No really, they are. I don't mean this in a New Guy kind of way as much as I mean it in a CAPS LOCK GUY kind of way. Say it with me; the Minnesota Twins are going to win this game.
The 2009 season has been, well for lack of a better term, a real roller coaster ride. Between the constant mediocrity, the other-worldliness of Joe Mauer, the injuries, Kubel's emergence, Matt Tolbert, Blackburn's supposed deal with the devil, Nick Punto, and elmOn finally earning the "O" in his name during the last week of the season. This year has been as strange as any year I have been a Twins fan-- expect maybe last year. Either way, I feel a peculiar attachment to this team for exactly that reason.
The Minnesota Twins are going to win this game.
In my opinion, the main difference between 2009 and 2008 is this year I had no expectations. At no time before Detroit series last week did I have any real belief that the Twins had a chance at this division. Sure I kept watching but it was more because I love baseball than any delusional belief of Minnesota belonging in the same conversation with teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, and Angels. I watched this season because I love baseball and enjoyed watching Joe Mauer become Johnny Bench with average. Whereas last year the only reason I didn't say "GOSO" with conviction after every loss was because I didn't want to agree with that son of a gun Stat Freak 101. Because of that I have a certain calmness that has overtaken me this past week.
The Minnesota Twins are going to win this game.
Last night I went out to visit my girlfriend who waitresses at a local bar. I walked up to the bar, took a seat, and would you believe I found myself next to someone who was extolling the virtues of Joe Mauer as the American League MVP. Granted, he did tell me that Mark Teixeria should come in second place because his defense was worth 12 wins to the Yankees but it made me feel good never the less. On my way out of the bar he told me how he was rooting for me and he hoped the Twins kept Mauer.
The Minnesota Twins are going to win this game.
It is funny being a Twins fan who has no real connection to the Twin Cities. People are always asking you why you became a Twins fan or beyond that how did you keep rooting for a team when they were so lousy during the mid to late 90's. They say it would have been easy to become a Yankees fan and no one would have thought twice. I often tell them anecdotes about how an impressionable 8 year old FTLT fell in love with Jack Morris and Kirby Puckett; Kent Hrbek and Chili Davis; Shane Mack and Scott Erickson. They smile and say good for you in a way that might be condescending but I can't really tell; nor do I really care.
The Minnesota Twins are going to win this game.
A friend of mine is in negotiations to buy a local soccer club. Yesterday he had a meeting with the Buffalo public school system and if it went well he will be able to use a local high school free of charge if he agrees to have the team tutor inner city at risk youths on how to play soccer. He sent me a text message asking me to wish him good luck. I responded "If the Twins can come back from 3 back with 4 to play anything is possible". I just heard from him and he messaged me "Twins win".
The Minnesota Twins are going to win this game.
The question most asked of me by my baseball friends since Sunday is "even if the Twins win Tuesday do you really think that they are going to beat the Yankees?". I look down at my feet, smile, and let out a small laugh before I ask them if it really matters. I have gotten to enjoy a pennant race one way or another. I have had playoff baseball for the past 7 days. Even if Minnesota loses to Detroit tonight I will have gotten to enjoy my greatest joy in life; meaningful October baseball.
In reverse jinx fashion, the Minnesota Twins are going to win this game.
I have gotten to watch Joe Mauer night in and night out for the last 5 months. I have gotten to see Eric Hinkse reincarnated for the past 6 months. I have gotten to sit in front of my computer for 6 months, more nights than not, discussing music, beer, and baseball with my 20 best friends I have never met (and cheaptoy). If you call that losing I question what winning really means. Thanks again to SBG for giving us all a place where we can stand up on our couches and say in unison:
Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough... the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!
What the f#*@ happened to the Nation I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you New Guy, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my @ss from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Leyland, he's a dead man! Verlander, dead! Polanco ...
Dead! New Guy's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
It starts here:
12:05 start.
Pitching matchup:
Scottie "Last Hope" Baker for Our Boys. Since the A-S break: 233/281/372, 75:22 K:BB, 3.39 ERA in 87 2/3 innings
Nate "Suck" Robertson for Detroilet. Since the break: 284/379/375, 16:14 K:BB, 3.57 ERA in 22 2/3 innings. But he's a lefty, so he probably will be wearing a Kryptonite necklace.
