The Punto Signing

Nick Punto. Infielder, Minnesota Twins. Bats switch, throws right. Age 31.

2005: .239/.301/.335
2006: .290/.352/.373
2007: .210/.291/.271
2008: .284/.344/.382

The Twins signed Punto, the lightning-rod infielder, to a 2-year, $8.5 million deal yesterday.
Predictably, a significant portion of Twins nation is livid.
That's somewhat understandable, as Punto has never been anywhere near as good as Twins manager Ron Gardenhire oddly seems to think he is. In 2007 the Twins had their most frustrating season of the decade, and Punto took the brunt of the blame, as he posted one of the top 10 worst offensive seasons in major leauge history. When Gardy is gone from this planet, historians are going to dock him serious points when they look back and see he gave 472 at-bats to a guy with a .271 slugging percentage that year.

But a couple of things here, coming from someone who was as anti-Punto as anyone....in '05 and '07.
As bad as Punto was that year, it's unfair that he was essentially the face of that team's failures, as Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Bartlett, Luis Castillo, Johan Santana and Michael Cuddyer, among others, all had down years that year. Not to the extent that Punto did, certainly, but it's not fair to heap all of the blame from that year on one guy.
As it is, Punto has never, and perhaps will never, be able to live '07 down. Many fans posting on the various blogs and newspaper comment sections have said something about Punto's "one good year", a reference to 2006, but guess what? Punto was actually even better last year. His OPS+ was 99 (in '06 it was 90), meaning he was essentially a league-average hitter.

His defense, well, I'll be honest. It's hard to say how good it really is/was.
Punto gets on web-gems all the time, and yes, there are plenty of times during the season when I see him make a play and go, "Man, that was one hell of a play."
But according to most fielding metrics, Punto was about average at third base, where he's spent most of his time in the field the last few years.
At shortstop he hasn't played enough to probably get a real good handle on, but for what it's worth, his Revised Zone Rating last year as a shortstop was .860. It was .688 at third base, which was worse than both Brian Buscher and Brendan Harris, if you can believe it.

I'm not sure to what degree I trust most advanced fielding statistics, but I do know that they seem to show that guys who make a lot of highlight-reel plays often do so because their range is somewhat limited. Adam Everett, for example, makes few spectacular plays (and consequently never wins any Gold Gloves), but, when healthy, consistently grades out as one of the best fielders in the game, because he just gets to so damn many balls.
To put it another way, a ball that your average shortstop makes a diving stab on, and fires from his knees for an out to land on ESPN's Top Plays, Everett gets to standing up, and simply throws across for a routine out. Which is why Punto's .860 is encouraging. If that's no fluke, he's going to get to a lot of balls at short.
Combine that kind of defense with league-average offense, and Punto is actually a bargain at $4 million a year.
Many fans probably would've been much more pleased if the Twins had gone out and acquired a "name" shortstop like Jack Wilson or David Eckstein, but those guys would've been more expensive and, I promise, less effective.

All of which is a long way of saying that if Punto repeats his 2008 performance - or even comes somewhat close to it, this is a good signing. If, however, he returns to the form of the worst offensive player in the league, and/or sacrifices consistent fielding for Web Gems, the Twins will probably wind up playing Brendan Harris and/or Matt Tolbert at short, and Punto will be back to a utility role, making $4 million to sit on the bench.

My guess is Punto will be OK. In fact, my biggest worry is that he'll get hurt.
His signing isn't necessarily great news for the Twins, but it was the best option available to them, and consequently, the right thing to do.

If you're really upset about this move, there are a few things you need to understand:
1. Shortstop is the second hardest position to fill with a quality player, behind only catcher.
2. As such, there aren't that many good ones out there. The Twins were interested in acquiring JJ Hardy, but he would've cost them two starting-caliber players, and most scouts say he'd be better off at 3B anyway. Outside of that, the market was full of guys who aren't much better, if at all, than Punto, but would've cost twice as much.
3. The Twins aren't ever going to be big players in free-agency, or, usually, the trade market. So just get your Rafael Furcal/Matt Holiday/Jake Peavy fantasies out of your head for good. If you're holding out hope for the Twins to go out and get a "big name", you haven't been paying attention for the last few years. This is how the Twins do business. By avoiding risks. It's not sexy, but it works (for the most part).
4. Quit blaming Carl Pohlad. I hate him too, but equating the Punto signing to Pohlad's frugality is ridiculous. There's a reason teams like the Rangers, Orioles and Mariners always suck. They hand out huge contracts just for the sake of handing them out. Never learn. I like the fact that the Twins are thrifty.
Successful teams are built by making good baseball decisions, not by opening the checkbook (and yes, that even goes for the Yankees. Signing CC Sabathia was a good baseball decision. Carl Pavano, Johnny Damon, Kevin Brown, and many, many others, were not).
My guess is if Pohlad woke up one morning and told Bill Smith to raise the payroll to $250 million, the Twins would immediately embark on a long period of suck, as they'd bury themselves by throwing too much money at the wrong people.

Off-season targets may not be worth it

There has been speculation that this offseason will be a slightly quieter one for the Twins, and realistically, I suppose, it will be, compared to last year.Last winter there were the Torii Hunter and Johan Santana situations, the Delmon Young/Brendan Harris for Jason Bartlett/Matt Garza trade, the signings of Adam Everett, Craig Monroe, Livan Hernandez and Mike Lamb, and the contract extensions for Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, all of which were orchestrated by a brand new GM, Bill Smith.
For the most part, Smith struck out. The Santana haul was underwhelming. Monroe, Everett, Hernandez and Lamb were all, for the most part, failures, and the Tampa trade, after one year at least, looks lopsidedly bad.Of course, none of that prevented the Twins from finishing the regular season tied for first place.
So what’s in store for this off-season? A few things.

* An outfielder will be traded. As Carlos Gomez limped through a terrible rookie year, it looked likely that he’d begin 2009 in Triple-A, with Denard Span in center, Young in left, Cuddyer in right and Jason Kubel as the 4th OF/DH.
But Gomez finished the season strong, and got to more balls than any other CF in baseball. It now seems almost certain that he’ll be the Twins opening day CF next year. Perfectly fine.
But it means someone has to go. Ideally, that’d be Cuddyer. While Cuddyer is well-liked (understandable, he is one the nicest people in baseball), he is also a player whose skills are deteriorating, who’s coming off an injury-plagued season, and who’s overpaid.
For all those reasons, unfortunately, it’ll be hard to move him. Only a team like the Yankees or Dodgers would probably be willing to take on his salary, and even if those teams were looking for a right-handed corner outfielder, they’d probably come to the conclusion that they could do better than Cuddyer.
That leaves Young. Young is not a bad player, but it seems unlikely that he’ll ever become the Kirby Puckett-type player the Twins envisioned when they gave up their top pitching prospect to acquire him. Yes, Young has tremendous power. But he hits almost everything on the ground. You can have the most powerful swing in history, if 90% of the balls you put in play are groundballs, you won’t hit many home runs.
At this point, it’s hard not to think that Delmon is what he is: A .280-.300 hitter who will post an OBP around .310-.330 and a SLG between .390 and .450. He may top out at the high end of those figures (.300/.330/.450), and while that would be pretty good, it’s still no better than what Jacque Jones provided in his best years.
He’s also a poor outfielder with a seemingly boorish attitude.
I’m guessing those last two factors are the main reason the Twins have been leaking to the public that they’re shopping Young. Fine. He has more trade value than Cuddyer, simply because he’s cheaper and younger.
But the Twins should be prepared to find that potential suitors aren’t going to be as dumb as they were a year ago. In other words, don’t expect to fetch a top-of-the-rotation starter and a decent starting shortstop for him. I also suppose the Twins could look into moving Kubel, because they have a history of undervaluing players like him. Yes, he hit .272 with 20 homers, but he’s not terribly athletic and doesn’t bunt much, so I can see Ron Gardenhire urging Smith to trade him for a guy who “hustles” and “gets after it” and “makes things happen”.
I would argue that a .335 OBP and .471 SLG also help to make things happen, and that Kubel is a better fielder than Young, despite not being as fast. Young has a better arm, but that’s almost meaningless in LF.There’s not room for everybody. Someone’s gonna go. My money’s on Young, but I couldn’t begin to speculate what he’d bring in return.

* Despite the bullpen’s struggles, there won’t be any major additions to the relief corps.The Twins were supposedly interested in signing LaTroy Hawkins after they unwisely passed on him at the trade deadline, but he re-signed with Houston. Oakland’s Huston Street has been mentioned as a possible target, but he is rumored to be part of today’s deal for Matt Holiday.The fact is, the best way to build a bullpen these days is from within. As I’ve written nearly verbatim several times already this year, anyone the Twins sign via free-agency won’t likely be any better than Jesse Crain, but will cost at least $5 million a year.
The Twins will keep their fingers crossed that Pat Neshek is something close to his former self next year, that Crain and Matt Guerrier will bounce back next year with lesser roles, and that Jose Mijares can be as good as he was down the stretch. They’ll also give guys like Bobby Korecky, Phil Humber, Anthony Slama and Robert Delaney a chance to earn a spot. I’m actually fairly confident that Twins ‘pen will be solid next year, if not excellent.

