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rogrulz30

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Blog Entries posted by rogrulz30

  1. Early on Sunday morning in the midst of the Minnesota Twins trying to sweep the high and mighty Boston Red Sox, the Sox were trying to get the starting 3B for the Twins. When Terry Ryan heard about this he was trying to assess his worth. Ryan had him pegged for about a 6 pack of long sox for his players. The Sox called Terry Ryan and Sox offered the Twins a tub of eye paint. Terry Ryan knew that Valencia would be a perfect fit for the arrogant Red Sox, and it totally made sense that the Red Sox would be calling. Being as crafty as Ryan is in getting talent for marginal players he hung up and started looking for all options since he was already ahead of what he thought Valencia was worth, he was going to try and make an impact move since he was unable to do anything at the deadline. 2 things were going through Ryan's head 1. No matter what we are taking offer one, 2. This is the ideal time to get rid of him as Boston is the best place possible for his arrogant pompous ass attitude, and the Red Sox would pay extra for him, lets see what we can do. Ryan calls back with a couple names from Bostons farm system, they quickly say no, which was fine, but upped the price for Valencia, Boston came back with a year supply of Big League Chew, this is a really good deal at this point, but Ryan said no deal and threw out one last name in a last ditch effort to actually get a player for Valencia, Pineda, 21, hit .421 with 22 RBIs in 36 games for the Gulf Coast League Red Sox this season. He's a switch-hitter and is capable of playing all three outfield positions. HE DID IT, he pulled threw a deal for someone who is worth a 6 pack of socks to getting a real player. If you have read my posts before I am the biggest Valencia hater, he is my least favorite Twins player ever. This is obviously a mockery of what happened, but in my mind that is what would have went through it. Danny Valencia, the uncoachable, horrible team player, pompous ass went to the absolute perfect team, the debacle of the Boston Red Sox since losing Epstein is in perfect motion.
     
    I have had soo much fun watching the Twins the last week and a half. Blowing out Clevelend, playing good baseball against there biggest rival, which they could have won all 3 games, and beating 3/4 against the Red Sox. Common denominator----------- Good Starting pitching. The Twins lineup is very good right now. Who isn't having fun watching Revere batting over .300, Morneau really heating up against everybody, especially getting over his struggles against LHP. Mastroanni teaching everyone how to steal bases, he is a fun player to watch out there. The Twins have obviously been so bad in SP, but they win ball games just getting quality starts. When the Twins are in the playoff run I absolutely love watching the team, this year they are completely out, yet I love watching every game almost just as much as they are a competitive team. All we can hope is that the Twins rookie pitchers continue to throw good ball games the rest of the year so the Twins have some options. Not saying the DeVries, Deduno, Walters will be starters next year, but damn wouldn't it be great to have options. It is going to be a very important off season for the Twins to get pitching. I am sure Terry Ryan is going to try to make moves for an impact Ace no matter what happens the rest of the year, he is unlikely going to succeed, so we are going to just add a 3, or 4 guy or guys, but at least we have major league ready options next year. DeVries, Deduno, Walters, Diamond are going to have key starts through September, I hope they are quality starts so the Twins can have options and confidence going into the 2013 season.

  2. Liriano deal, Gardy, Valencia

    · rogrulz30 · 07/30/2012 03:41 AM

    The Liriano deal is done. When I heard this deal, and the timing of the deal I was quite surprised. First, why are we trading top tier potential pitching to the AL Central? Why are we trading before his next scheduled start? Are you sure there isn't going to be a better deal out there?
    I can't answer these questions but I can speculate. My speculation is that Liriano is hiding an injury, didn't want to take the chance at him putting a stinker out there vs the Indians and lose all value. I am quite sure there was interest from a lot of teams for Liriano. Every team knew we weren't pursuing a longer term contract and are looking to get something for him. The White Sox came a calling and now we have a utility guy and a 23 year old pitcher. I don't know much about them, and we can all look that stuff up. John Bonnes came up with about 20 reasons why he hated the trade, and labeled it one of the worst. I am not sold on that yet, as we don't know all of the details on Liriano's health. If he is healthy, then I really don't get it at all, we could have waited til Tuesday. The Indians are horrible vs LHP, Liriano is at home, this was a perfect time for Liriano to make up for his last start. Something doesn't smell right!!!!!
     
    The Gardy rumblings are calling once again, as it happened in April/May. I specifically wrote it was time for a change, even though I really like Gardy. Gardy wants to manage this team, and I think he will. You can't compete as a ballclub without starting pitching. We have had horrible starting pitching this year. We have had injuries that have obviously not helped out the situation. I still think the Twins are bought into Gardy, and I personally changed my stance on him earlier this year, thinking we shuld keep him around.
     
    I am a Danny Valencia hater I guess you could say. I have always said he is a plague to this team. That being said, this is his last time to shine. If he can't get things going given this opportunity it is all she wrote and we should try and trade him for anything. Now on the flip side of this, lets say I am wrong and Valencia come back with and plays like he did in 2010. To have a good 3B, and Plouffe playing SS or 2nd that would be a very big upgrade in the lineup. Or better yet, IMO, he plays really well and we have the ability to trade him in the offseason.
     
    I found out on Friday that we got some good seats for the Twins game on Tuesday, find out Saturday that Liriano got traded, and looking at the projected starters for Tuesday I get to see Liriano for the first time in a dreaded White Sox uniform. That part will be fun, bad part is I was at the last game Blackburn faced the White Sox and gave up like 13 hits. I am hoping by Tuesday we don't trade Willingham, Morneau, or Span.
  3. So baseball is the main sport going on right now. Unfortunately our Minnesota Twins conversations are pretty much surrounding the trade deadline which is unfortunate. As I watched the Twins at Sox game I was also recording the 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw. I quit watching the Twins game when the Twins got another first guy on base being down 7-2 and failing to do anything with it. I switched it to the recording of the 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw that started in 1993 when I was 13 years old. I am 32 years old now and I have probably watched 3 Monday Night Raw episodes in 8 years. I will have to admit that I did have to download Wrestle Mania when I heard the Rock was going to be there. The Rock was probably my favorite wrestler ever, and brought back memories of watching Raw with the family. Both my parents sucked it up and watched Saturday Night Main Event, which then got bigger to Sunday Mornings, which then was prime time on Monday Night. Both my parents to this day say they still enjoyed it once they got into it. I sat here watched Raw tonight, my wife came home and was utterly embarrassed that I watched this show tonight. I told her about my favorite wrestlers and how cool it was watching wrestling back in the day. I think I was 15, my friends and I would go to each others houses pay $5 to the parents that ordered it and had a good time, probably watched wrestling til I was 20. It was entertaining. This is a Minnesota Twins blog, but I have all the right in the world to post whatever I want in my mind and I think people enjoyed wrestling, and I wasn't really disappointed watching the 1,000th episode of RAW. I wanted to throw out some of my favorite moments in my era of watching wrestling. I am going to try and make this a top 10.
     
    10. All I can say is Road Warriors. I used to love the tag team of Hawk and Animal. I loved the outfits coming down to the ring. My favorite tag team ever.
     
    9. The Ultimate Warrior vs Hulk Hogan WrestleMania 6. When I looked up the year of 1990 I couldn't believe I remember this match and I was 10. The ultimate warrior got me hooked to wrestling I think. He was one of the first to really have more movement in the ring, add more agility to wrestling.
     
    8. Shawn Michaels vs Triple H I remember this match, looked it up it was a Summer Slam match in 2002. All I remember was Triple H really breaking into the seen, Shawn Michaels stole the show all of the time, rightly so, but Triple H was becoming bigger and bigger. This match made Triple H what he is still today.
     
    7. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Rock in Wrestlemania 17 (2001) Both were the most polarizing figures in wrestling at the time. This is about the end of my era watching wrestling.
     
    6. Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant. I can't say that I watched this live, but I did watch the behind the scenes and the match, which is what propelled the WWE to what it is today. This would normally be higher, but I was too young.
     
    5. When Hulk Hogan came back to the WWE as the good guy, first time back to the WWE playing the "Real American" Song.
     
    4. [h=1]THE MILLION DOLLAR MAN AND JAKE "THE SNAKE" ROBERTS BATTLE FOR THE VACATED MILLION DOLLAR CHAMPIONSHIP[/h]
    Don't know why I remember this, I guess I loved Jake the Snake Roberts, hated the million dollar man w/ Virgil, which I hated. All I wanted was the snake to go over Ted Dibiase and it never happened and I was pissed.
     
    3. I will never forget the Hell in the Cell match between Undertaker and Mankind. Mankind went through the top of the cage. He landed on tacks, he went through the table. This match was unbelievable knowing what these guys had to go through physically.
     
    2. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Vince McMahon throughout the years of Monday Night Raw which kept me watching as he was thoroughly entertaining.
     
    1. The Rock overall kept me watching wrestling and the stupid sayings he had. "Do you smell what the Rock is cooking", Really, that is what is main saying was and it was great every time.
     
     
    Favorite wrestlers of all time I guess in no particular order.
     
