Open Bar
Posted by SBG on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
• I do believe that I need a drink.
• First, let me talk about the server issues. The server was down three different times today. I woke up to write my “Cup of Coffee” post and the server was down. I got the game log posted, but about the time that Torii Hunter blew the game, the server went down again. The third time was fatal. I got this message from my host (via their blog). “The server crashed pretty hard over an hour ago and all attempts at reviving it have failed. We’re currently swapping in new hardware for it and everything should be up and running again shortly.” Well, it’s been no fun, but I hope that things will improve. If not, I’ll forego the money that I’ve paid dreamhost and move to another host.
• You read that correctly above. Torii Hunter blew that game on Wednesday. No question about it. If you’ve been paying attention, it should come as no surprise. I have commented frequently during game logs that Hunter appears to be taking routes to balls that he used to take when he could run fast. The result has been balls getting past him. I was watching that ball and I could see he wasn’t going to get it. The correct play was to let it drop and play it on a hop. Unfortunately, our center fielder doesn’t play that way. Right now, that play looks like the biggest killer of the series. True, the Twins haven’t been hitting, but when the team isn’t hitting, making a mental mistake like that is doubly painful.
In my interview with Seth Stohs a couple of weeks ago, I posited that Hunter wasn’t a smart ballplayer. My contention was that Hunter has failed to adapt his game to his reality. He has no idea at the plate for long stretches, that’s been clear for years. His saving grace has always been his defense. But, now that he’s diminished, he hasn’t adapted. That was on full display for everyone today. Said Hunter after the game, "I play center field, dawg, I'm still the best. You can believe that." Well, he may believe it, but I sure don’t. The fall has dramatic. Hunter doesn’t know it yet, and I guess more plays like the ones we’ve seen this summer will occur until he realizes that he’s not Spiderman anymore.
The fans let Hunter know about it, too. When he struck out swinging at a pitch in the dirt in the eighth inning, he heard the boos of the crowd. I don’t boo Twins players, so I didn’t take part. But, the boos were fairly loud.
• Boof Bonser, on the other hand, acquitted himself nicely today. Speaking of a lack of intellect, I’ve always been suspect of Mr. Bonser. I guess I’ve always thought that someone who changed his name to Boof must have a screw loose. Maybe he does have a screw loose, but he can pitch at the major league level. Today was another good outing for Booferdoodle. He wasn’t dominating, but he worked his way out of trouble and hung in there when he looked like he might explode. I fully expect Boof to be a major positive for the Twins in 2007.
• You know, it’s been a long time since people have said that Michael Cuddyer just can’t handle the pressure. Last year, I heard a lot of that. I didn’t believe it, mind you, and if you don’t believe me, go back and read my 2005 archives. It should be clear to everyone that Michael Cuddyer is the third most important player on this team that doesn’t crawl up onto the bump. I still wish he played third base, but I’m just glad his bat is in the lineup every single day.
• It seems unlikely now that the Twins will advance beyond the first round of the playoffs. Nevertheless, this has been a great season. Oh sure, I’ll be disappointed if they don’t advance, but the disappointment doesn’t sully the memory of this great season.
• Nick Punto slid into first base twice again today. One of them actually made sense, but the other? More of the same. It appeared that he may have cost himself another hit with this false hustle play, although I’m not completely sure about that. I am really losing my patience with Punto on this, but also with the manager. Why hasn’t the “Manager of the Year” put a stop to this? There are a few ScruFi apologists out there. Please tell me why your guy hasn’t stopped this? It serves only to slow Punto down and increase exposure to injury. It seems like a no-brainer – the manager should tell him to stop it and fine him until he does.
• All in all, there have been better days. Like yesterday, for example, when Lucy and I went to the hospital for an ultrasound. I saw Baby SBG moving and kicking and I could have sworn s/he waved at me. What a thrill!
What’ll you have?
Loading ...
Cool pix on the SBG Next Gen! Best from th' WGOM'ers to Lucy!
I don't have anything to add to what you said, SBG. Tough loss today, but it's just one game. I guess I'll just have to go back to figuring the odds on Radke's arm falling off Friday.
that 3D ultrasound is really cool. My wife and I had one done at about the 5-month mark and the detail is amazing... she is almost 7 months along now and we have the photos up on the fridge -- of course...
About today's game, I'm with ubelmann, it's one loss, sucks the way things went down but there's no way I'm giving up on this team again. I did it back in June when the odds were 99-1 against them making the playoffs, it would be dumb to bail now that the odds are 9-1 against them making it past this round.
