All right this has gone on long enough. Tonight we get back to playing some ball.
KEYS TO VICTORY:
When the Twins are at bat, they need to score lots of runs.
When the Rangers are at bat, the Twins need to keep them from scoring runs.
It's a simple formula, but I think it will work. Let's do this! Go Twins!
Because of a work call and a prior engagement, I didnt see too much of this game. The part I saw was Mike Pelfrey have a complete meltdown after being given a 6-0 then 7-4 lead. I try not to be really hard on players, after all the are humans and me yelling at my tv or computer at them does zero good, but Mike Pelfrey has made me break that personal rule. He needs to be at least demoted to the pen, DFA or Waiver Claim trade would be ideal.
The Twins busted out the whoopin sticks tonight, 9 of their 15 hits were for extra bases. That is a welcome sight for fans getting used to the team scoring 1 run a night and barely mustering a hit attack.
NOTES
Eddie Rosario hit two more triples tonight giving him 8 for the season. Surpringly, there have only been 19 other times in Twins history were a player hit at least 8 triples in a season. I thought it would be more.
Did Brian Dozier Score A Run? Yes, he score two runs giving him 78 for the year. Josh Donaldson leads the AL with 80, 65 of those scored against the Twins.
AJ Achter made his season debut tonight. He recorded 4 outs, all of them strikeouts. That is nice.
Trevor "Tony Fiore" May vultured another win. He has 8 on the season. If he was a starter and had 8 wins, the Twins tv crew would be singing his praises as a quality pitcher.
The last few years have seen the Twins free fall into the abyss after the All Star break. I would say it was one of the main reasons Ron Gardenhire lost his job. Can Paul Molitor steady the ship and avoid another 90 loss season?
Perhaps I am being too over dramatic. But getting bullied and bludgeoned by the Blue Jays the past week has brought up memories of years past. Limping in the Dog Days of Summer and then the Twins being out of the sports picture once football season starts is not the way I wanted this season to go.
The Twins will face the Clevelanders who traded away Nick Swisher and Micheal Bourn to Atlanta. Mike "Do we have to keep watching him pitch?" Pelfey throws for our guys. Cody Anderson throws for the other guys.
Plouffe hit a home run! Hicks hit a home run! Boyer, Duensing, and May each pitched a scoreless inning! We're still at .500 through two-thirds of the season!
Mom always said, if you can't say anything nice, just don't say anything. We'll just have to settle for 108-54!
At least it was different.
The wins by Toronto & Baltimore yesterday, combined with the Twins loss, results in a virtual 3-way tie for the 2nd Wild Card spot. Technically, Minnesota and Baltimore are tied and Toronto is virtually tied, though actually a few meager decimals of percentage points behind the Orioles and Twins.
Also technically, Ervin "Not Johan" Santana took the Loss yesterday, but one could argue (as a few of us have recently) that the offense was at fault for the outcome. Now, the Twins were facing newly-acquired ace David Price, who is 4th in the AL in ERA (2.45) & Strikeouts (149), 5th in WAR (3.4), Tied for 6th in WHIP (1.08) and 3rd in Innings Pitched (154). For those who weren't watching or listening, I'd argue that the biggest inning was the 4th when, with the game tied at 1, the Twins managed to load the bases with nobody out. Rosario popped out to short, Hicks struck out looking and Suzuki struck out swinging. Not one productive out, though Suzuki at least had a long at-bat before succumbing to Price. That was it. Price then retired the next 12 batters in order and LaTroy Hawkins took care of the Twins' 3, 4 & 5 hitters in the 9th to salt it away. The Twins struck out 12 times - 11 at the hands of Price.
Santana was facing a Toronto club that is full of great hitters; a team leading all of baseball with 566 Runs scored, and he gave up two Home Runs and only lasted 6 Innings - not enough considering the recent slippage by the bullpen. However, the 5 Runs scored were less than the per-game average scored by the Blue Jays this year (5.3) and they only ended up with 8 hits in the game.
Couple of things.
The offense has been fairly streaky thus far, with lots of young(er) guys getting regular playing time, and their few known quantities batting about as expected. Only Dozier is in the top-20 in the league in OPS (.828) and Mauer leads qualified Twins players* with a .269 BA and a .333 OBP, though his .712 OPS is below league average. On offense, the pleasant surprises (Rosario, Hicks, Sano) have been offset by the disappointments (Vargas, Santana, Arcia and - though limited to 11 games - Buxton). The catcher position has been a black hole and the roster, as constructed, offers Molitor a bench with defensive capabilities, but limited offense. As I noted in the game log yesterday -
"...the fellas have been remarkably consistent - month-to-month - hitting .255/.306/.413 in May (hot) & June (not hot) combined and .255/.311/.420 in July. On the season, they've hit .276/.346/.439 with RISP."
