Categories

Archives

2009 Game 118: Minnesota Twins at a Southern, Playoff-Relevant Team

spookymilk August 17, 2009, at 5:54 pm 294 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , , , , , , ,

Tonight, the Twins exit the easiest stretch of six games they've had in some time - home vs. the AL's probable two worst teams - and enter a series in Arlington. Considering the easy series left the Twins with two wins and four losses, I'm not going to entertain the idea of the Twins' third Monday victory of the season too much.

It's a nice opportunity, however, to see a rising star in action.  These young guns (although with his post-surgery arm, Liriano might just be more of a whip or a morning star or something) take the hill at 7:05 in y'all's neck of the woods:

Francisco Liriano 125.1 IP, 5-11, 5.39 ERA, 4.62 xFIP, 114 K, 56 BB

Tommy Hunter 55.2 IP, 5-2, 2.26 ERA, 4.71 xFIP, 35 K, 17 BB

Wow, dig that overperforming bastard!  Hunter strikes out a modest amount of guys and has stranded a stupid-high 82.2% of runners this year, so as good as he looks on the outside, I'm guessing the Texas Rangers equivalent of the WGOM is white-knuckling it whenever he takes the mound.

Still, the Rangers are mashing right now, and the Twins haven't exactly been stifling the opposition, giving out three million runs (this is an estimate based on my memory) since the All-Star break.

Anyway, at 56-61, how much does it matter?  In a different division, not a bit.  In this one, a little bit.  For those whose hope has yet to die, the White Sox play host to the Royals starting tonight, and Detroit hosts Seattle starting tomorrow.

Most importantly, of course, is that a WGOM Fantasy Football league was formed today, and there's one open slot left.  Details are outlined by yours truly in the CoC; hurry there if you're interested, and I'll wait right here for you.   Edit: someone grabbed the final slot.  I don't recognize who it is by their team name, but...it was taken.  (Who are you, Underground Kingz?) ... Edit II: The Return of Edit: Underground Kingz is Zack.  The more you know~!

Even moster importantly, I'm about to start my drinking day.  With this pitching staff, that's a necessity.

Some Pitching Numbers (A Pavano Trade Post)

ubelmann August 7, 2009, at 1:35 pm 13 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , , ,

First off, I'll mention that Carl Pavano has the 10th-best xFIP amongst qualified starters this season.

2009 xFIP:
4.15 -- Carl Pavano
4.15 -- Scott Baker
4.23 -- Kevin Slowey
4.68 -- Francisco Liriano
4.98 -- Nick Blackburn
5.01 -- Glen Perkins
5.33 -- Anthony Swarzak

tRA*
4.21 -- Scott Baker
4.46 -- Kevin Slowey
4.72 -- Carl Pavano
4.78 -- Glen Perkins
5.00 -- Francisco Liriano
5.08 -- Nick Blackburn
5.12 -- Anthony Swarzak

So it looks like xFIP probably overrates Pavano a bit, but he still looks essentially like one of our top two starters since Slowey's out for the remainder of the season.

Now in terms of who ought to have been sent off:
2009 FIP:
5.80 -- Brian Duensing
5.77 -- Bobby Keppel
5.03 -- R.A. Dickey
4.78 -- Crain
4.66 -- Mijares
3.96 -- Guerrier
1.96 -- Nathan

I guess I'd have sent off Keppel or Duensing before I'd have ditched Dickey, but since the end of the bullpen is pitching in the lowest leverage situations in general, I'm going to shrug my shoulders and not care too much about this. The novelty of having a knuckleballer wore off on me pretty quickly, so I can't say I got too attached to him, too.

I generally agree with SBG that Liriano is the one headed to the bullpen. I think that Liriano's ERA doesn't paint a fair picture of his performance this year, but with that in consideration, he might be our third-best (or even second-best) relief pitcher right now. Hitters in general hit better the second time facing a pitcher than the first time, and they hit better the third time facing a pitcher than the second time. Over the last two years (the post-TJ years), Liriano has held opponents to roughly a .630 OPS against the first time through the order. Now, I think that's probably a bit lower than his true talent level the first time through the order, given the sample size caveats, but he can probably also throw a little harder out of the bullpen, knowing that he doesn't have to try to pitch a full game.

