The Twins activated Shannon Stewart off of the DL and sent THE INSANITY to Rochester for a "rehab assignment".
From ESPN.COM:
For now, Stewart will also bat in the bottom third of the order instead of his customary leadoff spot.
"Every time I've come back from rehab in the past, I've hit where I'm supposed to hit," he [...]

Milwaukee Brewers (40-40) at Minnesota Twins (42-35)
Starting Pitchers:
Carlos Villanueva (0-0, 2.65) v. Brad Radke (6-7, 5.40)
Brewers in the last ten games: 5-5, 38 runs scored, 45 runs allowed.
Twins in the last ten games: 9-1, 62 runs scored, 24 runs allowed.

Tucked away in a column extolling the virtues of the Wild's high profile trade, Top James makes the following comment:
The 2006 Twins prove it is better to acquire one outstanding player than patch holes with a handful of clearance-sale acquisitions...
This is the position that mr. frightwig took at the end of the 2005 season and [...]

I had lunch with old friend Drew this afternoon and we were shooting the breeze, covering our favorite topics. The topic of bicycling came up again. First, some background. I wrote a while ago complaining about people riding on a very busy street during rush hour instead of on the bike path [...]

I saw this picture in the Strib this morning.

Here's the caption: "Michael Cuddyer dumps a bucket of Gatorade onto Jason Kubel after Kubel hit a grand slam during a recent game."
Tony Batista, I am not sure you ever existed.

Of course, the story that I posted about the Wolves/Portland deal was a rumor reported by Chad Ford. Here's how the story was related in the Star Tribune.

There is no doubt Wolves coach Dwane Casey favored taking Brandon Roy of Washington, a player he knew personally and watched a lot during his time as [...]

Here's what Chad Ford is reporting on the strange deal between Portland and Minnesota.
Actually, from what I've heard, the Wolves selected Roy for the Rockets. The Rockets were going to select Foye and send him to Minnesota along with either Luther Head or a future first-round pick. But the Blazers knew what was going on, [...]

The other day I said in a moment of exurberence that this recent hot streak was as well as the Twins have played in fifteen years. Of course, I was referring to the stretch beginning on June 1, 1991 in which the Twins were one pitch away from winning twenty straight games. At [...]

Who will the Wolves pick if Adam Morrison is not on the board? I will be taking my lovely wife Lucy out for dinner, but hope to be back in time to discuss the pick. Perhaps they will trade it? This is a big night for the future of the franchise.
I heard [...]

Starting Pitchers:
Odalis Perez, 4-2, 6.33 v. Johan Santana, 8-4, 2.75.
One of these guys is 29 years old, has a career mark of 56-53, with a 4.18 ERA and is making $8,750,000. The other guy is 27 years old and has a career mark of 67-29, with a 3.25 ERA and is making $8,750,000. [...]

Welcome, SBG fans, to the fifteenth edition of 360 Degrees, a regular report on the Twins starting pitching. The further we go, the harder it is to come up with a title for these things (as we can see here), but I've also found that wikipedia has an entry on numbers and we find out [...]

Andrew continues his coverage of the World Cup for us.

I realize that in the excitement of actually attending the game last night (and the fact that we have a house guest), I forgot to post your favorite feature, 360 Degrees. Fear not! I’ll get to that tonight. Meanwhile, there’s a game to be played tonight.
Starting Pitchers
Generalissimo Francisco Liriano, 7-1, 2.17 v. [...]

I don't know about you, but I love situations like this. I suppose it's not nice to make fun of other people's bad problems, but hell, I've had to live with the T-Wolves mess for going on two decades, so I choose to point and laugh.
From ESPN:
Isiah Thomas has one year to turn around the [...]

At one point in the game last night, a Dodger player hit a ball to right field and Mike Cuddyer ranged back and made a routine catch and I found myself marveling at how easy it is for major league baseball players to make plays. Cuddyer didn’t do anything special, at least not to [...]

I'll be in attendance at the game this evening with my good friend, Melman.
Starting pitchers:
Chad "Don't call me Barbara" Billingsley, 0-0, 3.48 v. Carlos Silva, 3-8, 6.87
The Twins are 3-1 all-time vs. the Dodgers in Minnesota. Ouch, though, that one loss sure hurt.
Billingsley is a 21-year old rookie making his third major league [...]

The day after advocating a Garnett trade, Top Jimmy frets over Torii Hunter. Once again, it's not about play for TJ, it's about some intangibles.
Writes Top James:
While Joe Mauer has become the Twins' best player, Justin Morneau their best slugger, Johan Santana their most accomplished star and Francisco Liriano their most spectacular talent, Torii [...]