* The Twins will look to upgrade at 3B and SS, but they may stand pat, and that wouldn’t be terrible.Nick Punto finished the season as the everyday SS after Adam Everett never got healthy enough to hold down the job, and Brendan Harris proved he lacked the range to do so.Punto responded with his most productive big league season, hitting .284/.344/.382. He wasn’t as dependable in the field at SS as he has been at 2B and 3B, but he was solid.
The Twins would love to have Punto back, and he would love to be back. But Punto wants to be back as the starting SS, and he wants to be paid like it. The Twins, understandably and correctly, are hesitant to make that commitment. Punto’s an excellent utility guy, but Matt Tolbert and Matt Macri could fill the backup infield spots cheaply and effectively, so there’s just no reason to give Punto very much money. He may test the market, and if he does, he could still come back to the Twins if he doesn’t get any great offers - a distinct possibility.
A couple names have been thrown around as targets for the Twins, none more attractive than Brewers SS JJ Hardy.Last year, at age 25, Hardy hit .283/.343/.478 with 24 homers, and the year before that hit .277/.323/.463 with 26 homers. In the field, he posted an .826 RZR - not great, but not terrible, either. Punto’s was .860.The Twins would have to include at least one of their pitching prospects and something more, I would think, to land Hardy.
Now is the time to sell high on Nick Blackburn, who simply doesn’t miss enough bats to be a consistent sub-4.00 pitcher in the big leagues.
If the Brewers were willing to offer Hardy for Blackburn and Glen Perkins, it’d be tempting. Likely the Twins would try to make a deal involving only one of those two, and try to sweeten it with someone like Kevin Mulvey or Phil Humber.
Delmon Young wouldn’t make a lot of sense here, because the Brewers have outfielders.
Another good option being mentioned is Atlanta’s 25-year-old Yunel Escobar, who hit .288/.366/.401 last year, and .326/.385/.451 in 94 games as a rookie the previous year. He had an .843 RZR last year.The Braves are trying to land Padres ace Jake Peavy right now, so the Twins would probably have to wait for that to get sorted out before being ale to make a move for Escobar.
It would be nice to have either of those guys, but it would also be risky to giveup one of the young starters. If the Twins pull the trigger on a deal that lands them a good, young shortstop, that’s a good thing. But if they decide to stick with Punto, and keep the pitchers in the process, that’s not terrible, either.As for 3B, the Twins have a solid option on the roster right now.
A platoon of Brian Buscher and Brendan Harris is likely to perform at a .275/.330/.400 level next year, and that’s being conservative. If they’re platooned correctly, they could far exceed those numbers. Buscher, the lefty, hit .316/.362/.437 against RHP last year, and while the right-handed Harris’s production against LHP (.265/.323/.391) was almost identical to his performance against RHP, for his career he’s a .295/.360/.440 hitter against southpaws.
Going with those two at the hot corner would be cheap and quietly productive, much like the Mike Pagliarulo/Scott Leius 3B platoon of 1991.
Having said that, it would seem that the Twins are making 3B a priority this offseason.
Casey Blake, Adrian Beltre, Garrett Atkins and Kevin Kouzmanoff are the names most frequently mentioned.
Beltre’s the best of the bunch, but since Scott Boras is his agent, it’s hard to believe he could be a long-term option for the Twins, and it wouldn’t make sense to give up Blackburn or Perkins for a one-year rental.Atkins has put up impressive numbers (3 straight years of at least 21 homers and 99 RBI), but that should be taken with a very large grain of salt, as he’s been playing in Colorado, which is still the most hitter-friendly ballpark in America. He’d be far more expensive than Buscher/Harris, and potentially no more productive.
Kouzmanoff, conversely, has been playing in pitcher-friendly Petco Park in San Diego, which makes his 23 homers last year more impressive. But his .299 OBP, 139 strikeouts and questionable defense would probably get me to take a pss.
Blake might be a good fit - he’s a former Twin, well known by the players and coaching staff, and he’s been pretty productive over the years. He’s 36, and apparently wants a 3-year deal, but if the dollars aren’t outrageous, I wouldn’t have a big problem with him being brought aboard, particularly because it wouldn’t be by trade.
Chicago’s Joe Crede will be a free-agent, and probably could be had for cheap, as he’s been hurt a lot in recent years. He hit 17 homers in 94 games this year and is considered a good glove.
I know it’s not what the fans want to hear, but I think I’d stand pat at 3B. I just don’t think there’d be enough gain in acquiring any of those guys to give up a good, young starting pitcher, or to offer Blake a 3-year deal. If I had to pick someone I think I’d pick Crede, because he involves the least risk. Also, he is my buddy Ryan Kessinger’s favorite player (or at least he was at one time).

* (Fingers crossed) They won’t add a washed up starter to give their rotation a “veteran presence”.I actually have no confidence that this will be the case, but I’m adding it here for good karma, if nothing else.Livan Hernandez actually gave the Twins some quality starts/innings last year before getting released, and he qualifies as the best of their recent scrap-heap pitching veterans. The Twins would’ve been better off each of the last few years just going with the kids. Hopefully they won’t make that mistake this year. But if Blackburn or Perkins (or both) are traded, don’t be surprised if it happens. Part of the reason Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey were as effective as they were this year was their maturity and poise on the mound. I don’t care if they’re 17, they have enough veteran presence on their own. They don’t need to go sign Jose Lima.

2008: A long look back

I’ve been playing NCAA Football ‘07 on PS2 lately. Have a season going with Oklahoma (I’m not a Sooner fan, I just like running the option with Adrian Peterson).
So I just beat Nebraska 59-0 in the Big 12 championship game to finish the regular season at 13-0. Peterson has rushed for 4,032 yards and 41 touchdowns.
So the Heisman trophy presentation comes on screen after the win over Nebraska, and who gets it? Some running back for Tennessee who had 1,700 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns.
What? Are you serious?

It’s kind of like how the Twins had to go on the road for the one-game playoff thanks to a coin flip, even though they won the season series. Doesn’t seem fair.

But I’m not going to focus on that. I have no sympathy for the Twins, particularly after they lost two of three to a bad (yes, the Royals are still bad) team at home when they had a chance to clinch.
And they actually played a good ball game in the loss to the Sox. I wasn’t expecting much from Nick Blackburn, but he sacked up and then some. He wasn’t perfect by any means - the Sox missed a few hangers, and of course, Jim Thome didn’t miss one - but you couldn’t have asked for more.
But John Danks was far better. He was nearly perfect. Everything had tons of movement, and he just didn’t make any mistakes.
The only thing that bugged me watching the highlight shows over and over today was how so many people were crediting Ken Griffey for his “great throw” to get Michael Cuddyer at home.
What? He was barely 30 feet behind second base and he two-hopped it. It was, in fact, a terrible throw. I could’ve got that ball home on the fly, and that’s no exaggeration.
It was such a bad throw, however, that it helped the Sox. AJ Pierzynski had to come out in front of the plate to catch it on the second hop, and by doing so, he took himself out of Cuddyer’s path. Cuddy made a valiant effort to slam into AJ to dislodge the ball, but because AJ was so far out in front of the plate he couldn’t get a real good piece of him. Had Griffey’s throw been better, there’s a good chance Cuddy would’ve caught him dead-on, and the ball just might have popped out.
(It was a great play by AJ, however. Ask any catcher how easy it is to try to scoop a short-hop throw from the outfield with a catcher’s mitt while keeping a leg in front of the plate with a runner bearing down.)

Anyway, the season has ended for the Twins. I probably won’t watch much of the first round of the playoffs, as I’m still too bitter. But I sure hope the White Sox and Cubs both lose, and once they do, I’ll probably tune in to Angels-Rays and Phillies-Dodgers.
The Dodgers-Cubs series offers a conundrum. Root for the Dodgers and their Anti-Christ leftfielder, or root for the freakin‘ Cubs?
I’m going with Man-Ram.
Ugh. Having said that, I need a shower.

So back to the Twins.
We’ll look ahead to 2009 soon enough, but for now, the question on my mind is just how are we supposed to (or how will we, in a few years) look back on 2008?
My buddy Rusty called from Houston after the game last night, and man was he pissed. He rattled on and on about AJ, about the coin flip, about how we wasted Blackburn’s gem, and he was pretty much right about everything he said.
But then he said, “I haven’t been this frustrated since…” whenever, and I was like, ‘What?’
I mean, I never really had high expectations for this team, so I can’t say I took the loss to the Sox that hard. I mean it sucks, and it really sucks that we lost to the Sox, in Chicago.
But I expected them to lose this game. Once they lost the series to KC, it was hard to really feel like the Twins deserved to be in the postseason, and it was equally hard to feel like they’d have much of a chance against the Rays (then again, it would’ve been nice to face a team that actually had less playoff experience than us for a change).
I can’t say I’m all that mad. More disappointed. I actually even kind of feel sorry for the players, because really, they let themselves down more than they did the fans. Most fans feel like the team overachieved. So they’re happy. The players know there’s a weak field this year, and they know that Detroit and Cleveland’s misfortune this year gave them a golden opportunity. They wasted it, and Cleveland will likely be back next year (the other three teams are kind of hard to peg for next year, at least right now).
And that’s why Rusty (and any sensible or knowledgeable fan) is so frustrated. The rest of the division tried to hand it to the Twins, and they gave it away. That’s frustrating no matter how bad you expected to be.