At this point we don't really know what we gave up, but it's usually pretty safe to assume that the PTBNL will be some kind of AAAA player who will have a roughly replacement-level career, maybe a little better, maybe a little worse.

For all of the howling about how easy it should be for the Twins to add a mediocre middle relief pitcher, I think that Pavano is better than a mediocre relief pitcher, and moving one of our back-end starters to the bullpen strengthens the bullpen. Especially for an August trade, this is about as good as it gets. Of course, I generally don't think that deadline deals make a huge difference, and if the Twins really want to make a playoff push, I think that the improvement is going to have to mainly come from the players who are on the roster right now, but our chances are a little better today than they were yesterday. A little better.

2009 Game 92: Twins at Texas Rangers

eschapp July 19, 2009, at 5:30 pm 173 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

I should be on a flight from St. Louis to DC as this post is published, and so I’m writing this on Thursday so forgive me if there are any errors or changes before the game is actually played.

Game Time: 7:05 CDT – Really?  A Sunday night game?

Probable Pitchers:

Pitcher W-L ERA SO BABIP FIP xFIP tRA+ WAR
Twins - Francisco Liriano 4-9 5.47 93 .321 4.62 4.54 96 0.8
Rangers - Tommy Hunter 1-1 2.35 13 .268 4.20 4.85 104 0.3
League Average 4.31 .300 4.32 100

From the mlb.com rundown:

Twins: Prior to earning the loss against New York, Liriano had seen improvement in his last two starts -- games in which he pitched seven innings each. But the lefty's progression seemed to take a step backwards against the Yankees, as he lasted 5 1/3 innings and allowed six hits…

Rangers: Hunter earned a tough-luck no-decision after throwing six shutout innings against the Mariners last Thursday. That was his second longest outing of the season. In four consecutive outings this season, he has allowed three, two, one and no runs. Hunter is 1-2 over five starts with a 5.81 ERA over 26 1/3 innings pitched in his career at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Go Twins!  Sunday’s always a great day to catch a game!

Round up from what I saw before I left:

If I missed something, make sure to post it in the comments!

2009 Game 77: Twins at Cardinals

eschapp June 28, 2009, at 12:30 pm 207 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) ,

It seems like every Sunday, I'm writing about the Twins weekend series rubber match.  I guess that's better than losing the first two games of a series, but I could go for a sweep now and again.

Game Time: 1:15

Pitchers:

Twins - F-Bomb

Cardinals - Joel Pineiro

I think Mark DeRosa will starting today against the Twins.  The trade for the Indians and Cardinals seems fair on both sides, but I'm certainly bummed out that the Twins will have to face Chris Perez at the back of the Indians pen for the foreseeable future.

Go Twins!

Update: Yep looks the the newest cardinal will in fact be starting.

Lineups

Twins (38-38)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Brendan Harris, SS
3, Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5 Jason Kubel, LF
6. Michael Cuddyer, RF
7. Joe Crede, 3B
8. Matt Tolbert, 2B
9. Francisco Liriano, LHP

Cardinals (41-35)

1. Skip Schumaker, 2B
2. Khalil Greene, 3B
3. Albert Pujols, 1B
4. Mark DeRosa, LF
5. Ryan Ludwick, RF
6. Rick Ankiel, CF
7. Jason LaRue, C
8. Joel Pineiro, RHP
9. Tyler Greene, SS

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!

2009 Game 56: Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners

sean June 5, 2009, at 8:00 pm 325 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Time: Too f^#$ing late (9:10 CDT!)
TV: FSN / FSNW-HD
MLB.tv and radio

Starters
Francisco Liriano (censored)
vs
Felix Hernandez (redacted to avoid embarrassing Liriano)

After not meeting since 2006, F-bomb and King Felix face off for the third time this year. Liriano now has three straight starts of only four innings. In Liriano's favor though, is Seattle's offensive (3.85 R/G!) offense. They're walk adverse (141, last), but also don't strikeout much (313, second least).

If Gardy was thinking ahead, he would put a good infield defense behind Liriano in hopes of preventing hits from bleeding through the sieve. Okay, he should always do this. Liriano, however, has a career low GB% of 38.5%. Last year his GB% was 41.6%, so his struggles may in part be his transitioning to a flyball pitcher. Walking 4.3/9 certainly doesn't help much.

