Bang the Drum Slowly

It would be a nice conundrum to have...

2006-08-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

but a conundrum, nonetheless.

Let's say Garza gets called up, and pitches great. Not Liriano great, but 1991 Scott Erickson great.

(Assuming best possible scenario- Twins are in the playoffs) When it comes time to set up the postseason rotation, what does it look like?

What's Crain's role? Is Tyner still in the starting lineup?

Mauer Mania!

2006-07-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Joe Mauer was the lead story on ESPN's home page yesterday, with a bunch of related features. They've moved it to their baseball page. I'm not sure how long it will be there, but there's a cool breakdown of his swing, a Rob Neyer article about great young catchers in baseball history, and more. Barring a massive slump, Mauer Mania will only heat up. He's hitting .380, and has a legitimate shot at becoming the first catcher in AL history to win a batting title. Right now, the race looks like this:

Joe Mauer .380
Derek Jeter .346
Ichiro Suzuki .340

Assuming they keep up their pace of at bats, if the three guys hit at their career averages the rest of the way (JM .326/DJ .316/IS .334), the final numbers would look like this:

Joe Mauer .359
Ichiro Suzuki .338
Derek Jeter .334

If Joe hits "only" .300 the rest of the way, he'd finish at .348, and Jeter would need to hit .353 the rest of the way to pass him, while Ichiro would need to hit .360.

If Joe slumps even more, and hits .280 over the final third of the season, he'd still finish at .340. Jeter would need to hit .330 to top that, while Ichiro would need to keeping hitting at his current pace, .340.

Regardless of what happens, this is a great time to be a Twins fan. They've clawed their way back into the playoff race, they've got 2 pitchers with Cy Young-worthy stats, a catcher shooting for a batting title, and a young slugger on pace to hit the 7th-most home runs in a single Twins season (and the most of anyone not named Killibrew).

In fact, Stick and Ball Guy is tracking Morneau's place in Twins history. Talk about a franchise lacking sluggers over the years- Ron Coomer and Tim Laudner are tied for the 18th-most career home runs in a Twins uniform!

Kyle Lohse- Twins player of the game

2006-07-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

The Twins won a big game in Chicago tonight, pulling them within 2 games of a playoff spot. There were many heroes in this game- Brad Radke gave up only 2 runs in 6 innings; Joe Mauer, Mike Cuddyer, and Justin Morneau all homered; Jason Tyner and Jason Bartlett each had 3 hits. When I looked at Sportsline's wrap-up of the game, however, I was very shocked at the second player of the game:

Here's a closer look:

That's right- Kyle Lohse, who gave up 2 runs in one inning of mop-up relief, was apparently more valuable than Brad Radke! My theory: Terry Ryan badly wants to trade Lohse, but no one will offer anything for him. Ryan knows some people at Sportsline, and passes some cash under the table in exchange for this. Then, when he's got GMs on the phone, he can refer to Kyle as "recent Sportsline player of the game."

Boozin' Athletes

2006-07-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

Koren Robinson checked himself into a rehab clinic. Good thing we got rid of bad apple Randy Moss, huh? The Vikings could be in big trouble if Robinson were not able to suit up this season. I'm excited about Chester Taylor's potential, but Robinson is their one definite threat to break a big play.

The Eddie Griffin story is much more interesting. In case you missed it, Griffin, who has had substance abuse issues in the past, crashed into a parked car in March while driving drunk, and masturbating while watching a porn DVD. That's right- drinking, driving, watching porn, and snapping one off, all at the same time! Oh yeah- this hasn't been proven yet. But a number of witnesses say Griffin was hammered, and the cops drove him home without performing a sobriety test.

The best part about this story is that Eddie Kline has been selling EG booze at Sharrett's Liquors! When he told me that, I thought about calling Kevin McHale and blowing the whistle.

Drinking and Minnesota sports have always gone hand-in-hand. From Keith Millard's "My arms are stronger than your guns," to Hrbek and G-Man staying up all night wrestling in hotel rooms, to Doug West polishing off a six pack in the locker room after every Wolves game, to Dino Cicarelli's fondness for gathering the mail in the nude (I assume drinking was involved in that one).

Here's a City Pages article from 2000 that details many of the Vikings players vs. Johnny Law confrontations over the years. And here's another article that talks about some of the scandals since then, including the Lake Minnetonka boat incident, and the "Artic Blast" sexual assault debacle from 2003, which might be the blackest mark in Vikes' history. Wow- some "tradition of excellence."

Baseball Between the Numbers

2006-07-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

If you get a chance to take a look at this book, I highly recommend it- especially if you're not very familiar with sabermetrics. The Baseball Prospectus people put together a nice book full of essays, addressing questions such as Why are pitchers so unpredictable?, Five pitchers or four?, Is Mike Matheny a catching genius?, and Are new stadiums a good deal?

(Very abbreviated answers: for the most part, pitchers aren't unpredictable- the traditional stats used to measure their value, particularly wins and ERA, are flawed; going back to a 4-man rotation might make the most sense- evidence doesn't suggest that short rest is bad- it's high pitch counts in a single game that lead to injury and ineffectiveness; there's no evidence to suggest that some catchers "call a good game"- success depends on the pitcher, not the catcher (although catchers need to be able to catch the ball); a new stadium does not generate money for a community- people just spend their entertainment dollars in a different place.)

So head to your local public library, and give it a look. It's a great book to have if your reading time is limited- each essay can be read in a matter of minutes.

NBA Draft Preview

2006-06-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is the craziest draft I can remember, with the top 6 going in any possible order (Bargnani, Aldridge, Roy, Thomas, Morrisson, Gay) and even a cuple of other guys (Shelden Williams, Marcus Williams, JJ Reddick) getting mentions. With the Wolves having such trouble finding a quality big man, I'd be delighted if Tyrus Thomas or LeMarcus Aldridge was available. I don't think Shelden Williams will be anything more than mediocre and I don't trust the softEuro Bargnani, but Roy or Gay would be decent picks as well. Aldridge and Roy seem more reliable with Thomas and Gay having more upside. At this point in the T-Wolf saga, I think they need to take a chance on upside. As for Larry Bird jr, I think Morrisson will be a decent scorer who can't do anything else and will drive KG nuts. Marcus Williams will also be a decent, but not great, point guard. The Woofies should come out of the draft with a good prospect...as long as they don't take the Christian poet, JJ Reddick.

The Future Looks Bright

2006-06-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly sure where to begin, since I have about a million Twins-related things to talk about.

Maybe I wasn't jinxing the team when I titled a recent post Turnaround time for the Twins? Of course, with the White Sox and Tigers continuing to play so well, a playoff berth this year is still unlikely. Regardless, having the young core of this team gell and play decent baseball is a win-win situation.

Maybe Ron Gardenhire heard all the Twins' bloggers calling for his head, or maybe Terry Ryan just shortened his leash. It makes you wonder, though. If the Twins had started the season with Bartlett at SS, anyone but Batista at 3B, and Liriano in the rotation (all moves many of us considered painfully obvious), would there be a 3-way race for the division right now? Maybe not quite, since Radke, Silva, Crain, and others got off to such a horrendous start. I guarantee the team wouldn't be 11 1/2 games behind Detroit, however.

The other major mistakes?

Offering Lohse arbitration (he actually had some trade value this off-season!)

Continuing to jerk around Kubel and Cuddyer. Gardy is so crazy. He often prefers crappy veterans like Juan Castro to talented young players. But then he'll give someone like Kubel an incredibly important at-bat in the playoffs. Kubel was coming off major knee surgery, and most people assumed he'd start the season in AAA. Meanwhile, Cuddyer tore the cover off the ball in spring training. So Gardy annoints Kubel the starting RF, and Cuddyer gets a total of 4 starts and 22 plate appearances in the first 14 games of the season. It's amazing that Bartlett, Cuddyer, and Kubel are all doing so well, after the way Gardy's messed with their confidence over the past few years.

While I assumed Gardy would be stubborn (stupid) enough to throw Shannon Stewart back in left field when he returns from the DL, relegating Kubel to DH duties, apparently that's not the case:

"I'll talk to Shannon about it," Gardenhire said. "But we're looking to probably to DH him and maybe spot play [in left field] here and there when he comes back to protect him, before he hurts himself out on the AstroTurf."

Stewart has been a defensive liability in the outfield for 2 1/2 seasons now. Add to that his injury history, and it's been a no-brainer for a while now.

Gardy hasn't all of a sudden become a smart manager, though. What was Lohse doing pitching in an important situation last night?

