The Oakland Athletics have a .298 wOBA; second only to the Seattle Mariners' .279 mark for worst in the American League. They are averaging 3.77 runs per game. So, naturally they collected eight runs on twelve hits against the Twins, chasing Nick Blackburn after 4.1 innings. Speaking of pitiful offenses, the Twins mustered just three runs on eight hits, drawing just one walk. The Twins really aren't doing much better offensively than the A's this season: they have a .299 wOBA and are averaging 3.96 runs per game. The pitching staff hasn't exactly been lights-out either, with the starting pitching and bullpen posting ERAs of 4.28 and 4.69 in July, respectively. The Twins currently have a run differential of -87; this is hardly a team that should consider itself buyers at the trade deadline.
Which is why trading Denard Span for Drew Storen makes no sense. Why would a team that has had as much trouble scoring runs as the Twins want to trade one of their best hitters without getting a huge haul in return? I want to give Bill Smith the benefit of the doubt on this one. He's repeatedly stated that the Twins aren't interested in dealing Span unless they are absolutely blown away with an offer. The Twins' beat writers have repeatedly shot down any Span trade rumors, so it sounds like most of the trade talk is coming from the Nats. Under any other circumstances, I would just dismiss all this trade talk as just that, and I wouldn't waste time writing a blog post about it. But the rumors just won't die, with different reports all saying that the Twins are targeting a package of Storen, CF prospect Roger Bernadina, and 2B prospect Stephen Lombardozzi (yes, he's the son of that Lombardozzi). Yuck. The veracity of these reports is doubtful, since Bernadina is already 27 years old and the Twins aren't exactly lacking OF prospects, but I can't help but feel nervous. GMBS does not exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to trades, and he does tend to over-value closers like Storen. Ugh, Sunday afternoon at 3pm just can't come soon enough.
UPDATE: Congratulations, haasertime! He was the first person to correctly answer all three questions, and is therefore the winner of The First Ever Picked Off at First Trivia Contest. Sorry folks, the contest is now closed, but thanks to everyone who participated. There will undoubtedly be other chances to win around the Twins blogiverse, and I encourage you to enter any and all of these contests.
As you may have seen both at the Knuckeballs blog and K-bro's Baseball Blog, the good people at A&E Home Entertainment are giving away copies of these DVD sets commemorating the greatest world series ever played:
Now you have yet another chance to win, in the form of a trivia contest. In keeping with the 20th anniversary of the Twins' 1991 World Series championship, all of these questions are related to that team in some way. The first person to email me at pickedoffatfirst@gmail.com with all of the correct answers wins. The contest closes at midnight on August 12th (UPDATE: Because I edited some of the questions for clarity, I decided to extend the deadline. I didn't want anyone to miss out on an awesome prize just because I am not the most articulate person in the world). Good luck!
The roster featured two players who came to the Twins via the Rule V draft. Who were they, and which teams were they selected from?
Closer Rick Aguilera got traded twice during his Twins career. Name the teams involved and the players exchanged in both transactions.
Two players taken by the Twins in the 1989 draft made their major league debuts in 1991. Name them both.
Also, you can shop for other Twins-related merchandise at twinsbaseball.com.
Joe Nathan is now tied with Rick Aguilera for the franchise lead in saves. It didn't come easy, but
Twitchy managed to wriggle out of a runners-on-the-corners-with-one-out jam to put himself in position to become the Twins' next King of Savers. Actually, Twitchy has Joe Mauer to thank for this milestone. If it weren't for his RBI double in the ninth inning, he would have had to wait another day for his chance at making Twins history:
Earlier this season, Twitchy seemed a long shot to be making history of any sort. His velocity had dropped to 91.5 mph, and he struggled to throw any of his pitches for strikes. He was walking almost as many batters as he struck out, and had an ERA of 7.63 in 17 appearances. When he went on the disabled list with pain in his elbow, it appeared that he would never fully recover from Tommy John surgery and his career was all but over. However, it turned out that scar tissue was the culprit, and once it broke up, Nathan began to at least pitch effectively. Since his return on June 23, his velocity is back up in the 92-93 mph range, and he's been hitting the strikezone consistently. He hasn't walked anyone, and has allowed just seven hits and a couple of runs in the last 12.1 innings. His ERA has dropped to 4.88, and his strikeout rate has improved to 8.1, though it's still well below his career mark of 9.38. He isn't quite his old self, but Twitchy has emerged as the best right-handed pitcher in the bullpen.
Of course, Nathan's resurgence also puts the front office in a tough bind. Though they sit just seven games out of first place, the Twins lost six of their past ten games, and they still have one of the worst run differentials in the league (-88). It's looking less and less likely that the Twins will be in the playoff hunt this season, which means they will probably be dumping salary and adding prospects at the trade deadline. Nathan appears a likely candidate to be dealt, since decent relievers are always in demand at the deadline, and he is owed at least $13.25 million (provided his $12.5 million option isn't exercised) through next year. The slew of injuries this season has exposed a lack of depth in the upper levels of the farm system, so the Twins could really use some major-league ready prospects, particularly in the bullpen and the infield.
