Twinkie Offense

Original entry posted here.

First of all, what a strange ending to the series against Boston yesterday.  Four ejections in the same inning, with the catchers and managers on both sides getting the boot (Which forced the Twins to play without a DH for the rest of the afternoon.  Fun).  Seriously, the consensus on both sides is that the umpiring in that game was pretty bad.  Which is a shame, since all of the controversy overshadowed what was actually a really good ballgame.  Josh Beckett and Anthony Swarzak were locked in a tight pitcher's duel through the first seven innings, with Beckett eventually outdueling his rookie opponent.  Obviously, it's a bit disappointing that the Twins only managed to split the series against the Sox at the Dome, but it just doesn't seem like quite as much of a letdown as the previous 1-6 roadtrip.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Twins had won four games in a row coming into the series, but it doesn't seem as hard to watch your team lose when they play some good baseball in the process. And the Twins played well for the most part, it just wasn't enough to win the series against the Sox.  It isn't like the series at Fenway, where the Twins never really bothered to show up in the first place.  Or against the Yankees, where they let three games slip away in the later innings (and were then pummeled in the finale).  Losses of that sort are enough to prompt a fan suicide watch.

The Twins' offense has gotten really hot during the month of May, and with 55 home runs coming into tonight's game against the Rays, has been unusually potent as well (they hit 111 the entire 2008 season).  Well, at least the first half of the order has been on fire anyway:  Denard Span is batting .303/.412/.404 in the leadoff spot, Joe Mauer is apparently made of magic (seriously, .407/.496/.824 with 11 HR and an OPS of 1.320 in 113 plate appearances), Justin Morneau is leading the AL in OPS and slugging percentage and is in the top five in nearly every other offensive category, and Jason Kubel is having a career year (though he's still struggling to hit lefties, with an OPS of .429).  Joe Crede will probably be good for about 20 homers this year, besides reminding us what it's like to have an actual third baseman playing third.  And even Michael Cuddyer is finally showing the type of power the Twins expected when they signed him to a multiyear deal before the start of last season, batting .330/.417/.670 with 7 homers and an OPS of 1.087 through the end of this month.  Whether or not he'll continue to be so productive remains to be seen (his career numbers suggest otherwise), but if nothing else it could make him a valuable trade piece in the offseason should the Twins fail to make the playoffs for a third straight year.

Unfortunately, not everyone is hitting so well.  The bottom of the order, particularly the middle

infield, stinks.  Earlier this week, Aaron Gleeman compared the offensive production of Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla, Brendan Harris, and Matt Tolbert combined to that of national league pitchers, and the infielders just barely came out on top.  Of course, it didn't have to be this way.  Before he was injured, Jason Bartlett was batting .373/.418/.596 and providing some good defense for the Rays, which just makes that trade seem so much worse.  And Orlando Hudson, who the Twins could've signed for half the price of Nick Punto, is hitting .340/.413/.485 with an OPS of .898 for the Dodgers.  The failure to upgrade the middle infield, like the failure to address the issues with the bullpen, is coming back to haunt the Twins.

And now Punto is on the 15-day DL because he sucks with an ouchie groin.  Alexi Casilla has been called up from Rochester and Brendan Harris will be the starting SS for the time being.  Hopefully the middle infield will now be a little more productive at the plate than NL pitchers.

The Boston media has apparently been fawning over Joe Mauer already, even though he won't be a free agent until after the 2010 season.  It doesn't bother me if an organization wants to pursue high-profile free agents to address one of its most glaring needs, even if some of those free agents happen to be Twins.  Obviously it makes a lot of sense to go after the best talent on the market, especially if you have the resources available to do so. The problem is that Mauer isn't available yet, and it's a bit presumptuous to simply assume he will be.  While the Twins are notoriously frugal as an organization, they have expressed a desire to keep their native son in a Twins uniform through the prime of his career.  SO KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OUR CATCHER YOU F***ING VULTURES.  But please help yourselves to one of our useless gritty, scrappy middle infielders who do the little things right and battle their tails off.  No really, I insist.

Hmm, maybe I should add "This Week in F--k You" as a regular feature during the offseason.  Of course, most of those posts would probably be directed at Bill Smith, anyway.

Frankie's Odd Outing

Original entry posted here.

• Francisco Liriano was awful despite striking out seven hitters in four innings

As Fangraphs notes, Francisco Liriano had statistically one of the strangest outings of the year against the Red Sox Monday afternoon.  He struck out seven batters in four innings, didn't walk anyone, and still surrendered five runs on eleven hits.  While some of these balls were hit hard, and Frankie was struggling a bit with command of his fastball, he did get extremely unlucky in that pretty much everything that could have fallen for a hit actually did (Boston's BABIP was .733, which is very unusual in combination with such a high strikeout rate).  He was also unlucky that Brian Buscher, who has the range of a telephone pole, started at third in place of Joe Crede (who is day-to-day after being hit on the hand with a pitch on Sunday).  Almost everything hit to third ended up in the outfield, and unfortunately it led to a short start for Liriano. 

Of course, Frankie certainly deserves his share of the blame for Monday's meltdown, too.  His struggles with his command and his tendency to overthrow when he gets himself in trouble have been well-documented.  His numbers certainly suggest that he's having trouble finding the strike zone, with a mediocre 1.88 K/BB ratio and an ugly 4.1 BB/9 rate.  The Twins have been patient with Frankie (and really all of the struggling starters) so far, but they can't afford to do so much longer and expect to contend for a division title.  Anthony Swarzak pitched effectively enough against Milwaukee on Saturday, only striking out three and walking two but shutting out the Brewers for seven innings.  Obviously Swarzak will need more than one start to prove he can pitch effectively in the major leagues (his next start against Boston will be most telling), and Glen Perkins probably has the most vulnerable spot in the rotation.  Still, it isn't unreasonable to think that a demotion to the bullpen is in Frankie's future if he fails to show any significant improvement.

• Nick Blackburn, on the other hand, has been remarkably consistent

Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey have proven to be the most consistently effective starters

thus far.  Blackburn had one of his best starts of the season against the Red Sox last night, surrendering only one earned run on eight hits and recording a career-high seven strikeouts.  His 3.55 ERA leads the team, and although he's given up a lot of hits this year, most of them have been relatively harmless singles.  Blackburn has also been stingy about issuing free passes (only 19 in 63.1 IP) and home runs (only 4), which is obviously very important for a contact pitcher.  His 4.12 FIP is very good for a sinkerballer (the league average is 4.50), especially since his .298 BABIP is only a little better than league-average.

