Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

So why do Twins pick up Erik Komatsu

Erik Komatsu

Put me down under the confused column. Why would the Twins pick up Erik Komatsu? I have no problem sending Clete Thomas packing as he had 28 at bats in a Twins uniform and he hit .143 and he struck out 16 times, enough said. But why pick up Komatsu who is a Cardinals Rule 5 pick-up in December of 2011? Komatsu grew up in California and graduated from Adolfo Camarillo High School where he was a teammate of Delmon Young. Komatsu was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 8th round in 2008, missed most of 2009 with a concussion and hamstring issues and was traded to the Washington Nationals in July 2011. Komatsu has 348 minor league games under his belt and he hit .302 but he has never played above AA ball. I know he can play all three outfield positions and he has stolen 57 bases in the minors but he also got caught 24 times. It’s not like Komatsu is a corner outfielder with power potential. If the Twins don’t keep Komatsu on the roster they need to offer him back to the Nats. Why would the Twins want a player like this? If you want to replace Thomas why not pick up one of your own minor league players? What kind of message does this send to your own minor leaguers? Do the Twins think so little of their own minor league players that they feel they need to pick up players like Clete Thomas and Erik Komatsu? Put yourself in Ben Revere’s or Rene Tosoni’s shoes, what are they thinking? If the Cardinals thought that Komatsu had potential why didn’t they strike a deal with Washington and keep him? The only reason he made the Cardinals team this year anyway was due to all the injuries the Cardinals outfielders suffered. I would like to know why a player from another organization that hasn’t played AAA ball can play in Minnesota but when it comes to their own players they would prefer they get AAA experience first. Don’t tell me about Parmelee, I know he has no AAA experience but the Twins are hardly playing Parmelee this season anyway. I know this team is playing poorly and need some changes but a fourth/fifth outfielder is hardly the answer here unless………. the Twins know they are going to move some players soon and go into full rebuilding mode sooner than later. If that is the case, then the Twins can keep Komatsu on the roster all season and this move might make some sense. I just don’t know if Terry Ryan and the Twins brain trust knows where they are going, they seem to wander aimlessly so far this season grasping at straws.

Who said it is good to be home?

Why can’t American league teams win in their home parks in 2012? Through the end of April, AL home teams are 73-84 and winning at a .465 clip. When the junior league takes to the road they are playing .535 baseball and have posted a mark of 84-73.  The Senior circuit on the other hand has posted a 102-79 (.564) mark at home and when they are on the road these same teams are 79-102 (.436).

In 2011 in the American League home teams were 607-530 (.534) and 532-599 (.470) on the road. The Twins were 33-48 (.407) at home last season, the fewest home victories of any team in the league and on the road they were even worse, 30-51 a .370 clip.

This year the Twins are 3-8 at home and 3-8 on the road. Tampa is 9-1 at home and Kansas City is 0-10 at home. The best road warriors in the AL this season are the Texas Rangers who stand at 9-1 and the worst team on the road is the Angels at 3-9. No team in the AL Central has a winning home record so far this year.

Strange going on in the American League to be sure.

How do you fix this?

