In the words of the immortal Meatloaf, "two out of three ain't bad."

Jason Bartlett's hitting just .221 so far this season, but I'm not too concerned about it. It's been said that Bartlett's been hitting the ball hard with bad luck, but we've all heard that song and dance way too many times in the past. To help cut through the (half-baked) crap, we can [...]

Algonad provides us with a little Southern rock (and a little country twinge).

Johan Santana vs. Mike Maroth
Another lefty for the Twins to face today. (Yay!) For some reason, I always think of this game when I think of Mike Maroth.
2.77 ERA, 3.15 FIP, 3.42 xFIP, 40.6% GB%, 10.2 K/G, 2.0 BB/G, 1.00 HR/G -- Santana 2006
3.44 ERA, 3.27 FIP, 3.19 xFIP, 43.2% GB%, 11.3 K/G, [...]

Oh. My. Gawd.
How the hell did he chew gum while he did this?

Killing Floor
EDIT: YouTube removed the video of "Killing Floor" chosen by Brian, but I found another source for what I believe may be the same performance.
While I was searching, I picked one more clip as a late bonus: Jimi performing "Spanish Castle Magic" [...]

Carlos Silva vs. Justin Verlander
6.2 K/G, 3.0 BB/G -- Pitcher A, 2006
6.3 K/G, 1.6 BB/G -- Pitcher B, 2006
The Twins finally face a right-handed starting pitcher.

Winning--better or worse than losing? I say better.

The Duke/Blues For Pablo

New Rhumba
Miles performing with the Gil Evans Orchestra, from the same program as yesterday's feature. April, 1959.

Ramon Ortiz vs. Nate Robertson
Nate Robertson's a solid pitcher. He got a decent K/G, decent BB/G, and good groundball tendancies. He's also been durable, which is valuable, too. He's also another LHP. I sure wouldn't mind seeing some more RHP come our way.
Overall, Comerica Park hasn't played as much like a [...]

Happy Friday afternoon folks. Welcome to the weekend and welcome back to On The GrillSM , your weekend baseball and BBQ kickoff.
Tonight the Twins will take on the Detroit Tigers for the start of a three game set at Comerica Park. The Tigers just ended a brutal road trip which culminated with a cancelled game [...]

Hypothetically, let's say I have a co-worker from Michigan who is a Tiger's fan. And let's say that in March of 2006 he offered a small wager that the Tigers would finish with a better record than the Twins. If he had offered that, I would have accepted without batting an eye (easiest $5 I [...]

Due to some in-home construction, my computer is barely accessible and I'll need to be building when I could be Mugshot-collecting. Therefore, no Mugshot Purgatories until (hopefully) the series against the BoSox. Fortunately, the opponents between now and then are intra-division Tigers, who the Twins will play approximately 15 more series against, and [...]

One run against KC equals how many runs against Detroit?

The Miles Davis Quintet performing "So What," from The Robert Herridge Theater, CBS-TV, April 1959 (broadcast July 1960).
Miles Davis, trumpet
John Coltrane, tenor sax
Wynton Kelly, piano
Paul Chambers, bass
Jimmy Cobb, drums
Cannonball Adderley was in the band at the time, but, according to discographer Peter Losin, he missed the date because of a migraine.

Here are some pictures of the new best girl in my life, Baby SBG.

Clothes make the woman.

She may be fined for being out of uniform.
She continues to do quite well. Her mother is recovering nicely. It's been a great couple of days.
SBG

Greinke vs. Bonser
I believe this is the earliest I've posted a game log. I almost forgot it was a day game today.
Boof's last start was his first this year with fewer than 2 HR allowed. Can today be his first game with no HR allowed?
For your consideration, some 2007 pitching stats:

Overall
ERA
FIP

Twins
4.29
4.58

AL
4.31
4.30

As Starter
ERA
FIP

Twins
4.43
4.74

AL
4.45
4.41

As Reliever
ERA
FIP

Twins
3.98
4.25

AL
4.12
4.25

Maybe the hitters just need to find their happy place?

