Other Baseball

In 2013, there was a tight race for the batting championship and the surprise winner was ex-Twin Michael Cuddyer. Cuddy has been injured much of this season and won't be a factor in this year's race. However, two ex-Twins have been at or near the top of the NL hitting leaderboard for the last month. Justin Morneau has enjoyed the NL and playing at Coors Field. He has spent most of the last month as the batting average leader and currently is running second. Morneau came out of last night's game with an intercostal injury. Significantly, he has just enough at-bats to qualify for the batting championship, even if he doesn't take another swing the rest of the year. J…

At the time of the Myers trade, Dayton Moore was pretty much vilified every where. Royals traded 4 players - Wil Myers and Jake Odorizzi being the best two. Myers was a top 5 prospect, Odorizzi was and is a serviceable backend starter. Royals got Shields and Wade Davis. Keith Law said that Moore was trying to save his job and the strong implication being that he was putting his needs above the team. Now, a year later, James Shields is starting KC's first playoff game since the 80s. Wade Davis is arguably the best bullpen arm in the majors. Shields and Davis combined for over 7 WAR this year. Odorizzi has been a good back end starter for the Rays but Myers took …

I love rooting for small market teams, but ever since the A's traded Cespedes for Lester I've been rooting against them. It seemed wrong to trade their best hitter when they were already the best team in baseball. Team chemistry aside, it's unfair to Cespedes. He was one of the main reasons the team had been successful and traded just like that. I'm not saying teams should never trade, but this type of trade seemed to go against the tradition of baseball. I'm normally not one for tradition, but you don't just send your hero to another team because you think you can marginally increase your playoff odds. Cespedes deserved to play for Oakland. I feel like if Oakland had had…

With the Twins terminating manager Ron Gardenhire this week, former Twins minor leaguer shares his thoughts on potential managerial replacement Doug Mientkiewicz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9uvs07DFjA For more stories from Ogden, be sure to subscribe to the No Juice Podcast on iTunes and listen to this week's episode. Follow the Twins Daily YouTube for more video.

My new hometown's team, the Seattle Mariner's have found a way to win back to back games against MLB's best team, the Angels while the Athletics have somehow managed to drop back to back games against the hapless Rangers to set up last day of the season shenanigans. Somehow, despite losing 5 games in a row last week, the Mariners still have a shot, a slim shot, but a shot, to make the post-season. The mariners send King Felix to the mound, so you have to like their chances for a W, but the A's will be sending out Sonny Gray, to face the Rangers. I'm rooting hard for the M's to force a play-in game for the play-in game, because #TEAMENTROPY needs some wins, and more ba…

Gopher Sports posted a Five Questions article with two Gophers baseball freshman, Alex Boxwell and Luke Pettersen. Luke is the brother of Twins Daily contributor and former Twins minor leaguer AJ Pettersen. Luke was an All State performer in high school and followed his brother to the University of Minnesota where he is a preferred walk-on. Good answers to the questions. I had the chance to meet Luke at spring training in Ft. Myers this year, along with his parents. The Pettersen family is tremendous and they all have a great passion for baseball.

Man, he's lived a pretty good life. Last game at home, tie game, bottom of ninth. Walk off single. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2014_09_25_balmlb_nyamlb_1&mode=recap_home&c_id=nyy

With Derek Jeter set to retire this week, former Minnesota Twins minor leaguer Jamie Ogden shares his memories about playing with the Yankees' shortstop when they were both in the Florida State League: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLPwTo89nMk For more stories from Ogden, be sure to subscribe to the No Juice Podcast on iTunes and listen to next week's episode. Follow the Twins Daily YouTube for more video.

LHP Brad Hand was the 2nd round pick of the Marlins in 2008 out of Chaska High School. He made 12 starts for a 2011 Marlins team that needed anyone to pitch, and as a 21 year old, he went 1-8. He made one appearance for them in 2012. He threw 20+ innings in 2013. This year, he's been with the big league roster most of the year, although he missed some time with injury. He has improved his control of late, but he will be out of options next year (the negative of getting him up to the big leagues so fast)... Definitely a guy the Twins liked before the 2008 draft. Here is a nice story on him from the Christina De Nicola of Fox Sports Florida.

