Tag: Danny Valencia

You’re outta here!

December 23, 2010 – One of the fun things about going to baseball games for me is that you never know when a manager or player ejection will take place over a close play or a bad or missed call by an umpire. It is these kinds of calls that make baseball the game that it is and that is why I hope that MLB never goes “instant replay crazy”. It is always fun for the fans to see the players emotions get the best of him, right or wrong, and then watch as he has his say with the umpire. Sometimes it is just a few words, probably not nice ones, that force the ump to throw that player out of the game and at other times the player gets to go on and on for what seems an eternity before he gets the heave-ho. Actually, I think that this is a part of baseball that is slowing going by the way-side as umpires are just too dang quick with the thumb and their ejection buttons. Baseball is after all, entertainment, and what better way to give the fans their money’s worth then to let them watch a good old fashion debate between an upset player and an umpire. Come on now, what is more fun than seeing a player stick his nose right in the umpires face and call him an %#@-hole or a *^%$-up? Give the fans in the stands a chance to yell “kill the ump” and really get into the game. It really makes no difference if the player or the umpire is in the right, give the player a chance to have his say, maybe kick some dirt on the plate or the ump’s shoes, or throw his cap out to second base, or maybe run over to first base, jerk it off its foundation and send it flying half way out to an outfielder that is standing there with his glove up to his face to hide his laughter? Or listen to the fans cheer or boo as the player starts chucking bats and balls back onto the playing field from the dugout. It is just fun and will generate water cooler and Facebook talk for days. Maybe it adds 5 minutes to a game that would otherwise be forgotten but now you have a classic situation that may stick with a fan forever. Maybe 30 years from now some fan will tell his kids, I remember this one hot summer night back in August of 2010 I think it was, and the Twins were playing the Yankees at Target Field when Bobby Akens went ballistic after getting called out on a play at the plate or just a few days later in Boston when Joe Smith went nuts after getting called out on strikes for the third time in the game. Umpires need to realize that baseball is entertainment and that we fans did not put our good money down for tickets to watch them ump, we paid to see the players play so it is time for the umpires to play their part and show some patience and do their part in the production and continue to let baseball be the best entertainment sport there is. Let the players play, have their say, and if need be, if all else fails, throw their butt out.

Torii Hunter
Torii Hunter

The Twins have had their fair share of player ejections (105) over the years and the one that stands out for me is the Joe Niekro ejection, the one with the nail file falling out of his back pocket, a real classic and one of my favorite Twins moments. What about you? Do you have a favorite Twins player ejection story? Did you know that the Twins player with the most ejections has 5 and that it is none other than outfielder Torii Hunter? Hunter of all people, which surprised me when I looked at the numbers and saw that. So here is a complete list of all Minnesota Twins player ejections from 1961 through 2010 that will maybe jog your memory a bit. I am not including any coach or manager ejections here as that will be a story for another day.

(Ejection list updated through 2012 as of March 2013)

5 – Torii Hunter

4 – LaTroy Hawkins, Kent Hrbek

3 – Rod Carew, Dan Gladden, Eddie Guardado, Cristian Guzman, Jacque Jones, Chuck Knoblauch, Tony Oliva, Dave Ortiz, Vic Power, Denard Span

2 – Bob Allison, Earl Battey, Tom Brunansky, Brian Harper, Mickey Hatcher, Ron Jackson, Corey Koskie, Brad Radke, Rich Reese, JC Romero

1 – Allan Anderson, Wally Backman, Bert Blyleven, Orlando Cabrera, Jamey Carroll, John Castino, Jack Cressend, Mike Cubbage, Michael Cuddyer, Chili Davis, Ron Davis, Scott Diamond, Jim Dwyer, Terry Felton, Pete Filson, Greg Gagne, Johnny Goryl, Lenny Green, Dave Hollins, Butch Huskey, Craig Kusick, Ken Landreaux, Fred Manrique, Charlie Manual, Pat Mears, Doug Mientkiewicz, George Mitterwald, Joe Niekro, Camilo Pascual, Tom Prince, Kirby Puckett, Nick Punto, Mike Redmond, Kenny Rogers, Jim Roland, Phil Roof, Mark Salas, Carlos Silva, Mike Smithson, Rick Sofield, Shannon Stewart, Danny Thompson, Danny Valencia, Jesus Vega, Frank Viola, Mike Walters

