Tag Archives: Nick Blackburn

2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 65: Brewers at Twins

228 Comments

We finish our set with the Brewers today after a couple of rough games (I think; I typed this in the middle of yesterday's game and just assumed we weren't coming back. I'm cynical like that).

Alright, let's get excited about...

Greinke versus Blackburn?! Okay, so let's get excited about something that's not baseball-related. Suggestions: Beer, the NBA Finals, Turbo Survivor at CdL, stamp collecting, classic episodes of "Mama's Family," Sid and Marty Krofft puppets, smokeless tobacco and Christmas.

I'll actually get to see one of my Sunday games since I'm closing today, but I'll keep my optimism in check on this one. Still, there's always the threat of Trevor Plouffe hanging over opposing pitchers.

Go Twins.

2012 Twins Game Log

Game 37! We all rejoice!

244 Comments

Twins visiting Detroit starting with tonight's game. 610 CDT first pitch.

##Pitchers

MIN: Blackburn (1-4 | 7.18 ERA | 5.83 FIP | 4.49 xFIP | -0.2 fWAR | 4.88 K/9 | 1.55 K/BB)
 DET: Porcello (3-3 | 5.18 ERA | 4.54 FIP | 3.91 xFIP | +0.3 fWAR | 5.18 K/9 | 2.67 K/BB)

Hey look another Wednesday game! You know what's fun? Watching baseball. Even this form of Twins baseball is better than the off season. Right?

Count me out of those asking for changes. Well sweeping organizational changes anyway. I don't think most of us thought the 2012 Twins would be a great team. Hell a lot of us thought they wouldn't be any good. Unfortunately, they've managed to pretty much undershoot anyones worst expectations so far. 10-26 is awful. I don't think this team is really that bad. The offense will come back again. The pitching will level out. Twins will not end up with a .277 winning percentage. The Twins still get to play in the AL Central last I checked.

Porcello is a hittable righty. One would hope that the Twins will take advantage; oh and there is that whole Detroit has a hilariously defensive team. At least killing worms might work tonight. He does rely on a sinker, but he's had some trouble getting it to sink lately. No Adjustments!

Blackburn needs a beard. And an eye patch. But at least he's not Marquis. If he can keep it in the park, he should be fine.

Note: The term "Market Inefficiency" is hereby banned from the game thread. They call it the Dismal "Science" for a reason.

##Lineups

###Twins

1. Span 8
2. Dozier 6
3. Mauer DH
4. Willingham 7
5. Morneau 3
6. Doumit 2
7. Plouffe 9
8. Casilla 4
9. Carroll 5

###Tiggers

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Andy Dirks, LF
3. Miguel Cabrera, 3B
4. Prince Fielder, 1B
5. Delmon Young, DH
6. Alex Avila, C
7. Ryan Raburn, 2B
8. Brennan Boesch, RF
9. Ramon Santiago, SS

#GO TWINS!

2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game Logs: Game 18 Red Sox @ Twins

174 Comments

Josh Beckett
v
Nick Blac_burn

I figure I should try telling a story.

"Give me one of everything" he said as he slowly approached the St. Paul diner's dilapidated counter. Maggie, the aging waitress, laughed. "The usual, eh?" She was greeted by silence.

It had been 12 hours since he had induced himself into a food coma the night before. He had always used food as a coping mechanism and the previous night was no different. As he left work on Monday night he was accosted by his co-workers, his managers, and those who monitored his work.

"Do you have the internet, Maggie?" Before she could answer back Matt continued "I went home last night after stopping at Pizza Hut for unlimited medium pizzas for $10 each. After I finished I logged onto my America Online Account and went to the USA TODAY homepage. A home page is kind of like a newspaper on your computer, Maggie, and all I saw was how stupid I looked. There I was, right there for everyone to see. It was so embarrassing. Have you ever been on a newspaper, Maggie?

"Well, no, Matt. I am just a simple waitress from a small town"

"I knew you wouldn't understand" groaned Matt as Maggie walked away unsure of what to say-- again.

It was at that time that a slovenly cook clumsily walked from the kitchen with three plates of food.

"Dammit, Matt, you can't come in here every morning and make my waitress feel like garbage. I know what it feels like to be in the news. Oh, I know alright". Matt looked up from his slice of Key Lime Pie that Maggie had brought as an appetizer. "What the hell are you talking about?" Matt asked the cook.

"Your not from around here, are you?" said the cook. "I can tell just by looking at 'cha. You wouldn't know it but I used to be someone around here. Just one town over, I used to be somebody".

