Cleveland Sucks

I don't mean the team, although they aren't that good, I mean the city.
And I've never even been there.
But it sucks, and I'm glad that series is over. As Bradke said, it seemed like that four game set lasted two months.
Drew Carey can suck it.
Funny, how the same day that I ripped JC a new one he pitched his ass off and saved the game for the Twins, coming into a 4-4 game with a runner on 3rd and nobody out and stranding him. That's big time pitching.
But I still think he's a chickenshit. If he pulls a couple more of those I may change my mind.
Pretty satisfying day yesterday, actually. Jesse Crain picked up the win, on the same day that I added him to my fantasy team.
I also added John Lackey to my fantasy team, and he got me a win, too. Over the White Sox. Nice.
Now if Barry Zito would pull his head out of his ass maybe I could get back in the thing.
But seriously, the White Sox seem to almost be cooling off a bit. The Twins are still five back, which seems like a lot, but one good week and we could be within 1 or 2.
It's a long season. The Sox are good, but I still say the Twins are better.

PS - Went to see Star Wars last night. I hated Episodes 1 &2 but this one was pretty frickin' good.
But one thing bugged me. Twice Anakin Skywalker was advised not to be a "pawn" in someone else's plans.
Now, this whole Star Wars Universe was supposed to take place "long, long ago, far, far, away" right?
But a pawn, of course, is a reference to chess. Chess was invented like in the middle ages or something. So that doesn't make any sense.

Stick to cutting hair

If you watch any of the sometimes entertaining, sometimes insipid Twins pregame shows, you may know that Twins lefty JC Romero doubles as the team barber. Apparently he's quite good at it.
Which makes one thing he's quite good at.
JC has pretty impressive numbers (he came in to yesterday's game with an ERA of 0.98) but all those misleading numbers do is cause him to be the most overrated relief pitcher in baseball.
With the bases empty, JC is usually tough. Put a runner or two on base in a pressure situation, and he's like ice cream in the microwave.
As much as Terry Mulholland has struggled as well this year, I think it's time they give the old greybeard a chance to serve as their main guy for lefty-lefty matchups. He might be able to have some success if he only has to face lefties, and at the very least he has the veteran composure to go after the league's best lefties. If he does get beat at least he'll get beat going at 'em.

Don't Call It a Comeback

Well I'm getting back into the loop.
Early Sunday evening a certain virus that may have come from bratwursts, beer, sunflower seeds, or somewhere else worked its way into my bloodstream, and the better portion of the next three days were spent sitting on the toilet holding a bucket.
So TwinsTown had to take a backseat to 7-Up, Gatorade and Saltine Crackers.
But last night I worked up the strenght to sit through a game, and saw Joe Mays throw another beauty.
Actually, it wasn't a beauty. Come to think of it, he kind of stunk. In 6 2/3 innings, he walked 3 and struck out 0. The leadoff man reached in 5 of the 7 innings he started.
And yet he gave up only 2 runs.
Mays' sinker is really working right now. When he's on grass, he can be unbeatable. Not unhittable, because he won't strike anyone out, but he gets double-plays like Johan gets K's, making it very hard for teams to rally against him. Even last night, with all the baserunners he allowed, the only 2 runs for Cleveland came on a pair of solo homers.
And this outing came a day after Kyle Lohse deliverd his third straight quality start.
Folks, if Silva-Mays-Lohse are the three worst starters you got, you're in good shape. Though I'm still not sold on Lohse.
And still waiting for the Sox to come down to Earth.
I'm getting more and more comfortable with the new keystone combo of Lil' Nicky and Lil' Fidel, and I'm also starting to think Jesse Crain might be the best reliever on the team.
Come to think of it, there's still a lot to like about this team.
Cuddy is finding his groove at 3rd, and Gardy's lineup changes (moving Mauer to the 2 hole and Ford to the 3) at least show that he's still thinking. Mauer seemed a good fit in the 3, but, as far as lineups go, I've always hated the conventional wisdom that managers use - i.e.- fast little guys hitting in the 1,2,8 and 9 spots, and sluggers hitting 3-7.
The way I see it, your top 3 spots in the order get the most atbats, you might as well make sure those spots are filled by your 3 best hitters.
If you do the math, each spot in the order will get about 30 more at bats per season than the spot below it. So moving Ford from 6 or 7 to 3, could give him another 100 or so atbats that would go to Nick Punto. That's a good thing.
It's funny, too, because going into the season the TWins were saying how concerned they were that Ford might have been a fluke last year, and that he may not be able to hold off LeCroy for his spot in the lineup.
And Torii Hunter was gonna be the 3 hitter.
Speaking of Spiderman - I could go on about him, too, though he had a real nice game last night, his second in a row.
I'll never say a bad word about him as a Centerfielder - he's better than Kirby ever was out there.
But as a hitter, the guy is closer to Rob Deer than he is to Kirby Puckett. A .230 avg? 5 HR?
Torii has the strenght and hand speed, not to mention foot speed, to be a .300 hitter. He actually doesn't even strike out a whole lot.
But until he shows a willingness to go the other way CONSISTENTLY, not just when the pitch is at eye level, he'll never realize his potential.