This is the kind of organization that wins, with limited money (yes, having Mccutchen helps.....). This is the kind of forward thinking anyone should admire, imo. I wish we'd read about this in MN, in any sport. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/pittsburgh-pirates-mike-fitzgerald-mit-sabermetric-road-show/

Looks like Atlanta is doing a Bill Smith/Terry Ryan switch. Wren, a longtime Assistant GM to John Schuerholz, was promoted in 07. Strong scouting background but his drafts were questioned by guys like Klaw and some top prospects failed to break through at the ML level, although some unknown prospects developed pretty well. Sounds like Schuerholz or former GM Jon Hart, who was recently hired by Atlanta as a special assistant, will be the new/old GM. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/09/braves-could-make-baseball-operations-changes.html

I thought Cleveland caught a lot of breaks to make the postseason last year. I wasn't going to be surprised if they fell off markedly this year. Cleveland has put together another winning season, despite disappointing seasons from the likes of Steve Swisher, Jason Kipnis, Justin Masterson, and Asdrubal Cabrera. The latter two were traded, Swisher was disabled for the year, and the team has improved since. They've developed a very good pitching staff and have a few good players (Brantley, Gomes, Santana), plus I think Francona is a pretty good manager. I think Cleveland will continue to stay in and around contention for the foreseeable future. Given the attendance at a …

Line drive to Kinsler who throws it away trying to double the guy off second base. Salvador Perez was on third and never tagged up and ran home. Det challenged without ever appealing the play and Perez was ruled out. I hate replay. They got the call right but got it wrong at the same time since there was no appeal. Just a typical replay cluster ****. Please get rid of it.

Below are a couple of baseball-related books that I would recommend. Please comment on these and then recommend a few others for us for the offseason. Include a link to where it can be purchased as well. Of course, I will also mention the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook, which are must-reads for Twins fans. (I asked the author. He said it was pretty good!) I was in the airport in San Francisco last weekend and picked up John Feinstein's Where Nobody Knows Your Name. It's about life in the minor leagues. It's stories about John Lindsay of the Dodgers who has the distinction of playing the most Minor League games before finally getting an opportunity in the Majors. It…

Not to distract from the in depth thread on the Twins forum, but a point raised there has piqued my research interest. Many seem to say that long-term pitching contracts cannot produce any value for the team due to the inevitable decline. I decided I'd use those pitchers who had "earned" a $90M+ overall contract or a shorter term contract with $20M+ AAV. The lists: $90M total contract club - 15 members (don't count CC twice) Clayton Kershaw $215M 7 years, 2014-2020 Justin Verlander $180M 7 years, 2013-2019 Felix Hernandez $175M 7 years, 2013-2019 CC Sabathia $161M 7 years, 2009-2015 Masahiro Tanaka $155M 7 years, 2014-2020 Zack Greinke $147M 6 years, 2013-2018 Cole …

Our old friend Francisco Liriano had another one of those games that drives his teams crazy. Here is his line: [TABLE=class: pitching-stats, width: 475] [TH=class: team-name, bgcolor: #F1F1F1]Pittsburgh[/TH] [TH=class: ip, bgcolor: #F1F1F1, align: center]IP[/TH] [TH=bgcolor: #F1F1F1, align: center]H[/TH] [TH=bgcolor: #F1F1F1, align: center]R[/TH] [TH=bgcolor: #F1F1F1, align: center]ER[/TH] [TH=bgcolor: #F1F1F1, align: center]BB[/TH] [TH=bgcolor: #F1F1F1, align: center]SO[/TH] [TH=bgcolor: #F1F1F1, align: center]HR[/TH] [TH=class: era, bgcolor: #F1F1F1, align: center]ERA[/TH] [TD=class: player-name]Liriano, F(L, 1-6)[/TD] [TD=align: center]5.0[/TD] [TD=align: center]…