And after I posted this, I discovered that Twinkie Town has a much better assessment of our default ace.

Kevin Slowey got off to a bit of a rough start, surrendering twenty-two hits and posting a 7.94 ERA in his first two starts, but he's settled down as well and has become one of the best starters in the rotation.  Both his command and control have been impeccable, posting a league-best 9.75 K/BB ratio and 0.65 BB/9 rate.  While he tends to be an extreme fly ball pitcher, Slowey has been pretty good at keeping the ball in the park, giving up the gopher ball at a rate of about 1.3 per nine innings.  Better yet, most of these home runs have come with the bases empty and thus keeping the damage to a minimum. 
 

• Etc.
  

Is the Joe Crede signing the best thing Bill Smith has done so far as GM?  Well, considering that his other moves include the Santana trade, the Delmon Young trade (which is looking worse by the day), signing the likes of R.A. Dickey and Luis Ayala to upgrade the bullpen, and passing on Orlando Hudson in favor of Nick Punto, then it probably is.

Speaking of decisions that may come back to haunt them, the Twins have likely blown their chance to re-sign Mauer at a more reasonable rate.  Which means they probably won't re-sign him at all.  I guess that's good news for Red Sox fans.

O Happy Day

Original entry posted here.

• Twins thump White Sox 20-1

The Twins were simply trying to avoid being swept by the Pale Hose, and going winless on this road trip, and somehow managed to score twenty runs in the process.  Before the seventh-inning stretch, no less. While it seems like pretty much every Twin had a hit (Except for Nick Punto, who went 0-for-5 with 3 Ks.  Justin Morneau went hitless, too, though he did draw 3 walks, one of which was intentional), Joe Mauer certainly had a good day at the plate.  He hit the second grand slam of his career, as well as a pair of doubles, and drove in six runs.  Ron Gardenhire shook up the lineup a bit, batting Mauer second and moving Matt Tolbert down to the eighth spot, a move that is long overdue.  Mauer has always been more of a prototypical #2 hitter, since he hasn't typically shown enough power to be a #3 hitter (although that appears to be changing), and it generally makes sense to have one of your best hitters batting second.  Gardy has always been reluctant to do this though, since he doesn't like the idea of having four lefties batting in a row.  Perhaps this outpouring of offense will convince Gardy that it's OK to bat a bunch of lefties in a row when those lefties include Denard Span, Joe Mauer, and Justin Morneau.

The Twins did get a lot of help from former Yankee fan-favorite Wilson Betemit, who spent the afternoon making a mockery out of the third base position.  Bartolo Colon really only gave up one earned run before being yanked in the second inning, the other seven came after Betemit failed to field a Nick Punto bunt.  Betemit didn't help his cause at the plate, either, going 0-for-4 and stranding a runner on base. 

Nick Blackburn scattered four hits and shut out the White Sox through seven innings, and helped the Twins end a streak of a different kind:  the tendency of the pitching staff to give back the lead, often in the bottom of the inning.  This has been a consistent problem throughout the season, but it's been particularly troublesome on this road trip.  Before leaving for the seven-game trip to New York and Chicago, the Twins had swept the Tigers and were tied for first place.  But the pitching staff blew at least four leads going into the later innings, costing the Twins at least as many wins and putting them 5.5 games behind the first-place Tigers (who haven't lost since).  Had the Twins managed to hold those leads, they would probably have finished the road trip 4-3. if not 5-2, instead of 1-6 and would probably be trailing Detroit by just a game or two.     

• But wait, there's more

This lopsided loss couldn't have come at a worse time for the White Sox.  Jake Peavy was deciding whether to accept a trade to the Southside, and not surprisingly, he declined.  The outcome of this game probably had little to do with his decision, however, since Peavy has long expressed a preference to remain in the National League.  It's also not terribly surprising that Peavy would prefer to remain in an extreme pitcher's ballpark, such as Petco, rather than move to a hitter's paradise such as the Cell.

However, as much as it pains me to say this, the White Sox should probably consider themselves lucky that the deal fell through.  Whether or not Jake Peavy should be considered one of the best pitchers in the league is the subject of intense debate, since he does pitch in a very pitcher-friendly ballpark.  While his road numbers in general aren't exactly terrible, his WHIP increases from 1.085 to 1.293 and his K/BB ratio decreases from 3.73 to 2.54 outside the pitcher-friendly confines of Petco Park.  Which indicates that Peavy might have a rough transition to the American League, and especially to the hitter-friendly U.S. Cellular Field.  And then there's the matter of Peavy's contract, which the ChiSox would have been on the hook for had he actually agreed to the trade.  $52 million over the next three years is an awful lot of money to spend on a guy who may or may not pitch as effectively in the AL, not to mention the prospects Chicago would have to give up in exchange.   

• But wait, there's more

On a completely unrelated note, the Wild have hired Chuck Fletcher as their new GM (sorry Pierre).  I'm not going to go into much detail about the hiring, since this is a baseball blog, except to say that this does like a very good hire (on paper, anyway).  This team is going to look very different going forward, which will be very interesting.  Still, it's probably best to see what moves he makes first, including hiring a new coach, before getting too excited. 

Oh, yeah, and the Wolves have a new GM now too, but zzzzzzz....

Crisitunity

Original entry posted here.

Normally I would be upset when the Twins lose five games in a row, especially when they blow about a million chances to win.  But not this time.  No, I think getting swept in Yankee Stadium, and now getting blown out by the White Sox, is actually a good thing.  Yes I do.  Because now the front office has been forced to confront the fact that this team just isn't going to contend the way it is currently constructed.  And um, I was going to post a rant about the failure of the front office to upgrade both the bullpen and the middle infield during the off-season, and how they like to wait until it's too late to try to make any improvements, but they've just made a big move that changes everything ok, that's a bit hyperbolic, but it is a change that makes me rewrite what I was going to write in the first place.

While the Twins might not actually have the worst bullpen in the league, this group of relievers is still pretty bad.  In particular, the relief corpse has been terrible at allowing inherited runners to score.  And apparently the FO has gotten sick of it too, because lefty Craig Breslow has been claimed off waivers by Oakland to clear space on the roster for Anthony Swarzak (more on Swarzak in a minute).  While it's no secret that Breslow has been struggling this year, the move is still a bit surprising.  I thought the Twins would give him more time to turn things around, especially considering how well he pitched last year, but Breslow evidently became expendable once Sean Henn was called up right after Perkins was placed on the 15-day DL.  Henn was once a promising prospect for the Yankees who's never managed to stick in the major leagues, and he probably won't serve as anything more than a LOOGY at this point.  Still, the Twins haven't even had an effective LOOGY since losing Dennys Reyes to free agency.  At any rate, pitchers like Breslow are always available on the waiver wire, so it isn't a huge loss even if Henn doesn't exactly work out either (and after giving up a couple of runs to the Pale Hosers last night, this is entirely possible).

Swapping Henn for Breslow doesn't exactly solve the problem, though, as the Twins are essentially trading one soft-tossing lefty with control issues for another.  But more help might be on the way, perhaps in the form of Anthony Swarzak.  Swarzak has been called up from Rochester to replace Glen Perkins in the rotation, and he's been one of the most intriguing pitching prospects in the organization (there's are a couple of good articles about Swarzak here and here).  Through his first seven starts for the Red Wings this season, he's posted a 2.25 ERA with a 32/11 K/BB ratio and 1.159 WHIP. If he impresses during his stint with the major league club, it's possible he might be kept in the bullpen once Perkins returns from the DL.

By the way, Perkins' elbow has apparently been bothering him for sometime and is likely the cause of his struggles after his first three starts.  He had been hiding the injury in hopes that he could simply pitch through the pain.  Obviously this is never a good idea (just ask Francisco Liriano).  At the very least his stubbornness and pride has cost the team wins, and he's lucky to have avoided the worst-case scenario so far.  Gosh, with three of his teammates (Liriano, Bonser, Neshek) having faced surgery and serious questions about ever pitching again, you would think Perk would be smarter than that.

More EPIC FAIL at Yankee Stadium

Original entry posted here.

Well, I certainly can't blame any of these losses on the starting pitchers.  Unless, of course, you want to blame them for not pitching complete-game shutouts, which is essentially what they've needed to do to beat the Yankees.  All three pitched well enough to earn the win in every single game of this series, but the bullpen and the offense haven't exactly held up their part of the bargain.  Francisco Liriano gave up one earned run in six innings, and although he wasn't particularly sharp, consistently managed to pitch himself out of trouble.  Which pretty good for a guy whose emotions often get the better of him when things don't go his way and would subsequently let the game get out of hand (like in this game against the White Sox).  Nick Blackburn was also pretty effective, giving up a three-run homer to Mark Teixeira, but settled down nicely after that and surrendered only four runs through 7.2 innings.  Kevin Slowey pitched an absolute gem through 7.2 innings, striking out eight batters and outlasting A.J. Burnett.  Unfortunately, the two earned runs he surrendered in the bottom of the seventh kept him from actually out-dueling his Yankee counterpart and earning a much-deserved win.

While it's tempting to blame the bullpen for everything, the truth is that the Twins left a lot of runners on base.  Yes, Joe Nathan deserves the blame for blowing the save on Friday night.  Yes, Craig Breslow surrendered a two-run homer to A-Rod in the bottom of the thirteenth in game two.  And yes, today Jesse Crain gave up the game-winning homer to Johnny Damon in the tenth.  But it doesn't really help that Twinkies have stranded 34 runners on base in the first three games of the series.  Twice they loaded up the bases in today's game, and twice they failed to drive in any runs.  It's somewhat understandable that they couldn't do much against A.J. Burnett, but the failure to do anything against a journeyman like Brett Tomko is simply inexcusable.  All of the games in this series have been decided by two runs or less, and the Twins have led going into the later innings in every single one.  But the failure to capitalize on scoring chances, and the failure of the pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, to hold the lead has been frustrating.  It is costing the team wins, plural.  And even if they manage to win the division anyway, which they could, so what?  They are likely to meet one of the AL East teams, such as the Red Sox or Yankees, in the first round.  And will likely get swept in the first round if they don't do something to shore up some of the glaring weaknesses in the bottom of the lineup and in the bullpen.

By the way, how amazing is Joe Mauer?  This has to be the play of the decade.  I don't care what it costs, Joe has to stay in a Twins uniform until he dies.

Drinking Games

Original entry posted here.

Oh, I could talk about last night's EPIC FAIL at Yankee Stadium, but there's already a pretty good postmortem here.  And I really don't feel like it.  I will say this though:  there is no team in the league as adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory quite like the Twins.  The Yankees did everything in their power to ensure the Twinkies would win, including surrendering three homers to our M&M boys and stranding ten runners on base, and yet our boys still found a way to lose.  I predict a four-game sweep by the Yanks. The Twins will lead in all of the next three games, and then something really weird will happen in the later innings.  Like that bizarre inside-the-parker on a ball Denard Span would normally catch.  This is the kind of thing that always happens whenever the Twins visit the Bronx, new stadium or not.  Oh well, at least Justin Morneau likes the short porch in right.

No, I would rather talk about drinking games instead.  I haven't really found a good one for Twins games.  During Wild games, we usually just do shots whenever they score.  Which is usually only two or three times per game (Well, except during the last two games of the season, in which they scored a combined fourteen goals.  I have never been so sick in my life). That doesn't work so well during Twins games, though.  I mean, that 11-0 victory over Seattle probably would've killed me.  And it's tough to do shots on things like two-run singles or a grand slam.  I suppose you could simply take a shot whenever someone hits a home run, but then you'd go through long stretches of consecutive games without drinking at all.  And Twins games are tough to watch without getting drunk.  Some people like to make a drinking game out of the dumb things Dick and Bert say, but then you end up getting hammered before the damn game even starts.  Maybe it would be easier to give up on the whole game thing and just focus on the drinking. 

Tiger Killer

Original entry posted http://plunking-gomez.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/05/joe_crede_tiger_killer_1.html.

Last night, he hit a game-winning grand slam in the thirteenth inning.  In the series finale earlier this afternoon (which I actually didn't see because I was still sleeping from last night's extra-inning marathon), he drove in a pair of runs on a single to give the Twins a lead they would never relinquish.  Crede has always hit Tigers' pitching well, posting a career .276/.339/.558 with an OPS of .897 and 24 home runs going into today's game.  And his numbers aren't skewed just from hitting in U.S. Cellular field for so many years, either.  At Comerica Park, he's a career .287/.341/.599 with 15 homers and an OPS of .939.  The Crede deal looks as though it's starting to pay dividends.  Even though he's provided Gold-Glove caliber defense all season, his bat has been relatively slow to wake up.  And that makes sense, as he's never hit well at the Dome and he's had to adjust to playing with a new team with an entirely different approach to hitting.  But he's been batting .290/.313/.548 in the month of May, with two homers and eight RBI in his last four games, so perhaps he's starting to see the ball better inside the Teflon confines.  And yes, it does beat having Tony Batista at third.

