Even though Our Guy Johan Santana didn't get a win today in his five inning tune up against the Yankees, he's likely going to win the American League Cy Young award. I've shown his numbers against Curt Schilling's several times, and most of the media has seemingly got on board. But, suppose Our Guy doesn't [...]

I missed out on the late night fireworks in the West. The Dodgers win by scoring five in the ninth and keep their lead at three. This really puts the Giants in a bind in the NL West, but it also give the Dodgers a shot at the second seed, which should motivate the Braves [...]

Here's my running diary of the action in major league baseball tonight.
7:20 PM
The Twins got rained out tonight. They'll play two tomorrow. I'm surprised that the start time is 4:00 PM Eastern. I would think that the Yanks would want to play that game early and clear out the stadium to collect two gates.
Atlanta lost [...]

I wish I had been publishing this blog last year. When the playoffs started, while everyone else was trying to analyze which teams would advance by looking at each team's statistics, I looked at the playoff field and something sharpened into focus. I realized that there was a tremendous potential for heartbreak -- [...]

Well, the Giants lost two out of three to the Dodgers. This leaves the Giants 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers with 6 to play. Sigh. It wasn't because of the efforts of Sisyphus, who was 3 for 7 with 2 home runs and 7 walks in the three games. Let's see. That's a .429/.714/1.286 [...]

I spent a fair amount of time today doing some research on the value of the "Expected Wins" metric. I had hoped to put together a finished article, but I didn't get all that I wanted to done on it. That's going to have to wait until the post season. Here's what I think about [...]

Don't count us out. The Astronauts are still alive. -- Phil Garner, manager Houston Astros
Last night, even as the Dodgers opened a little daylight, the National League Wild Card tightened. While the Dodgers were beating San Diego and dimming their playoff hopes, the Houston Astros staged a huge rally in the ninth to beat the [...]

As the Minnesota Twins prepare for the post season, there are some exciting races to watch. I've already talked about the Giants-Dodgers plenty: there is no question, the NL West is up for grabs. With six games left between the two teams and 0.5 games separating the two, well it will be [...]

I picked up a Star Tribune this morning and lo and behold, the story on the Twins loss last night was on page 9 of the sports section. Even though the Twins have something to play for -- home field advantage in the first round -- it's really not clear how important that really is. [...]

The day after the clinch, Stick and Ball Guy is resting his starters. Unfortunately, there isn't a second team. So, this is it for today!
Check back tomorrow!

My fiancee and I had a marriage preparation class to attend last night, our appointment was scheduled for 7:00. Obviously, this was a little more important than the Twins game last night. After our session, I got into my car, I turned on the old Twins game, and I heard the score -- after five, [...]

In the summer of 2001, Twins fans were waking from a long slumber. After eight consecutive losing seasons and four years in a row of losing more than 90 games, the Twins started 2001 off with a bang, going 18-6 in April and 16-11 in May. On July 1st, the Twins were 48-31, and the [...]

Hi. I'm the Stick and Ball Guy, or SBG. I started this website as a way for me to communicate about sports, politics, and life. Part of writing a blog is finding what you really want to write about. I've found that what I want to write about is sports. So, I have decided to [...]

Just one week ago today, J.C. Romero gave up a run, ending his club record scoreless streak at 36 2/3 innings. He may not hold that record for very long. Our guy Johan Santana hurled eight scoreless innings at the Baltimore Orioles and the Twins won 5-1. Santana's streak of scoreless innings now stands at [...]

Well, Number 25 didn't sit on 700 too long, did he?
Do you think the Yanks were tired of hearing about how the Red Sox were going to catch them?
I went to work yesterday and then I remembered that power was going to be off in our building, so I couldn't get my work done. Sigh. [...]

700

Good morning! I spent a lot of time last night figuring out whether a team can survive on pitching alone. You can see my long and frightfully boring posting. After thinking about it some more, I think the only conclusion I can draw from my little research project is that the five best teams in [...]

If you would ask the average fan what they would prefer, a 2-1 game or a 9-8 game, I think that an overwhelming majority of fans would opt for the 9-8 game. Offense is exciting. Players are on base, there are home runs, there is strategy involved. In the pitcher's dual, there seems to be [...]

Back in September 1974, after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Rolling Stone magazine, who was no friend of the 37th president ran this cover proclaiming Nixon "The Quitter." I think that in 2004, if you wanted to have a new "Quitter" cover, Rolling Stone could use the team picture of the Chicago White Sox.
What [...]

