it is the Yankees and so this can only end one way.
We're halfway through the season and the Twins are about where we thought they would be. At least we can look forward to Gibson starts now (like tomorrow), so there's that.
YANKEES
Gardner CF
Ichiro RF
Cano 2B
Hafner DH
Almonte LF
Overbay 1B
Steward C
Cruz SS
Adams 3B
Sabathia LHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Mauer DH
Doumit C
Morneau 1B
Plouffe 3B
Arcia LF
Hicks CF
Thomas RF
Florimon SS
Walters RHP
Number of games under .500: 2
Number of days since Joe Mauer's 30th birthday: 17
Number of guys who didn't know not to run on him this game: 2
Number of days since the Twins won the World Series: 7862
Games like this require that you look at the positives. The Twins lost the lead and then got it back again, punished the Red Sox by making them play a couple more innings. Snappleback pitched some scoreless innings. The Twins had arguably the worst outfield defense in the history of baseball, and it held the tie for a full inning.
Eat it Red Sox, the moral victory belongs with the Twins! It won't show up in the stats, but cybermetrics is a Boston thing anyways.
Cole De Vries stares intently at the signs from Joe Mauer. He was locked in today and nothing was going to keep him from earning his rightful spot in the rotation.
De Vries lets the pitch fly like he had done so many thousands of times before, but this time the result was like never before. A sickening snap reverberates from his elbow throughout the ballpark. And then, pain. Searing pain like he never felt before forces De Vries to let out a blood-curdling scream before collapsing in a heap in front of the pitching mound.
Manager Ron Gardenhire saunters out of the dugout while muttering under his breath something about "pitchers these days ... " Meanwhile, head trainer Dave Pruemer casually jogs to the fallen hurler. De Vries' arm is a mangled mess, with his forearm twisted grotesquely in the wrong direction and the elbow looking like the only thing holding it together is the skin.
"Does this hurt?" Pruemer asks as he touches De Vries' forearm. De Vries lets out another scream of agony.
"Hmmmm, I guess that's a little tender," Pruemer says. He stands up, takes off his hat and scratches his head.
Gardy walks up and asks, "Can he pitch?"
"I dunno," Pruemer says. "Maybe if I rub some dirt on it."
Pitching coach Rick Anderson joins the men at the mound and says, "I don't think we need to push it for a spring training game."
"Well, fine," says on obviously flustered Gardy. "But what am I going to tell those guys?" he says as he points to the press box.
"Tell them it's a minor forearm strain. Removed for precautionary reasons," Pruemer says.
"OK," Gardy says.
As the trainers start to escort De Vries to the dugout, another loud, agonizing scream emanates from the bowels of the clubhouse.
"What was that?" Gardy asks.
"That's just Morneau complaining about his stiff back," says Pruemer while making air quotes.
Gardy rolls his eyes and mutters, "It never ends."
game is on FSN+
Tonight's lineups: (from Phil Miller)
Twins -- Hicks CF, Carroll 3B, Parmelee 1B, Doumit C, Arcia RF, Benson DH, Dozier 2B, Escobar SS, Mastroianni LF. Hendriks P, potentially followed by Duensing, Hernandez, Robertson, Perdomo and Walters.
I stole most of the idea from when Gleeman started his top40 list years ago (still unfinished right?) The below quote is his, and the rest is an exerpt from a book I put together 2 years ago. Some of it is outdated, but I've updated the list and stats through 2012 (or as much as I could given that Baseball prospectus and b-ref keeps changing their WAR, WARP, VORP stats)
“The rankings only include time spent playing for the Minnesota Twins. In other words, David Ortiz doesn't get credit for turning into one of the best players in baseball after joining the Red Sox and Paul Molitor doesn't get credit for being one of the best players in baseball for the Brewers and Blue Jays. The Twins began playing on April 11, 1961, and that's when these rankings start as well.”