Cuddy's on Fire

It's unfortunate that the Twins are already in a position where games they are playing in May seem to have some importance, but with the White Sox playing the way they are, that's where the Twinkies find themselves.
Today had the potential to really be a bad day, as the White Sox won 7-0 in the afternoon, and the Twins were sending Kyle Lohse to the mound against a team that had put up a 10 spot against Santana and Co. the night before.
Lohse is pissed about being relegated to No. 5 in the ro', so I'm sure he's happy as all get out about his start. (Which wasn't as impressive as the numbers indicate but was pretty good nonetheless)
But really this was a game the Twins needed to win just because they can't let this homestand get too far away from them. If they can't make up any ground against the CHiSox on a 9 gamer, that would probably just put more pressure on the players, and the biggest thing for them right now is probably to avoid pressure.
I'm still worried about the infield, though Cuddy is on fire right now at the plate.
ANd staying with the bright-side theme, Lohse has made two consecutive decent starts, and the bullpen continues to rock asses.
But, Mauer, Jones and Morneau have cooled, and Hunter and Ford are kind of stinkin'.
I don't know why I do this to myself.

Pressure Drop

I'm a little surprised that the news on the stadium front hasn't gotten a little more play.
The fact that the team and its ballpark bid were able to dance around a referendum is huge. That has been largely the biggest roadblock, because a referendum allowed the hippy ant-sports crowd to have a say.
Unless I'm missing something, this means their is suddenly a great likelihood that the Twins will be playing in a new ballpark in 2008.

Infield Troubles

I am a frequent critic of Ron Gardenhire, so I think it's only fair to give him credit when it is due.
The infield the Twins entered the season with is clearly not getting it done, and Gardy is showing that he isn't afraid to make changes where and when they are necessary.
Nick Punto is officially the starting 2B, and Juan Castro is pretty close to claiming the starting job at short.
Castro has never been a good hitter, but he's a terrific shortstop, and if Bartlett isn't going to hit either, you might as well go with the guy who will make the plays.
Jim Souhan's column in the Strib suggests that Terry Tiffee could be a factor in the lineup soon enough as well.
These are somewhat drastic moves, and drastic moves are something you don't want or expect with a chamionship club.
But the Twins might have to accept the fact that for once, their plan of replacing from within isn't working. They got lucky in so many other instances, repalcing AJ with Mauer, Dougie with Morneau, Lawton with Stewart (and Ford), Eddie with Joe Nathan, Rick Reed with Santana, Milton with Silva, Hawkins with Rincon, and so on. But Guzie and Koskie's replacements, as of right now, appear to be failures.
If the White Sox weren't playing .800 ball the Twins might be more patient, but clearly they can't afford to keep running out players who are batting .230 AND are struggling with the glove.

Lil' Smoke

With the Twins off today the closest thing to Twins news, in this part of Twins territory, was the news that the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League, a US juniors league, drafted Chris Berenguer, son of former Twins great Juan Berenguer.
I told Stampede coach Kevin Hartzell that I was somewhat surprised to hear that Senor Smoke had a son that played hockey, and he said, "You think you're surprised, ask Juan how surprised he was to find out his son was a hockey player."
Chris is a defenseman with an apparently bright future in the sport. His nickname is 'Lil' Smoke'
Hartzell told me that the Stampede is trying to get Big Smoke to come to Sioux Falls for a 'Juan Berenguer Night.' I couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

