For this very special day of August 31st, and to celebrate the Minnesota victory, I thought I would let you in on some of the greatest stuff I have read in the last day or so. Please be sure to check everything out, nothing is worth skipping!

• Nino Colla of Bleacher Report has a great post up about the division and wild card races in MLB. He says that they are not over, and openly laughs when someone predicts that “the Rays have pretty much locked up the AL East.”

• Leslie Monteiro of Twins Killings on Joe Nathan. He says that Nathan is the one reliever that can’t turn in poor results. He needs to continue to dominate if the Twins want a shot at the division.

• Driveline Mechanics recently put a post together on Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano. While it doesn’t directly relate to the Twins, every true baseball fan should find it as fascinating as I did. Be sure not to skip the comment section, there is a great conversation about different slider/sinker grips.

• Adam Peterson of Twinkie Town has some nice research about the quality start. He says that Minnesota has a great rotation, and that it’s the “suspect bullpen” that is holding the rest of the team back.

• R.J. Anderson of Beyond the BoxScore has some research about BaseRuns and Winning percentage. He compares the two to find which is more accurate in predicting success.

• For more sabermetric stuff, head on over to Cybermetrics. He has an excellent post up detailing why he thinks that pitchers today are more aggressive and throw inside more than pitchers years ago. His research is impeccable and his conclusion very interesting! Check it out!

• Union: The Most Collaborative Sports Blog on the Internet has a post up about something I saw a few days ago. Nine year-old pitcher Jericho Scott is being prohibited from playing with his little-league baseball team anymore. Why? Because he’s too good.

• Joshua Taylor of MNTwinsTalk has the list of September call-ups and his opinions of them up on his site. Be sure to check them out, and chime in with your own opinions!

• In case you haven’t heard, CC Sabathia nearly tossed a no-hitter today against the Pirates, but ended up giving a controversial single to Andy LaRoche. Granted, if anyone is to break up a no-no, I would want it to be LaRoche, but there is lots of debate regarding whether or not it was a real single. The ball rolled to Sabathia, but he had trouble fielding it, which allowed LaRoche to make it to first. A pitcher making an error to save his own no-hitter? Has that ever happened before?

  It wasn’t ruled as such, and ESPN’s Rob Neyer has his take. In case you don’t have Insider, here is an excerpt:

  When Sabathia first touched the ball, LaRoche was roughly 40 feet down the line; not even halfway yet. So Yost is right about one thing, at least: if Sabathia does pick up the ball cleanly, LaRoche is out. Maybe even by 10 feet. But it’s terribly unfair for Yost to unload on scorekeeper Bob Webb like this, and I think he should be fined.

Have a great day, Twins fans!

Posted in Linkage No Comments

Carlos Gomez vs. Torii Hunter. $395,000 vs. $16,500,000. 22 years vs. 33 years.

Does this comparison also show the difference between ‘young and promising’ and ‘good’?

Let’s take a look at both Carlos Gomez and Torii Hunter and compare them:

Posted in Carlos Gomez, Statistics No Comments

I originally wrote this up for Bleacher Report, but I thought it would pertain to you guys, being Twins fans and all. Sorry for the lack of faith, but I guess I am transforming into a pessimist right in front of you.

Posted in Bullpen, Chicago White Sox, Postseason 7 Comments

Not much can be said about Thursday’s game. The Twins stunk it up badly. The bullpen squandered another game, and Minnesota is now one and a half games back in the division.

There is no way this team makes the playoffs with the bullpen in as bad shape as it is right now. No way.

That is all I am going to say about that game. Yuck.

Posted in Game Thoughts No Comments

Heading into this four-game series against the Oakland Athletics, Minnesota is just one game behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. No matter which way you slice it, this series is shaping up to be a crucial one.

While Chicago goes on to face Wild-Card leading Boston Red Sox, Minnesota has to deal with below-average Oakland. Sound easy? With Minnesota’s track record against inferior teams, I would say that coming out with a split should be considered a positive thing.

