Mississippi Meltdown, Part Deux. In which Don Guillote tries to rally his monkey to save the day.
First pitch: 7:10 pm Central Time. That means that come about 7:00, it's time to strap on a pair of
these bad boys and get busy wif it.
for the Pale Hose: Mark Huehrle Buehrle (4.10 xFIP, 116 [...]

Tonight's game is going to start in about thirty minutes, but I didn't see a Game Log anywhere in the back end, so I'll throw something up here so we can get the comments started.
Kansas City visits the Triple H Corral tonight at 7:10 CDT (8:10 EST).
Probable Pitchers:
Minnesota: Nick Blackburn (ERA: 3.71; xFIP: 4.49; tRA+: [...]

6:07 tipoff.
Pitching matchup: Nick Blackburn (9-8, 3.75 ERA, 4.56 xFIP, 80:30 K:BB, 69.8 pct LOB) vs A.J. Burnett (16-10, 4.48 ERA, 3.64 xFIP, 193:74 K:BB, 69.9 pct LOB).
The Twins now have lost seven straight to the Jays, including five straight at Rogers Centre, where they've been outscored 39-13 in that stretch. On the [...]

Nick Blackburn (xFIP 4.47)
Jon Garland (xFIP 4.60)
How do you describe this season to someone who is not a Twins fan? Before this season started the pundits decreed "A rebuilding year for the Twins!" and I think it fair to say that we were all resigned to that fate—well, at least I was. We traded Johan, [...]

Game time: 7:10PM
Pitching Matchup: Justin Duchscherer (22nd start, 4.28xFIP, 139.7IP) v. Nick Blackburn (25th start, 4.44xFIP, 144IP)
In case you were wondering, that pitcher's name is pronounced Black-burn, just like it looks. The other guy is DUCK-sure, or DUKE-sure, depending on whether you believe ESPN (the former) or the Repository. However you pronounce [...]

Mussina vs. Blackburn
2008 Twins Starters and Mike Mussina by xFIP:
3.60 -- Mussina
3.92 -- Baker
4.16 -- Slowey
4.25 -- AL avg. xFIP
4.40 -- Blackburn
4.44 -- Estimated AL avg. xFIP for starters
4.46 -- Boof!
4.75 -- Livan
4.92 -- Perkins
5.80 -- Liriano*
Misc. Stat:
4.43 ERA -- AL starters
3.88 ERA -- AL relievers
*Obviously, small sample size caveats apply here.
[SBG: Yesterday, I [...]

Game 114: Minnesota at Seattle
Game time: 3:40 PM CDT
Scheduled Starters: Nick Blackburn (23rd start 134 IP, 4.34 xFIP)
v. Jarrod Washburn (22rd start, 23rd appearance 122.7 IP, 4.97 xFIP)
The 2001 Minnesota Twins exploded onto the scene from nowhere and raced out to a 55-32 start and a five game lead at the All-Star Break. [...]

Jeremy "Jeremy" Jeremy vs. Blackburn
Looks like I'll be able to make the game on Monday in person with my brother.* I probably won't be able to make the games on Tuesday and Wednesday, but hope to catch the boys at least twice when they come back in late August.
*When this is actually posted, we'll [...]

Blackburn vs. Sowers
Sowers has a 4.96 xFIP, which is no great accomplishment, but is 2+ runs better than his ERA.

Blackburn vs. Ponson
Sidney Ponson is apparently an asshole, but posted a very respectable 4.38 xFIP (and 3.88 ERA if you're into that) with the Rangers. Nick Blackburn, on the other hand, has a 4.24 xFIP. So, the pitching matchup is really pretty even, talent-wise.

Verlander and Blackburn on the mound.

Blackburn v. Lester
Now that Lester has started throwing more strikes and has his xFIP down to 4.17, I'm less of a hater.
The Red Sox are currently in second place in the AL East. I see two clear reasons for this:
1) The Red Sox are not superheroes in a cartoon.
2) The Rays are [...]

Bonine v. Blackburn

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 [...]

Owings vs. Blackburn
78 OPS+ -- Micah Owings, 2008
120 OPS+ -- Micah Owings, career
I heard some talk that he might DH today, but it kind of seems like the D-Backs have better position player options? Everyone in yesterday's game has an OPS+ better than 78 so far this season except for Montero, who was catching. [...]

Nick Blackburn vs. Paul Byrd
After game 59, the Twins were "on pace" for about 85 wins. Today they are "on pace" for about 77 wins. Ignoring for a moment that that's not a very good way to project forward a team's final record, this hasn't been a very fun stretch, has it?
But let's [...]

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 [...]

Darrell Rasner vs. Nick Blackburn
I think Darrell Rasner stole Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy's mojo. He's way closer to a 5.00 ERA pitcher than he is a 1.80 ERA pitcher, but he's had a good first four starts of the season. Inability to miss bats is probably his biggest weakness, so hopefully the [...]

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 [...]

"Sir" Sidney Ponson vs Nick Blackburn
Ponson's really been pretty decent so far.

Nick Blackburn vs. Ubaldo Jimenez
Blackburn's been pretty decent in a low-K, low-BB way, high-GB% way, and Ubaldo's been pretty decent in a high-K, high-BB, higher-GB% way.
Sunny and high of 83 today in Seattle, so my work's done here for today. Carpe diem and all that.

Tim Wakefield vs. Nick Blackburn
I don't think I really have anything particularly worth saying today. I'm sure we'll hear about Wakefield's previous success in domes about 10,000 times during the broadcast.
Happy Mother's Day.

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 [...]