Probable pitchers:
TEX: K. Millwood (10-8, 3.63)
MIN: S. Baker (12-7, 4.47)
A battle of the staff aces. Baker has a chance to step up and help the Twins win a very important series. No looking towards the bull pen Scott. .500 here we come again.
The bad news: the Orioles owned us in the playoffs way back when. The good news: it's closer to now than it is to then. The bad news: the Twins are still four and a half games out. The good news: that qualifies as the third-closest that any team is to taking over first place in their division (after the White Sox, of course, and the Rockies, who are benefitting as the Dodgers fall apart).
The bad news: it's Monday. brianS in today's CoC:
Here's hoping that Light Rail can overcome the Spookycurse today.
First of all, I don't believe in curses. Second of all, I am quite obviously cursing the Twins. Seriously, we're still sitting on two Monday wins all year. However, the Twins are at home, against a last-place team, and have the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad staff ace going today.
Or in other words, if Bert Blyleven is to be believed, the Twins are f*&^ing screwed tonight. You know what? I have to thank the guy. A shank in my main fantasy baseball league just dropped Baker because he said he was sick of all his failures or something. I reaped the benefits on the FA market. Media is a powerful thing, no?
A week ago we were all getting GOSO about this team, but winning five of six is pretty fine, especially when two of those wins came on the road against a playoff contender. I don't know if any of us understand the Twins any better than we did 100 games ago, but at the moment, they're back in the hunt, especially given the near future. The White Sox have a brutal stretch starting today, visiting Boston, then New York, then the Magic Dome of Wonder before one game at Wrigley followed by the hosting of the Red Sox. The Tigers don't have it great either, starting a series in Angel Stadium today, then spending seven of their next ten games playing the Rays.
If there was any time in the last month to be optimistic about this team, it's today.
Aren't you glad that Cliff Lee isn't on the Indians anymore? Yeah, me neither.
Considering I have to leave work two hours early to drive to Rochester and watch the Buffalo Bills practice there is little time left for a game log tonight. Sorry folks, here are some games notes... of note.
Against the AL East and AL West the Twins record is 20-35. Against the AL Central Minnesota is 20-12.
The Twins are 39-22 when scoring first. Conversely the hometown nine are 13-31.
Can you believe the Twins are only 3.5 games back from the division lead? After this past weekend it felt like Minnesota somehow fell to 9 games back.
Scott Baker's ERA in his past 11 starts is 3.72. Over than span he has contributed a positive WPA score in 10 of the starts. Remember that when Baker looks to the bullpen tonight like a puppy dog wanting to be let inside the house. And remember to check Bert Byleven's twitter account where he is wont to say things he can't on the air.*
After a turrible start, Baker is slowly rounding back into, umm, staff ace territory again. In the only stat that matters, he is 4-1 in his last 5 starts.
If Pitch F/X data is to be believed, Baker has significantly changed his mix of pitches this year from last, throwing his changeup 18 pct of the time (compared to only 9.8 pct last year), while shying away from his curve (2.2 pct from 9.1 pct). I don't know if that explains why his HR/BIA ratio is up to 8.6 pct (from 5.8 pct in 2008) or his runs allowed (63) is on the verge of bypassing his total for all of 2008 (66 in 63 more innings), but I guess it is possible. More likely his problem has been a bit of bad luck (or un-clutch performance, take your pick) as his LOB pct is a low 65.5 pct, compared to 72 pct in 2007 and 78.6 pct last year.
Weaver, like Baker, is your basic fly-ball pitcher (30 pct GB, 33 pct FB, 19 pct LD), although Weaver has enjoyed good success limiting those fly balls to within the ballpark (5.7 pct HR/BIA, identical to last year's rate). xFIP, however, is not very impressed, probably due to his BB rate and probably unsustainably low .264 BABIP.