Poor Steve Kline

The Twins won another one of those games that you love to see them win. The game where they trail early, appear beaten, then, with a little luck, come back and steal it.
The only down side for me was that it came at the hands of Steve Kline.
Kline signed with the Orioles as a free-agent this year after putting together four very solid seasons in St. Louis, that included a 1.79 ERA and 15 holds for the Cards in '04. I had hoped that the Twins might make a play on him since JC has been so inconsistent, but it didn't happen.
I also always remember an interview Kline gave on the field in September 2001. He was the winning pitcher in the first game played after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and after the game ESPN was talking to him and he said, in a creamy southern accent, "Man, I'm so goddamn proud to be an American right now I can't even believe it."
I thought it was funny.
Anyway, when I went to the Twins opener this year, I was sitting in Huberts watching the O's take on the Yanks, and Kline was pitching. He came in to face a couple lefties, and got ripped, giving up a lead in a game the O's went on to lose, I believe.
Too bad for Steve, I thought.
About a week later I was watching TV, O's again, this time playing someone else, I don't remember. Kline was on the hill, and the guy at the plate bunted. Kline and the first baseman both charged, and the second baseman went to cover first. Kline fielded the ball and threw to first. In one of the dumbest and funniest things I ever saw on a ball field, the first baseman, Jay Gibbons, who was about 15 feet from Kline and 40 from first, cut off his throw to the base. Instead of a sacrifice, the batter reached safely.
The next batter singled to left, and it went through the LF's legs and all the way to the wall.
Man, I thought. This guy Kline can't get a break.
Then earlier this week against KC, Kline was on the hill in a tie game with a runner on 3rd. He came set, and though it didn't look like he moved, he was called for a balk, and the runner on third came in for the winning run.
Geez, I thought, this is getting ridiculous for my boy Kline.
So when Jesse Crain pitched his ass off for the Twins to keep the game tied headed into the 10th, I wondered if we might see Steve Kline.
When he came into the game, I didn't know quite what to think. On one hand, I was happy, because I knew he would surrender the winning run. Given what had happened to him every time I'd seen him pitch so far this year it was a given.
I almost hoped he would pitch a scoreless inning and then the Twins would win later against someone else. But no, Kline gave up homeruns to Jacque and Stewie on consecutive pitches, and the Twins won.
A great win, but man. Steve Kline is having a tough time in Baltimore.

Better than You Remember

A friend of mine recently opened a debate with me, about who should be the next inductee into the Twins 'Ring of Fame' which runs around the Metrodome.
Before I get into some of the names of who might be worthy of consideration, the list of Twins currently enshrined:
Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, Kirby Puckett, Calvin Griffith, Herb Carneal, Jim Kaat, Bert Blyleven, Tom Kelly, Bob Casey, Bob Allison and Earl Battey.
The first name that popped into my head is one that I think is both the most deserving and most unlikely to gain acceptance: the largely reviled Chuck Knoblauch.
If you go to the Twins website they have a whole big detailed list of necessary qualifications for their team Hall of Fame, which suggests that they take it seriously.
If that is so, then the team shouldn't shy away from Knoblauch because of the likely negative reaction from fans. Just a glance at the numbers suggests that Knoblauch is one of the top dozen or so playes to ever put on a Twins uniform.
As of right now, Knoblauch is basically remembered for two things: 1- growing tired of the Twins losing and forcing a trade to the Yankees only a year after signing a 5yr-$30M contract, and 2 - forgetting how to throw a baseball to first base and consequently watching his career dissappear faster than a $5 case of beer.
Those memories clearly overshadowed what Knoblauch did in a Twins uniform, as it was evident what Twins fans thought of old Chucky when he came to the Metrodome as a left-fielder in 2001, and was pelted with hot-dogs and batteries.
But you may remember how important he was to the Twins winning the World Series in 1991. He batted .281 with 25 stolen bases, and posted a .350 on-base percentage, which proved vital, as leadoff man Dan Gladden had just a .306 OBP. Somebody had to be on-base for Puckett, Hrbek and Chili Davis, and Knobby made sure that if Gladden couldn't do it, someone else would.
As if that wasn't enough for the rookie, he batted .350 in the 91 ALCS, then batted .308 with 4 steals in the World Series, while also pulling out "The Fake" with Greg Gagne; you know, the phantom double-play that confused Lonnie Smith and kept him from scoring on Terry Pendleton's double.
Then, starting in 1994, he went on a four year run that no second basemen save for Joe Morgan or Rogers Hornsby had ever been on previously.
Over that 4-year span he hit .319 with 38 homers, 234 RBIs, 447 runs, 188 steals, 140 doubles, 35 triples, and 301 walks, He won a gold glove, two silver sluggers, made four all-star teams, and in '96, had one of the best seasons ever by a Twin, hitting .341 with 197 hits, 45 doubles, 45 steals, 140 runs, a ridiculous .448 onbase pct, 14 triples, 98 walks, 13 homers, and 73 RBIs.
At this point he was well on his way to becoming a first ballot Hall of Famer, but we all know what happened when he went to NY. What some may not know is that his trip to New York was accompanied by a very ugly divorce, his fathers diagnosis with Parkinson's disease, and a NY media that never welcomed him.
Are those excuses? Sure they are, but his qualifications for the Twins Hall should have nothing to do with his post-Twins career anyway. The man was, throughout his seven years in Minny, a terrific player.
A more likely choice, and my guess as for who'll be next, is Gary Gaetti. Another great player, and, unlike Knoblauch, a popular one.
Fans no doubt have much fonder memories of the Rat than they do of Knobby, yet Gaetti's numbers don't quite stack up to Knoblauch's. He had an excellent 3-year run from 1986-1988, hitting 34, 31 and 28 homers. He was having his best year in '88 when an injury sidelined him for a month, yet he still finished with a .301 Avg, 28 bombs and 88 RBIs. He won four straight Gold Gloves from 86-89, and was the ALCS MVP in '87. In the years preceding and succeding that 3-yr period, however, Gaetti was a .230 hitter with slightly above average power. The Twins didn't put up much of a fight when he left after the 1990 season, and they promptly won it all in their first year without him. Gaetti did rejuvenate his career later with KC, and rettired with 360 homeruns.
Tom Brunansky's name came up, though his numbers aren't much better than Rob Deer's. (Minus the K's.) Greg Gagne is a solid candidate as well.
Frank Viola won a lot of games, but his '84, '87 and '88 seasons are the only full season's in which his ERA was under 4.
Rick Aguilera has to be there someday, as he spent 1990-1998 as the best closer in team history (except '96, when he was moved to the rotation for a 1-yr experiment.)
He's the all-time saves leader, and his consistency and reliability defined what a closer is supposed to be. On a national level, he has been vastly underappreciated. He's one of the great closer's of his generation.
The name that I really enjoyed researching, though, was Brian Harper.
His numbers would really surprise you.
He spent 7 years with the Twins and never hit lower than .291, his final year with the club. In those 7 years he struck out 146 times. I'll repeat that in case it didn't sink in. In 7 years, and 2,503 at-bats, he struck out 146 times. Amazing. He batted .381 in the '91 series, and, intersting sidenote, made his big league debut at age 19 with the California Angels. Bet ya didn't know that.
It's fun to go back in Twins history, (for me anyway, I'm probably taking a big leap in assuming you're still reading) I just hope Knoblauch and Harper get their proper remembrance in that history.

