Category Archives: Minnesota Twins

Game 107: A’s 8, Twins 3

Just when you want to believe, the Twins get hammered by a bad offensive team and the Indians go out and get Ubaldo Jimenez. Of course, then the Indians go out and trade Orlando Cabrera for a minor leaguer, so I'm kinda confused, although I guess Cabrera had been relegated to a bench role of late. Also, Jimenez gave up four runs on four walks and two doubles in the first inning before being pulled, presumably when the trade went down, so he may be somewhat of an enigma, something in the lines of a Francisco Liriano.

As for the Twins, it still boggles the mind that Blackburn was handed a starting job over Kevin Slowey, especially after Blackburn's struggles last season. His ERA now stands at 4.49 with a 1.51 WHIP, which is even worse than last year when he could at least blame a sore arm for his struggles. He's now allowed at least four runs in six of his last seven starts and it was the fourth time in that stretch he's allowed double-digit hits. The one slightly encouraging sign was he still was able to get 10 groundball outs, which he must do to have any success.

How bad is it, though, that Blackburn got beat when matched up against a poor man's Slowey. Mancuso is an extreme flyball pitcher without an out pitch. His groundball rate, K rate and walk rate are all worse than Slowey's.

Oh well, at least Span wasn't traded. At least not yet. I did see one encouraging sign that the Twins will be insisting on getting a good deal:

The Twins are insisting on acquiring Storen with Bernadina and minor league infielder Stephen Lombardozzi for Span, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com.

That deal I can get on board, although I still would be upset that Span was traded, since he's one of my favorite players. However, Lombo's son is exactly the type of player the Twins need to focus on. He's a second baseman that can actually hit. He's a switch hitter with a career .370 on-base average in over 1,800 PAs. He's batting .318/.360/.429 as a 22 yr old in AAA. His numbers remind me a lot of a second baseman on a Twins championship team, but thankfully not his dad. If he does get traded to the Twins, we should start a pool on how long it will take for Dazzle to take a swing at him.

2011 Game 106 Recap: Twins 9, White Elephants 5

Weather: 64 degrees, clear
Wind: 12 mph, in from left field
Time: 3:07
Attendance: 25,656

Box Score
Fangraphs

The baseball season spans half a year. Old timers will tell you how teams need to use that time: Two months to figure out what's wrong, two months to fix it, and two months to make a run for the top of the standings.

For the Twins this season, it didn't take long to assess the problem -- the clubhouse was as much emergency room as dressing room, and player after player was shuttling back and forth between the active roster and the disabled list. Morneau, Mauer, Span, Thome, Young, Baker, Slowey, Nishioka, Kubel, Casilla, Nathan -- all spent time on the DL, seriously testing the depth of the Twins organization.

Continue reading 2011 Game 106 Recap: Twins 9, White Elephants 5

Game 102: Twins at Rangers

Nick Blackburn vs. Derek Holland

The dreaded West Coast road trip. Unfortunately, this doesn't include a trip to Seattle, where the Mariners are in freefall mode. However, the Twins at least are 7-5 against the three teams they face on this trip, including 3-1 against the Rangers. Normally, I would be fine with a .500 trip, but the Twins need to reach higher. A split in Texas and winning series in Oakland and Anaheim would make for a good trip.

Revere getting the day off today vs. lefty. So, we get ... Jason Repko leading off! [Head slap]. Someone needs to take those lineup cards with the order of positions prefilled away from Gardy.

1. Jason Repko CF
2. Alexi, Casilla 2B
3. Joe Mauer C
4. Michael Cuddyer
5. Jason Kubel DH
6. Danny Valencia 3B
7. Delmon Young LF
8. Trevor Plouffe RF
9. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, SS

Oh well. Hopefully, the Twins will find their offense. But, more importantly, they need to get back to the great starting pitching that carried them out of last place. The key in Texas is keeping the ball on the ground, especially for Blackburn. Look for that early on. GO TWINS!!

Game 101: Tigers at Twins, Happy Bert Day!

I figured this will work for a game log and a Blyleven Hall of Fame speech log. The game was moved back to 3:10 CDT so fans could watch both, and I plan on doing just that.

Blyleven has always been one of my favorite pitchers for the Twins. I didn't know him in his first stint with the Twins, when he was more cantankerous than a character. I became a Twins fan after he rejoined the Twins. I really didn't start following the Twins on an everyday basis until 1986 when a sparkplug of a centerfielder had a breakout year and captured the attention of the nation, at least for the first half of the season. Before that, we moved to Maple Grove in 1984 and we went to a game or two each season, but I really didn't know baseball that well. Blyleven was traded to the Twins in 1985, but I seem to recall there being some buzz about such a good pitcher being acquired by the Twins.

