Friday, July 15, 2005
MORE BOONEY THOUGHTS
Good morning! Well, it is finally Friday. I have a half-day of training left and then a half-day in the office and then the weekend begins. I think today's posting will again be fairly short as I don't have much to write, but also I need to sleep. So, today, I'll just post a few thoughts on Bret Boone, the Twins loss to the Angels and the daily Minor League report. I'll probably link to a couple of other sites and then call it a day. I hope you enjoy it.
Also, I will be recording Saturday's Blogger's Minute segment today. With the 6:05 game time on Saturday, the show will likely air at about 4:30 on WCCO and most of their Twins affiliates.
I have to admit; for the first time in a long while, I was really excited to sit down and watch a Twins game. Like everyone else, I'm sure, I was excited to see Bret Boone in a Twins uniform. I wanted to see how he looked at the plate. I am interested in how his presence will affect the team and his teammates. Sure, we have no idea what Boone will in the season's second half.
But What If!
What if Boone can put together just one more big half-season? If I, as someone who has seen statistically how drastically Boone's production has sunk the past two seasons, can be excited about a new face on the roster and in the lineup, just imagine the excitement felt by his new teammates. Even if his own numbers are only average, maybe his presence alone will motivate other Twins into increasing their production, or to reach their potential.
If that happens, then the trade will be positive for the Twins. But, what happens if Boone has a big second half AND his teammates respond positively? Now that is something worth being excited about.
And why not? Let's just take a few paragraphs to look at some numbers:
Boone's career numbers are .266/.325/.444 with 466 doubles, 252 homers and 1,018 RBI in 1,766 games.
Boone's number in 2005 through the break: .231/.299/.383 with 15 doubles, 7 homers and 34 RBI in 75 games.
Boone's full season projected at current rate: .231/.299/.383 with 28 doubles, 13 homers and 64 RBI in 145 games.
I think that we have found that players generally 'normalize' their statistics over the course of a season. In other words, there will be good months and bad months. Good weeks and bad weeks. But by the end of the year, it is interesting that most players perform at a fairly consistent level, near their career totals. So, what I did is take a look at the frequency of different events throughout Boone's career. Here is what I found:
At Bats/G - 3.75, Hits/Game - 1.0, 2B/Game - 0.21, HR/Game - 0.14, RBI/Game - 0.576
Using those career numbers, I wanted to calculate what Boone's statistics will look like at the end of the season if he just matches his career rates for the rest of the season. If he does that, he will end the season hitting .248 with 30 doubles, 17 homers and 74 RBI.
In other words, for the Twins, he will hit .266 with 15 doubles, 10 homers and 40 RBI in this second half. I think that the team would be happy with that.
However, what if Boone completely normalizes his numbers and gets his numbers up to his .266 level. What would his stats look like over 145 games?
Well, he would hit .266 with 30 doubles, 20 homers and 84 RBI. That would amount to a second half where he hits .300 with 15 doubles, 13 homers and 50 RBI.
I think that the Twins would be completely thrilled with that kind of production.
It seems, however, that it is what they almost expect him to do. Why do I say that? Well, because why else would they put a .231 hitter with an OPS of just .682 into the #3 hole in their lineup? To expect a monster second half from Boone is simply an unfair expectation. But as I said earlier... What If?!
So, how was game one in a Twins uniform for Boone? Well, after the first batter of the game, he had to run into the Twins clubhouse and grab his backup glove. I assume his regular glove broke. But when he came back out, he got another nice ovation. He came up in the bottom of the first inning obviously, hitting third. He took a called strike. Then he fouled a pitch off. Then he took a ball. Then he took a fastball from Jarrod Washburn right down the middle of the plate for a called strike three. In the 3rd inning, he fielded and turned a tailor-made double play. He made all of the plays on defense. Offensively though, it looked like he was trying to do a little too much. His final three at bats, he gave each of the Angels in the Outfield a putout. He flew out to right field, then to center and finally to left.
Of course, one game does not make a fair impression. However, his swing does look even longer than it had in the past. He doesn't seem as quick, particularly on the inside pitches. And it just looked like he was trying to make a big impression. It'll be nice for him to get a hit tonight right away so he will relax.
One more quick note on Bret Boone. We all know that Bret's father is Bob Boone, former big league catcher and manager. So... who does Bob Boone cheer for in the American League Central, the Twins or the Indians, since his other son, Aaron, plays in Cleveland?
A couple of other notes from the game. Kyle Lohse looked pretty good. He gave up all three runs in one inning, but the rest of the innings, he was throwing hard, keeping the ball down and had a nice curveball working. It was not a bad start against a very solid Angels lineup.
Remember how painful it was to watch Willie McGee walk to the plate for an at bat for the Cardinals? It looked like he was in pain and hitting was the last thing he would want to be doing. Of course, once in the batter's box, the man could hit!