The Minny Mashers

From the Strib: Bench coach Steve Liddle had a theory about why LeCroy hit his homer so far. "There was a restaurant out there," he said.
"That's terrible," LeCroy said. "See what I have to put up with around here? That's OK as long as I keep hitting 'em."
Aside from that little nugget, in reference to LeCroy's 444-foot homer, I think it's best to simply use this space in observance of the weekend that was had by Joe Mauer, and more especially, the Dr., Justin Morneau.
Morneau was 9-18 with four homers and 10 RBIs this week. Mauer was 10-18 with two bombs. That's hittin, kiddies.
Mauer is currently hitting .356, with four homers, 12 RBIs, two steals, a .447 on-base percentage and a .529 slugging pct.
Morneau, of course, spent two weeks on the DL after getting beaned in the head, and you might say he's returned with a vengeance.
I will leave you with his numbers on the young season, as I don't think any further words are necessary on the subject.
16 games, a .429 batting average, 6 homers, 20 RBIs, a Bonds-like .841 slugging percentage, and an OPS (on-base plus slugging pcts) of 1.289.

Kirby and Herbie Part 2

Is it too early to compare Mauer and Morneau? If you look at the numbers, maybe not.
After they both went deep on Friday, Mauer is now hitting .349, while Morneau is at .376.
Since Kirby and Herbie retired, the Twins haven't really had a true '3' hitter or a true cleanup hitter. They now clearly have a legitimate hitter at both.
I can't say a lot about the game, as I spent most of the evening at a track meet per the requirements of my job, but I will say that when Santana gave up back to back triples to start the game, Biff leaned over to me and said, "He won't give up another run the rest of the game." I figured there was about a 90 % chance he was right, and he was.
I'm also really happy to see Gardy let Santana go the whole way, the 2nd consecutive complete game for the Twins. Probly has something to do with Rincon's suspension, the bullpen not being as trustable suddenly.
But again, Mauer, 4 hits, Morneau another bomb. These guys are soooo, soooo good.
Too bad the F'ing White Sox won again. They are 22-7 and that is really good.

