Posts Tagged ‘Minnesota Twins’
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Teixeira for Kotchman? I Just Don’t Know.July 31st, 2008
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19th in runs scored. 19th in hits. 22nd in home runs. 19th in RBIs. 24th in total bases. 22nd in on base percentage. And 22nd in slugging.
On paper, this doesn’t really sound like a division contending team, let alone the best team in baseball by a fair margin. But when you factor in 8th in ERA, 7th in shutouts, 1st in saves (by ten saves, between first and second), 25th in earned runs against (yes, that’s a good thing), a winning starting rotation, a solid bullpen, a slid defense, a consistent running game, and you get the Angels.
Up until last night at about 5-something eastern time, the Angels were not the media’s favorite team to look at. In fact, the Angels crept slowly into first place without so much as a sneeze. It wasn’t until about three weeks after the Angels took first place that ESPN even took notice on their power rankings. The Angels were clearly the underdogs of 2008, who’s game was so much more old-school than any other teams, besides maybe the Minnesota Twins and a more distant example in the Baltimore Orioles.
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The Team with No NameJune 7th, 2008
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I’d like to share a story with you.
When I was eight or nine, my younger brother decided to ride his bike down the hill near the front of our house. It was a small hill, and even though he had been riding his bike without his training wheels for only a year or so, he could have handled it easily.
If the front wheel of his bike hadn’t broken off halfway down the hill.
Man, my brother was messed up after that. He went flying head-first off his handle bars and landed face-first on the street. His face was all bruised, he had bad cuts on his arms, even a couple of his teeth were gone. He looked terrible for a long, long time after that (in fact, it’s probably a blessing that — almost twenty years later — when he first met the woman who eventually became his wife, she didn’t have the best eyesight in the world), and it took him a while to feel comfortable on a bike again. Read more
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Who’s On First? Third Base….May 26th, 2008
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Well, not yet, but it is too nice of a headline to ignore. As the season of bizarre-but-successful-adjustments-on-the-fly continues, suddenly the plan is for 2-time All-Star 3rd baseman Hank Blaylock to move across the diamond and take over first base. (However on Friday, Hank didn’t get called up because of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which is what will happen if you sit around playing GTA4 with Cary’s mom for weeks on end.)
While I love Hank, he’s looking less and less like the Hammer and more and more like the Nail. After missing great chunks of last season and the early going this season with various injuries, it’s getting tougher to count on seeing his name in the lineup. When he got Wally Pipped by Ramon Vazquez, Hank read the writing on the wall (and promptly had to go back on the DL with eye strain…). Actually, he saw Vazquez with a .359 average, read all the quotes about Ramon just helping this team to find a way to win, and thought maybe we could use a bat over at 1st base.
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Bonderman & Tigers Restore Winning WaysMay 24th, 2008
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Both Jeremy Bonderman’s season and career can be summed up in one word—inconsistent.
His pitching on Thursday afternoon stood more on the positive side for the Tigers. He led Detroit to a 9-2 victory over the hapless Seattle Mariners, who jerked back the trophy for Most Disappointing American League team. 40,166 fans watched Bonderman escape several early jams, three times stranding a runner on third base. Armed with one of the game’s most dominant sliders when working—the key phrase is when working—he limited Seattle to two runs on eight hits. Finally receiving sufficient run-support, Bonderman bumped his record up to 3-4, well off pace from his 10-1 streak a year ago.
Like most Tiger pitchers, control has been a major issue so far for Bonderman. In five full years with Detroit he has averaged 31 starts and 60 walks per campaign. Through nine games, he is already halfway to his normal walk total at 33. Striking out fewer hitters as well, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is roughly 1:1; that is one strikeout for every walk. Normally, Bonderman will blow away two batters for every one he gives a free pass. A 2006 runner-up to Johan Santana in strikeouts, his inability to zing strike three’s regularly has led to more hits, ground outs, and fly outs, which in turn has led to more runners advancing to score. Despite the number of prolific bats in Detroit’s lineup, the Tigers will not score 9 runs every time Bonderman takes the mound and he must regain the command he has displayed over the course of his career.
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Julio Lugo: Another Sunk Cost At Short?May 14th, 2008
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Ever since the eleventh-hour deadline deal that shipped Nomar Garciaparra off to the Cubbies as part of a three-way trade machination and, along with it, sent a Red Sox fandom into knee-jerk hysteria—then eventual baseball ecstasy three months later—general manager Theo Epstein has aggressively engaged in a seasonal pursuit for Boston’s next long-term shortstop.