Scott Baker suffered from yet another big inning that got away from him when the Tigers scored five runs on six hits in the sixth.  It wouldn't be such a big deal, except this is at least the third time he's had such an inning this year.  Dr. Baker was very effective through the first five innings, and though he may not have matched Justin Verlander's impressive performance, he pitched well enough to keep the Kitties off the scoreboard.  Unfortunately, Mr. Scott came out to pitch in the sixth, and things promptly fell apart.  Of course, it didn't help that he had Jason Kubel in the outfield, who rarely plays in the field and missed a fly ball that probably should've been caught (and would've ended the inning).  Kubel is usually the DH because his defense is less than stellar, but he was in the outfield today because Delmon Young is out with a family emergency and is expected to miss at least the next three days.  Jose Morales has been called up from Rochester in the meantime.  Still, if this doesn't make the case that Denard Span and Carlos Gomez should both be starting in the outfield, then I don't know what will.  Yes, Kubel is swinging a hotter bat than Go-Go, but his lack of range in the field nearly cost the Twins the game.

Most importantly, though, the bullpen was handed a one run lead and actually held onto it for a change.  Craig Breslow pitched a scoreless seventh and retired the first two batters in the eighth before being lifted in favor of Matt Guerrier.  Breslow struck out a batter and didn't walk anyone, which is good news for a guy who has an ugly 0.90 K/BB ratio.  He didn't surrender any home runs, either, something he had become prone to doing lately.  Matt Guerrier bounced back from a terrible appearance the night before, when he gave up a three run homer to Miguel Cabrera and a solo shot to Jeff Larish to put the Tigers ahead by a couple of runs.  Still, one has to wonder why Guerrier was asked to get the final out in the eighth.  While it is perfectly understandable that acting-manager Scotty Ullger (Ron Gardenhire was ejected after arguing with the home plate umpire) didn't want to leave Breslow in to face Ryan Raburn with a runner on base, since all of the homers he's surrendered have been to right-handed hitters, Matty G. has pitched 18.1 innings so far this season and has made five straight relief appearances.  Why not bring in Joe Nathan?  He's going to pitch the next inning anyway, and unlike Matty G, has only pitched thirteen innings so far this year.  Save Matt Guerrier's arm!

Oh, yeah, and that Joe Mauer guy sucks.

Oh, Jesse

Original entry posted here.

Remember when the Twins used to have the best bullpen in the league?  Yeah, that was a long time ago.  But Jesse Crain was an important part of that 'pen.  And even though he'd shown a lot of promise as a reliever the past couple of years, that 2006 season was really the best of his career.  He posted an ERA+ of 127, a WHIP of 1.265 and a sparkling 3.33 K/BB ratio.  Opponents were batting .262/.303/.377 with a .683 OPS against him, and he surrendered only 6 homers in 76.2 IP.  Crain had become one of the most reliable relievers in the 'pen and was certainly a viable candidate to replace the declining Juan Rincon in the set-up role. 

But all of those innings caught up to Jesse in 2007, when he had surgery on a torn rotator cup. and he hasn't been the same pitcher since.  His numbers after returning from surgery in 2008 weren't terribly impressive: an ERA+ of 113, a 1.372 WHIP, and a mediocre 2.08 K/BB ratio.  And while he showed some dominance during ST and before going on the DL with shoulder stiffness earlier this season, he's been struggling ever since.  Before going on the DL, Crain limited opposing hitters to a mere .150/.308/.150 and an OPS of .458.  Since returning on May 3 though, Crain has been awful.  He's had two consecutive appearances where he's failed to record any outs and his ERA is a bloated 13.50.  Worse yet, he's allowed 50% of inherited runners to score, and has consistently struggled to strand runners on base (his LOB% is an abysmal 36.4).  He faced only one batter last night, shortstop Ramon Santiago (who isn't exactly known for his power), and was yanked after surrendering a home run.  Still, there is reason to hope that the hard-throwing right-hander will turn things around.  That homer is the only one he's surrendered so far this season, and opponents are batting only .233/.351/.367 against him.  His 3.32 FIP is also very encouraging.  Crain has struggled with his command a bit though, as his K/BB ratio is an uninspiring 1.17, but he's still striking out batters at a decent clip of 7.9 per 9 IP.  In the meantime, however, it is probably best to split the set-up duties between Matt Guerrier and Jose Mijares.   

Ron Gardenhire has taken a lot of criticism for his management of the bullpen over the years, and some of it is certainly valid.  He does have a tendency to overuse his best relievers, while severely restricting Joe Nathan to ninth-inning duty.  Jesse Crain, Pat Neshek, and Matt Guerrier have logged a lot of innings in the past three years, and all three have either needed surgery or, as in Guerrier's case, have suffered from being overworked.  But the FO also deserves part of the blame, since they've consistently failed to put together a 'pen full of reliable relievers and have essentially forced Gardy to rely on a select group.  I don't think that many fans would want Luis Ayala or R. A. Dickey pitching in close games, for example, and these were Bill Smith's key off-season acquisitions.  And while it isn't a bad idea to use Joe Nathan in other situations besides closing games, he too has pitched a lot of innings (362 since joining the Twins) and I would hate to see him end up on the surgery list with Crain and Neshek.

UPDATE:  Speaking of Rincon, the Tigers have DFA'd our old buddy to make room on the roster for the D-Train.  So, you know, he's available now.  Just sayin'.  Oh, and I almost forgot:  there's been an Eric Milton sighting.
 

At least they won't lose tonight

Original entry posted here (sorry, I couldn't get this one to format correctly).

Griffey Hearts the Dome

Original entry posted here.

The last time the Mariners were in town, Ken Griffey Jr. hit the eighth Opening Day home run of his career, tying him with Frank Robinson for the league record.  This time, he hit a two-run bomb that tied the game and sparked a Seattle rally against the Twins' relief corpse that stopped the Mariners' six-game losing streak.  Griffey has always hit Twins' pitching well, and loves to hit in the Metrodome, where he's a lifetime .287/.358/.581  with a career .968 OPS.  His 26 home runs in the Dome are far and away the most he's hit in any visiting ballpark, and his career total of 42 homers against the Twins are the most he's hit against any opponent.  While the pitching staff has done a pretty good job of keeping Junior off the base paths so far this year (he's batting an anemic .154/315/.385), the two homers they've surrendered have turned out to be kind of important.