The Twins offense scored over 800 runs despite hitting only 111 homers. That’s a statistical anomaly not likely to repeat itself. While the Twins were genuinely better than expected this year, there was a lot of luck involved. They hit 20 points better than any other team with RISP. That, math majors, is called an outlier.
Not surprising, either, that while the Twins still finished with an excellent mark with runners on, that number spent most of the last couple months coming down. The Twins would’ve been in the playoffs if they’d got a big hit or two either in the KC series or in the one-game playoff against the Sox.
The Twins did not homer in their final six games of the regular season. I’m sorry, but an amateur team - using wood bats - shouldn’t go six games without a homer, let alone a major league team in a pennant race.
That simply isn’t major league offense. The Twins can talk up their small ball all they want, but the reason they had success scoring runs this year was not “flying around the bases and bunting and hit and running”, as Ron Gardenhire liked to claim. It was their unprecedented success in hitting with RISP. Once that started to slow, the Twins stopped scoring runs.
Don’t get me wrong. I like the Twins style of play. I like that they’re aggressive. Denard Span and Carlos Gomez and Alexi Casilla are exciting players that put pressure on the pitcher and the defense. But to win the big leagues, you have to be able to hit the ball out of the park more than once a week.
And remember, this team is perfectly suited for the Metrodome, but that’s only gonna be home for one more year. The Twins won’t be able to pound choppers off the plate to create rallies at Target Field. Then again, with Cuddyer contributing almost nothing and 3B Mike Lamb a total disappointment, small ball was really the only choice the Twins had this year. I’d say they took it as far as it could possibly take them.

As for the pitching staff, it was OK.
The rotation was the biggest and best surprise of the year. Scott Baker took another step forward as an ace, while Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn settled in as solid 2-3 guys. Francisco Liriano is at least a No. 2 right now. Glen Perkins was pretty good for a 5th starter. And don’t forget that Livan Hernandez gave the team several quality starts before predictably reverting to the line-drive machine that he is after awhile.
All five should return, but with so many quality arms in the minors, there’s no telling who the Twins might look to package in a trade for offense.
But if that doesn’t happen, they have five solid starters coming back with at least four or five strong minor-league arms to challenge them in spring training.

The pen was clearly the team’s weakness. With Pat Neshek gone, Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier and Dennys Reyes all struggled to get leads to Joe Nathan.
They tried bringing back Eddie Guardado to fill that role, but ended up turning Jose Mijares into their primary setup guy only a week after calling him up.
I’m not saying the Twins should’ve been able to guess that would happen, but they could’ve been proactive sooner.
Rather than trying something different to fix the bullpen, they just kept trotting out Guerrier and Crain with the same disastrous results.
They continued to use Boof Bonser as a mop-up guy instead of trying him in short relief, and they refused to call up, not necessarily Mijares, but any of the several relievers who were having success in the minors. All because they didn’t want to lose Brian Bass to waivers (and then, of course, they ended up trading him to Baltimore anyway).
Boof eventually became the team’s only decent right-handed reliever, and Mijares was great in the 8th inning. Craig Breslow was also pretty good. But by the time the team trusted them it was way too late.

Give Ron Gardenhire credit. He guided this team through some awfully tough times. I think that outweighs any mistakes he made (pitching changes, lineups, etc.). And first year GM Bill Smith didn’t give him much help if you ask me.

The Twins had their chances in 2008. In fact, they had more than they deserved. But from the injury to Neshek, to the repeated blown leads, to the Republican Convention forcing them on the road for 24 of 30 games, to the lost coin flip for the playoff game, maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.

88-75, 1 GB

More later.....not right now.

163

Well, don’t blame the Tigers.
I mean I guess you can blame them for getting their butts kicked, but don’t say they didn’t try to win. Jim Leyland brought in his best starting pitcher out of the bullpen when Freddy Garcia (who pitched well enough to ensure he’ll have a job next spring)got hurt. He used four different pitchers in the 6th inning.
They just lost. As was the case all year, the Tiger bats that everyone thought would form such a dominating lineup, came up short.

So now the Twins have to go into their personal house of horrors (actually, you could say that about almost any stadium in the AL) and try to win.
It’s a unique situation for the White Sox, who will be playing their third different opponent in three days. They’re 2-for-2. Can they make it 3?

I’ve bitched about the individual losses all year long. Part of what makes baseball great is the ‘game-every-day’ mentality. The ability to shrug off a loss, because there’s always tomorrow. And I think a good manager (and yes, I’m counting Ron Gardenhire in that department) creates an environment where his players don’t ever get too up or too down. That’s how you survive a long season.
But in the back of your mind, you have to be aware of the fact that the race could come down to one game. There have been a lot of ugly losses that didn’t need to be. Against the Royals, against the Blue Jays, against the Mariners.
Remember Jason Pridie bobbling that base hit in his major league debut? If he fields it cleanly, the Twins are AL Central champs right now.
Taking losses in stride is fine, in fact, it’s what you should do. But not playing every game like it’s the most important one of the year is a mistake. This year, more than any, should be a lesson of that. You do everything you can to win every game every single night.
I’m not saying the Twins didn’t do that. But you have to wonder if, early in the year, the Twins put development over winning simply because they didn’t expect to be here.
And make no mistake, Gardy didn’t expect to be here. I think he thought the Twins were capable of winning 88 games, but there’s no way he (or anyone else) thought the Indians and Tigers would both fail to win that many.

So what’ve we got here today? The Twins were 2-7 at the Cell this year.
Nick Blackburn is on the bump. Of the Twins five starters, it’d be a toss-up between Blackburn and Glen Perkins as far as which one I wouldn’t want on the mound in such a big game. But they really have no choice.
Kevin Slowey is hurting. Francisco Liriano is coming off a bad start, and using him on three days rest in his first year after surgery is probably a bad idea.
For the year, Blackburn is 11-10 with a 4.14 ERA. He’s the only Twins starter to take every one of his turns in the rotation, and leads the team with 187 innings. He’s been valuable to the team, no doubt, but he hasn’t been as good as his numbers might indicate.
In those 187 innings, he’s allowed 220 hits. Opponents have hit .295/.332/.444 against him this year, which means he’s essentially made every hitter he’s faced the equivalent of Delmon Young only with more power.
Over his last five starts, opponents are hitting .340/.377/.620 against him. Albert Pujols.
For the year he’s 3-7 on the road with a 5.20 ERA, allowing a .318/.349/.456 line.
Blackburn has already faced the Sox five times, going 2-2 with a 5.67 ERA. In 27 innings he’s allowed 37 hits and four homers. Against the Sox, who have hit 234 homers, four homers in five starts is actually pretty good.
Three of the five starts Blackburn made against the Sox have come at the Cell. He’s 0-2 with a 7.20 ERA in those three, allowing 13 runs (12 earned) in 15 innings.

None of that news is good. Here’s what Blackburn needs to do:
Throw strikes. That’s obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Blackburn is going to give up hits. He simply doesn’t miss enough bats (only 93 Ks in 187 IP this year) to string together lots of 1-2-3 innings. Guys that pitch to contact are going to give up hits. If you’re mixing walks in there, too, you’re in trouble.
Along those same lines, he has to keep the ball in the park. He can survive a homer, maybe even two, if they come with the bases empty. But even that would be tough in a hostile environment. Homers get the crowd into the game, and that can rattle a young pitcher.
He’s gonna need that sinker. As mentioned, there’s going to be runners on base. If the sinker’s working, that means double plays.

As for the Sox, they’re going with second-year lefty John Danks. He leads the Sox with a 3.47 ERA (9th in the AL). He’s 11-9, and in 187 innings has fanned 155. He had a 2.67 ERA at the All-Star break - 4.73 since.
Luckily for the Twins, Danks has been better on the road this year, though he’s still been OK at home. In 17 starts at the Cell he’s 4-6 with a 3.96 ERA, but the hits, walks and home runs allowed are almost identical, as is his strikeout rate, which suggests he really hasn’t pitched much differently home or away.

While the thought of the Twins having to face a lefty on the road in a big game would seem to be the perfect recipe for a Twins loss, Danks is one lefty the Twins have actually had some success against.
In 4 starts against the Twins this year, he’s 1-1 with a 7.91 ERA, having allowed 18 runs (17 earned) in 19.1 innings, allowing 29 hits and 10 walks.
The Twins are hitting .349/.415/.458 against Danks, meaning every Twins hitter has performed like Joe Mauer against him. Justin Morneau is 8 for 18 with 3 homers in his career against Danks.
So that’s encouraging.

The Call
Based on the fact that the game is at the Cell (thanks to a coin flip, baseball doesn’t use head-to-head tiebreakers), the Sox are the favorite. The Twins have been terrible on the road since the All-Star break. There’s nothing to suggest they should win this game, other than they’re due. If you’re a Twins fan, being due is about the best thing you’ve got going for you.
Of course, it’s been such a crazy, mixed up, goofy season that nothing would surprise me, and the neat thing about it coming down to one game, rather than a best of three or five or seven series, is that absolutely anything can happen. Nick Punto could get four hits. Danks could walk 10 guys. The stats don’t really matter on a single night, because anybody can have one good night.
My guess is the White Sox will win. But part of the reason I say that is in hopes that I will be proven wrong, because this team has been doing that all year.

Still alive....

Thanks to the Twins shitting themselves against the Royals, when simply winning 2 of 3 (at HOME!!!!!!!) would've been enough, the AL Central is still in the air.
The White Sox host the Tigers in a makeup game today. If they lose, the Twins are AL Central champs, and visit Tampa on Thursday. If they win, they'll host the Twins Tuesday in a one-game playoff.

Most of you will be at work during the 1 p.m. game. I will not be.
Lucky for you, I'll be live blogging the game here, so follow along while avoiding work.

FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!

We're almost there.