I used a variety of factors, as Gleeman did, including longevity and peak value (although looking at his list and comments he probably gave a little more weight to longevity than I did). Longevity included how many years the player was a Twin as well as how many plate appearances or innings pitched that player had in those years. For peak value, I looked at their stats, honors, and awards in their best seasons, as well as how they compared to their teammates. Did they lead their team in OPS or home runs or ERA for starters or WPA? If so, that got some bonus points. I factored in postseason heroics, awards (gold gloves, silver sluggers, MVPs, Cy Youngs), statistical achievements (batting titles, home run leaders, ERA champs, etc), and honors (all star appearances), and unlike Gleeman I looked at team success as well. If you were the #1 starter on a division winning champ, that gave you more points than the #1 starter on a cellar dweller. I looked at some of the advanced stats like WPA, WAR (as calculated by baseball.projection.com and used at baseball-reference.com), WARP3 and VORP (as calculated by Baseball Prospectus), and Win Shares (as calculated by Bill James). For hitters, I also looked at OPS and the old school triple crown statistics like batting average, home runs, stolen bases, and RBI (and not only where you finished within the AL in any given year, but where you appear on the top25 lists amongst all Twins in the last 50 years). For pitchers I looked at strikeouts, innings pitched, win/loss percentage, ERA as well as ERA). If there was a metric that was used for all 50 years of Twins history, I tried to incorporate it. I tended to give more credit to guys who were starters instead of part time/platoon players, more credit to position players over pitchers (just slightly, but probably unfairly) and starters over relievers (and closers over middle relievers). There’s no formula to my magic, just looking at a lot of factors and in the end going with the gut in all tie-breakers. Up in the top10 I’m looking at All star appearances, Cy Young and MVP votes, batting average or ERA titles or top10 finishes, etc, and placement in the top25 hitting and pitching lists in Twins history as well. In the middle 100s, it’s more about who started a few more years or had 2 good seasons rather than 1 with possibly an occasional all-star berth or top10 finish in SB or strikeouts. Once you’re in the latter half of the 200s there are none of those on anyone’s resume, so its basically just looking at peak season in OPS+ or ERA+, WAR, Win Shares, and who started the most years, had the most at bats, or pitched the most innings. What the player did as a coach, manager, or broadcaster is not taken into consideration for this list, so Tom Kelly or Billy Gardner weren’t able to make the top 300 since they were poor players and Frank Quilici and Billy Martin didn’t improve their status due to their managing careers.
On Sept. 21, 2010, the Twins defeated the Indians 6-4 (with reliever Glen Perkins pitching the eighth inning to earn the win) to clinch their second consecutive AL Central title. Then next day, they played a meaningless game with the division wrapped up and no chance for them to improve their playoff position. After having played in Game 163 the previous two seasons, that meant the Twins had played in 477 consecutive meaningful games over three seasons.
Since then, the Twins have gone 132-203 (132-206 if you count the three-game sweep in the ALDS). In these past two seasons, the Twins have played six games in which they were higher than fourth place in the standings, and two of those were on Opening Day and none came after Game 4 of the season. After three seasons of wild rides, the Twins gave their fans almost no hope after May of the last two seasons (although a couple of hot weeks in June of 2011 did stir a little hope for another Twins comeback).
So, there is no sugar coating it. This has been a cesspool of waste with too many blowout losses and long losing streaks. So, what happens now? Surely, a rebuilding process will be taking place.
Don't count on it.
Check out the history of this team and you'll realize the Twins rarely choose to rebuild, even though they have been a classic "small-market" team, at least their revenues have been small-market even if their actual market has not thanks to the craptastic Metrodome and the truly awful deal the Twins got when it was built.
The Twins have never really gone through a rebuilding process in which the team trades away multiple core veteran players for top prospects. The Twins have gone completely young with a bunch of inexperienced players only twice: just after the Metrodome was built and after Paul Molitor retired following the 1998 season. Both times the Twins pretty much had no choice but to go young, since they were going to lose a ton of games anyways. Both times, letting the youngsters play eventually led to success as the core of the first rebuild led the Twins to a world championship in 1987 (although 1988 was the only other winning season for that squad and they never really threatened the A's that year) and the second rebuild was the core for three consecutive division titles and four straight winning seasons.
However, the Twins have shown that less drastic measures can have excellent results that usually lead to quicker turnarounds. For example, the 1991 Twins were the first team to win the World Series after finishing in last place the previous season. They did not make any trades of veteran core players to do it, but instead added through free agency (Jack Morris, Chili Davis, Carl Willis, Mike Paliarulo), trading minor leaguers (Steve Bedrosian) and promoting minor leaguers (Knoblauch). None of these moves were considered dramatic or exciting, but all had significant impacts on the team.
