Archived Game Threads

Aphorism game thread. In the aphore times, when ya couldn't look up the rules on the internet, and compare the bruteforce statistics of when it made sense to bunt, they had to come up with quick and clever ways of remindin' folk what to do. Here are a bunch of useful ones that will help us win... Well now... It seems some Sox fan got into my game thread intro, and mixed a few dubious ones. Can you help me sift through and figure out what is what? Rosario sure would appreciate it. Hit 'em where they ain't. Red sky at dawn, the bunt must be on. Red sky at night, play back and hold tight. Chose wisely, for swinging at the correct pitch may give you immortality, a f…

Game Time Temp 73 and Rain will fall elsewhere on the planet. Twins SP: Ricky Nolasco 1. Santana SS 2. Mauer 1B 3. Dozier 2B 4. Willingham LF 5. Morales DH 6. Arcia RF 7. Suzuki C 8. Fuld CF 9. Escobar 3B Tigers SP: Rick Porcello 1. Kinsler 2B 2. Hunter RF 3. Cabrera 1B 4. V. Martinez DH 5. J.D. Martinez LF 6. Jackson CF 7. Castellanos 3B 8. Avila C 9. Saurez SS Things to Think About: 1. Voodoo Dolls -- Saturday the 14th was unlucky for the Twins. Ugly game to watch on it's own but with Plouffe going down with an injury and his backup Eduardo Nunez also going down with an injury and the game took a couple steps beyond a simple ugly baseball game. The front of…

Harken back roughly a century, to a time before internets and cellular devices, when interactions were actually *gasp* in person... http://www.reusableart.com/miwp/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/dove-banner.jpeg You are cordially invited to attend a Fancy Dress (er, i mean Base) Ball at the Chatteau de Twins Daily in the Magnificent Game Thread Bare Ball Room to commemorate this, the 11th reunion of the Erstwhile Washington Senators first in War first in Peace um, yeah... with the Detroit Tigers Four times Division Champs Music to be provided by Justin Verlander Ervin Santana (both esteemed right handed virtuosos of the mound) S…

It's Quick Turnaround Time after last night's three rain delays extended the game until past midnight here in the Eastern time zone. And speaking of quick turnarounds, I'm a big fan of roundabouts. Research in the U.S. has found that roundabouts lead to a 37 percent reduction in collisions, 75 percent reduction in injury collisions and 90 percent reduction in fatalities, all compared to traffic lights. Conversion to roundabouts also leads to quicker traffic flow, with a reduction in delays of anywhere between 20 and 89 percent. They are also cheaper to build than traditional intersections, there are lower maintenance costs compared to a traffic signal, and they prov…

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy with a 30-percent chance of rain. Winds blowing from right to left field at 15-20 m.p.h. Temperature around 75. (What's the difference between 'around' and 'near?') Bri: The Lineups Live from Milwaukee on the way... Just stay patient. ChiTown Delivers!!! Chi: Yes, live, as Milwaukee is a suburb of Chicago. Twins: SP, Gibson Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Arcia RF Willingham LF Suzuki C Escobar SS Santana CF Gibson P Brewers: SP, Garza Segura SS Braun RF Lucroy C Gomez CF Davis LF Gennett 2B Reynolds 3B Overbay 1B Garza P ------------------------------------------------------ Things to Think About: 1. Milwaukee -- Milwauke…

Cleveland: SP Scott Kazmir Bourn - CF Cabrera - SS Kipnis - 2B Swisher - 1B Brantley - LF Santana - DH Chisenhall - 3B Gomes - C Stubbs - RF Minnesota: SP Mike Pelfrey Dozier - 2B Plouffe - 3B Mauer - C Morneau - 1B Doumit - RF Colabello - DH Hicks - CF Thomas - LF Florimon - SS Things to think about for tonight's game: 1. Think about baseball being back... You never know what you got until its gone. It's been 4 days of not knowing what to do with myself and the ideas I actually came up with for doing with myself. Were not good! 2. Think about the rotation... We just had 4 days off from baseball... So everyone is basically ready to start. Gardenhire can res…

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy with a 50-percent chance of rain. Winds blowing from left to right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 75. Roh Roh... Here come the Astro's Lineup from ChiTown... Jane... Stop this Crazy Thing!!! Geez, Brian ... I was waiting FOREVER for you to finish your spiel so I could jump in and do my little thing here. And here's my little thing ... Astros: SP, Keuchel Fowler CF Altuve 2B Springer RF Castro C Dominguez 3B Singleton 1B Carter DH Grossman LF Gonzalez SS Twins: SP, Hughes Santana DH Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Willingham LF Plouffe 3B Kubel RF Suzuki C Escobar SS Hicks CF ---------------------------------------------------…