"Sure you were, pops" said the equally slobbish patron as he shoved the fresh fishsticks dipped into mustard in his mouth.

"You might not know me but we have a lot in common, Matt. If you aren't careful, this could be your future" he said as he waved his hands pointing to the sparsely populated diner. "I used to play baseball, too, Matt. Yessir, I know who you are. What, you don't think that we get the newspaper here? Get your head out of your rear end. Anyway, I used to be like you Matt. I was a pitcher, too. In fact, I even pitched at the end of games, just like you."

Matt interrupted "Gees, Joe, you look like crap. Texas sure has aged you."

"I am not Joe Nathan!" screamed the man as Maggie brought more plates of food out to Matt. "Look at the mirror. You are eating yourself into a gosh darn joke." Matt looked down into his plates, confused. "The year was 1986 and we had all the making of a fine young team. We had Kent and Kirby, Bruno and Gags. They were mostly kids but they were on the brink of something special. That was, until Frankie or Bert handed the ball off to me. After that, well, let's just say my back was on the front page of the newspaper a few times".

"Like the USA Today?"

"Yeah, Matt, even USA Today. Now go wash off your hands and get the hell out of here before your eat yourself right out of the big leagues, ya hear?"

"Yes sir" Matt replied.

And with that, Matt Capps walked as fast as he could to his car and drove to Target Field to begin training for that night's baseball game.

As he was leaving Maggie turned to the cook, who it turns out owned the diner, and screamed:

"Dammit, Ron, you just lost our best customer. He was putting my kid through college. He was single handily keeping our the restaurant afloat! We are going to have to close the doors here at Davis' Diner!"

Ron laughed and said "don't worry, Maggie, he will be back. He always comes back."

2012 Twins Game Log

Game 8: Rangers at Twins

230 Comments

Today, the Twins will be trotting out this lineup:

1. Span, CF
2. Caroll, SS
3. Mauer, C
4. Morneau, DH
5. Willingham, LF
6. Doumit, RF
7. Valencia, 3B
8. Parmelee, 1B
9. Casilla, 2B

If that lineup looks familiar, it's because it was the opening day lineup, and most likely the one the management hoping to get a lot of mileage out of. Whether or not this is the lineup that the team ends up with, and whether or not it's the one that shows some punch, it's worth noting that this is the third time they've used it in this young season. I'm sure you remember that the team used their opening day lineup precisely never after opening day, partially due to Nishioka getting hurt, then sucking horribly, partially due to a million injuries. What you might not be aware of is the fact that there were only 3 lineups that ended up being used 3 times over the entire of last year, and none that were used more than three times.

The Twins probably won't contend for anything this year, but at least it's looking like we'll have a fairly consistent lineup to see day after day. There's a bit of comfort in that.

Today, Nick Blackburn (4.04 xFIP, 7.50 ERA) tries to find a little bit more luck, while Yu Darvish (5.23 xFIP, 7.94 ERA) tries to show that his ugly first start wasn't the shape of things to come.

Total team record, 2-5
Saturday record, 0-1

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game Logs: Game 122 Minnesota Non-Delmons @ Detroit _elm_ns

124 Comments

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 Twins Game Logs

Game 107: Twins at A’s

213 Comments

After an ugly series against the Tigers and a split against the Rangers, a series against the A's is texactly what we need right now. Going from facing lineups with Miguel Cabreras and Josh Hamiltons to a lineup whose greatest threat is Josh Willingham is kind of a nice change of pace.

Luckily for A's fans, we're going to try to counteract that lineup by bringing out Nick Blackburn tonight. Blackie's been in second-half form lately, carrying a 6.94 ERA over his last seven starts (and that's after a couple of very nice starts in the middle of this month). We've got the resistible force meeting the movable object - which will suck less? Only time will tell.

The Twins get to face Guillermo Moscoso. Guillermo's trad stats look okay (3-5, 3.47 ERA), but he's carrying some ugly peripherals. He's not striking people out (4.5 K/9), he's walking more than a pitcher like him should (3.5 BB/9), and he's giving up lots of homers (1.4 HR/9, which seems high, until you consider he's got a ground ball rate of just over 25%). Combine that with a BABIP of .219, and you would think that this is exactly the type of pitcher the Twins would tee off on (no ground balls, no strikeouts). So, let's see some of that, then.

I expect a high scoring game. However, since I'm expecting that, I'm sure the game will go scoreless until the 17th inning, when Butera will bunt home a run, making Cuddyer the winning pitcher (Jose Mijares won't be used, because no loving manager would put his team's fans through two straight nights of Mijares pitching).