CDog

Agree with your feeling. As an analytical type, I tend to bristle at words like "seems" and "feels," but only when talking about things that have already happened. All of those things have already happened and already been recorded, so there's no need for things like "it seems like Player x has been hitting into a lot of double plays." Either they have been or they haven't. When it comes to being in the moment, however, sports fandom is all about how your team makes you feel and the hope (or lack thereof) they provide. And there has definitely been a premium on that good feeling during games for at least half of last year and the start of this year. And I agree that the tide of that feeling for me has also turned (although I felt it a little sooner than this weekend). It took a little hit for a stretch in July, but it's back, baby!

WHAT?!?! Chief disagrees with my rather wide-ranged description? And on the negative side? This is all brand new and unexpected information!!! One of the many things that amuses me in a rather absurd way is when people add "I was at the game" as if it's some sort of proof that they're right even when the subject is something that has nothing to do with the specifics of being at the game. Since I'm pretty big fan of the truth, I should mention that the SS nearly fielded the ball exactly where the dirt meets the grass. When he reversed course to go pick up the ball that he hadn't caught, he picked it up several feet into the outfield, which is where I was likely remembering that from. Smalley mentioned, and I agree, that it was a play he probably would make sometimes and was disappointed he didn't, but I don't see it as an error almost ever. And as long as we're on the truth, I don't really know how it matters, but since the five-hop description was given as evidence of how uncrisp the ball was hit, it hit the ground four times before the glove. When the ball was hit, the split second insta-reaction was "base hit up the middle" (that likely isn't the reaction of someone predisposed to the negative, or someone distracted by the hot dog vendor or someone focusing on mis-counting hops). Then in that next split second is when I realized "oh, infields play Mauer shifted to pull" and the SS was there to make the play. But it was hit "so weakly" that the pitcher really made no reaction until the ball was past him. Bremer referred to it as "hot," so factor down the proper amount from there and I'll stand by crispish. It wasn't blistered or scalded or ripped or tattooed or even no-doubt-crisp. It was a crispish groundball up the middle. Andohbytheway, if you're really interested, it's the 8th or so highlight on the videos on the Twins mlb official page if you'd like to watch it yourself.

As I've said in response to another of your posts (I think), when Mauer tried to play at the start of '11 and clearly wasn't right, the main cause of the not-rightness was lack of strength in his left leg. The result of that not-rightness was a lot of grounders and almost always to 2B. There was also some not-rightness at the end of the prior season (leading to the surgery) and there was an increase then, too, of grounders to the right side. Now he takes a nasty foul ball off that same leg (one he described as one of the worst he's ever gotten hit with), in the same area that was the cause of problem, and he immediately is hitting a ton of grounders to 2B. Yeah, I think there's a pretty natural inclination to worry about that. I know I am. As for a couple other things you mention, yes two of the games were against Weaver and Hernandez, but the rest were not. Big time not. And for whatever reason, Mauer had previously absolutely RAKED King Felix (with a small sample as all individual matchups are, but a fair amount more than those usually have). And the infield hit to shortstop wouldn't have been an error anywhere, I don't think. It was a crispish ground ball right up the middle that the shortstop got his glove on well behind the second base bag (he was several feet into the outfield grass). A play he maybe could have made and would sometimes, but certainly not an error.

One of the things I don't like is when a person wishes he would pull the ball more and then that same person gets upset when he grounds out to 2nd. Increasing one will increase the other. (And no, I'm not suggesting that you are being that person with this post.) It looks like his GB/FB ratio this year is higher than normal, but it's coming as a result of fewer fly balls as much as increased ground balls. The line drive rate is actually up, so that's good. I generally agree that 2011, especially his first stint before the DL was alarming because of how often he was hitting ground balls. This season started that way for like three to five games if I remember right, and yes, the last couple. Maybe something to keep an eye out for, but obviously we're talking short "streaks" and not full-fledged patterns yet for this year.

Baker was put on the 60-day nearly a week ago. (I think to make room for Thomas.)

Perkins didn't pitch Opening Day. The end.

If you're picking exceptions to his awful 2011, don't you have to pick his best start, and not his second best start? The "near" perfecto against Texas was better, I thought. Obviously that's a little tongue in cheek (hopefully it's obvious). But there is a point...he's SO hard to project because even when he seems to have turned a corner (2010, the couple of starts in '11 mentioned, plus a few other good ones, etc), or at least for the short-term harnessed what he has, he can stop the train on a dime and go the other direction. He's so high-variance, not only from year to year, but sometimes even start to start. I don't know if that will ever go away. And it will take even longer, almost by definition, before those of us observing can feel any sense of comfort in knowing what we'll get.