Warning: There’s math. I decided to put my 1.000 winning percentage on the line by signing up for today’s Game Thread. Okay, I’m only 1-0, but still, 1.000 is 1.000. We were 1-0 on April 3, and look where that's gotten us. It's a lot better than last year's 0-1. And when I signed up for the 9/9/17 game, I realized that that’s a square number followed by another square number, followed by a prime number. I’m kind of a nerd, so it made me wonder how often that pattern happens. Turns out, it’s not as rare as I thought it might be, given that there are three months that are squares (1, 4, 9), five days of the month that are squares (those, plus 16 and 25), and 25 years i…

"A day late and a dollar short..." game thread intro. I owe y'all an apology. I got caught up tryin' to be funny in yesterday's intro, and didn't end up sharin' what i thought a somewhat portentous experience from the previous day. Thursday morning, i brought my car to the shop to figure out how come it was tending to stall in stop and go traffic. i sat in the place with a book to read, and made some progress, though i was somewhat distracted by the day time talk show. 2 hours later, they get my attention to tell me they couldn't find the problem. Seemed to be workin' fine. I paid the obligatory hour of diagnostics, and yup, presumably in the process of unconnectin'/rec…

The heat is on, in the immortal words of Glen Frey! Our hometown heroes venture into the sizzle and swelter of mid-July Texas heat to take on the Rangers tonight. It's a cool 106 degree day in Arlington, 62% dewpoint.....when the word sultry was developed Texas in July surely was in mind. But...gametime temps estimated to be 85...Whew, what a relief. Though the Texas skies are sunny this will be a Gray affair tonight, as our man Sonny takes the hill for the good guys and Jon, formerly Jonathan, tries his luck for the Rangers. Tonight is the the first meeting between the two teams this season. So who is hot, and who is not? as the Twins prepare to take on the Texas h…

Good morning and welcome back to Game Thread central! We have another great game on tap today against the struggling Chicago White Sox. I think the Twins will bounce back today in a big way to take 3 of 4 from Chicago. With the White Sox trotting Mr. Covey out on the mound today I would look for another multi-homer game from the Twins. My pick to click today is Nelson Cruz. I apologize for the brevity of my post today but I was up in Alexandria, MN bass fishing with my son yesterday and got extremely sunburned. My face looks like Rocky Balboa after going the distance with Apollo Creed in Rocky I...The big news besides my sunburn is the trade the Twins pulled off with th…

Unfortunately, or, fortunately, depending on your view of my game thread openers, this one isn't much more than a "mail it in edition." *Internet 101: When in doubt, go for the kitten. But, when things seem bleakest, there's always music to pick you up: *Recorded at the old Blues Alley, Minneapolis, Good times, good times. The Twins are at Texas for a 4 game series, and, since the race in the Central has heated up, should be a good chance for the Twins to gain some ground on Cleveland. It's crunch time and we've got a barn burner of a race for the division title this year. And, with that, we go to the 5 things that should, or should not, be mentioned: 1. P…

ANND Welcome back! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line - Game Thread Edition! How neat was that yesterday to watch our favorite team win?! I hope you all enjoyed Negativity Police and the positive vibes he or she provided us! Unfortunately like all super heroes, they have another community to save from negativity.... Let's talk line-ups and weather! Weather is colder than yesterday. 44 degrees at game time. Real feel of 36 degrees. Chance of showers at 2 PM. Minnesota Twins: 1. Joe Mauer (L) DH 2. Eduardo Nunez ® SS 3. Miguel Sano ® 3B 4. Byung Ho Park ® 1B 5. Oswaldo Arcia (L) RF 6. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B 7. Eddie Rosario (L) LF 8. Juan Centeno (L) C 9. Danny Santana (S) CF …

Starters: Phil Hughes (0-4, 4.39 ERA, 4.58 FIP) VS Shane Greene (3-1, 3.00 ERA, 2.97 FIP) 1: Phil Hughes – Will He Get That Win Today? It’s hard not to notice that 0-4 record of Phil’s. It seems like he just can’t catch a break. The Twins defense has been pretty bad behind him, but his 4.58 FIP suggests it’s more his fault than the defense’s. However, I believe one of the main reasons why is the lack of run support. Over Phil Hughes 4 starts, the Twins have scored… 4 runs!! Just 4! (0, 2, 2, 0) It’s kinda hard to win games when you have no offense to back you. Phil was in a groove last start, but so was Felix Hernandez, so Hughes got the loss. The keys to this game belong…

This the Ruddigore game thread intro. Everyone is encouraged to be melodtramatic about everything that happens. The slightest misplay send you into horrendous depression, or make routine plays lift you into exuberant over confidence. Or if you'd like to emphasize the mellow part of melodrama... That's good too. For those not familiar with it, Ruddigore (the Witches Curse) is Gilbert and Sullivan's parody of melodrama. If you have nothing better to do in the 4 hours before the game starts, go and watch a youtube version of it. It has a bad baronet, a haunting picture galory, and the epitomy of patter songs with the final line "this particularly rapid unintellig…

