With any luck at all, the 2008 baseball season will end for Chicago today. The Cubs, out in three straight, have done their part and now it's time for the White Sox to roll over and play dead.
The White Sox are sending John Danks out to the mound today to stop a sweep from [...]

I wonder if the locals in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area hate the White Sox. If you recall, Jerry Reinsdorf threatened to move his club to Tampa Bay (the area, not the body of water, although the latter sounds good, too) to extort money from Chicago to get a new stadium. Some of the [...]

Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox
September 29, 2008
MINNEAPOLIS – There was dark talk in the Twin Cities, grumbling at water coolers and in watering holes and wire chatter on the newfangled Web logs of which the youngsters are so enamored these days. Those unencumbered by allegiance to the scrappy Minnesota club could reasonably assume those [...]

I took the second bus instead of the first one, allowing me to sleep until 5:30. On the way to the bus station, I heard Corey Cove on KFAN state that he wanted the White Sox to win because of the drama. Everyone is entitled to their opinion (even that dumbass), but I'm [...]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is the biggest game to date in the 2008 Minnesota Twins season. On the one hand, it's pretty exciting for fans to have a showdown against the archrivals with the division lead on the line with fewer games left on the schedule [...]

After getting rained out on Friday night, I again made the trip from DC to Baltimore to see the Twins play in person on Sunday. Although they lost, it was a fun game to watch. Being at Camden Yards always gets me excited for outdoor baseball in Minnesota. I've posted some pictures [...]

SBG takes a look at the week that was in the WGOM Polls.

That one on Tuesday night had to sting the White Sox. It's one thing to get beat 7-0, but to blow a 4-0 lead the next night? Perkins was anything but solid, but he meandered through the mine field and Nathan looked a little shaky, too, and not just because of the home [...]

“So, what’s going on?” Mike Lamb asked Nick Punto as teammate after teammate arrived in the Twins clubhouse with a covered dish Monday afternoon.
“Didn’t you get the memo?” asked Punto. “It’s our annual potluck dinner. Gardy figured since we have this big series with the White Sox, we could use all the luck we can [...]

Glen Perkins vs. John Danks
Looking at his fangraphs page, it would appear that Danks has starting throwing a cutter this year, using his fastball less (down from ~60% to ~50%) and mixing in a slider, too. Throw that all in a blender, and Danks has gone from a fairly extreme fly ball pitcher to [...]

Kevin Slowey vs. Gavin Floyd
Unicorn boy again. Seems like we've seen him a lot already.
PECOTA projects an ubelhangover and a lot of cleaning to do today.

Livan Hernandez vs. Mark Buehrle
Players that I'm happy with so far: Mauer, Morneau, Nathan. (Alexi Casilla gets honorable mention. Even though he's probably playing over his head, he's still young and as a low-cost player could be a real asset to the team if he plays to his abilities.)
Players that I'm not so [...]

Nick BlackNoseBurn vs. Javier Vazquez
Roll Call!
Bench: Monroe, Macri, Redmond
Starting pitchers available to pinch hit/run: Livan Hernandez, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins (Probably not Baker since he's coming off of a groin injury.)
Bullpen pitchers available to pinch hit/run: Boof!, maybe Crain (threw 1+ innings and is coming off of last year's shoulder thing)
Only those who will risk [...]

Kevin Slowey vs. John Danks
The phrase "numbers can't tell you (something that numbers can probably tell you" gets thrown a lot in baseball coverage. Well, I'm here to tell you that numbers can't tell you whether or not Kevin Slowey's bicep is pain-free, or whether his bicep is fully healed. But I sure [...]

Livan Hernandez vs. Mark Buehrle
I don't know what it is--perhaps a sort of "playing with house money" effect--but I can't help but be amused whenever Livan is pitching these days. My reaction when he gives up a big home run isn't so much "Oh no! How will we win now?" but rather "That ball [...]

Nick Blackburn vs. Gavin Floyd
Floyd's peripherals were bad the last time we faced him, and they haven't gotten any better. Boof denied his unicorn last time, and now it's time for Blackburn to deny it yet again.
Random crap because I don't have much else to say about the pitching matchup:
- Jon Garland has but [...]

Short post for a short series, the Twins play two against the White Sox to begin the week. The White Sox come into this game on a ... well ... it's hard to explain, but they're not on a winning streak, or a losing streak. We won't be able to figure that one [...]