As many of you may know, I attended the Twins game last night. Wow, what a performance by Our Guy Johan Santana. He was brilliant again. It is fun to go when you know the Twins are going to win. I got my Bat-Girl inspired Johan Santana for Cy Young button. I settled into [...]

I'll admit it, I have been spoiled by the Twins' recent success. As the Twins close in on their third division title in a row, I am excited about the post season, but I am not all that excited about the Twins winning the AL Central. I think it is strictly because they have been [...]

After Sunday, the Twins have won their first four game series of the year and go for the sweep tomorrow against Detroit with My Personal Hero Brad Radke pitching for the Twins. All indications are that this will be a W, as the Tigers are sending out Jason Johnson, who is 8-13 with a 4.99 [...]

With Barry Bonds just one home run away from the magical "700 Club," I began to think about another slugger and his chances of ascending this mountain. A couple of years ago, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Sammy Sosa would hit 700 home runs and would make a real run at Hammerin' Hank Aaron's [...]

Tonight the Twins play the Detroit Tigers, who have been one of the really good, if unreported, stories of the season. As you may remember, the Tigers took 3 of 4 against the Twins (more accurately, our AAA team in big league uniforms) to end the season last year, thereby avoiding their 120th loss of [...]

It's amazing when a guy gets on a roll like our man Johan Santana is on right now. After a while, you come to expect that he's going to go out there and completely shut the other team down. If Kyle Lohse had this line 7IP 5H 0R 0BB 9K we would be [...]

I don't have a lot of time to post today, and I didn't have a chance to post last night. Right now, I don't have good home computer access, but I'll get a chance to write tonight. So today, just a few quick thoughts.
Brad Radke is maybe the most underrated player in the American League. [...]

The Twins fell again on Monday afternoon 4-1 to the Baltimore Orioles. Their anemic run production continued, and Terry Mulholland was left in just a little too long, and that added up to another Twins loss. With a White Sox win the lead was shaved to 7 1/2 games. Check back with me on Wednesday [...]

The Twins performance on Sunday was, shall we say, not memorable. Against Jimmy Gobble and the Kansas City Royals, the Twins laid an egg, losing 12-3. The Twins looked like a bunch of turkeys against Gobble, who pitched a complete game, lowering his ERA to 5.40. The Twins scored two in the ninth to avoid [...]

I was listening to WCCO this morning and I heard that the major league baseball logo was patterned after Harmon Killebrew. Since I've been calling Justin Morneau Li'l Harmon, I thought I'd put a copy of the logo here, a "Little Harmon", if you will.
Through two games of the Kansas City series, Li'l Harmon is [...]

The Twins swept away the Rangers, winning the last game of their series behind Brad Radke last night, 2-0. During the game, I was watching Kenny Rogers' velocity on the stadium radar gun. I saw one pitch at 88, one at 86, and a majority of his pitches were in the '70s. He was wild, [...]

In my continuing quest to expound on Barry's all-time greatness, I present the top ten in total bases for a career. Hopefully, while I bore you with this, you can learn or be reminded of the accomplishments of other all-time greats. I think that this particular leaderboard shows the greatness of Mr. Aaron in particular. [...]

Thoughts on the Twins come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the Texas Rangers last night.

I was right that the game would be decided by the bullpens. However, I was slightly off when I said that Terry Mulholland would get shelled. Maybe Terry read my column right before the game and get mad.
It's Terry Tiffee's world and we're [...]

August was the month when the Twins won the American League Central.
Against very stiff competition, the Twins went 15-13. Meanwhile, their closest rivals, drifted away. Cleveland stumbled to a 14-15 mark and the mighty Chicago White Sox went 12-17. On July 31, the American League Central standings looked like this:

Team

W

L

PCT

GB

Minnesota
58
45
.563
--

Chicago
52
49
.515
4.0

Cleveland
53
51
.510
6.0

Detroit
50
57
.467
10.0

Kansas City
36
66
.353
20.5

Twins Magic Number is 56

On [...]

Seriously, doesn't this just make you smile?
The best part is the photo and caption on ESPN's MLB page, shown below:

A-Rod and the Yanks' lead in the AL East was trimmed to 3 1/2 games.
Note that when the Yankees are winning, it's Jeter's team. When it's losing, it's somebody else's team.
Oh [...]