So, I didn't get to see the game today, but I did see the box score. What jumps out at me is that Scott Baker had an awesome game. 8 IP, 8 K, 1 BB, 1 HR, 1 R -- that's a great game. The HR kind of makes sense in light [...]

So, I just started on a rather ill-advised internet journey, and even though I should go to bed, I feel strangely compelled to complete that journey.
My first mistake was to check LEN3's game report to see what everyone had to say about Carlos Bunty McBunterson vs. Cliff Can't Be Bothered To Field His Position Lee.
"I [...]

Some facts:
.284/.344/.419 -- MN vs. RHP, 10th best OPS in baseball
.266/.332/.413 -- AL vs. RHP
.262/.334/.404 -- AL vs. LHP
.261/.309/.375 -- MN vs. LHP, 28th best OPS in baseball
This might lead one to believe that the Twins have a ton of left-handed hitters on the team, making them especially susceptible to left-handed pitching, but that's not [...]

Alexi Casilla has been great so far this year for the Twins, but can he keep it up?
First, let's look at what he's done in the minors:
.270/.346/.348 -- age 19, Rk/A
.311/.378/.383 -- age 20, A/AA/AAA
.318/.385/.398 -- age 21, A+/AA
.269/.345/.344 -- age 22, AAA
.219/.350/.250 -- age 23, AAA (2008)
.293/.367/.366 -- overall
Since Casilla came up and got [...]

Laffey v. Slowey
I didn't get to watch the game yesterday, but looking at the box score, it was good to see that the Twins put a bunch of runs on the board. Delmon's been pretty hot lately, which I am really glad to see. Having him hit well over the second half of [...]

First off, I'd like to mention that I had a great time at the Convention on Saturday and I really wish I could have spent more time there, as I would have liked to chat with everyone more than I did. Special thanks to SBG for arranging the whole thing and to Banjo [...]

Definition of EQA
Players with 100+ PA:
.311 -- Joe Mauer
.303 -- Justin Morneau
.287 -- Alexi Casilla
.264 -- Jason Kubel
.260 -- League Average
.251 -- Delmon Young
.249 -- Carlos Gomez
.243 -- Michael Cuddyer
.226 -- Craig Monroe
.222 -- Brendan Harris*
.203 -- Mike Lamb
*Adam Everett, career EQA -- .230 (I figured it was worth mentioning that our no-glove SS [...]

- I'm feeling a bit for Boof right now. He works his ass off in the offseason to lose weight, because he's essentially been promised that losing weight will help him pitch better (even though there's not really a whole lot of evidence that that would be the case), then he winds up pitching [...]

As SBG notes on the sidebar, the Twins have picked up Craig Breslow. According to Joe Christensen, the Twins are planning on adding him to the bullpen to bolster their left-handed relief. Reyes has actually been doing a pretty decent job so far, and I think the problem with the rest of the [...]

First off, Joe Posnanski's blog about last night's game totally blows whatever I could possibly write out of the water. So do yourself a favor and go read it. I especially like the detail about how David DeJesus had to leave the game due to hives--and those hives could very well have cost [...]

My reaction to statements like this one:
Next, we needed Delmon Young’s thoughts, and some interviews with him can be like pulling teeth.
Is usually just a headshake and a sigh. I can't really blame the media for wanting to interview players who give them nice articulate quotes, but at some point I think they have [...]

Where were preseason expectations for Boof?
First I'll note that the league ERA is 4.12, compared to 4.51 last year, so I'll adjust all ERA expectations down by 0.39, since no one was really anticipating this much of a dip in offense. (Though April run scoring this year (4.24 ERA) wasn't that much different than [...]

Apparently, Jason Tyner really wants a chance to get back at the Twins for letting him go. Seriously.
“I thought I had earned my stripes (in Minnesota),” said Tyner, who signed a minor league contract with the Indians this offseason after the Twins elected not to re-sign the outfielder, following three years of service. “I [...]

Rochester Red Wings
.327/.387/.584 -- Darnell McDonald, 2008, 101 AB
Congrats to McDonald for having one of the best stretches of his professional career, but he's been kicking around AAA so long that he was playing for the Red Wings when they were an Orioles affiliate 7 years ago. At age 30, his early season success [...]

How much can they eat?

IP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

51.7
Livan Hernandez

50.7
Nick Blackburn

46.0
Boof Bonser

33.0
Scott Baker

23.7
Brian Bass

But what does the food taste like?

xFIP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

3.06
Scott Baker

4.41
Nick Blackburn

4.42
Boof Bonser

4.47
Livan Hernandez

4.85
Brian Bass

To a certain degree, Blackburn, Bonser, and Hernandez have all been approximately league average pitchers who have made every start and given the Twins innings. Baker's the closest thing they've [...]

Over Gomez's last 10 games, he's hitting .385/.429/.641. The kid's been hot. If he could consistently get on base at a .400 clip, he would easily be an All-Star. Barring a complete overhaul in his approach at the plate, he's not going to be able to do that, but he's got basically [...]

