A loss today and things could get ugly in a hurry.

On the heels of three straight losses, Ol' Patrick takes a swipe at the local nine.
Smell 'Em has taken on a whole meaning for the Twins hitters.
Fish don't give off an appealing odor when they have been belly-up for four days and that's what has become of the Piranhas.
Our heroes should have spent less energy [...]

There was a lot of chatter in the off season about a certain DH that was available. I don't know if the Twins actually pursued him, but he went cheap -- $500,000. The Twins decided to go with good citizen Rondell White, because after all, this guy has been known to be somewhat [...]

Geoff Zahn was a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins from 1977-1980. At the end of the 2006 season, he was 38th in VORP in Twins history. He currently ranks 40th.

Thank goodness 2006 All-Star Mark Redman isn't pitching tonight.

Matt Lawton was an outfielder for the Minnesota Twins from 1995-2001 and at the end of the 2006 season, he had the 39th highest VORP in Minnesota Twins history. He has since fallen out of the TOP 40.

What's that you say? The Twins are playing good ball? Winning series?
All true.
Now it's time to take care of business again.
Update: A little more on the Bert Blyleven homerun record, courtesy of retrosheet, truly one of the greatest websites in all of history.
Blyleven allowed 5 homeruns and nine runs in [...]

Reusse takes on Bert Blyleven:
When Carlos Silva gave up five home runs last week in Baltimore, it tied Bert Blyleven's Twins record set on Sept. 13, 1986, against Texas. Blyleven was working the TV booth, and his recollection was that he had a complete-game victory that night.
As a now-experienced TV journalist, Bert surely has an [...]

Rich Rollins had the 40th highest VORP in Twins history at the end of the 2006 season. He has since fallen out of the TOP 40. This profile was written while he was still in the TOP 40.

Someone named John Heyman writes an article on the biggest busts in the AL in 2006. He lists 25 players and guess who's number 1?
I'll give you a hint: he's hitting .276/.380/.492/.872 with 26 HRs and 93 RBIs. That's right. Heyman says that Alex Rodgriguez is the biggest bust in the [...]

I've constructed a career list of Minnesota Twins, ranked by VORP, sort of. I haven't included hitting stats with the pitchers, which I'll need to do to make sure the list is in proper order.
Similar to Mr. Gleeman, I'll reveal the list of the top 40, along with a little rundown on the players' [...]

Post any newsworthy articles that you found outside of the Twin Cities media in the letters to the editor. This can be anything from any source other than Twins Blogs, the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press or any other Twin Cities news outlet. You can post on the Twins, baseball, the weather. Whatever.

NAME
POS
PA
PA%
AVG
OBP
SLG
SB
CS
MLVr
PMLVr
VORPr
MLV
PMLV
VORP

Joe Mauer
c
493
10.00%
0.356
0.434
0.514
8
2
0.349
0.393
0.502
40.1
45.2
57.7

Justin Morneau
1b
515
10.40%
0.317
0.371
0.585
2
3
0.305
0.197
0.365
36.7
23.6
43.9

Michael Cuddyer
rf
488
9.90%
0.275
0.359
0.504
4
0
0.124
0.078
0.226
14.2
8.9
25.7

Torii Hunter
cf
471
9.50%
0.276
0.346
0.475
6
5
0.063
0.086
0.206
6.9
9.5
22.6

Jason Bartlett
ss
247
5.00%
0.347
0.415
0.454
4
4
0.22
0.274
0.381
12.7
15.8
22

Nick Punto
3b
375
7.60%
0.309
0.389
0.413
14
5
0.082
0.061
0.208
7.2
5.3
18.2

Luis Castillo
2b
534
10.80%
0.29
0.346
0.369
19
7
-0.073
-0.02
0.12
-9.1
-2.5
15

Mike Redmond
c
145
2.90%
0.331
0.354
0.412
0
0
0.038
0.089
0.184
1.3
3
6.2

Josh Rabe
dh
47
1.00%
0.311
0.34
0.533
0
1
0.178
0.127
0.208
2
1.4
2.3

Jason Tyner
lf
160
3.20%
0.32
0.35
0.353
3
2
-0.065
-0.096
0.031
-2.4
-3.6
1.2

Shannon Stewart
lf
190
3.80%
0.293
0.347
0.368
3
1
-0.072
-0.138
0.006
-3.2
-6.1
0.3