    Junkyard Dog
    Macho Man Randy Savage
    Jake the Snake Roberts
    The Rockers, Marty Janetti/Shawn Michaels
    The Road Warriors
    Hulk Hogan
    Stone Cold Steve Austin
    ManKind
    Undertaker
    George "the Animal" Steel
    The Rock
  4. I dislike the Chicago White Sox, they are my least favorite team in the MLB (behind the Yankees). I have always liked watching the series between the two, I really liked the Ozzie Guillen era where we wiped up on them consistently. The White Sox are arrogant. They have a sense of entitlement, and realistically they are the only Chicago team that stays semi competitive. I absolutely dislike the TV announcers Hawk and Stone. I can't stand these guys, "Hawk" says the most ridiculous things, he is worse than Haray Carey, who I absolutely loved. So I was checking out some things on the side of the White Sox and ran into this, which confirmed my belief on how bad they are. http://chicagoist.com/2012/02/27/fans_vote_white_sox_tv_announce_cre.php, yes FanGraphs even have them rated the worst. As my last blog had me rating some of the Twins guys, I forgot to add what I don't like about these guys. When I lived in Las Vegas and had MLB, I had to unfortunately listen to these guys, it was great when the Twins were beating them up, but once they got a lead and had to listen to "Hawk" have all the excuses in the world that they lose to the Twins I had to shut it off.
     
    Adam Dunn is leading the Majors in home runs. He is also leading the league in K's. If I were ever to think that a player would have more K's than a pitcher in a year, I would never think that was possible. This year we have someone who can do that. Justin Verlander has 142 K's, Adam Dunn has 144 K's. What????? I couldn't believe that, I am so happy I was glancing at some of the things the White Sox bloggers have to say about there team that is going down the drain, which was expected at the beginning of the season. This is really funny by the old batting stance guy. http://www.southsidesox.com/2012/6/26/3118673/batting-stance-guy-is-at-it-again-dunn-so-to-bb-ratio-hilarious. Worth watching.
     
    The trade deadline is coming, I am not going to pounding the subject, all I can say is we need pitching next year, I think I am one of the only ones that am on board with keeping Liriano, (or at least offer him the 13 mill option) as the FA market may be out of reach for the Twins. If we have Liriano, Baker, Gibson, Hendriks, Diamond next year, we have a shot at improving that during the offseason, but it isn't the worst we could ask for, w/o Liriano, or a higher potential 1 guy, we are in a very similar place we are today. I wish we could unload Pavano and Capps. I am for keeping the rest. As Nelson wrote this could be the last time we see Liriano in the Twins uniform. GL Liriano
  5. I have consistently said good things about Scott Diamond. He has been the pitching MVP for the Twins this year by far. I have enjoyed watching the games he has pitched as he hasn't lost his "control of the game" at all this year in my opinion. He is very consistent in the strike zone, doesn't give up walks, and lets the defense get outs for him. He reminds me of a young Steve Avery from the Braves. I have continued to tell a buddy of mine that he has impressed me. Of course as a Brewer fan, "and a Minnesota hater" he has to tell me all of the things he doesn't do, and that it has been luck that he has as many wins as he has, and his ERA is so low because of where the balls have been hit, and the amount of players left on base is going to start going the other way. I am a big fan of sabremetrics, but when you watch somebody in control like Diamond vs Liriano I don't think the stats tell the entire story. That being said, the Twins are 15 games under .500 I took a wager that I have the Twins win in Diamonds starts against the losses of Diamonds starts. I think I have the good end of the stick. I could be wrong on this one, watching tonights game in the bottom of the 7th I would be 1-1 since we took the wager.
     
    This is the first year in my lifetime that John Gordon hasn't been in the radio booth. Cory Provus from the Brewers took over and I have been able to listen to games when he is on, on my way from work and away from a TV. I have also been very used to listening to Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven. With Blyleven taking a lot more games off this year we have had a mix of Tom Kelly, Roy Smalley, and Ron Coomer. I have really liked listening to different people, along with the different takes on each one. If I had a choice of someone to pick if Blyleven left this is how I would go.
     
    First I want to rate Cory Provus as I have listened to enough games now to get him, and adjust to listening to someone else.
     
    1. Excitement C+, I don't always get the excitement of what is going on with Provus yet, even though it will come. This is the first year of doing the Twins broadcast and it has to be tough gaining the excitement level.
    2. Color (what is going on) B I think he does a great job of letting us know what is going on that I can visualize it. From what a pitcher is doing, or a hitter at that, even when the play isn't happening and there is a lull. Every time I listen I can get a feeling of what is going on.
    3. Teaming with Gladden C I think it is very tough trying to work with Gladden as Gladden does not have good color or excitement, Gladden gives us a little understanding of the technical side of what they are trying to do, but it is hard transitioning and I don't think that is Provus' fault.
    4. Knowledge B I think he understands the minor league system as much as he can, as being a first year announcer. He asks good questions to other managers/coaches. He understands the system and starts to learn the players in the system. I am impressed with the baseball knowledge, and doesn't seem to give us blanket statement which we all hate.
     
    Overall B I have to say minus the excitement and the buy in so far he has done a good job, and I really like the choice the organization made.
     
    1. Roy Smalley- If I had a choice to choose a person to take over for Bert it would be Roy Smalley. I know he overstates a lot of players abilities, especially Mauers. But I really like his insight of the game overall. I like the experience he brings, and the stories he can tell. He compliments Bremer very well and I can hear that in the broadcast. I give him an A-
     
    2. TK- I really like TK in the booth in small increments (e.g. 3 game series 4 times a year) He was obviously a smart manager. He prides himself and others on hard work. I really think he has fun in the booth. He knows he isn't there for long, and makes sure to have fun. I think if he would be there for an entire year he would run out of things to say. I have always had the upmost respect for TK, and I really do like listening to him. B-
     
    3. Ron Coomer- Way tooooooo much of a homer. Yes I am a homer, and most of us are. He has too many good things to say about players and not enough of things they have opportunities on. I find it frustrating sometimes that he doesn't say the truth when the player is struggling. I like Coomer when he is in the stands/ takes over for Incmikoski. Bremer really does a great job exploiting the stregths of all of them. I think if Coomer learned more about the other team, or the minor league players the Twins have, he could be better. I really think Coomer lacks work ethic in the booths. C-
  6. So the All Star game has come and gone, which also means the first half of baseball has come and gone, and most of us reading here get to see the Minnesota Twins 13 games under .500 11 games out of first in the AL Central. Since there aren't many sports going on right now, there are two things to talk about, the All Star Game, (what Twins should have got in), and of course the Wild signing Parise and Suter. I have to say I went back on a statement I made about Mauer not being our All Star. We talked about this after our softball game, saying Mauer shouldn't be the guy. My last blog I put 3 guys up there before Mauer. I have to take it back as I thought about it more, he is our "Baseball Fans All Star", not our MVP, even though that could be debatable as well.
    We also talked quite a bit about how the All Star Game is run, and should the winner get home field advantage in the World Series. First off I like the idea of making into a contest that is up for grabs for something that really means something. I think that puts a little bit more pressure on the managers to win, rather than the players getting playing time. In the Star Tribune they had a column that Mike Schmidt wrote about Bud Selig's tenure, and that the ASG is the "black sheep" of his tenure. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/hall-of-famer-mike-schmidt-flawed-all-star-game-is-black-sheep-event-of-seligs-tenure/2012/07/10/gJQAkPtHbW_story.html Yes I agree that the tie game ending of the All Star game was quite ridiculous, but I understand he was in a tough spot, but for all those people who watched the game, here is the reality, baseball doesn't end in ties! I like Schmidts take on the ASG about how excited the players were to be on national TV, and face the unknown quite often. Inter league play does have some hurt to it, but on the flip side we all have access to MLB Extra Innings + Nationally televised games + our own outlet to watch all the games that they didn't have before. And lets face it there is a lot more money involved for these players. The one main point that I would like to see though is that big time matchup between Verlander and Matt Kemp, or Matt Cain vs Bautista. Those would be really cool matchups if they have never seen each other before. I also think that the best players should play more. I want to see the best players out there, like Schmidt said Willie Mays often played 7 innings in games. I tell you what if Verlander was throwing no hits after 3 innings I would like to see him pitch until at least he gives up a hit. The All Star Game should mean something, I like the fact that they play for home field, the one big thing that was transparent, which I really think will get changed is having your home team that is holding the ASG be in the home run derby.
     
    A couple weeks ago I went to the Twins/White Sox game, Nick Blackburn got smoked, giving up like 13 hits, during that time I was able to dabble into Surly's Cynic Ale, and if you haven't tried that it is really good. We were down 6-0 when Brian Dozier hits a solo home run to left field 4 rows up, right where I was sitting. http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=22630569&topic_id=players&query=type%3Djson%26player_id%3D572821%26start%3D0%26src%3Dvpp%26sort%3Ddesc%26sort_type%3Dcustom%26hitsPerPage%3D60&c_id=min&playerName=Brian%20Dozier My best friend ended up catching the ball, which was pretty cool, as I never thought that catching a home run ball would be that fun, but I have to say other than sending Danny Valencia back to the minors, was my highlight of the first half of the Twins 2012 season. The other reason I come to this is we stayed in the cities and met a friend who is really into soccer. In my life I have probably watched maybe a game and half, he wanted to watch I think was Germany vs Italy, not exactly sure, but the talk came up of how boring soccer is to watch, and yes it is boring. I did ask a lot of questions that I am sure he got sick of, but understanding a little bit more of why so many games end with a 1 goal win, it just seems lucky at some point when you play 90 plus minutes and a lot of games are decided by one goal. I tried to compare it to baseball, which a lot of people think is really boring to watch on T.V. But then it kind of clicked listening to Pete talk about the strategy, and the work that goes into it, and it really isn't that much different than "watching" baseball. Baseball is boring if you "watch" it, but if you understand the game, and learn all the nuances in the game it is soo much better to watch. Sometimes I have to take step back and listen and try to understand what I am "watching" and not make an opinion about how stupid/boring it really is. I have to admit I love Survivor, I absolutely love the show and I get heckled for it all the time. The thing is, people don't understand that it isn't people surviving on an island, it has soooo much strategy in every decision it is really intense to watch, and if people don't get that, they will never get the intrigue of watching a television show that I really love.
     
