The WGOM

Does Bremer even pay attention? "The Twins are the hottest team in baseball."

Oakland may disagree.

On the scale of ridiculous statements, that's not exactly the top of the list. Compare with the nonsense of the Twins defense being the best in the league.

Nice to get that first inning run out of the way...

(SBG - format of recent site changes are almost unreadable on Mac Safari. )

Cuddy! That was crushed!

I heard that earlier today. I'll have to see what I can do about that. I didn't program it myself and I don't have a Mac to check it against.

How about that field being all wet. Didn't they have the roof closed?

I remember back in the days of TwinsTerritory that someone once criticized Cuddyer because he never hit home runs off of good pitchers. Well, I think Roy Oswalt is pretty decent, huh?

I also remember nonsense about how Cuddyer would never turn out to be a regular because he just couldn't handle right-handed pitching on a day-to-day basis. People really went out of their way to discredit this guy.

Brad Radke in his career has hit .107/.107/.107.

Rondell White hit .136/.143/.148 in April.

I'm just saying.

Also, I'm guessing Bartlett probably got pitched around a bit there with Radke up next.

I've always been a Cuddy guy. He's got a lot of power. Imagine if he'd have gotten a decent shake last year.

Radke just about beat that little nubber out.

Redmond has a pretty decent record hitting against Oswalt. Will he pinch hit? Heh.

Where's Corky Miller when you need him?

Former All-Star Ron Coomer on the side line. Is Coomer the worst Twins all-star ever?

I thought Minute Maid center field (435) was a little longish, but just ran into factoid - Polo Grounds III (1890-1908) had center field of 500 feet.

Tiger Stadium was 440 to center as I recall. And the Polo Grounds in which Bobby Thomson hit the "Shot Heard Round the World" was 455 to center but only 258 in the right field corner! That nothing more than a popup!

Aw crap, Berkman does some major yardwork.

Braves field was 520 to straightaway center at one time, with one part just right of center stretching to 550 feet. Talk about triple heaven.

You know whats odd, the Astros only have 3 foreign born players. Thats well below average isn't it? Just a wierd fact.

That is pretty low.

Radke in Minute Maid seemed like a bad fit coming in.

I never got why people were so down on Cuddy, either. Plus he gets the fact that the fans are a the reason why he'll never have to work a real job in his life so he tries to be personable. And my wife tells me that chicks dig him.

Runner at third and two out and Punto bunts. Fuck. Of course, he slid into first. If I were the manager, he\'d be fined for that.

Cuddy did the blog thing for MLB.com last year or the year before as well. I'm sure he could have said no. I imagine people aren't as fired up by him because he doesn't make spectacular catches at the wall, showboat, make himself an item with the media - you know, things like that. Go figure.

Sawatdee krap.

Sorry. Translation required here. My wife and I are going to Bangkok in July. 'Sawatdee krap' is hello, but my wife and I say it when something dismal happens - like Mauer/Cuddyer/Morneau fails to produce.

Kubel is the dude!

So is Bartlett! Walking Mauer to get to Cuddy. Make him pay!

what do you say when something good happens? Like Kubel Bartlett Tiffee Castillo and Punto producing

Four or more runs scored in 12 consecutive games. Last year's Twins couldn't score four or more runs in two months.

Ladies & gentleman, we again have a ballgame...

Sawatdee koo!

(BTW - Thai has no word for no. You can only say, 'not yes'. Isn't that excellent?!).

Four or more runs scored in 12 consecutive games. Last year’s Twins couldn’t score four or more runs in two months.

They are going well right now. And it's the young guys. That's the best part.

Good AB by Oswalt.

I hope you all don't mind me posting in here right now. Figure I should at least introduce myself. Been reading SBG for a while now, just never posted or anything. I live in Minnesota and have been a Twins fan my whole life (naturally). Watched every game this year but not with much excitement until they dumped Batista/Castro (and hopefully soon White), since then I really love this team.

Welcome aboard, Ron.

Always welcome here, Ron.

Ron Coomer in his All-Star season of '99 hit .263/.307/.424, an 82 OPS+.