Terry Tiffee
ph
47
1.00%
0.233
0.298
0.395
0
1
-0.166
-0.17
-0.116
-1.8
-1.9
-1.3

Luis Rodriguez
3b
105
2.10%
0.233
0.33
0.333
0
0
-0.193
-0.179
-0.071
-4.7
-4.4
-1.7

Ruben Sierra
dh
32
0.60%
0.185
0.281
0.222
0
0
-0.466
-0.449
-0.348
-3.5
-3.3
-2.6

Jason Kubel
lf
221
4.50%
0.251
0.291
0.406
2
0
-0.153
-0.197
-0.056
-7.9
-10.2
-2.9

Tony Batista
3b
195
3.90%
0.236
0.303
0.388
0
1
-0.17
-0.223
-0.1
-7.7
-10.2
-4.5

Juan Castro
ss
164
3.30%
0.231
0.258
0.308
1
1
-0.373
-0.318
-0.199
-14.3
-12.2
-7.6

Lew Ford
lf
223
4.50%
0.232
0.297
0.315
8
1
-0.284
-0.334
-0.167
-14.8
-17.4
-8.7

Rondell White
dh
263
5.30%
0.22
0.247
0.304
1
1
-0.405
-0.443
-0.317
-24.9
-27.2
-19.5

Hunter has a huge week and makes a big move.

NAME
YEAR
G
GS
IP
H9
BB9
SO9
HR9
ERA
RA
PK_RA
RA+
RP
VORP
BABIP

Johan Santana
2006
28
28
191.3
7.39
1.83
9.22
0.99
3.01
3.2
3.19
1.56
37.7
62.8
0.276

Francisco Liriano
2006
27
15
119
6.66
2.42
10.74
0.68
2.19
2.34
2.35
2.11
34.6
50.2
0.286

Joe Nathan
2006
51
0
55
5.73
1.64
12.44
0.49
1.8
1.8
1.8
2.76
19.4
26.7
0.269

Brad Radke
2006
27
27
157.3
11.1
1.72
4.69
1.37
4.46
4.92
4.91
1.01
1
21.6
0.327

Dennys Reyes
2006
46
0
38
5.68
2.37
8.53
0.71
0.95
1.42
1.42
3.49
15
20
0.226

Juan Rincon
2006
58
0
59.3
8.65
2.73
8.19
0.3
2.73
3.49
3.49
1.42
9.7
17.7
0.331

Matt Guerrier
2006
30
0
46.3
10.49
3.11
4.86
0.39
2.72
3.11
3.12
1.59
9.5
15.7
0.338

Pat Neshek
2006
18
0
23.7
3.42
1.14
12.93
1.14
1.14
1.14
1.14
4.35
10.1
13.2
0.146

Jesse Crain
2006
52
0
62.7
9.77
2.15
7.47
0.72
4.16
4.31
4.33
1.15
4.4
12.8
0.325

Boof Bonser
2006
11
11
57.3
10.36
2.67
7.22
2.04
5.18
5.65
5.67
0.87
-4.5
3
0.315

Willie Eyre
2006
35
0
50.3
10.91
3.04
3.93
1.25
5.54
5.72
5.75
0.86
-4.4
2.4
0.309

Matt Garza
2006
3
3
13.7
11.85
3.29
5.27
1.32
6.59
7.24
7.28
0.68
-3.5
-1.7
0.34

Mike Smith
2006
1
1
3
15
9
3
3
12
12
12.06
0.41
-2.4
-2
0.333

Kyle Lohse
2006
22
8
63.7
11.31
3.53
6.5
1.13
7.07
7.07
7.07
0.7
-14.9
-6.5
0.35

Scott Baker
2006
12
12
63.7
12.72
1.55
7.35
2.12
6.93
7.35
7.41
0.67
-17.3
-8.9
0.361

Carlos Silva
2006
28
23
135.3
12.9
1.46
3.59
2
6.45
6.98
6.95
0.71
-29.9
-12.2
0.333

It feels like we are now playing with house money. The unthinkable just a month ago or maybe even two weeks ago, or hell, Wednesday -- that the division might be in play -- now seems thinkable. So, every game is important.
Butch and Mrs. Butch are still visiting, so no time for a [...]