I mean, yeah, it's Kelly Theiser, but it still seems like she could find a more legitimate story to put a positive spin on.

Since April 14th:
72 PA, 61 AB, 24 H, 7 2B, 1 3B, 11 BB, 3 SO, .393/.486/.541
Thank you kindly, Mr. Mauer.

Where are we now?

Team
W
L
PCT
GB

Minnesota
16
14
.533
-

Chicago Sox
14
15
.483
1.5

Kansas City
14
16
.467
2

Cleveland
14
17
.452
2.5

Detroit
14
18
.43
3

Up is down! Black is white! Various types of livestock have acquired the ability to fly!
Based only on season-to-date performance, how well might we expect these teams to be going forward?

Team
W3
L3
PCT3

White Sox
16.0
13.0
.552

Tigers
17.2
14.8
.538

Indians
14.8
16.2
.447

Twins
13.3
16.7
.443

Royals
12.4
17.6
.413

Huh, Cleveland has been pretty bad so far.
What does the playoff picture look like?

Teams
W
L
Pct3
Avg W
Avg L
Division
Wild [...]

Joe Mauer before the first game against Detroit:
44 PA, .250/.279/.300
Joe Mauer from the first game against Detroit through today:
60 PA, .353/.450/.471
Needless to say, I like the second line better, and I hope Mauer keeps up his recent hot hitting.

How much can they eat?

IP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

38.1
Nick Blackburn

36.0
Boof Bonser

35.2
Livan Hernandez

30.0
Scott Baker

17.1
Brian Bass

But what does the food taste like?

xFIP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

3.07
Scott Baker

4.10
Nick Blackburn

4.46
Brian Bass

4.53
Livan Hernandez

4.57
Boof Bonser

Truth be told, I probably would've wanted Hughes, Garza, Slowey, Liriano, Baker on the roster for long-term building purposes, which would have turned out to be an injury/rehab nightmare in the [...]

I just want to pinch Joe Sheehan's cheeks he's so cute right now, what with the schoolboy naiveté he put on display today:
Parity. The last few years have seen the spread between the best and worst teams in the game narrow considerably, as natural cycles of aging and unnatural wealth-redistribution mechanisms serve to bring the [...]

So, today's an off day, and not the same way that Thursday and Sunday were off days. Some things I thought I would mention:
Matt Tolbert, Pumpkin
.455/.520/.500 -- Matt Tolbert, first 26 plate appearances
.179/.179/.250 -- Matt Tolbert, last 28 plate appearances
I know I emphasize the sample size thing a lot, but I imagine that casual [...]

Livan Hernandez vs. Vincente Padilla
No proper game intro as I spent too much time last night sweeping the street in front of my house after some lowlife decided it would be a good idea to smash a glass bottle and drive off. Real funny wiseguy(gal). ubelmann will not stand for broken glass in [...]

Scott "Light Rail" Baker vs. "Sir" Sidney Ponson
A lot of folks look back and mock the Ponson Era. And certainly Sidney's girth makes him easily mockable. I thought it was a good move to sign him to a minor league deal and a ridiculous move to put him in the Opening Day rotation [...]

Nick Blackburn vs. Kevin Millwood
Today would be a good day for Mr. Blackburn to keep that GB% above 50%.
I would like to think that this would be a good time for the offense to break out, but it's tough to take advantage of the hitter-friendly conditions in Arlington if you're not hitting fly balls. [...]

F-Sparkler vs. Greg Smith Unknown Lefty Destined To Dominate The Twins
A kitten dies every time you overanalyze a Francisco Liriano outing.

“kittens” by d u y g u, cc-licensed.
Now if we're all careful today, we can save a lot of kittens. Who's with me?

Is it better to have swung and lost than never to have swung at all and taken your free base?

Boof vs. Chad Gaudin
The early word is that Gomez is getting the day off in favor of Span in CF. Gomez has played all 20 games so far, and it's good for guys to get a breather every now and then. In addition, Chad Gaudin has a fairly big platoon split for his [...]

Johan Santana vs. Dan Haren
Oops.
Livan Hernandez vs. Joe Blanton
Well, that's certainly a ... a ... um ... heavier matchup.
Let's take a gander at how some of the Twins and A's have gotten off the starting line:
New Center Fielder
.318/.348/.409 -- Ryan Sweeney
.244/.262/.329 -- Carlos Gomez
New Third Baseman
.196/.344/.294 -- Jack Hannahan
.145/.186/.218 -- Mike Lamb
I guess that, technically [...]

Amazingly, the most interesting part of this box score is not that Kyle Lohse was batting ahead of a position player.

How much can they eat?

IP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

27.0
Livan Hernandez

25.2
Scott Baker

25.1
Nick Blackburn

23.0
Boof Bonser

11.1
Brian Bass

But what does the food taste like?

xFIP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

3.24
Scott Baker

3.99
Nick Blackburn

4.31
Livan Hernandez

4.39
Brian Bass

4.44
Boof Bonser

Last night I looked at the RZR(1) rankings in the AL, and when I saw Brendan Harris' name at the top of the pile, I scratched my head. (And then I realized that I scratched my head, which was kind of weird.)
So I looked a little deeper. By RZR's count, there were 30 [...]