The Halo's offense is led by the FFOTF, eye-eye, with a .400 wOBA, and Bobby Abreu at .378 wOBA. The team sports a highly credible .352 wOBA overall, compared to the Twins' .346, despite having three individuals with higher rates (Joe, .446; Justin, .422; and Jason, .406; plus Cuddy's .388). As a team, the Twins rank 6th in the AL in runs scored, 5th in OPS, whereas the Angels rank 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Let's hope Scottie can go 7-8 innings to get to the Cheesy/Twitchy portions of the bullpen.
In the second game of a three game series the Minnesota .500's travel to play Kansas City Cinderellas. In a match up that must have Joe Posnanski going nuts, it is his favorite manager against his favorite pitcher! Rather than spending all of the game log talking about Joe Pos I am going to list a bunch of fun Twins facts from this season
The Twins are 4th in the American League in BB/K%. That is to say, the Twins are not striking out.
Well, when I say the Twins aren't striking out I don't mean everyone. _elm_n is striking out in 31.3% of his plate appearances. I wonder how Young's theories on hitting differ from Joe Mauer's?
Another _elm_n fact. Just when you thought it could not get any worse-- take a look at his BABIP. Do you think that .361 avg is sustainable? Yeah, me neither.
Joe Mauer, Matt Tolbert, and Nick Punto have been intentionally walked the exact same number of times so far this season; once.
According to fangraphs, the top 4 Twins hitters in "clutch situations" this season are Tolbert, Crede, Punto, and Redmond. The bottom 4? Mauer, Span, Harris, Morneau.
No wonder the Twins are so mediocre, all of their "best" players stink when the game is on the line.
Expected Pitching matchup: Mike Burns (0-0, 0.00 ERA in 4 innings; 7-2, 2.55 ERA, 4.09 FIP, 4.21 tRA with 48:13 K:BB in 77.7 innings at AAA Nashville) for Milwaukee.
Burns is a soft-tossing, 30-year old journeyman right-hander (WHEW!). What is it with Midwestern clubs whose cities begin with "M" and cr@ppy journeyman pitchers?
Scottie Baker (4-6, 5.22 ERA, 4.39 FIP, 4.05 xFIP, 3.86 tRA, 68:13 K:BB in 81 innings) for Minny.
Two things about Light Rail. First, there is a LARGE gap between his outcomes and his expected outcomes to date. How are we to explain this gap? It's not as though he is missing fewer bats (his in-play pct of 19.2 is right in line with last year's and his career rates, and he's striking guys out at almost exactly the same rate as last season).
The second thing, following from the first, is that he's been "unlucky" (or un-clutch, take your pick). Namely, his HR/BIA rate is way up (9.2 pct vs last year's 5.8 pct and 2007's 4.8 pct) and his LOB pct way down (62 pct, vs. 78.7 pct and 71.5 pct in '08 and '07, respectively). He has already allowed 15 HRs (he gave up 20 in '08 and 15 in '07), while generating only 5 double plays (vs 16 in 172.3 innings last year and 19 in 143.7 innings in '07).
But perhaps there is more to the story than bad luck. He has an horrific reverse split so far this season. Did I miss him taking up the knuckleball or summat? His split against right-handed hitters is Not Good: 300/319/613 in 167 PA vs. 196/241/294 against lefties (162 PA), even though he strikes out righties at a good clip (40 Ks, vs only 28 against lefties). Well, luck again may have something to say: his BABIP is 324 against righties, 228 agin the lefties.
Still, this may all just be SSST. His OOPS by month: 1118 in 3 April starts, 692 in 6 May starts, and 563 so far in 4 June starts. I like that trend.
For his career, Baker has a more normal split: 262/293/441 and 215:44 K:BB in 1139 PA vs righties; 280/328/429 and 190:70 K:BB in 1093 PA vs lefties.
In 46 career appearances in the majors (with Houston in 2005, Cincy and Boston in 2006, and Milwaukee this year), Burns' line reads zero starts, 56 innings, 73 hits, 35 runs allowed, 8 HRs, SEVEN HBP, 40 Ks, 14 BBs. I'm not sure exactly what the Brew Crew sees in him, but obviously they need some pitching. Milwaukee's team ERA is 13th in the NL and they've allowed the second-most HRs in the league.
