Cup of Coffee: July 18, 2007

July 18th, 2007 by SBG

Cup of Coffee Crap that game sucked last night.


This entry was posted by SBG on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 6:00 am and is filed under Cup of Coffee. It is one of 2465 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

Meet the Author: Jim Thielman (”Cool of the Evening”)
Game 94: Tigers vs. Twins

Comments Feed43 Letters to the Editor

Rhubarb_Runner replied on July 18, 2007 at 6:29:59 am

Nothing worse than seeing a guy with a 0.00 ERA and a loss to his name.

 
kg2005 replied on July 18, 2007 at 8:56:50 am

It was my birthday Sunday, so I went to the game. Morneau has now hit a homerun in the last four games I've been to (including last year's birthday). He's also hit one the last 6 games that either my girlfriend or I have attended.

Dread Pirate Will Young replied on July 18, 2007 at 9:19:35 am

Punto has failed to homer in any game I have ever attended!

In all seriousness however, the Twins have not lost a game I attended since start by Sir Sidney. That's spans at least 10 games (including Game 1 of the 2004 ALDS).

SBG replied on July 18, 2007 at 9:22:03 am

I've actually seen Punto homer in person. How about that?

kg2005 replied on July 18, 2007 at 9:41:06 am

I'll do you one better- I've seen Luis Castillo homer in person.

Dread Pirate Will Young replied on July 18, 2007 at 10:18:34 am

I've mentioned this before. I've seen Jason Tyner homer in person (in Spring Training)!

kg2005 replied on July 18, 2007 at 10:42:22 am

Well, sir, you win.

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E-6 replied on July 18, 2007 at 10:45:15 am

I'd have thought the ground would have opened up and swallowed all who witnessed such a feat. ;)

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AMR replied on July 18, 2007 at 10:56:20 am

If he could only play more games in Houston, he might get a cheap one down the line into the boxes someday.

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Andrew replied on July 18, 2007 at 11:22:21 am

I've seen Prince Fielder hit an inside-the-parker in person.

 
 
 
 
 
 
brianS replied on July 18, 2007 at 1:38:01 pm

hey! kg2005, happy birthday to us! small, friggin world, ain't it.

I actually had TWO high school classmates who share my birthdate.

kg2005 replied on July 18, 2007 at 1:42:23 pm

I noticed you said it was your birthday the other day, but today has been the first day that I've had the guts to sign in and post at work. I've still been reading every day, though. So yes, happy birthday to us!

 
 
 
Jeff A replied on July 18, 2007 at 9:21:40 am

It seems that every highlight package and article I've seen on last night's game talks about how Bartlett's error cost the team the game. Gardy even had a quote to that effect. The error hurt, no question, but the record of teams that score zero runs in a game is not good.

AMR replied on July 18, 2007 at 9:26:13 am

In postgame, Gardy said that Garza could have pitched out of it.

SBG replied on July 18, 2007 at 9:40:26 am

Dazzle was saying something to that effect, too. People, the kid gave up one unearned run in seven innings. That should be good enough to win.

BeenAroundAwhile Guy replied on July 18, 2007 at 9:45:44 am

I disagree. Losing by giving up one unearned run to the league's best offense is a rookie mistake. We need more veteran arms on this staff. I'm tired of watching all these rookies lose 1-0. They just don't have the intangibles that can only come through years and years of pitching at AAA.

AMR replied on July 18, 2007 at 9:57:55 am

Hell, Ramon Ortiz could have lost by a lot more!

 
 
 
Moss replied on July 18, 2007 at 10:04:26 am

What a bunch of crap from the manager. Garza got FIVE outs that inning. Granderson should have been called out looking, but the ump really was poor in terms of strike-zone consistency last nite.

Moss thought Garza out-pitched Robertson, although it was a little annoying that he couldn't put some guys away after two strikes. The Twins' lineup did Robertson a whole lot of favors, by taking all the hittable pitches and going after the pitcher's pitches.

Cuddy, we love you, but you were dreadful last nite.

AMR replied on July 18, 2007 at 10:59:37 am

I think his point was taking some glare off of Bart.

brianS replied on July 18, 2007 at 1:39:12 pm

Nice leadership.

 
 
 
 
 
brianS replied on July 18, 2007 at 2:41:31 pm

btw, a Real Deal sighting yesterday!

ubelmann replied on July 18, 2007 at 2:53:24 pm

ERA down to 9.00, nice.

 
AMR replied on July 18, 2007 at 3:45:59 pm

Went 3-4 at the plate, bringing his career batting average to .600! (Same OBP and SLG.)
Which is good, because opponents are batting .360/.454/.510 against him.

Jeff A replied on July 18, 2007 at 4:07:41 pm

Just imagine if he could bat against himself.

 
 
 
ubelmann replied on July 18, 2007 at 2:55:48 pm

File under delusional:

"If we can pitch like that, we'll have some fun in the second half," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said, knowing 1-0 losses are no fun at all.

I hate to break it to you Ron, but you can't pitch like that for half of a season. No one can.

