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2009 Game 138: Minnesota Strange Lineups @ Toronto Blue Jays

FirstTimeLongTime September 8, 2009, at 5:07 pm 152 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Brian"Believe it or not I have pitched in 18 games already this season" Duensing (4.80 xFIP)

@

Ricky "Ricardo" Romero (4.31 xFIP)

Sorry for the short version tonight gents, I spent the first half of my day thinking to myself as to what order I would rank the post fab 4 albums.  After completing that task (ATMP, POB, BOTR) I then had to come up with a way of  convincing my girlfriend  into driving me us to Toronto tonight to watch the Twins.   At about 3:30 Central time I saw the following tweet from LENIII "lineup:

Span CF

O-Cab SS

Kubel RF

Morny 1B

Cuddy DH

Harry 3B

Delmon LF

Red-Dog C

Punto 2B"

Yeah, me neither. If anyone needs me I will be doing research for movie day tomorrow.

2009 Game 132: South Side @ Twin Cities

FirstTimeLongTime September 1, 2009, at 6:00 pm 328 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Johnathan W. Danks (4.52 xFIP)

versus

Jeffery M. Manship (5.99 xFIP)

The Minnesota Nine effectively stepped on the breathing tubes of the  White Sox last night as in defeat Chicago decided it best to unload a couple of veterans and seemingly play for next season.  I suppose maybe Kenny Williams didn't look to see the rest of his schedule before he picked up $122 million in future commitments to Alex Rios and Jake Peavy.

It is funny, if I didn't have a fanatical dislike for the White Sox, signing Rios and trading for Peavy would have been moves that I applauded by a team, or more specifically the type of moves that I would love for the Twins to make.  Now though, less than a month after committing to Rios' contract the White Sox have traded off a couple of veterans, who while they were to be free agents at seasons end, would have been important for a playoff push in the AL Central.  But now Ozzie and co. have a pitcher who isn't well enough to pitch and another 5 years of Alex Rios and his (belatedly) inflated contract.

Given these moves, and the pieces required to acquire Peavy, I think it is fair to say, as of right now, the ChiSox don't exactly have a bright future.  Sure, Gordan Beckham is tearing the cover off of the ball but other than that is there a single player on the Sox who makes you uneasy in the coming years?  Alexi Rameriz?  Scott Posednik(!)?   Carlos Quinten is the only player outside of Beckham who is worth his weight in salt and he hardly has an excellent track record in the health department.

It makes you wonder about trading prospects; about handing out long term contracts; about how important cost controlled players are to a team.

Let's put it this way, I am happy that the Twins are the Twins and the White Sox are the White Sox.

2009 Game 101: Bad Guys @ Good Guys

FirstTimeLongTime July 28, 2009, at 6:09 pm 383 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired)

Mark "minimum batters faced" Buehrle  (4.34 xFIP)

Scott "Mike Sweeney ruined my perfect game" Baker (4.15 xFIP)

Things to remember as the WGOM is being invaded by Stribbers tonight:

  • While I, just yesterday, began talking trades in the CoC many other, much more lopsided trades, will be proposed by new citizens tonight.  When you tell them why a certain trade cannot be made remember to use stats like RBI's, Wins, and Fielding Percentage rather than wOBA, xFIP, and UZR.  We don't want to confuse our new friends.
  • If someone uses the handle "Fire Gardy and Varva" remark about how we were talking about them just the other day.
  • In the unlikely event that a new citizen suggests we trade Mauer, Morneau, Span, and Kubel to stock up the farm system, please attempt to be on your best behavior.
  • Supposing that an inexperienced citizen asserts Ron Davis should have been included in the All-Time Metrodome team please refrain from cursing.
  • Whenever someone advises Gardy to play _elm_n  more often because Gomez can't hit worth a lick mention how Gomez is faster.  Hopefully this will suffice as an answer.
  • If anyone types "Game Over. Season Over" other than a tenured citizen whom we know is using sarcasm, gently declare that while that previous play was in fact a bummer, but there are still 61 games left in the season and the Twins are only 3 games out of first place.  Feel free to mention how if the Twins trade for Halladay (Holliday?) that you are sure the deficit would be quickly erased.  This will help the two of you get along.
  • A new citizen may lament the inability of our starters to go deep into games.  Feel free to submit facts proving otherwise and move on.  There is no reason to get into heated arguments (see: gun vs. knife)
  • If someone complains the Nick Punto stinks reply back with comments like "Now you are getting the hang of things around here!!!11!"