Looking through Liriano's minor league numbers, it seems he has struggled at times with his control -- albeit not quite this poorly. It's no surprise he relied so heavily on his slider as a way to rack up strikeouts. His (formerly) effective erraticness combined with drop in velocity and a inability to rely on a guaranteed out pitch has finally caught up with Liriano. This might be a lost year for Liriano as he figures out how to pitch.

2009 Game 51: Twins @ Rays

SBG May 30, 2009, at 2:00 pm 135 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , ,

Francisco Liriano (11th Start, 54.7 IP, 4.96 xFIP) v. David Price (2nd Start, 3.3 IP, 5.44 xFIP)

It's the erstwhile phenom against the current phenom today. Liriano has been disappointing so far in 2009, for sure. In 2008 after a slow start and a trip to the minors, Liriano came back and acquitted himself quite well in the second half, giving hope that he'd take a step forward this year. So far, though, he's not pitched well and the results have been even worse. If Jim Souhan were the manager, he'd be pitching for his job today. I'm a little more sanguine about the prospect of Liriano improving as the season rolls along. Just don't take a lot more time putting it together, Francisco.

The Twins put Nicky Poo on the DL last night and called up Laddie. Lately, there's been a lot of teams putting guys on the DL because they sucked more than anything. I'm not sure if Punto is hurt, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's nursing a bad bat right now. A rehab trip to Rochester in the offing? Maybe, especially if Laddie comes up and proves that his head isn't jammed up his butt.

I'm not optimistic about today, primarily because the Twins are 5-15 on the road and 0-fer in AL East parks. Then again, maybe the clock has struck twelve in St. Petersburg and can have a reversal of fortune today.

Go Twins!

Inside Top Jimmy’s World

SBG May 29, 2009, at 8:35 am 20 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Top Jimmy: Swarzak should replace Liriano in the rotation. Swarzak has pitched 13 innings in the major leagues. Well, okay, he's suggesting that if Swarzak continues to pitch like he has and if Liriano continues to pitch like he has, the kid should get the F-Bomb's spot.

Pitcher IP *PRC RA ERA FIP FIP - ERA xFIP LD% DER GB% IF/F K/G BB/G HR/G *HR/F P/PA LOB%
Slowey 61.3 28 4.26 4.11 4.07 -0.04 4.45 22.9% .655 31.0% 13.4% 6.5 0.7 1.33 11.3% 3.5 77.7%
Baker 47.0 14 6.32 6.32 5.72 -0.60 4.68 21.6% .730 30.1% 13.5% 6.9 2.0 2.35 19.7% 3.9 62.5%
Blackburn 63.3 27 4.26 3.55 3.91 0.36 4.85 17.5% .708 47.0% 3.9% 4.6 2.7 0.57 5.7% 3.6 69.7%
Liriano 54.7 16 6.59 6.42 4.97 -1.45 4.97 21.3% .679 36.1% 9.7% 7.5 4.0 1.27 13.0% 3.7 62.5%
Perkins 47.0 16 5.36 5.36 4.63 -0.73 5.13 13.9% .714 41.8% 8.6% 5.1 2.3 1.17 9.9% 3.5 64.1%
Swarzak 13.0 10 2.08 2.08 5.71 3.63 5.83 12.2% .795 41.5% 15.8% 4.4 4.4 1.47 13.2% 3.8 98.5%

There are the Twins starters (less R.A. Dickey!), sorted by xFIP. Liriano isn't doing all that great, but let's not start suggesting that Swarzak's been a whole lot better, good enough in two starts to take his spot in the rotation. I think in time we'll see Swazark's LOB% dip a little and the sheen will come off. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have him succeed and be a successful pitcher. I'm just pointing out the quality of the thinking behind that column. One more thing: how sad is it that Liriano is even close to being in the position where such a column might be written?

2009 Game 46: Red Sox at Twins: this time, it’s personal

spookymilk May 25, 2009, at 12:35 pm 128 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , , , , ,

Brad Penny
4-1 --- 6.07 ---ERA+80 --- WHIP 1.651 --- K/9 = 4.6 --- BB/9 = 3.6
Most similar pitcher: Chris Carpenter (second is Rick Reed.  Yikes!)

