Match Up
Texas: 52-53, 3rd AL West, 3.0 GB.
Texas is 26-23 on the road.
Texas ain’t much in that wilting Arlington heat, but they’ve got a pretty good road record.
Minnesota: 60-43, 3rd AL Central, 9.5 GB
Minnesota is 38-13 at home.
Rankings
Runs Scored
Texas is 7th in the American League with 528 runs scored.
Minnesota is 9th in the American League [...]

I wish that this article was printed on newspaper so that I could use it to clean out the litter boxes.
Basically, the author says that stories of other drug cheats don't matter. The only story that matters is whether Barry Bonds cheated. The author admits that he doesn't even care about World Champion [...]

Lucy and I went out for dinner this evening when she got home from visiting her parents. She had been gone since Tuesday and we enjoyed a nice evening out together. My lovely bride, who, God love her, does not like baseball, was forced to watch baseball with her parents, who watch pretty [...]

Match Up
Detroit: 70-33, 1st AL Central, 8.5 GA. Detroit has the best record in all of baseball.
Detroit is 37-16 on the road.
Minnesota: 59-43, 3rd AL Central, 10.5 GB
Minnesota is 37-13 at home.
I simply cannot believe the fantastic road record that this Detroit Tigers team has compiled. As amazing as the Twins have been at home, [...]

There’s an old saying that the two best days for a boat owner are the date he buys the boat and the date he sells the boat. I think that’s pretty true, being a former boat owner. When I bought my boat back in the summer of 1997, I was pretty excited. [...]

There can be only one word to describe Saturday night’s loss to the Tigers: frustrating. Yes, the Tigers hit a couple of balls out of the yard. But, those two home runs were not what cost the Twins this game. Instead, it was one ground ball after another that seemingly found a [...]

Match Up
Detroit: 69-33, 1st AL Central, 8.5 GA. Detroit has the best record in all of baseball.
Detroit is 36-16 on the road.
Minnesota: 59-42, T2nd AL Central, 9.5 GB
Minnesota is 37-12 at home.
I mentioned yesterday that the Tigers had a great road record. They took care of business on Saturday night and it was apparent that [...]

As I drove home from the Twins game on Friday night I sat in traffic along the 35W corridor and barely moved. I thought about the game that I had just seen and listened to Dark Star on the radio because he follows the Twins on WCCO. Traffic slowly crawled to the cross-town and I [...]

Match Up
Detroit: 68-33, 1st AL Central, 8.5 GA. Detroit has the best record in all of baseball.
Detroit is 35-16 on the road.
Minnesota: 59-41, T2nd AL Central, 8.5 GB
Minnesota is 37-11 at home.
Look at that road record for Detroit. Awesome.
Rankings
Runs Scored
Detroit is in 6th the AL with 531 runs scored.
Minnesota is in 8th the AL [...]

Jason Williams:
The Twins have played like World Series contenders at the Metrodome all season. They just showed signs of winning consistently on the road, something legitimate playoff contenders do. The Twins, 22-30 away from the Metrodome, picked up almost one-third of their 2006 road victories on this trip to Central Division rivals Cleveland and Chicago.
They [...]

From my daily newsletter from BP.
STAT OF THE DAY
Bottom 5 2006 AL Shortstops, by VORP
Player, Team, EqA, VORP
Nick Green, TBA, -.047, -9.1
Juan Castro, MIN, .200, -7.7
Russ Adams, TOR, .221, -6.5
Angel Berroa, KCA, .226, -5.9
Ramon Santiago, DET, .000, -5.4
Since VORP is somewhat of a counting stat, Juannie's really doing a "good" job sticking near the "top" [...]

John Harper of the New York Daily News writes about the surging Geminis. Writes Harp:
But the Twins have captured everyone's attention at the moment, as a team propelled by rising young stars. Catcher Joe Mauer continues to lead the league in hitting at .375, and now Justin Morneau is beginning to fulfill expectations as [...]

Jason Tyner's middle name is Renyt.

Welcome, SBG fans, to the twentieth edition of 360 Degrees, a regular report on the Twins starting pitching.
Perhaps the most famous speech in the history of the country was delivered at Gettysburg, PA. I’ve stood on the spot where Lincoln delivered his famous Address. The battlefields at Gettysburg are interesting, but it’s clear [...]

I mentioned that I'm going to go to the game on Friday night and obviously I'm cheering for the Twins and looking forward to a Twins Victory. I want the Twins to win for a number of reasons, of course. One, I am hoping that the Twins can make the post season and [...]