It sounds like Torii Hunter wants to remain with the team- he's mentioned wanting to play in the new ballpark. While I previously endorsed trading him this year, I've changed my opinion. He does remain a player whose trade value is probably much higher than he's actually worth, and I don't want to see the Twins paying him his $12 million option next year.

However, he's the one Twin that all the little kids look up to, he still plays very good defense in center, and he brings some emotion to a team with a lot of mellow young dudes (Mauer, Morneau, Santana, etc.). Oh yeah- he get a big hit every now and then, too. If they can restructure an affordable deal with him, and if he promises to never throw a punch at Morneau again, I'd be in favor of holding onto Torii. Who's our other CF option? Ford? Way too inconsistent. Denard Span's hitting decently in AA, but he may never make the leap.

I had jotted down a bunch more Johan Santana stats the other day, marvelling at how well he's pitched, and what an incredible season he may end up having. Most of these numbers, jotted on various scraps of paper, don't make sense to me anymore, but there are a few interesting things. In his past 11 starts, look what he's done:

79 IP / 60 H / 7 BB / 91 K / 20 ER / 2.28 ERA / .848 WHIP
That's 10.37 strikeouts/ 9 innings pitched, and only .78 BB/9 IP! If he can keep that walk rate low, there's no telling what he can do.

Right now, Santana is on pace for stats very similar to his '04 and '05 seasons. However, he seems to have heated up earlier this year. In 2004 and 2005, his numbers from July onward are absolutely sick:
1.63 ERA * .838 WHIP * 13.48 K/9IP * 1.92 BB/9IP
If he stays true to form, and finishes strong, his 2006 totals will be absolutely incredible. Of course, if he doesn't lead the league in victories, John Kruk won't think he deserves the Cy Young Award.

A couple things that will be fun to watch:

Clemens vs. Liriano, obviously.

Torii Hunter is 0-23 with 13 Ks vs. the Rockett in his career. It would be nice to see him jack one!

Mauer vs. Prior this weekend. Although Prior may have helped the Twins win a World Series, it's safe to say that we made the right pick.

Santana's place in history

2006-06-15T14:55:00.000-07:00

Johan Santana recorded his 1000th career strikeout Tuesday night, becoming the sixth Twin to reach that milestone. Any guesses at the other 5? I'll provide the answer at the end of this post.

From the MLB.com recap of the game:

Dominant outings aren't anything new for Santana, but against the Red Sox, the Twins ace was historic. Santana became the sixth Twins pitcher to record 1,000 strikeouts. His was the second fastest to the number, accomplishing the feat in his 198th appearance. Bert Blyleven is the only Twins pitcher to reach 1,000 career K's faster, as he did it in his 170th outing.

Bad grammar aside (I'm assuming she meant to say "he was the second fastest to reach the number"), why does it make sense to use appearances to judge who K'd 1000 batters first? It's not Johan's fault that the Twins used him in relief 76 times between 2000 and 2003, compared to 42 starts. Blyleven had a grand total of 2 relief appearances, both during his rookie year.

It took Santana 948 innings to get to the 1000 strikeout milestone, while it took Blyleven 1160 innings. In other words, Santana struck out 1.05 batters/inning (9.49/9IP), while Blyleven struck out .862/inning (7.76/9IP).

Santana is starting to creep up the lists of all-time Twins records, both single-season, and career. I think Walter Johnson's single-season ERA records are safe, though. (Why can't baseball-reference.com sepearate Senators and Twins stats?)

One ridiculous stat difference I noticed while researching this is complete games (CGs). Blyleven had 25 CGs in 1973, and he averaged 17 Cgs between 1971 & 1978. To put this in perspective, Roy Halladay led the AL with 5 CGs last year. The last time pitcher had at least 10 CGs was Randy Johnson in 1999 (12).

Twins Strikeout Leaders
Bert Blyleven 2035
Camilo Pascual 1885
Jim Kaat 1851
Brad Radke 1384
Frank Viola 1214
Johan Santana 1005

Turnaround time for the Twins?

2006-06-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on this blog, but there hasn't been much to write about. I don't give a crap about the NBA (sorry, Dirk!), I haven't caught World Cup fever, and the Twins have been uninspiring, to say the least. Steve put a link to this site on his new blog, however, so I feel compelled to post, in order to welcome the thousands of his fans that will suddenly find themselves transported to Bang the Drum Slowly.

Jen and I thought about attending the Twins-Red Sox game last night. Santana vs. Schilling had the makings of a classic pitcher's duel, and, thanks to the completely ridiculous unbalanced schedule (and interleague play), Boston's baseball club will only be making this one appearance in the Twin Cities this year. (Barring a playoff matchup between the two teams, of course.) I'll be going to the game Thursday, and two June evenings in a week stuck inside the Dome just seemed like too much, so we passed.

Santana K'd 13 Red Sox in 8 innings, and his only mistake was a solo shot to Jason Varitek. Meanwhile, Cuddyer connected for a solo homer off of Schilling, leaving the game knotted at 1. After Nathan and Rincon held the Red Sox scoreless into the 12th inning, Jesse Crain gave up a run. Nick Punto made a fantastic, diving stop of a grounder up the middle, and flipped it to Castillo. The throw to first was barely late, allowing the run to score.

In the bottom of the ninth, Joe Mauer led off the inning with his 2nd strikeout of the game. [This is only the 5th 2-K game of the season for Mauer, who had gone an amazing 16 consecutive games without a strikeout before Sunday's game.] Cuddyer got hit by a pitch, Justin Morneau doubled, and Torii Hunter was intentionally walked. This brought up Jason Kubel.

Strike looking.
Ball.
Foul.
Ball.
Foul.
Ball.
Grand Slam. Twins win 5-2. (This clip and a few others from the game can be viewed here. Click on the "350K" next to "Kubel's walk-off slam" near the top of the page.)

This is one of those games that seems like it could provide a spark that the team needs. Of course, I would have said the same thing after their big come-from-behind, extra-innings victory over the Angels on April 19. The reality is that the Twins have a lot of ground to make up. Even if the Tigers or White Sox drop off their current pace, the Twins would still be contending with the Beasts of the AL East for the wild card berth.

The funny thing about the Twins' situation is that I think they need to be giving playing time to their young players, to help develop them. At the same time, players like Kubel, Liriano, and Bartlett are significant upgrades over the players Gardy and Ryan have been sending out there.

So the Twins can build for the future, while simultaneously giving it their all this year.

There's a first time for everything...

2006-05-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

I actually agree with Joe Soucheray's column (to a certain extent) today! Is this the first sign of the apocalypse?

Who will own ballpark? You will, Hennepin County

Jack Hannahan, former Cretin boy (and younger brother of Buzz) just got called up to the Tigers. Pretty cool stuff. I know Buzz, but not Jack. Dave tutored Jack at the U of MN.

T-Wolves Draft

2006-05-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

In recent years, my interest level in the Timberwolves has plummeted faster than a Carlos Silva sinker- oh, wait. I guess that analogy doesn't work very well right now, does it? In any case, the Wolves will draft in the 6th spot, which is exactly where their record says they should draft. Despite failing to move up yet again, it has to be considered a moral victory when the Wolves don't draft lower than they're supposed to. In a draft class that doesn't feature a sure-thing player or two, standing pat at 6th isn't necessarily bad news for the team.

However, a quick glance at the T-Wolves draft history doesn't exactly instill me with confidence in their ability to assess amateur talent. Here is a list of players selected when the Wolves had a top-20 pick:

Year	Position	Player
1989	10	Pooh Richardson
1990	6	Felton Spencer
	20	Gerald Glass
1991	7	Luc Longley
1992	3	Christian Laettner
1993	5	J.R. Rider
1994	4	Donyell Marshall
1995	5	Kevin Garnett
1996	5	Ray Allen
1997	20	Paul Grant
1998	17	Rasho Nesterovich
1999	6	Wally Szczerbiak
	14	William Avery
2005	14	Rashad McCants

The team has has some bad luck, most notably in '92, when, as the worst team in the league, they should have been able to draft Shaq. Ray Allen was traded for Stephon Marbury, and we all know how that turned out. Losing four first-rounders because of the secret Joe Smith contract debacle was a major blow, but judging by the team's draft history, maybe we were simply spared four more bone-headed picks.

Other than the KG selection, it almost looks like someone was planted on the inside to sabotage the draft on an annual basis.

Some of the early speculation has the Wolves taking Rudy Gay at #6, which could be intriguing. Although, I can't imagine KG wants another lazy son-of-a-bitch on the team.

School's in Session

2006-05-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

At some point, whien I have enough free time, I'm going to enroll at Tufts University so I can take this class: Sabermetrics 101. Look at the syllabus! The required reading includes Moneyball, Baseball America, and Bill James.