Burns has a large reverse-split this year too (so maybe today will be Opposite Day): 3.02 FIP, 53 pct GB against lefties, 5.38 FIP, 38 pct GB against righties in AAA.
What I love first and foremost about baseball is that on any given day, history can be made in any of the games going on. Tonight, the Weaver brothers will be facing off. Yesterday, Delmon Young hit two doubles. Today, the "Civil Rights" game is being contested between a team once owned by Marge Schott and a team with the word "White" in its name.
Scott Baker is no stranger to history...or, at any rate, near-history. Nearly every time out, Baker goes on a long streak of outs and occasionally gives every indication that he'll be throwing a no-hitter...until the third time through the lineup.
Baker has been strong lately, while his opponent, Brian Moehler, can politely be described as "groin-grabbingly awful."
Scott Baker: 4-6, 5.30 ERA, 4.54 xFIP
Brian Moehler: 3-4, 6.66 ERA, 5.12 xFIP
So, to be fair (yeah, me neither!), Moehler looks worse than he is, and currently sports a probably-unsustainable career-high .357 BABIP. Still, he's right-handed, and he pitches for a team that doesn't score a lot of runs or hit a lot of balls out of the park, so bundle that with Baker's recent improvement, and it seems the Twins are set up to stay over - to stay over!!!! - the .500 mark for the moment.
The Twins have taken seven of nine from the Astros since 2000, although your friendly neighborhood Milkman managed to catch one of the losses in person, and none of the wins. For dumb.
The Twins press pass sends along this fun little note:
Dating back to 1957, only eight players have posted back-to-back months with a .400-or-better batting average: Rico Carty (1970), George Brett (1980), Rod Carew (1983), Milt Thompson (1987), Paul O'Neill (1994), Larry Walker (2002), Ichiro (2004) and Chipper Jones (2008). Joe Mauer hit .414 in May and is hitting .431 in June.
Breathe every moment of it in, friends...we may never see this again. Go Twins...we've almost caught the Tigers.
Putting the toe to the rubber for the Twins will be the Staff Ace Scott Baker[tRA+ 116, WAR 1.3, ERA 5.59]. The Twins will try to provide Baker with some run support. The Twins wOBA stands at .348 so far in 2009.
Starting for the Cubbies will be Ted Lilly [tRA+ 126, WAR 1.9, ERA 3.00] backed by the Cubs team offense holding a wOBA of .330.
Seems the squads are pretty evenly matched on paper, but the eye test [or at least my eye test] tells me that the Twins are the better team right now. We must insist they act like it.
The Twins have looked pretty good so far in this series, although the Cubs miscues and misfortunes probably have something to do with that view. But barring some asinine play by the Twins, I'll come out of this series with a positive view of where the Twins are right now.
Get out your brooms, the Twins are going for a sweep today against the Cubs. After the way this road trip started a series sweep on the road would be a good way for the Twins to make a statement. The way Mauer, Harris, the Mountie and Kubel have been playing this series bodes well for their chances.
Oh and I may never get sick of watching this:
Sunday is always a great day for some baseball.
Get back from the yard/golf course;
Get your burgers on the grill;
Grab your favorite beverage;
And get ready for another exciting game of Twins baseball. Go Twins!
The Twins have not been very good on the road in 2009. Sadly, off the top of my head, I have no reasons as to why. Let's take a look at some splits, presented without further comment.
Split
G
GS
PA
AB
R
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
SB
CS
BB
SO
BA
OBP
SLG
OPS
Home
339
33
1275
1111
184
312
56
9
39
173
22
6
126
213
.281
.357
.453
.810
Away
270
26
1008
890
101
229
38
3
23
95
11
6
96
188
.257
.330
.384
.715
Okay, one comment; no wonder Minnesota is 7-19 on the road this season.
4th inning, 3rd out: Light Rail fails to get a bite from Shin-Soo Choo on the Stealth Pitch, but Gameday is totally fooled. Kudos to NewGuy for catching it.