Advantage Twins

It's amazing how much better things feel just from moving back into the Metrodome. As a fan, it's been hard to have much confidence that when you flipped on the tube over the last couple weeks you were going to see the Twins play well. Just seeing those gray uniforms gave you the sense that balls were going to be flying out of the park when a Twin was on the mound, and that their bats would be producing lots of grounders to second with runners on first.
But that sea of blue seats under the off-white artificial sky....suddenly the Twins are a good team again.
Tuesday night they were.
Credit is due to Ron Gardenhire. He had a decision to make at DH - Jason Kubel or Michael Cuddyer.
With righty Javier Vazquez on the mound, the standard option would be Kubel. But he entered the game 2 for 21 in his career against Vazquez, while Cuddyer was 12 for 31.
It seemed like just the kind of situation in which Gardy would outthink himself - go with the crusty, overrated veteran (yes, I'm calling Cuddyer all of those things) over the younger (but better) player.
But he didn't. He stuck with Kubel, who homered twice and tripled.
It's easy to credit him in hindsight. And I'm sure if Kubel had gone 0-for-4 many would've criticized Gardy for not going by the numbers. I myself would normally prefer going by the matchup stats, but with Cuddy less than 100 %, I was glad - yes, before the game - to see Kubel in the lineup (at this point Cuddyer is little more than a pinch-hitter, and it's unclear if he can even do that succesfully).
Hopefully the Twins didn't use up too many of their runs. I don't know if I belive in momentum in baseball, but they clearly seemed more ready to play than the Sox, and that's probably from being back at home. You get under the roof, and the Sox wilt while the Twins suddenly remember to be a good baseball team. And I don't think Ozzie Guillen's unpredictability seems to help them when they're in the Dome. He starts going crazy and his players just get swallowed up by the Dome quicker than usual.
So can they take it into Game 2? They have to. I really think the only way the Twins get in the playoffs is to run the table - 7 straight.
And Game 2 is the one to be nervous about. The Twins face Mark Buerhle, a lefty who they've occasionally hit hard, but also been dominated by many, many times.
He's 1-2 with a 5.79 ERA against the Twins in three starts this year - for his career he's 21-12 with a 3.85.
And longtime fans know, any time the Twins are going against a lefty - any lefty - there's a chance for one of those 1 run on 7 singles kind of nights.
The Twins counter with Nick Blackburn, who has an ERA of 10.22 over his last three starts, 6.57 over his last five. On the other hand, he has a 2.92 ERA in 13 starts at the Metrodome, so maybe he'll get back on track tonight.
He's gonna have to. As exciting as Tuesday's win was, it's just one win. They still have to win the next two.
Have to.

Welcome back, Eddie (and me)

First off, thanks to all those who offered kind words over what was a tough couple weeks for me and my wife, although to be honest, I get the feeling I made it sound like things were worse than they actually were.
I'm fine. Definitely heart-broken about losing our baby, but there's plenty of time to make another go of it (he he), and the rest of that shit, well, I'm pretty much the greatest guy I know, so I'm sure I'll manage.

I was extremely excited to hear the Twins re-acquired Eddie Guardado today, and he went out and set the Mariners down 1-2-3 in the 8th.
So it only made perfect sense that when the Twins finally get the 8th squared away, Joe Nathan would blow the save in the 9th.
Even worse, Jesse Crain followed up a solid 10th inning by blowing it in the 11th.
Again.
I've been extremely patient with Crain, as he throws hard and is coming off a major injury, but he's really, really struggling right now, and I don't know how the Twins can really justify using him in any real meaningful situations. He's been terrible for the last month.
The good news is Matt Guerrier had a nice 7th, and Guardado should be solid in the 8th.
In 50.1 innings, Guardado has allowed only 38 hits and just three homers. Lefties hit just .167 against him, and righties only .252.
When you factor in that much of the damage he has allowed (including all three homers) came in Arlington (a decidedly hitter-friendly park) there's even more reason to think Guardado can be effective. More than anything, he's a guy who wants the ball and will attack hitters. That's what the Twins need.
Too bad they didn't land Latroy Hawkins, too. They said they were interested, but lost out to the Astros. In 10 games for Houston, Latroy is 2-0 with a 0 ERA, with 12 Ks in 7 innings.
That'd be nice to have.

On Sept. 1 rosters expand to a maximum of 40 (though most teams only add 4 or 5 guys).
The only guy I know for sure the Twins will call up is Bobby Korecky, who looked decent in a brief callup earlier this year and has a 2.90 ERA and 25 saves for the Red Wings. He could help down the stretch, and if he does, the Twins could probably squeeze him onto the playoff roster through an injury loophole.

It's worth noting also that Boof Bonser has shown signs of emerging as a decent reliever. I thought it was a waste to use him as a mopup guy while forcing Brian Bass into key situations, as Boof seems ideal for short relief. Throws hard, has one plus offspeed pitch, and in relief he can just come in and chuck it, not having to worry about pacing himself.

Philip Humber and Kevin Mulvey, the two 'other' prospects the Twins acquired from the Mets in the Johan Santana trade (besides blue-chippers Carlos Gomez and Deolis Guerra) have rebounded from slow starts to finish strong at Triple-A Rochester.
Humber is 9-8 with a 4.66 ERA, but in his last 10 apperances is 5-1 with a 2.56 ERA. That's huge, because his career had previously appeared headed in the wrong direction after Tommy John surgery.
Mulvey is 7-9 with a 3.73 ERA, and is 4-2 with a 3.28 ERA in his last 10 games.
Both of them have a good chance to be called up.

Guerra, by the way, has regressed. In his second full year at high A ball, he's 11-8, but with a 5.26 ERA, and a frighteningly low strikeout rate (68 in 126 innings, with 70 walks). He's still only 19, but the numbers are reason for concern at the very least.

A sleeper candidate for a callup is Anthony Swarzak. Since being called up from Double-A New Britain, he's made six starts for the Red Wings, going 5-0 with a 1.89 ERA.
He's only 22 and those six starts represent his only experience above the Double-A level, but the numbers speak for themselves.
On top of that, he was 3-8 with a 5.76 ERA at New Britain.
Weird.
Looking even lower, lefty Robert Delaney has a 1.11 ERA with 38 Ks and only five walks in 32 innings for New Britain, but I doubt they're interested in having him skip Triple-A to join a pennant race and start his arbitration clock.

To make room for Eddie G., the Twins cut Mike Lamb, who said he was "embarrassed for getting fired".
Lamb was bad, no doubt about it, but of all the Twins failed free-agent signings this year, he was the most defensible. He'd posted an OPS of over .800 three out of the last four years. Last year he had a very robust .366 OBP and .453 slugging percentage. And he's still only 33.
There was just no reason to think he wouldn't provide pretty solid production. It just didn't happen.
And now the Twins have to pay him $3.3 million next year.

I'm Thinking About It

Bringing back Twinstown, that is.
As you may know, my Argus Leader blog is no longer accessible. I will not get into the reasons here. There has been some talk that it may be revived at some point, but frankly, I don't know if I'm interested in doing that.

That would, of course, mean that the door has been cracked open on coming back here on a somewhat regular basis.
We'll see.

A big reason I put this blog on hiatus is that it didn't feel like anyone was reading it. I don't really feel like spending an hour each night putting something together for four people. The Argus blog was getting thousands of hits, so there was a little more motivation to keep it updated.
And to be honest, I'm hesitant to advertise Twins Town too much, for obvious reasons. Getting thousands of people here would probably land me in even more trouble.

Over the last couple months I've nearly been fired, found out my wife was pregnant, decided to retire from amateur baseball following the season, taken the Roadrunners to the state tournament (still ongoing), suffered the crushing blow of a miscarriage while away from my wife in Rapid City getting drunk with my teammates, all the while considering just where the hell my adulthood is actually headed.

So, like I said, I'm thinking about it.

Time for a breather

You had to see this coming.
With the newpaper industry in the toilet, as free websites and blogs slice into subscriptions at an alarming rate, there has been more of a need for me to focus on my other blog, the one I get paid (sort of) to do.
And as you've certainly noticed, keeping up two blogs has been difficult for me.
So I'm going to make the break here at Twinstown official.
I'm not officially quitting, and I'm not going to take the blog down. You never know when something will come up that I can't write about (the way I want to, anyway) on the Argus site.
But regular updates will continue to be few and far between.

I'm not really going away, though. My Argus blog is basically the same as this one, just without the F-words, and, admittedly, with stuff about local Sioux Falls sports a lot of people probably don't care about. But if you can wade through that stuff, I still think it's a worthwhile place to stop by on your morning rounds through the internet.
Now that I'm officially taking time off from this blog, I'll try to include more Twins stuff at the Argus site.

The one thing I've noticed about blogs, even some of the best ones, is that it's a lot more work than people realize, and you're starting to see more and more bloggers get burned out on it. I mean, once someone offers you money to blog somewhere else, it's hard to keep going on the one you do for free.
So I guess we're all a bunch of sellouts after all.

Miller Time

For the second year in a row, I'm heading to Milwaukee for the Twins/Brewers series, though it's not part of a honeymoon this time. Just an excuse to get hammered and waste money.
Turns out a bunch of friends from town are also making the trip, so there's a chance to do some serious "tailgating".
And lucky for me, the Twins are heading to Miller Park on a hot streak, having won 1 of their last 8 games.
I might not be exactly correct on this, but I believe the Twins ERA over the last two weeks is 344.89.
Last year they limped into Miller, but got healthy. Maybe I'll get lucky, which would be nice, since there will be as many Twins fans there as Brewers fans.

A great weekend

This was really a pretty good weekend for the Twins.