We (I) was wondering what the Twins management would do at the trade deadline, considering where the club is at roster-wise right now, where they're likely hopeful to be at in the coming years, and how the current season has shaped up. We don't know what moves Terry Ryan attempted, only the one that he consummated - bringing in relief pitcher Kevin Jepsen in exchange for a couple of minor-league prospects. My guess is that, being realistic about this team and being unwilling to sell the farm for a chance at the Wild Card, knowing what he's put together in the bullpen and seeing the offense at work (and that Santana won't be available for any post-season play), Terry was not willing to sacrifice prospects to try and upgrade SS, Catcher and the Bullpen.
Secondly: They moved Mauer from behind the dish to try and protect him and prolong his career, expecting that being healthy would keep his bat in the line-up. In two years as a DH/1B, his line is .273/.349/.375 with a 101 OPS+ (good for 2.8 WAR), compared to career numbers of .323/.405/.468 and a 135 OPS+ before the move (good for 44.2 WAR). Is it time to wonder if this is the new normal for Joe? Of note, his .269 BA is 4th in the league for 1B but his .712 OPS is 9th of 12 qualifiers.
*There are only four players who currently qualify for the batting title: Dozier, Mauer, Plouffe! and Hunter. The next closest qualifier is Suzuki with nearly 70 fewer at-bats than Torii.
DAY GAME ALERT!
Good evening gentle ladies and sirs, and welcome to the Queen City, the pride of Ontario, Toronto the Good. After stumbling through 3-6 homestand, the Twins visit O, Canada for the first time since June of last year.
Minnesota's been historically lousy in Toronto, but they've played well against the AL East this year. As the Twins are only one game up on the Jays for the 2nd WC spots, this series has some significance. Taking the mound tonight will be the PEDestroyer, Ervin Santana, trying to bounce back from his first loss of the season. Facing off will be some schmo named David Price, who will be making his debut in the Blue Jays uniform. So, you know, no real point in the watching this game.
Continue reading 2015 Game 105: Minnesota Twins vs. Toronto Blue Jays
I know this was discussed yesterday, but I was out of town, so I thought I'd put my opinion down. Feel free to ignore it. Short version: I wouldn't have done it, but I'm not down on Terry Ryan for doing it.
I wouldn't have done it because I see it as a trade with small upside potential and large downside potential, and I don't like trades like that. The upside potential is that Jepsen becomes a useful set-up reliever. That's not nothing. In fact, a pitcher like that can be very important. But Jepsen's not going to be shut-down set-up guy like the Yankees and Kansas City have. He may be useful, but that's all he'll be. The downside, of course, is that either Hu or Tapia becomes a star. Given that, I would not have made the trade.
The reason I'm not down on Terry Ryan, though, is that I think he was under a lot of pressure to make some kind of a move. That pressure did not just come from fans and media--I think it came from the clubhouse and from ownership as well. Had Ryan not done anything, I think the reaction from all those groups would have been, "Here we are with a shot at the playoffs, and we're not even trying to improve!" It not only would've been a PR hit, it would've been a problem throughout the team.
I assume Ryan would like to have brought in an impact player who could've propelled the team to the playoffs and beyond, but such a player either wasn't available or the price was higher than he thought it was wise to pay. I suspect, in that situation, he'd have preferred to do nothing, but he didn't think that was one of his options. So he made a move for a player who might be able to provide some help at what he hopes will be a small cost.
And it could very well turn out that way. There's a good chance that Jepsen, while again nothing special, will be a useful reliever. I don't really know anything about Hu or Tapia beyond their stat lines. Those lines look good, but they've been compiled at Class A or below. There are lots and lots of players who have great stats at those levels who never make the majors, and lots more who make it to the majors but never do anything significant there. So, while I wish Hu and Tapia well and I don't see anything that proves they can't be stars, the odds are certainly against it happening. The chances are better that they will be two more players who looked good in the low minors but ultimately didn't pan out.
To sum up, then, what I think is that Terry Ryan would rather have done nothing at all. Since he thought he had to do something, he did something that was as close to nothing as he could get. I'd rather we hadn't done it. But I'm not particularly upset about it.
Frank Grant (1865)
Joe Shaute (1899)
George Sisler, Jr. (1917)
George Bamberger (1923)
Masaichi Kaneda (1933)
Pedro Cisneros (1939)
Tony Muser (1947)
Milt May (1950)
Pete Mackanin (1951)
Greg Gross (1952)
Dave Anderson (1960)
Gregg Jefferies (1967)
Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1968)
Brian Bohanon (1968)
Kevin Jarvis (1969)
Adam Jones (1985)
Madison Bumgarner (1989)
Kennys Vargas (1990)
Infielder Ulysses F. "Frank" Grant is considered one of the best African-American baseball players of the nineteenth century.
The son of the Hall of Famer, George Sisler, Jr. was a long-time minor league executive, winning the Minor League Executive of the Year award three times. He served as International League president from 1965-1976 and is a member of the International League Hall of Fame.
Masaichi Kaneda won four hundred games over a twenty-year career in Japan.
Pedro Cisneros was commissioner of the Mexican League from 1982-99 and was the editor of the first Mexican League Encyclopedia.
We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to brianS' sister-in-law.
Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!
Kevin Jepsen!
*stands in line for World Series tickets*
Or, there is a game tonight. Lets get another win. With lots of home runs and triples. Because those games have been awesome.