The fine citizens of SBG Nation look forward to the impending intellectual discourse at the WGOM tonight.  Welcome Stribbies, we are sorry if you don't get our jokes.

2009 Game 94: Minnesota @ Oakland

FirstTimeLongTime July 21, 2009, at 8:02 pm 257 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Anthony Swarmback (4.36 FIP)

at

Dallas Braden (3.47)

Last night someone suggested that Justin Morneau is playing so well that he might once again steal the MVP award from Joe Mauer with his glamorous RsBI total. I am sure the comment was meant in jest but it got me to thinking-- Justin Morneau really is having a pretty great season.   Granted, we are only 90 something games into the year and awards aren't based on 90 something games but the BBWAA do generally have a bit of an affinity towards slugging first basemen rather than all world catchers. Before I go any further, I would like to make it clear that Mauer is having a season for the ages and if I were to be someone who had a vote in such a thing as AL MVP voting, at this time, Mauer would be the clear choice far and away.  With that said..

Justin Morneau leads the American League in the following stats: total bases, extra base hits, RsBI, runs created, adjusted batting runs, and he is a single home run behind Carlos Pena for leading the AL in dingers.

Joe Mauer by comparison leads the American League in the these categories: OBP, OPS, OPS+, offensive winning percentage, while being a few hits behind Ichiro! in batting average.

Obviously, once positional adjustments come into play Mauer looks much more valuable but that means little to nothing when it comes to baseball writers in their 80's. So don't be surprised over the course of the next month or two, especially if Mauer's BA continues to drop, if broadcasters are championing Morneau as a MVP candidate.  I mean, hell, he would probably deserve it more this season that he did in 2006.

Rather than creating a debate as to who is more valuable to the Twins we should just feel lucky to have two of the best, if not the two best, hitters in the American League on our team this season.   Now if only our starting pitchers could just strike some people out we might have a chance at making the playoffs.

Now, time for a bunch of fun facts!

  • Justin Morneau and Matt Holliday are the first two players to each have two home runs and at least six RsBI in a game since Albert "Joey" Belle and Rusty Greer did it in 1997.  The time before that was Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx in 1930.
  • Joe Nathan has not allowed a run in 21.2 innings.  Gardy, fully aware of the streak, chose not to pitch Nathan last night in an effort to extend it.
  • Anthony Sweatcrack began his career with a 7 inning scoreless start against the Brewers.  He is the only starter in Minnesota Twins history to do such a thing.  This feels like it was a long time ago.
  • Smokestack has not allowed a run in the first inning all season.
  • I have no evidence other than the Twins numbers against Braden, compliments of mlb.com, but it seems like he is an extremely easy pitcher to steal on.  In 11 at bats _elm_n has 3 steals, in 10 ab Dirty Harry has 4, Gomez: 2 in 6. All together the Twins hitters  in 71 at bats, have stolen 15 bases, which seems like an extraordinarily high number to me.
  • Kevin Mulvey is tied for the all time best ERA in major league history with 0.00.   Though, to be fair to Ed Walsh, I don't think the rookie has enough innings to qualify.
  • Jason Kubel is swinging a real hot stick as of late.  In the past month his slash stats are .333/.413/.636/1.050 .

Maybe I should have done a write up about Jason Kubel being the AL MVP instead?  Nah, that would have just been rude towards Eric Hinske who has hit 4 home runs in 5 games played as a New York Yankee..

2009 Game 79: Minnesota @ Kansas City

FirstTimeLongTime June 30, 2009, at 6:09 pm 242 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Scott Baker (xFIP 3.98)

at

Brian Bannister (xFIP 4.54)

In the second game of a three game series the Minnesota .500's travel to play Kansas City Cinderellas.   In a match up that must have Joe Posnanski going nuts, it is his favorite manager against his favorite pitcher!  Rather than spending all of the game log talking about Joe Pos I am going to list a bunch of fun Twins facts from this season

  • The Twins are 4th in the American League in BB/K%.  That is to say, the Twins are not striking out.
  • Well, when I say the Twins aren't striking out I don't mean everyone.  _elm_n is striking out in 31.3% of his plate appearances.  I wonder how Young's theories on hitting differ from Joe Mauer's?
  • Another _elm_n fact.   Just when you thought it could not get any worse-- take a look at his BABIP.  Do you think that .361 avg is sustainable?  Yeah, me neither.
  • Joe Mauer, Matt Tolbert, and Nick Punto have been intentionally walked the exact same number of times so far this season; once.
  • According to fangraphs, the top 4 Twins hitters in "clutch situations" this season are Tolbert, Crede, Punto, and Redmond.   The bottom 4?  Mauer, Span, Harris, Morneau.

