July 3, 2008 – Catcher Joe Mauer should be the starting catcher if there is no last minute push by Jason Varitek voters. Varitek does not even deserve to be in contention but with the heavy Red Sox nation vote he is a perennial high vote collector. Justin Morneau deserves to start at 1B but again with the heavy Red Sox voting it is very likely that Kevin Youkilis will get the starting nod there but I see no way that Morneau will not make the team. I think that will be it for the Twins unless Joe Nathan gets selected. If you look at saves alone then Nathan is running fourth behind Frankie Rodriguez, George Sherrill, and Jonathan Papelbon. Rodriguez is first in saves so he is a shoe in, Sherrill might be the only Oriole selected and then you have to wait and see if Francona wants to go with his man Papelbon or the Twins Nathan. Joe Nathan is a premier closer and deserves to be on the team but the odds are 50-50 at best, it all depends on how AL manager Terry Francona structures his pitching staff and if he goes heavy with starters or closers.
Category: General Blogging
This is a general blogging category.
Quit Using the Term Twinkees!
April 21, 2008– The other day I was watching a Yankee game on MLB Extra innings and one of the Yankee announcers said something that really sticks in my craw. I don’t remember who the announcer was but he was giving score updates on the other games in the American league and when he got to the Twins game he said “and the Twinkees are beating” the Royals by so and so. Damn! I hate that term the “Twinkees”, I take it as a derogatory term, maybe it is not the way it was intended but that is the way I take it. Where did that term “Twinkees” come from anyway? I hear the term used frequently when someone is ripping the Twins for one thing or another. I may be all wrong but it seems to me the term “Twinkees” was coined back in 1982 when the Twins were off loading a number of high priced players like Erickson, Smalley, and Wynegar and traded them to the Yankees and in return the Twins got players like Paul Boris, Ron Davis, Greg Gagne, Pete Filson, Larry Milbourne, and John Pacella. The Twins had so many ex-Yankees on the roster that some people started calling the Twins the “Twinkees”. Then is then and now is now, let’s quit calling our Minnesota Twins the “Twinkees!
Who is the best team in the AL Central division?
March 31, 2008 – The Central Division will be tough again this year and with the division having no particularly weak sisters, but it is very possible that only one playoff team will emerge from the Central division in 2008. My reasoning is that the teams will face each other 18 times and that will takes its toll on the overall records and they beat up on each other. So how do I see the teams finishing this year? First let’s take a look at each team.
Chicago White Sox – Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera are some nice additions to an aging club. The starting pitching is questionable but if Danks and Floyd come through the starters could be tough. Jenks as a closer is top notch but Dotel whom the team acquired to set up has been terrible this spring. The Sox seem to have no plan and appear to be veering away from the solid defense that they wanted to get to a couple of years ago. I don’t see this team progressing as long as Ozzie Guillen manages this team.
Kansas City Royals – Everyone says this is a much better team than it has been in the past but then again that is not saying much. Having said that, I actually like this team, they are not ready to win a title but they are building a nice team around Gordon, Butler, DeJesus, Guillen, Teahen, Greinke and several others. They still need to improve at catcher, 2B, and in their pitching both in the starter role and in the pen. Meche is their only proven starter but Greinke can be very good if he gets his head back on straight and Bannister showed flashes of being a very nice starter. I don’t see what signing Tomko does for the team other than add someone that can throw some innings. Soria the closer looked good last year but the rest of the bullpen with the exception of Gobble could stand an upgrade. It will be interesting to see what Trey Hillman can do with this bunch, he never played in the major leagues but he has been a very good manager in Japan for a number of years.
Detroit Tigers – Maybe the best hitting team in baseball this year and they have Jim Leyland to lead them. After they acquired Cabrera and Willis from Florida this winter, most everyone has conceded the division title to Detroit in 2008. They are solid in every position but the broken finger that Granderson suffered will hurt the team in April. I see Granderson as a leader and sparkplug on this team and they need him back as quickly as possible. The weak link on this Tiger team is the bullpen where they miss Zumaya terribly and there is not guarantee when and if he will be back. Their old closer and former Twin Todd Jones gets the job done but it is seldom pretty. There used to be an old Baltimore closer, I forget his name and Earl Weaver his manager used to call him two pack so and so because Weaver would go through two packs of smokes in the ninth inning waiting for this pitcher to get the side out and the save.