The Return of Bradke

It goes without saying that things haven't gone particularly well for the Twins in the last week or so.
Some sluggish performances, and of course, the Rincon thing.
A naysaying buddy of mine, who is a Twins fan but must have some sort of masochistic association with the team, predicted that we will look back at this week as the beginning of the end of the 2005 season.
Could be, but I argued that the Twins typically rally around such extrenuating circumstances. That, for whatever reason, the Twins can't seem to get going until someone or something threatens them, whether it be contraction, the Cleveland Indians, a Shannon Stewart trade, or whatever, there always needs to be some sort of drama to get the Twins on track. I hope that remains the case this year.
Their three game series with Cleveland, which they finished today, had been going badly, losing a pair of winnable games in ugly fashion. The best way to salvage such a series is to not just win the final game, but to whup some ass and set the tone for the next series.
Consider that done.
Bradke pitched a complete game three hit shutout today, and the Twins pounded the Indians 9-0.
Maybe the best news, other than Radke taking a 1-hitter into the 8th inning, was that just when it was looking like Mauer and Morneau (whose combined ages equal Mulholland's) were the only 2 hitters we had who lacked a tendency to swallow their heads with their asses, the Twins put up 9 runs with both of them on the bench. Nice games from LeCroy, Hunter, and Bartlett, even Luis Rivas was on base three times.
Overall, a 3-3 homestand is dissapointing, but I still think they're all right. After a slow start, Bradke has been terrific in his last two starts, his ERA is down to 3.6 already.
If he returns to his form from a year ago, and Silva's knee holds out, I don't think Chicago will have the pitching to hang with the Twins over the long haul.

R.I.P. Corky

A written transcript of a meeting between Ron Gardenhire and Corky Miller Wednesday morning:

CM: Hey, skip, ya got a minute?
RG: Sure, Cork, come on in.
CM: Say, I was just wondering, uhhhh...when are you going to put me on waivers?
RG: Say what?
CM: Yeah, uh, I don't know if you noticed but I'm pretty worthless. I'm not a bad guy or anything, but with Mauer, Redmond and even LeCroy, I pretty much serve no purpose on this roster.
RG: Hmmmmm.......but what if....
CM: No, skip, I already tried. I tried to think of one scenrario where I might hold some value and I couldn't come up with one.
RG: But......
CM: Skip, no, please, don't make this any harder than it already is. I've already packed my bags for Rochester.
RG: But what if you don't clear waivers? What if someone claims you and you can't go to Rochester?
CM: Seriously, what are you on? I have one hit in my last 54 at-bats. Who would claim a 32 year old 250 pound catcher with a mullet whose batting .017?
RG: (Staring at his feet) I probly would.
CM: There's a young man named Tiffee playing Rochester right now who can really help us. He hit a 3-run homer last night.
RG: (lower lip trembling)
CM: It's time to do the right thing, Skip. I know you'll do the right thing.


At 2:00 central standard time, the Minnesota Twins placed Corky Miller on waivers, and recalled infielder Terry Tiffee. Miller cleared waivers, and was assigned to the Twins AAA team in Rochester.

The Juice is Loose

Part of me was shocked when I saw the news that Juan Rincon tested positive for a banned substance today on ESPN.com. But another part of me wasn't surprised at all.
I'm not going to rant about the steroid issue and how far it reaches or its long and short term effects on the sport, but I will say that I think we're learning how big supplements and training are a part of professional sports.
People hear the word steroids and they think of the big muscle-bound freaks like McGwire and Canseco, but the first guy to get busted, Alex Sanchez, has hit 4 homeruns in his career.
I think what's happening isn't that these guys are trying to bulk up to hit a bunch of homers, but rather they're just being extremely careless about what they use as supplements, wether they're taking them on their own or under the advice of a trainer. I guarantee you Juan Rincon and Alex Sanchez will be awfully careful the next time they see even a bottle of creatine.
Remember, Mark McGwire openly admitted to using Andro in 1998-99, and baseball said, 'No big deal, Mark, it's legal.'
Today, Andro is on the list of banned substances in every sport, and was recently outlawed by the FDA. And now Selig is talking about 50 game suspensions for first time offenders.
I'm all for cleaning up the game, but it seems slightly hypocritical of baseball to suddenly start giving guys the chair for something that was not only allowed but condoned as recently as five years ago.
But who knows, maybe, on the other hand, Rincon is a filthy cheater who's effectiveness over the last three seasons has been artificial. I doubt it, but I guess we don't really know.
Let's hope for the Twins sake that that isn't the case, and that he comes back allright and is more careful in the future.