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I Like Matt Capps, But….: via Twinkie Talk August 31, 2010 at 10:24 PM; Let’s maybe throw something other than a fastball every so often.
Nick Blackburn Finally Has Something In Common With Johan Santana: via Twinkie Talk August 29, 2010 at 03:29 PM; (via Fangraphs) They’ve both thrown 8-inning, 2-hit shut outs. Blackburn threw an 8.2 inning gem in Seattle yesterday afternoon, walking two and striking out six, getting yanked after walking Chone Figgins to put the tying run on with two outs in the ninth. Brian Fuentes came in, made Russell Branyan look like a doofus, and the Twins now have a 4.5 game lead in the AL Central. Johan Santa
How Manny Ramirez Might Affect the AL Central Race: via Twinkie Talk August 28, 2010 at 03:35 PM; No, Manny isn’t a Southsider yet, but it seems to be just a matter of time. The Dodgers sit 10 games out of first place, and 4.5 games out of the wild card, and they’ll need to sweep the Rockies this weekend and hope the Padres, Phillies, Giants, and Cardinals collapse and, yeah, they’re not going anywhere. Manny will be in Chicago by Tuesday. What this means for the Sox and t
What Role Do Advanced Stats Play In Awards Discussions?: via Twinkie Talk August 27, 2010 at 12:05 AM; By now you’ve probably heard the story that yesterday ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted about Trevor Cahill and his chances for the AL Cy Young and Keith Law’s replies about Cahill not being worthy based on advanced stats. Today Buster, who is generally a pretty smart guy, made some interesting strawman arguments comparing Cahill to Roger Maris and some other things that really donR
Randy Flores, or When a LOOGY Isn’t Really a LOOGY: via Twinkie Talk August 25, 2010 at 04:00 PM; The Twins claimed the 35 year-old off of waivers earlier this afternoon in an attempt to replace the injured Ron Mahay, who will miss the rest of the season with a torn rotator cuff. Flores has a good 2.96 ERA this season, but ugly peripherals: a 5.22 FIP, 5.12 xFIP, and 1.38 K/BB ratio. His career numbers don’t suggest anything more than a mediocre middle reliever, with a 4.60 ERA, 4.36
Rich Harden, Kevin Slowey, and the No-Hitters That Weren’t Meant to Be: via Twinkie Talk August 24, 2010 at 03:43 PM; A little over a week after Ron Gardenhire made the controversial decision to pull Kevin Slowey in the midst of a no-hitter, Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington was faced with a similar dilemma. Rich Harden had held the Twins hitless through 6 2/3 innings, but he was coming off of a DL stint and had already thrown 111 pitches. Harden was dealing, though he did appear to labor a bit: walking fiv
Most Valuable Twins: via Twinkie Talk August 22, 2010 at 06:05 PM; I love MVP discussions. Everyone has his own idea of what constitutes the most valuable player on a team. Some people rely on more advanced statistics to evaluate player value, while others believe in intangibles like leadership and grit. Some people think that pitchers should not be included in these discussions, since there is a separate award for the best pitchers in both leagues, but others
Slowey to DL, Blackburn Called Up: via Twinkie Talk August 21, 2010 at 11:41 PM; A pain in his elbow and triceps has sent Kevin Slowey back to the DL. One start removed from 7 no hit innings, Slowey threw almost 70 pitches over 3 innings in the Twins loss today. He was placed on the DL after the game. In his stead, Nick Blackburn is being called back up. Blackburn has 4 starts with AAA Rochester, and although he is averaging less than 6 innings per start, he has a 1.15 WHIP an
Liriano’s Home Run Rate: via Twinkie Talk August 20, 2010 at 03:23 AM; Francisco Liriano is coming off one of his worst outings of the season, surrendering five runs on hits through five innings against the White Sox on Wednesday night. It wouldn’t really be worth mentioning, just a blip in what has been a fantastic season, except that Liriano had gone 94 innings without surrendering a home run: from May 20th in Fenway Park until Andruw Jones smashed a 3-run ho
And This Is What You Call Regression to the Mean: via Twinkie Talk August 19, 2010 at 11:17 PM; (via Fangraphs) Coming into tonight’s game, Carl Pavano posted a .274 batting average on balls in play. I think that has regressed a bit closer to the league average now.
