Wednesday March 10, 2004

COSTE HOMERS
TWINS LOSE TO PHILS
FORMER TWINS

HOMERS OVERRATED?
T-WOLVES IN SEATTLE
AMERICAN IDOL THOUGHTS

Good luck to the Warroad Warriors boys hockey team.  They start defending their 2003 state championship at the 2004 Minnesota Class A State High School Hockey Tournament today.  Go Warroad!!

RANDOM SAMPLING

Yesterday I wrote a large posting on the seven Twins playoff teams in their 43 year history. That was a lot of fun for me, researching those teams and those players. It was fun to remember the players, and it was fun to hear from some of you with your own memories as well. If you haven’t read it yet, click here to read it. Thank you to David Pinto of Baseball Musings who linked to it as well as made a couple of comments about what was written. Please stop by his site and feel free to contribute to the ‘Comments.’ Also, thank you to Alex Belth at Bronx Banter and Al Bethke of Al’s Ramblings for linking to that posting and their comments. It is an honor to be linked by such blogging dignitaries!

For those who are checking this site out for the first time, thank you for stopping by. I may not be as formal as many of the other baseball blogs out there, but I try to keep things relevant and interesting to the readers. It is primarily a Minnesota Twins website, however, I will cover any topics covering baseball, basketball, football, TV, movies, you name it. So again, thanks for stopping by, I hope you’ll check it out from time to time and check the Archives and About Me pages. And, as always, if you have any questions, feel free to send me an e-mail.
 

CHRIS COSTE HOMERS

Chris Coste came into the game yesterday in place of Brewers starting catcher, Chad Moeller. He got one at bat and took full advantage of it, launching a home run off Giants bullpen hopeful Lee Gardner. So, you want to know how good this Gardner guy is, right? Well, the 28 year old spent the entire 2003 season in AAA Durham (D-Rays organization). He pitched in 57 games out of the bullpen and was 3-7 with 30 saves and a 3.73 ERA. He was the closer for Durham on their 2002 International League championship team. He was 2-1 with 25 saves and a 2.36 ERA. He actually pitched in 12 games for the Devil Rays in 2002, going 1-1 with a 4.05 ERA. So now you know.

The homer puts Coste at 1-3 on the season with 2 runs scored, a 1.333 Slugging Percentage and an OPS of 1.667!

 

By the way, I just got the following e-mail from Eric of The Baseball Boys. You remember that I did a conversation with him a couple of weeks ago:

 

Hey Seth,
Just read today's column and noticed you mentioned Chris Coste's homerun yesterday. Well, I was at Maryvale Ballpark and witnessed it first-hand. At first I thought it was sun poisoning clouding what I was seeing, but it wasn't...Coste hit a nice dinger to give the Brew Crew an insurance run in their 7-5 win.
Eric


SPRING GAME - TWINS LOSE TO PHILS

Yesterday, the Twins faced a former teammate when they played the Philadelphia Phillies. Eric Milton got the start for the Phillies. He pitched 2 2/3 innings, gave up 6 hits and 3 earned runs while watching none and striking out three. Ironically, the Twins started Carlos Silva, who came to the Twins in the Milton trade. He went 3 innings and gave up 4 hits and 1 earned run. He walked none and struck out three. Matt Guerrier, Joe Nathan, Aaron Fultz and Joe Roa all pitched scoreless innings. Roa struck out the side. JD Durbin gave up a solo home run to Jim Rushford in his lone inning. At the plate, the Twins got two hits, including a double, from both Justin Morneau and Cristian Guzman.

This afternoon, the Twins host the New York Yankees.

FORMER TWINS

How former Twins did Tuesday’s exhibition games:

· Eric Milton, SP - Philadelphia Phillies (2 2/3 IP, 6 H, 3 K, 3 ER)
· Jon Barnes, LF - Los Angeles Dodgers (0-1)
· Casey Blake, 3B - Cleveland Indians (0-2)
· Tony Fiore, RP - Houston Astros (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R)
· Orlando Merced, LF - Pittsburgh Pirates (0-1)
· Bobby Kielty, LF - Oakland A’s (0-1)
· Mark Redman, SP - Oakland A’s (3 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 0 K)
· Todd Walker, LF - Chicago Cubs (1-3)
· LaTroy Hawkins, RP - Chicago Cubs (1 IP, 1 BB, 2 K)
· Chad Allen, LF - Texas Rangers (1-1)
· Danny Ardoin, C - Texas Rangers (0-1)
· Quinton McCracken, LF - Seattle Mariners (0-2)
· Denny Hocking, CF - Colorado Rockies (2-3, RBI)
· Dustan Mohr, LF - San Francisco Giants (1-2)
· AJ Pierzynski, C - San Francisco Giants (0-3)
· Chad Moeller, C - Milwaukee Brewers (1-3, 2B)
· Javier Valentin, 1B - Cincinnati Reds (1-1, 2B, RBI)

 

HOME RUNS ARE OVERRATED?