Hold On, Barry!

2006-05-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Barry Bonds tied Babe Ruth yesterday, clubbing his 714th home run. I need him to hold out until a week from today to hit #715, since I'll be attending the GIants-Rockies game next Sunday. I'm not really a Bonds fan, but to be at a game with that much excitement in the air would be awesome. Plus, I might catch the ball, and make loads of cash.

Twins Take First Step

2006-05-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

The Twins have finally made a move that makes sense- pulling Silva from the rotation, and inserting Francisco Liriano. Of course, Gardenhire let Silva give up eight more friggin runs before pulling him last night! Hey, Gardy- just because he has low pitch counts doesn't mean you should leave him out there to be slaughtered every start. That's 74 hits allowed in 46 innings, including a league-high 15 gopher balls. In the games that count (in other words, ignoring his game vs the Royals), he's given up the following run totals: 6, 5, 8, 7, 9, 5, 8.

The worst-case scenario for this team would be to stay within striking distance of the playoffs all season long, before reality finally hits down the stretch. I have a feeling that's exactly what is going to happen, though. With Hunter hitting and fielding very well right now, I can't imagine his trade value is going to ever be higher. I would move him immediately. Of course, if I was running things, Jason Bartlett wouldn't be in AAA, and Juan Castro and Tony Batista would not be Twins.

I watched the failed bunt which resulted in a triple play last night, and it was one of the worst baseball plays I've ever seen. First you have Luis Castillo, who has easily been the best hitter on the team so far, pop up a bunt attempt. Then, you have both Nick Punto and Shannon Stewart totally misread the play, thinking Konerko's not going to get to the ball before it hit the ground. To make matters even worse, once Punto realized he screwed up, he just walked off the field, toward the dugout (he had already made it to third base). This was way before he was actually doubled off of second. Definitely not the "Twins baseball" Gardenhire preaches.

So Long, Onterrio

2006-05-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well, Onterrio Smith hopes to put his "young and careless" days behind him, and earn a living in the CFL. Apparently the CFL has no drug testing policy, but the NFL will continue to test him. Can somebody tell me why the NFL is testing for pot? It's not a preformance-enhancing drug. The dude must seriously like his weed, though. Instead of building leverage for a possible multi-million dollar contract, he'll be earning about $60,000 in Winnipeg.

Another running back who seriously likes his reefer, Ricky Williams, might be playing in the CFL, too.

A great quote from the Winnipeg GM: "If Onterrio is a total pothead and comes to work stoned every day, we're not going to condone that."

There's worse things than being a Twins fan

2006-05-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Try being a Royals fan.

At the End of Their Ropes

Things could be worse for the Twins

2006-05-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

They could be paying over $4 million/year for Cristian Guzman.

Guzman Will Have Surgery, Is Out for Year

April 19, 2006

2006-05-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

That would have been the perfect day to end the baseball season, as far as Twins fans are concerned. After a rough start (losing two of three in Toronto, then getting swept in Cleveland), the Twins came home and were born anew, sweeping the A's, and taking 2 of 3 from the big bad Yankees. After losing the series opener to the Angels, the Twins clawed their way out of numerous holes on the evening of Wednesday, April 19.

Although Kyle Lohse tried his damnedest to hand Los Angeles de Los Angeles the "W," the scrappy Twins scored 4 in the 2nd, 4 in the 6th, 1 in the 7th, 1 in the bottom of the 9th (off K-Rod) to send the game to extra innings, and then Michael Cuddyer blasted a 2-out dinger off former Twin J.C. Romero for the 12-10 victory.

It seemed a good time to be a Twins fan. Their record stood at 7-7, and Santana had yet to pitch a good game. Rondell White was sure to snap out of his funk, and Silva and Radke could only improve.

Well, things have definitely gotten worse. The Twins have gone 4-11 since April 19, getting outscored 84-40. If you don't count the games against the worst team in baseball (the Royals), the Twins have gone 1-9 since then, and have been outscored 75-24. The overall numbers hurt to even look at (keep in mind there are only 14 teams in the AL):

Batting		Pitching
Category	Rank	Category	Rank
BA	11	ERA	14
OBP	12	WHIP	12
SLG	14	K/BB	1
R	13	K/9	5
2B	13	HR	12
HR	12	2B	13
HBP	14	BAA	14
SB	7	SLG	14
SB%	2	OBP	12
PH BA	1
IsoP	14
P/PA	11

The only areas in which the Twins don't completely suck are steals, steal success rate (80%!), pinch hitting batting average (.400), K/9 (thanks to Liriano, Rincon, Nathan, & Santana), K/BB (thanks to the four previous guys mentioned + Silva, Radke, & Baker).

Something I noticed while looking at stats- Lohse's overall numbers are awful, but he's actually had two good starts thrown in there (12 innings, 10 hits, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts, 2.25 ERA, 1.42 WHIP). When you remove those two good (lucky?) starts, his numbers in the remaining 4 starts are absolutely revolting:
an average of 4 IP, 7.5 H, 1.75 BB, 7.25 ER, 2 SO, 15.82 ERA, 2.55 WHIP.

With the way the Twins have played against our competition for the division (0-10), it's time to write off this season, trade Hunter, and give some young guys some serious playing time.

When does football season start?

The future is...Travarious Jackson?

2006-04-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

TJ obviously has some intriguing potential, but the Vikes need somebody to step in and run the West Coast Offense next year, and this raw athlete from Alabama State will not be ready. Maybe Childress thinks he is the next McNabb, but I saw Donovan play at Syracuse at Miami, and he was a pretty finished product. The Vikes had a chance to trade up for Cutler, and maybe even Leinart. They also could've taken Kellen Clemons with their first 2nd round pick; everybody was speculating that the Jets were about to take him. Chad Greenway will probably be a good player for the Purple, but Travarious Jackson will end up being the defing pick of this draft.

In progress draft preview

2006-04-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

Things are falling the right way for the Vikes in the draft. Leinart and is still there at #9, increasing the chances that Cutler will be there at 17. They need to come out of this draft with a QB; Brad Johnson is not the long term answer. At this point, they can be agressive and trade up for Leinart or Cutler, or wait for Cutler to drop to them. Waiting looks good at this point, as long as their back-up plan isn't taking a QB in the second or third round. If Cutler isn't still there, they should trade their #1 for Matt Schaub.

Twins Game Notes (more Reggie Sanders, please!)

2006-04-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

Johan's back in the Cy Young form we're used to, cruising through 7 2/3 innings, before giving up a couple of 2-out runs in the 8th. He struck out 10 for the first time since mid-September. Pretty much all the stats are improving each start:

DATE	IP	H	BB	SO	HR	ER
4-Apr	5.2	10	1	3	1	4
9-Apr	5.1	4	3	5	1	3
15-Apr	6.1	8	2	4	0	4
21-Apr	7	5	3	6	1	2
27-Apr	8	7	1	10	1	3

To see the strikeouts gradually improving is a nice sign, especially with only one walk this week. Had Johan not gotten into a little trouble in the 8th, he would have pitch a complete game. Too bad he didn't get another chance to pitch to Reggie Sanders! Sanders was absolutely brutal vs. the Twins. Look at these stats:

0-13
1 RBI (a groundout to SS with a runner on third, 0 out)
10 runners stranded, and one wiped out via a double play
7 strikeouts (4 swinging, 3 looking)

Salvaging the Series?

2006-04-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

It looks like the Twins will escape Kansas City with a Thursday afternoon win. Former Twin Mark Redman was unable to dominate the Twins' batters the way Elarton and Hernandez had in the past two days. The Twins jumped to a 5-0 lead in the top of the second, and Johan seems to be cruising along (a solo HR by Angel Berroa has accounted for the Royals' lone run)- 40 pitches through 4 full inings.

Unless Silva and Radke figure out how to make batters hit the ball at Twins defenders, however, the Twins may be conceding the AL Central very early this year. It will be interesting to see how early it is before Ryan decides to move Torii Hunter and Kyle Lohse. I would have to imagine Francisco Liriano will get a shot at the rotation soon enough, and Boof Bonser might get an audition before the All Star break, as well.

Stuffing the Kleinsausage?