Now That is a Graph: via Twinkie Talk August 17, 2010 at 11:53 PM; (via Fangraphs) This was not the most beautifully pitched ballgame ever. Scott Baker lasted just 4.2 innings, giving up four runs (including a couple of home runs). John Danks was a little better, pitching seven innings but giving up five runs on eleven hits (also including a couple of home runs). The crappy pitching is actually what made this one of those classic, tension-filled, back-and-fort
The Twins and the Draft: The Rest of the Story: via Twinkie Talk August 17, 2010 at 02:17 AM; A few months ago, I started diving into the Twins’ draft history in an effort to find out just how good the organization has really been at developing talent. Since it’s an off day, and it is the deadline for signing this year’s draft picks, I thought this might be a good time to finish it. For a team that has been as historically cash-strapped as the Twins to remain competiti
To Pull the Starter, or Not To Pull the Starter: Kevin Slowey’s No-Hitter: via Twinkie Talk August 15, 2010 at 06:41 PM; (via fangraphs) Ron Gardenhire faced a tough decision after the seventh inning of today’s game. Starter Kevin Slowey had just finished seven no-hit innings (with a little help from Jason Kubel and Jason Repko). He was at 106 pitches, and his control was starting to waver a bit (he had walked the leadoff batter and hit Mark Ellis in that inning). Oh yeah, and Slowey had just skipped a star
Orlando Hudson: via Twinkie Talk August 15, 2010 at 02:41 PM; Orlando Hudson was the Twins’ other major free agent signing of the offseason (Jim Thome was the first), inking a one-year, $5 million deal right before spring training. The deal looked like a good one right away, as Hudson provided both a decent bat and solid defense at second base. He had a somewhat disappointing 2009 for the Dodgers, posting a .767 OPS after the all-star break and event
Brian Duensing 3-Hits the A’s: via Twinkie Talk August 14, 2010 at 10:41 PM; (via fangraphs) I have to make this quick, as I apparently have only intermittent internet access until my ISP gets its act together. Brian Duensing put forth one of the best performances by a Twins’ starter all year, a three-hit masterpiece against Oakland. He struck out just four and walked two, but silenced the Athletics’ bats for nine innings. Granted, Oakland doesn’t have
JJ Hardy: Disappointing?: via Twinkie Talk August 12, 2010 at 02:17 PM; Erin already tackled JJ Hardy last week (or whatever it was), but I came across a MLBTR post today looking at potential suitors for Derek Jeter, and the Twins were mentioned. Here is the blurb: Twins – J.J. Hardy is a non-tender candidate after a disappointing first season in Minneapolis, so the Twins could be in the market for a shortstop this winter. There are a number of problems with t
What Should We Expect From Glen Perkins on Wednesday?: via Twinkie Talk August 10, 2010 at 01:05 AM; Before I begin this post, I’d like to preface it by saying that trying to predict the events of a single start is pretty dumb. So what am I going to do? Try to predict the events of a single start, of course. Glen Perkins’s recent history with the Twins has been of bad blood, and bad pitching, but with Kevin Slowey out of Wednesday’s start nursing a sore elbow, the Twins really n
Jim Thome: via Twinkie Talk August 09, 2010 at 07:17 PM; Nobody was really sure what to expect when the Twins inked Jim Thome to a one-year, $1.5 million deal in the offseason. He had a good 2009 for the White Sox, batting .249/.372/.493, but was awful after being dealt to the Dodgers at the trade deadline, batting .235/.235/.235 in 17 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter. Even though the price was certainly right, it didn’t really look like Thom
I am in Misery: Injury Updates: via Twinkie Talk August 09, 2010 at 12:53 AM; It might just be easier to list all of the healthy players on the active roster. Alexi Casilla: Casilla hurt his ankle in a collision at the plate with Cleveland catcher Chris Jimenez in Saturday’s game. An MRI earlier this morning revealed no structural damage, though he does have a bone spur. At this point, Casilla isn’t expected to spend any time on the DL, and should be back in
Twins Sign First-Round Pick Alex Wimmers: via Twinkie Talk August 06, 2010 at 11:41 PM; As reported by Kelsie Smith, the Twins inked Alex Wimmers to a $1.332 million signing bonus. Fetch usually handles all of the draft stuff, and here’s what he had to say about the two-time Big Ten Pitcher of the Year from Ohio State : A 6?2? 195 or so he has decent size, but he is more of a command guy than anything else. Sadly he throws with his right hand and not his left, but we can’t have