The Cleveland Indians are picked by some to defend their Central title this year. From a hitting perspective this team is almost as good as Detroit and that is with Travis Hafner having an off season. If he comes back strong, this is a team that will be in the hunt all year long. You throw in a pitching staff led by CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona and the pitching is looking pretty good. The remaining starters are likely to be Jake Westbrook, Paul Bryd who is no spring chicken and throws slow and slower and Cliff Lee figures to come back after a disastrous season in 2007. Strangely enough, just like the Tigers, the Indians have a closer that never makes it looks easy but seems to get the job done in Joe Borowski.
Finally we get to Minnesota, at first blush it is easy to say that the Twins are in trouble, after all, they lost Johan Santana and Torii Hunter the two biggest stars on the team. But let’s not be so quick to give up on this team, they should be improved from a hitting perspective. I think Delmon Young will do as well as Hunter did although with fewer home runs. Mauer, Morneau, and Cuddyer should be expected to put up better numbers then they did last year. Harris is an improvement over what we had at 2B last year and the same can be said for 3B with Lamb. What appears to be a platoon at DH should be better with Kubel and Monroe but personally I would like to see Kubel earn that position outright. Gomez in center will be exciting to watch but you will need to be happy if he hits .265 and steals a bunch of bases. Everett is a glove guy but I think he will surprise a few people with his bat too. But can they pitch you say? That sir is the question; can the elderly Livan Hernandez still get guys out for 200 innings one more time? Can Liriano come back like he pitched in 2006? Can Boof can over the hump and throw 200 innings? Can Baker stand up to a full season on the mound? Is Slowey a young Radke? Time will tell but the Twins are counting very heavily on this bunch of starters. If the starters can be just half way decent, then the Twins bullpen and Nathan the closer will do their job and the Twins will be sitting pretty. Can they catch the ball? Not as well as they have in the past I’m afraid as they are weak at 2B and 3B. The outfielders all have great arms although Gomez may not always throw it where he wants to. All in all, I think the Twins will be an exciting team to watch.
So when we look at the final scoreboard standings in October, what will we see? I think it will look like this.
Tigers 98-64
Indians 96-66
Royals 84-78
Twins 80-82
White Sox 76-86
Steroid and HGH Thoughts
February 20, 2008 – Now that pitchers and catchers have reported to all the training camps it seems like you can read a new apology every couple of hours on the Internet. There are all kinds of excuses from “I used it to help heal an injury” to “I apologize but I am not going to say for what”. Bottom line is that all these guys cheated, but to be fair we all know that there has been cheating taking place in baseball forever from the spitball, to the corked bats, to the gouged ball, and the pine tar on the balls and bats. But the steroids and HGH controversy seems to be on a higher level, the public looks on this as a dishonest act versus the other kinds of day to day baseball cheating that we all laugh about when we talk about Gaylord Perry, George Brett, or even Sammy Sosa. I guess we consider the corked bats and the foreign substance on the ball as part of the game but steroids and HGH go beyond what most of us can accept as the little white lies that we all tell and do every day from going 65 on a freeway marked for 55, or maybe taking a tax deduction we are not entitled to, or keeping that extra $10 that was given to us as change by mistake.
So what do we do about this situation? It is a heck of a mess but all we can do now I think is learn from the experience and strive to never let it happen again. There is no point in going back and putting an asterisk next to the various baseball records, you sure can’t go back and change the league standings or take away a World Series trophy. Having said that, in my mind Henry Aaron is still the home run champ, not that chump Barry Bonds who could not carry Hammerin Hanks jock strap on his best day.