    Everybody love projections, whether they mean **** or not, it is always fun to go back and look to see what you thought may happen, and what really happens and I want to take a stab at the rest of the baseball season, and unfortunately for the Twins we are probably looking more forward to the beginning of the Minnesota Wild season to start. But here we go for fun.
     
    1. Who gets traded? Matt Capps and Carl Pavano. Even though we don't have starting pitching, we do have players that only help us out unloading contracts/getting a player or two. I would be very surprised if Glen Perkins wasn't our "closer" by the end of the year. The names of Span, Morneau, Willingham just don't make much sense to unload in my mind, the only other player that is really a 50/50 but I think will end up staying is Liriano.
     
    2. Record at the end of the year. I say they play 6 games above .500 the rest of the year which would put them at 74-88. I have to pick that still because at the beginning of the year I had them over 73.5, and they have played much better baseball. I really think Blackburn is done, I think the rotation is going to be Liriano, Diamond, Hendriks, Walters, ? by the end of the year. And one more to add on beat the Royals by 1 game to not finish in last place.
     
    3. Willingham and Plouffe will get to 30 HR's, which will really be fun to watch.
     
    4. Mauer will flirt with the batting title and end up 2nd, but will keep everyone watching to see if he gets it. Will end up at .331
     
    5. Morneau has a break out second half which helps lead the Twins to playing 6 games above .500. Morneau ends with 25 HR's and is our 2nd half MVP.
     
    6. Dozier gets a reality check and continues to struggle the 2nd half on defense and offensively, Casilla takes his spot some time in August.
     
    7. With the ultimate turnaround to Adam Dunn, along with aggressive trade deadline acts the White Sox win the Central. This goes against everything I thought at the beginning of the year.
     
    8. The Rangers are the most talented team in the AL, and will continue with that and win the AL Pennant.
     
    9 The Rangers win the World Series beating the Cincinatti Reds.
     
     
    10. There are too many positives for the Twins again, and making me look like a huge Homer, but hey aren't we all.
  7. Summer in Duluth, MN is very short, as a retail worker I don't get many weekends off, and I don't get to spend enough time outside, I try to get as much sun as I possibly can, or clean up my house after horrible flooding in the city and my house. It really sucks trying to get ankle deep water out of your basement, on top of that at 1 a.m. trying to get someone to hire when every house is in the same boat. Thanks to a buddy that answered his phone at 1 am we saved as much as we could without getting too much damage. As I look outside right now on a day off, I get frustrated at it is supposed to rain and thunderstorm all day. I am back and want to make sure that I keep up with the rest of the year for the Twins, as I have continued watching them night in and night out.
     
    I first want to comment on the Tiger game yesterday where Scott Diamond continues to impress me. The Twins put up 12 hits in 4 innings and were lucky to score 3 runs. The Detroit Tigers are not going to win the central because of there horrible defense. You were watching one of those games where Roy Smalley put it best that they will need at least 5 runs to win this game. When you have Cabrera/Fielder back to back they are going to do some damage against the Twins, we can't get Cabrera out, so when we can't hit the long ball, or xbh's you just aren't going to outscore Cabrera alone. Again I am impressed with Diamond, I do somewhat understand why he was pulled, what I don't understand is this, I want to share a text I sent to a buddy who was watching the Brewer game, and knows Fielder obviously pretty well. "Tie game 1st and 3rd, Fielder up, don't u just walk him." 1 minute later Fielder hits a 3 run bomb. " Or u put in a guy who has 7 IP in career, and give up a 3 run bomb, fu@#$ng stupid" WHY WOULD YOU PITCH TO THAT GUY THERE, OR NOT AT LEAST PUT PERKINS IN TO FACE HIM RATHER THAN A ROOKIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DON'T GET THAT AT ALL. I missed the post game, I hope they asked that question. I am sure he was waiting for the stupid f'n save situation, I HATE that stat more than any other stat in the world, SERIOUSLY!!!
     
    I know this has been talked about to its legth, but I wanted to add my opinion on Mauer being our All Star. First of all I get it! I get it is a exhibition game for the fans, I get Mauer has the best OBP in the league. The one thing I don't get is he gets a pass by not playing a position really. If I wasn't from MN I would want to vote him in, because I don't know another player on the team. As a Twins fan I would have loved to vote 3 different players in though. 1. Josh Willingham, he is our all star, he has been very fun to watch and the best overall value FA in the league. He has 9 Game Winning hits, he has 19 HR's, and has really helped the lineup stay in games. 2. Scott Diamond, Without him I don't know what Gardy would be doing with a rotation that after Sunday will have thrown out there 11 different starting pitchers. "11!!!" How do you have 11 different starting pitchers 84 games into the season, that is very difficult. He should have had another win on Thursday, he would be a very close 2nd to Willingham. 3. Trevor Plouffe- Mid may he was batting .132, he is now around .240 with 18 HR's, he has played very good defense, tied with the most HR's in June, this guy was one bad game away from being in Rochester for a long time and bringing back the worst Twins player in a long time Danny Valencia. I hope Plouffe keeps going because he is the best 3B potential we have had in a really long time. If he can continue doing well for a couple years, learn to play 2B or SS when Sano comes up, we could have a solidified infield. I would vote as a Twins fan those guys in that order, then Mauer. I am not dogging on Mauer, I think we have been able to get him in the lineup and use him as well as we can, but I am not sold on the All Star for our team without having the solidified C position.
     
    We have a lot to consider with Liriano!! I am as confused as anybody what is going to happen with this guy. Next year he has an option of 12 million, I am ok paying him that for one more year as of today. If he gets traded that team is getting 15 starts from a guy that could be very good or a horrible investment for probably 2 minor league players. I like the option for us on that on if they are going to be impact starters, which could happen for someone desperate, as starting pitching is rather weak right now. Otherwise let him go in free agency and get 2 compensatory picks, which isn't all that bad either. I have no idea what the best option is at this point. I want to see him do very well in his next 2 starts, which starts today, and maybe you get that bidder that needs someone and gives up too much, I think the Twins need that more than anything at this point. I think if anybody is really on the block it is going to be Liriano and Capps. We can only root for them to get us the most back
     
    Next year the Twins unload $30 million from the payroll. Greinke? Really, that doesn't happen for the Minnesota Twins, who opened up a great ballpark, have had the money to do something great, but probably won't get anybody better than a Willingham signing once again this off season. The Minnesota Wild just spent almost 200 million dollars on two players that may make the Wild relevant, which they should be in the state of hockey. I am a Twins fan first and foremost, but I do like watching the other 3 major sports. I was at work, checking Twitter Tuesday and Wednesday just waiting to see if a Minnesota team could land the unimaginable. It happened, and I am excited and so is all of Minnesota from Rochester to Ely. I live in a Hockey Town, and there was more talk about the possibility, than I have heard about anything since "are we going to sign Favre". I thought it was pretty sweet, I would love to see if the Twins can make some kind of splash this off season.
     
    Who would we really trade before the trade deadline, and why? Mauer, no. Doumit, no. Butera, no. C position is solidified. Plouffe, no. 3B solidified. Brian Dozier, no. SS good. Jamey Carrol, maybe? But what would we gain, nothing, and we have nobody that can take his position, so I am saying no. 2B good. Morneau, maybe? We have nobody that can take his spot yet, but if he can't hit lefties at all, we could really take a look again at Parmalee. 1B up in the air. LF Willingham, maybe? I can't see them letting the FA go here, and one of the Twins fans favorite players at this point. His salary doesn't hurt us that bad next year, I think he stays. LF good. Denard Span, maybe? His contract is so team friendly, we would really have to get impact players that could help us next year or the year after to make this deal, but if anybody goes it would be him. I just can't see that happening. Ben Revere, no. RF good. That doesn't leave us with much leaving, or worth trading. Our rotation we have 2 players that I can easily see leaving. Matt Capps #1, the fans don't like him, I think he has been someone I thought would pitch better this year, I can't see him as a true closer. I would love to see him go. Liriano, HUGE ?? I only want him to go if he pitches well his next 2 or 3 starts, because we would get max value for him. Otherwise I would like to see him stay, and the 2 options we have aren't bad at all at the end of the year as I stated before. I really don't think of the Twins as buyers or sellers at this point because I don't think a lot of trades make sense. We will see very soon, I hope if they do anything they set up the Twins to make off season moves in free agency.