Poor Nick Blackburn.  He baffled the Mariners for seven innings, matching a career-high six

strikeouts.  He exited the game in the seventh, after having thrown 99 pitches, with a 2-0 lead and was on his way to earning his third victory of the season.  Unfortunately, the bullpen had other ideas.  Lefty Jose Mijares walked Jose Lopez (who almost never walks) on four pitches before throwing a fastball low and inside, right where Griffey likes it.  He was then lifted in favor of Jesse Crain, who failed to retire any of the hitters he faced.  When it was all over, what had been a 2-0 shutout became a 4-2 deficit.  Craig Breslow surrendered another homer in the ninth, a solo shot to that pesky Jose Lopez, just to ensure the game would be out of reach.  The offense tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth, when Joe Mauer poked a single up the middle to put the Twins within two runs and Brandon Morrow proceeded to walk the bases full, but Brendan Harris grounded out to third and killed any hopes of pulling off a sweep.  I suppose it was too much to ask for the Twins to win three games in a row and to finally return to the .500 mark.  But before the bullpen blew up they were well on their way to doing exactly that.  The decision to pull Blackburn after seven innings is a bit puzzling, he was still a bit shy of the 100 pitch mark and didn't appear to be tiring.  I'm sure that Gardy probably didn't want a repeat of last Sunday's performance against the Royals, when he left Scott Baker in a little too long and squandered a four-run lead.  Still, unless Blackburn himself felt he was done for the night, he probably should have been allowed to at least try to pitch one more inning.  It's the only way to ensure that at least the bullpen won't screw things up.

Further proof, as if any were needed, that the win is an overrated stat:  Frenchy Liriano was awful on Saturday, surrendering five runs on six hits in five innings, but the offense provided a large enough margin of error that he picked up the win.  Blackburn pitched one of the best games of his career, but got a measly two runs in support, and therefore got the shaft.

Meh

Original entry posted here.A new

The Twins did OK against Seattle starter (and former shoe salesman) Al Bundy Chris Jakubauskas, hitting only four home runs, three of which came in the fifth inning.  Which is the first time they've hit three homers in an inning since these guys did it against the White Sox in 2002. Brendan Harris got the mashing started with a three-run shot that just barely cleared the baggy in left-center field, putting the Twins up 5-0 in the second.  Then Joe Mauer decided the fifth inning would be a good time to hit his second homer of the season, almost a week to the day that he hit his first.  Of course, Justin Morneau wasn't going be upstaged by a catcher and followed with a solo shot of his own, his seventh dinger of the year.  Brian Buscher, who was filling in for Joe Crede and would probably like to see more playing time, then followed with a two-run shot that gave the Twins an eleven-run lead.  Which was nice and everything, but the Twins still left plenty of runners stranded on base.  Especially in seventh, when they had runners at second and third with only one out, but failed to bring them in.  It's as though they just got lazy, thinking an eleven-run lead was good enough.  And, in this case, it was, but clearly the Twins need more practice when it comes to not leaving runners stranded on the base paths.

Scott Baker finally figured out that it's a lot easier to keep opponents off the scoreboard if you scatter hits instead of bunching them together.  And if you keep the ball in the ballpark, that helps a lot, too.  Twinkie Town had a great piece on Baker's struggles after he imploded against Kansas City in his previous start.  Baker always had trouble with losing focus once he allowed a runner to reach base, but seemed to put that behind him last season when he went 11-4 with a 3.45 ERA.  This season, however, he's looked a lot more like the old Scott Baker (or Mr. Scott, if you will), the one who would lose focus when he put runners on and would subsequently get hit hard.  Pretty much all of the homers he's given up this year have come with runners on, and most came right after he surrendered a hit.  But Dr. Baker was pretty effective through seven innings last night, making adjustments when he needed to, and just generally not getting freaked out if a Mariner happened to reach base.  Since he's been making steady improvement since his return from the DL, it seems likely that we will see more of Dr. Baker than Mr. Scott this year.  

Normally I would complain about using the best pitchers in the 'pen to close blowout games, but neither Jesse Crain nor Joe Nathan had worked much lately, so I'm not going to rake Gardy over the coals.  Much.  The M's aren't dumb, they sure made Twitchy Boy work in the ninth (by the way, he has something, um, interesting written on his glove), hoping to wear him out in case he has an actual save opportunity sometime this weekend.  However, the Twins will be facing King Felix tonight, and a resurgent Erik Bedard on Sunday, so I don't think that will be much of a problem. 

Nick Punto was finally benched for last night's game, since he has as many hits (15) as strikeouts in 79 ABs, and a team that is struggling to score runs as much as the Twins can't afford to have such a huge black hole in the lineup.  While Brendan Harris isn't as good defensively at short, he's hitting .321/.350/.464 with two home runs and deserves to have more regular playing time, at least for the time being.  Harris tends to be a streaky hitter, so I wouldn't expect him to put up such good numbers the rest of the year, but while he's hot and Punto is ice cold, it would make sense to keep penciling him in at short.

The Importance of Capitalizing on Scoring Chances

Original entry posted here.

Well, I can't exactly say that the bats were quiet last night. They pounded out fourteen hits against Balteemore's pitching staff, and hit starter Brad Bergesen pretty hard.  Unfortunately, few of these hits were actually productive, as only four runs scored and the Twins left nine men on base.  There were certainly plenty of scoring chances against Bergesen, including a bases-loaded, nobody out situation in the third, but the offense repeatedly failed to drive in any runs.  This has been a consistent problem the entire season so far, with Twins hitters often flailing away at pitches outside the strike zone with RISP.  The Twins are known for being an aggressive bunch, but pretty much everyone in the lineup is chasing pitches more than they normally would (Except, interestingly enough, for Nick Punto.  Punto's O-swing % has declined a bit, but so has his overall contact percentage).  Justin Morneau has been chasing 37.7% of pitches outside the zone, when he normally doesn't chase more than 30%.  Even the almost-frustratingly patient Joe Mauer has gotten into the act, chasing 26.7% of pitches outside the strike zone, when he rarely swings at more than 18% of balls outside the zone.  Worse yet, most of the hitters have also seen a decline in the overall contact percentage on balls both inside and outside the zone.  Obviously, being a bit too aggressive at the plate, combined with an overall struggle to make contact, will give you the 20th-best run production in the league.

Of course, it would help if the pitching staff would give up less than five runs for a change.  Even when the bats managed to give him the lead, starter Glen Perkins would give it right back.  And then some.  But after surrendering a two-run blast to Aubrey Huff in the third, Perk settled down and retired seven of the next nine batters he faced.  Jose Mijares had his first bad outing of the season, in which he surrendered three straight two-out hits and allowed the winning run to score.  But, once again, had the Twins managed to drive in more than one run when they had the bases loaded in the third, there is a good chance that they could have won this one anyway.

