Friday, June 16, 2006
Friday Notations
Good morning! I was just going to call this Friday Notes, but then I didn't want to worry about infringement violations against Aaron's Baseball Blog, so I went with Notations instead. I got home from the cities pretty late last night, so there won't be much of a blog entry today, but I do want to post a few notes as well. No lead-in necessary. I'll just start posting and we'll see what we end up with.
I have several "Rules" about going to a ball game in person. There are things like, you shouldn't boo. You should get there for batting practice. You must get nachos. Pretty basic stuff. But one of the big ones is that you should never leave the game early. I mean, you pay good money, you might as well watch the whole game. Well, I broke that rule on Wednesday night. We left the Dome after the7th inning to beat the traffic and it was already after 10:00. You just never know what you're going to miss. And we missed this, and it would have been very cool to have seen it! I love the reaction of the Twins bench!
Last night, the Twins completed the sweep of the Red Sox with a 5-3 win. Most important, they won a game pitched by Carlos Silva that aired on ESPN! I don't think that has happened before. I know that he has been shelled on at least three occasions on ESPN.
Jason Kubel homered for the third straight game! That is a nice little string. I love the power he has shown, but I don't think that anyone has ever really projected him as a power hitter. I think he has always been projected to be the same type of hitter as Joe Mauer. Good batting average with maybe 18-20 homers a year. The way he is hitting gives us hope that he might be even more! That said, he is on a nice streak, but at some point the league will adjusts to him. The true test is how he re-adjusts at that point.
The Twins traded SS Juan Castro to the Cincinnati Reds for Class A Outfielder Brandon Roberts. I know there are probably people out there who think that the Twins could have gotten more for their starting shortstop. Well, first Castro was no longer the starting SS. And second, Castro should never have been a starting shortstop. No matter what lines Gardy and Terry Ryan threw at us this spring or in the first two months of the season, Castro was not a valid starting shortstop. And, believe me, if Terry Ryan could have gotten any more for Castro, he would have. But, Roberts is certainly an intriguing prospect in his own right. He was the Reds 7th round pick last year out of Cal-Poly and entered pro ball with a splash. He is a speed guy with little power. He already has 23 stolen bases at Hi-A, and will likely join the Ft. Myers Miracle. The Twins do need OF depth, so this could potentially be another scout-steal trade for the Twins. If not, it is also important to note that now that Castro is gone, Gardy will not be able to use him. Hopefully Bartlett can just relax and play ball.
Bartlett and 3B Nick Punto each made defensive web gems last night. I think that the range shown on the left side of the infield will be greatly increased with that combination playing.
And sometimes you need a little luck, right? How about David Ortiz's 'single' last night. I only caught a few innings of the game, but did see that. Ortiz unloaded on a ball that was headed for the upper deck in deep right centerfield. But the ball hit a speaker and came back into play, and Ortiz only got a single out of it. On the next pitch, Carlos Silva got Manny Ramirez to ground into an inning-ending double play. The Dome is bad for baseball, especially when things like this happens. Also, Silva got nine fly ball outs and seven ground outs. Sadly, any improvements in Silva's sinker just are not showing up statistically. He is still getting way too many fly balls which just does not bode well for him.
Silva left the game in the seventh with what Yahoo is calling an "undisclosed injury." I was on a plane by this time, so I don't know what happened. If anyone can clue us in, please do.
There was much speculation that the Twins will release Rondell White today and effectively just eat the rest of the $3.25 million that they owe him ($2.5 million salary for 2006, plus $750,000 buyout for 2007.) With the Twins set to start interleague play in the NL tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates, White may not play for a week. With Ruben Sierra set to return as well to pinch hit, it is possible that Sierra could be called up to replace White. However, I believe Sierra will come up to replace Castro and the Twins will have that extra bat for pinch hitting.
Have I mentioned that I actually enjoy watching the Twins again? The usage of so many young, but very talented, players instead of veterans is exciting for me. The fact that they are home-grown makes it even better. With Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano rolling, and Brad Radke back on track, I like the Twins chances to finish above .500. I'm not quite ready to put them into the "Contender" category yet though.
Rochester picked up a nice 8-3 win last night. Scott Baker picked up the win by going six innings and giving up two runs. He walked just two and struck out nine. Ruben Sierra went 1-3 with a walk. Garrett Jones went 3-4 with two RBI. His batting average is all the way up to .219! Josh Rabe and Kevin West each had two hits.
