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Random musings from a transplanted midwesterner

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Back Fields in Motion - March 23, 2017

Thursday morning in Fort Myers, I resolved to take some pictures for once. Arrival was a little after 9, in time again for calisthenics (shown, left). Either that, or the prospects were being put to work erecting a new fence.   Fellow TD moderator USAFChief arrived shortly after this, and we shared a great day soaking up all that Twins spring training offers at the back fields.   After the players were warmed up, instruction began. Sometimes they do a lot of standing and listening at spring trai
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Back Fields in Motion - March 22, 2017

Today the big league club was on the road, and I did not follow them, returning to my haunts at CenturyLink Sports Complex.   It was a bit of an abbreviated day on the back fields for me, as I didn't arrive until 11, and the players had already departed for their lunchtime break because the games were slated for noon. And then that noon start meant the game was over well before 3:00. Fellow TD moderator ChiTownTwinsFan joined me to watch the Cedar Rapids single-A squad (or at least the momentary
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Back Fields in Motion - March 21, 2017

Greetings from sunny Florida! I'm lucky enough to be in Ft Myers for a week during Spring Training.   Today I spent the day mainly on the back fields, watching the minor league prospects. Normally I call these reports Hammond Notes (I must have been under the impression everyone remembers Hammond Organs when I thunk up that one), but Hammond is strictly speaking the major league field here, and it would be clunky to title today's entry CenturyLink Sports Complex Notes. The photo here is of all t
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A few photos from Oakland

A few photos from Tuesday night's and Wednesday afternoon's games in Oakland.     Possibly one of the last photos taken of Miguel Sano before his trip to the 15-day DL. Notice the tear in his left trouser leg. Left hamstring injury next time up to bat... coincidence? I think not.   "Sorry son, that's strike three. By the way, I forgot to say, welcome back to the majors."   Gulls just wanna have fun.   Another Dull relief appearance. God, I slay me.   Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, and (no
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Oakland game, May 31 2016

Quick report from Oakland: Sano trying to swipe at that one flyball "triple" by Burns in the second inning didn't look any prettier from a seat right behind the fair-foul pole than it must have from the normal camera view.   In fairness, the A's right fielder (I think it was still Coughlan) returned the favor almost identically, in the fifth as a favor to Grossman.   Ragged game.
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An Unexpected Night At Fenway

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.   Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, wal
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Hammond Notes - March 27

Vacation time in Ft Myers is coming to a close. We had a very fun day at the Twins spring complex today.   We arrived at 10:30 unaware the minor league games had been moved up several hours, presumably in response to the forecast of rain. I started watching the Cedar Rapids game, and then a little bird told me, "you're missing Phil Hughes". I switched over to the Miracle game, in the fifth inning.     Performing as the World's Most Expensive Bat Boy in this game was Kohl Stewart. (Lurking on th
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Hammond Notes - March 26

Special jetBlue Edition!   We took a break from Hammond Stadium for a day, and visited the Red Sox spring facilities for a game.     Before we went inside, we wandered in their minor league area. I was initially annoyed, because we went in what I thought to be an obvious direction but were stopped by one of the senile highly experienced hard of hearing stadium personnel, and directed toward the other side of the complex. At first I was thinking it looked like a wild goose chase (or snipe hunt)
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Hammond Notes - March 25

Today we skipped the major league game and spent our morning and afternoon on the back fields. But only after watching some of the major leaguers doing drills on the front field. Looked like they were concentrating on the pitchers making their throws to bases - I wonder if the snafus in yesterday's game had anything to do with that.   Had a nice chat there with TDers John Bonnes, Jim Crikket, Halsey Hall, and beckmt (I believe only one of these names appears on any of these gentlemen's birth ce
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Hammond Notes - March 24

We allowed ourselves the luxury of arriving sometime after 11, and learned that the minor leaguers would not play at noon but at 1. Since we had cheap-seat tickets for the big league game, we chatted outside the park with Thrylos then went on in. Tomorrow we'll stay outside and watch the prospects again.   Warm day, starting out overcast but changing to partly sunny. Sunscreen advised.     Ricky Nolasco had a very nice outing, particularly in the early going when I noted three backward-K strike
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Hammond Notes - March 23

