Rangers (2) at Tigers (1)
Matt Harrison vs. Rick Porcello
Brewers (1) at Cardinals (1)
Yovani Gallardo vs. Chris Carpenter
Sooooo, no sweeps this year yet. Cool.
Venezuelan Winter League Preview
The Venezuelan Winter League starts today. There are eight teams in the league. The teams are Aguilas de Zulia, Bravos de Margarita, Cardenales de Lara, Caribes de Anzoategui, Leones del Caracas, Navegantes del Magallanes, Tiburones de La Guaira, and Tigres de Aragua.
Once again there are a lot of Twins players on the roster for the Tigres de Aragua. They are Cesar Ciurcina, Jhon Garcia, Edgar Ibarra, Jose Mijares, Miguel Munoz, Josmil Pinto, Oswaldo Arcia, Joe Benson, Jon Goncalves, and Yangervis Solarte.
It is unclear, however, which of those players will actually play or when they will play. Rosters in winter leagues are different. There are fifty-five players currently on the Aragua roster. Players come and go. Some are there for a couple of weeks, some are there for a month, some stay all season. It seems logical that there would be an "active roster" of people who are actually available to play on a given night, but if it exists it is not easy to find. As one follows the league, one gets the impression that if a good player just happened to show up in the fifth inning, they'd hand him a uniform and send him onto the field.
We hope at least a few of the Twins players will always be around at any given time, so that following Aragua will be more interesting to us. If not, well, it's still baseball, and it will still be something to help us through the long winter months. Let's play ball!
Solar Sox Summary
Mesa finally got its first win, defeating Scottsdale 3-2. The Solar Sox once again got off to an early lead, as they were ahead 3-0 after six. This time, however, they were able to hold on for the victory.
Brandon Short (White Sox) led Mesa with a single and a solo homer. Junior Lake (Cubs) had two hits. Brian Dozier was 0-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt. Chris Herrmann was 0-for-2 with a walk. Aaron Hicks was 1-for-2 with a triple and a walk. The win went to Terry Doyle (White Sox), who started and pitched four perfect innings. Andrew Cashner (Cubs) worked a scoreless ninth, giving up one hit to get the save. No Twins pitchers were used in the game.
For the Scorpions, Hank Conger (Angels) and Zach Walters (Arizona) each had two hits. Starter Tyler Cloyd (Philadelphia) took the loss, giving up a run on four hits and a walk in three innings.
The Solar Sox try to make it two in a row as they host Peoria this afternoon.
Weekly Wild Whangdoodle – Games 1-3
Another season has kicked off for the Wild, with quite a few new faces. A quick rundown of those who migrated to the State of Hockey to begin the 2011-2012 NHL season.
Dany Heatley - Traded to the Wild from San Jose for Martin Havlat as the search for Marian Gaborik's heir continues. Heatley has the potential to pot quite a few goals and he can be a power-play wizard. The question is whether he will get enough chances to make the difference that a top-notch goal scorer can.
Devin Setoguchi - Traded to Minnesota from San Jose on draft day as part of a big deal that sent Brent Burns to the Sharks. He's averaged 24 goals/year the last 3 seasons, and the hope is that his pairing with Koivu and Heatley will yield him plenty of opportunities to match or exceed those totals.
Brett Bulmer - Made the jump from Canadian Juniors straight to the opening day NHL roster. He was a 2nd round pick of the Wild's in 2010, and he's only 19. More of an energy guy than a goal scorer, and I'd expect him to spend some time in Houston this year, but it's a fun story that he made the team.
Nick Johnson - Spent last year with the Pittsburgh AHL affiliate before coming to the Wild. Nothing special, but could be a role-player.
Darrell Powe - Traded to Minnesota from Philadelphia for a 3rd round pick (2013). Checking-line winger, adjusted plus/minus and Corsi don't think much of him, but I haven't seen enough to really say anything.
