Nick's Twins Blog

12 Week Activity

Stories per week

Average: 3
Min: 0
Max: 7

http://www.nickstwinsblog.com/

Site Profile

Editor's Rating:

Latest Content from Nick's Twins Blog

Gassing Guerrier (Again!): via Nick's Twins Blog September 02, 2010 at 01:23 AM; Something is wrong with Matt Guerrier.Well, let's backtrack a bit. Last night, Francisco Liriano dueled with Max Scherzer over seven innings in the type of game that bores casual fans but delights hardcores. Both pitchers were at the top of their game; Scherzer mowed down the Twins hitters for nine impressive frames but hiccuped in the sixth inning and yielded a single run, while Liriano executed
No Ordinary Rookie: via Nick's Twins Blog September 01, 2010 at 12:11 AM; Their bats went into a bit of a slumber during the team's most recent road trip, but the Twins have still boasted one of the most prolific offenses in baseball since the All-Star break. Most impressively, they've done it without the services of their best hitter, as Justin Morneau remains sidelined by the lingering effects of a concussion suffered in early July. Several players have stepped up in
"Keep Your Eye On the Ball": via Nick's Twins Blog August 30, 2010 at 01:41 AM; It's that generic piece of coaching advice that any ballplayer has surely heard barked at them hundreds of times on the field. Yet, as many times as the phrase has been uttered, it remains one of the sport's quintessential doctrines. There's just nothing more frustrating then seeing an infielder bobble away a routine ground ball because his eyes were already busy sizing up the next move.After taki
Post-Waiver Wizard Waves Wand Again: via Nick's Twins Blog August 28, 2010 at 12:59 PM; During Terry Ryan's lengthy tenure as Twins' GM, I don't recall one significant trade being made after the July 31 non-waiver deadline within a season. That's not to say it never happened, but nothing stands out to me. Ryan was occasionally (but not often) aggressive in late July, but that was generally the extent of this team's involvement in the mid-season trade market.To say things have changed
A Familiar Story: via Nick's Twins Blog August 27, 2010 at 01:29 PM; When Stephen Strasburg came up earlier this season, he took the league by storm. Whereas many young hurlers go through a sometimes lengthy adjustment period against the world's best hitters, Strasburg was immediately transcendent. He amazingly struck out 14 batters without issuing a walk in his major-league debut. As he moved forward, he continued to dominate opposing lineups, racking up strikeout
Lee and Liriano: via Nick's Twins Blog August 26, 2010 at 04:59 PM; As you might have heard, advanced statistics view Francisco Liriano quite highly this year. His combination of a high strikeout rate, high grounder rate and relatively strong walk rate have made him a sabermatrician's dream, as he ranks first in the majors with a 2.33 FIP and second only to Roy Halladay with a 3.00 xFIP (the latter metric penalizes Liriano slightly for what it views as an unsustai
Bottom Flores: via Nick's Twins Blog August 25, 2010 at 04:29 PM; When Jose Mijares went down a couple weeks ago with a bit of a freak injury -- he tore the meniscus in his knee while stepping on first base to record an out -- the Twins were placed in a bit of a tough spot. It left them with only one left-handed option in the bullpen, in the person of 39-year-old journeyman Ron Mahay.When Mahay suffered his own freak injury over the weekend, a season-ending rota
No Place Like Home: via Nick's Twins Blog August 25, 2010 at 01:41 AM; With the Twins nursing a 3.5 game lead in the AL Central and with the White Sox looking ahead at a more imposing final stretch (10 of Chicago's 37 remaining games come against the Yankees and Red Sox), some Twins fans are cautiously beginning to shift their attention toward potential postseason match-ups. It's a question that has been posed to me often: Who would you rather face in the fir
A Plea to Nick Blackburn: via Nick's Twins Blog August 24, 2010 at 12:05 AM; The Twins gave Nick Blackburn every chance to battle through his struggles this year. They were patient with their contact-happy right-hander, freshly signed to a four-year contract extension; patient to a fault, in my opinion. But when Blackburn turned in another dud on July 18, allowing five runs on nine hits over just five innings in a key game against the White Sox (in which Brian Duensing's l
A Test in Texas: via Nick's Twins Blog August 23, 2010 at 11:11 AM; The Twins' impressive late-summer run, which has seen them go 26-10 since the All-Star break, has largely been keyed by strong starting pitching. After posting a 4.60 ERA and surrendering 68 homers in 88 games prior to the Midsummer Classic, Twins starters have been good for a 3.38 ERA with only 14 homers allowed in 36 games since the season's unofficial midpoint.That improvement can be a bit misl