But for the past four winters—each filled and followed by one fruitless search after another—Epstein’s hunt has seemingly mirrored the life and times of Elmer Fudd. Far too elusive to nab, that wascawly shortstop has evaded the grasp of the Sox GM at every turn—only self-inflicted gunshot wounds in the form of failed signings left in all the aftermath.
So, to say the shortstop position under the Epstein-era has seen more ups, downs and (public relations) spin than a merry-go-round wouldn’t be much of an understatement. In fact, by now, some Red Sox supporters might prefer a daintily handcrafted carousel horse to the club’s incumbent shortstop, one Julio Lugo.
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Picking up the PaceMay 7th, 2008
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As we exit April and enter May the young Twins have finally found some consistency. They sputtered through the first month, looking really good some nights and forgettable the next.
All was to be expected heading into the season, so it was not really a disappointment for most Twins’ hopefuls, but just as were saying “in a couple years “ the Twins now sit atop the Central Division.
A week ago the Twins were four games behind the then division-leading White Sox and appeared to be no more than a .500 or below type of team.
They had just got back from a disappointing road trip to Oakland and Texas where they dropped four out of six games and waiting for them at the Teflon Dome were the then-first place White Sox and their homer-hitting lumber.
The White Sox currently have an American League-leading 38 homers this season. The Twins? Well they are tied for a Major League-low, as of May 6, with just 16 long balls. That’s just about one every other game, but it hasn’t slowed them down. As usual they manufacture runs with directional hitting and speed on the base-paths. The White Sox prefer to do it the quick and easier way and just knock it out of the park. Two teams with two completely different formulas for success. Read more
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Home Cooking Gets Sox Back On TrackMay 6th, 2008
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Before landing in the Motor City late Sunday night for the start of a four-game tilt against the Tigers, the Red Sox put the finishing touches on a weekend sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays with a 7-3 win, returning the disfavor from seven days ago while capping off a successful 5-1 homestand.
After pitching their way to a series win against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Boston bats finally woke up following a six game slumber (four runs over their last 54 innings) that produced a line score more representative of binary code than an actual offense.
Outscoring the Rays 26-10 over the three-game set, the Sox improved their record to 20-13 and, for the little it’s worth this early in a season, recaptured sole possession of first place in the AL East.
Now, if only the Sox could figure out how to fit Fenway Park in the cargo hold of their private charter.
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Indians score 15 in rout…April 24th, 2008
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… but only needed 2 to win.
I hate to be picky, but after losing their last two games by scores of 2-1 and 3-0 to the Twins, it would have been nice to see some of those 15 runs spread out a little more evenly.
I last talked about how I was worried that this 2008 team would become the 2005 team incarnate, but maybe I spoke too soon. What if they are more like the 2006 Indians team?
In 2006, the Indians finished 78-84. Seemingly, they were an underachieving squad, as many pundits picked the team to win the Wild Card, or at the very least compete with around 85-90 wins. In hindsight, many national columnists stated that they were merely victims of bad luck, as their run differential for the season was +88, meaning they scored 88 more runs during the season than they gave up. Of course, bad luck was easy to cite, because according to their Pythagorean Expectation, the Indians should have finished with around 89 wins.
The real reason the Indians underachieved: poor record in one-run games (18-26), coupled with inconsistent offense and pitching. Rather than researching how often the Indians had “inconsistent offense and pitching” in 2006, I decided to take the easy route and find a small sample size that summed up the entire season: April 14-20, 2006. The Indians played a four game series on the road against Detroit, followed by a three game series on the road against Baltimore. During the two series, they managed to win 7-2, 10-2, and 15-1, and lose 5-1, 1-0, 18-9, and 9-4, for a record of 3-4. Total runs scored: 46. Total runs given up: 38. Pythagorean Expectation: 4-3 record. Sure, it’s an incredibly small sample size, but believe me when I say it’s dead on.
This year, we may be looking at a similar situation. Before the 15-1 win against the Royals, the Indians Pythagorean Expectation was 8 wins; instead, they had an ever-so-slightly-unlucky 7 wins. Not bad. However, after the offensive explosion yesterday, their Pythagorean expectation changed to 10, which would not only put the Indians at exactly .500, but probably into second place in the division. Instead, they are sitting on an 8-12 record for 4th in the division.