  8. The Closer Role. The Save

    · rogrulz30 · 06/15/2012 06:49 PM

    http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:8048114
     
    http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/page/caple-120615/a-plan-save-save-make-relief-pitchers-meaningful-again Jim Caple, Thank you.
     
     
    OK, I just want to say I wrote about this in a previous blog, John Bonnes had me post about this in the forum, http://www.twinsdaily.com/entry.php?789-Lots-of-Thoughts!!
     
    Now on ESPN front page we have some experts talking about the most annoying stat in baseball. The "Save" These guys make the same points I have been making, and I absolutely agree w/ what these guys are saying. It took Chapman to blow a 2 inning save to get this attention, and I don't blame Baker one bit in putting a guy like that in the game to win. The name of the game is to win baseball games not get your "closer" in there in a "save situation", It is soooo stupid and I just wanted to get this off my chest as I saw it on ESPN. I want to thank Jim Caple, (who I always have liked) to write a great article about the save.
  9. There has been a lot of talk all year about MLB Umpiring. I have umpired baseball from little league to high school to softball. I personally like umpiring as it is as close to the game you can get without being in the stands. You are also part of the game, and a game that most umpires really love. You never want to make a mistake as an umpire because as a player you rely on what is right or wrong, and work hard at it. All umpires are going to make mistakes, I would say no umpire is trying to make mistakes. I hate to bring gambling into the mix of referees or umpires, but in lieu of the recent Pacquaio decision you at least have to wonder sometimes. There is a lot of money exchanging hands at any given time, on any given day. Umpires make good money, they do have to travel a lot and most of them have families to care for. The opportunity I know has to be there for any umpire to make a lot of extra money in any certain game, especially balls and strikes. I am not insinuating that the umpires are doing this in any way, but you can't be naive the the options that are available for umpires. The questions then become, do we keep the same options for replay, or do we start to move forward with technology? It is very tough in baseball to have replays on certain plays due to the fact that you then have to assume where runners would have ended up, but I am a big fan of the umpire getting it right. The game can be won or lost by inches, or seconds, umpires are never going to be perfect and they know that, so adding some sort of replay options wouldn't be a bad idea, but how far does that get taken? Think about this, if Cole De Vries is on the mound, pitching against Andy Pettite, who is going to get more calls? The answer is Andy Pettite, the answer should be, What do you mean? Is that fair, obviously not, a pitcher shouldn't just be able to earn a call, but it happens. It happens in basketball, (Jordan, Ewing) It happens in football (Brady), and it obviously happens in baseball. So does electronic balls and strikes happen, and would it happen in our lifetime? I don't want that to happen, the way things are going, and with better technology, it definitely may!!
     
    I wanted to toot my own horn around sticking with my guns with Trevor Plouffe, all of my friends know how I have been his biggest supporter since day 1 this year, and he is finally coming through, taking his average from .132 to .230 in a matter of weeks. He was one bad game away from being done in my mind, and now we have one of the hottest hitters in the league. He is on pace to hit 25 HR's after a historically bad May. Jim Thome in 2010 hit 25 HR. I am the biggest Plouffe fan, and I am definitely happy he is doing well.
     
    I now wanted to say I was wrong trying to jump the Gardy train too early, I have said I have never been a fan of just blaming the manager, but everyone knows it was getting really, really bad, in one of my posts I specifically said we need to clean house and try something new. Injuries or not, we put an unwatchable product on the field and it was disgusting, the Twins are the worst team in the AL, as far as record, that could change tonight as we are only .5 game behind the Royals. I am jumping back on the Gardy train, and at this point I was wrong to jump on the staff too early.
     
    Yes, the Minnesota Lynx our WNBA champions are going to get an insert in my blog. I will be the first to say I do not like watching women's basketball. I will have to say I watched the game when UConn lost to end there streak in womens NCAA basketball, and Dan Barreiro is on the undefeated train for the Lynx, I don't know how much more talented the Lynx are compared to other teams, but they are killing teams. I don't care what major sport you are watching if you go undefeated, it is historic. I may have to watch the Lynx on Friday to see if they can start the season 10-0. AND YES I LOOKED ON YOUR WEBSITE LYNX AND YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE STANDINGS ON THE FRONT PAGE, you have a horrible front page. I am just throwing it out there, I hope they keep the streak going, and yes I hope I have to watch the Lynx play in the playoffs as an undefeated team, because I will watch.
  10. Growing up in a small town in northern Minnesota we didn't have that many options watching baseball, except on MSC and WGN. I used to love watching the Cubs play the day games. Cubs baseball always looked like fun. I was able to watch Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Greg Maddux, Shawn Dunston. I got to listen to Steve Stone and Haray Caray. I had fun watching the games, watching the fans, and listening to a senile Cubs announcer who loved his job, and was fun to listen to. I have always been a Cubs fan. I was excited when the Cubs got Mark Prior, we got Joe Mauer, my favorite two teams, two of the best players in the draft. I can see why these games sell out. I think a lot of people have some of the memories that I have, and for some reason the Cubs have a weird ora around them and you want to see them play. The Cubs are 19-37, the Twins are coming off winning their 7th in 10 series and are 22-34, still after that they have the worst record in the AL, but amazingly enough are 3 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central, which amonst everyone else thought would run away with the division. The Cubs are also 7-22 on the road, I am hoping the Twins can get the 8th/11 series wins starting Friday.
     
    On a different note Will Ferrell is probably my favorite comedic actor every, combining SNL skits as Haray Caray with Will Ferrell were some of the funniest skits ever.
    probably my favorite, if you haven't seen them, not sure where you have been, but they are hilarious. In 9th grade we had to write an essay on our favorite musical artist, at that time I really did, but we had to bring in an example of our favorite artist, I was able to write my about Haray Caray, as I could record him singing the worst/best renditions of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Anyway, it seems as though I had an obsession, I didn't, but these are all things I remember about watching the Cubs and getting his autograph at Wrigley that same summer, and being at Wrigley and how great that place is. I am lucky to have seen 2 World Series Championships from the Minnesota Twins, I hope in my lifetime I see one from the Chicago Cubs.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    These are from http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quocaray.shtml
     
     
     
    "Aw, how could he (Jorge Orta) lose the ball in the sun, he's from Mexico."


    "Booze, broads, and bull****. If you got all that, what else do you need?"


    "Hello again, everybody. It's a bee-yooo-tiful day for baseball."


    "Holy cow!"


    "I figure I had no business being here this long anyway, so what do you care how old I am? I've been on borrowed time for years. You know my old saying: live it up, the meter's running. I've always said that if you don't have fun while you're here, then it's your fault. You only get to do this once."


    "I know it is the fans that are responsible for me being here. I've always tried in each and every broadcast to serve the fans to the best of my ability."


    "I'll tell you what's helped me my entire life. I look at baseball as a game. It's something where people can go out, enjoy and have fun. Nothing more."


    "It could be, it might be, It is! A home run!"


    "I think it's the greatest shot in the arm baseball could get. Once upon a time, all kids wanted to be baseball players, but nowadays a young kid dreams about playing basketball or football and making millions. I think it's great to see a man (Michael Jordan) who has reached the pinnacle of his career, and now he wants to go back and do what he wanted to do as a kid - play baseball."


    "It's the fans that need spring training. You gotta get 'em interested. Wake 'em up and let 'em know that their season is coming, the good times are gonna roll."


    "I've only been doing this fifty-four years. With a little experience, I might get better."


    "I would always sing it (Take Me Out To The Ball Game), because I think it's the only song I knew the words to!"


    "My whole philosophy is to broadcast the way a fan would broadcast."


    "Now, you tell me, if I have a day off during the baseball season, where do you think I`ll spend it? The ballpark. I still love it. Always have, always will."


    "Oh, I get a little tired now and then, but knowing my lifestyle, that's only natural."


    "They (Expos fans) discovered 'boo' is pronounced the same in French as it is in English."


    "This has been the remarkable thing about the fans in Chicago, they keep drawing an average of a million-three a year, and, when the season's over and they've won their usual seventy-one games, you feel that those fans deserve a medal."


    "You could tell he (President Ronald Reagan) was an old radio guy. He never once looked at the television monitor."


  11. http://www.letsgotribe.com/2012/5/31/3056126/series-preview-minnesota-june-1-3#storyjump
     
    The preview is done from the letsgotribe site, I wanted to throw my opinion out in lieu of the story, again it is fun looking at the preview from the other side. We do get labeled the worst team in the AL once again.
     
    The Twins are going to be facing 3 straight RHP this weekend series, Low, Tomlin, Masterson
     
    Derek Lowe's last start was vs the White Sox, his line was 2.1 IP, giving up 8 ER, and 10 hits. He is 1-2 with a 5.19 ERA in his last 3 starts
     
    Tomlin's last start was at home vs the Royals his line was 5IP 4 hits 4 ER. He is he is 1-0 with a 4.42 ERA in his last 3 starts
     
    Masterson;s last start was 6IP 9 hits 7 ER vs the Royals. He is 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in his last 3 starts.
     