No wonder the Twins are so mediocre, all of their "best" players stink when the game is on the line.

2009 Game 72: Minnesota @ Brew Crew

FirstTimeLongTime June 23, 2009, at 6:00 pm 229 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Francisco Liriano (xFIP 4.68)

at

Jeff Suppan (xFIP 5.11)

Last night cheaptoy and I went out for a few drinks which gave me an opportunity to talk Twins baseball with someone- something, considering my location, that doesn't happen to often.   Mostly, we talked about beer, as we consumed fair amounts of it, but talk of the Twins bullpen and Strib commenters had their place on a beautiful Buffalo night.  A few reoccurring ideas from the night.

  • The Twins should have let Sean Henn go. That is not to say DFA'ing Ayala was a bad idea since, y'know, they both stink.
  • Liquid smoke is something that should be used by everyone when grilling cheese burgers.
  • It is going to be really nice to have Denard Span back.
  • There is only one homeless man in all of Wisconsin (he used to be a boxer!)--there are way more in Buffalo.
  • The Twins should just hand Joe Mauer a blank contract right now, let him fill in whatever he wants and be done with the situation.   Seriously, Mauer is so modest that, given these circumstances, he might only fill in $10/hour.

The Twins look to rebound after losing their first interleague series of the season when facing off against the Brewers tonight;  It's Liriano, it's Suppan, it's Major League Baseball on FSN!

Game 66: Championship City @ Minnesota

FirstTimeLongTime June 16, 2009, at 6:00 pm 257 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Paul Maholm (xFIP 4.42)

Glen Perkins (xFIP 5.04)

Can you believe that the Twins have the third most wins in the history of inter-league baseball?  Yeah, me neither.

Now that we have that out of the way, the Twins begin a home stand against the  Pittsburgh Pirates this evening.  The story lines are a little flimsy as the history between the two teams as they have played only 18 games against one another, in history, with the Twins winning 11 of those contests.

So what is a writer to do in a situation where this is no story line?  He makes one up of course!

Storyline 1:  Which D. Young will have the better series, Delmon or Delwyn? Delwyn has bested _elm_n by 76 points in OPS+ to this point this season but the Twins outfielder is riding high reaching base in 9 of his last 10 games.

Storyline 2: The Pirates have played 786 consecutive games on grass coming into tonight's game in the Metrodome. This is the longest streak in the majors.  Will Pittsburgh be able to over come their inexperience playing on turf for the first time since 2004!?!?!!?

Storyline 3: Craig Monroe's coming home party!!!!

Storyline 4: Dave Cameron will be watching anxiously waiting for a Eric Hinske homerun to further prove his "correctness" in proclaiming Hinske to be, at least, as productive as Jason Kubel.

Now if you will excuse me, it is 80 degrees outside without a cloud in the sky.  Couple that with the fact that tonight's game is blacked out for me tonight because the Twins are playing  PITTSBURGH(!!) I will be spending this evening on a patio.

2009 Game 60: Minnesota @ Oaktown

FirstTimeLongTime June 9, 2009, at 8:07 pm 420 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Scott Baker (xFIP 4.44)

at

Brett Anderson (xFIP 4.80)

The Twins have not been very good on the road in 2009.  Sadly, off the top of my head, I have no reasons as to why.  Let's take a look at some splits, presented without further comment.

Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Home 339 33 1275 1111 184 312 56 9 39 173 22 6 126 213 .281 .357 .453 .810
Away 270 26 1008 890 101 229 38 3 23 95 11 6 96 188 .257 .330 .384 .715

Okay, one comment; no wonder Minnesota is 7-19 on the road this season.

2009 Game 53: Indians @ Twins

FirstTimeLongTime June 2, 2009, at 6:02 pm 285 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

David Huff (xFIP  6.19)

versus

Kevin Slowey (xFIP 4.45)

Kevin Slowey faces off against, Tribe rookie, David Huff tonight at the Metrodome.  This will be Huff's third career Major League start so it almost seems a little bit silly to take any of his big league stats as anything more than a small sample size.  So, let's take a look at his numbers from the minors.  And guess what?  It just so happens that David Huff pitched for the Buffalo Bisons last season!