Here is a game-by-game preview of the pitchers Minnesota will face in this upcoming series.

Game One: Nick Blackburn vs. Dana Eveland

Eveland is a rookie 24-year old who has had mixed results in his stint with the Athletics. He has an ERA of 4.30, a 1.48 WHIP, allows 0.45 HR/9, 4.4 BB/9, and 6.27 K/9.

He is a south-paw and has a fastball that is essentially ineffective. Opponents are batting .281 against his fastball, which usually tops out at around 91-92 and remains the same throughout his start. His slider is his best pitch and opposing batters are only hitting .111 against it. He throws it at 82-84 mph and as a result strikes out a lot of batters. Eveland also has solid curveballs and changeups.

As a whole, opponents are batting .231 against Eveland. He likes to throw outside and low to both right- and left-handed batters.

The Twins have had very poor success against unknown hurlers, so let’s hope this is the exception. Minnesota needs to get some baserunners on early and establish themselves as a team to fear.

Game Two: Kevin Slowey vs. Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer is another young pitcher who has made both good and bad starts this year. He has an ERA of 5.95, a 1.373 WHIP, allows 2.28 HR/9, 4.11 BB/9, and 7.3 K/9.

He has just recently been called up from Triple A Sacramento and has limited sample size. He does have three main pitches; a fastball, slider, and changeup. His changeup is proving to be the most effective as opponents are batting only .150 against it. His fastball tops out at 91-93 mph but is hit for a .303 average. His slider is getting roughed up the most as opponents are ripping it for an average of .364.

Opponents are batting .289 against Meyer overall, certainly not good at all. With Slowey’s irradictness on the road lately, expect many baserunners in a potential shootout.

Meyer doesn’t attack hitters and throws the majority of his pitches on the outside of the plate. Like said above, the Twins cannot allow Meyer to look like Rube Waddell. (If you don’t know who Rube is…look him up.)

Game Three: Francisco Liriano vs. Dallas Braden

Braden is a 24-year old youngster already entering his second year with the Athletics. He has also been inconsistent and has compiled an ERA of 4.13, a 1.341 WHIP, allows 0.95 HR/9, 3.01 BB/9, and 5.34 K/9.

He has a decent slider which allows him to strikeout as many batters as he does. Opponents are hitting .167 against his slider. He has a slow fastball that he can only get to 87-89 mph, which opponents are batting .319 against. He also has a curve and a changeup – both of which are marginally effective – in his repetoire.

When everything is included, batters are hitting .288 against Braden. He sticks with the trend of the previous two pitchers and doesn’t throw much inside the plate.

Game Four: Scott Baker vs. Gregory Smith

Smith is another young pitcher, 24-years old with no major league experience prior to 2008. He has an ERA of 3.90, a WHIP of 1.351, allows 0.93 HR/9, 4.19 BB/9, and 5.5 K/9.

Smith is one of the anchors of this extremely young Oakland rotation, and his numbers have proven it. He will be the toughest challege the Twins face during this series. Smith does not have a speedy fastball by any stretch of the imagination – only topping out at 87-89 mph. Opponents are batting .266 against it. His most effective pitch is his changeup, which is being hit at a .197 clip. He also has a solid slider and a decent curve.

Opponents are batting .238 against Smith as a whole.

This entire series is filled with no-name pitchers from Oakland. The most obvious key to this series is to step up and actually get buisness done against a young pitcher. Minnesota roughed up Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, and other superstars, but they always seem to struggle against these inferior pitchers. That needs to change if the Twins want any chance at all in any of these games.

All of these pitchers have relatively slow fastballs, but manage to strike out a lot of batters. The veteran position players, such as Mauer, Morneau, Redmond, and even Punto will need to show their younger teammates how to hit against these pitchers.