Starting pitchers:
Sean Marshall, 4-5, 4.97 v. Brad Radke, 5-7, 5.84
Originally, this was supposed to be Greg Maddux. No offense to Mr. Marshall, who is probably a great human being, but the absence of the 300 game winner and future Hall of Famer takes a little of the luster of this matchup. No matter, [...]

Top Jimmy can't bear the thought of trading Torii Hunter. But, he's now calling for the trade of Kevin Garnett.
The only way that I can be behind a trade for KG is to release him from this situation. But, if the Wolves trade KG, just board up 600 1st Avenue North.
When a player [...]

Ah, sooner or later, it was going to happen. The Twins play the Cubs and Mark Prior is the starting pitcher. Except the Cubs never figured that he'd be injury prone like he has been.
Starting Pitchers:
Mark Prior, 0-1, 17.18 v. Boof Bonser, 1-1, 5.81
Prior has pitched just 3 2/3 innings so far this [...]

Editor's Note: Andrew delivers a post mortem on the U.S. World Cup team.

Starting Pitchers:
Carlos Marmol, 1-1, 2.81 v. Johan Santana, 7-4, 2.87.
Not quite the pitching match up of last night. This is Marmol's third career start and fifth career appearance. The other guy, we know.
Joe Sheehan from Baseball Prospectus wrote about last night's game and the Twins in general today.
The better story, for one night, [...]

Look at this:
Although Clemens has 341 career victories, he was not the best pitcher in the game Thursday night. That distinction belonged to the Twins' Francisco Liriano, who has been a starter for less than two months and already might rank -- right now, right at this moment -- among the 15 or 20 best [...]

Says Mick Anselmo of the FAN:
I think the FAN got too big for them. They're looking for a low-cost provider. I wish them the best. They've been a good partner. I'm still a huge fan of that organization.
That's right, the pissant sports radio station is too big for an NBA franchise. I mean when [...]

I know that the Metrodome is an embarassment. But, the one consolation is that it wasn't built for baseball at all. I mean that is a football stadium with a baseball field crammed into it.
But how about that monstosity in Houston? That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. They [...]

Let’s see, who are the starting pitchers again tonight?
Oh yeah.
Francisco Liriano, 6-1, 2.16 v. Roger Clemens, 0-0, 0.00
Of course, ESPN is carrying this game because of Clemens, but it is a great chance for the rest of the baseball world to see the newest gunslinger, Mr. Liriano.
I suppose a lot of you out there don’t [...]

ESPN:
The Minnesota Twins signed first-round draft pick Chris Parmelee to a minor-league contract on Thursday.
Parmelee, a left-handed hitter and outfielder from Chino Hills High School in southern California, will report to the Twins rookie-level Gulf Coast League team in Fort Myers, Fla. He was selected with the 20th overall pick.
"We believe Chris has the potential [...]

Larry Brown is out and Isiah Thomas is in as coach of the New York Knicks.

Welcome, SBG fans, to the fourteenth edition of 360 Degrees, a regular report on the Twins starting pitching. This report includes the five games ending on Wednesday, June 21, 2006. It’s clear now that the Twins pitching starting pitching staff is pitching the way we expected they would at the start of the season. [...]

It's the pitching matchup of the season!
Oh wait, sorry, jumped the gun there.
It's Carlos Silva, 3-8, 7.07 v. "Everyone Knows It's" Wandy Rodriguez, 6-4, 4.59. (You're with me, Leather.) Hey, Silva's ERA is almost under 7.00! Considering where it's been, that's good news. Time for him to chisel some more off [...]

Editor's Note: Andrew strikes again with a preview of the crucial matchup between Ghana and the US in World Cup Action. Thanks, Andrew!
Game Time: Thursday, 9 AM Central, ESPN
Last Games: US 1, Italy 1. Ghana 2, Czech Republic 0.
What to Expect from the US: The US defense will have an entirely different look [...]

After watching the NBA Finals and reading the feedback here, I think it's pretty clear that I probably enjoyed it more than most of my readers. I love basketball and I prefer the pro game over college, even with some of the weaknesses of the pro game (um, star treatment?). I think the [...]

There are a lot of things in life more important than sports. Whether the Twins win or lose doesn't determine my ultimate happiness. Still, though, it's been a long cold winter, sportswise around these parts. The last two seasons of Timberwolves basketball have been cover-your-eyes dreadful. The 2005 Twins season was [...]

The Miami Heat have won the NBA Championship to end the greatest NBA post season I have ever seen. I must say that while I wanted to see the Diesel win his fourth ring, I take no particular delight in seeing Dallas on the short end of the stick. As crazy as he [...]

Starters:
Brad Radke, 5-7, 5.83 v. Roy Oswalt, 6-3, 3.21.
The Twins have won seven straight and nine of ten. The Astros have won seven of ten and are two games out of the Wild Card slot. If we get the suddenly resurgent Brad Radke, then this could be a good matchup.

I think the pressure of the NBA Finals is getting to Mark Cuban. Check out his blog.

With an off-day, Joe Christenson offers us a story on a Twins player making an impact, Justin Morneau. How much better does it feel to see that instead of that stupid article on Tony Batista's stance a while back?
Anyway, there are some interesting things in this article.
Hunter's still the media darling and there's a [...]

I don't know what is going on, but I keep seeing my site looking different from what I expect. I have set up the site to have the red look. However, I have seen it with a different look -- a blue look. It's not me that's changing it. I don't [...]

McCants has microfracture surgery on his knee, out "four to six months." From ESPN:
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Rashad McCants will miss four to six months after microfracture surgery on his right knee, the same injury that kept Phoenix star Amare Stoudemire out for most of this season.
Timberwolves orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Fischer performed the surgery [...]

I have learned a little bit more about the spam program that I have installed and I set up the program to be a little more friendly to letter writers. As a result, some spam is filtering through, but also, regular letter writers are getting a much higher "karma", which is separating them from [...]

Wow, this game is something. It has just gone to overtime.
Update: Gary Payton is worth about one basket a game. Man was that a big one.
Update: Dirk Nowitski with a bigger shot.
Update: Wade gets bailed out. I thought he was over and back when he caught the ball.
Update: [...]

Editor's Note: SBG's soccer expert Andrew continues his coverage of the US in World Cup play. Here is his writeup of the US/Italy match. Thanks, Andrew!
Expert? I'm flattered, but I'm just a normal guy trying to keep up the proud tradition of "half-baked crap". Where to start? I suppose with [...]

Starting Pitchers:
Johan Santana, 6-4, 2.99 v. Oliver Perez, 2-8, 6.68
This is one the Twins have to win. And oh boy, how things have changed in the last week. Six wins in a row and the end of the oppressive dictatorship on the left side of the infield. Plus, Jason Bartlett has been [...]

It was one of those days. I mentioned that we had a power blip last night. My computer got destroyed. We went to the office today and they said that they think our building got hit by lightning. I'm not sure about that, but I do know that an electrical panel [...]

Last night we had a power blip. Lucy and I were watching whatever it is that she wanted me to watch on TV and I didn't think much of it. Later, I went to set up the Game Log for Saturday's game and I realized that the computer was d-e-a-d. Crap. [...]

Starting Pitchers:
Francisco Liriano, 5-1, 2.10 v. Ian Snell, 7-3, 4.75
Coming off the great three game sweep, the Twins send their brilliant rookie out to take on the Bucs.
In an earlier conversation, ubelmann says this (edited):
The Twins’ blueprint still depends on the part about getting good prospects. The Twins will do well precisely when they start [...]

Grandpa Sports:
The word is that Wolves free agent point guard Marcus Banks is headed for the Los Angeles Lakers. Two years ago, the Boston Celtics and the Lakers made a trade that had Banks going to the Lakers and Gary Payton moving to the Celtics. But Payton failed a physical and the deal was called [...]

I went to Subway a few minutes ago to get my daily sandwich. I usually get a bag of Doritos to go with it. I know, I know, they aren’t good for me. What I should do is pack a decent lunch for myself. But, this is where I am right [...]

Top Jimmy:
So what you saw at the Dome this week -- kids such as Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett sweeping the Boston Red Sox -- isn't an aberration to Ryan.
It's the plan.
It wasn't the plan on April 1, though, like a lot of us thought it should be.
I agree with the idea expressed in [...]

Editor's Note: Andrew from Home is Where the Heart Is continues his coverage of the US in the World Cup for us with a preview of Saturday's Game against Italy. Thanks Andrew!
Game Time: Saturday, 1:30 Central, ABC
Last Games: USA 0, Czech Republic 3 and Italy 2, Ghana 0
What to Expect from the [...]

Welcome, SBG fans, to the thirteenth edition of 360 Degrees, a regular report on the Twins starting pitching. This report includes the five games ending on Friday, June 15, 2006. Last time, I wrote about how the Twins pitching was pretty bad, with a 5.19 FIP. And now for something completely different. [...]

Starting Pitchers:
Tim Wakefield, 4-7, 3.93 v. Carlos Silva, 2-8, 7.73
It ain't been pretty for Silva.
Update: Castro traded to Reds for single A outfielder. Thanks, brianS!
Update II: LENIII with the goods:
Castro was miscast as an everyday player, and his meager offensive output was even more glaring this month, as he entered Thursday with [...]

