Thursday, March 31, 2005

Goodbye Resto

The Twins cut loose Rochester native and former top prospect Michael Restovich today.
Resto was highly touted for a blend of speed and power, and had grown up dreaming of playing for the Twins.
He also once homered twice in one game against me.
Tampa bay picked him up, and hopefully they'll give him a chance to play.
It's too bad, though, that he never got much of a chance in Minny.
The move also means the Twins are likely going to keep Corky Miller. The last roster spot is between him and Terry Tiffee.
Tiffee could help the Twins in countless ways, as he is a switch-hitter who can play 1st and 3rd, meaning on certain days Cuddyer could play second and Tiffee 3rd.
But Tiffee has options left, meaning the team can send him down without losing his rights.
Corky is out of options, so the Twins will keep his .026 batting ass and send Tiffee down.
Junior Ortiz and big-league Sal Butera are still available as of this writing.

The Twins also released veteran lefty CJ Nitkowski, meaning Matt Guerrier has earned the final spot on the pitching staff. Nitkowski posted a 1.35 ERA and .156 opp batting avg. this spring, but I guess Guerrier's 87 MPH fastball was too much to expose to the waiver wire.
Have a day, Gardy.

Goodbye Resto

The Twins cut loose Rochester native and former top prospect Michael Restovich today.
Resto was highly touted for a blend of speed and power, and had grown up dreaming of playing for the Twins.
He also once homered twice in one game against me.
Tampa bay picked him up, and hopefully they'll give him a chance to play.
It's too bad, though, that he never got much of a chance in Minny.
The move also means the Twins are likely going to keep Corky Miller. The last roster spot is between him and Terry Tiffee.
Tiffee could help the Twins in countless ways, as he is a switch-hitter who can play 1st and 3rd, meaning on certain days Cuddyer could play second and Tiffee 3rd.
But Tiffee has options left, meaning the team can send him down without losing his rights.
Corky is out of options, so the Twins will keep his .026 batting ass and send Tiffee down.
Junior Ortiz and big-league Sal Butera are still available as of this writing.

The Twins also released veteran lefty CJ Nitkowski, meaning Matt Guerrier has earned the final spot on the pitching staff. Nitkowski posted a 1.35 ERA and .156 opp batting avg. this spring, but I guess Guerrier's 87 MPH fastball was too much to expose to the waiver wire.
Have a day, Gardy.

More reason the Twins do not need Corky F. Miller

It started May 25, 2003, in Cincinnati near the end of a long and losing road trip. The Marlins had just fired their manager, had a 21-29 record and appeared headed for another nowhere season.

After a team meeting, in a somber, sleepy clubhouse the morning of an early afternoon game, catcher Mike Redmond headed for the indoor batting cages with his bat, wearing nothing but turf shoes, socks and batting gloves.

Twins infielder Andy Fox, a Marlins teammate then, looked up in disbelief as Redmond headed for the clubhouse door that opened into the cages.

"Are you serious?" Fox asked.

"Yeah."

And the door shut behind him.

Redmond proceeded to hit soft tosses against a screen as teammates took notice, one by one, until laughter could be heard from one end of the clubhouse to the other.

"No one could really hit after that," Fox said.

Until the game. The Marlins scored early and beat the Reds 6-2, with Redmond collecting two hits.

"And the next thing I knew, I was doing it seven or eight straight days," Redmond said.

"That's a long time to be hitting naked," Fox said.

But the Marlins kept winning, so Redmond kept the clothes off his body and his eye on the ball. They won six in a row. Then during another cold streak in August, he did it again in Pittsburgh, and the Marlins went 20-8 the rest of the season to clinch the National League wild-card playoff spot.



Let the caption contest begin.

Seriously, this guy needs more PT.
He and LeCroy as the backup catching dynamite duo? Sounds good to me.
Sorry for the repeat
Sorry for the repeat

Gardy, sometimes, is dumb

I might as well get this out of the way.
As much as I love Ron Gardenhire, and I do love the man, somtimes he makes me choke on my dome dog.
Like leaving Joe Nathan in last October. Like letting the team's baserunning skills decline each year. Like sending Mike Ryan to pinch hit against Roger Clemens in the playoffs in '03. Like keeping Seth Greisinger on the roster instead of..... well, you get the idea.
Anyway the latest B.G.I. - Bad Gardy Idea - Keeping four catchers.
Seriously what the hell?
Managers who keep three catchers have been getting laughed at for years.
I realize there's not much catching depth in the minors, but Corky Miller is.....well he's Corky freaking Miller.
A bench that consists of Corky, Redmond, Juan Castro, Fatty Matty and Punto, quite frankly, sucks.
Don't do it Gardy.
Don't do it.

Debut Post

Twins fever is now too much to resist.
So I, a fledgling sports writer based in South Dakota who is never freaking allowed to write about the only damn sports thing I want to (the Twins), have jumped on the Twins blog bandwagon.
As I write this I realize the distinct possibility that no one will ever read it.
Don't care.
It's 60 degrees and sunny out, opening day is like, what, four days away, and the Twins fever is taking over.
World Series this year. It's gonna happen.