Other Baseball

Anyone know where I can view the Bartman documentary "Catching Hell" online? I thought espn might have it available to stream, but no luck. Thanks!

Went 6 innings in his first start for the Padres vs the Giants, gave up 4 runs, 2 earned, on 9 hits, including a tape measure shot by Buster Posey. He threw 91 pitches, 61 TS and 30 TB, 1 BB and inexplicably 6 SO. Must be the coaching.

Since 1939, only once has a player had more runs scored that games played. In 1985, Rickey Henderson scored 146 runs in 143 games played for the Yankees. This year, Mike Trout has scored 88 runs in 90 games played. He got off to a slow start, scoring only one in his first six games. He has 87 runs scored in last 84 games.

BA ranked Machado #11 prospect coming into the season and he'll certainly stay in the top 10 in their next ranking. The 20 year old shortstop hit .266/.352/.438 in the Eastern League (same league as Hicks) but is getting promoted to the majors to play third base. Heyman reports another GM said: "I still think it's too early to recall him,'' that GM said. "Just because he's better than Wilson Betemit doesn't mean it's the right move for the kid.'' Interesting to see what happens. I don't think it's too big a deal, if/when he struggles you can send him back to AA/AAA. On the other hand, he only played two games at third in the minors and now he's supposed to step …

A lot of teams passed on Jose Mijares for him to be claimed by the San Francisco Giants. He has actually pitched well for the Royals this year. Punto won a ring with the cardinals last year, will Mijares win a ring with the Giants in 2012?

I'm thinking of taking a tour of smaller baseball stadiums next summer around the U.S and Canada. I'd appreciate any info on what are some good stadiums, how many fans typically at games, what kind of cool food they serve, etc. Just to start here's the last one I was at, just south of Calgary Alberta Canada. The name of the stadium (Seaman Stadium) made me laugh (hey I'm immature) but they had 2,500 enthusiastic fans and the stadium was named best place to watch a game in Canada in 2011. They have only been around for a short time (2007) and it's one of the nicest places I've ever watched a game. It's a summer collegiate league for lots of American and Canadian Univ…

Houston is playing some real bad ball here: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=23688849&source=MLB&gid=2012_08_06_wasmlb_houmlb_1

Pat Neshek just came in the game for the A's in the 10th inning, and he got the last out of the inning with just two pitches. Go Pat!

Figured we could chat about different trades today in this thread that do NOT involve the Twins. Can't believe the Marlins just got Cox for a garbage RP. Good lord, what are the Cardinals thinking?

Had themselves a heck of a trade deadline. They added HanRam and Victorino and didn't have to give up their top two pitching prospects (Lee or Webster). Kudos to them.

If any of you out there follow College Football recruiting, the name Shaq Thompson might be familiar. He goes by Green-Thompson now and he was a five-star recruit out of the state of California (highest-ranked prospect in the state) who agreed to play safety at Washington University (for probably three years) on his way to the NFL. Funny thing, though. The Red Sox saw this 6'2, 210 lb freak and drafted him in the 18th round of the baseball draft. He signed and headed down to Fort Myers to join their GCL team, before heading to Seattle to join the football team for the fall. He couldn't get out soon enough. Final line: In 13 games, 39 at-bats, 37 strikeouts (!…

Buster Olney just tweeted that qualifying offers will be worth $13.3-13.4 million instead of the $12.4-12.5 that was expected. Wow. Liriano might be worth that... over 2 years.

Really liked this trade for Miami http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/07/cardinals-acquire-edward-mujica.html Cox was a real prospect not that long ago. Good buy low guy for them.

Baltimore called up Lew Ford today. Good luck Lew!

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=23328515&topic_id=9780550&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_23328515&v=3

Looks like TR's commodity just got a little more exclusive. MLB Trade Rumors is reporting Garza is off the market. While the Rangers or Nats will get Greinke, the Twins should be able to get a little more for the dwindling pitching ranks available for trade. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/07/matt-garza-likely-staying-put.html

Am I crazy? I'm rooting for the White Sox to get Greinke? The White Sox are apparently very aggressive for Greinke. I'm not sure if they have the horses to make it work, but I'm also wondering if I want them to make it work. On the one hand, I can see them re-signing him if they get him. On the other, if they don't re-sign him it costs them some farm players AND it means Greinke goes to a team that the Twins likely wouldn't trade Liriano to anyway. I think I'm rooting for Kenny Williams. I feel dirty.

I get in a losing year trading away Sanchez because he's going to be a free agent. And I can sort of figure out dangling Hanley Ramirez if they truly believe he is a player without a position (even if he isn't.) But why shop Josh Johnson, who is under contract for next year, around? If they're going to trade a pitcher, why not one making more money? If they're going to blow things up, why start there of all places? What are they trying to accomplish?