2006-04-19T12:26:00.001-07:00

One of the people who probably won't benefit from the coaching change for the Vikes is Jimmy Kleinsasser. Kleinsausage was an ideal H-Back in the old offense; a excellent run blocker who has the athleticism to get down the field as a receiver, even though he doesn't have great hands. Unfortunately, the West Coast Offense doesn't have an H-Back. The TE is mainly a receiver (ie, Brent Jones) so Jermaine Wiggins figures to be the man. The fullback needs to be a good run and pass blocker, who will occasionally get a carry or a pass thrown to him. It seems to me that Kleinsausage's blocking and athelticism would fit perfectly here. However, the triangle of authority that runs the Vikes think differently and have brought in 2 decent veteran fullbacks, Tony Richardson and Joey Godspeed. I think this is short-sightedness on the part of the Vikes. Just because Kleinsasser hasn't played a lot of fullback, doesn't mean he doesn't have the skills to play there. Kleinsusage will probably be wasted as a back-up TE, when his superior run blocking skills would be better utilized at FB.

Patience at the Plate?

2006-04-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

Yoda: "I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience."

Obi-wan: "He will learn patience."

While watching one of the Twins-A's games last week, I was noticing how A's batters never seemed to swing at the first pitch, something I'm used to the Twins doing constantly. With the A's using the Billy Beane (aka Moneyball) approach to baseball, patience at the plate should be expected. For years, the Twins have used the TK/Kirby Puckett approach: Be aggressive! With Luis Rivas and Jacque Jones gone, Luis Castillo aboard, and Joe Mauer continuing to mature as a big league hitter, we can expect the Twins to show a little more patience than in years past. I decided to take a look at some of the numbers.

I don't know of a place to find the statistics I was looking for (taking first pitches, pitches per at bat, etc.), so I looked back at all of the at bats in the Oakland-Minnesota series, and tallied whether batters took or swung at the first pitch. Oakland's numbers were not very surprising:
79 of the 110 batters took the first pitch (71.8 %)

What did surprise me was the lack of Twinkies swinging at the first pitch- 74/110 batters took the first pitch (67.3%). Part of this can be attributed to a discriminating eye: the Twins took first pitch balls 46 times (28 strikes), while the A's took first-pitch strikes 42 times (37 balls).

The top three guys in the Twins' batting order are definitely the most patient. Through the first 9 games of the season, Stewart took 30/38 (79%) first pitches, Castillo took 28/33 (85%), and Mauer took 23/30 (77%). Of the 7 first pitches Mauer swung at, three were hits, and one was a sacrifice fly, which brought home a run. Of course, the rudimentary stats I'm using don't take into account hit-and-run calls, pitchouts, etc.

It turns out espn.com does track pitches/plate appearances. The Twins rank 8th out of 14 teams. Looking at the AL leaders, Justin Morneau ranks 15th overall (4.06 P/PA), Tony Batista is 23rd (3.98), and Castillo is 25th (3.93). It's surprising to see Batista's name listed there, since he definitely doesn't have a reputation for drawing many walks (only twice in his career has he eclipsed 30 BBs). However, his career 3.87 P/PA isn't that much lower than what he's averaging right now. However, f a guy is know for only one thing, blasting home runs, it makes sense that he'd be pitched around a fair amount.

Not surprisingly, Torii Hunter is last among Twins regulars (3.33 P/PA). Of the 16 first pitches he's swung at however, he's connected for 4 singles, a double, and a home run, and only 4 outs.

Although Morneau's pitches/plate appearance is tops on the team, he has only 1 walk, to go along with 13 strikeouts. It's good to see him working the count, but I hope he can learn to lay off some of those ball fours.

Lights-out Liriano (Twins Sweep!)

2006-04-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Following a 1-5 road trip to start the season, the Twins are now a game away from .500, after sweeping the Oakland A's at the Dome. After scoring 27 runs in 6 games vs the Blue Jays and Indians (with half of those runs coming in one game), the Twins scored 21 runs in 3 games against A's- the odds-on favorites to win the AL West.

Lohse rebounded nicely, pitching 6 solid innings, then Liriano came in for two innings which I wished I could have seen (especially the Seventh!):

7th Inning
Kendall- strike looking, strike swinging, strike swinging SIT DOWN!
Johnson- strike looking, ball, strike swinging, foul tip SIT DOWN!
Scutaro- ball, ball, strike looking, strike swinging, strike swinging SIT DOWN!

That's 12 pitches, 3 Ks- the only bat-on-ball contact was the foul tip strikeout. Must have been a fun 7th-inning strectch! His second inning was just a tad less dominant:

8th Inning
Swisher- ball, ball, double
Crosby- strike swinging, ball, line out
Perez- strike looking, ball, strike swinging, strike looking SIT DOWN!
Thomas- strike looking, foul, strike swinging SIT DOWN!

He's just continuing what he's done throughout the minors- here are his combined numbers from AA and AAA last year: 168 IP, 204 K, 126 H, 50 BB, 2.63 ERA. Wow. You've gotta imagine we'll see him in the soon enough (although you never know with the Twins).

On the downer side, Rondy White continued his putrid play. Here's what he did today:

1st inning (1 out, runner on 2nd): fielder's choice. [Hunter follows with HR]
3rd inning (1 out, runners on 1st and 3rd): inning-ending DP
5th inning (0 out, runners on 1st and 2nd): fly out (runners don't advance)
7th inning (0 out, no one on base): strikeout

Ugh. His numbers on the season? 3-34 (.088 avg), 10 Ks, 0 BB, 1 HBP. He's gotta come around soon enough, doesn't he?

Bring on the Yankees!

Looking Beyond the Boxscore

2006-04-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

The Twins home opener against the A's was on WFTC last night, which meant Jen and I were able to watch the game. After nearly four years of paying $12/month for basic cable, but getting all the channels free (even HBO in Denver), the freeloading train has come to a halt. This means no FSN, which means I won't be watching many Twins games on television this year. That's not a huge blow to me, since 1) It frees me up to do other things with my time; and 2) What I really enjoy about following the Twins is tracking stats, reading commentary (online & print), and going through the season-long ritual of being a baseball fan. Baseball is also fun to listen to on the radio (although Gladden drives me nuts at times), and the Web makes it so much easier to follow games these days.

Having said that, there are so many important game details that don't show up in the boxscore. Sportsline keeps pitch-by-pitch logs, which are nice, but they still don't go into enough detail to get a feel for the game. Were the singles line shots, bloopers, or grounders that Tony Fatista didn't get to? Was a pitcher particularly wild, or was the ump's strike zone just really tight? Mainstream media coverage doesn't really go into any of this either- they usually just provide recaps of the major plays of the game.

There were a few plays last night that didn't show up in the boxscore, but were very important.

*Joe Mauer made two great baserunning decisions. He was on first base with one out in the 3rd, and Rondell White hit a blooper into center that Mark Kotsay was charging. Mauer made a perfect read on the ball, and motored around second, into third. Kotsay didn't quite get to the ball on time, so Mauer was easily safe. With two outs in the fourth, Mauer hit a line drive to right center that wasn't hit hard enough to get to the wall, but was placed in between two outfielders. Mauer again read it perfectly, and sprinted around first, sliding in safe at second. Watching him bat and run the bases, you can tell he has a great feel for the game- incredible instincts.

*Luis Castillo looked pretty good in the field, showing good range. He had a couple nice diving stops. Castillo also showed off some of his patience at the plate. He took the first pitch in all four of his at bats, the hlighted was an at bat where he took two strikes, followed by four straight balls.

*Juan Castro made one nice play in the field, but also went 0-4. Meanwhile, Jason Bartlett is leading the AAA Rochester Red Wings in most offensive categories (including a .924 OPS).

*Joe Nathan is throwing absolute heat- close to 100 MPH. The save category is definitely overrated, but it's sure fun to watch a good closer come out and blow the ball by batters.

TGIF

2006-04-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

It looks like the Gophers might get a stadium ok'd by the MN legislature. While I'm definitely excited for a real, on-campus stadium, I just hope that priority isn't given to the University, at the expense of the Twins & Vikings. It reminds me of how I felt when St. Paul was awarded an expansion hockey franchise (great, but this better not mean we lose another team). The Gophers are here to stay, no matter what. The Twins and Vikings may not stay in Minnesota for very long if they don't get stadiums.

Intersting stuff over at Aaron Gleeman's blog today (Charley Walters gave him a shout out in today' Pioneer Press). First of all, Gleeman's goal is to devote more time to the Twins' farm system, which is great. Gleeman mentions the fact that prospect Jay Rainville had surgery, and might miss the entire season, something which hasn't been mentioned by any of the mainstream sports journalists. If you click on the "comments" link at the end of the post, you'll see that Mr. La Velle E Neal III responded to Gleeman's criticism, and Gleeman fired back, followed by La Velle responding yet again. Good stuff. La Velle was posting from the pressbox, and Terry Ryan told him "If you have time to read his blog, you have time to report on Rainville's injury." Priceless.

