Game time: 9:05 PM CDT
Scheduled Starters: Scott "Light Rail" Baker (21st Start, 119.7IP, 4.11xFIP) v. Jon Lackey (18th Start, 120.3IP, 3.96xFIP)
I was listening to KSTP on a Sunday morning back in March and Patrick Reusse proclaimed that Delmon Young would have better numbers than Torii Hunter in 2008. I don't know what I was [...]

Game time: 7:10PM
Scheduled Starters: Sean Gallagher (17th start, 19th appearance, 88IP, overall, 7th start, 7th appearance, 29.3IP 5.48xFIP for A's) v. Kevin Slowey (20th start, 114.3IP 4.28xFIP).
You can't win them all, I suppose, so last night's loss can't really be considered that big of a problem. On the spectrum of teams that must be [...]

Inspired by Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau's clutch hits in the ninth inning against a left hander on Saturday, I took a little look at the Twins two stars.
WGOM Radio #2

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

TJ makes some sense, and says he'll take the Twins All-Stars over Josh Hamilton.
Redemption is a glamorous story-line, but isn't it better this way, following three model athletes with no need for it?
Yeah, I can get behind that.

I probably wrote almost the same thing last year, but here goes nothing:
I like the All-Star Game. We get a bunch of the best players in baseball together and have them face off against each other. Any other game I watch during the rest of the year will have less star power. [...]

I happened to catch a couple of minutes of Reusse and Top Jimmy talking about Mauer and Morneau and their leadership (I thought they weren't the leader types -- oh, that was last year, heh). TJ addressed the issue of his dressing down Mauer last year, saying that he wrote about it only because [...]

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 [...]

McClung vs. Blackburn
Blackburn looked pretty good at the convention, but I'm posting this a fair bit in advance so I can't be 100% sure he's going to make this start. His xFIP of 4.19 would look a little better in recent years gone by. This year, it makes him just a bit above [...]

Slowey vs. Peavy
Going into the series, team leaders in VORP:
30.1 -- Adrian Gonzalez
18.5 -- Brian Giles
9.2 -- Jody Gerut
6.5 -- Edgar V Gonzalez
5,4 -- Kevin Kouzmanoff
22.4 -- Joe Mauer
19.8 -- Justin Morneau
7.7 -- Alexi Casilla
7.5 -- Jason Kubel
2.9 -- Nick Punto (this is not a typo)
I heard someone recently say that Adrian Gonzalez might be [...]

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 [...]

Oh, and fuck you, Torii Hunter. h/t davidwatts.

...because the Twins are in the middle of a blowout loss and you don't really want to pay attention to all of the gory, Bass-filled details, you might want to go cast some All-Star votes for Joe Mauer. He's the best catcher in the AL, and while it is so much fun to dwell [...]

Every year, I decide that it's not worth caring about the All-Star vote--voters just clearly value players differently than I do, so whatever. But I looked at the current voting totals, and I just can't help but comment.
If the polls closed today, this would be the AL All-Star team:
C -- Varitek, Red Sox
1B -- [...]

Oh yeah, that guy:

Nick Blackburn vs. Brian Bannister
Bannister became fairly well-known over the offseason for admitting that he knows about stuff like DIPS and not really fundamentally disagreeing with it. Obviously, he would like to always see his ERA beat his peripherals, but after posting a 3.87 ERA last year with a 5.14 xFIP, he's posted a [...]

Name: brianS
Hometown: Spamtown USA.
Town I Currently Live In: Warehouse City, NorCal
Profession: edge-a-kater
Bats: right. although I hit almost as well lefty in slow-pitch
Throws: right. but I throw a football better lefty.
Positions: mostly first base. I also pitched in "yoot" baseball.
Greatest Career Achievement in Baseball/Softball/T-ball: Drove in the winning runs in bottom-of-last-at bats in an intramural
softball playoff [...]