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About this blog

All the effort of some sort of horrible amalgamation of Denny Hocking, Matt Tolbert and Nick Punto. But no frosted tips. Now with puns!

Entries in this blog

MicroThoughts - Dedone?

I'm sitting here watching Samuel Deduno regress before my very eyes. In a way, it is sad because it would be fun for a 29 year old journeyman pitcher to suddenly harness the talent that he obviously has and become a dominant starter. The reality is that this rarely happens and while Deduno's results were good in his first couple months, the underlying stats did not support his success. He still walks way too many batters and doesn't strike enough batters out to mask it. He is starting to give
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

2

Closer Mentality/Closer Role

Last night's Yankees-Orioles game got me thinking about the idea of the Closer Mentality and the Closer Role. I absolutely believe in the Closer Mentality. I consider myself a statistically inclined baseball fan. I understand that research shows that closer is just a word. A good reliever makes a good closer and whatnot. However, I don't believe the Closer Mentality is a myth. The idea that some people perform better or worse in specific situations makes perfect sense to me. Human Psychol
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Monday Morning Madness

Weekend Recap   Twins' starters combined for 2 strikeouts in 17 innings against the Orioles. Yikes. Baltimore doesn't strike out a lot as a team, but my goodness, 2 strikeouts in 17 innings? The starters have to do better than that. I get the whole pitch to contact, let the defense do their thing, battle, achieve success idea, but this is too extreme for me. Strikeouts aren't everything and some pitchers can get away with low totals. However, not many can get away with it for a long time.
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

3

Monday Morning Madness: Labor Day!

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   I'm just going to admit that it is getting harder and harder to watch Twins baseball. First, the lineup and rotation are drab to say the least. With Mauer hurt and now Morneau traded, there isn't a lot of star power. Second, the season is so long and we don't even have the mirage of a possibly competitive team at this point. That being said, I do watch the games and I do enjoy them. There is plenty to look forward to in September, even if the
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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EMERGENCY! Post - Blackburn and Nishioka

This is like the mother lode for frustrated Twins fans. I mean, take both of these guys out in one fell swoop! I hardly enjoyed these two players as a fan. Blackburn was a player that I harped on repeatedly, refusing to give him credit for pitching one important game back in the 2008 Game 163 (we lost that game too, no one seems to remember that). I felt he was living off that reputation for far too long, considering his failures over the past 3 years. I did not know what to think about Nis
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Monday Morning Madness - July 22, 2013

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   The Twins are on fire. They have won back-to-back series for the first time since late May/early June. In doing so, they have put a little cushion between themselves and the last place White Sox. The Twins really capitalized on the Indians' pathetic defense (most notably Lonnie Chisenhall, who I feel very sorry for at this point) and won two of three games over the weekend. Winning four out of six games is a major accomplishment with this roste
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Exposing a Hidden Hall of Fame Player?

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   Earlier this week, I wrote about Joe Mauer and his Hall of Fame career. I was really taken by just how well Mauer stacks up against catchers throughout history, players from this era and Hall of Famers in general. If you didn't read it, you can find it here. If you did read it, you can find it there too, but you probably shouldn't read it again. Read this instead. I thought, well, this is probably an exercise that I could complete for a lot of
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Mondayne Notes - 8/20/2012

The Mondayne Notes will be posted either late Sunday night or on Monday. They are best accompanied by of "Spinning in Daffodils" by Them Crooked Vultures.The Games Monday - Win over Detroit - 9-3 Samuel Deduno walked fewer than he struck out. Ryan Doumit hit a late bomb to put it away. Tuesday - Loss to Detroit - 8-4 The Twins scored 4 unearned runs in the 3rd inning, but Doug Fister pretty much shut them down the rest of the way. If anything will keep the Tigers from success in the regular
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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20 Twins Trades: Welcome to Punto Country!

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! I also wrote about the two Luis Castillo trades this week. It's a bit long, but there were two trades, SO GIVE ME A BREAK. Here it is, enjoy.   There was blood in the water. A.J. Pierzynski was still warm. The Twins had just turned one soon-to-be-expensive player into three shiny new parts, each carrying a much smaller price tag. The Twins were carrying a seven-figure pitcher who was going to get even more expensive. Why not swap him for a cou
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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20 Twins Trades: 2 Trades for 1 in 2001

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! I also wrote about the Todd Walker or Butch Huskey trade, depending on who you ask. You can find it here.   2001 was the first season in what would become a nearly decade-long turnaround of the Twins' franchise. For the first time in ages, the Twins were in a position to buy at the trade deadline, rather than sell. This exciting season was about to get more exciting! Two separate trades signified that the Twins were going to finally do whatever
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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1999 Offseason in Review