Lohse got pounded today by the Tribe (I would have pulled him when he loaded the bases after already having given up 4 runs), but the bright spot was Justin Morneau: 3-4, with 2 home runs.

I've Got Your Offense Right Here...

2006-04-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Twins bounced back nicely after their opening night loss, and whalloped the Blue Jays, 13-4. Radke was his typical self, giving up two dingers in the first, before settling down. Maybe they should try hypnosis on him. If he walks out to the mound in the first inning thinking it's the fourth inning, he's probably be fine. It's obviously a mental thing.

Shannon Stewart hit another home run against his former team, and Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter both had great games. Luis Castillo's steal came with the Twins up 12-4, and Molina didn't even bother trying to throw him out, so don't get too excited when you see the boxscore. Super-prospect Francisco Liriano made a relief appearance, and fanned 3 in two innings.

Jason Kubel started in right for the second straight game. Is Gardy trying out a Kubel-Cuddyer platoon? During the Twins' first game, Dan Gladden was saying that he was surprised to not see Cuddyer in the starting lineup, since he's been mashing the ball. He said Mikey put on a show during batting practice, after tearing it up in Spring Training. Now Kubel gets back-to-back starts against righties? After years of refusing to platoon Jacque Jones, which would have made an incredible amount of sense, it appears Gardenhire might finally do it with these guys. Of course, Kubel better start hitting ASAP, or they'll probably banish him in AAA with Bartlett.

Another Slow Start for Santana

2006-04-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Johan always leaves the gate slowly, something that local columnists fail to acknowledge. His next two starts will be against the Indians and Yankees, so here's hoping he gets back on track right away. The Twins' schedule is brutal early on: six three-game series against some of the best American League teams: Toronto, Cleveland, Oakland, New York, Los Angeles/Anaheim, Chicago. Ouch!

I caught some of the game at local watering hole Adrian's (which is no longer just a 3.2 joint!), and I have a few observations.

Tony Batista appears to have no range, or he reacts very slowly to ground balls (or, probably, both). There were two grounders that he tried to "dive" for (more like a flop), that squirted through for hits. On the positive side, he did hit a dinger. Of course, the more early-season HRs he cranks, the less likely we'll see someone else earning playing time at third. Remember last year, when Jacque Jones had a couple hits off lefties, and Gardy was so impressed? Jones reverted back to his career long suckiness vs lefties after that, but it never got mentioned.

Castillo didn't flash much of that gold glove defense we've heard about, either. The Twins didn't give up top prospects for him, but I hope it doesn't turn out he's nothing but a gimpy singles hitter with an average glove.

Rincon looked great, but Crain was a little shaky. I can't imagine Gardy will keep bringing them out in that order very long.

Shannon Stewart's at bats looked great- maybe he's determined to make fans forget about his horrible 2006 season.

I'd like to see a statistic that indicate how many of the 8 singles Johan surrendered were ground balls. He didn't pitch great, but he wasn't awful, either.

Bye Bye Burleson

2006-03-31T08:31:00.000-08:00

It looks like the Vikes will let Nate Burleson go, because they can't possibly match the Seattle offer with its outlandish poison pills. I think Seattle's offer is really unfair, but the Vikes did the same thing, to a lesser extent, with Hutchinson, so they can't really bitch. The NFL will probably tighten up the loopholes eventually, but I would gladly take the tradeoff of getting one of the top 10 lineman in the game in Hutchinson, versus losing a slightly above average WR in Burleson. Still, something bothers me about the way the Vikes handled the situation. They should've made a higher qualifying offer to NB. That way, we would get a 2nd round pick instead of a 3rd, which would be a key piece to my master plan of trading for Cutler, Leinart or Schaub. We definitely had the cap room for a higher offer. It almost seems like they were waving goodbye to KB after resigning Korn Robinson. That would be a highly questionable attitude, since Korn & Troy Williamson are extremely dangerous deep threats, but neither of them is the polished underneath guy that the west coast offense requires - that's NB in a nutshell.

Them Durned Injuns!

2006-03-29T10:05:00.000-08:00

The Indians just inked Grady Sizemore to a 6-year deal, with a team option for a 7th year. Victor Martinez and Jhonny Peralta also earned long-term deals recently, and Travis Hafner and C.C. Sabathia are signed through 2007, with club options for 2008. The club is said to be working on a deal with Cliff Lee, as well.

Without an increase in payroll, the Twins may be playing for second or third in the division for the forseeable future. The minor league system is still in pretty good shape, but without some more hitting prospects developing into very good major leaguers (Jason Kubel, Denard Spahn, Trevor Plouffe, Henry Sanchez, etc.), the Twins will continue to be a team that both scores and gives up few runs. I, for one, hope to see the Twins use some of that incredible minor league pitching depth to make some deals for big-time hitting prospects, if not proven big leaguers.

Play-by-play Recap of Kirby's Memorial Service

2006-03-28T19:05:00.000-08:00

I meant to write this up a couple weeks ago, but I'm just getting to it right now.

After the shocking news that Kirby Puckett had died shortly before his 46th birthday, it was announced that there would be a public memorial service at the Metrodome on Sunday, March 12. I thought about attending, but had plans to get together with friends for dinner and the Sopranos premier. Also, the weather was pretty nasty, and the idea of standing outside the Dome for a couple of hours didn't sound very appealing. The event was being broadcast locally, so I opted to record it, and watch it later that night. What follows is an irreverent, abbreviated play-by-play of the memorial service.

The Twins had originally asked Bob Costas to emcee the event, but he had a "prior engagement" after the private memorial service held in a Plymouth church earlier in the day, so Twins announcer John Gordon did an admirable job filling in for him. Apparently the Twins included Torii Hunter in the original list of speakers, without asking him first. Hunter declined, saying that he would probably just cry the entire time. You'd think they would check with him before publishing a list of speakers.

Gordon started off by introducing the Pucketts and the Olsons (kirby's fiancee), and also pointed out Puck's agent, Ron Shapiro, which he pronounced "Shapyro." Maybe that's the way Ron's name is pronounced, but I don't think so! That's the only name that Gordon butchered during the service, which is pretty astounding. The guy never figured out how to include the "r" sound in Carlos Baerga's last name, and his attempts at former Twins prospect German Gonzalez's name should be parodied in a comedy sketch someday. ("herman," "jerman," "german,[hard G]" "germon," etc.)

Then Gordon said "Please welcome pop local band G. B. Leighton to perform Kirby's favorite song, 'God Bless a Broken Road.'" A few years back, the Twins had a rally down at Peavey Plaza, and G. B. Leighton performed a song he had written for the occasion, which was absolutely horrible. It included lyrics about hitting homers in the Dome, and Hunter roaming the field. This song wasn't quite as bad.

After Leighton's less-than-inspiring musical tribute, for Twins GM Andy McPhail took the mic. I guess it makes sense to start with the best speaker, but everyone else pailed in comparison. McPhail was extremely eloquent, and got a little choked up towards the end. He talked about the clubhouse camaraderie that the late 80s Twins had, something he's never seen replicated, and he credits Kirby. He also talked about Shane Mack, the former first-round pick of the San Diego Padres, who developed into a pretty good ballplayer with the Twins. McPhail said that Mack would never have finished his development without the "gentle and constant support and enthusiasm he received from the player 20 yards to his right." No, not Johnny Moses- Kirby Puckett, of course. They cut to Mack in the crowd, and I didn't even recognize him! He's got a shaved head, and no 'stache. It was pretty freaky to see all the old Twins. They've aged quite a bit since '87 and '91, which makes sense, because that was a long time ago.

Cal Ripken followed McPhail, and kept his speech nice and short. He talked about how he never encountered a player that was more fun to play against than Kirby, and how his enthusiasm was contagious (a recurring theme throughout the evening).

Dave Winfield was next, and he's another great speaker. He said Kirby would be embarassed at being the center of attention. "He was a good man." That was another recurring theme- Kirby was a good (or great) man, regardless of what Frank Deford said. Winfield also recounted the fishing trip Puckett took him on- the first time Winnie ever fished.

Next up was Jim "Mudcat" Grant. "He called me Cat-man, and I will always remember that for the rest of me. He dearly loved that song 'What a Wonderful World,' and he really would want you to hear it tonight." Mudcat was accompanied by a Wayne Coyne-looking dude on electric guitar (local musician Martin Devaney, apparently). During the song, a graphic on the screen read "Jim Mudcat Grant: MUSIC ARTIST." Just in case we were wondering what business a former big league pitcher had singing, I guess.

Next up was a bunch of Puckett Scholars, led by Keon Blasingame, 1998 Puckett Scholar. It was very touching. (No, you perverts, not that kind of touching.)