I could get real tired of writing about how "last night's game sucked" every week. Thankfully, the Twins didn't play yesterday. The Indians did, but not the Twins.
ahh, cr@p. I just lost 30 minutes of edits because I forgot to save the draft before uploading an image. It was gold, I tell you.
so you are getting the abbreviated version instead.
Start time: 12:10 CDT.
The Twins broadcast schedule says no TV, although Yahoo says FSNO. I'll be wishing I was listening on TRN.
There's a shred of hope in that xFIP figure for Baker. Inspecting his peripherals, there's nothing really that sticks out to explain why his performance has suffered so much this year compared to 2007 (3.94 FIP, 4.45 xFIP) and 2008 (3.85 FIP, 4.25 xFIP). Basically, he's been getting punished by the long ball on his fastball. Josh Kalk's pitch f/x data tool indicates that Baker's fastball has averaged a little over 90 mph, but is responsible for all of the HRs he's allowed this season (8 in the pitch f/x data, 19.4 pct of fly balls according to Hardball Times, 11.8 pct of Balls in Air according to Statcorner, the source of the tRA stats).
I don't have prior year pitch f/x data handy to know whether Baker has lost either (incoming) velocity or movement off of his fastball, but his outgoing velocity and movement have been...unfortunate. Over the last two seasons, he gave up HRs on 4.8 pct and 5.8 pct of BIA, respectively, so he's either suffering from a run of bad luck or his very average fastball has suddenly begun to suffer from Delmon Young Syndrome ("placement" issues). Perhaps when Man Muscles Mauer escaped from the Phantom Zone, he accidentally pulled a little somethin' somethin' extra along, which has attached to Scottie?
On the other side of the ledger sits the immensity that is Fausto Carmona. I thought this guy was going to be a superstar the way he ate up the league in 2007 as a 23-year old: 19-8, 3.06 ERA, 4.08 tRA, 137:61 K:BB and 64 pct GB on the strength of a devastating, 93-MPH sinker. But last year was a disaster for the kid (5.44 ERA, 5.04 tRA, 5.25 xFIP, 58:70 K:BB in 120 2/3 innings). This weekend, Fangraphs' Dave Golebiewski sang Where Have You Gone, Fausto? Where indeed?
Fausto Carmona's pitch f/x data for sinkers
It appears that Mr. Carmona's deal with the devil has expired. If pitch f/x's classification of pitches is to be believed, he has all but lost control of his sinker, even while cranking up the heat (pitch f/x says it has averaged 95-MPH this year). Carmona's outcomes are still GB-heavy (56 pct), but more of his pitches are ending up in the air and more are flying over the fence, even while fewer are being put into play (as his ball pct has risen from 35 pct to 38 pct to 42 pct so far this year).
So, today would be a good day for _elm_n to sit on the bench (ok, ok, that's every day) and the Twins' hitters to be patient. I'm expecting Baby J to go 6-for-6 with 4 HRs and 12 RBIs in the first three innings today.
Anybody else still laughing about Tolbert's home run trot? Best reaction or lack there of I've ever seen.
And how about number 52's post game interview yesterday. He was a pretty good sport after getting hit in the face with two pies. He pitched a pretty good game and the movement on his fastballs surprised me. His offspeed stuff was underwhelming at best, but he put his team in position for a when and that's really what counts. It'll be interesting to see if he can still be effective once other teams have a book on him. But it was a fun interview no matter what. Alas, Robby is still annoying.
Joe Mauer is GOOD. Cuddy is raking! Onto the game stuff:
Hey hey a somewhat rare Sunday night game.
Pitchers:
Twins - Scott Baker 1-5, 6.98 era, tRA+ 87
Brewers - Dave Bush 3-0, 3.74 era, tRA+ 102
Both squads are playing today again with some what depleted benches. The Twins will probably be short Kubes and Young which means Buscher might get some more at bats. After last night it looks like he'll need all the practice he could get. The brew crew will be without JJ Hardy which means we'll see some more of Craig Counsell [spelling? Eh I don't care enough to look this up since I'm typing this up on my phone. Damn rural NDls lack of the interwebs] which is big blow to the senior circit club.