The players that have been documented as cheaters should be punished in some way. There are a couple of ways to look at this, we could suspend them and punish their teams and ultimately us fans as well but I am not sure that is the answer. These players cheated so that they could be better, bigger, stronger, and make more money in the game. They didn’t cheat because it would help their team win; they cheated because it would help them personally. So to that end I think baseball should fine each of these players (not the teams) $1 million dollars each and that money should be donated to the local children’s hospitals in the area. If these players were truly sorry for what they did, they would step forth and do the right thing on their own before the league knocks on their door to ask them for their generous donation. Sure, $1 million sounds steep but we need to send a message and hitting the pocketbook is the best way to accomplish that. I think these players probably got an extra million or two along the way due to the steroids and HGH benefits anyway so it seems like a fair deal to me. OK, so who is going to be the first player to step up and do right by us baseball fans?
I have had about all I can take of this steroid and HGH bull and I am ready to read and talk about baseball games and put this steroid and HGH affair on the back burner. PLAY BALL!
“The Last of the Pure Baseball Men”
January 12, 2008 – On October 26, 1960, Calvin Griffith, President of the Washington Senators, made the historic decision to move his club to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, thereby giving birth to the “Minnesota Twins,” named after the two Upper Midwest cities. Won the American League pennant in 1965; however, they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series that year. Voted “Major League Executive of the Year” – 1965. Reputed to be “one of baseball’s most astute judges of raw talent”; in 1964, he discovered and signed Rod Carew a second baseman and one of the most famous of former Twins players. On June 23, 1984, prominent local businessman Carl Pohlad stepped forward and signed an agreement in principle to purchase the team for $32 million from Griffith and his sister, Mrs. Thelma Griffith Haynes, and keep the Twins in Minnesota. On September 7, 1984 the deal was finalized ending an era of 72 years in which the Griffith family controlled the ball club. On October 20, 1999, the man who brought big league baseball to Minnesota died at the age of 87. Calvin Griffith died in his retirement home in Melbourne, Florida, of kidney infection.
I had an opportunity to do a telephone interview with Calvin in the late 1980’s when I was taking some classes at North Hennepin Community College and I need to interview an executive so I choose Calvin Griffith. I got his number from the phone directory and gave him a call in Florida. Calvin answered the phone and I told him who I was and why I was calling and he could not have been any nicer. I don’t know if he was lonely or just loved talking about baseball but he did not want to hang up the phone. We talked about his career and the state of baseball and it was one of the most fun class assignments I ever had. By the time we had this conversation, he and Carl Pohlad had some kind of a falling out and Calvin was bitter about how Pohlad and the Twins were treating him but the man still knew and loved baseball and nothing and no one could keep him away from the game he loved. I had told him about the time when the Met was being readied to be demolished and the Twins had a huge auction of everything and anything that was still left and how I had ended up somehow in the bowels of the old Met and stood outside an office door where Calvin and his cronies were telling old baseball stories, smoking cigars and tipping a few cold drinks. Those were some great stories but many could not be repeated in public today. How the times have changed, I have to wonder what Calvin Griffith was say about the steroid and HGH controversy of today.
If any of you are interested in knowing more about Calvin and the impact he had on baseball in Minnesota, find a copy of “Calvin – Baseball’s Last Dinosaur” by Jon Kerr, it is a fun read. I have a copy signed by both Calvin and Jon sitting on my bookcase and I take it out now and then and read a chapter or two.
Are you listening?
December 26, 2007 – OK, Twins management, I give up, what is your big plan to make the Twins competitive this year? The Twins preach pitching and defense and now you sign Mike Lamb to play 3B. I can see signing a 3B that is not a strong fielder if he is going to hit 30 or more home runs and knock in 100+ runs, but a 32 year platoon player who committed 33 errors at 3B in Texas when the Rangers tried to give him a full time job back in 2000? The day before you acquired Lamb you signed Adam Everett because he was a stellar shortstop and now you plan on putting Lamb next to him? Lamb has not been a regular in the past because he has proven he cannot play 3B. The Astros were desperate for a 3B in 2007 and yet Lamb was not given the job full time, you have to ask why!