Former Twins All-Star catcher Butch Wynegar is the Milwaukee Brewers’ hitting coach. He is happy with how the Brewers are moving runners around the bases so far this spring, not just hitting home runs. He said:

"Last year, we had a ton of home runs but we didn't sustain rallies, we didn't move runners like we should. That's why I'm excited about this team because I think we will see more of that."

I don’t know that I disagree, or fully agree, with the comments. I think the key is to score runs, however, that is done. Whether it is a walk and a homer for two runs, or a single, a stolen base, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a two run single. Wynegar actually had a better quote when he said:

"Doug Melvin looks at baseball like a board game. You capture the opponent's bases. It doesn't matter how you do it."

 

T-WOLVES TOP SONICS

The Wolves have not been playing well of late, losing 3 of their last 4 contests. Latrell Sprewell  has been doing a lot for the team, but not in terms of points. Both situations were remedied last night, at least for the one game.

The Wolves hit the West Coast for two quick games in the Northwest. Last night, they were in Seattle to take on Ray Allen and the Supersonics. It was not a great start for the Wolves as, at halftime, they were down 52-48. But, they had a big second half, outscoring Seattle 57-40 to gain the 105-92 win.

As is almost always the case, the NBA’s best overall player, Kevin Garnett led the way with 29 points, 10 boards and 5 assists. But Sprewell came out of his shell with a big 31 point performance. Sam Cassell was his steady self with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, while Troy Hudson contributed 13 off the bench. It was all needed as Ray Allen poured in 37 for Seattle.

It was a big win for the Wolves. They improve to 45-19 and with the San Antonio Spurs (42-22) losing a 94-88 decision to the Memphis Grizzlies (40-24) last night, the Wolves’ lead in the Midwest Division goes back up to 3 games.

The Wolves play the Blazers tomorrow at the Rose Garden in Portland. It is certainly another winnable game for the Wolves.

Any thoughts on the Wolves, e-mail me.

 

AMERICAN IDOL THOUGHTS

Last night was the Wild Card Special for American Idol. Twelve castoffs were brought back to compete for a spot in the Final 12. They all rehearsed throughout the week. Even the judges were there for a couple of the days. Before the competition began, the judges cut four people, before they got to perform. That meant that there were eight singers last night, competing for a spot in the Final 12.

 

I think what will happen is that America will vote in one contestant, and then each of the three judges will chose one contestant a piece, to make up the 12 person final group. Here are my thoughts on last night’s performances. I wrote down notes as I was listening to them and before the judges commented. In some cases I agreed with them. In other cases, I disagreed completely with them. So here we go:

Jon Peter Lewis - The Elvis song was really a good song for him vocally. He is a terrible dancer, but he made me laugh, and he could get a lot of votes for that!

Elizabeth Letendre - Very cute face, but just awful to listen to when she sings!

Katie Webber - I admit, if she wasn’t so attractive, I would be meaner in my thoughts. She can sing alright, she’s just not great at all. But very HOT!

George Huff - Actually very good. Showed excellent range and a charismatic side that I thought he had lacked before.

Suzy Vulaca  - Wow! Great, Amazing voice!

Matthew Metzger - he is OK, but showed no range. He could have done so much more with that song to show some strength in his voice, but he didn’t.

Leah Labelle - She is definitely not as good as she thinks she is. Last night, she was awful and wore a hideous shirt!

Jennifer Hudson - Great range. Good voice. She really scared me with her facial expressions!

Who Seth would vote to advance? With all apologies to my girl, Katie, I would definitely take Suzy Vulaca into the finals.

Who I think America will vote to advance? I think that they will chose Suzy Vulaca, but that Jon Peter Lewis and George Huff will be close.

Then the judges will have to pick three people to advance. Somehow Randy and Paula thought Leah Labelle was good, which baffled me, so she will be chosen by one of them. George Huff will be chosen by the other. Simon will then pick Jennifer Hudson to advance.

Please note that these are just my opinions followed by my guesses. I know nothing!
What do you think? E-mail me.

And on that note, I am going to call it a day. As always, if you have any questions or comments or ideas for future topics, please send me an e-mail. Have a great Wednesday!

 

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