Tag Archives: Ervin Santana

2017 Game 150: Minnesota Twins vs. New York Yankees

As mentioned in today's CoC, we're hitting the final stretch of the regular season, which hopefully isn't also the final stretch of the Twins' season. 4 more series remain (@NYY, @DET, @CLE, DET), and we start off with a chance to cut into NY's hold on the first WC slot (currently at 4.0 games).

Also, this will be a test for the Twins as they're currently looking at a one game playoff in NY. As history has shown, the combination of the Yankees, playoffs, and the Twinkies does not bode well. Hopefully this series will be a chance to work through some issues in advance.

Santana faces off against Twins cast-off Garcia, who may feel he has something to prove.

Game 100: Brooklyn Dodgers at Los Angeles Senators

Los Angeles Senators

Celebrating 70 Years of Baseball in the City of Angels

All credit to "Tom" over at Ghosts of DC.

Griffith declared he has assurances from Los Angeles officials that a written proposal for transfer of the Washington franchise would be forthcoming before the Nats 5-man board of directors meets on Friday.
“I am sure we will have a Los Angeles offer to consider in addition to those received from San Francisco and Louisville,” Griffith said. “That is the word I received by telephone from Kenneth Hahn, Los Angeles county supervisor.”

Included in the Los Angeles proposal, Griffith said, would be guarantees of a stadium seating “at least 50,000, perhaps larger, with parking for 20,000 cars, and low stadium rental.”

The Louisville proposal offering use of the new Fairgrounds Stadium seating nearly 32,000, which could be expanded to 40,000, was made, Griffith said, by William Henry, Fairgrounds superintendent. It was accompanied by a letter from Kentucky Governor A. B. (Happy) Chandler.
The mayor of San Francisco authorized that city’s bid for the Washington franchise, Griffith said. It emphasized the availability of a $5 million bond issue, already passed, into which to build a stadium for the stipulated purpose of inviting major league baseball.

The negotiations and bidding war was heating up (by the way, Happy Chandler was also the former commissioner of Major League Baseball and a U.S. Senator). On Wednesday, October 17th, the Post reported the official offer received by the team.

Los Angeles officials yesterday telegraphed Calvin Griffith an offer of a new $11,000,000 stadium and appropriated $2,000,000 with which to buy out their minor league franchise in a new move to lure his Washington team to that city.

Griffith said he was disappointed at the County Board’s failure to spell out its proposal in complete detail for submission to the Friday meeting of the Washington Club’s board of directors.
“I’m not going out there to work out any plans,” said Griffith, president of the Washington club. “They are the ones seeking a franchise. We’re not.”

Griffith was non-commital on the question as to whether construction of a new, municipal stadium in Washington would be sufficient to keep the Nats in the Capital. “We’ll answer that question and a lot of others on Friday.”

The good news, albeit temporary, was that Griffith didn’t like the deal offered by Los Angeles. He ended up passing that year and the Senators would stay in Washington for the 1957 season.

After the 1957 season, L.A. successfully lured the Dodgers from Brooklyn with San Francisco pulling in their rival Giants. The Senators lost their negotiating position slightly and rebuffed an attempt by Minneapolis to bring them to town for the 1958 season.

Major League Baseball expanded after the 1960 season by adding a new franchise in Minneapolis. Still stuck in D.C. with an old stadium and lagging attendance, Calvin requested that his team swap with the new expansion team. The Senators would become the Minnesota Twins and Washington would get a new, even crappier Senators team, complete with a roster of unrecognizable players. The Twins would go on to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1965 World Series.

Maybe alternate history helps the current iteration of the club salvage a win & avoid a sweep. We'll see what Erv has for them tonight.

"With Clayton Kershaw on the disabled list with a lower back strain, manager Dave Roberts will insert righty Brock Stewart into the Dodgers' starting rotation."

"Stewart, ranked by MLBPipeline.com as the Dodgers' No. 10 prospect, will make his first start this season on Wednesday against the Twins..."

