Twins Happenings
Wow, I took Friday off and was out of media contact unti late last night. Looks like quite the eventful four days in the AL Central.
I was in a car in the middle of nowhere, northern Michigan at 1:00 in the morning when I got reception on ESPN radio for about a 15 minute span. They set up the Twins game and then cut to John Gordon's call of the Kubel 3-run dinger. Sounds like the place went bonkers. LOVED hearing "Touch 'em all!!!" once more. But they said nary a word about the Gardy incident, or about fans throwing hats (love it!) and balls (noooooo!!!!) on the field. Please give me details.
White Sox are in full on implosion mode now. Looks like Ozzie went off the deep end yesterday. All this and they went and got Jr., too. That's not what that lineup needs - another guy who hits the occasional longball but doesn't get on base nearly enough (at this late stage of his career).
We made our big trade deadline move as you all predicted months ago, by going out and getting a staff ace. From Rochester. But based on yesterday's performance, it looks like a nice shot in the arm. I'm almost more interested to hear what the crowd's reaction was to Rincon's Dome return, though, than about how Liriano looked.
Now, someone other than me go Googling and answer me this: We're beating up on the AL Central. We clubbed the National League. And that's enough to put us in first place in the division on August 3 (wish I would have bet on that one). But is it anything to get excited about, other than in terms of exceeding expectations and flipping off the naysayers once again? What's our record against the AL West and East? More specifically, against Tampa, Boston, NY, and Anaheim? If the season ended today we'd host Boston in the ALDS (I think). Is there any reason whatsoever to think that, even with home field, we have a chance in that matchup? I don't think so. I'm trying to remain the skeptic so as not to get disappointed. We have a lot of non-Central games left.
4 Comments:
I think we would actually end up playing the Rays if the post season started today. I don't think two teams from the same division can start the playoffs against each other. With two teams from the East, the Angels (best record) would get the team with the worst record out of the East, the Red Sox, leaving the Twins to go on the road with the Rays. If you ask me the Rays are a best case scenario for the Twins.
According to our favorite 70% accurate site, Wikipedia, as of July 30 here is the break down:
Rays 1-1
BoSox 3-4
Yanks 2-5
BJs 0-3
O's 1-2
Total 7-15
Angels 1-3
A's 1-2
Rangers 5-5
M"s 0-0
Total 7-10
Total for both 14-25 yikes
They definitely need to take care of business vs Sea and KC on the road, somehow pull their head out of their ass against the Yanks in the dome, beat up Seattle again and the be respectable vs. Oakland. You know they are going to give back some games on that monster road trip vs. LA, SEA, Oak and Toronto.
August 4, 2008 at 11:10 AM
RTS - Nice work. We got a lotta losses aganist good teams.
MCA - Just a note on that Thursday night game against the White Sox. Overall the inning lasted 30minutes due to the craziness. Basically it all started innocently enough with Span getting hit when he was trying to lay down a bunt, he starts to trot to first when the third base ump calls it a strike (even after it was clear that SPan had pulled back and gotten plunked.) Gardy went bonkers, kicking his hat in a Lou Pinealla-type move and laying into the ump.
The fans get all heated up and start throwing crap (I think it was DQ hat night to boot so you know those got tossed), Ozzie pulls everyone off and starts jawing with a fan who is hanging over the CWS dugout (I was like 'dude, shut up and sit in your seat' but you could tell this guy was egging Ozzie on.) Other than the threat of calling the game and giving the Sox the 'W', it was fun.
Best part was that after order was restored, Span who was sitting at 1-2 in the count, draws a walk on the next three pitches. Kubel's shot was sweet, the place went nuts as did the bench. Overall it was the most entertaing half an hour of Twins baseball this season.
One last note, as much as I hate the White Sox, I was pretty impressed with Ozzie in his post-game interview. Dude never says anything bad about how the team plays and he has a ton of respect for Gardy.
August 4, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Excellent musings this morning, guys. After Jan Stenerud texted me saying "be sure to watch Baseball Tonight" last Thursday, I knew I was in for a treat. Love that we took care of business vs. the CWS. My worry with them is that every time Ozzie goes nuts, they respond with an 8-game win streak.
Looks like Liriano had a nice outing yesterday - nothing like his Cy-worthy stuff in '06, but a nice addition nonetheless.
Also, to our advantage on the upcoming roadtrips is this: Oakland has completely packed it in for the season...they are 2-10 since the All-Star break, and are essentially fielding a AAA team and holding tryouts for next year. Seattle gave up a while ago, but they scare me because they held on to just enough of their big-name guys, who could start playing for new contracts somewhere else.
If we can't handle the BJ's and O's, we don't deserve a playoff spot (although Toronto's pitching is solid).
August 4, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Yeah, right on, rts. I forgot that Anaheim would get the Wild Card regardless, with the best record in the Majors.
Funny thing about the Thursday game is I was talking to Gauck from O'Hare, where I explained I had just left the bar after the 6th to get to my gate and that it just didn't look like we had the mojo to claw all the way back from 4-0 that night. Obviously, I know nothing.
August 4, 2008 at 2:00 PM
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