Odalis Perez vs. Sidney Ponson
Perez hasn't allowed a HR so far this year. Could we please make that change tonight? Thanks.
Inspired by Moss, let's check out some stats:
.158/.200/.211 -- Silva
.250/.250/.250 -- Santana
.143/.182/.190 -- Ponson
.081/.103/.106 -- Ortiz
.158/.184/.189 -- Pitchers (career numbers)
.111/.111/.111 -- Rabe
.214/.241/.321 -- Rodriguez
.231/.250/.282 -- Redmond
.258/.258/.290 -- Casilla
.204/.215/.251 -- Scrubs (selected by 4 [...]

Delaney, Bonnie & Friends (including George Harrison, Billy Preston and Eric Clapton): Coming Home

Welcome to the world, baby.

So, this turned out to be a bigger story than I thought it would:
An act of generosity has landed Twins center fielder Torii Hunter in some hot water with Major League Baseball.
When Hunter gave the Kansas City Royals four bottles of champagne this weekend, he was fulfilling a promise he made after the Royals swept [...]

I do believe that congratulations are in order.

Happy Birthday, BabySBG! Thanks to Algonad.

BabySBG was born at 10:58PM on April 24, 2007. She was 9# 1oz and 20.5 inches long.
Everyone is fine.

Fausto Carmona vs. Johan Santana
Is today the day that Santana discovers a way to induce negative runs, thereby gaining the ability to win without any run support? Stay tuned.
Carmona's a ground ball guy with middling strikeout and walk rates. He doesn't figure to be a stud, but he'll probably be above replacement level [...]

Good morning and welcome to the ongoing feature "What are You Hearing," where members of SBG Nation set the agenda of discussion by submitting stories and commentary. If you have a story that you'd like to submit, e-mail me at the address listed on the right. Now, let's get to it.
algonad writes: [...]

All in favor of scoring some runs in extra innings, raise your hands.

Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong performing. Jackie Gleason enters the frame at the end to congratulate and thank them, but I don't know the name of the program or the year.

Jeremy Sowers vs. Carlos Silva
Sowers is a legit prospect who does a lot of stuff well, but he doesn't do anything exceptionally well and he is decidedly below average in terms of strikeouts. With his groundball tendancies, he's sort of a poor man's Tom Glavine or Mark Buehrle.
Of course, Sowers also throws with his [...]

Minnesota Twins (11-7) v. Cleveland Indians (8-7)
The Twins return home after a 4-2 road trip to Seattle and Kansas City. The Indians are finishing a road trip that began with a sweep by the Yankees in New York as A-Rod had 3 HR and 8 RBI (sounds familiar). This weekend, Cleveland rebounded by winning two [...]

BabySBG-watch continues (Day 14)...

Good morning and welcome to the ongoing feature "What are You Hearing," where members of SBG Nation set the agenda of discussion by submitting stories and commentary. If you have a story that you'd like to submit, e-mail me at the address listed on the right. Now, let's get to it.
SBG writes: [...]

I guess I should have posted this in March, but Spring comes late to Minnesota.
Elis Regina and Antonio Carlos Jobim on Brazilian television, 1974. One of my most favorite recordings. Pure magic.

From today's Twins notes:
Sunday's game marks the fifth straight with Redmond and Joe Mauer in the lineup together, which creates a bit of uneasiness for manager Ron Gardenhire.
"That's why we started with three catchers, so you don't have to worry about that," Gardenhire said.
And later on...
"We'll play it by ear," Gardenhire said. "We talked [...]

Ramon Ortiz vs. Jorge De La Rosa
First three times through the rotation, sorted by xFIP:

Dude
FIP
xFIP
GB%
K/G
BB/G
HR/G
HR/F

Ortiz
4.07
4.51
40.3%
3.6
0.9
0.91
8.8%

Silva
3.63
4.66
37.1%
[...]