Francisco Liriano
2-5 --- 6.04 --- ERA+ 71 --- WHIP 1.461 --- K/9 = 7.1 --- BB/9 = 4.4
Most similar pitcher through age 24: Ad Brennan
Most similar pitcher through age 24 that you've heard of: Dan Schatzeder (3rd most similar overall)

Liriano's numbers here and otherwise look a little better than Penny's in general, but when you have a fat (phat?) lineup like they do, they're going to bail you out and hand you some wins.  But arguing the merits of either guy is splitting hairs: they've both been big disappointments this year.  Both have battled injuries for a couple years now, and both have fanbases that anxiously await a return to greatness that may never come.

The Red Sox handily swept a two-game, one-day series in Boston already this season, and since then have surged from the middle of the pack to the top of the AL East, where many of us predicted they'd be.  The scary thing, naturally, is that they're doing it without Manny, who's gone, and Ortiz, who has sucked thus far.

The Red Sox have certainly been a thorn for the Twins in the past; last year, after that groin-grabbingly awesome 18-3 run the Twins went on, they headed to Fenway and got swept (only to start a 5-1 run upon conclusion of the series).  Last year in the Dome, though, the Twins won three of the four contests.  Liriano didn't face the Red Sox last year, as all the meetings were between his exit and re-entry after his injury.

Joseph Patrick Mauer
.438/.525/.875 --- 10 HR --- 29 RBI --- 99 Plate Appearances
Most Similar Player: Robinson Cano...?!

Joe Mauer is not playing today.  I'm all for days off, but with a DH, and with Mauer being Mauer...that's criminal.

Gomez,CF
Tolbert, 2B
Morneau, 1B
Kubel, DH
Cuddyer, RF
Buscher, 3B
Redmond, C
Young, LF
Punto, SS

Not exactly a fear-inspiring lineup.  But with Penny pitching like he has so far this year, anything's possible.  Go Twins!

F-Bomb Exploded And Won’t Be Coming Back

ubelmann May 20, 2009, at 10:35 pm 7 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

I guess the thing about bombs is that you only get to use them once.

I've been thinking about this for a while, not really wanting to admit to it, because hell, I don't want things to go wrong for the Twins any more than the next guy, but Liriano is a totally different pitcher post-TJ surgery. And sometimes I see people mention that they don't expect him to be as good as he was in 2006, but even those statements seem to convey an attitude of "well, okay, he won't have a 2.16 ERA, but he can still be really good."

The problem is that I just don't think that Liriano is destined to ever be a very good starter again. Maybe a little above average, but probably not better than we saw last year.

First, I think we ought to address the question "What made Francisco Liriano the F-Bomb?" And the answer to that, pretty clearly in my mind, is that amazing slider he had. That pitch was pretty much unhittable and he leaned on it hard. F-Bomb threw about 36-37% sliders. Liriano throws 26-27% sliders.

And even at that, it's hardly fair to compare F-Bomb's slider to Liriano's slider. F-Bomb was pounding it in there at 87-88 mph, whereas Liriano's slider velocity is down to 84-86 mph. It is up a little this year, to an average of 85.5 mph, but it's clearly not the pitch that it once was.

Not that the decrease in velocity is unique to his slider. His fastball is down from about 95 mph to 91 mph. That takes him, essentially, from having the fastest fastball of any starter in baseball to having one that is right around the median for qualified starters. Certainly there's more to pitching than throwing hard, but that sort of decrease in velocity is bad, especially for a pitcher who has trouble with his

Control. F-Bomb had pretty decent control, but who wouldn't when you have a video game pitch that no one can touch regardless of where you locate it? Liriano has to be a lot more careful with his location these days and he's up to about 4 BB/9, which is awful.

Liriano can still be a decent pitcher, but he'll never be an ace, and in terms of how people generally perceive what it means to be a #2 or #3 starter, he's probably going to be more or less a #3 starter from here on out. That certainly won't make him the only one on the staff, but I think the time has come where we shouldn't be expecting any significant improvement out of Liriano.

2009 Game 26: Twins at Tigers

spookymilk May 4, 2009, at 5:20 pm 215 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , ,

I have two screaming daughters and am one of three in the house that's ragingly sick. I'm working on the post (it might be small) but wanted to throw something up so I wasn't doing it right at game time.

(Okay, updated...)

Well, the last couple days were a kick in the sack.  However, note this exchange between Citizens after last night's game:

spookymilk: Baseball is dead. I'm never watching it again. Until tomorrow. And then the rest of the season. And then the next fifty seasons. But after that, baseball is dead.