I guess it's curse and blessing that the server went down when it did... I'll admit I wasn't looking forward to emotional tirades against Torii and the whole team, so maybe it was best everyone wasn't able to vent at that point -- myself included.
I will say what I meant to post at the time: that was the biggest blunder I've ever seen in Twins history. It was definitely Torii's Buckner moment, which really is a shame...
Forgot to ask... remind me, when is your baby due, SBG?
That's a 13 week picture. The baby is due in April.
Actually, I forgot one thing. Chavez has been an absolute vacuum over at 3B the last couple of days. I've heard some praise for the A's positioning (and that's deserved) but it's worth mentioning that they have three CF'ers in the OF, an awfully rangy Mark Ellis (who hasn't really been tested it seems), and the great work of Eric Chavez. I haven't been impressed at all by Scutaro, despite the "analysts" telling me how good he's been at SS.
I still think Beltre is about as good as Chavez with the leather, but this is the first time in a while that I've seen Chavez tested, and he's passing with flying colors.
Yeah, it's a good thing Chavez is a vacuum at the hot corner, because his bat has been an absolute vacuum of production as well... he's sucked hard.
During Game 1 I think one of the analysts (Jon Miller?) said that Scutaro wasn't very good at short, but had Chavez to make up for it.
Huh, I must've missed that. After the Rick Sutcliffe incident yesterday, though, cant we all agree that it can get worse than Joe Morgan? I turned the volume off somewhere around the 4th inning yesterday (when they wouldn't STFU about the Board Game Coffee Spill), then turned it up again when Cuddyer went deep, mainly to hear the crowd and all. Then a little while later, out of nowhere, in a tied ballgame, they started talking about Derek F. Jeter. I could not believe it. Even for espn's standards, this was a low. They even showed a Jeter graphic with stats and all, while Sutcliffe had the gall to say that there weren't even any other candidates for MVP.
At that point, the volume went off for good. I really hope we don't have to put up with any more Sutcliffe. I'll take Joe Morgan over him every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Agreed. Chavez looked great defensively.
Maybe Gardy should have Bill Nye the Science Guy talk with Punto about basic physics and sliding into first base.
Note to Fox and ESPN:
You prime-time games are less likely to be called for rain if they're played in a dome or in California. Just saying.
(I'm hoping that both NYC games are rained out today. Yes I'm bitter, I think the Twins could have played better with another 3 hours of sleep, especially after the party on Sunday.)
Re: your server -- it probably won't be such a big deal in the offseason so maybe you can let 'er ride for a few months.
Re: Hunter's strikeout -- Moss thought that the A's pitcher was splendid. Everything he threw was at the knees or lower, and it appeared to be good stuff. He made 6 batters look pretty silly, not just Hunter.
Re: Bonser's intellect -- Recall the immortal words of Crash Davis to his pitcher -- "Don't think: you can only hurt the ball club." Boof will be fine.
Re: Punto's sliding -- Perhaps he's the one with an intellect problem. He's probably lost two hits (and outs) by doing that in the two games. He's been a huge offensive liability for four weeks and should have been moved down in the order well before the playoffs.
Gardenhire seems to have an intellect problem as well. If there are any Gardenhire apologists willing to come out of the woodwork and defend his showing in the playoffs, please step forward. Yes, the players aren't executing or coming through. But the manager is simply not optimizing things for success. (E.g., why is Punto batting at the end of the game?) Moss maintains (continues to maintain, that is) that the Twins will not contend for a WS title with Gardenhire as manager, unless they become a team that can overwhelm other teams. Just to recap, they have lost seven straight at home in the playoffs, and have lost 12 of the last 14 games in the playoffs under the 'tool.
Hooray Moss! (For recognizing a good pitcher when he sees one.)
I'm actually not that great at recognizing when a pitcher is awesome unless he's good in a really obvious way, like Santana. Anyway, I could be pretty sure that Duchscherer was good, given his season numbers. He's absolutely a key component to the A's staff, and has been making a lot of hitters look silly this season.
8.8 K/G, 1.5 BB/G, 0.69 HR/G
Yeah, that'll make you a dominant relief pitcher.
Was that a left-handed compliment?? Moss used to throw the apple around. Moss knows and admires good pitching. That guy was on. With a severe GB team like the Twins, he's gonna eat them up keeping everything down like he did.
Loaiza was even pretty good, although the Twins repeatedly went after stuff that was going to be hit into the ground and didn't do anything with pitches up, until Cuddy and Morneau. The results showed -- they got few balls out of the IF.
Loaiza has a history of tiring. The inning before was key --- the Twins didn't score, but they chewed up about 30 pitches. He was spent and Cuddy and Morny got him.