Twins sign catcher Mike Redmond to another two year deal with a team option for 2009.
I have added a chart showing the post season odds as the year has gone along. Go here to view. I also have a link on the left hand column.

Lucy is spending some time with her parents, who haven't been feeling all that well lately. So I'm going to go to the games on Friday and Saturday night. If you are headed that way, I can be talked into a pre-game beverage at Hubert's. E-mail me for an opportunity to chat [...]

Nate Silver at BP has written about the teams that might acquire Soriano, Lee, or Abreu. He thinks the Twins are one of the teams that has the least to gain. And that the White Sox have the most to gain.
Here's his take:
The White Sox stand the most to gain by making an [...]

I don’t know what this means, but I think it’s a hilarious statement coming out of the She-Cago Sun-Times. I don’t know what it is about She-Cago, but they just can’t stand to send any credit this way.
That's not the case with the scrappy Twins (59-41), who continued to show they might be the [...]

So far, requiring registration is working. The spam is still coming, but it's being kicked to the curb, and real, live readers of SBG, the World's Greatest Online Magazine are getting their comments through. As it should be. Since it is an OFF DAY, you should REGISTER for SBG so that you [...]

I am sorry to have to do this, but I have to do this.
For a while, it seemed like I had the old spam under control. But, lately, the Spam Killer program has been chomping too many comments from long time readers and commenters. I cannot spend all my time sifting through advertisements [...]

I have further loosened the strings on the spam fighter. I had two people e-mail me this afternoon about problems and both of their emails went into hotmail's junk folder. Ugh! I'm getting close to requiring a login. In case you are wondering, I have been getting a lot of spam [...]

I don't have a big preview put together, but let's just say that we are playing with house money today. If I were playing a drinking game, one swig for every time Bert says She-Cago.

From the NY POST:
THE Twins should be scaring the heck out of every AL team right now because of the great tandem at their disposal, and we are not even talking about Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano.

Minnesota has prospects and money, lots and lots of both. The only question is if Twins owner Carl Pohlad [...]

If you are having any problems commenting on this site, please e-mail me. I can try to help you.
I got an e-mail from a reader who was having a problem last night. I didn't think we were still having any problems. I went back and slogged through 1000 spam comments and found [...]

Eric Mack of CBS Sportsline weighs in on the A-Rod situation.
Hey, Yankee fans, be careful what you boo for.

It was once said here -- before Operation: Lightning-Rod kicked into hate alert -- those who boo A-Rod for his perceived failures in the clutch are ... well, we used a word perhaps too strong for some [...]

I haven't had this much fun following a baseball team in fifteen years.
That game on Tuesday night is the type of game that you dream that you want if you are a fan of this game. That wasn't Kansas City that the Twins were bulldozing on their way to a division title in a [...]

Match Up
Minnesota: 57-41, 3rd AL Central, 9.5 GB
Minnesota is 20-30 on the road.
Chicago: 59-39, 2nd AL Central, 7.5 GB. Chicago leads the Wild Card race.
Chicago is 34-17 at home.
Last Ten Games
Minnesota: 9-1, 62 Runs Scored, 36 Runs Allowed
Chicago: 2-8, 35 Runs Scored, 54 Runs Allowed
Starting Pitchers

Minnesota: Johan Santana (11-5, 3.00 ERA, 1.01 [...]

Hall-of-Famer Brooks Robinson says what I've been thinking. A-Rod is the best. Robinson:
I was watching TV last night and I really had to laugh at the guy who said he might be traded. There's no way in the world that A-Rod is going to go anywhere. If they don't have A-Rod, they don't [...]

The Twins are 32-8 over the last 40 games, the best 40 game stretch in Twins history.
The Twins are 9-1 since Torii Hunter got hurt.

Welcome, SBG fans, to the nineteenth edition of 360 Degrees, a regular report on the Twins starting pitching.
All week long, I was thinking “Hey Nineteen” by Steely Dan. But, then I got a little Rolling Stones jones going on and the nerves got the better of me, if you know what I mean.
This report [...]

Matchup
Chicago White Sox (59-38, 2nd in AL Central, 6.5 GB) v.
Minnesota Twins (56-41, 3rd in AL Central, 9.5 GB)
Minnesota is 19-30 on the road. Chicago is 34-16 at home.
Need I say more?
Starting Pitchers
Minnesota: Brad Radke, 8-7, 4.83, 1.49 WHIP
Chicago: Javier Vazquez, 9-5, 5.20, 1.35 WHIP
We know Brad's been better lately, and [...]

