Twins Fix

• Dan Wade compares this year’s Minnesota Twins to teams of past. Congrats on 50 articles!

• If you don’t read Joel Sherman on a regular basis, you might want to consider adding him to your lineup. He is a great writer and put up an awesome post detailing his awards for this half of the season. Sherman also blogs for the New York Post.

• If for some reason you don’t receive Sports Illustrated, be sure to check out this great article by Tom Verducci on Giant’s pitcher Tim Lincecum. It is a super read. Don’t let the 5,612 word count sway you.

• If you live under a rock you probably aren’t aware that CC Sabathia is no longer a member of the Tribe. He was traded to Milwaukee for Matt LaPorta and three other prospects.

• Buster Olney of ESPN Insider has some great things to say about this trade that are definitely worth checking out. If you don’t have Insider access, here is an excerpt:

“I spent some time with Sabathia last winter and spring, in the days leading up to a long piece that ran in the magazine, and there’s no question about this: He will feel some pressure as he joins the Brewers — internal pressure, pressure that he generates. He cares deeply, he will feel a responsibility to his new teammates and he will want to do well for them, and he might grind on himself mentally, at the outset. There is a whole lot at stake for him, as he heads toward free agency in the fall. If this trade had happened five years ago, then you might wonder whether he would be able to sort through all of this before the end of the season.

But Sabathia is now closing in on his 28th birthday and his 250th career start. It might take him an outing or two to get settled, or maybe it’ll take him a few innings. But he’ll get there, and he’ll have an impact on the division and the league in the three or four months he’ll spend with the Brewers, and he will love to hit — Sabathia takes a career .300 average into the NL, and recently he hammered a 440-foot homer in Dodger Stadium. “

• If you didn’t catch it yesterday, Lee and Gomez were “exchanging pleasentries” after a Gomez bunt in the third inning. I still don’t understand why Lee was ticked off…

• Tom Powers on the technology Slowey uses to prepare.

“Kevin Slowey of the Twins had his share of troubles early against the Indians on Saturday night. He gave up five runs in the second inning before he could make it back to the relative safety of the bench. But instead of lighting up a Lucky Strike or taking a swig of Old Crow, he slipped behind the dugout, fired up the computer and watched video of his just-completed lousy inning.

And there it was! Technically, he was over-rotating during his delivery. In layman’s terms, he was out of whack.
…..

Armed with this visual information, Slowey retired the side in order in the third inning. And the fourth inning. And the fifth inning. He gave up a harmless single in the sixth before turning the game over to the bullpen. Meanwhile, the red-hot Twins chopped and hacked away at the lead, eventually making him the winning pitcher.

“He’s a smart kid,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He went in and looked at video. It’s all about mechanics.”

Pitching coach Rick Anderson saw the problem right away. So did catcher Joe Mauer. But it’s hard to correct such things in midinning.”

• Seth Stohs has an issue with a FOX Sports article by Dayn Perry that I linked to a few days ago. He has an excellent rebuttal, but ends up agreeing with Perry. Check it out!

• Aaron Gleeman is back, for real this time, and is talking about offense. He compares this year’s Twins to Minnesota baseball teams of old.

• La Velle, being the productive person that he is, already has a Minnesota/Boston series preview up.

• Josh Johnson on the Minnesota rotation.

• Nick Nelson recaps the game last night. He is also new to Bleacher Report!

• Now to the video of the day: