Here I am, trying to buck the recent trend of Game Log previews. Enough of the Donald Judd/Carl Andre/Richard Serra stuff already!

First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 Central, 4:05 Left Coast.
Probables:
Scottie Baker (4.28 xFIP, 115 tRA+, 1.20 WHIP, .389 SLGA, 123:39 K:BB in 153.67 innings) vs.
Cliff "Cy Young" Lee (3.64 xFIP, 165 tRA+, 1.06 [...]

After yesterdays rain out we are playing a "twin" bill today.  I wasn't sure if we were still going to use SBG's game log from yesterday so decided to throw an extra one in here just to be safe.
Anyway, here we are, with 16 games left in the season and the Twins are still just [...]

Justin Verlander (xFIP 4.64)
Scott Baker (xFIP 4.20)
I usually try to write my game logs during the Twins Thursday night games. So I sat down in the one corner of my apartment that gets free wireless, opened up a pack of cigarettes, cracked a cold one, and cranked up the Hold Steady, while getting ready to [...]

Gametime: 3:05 PM
Scheduled Starters: Scott Baker v. Greg Smith
Wow. That was (not) fun last night. It's easy to point to Nathan or Harris as the culprit, but let's lay the blame where it belongs -- at the feet of the offense. On this road trip so far, the Twins have scored [...]

Following my esteemed Drake colleague Yickit's game log, I'll do what I can to give you the very best our fine university has to offer in half-baked analysis.
Eddie's Return to the Minnesota Bullpen
Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect 8th inning last night in his return to the Twins' bullpen. He got Ichiro to fly out to [...]

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 [...]

This is the first edition of WGOM Radio. I talk about last night's game and today's game. It's five minutes long.
WGOM Radio #1
Tell me what you think!

Light Rail sits at 101 pitches and attempts to get the 3rd out of the inning, up by two with a runner at 2nd base and Mitch Maier at bat...

Andrew catches up with thisisbeth to talk baseball in our latest installment of Better Know a Citizen.

Game 113: Minnesota at Seattle
Gametime: 9:10 CDT
Scheduled Starting Pitchers Scott Baker (18th Start, 102 IP, 3.87 xFIP) v. R.A. Dickey (11th Start, 20th Appearance, 81.7 IP, 4.91 xFIP) What is xFIP?
Game 112 of the 2008 Twins season could be one that lives in infamy if this team narrowly misses the playoffs. I went to [...]

Danks vs. Light Rail
Danks is 11th in K/G amongst qualified AL pitchers, but Baker still has a marginally better strikeout rate. Baker also has a better walk rate. Danks gets more ground balls by a fairly substantial margin (48% to 33%.) So xFIP likes Danks more than Baker, but not by a [...]

Light Rail vs. Fausto
I don't really know how healthy Fausto is, and neither does anyone in the media. We'll find out, I guess.

So, I didn't get to see the game today, but I did see the box score. What jumps out at me is that Scott Baker had an awesome game. 8 IP, 8 K, 1 BB, 1 HR, 1 R -- that's a great game. The HR kind of makes sense in light [...]

Padilla vs. Light Rail
So far this season, Baker has gotten 84% of his strikeouts as strikeouts swinging. That caught me by surprise. Santana, who got a ton of swinging strikeouts when his change-up dropped off the table, has 82% of his career strikeouts as strikeouts swinging. Average is 74% of strikeouts as [...]

Light Rail vs. Robertson
If he had enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, Baker's 3.67 xFIP would be 8th in the AL. Not too shabby.
Maybe the whole "Christmas in July" thing on Thursday got to me, or maybe it's because 10am (PT) start times make day games that much more annoying, but it [...]

Light Rail vs. Dice-K
Dice-K has a 5.07 xFIP so far this year, mainly fueled by a crazy 5.7 BB/G and a low, low 35.5% GB%. As a team, the Twins still don't walk very much (255 walks ranks 25th in baseball), but it seems like (outside of Gomez and Delmon) a lot of the [...]

Robertson v. Light Rail
Last night's loss was certainly a tough one, but it's a long season, Citizens, hang in there.
2008 VORP for Twins acquired in offseason trades:
3.5 -- Delmon Young
1.2 -- Carlos Gomez
0.3 -- Brendan Harris
-0.8 -- Craig Monroe
2008 VORP for Tigers acquired in offseason trades:
17.2 -- Miguel Cabrera
6.2 -- Edgar Renteria
-6.4 -- Dontrelle Willis
-7.6 [...]

Light Rail v. Banks (Looks like a Supreme Court decision to me)
Josh Banks has pretty good numbers for a 3.71 xFIP. ~6 K/G, ~2 BB/G, and a really low HR total that is probably aided by his home park. Of course, he's pitching in his home park so I wouldn't expect many [...]

Big Unit vs. Light Rail
Randy Johnson is absolutely amazing. He's got a 3.80 xFIP and by next January, he'll have seen 10 different presidents in his lifetime. As measured by ERA+, Randy Johnson has had 6 of the 100 best single seasons in the history of baseball, and 2 more in the next [...]

Light Rail vs. Seth McClung
Buscher is more useful than Rincon--yes or no? Discuss.

Garrett Olson vs. Scott "Light Rail" Baker
Note: For purposes of self-contained discussion, it might be better to post draft thoughts in the draft post below. Just a suggestion.
Scott Baker makes his return. The Twins are near the bottom of the league in run prevention, and while I think defense is a [...]

Justin Verlander vs. Scott Baker
I've been making Verlander/Baker comparisons for as long as I can remember knowing about both players, even if no one seems to care at times. But here I go again (on my own/goin' down the only road I've ever known/like a drifter I was born to walk alone?):
10.3 K/9, 2.0 [...]