Contrast those additions with the loss of Mittens, Brunette, Burns, Havlat and Madden. The biggest impact on the offensive side might end up being a healthy Bouchard and Latendresse. If those guys are healthy and productive, I think this team could be somewhere around a league average offense, which would be a nice change.
Defensively, they are about the same, although they lose the puck-moving of Brent Burns, they look to Marco Scandella and some younger guys to provide that. They should be alright but nothing spectacular in that respect.
So average offense, and a passable defense, does that spell playoffs? It's within the realm of possibility, but I think things need to break right (no injuries, some breakout seasons, etc.).
Happy Birthday–October 12
Sam Field (1846)
Charlie Morton (1854)
Pop Smith (1856)
Malachi Kittridge (1869)
Pete Hill (1882)
Dixie Davis (1890)
Rick Ferrell (1905)
Joe Cronin (1906)
Al Smith (1907)
Bob Sheppard (1910)
Al Unser (1912)
John Kennedy (1926)
Tony Kubek (1935)
Glenn Beckert (1940)
Herman Hill (1945)
Jim Lewis (1955)
Sid Fernandez (1962)
Luis Polonia (1963)
Jose Valentin (1969)
Derrick White (1969)
Tanyon Sturtze (1970)
Tony Fiore (1971)
Hall of Famer Joe Cronin, of course, played for the Washington franchise from 1928-1934, managing the team in the latter two years. He married Clark Griffith’s niece, which did not keep Griffith from trading him to Boston after the 1934 season.
If there was a Hall of Fame for public address announcers, Bob Sheppard would be the first one in.
First baseman/outfielder Derrick White was drafted by Minnesota in the 23rd round in 1989, but did not sign. He played in the major leagues for Montreal, Detroit, the Cubs, and Colorado, playing in three seasons and totaling 116 at-bats.
October 12, 2011: Sick
I assume I'll wake up pretty sick today, given how things were going when I typed this. Dumb.
Gladys Knight & The Pips – Midnight Train To Georgia
i like playing songs of places i'll be. see y'all in hot 'lanta.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9xIlHsbbBk
1976
two quick anecdotes:
1. i got into this song, and GK&TPs by extension, because an 18 year old joe overheard a beeyoutiful stripper say she preferred dancing to songs like "midnight train to georgia" over other, more popular crap. i had to hear what she was talking about (oh, sasha...).
2. like in rob gordon's top 5 dream job list in high fidelity (the movie; i don't remember the specific quote in the book) about wanting to be a musician like a memphis horn, but not needing to be jagger or hendrix: i always kind of wanted to be a pip. the matching suits and subdued, choreographed dance moves were a big part of that.
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Loading... ALCS, Game 3
Colby Lewis vs. Doug Fister; Rangers lead the Tigers two games to none.
The Tigers should think about climbing out of this hole sooner than later.
Solar Sox Summary
Mesa once again lost by one run in the late innings, falling to Scottsdale 4-3. This time, the Solar Sox led 3-0 after three innings, but the Scorpions scored three in the fourth to tie and one in the eighth to win.
Scottsdale was led by Brandon Crawford (San Francisco), who had two singles and led off the eighth with a triple, eventually scoring the winning run. Stephen Harrold (San Francisco) got the win, working two scoreless innings and allowing only two baserunners, both on walks.
For Mesa, D. J. LeMahieu (Cubs) singled and doubled and Robbie Grossman (Pitssburgh) had two hits. Brian Dozier was 1-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt. Aaron Hicks got his first hit, going 1-for-2 with two walks and an RBI. Cole DeVries started, working three scoreless innings before allowing the three runs in the fourth. For the game, he gave up three runs (two earned) on three hits and a walk while striking out three in 3.1 innings. Brett Jacobson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk. Brandon Kloess (White Sox) took the loss, allowing a run on a hit and two walks in one inning.
The Solar Sox will continue to look for their first victory as they host Scottsdale this afternoon.
I’m Taking Over!
At least for this post. Okay. I'm done with this taking over stuff.