For my wife's birthday, she decided she wanted to go to a ballgame with a couple of friends (How did I get so lucky?). So once again we drove up to Wisconsin to see the Snappers take on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Seattle Mariners A affiliate).
The Snappers roster this time around looks quite a [...]

AVG/OBP/SLG, since May 1st
.245/.287/.341 -- Carlos Gomez
.257/.312/.341 -- Jacoby Ellsbury
Games/Games hitting leadoff, July
15/15 -- Carlos Gomez
16/16 -- Jacoby Ellsbury
It's frustrating that Gomez isn't hitting, but it's not like the Twins are the only team making decisions like keeping a struggling rookie in the leadoff spot. If he keeps struggling and the Twins start losing, [...]

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 [...]

.217/.305/.319 -- Jason Kubel vs. LHP, career
.230/.278/.350 -- Jacque Jones vs. LHP, career
Kubel's line is slightly less awful than Jacque's line, but both lines are still awful.
I like Jason Kubel. I think he can hit right-handed pitching and this team could use a cheap DH/OF to use against RHP. However, Kubel hasn't done [...]

La Velle E. Neal III reports that a trade for Beltre doesn’t look possible. Everything he writes is perfectly reasonble:
The Twins recently contacted the Mariners about Beltre’s availability, but it looks like the Mariners’ price would be too high - something like the return the A’s got in the Joe Blanton deal. The Phillies [...]

This was brought up by Neil in the Cup of Coffee.
My 2 cents:
It's okay for Liriano to be frustrated. He's a competitor, he's had success at the top level, and he wants to get back there. I get that. I certainly have had more irrational reactions when I was 24.
I don't like [...]

But I thought I'd throw it out there:
.309/.397/.436 -- Aaron Hicks, 18, GCL (13 games)
For reference:
.400/.488/.491 -- Joe Mauer, 18, APP
.322/.385/.538 -- Delmon Young, 18, SAL
.325/.388/.461 -- Ben Revere, 19, GCL
.276/.355/.451 -- Michael Cuddyer, 19, MWL
.293/.342/.439 -- Torii Hunter, 18, MWL
.281/.303/.407 -- Carlos Gomez, 18, APP/GCL
.302/.327/.396 -- Justin Morneau, 18, GCL
.282/.364/.372 -- Jason Kubel, 18, [...]

Joe Pos, with another Gardy’s a Genius column.

Jerry Crasnick devotes his whole column this week to the Twins. This has been talked about a little bit already, but I wanted to post it separately. It's a pretty good piece and more remarkable in that someone from ESPN actually got their nose out of the collective NY/BOS ass and wrote about [...]

Bill Smith: Hey, Seattle's pretty bad this year, huh?
Terry Ryan: Yeah man, they suck. We might have had Jason Tyner DH for us, but at least we didn't trade two prospects for him, sign him to a multi-million dollar contract, and make it the plan for him to DH.
Bill Smith: Do they have [...]

42 bunts, 21 bunt hits -- Carlos Gomez, 2008*
So Gomez has been successful (and by successful, I mean successful in reaching base, not successful in the productive out sense) half of the time he's bunted this year. What happens if we divide his plate appearances into bunts and non-bunts?
.235/.276/.352 -- Gomez, 2008, not bunting
.500/.500/.500 [...]

Twins Bullpen By 2008 FIP, Entering Monday's game:
1.54 -- Craig Breslow
2.33 -- Joe Nathan
3.71 -- Dennys Reyes
3.76 -- Matt Guerrier
3.90 -- Boof Bonser
4.09 -- Jesse Crain
5.20 -- Brian Bass
Gardy had a bad night with the bullpen management, I'm afraid. Hopefully he bounces back tomorrow.

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 [...]

ubelmann takes another look at how those pitchers who are eating the most innings for the Twins are faring.

Casilla vs. Robertson

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 [...]

Last Saturday, my parents were coming into town, and, since Beloit is pretty close to on the way from Marshall to Chicago, we figured why not take in a game to kick off the Memorial Day weekend? After checking the schedule and noticing the unusual start time of 5 PM, I took off from [...]

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 [...]

Oh yeah, that guy:

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 [...]

It's hard to believe that the 2008 Twins have plowed through fifty games in their schedule so far, but they have and hey! they are hanging tough with a 25-25 record. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that the Twins would have a .500 record after fifty games, [...]

Situation: Game tied, top of the 10th inning, 2 outs, bases empty, Hamilton batting.
Count: 3 balls, 2 strikes.
Pitch location: Wheelhouse.

I went up last weekend on Sunday to see the Snappers take on the Peoria Chiefs (the Chicago Cubs A-level team). The Snappers won to complete the 3-game sweep and move to two games over .500, which was their high-water mark for this season to that point.
Final Score: Beloit 5, Peoria 4 (box score [...]

Top Jimmy has a column out with an embarrassing mistake in it(1), but he points out that DelMON Young has been, um, powerless so far. The story, though, isn't that a young player is struggling, it's this at the end of the column:
Young has played in 205 consecutive games. Might he require, or deserve, [...]

Head-first dive into first is costly to Tolbert. You know, if Gardy would have fined the Hell out of anyone who did this over the last couple of years, maybe the message would have gotten across.

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 [...]

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.

Twenty games ago, I took a look at the Twins Through 10. I've really not had a whole lot of time to write here lately, and I have no illusions that I'll keep any recurring feature going. However, I've got a few minutes here so I thought I'd pump out a quick review [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Hey now, we've blown through the first ten games of the 2008 schedule and things are looking up! The Twins played .500 ball through those first ten and are now (obviously) 5-5. As someone who has said before the season started that I'd be happy with 75 wins out of this club, I [...]

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 [...]

Go ahead and do something else tonight, folks.

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 [...]

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 [...]

- 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 [...]

Unless you get paid to follow a baseball team, it's more or less inevitable that you're not going to see every single game of the season--even if you're just trying to follow one team. I think that's one of the reasons we love box scores. Here are my impressions of tonight's game based [...]

The baseball season is, as they say, long. I'm not going to tell you that Livan Hernandez is the answer because I remember this guy,

who started the 2007 season with a series of nice outings before imploding and turning into Matt Macri. So, yeah, Livan ate some innings last night, but which out [...]