    If I were Gardy I would be showing these stats to the Twins this weekend to gain even more confidence going up to bat. The Twins have won 3 in a row, the Indians are going to be without Hafner, and the Indians are going to be facing the most steady person in the rotation, along with 2 starters that have given 8 out of 9 quality starts in Walters, and Diamond. Looking at the comments from the letsgotribe blogs they are easily thinking 2 out of 3 games, or a sweep. WEll of course they are homers just like we are, but looking at the stats and lost confidence and injuries the Indians have had, I think the Twins should be looking to take 2 of three. Vegas doesn't think so, as the Twins are -140 in game one. I think this is a series that tells the story of the Indians.
     
    The Twins face RHP pretty well, Morneau has teed off lately vs RHP, with the healthy lineup in this weekends series I am hoping to take 2 out of the 3. I am excited watching a series for the first time in awhile. I am excited to watch Morneau as his swing is coming together, Mauer has been heating up, and with Willingham hitting 2 big HR the last 2 games, the lineup is getting a lot better, and I hope the Twins can continue hitting the Indians pitching like the previous 2 teams have. My prediction Twins win 2/3, Pavano and Diamond get the wins. Go Twins!!!
  12. I have to say watching the last 3 Twins games were fun to watch. 3 Things that got my attention in those 3 games.
     
    1. Capps obvious excitement getting the save in the first game. I love seeing true emotion and he was very excited getting that save.
    2. What a boring second game!!!!!!!!!!! Then turns exciting in about a 1/2 second cuz we all knew that Willinghams shot was going to be a walkoff, and the Twins needed something like that at home.
    3. Liriano on the mound taking care of business.
     
     
    People like Matt Capps, I root for him to do well, reality is he doesn't have the stuff to put teams away. Capps is a good relief pitcher, he has velocity and hits the strike zone in good places, what I am hoping for is he continues doing well until the trade deadline and we trade him. I hear about Span, and Morneau, I think we should really look to unload "Cappsy". He will definitely have some value, as teams always need good bullpen help.
     
    It was fun watching Cole De Vries pitch on Tuesday. Another emotional game for him and his family. I am glad it was against the worst lineup in the league, normally teams eat up the walks, he was able to get double plays, and keep runners where they wouldn't be able to score. I think if De Vries is able to keep his breaking ball down, develop a little more movement on his fastball he could have a future. We would never get to see this guy if it wassn't for a depleted rotation, sometimes there is good in all of the bad, again I will be rooting for him for continued success.
     
    Josh Willingham has lived up to taking over for Cuddyer. I have said this before and I will say it again, Willingham was a steal of the offseason. He gives you the long ball chance all of the time, I don't think Cuddyer was thought about that in that way. Yes his defense is not good, but he makes up for it with good at bats. He is fun to watch at the plate. The walk off homerun on Tuesday was just a fun moment this year to see. I was excited watching Cole pitch, and pitch well, but the game was awfully boring until the big homerun. Fun to Watch!!!
     
    Liriano 6 IP 3 hits 2 BB, and 9 K's 0 ER. WHERE HAS THIS BEEN FOR THE TWINS THIS YEAR!! When you get starts like this, that creates momentum, I wish the Twins played tomorrow with Pavano on the mound. Everybody that roots for the Twins wants Liriano to pitch well, because he was thought to be our next #1. That has been an epic fail. Obviously this is encouraging, and we can continue seeing him try to be that guy. We all know the stuff he has, we all know the capabilities he has, it would really be nice for him to solidify, and help in the rotation.
     
    Going back on the Valencia comment on May 9th, I said the Twins would go 13-7 over the next 20 games, I was wrong, but they are 10-10, which is better than 8-22 recored with him. I know I may be the only one, but I still want to see Plouffe progress and stay at third. I think with the healthy lineup now, and a rotation that can give you a chance, the Twins can at least be competitive and not be labeled the worst team in the AL.
     
    I am going to take the bottom lines here and talk the homer in me. A lot of things can happen now in June. The Indians are starting to play poorly, and they lost Travis Hafner 4-6 weeks. The Royals still aren't playing to the "potential" they had, they aren't making any noise. The Tigers are way underperforming, and it doesn't look like things are going forward "yet", so we have the White Sox as the division leaders What???? Konerko MVP at this point in the season. What I am getting at is, June starts and the Twins start with there "Ace" in Cleveland w/o Hafner, they go to KC, then at home vs Cubs, Phillies, Brewers, then at the Pirates. Reality is they can win a few games, the teams lineup is healthy, Pavano, Diamond, Walters, De Vries (Blackburn coming back) and Liriano have at least been solid now. Hell they won 3 in a row, lets make it a few more and at least make things interesting after these next few series.

  13. Swagger

    · rogrulz30 · 05/23/2012 04:06 AM

    I wish I would have looked at Floyd's stats vs the Twins before the game, but this is certainly worth seeing. "
    Caving in against Minnesota is something Floyd and the White Sox do. Floyd is now 0-8 with an 8.85 ERA over his last eight starts against the Twins, making him the first White Sox pitcher to lose eight in a row to one team

    since Tommy Thomas against the Yankees from 1926 to 1928
    . There's some dignity in losing eight straight to the 1927

    Yankees
    ... not so much with the 2012 Twins."
     
    Yes I am copying and pasting the Chicago White Sox blog because I thought is would be fun.
     
    In 2008, Joe Maddon and the Tampa Bay Rays made news finally for the franchise when, in spring training, they had a bench clearing brawl vs the New York Yankees. I remember this all over ESPN, I remember Colin Cowherd talking about it. This was the Tampa Bay Rays. What are they doing making a bench clearing brawl vs the high and mighty New York Yankees? They were making themselves relevant!!!!!!!!!! They were making a statement in the AL East. It worked. Since then the AL East was now a 3 team journey. Why is this relevevant to a Twins blog. Minnesota Nice!!! Tampa Bay made a stand saying we aren't going to take **** from these guys anymore, I think if the the Twins would have done what the Rays did before the playoffs, they wouldn't have been as intimidated. Moving forward today, I really think it is important that these new pitchers come in with a different Twins attitude. The score was 9-1, Walters on the mound and I believe he threw one inside and hit Rios. I am not saying that he was trying to hit him, in fact I am sure he wasn't, the fact that he was able to throw the ball on both sides of the plate kept the Sox off guard. I haven't seen that consistently from a Twins pitcher in a long time. The reason why I prefaced the Tampa Bay Rays, and why I paralleled that with Walters was I think that those things haven't given the Twins an edge against certain teams, and against certain players. When was the last time you saw the Twins in a bench clearing brawl? Or at least a heated one? I can't think of any. I know the Twins have struggled this year, the Twins have been decent for a decade, problem is they don't have that edge on teams that have been dominant, and have the swagger. Have the Twins ever had a swagger? No!! They need one. I understand the team is probably not going to do much this year, if that is the case I think that they need to develop some sort of swagger for years to come, and it starts with the starting pitching, it starts with not taking any **** from anybody. Gardy gets fired up, I think Gardy, (if he is going to be our manager for years to come) needs to acquire the fire he has and take a page from Joe Maddon. The Twins should do that the next couple days vs the Sox, consistently pitch in, hard slides, and continue the dominance they have over this team the last 4 years and hopefully that sparks the rest of the year and years to come, via what the Rays did.


  14. http://www.southsidesox.com/2012/5/22/3035807/robin-ventura-white-sox-twins#storyjump
     
    I wanted to post this as it is hard to read this statement. "
    Now the Twins enter the mix, and how well the White Sox handle the American League's worst team could tell us whether the Sox can make anything more of their season."
     
    On the flip side of this, the Twins could keep the momentum going as they have won 4 out of the last 5 games. There is nobody better to play, based on the last 8 years than the White Sox. We will see how the Sox and the Ventura era work against the Twins that have dominated the Sox the last 4 years.
     
     
     

    http://www.southsidesox.com/2012/5/21/3034098/stuck-between-stations-a-minnesota-twins-preview
     
    It is fun looking at the Previews from the other side. As this author puts it:
     
    "
    Outlook: This is the worst Twins team in recent memory, maybe even dating back to the days when contraction almost wiped them out. That being said, they are still the Twins and will find a way to be annoying. Season series record of 12-6. No talent, no mercy.
     
    I personally love the White Sox/ Twins games. There is no reason for me to put numbers up as this blogger did that very well. For years you could throw the records out the window, these are series that made or broke a season, or renewed the rivalry. I honestly believed even 8 years ago neither team cared what the records were and they just wanted to kick each others asses. I hope tonight is a fun game to watch, I am hoping for a Twins win to keep momentum going.
     
     
    P.S. I live in Duluth, MN, across the bridge is the "Anchor Bar" in Superior, My wife and I had a burger basket with fries and a beverage each, total $14.25, I think it was the best burger meal I have ever had. Buffalo Burger add bacon, It was amazing, if you are visiting around here check it out.


  15. I wanted to take a look at some points that have been hot topics for the last couple weeks. I wanted to look at the best way to improve the teams performance right now, and as the homer would say right the ship.
     
    At this point being 10 games back and being 15 games under .500, I am not giving the Twins much of any chance of doing anything, but I can talk about it. I also want to mention some Joe Mauer topics that have been a non stop thing the last couple weeks.
     