A survey of other Twins who posted below-average lines in their All-Star seasons:

Zoilo Versalles in '63 made the first of his two All-Star appearances, while finishing the season with a .261/.303/.401 line (96 OPS+). His only other appearance came in '65, his MVP season.

Earl Battey in his All-Star debut season of '62 hit .280/.348/.393 (96 OPS+). In '66, he hit .255/.337/.327 (88 OPS+), but made the All-Star team for the fourth and final time. The other two seasons he earned All-Star honors ('63 and '65), he was a more legitimate threat with the bat.

Rod Carew at age 22 in '68 posted the worst line of his career, .273/.312/.347, which was subpar (96 OPS+) even in The Year of the Pitcher, but he made the All-Star team, his second in a line of Mid-Summer honors that would run through 1984.

Johnny Roseboro in '69 was an All-Star although he hit .263/.333/.321 (83 OPS+). It was his fourth All-Star team, albeit his first since '62 when he was with the Dodgers. At age 36, it was also the last of his two years in Minnesota, and his last season as a starting Catcher in the big leagues.

Jim Perry in '71 was an All-Star although he wound up with a 17-17 record and 4.23 ERA (84 ERA+). Incredibly, a 5th place Twins team had 5 All-Star representatives that year.

Butch Wynegar was an All-Star in '77 but hit .261/.344/.370 (96 OPS+). He'd also been an All-Star as a 20 year-old rookie the previous season, although his offensive production doesn't look significantly different except when adjusted for context. After that, apparently the hype about his potential wore off. He played long enough to cash some checks from the Yankees and Angels, but he was never an All-Star again.

Dave Engle in '84 was the token Twins All-Star, despite Kent Hrbek's .311/.383/.522 (144 OPS+) line that year. The Twins Catcher wound up with a .266/.308/.353 line (79 OPS+) in his only All-Star season.

Tim Laudner in '88 was an All-Star, perhaps one of the spoils of the '87 World Series title. His final .251/.316/.408 line was better than his production the previous year, and better than his career average, but slightly subpar for the league that season (99 OPS+). It was his last year as a starting Catcher, before making way for Brian Harper.

Gary Gaetti in '89 made the All-Star team while finishing with a .251/.286/.404 line, an 88 OPS+. He was probably coasting off some World Series fame as well as his previous season, when he made the All-Star team and hit .301/.353/.551. He also won the third of four consecutive Gold Gloves that year. But his bat got even worse the next year, the Twins let him go as a free agent, and there would be no more All-Star Games for the Rat.

But what was Coomer hitting at the all-star break? I guess the same could be asked for all of them.

FW,
You know that all off the top your head? Heh.
Did some of those players have good lines for the first 80 or so games?

Excellent work, Frightwig. Interesting no. on Carew. Ixnay Coomey.

Kudos to Dazzle for calling the wild pitch! (and to Lidge for throwing it)

God. Can you believe it?

Oooh. A wild pitch scores the go ahead run.

Cmon gentlemen, lets get the W.

The Twins have seemed to do get excellent results against elite closers so far this year.

NBA Finals update: I'm willing to complete reconsider my position the officiating in the 5th game. Since paying closer attention to Wade, he's getting all kinds of calls that just aren't even close.

Oooh, quick out. Excellent.

That was a very generous strike three call. I'll take it!

crap.

Sumbitch.

F*@%ing Preston Wilson

god i hate the short porch

BS #1

Ugh. 5-5.

That was kind of a worthless little line drive home run.

Morneau homerun to straight center would fix this crap.

I thought about Laudner. He famously hit .191 with an OPS+ of 64 in 1987. I'm sure a lot of you remember the sign at the World Series that said the "Buck Ninety-One Club."

Let's look at those guys that fw mentioned by VORP.

Zoilo Versalles in '63: 26.6 VORP
Earl Battey     in '62: 16.3
Earl Battey     in '66:  6.0
Rod Carew       in '68: 17.9
Johnny Roseboro in ‘69:  6.1
Jim Perry       in ‘71:  8.4
Butch Wynegar   in ‘77:  6.6
Dave Engle      in '84:  3.5  (Hrbek was 53.0)
Tim Laudner     in '88: 14.0
Gary Gaetti     in '89:  8.1
Ron Coomer      in '99: -2.8

Thanks, FW, for making a list of candidates. Coom-Dog was sub-replacement level. Egads.