I was thinking today that it's possible that the Twins could be better or at least as good at every position this year compared to last. So I started thinking it over and tried to come up with some rough estimates and comparisons to see if it really was possible. Starting Pitchers: Carl Pavano becomes Carl Pavano. Pretty much steady Eddie. Can we assume he'll perform this year about the same as last? Difference: -0 wins. Scott Baker becomes Scott Baker. He performed great last year, but got limited starts due to health. Should we expect much else? Difference: 0 wins. Francisco Liriano becomes Francisco Liriano. One of the toughest guys to project this year, but I think we have to have hope he'll be better than last, or at least no worse, right? Difference: +3 wins. Nick Blackburn becomes Nick Blackburn. Supposedly healthy. Without even matching his two decent years before the last two he's an improvement over himself. Difference: +1.5 wins. Brian Duensing becomes Jason Marquis. BD didn't have a great year as a starter. Marquis should be able to at least replicate that. Difference: +0 wins. Relief Pitchers: Closer versions of Capps and Nathan become Matt Capps. Even if he's bad, he should be better. Don't forget how bad Nathan was to start the year, too. Difference: +1 win. Glen Perkins becomes Glen Perkins. Hard to expect him to replicate his '11, but he's the same guy so we can hope he's just as good. Difference: -0 wins. Jose Mijares becomes Brian Duensing. Looking at BD's numbers as a reliever and how bad Mijares was last year, have to think it's an upgrade. Difference: +1.5 wins. Setup versions of Capps and Nathan becomes Burton. Gotta hope he can at least be replacement level (or someone else can be). Difference: 0 wins. After that, last year was a mish mash of anybody they could try. This year will start out Swarzak, Maloney, and others. Has to be an upgrade, even if small. Difference: +0.5 wins. Lineup: Mauer/Butera/Rivera/Holm becomes Mauer and Doumit. Umm...Improvement? I might actually be going conservative with this large number when you consider what happened last year. Difference: +4.5 wins. Morneau/Cuddyer/Parmalee/Hughes/ugh...becomes Parmalee with pitch-in from Morneau/Mauer/everyone else. Hard to figure out how much of his value Cuddyer acheived at 1B and all that, but can we hope for a push here (especially when you figure just how bad Morneau was when he gave it a go)? Difference: 0 wins. Casilla/Nishi/Hughes/etc become Casilla/Hughes. Nishi took value away, Hughes may be a year better, Casilla could be healthier. Maybe a bit optimistic but... Difference: +1 win. Danny Valencia becomes Danny Valencia. Even getting part way back to his rookie year makes this an easy upgrade in the same body. Difference: +2 wins. Casilla/Nishi/Plouffe/etc become Jamey Carroll. Again this seems like a pretty easy upgrade. Difference: +2 wins. Delmon Young becomes Josh Willingham. Even with a bad year by his history, this is an easy upgrade. Difference: +2 wins. Span/Revere becomes Span. Span was really good for the first half last year and Revere did a better job than could be expected. Difference: 0 wins. Cuddyer/Kubel/etc become...I don't even know! I can't see the revolving door being quite as good as what was out there last year, but mostly I don't even know who will playing out there for how much. And the dream of the "as good or better at every spot" goes out the window! Difference: -1 wins. Thome and whoever else DH'd when he wasn't in the lineup (a lot) become Justin Morneau with pitch in from Doumit/Mauer/etc. Thome didn't play enough to make this as close as it could be. Should be an upgrade even if Morneau doesn't continue his late spring surge. Difference: +1 win. I'll take the bench as a whole since I think 73 people occupied the bench at some point last year. Gotta be better this year. Difference: +1 win. That all comes out to +19.5 wins (I think...it's late), which gets them to right around 0.500. I feel like before I started this breakdown, that's where my gut said they'd finish. So what are your thoughts? Where was I too optimistic or too pessimistic? I have some top candidates even in my own mind now that I have gone back and re-looked at some!