It'd be nice to see light rail to get through this game without a high scoring inning. We'll have to wait and are if Rick Anderson's new found tough love dugout talks have straightened the Twin's ace apparant out.
Its a beautiful day for baseball. Hope everyone's enjoying the holiday weekend.
Now that we have that out of the way. The Minnesota nine march onto another team that we, as Twins fans, love to hate: the Chicago White Sox. Earlier this year the Sox took two of three against the Twins in Chicago including a 8-0 loss where Liriano got shelled for 5 runs in 4.2 innings. Luis Ayala also stuck out two batters in an innings work that game while allowing no hits.....
So here we are, the middle of May, 3.5 games behind the first place Detroit Tigers, who, might I add, suck. Thankfully for the Twins seemingly every team in the AL Central sucks, including the Chicago White Sox.
Here is a little help from U2, hoping to help the Twins in avoiding another stinker tonight. Because honestly, if Minnesota gets swept by the White Sox, right after the Yankees, I am going to go nuts.
Wolves lose again by 22, Kevin Love down to 17 minutes. This is the worst possible situation for the Wolves. They are driving what is left of their fan base with a tremendous stretch of terrible basketball. Their best, or second-best, player has checked out and is getting buried on the bench. I doubt that Love is in their long term plans. How's that O.J. Mayo deal looking now?
cheaptoy wrote: Never bank on anything from Milwaukee. (which I also did... Elite Eight, what the hell was I thinking?)
Jeff A wrote: Did anybody see the Robert … game? Mike and Mike (actually Greenberg and Doug Gottlieb) are saying this morning that the referees basically handed the game to Villanova, with Greenberg going so far to…
davidwatts wrote: I was very disappointed that the Mankato CBS station went to the Marquette game instead of sticking to the UNI game
and my bracket is done blown up!
meat wrote: Cc to Andrew: I'm suddenly going to be in Dublin for a short weekend this summer (late June), any suggestions would be good as to where to stay / eat drink / be Irish.
spookymilk wrote: Boy oh boy, would most of those references be lost on my...let's call them …
twayn wrote: Danke! Bummer that there's no radio for Friday's game with the Mets.
Slowey vs. Johan.
Klawitter wrote: Working in Century City. Living for the moment in Westwood, at least until I sell my place in DC this spring and move everything.
New Britain Bo wrote: How's this for script idea:
At a planning session for an … a committee of twelve Indians (4 dot, 4 feather, 4 West) hires a crack director to run their event. He shows up at…
DK wrote: I missed this earlier today since I was apparently too busy … in the Nightmare thread, but I'd be down with this too. In fact, I'd probably be willing to contribute to coverage.
hungry joe wrote: i wasn't planning on going out, but two heavies from my company were in town, and they took me out for a crazy night (got home at 2, and i've been hating life most of…
spookymilk wrote: I instantly love the person who took that photo, hungry man.
I'm sitting here drinking Bass; yesterday I went the nostalgia route with my St. Pat's choice, opting for a drink that reminded me of college…
spookymilk wrote: To be fair, drama is kind of the world I live in. I'm prone to exaggeration. Plus, I'm drunk because this script is making me tense and I needed to take the edge…
Milt on Tilt wrote: Yeah, man. I wouldn't "disregard" it either, because it was truly a horrifying move.
Oh come now. That's just being completely over dramatic.
Milt on Tilt wrote: O-Cab lead the majors in Outs as a batter in 2009. Call me … Jimmy Rollins actually did. But Cabrera was second, and first in the AL. Even so. I could use that same…
nibbish wrote: I don't know what to make of it. On one hand, Cabrera was made of suck. On the other, any shortstop we put in there was going to.
I'd have to side with DK and…
spookymilk wrote: Yeah, man. I wouldn't "disregard" it either, because it was truly a horrifying move. 0-Cab cleared the bases for the team's best hitter over and over. I know it's nice to remember…
DK wrote: O-Cab was a baseball band-aid over a severed limb. Acting like doing that was a "victory" is what seems foolish to me.
brianS wrote: I dunno. But we're not really talking about a legal argument so much as an ethical one, I think.