However, they don't have a real need for a fire sale this year, either. They are still a relatively young team, and it isn't likely that the likes of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Denard Span will all be hurt again at the same time next season. The starting rotation should get a boost from Kyle GibsonOy nevermind, or perhaps the return of Kevin Slowey, if he and Gardy can learn to play nice. They have an extremely effective closer-set-up-man combination in Twitchy and Glen Perkins, so all they really need is a solid middle reliever to handle the seventh. It's unlikely that the Twins would get enough of a return for the 36 year-old Twitchy to justify weakening an already-weak 'pen. Dealing him just to dump salary would signal that the front office is not just giving up on 2011, but 2012 as well, and there is little reason to do that just yet.
Michael Cuddyer comes in to pitch, because why not?
He was a bit wild, but he wasn't terrible, walking two and giving up a couple of hits, but somehow miraculously not allowing any more runs. His was the second-best performance of the entire night; the first belonging to Phil Dumatrait, who pitched a couple of batters. Cuddy was way better than the rest of the professional pitchers the Twins used: Nick Blackburn gave up nine runs on eleven hits in 2.2 innings; Jose Mijares gave up four runs in 2/3 of an inning; Chuck James gave up four runs in an inning; and Alex Burnett gave up a couple of runs in his inning of work. The Cowboys eventually beat the Vikings by a final score of 20-6.
Hey, at least the offense showed some signs of life for once, pounding out six runs on eleven hits, and Jason Kubel connected for his 6th homer of the year. So there's that.
UPDATE: MLB.com didn't have any video available of Cuddy's relief appearance before I went to bed, but they have it now. So here it is:
I was going to write a post about Bert and his upcoming induction into the Hall of Fame this weekend, but then I got busy and never got around to it. Thankfully, other people are not as lazy as I am. Here are some of my favorite Bert posts from around the blogiverse:
Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times did a retrospective of all of Bert's career highlights from every team he ever pitched for. The whole thing is a great read, but I particularly enjoyed the story of the McEnaney brothers. And to think Bert wanted out of Pittsburgh!
Don Mattingly Recalls Facing Bert Blyleven for the first time. Bert tossed his 45th of what would be 60 career shutouts that day. He was already in his 15th major league season, and he would toss 15 more shutouts in the next seven seasons. Holy crap.
If you are curious about this year's Cooperstown festivities besides just the induction ceremony, NoDak Twins Fan has a rundown of all the events.
I am sure Matt Capps is a nice guy and a good father, but he blew his American League-leading seventh save on Friday night, and so he doesn't work the ninth inning anymore. Joe Nathan was tapped to take his place, and he got the job done:
Prior to his demotion, Capps allowed seven runs in 5.2 innings in July, with a 0/2 K/BB ratio. It might seem like a knee-jerk reaction to demote a closer after such a small sample size of poor performances, but Capps was coming off of his fourth straight ineffective appearance, and the Twins got off to such a slow start that they really can't afford to wait for him to turn things around. They currently sit six games out of first place in a very winnable division; they are in full-on win-now mode. Twitchy has been pitching like the Twitchy of old since his return on June 25th: allowing just one run and four hits over 7.2 innings, while striking out seven and walking nobody. The decision to give Nathan his old job back looks like a no-brainer.
Of course, replacing Capps at closer doesn't solve all of the problems with the bullpen. Nathan and Glen Perkins made a very effective eighth-inning combination, and though Perk can probably handle set-up duties himself, the Twins don't have a reliable arm to pitch in the seventh. Capps can't even be trusted with the bases empty at this point; there's no way Gardy can put him in higher leverage situations. Alex Burnett (6.75 ERA, 4.20 FIP), Jose Mijares (5.23 ERA, 4.65 FIP) and Phil Dumatrait (5.89 ERA, 6.40 FIP) don't exactly inspire confidence, either. The Twins may give Anthony Slama and Chuck James another shot, as both had good results in limited action with the team and they've been lights-out in the minors. Or, they may decide to trade for relief help at the deadline. Personally, I'd rather they recall Slama, or James or both, rather than give up even a marginal prospect for a middle reliever, especially one who has had trouble finding the strikezone. The bullpen has enough of those guys already.
Completely irrelevant and probably only interesting to me: while searching the Youtubes for something else this afternoon, I came across this gem:
I hate to sound like a grumpy old lady, but remember when MTV used to, you know, actually play music? They've been shifting from a 24-hour music video format for 20 years now, and even back then they pretty much stuck to mainstream stuff to keep the masses and the major record labels happy. They did, however, have a few groundbreaking shows, like 120 Minutes, that gave not-so-mainstream artists a chance to be heard by a wider audience. I kind of miss that. I can't imagine that channel bothering with the likes of Lou Reed and Victoria Williams anymore; they're not drunken, overly-tanned Italian-American stereotypes or pregnant teenagers. Now get off my lawn, you goddam kids.