*Delmon Young hit his first home run. He's now only two behind Alexi Casilla, who is slightly larger than my right nut (notice how people always compare things to their left nut? Well my right nut is bigger, so I'm going with that one).
*Michael Cuddyer hit his third homer. Jason Kubel hit his 7th.
*Carlos Gomez made a really awesome, full-throttle diving catch even with the team down 12-1.
*The aforementioned Casilla hit another homer, and moved closer to his first AL batting title. (This guy was hitting .210 in Triple-A when they called him up, and now he's hitting .342/.393/.519.
In the majors.
What. The. Hell.
*Speaking of batting titles, Matt Macri upped his averaged to .429.
*Mike Redmond got some hits, and now he's hitting .310.
*Craig Breslow, Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier and Dennys Reyes all quietly continued to throw well. Juan Rincon continued to be awful, and practically begged for his release when questioned by reporters.
I get why they don't want to get rid of Rincon. He's making $2.4 million, and they don't want to just eat it.
But really, what sense does that make? You have to pay him either way, and aren't you getting more for your money by replacing him (and hence improving the team) then stubbornly throwing him out there just because you already paid for it?

So, anyway, back to all the positives from this weekend.
Uh...Delmon Young homered.
Yep, it was a pretty good weekend.

Delmon's streak ends

Delmon Young has been bad so far, and there have been calls to give him a day off. Ron Gardenhire continued to resist, saying Delmon "likes to play".
I probably don't need to point out what a lame cop-out that is. I'd like to play LF every day for the Twins, too. That's not a good enough reason to put a guy in the lineup.

It sure smelled a lot like Gardy was afraid of Delmon. The young Young has a history of losing his temper on occasion, and while he's behaved for the most part since joining the Twins, his short and curt interviews suggested that there was still something of a loose cannon sizzling beneath the surface.
But after a really rough couple of weeks, it was clear that Delmon could probably benefit from a day or three to take a step back and watch things, so Gardy sucked it up and wrote out a lineup card that didn't have Delmon's name on it, ending his streak of 217 consecutive games played.
Reporters requested to visit with Young before the game, and he refused. This smelled like trouble. But after the game, Young seemed to be responding the way you'd hope.

"I’ll take a day off any time,” he told the Strib. “I’ve been having days off (playing badly), except my stats keep going down,” he said. “This one, stays even.”

Asked if Tuesday’s inside-the-park play was on his mind when he missed Alex Gordon’s fly ball Wednesday, he said, “I just flat-out missed that ball. The night before doesn’t really bother me after about 30 seconds go by.”

Whether or not Delmon Young is nice to reporters has nothing to do with whether or not he'll ever realize his potential, but the fact that he took his first benching well is definitely a good sign. I know I'm not alone in having sensed recently that Delmon's cranky attitude was starting to become a concern, and that could be a factor in his development as a player.

I feel a little better today about his chances of figuring it out. Maybe he gets it after all.

Turd in the punch bowl

I didn't see any of the Twins 9-8 come from behind win over the Royals. I was in Vermillion playing third base for the Roadrunners, who opened their season with an 11-6 win (I doubled off the wall in my first at-bat of the season - I rule).

I was pretty excited when I heard what happened, and have spent the last 20 minutes or so combing through the box score and reading reaction from other blogs (my favorite is this one, from Royals blogger Rany Jazayerli). I can only imagine what kind of verbal orgasm Dick Bremer had on the air when the Twins put their 9th inning rally together, and I'm glad I didn't hear it.

And I hate, really hate to say it, but all I can see are the negatives. Yes, Craig Monroe and Justin Morneau hit big homers, but that's not a huge surprise. Yes, Brendan Harris and Mike Lamb both had good days at the plate as they continue to push their numbers north, but that shouldn't be a huge shock, either.

I was hoping to see that Delmon Young and Michael Cuddyer had had big games, maybe even homered. I was hoping that Joe Mauer had maybe gone deep.

I wasn't hoping to see that Cuddyer, Young and Mauer were all hitless. I wasn't hoping that Young committed two errors in LF one night after nearly costing the team a game with a misplay in the field. I wasn't hoping that Livan would give up 13 more hits (he's on pace to surrender over 300 on the year).

I couldn't help but notice that Matt Garza threw another gem for the first place Rays Wednesday night. Garza is now 4-1 with a 3.78 ERA.
Young is still, uh, young, but his poor performance thus far is troubling.

I wonder, at this point, if we won't look back at 2008 as the season that:
A - The Twins made one of the worst trades in their history (Garza-Bartlett for Young-Harris)
B - The Twins signed one of their worst contracts in their history (Cuddyer, 3-years, $24 million)
C - Pat Neshek's career ended.
D - Francisco Liriano's comeback failed

Am I being overly negative? Of course. There's still a lot going right with this team. But lately I've had a hard time ignoring how many things are going wrong.

Weird game...

I went to Iron Man last night, so I didn't see much of the Twins game. I picked it up in the 9th, with the Twins trailing 6-5, and quickly surmised that it had been a strange game up until then.
Brendan Harris was at short, Michael Cuddyer had started in center, and soon Bobby Korecky was batting.
In just the couple innings I watched, I came to a few conclusions.
*I'd like to say it's time for Juan Rincon to go, but with Pat Neshek on the DL, and with Rincon under contract for over $2 million, it wouldn't make much sense to cut him. But he just can't be used in any meaningful situations anymore. He's terrible. Just use him in blowouts, and let him walk after the year.
*Luckily, we saw the official arrival of Korecky as soon as Rincon was mercifully given the hook. He worked 1.2 innings, and his big strikeout of Michael Young was damn near a Neshek moment.
Korecky isn't likely to become a dominant reliever, but his track record (3.07 ERA in the minors, with a modest strikeout rate) suggests he could be a decent setup guy.
*Boof Bonser is running out of time to convince us he won't ultimately be better suited for the bullpen (I know he had a decent outing but I think the point remains). He's got a good fastball, a good curve and good control, but with so many other good arms in the minors, it's wouldn't be fair to let Boof keep struggling for a whole 'nother year.
*Cuddyer has really only had one good year. In 2006 he hit .284/.362/.504, but last year he slipped to .276/.356/.433, and this year he's been godawful, hitting .226 after an 0-for-6 effort last night.
Why were they willing to sign this guy to a 3-year, $24 million deal, but when it came to Torii Hunter and Johan Santana (two far better and far more proven commodities) there wasn't enough money (not so much this past year, but before that)? Dare I bring race into it? I think it's worth asking.
*I'll get into it in more detail later, but it appears that Ron Gardenhire is ready to give up on the Mike Lamb/Brendan Harris/Adam Everett infield.
In itself that wouldn't be such a bad thing, as it has indeed been a failure, but when you consider the alternatives available to him, it's downright terrifying to think what the future could hold for the Twins infield.
Stay tuned.

The Struggling Twins Hitters

It's kind of funny to me that the Twins nice little run over the last couple weeks has prompted some to act as though the Twins offense suddenly doesn't suck.
Newsflash: The Twins offense sucks.

There are three Twins right now who are producing: Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Craig Monroe.

Mauer is actually having an outstanding season, while Morneau has been pretty solid since a slow start. Monroe is on a hot streak, and it's hard to say how much to expect from him as the season progresses.

Brendan Harris got off to a good start, but a recent slump has knocked his numbers near Punto-ville. Carlos Gomez seems to be getting better every day, and it's impossible to be disappointed with what he's done so far, considering how far from ready he was when the season began. Matt Tolbert's numbers will continue to decline the more he plays. Nick Punto has been non-terrible because he hasn't played very much.

Everyone else has been fairly terrible. A blow-by-blow look at the Twins hitters.

*Mauer
Hitting .331 with a .414 OBP entering Wednesday. If he keeps those numbers at that level, I won't complain if he doesn't hit a homer all year. Well, OK, I will, but a .414 OBP is more valuable than most people seem to realize. The guy doesn't make very many outs.
Through 10 games in May he's hitting .424 with a .548 OBP. Also encouraging is that he's hitting .357 against lefties this year, after struggling with southpaws last year.
The problem with Mauer isn't that he doesn't hit for enough power, it's that Ron Gardenhire insists on batting him 3rd. He should be leading off, but even the 2-hole would make more sense.
How's this for a stat: When leading off an inning, Mauer is hitting .450/.560/.650.

*Morneau
Also heating up (.341 in May before Wednesday), he's on pace to fall short of 30 homers, but looks a lot better than the guy that limped to the finish line last year. He's hitting .250 with decent power against lefties, but has only a .265 OBP. That means he can hit lefties when he's not chasing their bad pitches. If Morneau can improve his patience, he can boost his numbers from Fred McGriff territory to Jason Giambi territory (the version from a few years ago).

*Harris
Loved him early, but he's slumped badly of late. He has some pop, but, oddly, has been horrible against lefties (.200/.294/.200). He's hitting .156 in May, and is hitting .129 with RISP. He has been better against power pitchers (.261) than finesse pitchers (.204), which probably explains why he's struggling against lefties. He's hit pretty consistently in the past, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that he's just in a slump (you'll hear that again a few more times).

*Adam Everett
He has sucked, but we knew he would. Still, he needs to get his average to at least .240, even if his OBP and SLG numbers are poor. The glove has been pretty good since he came off the DL.

*Mike Lamb
The new whipping boy amongst Twins fans, Lamb has yet to homer, he's shown very little patience, and he appears to be pressing. He's been a little better of late, but it's starting to get far enough into the season that you have to stop calling it a slump and wonder if the guy just isn't going to get it done.
The Twins signed Lamb planning to give him his first shot at an everyday job, but it looks like there's a reason the Astros and Rangers never gave him 500 ABs.
Lamb has been halfway decent against lefties throughout his career, but this year he's 1-for-17. Against righties he's at .267, and more impressively, he's hitting a whopping .435/.407/.609 with RISP.
He's posted a .250 BABIP (average on balls in play), suggesting he's been a little unlucky, too.
Lamb signed a two-year contract, and the Twins top 3B prospects are all a few years away, so the smart play would be to keep playing him, at least against righties, and hope he breaks out of it. The numbers suggest he will.