    Joe Mauer is healthy!! Joe Mauer is also a slow starter, it is only mid May. Joe Mauer is starting to get boring to watch. We have seen this before, except now it is in spots where it doesn't make much impact in the games. I am going to throw out a couple of scenarios: 1. To make Joe Mauer worth the 23M he will be making he has to learn to hit the ball for power. There is no question his value is a lot higher in the #3 spot in the lineup, then the number 2. If he doesn't hit for power we really need to suck it up and throw Mauer in the 2 spot. This is the main reason why I think we need to unload Vavra. The worth of Mauer is worth more than keeping Vavra around. Yes I know this may not be the be all for him to hit for power, but it wouldn't hurt at all at this point. I have watched the same thing from Mauer now and it isn't spectacular. I am sure Mauer wants to do more, I am not sure he knows what to do at this point. I know he is smart enough to give the team a chance for him to hit the ball out of the park. If we are not going to change, then lets change the lineup. I really think we are going to get the .298/5 HR year from Mauer. YES! great spot batting #2, not worth the 23M a year unless he can catch more often than he is now. I was a proponent for the deal, I probably always will, but if we have to be stuck with the performance, lets put him in the places he needs to be.
     
    Lets say we can right the ship this year, Yes it is a long shot, but what the hell else is there to talk about at this point.
     
    Move Vavra, bring in somebody else, we need a change for some of the reasons I mentioned above.
     
    Span, CF
    Mauer, C
    Doumit, DH
    Willingham, LF
    Morneau, 1B
    Plouffe, 3B
    Dozier, SS
    Carroll, 2B
    Revere, RF
     
    Casilla Utility
    Butera Bench Yes, this would have to happen I think
     
    Pavano
    Diamond
    Hendriks, Liriano to replace when he gets the confidence back
    Duensing
    Blackburn
     
    The rest of the bullpen has been very surprisingly good. Eliminate Capps from the "closer" role and go by committee. I don't care what that looks like, we just can't have Capps close games, or out there in just "save" situations or tie game situations in the 9th.
     
    The main changes would be Vavra gone, Mauer batting #2, keep Diamond up, bring Hendriks back up, put Duensing in the starting rotation, eliminate the closer role. If Morneau can swing the bat, the lineup just gets soooo much better. Once Valencia got sent down, and Morneau is healthy the offense gets a lot better. The team gets a lot better. Let me be the homer we all are and just hope something miraculous happens. If I was the front office, I would do these things on May 17th in the middle of the AL Central part of the schedule.
     
     
    After all said and done, I can't watch Blackburn/Marquis pitch anymore, we have 0 chance of winning with them on the mound unless the Twins put up 8 runs in a game. We are stuck with Blackburn, the Twins are going to have to eat the 3 million from Marquis. Lets change that up so I can watch games that the opponents don't have 4 runs by the 4th inning.
  16. I was wrong with liking giving Matt Capps a second shot in the closer role. When we let Nathan go, I thought the rangers overpaid for him, we needed someone that was decent at the back end, I thought Capps would get over the struggles he had last year. I was dead wrong. I was the only one that liked it, I can admit now that we should have found another arm in the bullpen to finish games. I am still a big proponent of the closer by committee option, I think the Twins could still figure that out running Capps and Perkins from the 7th on. Last nights game was one of those where you absolutely need someone that can help win that game. Lots of excitement in the 8th inning for the Twins. Willingham and Doumit really picked up Mauer in a big spot, I had a lot of fun watching that, it gave me some hope that the Twins could pull this one off. Here comes "Cappsy", strolling to the mound giving up a run and destroying the comeback at home vs the division leaders. It really pissed me off, you really need that win!!!
     
    Why can't Liriano pitch the fastball to contact? Does he have to throw a ball 2 ft outside the zone on every 0-1 pitch? I still think Liriano can get it, it is really mental, when he keeps the fastball down to lefties he is going to get them with the slider every time once he gets and stays ahead. It is also simple when he keeps the ball in on righties, throws the fastball up when ahead, they still can't catch up. I think a few weeks in the pen will fix Liriano, and hopefully get him on the right track to get some trade value for him byt the end of July.
     
    This is the make or break 30 games for what will transpire in July, who is going to be leaving, what we can start watching for the AA, AAA guys. I have to say last nights game was fun to watch, seeing the new guys bring us back, it looked like fun. Have we really lost anything from Cuddyer/Kubel. I would say not so far. I think those two moves were very good, in saving a buck and maybe even gaining something. I will talk about this next time.
  17. So I was trying to get ready for softball season today. Hit a ball off of a tee for the first time in about 15 years and it was pretty fun. It was the first time I have smelt spring this year. Yes I live in Duluth, we get summer really late!!! I was thinking about the Twins game wondering what the line was first off. I thought it would be Angels -122, it was -145, lost a little interest, but wanted to watch the game. Unfortunately, (fortunately after knowing the result) the wife of the guy I was playing ball with had things recorded, so we had to wait. Ended up not watching the game at all, caught the very last end of the TV show, Twins Post Game, and saw what made my day, Danny Valencia is optioned to AAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I predicted this would happen, and Luke Hughes would take his place this year, well at least I got 50/50 on this one. This is very overdue in my eyes, as I have been the biggest Valencia hater there is.
    I want to mention my thoughts on why this was the time for this. Valencia has been a plague for this team for over a year. He is a pompous ass, he hasn't improved in offense or defense. He is unwilling to learn, has pretty much said FU to the team. This was the best move the Twins could have pulled to do a couple of things, make a statement!!!! 1st, 2nd get some new blood and excitement for this team. One man can be a plague, in this case we have a plague on the offensive time, we have a plague on fluidity in pitching, Liriano moving to the bullpen to get confidence was another great move, right or wrong, if Liriano can get CONFIDENCE, he can be a starter on this team. I believe this is what is going to happen. The rotation is going to get an improvement, the lack of Liriano bringing the confidence down will be huge. Having Liriano learn the bullpen, throwing, rather than aiming is going to give him confidence. I am going to make the homer statement of the year. Next 20 games, Twins 13-7. Unfortunately today was my favorite 2012 Twins moment, besides opening day. Go Twins!!!!!!!!!!!!
  18. I saw the disgust on Gardy's face when pulling Hendriks in the 3rd inning. I too was disgusted, had to change the channel. I actually told my wife I felt bad for Gardy. I would feel bad in the situation he is in, when his hands are tied. What do you do, you have to make the trek out there before the 6th inning every game as your team is not in any game. I went through the bad times for the Twins, but the thing is I expected losses, they were underdogs, but yet they fought tooth and nail to try and win games. We have veterans on this team, veterans that know they have a job in the Major Leagues and whatever the team does, they will still be playing if here or somewhere else. In the glum years the players fought to stay up, and was quite fun to watch them earn their way on the team. Honestly this team really is done, they know the starting pitching is soooo bad that they can't keep up, no matter what offense you put out there. You would think that in early May being 6 games out of first place, you still have some hope, but when you are 6-17 and have the absolute worst pitching staff I have ever seen, you know you are in for problems, and lots of them. I love Twins Daily, I am on here quite often just reading takes of some of the other fans, it is great. I think we are running out of topics, as I am. We are stuck talking about Drew Butera. Yes, that is the biggest hits on the forum. Clete Thomas, Drew Butera, Brandon Inge, and Sean Burroughs are the topics. Yes, Morneau was a scare, he will be back Friday.
     
    It is unfortunate that it has come to firing Gardy!!! I know he is going to get the brunt end of this teams misfortunes. I think it is inevitable. This is going to be a real long season if there isn't a change. Teams are just feeding off of the fact they get to face this rotation. I have to say right now I can't watch! That is rare for me not to watch baseball, let alone watch my favorite team. At this point do you think the Twins are going to make any sort of comeback? Realistically, the optimist would say, hey get done with the first 35 games, if we are within 7 games, lets see if we can play the weak central competitively, right? I would hope that is the case, I am guessing we would sink lower and lower into the abyss of MLB due to a rotation that isn't going to get any better. It has come to the point where in order to appease the fans, we may have to revamp the whole thing. I get used to "Twins" baseball, but that has been eliminated since leaving the Dome. Something new for me as a Twins fan would seeing an entire new style. TK, to Gardy is all I have seen and been used to. I am guessing we will be seeing the new "Twins" baseball here sooner than later. The over/under in games Gardy gets thrown out of is 1 more in a Twins uniform in my opinion.
     