JeffA: That's the great thing about baseball. No matter how lousy a game goes, there's always another game tomorrow.

Truly, sage words from a gentleman and a genius.  And hey, Jeff's contribution wasn't bad either!

Seriously, though, that is probably the best thing about this game.  No matter how bad a single loss is, it can't be worth more than one, whether you've just lost a no-hitter in the seventh and it all falls apart, or whether you're an Eastern powerhouse getting pummeled 22-4 in your brand new empty stadium...it's just one loss.  Although to be fair, I only get all cornball and perspective-y after a loss that tasted like last night's.

Edwin Jackson has pitched some pretty strong baseball for the Tigers, going less than six innings just once (and it was five) while pitching into the eighth twice.  He's given up just eight earned runs, and twice gave up none.  All this has been capitalized on by the Tigers to the tune of a 1-1 record.

Jackson has improved dramatically over the past couple of seasons, in particular cutting down on walks (just 8 in 32 innings this season).

Francisco Liriano had one okay start before trading off a couple horrible ones with a couple very good ones.  If this is the Liriano that exists now, it's going to drive us all crazy.  He's coming off a strong start against the Rays that resulted in a non-loss, which is the best the Twins have managed for him.

For some damned reason, Baseball Prospectus is down on my computer, so I can't provide my favorite stats and yours.  Is the site down, or is this the usual crap from my compy?

The Tigers are a half game out of the division today at 13-11, but the division lead has been all over the place and still just two games divide the top four teams (and I don't think many of us have written off the Indians yet).  The Twins, as they've been doing a lot in this up-and-down year already, are just looking to reach the .500 mark.  Granted, Joe Mauer and his ungodly bat of late will be back in the lineup tonight.

Perhaps most importantly, they owe me a win, because they haven't won on Monday still.  Go Twins!

AB R H RBI BB K LOB Season Avg 
D. Span cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .298  
A. Casilla 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .160  
J. Mauer c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .700  
J. Morneau 1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .327  
J. Kubel dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .294  
J. Crede 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .225  
M. Cuddyer rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .253  
D. Young lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .274  
N. Punto ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .224  
 Totals 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
 
 Detroit
  AB R H RBI BB K LOB Season Avg 
C. Granderson cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .270  
P. Polanco 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .265  
M. Ordonez rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .253  
M. Cabrera 1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .393  
C. Guillen lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .198  
G. Laird c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .270  
B. Inge 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .316  
R. Raburn dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .091  
A. Everett ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .269

Some Reason To Believe

ubelmann April 25, 2009, at 12:47 pm 4 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

I was checking out some stuff on HitTracker (the creator was interviewed by ESPN recently), wondering what kind of HRs Baker and company have been giving up. Here is the page for Twins pitchers. HitTracker has the following categories for home runs:

"Just Enough" home run - Means the ball cleared the fence by less than 10 vertical feet, OR that it landed less than one fence height past the fence. These are the ones that barely made it over the fence.
"No Doubt" home run - Means the ball cleared the fence by at least 20 vertical feet AND landed at least 50 feet past the fence. These are the really deep blasts.
"Plenty" home run - Everything else, except for the 2 above Homerun types
Lucky Homer - A home run that would not have cleared the fence if it has been struck on a 70-degree, calm day.

Baker has allowed 7 HR so far, but 4 of those have been of the "just enough" variety. All 3 of Liriano's HR have been "just enough" HRs. For comparison, last year about 1 of every 4 or so HR the Twins allowed were "just enough" home runs and this year 9 of 23 HR have been "just enough" home runs.

On the other hand, no HR allowed have been wind-aided "lucky homers," so we can't blame the wind or anything. And from a HR/FB standpoint, the Twins are at 14%, which is barely above league average. The biggest culprit so far may just be too many fly balls allowed. Only Baltimore and Texas have allowed as many or more fly balls as the Twins.

(For all of the griping about Yankee home runs allowed and Yankee stadium being a bandbox, looking at those HR, they've only given up two "lucky homers" and only four of their 21 allowed HR would have been inside-the-park in 15 or more parks.)

If you're searching for a reason to be optimistic about improvement in pitching performance, this might fit the bill.