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! I haven't posted these here lately because I am comically lazy. Luckily for the both of you who care, I have an archive set up right here. Enjoy!   State of the Team   1999 Record: 63-97, 5th in the AL Central 1999 Overview: At least fans were only subjected to 160 games. 2000 Outlook: Welcome to the Jay Canizaro era!   Players Lost - Free Agency   As has been the case for the last few off-seasons, the Twins didn't lose anyone of substantive va
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Winter Weather Blues - Gimmicks

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   It seems that just about every Twins game is snowed or rained or winded out these days. When is MLB going to wake up and start banning weather from their games?!? If nothing else, the Twins should have no home games in April, just in case it snows. Then, they should have no home games in May because of melting. June would be out due to mosquitoes. September is probably pushing it when it comes to snow again. August can be quite sultry.   The
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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20 Twins Trades: Scott Erickson for dreck

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   I also wrote about the two Rick Aguilera trades on Tuesday, you can read them here.   Just one day after trading away Rick Aguilera, one of the more popular players on the Twins team, General Manager Terry Ryan's bloodlust was cresting and he was hungry for another trade. Who would be his next victim?   The Trade: BREAKDOWN!   The Minnesota Twins traded Scott Erickson to the Baltimore Orioles for Scott Klingenbeck and a player to be named later (
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Monday Morning Madness - August 19, 2013

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   Over the past week, the Twins offense has been inconsistent, their starting pitching has been up and down and their bullpen has started blowing leads. It's almost like this isn't a very good team. This weekend, the Twins had a lot more trouble with the lowly White Sox at home. This would be troubling, but the last three seasons have been troubling so I'm not sure we can feasibly add any additional trouble at this point. On the plus side, the Tw
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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September Mailbag

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! Everywhere I go these days, it seems that people have questions for me. What's that stain on your shirt? Did you do that to your hair on purpose? Can you please move back a couple steps? I figured, with so many questions to answer, the only reasonable response is to breakout the old mailbag and answer some of the more burning questions that ESPN, Fox Sports One and Telemundo refuse to answer. Here's some mailbag: On a recent TV broadcast, FS Nor
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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2012 Twins Report Card

I am a teacher by trade. I am a teacher period. One of the most important parts of teaching is giving quality feedback. Students need to understand what mistakes they are making and how they can fix them. It is equally important to provide good feedback to students when they do something well. Without feedback, students have a hard time understanding whether or not they met expectations.   Grades are given because they are fairly universal. Most people know what an A or an F is. Although
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Playoff Predictions with My Wife (Borat Voice)

I decided that I could predict the playoffs just like everyone else in the World. Or, I could ask my wife Liz, what she thinks. Liz knows a lot about baseball, way more than most. She also has a lot of crazy ideas and a bit of attention-deficit disorder. She is self-proclaimed to be "eccentric." Anyway, I decided to get her opinion on the series and write her thoughts. She gets off topic in an extremely effective manner and some of her thoughts are often completely unrelated to anything th
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Monday Morning Madness: September 9, 2013

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   The Twins revived a fun tradition and got swept by the Blue Jays late in the season. It wasn't the traditional stomping we're used to, but the same basic idea. The Twins have also lost a shocking 10 games in a row at home. Where's the home field advantage, Target Field? Maybe it's time to remove that Target dog from the batters' eye. It's very distracting.   Punto's back?   I got a random text from my mom earlier this week. All it said was "
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Monday Morning Madness: July 15, 2013

If you gave me a list of outcomes from this weekend's series with the Yankees, I would have ordered their likelihood as such: Yankees Sweep Yankees spontaneously combust; Yankee dust sweeps Twins Yankees win 2 of 3; Twins win game 2 because all Yankees oversleep Yankees win 2 of 3 fair and square Twins win 2 of 3 because all Yankees lock their keys in their cars Twins win 2 of 3 fair and square The universe ends abruptly Twins Sweep Of course, watching the Yankees yesterday, they suck.
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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Monday Morning Madness - July 8, 2013

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   The Twins dropped two of three in their series against the Blue Jays and in the process, they dropped to eleven games below .500. The Twins are on a 70-win pace, which would be a huge improvement and a giant disappointment at the same time. Prior to the season, if you had told me the Twins were going to win 70 games, I'd have laughed so hard that my pants would have fallen down. I never wore belts. After the first third of the season, I had off
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

1

Weekend Thoughts

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   The Twins have swept two consecutive series, but due to crazy sucky weather, it only adds up to a four-game winning streak. The weather is still cold, but the Twins are hot right now. They sit in second place after beating the White Sox in two straight, and are only a half game behind the powerhouse Royals. This week, they received good enough starting pitching, solid offense, and great performances out of the bullpen. Is it sustainable?   Perh
Brad Swanson

Brad Swanson

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