The Twins patched one together last night and tonight it's the Ace. Two in a row? A girl can dream.

Butch and Mrs. Butch are here, so it would be rude of me to set up a big pre-game post. I'll be watching and might pop in here and there to comment on the action.
Butch and I are having a barley pop. I have my Minnesota Twins coozie on my Summit and Butch [...]

Butch and Mrs. Butch are heading down from the Fatherland this afternoon for a weekend stay with Lucy and me. We are excited to have them in town for the weekend and only wish that this crucial three-gamer with the White Sox was being played right here in Minneapolis.
I’m sure we’ll have lots to [...]

The Twins took care of business on Thursday night, dispatching the lowly Baltimore Orioles 11-2 to win the three game series 2 games to 1. Once again, the Twins got a very nice start from a rookie, Boof Bonser. Bonser went 6 2/3 innings. allowing 7 hits, 2 runs (both earned), 1 BB [...]

Match Up
Minnesota Twins, 73-52, 3rd AL Central, 6.5 games back. The Twins are 29-32 on the road.
at
Baltimore Orioles, 56-70, 4th AL East, 20.5 games back. The Orioles are 24-38 at home.
So, a win on Thursday means that the Twins go into Chicago with a 1/2 game between them and the Wild Card [...]

The Twins won on Wednesday as did the archrival White Sox over the Detroit Tigers. The Twins bats woke up after an embarassing slumber on Tuesday and pounded out 15 hits, including four doubles and a home run. The disquieting thing about that is they still only managed four runs, but four was [...]

Match Up
Minnesota Twins, 72-52, 3rd AL Central, 7.5 games back. The Twins are 28-32 on the road.
at
Baltimore Orioles, 56-69, 4th AL East, 19.5 games back. The Orioles are 24-37 at home.
I suppose you could say that last night’s loss didn’t hurt that much because both the White Sox and the Red Sox [...]

The nesting of comments is bugging me a little. I do like that people are keeping up the conversations. There are some fantastic things being posted and it's in context, so you can see people's thoughts and reactions as the conversations continue. But, there is a loss of flow.
However, there is a [...]

ESPN.COM:
Forbes Magazine reported that the Yankees became the first MLB team to be worth more than $1 billion with a baseball-best $277 million in revenue.
However, Forbes said the Yankees lost $50 million last season because the team paid $77 million in revenue sharing. The New York Daily News also reported in December that the Yankees [...]

On July 17, 2004, I started a blog. On August 23, 2004, I put a counter on the site. So, today marks two years since I began counting the billions of readers. I’ve found that billions of readers remain uncounted, for reasons that I cannot explain.
I’m not sure why [...]

I swear I have to check my aggregator every single day for Top Jimmy's latest yarns. I skipped a day or two and this gem got by me:
"Today was a big game," Redmond said. "I felt like I needed to try something different, and I think we responded to it, and I'm sure I [...]

Match Up
Minnesota Twins, 72-51, 3rd AL Central, 7.0 games back. The Twins are 28-31 on the road.
at
Baltimore Orioles, 55-69, 4th AL East, 20.5 games back. The Orioles are 23-37 at home.
It wasn’t that long ago when the Twins’ road record was atrocious. But, when you win pretty much every game for [...]

Back on April 1, I weighed in with my thoughts about how I thought the manager was doing. Turns out, the first part of the season was a train wreck.
But, then, the Twins jettisoned the Cubanistas. Then, the Twins started winning. And a series of injuries caused the Twins to call up [...]

