Other Baseball

I have been meaning to write a blog or an article on this topic for days. Thankfully, Kurt Mensching from the terrific Tigers blog Bless You Boys wrote it for me! (http://www.blessyouboys.com/2012/10/3/3448684/the-triple-crown-still-matters-dont-let-anybody-tell-you-otherwise) Sure, he's a Tigers blogger, so he might be a little biased on this topic today. But I'm a Twins blogger, and I 100% agree with him. The Triple Crown still matters, no matter what some people want you to think. Do I think that if Miguel Cabrera achieves the Triple Crown that it should assure that he be the AL MVP? No. But the two don't have to go hand in hand, do they? Why can't we just appre…

Drops a routine fly ball to allow Oakland to take the lead!

They expect him to go about 2 innings. What might have been with this guy...

I put together my own overall rankings of all 30 teams, based on 2012 performance vs. expected performance. For instance, the obvious surprise teams like the Orioles and A's rank very high. Teams like the White Sox that ended up better than expected also rank high even though they missed the playoffs. Teams like the Marlins and Angels which entered the season having spent tons of money on free agents and missed the playoffs are at the very bottom. Teams like the Rangers and Yankees who, even though are post-season bound, are still fighting to win their divisions with two games left and are ranked around 10th. I've put the Twins and Indians more towards the middle--…

For those of you who are trying to predict the outcomes of this year's end of the year awards, here is an article from a sportswriter who actually votes on one of the categories. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8450155/mike-trout-buster-posey-rest-2012-award-winners-mlb

Despite my gut feeling that this year will be less dramatic than the Game 162 walk-off fest last year, there are still several races to finish up in the last two days. Currently, the teams that have clinched their divisions are the Tigers in the AL (seriously, the Tigers clinched before anybody else), and the Reds, Giants, and Nationals in the NL. This leaves mostly the AL Division races and second NL Wild Card up for grabs. Here are the games that should decided the fate of most of the races tonight: Rangers v. A's: Could decide the race, or could leave it tied with one game to go. Yankees v. Red Sox: Win and they win the AL East. Lose and the Orioles lose and they…

Roger Maris hit his 61st home run of the 1961 season to claim the single-season HR record, a record that lasted for almost four decades. It's a record that some still consider to be Maris's more than 50 years later. Maris was born in Bemidji, Minnesota, but as we all know, he grew up in Fargo, ND. If you've ever been to the West Acres Mall in Fargo, you've hopefully taken some time to explore the Roger Maris Hall of Fame. I know some of our readers here at Twins Daily may remember the 1961 season, or years following it. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on the topic.

Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo are having remarkable seasons for the Angels but what about Albert Pujols? His poor start was well documented. What has happened since his poor start? About the same time Plouffe began turning around his season, Albert Pujols was doing the same. In the past 62 games, Pujols has hit .326/.404/.622/1.027. If his final 62 games match the previous 62 here is how he'll end up: [TABLE] Split[TD=width: 44, bgcolor: #E6E6E6]G[/TD] [TD=width: 36, bgcolor: #E6E6E6]PA[/TD] [TD=width: 36, bgcolor: #E6E6E6]AB[/TD] [TD=width: 36, bgcolor: #E6E6E6]R[/TD] [TD=width: 36, bgcolor: #E6E6E6]H[/TD] [TD=width: 36, bgcolor: #E6E6E6]2B[/TD] [TD=width: 36, bgcolor…

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The Baltimore-NYY and Oakland-Texas races would be really interesting if they weren't all going to the playoffs anyway.

We are approaching the time of year that the "major" awards are given out. Discussing the merits of these awards requires another posting all together. I am interested in awards that should exist but don't. Here is what I would like to see: The Rollie Fingers Most Outstanding Facial Hair Award: Brian Wilson (could probably win every year) The Mickey Hatcher Most Oblivious Player Award: Carlos Gomez (completing a home run trot on a foul ball... seriously?) The Rick Reuschel Award For Best Out-Of-Shape Player: Prince Fielder The Graig Nettles/Luis Tiant Former Twin Most Outstanding Player Award: RA Dickey (Jason Kubel was pushing here for a while, but Dickey has …

MIke Redmond, who coaches the High-A Blue Jays team, was named to the FSL All-Star team. http://http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120828&content_id=37474884&vkey=news_t424&fext=.jsp&sid=t424 Congrats Red Dog!

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8432168/cleveland-indians-fire-manager-manny-acta-6-games-remaining-season No surprise here, but the timing seems a bit odd. Note that he got the dreaded vote of confidence a few weeks ago.

http://www.oneatbat.com/ Just a nice story. It'd be great if it would eventually lead to something. Sometime!

