Banged up Twinkies have a bang up weekend
I always wanted to write headlines for the Strib. Anyway, you all know the Twins take 2 of 3 over the weekend and gear up for their final meeting tonight with the Red Sox. (For the record, I did not hide in any closets during last nights game when Nathan was doing his best Eddie Guardado impersonation.)
Few updates (no surprises) -
1. The Shiek is shut down for the year. Wonder if he'll start going to more baseball card shows now that he has some time on his hands.
2. Punto is on the 15 DL and Casilla got recalled. Listening to the radio yesterday, apparently Gardy has major issues with Casilla and his attitude.
Highlights -
1. How about Gomez drawing the walk on Friday night against Papelbon and then drawing the walk with the bases loaded on Saturday? He has more walks than Kubel.
2. This was a text I sent to a couple friends on Friday night: "Mike Lamb - professional hitter."
3. Let the Monroe v. Kubel debate begin (again)!
4. Blackburn and Perkins get a solid B for their efforts.
Lingering questions -
1. What is Boof's deal? He gave up 6 runs (yeah, Harris and Young had something to do with it) but anyone have confidence in this guy? Does he have confidence in himself?
2. Heard on the radio yesterday that Delmon Young is using his dad as his his hitting coach and won't take advice from Joe Vavra or any other Twins. Not good.
3. What is up with Kubel? Talk about a sluuuuuuummmmp. Hitting .234 with 3 BB & 24k's.
4. Twinkies have made a name for themselves with solid defense but have looked kind of ugly in the field. Maybe it's just me.
5. One of the more frustrating things with this team is when, like on Saturday, the Twins need some pop from their lineup and the inning starts with "Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer" and they go down 1-2-3.
Anyway, this is the best team we've seen all year (one of the top two teams in baseball, how annoying is that?!?!) and we have held our own. Good for us! We need all the moral victories we can get.
6 Comments:
Yep - I'm questioning both my dissing of Monroe and hyping of Kubel right about now. I'd like, of course, to be proven right about Kubel and wrong about Monroe.
For once I agree with Joe Morgan - there is no way on Earth this team should have had just 17 dingers going into last night's game. That's anemic.
Also, how un-fun is it to watch us with a big lead early against the BoSox? It wasn't a question of whether they would come back and at least make it close, it was simply a question of when they would do so. We just don't have anyone dominant enough to shut down an offense like that. Big shortcoming of ours until Baker comes back healthy and Liriano comes back ready. I mean, really, Livan is our ace right now. Pitching beautifully at times, but no way should a guy who throws between 65 and 85 be your ace.
Team is seriously banged up right now. Maybe it'll make them stronger if they can weather the storm here in May and get healthy for the summer.
May 12, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Can you rank the following players by HR's: Joe Mauer, Brandon Harris, and Adam Everett? If you said Harris (2), Everett (1) and Mauer (0) you would be right.
Like MCA said it was a given that the Sox were going to make a game out of it. I wanted to go to bed but ended up watching the whole game.
What do you guys think of Blackburn?
May 12, 2008 at 12:41 PM
I like Blackburn. When he's settled down, like the last couple innings last night, he's got a good mix with a nice heater. If he hits location, he can be very good.
Mauer needs to swing for the fences until he lands one in the upper deck just to shut people up. Me among them, I guess. I understand his batting philosophy is work the count, including pitch count, and get yourself on base, but no one's really afraid of him right now. He'll finding himself walking less when the league determines he won't really hurt them by hitting singles all the time. Not to criticize - he's a catcher hitting .331. I would like some pop now and then, though. Same goes for Delmon x2, though. His lack of power was not expected and is hurting us more.
Overall, at almost a quarter of the way through the season, my impression is that this team is showing me more than expected, given the various injuries and Liriano problem. That said, doesn't your gut just tell you they're a lot more capable of losing 9 in a row than winning 9 straight?
May 12, 2008 at 2:33 PM
Yeah...I feel there may be a bit of smoke-and-mirrors action going on here, but never underestimate the piranha factor. Go-go wreaks havoc on the basepaths, Lamb is a pro hitter and our 3-4-5 spot has the potential to get hot. Delmon is killing us...there was a huge discussion thread on the Strib.com regarding whether he's a bust...and I think it's too early to tell. I doubt it, personally, he just needs some time to settle down. The dude was the runner-up rookie of the year last year, right (according to John Miller last night).
I actually liked what Blackburn was doing last night, even though he gave up some absolute ROPES. The way he settled down and struck out guys (particularly Ortiz) really impressed me.
Great to see the Twins on national TV, man. Would love to see them steal another one tonight.
May 12, 2008 at 3:02 PM
...for instance, right now, with a man on third, 7-3 game, 2 outs and a mediocre reliever on the mound for the BoSox, would be a perfect time for Joe Mauer to try to hit a 400 foot bomb up into the Hrbek seats. Game would be over and we could all stop fretting that he's got no more power than lh.
May 12, 2008 at 8:18 PM
I too like Blackburn. What happened to him the other night happens to a lot of guys. The Twins put together a long half inning batting, he sat on the bench too long and then came out not as sharp. 5 to 6 innings seems like his max before he gets shakey. Of the young pitchers, he is he is my #1 guy.
May 13, 2008 at 9:54 AM
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