The Twins pitching this season has been dismal and as I took a look at the Twins pitching stats during last nights 11-2 drubbing at the hands of the Boston Red Sox I have to wonder what Terry Ryan, Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson can do to fix the problem. Before the Twins had even played one game that counted this season they had already lost reliever Joel Zumaya and starter Scott Baker to Tommy John surgery. Losing Baker who I thought was the Twins top starting pitcher was a serious blow to a team that already had pitching woes. The 29 year-old Baker had started 159 games with a 63-48 record over the last 7 seasons with a 4.15 ERA and could be counted on to keep the Twins in the game when he was on the mound. With Baker out for the season the Twins went in to the 2012 season with a starting five composed of Francisco Liriano, Carl Pavano, Jason Marquis, Nick Blackburn and either Anthony Swarzak or Liam Hendriks. Liriano who was dubbed “the Franchise” back in 2006 when he went 12-3 has been a colossal disappointment this season and now is out of the rotation to clear his head after four terrible starts when he has gone 0-4 with a 11.02 ERA and 2.36 WHIP in 16.1 innings and giving up a league leading 20 earned runs. A 2.36 WHIP, that is incredible, 2.36 runners every inning. The Twins seem to be perplexed with what to do with Liriano and plan to have him skip a start and work on the side. Personally, I think the best thing they can do with Liriano at this point is send him back to the minors and have him pitch until he proves he can get big league hitters out. Everyone keeps saying that Liriano has “great stuff” and maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t but the bottom line is that right now he is not a major league pitcher and he has no business being in the big leagues. I would rather see the Twins call up some one from the minors and have them learn how to pitch in the majors than send Liriano out start after start with little to no hope of improvement. It is not all about physical ability, you have to understand how to pitch in the big leagues and I’m afraid that Francisco Liriano may never attain that stature. Pavano and Marquis are both veterans and you get what you see with these two, journeymen at best that are filling out a starting rotation. The sinker-balling Nick Blackburn is no star but can fill the back-end of a starting rotation. I am not sure what Liam Hendriks can do in the majors but I am willing to send him out every fifth day and see what he has to offer. Swarzak is probably best suited for the role he is in right now, the long man in the pen. The 25 year-old lefty Scott Diamond who was a Rule 5 pick-up from the Atlanta Braves in December of 2010 is tearing it up in Rochester with a 4-0 mark and a 1.07 ERA in four starts is worth calling up for a big league shot. What have you got to lose?

The Twins have to do something, but what? They are 5-13 and 5.5 games out and we are still in April. How much improvement can Gardy and Ryan expect from a pitching staff that is putting up these kinds of numbers?

Twins Opponent
IP 146 151
H 161 148
R 91 63
ER 87 56
HR 26 13
BB 42 47
SO 86 117
ERA 5.36 3.34
WHIP 1.39 1.29
Oppenent batting avg. .283 .256

It is nice to have good young pitching

When he started Opening Day for Tampa, James Shields, who turned 30 on Dec 20, ended a major-league-record streak of 764 games in which the Rays had started a pitcher under the age of 30, however, the Rays have now used a starting pitcher 30 or younger in 909 consecutive games, the last Tampa Rays starter over age 30 was 32-year-old LH Mark Hendrickson, who lost 4-1 on June 25, 2006 versus the Atlanta Braves. The Rays have used a starting pitcher they drafted for the past 178 consecutive games, a major league record, the last game started by a pitcher drafted by another organization was Sep 30, 2010 at KC, when Minnesota Twins draftee Matt Garza started.

The Metrodome in April 1982

Metrodome

The Metrodome served as home to the NFL Minnesota Vikings and University of Minnesota football, Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead concerts, Rev. Billy Graham revivals, two Final Fours, a Super Bowl, an MLB All-Star game, various tractor pulls, Monster truck shows, state high school championships, a Promise Keepers rally, Home and Garden shows, snowmobile races and, oh yes, the Minnesota Twins. The Minnesota Twins have won two World Championships in the Metrodome and called it home from 1982 through the 2009 season. The Twins regular season record in the Metrodome was 2,196 wins and 2,272 losses but the dome always seemed to provide a home field advantage for the Twins.  The Metrodome was named after Hubert H. Humphrey who was a former Minneapolis mayor, U.S. Senator and U.S. Vice President. He was a big sports fan and rooted for the Vikings and Twins every chance he got. Because of his dedication to the state and to teamwork, the Metrodome was named in his honor. After the 2009 season the Twins moved to their new home at Target Field and the Metrodome which is still the home of the NFL Minnesota Vikings was renamed to Mall of American Field. The Metrodome was always more suited to host football games versus baseball games and Twins fans hated being indoors on those beautiful Minnesota summer days and evenings but when it was raining or cold as it can be in Minnesota in April and September, fans didn’t complain as they filed in to the dry and warm 69 degree climate controlled Metrodome.