Posted in Game Preview No Comments

First off, thanks to Yahoo! Sports for the picture to the left. Secondly, yuck.

-Scott Baker continues to turn in dismal performances on the road, proving both his youth and inexperience. In the eleven starts Baker has made this year on the road, not counting yesterday’s, he has acquired an ERA of 4.46, a WHIP of 1.319, and over one home run allowed per game.

Not the best stats, but not horrible either. He had one great start on the road; on June 10th at Cleveland where he went eight full innings giving up only one run on eight hits. Other than that, Baker has been solid against strong teams yet strangely inept against inferior teams. That isn’t the way things are supposed to work, are they?

Baker has the best stuff on this young Minnesota rotation, yet even he has a long way to go before he blossoms. While his poor starts this year are painful to watch, try to think with a positive perspective: his great starts are only a taste of what is to come.

Tonight was not a pretty night for Baker and Minnesota. Baker went a solid six and two/thirds innings and threw 105 pitches. If he can do that every night I would be pleased. Tonight, Baker was roughed up badly. He constantly fell behind batters and shouldn’t have escaped with only three earned runs allowed. He gave up ten hits and got himself out of one bases-loaded jam but required Craig Breslow’s help to get out of another.

Simply put, he was not solid at all against the worst team in baseball. The offense shares some of the blame for the loss as they should have scored more than two runs against the M’s, but Baker cannot pitch like he did tonight and expect to get his team wins. Just like I said about Liriano earlier, if Baker pitches like this against Boston, Tampa Bay, or Anaheim, he will get beaten around much worse than tonight.

Minnesota pitchers have been extremely lucky this year, yet my theory of what goes around comes around hasn’t really shown up yet. I hate to be the pessimist, but I expect it will. The road to the playoffs is a tough one.

-The reliving staff did a fantastic job in the second game against Seattle. Baker found himself on the mound with the bases loaded and two away with Twins-killer Raul Ibanez stepping to the plate. Not a pretty situation. Gardy called on Craig Breslow, (who I think should be utilized way more than he currently is), who proceeded to retire Ibanez on a fly-ball to right field on an 86 mph slider.

Matt Guerrier came on to pitch the eighth inning for the Twins and threw 14 pitches before retiring the side.

-The offense was pathetic tonight, much like the starting pitching. This is the weakest team in baseball. The Mariners are only one game from elimination and it isn’t even September yet. Not only that, but Ryan Rowland-Smith was on the mound for the M’s. Nothing against him, but he isn’t the best pitcher in the world by a long shot. He is a 25 year-old Australian and Seattle fans are more concerned about his trade value than the future of him on the team.

No Twin had multiple hits, and the whole team only managed to get on base nine times. Only two Twins had extra base hits; Morneau with a double and Ruiz with a solo-shot in the sixth inning. That home run was basically the only bright spot when talking about the offensive performance tonight. As said above, yuck.

I could go on and on about how much this team stinks, but I shouldn’t and won’t. This is only the fourth loss in a row and the Twins are only two games behind the Sox in the division. Chicago has tough series with the Red Sox, Angels, Yankees, and hopefully the Blue Jays and Twins before they can wrap up the 2008 campaign, so this thing isn’t over yet.

Posted in Game Thoughts, Justin Morneau, Randy Ruiz, Scott Baker No Comments

As every Twins fan should know by now, Eddie Guardado is playing baseball for Minnesota once again.

Eddie was a Twin from 1993-2003, when he lost to free agency. During this extended tenure with the Twins he didn’t record more than ten saves in a season until 2001, when he traded relief roles with former closer Eddie Guardado.

Guardado was never an overpowering pitcher. According to Pitch F/X his fastball is only averaging 87.42 mph. In last night’s outing he topped out at 88 mph but still managed to retire three batters without allowing a base runner.