Source

Game 90: twins @ astros

Well, our welcome to the second half of the baseball season didn't go so well. Let's try this again.

The Twins get a rough draw to open up the second half, facing the devastating Astros, the always dangerous Yankees, and the team with the actual best record in baseball (the Dodgers) in rapid succession. If we're still even talking about wild cards and playoffs after July 26th, then either this stretch of games will have been a huge success, or Cleveland's will have been an unmitigated disaster.

Tonight, the Twins send All Star Ervin Santana out against Joe Musgrave. Santana had a solid start the last time he faced Houston, but then again, his ERA since that start has been 5.19, so who knows? The Twins are going to need a good start from him.

2017 MLB All-Star Game

Marlins Park

The AL squad shoots for five in a row, and a win will tie up the all-time series.

Starting lineup:
American League
C Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals: 18 HR, 57 RBI
1B Justin Smoak, Toronto Blue Jays: 23 HR, 56 RBI
2B Jose Altuve, Houston Astros: 25 doubles, two triples, 13 home runs
3B Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Indians: 16 HR, 46 RBI
SS Carlos Correa, Houston Astros: 20 HR, 65 RBI
OF Aaron Judge, New York Yankees: 1.139 OPS, 30 HR, 66 RBI
OF Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox: 16 HR, 15 SB, 53 RBI
OF George Springer, Houston Astros: 27 HR, 61 RBI
DH Corey Dickerson, Tampa Bay Rays: .903 OPS, 17 HR

National League
C Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants: .325 BA, 10 HR, 35 RBI
1B Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals: .969 OPS, 19 HR, 63 RBI
2B Daniel Murphy, Washington Nationals: .342 BA, 64 RBI
3B Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies: .905, 17 HR, 70 RBI
SS Zack Cozart, Cincinnati Reds: .316 BA, 35 RBI
OF Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals: 1.021 OPS, 20 HR, 65 RBI
OF Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies: .319 BA, 20 HR, 61 RBI
OF Marcell Ozuna, Miami Marlins: 23 HR, 69 RBI

Game 57. Twins at San Francisco

The Twins started this west coast trip tied for first place.  After 7 games they are 1.5 games up. It sure doesn't seem like they have been playing winning baseball, but here we are.

Ervin Santana wil start for the Twins trying to get back to winning ways after a really bad performance last outing. For Ray Matt Moore goes for the Giants.

 

Fun fact! This will be the first time Santana has pitched against the Giants.

Game 36: Rockies at Twins (Day Game)

Marquez v. Santana

Potential for a long day of baseball - fine by me.

26th man for the day will be Drew Rucinski.

Was glad to see Mike Redmond back in the dugout - love that guy.

- edited -

Cheaptoy's Gem of an Intro:

DOUBLEHEADER ALERT! I figure one game log can serve both easily enough.

Game 1: German Marquez (1-2, 4.88 ERA, 3.37 FIP) vs. Ervin Santana (6-1, 1.50 ERA, 4.19 FIP)

Game 2: Tyler Chatwood (3-5, 5.25 ERA, 5.31 FIP) vs. Jose Berrios (1-0, 1.17 ERA, 2.78 FIP)

The Twins definitely have the best combination of starters ready to go for today's day-night doubleheader with Santana and Berrios. Despite the crowded bullpen, not all of those guys are very good so having at least one of the starters go deep into their game will be a big help. The Twins also could really use some good starting pitching after getting a couple of craptacular starts in a row. I think we all knew pitching would be a weakness for this squad, and while maybe it isn't totally dire (Duffey, Breslow, Rodgers and Kintzler look to be mostly bright spots in the bullpen while the starters appear to be about 60% competent) we were pretty much correct as the Twins have accumulated -2.3 WAR from the pitchers so far this year, most of which can be attributed to the bullpen.