Joe Nathan and the Twins

March 10, 2010 – It is all over the news, bad news for Joe Nathan, the Twins, and Twins fans everywhere. Joe Nathan has a torn ligament in his throwing elbow and right now the decision has been made to rest if for several weeks to see if that helps. No one seems to be holding out much hope that the rest will allow Nathan to pitch in 2010. You can understand the Twins point of view; they have a lot on the line so waiting two weeks or so seems a small price to pay in hoping for a miracle.

The Twins can pursue a trade for a proven closer or a closer in waiting. Word is that Jason Frasor who is currently with Toronto is available as are Heath Bell and Kerry Wood and all three have the necessary experience. Right now that seems like the best option but the price could be more than the Twins want to pay since everyone will be asking for the moon with the Twins in dire straits. If the Twins look internally to fill the void, that would present another problem because they would weaken another area to fill the closer role. But if the Twins choose that path, then I think that the pecking order for the closer role should be Rauch, Crain and Mijares. I think that Guerrier is too valuable in the role he is currently in to move to the closer position. Neshek is coming off TJ surgery himself and I can’t see the Twins putting him into the closer role at least during the first half of the season. The Twins don’t have anyone in the minors that they would trust in such a key role for a team expected to go deep in the playoffs. Whatever they do, the Twins must make a decision soon and get the bullpen calmed down with designated roles for everyone, and you don’t want the relievers to go day to day without knowing what their role will be on any given day.

I went to my first Twins spring training game of the season yesterday and saw the Twins beat the Cardinals 7-6 in an entertaining game. When we drove to the park it was crazy, traffic was backed up everywhere and I was sent driving all around the complex before they finally found a parking spot for me in right field of one of the complex’s softball fields. A five minute walk got me in the ballpark but it was the bottom of the first inning and the Twins were already down 2-0 and Adam Wainwright was starting for the Cardinals. It was a back and forth game and I think the Nathan situation was on some of the player’s minds. Nick Punto, playing 3B made two errors and just did not look like his head was in the game. There were some other fielding plays that could have been called errors but were not due to the generosity of the official scorer. Carl Pavano started for the Twins and looked OK but he did give up six hits in three innings. The big blow came in the bottom of the 8th inning with the score tied 6-6 and Danny Valencia came up to the plate for the first time and parked the ball over the left field fence for a home run. It was a nice ending to a fun day at the ballpark. Oh, why the traffic jam? I guess it was because the Twins drew their largest ever crowd to a spring training game at Hammond Stadium, 8,220 baseball starved fans got to see the Twins beat the St. Louis Cardinals.

UPDATE March 21 – The Twins announced this morning that Joe Nathan will undergo “Tommy John” surgery sometime this week. The doctor and location are still to be determined.

Kouzmanoff traded to the A’s

January 16, 2010 – It has been reported that the San Diego Padres have traded 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff to the Oakland A’s and now the door is quickly closing on any hopes of the Twins getting a major league caliber 3B. The free agent market at 3B is drying quickly up with Joe Crede, Melvin Mora, and Andy Kennedy as the last men standing and there are rumors out there that the Orioles are hot on the Crede trail. I am not sure that Mora is any improvement over what we currently have at playing third now and we certainly don’t want Adam Kennedy.

So what do the Twins do, they still have holes at 3B and 2B? The 2B free agent market still has Orlando Hudson who would be a great pick-up and Felipe Lopez who would also be a nice fit but after that it drops down to Ronnie Belliard and of course Adam Kennedy again.

