Tuesday update: Three quick thoughts
Posted on May 5th, 2009 – 11:29 AMBy Joe Christensen
An interesting new book was waiting for me in the office this week, “Minnesotans in Baseball,” edited by Stew Thornley. There are chapters on well-known Minnesota baseball figures such as Paul Molitor, Kent Hrbek, Jack Morris, Dave Winfield and Joe Mauer and numerous others with lesser-known stories such as Charles Albert (Chief) Bender, Johnny Blanchard, Blix Donnelly and Dick Siebert.
The book is a collaborative effort by the Halsey Hall Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). The Star Tribune’s Joel Rippel contributed chapters on Hrbek, Mauer, Greg Olson and Robb Quinlan.
I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Jean Ann Havlish, who grew up in St. Paul, practicing alongside Jerry Kindall and Jim Rantz, before finding her own niche with the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was later depicted in the film, “A League of the Their Own.”
(*) I caught the end of Zack Greinke’s latest masterpiece last night, and wondered what impact he had on what looked like a robust attendance. The attendance was 21,843, and in today’s KC Star, Joe Posnanski estimates that there were about 10,000 more people in the renovated ballpark because of Greinke. Zack Mania is now officially in swing, Posnanski writes.
(*) Tonight, the Twins will face Tigers righthander Rick Porcello, the youngest player in the American League at 20 years and four months. He is 1-3 with a 6.23 ERA, but his seven-inning, one-run effort against Seattle on April 19 speaks to his potential. According to Fan Graphs, 74 percent of Porcello’s pitches this year have been fastballs, averaging 92.2 mph, with 14 percent curve balls (76.3 mph) and 11 percent change-ups (82 mph).
33 Responses to "Tuesday update: Three quick thoughts"
bring on that rookie meat
Gomez should be in there tonight for two reasons. One, he needs playing time. Two, he won’t have to deal with many breaking balls if Porcello is throwing fastballs 3/4s of the time.
Grienke definately looking like he could be this year’s Cliff Lee. Though Lee appears to have fallen on tough times this season…
As long as he doesn’t do it against the Twins, I hope Grienke has some success. Would be pretty cool to see a Royals pitcher starting the ASG.
Here is a link to Baseballs top 30 closers. Nathan is ranked better then I imagined.
That’s where Nathan should be… I’m actually a little surprised that they actually put him ahead of Papelbon and Rivera. I might put Soria up even higher.
I’ve known for years that Grienke was special! The first time I seen him pitch was on TV and he threw a 100MPH fastball followed by an ephus curve at about 65MPH and I knew he was special.
Gomez has been swinging that bat pretty decent too…he just isn’t getting consistent ABs so it makes it pretty tough to break out.
Yuck-Twins don’t fare wella against these young pitchers they have never seen.
shazel,
“The first time I seen him pitch was on TV and he threw a 100MPH fastball followed by an ephus curve at about 65MPH and I knew he was special.”
Was that before you knew that Humber was special and Guerrier wasn’t fit to wear a Twins uniform?
Or was that after you “seen him pitch”
So if you want Gomez in the lineup, that must mean you want someone sitting. Delmon and Denard are both hitting over .300 over the past week and Cuddyer’s at an even .500. Kubel’s your lefty DH against the RH pitcher.
I guess it would be Young, but the same argument you make for Gomez (seeing mostly fastballs) would be just as valid for Young.
JimCrikket that is awesome for Cuddy to be hitting over .500 the way he gets torched around here you would never even know.
Dom DeLuise died. That is to bad he was great on the cannonball run series.
I’m a bit worried about tonight. It seems that every time a nobody rookie with bad numbers faces the Twins he has a great game and the Twins can’t hit anything. I hope that doesn’t hold true for this game!
A young rookie pitcher the Twins haven’t seen before. If the past is prologue to the future, it looks like my favorite team is dead meat.
Add a high ERA to that. Our boys don’t stand a chance.
Talking about historic ballplayers from Minny,does anyone the name of the doctor whose character Burt Lancaster played in the movie “Field of Dreams”?He practiced medicine in rural Minn.
Joe C–If you are checking out fangraphs, have you been noting the UZR section? DY and Casilla are both producing negative defensive value(DY significantly so). Span has numbers at all positions, but according to fangraphs, LF is his best position.
And yes, Crede is off the charts.
Moonlight Graham. My daddy is a big fan of that movie.
VULTURE…
I was wrong about Guerrier. I think time will vindicate Humber. I am not a baseball scout. I just look at numbers.
I think we stand a chance as long as thrylos doesn’t post something like “we are going to destroy (Colon, Ponson, whoever).”. Thrylos, you’ve been warned.
shazel,
No problem.
That’s why I don’t make baseball predictions.
Too many unknowns.
Just remember Cuddyer was hitting as bad if not worst then Gomez was with the same amount of ABs. He was even getting those ABs consistently unlike Gomez. If you keep giving the guy a chance he will eventually break through and up his ave. Not like you can hit .200 forever (except nicky in 07). Before we get too excited about Cuddyer I think he better show he can maintain some consistency.
on 4/27 Cuddy was hitting .208
since then he has done very well and i hope he keeps it up. But when he was hitting low it was fair to ask why he played every day.
So many people on these blogs are so impatient. Everyone expects every player to be hot every game. In reality, even the very best players go through slumps and struggle. The key for the Twins’ offense is having enough players in the lineup hitting well to carry the team to victory. That was evident last night. The only position player that really deserves to be roasted is Casilla. He’s had consistently poor play in many aspects of the game. Who knows though, he could get hot any time and be one of the guys carrying the team.
ES16,
I agree with you 100%. That is why Gomez should not be benched for extensive amounts of time like he has been if you aren’t going to treat the others the same way. Whatever happened to that rotation we heard about?
offense is obviously a huge factor, but there is way too much room in the outfield at comerica for me to feel comfortable not playing go-go. in my nightly game of arm-chair managing, i’m sitting young tonight.
Span is the only OF who has “earned” everyday play.
[…] Around the Majors – […]
Hey Joe. Who’s got line-ups today?
yea really, only 70 min to 1st pitch….wtf?
AaronK,
“Whatever happened to that rotation we heard about?”
Someone needs to point out who talked about a rotation besides bloggers. What I’ve heard and read from Gardy is that he did NOT plan to have a set rotation. He used his “mix and match” verbage. Has anyone heard or read something different other than on these blogs?
LaVelle has the lineups.
Was there a chapter on Roger Maris, or was he banished to Fargo?