Shooter today:
Torii Hunter, who hit two important home runs for the Twins in two victories over the Chicago White Sox last weekend, is being paid $10.75 million this season and will make $12 million if the Twins pick up his option for next season.
Hunter wants to remain in Minnesota, but people close to him say [...]

Thanks to all who wrote to tell me that the comments were down. I was unaware that there was a problem, as I was doing some VORP calculations. Things look like they are working now.
I probably won't address the nesting issue until at least this weekend. You can collapse the comments by [...]

The comment has come up a couple of times whether Brad Radke is worthy of the Twins Hall of Fame for his pitching career. I have always thought he was a no-brainer for that, but I decided to find out where he stood in terms of Twins pitchers, career, in VORP. So, I [...]

Since I was thinking the game was tonight, I had a big brain cramp and posted a game log. I'm going to pull it down and post it tomorrow night, but here's a chance to talk about this series. With the Chisox and Tigs playing each other, we can make some hay.... But [...]

From his column at BP:
The Reds have gotten more than most expected from Eddie Guardado since acquiring him. Now he's injured, which is what most expected. A MRI showed that Guardado has inflammation in his elbow, not surprising given the problems he's had in his shoulder. The normal cascade pattern is holding for Guardado, who's [...]

NAME
POS
PA
PA%
AVG
OBP
SLG
SB
CS
MLVr
PMLVr
VORPr
MLV
PMLV
VORP

Joe Mauer
c
469
10.0%
.357
.437
.511
8
2
.351
0.392
0.502
38.5
43.0
55.0

Justin Morneau
1b
488
10.4%
.315
.367
.587
1
3
.299
0.195
0.360
34.2
22.2
41.1

Michael Cuddyer
rf
461
9.8%
.266
.356
.496
4
0
.101
0.052
0.200
10.9
5.6
21.6

Nick Punto
3b
345
7.3%
.320
.402
.422
14
5
.127
0.103
0.251
10.2
8.3
20.3

Jason Bartlett
ss
224
4.8%
.350
.415
.457
3
4
.229
0.281
0.380
12.0
14.7
19.9

Torii Hunter
cf
445
9.5%
.270
.344
.442
6
5
.009
0.032
0.151
0.9
3.4
15.7

Luis Castillo
2b
504
10.7%
.282
.339
.361
18
6
-.104
-0.054
0.089
-12.3
-6.3
10.5

Mike Redmond
c
141
3.0%
.333
.357
.417
0
0
.053
0.102
0.197
1.8
3.4
6.5

Jason Tyner
cf
136
2.9%
.333
.368
.364
1
1
-.004
-0.026
0.098
-0.1
-0.8
3.1

Josh Rabe
dh
47
1.0%
.311
.340
.533
0
1
.179
0.127
0.209
2.0
1.4
2.3

Shannon Stewart
lf
190
4.0%
.293
.347
.368
3
1
-.071
-0.138
0.006
-3.2
-6.1
0.3

Jason Kubel
lf
214
4.6%
.260
.300
.420
2
0
-.107
-0.153
-0.011
-5.4
-7.6
-0.6

Boof Bonser
p
4
0.1%
.000
.000
.000
0
0
-1.398
-0.618
-0.618
-1.3
-0.6
-0.6

Terry Tiffee
ph
47
1.0%
.233
.298
.395
0
1
-.165
-0.174
-0.119
-1.8
-1.9
-1.3

Luis Rodriguez
3b
104
2.2%
.236
.333
.337
0
0
-.179
-0.173
-0.064
-4.3
-4.2
-1.6

Ruben Sierra
dh
32
0.7%
.185
.281
.222
0
0
-.465
-0.450
-0.350
-3.5
-3.4
-2.6

Tony Batista
3b
195
4.2%
.236
.303
.388
0
1
-.169
-0.229
-0.105
-7.7
-10.4
-4.8

Juan Castro
ss
164
3.5%
.231
.258
.308
1
1
-.372
-0.319
-0.199
-14.3
-12.2
-7.6

Lew Ford
lf
218
4.6%
.232
.300
.318
8
1
-.275
-0.327
-0.158
-14.0
-16.7
-8.1

Rondell White
dh
249
5.3%
.225
.253
.305
1
1
-.388
-0.427
-0.302
-22.6
-24.9
-17.6

I was listening to WCCO tonight and heard Steve Thompson, in response to a caller talking about how great Bartlett has been, gush about how well Luis Castillo has played. Castillo has been below [...]