Fun with Upper Deck: 2008 Documentary, Game 163

Rhubarb_Runner March 11, 2009, at 5:30 am One LTE - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , ,

2008_1632008 Documentary: Twins Game 163

Card #4851/MIN163


Click here to continue reading Fun with Upper Deck: 2008 Documentary, Game 163...

Six Word Player Evaluations: Francisco Liriano

SBG March 4, 2009, at 6:57 am 39 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) ,

The six word player evaluations continue with a look at our still young pitcher Francisco Liriano.

First of all, here are the results of the Nick Punto poll. First place went to Rhubarb Runner's shout "STOP FREAKIN' DIVING INTO FIRST BASE!" Who among us hasn't shouted that at the TV a few hundred times? Second place was "swung for the fence, popped up" and third place was "Lovable midget plays hard, sucks harder". I hear Punto is big in Italy. Anyway, here is a rundown of all of the past contests.

In 2006, I tried to hang the nickname Generalissimo on him, but it didn't stick. What stuck was the F-Bomb. That's cool enough, but what wasn't cool was the Tommy John surgery and a lost 2007. He was decent last year after a trip to the minors, but 2009 is the year that we really find out about him. Here's my six word player evaluation:

That explosive slider exploded his elbow.

Go ahead and add up to four of your own six word evaluations of Mr. Lirano.

Don't forget to vote on the Joe Nathan evaluations in the poll below. Vote for up to SIX of the candidates. Oh and come back tomorrow, when we review a former Twin.

Pick your favorite Joe Nathan Six Word Evaluations (Max 6)

  • Torii: He's no LaTroy Hawkins. Word. -- 14%
  • Twitch. Strike. Twitch. Strike. Twitch. Strike. -- 49%
  • Career WHIP 1.03 -- obligatory baserunner? Barely. -- 7%
  • 1000 paper cuts to Brian Sabean. -- 1%
  • "Save" stat's antiquated - bite me, Torii. -- 3%
  • How's Pierzynski working for you, Sabean? -- 24%
  • Made of nervous tics and strikeouts -- 15%
  • Eighth inning? Tie game? No Nathan. -- 21%
  • Here's hoping he can stay healthy... -- 1%
  • Joe Nathan: Gardy's Super Secret Weapon. -- 10%
  • Better Luck Next Time, Brian Sabean. -- 11%
  • Just Give Him the Keys, Gardy. -- 21%
  • Trails Reardon, Aggie in leveraged beardage. -- 11%
  • Joe's in, say goodnight! Twins win! -- 10%
  • Hey, batter! Fuck you! Sorry...Tourette's -- 20%
  • Comparatively rare opportunities keep me underappreciated -- 17%
  • Armageddon if he pitched two, Gardy? -- 11%
  • Ninth inning - Someone post the keys. -- 7%
  • Ack, I'm nary a groundskeeper boyo. -- 0%
  • No, Joe Nathan isn't really Scottish. -- 0%
  • Prolong his career, move to third? -- 23%
  • Nathan's pitching? The fat lady's singing. -- 8%
  • Twitch, twitch. Deep exhale. Strike three. -- 25%
  • I made the Twins look intelligent. -- 8%
  • Twins: Nathan, Liriano, Boof. Giants: Pierzynski. -- 8%
  • Rallycapping Baltimore? Quoth the Nathan, "Nevermore!" -- 14%
  • Nathan...good night (at the Roxbury) -- 0%
  • Ninety Four, Ninety Five, Ninety Six! -- 4%
  • Not all we got from Giants!!! -- 1%
  • Rarely sucks, but those memories last -- 6%
  • Count Chocula, with a better arm. -- 20%
  • Mariano, you can suck my jock. -- 4%
  • Thought I'd be traded. I stayed. -- 0%
  • Shortstop thing just didn't work out. -- 3%
  • Sometimes I really miss Pat Neshek. -- 20%
  • My shoulder hurts. Gardy pops tums. -- -297%

Total Voters: 71

Loading ... Loading ...

Game 151 – Twins at Tribe

eschapp September 16, 2008, at 6:01 pm 239 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

Game Time: 7:05 CDT EST and 6:05 CDT

Probable Pitchers:

Twins - Francisco Liriano (xFIP: 4.45 ; tRA+: 136 )

Tribe - Zach Jackson (xFIP: 4.44 ; tRA+: 147 )

Go Twins!

 
  Older Entries »