Moss wrote: The old "you can't have your coke and snort it too" … can't get a conviction on a … test...and is possession of any amount of coke a felony??
October 6, 2009, at 3:13 pm 
Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! 
Dead! New Guy's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Mike Burns (0-0, 0.00 ERA in 4 innings; 7-2, 2.55 ERA, 4.09 FIP, 4.21 tRA with 48:13 K:BB in 77.7 innings at AAA Nashville) for Milwaukee.
Scottie Baker (4-6, 5.22 ERA, 4.39 FIP, 4.05 xFIP, 3.86 tRA, 68:13 K:BB in 81 innings) for Minny.
Recent Letters to the Editor
In Response to Cup of Coffee: March 18, 2010,
cheaptoy wrote: Never bank on anything from Milwaukee. (which I also did... Elite Eight, what the hell was I thinking?)
Jeff A wrote: Did anybody see the Robert … game? Mike and Mike (actually Greenberg and Doug Gottlieb) are saying this morning that the referees basically handed the game to Villanova, with Greenberg going so far to…
brianS wrote: Yea, Marquette did me no favors.
davidwatts wrote: I was very disappointed that the Mankato CBS station went to the Marquette game instead of sticking to the UNI game and my bracket is done blown up!
meat wrote: Cc to Andrew: I'm suddenly going to be in Dublin for a short weekend this summer (late June), any suggestions would be good as to where to stay / eat drink / be Irish.
spookymilk wrote: Boy oh boy, would most of those references be lost on my...let's call them …
twayn wrote: Danke! Bummer that there's no radio for Friday's game with the Mets. Slowey vs. Johan.
Klawitter wrote: Working in Century City. Living for the moment in Westwood, at least until I sell my place in DC this spring and move everything.
New Britain Bo wrote: How's this for script idea: At a planning session for an … a committee of twelve Indians (4 dot, 4 feather, 4 West) hires a crack director to run their event. He shows up at…
DK wrote: I missed this earlier today since I was apparently too busy … in the Nightmare thread, but I'd be down with this too. In fact, I'd probably be willing to contribute to coverage.
In Response to Nightmares at WGOMville,
hungry joe wrote: i wasn't planning on going out, but two heavies from my company were in town, and they took me out for a crazy night (got home at 2, and i've been hating life most of…
spookymilk wrote: I instantly love the person who took that photo, hungry man. I'm sitting here drinking Bass; yesterday I went the nostalgia route with my St. Pat's choice, opting for a drink that reminded me of college…
hungry joe wrote:
Milt on Tilt wrote: hehe. Beer.
spookymilk wrote: To be fair, drama is kind of the world I live in. I'm prone to exaggeration. Plus, I'm drunk because this script is making me tense and I needed to take the edge…
Milt on Tilt wrote: Yeah, man. I wouldn't "disregard" it either, because it was truly a horrifying move. Oh come now. That's just being completely over dramatic.
Milt on Tilt wrote: O-Cab lead the majors in Outs as a batter in 2009. Call me … Jimmy Rollins actually did. But Cabrera was second, and first in the AL. Even so. I could use that same…
nibbish wrote: I don't know what to make of it. On one hand, Cabrera was made of suck. On the other, any shortstop we put in there was going to. I'd have to side with DK and…
spookymilk wrote: Yeah, man. I wouldn't "disregard" it either, because it was truly a horrifying move. 0-Cab cleared the bases for the team's best hitter over and over. I know it's nice to remember…
DK wrote: O-Cab was a baseball band-aid over a severed limb. Acting like doing that was a "victory" is what seems foolish to me.
In Response to Luna - 23 Minutes In Brussels (Tell Me Do You Miss Me),
E-6 wrote: Love me some Luna.
In Response to Cup of Coffee: March 17, 2010,
brianS wrote: I dunno. But we're not really talking about a legal argument so much as an ethical one, I think.
Moss wrote: The old "you can't have your coke and snort it too" … can't get a conviction on a … test...and is possession of any amount of coke a felony??
hungry joe wrote: tell me about it...
brianS wrote: It is hard to consume if you do not possess.