I am flabbergasted. I wants something to happen. I wanted a change, but Matt Belisle? For gods sake Cleveland sent him to the minors and the AAA team released him. This is our big move? This is how we fix the BP? Look at this quote from Twinkie Town - "Certainly the presence of Belisle is to lessen the workloads on fellow righthanders Addison Reed, Trevor Hildenberger, and Ryan Pressley. However, it’s a little quizzical that the front office was so quick to bring him in when Alan Busenitz (31% s
Buster Olney wrote a column that spoke to my frustrations. In the long run baseball is not being hurt by time of game - it is dying of boredom. When we base a game on strikeouts, walks, and homeruns we might as well have a home run and a throwing contest instead of a ball game. http://www.espn.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post/_/id/18564/olney-parts-of-baseball-are-disappearing-before-our-very-eyes I miss stolen bases. If you saw Vince Coleman, Maury Wills, Lou Brock or Rickey Henderson y
I had to stop reading the Buxton portion of the WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS article today because it sent my mind back through the history of Baseball. I was luck enough to be a kid when Dizzy Dean was announcing games and he always made me smile, but as I learned more and more about him and his amazing, but too short career I learned lessons that continue to plague me. One injury cannot be isolated from the rest of the body. When I am suffering from various injuries that were accumulated in a lifet
Listening to Seattle series there was Chris Hermann catcher for seattle. His only game, 1 - 4. So then I got wondering about other Twins catchers or prospects since we are worried about our catching futures. Now I might have missed some, but his is what I found and if you look at the overall quality there is only one true star catcher on the list. Wilson Ramos – hitting 310 with 6HR for Tampa Bay Kurt Suzuki – 264 – 6HR - Atlanta Mitch Garver – 220 2HR – Twins Drew Butera – 181 –
The assessment of Twins by Twins fans tends to seek the positive. I read about the good pitching staff and other data that is meant to give hope. I decided to look at stats without trying to promote or complain about the team. It is now after the Memorial day holiday where assessments start to get past the SSS notations. So where are we? The overall position of the Twins in the American League - no divisions standings - has us in 11th place - 5 teams behind us. We are 23rd if we combine al
In honor of the royal wedding, I thought I would provide baseball fans with their own version of royalty and like all royal families some are not so great. But they are interesting. I welcome other suggestions! I do not have owners or umps. Do you know any that would fit here? I did consider Chief Bender for the rotation, but decided that the American Indian would still not make the official royalty list – I am sorry to say. There are some Hall of Famers and some that are hanging on by n
I just finished reading Jim Kaat's essay on ESPN - http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23474497/jim-kaat-says-mlb-adapt-7-inning-games-effort-improve-sport and I really liked it. I think it is well thought out and he strengthens it with some notes about how the game has already changed so drastically over the years. This is a good change and I would love to see it, but won't because it will be resisted by the union, the league, the traditionalists. But what is tradition? Is it a pitcher throw
I posted the following comment in the discussion of Lynn’s White Sox game: When I look at the lineup I see such a gap at 4.The guys filling in the 3 - 4 - 5 spots are doing great, but with Morrison still trying to find the Mendoza line we really need Sano to give us a big bat.Of course we need a Sano who learns to strikeout a lot less.When I look at the Yankees big boppers you can see how it really changes the game, but they also have a better approach. Sano with 506 Ks in 1220 ABs wastes so m
Moe Berg was born to a Jewish family in New Jersey and became one of baseball’s most intriguing stories. First, he went to Princeton where his Jewish heritage stood out among his classmates and by the time he graduated in 1923 he was not only an outstanding student who could speak 4 – 8 languages, but he was also the star shortstop on an excellent team. He graduated with a law degree and served a very brief stint as a lawyer, but signed with the Brooklyn Robins – soon to be Dodgers and played
Today, Sam Miller at ESPN wrote that the Strikeout rate in baseball is going up for the 14th year in a row. Last year pitchers struck out 8.2 batters per nine and this year it is 8.6 so far. The first question is why don't batters care? Second question is - how do we compare strikeout rates now with past pitching performances and careers - although Nolan Ryan is not only secure, his record means more because of when he set it. A side note is the fact that starting pitcher strikeout rates is
The other guy is always better than what you have – right? Well that is the thought that dominates the off-season and so we are sad that we did not sign Yu Darvish (actually if you saw my posts you know I did not want him). Since we had an article looking at the first ten days and projecting the season I thought it might be good to see what we missed. Yu Darvish just had a memorable melt down over a balk, but even more exciting are his statistics during a stretch that was supposed to be the
My last blog chronicled the movement of black baseball players into major league baseball from Jackie Robinson in 1947 to the Red Sox finally adding a black player in 1958. As I said then, if we question the impact of steroids on our baseball records we should also look at how the exclusion of the black ballplayer impacted the records between 1989 and 1958. If one deserves an asterisk, the other requires a new said of record standards. I understand that baseball evolves – we had the hitless er
I am always interested in the back stories – some of which are not typical baseball anecdotes. Each year now we celebrate #42 – in fact most of you reading this have already identified Jackie Robinson from his number and we can look at his Hall of Fame plaque and celebrate his strength of character as well as his baseball prowess. And there is no doubt his ten-year career is Hall Worthy. He averaged 6.1 WAR with a peak of 9.7 despite the hate and abuse he endured daily. His career average wa