Well, Nathan made it out of the inning on 17 pitches, so I'd say put him out there for the next inning unless the pitcher's spot comes up this inning (which hopefully it will).

Bert called it a pitcher's pitch. Yeah, that's one way of putting it. Maybe they should start calling Maddux strikes.

Holy sh*t, Nathan gave up a game-tying home run. You just don't expect some things to happen. Time to start battling the tails off, boys.

And Ubelmann, watching Game 5 I was thinking that the NBA was willing Wade to a "legendary" performance. Thought the officiating was a complete joke and don't care to watch tonight if the same thing starts happening.

Btw, if you're wondering whether Coomer really might have been the best the '99 Twins had to offer...

Corey Koskie that season hit .310/.387/.468 (114 OPS+).
Marty Cordova hit .285/.365/.464 (107 OPS+).
Brad Radke was 12-14 with a 3.75 ERA (135 ERA+).

Coomer didn't even get the majority of starts at 1B for the Twins that season. He split time between 1B/3B when Koskie or Dougie weren't playing. At the end of June, he was hitting .286/.315/.463 in 266 PA's. Meanwhile, Koskie was hitting .289/.345/.447 in 173 PA's. Cordova was hitting .291/.376/.453 in 268 PA's. Radke was 5-7 with a 3.73 ERA in 111 IP.

I wonder if Joe Torre picked Coomer purely on TK's recommendation; or, if Koskie was penalized for being a rookie who wasn't the regular 3B at the start of the season, Cordova was penalized for usually playing DH, and Radke was penalized for his W/L record.

This park is a joke, by the way.

Oh my god.

yes justin

Great call, Ron!!!

Ron, awesome call! He's really developing a knack for big hits.

Dave Engle in '84: 3.5 (Hrbek was 53.0)

Makes you wonder about what the worst snubs like that are.

Nice double by Morneau.

Hat's off on the HR. Wow.

Thanks. I wish I would have put bets on that. GO TWINS!!!

Oh, hey, that was a home run. I couldn't tell by the Houston announcers' call, and I didn't see it bounce above the line. Whaddya know.

Off topic question: Has a pitcher ever hit a walk-off homerun to win it for himself?

Going into today, Morneau was hitting .333/.373/.683 in June. I like it.

Hunter thrown out at second.

That was close. Seemed like Ausmus took a long time to load up that throw.

Atta boy JB!

Three hits for Bartlett. An extra base knock. What urgency!

Look at the urgency Bartlett learned in Rochester.

Nathan's first strike swing looked better than any of THE INSANITY's this month.

Well, Nathan was a SS before he was a pitcher.

So, taking the opportunity while JB is hitting .455, what are the talking heads going to talk about this offseason if Bartlett finishes the season hitting something on the top end of his projection like .290 with walks and doubles? Will they contradict themselves and say that the Twins obviously screwed up by going with Castro, or will they just ignore the whole debacle from this time forward?

will they just ignore the whole debacle from this time forward

My money is right here. The one guy that I would think might say it (Reusse) is down on Bartlett for some unknown reason.

Nathan's third 1+ inning appearance this month, after zero such appearances in the first two months of the season.

I think Top James will step forward.

Has a pitcher ever hit a walk-off homerun to win it for himself?

I googled that and couldn't find anything.

I'd guess that the Pioneer Press will stick to its Castro gun and say something about a "stabilizing presence." I still remember hearing an exascerbated LEN III on KFAN after Bartlett was sent down, so it wouldn't surprise me to see him point out that it was a mistake. Christensen? Who knows...Souhan? Depends on what allows him to think he's clever.

I really need to buy some tickets to an upcoming game.

I think Top James will step forward.

He just might. At times he does show some insight. Top James. Heh.

The one guy that I would think might say it (Reusse) is down on Bartlett for some unknown reason.

That's probably right. Bartlett must be something like the least personable person in the world the way it seems like everyone near him is treating him.

I think the local media have already shown that they're content to accept the official line that Bartlett needed to do some maturing in Rochester. Ergo, all success that he enjoys with the Twins this season will be credited to the work he put in at AAA this spring.