Not a left-handed compliment, a real compliment. It perhaps sounded funny. I wouldn't have said anything probably, except that the vogue thing the last few days has been to proclaim everything about the Twins' hitting to be bad while completely ignoring the pitchers that they are facing.
I am shocked -- shocked I tell you!! -- that Moss would be laying the blame for these 2 losses at the feet of Gardenhire.
Suffice it to say, I do not share Moss' view that Gardenhire's management had much to do with the losses. I'm no apologist; I guess I'm of the view that managers under most circumstances have much less control over winning and losing than most people give them credit for. So I'm not asserting that Gardenhire's management has been brilliant -- I rarely assert that about any manager. I really haven't seen any mistakes, either.
I think you're fundamentally wrong on several of your assertions (that Punto sucked for the last four weeks offensively, that Punto probably cost himself two hits and outs by sliding, and that the Twins won't contend for a WS until Gardenhire is gone) so it's little wonder we come to different conclusions.
I was pretty much in agreement with your second paragraph, brink, but what's up with the parenthetical in the last paragraph?
Punto in September: 252/266/294 with 18 Ks and 3 BBs. Compare that to Punto in August: 274/345/358 with 15 Ks and 12 BBs. For the season: 290/352/373 with 68 Ks and 47 BBs. Punto was awful at the plate in September. I don't know how else to describe it. He was merely "below average" for his position in August and for the season, albeit not hugely below average.
He looked a lot better in the season's last week, hitting .324/.324/.324 in 34 PA. That's obviously the very definition of 'empty average' butit was good to see him at least hitting for average again.
The average isn't going to stick if he's not keeping around a 1:1 SO:BB ratio.
My biggest beefs have been (a) not fining Punto until he quit sliding into first, (b) playing Hunter in CF (instead of DHing) when he couldn't get to balls, and (c) not playing Nevin much at all. Items b and c are in conflict with each other. Given the options, the last thing I would have done is play Tyner at DH, ever.
It's hard to say whether any of these things made the Twins lose even one game. I would much rather have seen Nevin playing and ready to go for the playoffs. In the final analysis, you have to wonder why they traded for him at all.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let's not infer something that was never stated/written.
Moss merely said, "If there are any Gardenhire apologists willing to come out of the woodwork and defend his showing in the playoffs, please step forward....But the manager is simply not optimizing things for success."
And "Moss maintains (continues to maintain, that is) that the Twins will not contend for a WS title with Gardenhire as manager...."
Nowhere did Moss lay blame for the losses at the feet of the 'weasel. The manager doesn't typically lose games for the team, he merely wastes (or not) opportunities.
Moss' challenge was that if anyone can step forward and explain how the 'tool has maximized opportunities, instead of wasting them, then please do so. And good luck with that.
(Moss will let SBG argue on the futility of Punto's sliding techniques.)
Honestly, I think he has maximized most opportunities. I have no problems with the lineups he put out there and -- like you -- I cringed to see Punto up in a "power needed" at bat with 2 on and 2 outs yesterday in the 9th, but I thought about the alternatives (Nevin? Kubel?) and my feeling was that Punto was probably the best guy to have up there, the idea being just don't make an out and load the bases (or better, drive home a run) to get the tying run on for Mauer.
I can think of one decision that I thought didn't maximize the chances for the team -- sending in Crain instead of Nathan on Tuesday. Seems Ron learned from that and put Nathan in yesterday but the end results were sadly similar (though it's unfair to pin that all on Nathan obviously).
Good point on the server, Moss. SBG, maybe you could put montastic on the job, pointing it at your site. Then in the offseason you can guage how often the site goes down and make some decisions with that data before MLB 2007.
But what about the thrilling Timberwolves game logs!!!! Huh??? Oh yeah. They suck.
Ultrasound? For a second I thought that was a picture of Lord Voldemorrt!
Keep and eye on the thumbs. See if you can coax the little SBG into sucking the left one. Left-handed pitcher!!!!
That is the first ultrasound I've ever seen where I could make out the kid. I'm acutally way better at those 3D posters than I am at finding babies in ultrasounds. In 5-10 years when I'm having kids, my wife better'd get this kind or I'm just going to have to take her word that she's pregnant because I won't be able to see the little bugger.
Watching the ultrasound in real time was fantastic. The kid was moving around and kicking. I have one picture that shows its little feet. Lucy made a photo album and stuck it in my briefcase.
Yah. being there for the ultrasound is pretty awesome.
Congrats on the kid, and congrats on being able to see him/her.