Oh yeah, and here's the more famous version of this song, covered by some guys from Seattle:
If there is anything good about losing 2/3 of the opening day lineup to injury, it is that the kids get a chance to play. It's fun to get a glimpse of what the future may hold, especially when the current team has, until about a month ago, played .315 ball. We've gotten a pretty good look at a couple of former first round picks: Trevor Plouffe (2004, 20th overall) and Ben Revere (2007, 28th overall). Plouffe was the hero on Thursday night, but for the most part, he hasn't been very impressive either at the plate or in the field. In the minors, he's displayed an ability to hit for power but not much else, and with Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Alexi Casilla settling in to their respective positions, the front office might be wise to see if they can get something of value for him at the trade deadline. Revere, though, has been a different story. He hasn't hit much this season, with a .274/.311/.317/.628 line in 198 plate appearances, but it's easy to see why the Twins have been so reluctant to part with him via trade. He's fast:
And he has tremendous range in the field:
Revere probably won't be a super-star. His career .311/.385/.408/.798 minor league numbers suggest he will get on base at a decent clip, but won't hit for power. He has the potential to be a proficient base-stealer though, with both the speed and ability to read opposing pitchers (he's successfully nabbed 154 out of 208 attempts in the minors). He has great range, but he also has a weak arm and opposing teams aren't afraid to run on him. His ceiling is projected to be Juan Pierre, which isn't too bad, considering Pierre is a 26.4 fWAR (13.8 rWAR) player in twelve seasons. Actually, Revere kind of reminds me of Carlos Gomez, except with some plate discipline and better decision-making skills. As long as he's cheap and under team control, that makes him a good player to have around. It shouldn't make him untouchable in trade talks, however, especially for a team with a lot of holes to fill and a surplus of talented outfield prospects.
graph: Fangraphs; book cover illustration: Elizabeth A. Mason
Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just because the Twins have dominated the White Sox over the past couple of years, but this loss doesn't seem as disappointing as it should be. Brian Duensing pitched well, allowing a pair of runs on five hits over seven innings, but Mark Burly was even better, scattering four hits, striking out eight and walking just one over eight innings. Former Twin Jesse Crain only needed five pitches to get out of the eighth inning, while the Twins' bullpen gave up two runs on three hits, with a 0/2 K/BB ratio. The 3-4-5 hitters went 0-11 with four strikeouts and one walk. Anthony Pierzynski, who is batting .225/.279/.375/.654 against lefties this season, doubled off of Jose Mijares in the ninth, and then scored the winning run thanks to both Alexei Ramirez and Ben Revere's notoriously weak arm. I really can't argue that the Twins deserved to win this game.
The Twins are now 15-11 against their AL Central opponents. On June 1st, they were 20 games below .500 and trailing the fourth-place Royals by 7.5 games. Now they are eight games below .500 and 2.5 games out of third place. Look out Indians, Tigers, and White Sox, the Twins are like creeping death:
Zack Greinke has never fared well against the Minnesota Twins. Coming into yesterday's game, he had a 4.90 ERA in 97.1 innings, with a 71/36 K/BB ratio. He had given up 102 hits, including 17 doubles, 3 triples, and 7 home runs. And yesterday was more of the same. He lasted six innings, giving up four runs on a pair of home runs: a solo shot to Jim Thome and a three-run bomb to Rene Tosoni. The home run to Tosoni is particularly notable because, 1) it cut the Brewers' lead to two runs, and 2) Tosoni is not exactly a power hitter. He's hit 30 homers and has a .440 slugging percentage in five seasons in the minors. The Brewers' pen capped off the implosion by allowing four more runs, and what looked like a sure-fire series win quickly became, well, a series win for the Twins.
Even though he blew the lead in Saturday's game, and nearly blew it again yesterday, Gardy insists that Matt Capps is still the closer. It might not be a popular move, but Capps has pitched well enough during his time with the Twins to earn the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. Up until recently, he was getting the job done, posting a 0.90 ERA, 3.74 FIP, and 2.33 K/BB ratio in June. Two bad appearances in July certainly isn't enough to warrant handing the job to someone else; however, with Glen Perkins shutting down opponents and Joe Nathan starting to look like his old self, Capps will be on a very short leash.
Yovani Gallardo hung a curveball to Jim Thome in the bottom of the first inning, and the rest, as they say, is history:
Jim Thome homers (5) on a fly ball to left center field. Joe Mauer scores. Michael Cuddyer scores. Ah, things are getting back to normal here in the Twinned Cities.
I was hoping Thome would hit number 600 sometime before the All-Star break, and I guess it could still happen. He'd have to hit six home runs in nine games, which is a lot considering he only has five in 108 plate appearances, but if anyone could do it, Thome could. He is still a very dangerous hitter when healthy, with a .213 ISO, 127 wRC+ (or, if you prefer, 123 OPS+) and .357 wOBA. I don't know whether the Twins consider themselves buyers or sellers, but with so many teams looking to add power, I'm not optimistic about seeing him in a Twins uniform past the trade deadline.
