Postgame update: Live from leaf blower central
Posted on July 26th, 2008 – 10:58 PMBy Joe Christensen
CLEVELAND — The ballpark is mostly empty. The big American flag in center field is mostly still. Beautiful night here at Progressive Field, and I’m all done writing my game story and notes, etc., for the Sunday paper.
A chance to sit back, relax and blog, right?
Well, I’ll have to do it over the obnoxious roar of the leaf blowers.
This is the part of the job you can’t relate to friends. Ballgame ends, and the crowd files out peacefully. (They play tunes over the loudspeakers, sure, and there’s nothing quite like Frank Sinatra belting out 10 straight versions of “New York, New York” after a Yankees game.)
But the writers go to the clubhouse, where we patiently wait for the players to finish their postgame meals, ask a few questions and then scramble back to the pressbox to make deadline.
By then, in most outdoor stadiums, the cleaning crews have unleashed the fury of those angry leaf blowers. A moment inside a ballpark that could be so peaceful winds up giving you a splitting headache.
OK, thanks for letting me vent.
Not much that needs to be added after the Twins’ 11-4 victory. I wrote about the team’s three first-inning walks being the key to foiling Fausto. Interesting to note that Scott Baker was frustrated for not being able to correct his mechanical flaws.
Oh well, the guy has allowed three or fewer earned runs in 23 of his last 25 starts. If he was going to struggle, he picked a good night.
I’ll be back in the morning with Sunday’s starting lineups.
31 Responses to "Postgame update: Live from leaf blower central"
The Twins now have the 2nd best team batting average in MLB at .279, one point below the Rangers at .280.
One more good day and Vavra’s book will be at bookstores everywhere.
The title:
“The Science of Hitting in the Big Leagues - My Critics Can All Suck It!”
by Joe Vavra
Joe, use noise cancelling headphones.
What is “It”?
gatty790 says:
“July 26th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Span OBP - .432
Casilla OBP - .355
Mauer OBP - .416
Morneau OBP - .388
Enough said.”
Don’t forget:
Buscher OBP - .363
(way better than Beltre)
Craig,
I have no idea what “it” is.
Yep, sane, Joltin’ Joe has the boys’ bats hot. It’s his heritage:
From “Behind The Name”
VAVRA: Czech form of Laurentius,
from the Roman cognomen Saint Laurentius, a 3rd-century deacon and martyr from Rome. According to tradition he was roasted alive on a gridiron because, when ordered to hand over the church’s treasures, he presented the sick and poor.
Thanks sane. I don’t know either, but I agree with you that “It” is something his critics need to suck.
craig, i like buscher but isn’t his fielding still sub par? is he still making those throws up the line?
sane, i think vavra signed with scott boras.
Beltre has a relatively puny, .330 OBP. Combine that with his very puny, .260 AVG, and that makes Beltre a rather puny hitter. This partly accounts for the puny number of wins for the puny Mariners.
The Twins on the other hand have Buschwhack, and his .363 OBP and .333 AVG. The Twins win when Buschwhack is in the lineup whacking off hit after hit.
Hi mickey,
Yeah his glove is a little lacking, but he is okay for now. When you hit the way he has been hitting, you just hold your nose a little when he is in the field. His fielding could improve. It may not, but for now, he’s the man.
I suppose today’s fluke offensive performance will be Heart Attack Smith’s reason for standing pat at the deadline.
TWINS BASEBALL!
Buscher vs LHP:
OBP SLG AVG
.402 .541 .376
Oooooops…make that RHP.
mudcat,
“VAVRA: Czech form of Laurentius,
from the Roman cognomen Saint Laurentius, a 3rd-century deacon and martyr from Rome. According to tradition he was roasted alive”
I guess both Vavra and his namesake are both very familiar with being “roasted alive”.
My bad!
I guess one “both” is enough.
Make that “I guess both Vavra and his namesake are very familiar with being “roasted alive”.
I guess one “both” is enough
Quit drinking.
sane,
Craig is making errors too. Remember when you were a kid playing ball, and there were so many errors and mistakes it was called “a game of slop”? This can be the blog of slop.
Best cure for me …. go to bed. Goodnight.
Clearly Buscher is hitting RHP well. But how’s he doing against lefties? Not that he’s alone… this team seems to struggle as a whole against LHP.