ESPN is featuring Joe Mauer on its front page today. Neyer's insiders-only column is free today, take a look. The kid has hit the big time and I'm thinking the "Face of the Twins" stories will be popping up like acne on Mark McGwire.

Back home from ND. Lucy and I really enjoyed our time back home. On Saturday, we went out to the Hutterite colony that is about 20 miles from SBGville. We got a bunch of meat (including some dandy pork chops) and produce. Wow, they have some great stuff. We got [...]

Lucy and I are on our way home from North Dakota. Last night was the first time I've missed a game in some time. See, the Twins need SBG to be on the case.

Match Up
Minnesota (55-40, 3rd place in the AL Central, 9.5 GB) at Cleveland (42-53, 4th place AL Central, 22.5 GB)
Minnesota is 18-29 on the road. Cleveland is 23-24 at home.
Starting Pitchers
Minnesota: Scott Baker, (3-5, 5.89 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, 55.0 IP)
Last Start: 7/17 TAM, 6.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 HR, 1 [...]

I'm in ND with Lucy to visit Butch and Mrs. Butch. I'm away from my spreadsheets and don't have a computer that runs fast. In short, 360 Degrees will be coming when I get back to the home front.
Some thoughts on last night's game.
Stop THE INSANITY
Rondell White goes 4-4 with 4 RBI and [...]

By the time i get to phoenix, she'll be risin'
She'll find the note i left hangin' on her door
And she'll laugh when she reads the part that says i'm leavin'
'cause i left that girl so many times before
By the time you read this, Lucy and I will be well on our way, if not completely [...]

On Tuesday morning, June 8, 2006, the Twins were sleeping off a 10-9, 11 inning loss to the Seattle Mariners – beaten by a Carl “Dino” Everett walk off home run. The Twins were 25-33 and had the 25th best record in the majors. The Twins were 26th in runs scored, 25th in [...]

The Grand Jury in the Barry Bonds is a Bad Guy case expired without an indictment. The Feds are going to start over.
From ESPN:
With Barry Bonds still firmly in the sights of a federal steroid investigation, prosecutors will impanel a new grand jury to take up where an outgoing one left off Thursday and [...]

Normally, I do these things right after the last game ends and schedule them to pop up two hours before game time. Not so today. I went to bed early last night and the game starts in 10 minutes.
This game is not on TV, so if you are watching it on an out [...]

I woke up this morning from a crazy dream. Wild. I dreamed that THE INSANITY had gone nuts with two home runs and a double. I dreamed that he looked like the player that we all thought he was when the Twins signed him. I dreamed that the 2006 Twins, as [...]

Match Up
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (39-55, 5th in AL East, 18 GB) v. Minnesota Twins (52-40, 3rd in AL Central, 9.5 GB). Tampa Bay is 17-35 on the road. Minnesota is 35-11 at home.
Last 10 games
Tampa Bay: 2-8, 28 Runs Scored, 59 Runs Allowed
Minnesota: 6-4, 47 Runs Scored, 36 Runs Allowed
Once again, the Twins are [...]

If you haven't already, go check out Seth Stohs's analysis of the pitching match up last night. Good work, Seth!

He fell just short of a complete game shut out (Terry Tiffee makes an error that leads to an unearned run), but there should be no doubt that Francisco Liriano was at the top of his game on Tuesday night.
On second thought, I'll back off a little. It's hard to say exactly how good [...]

Match Up
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (39-54, 5th in AL East, 17 GB) v. Minnesota Twins (51-40, 3rd in AL Central, 10.5 GB). Tampa Bay is 17-34 on the road. Minnesota is 34-11 at home.
Last 10 games
Tampa Bay: 3-7, 36 Runs Scored, 57 Runs Allowed
Minnesota: 6-4, 47 Runs Scored, 45 Runs Allowed
The Twins are playing good [...]

AAA comes to Minnesota
The Twins roster is littered with their AAA roster (and a lot of them are better than the people they replaced). And Tampa Bay is in town. This team has been in the major leagues for going on nine seasons and has never lost fewer than 92 games. Never. [...]

Match Up
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (39-53, 5th in AL East, 16 GB) v. Minnesota Twins (50-40, 3rd in AL Central, 11 GB). Tampa Bay is 17-33 on the road. Minnesota is 33-11 at home.
Rankings
Runs Scored: Tampa Bay is 14th (last) in the American League with 385 runs scored. Minnesota is 10th in the [...]