I was thinking today that it's possible that the Twins could be better or at least as good at every position this year compared to last. So I started thinking it over and tried to come up with some rough estimates and comparisons to see if it really was possible. Starting Pitchers: Carl Pavano becomes Carl Pavano. Pretty much steady Eddie. Can we assume he'll perform this year about the same as last? Difference: -0 wins. Scott Baker becomes Scott Baker. He performed great last year, but got limited starts due to health. Should we expect much else? Difference: 0 wins. Francisco Liriano becomes Francisco Liriano. One of the toughest guys to project this year, but I think we have to have hope he'll be better than last, or at least no worse, right? Difference: +3 wins. Nick Blackburn becomes Nick Blackburn. Supposedly healthy. Without even matching his two decent years before the last two he's an improvement over himself. Difference: +1.5 wins. Brian Duensing becomes Jason Marquis. BD didn't have a great year as a starter. Marquis should be able to at least replicate that. Difference: +0 wins. Relief Pitchers: Closer versions of Capps and Nathan become Matt Capps. Even if he's bad, he should be better. Don't forget how bad Nathan was to start the year, too. Difference: +1 win. Glen Perkins becomes Glen Perkins. Hard to expect him to replicate his '11, but he's the same guy so we can hope he's just as good. Difference: -0 wins. Jose Mijares becomes Brian Duensing. Looking at BD's numbers as a reliever and how bad Mijares was last year, have to think it's an upgrade. Difference: +1.5 wins. Setup versions of Capps and Nathan becomes Burton. Gotta hope he can at least be replacement level (or someone else can be). Difference: 0 wins. After that, last year was a mish mash of anybody they could try. This year will start out Swarzak, Maloney, and others. Has to be an upgrade, even if small. Difference: +0.5 wins. Lineup: Mauer/Butera/Rivera/Holm becomes Mauer and Doumit. Umm...Improvement? I might actually be going conservative with this large number when you consider what happened last year. Difference: +4.5 wins. Morneau/Cuddyer/Parmalee/Hughes/ugh...becomes Parmalee with pitch-in from Morneau/Mauer/everyone else. Hard to figure out how much of his value Cuddyer acheived at 1B and all that, but can we hope for a push here (especially when you figure just how bad Morneau was when he gave it a go)? Difference: 0 wins. Casilla/Nishi/Hughes/etc become Casilla/Hughes. Nishi took value away, Hughes may be a year better, Casilla could be healthier. Maybe a bit optimistic but... Difference: +1 win. Danny Valencia becomes Danny Valencia. Even getting part way back to his rookie year makes this an easy upgrade in the same body. Difference: +2 wins. Casilla/Nishi/Plouffe/etc become Jamey Carroll. Again this seems like a pretty easy upgrade. Difference: +2 wins. Delmon Young becomes Josh Willingham. Even with a bad year by his history, this is an easy upgrade. Difference: +2 wins. Span/Revere becomes Span. Span was really good for the first half last year and Revere did a better job than could be expected. Difference: 0 wins. Cuddyer/Kubel/etc become...I don't even know! I can't see the revolving door being quite as good as what was out there last year, but mostly I don't even know who will playing out there for how much. And the dream of the "as good or better at every spot" goes out the window! Difference: -1 wins. Thome and whoever else DH'd when he wasn't in the lineup (a lot) become Justin Morneau with pitch in from Doumit/Mauer/etc. Thome didn't play enough to make this as close as it could be. Should be an upgrade even if Morneau doesn't continue his late spring surge. Difference: +1 win. I'll take the bench as a whole since I think 73 people occupied the bench at some point last year. Gotta be better this year. Difference: +1 win. That all comes out to +19.5 wins (I think...it's late), which gets them to right around 0.500. I feel like before I started this breakdown, that's where my gut said they'd finish. So what are your thoughts? Where was I too optimistic or too pessimistic? I have some top candidates even in my own mind now that I have gone back and re-looked at some!

Got a gift in the mail from my dad's ladyfriend at Christmas last year with our last name misspelled. She's lived with him for over 8 years. It happens.

It seems like you're treating every "chance" to have a concussion-type injury the same. I don't think that's at all the case. Also, I don't remember it myself, but I have read many times about a time Morneau was hit in the head by a pitched ball. This may be urban legend, and it isn't mentioned here. Anyone have facts on that? Third thought is that I think it's odd that when talking about the lineup implications, nobody really mentions that what's really happening if Morneau moves to DH and Parmalee gets most of the reps at 1B, that the person being "replaced" is Doumit far more than Morneau. And finally, I think almost everything I've read has been of the view that the "Morneau to DH" story has been to prevent concussions that could occur playing the field. If you actually look at what Morneau said in the interview, I think it's much more of a case that the grind and the wear on the body of playing 1B leads to greater likelihood of concussion symptoms recurring. I think that's the issue, and not another new concussion. Overall, I think your premise is fairly obviously true: that having Morneau hitting like a beast in the lineup is better than not. I hope he eventually takes over 1B again, but if he doesn't the clear next-best-hope is to contribute from the DH spot.