*Tolbert
I keep waiting for him to fall on his face, and he hasn't, although his numbers have steadily declined since a fast start (he's already down to .274/.312/.356). Tolbert is not an option to be a starter at any position right now, and probably not ever. But he looks capable of carving out a Reboulet-like career as a useful utility guy.
Having said that, he should get plenty of starts at 3B against lefties until Lamb shows he can hit southpaws. Tolbert has hit .320/.346/.400 against lefties this year.

*Punto
It was obvious last year that Punto lost all of his confidence as his nightmare season continued to get worse. But he's been decent this year, hitting .265. Hopefully that's boosted his confidence a little bit. Fans continue to blame Punto for nearly everything that goes wrong with the Twins, but he's done nothing to hurt them this year (though he hasn't really done anything to help them, either).

*Gomez
He's no longer trying to bunt every time up, and it turns out he's a decent hitter (.275). He has a .360 BABIP, so cutting down on the strikeouts would help. He isn't nearly patient enough to bat leadoff, and I'm starting to wonder if, when he gets older, he'll be a guy who can hit in the 2 or 3 hole (which would allow Mauer to bat leadoff). He's been terrible in the OF (he already has more errors than Torii Hunter ever had in a season), but has 16 steals and 3 homers. He'll only get better, so, as mentioned earlier, it's hard to complain. Before the year, I would've put the odds of him posting an OPS above the league average at 1 in 50 (right now his OPS+ is 101).

*Michael Cuddyer
After a sub-par '07, Cuddyer keeps on hitting like a guy who should be batting eighth. Not much power, way too many infield popups. In '06, when Cuddyer had his career year (.284/24 homers/109 RBI) he struck out 130 times. Last year he struck out 107 times, and this year he's struck out 11 times in 80 ABs.
If he's made a conscious effort to make more contact, it's made him less effective.

*Delmon Young
So far, a huge disappointment. To be fair, Torii Hunter was hitting .220 in Double-A when he was Young's age, so it's about five years too early to even think about giving up on the guy.
But his poor start is disappointing nonetheless.
A .299 slugging percentage? .299???? Punto currently has a .347 slugging percentage.
Young's average and OBP have been slowly but steadily climbing of late, but he has to start elevating on some balls. He hits the ball on the ground even more than Mauer. He ranks last in the league in isolated power, and is hitting just .200 against lefties (let's face it, no one on the Twins can hit lefties).
Young has defended himself by saying that he always gets off to slow starts, including last year. True, he was hitting in the .220's at this time a year ago, but had already hit 4 of his 13 homers by now.
Young may end up being a true test of the Twins coaching staff, which is often accused of being unable to develop hitters. They absolutely have to get this guy hitting.

*Monroe
He's revived his life-support career with a recent hot streak. He's supposed to be the righthanded half of a platoon with Jason Kubel, but he's hitting .148 against lefties, and all four of his homers are off righties. That has obviously made Gardy's job more difficult.
One thing we do know is that Monroe's bat speed is still in question. He's hitting .050 against power pitchers, .441 against finesse pitchers (those numbers are consistent with his career splits).

*Kubel
Just when he finally got his chance, he went cold. He's probably getting close to make-or-break time, especially with Monroe hitting well.
But after an 0-for-15 slump, he hit a pinch-homer Tuesday and doubled twice Wednesday.
He has been hitting balls hard, even during his slump, as evidenced by his .242 BABIP (before Wednesday). My guess is Monroe will start to cool off, and Kubel's line drives will start to fall in.

Summary: Way too many Twins hitter are underachieving. But Cuddyer, Kubel, Lamb, Harris and Young all seem capable, if not likely, to make considerable improvements as the year progresses. It's just too bad they're taking so long to get going, because the pitching has overachieved. They could have a 5 or 6 game lead if some of these guys would hit like they're supposed to.

I Really Hate the Red Sox (Fans)

As long as I've been going to Twins games, the only opposing team that ever brought a lot of fans to the Metrodome was the New York Yankees. It was something I had gotten used to.
Then this weekend I was in Minny for the Twins/Red Sox series, and was exposed to an impressive display of douchebaggery (fun fact - my computer's spell checker did not object to the word 'douchebaggery'. Apparently that's a word).

The Dome was crawling with Red Sox fans. Dumb ones.
People that weren't on this bandwagon before 2004. People who have never heard of Wade Boggs, let alone Carl Yastrzemski. People who were there simply to be seen, wearing their cute scruffy, frat-boy style Red Sox hats and their Irish green T-shirts. None of them wear the navy blue replica caps, they all wear the tight-fitting gray ones with the stockings on the back (see picture of douches), because for these people, being a Sox fan is a fad, and these hats are the primary part of it.
This team obviously has a very real and loyal fan-base, but none of them were at the Dome this weekend.

All of which made the Twins victories on Friday and Sunday pretty enjoyable.
I was there for a bachelor party, and when it became apparent that we weren't going to win Saturday, we kicked the drinking into high gear so we'd forget what happened - it worked.
I talked our crew into staying to the end Friday, as I correctly predicted that Jonathan Papelboner would blow the save. When he did, we were not above yelling at 11-year old Sox fans to "Get the fuck out of our dome!" Yeah, we're not very mature. But we won. On Friday anyway.

Some notes on the weekend, as the Twins finish the 4-game series today.
*I have a hunch the Twins, in the long run, won't miss Pat Neshek as much as some people think. The Twins system is loaded with pitching talent, and they can't all be starters. Neshek's injury will give someone else an opportunity. Relievers are fairly easy to find.
With his funky delivery, I have always had my doubts about how long Neshek's career will last.
Maybe he'll come back 100%, and I hope he does. But if he doesn't, I wouldn't be surprised, or terribly worried.

*Nick Punto going on the DL, on the other hand, will really hurt the Twins. Just kidding.
I'm sure Ron Gardenhire is losing sleep wondering how he can be expected to put together lineups without Punto's .322 career slugging percentage, but not having him for 15 days will mean more at-bats for the exceedingly impressive Matt Tolbert, and it will also give Alexi Casilla a chance to come back up and hopefully regain some confidence. Casilla was so bad last year that he'd fallen almost off the prospect radar, but the Twins' organizational dearth of shortstops (the Twins have declared Casilla a shortstop now, suggesting they might consider Harris a candidate for a long-term contract), means he's still got a chance to get out of the doghouse and once again become a significant part of the team's future plans.

*Craig Monroe was so bad last year that he almost ended up out of baseball. He said it was just a bad year, many speculated that he was finished. GM Bill Smith took a gamble that Monroe was right and would bounce back, and he has. Credit to Monroe and Billy-boy ($3.8 million is still too much, though).

*I was almost positive that Mike Lamb was going to get the game-winning hit against Papelbon Friday. He was just so due that I knew it would happen. Lamb's average is up to .238, and while he still hasn't shown much pop, I remain convinced he will be in the .270-15 homer range by years end.

*I know Juan Rincon has been terrible numbers-wise for the last couple years, but the guy seems to have no luck at all. It seems like he's given up more hits on seeing eye grounders than anyone on the staff. Of course, back when he was good he just struck everybody out.

*Very impressive start from Glen Perkins (although it's kind of pathetic that he gave up a 450-footer to Coco Crisp). The next time you find yourself bitching about the Twins, consider this: The Twins have at least 10 pitching prospects, maybe more, who would be the No. 1 pitching prospect in another organization.

Credit where credit is due

I don't do this often, but I have to give Ron Gardenhire some credit here.
A few weeks ago, Carlos Gomez was, statistically, if not competitively, the worst player in the major leagues. The batting average barely over .200, the OBP right around there as well, with strikeouts, bad at-bats and bad plays in the field wiping out his occasional flashes of brilliance, which were largely limited to stealing second in the few instances he was able to reach base.

The StarTrib's Joe Christensen noted that Gomez was "dangerously overmatched", and suggested that a trip back to the minors might be best.
I wasn't quite ready to send him back to Triple-A, but suggested that another week of terrible play would be enough to do the trick, writing:
"It's still early, but you have to wonder if eventually Gomez would be better served to go back to Triple-A (where he's played a total of 36 games in his entire life) for awhile."

Gardenhire no doubt saw what the rest of us were seeing, but showed the kind of perspective and patience that has served him well throughout his managerial career (yes, I can admit it, there are some things Gardy does well).
He didn't overreact to a bad week and send Gomez to the minors, but he also didn't stubbornly pretend that the kid wasn't struggling. He decided to just give Gomez a day off.
He homered in his first at-bat of the next game, and since then is hitting .430 (13-for-30), which of course, was capped off by him becoming the first Twin to hit for the cycle since Kirby Puckett 22 years ago.
Gardy has done right by this kid so far, and that's encouraging.

Gomez is still very far from a finished product. He still has a poor on-base percentage, and still doesn't seem to know how to field ground balls/line drives in the outfield.
But it's pretty clear that he's got a chance to be awfully good.

Goin' Good

The Twins 16-14 record isn't all that impressive by itself. But they're in first place by 1.5 games, and more importantly, they're 12-6 in the division.

Just how important is that? Last year, the Twins were a more than respectable 51-39 against teams outside the AL Central. But against divisional opponents they were a miserable 28-44. That cost them a chance to compete for the postseason.
If the Twins can continue to hold their own against Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and yes, Kansas City, they just might be able to stay in this thing.

