Well, here we are, with ten games to play in the Twins season and they've already won seven more games than I've said was enough to satisfy me and I feel oddly unsatisfied. I mean, a break here and a break there, and the Twins can still make the playoffs. Hell, it's not [...]

Programming note: 3:40 Central Time start, so you Flyover State fans should be able to stay awake for the whole thing, and maybe even get to watch the Hillary delegates be pissy about having to vote for Obama.
Pitching matchup: Glen "Cake and Steak" Perkins (age 25, 11-3, 3.90 ERA, 4.93 xFIP, 39.5 pct GB, [...]

Game time: 9:05 CDT
Scheduled Starters: Glen Perkins (20th start, 116.7 IP 4.89 xFIP) v. Joe Saunders (25th start, 157.7 IP 4.76 xFIP) What is xFIP?
The Angels have run away and hid from the rest of the AL West and have one of the best records in all of baseball. That's not to say [...]

Feierabend vs. Perkins
Feierabend's had a pretty decent 13-game run in the minors this year--75 IP, 48 K, 15 BB, 2.04 ERA--especially considering that the PCL is a hitters' league. IIRC, though, he is mostly a no-stuff lefty who relies on command to work his magic. (Best pitch is probably his change, from what [...]

I could overanalyze the inning for hundreds of words, but I won't. I'll say this, though: Perkins put Gardy in a bad, bad spot there. Gardy can't be warming up the second-best pitcher in the bullpen every time there's a five-run lead in the 7th, and after the top two guys, the Twins' [...]

Game 112: Minnesota at Seattle
Game Time: 9:10 PM CDT
Scheduled Starters: Miguel Batista (19th start, 28th Appearance, 91 IP, 5.60 xFIP) v. Glen Perkins (17th Start, 96.3 IP, 4.89 xFIP). What is xFIP?
The Twins head West to take on the Seattle Mariners in a three game set at Safeco Field and the contrast between the two [...]

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 [...]

Clayton Richard vs. Perkins
Bottom 6 VORP, Twins, 2008
-12.5 -- Lamb (and awful defense)
-6.0 -- Gomez
-3.4 -- Everett
-1.0 -- Monroe
-1.0 -- Redmond
-0.2 -- Cuddyer
Bottom 6 VORP, White Sox, 2008
-4.9 -- Konerko ($12M this year, $12M in 2009, $12M in 2010, negative defensive value)
-2.2 -- Ozuna
-1.3 -- Brian Anderson
-1.3 -- Uribe
1.2 -- Toby Hall
4.8 -- Dewayne Wise [...]

Perkins vs. Mussina
Coming off of a 2-day break, the Twins head into their LAST GAME EVER AT YANKEE STADIUM (EVER!!!!1oneone!!!1111!!!), with Perkins and his 4.80 xFIP facing off against a borderline (or better) Hall-of-Fame candidate in Mike Mussina, sporting a 3.67 xFIP so far this year.
But! The Twins' two-day break will hopefully allow them [...]

SBG reads the six local sports columnists at the two papers so you don't have to.

Millwood vs. Perkins
We now enter the portion of the season where it begins to become fashionable to say things like "they don't play the games on paper"* and strawmen come into play all over the place. I'm going to try to do a better job ignoring that BS and focusing on enjoying baseball. [...]

Perkins vs. Galarraga
First off, in honor of yesterday's game, I'd just like to say Joe Nathan >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Todd Jones.
Next, I'll mention that Glen Perkins is still sporting a pretty good walk rate of 2.1 BB/G. I'm still not willing to completely dismiss the shaky control he had in the minors, but it's not [...]

Cliff Lee Is Not That Good vs. Perkins
Don't get me wrong--Cliff Lee has still be great this year, but his xFIP of 3.15 is much higher than his ERA of 2.26 and while he'll probably start the All-Star Game (and it's not a terrible idea for him to do that), I would personally choose Halladay [...]

Galarraga vs. Perkins
I'm back from my trip now--my forehead a little worse for the wear--but of course that means I have some catching up to do. I'm a little disappointed that the White Sox beat the Dodgers and that I missed the historic game Saturday night (which I was originally planning on attending until [...]

Perkins vs. Maddux
An unfair comparison:
172.3 wins above replacement -- Greg Maddux
2.7 wins above replacement -- Glen Perkins
A somewhat less unfair comparison:
6.2 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, 0.5 HR/9 -- Greg Maddux, age 24
5.7 K/9, 1.4 BB/9, 1.5 HR/9 -- Kevin Slowey, age 24
Maddux never had Slowey's HR problem (probably because he's more of a GB pitcher), but [...]

Shawn Hill vs. Glen Perkins
The Nationals have hit just .235/.317/.357 against right-handed pitching this year (2nd-worst OPS in the league), and .246/.312/.371 against left-handed pitching this year (5th-worst OPS in the league.) So I guess they are marginally less bad on offense against lefties than against righties.

Glen Perkins vs. Jeff Suppan
Twins' VORP through June 12th:
Good
18.3 -- Mauer
18.2 -- Morneau
Decent-ish
9.4 -- Casilla (probably will regress some, but I like his chances to be a contributor)
5.0 -- Gomez
Backup or about replacement level
3.0 -- Punto
2.2 -- Macri
2.1 -- Kubel
1.8 -- Redmond
0.4 -- Tolbert
-0.6 -- Monroe
-1.1 -- Delmon
-3.1 -- Harris (who is also a bad [...]

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 [...]

Daniel Cabrera vs Glen Perkins
Cabrera has somehow morphed himself into a near identical clone of Carlos Silva (circa 2005), with the notable absence of Silva's ability to throw strikes.
Note that this has not always been the case. In fact, when Cabrera came up, you'd be hard-pressed to find a pitcher more different than Carlos [...]

Mike Mussina vs. Glen Perkins
Today, Joe Posnanski has proposed the Dayton Game.* Basically, how many tools are there on your team that are 60 tools. 60 is a rating on the typical scouting scale, and well, I'm not a scout. Posnanski suggests that a 60 tool is an All-Star caliber tool and [...]

Gotta love a good night of sleep. I went to bed at 10:30 last night and my wife was in bed reading magazines. She was more than a little disgusted with me as she wanted to continue to read those rags right there. I calmly informed her that she could read them [...]

Doug Mathis vs. Glen Perkins

Dustin McGowan vs. Glen Perkins
It's a nooner!
I haven't written a whole lot about the Twins' injuries so far this season. There are a couple of reasons for that:
1) I have no special insight into how healthy these players are.
2) They haven't been especially beset by injuries.
They're about 1/4th of the way through the season, [...]

Dice-K vs. Glen Perkins
Dice-K has 27 walks in 40.7 IP this year. Holy walks, batman. I've got a good feeling about Morneau vs. Dice-K today.
For all the same reasons I don't really believe that much in Jon Lester as a top pitching prospect, I have serious doubts about Perkins. Mainly, I just [...]