My love affair with the Twins started in 1987. Most Twins fans seem to remember the 1991 team more fondly, but for me, 1987 will always be the best season. 1991 was more about the World Series, but 1987 was about the whole season. There was something magical about that team right from the beginning, especially at the Metrodome. And that team was full of characters, led by Blyleven. He was the biggest character and was terrific most of the season, especially in the big games. Most people forget that he was warming up early in Game 7 after pitching Game 5 three days' prior. If Tom Kelly had had a quicker hook for Frank Viola, who had been hammered in Game 4, Blyleven might have won Game 7 on two days rest and probably would have been the WS MVP. If that had happened, it might not have taken so long for him to get to this day. Look how much mileage Jack Morris has gotten out of his Game 7 moment.

This day for Bert has been a long time coming and I am very happy for him. In fact, I feel like I may have played a very tiny part in this. While I was a sports copy editor for a newspaper, I had a short-lived column about baseball stats, and in one of those columns I discussed the Hall of Fame case of Blyleven. I was surprised when I received a request from the administrator of bertbelongs.com asking if the website could link to my column. I of course said yes and it still is there today. Actually, my discussions about the hall of fame with the columnist at the newspaper may have had more of an effect, since I know he eventually went from a "no" to a "yes" on Blyleven, although I don't know if he was able to vote this year, since he was layed off from the newspaper the same time I was.

But this isn't about me, this is about Bert and I am thrilled for him. I just hope they don't broadcast his speech live. We know how dangerous that can be.

As for the game, the Twins need this one to finish with a winning homestand and to keep it just disappointing instead of a bad homestand. It's Liriano vs. Rick Porcello, who's had a lot of success against the Twins despite Kubel being 11-for-22 against him. It will be interesting to see if Mauer is behind the plate once again. Joe Nathan also could tie Rick Aguilera for the Twins' all-time record for saves. Let's get it done. GO TWINS!!

Game 100: Twins 4, Tigers 1

Finally!

The Twins finally get a win over the Tigers after losing 11 straight to them, seven this season. Hopefully, this is will start a turnaround in the season series between these two teams. It's not like the Tigers were playing well coming in. They had just lost a three-game series to the White Sox and split a two-game series with the A's, both at home. In fact, the Tigers are 15-16 in their last 31 games dating back to June 17.

The key to the game was the pitching. Baker was terrific in his start, which was abbreviated due to being on a shorter pitch count since he was coming back from a sore arm. He obviously was feeling fine after pitching five shutout innings against the Tigers, who had averaged over seven runs per game against the Twins.

The bullpen was fine as well. It only allowed one run in four innings and never allowed the Tigers to bring the tying run to the plate, which makes it difficult to blow a lead.

The Twins had their best lineup out there since April the last two days and still only managed six runs. Saturday, they had runners all over the bases the first four innings, but had to settle for four runs as Brad Penny had two hard-hit ground balls turned into double plays behind him in key situations. Maybe the most encouraging part of the offense was getting five walks and just five strikeouts. The Twins had been struggling with walks on this homestand for the most part. They got seven in the first game and four in the second, but since then they had just 12 walks in their last eight games and 46 strikeouts before today's game. It should be no surprise that the Twins averaged just 3.2 runs in those eight games.

The Twins now have guaranteed a .500 homestand, which is by no means good, but they at least avoided the disaster of a losing homestand. They can still salvage a 7-5 homestand, which would still be disappointing after splitting eight games with the top-two teams in the division.

Game 93: Royals at Twins

Felipe Paulino vs. Brian Duensing

The Royals may have finally found a good one in Paulino. He's averaging nearly a strikeout an inning and has kept his walk rate low, although he's been rather hittable. Paulino has 24 strikeouts his last three starts but has somehow managed to give up 29 hits so either he's been pretty unlucky, or he has good stuff but has had trouble with mistake pitches.

I like throwing a lefty against the Royals. As long as Duensing doesn't let Billy Butler beat him, he should be OK.

The Twins need to take advantage of playing the Royals at home. Splitting a series with them would be pretty disappointing. GO TWINS!!!!

Game 92: Twins 4, Royals 3

Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

One night after a gut-busting loss on another Capps blown save, Gardy finally makes the right decision and puts Joe Nathan back in his familiar closer role and suddenly everything seems right with the world. The Twins win at home against an AL Central team and Nathan gets the save with the usual obligatory base runner. Even without a strikeout, Nathan looked good with three popups for outs and the only hit a roller through the infield, which may have been helped with Cuddyer guarding the line in the ninth.