A big reason for that is the pitching. It is still, five weeks into the season, outperforming expectations. Boof Bonser's start on Sunday can't be overstated. Shaking off a six-run first inning that was as much due to bad luck as anything, to put up 5 zeros, is veteran/ace type stuff, and another sign that Boof and Scott Baker could form a solid tandem at the top of the rotation.

In the bullpen, Brian Bass has pitched very well of late, while Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain seem to be shaping up. Dennys Reyes is back to his '06 form, and Joe Nathan is Joe Nathan. It's still too early to be worried about Pat Neshek's minor struggles.

Other positives:
*Craig Monroe looks like he's shaken off his terrible 2007 season, and just might end up being a productive player this year (even if he is overpaid at $3.8 million).
*Joe Mauer is getting on base a lot.
*Carlos Gomez has been much better since the Twins started giving him a day off here and there.
*Justin Morneau is hitting like a cleanup hitter should.
*Adam Everett appears to be back to his old self in the field.
*Matt Tolbert has been a steady bench guy.

But, to quote Winston Wolf, Let's not start (expletive) each other's (expletive) yet.
This is still a flawed team.
Baker is going to the DL, and I'm still waiting for Nick Blackburn to start taking some lumps when the league catches up to him. Livan Hernandez has been hit hard in his last few starts, even the one Friday night when he only gave up a run. Glen Perkins is apparently going to be called up to replace Baker, and you never know what you'll get there (he does have a 2.97 ERA in Rochester). Kevin Slowey is back in the rotation after a month on the DL, which sounds like a recipe for some long balls.

Jason Kubel is getting to play every day, and while he's driving some extra base hits here and there, he's getting on base at a putrid rate.
Delmon Young and Mike Lamb have been no better at the plate than Nick Punto.

Of course, maybe that's reason for optimism, rather than pessimism. If Kubel was hitting .300, if and if Young and Lamb were both slugging over .450, the Twins would be looking even better. There's still a chance those things will happen eventually, so perhaps we have not yet hit the high-water mark.

May I call you Rondellmon?

It's early, so I'm not going to write anyone off. But while most of my friends and fellow Twins fans bitch and moan about Mike Lamb (he'll end up at .275 with 15 homers, so quit bitching) and Joe Mauer (he's never going to hit homers, deal with it), I find myself wondering when Delmon Young is going to put up numbers that are better than Nick Punto's.
OK, that's pushing it, but Delmon is currently getting out-OPS'd by Johan Santana. So are the Twins as a team, actually.

Last year in Tampa, Young hit .288 with 93 RBI, and those are two numbers that would indicate he had a good-but-not-great season. And at his age, it would stand to reason he's only going to get better. I've written that myself, and I still believe it to be true.
On the other hand, .288 isn't all that great when it comes with only 26 walks. That's a .316 OBP, and that's not very good. In addition he had only 13 homers, and he played in all 162 games. The guy had 645 at-bats. 13 homers in 645 ABs? I think Boof Bonser would hit more than 13 bombs if he got that many chances.

Young has been compared to various hall of fame players (always unfair, no matter how good a young guy actually is) and many, including myself, speculated that he might be able to cover Torri Hunter's offense as soon as this year. But he actually is closer to Carlos Gomez than Torii Hunter at this point. You can see the talent, but he just looks really raw. Not very patient with a very long swing. So far he's basically filled the void left by Rondell White.
Through 93 ABs entering play Sunday, DY had a miserable .289 OBP and even worse .312 slugging percentage. No homers, 3 doubles and a triple. And if my memory serves me correct, two of those three doubles came because he hustled against lazy OF's to get an extra base on a single. It's great that he did that, but it shows his power numbers could be even worse.

Now you can chalk it all up to his youth, and for now, I'll probably do that myself in the interest of staying positive with a young prospect. But in looking at his minor league numbers, it's clear that the higher Young has climbed, the less he's hit for power.
He hit 25 homers in the Sally League (A+) in 2004, then hit 20 dongs in only 84 games at Double-A in '05, at the age of 19. To be doing that at 19 is really impressive, and that's why, at the time, he was arguably the top hitting prospect in all of baseball.
But when he moved to Triple-A, he stopped hitting home runs.
6 homers in 52 games in 2005. 8 in 86 games in 2006. And 13 in 645 at-bats last year.

If Young doesn't hit homers, he won't be nearly as valuable, because he doesn't get on base much and doesn't play a premium defensive position. Torii Hunter never had a great OBP, but because he hit 25-30 homers and was a Gold Glove CF, his on-base skills didn't much matter.

Think of it this way. Joe Mauer's lack of power is annoying, yes. But he usually has a .400 OBP and is one of the best defensive players in the league at the most difficult position in the sport.

Imagine Young hitting .300 with 8 homers just like Mauer, but doing it in left field, with a .325 OBP. Would you trade the best pitching prospect in your organization for that?

Not ready, but it's not a big deal yet

It's hard to imagine Francisco Liriano's third start with the Twins going any worse.
2/3 of an inning, five hits, three walks and six runs. A total disaster.
By the time you read this, the Twins will have announced that Liriano is going back to Triple-A Rochester, with Red Wings closer Bobby Korecky getting called up to give the Twins 'pen another arm. With a few off days coming up, the Twins will probably be able to survive without a fifth starter until Kevin Slowey is ready to come off the DL.

It was clear that Liriano wasn't ready for a call-up, and the Rochester coaching staff warned the Twins that was the case, but they called him up anyway.
Even though he wasn't ready it still made some sense. The Twins wanted to be able to keep tabs on Liriano themselves. To be able to monitor his habits daily. That's understandable.
So if they still wanted to do that, they could just move Liriano to the bullpen and use him as a mop-up guy.

But apparently confidence is as much the issue as anything physical, so maybe a trip back to the minors makes sense. The most important thing, as Ron Gardenhire stated after the game, is that Liriano just keeps throwing. It doesn't really matter where. But for right now, going down to the minors can't be a bad thing.

There's really no reason to be surprised by any of this. Liriano didn't throw for, what, 19 months? What do you expect? Of course he won't have any command, or bite on his breaking pitches.

Surely the idea that Liriano will ever return to his former self is in doubt, but that was already the case as soon as he had TJ surgery. Nothing that has happened in these first couple months of his comeback have made a full recovery any more or less likely.

Notes from a nice win

I hate it when the Twins play in Oakland. Not so much because of how late it gets, but because of the incredibly annoying extraneous sounds that can be heard during the broadcast. Trumpets, harmonicas, whistles...what the hell? It drives me nuts.

But Tuesday it was worth it to tolerate those noises as the Twins posted an entertaining win, one that was spearheaded by Craig Monroe.
Monroe entered the game 7-for-11 in his career against Oakland starter Joe Blanton, and upped that to 10-for-14 (a .714 average) by singling, doubling and homering off Blanton.

The addition of Monroe has been widely criticized, and justifiably so. Teams like the Twins have no business paying platoon players $3.8 million. But the good news is Monroe has been showing signs that he may bounce back from last year's nightmare season. He's probably not ever going to repeat his 2006 season when he hit 28 homers and was a key member of the Tigers' run to the World Series, but he can give the Twins a dangerous bench bat, something they haven't really had in recent years.
And give credit to Ron Gardenhire for, so far, using Monroe optimally. I have to say I've been impressed with the way Gardy has managed his lineups and used his bench so far this season.

*Mike Lamb has gotten on the bad side of many impatient blog commenters around the web with his slow start, but it's silly to worry about him, or to suggest that he should lose his job. He went 3-for-4 Tuesday, and while only one of those three hits was hit particularly well, bumping his average could bump him out of his funk.

Unlike many of the stiffs the Twins have tried to pass off in recent years, Lamb actually has a track record, which is why Ron Coomer correctly scoffed when Anthony LaPanta asked him in the post game show if Lamb's slow start was a concern.
Lamb has had seven full seasons in the big leagues, and he put up the following numbers in those years:

YR Avg OBP SLG
00 .278 .328 .373
01 .306 .348 .412
02 .283 .354 .411
04 .288 .356 .511
05 .236 .284 .419
06 .307 .361 .475
07 .289 .366 .453

Yes, his 2005 stats are a red flag, but every other year, he was a reliable, solidly above average major league hitter. He will hit.

*On the other hand, it's official. Carlos Gomez sucks.
Calm down, now, I'm not giving up on him or anything. I think he has a chance to be great. His potential appears limitless.
But he is so not ready. Tuesday he was 0-for-5 with 4 Ks. He swings at everything. He has no approach at the plate. He's a poor bunter, and he bunts all the time.
He's now hitting .233/.250/.314, for a horrific .564 OPS. In 20 games he has 23 strikeouts, and 2 walks. Not the K/BB ratio you look for in a leadoff guy.

And while the catch he made Sunday afternoon was indeed impressive, Gomez has so far been a liability on defense as well. He takes absolutely horrendous angles to balls in the gap (both in the air and on the ground), which has already turned a few singles into doubles and doubles into triples. He also has yet to harness his impressive throwing arm, missing the cutoff man as often as he guns someone down.

Now. The fact that Gomez has played every inning so far is certainly defensible. The Twins are rebuilding this year, and Gomez is gaining valuable experience.
Why not let him play every day and work through his rough edges, right?

But the thing is, learning on the job doesn't have to be done at the big league level. In fact, sometimes it might be better off not to do it that way.
Torii Hunter spent all of 1999 in the big leagues, and struggled some (.255/.309/.380). When he struggled again in 2000 he was sent back to Triple A. But when he came back he pounded the ball, and hit 26 homers in 2001, the first of his several year run of being a solid major league slugger.

