Other Baseball

Say what you want about Gardy's managing skills, but just be thankful that you aren't a fan of the Tigers or White Sox. Tonight, leading 2-0, Jim Leyland decided to let Verlander pitch the ninth inning. Verlander was approaching 100 pitches. Verlander gave up two singles, walked a guy, and then uncorked a wild pitch allowing a run to score. With Longoria coming up, and right after throwing 100 pitches, you gotta remove Verlander, right? Not if you're Leyland. Longoria singled to tie the score. NOW he takes Verlander out of the game. This practice of Leyland to leave Verlander in games after he's pitched 100, 110, 115, even 120 pitches is quite common. Yes, it worked out r…

Anyone wanna watch Joe? Looks like he has a couple losses to his credit already.... Blown save last night. I don't know the circumstances of the other loss.

I'm admitting that I was one person who advocated for the Twins giving a look to Jonathan Broxton during the offseason, but given the interesting way Broxton managed to blow a save tonight against the A's, maybe I need to give Terry Ryan credit for taking a pass. Broxton not only walked a couple of batters in the 9th, but he topped that off by hitting not one, but two consecutive batters to force in a run. Of course, the funny part was the cold stares the two hitters gave Broxton after getting hit... as if he threw at them on purpose. No, guys, he's just that bad.

How many professional baseball players were banned for life by Commisioner Landis for involvement or knowledge of the conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series?

Let me give the caveat that this poll is just 1-2-3 in rotations. So who do you think has the best 1-3 in their rotation and sadly the Twins are not going to make the list so give me your choices and we can have a good discussion. 1. Philadelphia- Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels- I don't think their is any doubt that these 3 lead the pack as any of these three could plausibly win the Cy Young award this year and the reason that Philadelphia always will be in playoff contention. Will Be a huge deal for Philly to resign Cole Hamels who will be a free agent at the end of the year and won't be easy after the Matt Cain signing. 2. San Francisco- Tim Lincecum, Matt…

Hat tip to Cody Christie for the link http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/sports/Baseball-Walk-Up-Music--144150975.html in Friday Links-n-Thinks, as this article got me thinking. I personally love intro music for each player, and still think fondly of David Ortiz coming out to Mystikal's "Shake It Fast" in 2001, so I'm curious to know what people's take on intro music is, and if you could pick your own song to come to (imagine that you were in the majors), what would it be? On a related note, in our first co-ed rec softball game played last week, our opponents had an iPod and portable speakers that they would blast intro music for each batter. I thought this was great…

I am taking a baseball trip this summer and we will be seeing the twins play in both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, is it worth a side trip to Louisville? It is just me and my out-of-college son going on this trip so no little kids. We will be in Cincinnati for the Friday night game and the Saturday game doesn't start until 4:00pm. It is an option for us to get up early Saturday morning, drive the 100 miles to Louisville and then get back to Cincinnati by 2:00pm when the gates open, but is it worth it? We have traveled a lot and have been to Louisville twice before, but we have never taken the time to actually stop and see the museum. I'm interest in the comments of an…

I will be watching today's game later tonight, so in my attempt to avoid all live media, but get my baseball fix in today I came across an article in Minnesota History the quarterly MN Historical Society magazine. I searched for the article online to post but sadly it is a subscription only situation with no online articles - dead trees only. While at first I was unsuccessful, I was able to find a second and equally interesting article by the same authors titled Designing the National Pastime by Kristin M. Anderson & Christopher W. Kimball. http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/58/v58i07p338-352.pdf The articles indicate they are working on a book…

The Academy Awards are this weekend and there is even a baseball movie nominated in the Best Picture category?!?! In honor of the Oscars, I was wondering, "What's your favorite baseball movie?"

In the last several years I have hardly read an article or seen or heard any major sports journalist seriously raise this question. Given the enormity of the PED scandal (so much so that is has now made the Hall of Fame vote out to be a farce) and even Selig's attitude towards Bonds, how is this guy still around? It just seems so obvious to me that he has to go (of course, he should have resigned in shame). I am not saying he was the cause of PED usage, but he was the man in charge. Americans blame and praise presidents for all sorts of things, much of the time when the president has almost nothing to do with it. How does Selig get a pass? I don't think the other major sp…

Thanks, MLB, for ruining Opening Day.

The ballpark is filled with plenty of baseball-themed music, John Fogarty's 'Centerfield' being an obvious staple. What do you classify as you favorite baseball song? For me, quickly became my favorite baseball-themed song. How about you guys?

Twins President Dave St Peter announced today via Twitter that the Twins will add beers from Surly and Fulton Brewing Companies to the Target Field arsenal this season, making the two additions early favorites for best free agent signings of the offseason. Here's the roster of Surly beverages provided by John Bonnes' Twitter feed: If you want some more hardcore beverages to wash away or celebrate a big loss or win, the Twins Pubs are now 2 Gingers Pubs and will serve the famous Big Ginger drinks which Aaron Gleeman loves so much. Other food items announced include what will surely be the death of me, a buffalo mac and cheese dish, along with several other items…

Check it out, new food at Target Field. I'm liking the looks of this! http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/minnesota/target-field-new-foods-apr-3-2012

I was doing some light reading today on the history of spring training and came upon a question that I couldn't find an answer to. Apparently from 1965-1993 the Padres and Angels held spring training camp in southern California. How did this work--did they just continuously play each other all the time, or did they occasionally play college or minor league teams, or did they travel to Arizona to play other teams? I also read that in the early days, up through the 40s, teams trained alone in an isolated area. The Yankees were alone in Cuba, another team trained in central Arkansas... did they just focus on training and getting into shape and not actually play a…

Cody Christie started a fairly popular thread when he asked the question what everybody's favorite baseball movie is. I'm heading in the opposite direction and will ask what everybody's LEAST favorite baseball movie is. I'll kick things off by recommending Summer Catch as the worst baseball movie I have ever seen. How about you?