I love Patrick, but he's got a blind spot here, I think. The Twins have screwed this up, not Bartlett. He should have been here.
I did notice that Bartlett stayed back on a ball last night and he fumbled a ball they he eventually turned into a double play. However, let's cut [...]

The feeling is palpable. The Twins were sleep walking through the first couple of months and a lot of people who cared about this team were very discouraged. Not only were the Twins not winning, but they weren’t playing the guys that were their future.
Andy McPhail once said that a “small” market club [...]

Starting pitchers:
Matt Clement, 5-4, 6.68 v. Brad Radke, 4-7, 6.17
Who wants to bet that this one won't quite live up to the game played last night? Then again, who wants to bet that that game will be topped at all this year by anyone anywhere?
Radke has (cross my fingers) started to play better. [...]

First of all, I've stepped on my 50 Greatest Pitchers post that is just down the page by repeatedly posting. Scroll down to give it a look.
Second, I was thinking, which was better, Fliriano's 7 inning, no run, one hit, 2 BB, 6K performance against Baltimore or Santana's 8 inning, 5 hit, 0 BB, [...]

I want to take an opportunity to plug a couple of my fellow bloggers. First of all, Seth Stohs has a great piece that breaks down the pitching matchup between Johan Santana and Curt Schilling last night. Seth's the hardest working blogger in the business and his effort last night was pretty great [...]

Now that the Tony Batista Era is over, time to select your favorite moment or memory. Here are a few of mine:
1. The "double" off his leg.
2. Not really a moment, but a collection of moments -- the non-stop parade to the pitching mound every time Mauer went out there.
3. His [...]

The Twins have told Jason Bartlett that he's being called up. Finally.
Get this:
During spring training, Bartlett was considered the favorite to win the Twins' starting shortstop job. But just before camp ended, manager Ron Gardenhire picked Juan Castro as his starter, sending Bartlett to Rochester with instructions to be more of a vocal leader.
"I've [...]

Welcome, SBG fans, to the compilation of the top 50 pitching seasons in Twins history by VORP. Following the list of top 50 seasons by hitters, it's time time to look at pitchers. So far Johan Santana has a VORP of 30.8 VORP and he's on pace for a VORP of about 80.4, [...]

Tuesday, June 13, 2006:
Starting pitchers:
Curt Schilling, 9-2, 3.81 v. Johan Santana, 6-4, 3.16

Pitcher
IP
K/9
K/BB
HR
FIP
ERA
AVE
OBP
SLG

Curt Schilling
87.1
7.94
8.56
13
2.90
3.81
.243
.264
.428

Johan Santana
88.3
9.27
5.69
10
2.31
3.16
.233
.271
.390

When I see Curt Schilling, I think that I hate that [illegitimate child], but man, he can pitch.
Tonight' Lineup:

NO.
BOSTON
MINNESOTA

1.
Crisp
CF
Castillo
2B

2.
Loretta
2B
Ford
LF

3.
Ortiz
DH
Mauer
C

4.
Ramirez
LF
Cuddyer
RF

5.
Varitek
C
Morneau
1B

6.
Lowell
3B
Hunter
CF

7.
Youkilis
1B
Kubel
DH

8.
Nixon
RF
Rodriguez
3B

9.
Gonzalez
SS
Castro
SS

Your thoughts.

From ESPN:
Sources told [a Pittsburgh] TV station that [Ben] Roethlisberger had a license to operate a car but has never had a Pennsylvania motorcycle license.
Roethlisberger had a learner's permit to operate a motorcycle that expired March 29 but had never taken the written and driving tests for a motorcycle license, a source told KDKA. [...]

When I think of Red Sox starter Curt Schilling, who is on the mound tonight against Johan Santana and the Twins, _____________________.
Fill in the blank.

Strib:
With Stewart and Sierra making progress, the Twins will soon face some difficult roster choices that could see them part ways with Rondell White.
White enters tonight's game against the Boston Red Sox batting .190, and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has been playing him less and less.
With Jason Kubel batting .279, and looking more comfortable by [...]

Editor's Note: Last weekend, I offered people the opportunity to guest write if they wanted to here at SBG. Long time reader and fellow blogger Andrew took me up on the offer and is writing about the US in the World Cup. I'm ignorant about soccer and this is the biggest sporting [...]

Just about finished with the top 50 Twins single season pitching performances when I realize that Jim Kaat's 1966 season didn't make the list. How could that be? Well, it "could be" that I had a little data corruption problem. Drat! So, I started going back and rechecking season by season [...]