Of course, if we're willing to speculate on unreasonable things happening, I would suggest that if you continue to hit like that, you'll win zero games the rest of the season.

 
twayn replied on July 18, 2007 at 3:34:37 pm

A tip of the cap to the White Sox for beating the Indians today, 5-1. Buehrle got his 7th win, Konerko hit his 20th dinger.
We're now 5.5 back of the Indians (and the wild card). A Twins win tonight is much needed. Based on the starting pitching matchup, the Vegas oddsmakers have the Twins as pretty heavy favorites on the moneyline at -185, while the Tigers are +175 underdogs. The over/under is set at 7.5 runs. Tomorrow's line doesn't look quite as good with the Baker/Bonderman matchup, but the moneyline is much closer, favoring the Tigers at -138 to the underdog Twins at +128.

 
davidwatts replied on July 18, 2007 at 4:14:58 pm

even though we lost, and its tough to lose game to the division leader, I thought last nights game was just a fantastic baseball game.

I just wonder why Gardy didnt pinch hit for Punto in the 8th inning. Have Red Dawg come off the bench and do a hit and run.

Moss replied on July 18, 2007 at 4:18:14 pm

That would be because Gardy is a doofus. Why, for the love of all that is good and right, was Tyner in the game to begin with? And let's not bring up Sunday's managing debacle.

 
 
Moss replied on July 18, 2007 at 4:20:50 pm

Bad news -- Julio Franco signed with the Braves. Gardenhire is furious.

Jeff A replied on July 18, 2007 at 5:18:49 pm

Hot diggity. I feel younger already.

 
 
twayn replied on July 18, 2007 at 4:28:32 pm

I usually like the occassional Mike Bauman (MLB.com columnist) pieces on the Twins website, but this was a bit off the mark:

"The Twins scuffled more than they would have liked in the first half of this season, in large part because of erratic performances by young starting pitchers."

I didn't realize that Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz qualified as young starting pitchers. And all the injuries in the first half? Meaningless. Offensive futility in games with great starting pitching performances? Why, it don't mean a thing if you ain't got no swing. Our subpar first half was all the fault of Baker and Bonser, apparently.

ubelmann replied on July 18, 2007 at 4:31:53 pm

Not to mention Santana. Could anyone be more erratic? It just goes to show, you should never have anyone under the age of 30 on a major league roster if you plan on contending.

 
Moss replied on July 18, 2007 at 4:41:43 pm

That reminds me of a 2005 season summary that appeared on the KFAN site. It said something to the effect that the starting pitching could never get it going, as Santana only got 16 wins, Radke was 9-12, blah blah blah.

Reality: that team gave up only 662 runs while scoring 688. In short, the pitching was excellent, including the starters. The team was shut out 10 times and lost 2-1 something like 11 times. Their problems had nothing to do with the starting rotation, and everything to do with the feeble offense.

It is extremely irritating when writers don't look at the data before they make their conclusions.

Dread Pirate Will Young replied on July 19, 2007 at 9:25:31 am

This was from my 2006 preview which showed just how much the offense the previous year sucked:

Using the Pythagorean Theorem to demonstrate just how great the pitching staff (and how terrible the offense) was, we can replace the two groups with league average performance. The Twins, with their wretched offense and league average pitching, would have been expected to finish the season with a record of 72-90. However, with the fantastic pitching staff and merely a league average offense, the expected record jumps to 93-69.

 
 
 
SBG replied on July 19, 2007 at 12:08:47 am

Headline at ESPN.COM: "Ordonez, Tigers rip Santana, Twins". I guess I must have misread the final score. It must have been 13-2 and not 3-2 like I thought.

Rhubarb_Runner replied on July 19, 2007 at 6:52:24 am

This morning, it's "Ordonez, Tigers top Johan, Twins" -- I guess they needed to squeeze some letters to fit it in the right column along with "Sheffield fined" or something. Much better headline though.

 
 
Banjo replied on July 19, 2007 at 7:46:17 am

Prediction: The twins will score 900 runs in today's game.

Rhubarb_Runner replied on July 19, 2007 at 7:51:46 am

Ha! I'll bet they won't score half that many.

 
BeenAroundAwhile Guy replied on July 19, 2007 at 8:42:05 am

Nick Punto goes 59-60 with 37 home runs tonight, then never gets another hit again while playing in every Twins game for the next 15 years.

kg2005 replied on July 19, 2007 at 8:53:16 am

The one out will come on a failed bunt attempt in the first inning.

 
 
SBG replied on July 19, 2007 at 10:12:22 am

Maybe not 900, but a pile and on the average, it will look like the Twins offense is scoring runs. As WE Deming said, "Some knowledge of variation can be useful."

 
 
Jeff A replied on July 19, 2007 at 9:17:33 am

Keeping up with the ex-Twins: Grant Balfour made his debut with the Brewers last night. He got the loss, but the manager said nice things about him, and I hope he does well there.

Rhubarb_Runner replied on July 19, 2007 at 10:45:10 am

I noticed him in ESPN's highlights last night. Grant is a wonderful example of Nominative Determinism.

 
 

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