Fortunately, the new administration looks to be much more willing to make a change when it's needed. Under Terry Ryan 2.0, I would have expected another few starts being given to Gibson before a move was considered. It will be interesting to see what they do with Phil Hughes, who quite frankly looks like he's at the end of his career. He hasn't been good since his first year here and injuries look to have drained his velocity.

As for the games today, Santana rebounded incredibly well in his last outing coming off of his only bad start of the season to date. While I know he'll have bad games here and there the rest of the way, he looks locked in on the mound and gives the team that top of the rotation guy who can come in after a couple losses and give the team a good chance to keep moving forward.

Jose Berrios had a heck of a 2017 dayview that I wish had happened the first week of the season. But, can't change that. Hopefully he can build on that first outing and keep his confidence up on his way to mowing down some Rockies hitters. I haven't seen a ton of him over his young career, but he looks to be one of those guys that is a lot of fun to watch when he's rolling.

First game is at noon and the second is at 7.

2017 Game 11: sox @ twins

It's Jackie Robinson day. It took them too long to make it happen, but better late than never. The game was made infinitely better by Jackie, and the whole "everybody wears 42"thing is a great way to commemorate him.

The Twins sort of need another hot steak. I know it's asinine to complain about their record after last year, but they are 2-4 over their last six

Continue reading 2017 Game 11: sox @ twins

Game 149: twins @ mestball

Well, it's official. Our favored team needs to play better than .500 the rest of the way out to avoid 100 losses. I don't feel that it's particularly doable, but hope springs eternal and all that.

Today, the twins take on the mestball. Our only decent starter goes up against a rookie who had a 4.28 ERA in the minors. My hopes for this one are modest - Brian Dozier hits three home runs, and Mauer hits a walkoff grand slam to cap off Santana's 13k no hit shutout.

Continue reading Game 149: twins @ mestball

Game 134: White Sox At Twins

Tonight's game features the Twins best starter* of 2016 - Ervin Santana (6-10, 3.54 ERA, 118 ERA+, 1.201 WHIP) who, in pitching for a bad team, is 4-3 in his past 7 starts (49 IP, 13 ER's, 11BB:40K, 2.39 ERA, with an average of 4 runs of support) including a 2-0 loss to Atlanta on July 26, and a 2-1 loss to Kansas City on Aug 21.

The Twins offense will see Jose Quintana, quietly(?) having the best year of his career (11-9, 2.77 ERA, 147 ERA+, 1.103 WHIP). Quintana, also pitching for a (pretty) bad team, is also 4-3 in his past 7 starts (48.2 IP's, 10 ER's, 8BB:38K, 1.85 ERA, also with an average of 4 runs of support).

Based on the remarkable similarity of their results over their past 7 starts, tonight could be a very fun game if you like pitching.

The Twins are 2-2 against Quintana this season, losing their first two meetings, but beating him on June 28th & July 29th (though he recorded 8 & 9 SO's in those games respectively).

RECAP
-The Twins are 49-84 (6 wins behind their Pythagorean projected 55-79) and are on pace for 102 losses.
-60-102 would tie their worst W-L% since moving to Minnesota - their 1982 record.**
-A loss tonight ties the Twins longest losing streak of 14 games, set between May 19 - June 2, 1982. (The Senators lost 18 consecutive games at least four times: 1903, '04, '48 & '59.)
-Thankfully, they've got a ways to go to catch the '88 Orioles at 21 games lost in a row, or the modern-era-leading 1961 Phillies with a 23 game losing streak.

On a more positive note, highlighted by dw early this morning, Dozier has accumulated 5.4 WAR*** this year, and at 2.5 WAR so far, Joe Mauer is only .6 WAR behind Kirby Puckett on the Twins career WAR list at 50.3, good for 6th all time.

*No other Twins starter has an ERA below 5, though reliever Ryan Pressly is 6-6 with a 3.65 ERA in 62 games
**There are 9 Senators teams with worse W-L%'s
***A career best. Maybe it goes without saying that 32 HR's and 81 RBI's (so far) are also career bests