This blog turns two years old today.
I can't believe that I have been plunking away at the keyboard for two years, ranting about ScruFi, Derek Jeter, Barry Bonds, KG, and all of my pet topics for 730 days. But, it's true, I have.
A lot has happened in those two years. On July 17, [...]

Welcome, SBG fans, to the eighteenth edition of 360 Degrees, a regular report on the Twins starting pitching.
Alice Cooper sang in the song “I’m Eighteen” that he was “in the middle of life”. Well, if he meant that his life was half over, he was wrong about that. I actually heard the song [...]

Match Up
Cleveland Indians (41-49, 4th in AL Central, 20.5 GB) v. Minnesota Twins (49-40, 3rd in AL Central, 12 GB).
Cleveland is 18-26 on the road. Minnesota is 32-11 at home.
Wow. Cleveland is 20.5 games out. That has got to sting, especially since they were right there with the World Champions until the last [...]

Following the 2004 season, I analyzed some players on the Twins roster in a little feature I called the "Stick and Ball Guy Analyzer." I remember writing about Shannon Stewart and I thought -- God, I wish that they'd never signed this guy. We have to trade him. It would have been [...]

Match Up
Cleveland Indians (41-48, 4th in AL Central, 19.5 GB) v. Minnesota Twins (48-40, 3rd in AL Central, 12 GB). Cleveland is 18-25 on the road. Minnesota is 31-11 at home.
Last 10 games
Cleveland: 5-5, 59 Runs Scored, 49 Runs Allowed
Minnesota: 5-5, 46 Runs Scored, 47 Runs Allowed
The Twins are now 3-5 since the hot streak [...]

I know what you are thinking. With Nick Punto getting three hits since the break, you are fully aware that Mr. Punto has now cracked the top 100 in career hits as a Twin. But, does SBG know it? That's the question. The answer, obviously, is yes.
In my continuing effort to [...]

On their sports page, The Onion has the following sidebar item:

Twins Release Tony Batista Back Into Wild

To which I add:
“Everybody doesn’t like the way I hit,” said Batista, a .251 career hitter in the majors with a meager on-base percentage of .298. “But everybody likes the results.”

Match Up
Cleveland Indians (41-47, 4th in AL Central, 18.5 GB) v. Minnesota Twins (47-40, 3rd in AL Central, 12 GB). Cleveland is 18-24 on the road. Minnesota is 30-11 at home.
Last 10 games
Cleveland: 6-4, 69 Runs Scored, 53 Runs Allowed
Minnesota: 5-5, 51 Runs Scored, 47 Runs Allowed
So, you win 19 of 20 and a [...]

Reusse:
There is nothing among these positives that could have more impact in the years ahead than Morneau's arrival as a consistent power threat. The fact is, Hrbek, Gaetti, Brunansky and Puckett all had power, but they weren't sluggers -- not hitters who gave you the anticipation of a home run any time they stepped in [...]

When the Twins were winning every single game a while back, some people (like Top James) moaned that the Twins weren't making up any ground. My response was enjoy the run while it is going on. Enjoy the baseball. It was fun, and it didn't matter that the Twins weren't making up [...]

I don't have time to put together my usual pregame post, but we'll go with this.
Starters:
Lee (8-6, 4.76) v. The Generalissimo (10-1, 1.83)
Now, a word about formatting. I don't know why the damned site is flipping back to the default (blue) template all the time. Perhaps someone is hacking my site. Perhaps [...]

I've cut out the bag of Doritos from my daily Subway run. No, I haven't replaced it with some other form of chip. Just the sandwich. It's all part of a campaign (probably widely supported) in which there will be less SBG. More details as it warrants.

Jose Reyes missed the All-Star game because he slid into first and got spiked, which necessitated seven stitches to his finger. Of course, Reyes says he'll never do it again.

From ESPN.COM:
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins recalled right-hander Scott Baker from Triple-A Rochester on Tuesday.

Baker began the season as Minnesota's fifth starter, but he was sent down on June 1 after going 2-5 with a 6.06 ERA in nine outings. He replaces outfielder Ruben Sierra, who was released Monday.
I am stunned, STUNNED that Ruben Sierra [...]

I thought from the beginning that the Wolves would have to pay Marcus Banks from their mid-level exception to retain his rights and I saw nothing in the press to dissuade me from thinking otherwise. Then, I found out today that the Wolves thought they had "Bird" rights, but the league said, "Pound sand, [...]

SBG is taking an All-Star Break. I would really like to thank Andrew of Home is Where the Heart Is for his coverage of the World Cup for The Mag. He did a great job. Go over to his site and leave a comment to say hi and thanks. Andrew has [...]