Boof? vs. Jered Weaver
This season is degenerating into the bad old days when everyone would kick the pants off the AL Central. Well, the good days were fun while they lasted, I guess.
I'm guessing there's no way that Kubel's in this lineup since he left the game with an injury last night. I'm sure there will be some that will say "it's not like he was hitting anyway" but that excuse was given when Cirillo left and things have only gotten worse from there.
Since returning from the disabled list, Rondell White hit .154/.214/.192 as a DH and .250/.250/.250 as a LF. It's working! He's better as a left fielder! If only everyone on the team could have a .500 OPS!!
But...the clutch RBIs! He's a clutchy, RBI-type machine out there!
Honestly, who here has a better throwing arm than Rondell?
*raises hand
Honestly, who here has a better throwing arm than Rondelle?
There, fixed that for you.
From Joe C.'s Strib blog:
Avert your eyes, indeed. A bench consisting of Santana, Jason Marquis, and Carlos Zambrano strikes more fear into the heart.
Well, technically Santana is on the bench.
Makes you wonder why we pinch hit LRod and not Santana in the 9th inning last night.
Why doesn't he? I mean, it defies conventional wisdom, but conventional wisdom would also say your bench players are better hitters than your pitchers. When you have a pitcher that is a decent hitter, why don't you pinch hit him sometimes?
Fear of injury. Santana is a huge investment, and we wouldn't want him (for instance) getting hit on the hand with a pitch. How high that risk really is...I'm not sure. But that's probably the biggest reason it's not even considered.
FWIW Santana is a left handed hitter which means that his left arm is more protected than his right arm when hitting. I know the Giants used to routinely use Livan Hernandez as a pinch hitter. The big difference I think is that the Giants are a national league team and so Livan is regularly taking batting practice. The Twins probably don't want Santana wasting too much time in the cage except when preparing for interleague play--which I imagine is the bigger reason he doesn't pinch hit. Given the current state of our bench though, it might make sense to have him do a little bit of pinch hitting.
Maybe that would work with Punto: have him take batting practice only in advance of interleague play.
It's not like it would make him worse....
Moss has been calling for that for a couple years now...it was clear in '04-05 that Santana was a better hitter than some of the guys on those teams (e.g., Blanco).
[insert previous offensive futility game log here]
Hey ubes, they gave first-pitch-swinging data for Mauer in last nite's game. Moss posted some of the data on your other post, if you want to pick up the conversation.
Yeah, more bunts!
Would this bench be good in AA at least? Rookie league?
Why do they bunt, bunt, bunt when it doesn't do a damn bit of good, but the 'tool won't even consider a useful bunt, like a safety squeeze (see: yesterday, first inning)??
Does anyone else think that Cuddyer should have had that double from Anderson? The ball only hit the wall about halfway up.
I thought the same thing...If he had positioned himself correctly it should have been an easy catch standing against the wall.
Oh cr@p - I arrived at the wrong time, it appears.
Come to think of it, except prior to gametime, is there a good time to arrive lately? Not really.
Casilla at the bottom of the lineup, yet still gets in on the action. Now if Morneau could get out of his funk...
I can't blame Morneau - what incentive do teams have to even pitch to him?
At his point, maybe having Punto pitch for Rincon and Rincon bat for Punto might provide more positive results?
I like it!
I missed the trivia question earlier about a straight steal of home, but I was at the Big A in the 80's when Dazzle stole home against the Angels; could this be what they're asking about?
Bartlett triple! Casilla again in on the scoring.
kinda lonely here in the WGOM section of the Big A...
Homer
I am reminded of the discussion I had many years ago with a fellow employee at Hughes Aircraft back in the 80's; seems he was at sea near where they were doing the early nuclear testing. Even though everyone on board closed their eyes and turned away from the blast off in the distance, he said that the blast triggered his optical neurons and still made like everything was lit up.
That said, the gamelog title of "Avert Your Eyes" is an empty warning...
Twins Lose
I think, in light of the "activity" in today's gamelog, the "wasn't watching" scorecard logo should have been used.
I don't know how to access/use that one.
At least the Twins didn't have too many problems with clogged basepaths today.
I'm glad I didn't watch the whole game today. It probably would've just put me in a bad mood. But looking at the box score, I see that Bartlett got another triple today, Mauer went 2-4 (with a double), and Casilla went 2-2 with two steals, scoring both Twins runs. So that's cool.
Your 4-5-6-7-8 hitters combined to go 0 for the entire day, with no walks. Watkins was on via error, and that's it.
I caught the latter innings of the game. Boy that Speier guy for the Angels has one nasty splitter
onward to Seattle *thinks back to the good times we had there earlier this year*
This game - yucky.
Not so for charcoal grill #3 - pork ribs, country style, bone-in w/ curry on one side and barbecue sauce on th' other. Zucchini w/ olive oil brushed on.
Sounds savory, boyo. I was enjoying some grilled halibut, asparagus and tomatoes with a crunchy jicama slaw at a friend's domicile. The whole meal was beyond lovely (he just returned from an Alaskan vacation bursting with seafood - the halibut was caught on Friday.) Someone else brought a really fine Pinot Gris from OR, but I failed to note the vintner. My contribution to the day was but a twelver of Stella Artois. Gorgeous day in MPLS. Finally, the weather quit impersonating
St. LouisNew OrleansHell.Snuck inside a few times to watch
Punch and Judythe locals flail, and heard two noteworthy items. First, Dick said the Twins "have not been bunting well at all of late." Noted we had 3(?) successful sacrifice bunts in the last 5(?) weeks. Detected a slight catch in his voice as he recounted it. Poor, bastard.The other was when 1958 AL ROY, Albie Pearson, joined the booth. Seemed like a sweet old guy who spends most of his life golfing and hanging with grand kids. (We should all be so lucky.) He left by telling Twins fans "...to have hope. You're only two players away from being really good."
How does this guy have a better read on the Twins roster than our GM?
Poor, bastard.
with a single comma the sentence goes from pity to scorn. I like it.
The two players, however, are Mike Schmidt, circa 1974, and Barry Bonds, circa 1990.
Nice performance from th' Laddie today - hitting, stolen base, and DP. And some pirahna.
He did boot a DP grounder in the later stages of the game, so you can lay this loss squarely at his feet.
Missed the game... Lucy and I took BabySBG to Minnehaha Falls for the afternoon and I had one of these for the first time:
Nice day and a nice brew. Not sorry I missed the latest de-bacle.
This team needs an enema.
On the bright side, I am on the verge of having my life back. The Boy™ is now a Bar Mitzvah (with flying colors, he sez, proudly). Family and friends gathered from far and near to help us celebrate. A great, albeit hectic week in the S household.
But I'm back with a vengeance tomorrow. No cheesy pun will be unturned; no snark too picayune to deploy; no statistical point too pedantic to argue beyond the boundaries of good taste.
Huzzah!
Mazel tov!
Lachaim!