David Price vs Brian Duensing
The good doctor seems to have expended all of his posting energy this morning on the book club.
Tag Archives: Minnesota Twins
2011 Game 82 (2nd Half, Game 1) Recap: Brewers 7, Twins 9
Minnesota (36-46) - Milwaukee (45-40)
WP: Dumatrait (1-1)
LP: Loe (2-7)
SV: Perkins (1)
JI JIM Mashes Taters and the Iceman cometh up big time as the pair drove in 4 runs and scored 4 runs. Jim crossed home plate 3 times but arguably the biggest moment was not career HR 595 in the 2nd (which was nice), it was the 2-out walk off of Grienke in the 4th. Juicy followed with his first hit of the day, a double, which paved the way for Rene Tosoni's 3-run blast. The Iceman's donger got the Twins back into the game after a terrible top half of the 4th saw the visitors throw up a 5 spot.
After that, it was all Twins bullpen (with a little help from Kotsay in the 7th). Snicklefritz, Dumatrait, Nathan, Capps and Perkins combined to go 5 innings giving up only 1 run on 4 hits. Twins batters scored 4 times in the 7th - all with 2 outs and all off of walks or singles...or on the hilarious fielding error by Mark Kotsay.
Nathan looked good in the 8th. Conversely, Capps looked pretty bad in the 9th. Gardy, quite surprisingly, pulled him out after he managed to put runners on 1st and 2nd with only 1 out and Prince Fielder due up. Perkins got the call and struck the big vegetarian out on 3 pitches! The Brewers still had one more batter, but you just knew it was in the bag after that.
Neither Grienke nor Blackburn figured in the decision. Zack went 6 innings giving up 5 runs on 5 hits, 4 of them earned. Nick went 4 innings giving up 6 runs on 6 hits, all of them earned.
Cuddyer is our All Star representative. They announced it during the game and he got a pretty good ovation. After that, it's a good thing he got in on the scoring with 2 RBI on 2 hits as he badly misplayed a ball off the right field wall in the 4th, leading to a triple for Kotsay and at least one of those 5 runs for the Crew.
On a personal note, I'd like to post a thank you to Cornsilk (thanks for that one guys) who took me to the game today. She doesn't follow the World's Greatest, but I am blessed and wanted to share it with you all.
Weather: Gorgeous
Time of Game: 3 hours 14 minutes
Attendance: 41,195
Happy Birthday–July 2
Grover Hartley (1888)
Hal Wagner (1915)
Dick Greco (1925)
Red Rush (1927)
Chuck Stobbs (1929)
Mike Reilly (1949)
Tony Armas (1953)
Jose Canseco (1964)
Sean Casey (1974)
Rene Tosoni (1986)
2011 Game 80: Milwaukee Brewers at Minnesota Twins
Yovani Gallardo vs Francisco Liriano
I think the Yankees just own every Midwest team. The Brewers swept the Twins but were then swept by the Yankees. They scored a meager four runs compared to the 22 by the Yankees over the three games. Which leads to somewhat interesting interleague records for the Twins:
Twins away record against the NL: 1-8
Twins home record against the NL: 5-1
Just where the Twins want them. Sweep time!
This Week in Twins Transactions
Again, it's actually two weeks:
Joe Mauer was activated from the disabled list by Minnesota.
Glen Perkins was activated from the disabled list by Minnesota.
Brian Dinkelman was outrighted from Minnesota to Rochester.
Chuck James was optioned from Minnesota to Rochester.
Joe Nathan was assigned to Rochester on a rehab assignment, then was activated from the disabled list by Minnesota.
Jim Hoey was optioned from Minnesota to Rochester.
Delmon Young was placed on the fifteen day disabled list by Minnesota.
Rene Tosoni was optioned from Minnesota to Rochester, then was promoted from Rochester to Minnesota the next day.
Kevin Slowey was assigned to Ft. Myers for rehab.
Jason Kubel was assigned to Ft. Myers for rehab.
Jair Fernandez was promoted from New Britain to Rochester.
Steve Holm was placed on the seven day disabled list by Rochester with a strained right groin.
Ryan Mullins was released by Rochester.
Jake Stevens was sent from Rochester to New Britain.
Mike Hollimon was sent from Rochester to New Britain.
Brandon Roberts was sent to the GCL Twins for rehab, then was activated from the disabled list by Rochester.
Thomas Diamond was signed and sent to Rochester.
Nick Romero was assigned to Ft. Myers from Rochester.
Brian Dozier was activated from the disabled list by New Britain.
Santos Arias was released by New Britain.
Oswaldo Arcia was sent to the GCL Twins for rehab, then was promoted from Beloit to Ft. Myers.
Pat Dean was promoted from Beloit to Ft. Myers.
Hyeong-rok Choi was released by Beloit.
Tyler Grimes was sent from Elizabethton to extended spring training, then was promoted to Beloit.
Jhonatan Arias was promoted from Elizabethton to Beloit.
Estarlin de los Santos was sent to the GCL Twins for a rehab assignment.
Jeff Manship was sent to the GCL Twins for a rehab assignment.