It seems that the Joe Mauer salary negotiations are already impacting the team that the Twins can put on Target Field. The Twins need to sign Mauer but they find themselves between a rock and a hard spot because they have a pretty solid team but they have two major holes in their infield. If the team is going to seriously contend, the Twins need to bite the bullet and spend the money to fill at least one of the two holes and probably play Punto in the other position. If they do nothing, they still end up with a high salary team with diminished hopes of making the playoffs and you can already hear the “time to rebuild” chatter starting to gather momentum.

You can bring Danny Valencia up and play him at 3B but he is not ready. The sad part is that neither his hitting not his fielding is ready to play in the big leagues, if either his glove or his bat were ready, it would be easier to throw him in the fire and suffer with the other but that is not the case.

I guess that is why Mr. Smith makes the big bucks, to make these kinds of decisions, but here we are, about a month away from spring training and the Twins have two major holes in the infield and Mauer is still not signed for the long term. Do something Mr. Smith, show us you are breathing and that there is more going on at Target Field then just everyone “patting themselves on the back” for the great ballpark that will open in April. If nothing else, at least bring back Joe Crede, maybe he can play 3B at Target Field five days a week. I think the ball is in your court Mr. Smith, I know you have been working hard and that you have really been getting after it, but now it is time we see the fruits of your labor.

Just another day of practice

March 18, 2009 – I was out watching the Twins practice on Tuesday and to be honest there was not a lot of the regulars around, most of them had gone on down the road to City of Palms Park to play the Red Sox. But Gardy was around and he and Tom Kelly were out on one of the back fields hitting ground balls to Nick Punto who would field the ball and throw to Matt Tolbert who was learning to play 1B under the tutelage of TK. They worked Punto and Tolbert pretty hard and they were very positive with their comments but when it was all done, Tolbert mush have asked for an assessment of how he did at first and TK didn’t mince words when he said that he did OK but he still had a long ways to go to make all the plays and to play 1B the way it should be played, typical TK. I don’t think TK does it to be mean, he just tells it how it is.

I am surprised at how TK tries to interact with the fans that watch practice by joking with them and just talking to them. He asked one of the kids that were watching, maybe an 8 or 9 year old to join him on the field during the practice and when the boy walked up to him, TK asked how many of these baseballs laying here on the ground here at 1B can you pick up? The little boy was pretty shy and kind of indicated he didn’t know so TK said, pick up as many as you can and carry them over to Gardy over there. The little boy picked up about 6 balls and did as he was asked and when he got back to TK, he is told to grab another armful and again deliver them to Gardy. When the little boy comes back again, TK asks, are you good for one more trip? Again the little boy carries more baseballs over to Gardy. Apparently bored, the little boy then decides that he has had enough and walks off the field, without a baseball. I would have thought that for all that work he could have at least gotten a practice baseball; I guess you have to learn at a young age that life is not fair.

As Gardy walked off the field he stopped for some pictures and autographs and chatted with the fans, in no apparent rush. I got a good picture of Gardy that I will put on my picture site soon. After he finished up with everyone I walked with Gardy as he was leaving and I asked him if he could tell me who had surprised him with their play this spring. He said that Danny Valencia was hitting very well and had caught his eye and he said that outfielder Dustin Martin had played very well and was really running around out there before he hurt his shoulder here recently. Then Gardy said he had to hustle and get over to City of Palms to play the Sox.

Most of the AA and AAA players had gone to Port Charlotte to play Rays teams so there were not many high level minor leaguers around either. I did get a chance to watch Aaron Hicks, the Twins first round draft pick last year hit a little BP and he hit a few line drives but he is certainly not a power hitter, at least at this stage of his career. I also watched him running the bases a bit and he does appear to be very quick and pretty athletic.

Ducks on the Pond

Danny Valencia

Danny Valencia drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning (and a third run crossed the plate on the same play as a result of an error) to lift the Twins to a 9-7 win over the Brewers yesterday. Valencia has eight hits, including two homers, in 13 at-bats (.615) with the bags full during his two seasons in the majors. Over the last two seasons, only Vladimir Guerrero (.631, 12-for-19) has a higher bases-loaded batting average than Valencia (minimum: 8 bases-loaded hits). Source – Elias