Category Archives: View from the Ballpark

2011 Twins Game Recaps, View from the Ballpark

2011 Game 59: Twins 6, Indians 4

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Weather: 83°F, clear
Wind: 9 mph
Attendance: 15,278
Time: 2:34

Twins record: 22-37 (last in AL Central, 11.5 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB Game Wrap

Highlights:

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Tolbert .246 (2-4, R, 2 RBI, SO) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Mijares .104 (0.2 IP)
  • The Twins have now managed to string five wins together for the first time this season.
  • The Twins drafted a college middle infielder.

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Casilla, -.088 (0-4, GIDP) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Baker, .067 (7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 HR, 3 ER, 5 K, HBP)
  • Despite drafting a middle infielder, the Twins will still be rostering Tolbert & Casilla for the foreseeable future.

There typically hasn't been much chatter about the actual games in the Monday morning recaps, but just because I run View from the Ballpark that doesn't mean talk about the actual game isn't welcome. Then again, this is the first time that the Twins won on a Monday since the Monday after the Big Move, way back at Game 16. So, if you have observations about last night's break from the trend, do share them.

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Here's this week's View from the Ballpark:

photo by Flickr user Curtis Cronn

Though I never was able to attend a game here, this was one of my favorite ballparks in all of baseball. A substantial part of the park actually still exists, but unfortunately has been pitched to the needs of a radically different tenant, erasing a few of the signature elements I really loved about the place, such that the view from this spot no longer exists.

photo by Flickr user Curtis Cronn

Remember, no embiggening.

2011 Twins Game Recaps, View from the Ballpark

2011 Game 52: Tigers 6, Twins 5

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Weather: 85°F, sunny
Wind: 9 mph
Attendance: 30,198
Time: 3:09

Twins record: 17-35 (last in AL Central, 14.5 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB wrap

Highlights:

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Kubel .140 (2-3, R, RBI) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Dumatrait .236 (0.2 IP, K)

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Delmon, -.188 (0-4, saw only 10 pitches in 4 AB) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Blackburn, -.509 (6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 HR 5 ER, BB, 3 K)
  • Kubel is listed as day-to-day with a sprained right foot
  • Rene Rivera is whiffing in 40% of his at bats. Over his career Jim Thome has gotten on base in more than 40% of his at bats.

In case you didn't read it elsewhere already, Francisco Liriano was placed on the DL. Kubel is day-to-day. Meanwhile, according to the 4ltr's recap, Mauer is now able to throw from home to second. I didn't know bilateral leg weakness affected the arms, too.

Usually I watch Monday's game so I can write a recap, but this week I was down at my mother-in-law's place in Chicagoland, where the connection speed isn't particularly great. If the Twins were playing well I might have been tempted to watch the game anyway, but I figured I didn't need the frustration of the spotty DSL connection, plus terrible baseball. I suppose I could watch it now that I'm home, but I've decided not to waste my time. In the limited time I have on this earth, going back to watch yet another Twins loss isn't high on my list of priorities. Thus concludeth the game wrap.

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Let's be honest: If you're even reading this, the View from the Ballpark is probably why you are here. Well, let's dispense with the pleasantries (if that's the appropriate word for recapping another loss) and get right down to it:
photo by Flickr user rjcox

photo by Flickr user rjcox

Remember, no embiggening.

2011 Twins Game Recaps, View from the Ballpark

2011 Game 46: Mariners 8, Twins 7 (10)

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Weather: 75°F, partly cloudy
Wind: 9 mph
Attendance: 37,498
Time: 3:40

Twins record: 15-31 (last in AL Central, 15.5 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB wrap

Highlights:

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Thome .344 (2-3, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Dumatrait .038 (0.1 IP)
  • JI
  • JIM THOME's return

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Kubel, -.166 (0-5, SO) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Sconeskuzz, .338 (0.2 IP, 2 H, ER, BB)
  • Bullpen: 3 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, BB, 2 K

Over a decade ago I had a side gig as a yard maintenance lackey for a realtor who owned a bunch of rental properties. The guy lived in my neighborhood, in a huge red brick Victorian house with white trim and a huge front porch that I can't remember him ever sitting on in the evenings. Well, the guy must've decided that he'd had enough of living near the college (and his tenants), or maybe business was just that good, but he and his family bought an even bigger Tudor close to the Big Lake in Winona. Being that I worked for him, he asked me if I would help move them out. I don't remember what he paid me, but whatever it was, it wasn't enough.