Here is a photo of Stephen Wickens warming up this morning. Are you sad to see this? I'm not, and you shouldn't be either:     Why? Because: No One Mourns The Wickens.   Hey, we went to Miami the other night to see Wicked, and I had to get this groaner out of my system once and for all. (Really??? He leads off with THIS?) So. After missing a couple of days of spring training Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday's minor league activities cancelled for a well earned day off, I was back at the fi
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Hammond Notes - March 19

A much abbreviated version of my notes today. Arrived after lunch and watched the two games offered. Perkins was the "starter" in the AAA game versus the Bostons, and seemed to do well in his one inning. Here is a photo of him warming up.     Tyler Duffey started in the AA game. Warmup photo alongside pitching coach Stu Cliburn:     I forgot to mention that I caught a glimpse of Gardy when he attended the UW Stout game Tuesday against our younger players - son Toby coaches Stout. So here's a b
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Hammond Notes - March 18

I meant to write up these notes last night and forgot. No deep insights here, just my jottings from a day under the sun at Hammond Field.   I arrived at 9:10, too late to get free parking on a game day. Cheapskate fans of minor league spring ball, take note!   I was approached by a reporter from a Naples newspaper, who was looking to interview average fans. I had initially mentioned my tenuous "affiliation" with TD (thinking he might be Nick Nelson), and apparently that made me way too official
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Spring Training Game Number 11 versus St Louis

I had the pleasure of watching today's game in person at Hammond Stadium, versus the portion of the St Louis Cardinal roster they deemed worth putting on a bus (hint: no stars). This writeup ought to be pretty quick, because it's one of those rare games where the box score plus a little inference pretty much tells you all you need to know.   But first, I'll mention that we didn't have tickets to start with, and didn't want to feed the scalpers - but a little bird had told us that tickets get fre
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Poker night with Terry Ryan

One of the interview questions with Terry Ryan at the Torii Hunter introduction press conference was, "are you surprised it [he?] took a one year contract?". Terry twitched and suppressed a smile and basically used every single one of his facial muscles before replying "no".   http://blogs.twincities.com/twins/2014/12/04/twinsights-terry-ryan-defensive-metrics-twins-ignore/   (Second short video in the sequence.)   My reaction is that, while poker is not my game and I am terrible at it, if by ch
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The Game

(This is an entry in the Blogging For Pizza contest.)     April, 2010...     "I don't want to be the catcher on the Twins anymore," Joe Mauer said. He looked around the table at the others inquiringly. "Like that?"   Gardy beamed. "Exactly like that." The manager picked up his glass and made a vague toasting motion with it, in acknowledgement of the catcher's quick comprehension.   Morneau's eyebrow inched up. "And the purpose of this rather esoteric activity is...?"   Gardy sighed. "It's a game
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Impressions after the Sunday game in Cleveland

After watching the Twins today in Cleveland, several impressions come to the forefront.   First, the pitching seems to be no better than last year, and quite possibly even worse. The starter, Nolasco, stunk it up with 5 runs in only 4 innings, and could not seem to locate his pitches to save his life. The bullpen quickly coughed up two more runs, a performance that could put a game essentially out of reach by the halfway mark.   The defense was also laughable, with somebody inexperienced manni
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Jimmy Rollins being shopped

MLBTR has an item stating that the Phillies would be willing to trade Jimmy Rollins. In the article, it's stated:   "Rollins, 35, struggled at the plate in 2013, batting .252/.318/.348..."   Meanwhile our resident starter pleased some fans with his progress, posting .221/.281/.330.   I don't particularly advocate trading for Rollins, as I assume the Phils want prospects the Twins won't want to part with and the Twins won't want to invest $11M a year in an aging player. I'm just mindful that o
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Road Trip for Arizona Fall League?

Folks,   When the Twins announced their players being sent to the Arizona Fall League (AFL), John Bonnes made an off-hand comment about a Twins Daily road trip. Something of that magnitude might be a little fanciful, but I'm thinking about going and he and I agreed maybe a clearinghouse would be useful for those who plan to go, or are considering it.   The Twins players will be on the Glendale Desert Dogs. All the AFL games are in the Phoenix area. Our guys have games from October 8 to Novemb
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Swiftian satire must be attempted only by people actually named Jonathan

In response to a forum reply that I felt crossed a boundary, where the writer questioned the courage of Andrew Albers, instead of just deleting the post I decided to try a bit of "see how you like it". Since it stirred up some controversy, I am posting here the private message I later sent:     Brock and I were both basically reacting to one sentence:   Albers could have at least had the balls to fight for it if he really wanted it.   Nothing else in your several posts
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