I forgot how much fun it is to listen to the broadcasts when the booth is close enough to pick up drunk, screeching O's fans (who knew that ten people could make so much noise?).  Between Bert and Dick and the intoxicated fans, I was ready to shove a Q-Tip into my brain.

• Should Go-Go be sent down?

This has been the subject of heated debate among Twins fans, sort of like the Joba-as-a-starter debate, except with less media coverage.  There are certainly some valid arguments on either side. Some have pointed out that Gomez needs regular at-bats to learn plate discipline and he just isn't going to get it while Cuddy, Span, and Young are hitting somewhat capably.  There are others who would argue that sending Go-Go down would be a disaster, since he's one of the best defensive CFs in the league and the pitching staff will certainly suffer for it.

Go-Go was rushed through the majors with the both the Mets' and the Twins' organizations, and it's possible that this may have stunted his development as a hitter.  While there is this perception that the Twins were so eager to have something to show for the Santana trade that they rushed Gomez through before he was ready, it seems more likely that they just didn't have any better options at the time.  They had just lost Torii Hunter to free agency, Denard Span hadn't been terribly impressive during ST or his initial call-up last spring, and Jason Pridie (acquired in the Garza trade) projects to be a fourth outfielder at best.  And then when Michael Cuddyer went down with numerous unfortunate injuries last year, the Twins kind of had to stick with Go-Go whether they wanted to or not.

As it stands, Gomez really needs more regular playing time in order to develop more discipline at the plate, and he just isn't going to get it with the big-league club.  He isn't happy with his diminished role and a player with his potential certainly deserves more than to be a fourth outfielder.  This isn't an easy decision to make, as sending Go-Go down will significantly cut down the range of the outfield defense (which is obviously not a good thing with all of the fly ball pitchers on the staff), but it's better than simply allowing him to languish on the bench.

• I actually kind of feel bad for Carlos Silva

Well, sort of.  It's tough to feel much empathy for someone who makes so much money while

being so terrible at his job.  But it has to be a huge blow to a guy's self-confidence to be demoted to the bullpen, especially after signing a huge, $48 million contract a couple of years ago.  M's fans have been understandably frustrated with Silva, whose bloated 8.48 ERA and repeated failure to pitch even kind of effectively certainly aren't worth the money Seattle is paying him, and haven't been shy about heaping abuse on him, either.  But I'm not sure what they were expecting from the guy when they signed him in the first place.  It isn't as though he's ever been particularly dominant; the only year he posted an ERA under 4.00 was in 2005 and his WHIP has been consistently abysmal.  He's a sinkerballer whose sinking fastball often fails to sink (Remember the 2004 ALDS? That was fun).  Most Twins fans were hoping that some GM would be dumb enough to outbid the Twins for his services, and Bill Bavasi certainly didn't disappoint.

To Silva's credit, though, he realizes that his poor performance isn't going to cut the mustard and has been doing everything the team has asked of him to try to improve.  He's lost weight, he's worked on his pitches, but so far has little to show for it in the way of results.  If anything, he's getting hit even harder this year.  Maybe a demotion to the 'pen is precisely what poor Carlos needs to get back to being the mediocre fifth starter he used to be.  If nothing else, maybe it will get some of the angry M's fans off his back.

• Otherwise...

The Timberwolves are still interviewing candidates to fill the vacant GM position.  Unfortunately, Bill Simmons is not under consideration.

The Wild will probably make a decision regarding their new GM sometime soon (maybe in the next ten days).  Certainly all of the known interviewees are good candidates, and I could live with any of them (pleaseletitbefletcherpleaseletitbefletcherbutmcnabwouldprollybeoktoo).  And thank God the John Ferguson rumors have been put to rest, or I would be back on the ledge with the scissors.

Speaking of which, give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld.  So I can sigh eternally.

A Soggy Mess in Bawlmer

Original entry posted here.

• Twins drop first game of series against O's, 4-1

Ron Gardenhire was visibly angry when the game was finally called off after the fifth inning, and rightfully so.  There were no less than four rain delays totaling nearly four hours, and the radar had predicted no larger than a 15-minute window in which to play.  Why this game wasn't called after the first rain delay in the third is a mystery.  I'm not blaming the weather for the Twins' poor performance, the rain had nothing to do with the pitching staff surrendering a couple of home runs and the offense making Brian Bass look like Mariano Rivera, but it was obvious that the weather wasn't going to clear up long enough to play nine innings and the game should have been called much earlier.

At least Craig Breslow didn't walk anybody!  He did surrender a solo homer to Luke Scott on the first pitch, but then allowed only one other hit during his two innings of relief.  This is a vast improvement for a guy who had walked nine batters in a little over six innings, but he's going to have to do better than that if he wants to keep his job in the 'pen.  Sean Henn and Mike Gosling are viewed as possible replacements, but since both have walked an awful lot of batters so far this year, neither one is likely to get the call anytime soon.

I actually expect the Twins to get swept tonight.  Glen Perkins is on the mound, and while he's been one of the most reliable starters in the rotation, he's also been pitching a lot like the old Glen Perkins more recently.  However, I don't expect him to get much run support either. The Twins will be facing a pitcher they have never seen before, and thus the offense will struggle to do much of anything against him.  It really doesn't matter how effectively or terribly Brad Bergesen pitches tonight, the Twins' aggressive bats will continually let him off the hook. And if Perkins allows as much as one run, it will probably be enough to secure a Baltimore win.

If you haven't already, please check out the latest installment of Timeout at the Plate on Tom Walsh's blog.  If you like lots of whining (or schadenfreude, if you happen to be a Chicago sports fan), then you're in for a treat!

The Bears get Jay Cutler and the Vikings get Brett Farve, that sounds about right.  Drew Magary has perfectly summarized how I feel about that.

Between Manny on drugs and the Brett Favre saga, I will have absolutely no reason to watch ESPN for the next couple of months.  Of course, as a Twins fan (and hockey fan), it's not like I had much reason to watch tWWL in the first place.

SI recently ranked all 30 closers in the league, and look who came out on top.  They did a great piece on him, too.

Nice try, Dave, but I don't think Bill Smith is that dumb.  At least I hope not.

Also, I added a new Red Wings blog to my blogroll.  Besides the official website and Jim Mandelaro's blog, there isn't much out there in terms of Wings coverage and this one is pretty good.  It's also got video from some of the games.