After being selected as a supplemental 1st round selection in 2006 (39th overall), Huff flew his way up the minor league ladder starting only 25 games before making his way to AAA Buffalo in 2008. While pitching for my hometown 9 , Huff started 16 games averaging 5 innings per start, striking out a batter an inning and allowing 1.7 BB/9. For his minor league career Huff has an impressive 1.11 WHIP.  Coming into 2009 he was ranked as the 8th best prospect in the Indians organization by Baseball America.

In its prospect mine earlier this season, Fangraphs wrote of Huff

David Huff is another southpaw but he is a soft-tosser. The former first-round pick is almost MLB ready, although he may top out as a No. 3 starter. Huff has a four-pitch mix, which includes a high-80s fastball (that can touch 92 mph), a plus change-up, a slider and a curveball. He posted solid numbers in 2008 while splitting the season between Double-A and Triple-A. At the senior level, Huff allowed just 68 hits in 80.2 innings of work. He posted rates of 1.67 BB/9 (obviously he has solid command/control) and 9.04 K/9.

This season (SSS)  Huff's fastball has been averaging 89.2 mph and he has been throwing it nearly 65% of the time.  He mixes his "heater" up with a change up that he throws 20% of the time and  has been clocking in around 81mph.   It seems that he has lost confidence in some of his breaking stuff since coming to the Bigs, as his slider and curve ball are thrown less than 15% of the time combined.

For those of your worried about the Twins lefty heavy lineup against a "soft tossing" southpaw, left handers are OPS'ing 1.186 against the Rookie this season.  It is only three starts, I know, but c'mon that might be enough to keep _elm_n out of the line up, right?

2009 Game 47: Red Sox @ Twins

FirstTimeLongTime May 26, 2009, at 6:04 pm 169 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Jon Lester (xFIP 3.79)

@

Nick Blackburn (xFIP 5.06)

First off, let me say Joe Mauer is better than Babe Ruth, Seabiscut, really good beer, and a weekday off from work combined.   I was going to start throwing around some numbers today to show the historical significance of what he is doing right now but socal beat me to the punch.  After that I thought that maybe I could write a piece about how Joe Mauer makes me feel like I am an eight year old girl and reminds me exactly why I love baseball in the first palace.  But then Joe Posnanski had to go and do that. So here I am without anything to write about. And sadly, I don't have the time to come up with a new idea or the patience that would be required to do research on such a topic.

I do have one additional thought on Mauer's performance as of late;  this, right now, is better than Santana's prime to me.   After Johan was dialed in, striking out batter after batter, we had to wait four more days before we could see him do it again.   With Mauer, each day is a new adventure.   If Baby Jebus does something out of this world, like hitting a 2 run, pinch hit, home run in the bottom of the ninth, we only have to wait 24 more hours to see what he would be up to next.  We are watching something special right now.

Enjoy.

2009 Game 40: Minnesota @ Chicago White Sox

FirstTimeLongTime May 19, 2009, at 6:01 pm 159 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Scott Baker (4.61 xFIP)

vs

Mark Buehrle (4.61 xFIP)

Now that we have that out of the way. The Minnesota nine march onto another team that we, as Twins fans, love to hate: the Chicago White Sox.  Earlier this year the Sox took two of three against the Twins in Chicago including a 8-0 loss where Liriano got shelled for 5 runs in 4.2 innings. Luis Ayala also stuck out two batters in an innings work that game while allowing no hits.....

So here we are, the middle of May, 3.5 games behind the first place Detroit Tigers, who, might I add, suck.   Thankfully for the Twins seemingly every team in the AL Central sucks, including the Chicago White Sox.

Here is a little help from U2, hoping to help the Twins in avoiding another stinker tonight.  Because honestly, if Minnesota gets swept by the White Sox, right after the Yankees, I am going to go nuts.

2009 Game 33: Tigers @ Twins

FirstTimeLongTime May 12, 2009, at 5:32 pm 223 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Armando  Galarraga (FIP 4.92)

vs

Kevin Slowey (FIP 4.18)

Gents, I have some bad news; as of Monday night the Twins, according to SportsClubStats.com currently only have a 7% chance of making the playoffs.  I know what you are thinking-- Season over, right?  Well, hold your horses, there are still 129 games left in the season and, at least I believe, a lot can happen over that time.

Kevin Slowey, despite his 4-1 start, has been pretty unlucky this season.  He currently is the proud owner of a .380 Batting Average On Balls In Play, once that number comes down, his WHIP should also decrease from the inflated 1.51 mark where it currently resides over his next few starts.