After another game with no home runs for the Twins, I went looking for some evidence that this team has been pathetic in the power department. A funny thing happened, though. It really hasn't been all that pathetic. Not good, but not really pathetic. Consider, for a moment:

HR
Dude/group of [...]

Herbie demonstrates the Fairlight synth for kids on Sesame Street. A young Tatyana Ali, later of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, gets a lot of attention.

Welcome to the second edition in 2007 of Eight Pack, an analysis of the Minnesota Twins offense in 5% chunks of the season. In case you don’t know, this is categorized in an archive known as “Eight Pack”, to which there is a link above. If you want to go back and read [...]

Boof Bonser vs. Zack Greinke
Once upon a time, Zack Z. Greinke was overhyped, but despite the disappointment partially brought on by the hype, he's still a fairly solid pitcher. Even in his bad year, 2005, he had an FIP of 4.51 and an xFIP of 4.94, which pretty darned good for a 21-year old [...]

Well, we’ve passed the fifteen game mark, and so it’s time for another 360 degrees. The purpose of this feature is to chart the progress of our starting staff throughout the year. This trip features games 11-15 on the season. The two of those games were against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays [...]

Hum dee dum...nothing to see here...

Performing on the BBC, early 1970s.
I saw this on TV this evening (4/12), while my daughter had just woken up from a nap in my arms, and, well... I just had to go find the clip on YouTube to post here. A beautiful song.

Sir Sidney Ponson vs. Odalis Perez
Odalis Perez isn't off to a great start, and he's not a good pitcher. If he has a strength, it's limiting walks, and in some years he's been slightly above average in inducing ground balls.
Alexi Casilla projections:
.271/.321/.356 -- Chone
.285/.356/.453 -- Marcel
.269/.321/.334 -- ZiPS
.297/.355/.395 -- PECOTA
Which gives you roughly a [...]

[SBG Note: More and more, it's becoming apparent that I'm irrelevant. Longtime friend of SBG Nation Banjo offers a stab at a new and interesting feature for the upcoming series. Seriously, the readers of this site rock! Thanks to Banjo, the newest contributor to this site.]
With several of the WGOM’s regular readers [...]

Minnesota Twins (10-5) vs. Kansas City Royals (4-11)
After sweeping the Mariners in Seattle, the Twins move on to face the Kansas City Royals who have just finished up a road trip of their own with John Buck's heroics ending a 6-game losing streak on Wednesday. The Royals had an off day Thursday so they are [...]

The Royals are kind of my other team. I had only started with the Twins in 2001 when things turned around, and I wanted to get a feel for cheering for a bad team. The Royals were easy since they play about 10 games a season in Minnesota. I was planning on [...]

Would someone tell Matt Guerrier to quite hogging all of the bullpen mojo?

In My Solitude
Caravan

Santana vs. Washburn
I've heard a lot of talk in Mariner-land about Washburn being a fly ball pitcher, but really, he seems pretty neutral--at around 39% GB% for the last few years, where 42% is league average. He's a below average, overpaid pitcher, but not a terrible pitcher.
Johan Santana stats of the day:
2004 - 228.0 [...]

Hey Joe, what you doin' with that gun nearly blown save in your hands?

- The play that ended the game last night was pretty interesting. I'm thinking that the decision on whether or not to send Beltre home last night could've gone either way. On the one hand, the Mariners could've had a baserunner on third with two outs. That would give them probably about [...]

Lowell George pretty near his prime. Which was, sadly, all too short.

breathe, Lucy, breathe, breathe, PUSH PUSH PUSH.

I don't have a lot to say here, so I'll direct you towards Will's blog. There he had an old roommate, going by the name Longing for Oscar Bluth, do a Mariners preview which I think is pretty accurate.
Felix Hernandez is a supremely talented pitcher. The odds are not in our favor going [...]