Cliff Lee vs. F-Bomb
Liriano supposedly made a great adjustment in the last bullpen that should help with his command. I'm not expecting any overnight miracles, though.
Cliff Lee has had an xFIP of about 5.50 the last two years--lots of fly balls, a below-average walk rate, and a mediocre strikeout rate. Of course, he's [...]

It's 12:34am local time, and I should be going to bed, but the Padres and Rockies have just started the top of the 20th inning--tied 1-1--in their game tonight.
Sweet play by Kouzmanoff to lead off the top of the 20th. It just seems weird to say that. Top of the 20th. [...]

Jason Hammel vs. Boof Bonser
There's nothing very remarkable that I can find about Hammel. He's got a decent strikeout rate, not great control, and is a bit of a groundball pitcher, but not an extreme groundball pitcher. Actually, he's kind of like Boof that way. They are both somewhat above replacement level [...]

Livan Hernandez vs. James Shields
If we go way back to the ancient history of 2002-2004 (full list of Twins players remaining from the Opening Day 2004 lineup: Joe Mauer; 2003: Cuddyer (at 3B), 2002: ), through the magic of fangraphs, we see that Livan Hernandez was once a ground ball pitcher, with a GB% consistently [...]

Twins pitchers on the day: 8 IP, 39 batters faced, 1 strikeout, 0 walks, 1 HR
Tigers hitters: 4 doubles, 2 triples, 1 HR
If you consistently allow good hitters to put the ball in play, you're going to have some ugly days. This was one of those days. That's why everyone thought Silva was [...]

Boof "Less Is More?" Bonser vs. Brett Tomko
I don't have much to say today. Go Twins!

I must say I find this to be a disappointing development.
I'm not really one to freak out about the Twins losing marginal players. It wasn't a big deal to me when the Twins lost J.D. Durbin (awful control makes him fringy) or Alex Romero* (not much power for a corner outfielder) or Levale Speigner [...]

How much can they eat?

IP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

14.0
Livan Hernandez

13.0
Boof Bonser

12.0
Nick Blackburn

11.2
Scott Baker

8.2
Brian Bass

But what does the food taste like?

xFIP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

3.15
Scott Baker

3.17
Nick Blackburn

3.74
Boof Bonser

4.07
Livan Hernandez

4.74
Brian Bass

Sure, Bass isn't a starter, but I figured I would make it a top 5. And I think it would be great if we could get him some more three-inning [...]

Scott Baker vs. John Danks
Looks like it's going to be fairly chilly for a baseball game tonight in Chicago. So far this season, offense has been down across the board.
.255/.326/.399 -- AL, 2008
.270/.338/.423 -- AL, 2007
This happened last year to an extent, too:
.255/.327/.404 -- AL, 2007, April
.270/.338/.423 -- AL, 2007, Overall
The numbers [...]

By now you've all likely heard that Detroit's off to a bit of a rocky start. Projected by some to be a roughly 90-91-win team this year, they've lost their first six games--all home games at that.
If we were to react as extremely as possible, we could proclaim that this is clearly evidence that [...]

Nick Blackburn vs. Javier Vazquez
I was watching the White Sox beat down the Tigers last night, and a couple of things stuck out at me:
1) The White Sox should have a pretty good offense this year. Swisher and Quentin could be pretty big sticks and Orlando Cabrera is a lot better than whatever they [...]

Matt Tolbert's off to a good start, but really, that's all that it is: a start. Before the season, the following projections were made for Tolbert:
.256/.317/.358 -- PECOTA
.256/.308/.370 -- CHONE
.256/.306/.366 -- ZiPS
Which is really a remarkable amount of agreement for three completely different projection systems. Thus far, Tolbert has had 13 at-bats and [...]

John Bale vs. Scott Baker
John Bale is left-handed and seems to be at least a bit of a groundball pitcher. That same combination allowed Joe Saunders to dominate a mostly right-handed Twins lineup (which I was basically in favor of) last Wednesday. I think the problem is less that Gardy put out a [...]

Roughly the five most talented pitchers in the Twins organization as determined by me off the top of my head (in no particular order):
Joe Nathan -- 33 years old and under contract through age 36
Pat Neshek -- Saw last season go down the crapper after being used 6 times in 7 days. Figures to [...]

Impostor Santana vs. Kevin Slowey
I'd really like to see Slowey get off to a good start so I don't have to worry about having him bounce between Rochester and Minnesota all season.
Ervin Santana's a pretty marginal pitcher who has had a ~5 xFIP over the last few years and has allowed a ton of fly [...]

- 4 runs in 3 games. It could be worse, of course. We could have been facing Lackey, Escobar, Weaver instead of Weaver, Garland, Saunders.
- Carlos Gomez' speed impresses me. Carlos Gomez' bunting skills do not. Sure, Monday was fun. He managed to get a double even though he had [...]