Delmon Young, MVP? Not Even Close: via Nick's Twins Blog August 20, 2010 at 04:53 PM; Ken Rosenthal is one of the most respected baseball writers in the country, and rightfully so. His work for FoxSports.com is typically outstanding, and when it comes to mainstream baseball writers there are few that I respect more.His latest column on Twins outfield Delmon Young misses the mark though, in my opinion.That's because Rosenthal prefaces an otherwise fine (if formulaic) article about Y
The Crain Game: via Nick's Twins Blog August 19, 2010 at 01:05 PM; “What have you done for me lately?”It’s the mantra of sports fans everywhere, and especially baseball fans. It’s the reason that Twins followers have almost completely forgotten about the earlier struggles of Joe Mauer, who’s hitting at a blistering .442 clip since the All-Star break. It’s the reason that Scott Baker was the most popular odd man out when I asked readers which of the club’s bottom
If the Playoffs Started Today...: via Nick's Twins Blog August 18, 2010 at 12:05 AM; With their victory last night, the Twins moved four games ahead of the White Sox in the AL Central. With their two best starters taking the mound in the final two games of the series, the Twins stand a good chance of holding a four- or six-game lead by the time the Sox leave town. With only 41 games remaining on the schedule (and with nearly a quarter of Chicago's remaining games coming against th
OK, So I Might Not Hate Drew Butera: via Nick's Twins Blog August 17, 2010 at 12:05 AM; I've played a lot of organized baseball in my lifetime. From tee-ball up through high school, I was on a team every summer, and during my lengthy involvement with the game I forged a lot of great relationships and created a lot of amazing memories.But there's one game that stands out above all others as the most memorable in my playing career. It wasn't the best game I've ever played or anything,
Slowey Taking His Foot Off the Brakes: via Nick's Twins Blog August 16, 2010 at 12:05 AM; Ron Gardenhire faced a troublesome dilemma late in yesterday's game.Kevin Slowey had just wrapped up a seventh hitless inning against the Athletics, putting him on track to hurl the Twins' first no-hitter in almost 11 years. His pitch count sat at 106.Gardenhire decided to pull Slowey. It was the right decision. Normally, I don't prescribe to the notion that a pitcher's arm is being horribly taxed
Glen Perkins is Not a LOOGY: via Nick's Twins Blog August 12, 2010 at 01:41 PM; Middle school students associate the word "loogie" with a big wad of spit laced with mucus. Baseball fans are more familiar with the spelling LOOGY and the acronym for which it stands: Lefty One-Out GuY. This refers to a left-handed pitcher whose sole duty in the bullpen is coming in to retire tough left-handed hitters. While these relievers don't always strictly follow the usage pattern that the
Wednesday Notes: via Nick's Twins Blog August 11, 2010 at 04:29 PM; A few notes in preparation for tonight's Sox/Twins tilt:* Tonight, Glen Perkins takes the hill in a key game against the White Sox. Chicago will counter with the outstanding southpaw John Danks, so this is about as lopsided a pitching match-up as the Twins have seen all year. If they can find a way to win, I'll be extremely impressed. If not, the Twins will still have a decent shot at taking the s
All About Pitching: via Nick's Twins Blog August 11, 2010 at 12:05 AM; At the outset of the season, any of three different teams could have reasonably been picked as favorite in the American League Central: the Twins, Tigers or White Sox. All three had been contenders within the past couple years, and all three had made moves to improve their roster during the offseason. Many pegged the Tigers -- who'd pushed the Twins to a tiebreaker the year before and infused
Let the Stretch Run Begin: via Nick's Twins Blog August 09, 2010 at 12:05 AM; All teams, even the very good ones, go through ups and downs over the course of a major-league season. The 2010 Twins have been a model for this truism; they came out of the gates fast with a blistering hot start, fell into a lull of mediocrity in the middle months, and now seem to be regaining momentum here after the All-Star break.The Twins limped into the baseball season's unofficial midpoint,
Credit Where It's Due: via Nick's Twins Blog August 05, 2010 at 05:23 PM; It's easy to be impressed by the results of the Twins' four-game series in Tampa Bay this week. They went on the road to face arguably the best team in baseball and came away with a split. They rebounded from tough losses in the first two games of the series to gain big victories in the final two, building momentum as they travel to Cleveland and Chicago for the final two legs of their current roa