Good morning and welcome to the ongoing feature "What are You Hearing," where members of SBG Nation set the agenda of discussion by submitting stories and commentary. If you have a story that you'd like to submit, e-mail me at the address listed on the right. Now, let's get to it.
Twayn writes: I [...]

Lucy is going to the doctor this morning. She's now overdue.

Because the baby needs a Godfather.

Brother Rap/Ain't It Funky Now

Sex Machine
This is my favorite James Brown band, with Bootsy and his brother Catfish, Bobby Byrd, Jabo Starks, Fred Wesley, etc. "Ain't It Funky Now" in the first clip features solos by each of the Collins brothers, as well as Fred Wesley on trombone and the [...]

I'm still not a believer in Ramon Ortiz. Some data:
First pitch strikes. Last year, Ortiz threw a first pitch strike 58% of the time. So far this year, just 50%. (League average 57%.)
Missing bats. Last year, hitters made contact 82% of the time they swung at a Ramon Ortiz offering. [...]

Like the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we? could we? [...]

First, some exciting news for me, These series preview posts have gotten me an invite to post over at Minnesota Sports Guys once a week. I have an analysis of Carlos Silva's first two starts up as my inaugural post. If you have a couple minutes, go check out the site. Also, [...]

UPDATE! MLB's Gameday (the live internet play-by-play) finally has the 2007 mugshots showing instead of the 2006 mugshots, for at least the Cubs and Padres. However, the Cardinals and maybe the Pirates still have last year's pictures. I'll address this as it develops. End Update!
My impressions of the Mariners are 1) Ichiro! [...]

Good morning and welcome to the ongoing feature "What are You Hearing," where members of SBG Nation set the agenda of discussion by submitting stories and commentary. If you have a story that you'd like to submit, e-mail me at the address listed on the right. Now, let's get to it.
brianS writes: [...]

Game 3 of the Ramon Ortiz Experience today.

The only film of Charlie Parker playing live, 1952

Needed: Temporary third baseman
Preferred: Some experience, willingness to battle your your tail off
Nick Punto appears set to make his fourth DL stint since 2004.
Gardenhire said third baseman Nick Punto sprained an ankle fielding ground balls in batting practice on Saturday, but told no one about it until he reported to the Metrodome in discomfort on [...]

Good morning and welcome to the ongoing feature "What are You Hearing," where members of SBG Nation set the agenda of discussion by submitting stories and commentary. If you have a story that you'd like to submit, e-mail me at the address listed on the right. Now, let's get to it.
Moss writes: Interesting [...]

BabySBG is staying put for now. We went in on Friday night and things did not progress, so we couldn’t induce on Saturday. They gave us the option of coming in on Saturday night, but Lucy said why? They did some more testing and found that BabySBG is doing fine right where [...]

All at the same time.
Perfection is a tricky thing, so tricky in fact, that you're unlikely to experience it over extended periods of time.
Last year, Joe Nathan entered 8 tie games. The Twins won 7 of those games, and Nathan pitched a scoreless inning in the game that they eventually lost. In any [...]

Santana/Nathan--still the best presidential ticket around?

don't forget the postage.

and make sure the check doesn't bounce

Jae Seo vs Boof Bonser
So, we've got two starts of Boof to look at right now. Not a whole lot of data for me to crunch. The one thing I'll say about Boof is that over 175 pitches, he's had a bit of trouble throwing strikes. He threw 66% strikes last year, [...]

Well, we’ve passed the ten game mark, and so it’s time for another 360 degrees. The purpose of this feature is to chart the progress of our starting staff throughout the year. This trip features games 6-10 on the season. The first three of those games were against the New York Yankees [...]

Rock n' roll orgasm.
From The Kids Are Alright, rec. 1978.

Edwin Jackson vs. Sidney Ponson
A battle of replacement level pitchers the day after a battle of aces. Jackson has had a lot of trouble putting the ball in the strike zone, and Ponson has more of a problem missing bats. Hopefully Ponson has a tiny bit more mojo working for him than Santana [...]