Stepping Away From the Ledge and Putting the Scissors Down

Original entry posted here.

(image stolen from here)

On the advice of my therapist, I've decided not to discuss what happened at Comerica Park yesterday.  I think it's just better this way.  Except I do kind of have to mention that Gardy has lost patience with one of the worst offenders and that a roster move will probably be made soon.  UPDATE: It's official.  Alexi Casilla has been sent down and Matt Tolbert has been called up from Rochester.  *sigh* I'm sure that someday the Twins will figure out how to win more than one game at a time.  Hopefully sometime before September.

At least the White Sox are always good for some comic relief.

Nobody Likes a Winless Wonder, Frankie

Original entry posted here.

• Francisco Liriano rolls in Twins' 7-2 win over the Tigers
  

After suffering four losses and two no decisions through his first six starts, Francisco Liriano finally beat the Tigers to earn his first win of the season.  It isn't as though he hasn't pitched well enough to earn a victory before, he's really only had a couple of bad starts this season.  He has, however, suffered from a lack of run support and just some terrible luck.  But not this time.  Frankie dominated the Tigers through seven innings, allowing only two earned runs on four hits and striking out a season-high nine batters.  Of course, it helps that the Detroit lineup is full of free-swingers that like to chase balls in the dirt.  His one real blemish was a solo homer to Miguel Cabrera, but since the pitch was a low and inside fastball (that probably wasn't even a strike), it's tough to really consider that a mistake pitch.  Actually, the only time Frankie got into any real trouble was in the second inning, when he walked Ryan Raburn to load the bases with two outs.  He then struck out Adam Everett (who was the big hero for Detroit on Saturday) to end the inning without any damage.

The offense managed to provide Frankie with some much-needed run support, and it was kind of nice to see someone else's bullpen implode for a change.  The Twins struggled to do much of anything against Edwin Jackson, who was pretty impressive himself through six innings.  Jackson has struggled with his command in the past, but seems to have improved greatly under the tutelage of new pitching coach (and former Twins' director of minor league pitching) Rick Knapp.  Jackson cruised along, scattering a few hits and giving up only one earned run, until he ran into trouble in the seventh.  After failing to retire the first four batters he faced, Jackson was lifted in favor of Brandon Lyon.  And that's when the fun began.  The Twins batted around in the inning, scoring five runs on five hits and burning through three different Detroit pitchers before Clay Rapada finally managed to stop the bleeding.  The Twins would tack on another run in the ninth, when Carlos Gomez doubled(!) and then scored on a Denard Span single (Span, by the way, was having a great night at the plate.  More on that in a minute).  For his part, Matt Guerrier managed to not screw things up for Frankie and retired all five batters he faced. 

Apparently, Monday night was also the night of frightening injuries.  Rick Ankiel crashed headfirst into the outfield wall and had to be carted off the field (he was released from the hospital this morning after tests revealed no serious injuries, though it's unclear at this point when he'll return to the lineup).  The Twins had kind of a scary moment of their own when first base coach Jerry White was stung right above the ankle by a line drive off the bat of Joe Crede in the eighth.  He laid on the ground for a long time and was in obvious pain, but managed to walk off the field with help.  The good news is that he just suffered a contusion and should be back tonight.

• Twins activate Jesse Crain from DL, demote catcher Jose Morales

I'm a little disappointed that Morales got sent down to AAA Rochester, especially since he's been swinging one of the more productive bats in the lineup.  However, even though Mike Redmond has some lingering soreness in his shoulder, it isn't serious enough to land him on the DL (although his quip about the injury evidently made the people at Anheuser-Busch very happy) and it's tough to justify carrying three catchers at this point.  Morales also needs to work on his defense, as he struggled to throw out base runners (all but one of the fourteen stolen base attempts against him were successful), and he won't get enough playing time with the big club in order to do so.  Morales should make at least a competent backup catcher in the major leagues and, since the Twins aren't likely to extend the 38 year-old Redmond's contract after this season, will probably have a more regular role with the team next year.

• There's something wrong with this picture

To be honest, I don't usually care that much about the All-Star Game.  I mean, I think it's a nice promotional event, and it probably helps MLB increase revenue and all that, but I find the actual game itself to be kind of boring.  I know it's a lot of fun for the players, so I'll vote for the guys that I think deserve to go, but I don't get all that worked up about who deserves a spot on the roster and who got snubbed.  However, I do find it a bit puzzling that Denard Span isn't on the ballot to represent the Twins.  I mean, I'm not sure he deserves a spot over, say, Grady Sizemore or Curtis Granderson, but he certainly deserves it more than any of the other Twins' outfielders.  Span has been one of the most consistently productive hitters in the lineup, batting .323/.398/.404, and last night went 4-for-5 and drove in a run against some very tough Detroit pitching.  Granted, Span doesn't have the strongest outfield arm, but he's been asked to play every single OF position this season, and aside from a couple of misplays, has played them all very well.  I guess it isn't really that big of a deal, since you can write in Span on your ballot (and please do), but it's still kind of strange that the organization feels Michael Cuddyer (who hasn't done much at the plate until recently), Delmon Young, and Carlos Gomez are all more worthy of consideration for the ASG. 

Oh, and the Strib's LaVelle E. Neal III has an interesting wager with Justin Morneau.  I'm kind of rooting for LaVelle, and not just because of my seething hatred for the Vancouver Canucks, either (I also have a general disdain for all things Chicago-related, with a few exceptions).  I also really like the idea of Morneau as a guest blogger, though I would like it better if he had to compare the fighting styles of Alex Burrows with Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls.

Well, that was ugly

Original entry posted here.

• If I pretend the seventh inning didn't happen, the Twins win this one, right?

Scott Baker was cruising along, pitching a no-hitter through six innings.  The offense, with the help of some Kansas City errors, managed to scratch out four runs against tough right-hander Gil Meche.  It looked as though the Twins were about to win their third straight series, and put the ugliness of last night's game behind them (more on that in a minute).  But then all hell broke loose in the seventh.  Scott Baker gave up a single to lead off batter Willie Bloomquist.  Then another single, then a three-run homer to Jose Guillen.  Baker failed to record a single out in the inning, and when it was all over, Kansas City had a 5-4 lead that it wouldn't relinquish.  R.A. Dickey would allow two more runs, and the Royals' bullpen would hang on to beat the Twinkies 7-5.