    I know this is a Twins blog, but I can write whatever I want, it is my blog. I have to say I have season tickets to the Minnesota Vikings. The NFL is the most profitable league in the US. The Minnesota Vikings is the 16th highest market in the league, out of 32 teams. We are right in the middle and would be a very profitable team for the NFL with a stadium. Obviously sports fans want/need a stadium. Hell the Gophers got a stadium. Problem is that it is an election year. (Has anybody seen the Wire?) Politicians are gross!!!!!!!!!!! I may catch hell for this statement but I don't care. I don't vote!! I would vote if I seen someone worthy of making decisions that were favorable to me, or my family, I am selfish. In my mind the only reason we don't have a stadium resolotion for an NFL, yes NFL team is because this is a stupid election year, and the legislature and politicians need to delay how the decisions are going to go, or delay the inevitable, because they need to see how voters would vote on certain deals. WE VOTED YOU IN MAKE A F'N DECISION THAT IS BEST FOR THE CITY/STATE, NOT WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE GOING TO GET VOTED IN AGAIN BASED OFF OF A DECISION YOU SELFISH PRICKS!!! I can be selfish, I am not in office, if you are in office you make decisions that is right. First off, if there were decisions that are going to be made whether or not to have an NFL team here MAKE THE DECISION. I am a fan of getting a stadium, most people in my world are as well, and I understand the people that don't want to pay the money for it, due to the fact they aren't into sports I get that. What is the most watched product, yes NFL. I am not a religious person as well, great give me crap for that I don't care once again, but I would have another way to create money to help fund a stadium. SELL LIQUOR ON SUNDAYS ADD A SMALL TAX!! Put freaking slot machines at Canterbury and Running Aces. Let me tell you every person has a choice of putting money in a slot machine at Mystic, I can put 1 to probably a million dollars or more in a slot machine, why are you going to limit the opportunity to put money in a machine at canterbury or running aces. I live in Duluth, I can go to the holiday right now and probably buy 10 grand worth of powerballs tomorrow, along with 10 grand worth of lottery tickets, I can go down the street to Fon Du Luth Casino, do the same in the slots or black jack, hell I can go over the bridge to superior and play as much slots as I want in any bar. These are the things I can't do, I can't buy liquor on Sundays, (WTF?) Nope no alcohol sales on Sundays, I can go over the bridge, thank you Superior, WI for selling my 31 year old ass liquor on Sundays. I can't play poker online for real money, even though I can put money in an online account and play slots. You will sell me cigarettes that kill thousands a year, but you won't sell me marijuana. I GUARANTEE I CAN FIND WAYS TO FUND AN NFL STADIUM THAT ISN'T GOING TO KILL ANYBODY, IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN IN ANY OF THOSE SCENARIOS IT WAS FROM A CHOICE THEY MADE. I am soooooooooooooooo sick of politics/politicians. P.S. I love living here, we have a lot of freedoms, but some of these things are really ridiculous. That is the end of my rant.
  19. As Manny Acta from the Indians said " I feel sorry for the people who are going to see him going forward, because he's going to go off. He's getting close. I'm glad he's out of here." He is at home now vs the worst MLB rotation in the league, if he doesn't go off now, it could be pretty interesting for the Angels.
     
    Let's compare Mauer to Pujols right now:
     
    Mauer BA .325 OBP .419 SLG .428 1 HR (5 2b+3b) 13 RBI
     
    Pujols BA .216 OBP .266 SLG .295 0 HR (7 2b+3b) 4 RBI
     
    Would you have thought that after 21 games? 21 games is still a relatively small sample size for a hitter, but 88 AB's and signing someone for 10 years 240 millions, if I was an Angels fan I would be a little concerned anyway. With all the optimism coming into this year for the Angels being 9.5 GB the Rangers this year, I am glad I am not an Angels fan calling for Mike Scoscias head. http://www.halosheaven.com/2012/4/17/2956677/mike-scioscia-is-not-the-problem
    I did this for the first time this year, I may continue to do it, but I jumped on a place that is similar to Twins Daily and looked at what others are talking about for their team. The Angels have a similar record of the Twins, they had way higher expectations going in, before I looked I was expecting something to the point of Pujols facing the worst rotation in the league and have some high hopes. I didn't see anything of the sort. I did see a lot about the manager which actually surprised me at first, then I got to thinking that fans love to blame managers!!!!!!!!!! In every sport it is the easiest person to blame, and as I have pointed out before how many games to MLB managers win or lose in a 162 game schedule?
     
    Anyway I would have to agree with Acta on this one where Pujols could upstart his year vs the Twins starting tonight. My prediction tonight is Pujols has more RBI than the Twins score runs vs CJ Wilson.
     
     

  20. The Twins vs Royals

    · rogrulz30 · 04/27/2012 05:30 PM

    Well I get to take a look at two teams that I have a futures bet with a buddy on what team would win more games this year. Of course I took the Twins. Both teams are a futile 5-14. Both teams needed each other at this point, I am glad the Twins get to do it at home, or maybe the Royals are glad to see the Twins on the road since they can't win a game at their own place. 0-10 at home for the Royals to start the season in a season they host the All Star game and a lot of buzz surrounding the team is not a good start for that team. Teaford vs Pavano to start the weekend series and I believe for the 2nd time all season the Twins are favored. YES THE TWINS ARE FAVORED to win a baseball game.
     
    I want to say that I really don't like writing bad things about my favorite team. But when the team is 5-14 it is hard to find good things to write about, and to be honest it kind of pisses me off as well. It is what it is. I can say this for sure, it is only April, a lot can happen in a 162 game season. The optimist in me for the season will say that the Twins need to sweep this series and make it a big stepping stone to set up the West Coast Swing and play good baseball. There is nothing more that I want except to play good baseball and win a few series. Looking through the blogs and forums we all have our ideas on where things went wrong, who to blame, why we are sooo bad. The reality of the season is we have 3 quality starts in 19 opportunities. The Twins are batting .192 w/RISP or something close to that which is 28th in MLB. With somewhat of a small sample size those numbers are supposed to avg out for a season, the problem with that is when the numbers avg out in the wrong spots. You could bat .192 w/RISP when you are down by 8 runs or up 8 runs and it doesn't matter, it matters when you are up or down by a couple runs, we haven't had the big hits when we have needed them to win games. We have been in multiple games and haven't gotten the runs home. Blame Joe Mauer, sure, Morneau, absolutely, Valencia, yes, Span, sure-- they have all had AB, where they had the game on the line trying to get runs home, it hasn't worked so far, hopefully that will change. The way the Twins used to win games though was Pitching/Defense, it was never really talked about when you gave your ballclub a chance to win early in the games, we didn't need to score runs all the time in those spots because our pitchers put us in spots where it was easier to win.
     
    The boo birds are going to the wrong people at Target Field. The fans are expecting more because "hey we got this great ballpark" we need to spend more money and put a better product on the field. The fans are absolutely right, the fans also have to realize what they have invested in Morneau, Mauer and if they were or were not going to be healthy. This is a tough position for Terry Ryan to be in, of course we could have made moves, but if we were to make moves and those guys couldn't play we would be in the same spot.. The boos are going to Mauer because he is making the most amount of money and he is batting like **** in spots in the 7th inning on, when we need him because our pitching has been really bad. Batters can't be put in these spots consistently and be able to drive in runs on a consistent basis. The fans realistically should be cheering Mauer as he has played every game and is batting over .300, who typically has April be his poorest month. If the fans are going to boo at Target field, they should be booing Danny Valencia, and all the starting pitchers. (yes another Valencia dig)
     
    For the time being as well let us think about what Terry Ryan and Gardy have gone through to get to this point. A farm system that was left baren, Scott Baker who needs Tommy John surgery, a Jason Marquis who couldn't really pitch in spring training, and a very talented pitcher who needs a therapist. On top of that knowing or not knowing if their 2 stars would be healthy this year. Reality is the Twins are bad mainly because of the starting pitching. If somehow the 20 minute behind closed doors meeting between catchers and pitchers does anything and the starters are able to get some quality starts in the Twins will win games. WE NEED THAT TO START VS THE LOWLY KC ROYALS.
  21. Is Brandon Webb available???? The Minnesota Twins and Oakland A's would be teams that would look at bringing a guy like Brandon Webb in for the cheap. We have disaster area going on right now. I don't care who you are you aren't going to compete with Pavano, Marquis, Blackburn, Swarzak, Hendriks. This is if Blackburn is healthy, we saw what happened to Baker. I posted that I am giving the Twins some slack for the first 60 games, but something has to happen in the rotation. If Brandon Webb is available, which I think he is, I think the Twins should definitely take a chance on the former Cy Young winner. Our entire pitching staff is weakened by injuries. I don't mind having Hendriks in the rotation, I don't think Swarzak is a starter right now, I think a move like bringing Webb in could be interesting.
     
    I have to ask a question to the Twins Community that maybe I will ask in the forums, but if you read this I am asking this. Who do you think is the best manager in the game/worst manager int the game if you think there is? Now put them in the dugout for the Twins last year, this year, how many more wins are we going to have? Or losses for that matter? Let's look at it a different way, if I take LaRussa, who I think is the best manager in the game, and then I take Roenicke, which I think is one of the worst and I put them in the dugout for the Yankees last year, how much of a win differential is it? I am going to say 8 game differential. So lets take the mean of that and LaRussa would be a 4.0 WARM wins above replacement manager, yes I made that up. So, this was just some thoughts on if you really think that the reason we are losing is because of the 2010 Manager of the Year. Managers don't forget how to manage, you have to have things go right, and you are also going to have things fall apart. What I might say though is Vavra and Anderson may have the wrong approaches to hitting based on the personal we have on the team. That may land on the GM Terry Ryan. You have to keep in mind this is his first year taking over a team that lost 99 games last season. I am sure he has plans, look at what he had to deal with putting a team together with pieces he didn't know would be healthy or not. I totally understand cutting payroll if Morneau/Mauer weren't going to be healthy, this wouldn't make sense. I would trust the plan from Ryan for now, give him a 3 year cushion and then make arguments, you can't make haste judgement coming off of a 99 loss season, while having your Ace go down for the year, and not knowing if Morneau/Mauer is goin to be healthy.
     