Matt Garza posted another impressive start for the New Britain Rockcats who beat Binghamton 7-4. Garza went the first six innings and did not allow a run. He gave up three hits and walked two while striking out eight. He is now 4-1 with a 1.26 ERA in six New Britain starts. The bullpen tried to give it away, but Levele Speigner shut the door for the save. For the offense, Trent Oeltjen went 2-4 with a triple to increase his average to .324. Alex Romero was 2-4 with a walk and his 15th stolen base. Matt Moses hit his 10th homer of the year. Doug Deeds hit his fourth.
The Miracle lost 9-4 last night to Sarasota. Garrett Guzman went 3-4 with his eighth home run and three RBI. Alexi Casilla and Matt Tolbert each had two hits. Anthony Swarzak has been pitching well, but in this game, he gave up four runs on 10 hits in just four innings. Ryan Callahan came in and gave up another four runs in just one inning, and by then, the game was over.
Finally, Beloit took a 3-2 loss to Cedar Rapids. Caleb Moore had two of the team's five hits. Henry Sanchez hit his 12th double. Ryan Mullins pitched well. He gave up two runs (1 earned) in seven innings. He walked four, but he struck out eight. David Shinskie took the loss by allowing an unearned run in the eighth.
Starting tonight, the Twins and their fans will get a chance to see one of baseball's most unknown stars in LF Jason Bay. He is hitting .305/.432/.593 with 19 homers and 52 RBI. Freddy Sanchez is somehow hitting .345 this year. Jose Castillo has 11 homers and Jeromy Burnitz has ten more. The Pirates are 26-41 but they have been playing better of late.
Tonight matches Francisco Liriano against Ian Snell. Tomorrow, Boof Bonser will take on Paul Maholm. On Sunday, Johan Santana will take on the enigmatic Oliver Perez.
Pittsburgh is the home of WCCO's Rita Maloney. It is also the home of MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo. And don't forget that top prospect Kevin Slowey is from the Steel City too.
And yeah, I got my "Vote for Joe" button!!
On that note, I am going to call it a day and a week! Short and sweet! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! As always, please feel free to e-mail me your thoughts on the Twins, the minor leagues, or anything you would like to discuss.
|Thursday, June 15, 2006
Good morning everyone! First, I need to say Happy One Month Birthday to my daughter Jozie! Can't believe it's been a month already.
As I mentioned yesterday, I am in the cities for some work stuff. Fortunately, I was able to go to the Twins game with my sister. Another great game! Another Twins win. It started out a little questionable. Brad Radke was bending but not breaking, but the Twins were leaving plenty of runners on base too. Jason Kubel absolutely crushed his 2nd inning two run homer. But the game was still in question until the Justin Morneau grand slam gave the Twins their 8-1 lead, and 8-1 win.
You know, I hear so often about how the Twins are not able to develop bats. Well, a look at last night's lineup had Joe Mauer batting third. Michael Cuddyer was batting fourth. Justin Morneau was batting fifth. Torii Hunter was hitting sixth. Jason Kubel batted seventh. Jason Bartlett batted ninth. What do they all have in common? They all came up in the Twins system. Yes, I realize that Bartlett came from the Padres organization, but he was only in Class A when the deal was made, so I would argue that he was a product of the Twins. I think we have seen that all six of them could be solid big league bats. That's not too shabby! Add in that Brad Radke was pitching and he is a Twins product!a Their best starting pitchers, Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano were both in A ball when the Twins acquired them. So, I think that any talk that the Twins don't develop their own players is not really fair.
So, I get back to the hotel and am watching ESPN News. I have now seen the Jason Kubel homer twice, and his name has been pronounced two different ways, neither correct. The first was KO-bell, and then it was koo-BELL.
To the brief minor league updates:
Rochester got a two out, pinch hit single from Chris Heintz to score Gil Velazquez to give the Red Wings a 4-3 win over Indianapolis. JD Durbin started and gave up only two unearned runs over 6.2 innings. Pat Neshek pitched a perfect top of the 10th to improve to 5-1 on the season. Josh Rabe led the offense with two hits, including a double. On his rehab, Ruben Sierra went 1-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
New Britain lost to Mike Pelfrey and Binghamton 4-1. Trent Oeltjen had three of the team's six hits, including two doubles. He is now hitting .319 on the year, and also stole his 11th base. Adam Harben took the loss as he gave up four runs in six innings.
Fort Myers got a very strong start from Brian Duensing, but lost 2-1 to Sarasota. Duensing went seven innings and gave up both runs, but just one was earned. Brock Peterson and Trevor Plouffe each had two hits.
Finally, there were no games scheduled in the Midwest League.
I must sleep! Have a great day!
Seth