Well, present day, is there anything more painful than watching Vladimir Guerrero jog after a fly ball, or jog anywhere? He runs bow-legged and it appears that he will literally fall apart with each new step. But, I think it is also fair to say that the reigning AL MVP can flat-out hit too! Watching him take batting practice is something every baseball fan should see at least once!
Jarrod Washburn looked nasty last night. I know he has been much maligned the last couple of seasons, but he looked like a different pitcher last night. Based on his season stats, he must be doing well in most of his starts. Last night, I saw a fastball that was between 91 and 93, and a slider that was sharp. Maybe the most surprising thing about his outing was that Jacque Jones had two of the six hits the lefty allowed.
Here are the pitching matchups for the rest of this series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim:
Friday - 7:10 - Johan Santana (7-5, 3.98, 1.05, .226) vs Bartolo Colon (11-5, 3.42, 1.14, .244)
Saturday - 6:10 - Brad Radke (6-8, 4.15, 1.26, .290) vs Paul Byrd (8-5, 3.73, 1.14, .261)
Sunday - 1:10 - Joe Mays (5-3, 4.13, 1.40, .297) vs John Lackey (6-4, 4.22, 1.45, .276)
ROCHESTER REDWINGS
Thursday - REDWINGS 3, Durham 5 - Francisco Liriano takes his first AAA loss but didn't pitch as poorly as it would look. The lefty gave up five runs in six innings. However, a Jason Bartlett throwing error made all of them unearned runs. Liriano also struck out six and walked none. Brent Schoening and Beau Kemp each pitched a scoreless frame. The Redwings had just four hits, but Jason Tyner and Brent Abernathy each had a double. Michael Cuddyer batted cleanup and played 3B for the team on his rehab assignment. He was 0-1 and walked three times. He stole two bases.
NEW BRITAIN ROCKCATS
Thursday - REDWINGS 1, New Hampshire 18 - Alex Romero was 2-4 and hit his 11th homer of the season. That was about the only positive to be taken out of this blowout. Errol Simonitch gave up nine runs over 3 2/3 innings, but just two of those runs were earned. Matt Moses, in his first AA game, went 0-3 and had a costly error. Daylan Childress then gave up six earned runs over 2 1/3 innings. John Thomas gave up three earned in two innings before Matt Yeatman pitched a scoreless inning.
FT MYERS MIRACLE
Thursday - MIRACLE 2, Palm Beach 4 - Six Miracle players each had a hit. JR Taylor and Brock Peterson each had a double. Justin Jones made another start last night. He went six innings and gave up two runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out four. Julio DePaula took the loss. He gave up a run in three innings. He did strike out five.
BELOIT SNAPPERS
Thursday - SNAPPERS 15, Kane County 16 - Another game with plenty of offense, this time by both teams. Let's start with the positive, the offense of the Snappers. Javi Sanchez led the way going 4-5 with a walk and a double. Trevor Plouffe was 3-4 with a double, two walks and two RBI. Jeremy Pickrel went 3-7 with a double. Luke Hughes was 2-4 with two walks. Deacon Burns was 1-4 with three walks. David Winfree and Johnny Woodard each had two hits as well. Now to the pitching... Jose Mijares gave up seven runs as he walked four and gave up four hits without getting one batter out. David Shinskie then gave up five runs over the next three innings. Kyle Aselton gave up just one over the next four. Jonathon Martinez then blew a save, giving up two runs in two innings. Josh Hill then took the loss giving up a run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
ELIZABETHTON TWINS
Thursday - E-Twins 12, Pulaski 3 - More offense to report, which, for E-Town means more Juan Portes to report on! Last night, the 2B went 3-5 with his seventh double and his fifth homer. Eli Tintor went 3-5 with his second home run. Mark Robinson was 2-5 with his second home run. Caleb Moore and Travis Kalin each had two hits. Oswaldo Sosa improved to 4-1 by giving up two runs over 5.1 innings. He spread out seven hits and three walks and struck out five. Arturo Gabino and Danny Powers combine for 2.2 shutout innings.
GULF COAST TWINS
Thursday - GCL Twins 6, GCL Pirates 9 - The Twins managed just six hits. Richard Sojo went 1-2 with a double and three walks.
Big day for Batgirl. She's got more Minnesota Twins Hottest Chicks! Also, Anne wrote another column for ESPN.com's Page 2 on the many levels of impact that Bret Boone will have on the Twins! Very good read!
Stick and Ball Guy has two more very fun and interesting postings today!
I think we all need to do some recruiting! I'm falling down to list of Top 100 Sports sites!!! Big drop this month, down to
On that note, I am going to call it a day and a week! I hope everyone has a great day! As always, please feel free to e-mail me your thoughts on the Twins, the minor leagues, or anything you would like to discuss.