Category Archives: WGOM

Game # Something Recap: Twins @ Tigers

Twins 6, Tigers 5
WP: Matt Capps. Wait, What? LP: Dancie McDancealot
Blown Save*: Matt Capps
Save: Joe Nathan
Fangraphs likes making graphs.

We only have a few games left so we'd better check in on the King of the Savers Race. John Axford and Craig Kimbrel are riding on top of the list with 36 saves apiece, but Jose Valverde and The Beard are hot on their heels with 35 successful saves.

Carl Pavano looks mad, rip snorting mad. Over his last 10 starts he has factored in half the decisions winning one and taking the loss in the other four despite being 'quality' over his last three starts. He's beat up water coolers, spiked the ball (several times), sneered at opposing batters, and, most egregiously, he had to endure Joe Mauer's pitch calling last night. He's angry. You can see it on his face, but that really isn't important at this point in the season. This game had it's share of baseball magic. The Twins took the lead in the second, Detroit tied it up in the third, and then took the lead in the sixth. The Twins came roaring back to take the lead in the top half of the seventh, and then served up the tie in the bottom half. Then big Jim Thome came to the plate and stroked a single take back the lead. I'll never, ever, tire of watching Thome swing the lumber. Glen Perkins came on to be automatic, and instead loaded the bases without retiring anyone. Shortening was called in, and I couldn't watch. I sat at my couch staring at the rug waiting to hear the roar of the crowd that would affirm my worst fears, but that roar never happened. With the game knotted at 4 Leyland brought in his Iceman, the douchy closer who's been perfect in save opportunities this year, and he blew up the game. Morneau had the clutch hit driving in two runs, and Joe Nathan saved the day by only giving up one run. The Twins may have raised the white flag, but there are some positive things to watch for towards the end of the season. We may get to see K-slow pitch a real game, and, unless he's traded to AMR's new boyfriend team, we may get to see Jim Thome pass Sammy Sosa on the all time list.Even if the Twins aren't in the race for the division title I'm not willing to give up watching them play because the off-season is long and dark.

*that makes 8 blown saves for Crisco this season which = $875,000.00 per. The more he blows the cheaper they get.

Culture Club: Heads up to Hungry Joe, and anyone else who is hanging out around Chi-Town, the International Museum of Surgical Science is a great place to spend an afternoon (although, they are closed until labor day). Of the many reasons to like a museum dedicated to surgical science the most important reason is that they have a forward thinking approach to the connection between art and science with their Anatomy in the Gallery program. If you can't make it down to Chicago you can get your fix at the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices on display at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Planet X – “Inside Black”

Planet X is one of my favorite prog jazz groups; they seem unable to play anything in 4/4 time. There aren't any live videos available of their songs I like the most, but here's a good one from a concert in Sofia, Bulgaria that was recorded for a television special:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN2FYLKQKQ8

6 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 106 votes, average: 6.67 out of 10 (6 votes, average: 6.67 out of 10)
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2011 Game Logs: Game 122 Minnesota Non-Delmons @ Detroit _elm_ns

Nick Blackburn

@

Justin Verlander

Alright, you guys are going to have to bare with me for a little bit here. I am going to try to crunch some numbers and see if I can find a way for the Twins to make up the 10.5 game deficit currently between them and first place.

While I understand the caveats of a small sample size, it is difficult to argue with cold hard numbers. One such case of ignoring sample sizes has to be the result of the Twins scoring 9 runs in every single game that Delmon Young has never been a member of the Twins this season.  Conversely, the Twins have allowed only 6 runs in each and every game played since they traded Delmon. Considering the Tigers had a team ERA of 4.25 before the Delmon trade, I feel comfortable saying the Delmon has made the Tigers 1.75 runs worse per game.

So, at this point the next natural thing to do was to go through the previous 121 games, see how many games the Twins would have won if they scored 9 runs and allowed 1.75 less runs the scoreboard reflected. I will then take that winning percentage, apply it to the rest of the season and see if it puts the Twins in position to win the Central.

This would put the Twins record at 112-9. Over the course of a full season that translates of a winning percentage of .925. This would give the Twins 37.02 wins over the remaining 40 games. We will round this down to 37 wins (to be realistic), putting the Twins final tally over the last 40 games at 37-3.

Assuming all of this elm'n-less math to be true this will put the Twins at 90 wins for the 2011 campaign. Not too shabby. Now how about the other teams? Seeing as how the Tigers are still yet to win a game while employing Delmon I think it is safe to figure they will continue to lose every game the rest of the season.  With the Twins winning 90 the Tigers will be pretty far behind with only 64 wins.

As for the other teams the Twins have to pass, pfft, it is AMR's White Sox and the lowly Indians. Neither of those teams should prove too much trouble as the Twins cruise to their 7th division title in 10 years.

Man, this is going to be an awesome couple of months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011 Game 121: DC 1001011000 258

600!

How many taters is that? Well, it's exactly twice the number of homers Chuck Klein hit in his career. It's 154 more than the next two active players, Vladimir Guerrero and Chipper Jones. It's 15 40-homer seasons. It's 1 more than the combined career totals of Lou Pinella, Honus Wagner, John Kruk, Lonnie Smith, Todd Hollandsworth, Chuck Knoblauch, Jason Tyner, Al Newman, and Don Sutton. It's 100 more than the combined totals of Kent Hrbek and Kirby Puckett. It's twelve bushels' worth, if you figure one homer is the equivalent of one pound of potatoes.

It's a whole lot of mashin', that's what.

-------

And now, this week's View from the Ballpark:

photo by Flickr user joyosity

photo by Flickr user joyosity

Remember, no embiggening.

Steve Hackett – “Horizons”

One of the finest concert openers I've seen was on the GTR tour, when Steve Hackett and Steve Howe performed various solo and duet pieces (and that particular concert was recorded for King Biscuit Flower Hour). Steve Howe prefers steel strings, while Steve Hackett favors nylon; here's one of Hackett's more beautiful numbers:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUZcHZEficE

After the break, Steve gets his cheaptoy on...
Continue reading Steve Hackett – “Horizons”

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2011 Game 121: Marisa Monday, Post _elm_n Edition

I just got this message from "ThaReal_elm_n":
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryAeNSzanKY

some rights reserved by GranniesKitchenThome Watch continues. Younger and wussier players around him continue to wilt in the August heat, but the Masher keeps on keeping on. The Tiggers have pretty much pwned the Twins for the last year, having won 12 out of their last 13 against our boys.

pitching matchup:
F-Bomb (tRA+: 92, FIP: 4.53, xFIP: 4.41, fWAR: 0.8, 97:66 K:BB in 117 innings)
Rick Porcello (tRA+: 108, FIP: 3.92, xFIP: 4.00, fWAR: 1.9, 76:30 K:BB in 126 innings)

The 22-year old Porcello is having a solid season. Amongst the mortal starters on the Tiger staff, he leads the way in pRAA at +4.8 (Verlander is at +33.0, tied for 7th in the Majors; he's third in pitching rWAR). But the real strength of this club is the offense, which weighs in at +43.2 bRAA and is 5th in the A.L. in runs per game at 4.44 (Twins are 12th at 3.87 -- behind Oakland, for goodness sake). So, tell me again why they wanted _elm_n???

Porcello is a ground-ball inducing righty. The Twins have a lefty-heavy lineup, with no _elm_n and a questionable Cuddy.