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/11493214/v36174175/must-c-clips-stanton-hit-in-face-benches-clear Hopefully the link works - it's from mlb.com. Also, it's not pretty. Stanton was hit be a fastball square in the face, sorta like Kirby. He's almost certainly out for the season. Early tweets say he has some facial fractures as well. http://deadspin.com/giancarlo-stanton-removed-on-stretcher-after-fastball-t-1633816961

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=24660 Jason Kendell - who was a bit better than you remember - wrote a book about baseball. The reviewer at first seems like he's going to pan the book and Kendell (who is really old school while the reviewer is not). But, surprisingly, the reviewer enjoyed the book. One example of Kendell's gamesman ship was written about - "After a pitcher’s final warm-up pitch, baseball dictates that the catcher fire the ball back to second base, which is almost always half-hearted practice but it’s baseball and that’s just what you do. With a veteran pitcher on the mound and an inattentive umpire, Kendall would intentiona…

But don't take my word for it. http://cespedesfamilybarbecue.com/2014/04/14/chris-resop-the-most-interesting-reliever-in-the-world/

The Effectively Wild podcast on Friday interviewed 2014 St. Paul Saints pitcher and Wayzata grad Andy Johnson. It was a great interview about life in Indy ball, and Johnson was incredibly forthright and honest about his own abilities and those of guys he faced. Give it a listen here.

At US Cellular Field last night, the White Sox marketing team seemed to have been a little lazy or drunk or something. Check out the "fact" they splayed on their jumbotron about first baseman Andy Wilkins: http://i.imgur.com/lUUbnzG.jpg Ooooh. Interesting. (h/t @thebaseballgirl)

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11469334/arizona-diamondbacks-fire-gm-kevin-towers All in all, he's a better GM than his current rep has him but he probably isn't getting a GM job again anytime soon. His background, like Ryan's, was in scouting. (Towers once said the problem with trading with Terry Ryan was that "Ryan knows your system better than you do.")

http://forums.prosportsdaily.com/showthread.php?846736-MLB-to-host-60-games-at-mostly-Minor-League-ballparks-in-2015 99% sure this isn't real, but still...

http://deadspin.com/whats-wrong-with-baseball-1628473196 Excellent article on deadspin about the issues baseball is now dealing with. I'd add one thing that has hurt the game is the lack of strong rivalries, but that's not really covered in that article.

Man, the Astros are the team that never stops giving. Now there are reports that the GM and manager don't get along - to the point the manager has gone to the owner and the GM is accussed of living in his own little bubble and seems incapable of not insulting people. http://deadspin.com/reports-astros-manager-and-gm-definitely-not-getting-a-1628531365 So, Astros have - 1) drafted Appel, who has sucked, and passed on Bryant and Grey 2) drafted Correa and passed on Buxton 3) drafted Aiken, burned that bridge, got some gas, lit that on fire, called in a bomber, dropped payload and lost the 1-1 pick. And a 5th round pick. And are facing grievances by potentially both. …

Dave may enjoy this: What do Matt Garza and Mark DeRosa have in common?

http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/selig-admits-aiken-case-isnt-closed/ Sounds like Houston might be allowed to sign Aiken even though the deadline has passed. Aiken has not yet filed a grievance and Selig hopes it doesn't come to that so they are working on something else. I would be pretty upset if Houston was allowed to sign Aiken and Nix a month after the deadline.

This one slipped past me but it turns out that former Minnesota Twins second baseman Alexi Casilla, now playing in the Baltimore Orioles organization with the Triple-A Norfolk Tides, was asked to pitch in the eighth and ninth innings of Sunday's contest against the Charlotte Knights. Casilla apparently pitched a clean frame in the eighth but was wild in his second inning of work and ultimately lost the game: Here is a video clip of Casilla delivering the walk-off hit to Charlotte's Michael Taylor: http://i.imgur.com/GwCGvzL.gif ALEXI CASILLA GIVES UP GAME-WINNING HIT

Really interesting read http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2014-saber-seminar-mlb-sabermetrics-gets-soft/

Michael Cuddyer was just recently activated from the disabled list in Colorado. Today, he just finished off his second cycle of his career. He's 4-5 and raised his BA to .331.