It's a win-win for Twins management. If he flops, then they were right all along about him. If he succeeds, then it's a credit to the way they handled him.

I'm heading to the game on Monday and I'm going to try to talk my wife into Sunday's game (Radke v. Greg Maddox).

That’s probably right. Bartlett must be something like the least personable person in the world the way it seems like everyone near him is treating him.

That or the outrageous rumors about ScruFi's daughter must be true.

7 batters faced, 4 strikeouts. Too bad about that HR. Although, it did help Morneau pad his increasingly gaudy HR total. Joe was just takin' one for the team.

A very good win. Down three, they battled their tails off and won it late.

Do you see what Chicago is doing to St. Louis? 20-2 in the 8th. Ridiculous.

It’s a win-win for Twins management. If he flops, then they were right all along about him. If he succeeds, then it’s a credit to the way they handled him.

That's what really kills me. No matter how late the Twins pull the trigger on a promotion, they manage to spin it in such a way that casual onlookers will figure that they did everything just right.

If a player never turns out, well, they just got a bum player, young guys don't turn out, etc., etc. We all know the company line by now.

I'm a big fan of the "Bartlett hooked up with ScruFi's daughter" story. It makes as much sense as anything.

Maybe a little nieve here, but why the name ScruFi?

With as bad as Castro wass, how CAN Bartlett play worse? Ah well, spin is spin, I guess.

Gonna have fun here in StL tomorrow ribbing the neighbors.

How about a little love for the pudgy lil' Scrufi. I think he's done a nice job during this winning streak. Some creative use of Nathan. Mixing up the batting order - installing Cuddy at cleanup. He yanked Bonser before he blew up.

Ron:

Go back to read my April 1 post. It explains everything. Here is the link.

Yeah, I like the lineup right now. Hugs and kisses for ScruFi from SBG!

By the way, the basketball game is pretty exciting right now. Miami is leading in the third quarter, but it's close.

Awwwwww.

Yes, the game is pretty close right now. I really want to see Dallas pick up the win here. Having Mourning in foul trouble could be key, as Miami has been taking Shaq out of the lineup a lot during crunch time.

GP causing the turnover by not paying attention and talking to the officials. Brilliant!

Mourning has been a huge factor.

GP is blowing up tonight and not in a good way.

While Stewart ran simulated bases in the outfield on Tuesday, Gardenhire expressed his desire not to push Stewart back into the starting left-field spot when he does rejoin the club, but to use him more in the designated hitter slot.

"I'll talk to Shannon about it, but he'll probably DH to protect him," Gardenhire said. "We'll maybe spot play him here and there but when he comes back, to protect him before he hurts himself more out in the outfield on the Fieldturf, it looks like the right thing to do is put him in the DH slot."

(queue "Halleluiah Chorus")

I think that ScruFi has seen Jesus and gotten religion.

It's like, since Jason was brought up, every action that the Manager and GM have made have been pretty damn good.

I've been a bit scared when Crain comes in, but other than that...

I don't exactly understand how the people that have made so many bad decisions over the first part of the season have now totally turned things around.

BTW, I had a silly idea for (NL) Batting order:
Mauer, Hunter, Morneau, Cuddy, Kubel, Punto, Castillo, Bartlett, Pitcher. I realized that Castillo and Punto get more ABs than Morneau and Kubel.
If Stewart's on the team back in MN, throw him in first and move everyone back a spot.

One last thing: Houston may be mostly American, but the Twins have 6 of 8 Americans starting most games now, with only a Dominican 2b and Canadian 1b.

One last thing: Houston may be mostly American, but the Twins have 6 of 8 Americans starting most games now, with only a Dominican 2b and Canadian 1b.

Check out our pitching staff, though. Santana, Liriano, Rincon, Silva, Crain, Reyes.

Plus Elrod and Sierra off the bench. If I understand the stat right for Houston, they only have 3 of 25 players who are foreign-born, whereas the Twins have 10 of 25 players who are foreign born, which actually seems low compared to recent years. I think that's what makes 3 of 25 so surprising is that we surpass it by quite a bit and it seems like this has lineup a pretty US-centric feel.