“It was a weird place,” says Kent Hrbek, the Twins’ legendary first baseman who played a key role in both the ’87 and ’91 World Series wins and whose first full season in the majors coincided with the Metrodome’s big league debut. “When we first got in here, you look back at old pictures from ’82, it was just so plastic. “I remember there were signs, a black and white scoreboard, and beyond that, nothing. Just blue seats and concrete. It was something that was really different. Everybody was excited because it was state of the art and it was going to be warm every day. That’s what they sold.”

In spite of its bad reputation, the Metrodome does have a lot of Twins history attached to it which I am not going to rehash here now but the other day I ran across a nice piece written by Jayson Hron at Historically Inclined called Metrodome: Home sweet storm home. It is a nice history of what transpired in April of 1982 at the Metrodome when the 1982 baseball season opened to cold and snowy weather. I am sure most of you don’t remember what transpired back in 1982 in the Metrodome and some of you were not even around back then. If you have a few minutes, check it out.

Let’s look at the numbers so far

The Twins have crawled out of the starting gate at a 2-7 clip and now are headed for New York and Tampa. I know that they have played just nine games but let’s look at some of the numbers that the Twins have put up so far in 2012. I know there will be fans that say that it is too early to get a good feel for what this team can accomplish this year and that the sample size is real small and I agree, but no matter how you color it, this team is playing poorly and under performing in all three categories, hitting, pitching and fielding.

  • The Twins starting pitchers are 0-5 and are the only team in the American league without a win to their credit. By contrast, Texas Rangers starting pitchers are 6-0.
  • The Twins starting pitching ERA is 5.54 with the opposition hitting at .284 clip. The Yankees starting pitching ERA is 5.26 and opponents are hitting .308, it will be interesting to see if the Twins hitters can take advantage of this.
  • Twins starting pitchers have only walked 12 batters, only Cleveland has been better this year.
  • Twins starters as we know are not strikeout pitchers and their numbers back that up with the lowest number of strikeouts in the league at 24 in 52 innings.
  • Twins relievers are in the middle of the pack with a 2-2 mark and a 4.50 ERA and only four teams in the league have thrown fewer innings than the Twins bullpen has (that surprises me). Opponents are only hitting .250 against the Twins relief staff.
  • Twins relievers have only given up three home runs, it just seems like more.
  • Twins pinch-hitters are 0 for 5.
  • Twins DH’s are among the worst in the league hitting a combined .206 scoring 2 runs with 1 home run and 2 RBI’s.
  • The Twins are hitting .258 (fifth best in the league) but are tied with Seattle for fewest home runs with 7.
  • The Twins have stolen 4 bases in 5 attempts and have hit into a league leading 13 double plays.
  • Twins hitters have left 63 runners stranded as compared to the White Sox fewest at 49. The Yankees have left a league leading 76 “ducks on the pond”.
  • Scoring runs continues to plague Minnesota as they have scored just 28 times tieing them for league worst with Oakland.
  • The Twins fielding percentage is .980, the third worst in the league and the team has turned just 6 double plays. As a team they have committed nine errors in nine games.

What are the Twins going to do with Justin Morneau? The last few days you hear that Justin is unhappy as a DH and wants to play 1B. This is a no brainer, send the guy out to play first, what have you got to lose? The man is hitting .206 with one home run and two RBI’s as a DH and claims he is still feeling his way in the DH role. He has been DHing for a month now in Florida and here, how tough can it be to get a routine?. Oh, and slide Morneau down to the fifth spot in the order and move Willingham up one spot, seems like another no brainer. Put Parmelee in right and Doumit at DH and then you don’t have to worry about that catchers back-up role and you can use Clete Thomas as a defensive sub for Willingham or Parmelee when the Twins have a late inning lead.

Maybe the Twins can play a bit better on the road and take a couple from the New York Yankees who have probably already put 3 wins in their win column knowing the Twins are coming to town. I sure hope that the Twins can turn things around soon.

The Yankees and Twins will meet four times at Yankee Stadium this season, all in this series. The home town Yanks are 28-5 in home regular season games vs. Minnesota since the start of the 2002 season (33-7 including home postseason games). In 2011, went 3-1 versus the Twins at Yankee Stadium. In season series play, the Yankees have won the last 10 consecutive home season series when playing the Twins (2002-11).