The day of the move arrived, and I walked down the block to his place. One of the guy's tenants showed up around the same time, either to work off some unpaid rent, get a reduction in rent, or pick up a little cash, I don't remember which. We were told to head down to the basement, which was our main focus for the day. Once down there, we just about turned around and walked back up the stairs and away from what was in store for us. I honestly don't know what made us stay. There was crap everywhere. Collections of bicycle rims, coffee cans full of random junk, old sheet metal signs, rusty miscellaneous iron componentry - you get the picture. And it wasn't organized. Oh no. It was just strewn about, almost as if the guy had opened the basement door, stood at the top of the stairs, and heaved whatever was in his hands into the depths beyond. He was the Smaug of low-grade scrap metal, at least for an area supposedly zoned as residential.

Well, my temporary coworker and I schlepped that junk up the stairs all day, piling it in the back of an old quarter-ton pickup, the gloss of the maroon and white two tone paint on its flanks long gone. It was pretty wretched work, but what took the cake was, near the end of the day, unearthing a freakin' barber's chair down in the basement, one of the old ones with more chrome parts on it than a 1958 Buick. That sucker was heaaaavy, but we were duty-bound to lug it up the basement stairs, hoist it up into the truck bed, and haul it in one of the last loads over to the big Tudor. As we got in the truck for the drive across town, bed piled high with barber chair, rims, and all kinds of other detritus, the tenant looked at me and said, "You remember that TV show, Sanford & Son?" I looked at him, sighed, and said, "Yeaaah...," and hoped nobody I knew saw us until the job was behind us.

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This week's View from the Ballpark:
photo by Flickr user kevin wen

 

photo by Flickr user kevin wen

Remember, no embiggening.

2011 Twins Game Recaps, View from the Ballpark

2011 Game 39: Mariners 5, Twins 2

8 Comments

Weather: "indoors"
Attendance: 14,859
Time: 2:31

Twins record: 12-27 (last in AL Central, 13.5 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB Game Wrap

"Highlights":

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Morneau .038 (1-4, SO) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Some band-aid whose name I've already forgotten .003 (1.1 IP, ER, 2 BB)

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Cuddyer, -.138 (1-4, R) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Baker, -.172 (6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 BB, 8 SO, 4 ER)
  • Pretty much all of it.

Last night Scott Baker had a very Scott Baker-y outing. The Twins lost.

What else can I say about the game? I fell asleep after Pineda came out, it's now 2:30am, and I'm going to bed. If I've missed something important, talk about it below.

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This week's View from the Ballpark might be too easy, but I like the history behind it too much to let it go.

photo by Flickr user joshbousel

Over the years at least two former Twins have managed here. | photo by Flickr user joshbousel

Remember, no embiggening.

2011 Twins Game Recaps, View from the Ballpark

2011 Game 33: Red Sox 2, Twins 1 (11)

45 Comments

Weather: 60°F, cloudy
Wind: 16 mph, in from CF
Attendance: 37,276
Time: 3:55

Twins record: 12-21 (tied for last in AL Central, 10.0 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB Game Wrap

Highlights:

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Span .150 (2-4, R, BB) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Mijares .299 (2.0 IP, H, BB)
  • Outfield defense - Revere's diving catch and Span's sliding catch

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Tolbert, -.346 (0-5, 1 SO) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Hoey, -.350 (0.1 IP, H, BB, ER)
  • Tolbert: still batting second
  • MLB's continued employment of Angel Hernandez and Joe West

BOSTON -- The latest rumblings out of the Twins' clubhouse are something else indeed. General Manager Bill Smith accidentally ran his iPhone through the visitor's clubhouse washing machine in Chicago last week after spilling a Chicago-style hot dog on his pants. Smith immediately put the device in a box of rice, to no avail, and had to reluctantly borrow infielder Matt Tolbert's phone so he could make some calls and find a new catcher. Steve Holm wasn't quite Corky Miller bad in his brief appearance, but Bill Smith eventually figured out he wasn't an answer to any question worth asking. Tolbert reportedly told Smith he doesn't make enough for the Twins' GM to call 411 and ask for the Rangers' front office (more on this in a moment), but could swing a call to AAA Rochester as long as it happened on his plan's nights & weekends minutes.