Joe Benson was sent to the GCL Twins for a rehab assignment.
Steven Wickens was activated by the GCL Twins.
Kevin Mention was transferred by the GCL Twins from the seven day disabled list to the sixty day disabled list.
Emilio Sepulveda was activated from the disabled list by the DSL Twins.
The following players were assigned to Elizabethton: Miguel Sano, Bart Carter, Madison Boer, Max Kepler, Tyler Koelling, Corey Kimes, Steven Evans, Eddie Rosario, Adam Pettersen, Derek Christensen, JaDamion Williams, Niko Goodrum, Steven Gruver, David Hurlbut, Matthew Bashore, Todd Van Steensel, Rory Rhodes, Justin Parker, Cesar Ciurcina, Matej Hejma, and Kennys Vargas.
The following players were assigned to the GCL Twins: John Krogstad, Gerardo Ramirez, Dereck Rodriguez, Julio Torres,
Game #76: Brewers 6, Twins 2
I was going to write up a semi-long (for me) recap of the Rockies-Yankees game on TBS, which was actually pretty interesting. But then I saw that wonderful post by meat and decided I don't want to take up too much space with either sincere Twins talk (in brief: we suck) or sarcastic real-baseball-teams talk. Go read that recipe just below here and commence salivating instead.
Hitter and Pitcher of the Week: Sesame Pork Roast
2011 Game 74: Twins at Brewers
One thing that jumped out at me as I perused Light Rail's B-R page was his strikeout rate: 8.6 K/9. What? It did increase from 7.3 in 2009 to 7.8 in 2010, but I wasn't expecting another 0.8 jump. However, the season is just shy of 50% complete and so, how much of the increase is real? Fortunately, that was recently answered.
What we want is the K/(PA-IBB-HBP)* line, and that says at 126 denominator units, 50% is the player's ability and 50% is the mean. Baker has 369 PAs, which means 74.5% of the 8.6 K/9 is him while the other 25.5% would be regression to the mean. The mean we want would be Baker's historical performance with however much regression is needed.
Taking the last three years, Baker has 2240 PAs, which means we need 94.7% of those three years and 5.3% league average. Baker's three year average for those three years is 7.5 K/9, which is reasonably close to the league average of 6.8. Let's just use 100% Baker. More rounding error.
Putting it all together means the best estimate for his talent right now is 8.3 K/9. Combined with the miniscule (0.09) increase in his BB/9 rate equals good things for his results. His xFIP so far is easily his best yet and his FIP is slightly better than from 2008. Finally, an ace!
* I'm calling these PAs from now on, despite it actually not being a plate appearance. He has one intentional walk and four hit batters, so it's basically rounding error anyway.
Game 73 Recap: Giants 2, Twins 1
SAN FRANSISCO 2, MINNESOTA 1
Record - 32-41 (4th in Central, 3.5 games out of 3rd)
Highest WPA - Duensing (6.2 IP, 1 R, 5 SO), Cuddyer (3 for 4, 2 2B, RBI)
Lowest WPA - Delmon and Danny V. (both 0-4)
NOTES - Non-Cuddly Twins went 1 for 26 in this one.
Fangraphs
MLB Recap
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Looks like a pitcher's duel, and, perhaps as expected, Lincecum was just a bit better than Duensing in this one. Twins hitters (Cuddyer excepted) never figured anything out against the Freak, striking out 12 times, and failing to get the ball past the pitcher's mound a bunch of times as well. The Twins won't be the last team that Lincecum dominates, so I guess we can all take comfort in that? At least Duensing held his own, keeping the Twins within striking distance throughout.
When Cuddyer doubled in Casilla in the ninth with no one out, it seemed there might be an outside chance that Minnesota could steal the rubber game of this series. Instead Delmon, Danny, and Luke failed to advance him even a single base, and the Twins were handed their first series loss in quite a while.
Game #70: Twins 5, Padres 4
Twins Record: 31-39
Fangraphs
MLB Game Wrap
Happy Father's Day to the WGOM Nation from Sunday Recap Central. Just imagine there's a picture of Butters Stotch hugging his dad or something right here.
Hitter of the Week: Even in a week during which the Twins win all their games, when two of those are 1-0 wins, picking this award gets a little tougher. Or, maybe it gets a little more obvious: Team MVP Michael Cuddyer seems to be the best candidate once again.
Pitcher of the Week: All the starters were good-to-great. I'll have to again pick Scott Baker as the best. He is this team's first half All-Star as far as I'm concerned.
2011 Game 68: San Diego Padres at Minnesota Twins
Clayton Richard vs Brian Duensing
Jake Peavy with White Sox: 3.3 fWAR for $25.067 million, with $21 million more guaranteed.
Clayton Richard with Padres: 2.8 fWAR for $0.746 million.
I hear Peavy did quite well in his last rehab start though.
The Padres rank dead last in runs scored per game. The Twins next stop, the Giants, rank second to last, a smidgen less than the Mariners. Both have good pitching, although it's helped one more than the other.
Playing well over last two weeks: check
Playing a weaker league: check
Time to take back first place move above .500!