Yes, five runs on five hits in one inning is pretty bad, but Baker has shown steady improvement in his past couple of starts and his very good 16/5 K/BB suggests that he's on the right track.  Before he completely fell apart in the seventh, Baker dominated the Royals throughout the entire game, giving up only one walk.  I'm not sure if he just lost focus after surrendering the single to Bloomquist, or if he was starting to get tired (Baker has never been terribly efficient and had already thrown about ninety pitches going into the seventh), but this is still a vast improvement for a guy who was surrendering home runs at the rate of once per inning, all of which came with runners on.  His ERA has now dropped to 9.15, which is pretty good considering that it was as high as 12.46 after his implosion against the Red Sox in Boston. 

I have mentioned before that the Royals will be a good team this year, but this whole series had less to do with the Royals' talent and everything to do with the Twins' ineptitude.  If it were not for some poor pitching performances in this game, and some crucial defensive mistakes in Saturday night's game, the Twins would have swept Kansas City and moved into first place.  If nothing else, they would have taken two out of three and remained only a half game back.  But now they're 12-13, and are two games behind the first place Royals.  Which is precisely where they were before this homestand began.

• Defensive miscues and a horrendous bullpen cost Twins in Saturday's 10-7 loss

Saturday night's game against the Royals was about the ugliest I have ever seen.  Officially there were four errors between the two teams, but unofficially, well, I lost count of all of the misplays in the field.  Brian Bannister, who did struggle a bit, didn't really get much help from the defense behind him.  Only three of the six runs he surrendered were actually earned.  Glen Perkins, on the other hand, was terrible on his own, giving up five earned runs on ten hits.  For the third start in a row, Perk reverted into his old bad habits and started throwing a steady stream of fastballs whenever he got into trouble.  And the Royals made him pay, chasing him out after six mediocre innings.  The Perkins that got off to such a good start earlier in the season, the one that went at least eight innings in three starts and gave up only four runs, changed speeds effectively and generally did a good job keeping hitters off balance.  I wonder whatever happened to that Perk and if we'll ever see him again this season.

After last night, Ron Gardenhire has finally decided he's seen enough of Alexi Casilla's poor play and has benched the second baseman, at least for one game.  Casilla made two crucial errors in the second game of the series, both of which likely cost the Twins the game.  In the seventh, with the Twins clinging to a one-run lead, he failed to cover second on a steal attempt by Willie Bloomquist, who later scored on a single by Billy Butler to tie the game.  The Royals untied the game in the very next inning, when Casilla misplayed a routine ground ball that would have ended the inning but instead allowed Alberto Callaspo to score from third.  Alexi tends to be an emotional guy, and sometimes he lets his struggles at the plate affect his concentration in the field.  Casilla was one of the big question marks coming into the season, as he's struggled at both AAA and the major league levels before putting together a successful 2008 campaign with the big club.  Still, Gardy doesn't think that Casilla's hot start with the Twins last year was a fluke, and is holding out hope that a day off is all the young second baseman will need to get back on track.     

I don't really know what to say about Craig Breslow.  He's now walked nine batters in 6.2 innings, and walked the bases full in the eleventh before he was pulled in favor of R.A. Dickey.  Breslow was very effective last season, but seems to have lost his release point and Ron Gardenhire has now officially put the lefty on notice.  The organization has been losing patience with Breslow, whose days are likely numbered since Jose Mijares has been lights out since his call-up and Anthony Slama has been pretty impressive with AA New Britain.  It's kind of a shame, too, because I started to really like the guy.  Still, I guess this is probably why he's bounced around between four different organizations in his five major-league seasons.  But hey, at least he still has that medical school thing to fall back on.

• Bruce Boudreau is probably glad that he decided to bench Jose Theodore

Not bad for a rookie:

Yay, Joe's Back!

Original entry posted here.

In his very first at-bat of the season, Joe Mauer drilled a 2-0 pitch from Sidney Ponson into the left-field seats.  In his next at-bat, he spanked a double and then scored on a Justin Morneau single.  In his third at-bat, he drew a walk and then scored on a Justin Morneau home run (which ended up being the winning runs, I might add).  In his fourth at bat, well, he grounded into a double play.  Still, that's not bad for a guy who hasn't played in any major league games since the heartbreaker tiebreaker against the White Sox last year, and hadn't really even swung a bat until, like three weeks ago.  The Twins chased Sir Sidney out after five innings, tagging him for seven runs on nine hits.  Considering that the Twins were one of the few teams that His Royal Highness the Prince of Slobenia has consistently been successful against (he is 11-4 with an ERA of 3.13 lifetime against Minnesota), it was a very good night indeed.

It's tough to complain about the lineup too much, since the Twins did manage to score seven runs. However, one has to wonder why the struggling Alexi Casilla is still batting second.  I realize that Ron Gardenhire probably doesn't want four lefties in a row (although, it isn't a bad idea when those lefties are Denard Span, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel), but why he keeps batting Casilla second is a mystery.  Casilla is batting a miserable .167, but even worse he's been getting on base at an underwhelming .231 clip.  This simply isn't good enough, and while Casilla is much better defensively at second than Brendan Harris, Harris has been riding a hot streak lately and probably should be in the lineup everyday.  I don't mind Gardy being patient with Casilla and hoping he'll turn things around (he did hit the ball really hard three times last night, unfortunately it happened to be right to a Royal each time), but he should be moved down in the lineup until he actually does so.

Of course, it's a good thing the offense managed to provide him with all of that run support, since starter Kevin Slowey needed every single one of them.  He gave up five runs on eight hits in five innings and surrendered the lead twice, although he didn't run into trouble until the third.  Still, it was good enough to earn his fourth victory of the season and he improved(?) to 4-0.  Joe Nathan, after blowing a save against Tampa Bay in his last relief appearance, gave up a single to Mike Aviles but pitched an otherwise-perfect ninth to record his fourth save of the season.

Oh, and Joe Crede was out of the lineup last night because his wife was having their third child.  He is expected to miss the rest of the series against the Royals but should rejoin the team in Detroit.  Never mind, he's back in the lineup tonight.  But Kubel's sick, so he's out. And the flame-throwing Juan Morillo was demoted to AAA Rochester to make room for Mauer on the roster.  It isn't really that surprising that he managed to clear waivers, as his 22.50 ERA and poor 0.33 K/BB rate probably scared off any prospective suitors.  It will be interesting to see if pitching coach Bobby Cuellar can tame some of his wildness.  The minor-league coaching staff has had a lot of success in teaching the young prospects to throw strikes, so Morillo has definitely come to the right place.  At any rate, it's tough to imagine that Morillo won't get another shot with the big club.  A guy whose fastball averages 96.5 mph would be a very good thing to have in the bullpen indeed.