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[Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] The New Britain Rock Cats lost a close game this afternoon, 2-1, to the Portland Sea Dogs. This was a pitcher's duel, to be sure. Starter Steve Hirschfeld pitched 7 strong innings for the Rock Cats, striking out 7 and walking none, to lower his ERA to 1.06. He surrendered just three hits. Blake Martin struck out 2 in a scoreless 8th. Luis Perdomo blew the save after allowing two walks and a double in the 9th, and then lost the game when, after inte
Originally Posted at http://twins-extcs.blogspot.com/ --- Nick Punto is the anti-Youkilis. At least that’s the way it seems. When Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine made comments about Kevin Youkilis’ lack of emotion and physical gamesmanship, he replaced Youk with, well, a guy who certainly has never been accused of that. Say what you will about little Nicky, but effort has never been a problem. Wilson Ramos hit his first Homerun of the season on Sunday against Houston. Mauer got his first
With the Twins pitching staff seemingly dwindling by the day I started to think about what the Twins could do to bolster it or what could they have done to prevent this. Then I remembered reading a rumor about a trade the Twins were looking at after the 2007 season. If you recall this is the off-season Johan Santana was traded for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. The rumored trade that Bill Smith supposedly turned down because there weren't enough pieces was Johan
It just happens to take two pitchers to make that one Ace. Between Carl Pavano's mindset, and Francisco Liriano's stuff, we actually do have that one Ace. Pavano demonstrated on Monday that he has that bulldog mentality that an ace needs, to decide that he is going to go out, compete, and get some outs for his team. Liriano demonstrated on Tuesday that he is one of the most mentally fragile picthers in the league, that is yet to learn how to handle adversity. If we could somehow combine them
[TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ddVITCaiEjc/T466RJonczI/AAAAAAAAASA/pSTxFCSX_mU/s1600/Bake.bmp [TD=class: tr-caption]With no Scott Baker in the fold, and with an ineffective Francisco Liriano, the future of the Twins' rotation is dubious, at best [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] You all know the story by now: Last night was not a good night to be a Twins fan. A completely ineffective Francisco Liriano ruined what could have been
Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MPHHcivKpws/T46w_ubFOKI/AAAAAAAABMg/06qkEMGOJR8/s320/espnhs_byron_buxton_576x324.jpg There are less than two months left until the MLB Draft and this means clubs are starting to get a picture of who the top prospects are going to be when it comes to selection time. Many of the top baseball writing sites have started to put together their initial lists of who are the best players available in the June draft. Bas
This has been a few years in the making, and until now I have been completely against it because his value as a starter seemed so immense when he was on, but now it is time to move Francisco Liriano to the bullpen. Here are the reasons: 1. Aside from 2010, he has been marginally good to pretty bad as a starter for the past 4+ seasons. 2. Starters who move to the bullpen generally throw harder given that they are amped up for one or two innings as opposed to 6-9. 3. Given 2, a 94-95 mph fast
Twins look like themselves at Yankee Stadium tonight, losing 8-3. Liriano has an awful outing and talk has started of what to do if he doesn't turn it around. Down on the farm teams go 3-2 (Beloit had doubleheader after yesterday's rain out). Nishioka gets 3 hits (all singles) and 1 walk. Sano goes deep for the 5th time, and Chris Colabello has a 2nd straight great game at the plate for New Britain. 3 HR in the last 2 game. At age 28, he's obviously not a prospect, but interesting story noneth
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Here is this week's installment, tax deadline edition: Public service announcement: If you have not filed your taxes yet, uncle Sam gives you till midnight tonight to do so Twins' OF Josh Willingham, after he was named Twins' position player of the week here, was officially named AL player of the week. The Twins finally win the opening game of a series in Yankee Stadium. Last time they accomplished that feat it was early May of 2001. Go
Earlier this spring I listed 10 mid-lower tier prospects to watch this year as I expected breakout seasons from each of them. This is an update on eight of them (Nate Roberts is on the DL and Angel Mata is in extended spring training) as well as an introduction to two more players off to strong starts this season. BELOIT: JD Williams, OF (Age: 21.5, SH): Williams is off to a slow start with the bat, but is still getting on base. Stats: 26 AB, .115/.324/.154, 1 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 7 BB, 8 K, 3 SB
[TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cWcmRxG78IM/T419D60ZDDI/AAAAAAAAAR4/w4wxuQuuC1s/s1600/Liriano.bmp [TD=class: tr-caption]Is tonight the night where Liriano puts it together?? [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] CC Sabathia is down. In two starts this season, he has 0 decisions. In 12 innings pitched, he's given up 16 hits, 9 earned runs, 2 home runs and 5 walks, while striking out 15. His ERA in this brief stretch is 6.75. Clearly, h
This week I will focus on the in-conference games, discussing each series, and how some draft prospects performed. Minnesota vs. Northwestern: The Gophers swept the Wildcats 2-1, 2-1, and 6-0 in the weekend series. Friday's game featured the dominance of pitcher T.J. Oakes, who gave up 1 run in 8 1/3 innings pitched. He struck out 7 without giving up a walk. In the second game of the series, D.J. Snelten picked up where Oakes left off. Snelten went 7 2/3 innings, giving up only one run while st
Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1Eslm6GLr4/T41UsxyEbKI/AAAAAAAABMI/B3xE0G_OVoA/s320/MorneauHR.jpg In the final weeks of spring training, the Twins made a few adjustments to their line-up to align themselves for the start of the 2012 regular season. As part of these moves, Josh Willingham moved from right field to left field, Justin Morneau was going to be the full-time designated hitter, and Chris Parmelee was slated to see time at first bas
After getting swept at home against Texas, Twins go on the road and win in New York. Of course. M & M boys put up big game, now the team needs to put up consecutive games like that. Down on the farm, teams go 2-1. Beloit gets rained out, New Britain remains in 1st place after scoring 5 in the 11th to win. Today's Recap: [TABLE=class: grid, width: 850] [TD=width: 850, colspan: 9]Minnesota Twins 2012 Season Day-by-Day[/TD] Date Opponent Score Record GB WP LP SV MVP 4/6/2012 at Balt
[Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] The New Britain Rock Cats defeated the Portland Sea Dogs tonight 10-5. Despite the lopsided score, this game actually took 11 innings to produce a winner. The sides were knotted at 5 runs until the Rock Cats exploded for 5 runs in the 11th inning, and then shut down the Sea Dogs in the home half to secure the victory. For all the runs tonight, New Britain only accumulated 9 hits (they also walked 5 times). Big producers tonight included shortstop P
The 7-3 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night was one that helped knock the collective monkey off of their backs for the Minnesota Twins. After all, Yankee Stadium – be it the original or this new theme park – has long given the Twins fits. Individually, too, Twins players shrugged off the load that had been weighing them down to lead to the third win of the season. Carl Pavano, who became a pariah in the five boroughs after his disabled tenure with the Yankees, proved that
Every year USA Today examines the salaries of the Major League Baseball teams and their players and publishes them. Let's see that their numbers tell us about the Twins recent payroll cut.... Swimming Upstream Twins payroll went from $112.7M last year to $94.1M this year, a decrease of $18.6M or 17%. Overall, MLB payrolls increased 6%. If the Twins payroll from 2011 would have increased 6%, the payroll would have been $119.5M, $25.4M more than actual level. Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel and
There seems to be lots of angst with the M and M boys right now. Flipping Morneau and Willingham in the order to create matchup issues later in games seems simple enough, even though Gardy won't do it. So, who should bat third in this lineup? If not Mauer, then who? If Mauer, then give your reasons. And remember, professional sports is all about "what have you done for me lately?" My pick? Span My batting order right now would be Carroll, Mauer, Span, Willingham, Morneau, Doumit, Par
Jose Rodriguez was the Twins Daily short-season minor-league hitter of the year. He is at the Dominican facilities for spring training now but will likely join Extended Spring Training in Fort Myers.
I really hold back what I would like to say about then payroll arguments here. The fact that people don't accept the amount taken in dictates the amount going out requires one of two things. Extreme financial ignorance or fanatical bias that prevents the acceptance of something some basic. I did not change the argument. It's the same idiocy over and over. Do you really want to be on the side that suggests revenues does not determine spending capacity?
The Twins Daily Caretaker Fund
I really hold back what I would like to say about then payroll arguments here. The fact that people don't accept the amount taken in dictates the amount going out requires one of two things. Extreme financial ignorance or fanatical bias that prevents the acceptance of something some basic. I did not change the argument. It's the same idiocy over and over. Do you really want to be on the side that suggests revenues does not determine spending capacity?· 0 replies