So if you think Buscher is the guy you want at 3B through the rest of the season, are you suggesting Smith doesn’t need to find another hitter? Just wondering.
this is the lineup we should see before chicago comes to town—
span cf
casilla 2b
mauer c
morneau 1b
BELTRE 3B
kubel rf
young lf
buscher dh
harris ss
this lineup looks so solid, what a difference this could make- maybe not, but i would certainly like my chances
If Cuddyer returns soon, I don’t think the Twins need another hitter.
I think Monroe’s time with the Twins will be over when Cuddyer is activated. Monroe has no trade value.
With Everett and Tolbert about ready, Brendan Harris might be traded. Harris could net a prospect, though not a top prospect. Harris has not hit LHP that well, so he has limited value to the Twins.
tolbert will be nothing until the rosters expand in sept…there is no room for him and he is not in playing shape at this time anyway….
The 2008 Twins remind me a little of the 1977 Twins. That team led all of baseball in runs scored. They had very little power, and were a team led by manager Gene Mauch. They relied on platooning, hitting for AVG, and good team speed.
The 1977 team was the first Twins team to score over 800 runs in a season. By recollection, I think they scored 867 runs. I could be off by a run or two. It took 19 seasons before the Twins scored over 800 runs again (1996). The world champion, 1987 and 1991 teams didn’t break the 800 mark.
Mauch’s team in 1977 had 7 sometimes 8 LH hitters in the line-up. Carew at 1B and Lyman Bostock in CF were LH hitters who played every day. C Butch Wynegar and SS Roy Smalley were switch hitters. Glenn Adams was a LH hitter who platooned with Craig Kusick in the DH role. At 2B Rob Wilfong (LH) platooned with Bobby Randall and at 3b Mike Cubbage (LH) platooned with Jerry Terrel. Dan Ford played most of the time in RF. He batted right handed, but Mauch would occasionally put LH hitting Rich Chiles in RF. Larry Hisle was the only RH hitter, who was almost always in the line-up. He primarily played LF, but could also play CF. Luis Gomez I recall as a backup SS, and I think Glenn Borgmann may have backed up Wynegar, but I might be wrong about that.
That was 31 years ago. Long before many of the young pups who post here were ever born. If someone else remembers that team, I would love to hear about it. For the era, that was a tremendous hitting team. No lead was safe from those guys. They could put runs on the board fast. They edged out a power hitting Boston team for the lead in team runs scored that year. Unfortunately, Mauch didn’t have the pitching to win the division, but he kept them in the competition most of the season.
Carmona reminded me of Liriano at the beginning of the year. Seems that the Indians are rushing him
With Everett and Tolbert about ready, Brendan Harris might be traded.
Both Everett and Tolbert are coming back from long stints on the DL (Tolbert’s longer than Everett)
Harris will not be dumped in favor of either. Especially when Tolbert will have gone without seeing MLB pitching for this long.
Craig,
Hisle had power. I wish this team had someone like Hisle of 1977 
I doubt that Tolbert would be ready before the September call up. He cannot grab a bat…
I hadn’t remembered the 77 team as being that prolific at scoring, but I’ll take your word for it. Mauch must have developed about 4 ulcers with the teams he had to try to win with in Minnesota.
What I do remember about that team was Dave Goltz. I honestly couldn’t name another pitcher from that staff (was Redfern with them then? could be)… they were not good. But Goltz won 20 games, pitched 300+ innings and had 19 complete games that season. I don’t think any other starter had a winning record. I also seem to recall them having a reliever who had a very good year and benefited from a lot of late-game rallies by the offense. No idea what the guy’s name is but I guess I could look it up. Have to remember I was 21 years old that summer and, not living in Minnesota, I was spending most of my evenings in pursuits that did not involve baseball (still not sure how I lived through that period).
Hard to imagine how bad a starting pitching staff has to be to have one guy with winning record in a year they score that many runs.
craig, JimCrikket,
The reliever in 1977 was Tom Johnson (71 games, 16-7 with 15 saves).
Check mlb.mlb.com/stats/index.jsp
select a team (Twins) and a year (1977).
correction–
mlb.mlb.com/mlb/stats/index.jsp
Sorry,
Typing the link doesn’t work.
Just log onto mlb.com.
Click on stats.
Then in lower left corner under “Player Stats by Team”
select a team (Twins)
select a year (1977)
click on “go”
1977 was the only year larry hisle hit more than 20 home runs for the twins (28). he hit 34 the next year for milwaukee (and finished third in mvp voting). he hit as many as 20 only one other time (phillies in 1969), although he did hit 19 with the twins in ‘74. decent player but not exactly a power hitter.