    I am going to go out on a limb this evening and also post that the Twins are going to go 5-1 in the next 6 games, record then 10-12. The conversations in the forums are going to be a bit different if this were to happen. The Twins need to take care of business these next 6 games or it could turn ugly from the fans perspectives.

  22. Lots of Thoughts!!

    · rogrulz30 · 04/20/2012 08:47 PM

    AL CENTRAL
     
    Detroit 9-4
    Cleveland 6-5
    Chicago 6-6
    Minnesota 5-9
    Kansas City 3-9
     
    Any Surprises after 14 games?
     
    In my mind this is about exactly where I figured, with the exception of Chicago being lower by a couple games and KC winning a couple more games. Given the Twins schedule I predicted after 35 games 14-21, we will see where that ends up.
     
    I wanted to make a couple comments on a few thoughts that have been thrown around with the media, friends.
     
    1. Jamey Carroll, http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/4/13/2946897/jamey-carroll-shortstop-twins-history. This story was brought up by a buddy who was watching the Twins game on ESPN vs NY, instantly texted me on why Jamey Carroll was batting 2nd in our lineup. His quote " Too many managers look at the second spot as a bunting/throw away spot. Kills so many rallies putting a ****ty hitter in the middle of your best hitters.: Now Jamey Carroll is a lifetime .277 hitter with no power. This is a common thing I guess with putting maybe a 2nd best batting avg/obp guy in the 2nd spot, what if we had Joe Mauer in that spot?
     
    Span
    Mauer
    Willingham
    Morneau
    Doumit
    Valencia
    Parmalee
    Casillia ??? Why not? This would allow Joe Mauer more AB's, (I know that isn't that many, but it is) Mauer doesn't hit for power, he hit for power in the Dome, he isn't hitting HR's to the opposite field in Target Field. He is a gap, OBP, singles hitter. Lets be real, unless he starts hitting for power would it make sense to have him hit in the 2 spot. I am not sure, it is something that had some merit I guess.
     
    2. Trade Span? I was listening to the Common Man today, they were responding to a thread of trading Denard Span. I was fishing this morning on Lake Superior and I just yelled out why would you be talking about trading Span? Yes we need pitching, we don't have OF's. Revere is not a lead off guy, sure he can run fast and cover lots of ground in the outfield, but he has as subpar arm. Everyones tradeable!! I get that, but I don't think trading Span is an option at this point. I think the upcoming draft is the place where we will upgrade pitching, also I think the free agent market, albeit not a huge pitching market next year is where we upgrade pitching, not trading Span.
     
    3. Abolishing Savery? (Joe Sheehan) This article was in SI, and this is something I have thought about for a long time and I totally agree. He talks about how the "save" has changed the way that managers use there bullpen. If I have my best K/BB ratio guy in my bullpen, I am facing the middle of my lineup up 1 with 1 out guys on 2nd and 3rd in the 7th inning, why am I not putting the best bullpen guy in there? I know why, because of the Save stat. This stat really messes with the best way a manager can use his bullpen. I know I can put my best guy out there in the 7th, and in the 9th if I wanted to I could go lefty righty lefty if I need 3 outs if I want to, why not? I think this is one of the biggest overrated stats in the game, the first manager to start getting away from the "save", and use your best players in the best spots I will give a lot of credit to.
     
    4-9, Man 5-8 looks a lot better. The Twins had a very good chance of winning a 4 game series in New York and would have given the Twins a lot of confidence early in the year. Pavano, Marquis pitched very well considering their start. Swarzak and Liriano really, really blew a great chance at a helluva series in NY. Curtis Granderson is really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very impressed with him, he is the only person I am impressed with on a team that I can't stand. The bats are coming alive, I look forward to see how many game streak Willingham gets to, I am excited to see Hendriks pitch tonight, we need a lot of help in that rotation, Pavano and Marquis are really going to have to be leaders and step up in a lot of games.
     
    Luke Hughes is cut by Minnesota! This was a surprise to me, as I thought Hughes was going to have a year to put pressure on Casilla/Valencia. I am dissapointed with this move, injuries to the pitching staff really hurt Hughes. I was definitely wrong with my thoughts of Hughes making more of an impact on the Twins this year.

  24. 2-4 With wins comes hope.

    · rogrulz30 · 04/13/2012 08:31 PM

    Man what a difference two games can make!!! Difference in one thing, and about 1 thing only, that is hitting. 20 hits, Morneau/Mauer hit a homerun in the same game, not to mention Willingham continues banging the ball over the fence. Baseball is fun!! Minnesota Twins couldn't hit the ball in the first 3 games, they couldn't play defense, they couldn't pitch, nothing was right, they start the season 0-4. One thing has gotten better, hitting. We all knew based on numbers that was going to be the least of the Twins worries. The Twins can't score 7 and 10 runs a game, I thought defensively we were going to be much better than last year, but that was with Revere in the outfield, and Morneau at 1st, without those two in the field the defense looks very wary to say the least. Gardy has some tough choices to make sometimes surrounding putting the best lineup out there all the time, or play better defense. It is inevitable I think the defense will shore up a bit, but it is still going to be problematic.
    I will be the first to tell you that moving Nathan and signing a different closer to stay on the cheap I was all for, I was even for signing Capps. The entire pitching staff was going to be suspect. That hasn't changed, Baker is out, and we have Capps at the back end which didn't look that great in any of his appearances. It is early and for some closers it takes a couple games to get your movement and location down, I am going to see how far this goes, I am glad we have Perkins available. I am hoping Capps can stay consistent and make it, and stay as our closer. How long is that going to be before Perk takes the closer role. By June? End of July? the entire year?
    I have some excitement level watching the game tonight to see if we can continue to hit the ball around. It is fun watching Willingham, definitely going to watch tonight going for number 5, or 6? That would be really fun. Span, Carroll, Mauer, Morneau, Willingham, at what point do we split up the lefties? I am really rooting for Swarzak to pull the rotation together. Besides the opener, tonights game I am looking forward to more than any other game this year. I can finally relax and watch and enjoy a friday night game. Go Twins!!!!

  25. 0-4 and getting nervous now!!

    · rogrulz30 · 04/10/2012 03:01 AM

    Why, when you play 162 games in a year does someone who loves baseball as much as I do, who knows that slumps can happen, but when only 2 Twins teams ever started 0-4, then they face 5 of the toughest pitchers in the game to follow, don't you have to be nervous that this is going to be a real long season. I just wrote about starting 0-3, not worrying yet, but today watching as much of the game as I could due to work I am nervous that this is going to be a long summer of boring baseball. I was excited for the Twins to prove people wrong, that they would be better than everyone thought, or better than the 73 wins vegas predicted. Was I so naive, and such a big homer, that I didn't see anything in front of me. YES, YES it is 4 games in, at some point I have to rant a little bit. I thought the defense would be better, I thought the offense would be a lot better with Span, Mauer, Morneau healthy, and the pitching would be suspect, but Liriano, Pavano, and Baker are in contract years, I thought they would be better. This could all still happen obviously, but is there anything to take after the first four games to be optimistic?
     
    Carroll 0/13
    Valencia 1/11 not surprising to me
    Doumit 1/10
    Parmalee 1/8
    Casilla 1/8
    Mauer 2/14
    Revere 1/6
    Span 4/15
    Morneau 4/13
    Willingham 5/13
     
    2 HR's in 4 games, I guess not surprising, 5 extra base hits in 4 games is a bit surprising. It is hard to go 4 games and get 5 extra base hits. I personally am done with Valencia, between his not improving defense, and his non ability to drive the ball to anywhere except easy double play balls and strikeouts, give him the heave ho early please, I was done w/ him half way through last year, if it wasn't for everyones injuries I don't think he would have played nearly as often as he did.
     
    Do I see 0-9 in the early future?
     
    Jered Weaver: 235.2 IP, 2.41 ERA, 198/56 K/BB, 1.01 WHIP
    Dan Haren: 238.1 IP, 3.17 ERA, 192/33 K/BB, 1.02 WHIP
    Matt Harrison: 185.2 IP, 3.39 ERA, 126/57 K/BB, 1.28 WHIP
    Yu Darvish (NPB): 232 IP, 1.44 ERA, 276/36 K/BB, 0.83 WHIP
    Neftali Feliz: 62.1 IP, 2.74 ERA, 32 SV, 54/30 K/BB, 1.16 WHIP (thanks Nick Nelson)
     
    These guys are really good, especially comparing them to what they saw in Baltimore. I guess we will see, but it doesn't look good for the Twins.
     
    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1134597-minnesota-twins-why-getting-off-to-a-fast-start-to-the-2012-season-is-important, This didn't happen
     
    The 1988 Baltimore Orioles who lost the first 21 games of the season. Is this out of the realms of possibility? I think it is, but if we hit the 0-9, which is definitely in the realms of possibilities.
    4 games in and I am ranting probably because we have the Wild out, Wolves out, Gophers done in NIT fashion, Vikings are in limbo, don't know what is going to happen with them, my one glimmer of sports hope was the Twins and my excitement level has been crushed quickly!!
     
    Not giving up hope by any means as I know the seasons are long, but when you can't get excited about your favorite team at all it is depressing, the only thing I get to look forward to if the Twins are going to be horrid for the next month is opener of fishing. I hope this is my only depressing blog for awhile, but I don't know if it will.

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