Hi SBG fans, this is Lucy, SBG's long suffering wife.
I don't understand the attraction of this website. Every day a Twins game. Don't these guys ever get tired of baseball? I know I do. In fact, I can't stand watching even five minutes of any game.
What I like is gymnastics! [...]

Post any newsworthy articles that you found outside of the Twin Cities media in the letters to the editor. This can be anything from any source other than Twins Blogs, the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press or any other Twin Cities news outlet. You can post on the Twins, baseball, the weather. Whatever.

Match Up
Chicago White Sox: 73-49, 2nd AL Central, 5.5 GB. The White Sox are 32-26 on the road. The Chisox lead the AL Wild Card.
Minnnesota Twins: 71-51, 3rd AL Central, 7.5 GB. Minnesota is 43-20 at home.
Last Ten Games
Chicago White Sox: 7-3, 47 Runs Scored, 42 Runs Allowed
Minnnesota Twins: 5-5, 31 [...]

I'm beginning to think that I'm bringing bad luck to the Twins. Despite their sterling home record, they are only 3-3 when I'm in attendance, and they have a 3-game losing streak when I'm there. Saturday night's game went bad from before the first pitch. As I mentioned in the game log, [...]

Match Up
Chicago White Sox: 72-49, 2nd AL Central, 6.5 GB. The White Sox are 31-26 on the road. The Chisox lead the AL Wild Card.
Minnnesota Twins: 71-50, 3rd AL Central, 7.5 GB. Minnesota is 43-19 at home.
Last Ten Games
Chicago White Sox: 6-4, 53 Runs Scored, 44 Runs Allowed
Minnnesota Twins: 6-4, 34 [...]

Well, hell, who can? The Twins are playing lights out with who? Reusse is getting a headache. Inside Reusse's very well written piece is this nugget:
And Bartlett is finally playing relaxed and showing people (including Gardenhire) more ability at shortstop than they imagined.
Bartlett is finally playing relaxed. It's amazing what has [...]

It's a cool, almost fall-like morning. Lucy and I brewed a pot of coffee and we spent the morning out on the deck reading and watching our cats explore their universe outside of our apartment, that is, the deck. About a month ago, we bought some nice deck furniture and with a nice [...]

Match Up
Chicago White Sox: 72-48, 2nd AL Central, 6.5 GB. The White Sox are 31-25 on the road. The Chisox lead the AL Wild Card.
Minnesota Twins: 70-50, 3rd AL Central, 8.5 GB. Minnesota is 42-19 at home.
Rankings
Runs Scored
Chicago White Sox: 681 Runs Scored, 1st in AL
Minnesota Twins: 604 Runs Scored, 8th in [...]

I was updating the Hey! We Have a Chance! feature when I noticed that the Twins have the fourth best 3rd order winning percentage in all of baseball, behind only NYY, DET, and TOR. Remember how Toronto gave us fits last weekend? That's because they are good. And how about all that [...]

I'm going to compare a couple of guys based on 162 games. See if you can figure them out.

AB
R
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
AVE
OBP
SLG
OPS

Player A
658
97
209
38
5
19
99
.318
.360
.477
.837

Player B
588
107
158
45
6
27
116
.268
.356
.503
.859

A quick look reveals two players with different numbers in some aspects, but quite similar in others. Player A obviously hit for a higher average, but player B has more patience and a [...]

I hear the locals have a nooner going on today.

Following the Twins this summer has been a wild ride. I said earlier that if they get in this race -- even if they don't make it to the post season -- this would be the best season of the recent years of good play. I think I'm right about that.
Well, following that [...]