It is so frustrating for me as a Twins fan to see the Twins just like clockwork throw a few bucks each spring at several free agent players that no other team seems to be interested in. Why not pool that money, throw a little more in the pot and go out and sign a real free agent that fills a hole and can play! This year the Twins have already lost Torii Hunter and. Johan Santana will be traded soon and Joe Nathan may follow. How can you with a straight face say we are not rebuilding? The Twins have a number of good young players and should be looking to fill holes to become more competitive with teams like the Tigers who have reloaded, Kansas City that is getting stronger, and the Indians who are looking to upgrade their outfield. Sure, I like the trade with Tampa, but that did nothing to fill holes at 3B, 2B, and CF and actually created a hole at SS.
Twins ownership has been saying for years that if they got that new stadium it would generate more revenue flow and we will be able to be more competitive in signing players. Mr. Pohlad, signing the Everett’s and Lamb’s of the world does not qualify. Now as I sit here in Plymouth and look east towards downtown Minneapolis I see a new stadium going up and Twins salaries going down. Tell me sir why that is the case. You want to own a major league ball club, then start acting like a major league owner. You are the richest MLB owner on the Forbes 400 list with about $2 billion in you coffers, spend a couple million (maybe sell one of your lots on Lake Minnetonka) and make the Twins the competitive team they should be. I am a baseball fan and as pathetic as it may sound, I will still go out and buy my season tickets and keep cheering for the Twins but I gotta say this Carl, you are tearing my heart out. You keep raising the Twins ticket prices year after year and who knows what they will be in 2010 when the new stadium opens. It does however; appear that you are raising ticket prices as much as you can each year before the new ballpark opens so that when the new park becomes a reality you can do a modicum increase and tell us all how little you are raising the price of the tickets at the new ballpark. It is appropriate then at this time of the year Mr. Pohlad that you look in the mirror, and then I want you to tell me that you really are not Minnesota’s Ebenezer Scrooge.
My very first post as I trying blogging about the Minnesota Twins
My take, such as it may be!
November 25, 2007 – Torii Hunter was fun to watch and I will miss him patrolling center field at the Dome for the Minnesota Twins in 2008 and beyond. Having said that, I have to agree with Twins management on this one, the Twins are not in a position to give a 32 year old outfielder a five year $90 million deal when they have a number of good young players that they need to sign in the next few years. We just can’t tie up that kind of money even if it is Torii Hunter. Torii apparently wants to play for a championship team and his perception is that the Twins can not attain that status over the next few years, time will tell, so he probably would have passed on the Twins even if they had offered him the big bucks. A number of former Twins players that left here via free agency have stated publicly that leaving the Twin Cities was a mistake. we will see what the future holds for Torii. This may sound like sour grapes but I think that Torii has lost a step the last year or so, maybe it’s the ankle he broke in Boston or maybe it is just time, but there have been balls that have dropped in for hits recently that would have been caught by Hunter in the past. We also need to remember that we did not win the division with Torii last year and resigning Torii to take an even larger piece of the financial pie still leaves us with huge holes at 3B, DH, and possibly 2B to fill.
Most Twins fans wish the best for Torii and I think they will welcome him back when he runs out to center field at the Dome on March 31 to open the 2008 season, but this time as a member of the opposition when the Twins open their 2008 season against the Los Angeles Angels.
Baker on a roll
Scott Baker pitched five scoreless innings to lead the Twins to a 4-1 victory over the Tigers yesterday afternoon. It marked the third consecutive start that Baker has not allowed an earned run. Over the last 35 seasons, only two other Twins pitchers have had a streak of three consecutive starts without allowing an earned run in a single season. Francisco Liriano had two three-game streaks in 2010 and Johan Santana did it in four straight starts in 2004. Source: Elias
Lots of smoke but no fire
As the July 31 trade deadline approached, the Twins seemed to be in the middle of a number of possible trade discussions with players such as Kevin Slowey, Denard Span, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, Jose Mijares, Delmon Young, and Jim Thome all supposedly in the mix to change uniforms. But the Twins and GM Bill Smith found themselves between a rock and a hard-spot on what to do with a team that seems to have hit a plateau at 6 games out after coming out of the chute like a herd of turtles and found themselves 20 games under .500 on June 1st. According to a recent clip I saw on TV, no team in MLB history that has been 20 games under has ever come back to finish above the .500 mark. But on the other hand, no one in the Central Division seems to want to take the lead and run with it. The Kansas City Royals started the season hot as a pistol but soon tanked and found themselves rebuilding with some young and up and coming stars. The Chicago White Sox can’t seem to get their act together and struggle to hang around the .500 mark. The surprising Cleveland Indians are probably in over their heads but have been putting up a good fight but they have too many injuries to key players and are too young to be taken too seriously. The Detroit Tigers are leading the pack right now and as I see it, will win the division just because they are the best team in a bad division in 2011.