The BPP All-Time Dream Project

If you are a long time baseball fan and enjoy baseball history you should take a few minutes and check out fellow Baseball Bloggers Alliance member Graham Womack’s of Baseball: Past and Present story called The BPP All-Time Dream Project. According to Graham, “Over the past two months, I conducted a project having people vote on nine-player all-time dream teams. The idea was for voters to pick a team to win a one-off, sandlot game, the ultimate cosmic playoff. This wasn’t about a 25-man roster or designated hitters or relievers, just finding nine players to win a game. I received more than 600 votes in all from a mix of baseball figures, fellow writers, and others. To help with the presentation and do justice to the subject matter, I recruited a number of my favorite baseball writers and hired an illustrator, Sarah Wiener to create trading cards for each player. Like the cards? A complimentary set can be had for the first 100 people who donate $25 to 826 Valencia, a non-profit that teaches journalism to kids. We’re looking to raise $3,000 and, as of press time, we’re about halfway there. If everyone who reads this post donates even a dollar, we’ll shatter the goal. To donate, go here.”

Can you imagine what it would be like to watch this team play? No Minnesota Twins made the team but Washington Senators Walter Johnson is the teams starting pitcher. Some Twins that did receive votes are Joe Mauer, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Paul Molitor, Graig Nettles, and Dave Winfield. Check out the story, you won’t be sorry.

Twins claim Clete Thomas on waivers from Tigers

Clete Thomas

The Twins announced today that they have claimed 28-year-old outfielder Clete Thomas (bats left and throws right) on waivers from the Detroit Tigers who had designated Thomas for assignment on April 12th. The Twins expect Thomas to be at Target Field tonight prior to Sunday’s game against the Texas Rangers. The Twins made room on their 40-man roster, by transferring right-handed pitcher Scott Baker to the 60-day disabled list. The Twins will make a corresponding roster move prior to adding him to the 25-man roster.

Michael Clete Thomas was first drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the fifth round of the 2002 amateur draft but did not sign and ended up being drafted by the Tigers in round six of the 2005 draft and he signed with the Tigers at that time. Thomas worked his way up through the Detroit minor league system before making his major league debut on March 31, 2008. Thomas appeared with the Tigers in 40 games in 2008, 102 games in 2009 and then spent 2010-2011 with the Tigers AAA team in Toledo. This season he appeared in 3 games with Detroit but had no plate appearances. In the big leagues, Thomas has appeared in 145 games hitting .253 with 8 home runs and is 5 for 5 in stolen bases. Thomas has played all three outfield positions while with the Tigers. In the minors, Thomas has shown the ability to steal a base with 148 steals in 192 attempts. In 2011 Thomas hit a career high 12 home runs with Toledo.

You have to wonder what the Twins see in Thomas and why they want to put him on the 25 man roster. Who will the Twins send down to make room for Thomas? My guess is that Ben Revere may well be Rochester bound if indeed the Twins keep Thomas. The other option of course is that the Twins are going to make some kind of a deal, maybe with Boston since the Red Sox just lost Jacoby Ellsbury for 6-8 weeks due to a shoulder injury yesterday and there have been rumors floating around that Clete Thomas was someone that the Red Sox were interested in. Were the Tigers trying to slip Thomas past everyone on waivers so that they could make a deal with Boston? Who knows.

Here are some thoughts on Clete Thomas from a Tigers blog at Motor City Bengals.

UPDATE: The Twins announced that Ben Revere was optioned to Rochester after Saturdays game.

How is Brian Dozier doing you ask

Brian Dozier

I have had a couple of people ask me recently how shortstop Brian Dozier is doing at Rochester and my response would be that he is doing OK, he is hanging in there. In this case OK means that Dozier has played in 6 games (5 at short and 1 at 2B) through April 11 and here are his stats.