LENIII reports that Torii Hunter is hurting.
Twins center fielder Torii Hunter is unable to run on his toes because of his sore left foot, and running flat-footed isn't the best way to chase down fly balls.
The Twins put a hit and run on last night with Hunter at first and Victor Martinez, who throws [...]

I'll be out for a while, but back later. Have fun and Go Twins!

How much fun is it to have Johan Santana pitching for our favorite team, anyhow?
Update: Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus has Derek Jeter and Joe Mauer as a virtual deadheat in the AL MVP with Johan Santana third (before his outing last night). He also says that if Liriano had not gotten hurt, HE [...]

This guy obviously hasn't: he's pimping Todd Jones for Cy Young. Hat tip to Whiffers for that one.

Judge orders them to reveal the sources that leaked grand jury testimony in Bonds case. Of course, the leaking of federal grand jury testimony is a crime and those who leaked it should go to jail. The authors say they'll go to jail before they reveal their sources. And they should go [...]

TJ takes a big swipe at KG in today's column. Apparently, TJ doesn't love KG as much as he loves Torii Hunter.

Lucy wanted to go to the gymnastic event here in St. Paul this week. It was the national championships or something. I don't know, but what I do know is that there will be some anorexic, bulimic little girls there bouncing around on broken bones and damaged tendons. No thanks. She [...]

Match Up
Cleveland: 53-64, 4th in the AL Central, 23.5 GB.
Cleveland is 21-34 on the road.
Minnesota: 68-49, 3rd in the AL Central, 8.5 GB
Minnesota is 40-18 at home.
Rankings
Runs Scored
Cleveland is 3rd in the AL with 644 runs scored.
Minnesota is 8th in the AL with 591 runs scored.
Runs Allowed
Cleveland is 9th in the AL with 584 runs [...]

I've been swamped lately and as a result, when I get home I'm pretty tired -- no energy to write stuff. I will have a game log up for tonight's game and I should be around to chat about it. Maybe I'll even get a post scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Part of the territory [...]

I'm not writing for The Onion.

I was sitting in the living room last night with my lovely wife, Lucy and she said that I should head on into the den and write on my blog. Now, you can about imagine how insulting that was for me. She basically wanted me out of the way so that she could [...]

SBG reader Rhubarb_Runner suggested that I put a weekly post up for the SBG readers strewn out around the country to post stuff from their local news sources. If you read an article from a paper or other source outside of the Twin Cities, drop a link in the comments of this post.

Match Up
Toronto: 63-54, 3rd in the AL East, 7.0 GB.
Tornto is 25-30 on the road.
Minnesota: 67-49, 3rd in the AL Central, 9.0 GB
Minnesota is 39-18 at home.
Last Ten Games
Toronto, 7-3, 45 Runs Scored, 37 Runs Allowed
Minnesota, 6-4, 53 Runs Scored, 46 Runs Allowed
Obviously, these last three games have put a serious dent in the Twins [...]

It's another Boof sighting. Lucy and I will see the Booferdoodle in person. We are heading to the ballpark (okay the HumptyDump) right now.
I've got the trusty celly with to post from the game. Be sure to get on the Record about the Twins playoff chances.

Right now. I want you to get on the record. Right now, I'm saying the Twins will NOT make the playoffs. What do you think?

Lucy and I are going to the game tomorrow night. Tonight, I'm working at the end of a looooong week.

The other day, Mike Morris had Aaron Schatz from Pro Football Prospectus on the radio. Mr. Schatz was telling The Superstar that the Vikings don't look very good on paper and that the Vikings got lucky last year and that Brad Johnson wasn't all that good and furthermore, he tends to get hurt and [...]

ESPN.COM:
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins placed outfielder Rondell White on the 15-day disabled list after Thursday night's game due to a strained left hamstring.
The Twins planned to activate outfielder Lew Ford from the disabled list on Friday to take his place. Ford has been on a rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Rochester. He was put