But getting back to Minnesota, what was Smith to do? I can see no way that with the way the Jekyll and Hyde Twins have played this season that ownership would authorize the payroll to increase by any substantial amount. So if Smith wanted to make some additions to say the relief core, he would also have to move some payroll to free up some dollars. On the other hand, the Twins could have become sellers and started a rebuilding process but the fans in Twins Territory would have gone “nuts” if the Twins threw up the white flag while being only six games out on July 31. The Twins sell out almost every home game and giving up just does not seem like the right thing to do even though the chances of this team winning the division are slim and none. So what should be done?
The solution as it turns out was relatively simple, the answer was to be neither a buyer nor a seller and just let things continue the way they are for the time being. All Smith had to do is keep saying no to any deal that was not stacked in favor of the home team and the only deal he would make would be on where the Twins came out smelling like a rose. Like the deal that was much ballyhooed where the Twins would send Span to Washington and hopefully get closer Drew Storen, outfielder Roger Bernadina, and 2B Steve Lombardozzi. But Washington did not want to part with Storen and Smith passed on Troy Clippard. If a miracle happens and the Twins catch fire, just play it out and hope for the best. If the Twins tank, there is always the waiver wire or just let the season come to a merciful end and deal with your potential free agent fallout. Besides, this team can’t be this bad again next year, the team was snake bit with injuries in 2011 and what are the odds of it happening again? But the Twins do have holes and a bit of a tune-up with some new parts just might make this sputtering 4 cylinder engine come to life again as the V-8 that all of us Twins fans expected in 2011.
GM Bill Smith isn’t as dumb as some make him out to be, he went from being in an impossible situation of deciding between buying and selling to finding himself in the position of being right no matter where the Twins finish in the standings. If the Twins don’t win the division and finish third or fourth, he was right not to be a buyer, why waste the money. If the Twins make a serious run but still lose, he can take the position that we did not need to make any moves, we just needed our players to get healthy and start playing the way they are capable of playing and it is a good thing that he wasn’t a seller or the Twins would not have made this great come-back.
But Mr. Smith is not totally off the hook here. Sure the Twins had their run of injuries, but their play in 2011 is not all about injuries. There are questions that need to be asked. Is Nishioka really as bad as he has played in 2011? How do the Twins avoid a repeat of the 2011 bullpen woes? Is the Twins starting staff going to take a step forward or is it time to blow it up? What does he do about Cuddyer and Kubel as they enter free agency?
What would I have done if I had been in Smith’s shoes? I would have done pretty much what Smith did, nothing, but I am working at a disadvantage here, I don’t know what the other teams offered for Kubel or Cuddyer. For sure I would have sent Thome packing; he is just wasting a roster spot as the Twins wait for him to hit home run number 600. I assume they were offered next to nothing for Slowey or he would be gone by now, but now that Blackburn has pitched so poorly of late, maybe it is time to give Slowey a shot at Blackie’s spot?
Rangers show Twins no mercy
The Rangers scored three runs in each of the first three innings, then added five runs in the fourth inning and four more in the fifth inning, on their way to a 20-6 win over the Twins yesterday. Only two other teams since 1900 scored three-or-more runs in each of the first five innings of a game: the 1900 Phillies (July 13 vs. Pirates) and 1991 Athletics (September 29 vs. Rangers). The Rangers also became only the third team in American League history to have seven different players with three or more hits in a nine-inning game. The others were the 1939 Yankees and 1955 White Sox, who each coincidentally did so against the Athletics. Source: Elias