If Gomez is allowed to flail away for too long in the majors, it could hurt his confidence and affect his long term progression. It's still early, but you have to wonder if eventually Gomez would be better served to go back to Triple-A (where he's played a total of 36 games in his entire life) for awhile.

*Nice work by the Vikings picking up Jared Allen, the league's sack leader a year ago with 15.5 (also he wears No. 69. He he.). Considering the Vikings would've just ended up with another Duane Clemons or Fernando Smith with the draft pick, I strongly support the trade. NFL teams overvalue their draft picks.

*Speaking of the NFL and trades, how awesome is it that the Bengals would rather make Chad Johnson sit out the season then let him get his way, even if it means turning down decent trade offers? The Skins offered the Bengals a first and third round pick for the guy, and the Bengals basically said, 'No we want to screw this guy, even if it would help our team to make this trade.'
Chad Johnson is a fucking dick. I hate him. He sucks.

Minor matters

Two players that a large percentage of Twins fans have ripped on heavily in recent years are Scott Baker and Jason Kubel.

Fans (the dumb ones) tend to get really worked up about prospects that they hear about on the minor league reports on TV and the radio, but when those prospects don't pan out quickly enough for their liking, they're amazingly quick to give up on them. They start complaining that they'll never amount to anything, that they're bums, and that (fill in the name of an overrated journeyman) should be playing in their spot.

But the Twins have been patient with Baker and Kubel (in Kubel's case too patient), and now they're both emerging. After 7 excellent innings against Cleveland Sunday, Baker's ERA is 3.51. He fanned 8 and walked one. If Brendan Harris could've turned a DP, it would've been a shutout. Going back to the middle of last year, Baker has been pitching like an ace for a long enough stretch that it's now safe to think he's got the potential to be at least a good No. 2 type starter, maybe a No. 1.

And Kubel, playing every day, continues to hit well. He's second on the team in HR and RBI, and two more hits Sunday pushed his average to .266. I was sure that last year would be his breakout year, and, even though he finished strong, it didn't really happen. This year, it looks like he's well on his way. (And by breakout year, I mean .285 with 20 to 25 homers and 80 to 100 RBIs.)

What is the lesson here? Patience yes, but more so, to pay attention to minor league stats. If a guy has put up fantastic numbers in the minors he's got an excellent chance to put up numbers in the big leagues. So you show those guys plenty of patience.
Kubel hit .320/.385/.499 in his minor league career, and Baker posted a 2.99 ERA with 408 Ks and just 97 walks in 482 innings in his.

It's almost stunning to think of all the people last year who wanted Jason Tyner and even Lew Ford playing over Kubel. And who couldn't understand why Baker was getting another callup.

Now it should be sinking in, and it really shouldn't be viewed as a surprise by anyone who's been paying attention.

Same shit, different day

You know....Aw, forget it.
I don't have the energy. These last two days have sucked dog balls.
I just hope the picture on the right (similar to the one from yesterday, no?) doesn't get too familiar.

The Tigers will be talking about this game in October

Well, at least we've got a lot to talk about.

First off, this loss doesn't hurt quite as much for me as you might think, because nothing in the Twins first 12 games did anything to change my mind about this year's team. They're a .500 team. Blowing a five-run lead would kill me if I thought it had a chance to cost the Twins a pennant, but this team ain't winning no pennant, so, you know. BFD.

What sucks about this loss is you know its the kind we're going to hear about forever. Because you know, you just know, the Tigers are back now. This is exactly what they needed - an emotional, come from behind win at home.
I'm not saying this game will cause an immediate turnaround, because the Tigers were going to get going eventually anyway. But you know when they do, they'll be telling local and national media about how it was that big comeback against the Twins that did the trick, especially since Jim Leyland supposedly ripped his guys Sunday night. That had nothing to do with the Twins choking, but it sounds good in the paper, right?

No, the Tigers won because the Twins gave the game away.
Here's how:
*Nick Blackburn fell apart. It would be easy to blame Ron Gardenhire for not having Matt Guerrier ready to go, but Blackburn fell apart so fast, there wasn't much he could do.
*Guerrier wasn't very good. He was leaving his pitches up and over the middle, and the Tigers hitters are way too good to do that against.
*Gardy left Guerrier in too long. When Gardy was asked about that afterwards he said, refreshingly, that Guerrier should be good enough to protect a five run lead without getting Neshek up. He's right. But he still could've had Jesse Crain or Juan Rincon ready to go, and either of them would've been a better option at that point, because Guerrier was getting thumped.
*Neshek was terrible. His slider had so little bite that it actually looked like an 82-mph fastball on screen. He was throwing puss right down the middle of the plate. The Rodriguez triple was especially frustrating. I-Rod almost always swings at the first pitch, so beginning an at-bat with a get-me-over hanger, whether intentional or not, is unforgivable.
*Gardy left Neshek in too long, too. I can understand trusting him and wanting to ride him, but Dennys Reyes or Joe Nathan could have at least been warming up.
*Denard Span should've caught that ball. Weak.
*Carlos Gomez might be fast, but he might also be, fundamentally, the worst CF in baseball. Watching him and Span try to cut off soft liners into the gap was embarrassing. If Torii Hunter's in CF, he cuts those balls off, and the game might still be going.
*Adam Everett appears to be, right now, the worst player in baseball. He can't hit (we knew that), but right now he can't throw it either. If he isn't fielding, and fielding extremely well, he's worthless.
*Nick Punto very nearly tied the game with an opposite field drive in the 9th, and he's showing signs of being less terrible at the plate, but I still think you've got to have Craig Monroe pinch hit there if you have Matt Tolbert ready to come in in the infield (they did).

About blogs

In case you didn't already know, I've branched out to blogging professionally at argusleader.com, and today, instead of talking about the debut of Francisco Liriano (that was exactly what you expected from him anyway wasn't it?), I'll direct you to something that I think is relevant to anyone who takes the time to stop by here once in awhile: Blogging in America.

We'll return to your regularly scheduled Twinstown stuff tomorrow.

Bats Come Alive

One game can often easily change the perception of a team or unit (in this case, the Twins offense).
A dozen runs and suddenly everyone feels better.
It's just one game, but there is plenty you can take from this one to make you feel a little better about this struggling lineup.
*Jason Kubel is going to play after all. Ever since the Twins overpaid for Craig Monroe, Ron Gardenhire seemed to be hinting that Kubel would lose ABs to Monroe, and that seemed to be confirmed when Monroe got the start on opening day at DH, even with a righty on the mound. But I'm starting to think that move was largely a pointed motivational tactic aimed at Kubel, who Gardy and others often complain doesn't "show enough fire".

I for one don't give a shit if a guy "shows fire" if he can play.
For example:
Nick Punto=Fire=Shitty. Alex Rodriguez=not that much fire=best player alive.

Kubel is no A-Rod, but he was the team's best hitter in the second half last year. And after driving in six runs with a double and a grand slam Wednesday night, Gardy had this to say:
"He's in the lineup to hit. I've always said I really believe this guy can hit. He's going to get plenty of opportunities this year. He got 450 at-bats last year, I think, and he's going to get more than that this year. He's healthy from his knee problems now and it's time to get his at-bats and go."

Is Gardy a hypocrite pulling a 180? Or has he planned all along to give Kubel the ABs he deserved, and just wanted to get his goat a little by benching him on opening day?
I'm guessing the latter. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that Kubel is apparently finally going to get his chance to play every day.

*Brendan Harris had two singles a double and a walk, and made another error.
He's obviously not much of a fielder, but he can hit. While many have wondered if his '07 numbers (.286, 12 homers, 35 doubles) were a fluke, it might be worth asking if that was just a start. Maybe he's just going to get better.
And while his defense is a concern, there's a chance the Twins can help him improve. It's a lot easier to get better as a fielder (especially at a non-impact position like 2B) than it is to learn how to hit.

*Mike Lamb had a single and a double, and appears to be warming up, though he did have to leave the game Wednesday with a bruised foot. Joe Mauer is hitting .323, and Justin Morneau is already up to .233 after an 0 for 16 start. And Morneau also has five walks (and just five strikeouts) in 9 games.

*Scott Baker may have given up 3 runs in 5 innings (that's a 5.40 ERA), but he pitched like an ace. How?
When spotted a 7-0 lead, he correctly realized that as long as he didn't give up any free passes and kept the baserunners to a minimum, there was no way the White Sox could win. Where alot of pitchers would've continued to pitch carefully (because they're worried about their ERA), Baker went right at the hitters, and allowed three homers. All were solos. None were a factor in the game. That is how you pitch with a lead.

*The good news never ends. Matt Garza had to leave his last start with Tampa and has been put on the DL with radial nerve irriation. He claims it was something that started to bother him late last year. That might not make the D-Rays too happy, and Gardy took exception to Garza's suggestion.

"Wasn't he healthy all spring for them?" Gardenhire said. "So now he's going to say he was hurt earlier? That's not good."

"He never missed a bullpen [session] or a start [here]. I don't know what he's saying. I haven't read it and don't plan on reading it, just based on what you said. Everything was documented on Matt Garza and there were no injuries here."

"If he said he was hurt, I'm not going to call him a liar or anything like that. But he should have let us know that he might have had an injury. Normally, it's good when the team you are pitching for knows that. But I doubt that he had any injuries here."

Maybe Garza is damaged goods, but the more pressing concern for the Rays should be the fact that Garza kind of seems like a mental midget. He seems sort of...scatterbrained.