AL East 1. New York Yankees- Yankees have toomuch pitching and offense and will be helped by the return of Andy Pettitte. 2. Tampa Bay Rays- Will be carried bytheir pitching behind Price, Shields, and Moore. The Question is will they score enough towin. 3. Boston Red Sox- They have plenty ofoffense and should get a bounceback year by Carl Crawford. The question is who is going to step up afterBeckett, Lester, and Bucholz. 4. Toronto Blue Jays- Have a brightfuture and one of the best hitters in the game in Jose Bautista. The question is who will step up after RickyRomero and Brandon Morrow. 5. Baltimore Orioles- Are talentedoffensively led by Adam Jones and J.…

The Indians sent Kevin Slowey to the minors today. I wonder if he would like to rethink the attitude and effort he appeared to give the relief role last year. He will always be limited by his inability to mix his pitches and fits better coming out of the pen.

The Rockies have announced Jamie Moyer will start game 2 of their 2012 season. At age 49. Good for him. And ain't baseball great.

Talking baseball is great. Reading about baseball is great. But showing your glaring knowledge gaps during a statistics conversation, not so great. Anyone know where you could find a good resource for advanced statistics that shows the stat, followed by the league median (knowing that for some stats, the median depends on the particular year or other input factor)? Wouldn't it be great to have a quick reference sheet (maybe this should be the next Twins Daily product)?

We all have our own predictions, so why not get them on record before the season starts! (I know the Mariners just beat the A's, but I doubt either team is going to make it in anyone's playoff predictions) NL West: San Francisco Giants NL Central: Cincinnati Reds NL East: Philadelphia Phillies NL Wild Card: Miami Marlins NL Wild Card: St. Louis Cardinals AL West: Texas Rangers AL Central: Detroit Tigers AL East: Boston Red Sox AL Wild Card: New York Yankees AL Wild Card: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim World Series: Red Sox over Reds in 5 games.

As I woke up at 4 in the morning to watch the Mariners and A's, I couldn't stop thinking to myself, is Ichiro bound for the hall of fame? Over his 11 year career, he's averaged 200+ hits a year with 8 home runs. So his total hits are 2428, 95 home runs, and 423 stolen bases. Now, obviously at these statistics, people might not want to include him in the Hall. Eventually, my decision was that if Ichiro had made his MLB debut at an earlier age than 27, he would have had a greater chance of making it. Now, what are your thoughts on him, is he bound for the Hall?

Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi are hearing rumos that the Angels and Indians may be working on a deal that would include DH Bobby Abreu going to Cleveland with Trevor Crowe possibly being part of the deal. At this time, no deal is complete.

Going into 2011, the Twins were expected to win the Central. In the Fangraphs organization rankings (which are being handed out for 2012 right now), the Twins had the #6 franchise. After a 99 loss season, they're now ranked as the 26th best franchise...quite a drop. What team will take a big, Twins-like drop in 2012?

My draft is Sunday for my head to head league. I'm mostly interested in finding mid to late round value right now, but I haven't done a good job keeping up on injury updates. And usually when it's written up on the big sites, there's no advantage at that point in the knowledge. I'm using Yahoo. I'm in a 12 team H2H 6x6 with OPS and K/BB as the extra categories. I'm looking at yahoo's current rankings and finding guys who I think may be undervalued, cross checking fangraphs projections and rotoworld spring training progress. Then I take their rank, divide it by 12 to tell what round I should expect them to be taken. If I want to reach for them, I'll consider them for t…

Turns out the Yankees International League farm club will play most of its 2012 home games in Rochester while their ballpark in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is rebuilt. http://rochester.redwings.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120306&content_id=27061090&vkey=news_t534&fext=.jsp&sid=t534

Hey All, I've joined my first money league and I'm looking for team name suggestions. All I've got so far are The OBGYNs or General Soreness. Would like some alcohol-related puns, because drinking is fun. Thanks for your suggestions!

On the Powertrip this morning, I know you were put on the spot, but you said Chipper Jones is not a hall of famer. Care to take that back? He'll be in 1st ballot..

After Wednesday's (3/21/12) game, Delmon Young is now batting .472 with 5 HRs and 19 RBI. Delmon has changed his batting stance at the encouragement of Detroit hitting coach Lloyd McClendon. From the Detroit Free Press: "Young has resumed using his old stance. It's one in which he stands more upright, with his hands higher, than in the stance he said he adopted in 2009 at the suggestion of the Twins. After the Tigers acquired Young from the Twins in August, hitting coach Lloyd McClendon encouraged him to return to his old stance if he felt comfortable with it. 'You're not going to change your stance during a pennant race,' Young said. The off-season -- in which…

After being traded during the 2011 season, Delmon Young went to Detroit and hit twice as many home runs (8) in just 40 games as he did in Minnesota where he hit 4 home runs in 84 games. After hearing about JJ Hardy and David Ortiz not being able to develop power in Minnesota, its seems totally possible that Detroit could see the power that Young was hyped throughout his minor league career. What do you think? How many home runs do you think Delmon Young will hit in 2012? I say 27.