ANND Welcome! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line: Reflection Edition! Typically on this day we have a funny-ish bit to sell off the Twins' spare parts. 2 years ago we opened up a Used Car Lot and found someone to take the Nissan Nolasco 4x4 off our hands. Last year we had GMs across the league figure out if their 'Price Was Right' to acquire Brian Dozier. This year is different, in a lot of ways. The Twins did their selling prior to this day, and all we have left to talk about potentially moving are Dozier and Rodney. There are approximately 18 different threads to talk about that. So instead, let's take some time to reflect... I legitimately spent a good 2 hours last ni…

A pleasant Saturday and a happy fishing opener weekend to you all. Great lots of you have undoubtedly decamped to one or more of Minnesota’s many lakes* to drop a line, float a bobber, relax and forget all about Mother’s Day in some of the most idyllic surroundings this side of western Wisconsin. For many of you, the carefree time on the lake is also accompanied by your favorite MLB team broadcast. Ah, fishing and listening to baseball. Could life get any better? Why, yes, it could. I could be writing the intro to tonight's Game Thread! And I could have a fish story to tell! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Not so long ago on a peaceful lake not far from here, I was out…

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy with a 30-percent chance of rain. Winds blowing in from right field at 10-15 m.p.h. Temperature around 75. INDIANS: SP, Bauer Bourn CF Ramirez SS Brantley DH Santana 1B Murphy RF Chisenhall 3B Aviles 2B Shuck LF Perez C TWINS: SP, Hughes Santana SS Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Vargas DH Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Arcia RF Hicks CF Schafer LF ------------------------------------------- Something witty this way may come ... (I said may ...) ... ------------------------------------------- Clearly... A long shot... May won't come either. It's Hughes Tonight. May will come tomorrow!!! Things to Think About: 1. The Indians Chances -- They are…

The Twins entertain Texas today at Target Field today at 1:10 PM in the middle game of a three-game series immediately prior to the All-Star break. The Twins will send out big Mike Pineda while the Rangers counter with Jesse Chavez making his seventh start of the season (he's relieved in 30 other games). Pineda has pitched pretty consistently in his last 10 starts, but with a few encouraging factors. He has limited free passes, has increased his velocity and has been getting a good number of strikeouts. Crooked numbers have been his nemesis. Yesterday, the Twins got well against the Rangers. The flagging defense was good to spectacular, power was there and outside of a …

I think the schedulers of MLB did a good job putting the White Sox on our schedule just after the Yankees. We needed the pick-me-up that the Sox provide. We played the Yankees tough and lost a very, good game, epic even, in the process … yes, you can lose and it can still be a very, good, epic even, game, even though it sucks we lost, imho … and only won one of the three. Our July over all hasn’t been so good, our last home stand wasn’t so good, Cleveland appears mostly healthy again and is bearing down on us … so … it’s good timing for us and our morale to be playing the White Sox right now. They are a good pick-me-up. And I’m glad that the Yankees are having their post-…

The Twins battle the Royals today in game three of a four game series, currently tied 1-1. On the mound Duffy (KC) vs. Berríos (MN). We're two-thirds through the month of June and predictably there have been some slumps and swoons from the Twins. Of note, Pérez has a 5.91 ERA, Parker is at 10.20 and Magill at 11.88 this month. Hitters OPS: Castro .588, Schoop .646, Rosario .704, Sanó .737, Garver .747. Going well in June, Berríos 1.31 ERA, Duffey 1.00 ERA in 9 IP, Rogers 1.13 in 8 IP with 5 saves. Hitters: Kepler .299 with a 1.084 OPS and Cruz .293 with a 1.043 OPS. Schoop held out with a sore ankle today, so a limited bench. Lineups: Twins Polanco ss Cron 1…

Today represents the half-way point of the Twins schedule. The Twins sit currently at 52-28 and the math says (Add the 2, carry the 6, divide the numerator and multiply by 1) this evening represents game 81. I'm still surprised the Twins have 52 wins at this point of the season. I'd have been happy with 51, maybe even 50! But 52? Get out of town... The Twins train, despite injuries, continues to roll on and win games. Which depth, as has been pointed out by others, has been key to the Twins continuing success this year. Now, the Twins, after playing all day and half the night, move on to Chicago to play the White Sox. Hopefully, the Twins shake off the…

Once More Unto The Breach I grew up in a baseball town. We had Little League, Midgets, Legion ball, a traveling town team, high school teams and a semi-pro team for adults. We grew up on baseball, probably would’ve grown up faster if they’d served mash potatoes and gravy with the baseballs, but we cut our teeth on baseball, lost a few, too. Teeth I mean. We had lots of dentists in town. All baseball fans. I think I set the record for being the tallest shortstop ever to play Midgets. The tallest midget. There’s something to be proud of. I stood 6’ 1” in my baseball socks. You might say I was head and shoulders above my junior high teammates who spent their time sta…