Having a slow fastball isn’t necessarily bad, though. If you throw the Livan Hernandez example out the window, all an 87 mph fastball really means is a lower strikeout rate, which is perfectly acceptable. The Twins have always had a strong defense to field behind their starters (they have had some noticeable holes this year, but that is besides the point).

Having Guardado on this team is a huge lift as this playoff stretch gets under way. One huge addition is Guardado’s veteran tutorship abilities. He is 37 years old but still has a lot left in the tank – most of it being mental. As Seth Stohs put it, “He has always been able to get by on guts and determination more than stuff.” Exactly. Guardado doesn’t have the best skill-levels but has the mental power not rivaled by anyone in the league. That is the stuff this young team needs the most.

But besides that, his left arm will be very important to the Twins as well. If you will allow me to quote Seth again, he exlained Guardado’s role perfectly, “…he can use Guardado and Guerrier in the 8th inning, Crain and Reyes in the 7th inning and Breslow and Bonser in the 6th inning.”

Having options in the bullpen is a great thing, isn’t it Gardy?

This will probably mean that Nathan won’t be pitching more than one inning very often at all, which is a bad thing in my opinion. Allowing Nathan to pitch the eighth is a smart move to make in many different situations, and having another late-inning pitcher will only cut down on Nathan’s time.

If you simplify the moves of these recent weeks you can narrow it down to this: remove Brian Bass for Eddie Guardado, and Mark Hamburger for Alexi Casilla. I am not the one to tell you the abilities of this 21 year-old E-Twins pitcher, except that he was born in St. Paul and currently sports a 4.17 ERA to go along with a 1-2 record and 13 saves.

This Guardado acquisition could very possibly be the best move Bill Smith has ever made. I just hope that it won’t take him this long to make another smart move next year.

Posted in Eddie Guardado, Trades No Comments

I came into tonight planning an article on how Twins pitchers have gone above and beyond this series and what it might mean for this 14 day road trip. Then Blackburn started tonight. I guess the Angel offense that was brilliantly stifled the previous two days chose today to explode out of their recent poor streak.

Neither starting pitcher reached the fifth inning; Blackburn went four and two thirds. While obviously not good, it is only amplified by the previous two Twins games. Blackburn gave up six runs on ten hits, but two of those were off a Gomez “misjudgment.”

I guess Gomez had it waiting for him as well. Hunter gave up a crucial hit when he misjudged a ball earlier in the series, and all the talk was how Gomez could have made it. Tonight, albeit in not as crucial of a situation, Gomez misjudged a ball that allowed two runs to score.

Either way, Blackburn wasn’t at his best tonight. Bonser also pitched tonight, giving up only one run on two hits over two and two thirds innings. He had his strikeout pitch working just fine for him tonight, as he made a total of two batters sit down on strike three. Breslow also came on and pitched two outs of perfect baseball.

On the hitting side of things, Minnesota still managed to get five runs across the plate. While it wasn’t enough tonight, it will be most other nights. Casilla provided some offense fireworks for this visiting team as he knocked a fastball over the right field wall. Morneau was hitless tonight, and his horrible career against the Angels continues. To be fair, he did break a long hitless streak the other night when Gardy allowed him to bat in the ninth inning. Mauer also only managed one hit in four trips to the plate.

As I have been saying all season long, these two guys need to be the main offensive production for the Twins if they want to succeed. Obviously this isn’t going to happen every night, or even every series, so I am perfectly willing to let them both off the hook tonight.

Punto and Gomez both had two hits apiece.

When you put this game into perspective, I am not worried at all about this loss. The fact that the White Sox lost just adds to it. Tonight was a night of revenge for Los Angeles (or Anaheim, or whatever) and should be taken in stride. A start like Baker or Perkins had won’t happen every time you pitch, so I am not worried.

In short, the Twins had this coming to them. Let’s just move on, accept defeat from the better team tonight, and try to win the series tomorrow.

Posted in Alexi Casilla, Carlos Gomez, Game Thoughts, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Nick Blackburn 1 Comment

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