Next up was Harmon Killebrew. Harm is a Twins legend, a Hall of Famer, and a really nice guy. But he's an awful public speaker. He droned on for a long time, said things like "I don't know why they asked me to speak," and spent 5 minutes talking about how badly Garth Brooks had wanted to be there, but was unable. He did talk about how Puck always called him "Killer," and how he never heard him call anyone by their first name.

After Killebrew's painful ramblings, they cut to video of Kirby announcing David Letterman's Top Ten List, which was fun to see again.

Top Ten Ways to Mispronouce Kirby Puckett

10.	Kooby Pickett
9.	Creepy Pockets
8.	Bernie Crumpet
7.	Turkey Bucket
6.	Buddy Hackett
5.	The Puckett Formerly Known as Kirby
4.	Punky Brewster
3.	Kent Hrbek
2.	There once was a man from Nantucket who Kirbied his very own Puckett
1.	Englepuck Kirbydink

After a great collection of video highlights spanning Kirby's career, Ron Gardenhire stepped up to the podium. He said that the highlight of his career will always be the high-five he received from Puck when he was rounding third after his Game 6 homer. Gardy also said "I can promise you this: as long as I'm runnin this baseball team, we will play the game with respect. We will run every ball out and we will give you a show every time you come here, because that's what Kirby would want us to do." Very true. But would he want Juan Castro starting at shorstop?

Danny Gladden and Al Newman were next. Gladden talked about Kirby hitting balls he had no right swinging at. Newman talked about how the two of them would fall asleep on one another, because neither of them would stop talking through the night. He also said, quite emphatically, "He was a good man, and I believe he was a good family man. Most importantly, he was a good friend." Newmie refrained from talking trash about Gardenhire, probably out of respect for Puck.

Kent Hrbek came next, and said "I won't remember the hits, the hustle, the catches...they're all gonna happen again, by different people. What I'm gonna remember is his smile...the laughter...the clubhouse pranks...and havin a good old time." He also said the biggest thing he remembers is all the dogs and cats in Minnesota named "Kirby." If someone had a cow or a horse, they named it "Herbie." "I was always second fiddle to Puck, and I loved every minute of it."

Tom Kelly finished things up, and he was his typical grumpy self. He said "I think we've heard enough speeches today." He told all the players in attnedance to stand up behind him, and told the crowd to get their cameras out. He also complained about all the reporters who wanted to interview him (big surprise). He mentioned that there was another star from the 1987 team who "really wanted to be here today. He just couldn't."- Jeff Reardon. He finished with "That's why you people are here today. To show the respect...I'm done."

After a gospel choir sang a song, they turned down the lights in the Dome, and had a spotlight on a Puckett jersey in center field.

Say it ain't so, Gardy!

2006-03-28T09:32:00.000-08:00

Why the hell is Ron Gardenhire so obsessed with Juan Castro? If the Twins' main problem last year had been defense up the middle, I can understand him wanting to go with the guy who he thinks has the best glove. But the problem wasn't defense, it was offense. Castro provides about as much offense for the Twins as I did for the Highland Catholic baseball team in 1987. (Of course, my .500 OBP and 2 stolen bases in 2 attempts probably puts me head and shoulders above Castro.)

If Jason Bartlett is healthy, I don't think Terry Ryan will let Gardy start Castro over him, but a dinged hammy gives the Twins' manager the excuse he's probably been dreaming about. Playing baseball "the Twins way" is a great idea when it comes to running out ground balls, but Gardenhire, like TK before him, seems enamored with guys who are as inept with the bat as he was (Gardy had a career .573 OPS; Castro's is .610). Of course, if it were completely up to Gardy, I think we'd see a roster completely filled with good-glove middle infielders who can't hit- a recent quote: "Like I've said all along, I'm really going to try to find a way to keep Luis Rodriguez on the ballclub."

If the Twins are serious about contending for the division, would they really be talking about starting Tony Bautista and Juan Castro? Ugh.

Random Stuff

2006-03-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

There's definitely no better time of the year for a sports fan. The NCAA basketball tournament is simply the most entertaining sporting event in existence. Spring Training is in full gear. The NFL draft is less than a month away. The NCAA hockey tourney is underway, and the Gophers look poised to make a run at the title. The NBA and NHL postseason is approaching (neither of which I personally care about, but there are plenty of people out there who do).

I do have one major problem with the NCAA basketball tournament, though. Why don't they stagger the starting times of the games in the first round? Every year there are moments where 2 games are coming down to the wire, and CBS can only air one at a time. It makes no sense whatsoever. Stagger the tip-off times by 20-30 minutes, and you solve that problem.

As long as I'm bitching about that, the NCAA hockey scheduling is crazy, as well. The championship game is played Saturday, April 8, at 7 PM Eastern Time. Sounds good. The semifinal games are played Thursday, April 6, at 3 PM and 8 PM! You've got a total of three games to be played, and you schedule one at 3:00 (that's noon on the West Coast) on a Thursday? I realize there aren't very many college hockey fans out there, but...

TWINS

Tony Bautista's name came up the other day, in a Baseball Prospectus daily email:

Bottom 5 2006 AL Starting Third Basemen, by PECOTA Projected VORP

Player, Team, Projected VORP

Tony Batista, MIN, -0.3
Sean Burroughs, TBA, 4.5
Aaron Boone, CLE, 6.4
Joe Crede, CHA, 9.0
Brandon Inge, DET, 13.5

Yep, that's right- dead last. And a negative VORP. How lovely! On the bright side, one of the local baseball writers (I'm too lazy to find the article right now) recently penned the phrase "if Bautista makes the team." Gardy seems determined to add some veterans to the clubhouse, regardless of whether they actually help the team on the field, so I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for the "out machine" to get cut.

VIKINGS

The signing of Mike McMahon means we won't see Joey Harrington wearing Purple this season. Not that I'm a fan of Harrington, but the Vikings better do some sort of planning for the future. This article makes it sound like Childress may be trying to trade up and grab one of the top 3 QBs in the upcoming draft. I'd love to see them move up and draft Leinart, but I doubt it will actually happen. The Vikings also signed a couple more players: safety Tank Williams and pass-rushing DE DeQuincy Scott. Williams was charged with a DUI a year ago, so he fits right into the proud Purple tradition.

Who's the next Fran Tarkenton?

2006-03-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

Whether the Vikes handled the Culpepper situation properly will be debated for a long time, but I'm more interested in the future than the past. Does the new braintrust have a plan for the future of the most important position in their franchise? Brad Johnson is only an interim solution. Since Drew Brees and Josh McCown both have signed, Patrick Ramsey has been traded, there are very few options left. Here are my preferences in order:

1) Make a deal for Matt Schaub. He's young, has experience in the West Coast Offense and has looked good in limited exposure. He's no sure thing, but he's only got one more year left on his deal. We could give him a chance with little risk and then sign him to a long term deal if he is sussessful. Right now, Atlanta is supposedly asking for a lot, but I'd give up a 1 & a 2, plus Brad Johnson for him.

2) Trade up in the draft to take Matt Leinart or Jay Cutler. They are both great prospects who would fi in with the WCO. We have the cap room to absorb the big contracts that they would command, but we would take a real hit if they flopped, ala Ryan Leaf or Tim Couch. WE would also have to give up a couple of high picks to get this done. Unfortunately, a lot of the top teams have QB needs, so we'd have to get into the top 3 or 4 to get it done.

3)There really isn't a good third option. I guess I'd prefer taking a shot at drafting Brodie Crolyle or Charle Whitehurst and if they don't develop, trying to get Schaub or another free agent next year. At least Brad Johnson would be decent for a year, but he's likely to get hurt.

4) Joey Harrington is now available, as well as Brian Griese and possibly Chad Pennington, if the Jets draft a QB. I've never liked Harrington or Griese. Pennington would be a grat fit with the WCO, so I'd take a chance on him, if the contract could be structured to reflect the risk of him never being healthy.

Purple Promptitude

2006-03-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

The Zygified version of the Vikings has clearly demonstrated one thing: they know what they want, and they'll go after it in a hurry. Firing Tice, hiring Childress, attempting to move Daunte, and signing free agents have all been done aggressively and quickly.

Dave's post earlier this week addressed the needs of the Purple as the signing period for free agents finally arrived. We Minnesota sports fans are conditioned to not give a crap about free agents; instead we look forward to the draft, where we can (usually) afford to sign the guys we want. This year's different, as Zygi and the gang seem determined to make us forget all about Red McDuck.

Re-signing Koren Robinson was the first move, and I like it a lot. If he returns to his beer-drinking, hell-raising ways, the Vikes are protected- they didn't fork over much guaranteed money. Robinson was a playmaker on special teams, and his receiving stats should improve drastically (2005: 22 catches, 347 yds, 1 TD)- Mike Tice eased Robinson into the game plan last year.

The Vikings then proceeded to wine, dine, and sign three players almost immediately after the 11:01 PM kickoff to free agency '06.

Chester Taylor
With the Vikings finally willing to spend that extra cap money, some of the Purple faithful were having visions of Edgerrin James running wild on the Metrodome turf. Others speculated that a young stud RB might be selected in the first round of the upcoming draft. The Vikings surprised us all by signing Chester the Molester. Taylor caught 41 balls last year, and has looked good running the ball in limited work with the Ravens over the past four seasons. I love this move. Childress is implementing the West Coast Offense, and Taylor seems like a great fit. He's young and hungry, but has four years of NFL experience, unlike an unproven rookie. Don't be surprised if Taylor is the 2006 version of LaMont Jordan. Of course, Fran Foley is making comparisons to Priest Holmes!

The best part about the Taylor signing? The money. The Vikings gave him a 4 year, $14.1 million deal, with $5.6 million guaranteed. Denny Green's Cardinals gave Edgerrin James a 4 year, $30 million contract, with $11.5 million up front! I'm not suggesting that Taylor's a better RB than Edge, but he has 1815 fewer NFL carries, and one less major knee surgery.

Ryan Longwell
Rather than go after the top dog (Viniateri), the Vikings quickly signed former arch-nemesis Longwell. Sure, it was a lot of money to invest in a kicker, but Vikings fans are happy to finally have a kicker who is both reliable AND has range. Much has been made about his career-low FG % last year, but Longwell was 4-5 from 50+. Good kickers can be successful for decades, and they all have off years. Longwell must be salivating at the thought of exchanging those Lambeau games for Dome games.

Ben Leber
I don't know much about this one, other than the fact that Napoleon Harris was not the answer at linebacker last year. An improved Vikings defense was fun to watch, but the linebackers were brutal. Childress and new defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin seem to think Leber is a good fit for our new defensive scheme. I assume another LB or two will be drafted next month.

Steve Hutchinson
If it goes through, this will be the biggest move the Vikings make this off-season. Daunte sure would have liked to have this guy blocking for him at the beginning of last season! Adam Schefter says that there's a clause in the offer sheet that all but assures that Hutchinson will be a Viking. The contract-to-be dictates that Hutchinson be the highest-paid O-lineman on his team. This means that the Seahawks would have to pay him more than Walter Jones, if they match the offer. Sounds phishy to me. In any case, Hutchinson would be a huge addition (pun intended) to the Vikings' line- a Minnesota team adding a young, All-Pro player via free agency? Pinch me...

What about the QB position? With the big-time prospects gone by the time the Vikings' pick comes around, the draft probably won't yield a long-term solution. Childress seems fine with letting Brad Johnson steer the ship for a while. There are rumors that a veteran backup (Fiedler, Detmer, Weinke, Frerotte) will be signed, which would be fine for this year, but what happens in '07? '08? I'm holding out hope that the Vikings can land Josh McCown, or even Patrick Ramsey or Matt Schaub. Of course, the smart move would be to hold onto Daunte, and see how his rehab goes. At this point, the rumors say that no one will even surrender a second-round pick for The Inferno. Releasing him seems counter-productive. If Childress and Daunte can kiss and make up, he could be our QB of the future, or at least net the Vikings something in return.

Santana- 61 pitches

2006-03-12T13:27:00.000-08:00

--LHP Johan Santana was allowed to throw 61 pitches in his World Baseball Classic opener Tuesday, 11 more than the limit the Twins agreed to allow. Team officials were not pleased. "Don't get me started," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who has had other issues with the WBC as well. "Don't even go there."

How ridiculous is that? It's bad enough that these guys are risking injury right before the season begins, but then Santana goes over his pitch limit? What a bunch of BS.

Time for Vikes to plunge into free agency

2006-03-12T06:23:00.000-08:00

It's been a long, frustrating wait for free agency to begin, both recently for the NFL and hisorically for the Vikings. Red McCombs has never been properly castigated for the 2 faced penny pincher he was, publicly squealing "purple pride" and demanding a new stadium, while behind the scenes he was keeping the payroll near the league minimum and refusing to add quality free agents. My favorite moment was when the Vikes signed not one, but 2 back-up D lineman from Miami, Lorenzo Brommel and Kenny Mixon. Last season, they finally added some quality players (Darren Sharper, Pat Williams and Fred Smoot) but there was a catch: Red shipped Randy Moss and his huge salary out of town, and then sold the team for a huge profit before most of the bonuses for the new players kicked in. The new owner promises to pay whatever it takes to build a winner, but he's trying to sell a stadium plan to the public. With a league high 30 million in cap space, we'll get an early look at how serious he is about winning.

The top priorities are QB and LB. Culpepper is seemingly on his way out of town, and Brad Johnson is no more than a stopgap. They should seriously pursue Drew Brees, who would be a great fit for the West Coast Offense. There's not a lot of other appealing options. Josh McCown is the only other FA with upside. The 3 franchised type QB's in the draft will probably be gone by the 5th pick. Matt Schwab, Vick's back-up, would be a good trade candidate, because he's familiar with the WCO. There's a good group of LB's in the draft and we should take one with one of our top 2 picks. We're so weak there that we also need to sign one in FA. There's a lot of big names, like Lavar Arrington, Julian Peterson and Will Witherspoon, but also a lot of depth, including Ben Leber, who has potential but is coming off an injury shortened season.

The secondary priorities are O line, safety and K. Birk will hopefully be back and the youngsters should improve, but with Liewinski and Rosenthal falling off the cliff last year, another starter is nedded. Steve Hutchinson (restricted), Jon Runyan, LeCharles Bentley and Will Shielda are the big names. The Jason Whittle signing isn't sufficient. Corey Chavous is on the way out at SS, and Adam Archuletta or Will Demps would be nice replacements, but they could also find one in the draft. They need a kicker after the last few years of chaos, but shouldn't overspend for Adam Vinaterri. Ryan Longwell, Mike Vanderjagt and Josh Brown (restricted) would be nice alternatives.

They don't need to invest heavily at RB, WR, CB or TE. While Edge would be a nice fit, RB's tend to break down quickly after 5+ years in the league, and the WCO doesn't require a stud RB. Mewelde Moore will actually be a nice fit, if he can stay healthy, and they have depth. Drafting a RB is a strong possibility, but not a priority in my mind. I've heard rumors that Koren Robinson has re-signed, and that Burleson probably is leaving. I would like to see both of them stay, because Troy williamson is still pretty raw, and I have no use for Marcus Robinson and Travis Taylor at this point. I've also heard that they removed the transition tag from Brian Williams, which I think is a mistake. With his fragility and lack of tackling skills, Fred Smoot seems like a better nickel back, but now he'll be forced to start. Jermaine Wiggins should be a nice fit in the WCO, so no problems there. The Vikes are lucky to have their most talented D line since at least the Doleman/Millard days and potentially since the Purple People Eaters of Page/Eller/Marshall. D lineman are always overpaid in FA and overrated in the draft, so this frees them to address their other needs. They have the money to come up with impact players at LB, OL, K and SS. The real test is to see how they handle the QB situation. Given the limited options available, it's probably worth the extra money for a Brees or McCown, even if it means they can't sign a top flight kicker or SS. Of course, if they made peace with Duante for a year, to see how his damaged body and ego fit in with the new regime, they would have money to fill all their needs, and extra time to find or develop his successor.

Remembering Kirby

2006-03-06T23:04:00.000-08:00

Being a long-time Twin/Viking/general MN fan, just a few years younger than Kirby himself, I had lived through a life-long history of Minnesota sports in which the teams I loved only broke my heart with occasional near misses, but usually (especially in the Twins case) were never really expected to do much. But spring always brings eternal optimism when baseball’s spring training rolls around. It was the spring of my Sr. year of high school, and I heard of this guy named Kirby Puckett who was getting some hype as the next promising prospect for the Twins. Actually seeing televised pre-season games didn’t happen quite as frequently than as they do now, but I vividly recall tuning into a game that spring of 1984 to specifically see this young centerfielder who was being talked about as a possible bright spot for the Twin’s future.

The first time I saw Kirby come to bat, I looked at him and said to myself, you’ve got to be kidding? This short squatty guy is being hyped as our best prospect and in centerfield no less. It was shortly after that, that Kirby made me a believer and from that point on you felt there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. He went from a little sparkplug who would lay down bunt singles (hitting a mere 4 HR’s his first two years) to a legitimate slugger. But all the time there was something even more special about him. He had that incredible smile and he had such enthusiasm for the game. You began to believe he could do anything in a baseball game, and you didn’t want to miss a moment when Kirby was up to bat.