https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-18-036/?loclr=eanotw The library of Congress has given us a historical gift - the scouting reports of Branch Rickey. He was a vital part of baseball history, even beyond signing Jackie Robinson and this is where you can check it out. Here are some notes from the introduction and entries that struck me: Rickey’s 1963 scouting report on Hank Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth’s long-standing home run record of 714 in 1974. Rickey wrote "Surely one of the greatest hitters
As we carefully analyze each game of the new season and try to read the tea leaves on each swing of the bat I thought I would provide just a little change of pace and look at another story from baseball history. While Civil War general Abner Doubleday is mythologically given the title of the founder of the game of baseball, a myth that has been refuted by nearly every scholar, we should look at baseball and an even more famous General – William Tecumseh Sherman. In his biography by James Le
Decades ago I worked as a tax accountant for Honeywell and National Car Rental Corporation. Taxes are complicated and state and federal laws impacted the businesses and decisions. Baseball is an interstate commerce and has had many laws passed to protect the teams. Now the new tax law creates another obstacle with unexpected consequences that could play into the teams ability to trade and move players. As we look at the Twins and their prospects we often think of assets that can be acquire
I have read and thoroughly enjoyed Aaron Gleeman’s Minnesota Twins the Big 50 and thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia and stories. It is an excellent book and I am sure that Aaron dislikes the one big editing error that has the big page for Jim Kaat as Jim Katt. Otherwise Aaron should be very proud of the book and the quality he maintained. There are players for every era and some choices that surprised me, but nothing that I completely disagree with. I was surprised that it was not 50 players
In the midst of all the talk about Sano and his weight, I got to thinking about the judgments that people make about other people – baseball players and their size – think Altuve or Randy Johnson, their weight, their various physical attributes – like my essay on Pete Gray who over came the fact that he lacked an arm or Jim Abbot and others judged to be handicapped. Perhaps it is the fact that my daughter is deaf that made me think about Dummy Hoy. “Dummy” Hoy – William Ellsworth Hoy – was know
Joe Mauer has been with us a long time and it shows – he is currently number 9 all time right behind Hrbek (16 games difference). Joe has 1731 and if he plays 125 games this year 74 games will tie him with Mickey Vernon for sixth place on the Franchise list and he needs 136 to tie Ozzie Bluege for 5th. In case you wonder – Harmon Killebrew is number one with 2329 ahead of Sam Rice. And if you wonder who is next on the list – Brian Dozier 851. Mauer has the most hits of any current Twin wit
Max Kepler, being a German, seemed like quite an exception in baseball history, so I had to do some research. Bleacher Reports was so fascinated by his story that they published http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2568511-max-kepler-the-german-baseball-player-who-spurned-soccer-for-mlb-dreams. The article included this Max Kepler quote – "Soccer is the No. 1 sport in Germany," Kepler said. "Baseball was barely poking its head out the window at the time. Being one of the best [soccer players] in m
I thought I would wait to post this, but of course my curiosity got the best of me so I had to explore the all time ranks of pitchers and see what milestones lie ahead in 2018. Let’s start with wins, which I know people now discount. It is true that now wins are a combination of more than offense and the starting pitcher. No long do we have the complete game stat meaning anything. Jack Morris completed 175 to rank 176 and Syl Johnson ranks number 500 with 82 complete games and in that 500
Since baseball is such a numbers sport I am always curious where our current players are on the list and what might happen during this next season that we can anticipate and root for. When it comes to all time batting averages I once anticipated that Joe Mauer would get onto the big list, but in the top 50 we have Carew at 30 and Kirby Puckett (318) tied for 48 with two others. No Mauer, he has dropped out of the top 100. I know it’s the concussion, but that is still too bad. Miguel Cabrera i
They Played for the Love of the Game Untold stories of black baseball in Minnesota By Frank White This is the third book written about black baseball in Minnesota which might be an indication of how important this was to the history of Minnesota and the history of Baseball. Frank White, a St Paul native, is a perfect writer for this topic. His father, Louis Pud White, was an outstanding, if little remembered catcher in the baseball leagues as evidenced by Buck O’Neil, and he was a friend of
As you probably know, if you have been ready my blogs, I like the stories that are part of the lore and history of baseball more than the gold rush for free agents. Maybe it is because I am old I like to think about players who really loved the game and not the agents and owners. I recognize the talent and the ability of the Hall of Famers and even those who struggle for years in the minors without making it to the big spotlight. In fact I have my own strange sense of hall of fame with deaf,
In 1961 Minnesota joined the ranks of Major League Baseball and the National Football League. It might be hard to believe today, but before that there were no Twins and Vikings in the state history, unless you buy the story of the Rune Stone in Alexandria and those Vikings might have tossed rocks, but not footballs. There has never been another year like this in Minnesota sports history and happily I can say I was there – both as a high school sophomore at Central High School in Minneapolis an
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?
At this point in the pre-season, I’m just so happy to be seeing games again, I don’t care about the Twins record in 2023. I think they’ll win it all, unrealistically speaking 🙂
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