More recently, the Twins in 2008 were coming off their first losing season under Ron Gardenhire and had lost two core players in Johan Santana (trade before final year of contract) and Torii Hunter (free agent). The Twins were plenty young in 2008, but they did not trade any other veterans, instead adding through free agency (Livan Hernandez, Mike Lamb, Adam Everett) and trading from perceived depth to fill a perceived hole (Garza-Bartlett for Delmon-Harris). Despite the disappointing results from these moves, the Twins stayed in contention right to Game 163 when a certain Hall of Famer ended their season. Most of the additions came through minor leaguers moving up (Span, Casilla, Baker, Slowey, Blackburn) and veterans returning to form (Mauer, Morneau) or even having career years (Punto).
So, I really don't see the Twins doing anything extreme to get young, like trading Willingham or Mauer. Hopefully, they'll use the payroll space they have cleared to make more smart signings like they did with Willingham and even Carroll. Hopefully, the Twins will sign a good starting pitcher to head the staff for the next three or four years, and hopefully it will be someone under the radar like Willingham was last year. I also expect a trade of an outfielder or Morneau to clear room for Parmelee and bring in more pitching or a middle infielder. If this is done early in the offseason, it will probably give fans an idea of how aggressive the Twins will be for 2013. If they trade Morneau, they're most likely looking to 2014 to really contend. If they trade Revere, they are going for it now. If they trade Span, well, they probably don't know which way they are going and they better get a whole lot back or it could be a long time before this winter of discontent is over for Twins fans.
I used a random number generator to pick a season from the past with the idea that I would quickly highlight the Twins history that occurred today in that year. The generator sent me to the year 2007.
Detroit 8, Twins 0 - BR Boxscore
Somebody named Yorman Bazardo pitched seven shutout innings against the Twins in his second major league start. The Twins were punchless behind Matt Garza. The Tigers led 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning but a hit batter, an error, a double, an intentional walk, and two singles chased Garza from the game. Julio (Chuck James before there was Chuck James) DePaula allowed two runs in mop-up work as the game got out of hand. Magglio Ordonez homered and doubled pushing his batting average to .359 while Curtis Granderson hit his major-league leading twenty-third triple.
Continue reading September 25, 2007: Random Day in Twins History
I used a random number generator to pick a season from the past with the idea that I would quickly highlight the Twins history that occurred today in that year. The generator sent me to the year 2008.
Twins 3, White Sox 2 - BR Boxscore
The Twins pieced together four shutout innings of relief to win their second straight game against the White Sox while pulling within a half game of first place in the AL Central. Nick Blackburn allowed two runs in five innings despite pitching around ten baserunners (sound familiar?). Craig Breslow, Boof Bonser (?!), and Jose Mijares each pitched a scoreless inning before Joe Nathan's 1-2-obligatory-4 ninth inning save, the 200th of his career. “You couldn’t ask for anything better than that,” Blackburn said of the bullpen. “They came in, did their job and got those guys out. No drama. It was great.” In Mijares's eighth inning, he retired JI JIM, Paul Konerko, and Ken Griffey, Jr. in order. Continue reading September 24, 2008: Random Day in Twins History
After consecutive disastrous seasons for the Twins, it will be difficult for most to find hope for 2013; 2014 is another matter, what with the All-Star Game and the Twins' top prospects finally knocking on the door. Oswaldo Arcia, Aaron Hicks and B.J. Hermsen will start in Rochester next year barring a flurry of trades from the Twins clearing room for them (or Hermsen just winning a starting job) and Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, Jose Barrios and Byron Buxton could be in New Britain or even Rochester in 2014, meaning a midseason callup in 2014 wouldn't be out of the question. I think the Twins will be looking to load up for a legitimate run at the postseason in 2014 to help generate excitement for the All-Star Game, but I think next season can still be a successful one for the Twins, maybe not a postseason appearance, but maybe a flirtation with contention that leads to multiple division titles in following years, such as 2001 and 2008.