Friday, June 3, 2005
SHORT FRIDAY
Good morning and welcome to Friday! TGIF?! No doubt! Anyway, after a late night doing my Twins May Grades for yesterday, today will be a very short entry. I want to point out a few things and links and then I will discuss the Twins win over Cleveland and the team's minor league updates.
So, here are a few links for you to peruse throughout your weekend:
This might be the greatest concept EVER for a baseball blog!!! I don't think you'll be disappointed.
The Baseball Savant has had a couple more great blog entries the last couple of days. He continued his look at the 2004 MLB draft's first round picks by analyzing picks #18-23. Twins fans, that includes the thoughts on Trevor Plouffe and Glen Perkins. The other day, he wrote a preview/prediction of the top picks of the 2005 draft.
ESPN's Tim Kirkjian wrote an interesting article saying that Derek Jeter is the face of baseball. I know that Jeter gets a lot of grief for being over rated. Is he? I really don't know. He is a career .314 hitter over a full decade. He gets a lot of hits (almost 1,800 career), hits for some power (average 15 HR a year) and isn't afraid to walk. He is the clear leader of the Yankees team. He is the face of baseball because of 1.) his talent and 2.) his personality and 3.) his look. So, like him or not, or whether you like some of his other nicknames (Mr. Clutch?), it isn't unfair to give him another title, that of the face of baseball. Sorry to disagree with you, SBG!
John Sickels has a picture of Trevor Plouffe today.
I was reading the Little Green Footballs weblog last night and found a posting titled Ben Stein: Deep Throat and Genocide. It linked to a story in the Washington Post where Stein was quoted saying the following:
Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW’s, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel’s life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?
Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.
That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton — a lying, conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon’s kharma.
I would love to hear your thoughts on those paragraphs. It presents a very interesting question. E-mail me.
- Over at The Baseball Analysts, Bryan Smith takes a look at the 45 minor leaguers who were hitting .300. There are a few Twins on the list.
- I would like your thoughts on blogs. Why do you like them? What are you looking for in a blog? What am I doing right and what am I doing wrong? I also would like to get recommendations from you on blogs that I should be reading. Baseball blogs. Political blogs. Anything that you think it worth reading. Please feel free to e-mail me and let me know. Thanks!
Of course the game wasn't on TV. Why would they want to? I mean, Johan was pitching. Then again, if you look at the May Grades that I handed out yesterday, Santana got the lowest grade of all the Twins starters. No matter, it ended up being quite a game. Santana started out poorly, giving up a home run to Victor Martinez, a triple to Ben Broussard and a single to score him, putting the Twins in an 0-2 hole. Joe Mauer barely knocked out a homer to cut the lead to one, but a few innings later, Coco Crisp took Santana deep to increase the lead to two again. But, our man Nick Punto hit a two run homer that was barely inside the right field foul pole. Who said baseball isn't a game of instances? And then nothing, hardly even any hits for either team. Until the 13th inning, that is, when Jacque Jones singled in Lew Ford from second with the game-winning run.
So, how did Santana do? Well, if you take away the two homers, he was as dominant as he has ever been. In eight innings, he gave up the three runs on four hits and a walk. He struck out a career high 14 batters. Juan Rincon came in and pitched a perfect inning. Joe Nathan did about as well as he did in May. A walk, a hit, but no runs. Jesse Crain pitched two more scoreless inning. Then JC Romero came in and struck out two in his inning of work. The Twins scored and Romero had his first win of the year.
The negative of the day was clearly that the team had a few injuries. Joe Mauer re-aggravated his groin in the 12th inning. Justin Morneau hyper extended his elbow hitting off a tea before the game and came out after two at bats. But the big injury was to Nick Punto. He pulled his hamstring trying to steal a base and was put on the disabled list right after the game. Terry Tiffee got off the plane in Rochester and then flew back to Minnesota to reclaim his roster spot. It is going to be really hard for Nick Punto and Joe Mauer to overcome their "injury-prone" status if they keep getting hurt.
So, what happens at 2B? My assumption is that Brent Abernathy will get the majority of the starts there. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Luis Rodriguez get plenty of playing time as well. But Gardy likes the veterans and that is Abernathy. Honestly, he's as good, if not better, than Luis Rivas anyway, just can't play defense.
Tonight, the Metrodome will play host to the New York Yankees in what should be a very entertaining series. You don't think that the Yankees will come ready to play after getting swept in Kansas City, by the Royals, in baseball games, the past three days? But, the Twins will miss out on Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano, so that's good. Of course, Yankees fans may be thinking that they get to miss out on Brad Radke and Johan Santana. Here are the pitching matchups:
Friday - 7:10 - Kyle Lohse (4-3, 4.22, 1.29, .287) vs Mike Mussina (5-3, 3.90, 1.42, .295)
Saturday - 6:10 - Joe Mays (3-2, 3.73, 1.28, .277) vs Chien-Ming Wang (3-1, 4.06, 1.14, .243)
Sunday - 1:10 - Carlos Silva (3-3, 3.09, 1.19, .298) vs Kevin Brown (4-5, 5.14, 1.57, .325)
ROCHESTER REDWINGS
Thursday - REDWINGS 2, Richmond 0 - For the third straight night, the Redwings shut out Richmond. This time, the starter was Boof Bonser who improved to 5-2. He gave up no runs on three hits and a walk. He also struck out seven. Brent Schoening and Willie Eyre each pitched a scoreless frame setting up Travis Bowyer for his 13th save. Glenn Williams went 2-4 with an RBI. By the way, Luis Maza was called up to Rochester to help cover the losses of Brent Abernathy and Luis Rodriguez.
NEW BRITAIN ROCKCATS
Thursday - ROCKCATS 4, Norwich 5 - Matt Yeatman made the start and went six innings. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on four hits and two walks. He struck out five. Kevin Cameron gave up a run in his inning. Jason Miller went 2 2/3 innings and gave up just a hit and two walks. However, Bobby Korecky came in to relieve him and his batter gave up a hit to give Miller the loss. It is great to see Korecky back with the Rockcats. I thought that I had heard he was going to be out the whole season with Tommy John surgery. But he had other arm surgery and is now pitching again. He led the Rockcats in saves last year. Doug Deeds went 3-5 with a triple. Ben Pattee, in his first game up at New Britain, went 2-5 with a two run double. Alex Romero was 2-4.
FT MYERS MIRACLE
Thursday - MIRACLE, Sarasota - Rained Out... Again. But, the Florida State League announced its All-Stars and the Miracle will be represented by Matt Moses, Denard Span and Nick Blackburn. Check out the stats of four of the Miracle starters and see that despite the least known name, Blackburn really is putting together a good season. However, so are Errol Simonitsch, Glen Perkins and Adam Harben. Here are the numbers and the thoughts of SethSpeaks friend Roger:
BELOIT SNAPPERS
Thursday - SNAPPERS 4, Burlington 2 - Jose Mijares got a start for Beloit. He jumped to 2-0 with his five innings of work. He gave up two runs on three hits and three walks. He struck out four. Alexander Smit was in the bullpen. He didn't give up a run over his two innings. May not seem like much. But he gave up five walks and still somehow didn't allow a run. Jonathon Martinez got the save with two shutout innings. Deacon Burns was 3-5 with his 15th double, his 5th homer and his 9th stolen base. Tarrance Patterson went 2-3 with his second homer. Mark Zamojc went 2-3 with a triple. Javi Sanchez hit his first homer.
That's it for today and for this week! As always, please feel free to e-mail me your thoughts on the Twins, the minor leagues, or anything you would like to discuss.