Game 43: Twins at Rox
Posted by ubelmann on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Kevin Slowey vs. Jeff Francis
Don't let the ERAs fool you--this could still turn out to be a pretty decent pitching matchup.
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70 LTEs
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Interesting lineup today with Harris leading off, Delmon batting second followed by Monroe, and Clark getting the start at third.
Actually, given what he has to work with, I don't think any of that is really that crazy. Monroe vs. RHP is a decent #3 option when Mauer is out of the lineup (and Mauer pretty much has to sit today, and he's not that great against LHP anyway.)
Harris should be decent vs. RHP, so having him leadoff is okay.
Lamb is awful vs. LHP and giving him days off is probably good.
Gomez is out because of his wrist.
Delmon hitting second pains me, but who else is going to hit there? Maybe Cuddyer, but then you'd still probably put Delmon 5th ahead of Clark, Redmond, and Everett.
I guess you could give Delmon a day off and put Kubel in the game, but it seems like it would be best to do that against a RHP.
What a mess.
Slowey-Redmond with the strike 'em out, throw 'em out DP. Nicely done.
Why did Ullger hold Cuddyer? There were no outs!
It's good to see Cuddyer drive the ball a little.
I don't get this. By walking Everett, you avoid the great opportunity to face the pitcher leading off the 3rd. It's not like Everett is an RBI machine.
And besides, if you can't count on your pitcher to get Adam Everett out, how much more confident can you be that he'll get the pitcher anyway?
Intentionally walking Adam Everett...ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the
NationalP*ssy League.That may be the last IBB Everett ever gets.
Yeah, no kidding.
#14 in his career
I guess that RISP AVG. is going to do a little more regressing to the mean today.
It's kind of inevitable with Redmond-Clark-Slowey getting those RISP, eh?
Hopefully Slowey's ERA can do a bit more regressing to the mean, too.
If a team had a good offense in a road NL game, it would be pretty interesting to try to start the game with a relief pitcher and hit him 8th. The first inning he probably won't come to bat, but then in the 2nd inning, there's a decent chance his spot would come up, and then you could PH for him and have your "starting" pitcher go out for the bottom of the 2nd inning.
Plus, if the opposing manager had a bunch of platoon players, you might force him into either accepting bad platoon matchups at the beginning of the game or making early position player substitutions.
I hope someday there are managers in baseball willing to consider trying creative strategies like this.
Earl Weaver used to be pretty creative. Once he got pissed off that his team knocked out the other team's starting pitcher early in the game and he lost the platoon advantage with the DH before the DH even came to bat. So he started listing a non-starting starting pitcher in the lineup as the DH, and then when it was time for the DH to hit, he would choose his LH or RH DH, depending on who was pitching.
Baseball decided that this was unacceptable and made it so that the DH has to hit at least once unless the opposing team changes starting pitchers.
2.5 K's for Slowey so far. (Pitcher strikeouts don't count for a full strikeout unless said pitcher has ever made a pinch hitting appearance before the 10th inning.)
Another XBH my Delmon that didn't get in the air
"It's called placement."
Time to strand another leadoff triple!
My scorebook shows three leadoff extra base hits, and no runs. I need a new friggin' scorebook.
Just watching on mlb gameday, it looks like Slowey is spot-on with his pitches today. 30 strikes vs. 14 balls, but his balls don't look like they're missing by much...
Yeah, I feel like he's had to work deep in the count a lot because the zone seems pretty tight.
Agreed
MLB gameday shows DelMON's triple with one out.
That's correct. I guess Harris was out so fast I didn't even notice. (Doesn't help that I muted the mlb.tv audio.)
Hooray fundamentals!
Slowey still lacks an 'out' pitch, he gets these long ABs with multiple foul balls
And we would rather have those ABs end early with hits?
Insurmountable lead?
Last time Slowey pitched he had a 15-pitch AB followed by a homer, this time it was a 10-pitch AB with the same consequence on the next AB....hmmmmmm
Now I'm just confused about the strike zone.
Warning track power from Everett. Holliday got a pretty good jump on that.
I'm confused about this lineup. WTF is Monroe doing in the 3-hole? Batting .1-something against lefties? Has the thin mountain air gotten to Gardy? He could have put Morneau in the 3 spot, Cuddyer cleanup, and maybe Kubes fifth. But what the hell do I know I can't even comb my hair.
Monroe's numbers vs. LHP this year are less than meaningless. If we started making decisions based on sample sizes like that, Morneau would still be trying to work his way off of the bench. Monroe's been better than LHP over the course of his career--there's no reason to believe that he's suddenly lost that ability.