Fangraphs.com's Eno Sarris has put up a very interesting read on the inner workings of the San Francisco Giants. In speaking with Bobby Evans, the Giants' Vice President of Baseball Operations, we find that the organization is very savvy and has taken advantage of the local computer nerds: I was told that the Twins have their own proprietary databases and - as recently as this past spring - were exploring measures to implement systems like the Giants or the Indians' DiamondView (which was in operation back in 2003). Still, while no one in the organization was absolutely forthright on their current capabilities, you get the sense the team lags behind many others in t…

With the Yankees in town, it got me to thinking about how I remember Derek Jeter helping the Yankees win the 1996 World Series when I was 14 years old. At the time, I was sick and tired of the Braves being in it every year, and recall actually cheering for New York, who had been pretty terrible most of my life to that point, to win it. Now here's Jeter in 2012, in his 18th season, and really showing no signs of slowing down. Every year I keep thinking he's got to start aging and his skills have to start declining, but he's in all likelihood going to set his career high in hits at his age-38 season! If a guy like Julio Franco can stick around and continue to be produ…

Now that the Brave's are in the playoffs - I really am pulling for them to win it all. I know, for me, it would be nice to see 1st Ballot HOFer Larry "Chipper' Jones go out on the highest note possible. This season seems like it is up for grabs and there is no clear cut favorite. Of the teams that you feel are destined for the playoffs... what's your gut feeling - your choice?

Curious to see who you guys would select out of this bunch. 6 keepers for 2013 from this list. Victor Martinez C Mike Napoli C Anthony Rizzo 1B Brett Lawrie 3B Pedro Alverez 3B Jurickson Profar SS Manny Machado SS-3B Josh Rutledge SS Adrian Gonzalez 1B-OF Allen Craig 1B-OF Ryan Braun OF Giancarlo Stanton OF Sterling Marte OF Gio Gonzale SP Madison Bumgarner SP Jordan Zimmerman SP Matt Harvey SP Zach Grienke SP Craig Kimbrel RP Pick 6 to keep...

Dylan Bundy has been promoted to the Orioles just in time for the playoff race. The 19 year old, considered unanimously to be at least baseball's #2 prospect, had been pitching in AA prior to the call-up. Do you like the Orioles all-out approach or the conservative method displayed by the Nationals?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--shameful-that-sub--500-phillies-still-contenders-in-wild-card-race.html

On Saturday, there was sequence in which Quintin Berry (who is 19-19 in SB attempts this year) stole a base TRYING to get caught. And he did - except he did it during time out, so it didn't count. SO HE DID IT AGAIN. And the best part is it all makes perfect sense. It was a borderline brilliant move to save a run that had scored. The story is here: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120915&content_id=38476154&vkey=news_det&c_id=det

The Rays/O's game is amazing. 13th inning, the Rays flub a bunt, give up a Texas Leaguer, and the O's load the bases with no outs. So what does Maddon do? He pulls his left fielder, places him in front of second, and runs a five man infield. First batter grounds it right to the fifth infielder. Force at home. The Orioles win the game right there if Maddon deploys a standard defensive layout. Strikeout. Strikeout. And the Rays are still playing baseball. Such a simple move but one you wouldn't see from ~29 other managers in the sport. Sad.

Instead of a highly anticipated Verlander-Sale matchup last night, we instead are treated to Sale-Esmerling Vazquez and Verlander-somebody Kluber.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/stephen-strasburg-shut-down--nationals-off-base-with-explanation.html So incredibly stupid. I hope Washington never makes it back to the postseason.

This article is posted on MLBTR and is Fangraph's ranking of the top 10 FA infielders of the upcoming offseason: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/09/top-free-agent-infielders.html Not knowing about this article, I was busy coming up with the players on the MLBTR FA list that I thought were the best. Here is my list; # in parenthesis is age, and 3 #'s are BA, OBP, and OPS. These players are in no specific order of goodness. Catchers-Chris Ianetta (30)-.246 BA, .340 OBP, .773 OPS Gerald Laird (33)-.268 BA, .331 OBP, .704 OPS A.J. Pierzynski (36)-.283 BA, .327 OBP, .850 OPS David Ross (35)-.266 BA, .344 OBP, .805 OPS Carlos Ruiz (33)-.340 BA, .406 OBP, .968 OPS First…

Cano maybe? Longoria or McCutchen?

Sean McAdam from Red Sox insider is already commenting on an early draft of the 2013 schedule. Here is is a link to the article. http://www.csnne.com/baseball-boston-redsox/redsox-talk/Red-Sox-to-open-vs-Yankees-in-draft-of-2?blockID=761293&feedID=3352 Apparently teams have been forwarded an early draft. Anyone have access to the Twin's? Interested to see how the addition of the Astro's to the AL will affect the Twins. This should be a big change with season long interleague play and the potential road trips.

From CBSSPORTS.com, here's Joe Nathan paying up on a bet to teammate Mike Adams after the Giants lost to the Cowboys.

I'm just posting this b/c Buxton was compared favorably to Starling by several BA writers. Most preferred Buxton by a slim margin. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/bubba-starlings-lengthy-swing/

Since the Crime Dog retired from baseball, all I have heard from professional commentators is that Fred McGriff will not get inducted to the Hall of Fame. At first I somewhat agreed with them, but after a while it was hard to not be impressed by 493 HR's, almost 2,500 hits, 1,500+ RBI's, and a lifetime OPS of .886. Even though McGriff Played in the "Steroids Era", his body never changed, he remained a lanky, tall player through the duration of his career. I feel confident in saying Crime Dog was not a cheat. McGriff never won a Gold Glove, but I do remember him being a very good defensive first baseman and he was a key contributor to the highly successful A…