Sure, it’s early, and I’m probably cherry-picking from a small sample size, but it’s not unreasonable to see that an unfortunate pattern may be developing: close losses, some blowouts wins, inconsistency (sorry, hate to sound like Joe Morgan), and a lot of mediocrity. In other words, good numbers on paper, but nothing to show for it. Based on what we’ve seen so far, here’s what I think will happen:
The Indians offense will be good. Seriously, how could they not? With Sizemore at the top of the lineup, Dellucci playing out of his mind, Hafner, um, taking lots of walks when he isn’t grounding out weakly to first (actually, he’s been hitting a lot more opposite-field line drives lately, which is a really good sign), Victor just sitting back and ripping opposite-field singles, Peralta eventually rounding back to a .270 hitter with 25 homers, Garko having a ridiculously good eye with two strikes, Asdrubal keeping the clubhouse loose with his anal-bead necklace, Gutierrez heating up with the weather, and Blake, um, well he had a good night against the Royals. The point is, the Indians hitters will have their stats at the end of the year, and the offense will be among the tops in the league. (In fact, after last night’s win, they improved four spots in team slugging in the American League, three spots in runs, two spots in OBP, and one in OPS. Their batting average jumped 11 points, but they still suck in that department.)
The Starters will be really good. Despite CC’s struggles, the Indians currently lead the AL in quality starts with 13. If CC can build off of his strong start against the Royals (6 innings, 11 k’s, no runs, only 4 hits, of which like 3 of them were bloop singles), the Tribe staff will be the best in the league. Forget the 1-2 punch of CC and Carmona; throw in the revived Cliff Lee, and the Indians 1-2-3 is as good as any in years. Plus, Westbrook is off to a strong start, and provided he can bounce back from his left intercostal strain (whatever that is?), well, the Indians (warning: super-vague prediction alert) will win a lot of games.
The bullpen won’t be really good. We saw it against the Twins in the extra-innings loss on April 20th: with Betancourt as the closer, the bullpen is in trouble. (To recap, it was tied 1-1 after nine innings and the Indians lost the game in the 10th when Rafael Perez, who had already pitched 2 innings, gave up the winning hit with two men on). Forget for a moment that all three studs from last year’s bullpen are struggling, which is already tough enough to deal with. Moving Betancourt to the closer role puts a lot more pressure on the guys beneath him. If Joe Borowski were still pitching, Betancourt would have been in the game for the tenth inning, instead of a gassed Perez. Unfortunately, Wedge was “saving” Betancourt until the Indians could take a lead. Never mind that they gave up a run and lost the game before they could take said lead, the real problem here is the best reliever the Indians have was sitting on the bench during the most important time of the game. If Borowski doesn’t come back and Betancourt stays as the closer, I can see the Indians blowing a lot more games just like this.
What does this all mean? Well, it means pretty much what I’ve already said: blowout wins from great starting pitching and contagious hitting will be separated by close losses caused by a depleted bullpen and inconsistent hitting (and also Paul Byrd, who seems to be one of those guys who pitch just well enough to lose). In other words: not good.
Hopefully, the 15-1 win against the Royals is a sign that the 2008 Indians are back and ready for a strong season. If not, prepare for the worst: 2006 all over again.
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Leadoff ThreatApril 9th, 2008
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After a decade of searching, the Twins first true leadoff man since Chuck Knoblauch has seemingly arrived in Minnesota.
The emergence of the Twins’ new speedy table-setter and center fielder Carlos Gomez has been the biggest ray of hope for the young team this season. He has opened a lot of eyes with his ridiculous speed and great abilities, at the plate, in the field and most obviously on the base-paths.
Gomez currently leads the Twins in hits, bunt singles, stolen bases, runs, and on-base percentage, much like he did throughout spring training.
In my first post I talked about how he is the fastest man in MLB, but insiders worried if he was going to be able to get on base enough to utilize that speed.
Well, in the first week of the season he has shown he can in fact arrive at first base and thus wreak havoc on the base paths for opposing teams. Though the extra base hits (just two doubles) may not be there yet, he has shown an uncanny ability to bunt his way on and wheel his way around to score. Read more
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Opening DayApril 2nd, 2008
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Opening day for baseball is the day that diehard fans face their lofty spring training hopes and ridiculous expectations head on. Those whose teams don’t fare so well then forget that there are still 161 games to go and that opening day is just one game to start off six months of constant baseball. Nonetheless it is a fantastic day for baseball enthusiasts like the writers at hometown9.com, to sit back, relax and see what all the talk is about.
For a month everybody gets to study how their team is shaping up in spring training, read the local sports writer rant and rave about the up-and-coming five-tool prospect who might win the center-field job, and place wagers with their co-workers on how their respective teams will finish.
Well most national media outlets would tell you that the Minnesota Twins are not Read more