Kubel can't play CF, so there's really nowhere for him in the lineup unless you're taking Delmon or Cuddyer out of the game. (Or putting Delmon in CF, which is probably a lot more frightening than Monroe at the plate.) And as much as Delmon has been struggling, Kubel hasn't been all that great himself, and Delmon has the platoon advantage.
Maybe you could shuffle a couple of hitters in the lineup around, but the problem is that there aren't enough good hitters available to Gardy--not that they are in the wrong order.
Delmon Young, Zen Master of Placement.
It was in the air, I guess
Huh, Morneau is 7 HR behind Koskie, career-wise.
6 behind.
Francis seems pretty worried about Delmon stealing 3B.
I think they would have nailed him had Morneau struck out. He had a terrible jump
W00T!!! Morneau homers with Delmon running on the pitch.
Five hits. Five extra-base hits.
We've only had more XBH twice this season--7 in the 13-1 White Sox smackdown, and 6 in the 11-1 Tigers smackdown.
That was catchable. Still just need one more out, though.
It occurs to me that we have no right-handed hitters on the bench to chase Francis with.
I guess maybe they could put Casilla in there, but he's not exactly intimidating.
You forgot Livan.
Slowey has yet to finish an inning with the lead. This the third time this season that he has been given the lead and in the very next half-inning, he not only gave up the lead, he allowed the other team to take the lead. That's how you crush all momentum for your team.
OMG Slowey gave up 3 leads! And they've been such big leads!
I'd like to hold one lead for one inning at least. Those get-back innings are so crushing.
I'd like to have a real offense. The second half of this lineup is demoralizing.
I would also suggest that the Twins need to search for some additional intestinal fortitude if they can't handle losing the lead every now and then. Also, it wouldn't feel like such a monumentally crushing event if we had any faith in the offense whatsoever.
Also, is this the sort of attitude I should have when Mauer goes 0-3 in a game?
I'd like to see one hit for one at-bat at least.
3 is an exceptionally small number in baseball.
Very poor analogy. Hitters and pitchers are not close to the same. Mauer will play in over 100 games. Slowey will start about 30.
I was just noticing a disturbing pattern in that Slowey in his last three starts was cruising along in all three until he was given the lead and then boom-boom-boom he gets hit around. Makes me question the intestinal fortitude of Slowey. And this is a pattern established in about 10 percent of his expected starts this year. I think that is a little significant.
Mostly I was just noticing that Slowey had yet to finish an inning with the lead, which of course means for the most part that a) he hasn't been given many chances, and b) he has given them up immediately when he has gotten them.
Very poor analogy. Hitters and pitchers are not close to the same. Mauer will play in over 100 games. Slowey will start about 30.
Which is half the reason that it's easier to judge hitters than it is to judge pitchers. People tie themselves in all kinds of knots trying to figure out what's "wrong" with a pitcher, when there's nothing to see there. It's just noise.
I was just noticing a disturbing pattern in that Slowey in his last three starts was cruising along in all three until he was given the lead and then boom-boom-boom he gets hit around. Makes me question the intestinal fortitude of Slowey.
I really, really, really don't see how this works.
When the game is tied, and any single, solitary run would give the other team the lead, Slowey can put goose eggs on the score board.
When he has the lead, and he has a margin for error, and can breathe easier, somehow he gets more nervous and lacks the intestinal fortitude to pitch?
In and of itself, that doesn't even make sense.
And this is a pattern established in about 10 percent of his expected starts this year. I think that is a little significant.
A small fraction of a small sample is an even smaller sample size. If there was somehow a word that signified something less than insignificant, that's the word I would use to describe this pattern.
It's too bad the Twins can't really PH Mauer here. The platoon matchup isn't favorable, but he seems like the perfect guy to have up with the infield pulled in.
I'd have Mauer pinch hit for Harris here. First and third, one out, righty just in so can't bring in lefty. Won't happen though.
I wouldn't do that. There are too many reasons to keep Mauer on the bench.
This team exasperates me. I'm going to church to pray for their souls.
well, I flip on thet tv and we are down a run with runners in scoring position. Got the out and heard Dick say another wasted extra base hit. Sigh.
lets see a one pitch double play
lets try to get out of this inning
Bases loaded walk to the opposing team's pitcher. Yikes.
good gravy.
I bet we score two runs this inning
Twins lose 6-2. With three errors and the pitiful lineup we put on the field, this doesn't really even seem worthy of a big explosion.
Im lighting one up anyway. lets blowthis whole series up
When's the last time the Twins (or any other team, for that matter) had at least six hits without a single?
(And when's the last time such a team scored only two runs?)
On the bright side, they don't schedule Sunday doubleheaders anymore.
And I won the bet with my sister.