As for Armando Galarraga, he has added an extra strike out per nine over his 2008 campaign but with that he has also increased his walk rate by an equal amount.  With this information, and nothing else, it would be fair to assume that Galarraga is throwing the ball a little bit harder this season.  I am sure that someone in the comments will be more than happy to do the additional research needed to prove this for me.

Sadly, I won't be able to participate too much in tonight's game log as I am off to watch the Buffalo Bisons continue their quest to be the worst team ever to play profesisonal baseball which, I have to admit, is more fun than you might think.  Especially considering how much Bisons manager Ken Oberkfell enjoys curing during post game press conferences.

2009 Game 27: Minnesota @ Detroit

FirstTimeLongTime May 5, 2009, at 4:49 pm 71 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Nick Blackburn (4.44 FIP)

vs

Rick Porcello (6.49 FIP)

The Minnesota Nine look for the sweep tonight when they face off against the Detroit Tigers in the second game of a two game set.  Last night saw the Twins taking part in a pitching duel between the Franchise and, umm,  Jeremy Edwin Jackson until the Minnesota bats came alive in the 7th. This rally included a Michael Cuddyer triple.  In an equally baffling turn of events Joe Mauer went 0-4 with two strike outs after starting the season on a Pujolsian like tear.

I feel like every game log I write prominently features the word "regression" so I am going to go ahead and move on before I stop to actually look at Mauer's numbers through three games this season.  Let's just assume that he sustains his current averages.

Tigers' starter Rick Porcello has been  roughed up through 4 starts this season.  Going only 21.2 innings and allowing 6 home runs.  Porcello, not known as a strike out pitcher (4.98 K/9), relies on throwing pitches that result in ground balls of which he is doing a decent job up to this point.  Sadly, for him, 26.1 % of the flyballs he is allowing are leaving the yard.  By comparison only 2.3% of Blackburn's fly balls have resulted in homeruns.   Blackburn is what he is so far this season, a league average pitcher. His ERA+ of 111 should come back down to earth once he allows a few more of home runs,which is bound to happen as a 2.3% homerun rate on fly ball is certainly not sustainable by anyone.  Crap, there I go again, talking about regresion to the mean.  I am just going to stop while I am ahead.

Go Twins!

Game 15, Again: Minnesota @ Boston

FirstTimeLongTime April 22, 2009, at 10:49 am 167 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired)

Scott Baker (FIP 16.26!)

v.

Tim Wakefield (FIP 3.79)

After last night's game was rained out I realized that the Twins will only play on 4 days this week. After playing every single day for the first two weeks I think that some of us WGOM'ers are going through a little bit of withdrawal. Thankfully, the Twins have just the prescription; more Kubel.

Without getting all SSS on everyone, Jason Kubel has been pretty awesome so far this season. One of the more interesting tidbits is that Kubel has only struck out 3 times thus far in 2009. If he were to continue this pace, with the estimate that he plays 144 games, he would only strike out 36 times all season! While that projection is, more than likely, unrealistic, is it that far fetched to think that he could limit that number to 55-60 strike outs this year? In each of the past two season Kubel has increased his walk rate as well. If he can bring his base on balls total to 50-55 he is starting to look like an above average player; I think even Dave Cameron would have to agree with that.

The forecast for Boston today is as follows:

Today...Partly sunny with a slight chance of showers this morning...then cloudy with showers likely this afternoon. Highs around 60. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.

Tonight...Showers with thunderstorms likely. Lows in the lower 40s. North winds 5 to 10 mph...increasing to west 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 90 percent.

Look like I will be seeing everyone tomorrow....

Game 15: Minnesota @ Boston

FirstTimeLongTime April 21, 2009, at 5:27 pm 41 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Scott Baker (FIP 16.26!)

v.

Tim Wakefield (FIP 3.79)

Off days stink and tonight's game, judging by the looks of the weather in Boston, is looking like a prime candidate for some serious rain delays, if not postponement. With that said, I am going to keep this short because I really don't want to write a thousand word game log for a game that might not take place.

The Twins fresh off of their sweep of the Anaheim Angels of Los Angles California, Orange County, look to increase their winning streak to 3 4 games. The Boston Red Sox, after pummeling the Baltimore O's, too are looking to build on a winning streak now at 5 games.

Someone must break; It's Wakefield, it's Baker, it is MLB on FSN!

Rainout

Rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

 
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