On July 23rd, 2002, Johan Santana gave up 8 ER in 3.2 innings as the Twins lost 8-7 to the White Sox. Santana has started 157 games since that day, and he has allowed fewer than 8 runs (earned or otherwise) in all of those games.
C.C. Sabathia's still a great pitcher, but that's kind [...]

The NLCS has a surprising matchup this year with Colorado and Arizona hooking up in a match between two Western Division teams that came into the league back in the 1990s. I am happy to have an interview with Rox Girl, who runs the Purple Row Rockies Blog. I am hoping that she'll [...]

Jim McLennan, writer for the AZ Snakepit has been kind enough to answer some questions about the D-Backs. When I sent him some questions, I pressured him with the information that Rox Girl had already responded. He wrote back: "Rox Girl! Well, can't possibly say no now, can I!" Jim came through [...]

 One heck of an AB by Grady...

But there's some big time news on the Twins front.
The Twins have lost a key member of their organization from the past few years. While playing for the Twins over the past three years, this player hit a combined .243/.311/.339. This player is Luis Rodriguez, super utility man! Surprisingly, there has been nothing reported on [...]

I love making player comparisons:
Player A: .271/.324/.469/.793
Player B: .273/.335/.450/.785
Player A is Torii Hunter, career. For all of his ups and downs and inconsistencies (especially prior to his 2007 campaign), Hunter has been a pretty good hitter, especially for someone playing a premium defensive position. The American League average hitter was at [...]

At about the 1/3 point of the 2006 season I posted an article identifying (and commenting on) the top 50 offensive seasons in Twins history as measured by VORP. For those of you that don't know, VORP is a Baseball Prospectus statistic that measures "the number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player [...]

Rockies up 1-0 on the D-Backs, and Brewers up 10-4 on the Padres.

I don't want to step on Will's BKAC feature, but this article by Joe Christenson says a whole lot.

For most shutouts in a season. The club record is 14, and that's happened five times now.
If the 2007 squad wants the record outright, they'll have to get shutout one more time with just five games left. The probable pitchers appear to be Jair Jurrjens, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, and a [...]

When looking at the free agent marketplace, the easy part is figuring out who the free agents are--at the end of every season they have to declare free agency. The part that involves guesswork is the demand side: which teams are going to be interested in free agents? Center field is obviously a [...]

Twins' VORP through September 22nd, 2007:
40.5 -- Hunter
30.2 -- Morneau
28.4 -- Mauer
15.7 -- Cuddyer
14.4 -- Bartlett
10.6 -- Kubel
Hunter's probably somewhere between +0 and +10 on defense, which safely makes him the Twins' most valuable position player this year.

From LEN3:
Pat Neshek will be shut down for the rest of the season because of weakness in his shoulder that has led to an inflamed ligament near his elbow.
This season just keeps getting better and better.

Nation, I'm putting you on notice. From what I can devine from the schedule, Johan Santana has two starts left this season--today, and Wednesday, Sept. 26th at Detroit. After the 26th, you won't get to see Santana work his magic in a meaningful game for another six (dismal) months. Yes, the outcome [...]

For some cheap thrills, I took a look at the players with the 20 worst Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) from 2006 (list here, and how they did in 2007.
- For starters, four of them have zero plate appearances in 2007: Antonio Perez, Vinny Castilla, Tomas Perez, and Travis Lee.
- In 2006, the group collectively [...]

.308/.391/.478 -- 247 AB in AA, 2007
.311/.374/.523 -- 132 AB in AAA, 2007
.273/.359/.382 -- 55 AB in MLB, 2007
.287/.377/.471 -- PrOPS in MLB, 2007
For a larger sample size:
.276/.343/.393 -- 1810 AB in the minors
It's kind of interesting that his actual performance so far with the Twins falls mostly in line with his overall minor league [...]

 Warning:  this AB is for entertainment purposes only; do not attempt this at home.

From today's Twins notes:
Justin Morneau at least partly blames his participation in the Home Run Derby for his second half offensive slump, and his manager does not disagree.
Morneau is batting just .254 in the second half, compared to .295 in the first half. He's only hit six home runs post-All Star break, whereas he had [...]

Terry Ryan has stepped down as general manager of the Minnesota Twins.
In some ways, this was the quintessential Terry Ryan move. Like so many of his trades in recent years, it came as a surprise. Like some of his other moves, a veteran is moving so that someone within the organization can be [...]

The Twins, according to KFAN, have announced that they will be holding a press conference at 2:00 PM to announce a "major organizational" decision.
Update by SBG: LENIII is reporting that Terry Ryan is stepping down as GM, but apparently will remain with the organization.