It will be interesting tomorrow if the Twins have another narrow, late lead. I think Gardy may have been hesitant to make Nathan the closer because he has said he won't use Nathan three days in a row. I'm fine with that, since most relievers (outside of LOOGYs) shouldn't be used that often anyways. This undoubtedly means Perkins will close tomorrow, if necessary, and I'm fine with that as well, especially after he dominated Saturday night and absolutely abused Alex Gordon, who's been the Royals' best hitter, on three pitches. The interesting part will be to see who gets the eighth inning, or at least who starts it. If righties are coming up, I wouldn't be surprised to see Capps in there with Mijares warming up. The other choice would be Alex Burnett and neither one inspires a lot of confidence right now, although Capps' splits make me think he can thrive as a protected setup man. Of course, this means the Twins need Mijares to figure out his control problems as well.

It's amazing how much difference one bases-empty single can make. The Royals' Jeff Francis was in cruise control in the eighth inning Saturday before Alexi Casilla flared a single into right field. Joe Mauer followed with a ground ball through the hole created by the presence of Casilla and suddenly Francis was out of the game and ended up with the loss after Cuddyer singled off reliever Aaron Crow to put the Twins ahead.

That eighth inning and Nathan' s save prevented me from a meltdown after two bad calls by the umpires in the sixth inning allowed the Royals to tie the game on an infield out. Both were close plays, but when you have two close calls go against you in one inning of a tight game and both were shown to be bad calls, well that can be pretty tough to take. Fortunately, it didn't mean much more than prevent Pavano from getting the win and give me one more reason to have no respect for Cowboy Joe West.

2011 Game 91 Recap: Royals 2, Twins 1

Weather: 74 degrees, overcast
Wind: 9 mph, R to L
Time: 2:37
Attendance: 39,177

Box Score
Fangraphs

I <3 Ben Revere

This game was all about pitching. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Nick Blackburn pitched a good game. Luke Hochevar pitched a good game. Both went seven innings. Blackburn gave up no runs on four hits and two walks, Hochevar gave up one on three hits and three walks.

Coming out of the bullpen in the eighth, Joe Nathan and Tim Collins were good, neither giving up a hit and only Collins allowing a base runner on one walk.

Continue reading 2011 Game 91 Recap: Royals 2, Twins 1

Whither Chuck James?

I've made no secret of my desire for Chuck James [to join the Twins for the rest of the season]. But in reading about him a bit, I'm starting to wonder if the Twins think much less of him.

Background: he is a former good starting pitcher for the Braves who needed shoulder surgery in 2008. After a year rehabbing, he was with the Nationals org last year, with a 2.32 ERA, .939 WHIP, 7.0K/9, and 1.5 BB/9 (albeit mostly in AA). According to a great article from Sloane Martin,

He was able to get back to the baseball shape and the pitching form he was accustomed to and was thankful for the Nationals’ patience and opportunity. But he chose to sign with the Twins because of their bullpen situation and the fact that the Nationals had so much young talent.

Basically, the Twins offseason revamping of the bullpen, combined with its lack of depth and young prospects in the bullpen, James was confident he’d be able to land a spot on the Major League roster.

Instead, James was sent to Rochester after spring break broke, with Perkins, Mijares, and Dusty Hughes as lefty relievers. He wasn't even added to the 40-man roster until Nathan's DL trip and the overall poor performance of the bullpen basically forced the team's hand.
Continue reading Whither Chuck James?

Cuddyer’s Teammates

I've been following and enjoying Michael Cuddyer's weekly web column for FSNorth. I often get behind and catch up on a few weeks' worth at once. Today, I read the two most recent columns, including this one from June 29th: "Teammate bonds stand test of time". In it, he remarks:

If I had to guess, I would say I have had more than 100 teammates since I began my major league career, and I have played for only one team!

Well, that's the kind of info that I can muscle my way through a bunch of data to find! Just a few hours on b-r.com!

In honor of Cuddy's All-Star selection, I present the following list of all 172 players that have been Michael Cuddyer's active-roster teammate on the Twins for at least one day.

Continue reading Cuddyer’s Teammates

Name Games
Justin Morneau 1003
Torii Hunter 993
Joe Mauer 862
Nick Punto 747
Jacque Jones 727
Jason Kubel 706
Cristian Guzman 554
Luis Rivas 549
Corey Koskie 542
Doug Mientkiewicz 514
Lew Ford 494