Red Wings infielder Toby Gardenhire is apparently #3 on Tolbert's speed dial, right behind Voicemail (#1) and former teammate Nick Punto (#2). Smith accordingly placed his call to Gardenhire the Younger, who relayed the request for a catcher to Red Wings manager Tom Nieto. Nieto, himself a former Twin, initially volunteered his own services, but apparently requested a few days to iron the fungoes out of his swing, time that Smith just wasn't willing to waste.

In his first season with the Twins, Nieto briefly served as Tim Laudner's backup and outhit regular backup Sal Butera late in the season (.071/.188/.143 for Nieto vs. .063/.118/.125 for Butera in Sept/Oct) before being inexplicably left off the playoff roster. Nieto actually paced Twins catchers in hitting and on-base percentage that year, posting a .200/.276/.314 line to Laudner's .191/.252/.389 and Sal Butera's .171/.217/.243 mark. Overall, Nieto posted an OPS+ of 17 in his Twins career, which spanned 183 plate appearances between 1987-88. When reached for comment, Nieto said, "I out-hit Sal Butera in 1987, and I believe in the depths of my soul I can out-hit his son in 2011." Drew Butera currently owns a positively Buterian .172/.213/.251 line. "But the Twins value defense behind the plate," Nieto continued, "and I accumulated -0.2 dWAR in my Twins career, so Bill Smith elected to pursue other options."

So, that's why Rene Rivera is now with the Twins. But why Rivera instead of, say, Rangers catcher/first baseman Mike Napoli, who has only 63 at bats (but 6 HR) this season despite a career 119 OPS+ and a .238 ISO? Napoli, only 29, is likely still in his hitting prime, and despite whatever Mike Scioscia - Napoli's former manager - thinks, he appears to be a serviceable catcher. Unfortunately, Smith laundered his iPhone and apparently hasn't yet worked up the nerve to tell Jim Pohlad, Dave St. Peter, or Wade Navratil, the Twins' Senior Director of Technology. Of course, Smith could always look up Rangers GM Jon Daniels' number in his laptop's address book, or drop Daniels an email for that matter, but an unnamed source in the Twins' front office divulged that Smith has forgotten how to turn his laptop on. According to another source in the Twins' front office, former Twins GM Terry Ryan and former Twins manager Tom Kelly have offered to call former Twins GM Andy MacPhail, currently the Orioles' President of Baseball Operations, about the availability of Matt "Mauer with Power" Wieters, but Smith has repeatedly expressed the desire to put his own stamp on the club.

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This week's View from the Ballpark:

photo by Flickr user LugoLounge
I know at least 5 6 7 10 Hall of Famers played here. | photo by Flickr user LugoLounge

Remember, no embiggening.

2011 Twins Game Recaps, View from the Ballpark

2011 Game 16: Twins 5, Orioles 3

45 Comments

Weather: 67°F, partly cloudy
Wind: 2 mph, out to CF
Attendance: 13,138
Time: 2:50

Twins record: 6-10 (tied for last in AL Central, 6.0 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB Game Wrap

Highlights:

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Butera .224 (2-4, 1 2b, 3 RBI) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Hoey .236 (1.1 IP, K)
  • Jim Hoey's firefighting in his Twins debut
  • The Twins have now managed to string two wins together for the first time this season.

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Span, -.087 (0-5, 2 SO) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Mijares, .020 (0.1 IP, HBP)
  • Top 5 hitters in the order: 2-21, R, 8 SO
  • Tolbert: still batting second
  • Chris Guccione's kaleidoscope eyes

Given the night the top five batters in the order had, there's no way the Twins could have expected to win this game. Not with one of the four remaining spots in the lineup featuring a middle infielder with a bat -34.7 runs above average in 1108 career plate appearances. Not with one of the three remaining slots featuring a backup catcher, forced into a starting role, whose bat was worth -10.3 runs above average in 2010. Yet that backup catcher knocked in three of the evening's five runs and secured the win with what, thanks to some shaky ninth inning relief, proved to be a key run-producing double late in the game.
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