Lineups: TBA (Thanks in advance to whichever mod inserts them here.) Starting pitchers: Twins: Kyle Gibson (RHP) 2-5, 4.82 Rangers: Cole Hamels (LHP) 9-2, 2.93 Expected weather conditions: Temperature: 94F Dew Point: 70F Heat Index: 98F Skies: Partly cloudy Wind: SSW 11 Guideline number 4 in Chief's recommendations for game threads is: We like positivity. However, what is foremost in my mind today is the needless killings of innocent people that have taken place in these two two-city metropolitan areas during recent days and I think it would be totally remiss on my part to disregard that. While baseball, and entertainment in general, has an important place in ou…

Happy Birthday, Nelson Cruz! I don't care which one it is, just keep it goin'! I often think, "hey it's a new unit of time (year, month, game) maybe i can do something different this time... So rather than tryin' to overthink a clever introduction (or underthink it, as the case may be) i'm just gonna roll with whatever comes to mind... Of late, we typically have had trouble against lefties? Let's change that... Twins: 0. Jose Berrios (R) P 1. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B 2. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B 3. Nelson Cruz (R) DH 4. Trevor Larnach (L) LF 5. Ryan Jeffers (R) C 6. Miguel Sano (R) 1B 7. Alex Kirilloff (L) RF 8. Gilberto Celesti…

┴Ɔ ɯd0Ɩ:ㄥ @ ϛ/ϛ 'sɔᴉʇǝlɥʇ∀ ˙sʌ suᴉʍ┴ 'pɐǝɹɥ┴ ǝɯɐפ (If I get banned for this, I'm taking Ash with me. He not only was the one who gave me the idea, but he actually voluntarily did the dirty work, and he will suffer the consequence, be it good or bad.) Aren't I generous? Weather: Mostly cloudy with the temperature starting around 70° F but finishing in the mid 60's (assuming the game is neither modern fast nor scary long - I'm guessing if either it's the latter). Relative humidity: 44%. Precipitation chance: 0% (yay! but according to a shadier source than the rest). East southeast wind around 15 mph. Sunset: 8:22 PM (an hour and 12 minutes after the first pitch). …

Twins: SP Kevin Correia Not released yet... Gardy is cooking up a real good one tonight. A's: SP Dan Straily CF Crisp 3B Donaldson SS Lowrie LF Moss RF Reddick DH Smith C Vogt 1B Barton 2B Sogard Things to Think About: 1. The Oakland A's... Much at stake for the Green and Gold... 5 Game lead over the Rangers with 10 games left on the A's Schedule. Half game lead over the Tigers for the 2nd best record in the A.L. and an extra home game during the 1st round. The Twins can experiment if need be... The A's can't... The Eye Black has to be on! 2. Dan Straily... This young starting pitcher can be tattooed and he can be lights out. He came out of nowhere as a pros…

Our Minnesota Twins head up to the Great White North for the first and only time this year for a three game set looking to find some momentum. Seems that they’ve been spinning their wheels of late. It doesn’t seem like it but the Twins are 6-4 in their last ten versus the Blue Jays dating back to 2019. Covid news: Kepler, Thielbar, Pagán, and Megill inactive for Toronto series. Speaking of Canada, here are some random Canada facts: Canada has less gravity than anywhere else in the world. Santa Claus's official address is in Canada. Canada is the number one donut consumer in the world. It is illegal to kill a Sasquatch in British Columb…

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! The Honorable Game Thread of Twins Daily is now in session. All seeking entertainment from baseball draw near. God save Twins Daily and this honorable Game Thread. Today the Twins go for a sweep of the Rays, and try to build on their wild card lead. Things to think about: Stolen Game Threads: Yesterday I signed into my e-mail account for the first time in about a week, and found a peaceful assembly of those obnoxious things, and as I was scrolling through and looking at 'em I saw one that had the subject of, "Brock Beauchamp started a new personal conversation with you." At first I was surprised, and then I wondered what he would want to talk to me a…

Game-time forecast: Mostly sunny. Winds blowing from left to right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 70. Astros: SP, McHugh Fowler CF Altuve 2B Springer RF Singleton 1B Dominguez 3B Grossman LF Carter CH Corporan C Villar SS Twins: SP, Deduno Santana CF Dozier 2B Plouffe 3B Willingham LF Arcia DH Nuñez RF Parmelee 1B Pinto C Escobar SS ------------------------------- Brian ... Brian ... Brian ... do tell us, what are you thinking today? (Maybe there was another power outage at work; or maybe with the news today, he wants a moment of silence.) -------------------------------------------------------- I'm here... I'm dedicating Thought # 5 to you and my w…