It took only a few years before Kirby Puckett and a cast of young Twins players shocked the baseball world and brought the first championship of my lifetime home to Minnesota in 1987. For the first time as a Minnesota fan it felt like the monkey had been lifted off our back. Kirby continued to bring joy and optimism to the Twins until his career was tragically cut short due to glaucoma. I will never forget his smile, and the way he always looked like he was having fun. Today is truly a sad day.

Puck Memories

2006-03-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

It sounds like #34 is going to be removed from life support tonight. What a sad, sudden end for a baseball player who was such an important part of so many Minnesotans' lives (especially kids). Bob Sansevere, who I think is nearly worthless as a sportswriter, did have an interesting line in his column today. He said that he was told "Puckett didn't take care of his body because he believed he wouldn't live past 50. Both his parents died young, and Puckett was convinced that would be his fate." Well, Kirby didn't make it past 45.

Puckett was somebody who lived and breathed baseball for almost his entire life. If it weren't for the effects of glaucoma, Puck could have been around for a handful of additional seasons, perhaps making a run at 3,000 hits. Kirby's final season (1995) saw him hit 23 HRs (his highest total since '88), with a career-high OBP of .379. His defense was definitely declining, but he would have gotten plenty of at bats at DH. (Besides, I'd take Kirby circa 1996 in my outfield over the 2005 Shannon Stewart every damn day.) I'm sure Kirby wasn't even considering retirement heading into the 1996 season, and then it was suddenly over. The adjustment to life after baseball didn't appear to go smoothly for him, as stories of assault, infidelity, and depression began to surface.

I wonder how many sports stars have had as much of an effect on children as Kirby did. As you'll read over and over in the news over the next few days, Puck "played the game the right way." I'm not sure how swinging at balls 2 feet outside of the strike zone can be considered the right way, but that's not what TK and the gang meant. They were talking about his attitude. He showed up early for practice, stayed late, always ran out grounders, went down on a knee to field ground balls in the outfield, and always had a grin on his face. In addition, Puck was very active in the community. Basically, he was the perfect sports star for kids to idolize.

Ask most people about Kirby Puckett, and they will first think of Game 6- a two-word phrase that signifies so much to Twins fans. People from an earlier generation all remember where they were when they heard Kennedy had been shot; all my friends remember exactly where they were when Kirby took Charlie Liebrandt deep in the 11th inning on October 26, 1991.

My favorite story to tell about Kirby happened in 1987. My mom, dad, and I went to Milwaukee to visit my brother at Marquette, and it just happened to coincide with a weekend the Twins were playing the Brewers at Milwaukee County Stadium. My mother wanted to take a trip to Door County, so we had to decide whether to see the Twins play Friday night, then head up to Door County, or head to Door County first, and catch the Sunday afternoon game. Frank Viola was pitching Sunday, but my brother convinced us that the Friday game was the one to attend.

The Friday game featured Les Straker vs Chris Bosio, and it was a classic pitcher's duel. The Twins managed just 2 hits off Bosio, and hit into double plays following both singles. With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Robin Yount attempted to steal second, and the Twins gambled correctly (perhaps some successful sign-stealing), calling a pitchout. Unfortunately, Sal Butera hit a sliding Yount with the throw to second. Greg Brock doubled Yount home, and the Brew Crew won the game 1-0.

While Viola didn't pitch particularly well on Sunday, Kirby Puckett had a career day, going 6-6, with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, and a fence-scaling leap in center to steal a grand slam from Robin Yount. I was understandably bummed that I wasn't at that game, but the World Series victory over the Cardinals more than made up for it.

The Big Hurt (feelings)

2006-02-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

I haven't been paying a ton of attention to the Frank Thomas-Kenny Williams drama, but Williams sure sounds like a major league a-hole. I haven't seen all of Thomas' original comments, but from what I've read, the Big Hurt was unhappy with the way things ended in Chi-town. He wished Jerry Reinsdorf would have returned a call telling him he wasn't coming back, among other things. Again, I haven't seen all of Frank's comments, and maybe he made fun of the size of Kenny's package, or something. Because Williams sounds like a childish, whiny little punk. He's calling him "selfish," an "idiot," saying the White Sox don't miss him...also, he apparently wants all pictures of Thomas taken down, and thinks a statue crafted in honor of him should include a skirt!

OK, here's the original interview. Thomas definitely sounds a little whiny, and a little bitter, but big friggin deal! Obviously he and Williams never liked each other very much, and it does sound like the White Sox organization could have handled the stuation (his departure) with a little more tact. Kenny Williams just won a World Series. It doesn't get any better than that. But he has to spend entire days in spring training bitching about Thomas? Who else thinks the Big Hurt is going to absolutely crush the Sox this year every time the A's face them?

And thus it begins...

2006-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Seeing as how I don't have anything on my mind right now, this post will be fairly worthless. Actually, I'll just copy something I wrote up on my personal blog, talking about a few new lists of top Twins prospects, and Aaron Gleeman's countdown of the top 40 Twins of all-time. Greg Gagne was added today, at #33. I might have bumped him up a little, since he was a very good defensive shortstop for two World Champ teams. Of course, that brings up the question: What criteria is going into the ratings? I would add points for rings- especially the guys that were on both the '87 and '91 teams. Anyway, here's that other post, to get things started.

Before I get to that- one quick note. There's probably no way Dusty Baker would ever do this, but Baseball Prospectus talks about the possibility of a Jacque Jones-Michael Restovich platoon in right field at Wrigley. How sad would it be for Twins fans to watch Jones finally used the way he should be used- crushing right handed pitching, and resting against lefties?

Baseball Prospectus recently released their annual Top 50 Prospects list. The good news for Twins fans? Francisco Liriano is ranked #4. The bad news? He's the only Twins prospect on the list, which, including honorable mentions, totals 65. And, it looks like it might take an injury or two for Liriano to join the starting rotation this season.

Baseball America just published their Top 10 list for the Twins organization, and here's John Sickels' top 20 list. Matt Moses, Denard Span, and Trevor Plouffe are all ranked higher than I expected. Twins fans know the system is loaded with pitching, but how nice would it be to develop a third baseman?

It's easy to get excited about these lists, but then you notice some of the former Baseball America top-ranked Twins prospects: David McCarty (twice), Rich Becker, Luis Rivas, Adam Johnson...

Aaron Gleeman has been doing a feature on the top 40 Twins players of all-time, which has been fun to read. The one rule: only stats with the Twins count (it sucks looking up franchise leaders on Baseball-reference.com, and seeing Walter Johnson's name everywhere). So far, seven players have been chosen by Gleeman: Randy Bush, Scott Erickson, Eric Milton, Jimmie Hall, Dave Boswell, Steve Braun, and Matt Lawton. That leaves 33 players, and I thought it would be fun to speculate. There are some very obvious ones, like Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett, Jim Katt, Bob Allison, Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva, and Bert Blyleven.

Current Twins who should make the cut: Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, and Brad Radke. Joe Mauer will undoubtedly make the list very soon, but he doesn't even have 600 ABs yet. Jacque Jones may make the cut, since he ranks #11 for career home runs. (He also ranks 6th all-time in strikeouts, despite having a fraction of the ABs of the 5 guys ahead of him in the category.)

Other possible old-school Twins include Zoilo Versailles, Earl Battey, Jim Perry, Mudcat Grant, Camilo Pascual, Cesar Tovar, and Larry Hisle.

Rick Aguilera and Eddie Guardado are the only relievers worthy of this list, although Jeff Reardon has an outside shot. He was an important part of the '87 team, but he only played three seasons in a Twins uniform.

Frankie "Sweet Music" Viola definitely belongs, and Kevin Tapani will probably finish in the top 30.

The rest of the guys I've got pencilled in are from the 80s and 90s: Gary Gaetti, Tom Brunansky, Chuck Knoblauch, Brian Harper, Roy Smalley, Shane Mack, Greg Gagne, and Dan Gladden. Playing on 2 World Series Champions certainly helps. Gladden stole a fair amount of bases, and was certainly an emotional leader, but he was not a very effective lead-off hitter- his career OBP for the Twins was .318, barely ahead of Ron Coomer (.315) and Denny Hocking (.310)!

That's 32 players, so I'm one short. Corey Koskie's #15 in career HRs, and had a good glove, so maybe he makes the cut, but I'm sure I'm missing deserving players from the 60s and 70s.