AVG = .524
AB = 21
R = 3
HITS = 11
2B = 3
3B = 0
HR = 1
RBI = 4
TB = 17
BB = 3
IBB = 1
SO = 2
SB = 0/1
OBP = .583
SLG = .810
OPS = 1.393
Errors = 1
 

Not bad for the first week in AAA right? No way Dozier can keep up this pace but some interesting numbers never the less. Do you think some Twins infielders are getting nervous?

Good, Bad, and Ugly

Yesterday was an interesting day for the Minnesota Twins and their fans with the news being good, bad and ugly.

GOOD – On a cool crisp spring evening at Target Field the Twins finally got off the snide and posted their first victory of 2012. After a 0-4 start to the season and not having the lead in any game since the season began, the Twins finally took their first lead of the season in the fourth inning on Josh Willingham’s third home run of the season.  Willingham by the way, has a hit in every game this season. With the 6-5 victory the Twins became the last team in major league baseball to post a “W” in the win column. Hopefully the Twins can now relax a little and start playing some good baseball. I can see it taking a some time for this Twins team to gel as it has a number of new pieces as Chris Parmelee or Joe Mauer covers first base, Jamey Carroll gets acclimated over at short, Josh Willingham takes over left field and Ryan Doumit, Trevor Plouffe, or Ben Revere play in right field. Not counting the changes to their pitching staff, that makes four new players in the eight positions on the field. It takes time to learn each other strengths and weaknesses and to play well as a team. The Twins will need to play some good ball because the Texas Rangers come to town on Friday and then Gardy’s boys play the Yankees and the Rays on the road before returning home to face the Red Sox and the Royals.

Bad – The bad news is that the Twins honeymoon at Target Field is over. Yesterdays crowd of 31,413 was the smallest crowd in Target Field history. With the team coming off a 63-99 mark a year ago and a tough 0-4 start in 2012 the fans have not been beating down Target Fields gates to buy tickets. You could see this situation developing late last season when the Twins were playing out the string and there were empty seats all over but at least those seats were bought and paid for and the fans stayed out because they had better things to do on nice fall days then to follow a baseball team that was playing poorly but the empty seats this year are just that, empty seats. If the Twins don’t put a winning team on the field, the empty seat count will rise, the revenue will decrease, and in turn the payroll will have to shrink. Twins fans have become accustomed to winning baseball and last years losing season was a tough pill to swallow but yet the fans still had hope entering this season as they expected their walking wounded in Mauer, Morneau, and Span to return true to form. Then the 2012 season opened and the Twins lost their four games. A tough break for the Twins for sure but it was not the poor start to this season that is causing the empty seats, it is last years record and the off-season acquisitions or lack there of that has the fans hesitant to open their wallets for Twins tickets in 2012. The new ballpark “smells” don’t last forever and now the Twins have to earn their ticket sales on the field.

Scott Baker

UGLY – The ugly news yesterday was the announcement by Twins starting pitcher Scott Baker that he will undergo season ending surgery to repair the flexor pronator tendon in his right elbow before he has even thrown a single pitch that counted in 2012. The expected recovery time for this type of surgery is about six months.

The 30 year-old Baker was drafted by the Twins in the second round of the 2003 amateur draft and made his big league debut in May of 2005. Scott has a 63-48 career mark in 159 starts during hs seven seasons in a Twins uniform. Although I have gotten on Baker for his lack of emotion and how he slows the game to a crawl when he gets runners on the bases, I consider Baker to be the Twins number one starting pitcher. Francisco Liriano probably has better stuff that Baker does but he does not seem to be as mentally savvy on the mound as Baker is. Sure, Baker takes a trip to the DL now and then but when Baker is healthy, he is a very nice pitcher who unlike most Twins pitchers can strike out a batter when needed. From Baker’s point of view, the timing couldn’t be worse as the Twins hold a 2013 option for $9.5 million that is now really in question. The risk to pick up the option is huge but can the Minnesota Twins who always seem to struggle to find starting pitching pass on a proven big league pitcher?

The Twins will miss Scott Baker in the starting rotation but there is always a silver lining, when one door closes, another opens and we will have to wait and see who will latch on to Baker’s spot in the starting rotation and run with it.