It's a three-step offseason plan for the Twins:
Step 1: Extend key players already under contract
- Sign Johan Santana to a 6-year, $185M extension. (25, 27, 30, 33, 35, 35)
- Sign Joe Nathan to a 4-year, $60M extension. (12, 14, 17, 17)
- Sign Justin Morneau to a 4-year, $47M contract. (7, 10, [...]

Chris Jaffe was running through some Baseball Reference splits, and he mentioned something I found absolutely crazy:
For instance, you can look up how many times they tried to pull off triple steals. After all, the only way to do it is to have the bases loaded, and the splits pages give SB & CS for [...]

I was reading the Twins' Notes tonight, and things were going pretty much as usual...and then BAM!
According to Baseball Prospectus' Value over Replacement Player (VORP) statistic, Santana's 58.6 mark betters every pitcher but one. Sabathia, who leads the Majors in innings pitched (220), leads all American Leaguers with a 60.2 mark.
VORP? On the Twins' [...]

Player A: .280/.318/.408/.726 77 OPS+
Player B: .261/.306/.479/.785 102 OPS+
Player C: .250/.312/.451/.763 97 OPS+
Player D: .271/.330/.475/.805 105 OPS+
Player E: .269/.337/.452/.789 107 OPS+
Player F: .265/.323/.433/.756 97 OPS+
Player A is Torii Hunter in his 24 year old season.
Player B is Torii Hunter in his 25 year old season.
Player C is Torii Hunter in his 27 year old season, [...]

Earlier tonight, I was debating with a friend over the existence of clutch hitting (I was of course arguing against it). I stumbled upon this article, which gives a pretty good argument saying that clutch hitting does indeed exist.  (Note: This article is a few years old.  I'm not sure if anybody has done [...]

 no outs in the 2nd, and everyone's favorite opposition catcher at bat:

Against left-handed batters, through September 7, 2007:
.187/.268/.358 -- Pat Neshek
.254/.351/.444 -- Carmen Cali
37/155 (24%) SO/PA -- Neshek
12/74 (16%) SO/PA -- Cali
15/155 (9.7%) BB/PA -- Neshek
10/74 (13%) BB/PA -- Cali
I guess what disappoints me most about this is that back in the day, Gardy would let Hawkins, Rincon, and Romero pitch full innings regardless of the [...]

April 24th, 2007:
"[Casilla]'s a very exciting player, one that can really fly," Gardenhire said. "We've seen him attempt a slug bunt. That's something we saw back in my day a la Miguel Dilone -- slug bunts and hitting it over infielders heads. So he's pretty inventive when it comes to being on a baseball field. [...]

As everyone and their mothers have noted by now, Nick Punto's had a rough season.
I understand why LaVelle takes the Deer/Punto angle, but really, there's a huge difference between what Deer did in 1991 and what Punto's done in 2007. Because Deer did a better job of getting on base and hitting for power, [...]

By now, you've likely heard that Jose Morales has been added to the 40-man roster and called up to be with the Twins. The Twins are pretty banged up at the catcher position, so from a logistical standpoint, it makes sense to bring up another warm body. So this move makes sense, but [...]

LENIII:
[W]hen a team repeatedly says it's too inconsistent, it translates to just not being good enough.
Remember that for future reference, in case you didn't know it already.

Since the very beginnings of baseball, fans have complained about their offense being too inconsistent. Well, I don't know that for certain, but at the end of the post, I'll give you an example of a team that I think will convince you.
If someone says an offense is good or bad, it's easy to [...]

Hunter coming to bat in the 3rd with 1 out and runners at the corners.

[contributed by: Rhubarb_Runner]

Rookie League magazine cover - Summer 1992
"BASEBALL FEVER!"
"KIRBY PUCKETT Swings a Hot Bat!"

Hooray 13th shutout! Most in all of baseball!!
The Twins are currently in line to lead the league in shutouts, which would be the first time in franchise history they've ever done that. Those pesky Cardinals were shut out again today, so they remain hot on the Twins' heels, just one back.
When looking at [...]

- Mike Redmond is a warrior. He's been playing hurt, but he's still been playing well. Since Mauer went down on the 11th (through Sept. 1st), Redmond has hit .333/.404/.375. There's no power to speak of, but he's been getting on base.
- Alexi Casilla has been--more or less--a complete disappointment since getting [...]

RonDL to bat in the 8th, 1 out:

So, Ron Gardenhire, you were down 4-3 in the 9th inning of a game you needed to win. Jason Tyner led off with a single. Excellent. What are your options now?
Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla, and Jason Bartlett are due up next. Basically, they are all singles hitters. On your bench, [...]

9th inning, 2 outs...