Three more bombs tonight. He's really taken to the BOB or whatever they call it now.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Cole Hamels and the Philadelphia Phillies have agreed to a $144 million, six-year contract that prevents the 2008 World Series MVP from becoming a free agent after the season. The deal includes a club vesting option for 2019 and a limited no-trade provision, the team announced Wednesday in a statement. A news conference is scheduled for noon before the game against Milwaukee.

I'm baffled by this one. They gave up Rudy Owens (LHP), Robbie Grossman (OF), and Colton Cain (LHP). Coming into the season, Goldstein ranked: Grossman as 4 stars Cain as 3 stars Owens as 2 stars.I gotta think the Twins would have taken that package for Liriano. Plus, Rodriguez is going to cost the fiscally conservative Pirates $13M next year. He's a good pitcher, maybe better than Liriano, but I can't believe Liriano wouldn't have been a better fit for them because of that contract. But the news gets worse, I think. I've been of the opinion that the Pirates need to add some hitting. (They've been better, but they're still 23rd in the majors.) Span looked like a goo…

It has been widely assumed that after Ryan Dempster gets traded that Francisco Liriano would be the next domino to drop. The report is that Dempster is heading to the Braves for (a package centered around?) Randall Delgado. Delgado was a borderline top 50 prospect coming into year. I expected to immediately hear the attention turn to Frankie... Instead the newest rumor is that the Cubs are going to deal Matt Garza to the Dodgers for Zach Lee and others. This is great news for the Twins. Dempster, a two-month rental, fetched a good prospect and if Garza's off the market this early, there is one less option for buyers. I hope the Frankie is lights out tonig…

A couple of questions. 1) Did the wildcard round of the post-season do away with the one game playoff to determine division champion? This is assuming the two teams have a worse record than the second wildcard team. 2) Looked for information to no avail. What if two teams are tied for the second wildcard?

...at Midway Stadium in St. Paul this summer as the Twin Cities' scrappy little east side club is hosting an atheist night. It's clever and all but it is a bit sacrilegious to the one true deity, the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Here are the results: Round A 1. Royals 2. Pirates 3. Diamondbacks 4. Orioles 5. Reds 6. Marlins Round B 1. Padres 2. Indians 3. Rockies 4. A’s 5. Brewers 6. Tigers From what I understand, Round A will come after FA compensation picks (after Round 1) and Round B will immediately follow Round 2. The Rays and Cardinals were eligible for both drafts and came up empty. The Tigers were only eligible for a pick after Round 2 and got lucky. These picks can be traded. So if, say, the Pirates offered a decent prospect and their pick for Liriano... you really have to think about it... right?

According to Jon Heyman (via mlbtraderumors--link below), Appel is leaning against signing with the Pirates, because he wants more than the 3.84m bonus the Pirates can give, and not surrender a first round pick. I'm not sure I understand this move; isn't next year's different class, at least at this point, considered a stronger one than this year's? Therefore wouldn't Appel project to fall right aroudn this spot again, or does he think he'll be able to improve his stock that much in one year? Furthermore, doesn't the fact that he exhausts his eligibility at Stanford next year reduce his bargaining power? Basically, it seems like Appel, thanks to Scott Boras, is walking aw…

I spent the weekend at the Twins-Rangers series at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The Twins return there in August, so in case someone is going to that series, here are some of my observations and advice. Basically, it's a great time to be a Rangers fan. The place was packed every night, and there was nary a fan not wearing a red or blue Rangers shirt. I've never seen such a high percentage of fans in a stadium wearing a team jersey. Very kid-friendly.Of every stadium I've been to (15), Rangers fans were the most glued to the game. Very few fans seemed to stray from their seats. It seemed everyone's eyes were completely on the action and everyone paid very close atte…

Even though this is a forum for Twins fans, there are some fun teams to follow across the baseball world. What are some of the other teams that you enjoy following? Why?

By seasons end, if he continues his current pace, would he not be the AL MVP?

At one point, I was watching a Twins game and Bert said something about Jim Thome being most proud of his batting average. This struck me as odd because I always thought of Thome as a Harmon-like hitter and Harmon was often knocked for his low batting average. Being lazy, I didn't follow up... until now. Here are comparisons of Killebrew and Thome: [TABLE] [TD=width: 86, bgcolor: #C0C0C0] [/TD] [TD=width: 163, bgcolor: #C0C0C0, colspan: 4]Career[/TD] [TD=width: 21, bgcolor: #C0C0C0] [/TD] [TD=width: 168, bgcolor: #C0C0C0, colspan: 4]League Average[/TD] [TD=width: 21, bgcolor: #C0C0C0] [/TD] [TD=width: 251, bgcolor: #C0C0C0, colspan: 4]Per…