Originally, the Twins were scheduled to play a T-Th series with the Indians, but thanks to a bunch of snow outs between the Mariners and the Indians way back in April, the series was moved to M-W. This alone wouldn't really have changed anything, but the (completely understandable) Twins-Royals postponement gave the Twins a [...]

I have a hard time giving up on slim odds (in case you haven't noticed yet), so after tonight's game I went browsing around for a pick-me-up. One nearly surefire way to cheer myself up is to go catch up on Pat Neshek's blog. Because he doesn't have a regular posting schedule, I [...]

- Four-game sweep! We must have made up a bunch of ground in the push for the playoffs! What's that? Still six games behind Cleveland in the loss column?
One of the problems with being six games behind is that you generally have to hope for other teams to fall apart. [...]

LENIII reports that Torii Hunter has turned down a recent offer from the Twins to negotiate a contract extension, preferring to wait until the end of the season.
Hunter has had the upper hand on public relations all year long over the Twins -- and it seems to me that he's complained about the Twins not [...]

I’m not sure, but I think ubelmann drove in five runs for the Rangers last night in their 30-3 pounding of the once pitching rich Baltimore Orioles. Regardless of whether that was him or not, I know that he’s not available for tonight’s Game Log (maybe that was him pitching for the [...]

Hi, I'm Greek House! You may remember me from such posts as Sharks vs. Piranhas Parts I and II. I am also the author of the best selling book "Guppieball: The Art of Leaving Runners on Base".
The 3rd part of the series deals with what happens when our two teams slump. I [...]

Hopefully, our friend ubelmann hasn’t joined some death cult where he has to kill himself upon the arrival of a comet or something. His whereabouts remain unknown and if he doesn’t show up by around Thursday or so, I’ll start to get worried. Thus, it’s me filling in again for the u-ful one.

Tonight, we’ve got a Jarrod Washburn vs. Scott “Light Rail” Baker matchup.

Sorry to throw cold water on everyone following the awesome performance that he gave yesterday, but I want to know -- if you were the Twins GM would you trade Santana in the off-season? The return for him could be gigantic, especially if the Mets were involved. Losing him to free agency would [...]

In honor of El Presidente's career-high and club record 17 strikeouts, I present to you each and everyone one in order. Enjoy.

#1 - Brad Wilkerson. 2nd out of the 1st inning

Last night, I took BabySBG and Lucy to a drive in movie. Lucy needs to get out once in a while as the four walls can close in on her. So, I made the popcorn, threw a pop or two in the cooler and we headed to the drive-in theater in the rain.
On [...]

Once again, our boy ubelmann is off doing some non-WGOM stuff, leaving me to mind the store.
The Twins continue their three game series with the Texas Rangers tonight after winning the first game by scoring on a ground out and a wild pitch. Carlos Silva pitched seven innings, allowing only a [...]

Well now. In a little bit of irony, the night that Nicky PooPoo sank to -20 VORP (he's at -20.2) he becomes a hero of sorts with a single and a two base error to reach third with no one out in the tenth inning of another game in which the starting pitcher "failed" [...]

I know I posted this in the SBG Shorts yesterday. But, answer me this. If Jason Giambi admitted to using steroids before major league baseball had a suspension policy in place, how in the world could Bud Selig suspend him for it? There was no policy!
Since then, MLB has had a series [...]

The Twins failed to sign their fifth pick, but signed every other of their top 12 picks. The top four picks got a total of $1.512 million in bonus money.
Here's how the top ten have fared so far.
1. Ben Revere, 18, OF .308/.363/.449/811 in 156AB at GCL Twins
2. Danny Rams, 18, C, .235/.297/.338/636 in [...]

Colorado gave the Twins a minor leaguer for El Jardinero.
Update: It turns out that the minor leaguer has a name, Matt Macri. He was a 17th round pick of the Twins out of high school in 2001 (did not sign).

 The two "strikeouts" prior to Gardy's ejection...

Here's an interesting piece about Draft Signing Day from USS Mariner.
Paul Ben Revere signed with the Twins what, a month ago or more? Yeah, he didn't hold out for more than the recommended slot limit now, did he.

- Gold star to Bartlett for hitting like a shark today. 3 K's and 2 XBH (including a HR.) I was not expecting that.
- Gold star to Punto (!) for not sliding into first base in the second inning. Sure he did lots of other stuff wrong, but perhaps this will start [...]

In a few hours, this will be overshadowed by what is certain to be a more entertaining feature, but here I go anyway...
1) No joke, this was the image presented to baseball fans at Safeco in the second inning:

Rondell White
I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a mistake or a suggestion. [...]

 Pitch #7 - the captions write themselves.

Is Baker leaving the ball up? Let's let gameday be the judge of that. Graphics after the jump.