Twins go for the sweep
Posted on June 14th, 2007 – 3:52 PMBy La Velle
The pitchers are taking batting practice. Kevin Slowey just threw in the bullpen. It’s business as usual at the park today.
Heard that Rondell White has played in a couple intrasquad scrimmages down in Florida and is about to play in an extended spring training game. I didn’t know there was a difference between a scrimmage game and extended game…
In case you missed it, Anthony Swarzak’s 50-game suspension is over and he pitched last night for Class A Fort Myers. He gave up one run over 5.2 innings on four hits, one walk and eight strikeouts. The bigger story was that Fort Myers won 3-1. Finally, a little offense. A little….Swarzak will pitch a couple games there before going back to New Britain.
I can’t believe the lineups are already out. Here ya go…
Braves: 1. Kelly Johnson, 2B. 2. Edgar Renteria. SS. 3. Chipper, DH. 4. Andruw, CF. 5. Jeff Francoeur, RF. 6. Matt Diaz, LF. 7. Jarrod Salta-longish name, C. 8. Brian McCann, C. 9. Yunel Escober, 3B. Pitching: T-Hud.
Twins: 1. Castillo, 2B. 2. Mauer, C. 3. Cuddyer, RF. 4. Morneau, 1B. 5. Hunter, CF. 6. Redmond, DH. 7. Kubel, LF. 8. Punto, 3B. 9. Bartlett, SS. Pitching: Santana.
58 Responses to "Twins go for the sweep"
Nice to see Kubel back in the lineup, Ford’s homerun last night notwithstanding.
LOL
Just call him Salty.
Someone must have cracked the whip on those lineups after the last couple of nights.
Hey, want to dig around about this rumor??
Angels trying to get Tejada, but Boston, TWINS, and cubs might also be looking???
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/pirates/s_512483.html
Jarrod Salta-longish name…hilarious!!!!
Yes my Lew Ford candies for the kids are being confiscated as we speak…at least we finally have a homerun threat off the bench…haha
Tejada for Baker, Garza and Bartlett.
A blogger wrote about three weeks ago that Baltimore would love to have a “Baker”. They’d probably flip for Baker AND Garza.
RonDL sighting in Florida huh. Yup, and I saw Elvis the other day at the 7-11. RonDL will play in 10-20 games for the twins max. Then he will be gone forever. That’s if he doesn’t slip at the terminal on his flight back to MPLS. I have said before, he is a great guy. Who cares. He is ineffective in a Twins uniform (if he is ever healthy enough to put it on).
Don’t be silly, Tejado would come in and play 3B/DH for the Twins. Can’t reade Bartlett. 
I also can’t see it happening at all, but its out there I guess.
Be fair Dog
DL rocked the second half last year and does nothing but hit, hit, and hit when healthy. And yes, I know he’s almost never healthy.
I don’t see Tejada coming to the Twins. How many years is he under contract for? If he was on his last year or possibly 2 it would be a slight possibility, but even then do you really think the Twins will trade away 2 pitching prospects(I realize that Baker probably isn’t considered a “prospect” anymore) and a young SS with good potential for 1 or 2 years with Tejada? It’s just not there way.
I have to say though that lineup just makes me tingle. Seeing the fearsome fivesome up top with Redmond and Kubel to follow that up (I think Kubel has been hitting quite a bit better than his numbers show and will only improve as the season goes) Then the little piranhas to possibly get on base for the top of the lineup again. I can’t believe I’m gonna say this but I’m excited about the Twins offense if they stick with this lineup most nights.
Can’t trade Bartlett? Can’t?!!
To get Tejada? Or Lowell?
If Baker and Garza aren’t enough, throw in Bartlett — if that’s what it takes.
Without significantly upgrading at either 3B or DH the Twins don’t have a chance at post-season success.
I’m suggesting if the Twins trade for Tejada he won’t play SS.
I just assumed you tossed him in there because there is no reason to have him if Tejada comes and plays SS. Anyway, this is a funny rumor, I just wonder how much there is to it.
I see that the Braves are going with two catchers tonight. Interesting strategy. (I couldn’t resist pointing that out.) I heard that they are trying their best to get this Salty guy in the lineup, sometimes at 1st. Is that where he’s playing tonight?
I just checked out Tejada’s contract
He’s getting 12 mil this year and 13 the next two seasons. Seems pretty damn unlikely, however if the Twins resigned themselves to giving up completely on Hunter and were still willing to increase payroll to try for Santana and others this could actually work depending on what they want. Tejada for 13 mil for 2 seasons is cheaper than what the Twins would have to pay to keep Torii around and I’d rather have Tejada anyhow with his consistency and being one of the most NON injury prone guys in the league.
All that said, I’ll believe it when I see him in the uniform.
I’m not trying to dampen spirits here, but if this started because of something a blogger wrote, I’m seriously skeptical. But I don’t know the Pittsburgh writer who tossed that out, either. And there’s a big difference between `could have interest,’ and, `does have interest.’
And if the Twins increase payroll, shouldn’t it be to keep their own players? Adding Miggy but letting Torii walk after this year almost is a wash, production wise and salary wise. I’d rather keep Torii and hope Bartlett improves than have Miggy and watch Lew Ford or Denard Span in center field next season.
Miggy would command a lot in return, even if Baltimore eats some of the salary. The more I think about it, the more it doesn’t make sense. I’ll keep an ear out on it, but I just don’t see how this could be pulled off.
I suggest mongering on other rumors 
two shay (sp? j/k) I wasn’t suggesting it was a strong possibility I’m just saying that I figured his contract would be even more inflated than 13 mil for two seasons and I’ve heard that Torii will command around 15 per year.
However I was thinking with both Ichiro and Andruw Jones, +more that I can’t remember, all being free agents maybe the price could be driven down a bit at least.
I’m now on the Lowell train. GET HIM TR GET HIM NOW!!!
Also, if DL does stay mostly healthy and hits like he did last half of last year, I’d be getting very excited about our offense
-Slervball
ever the optimist
Please stay around Slerv, optimists are hard to find around here most of the time.
It will be more likly we will see Mike Cameran or Cory Patterson signed as FA to play CF for the Twins than Tori coming back, if we go with Ford or Tyner, or Span I will have to eat my shot gun (not Really) but I would feel like doing it.
It’s kinda scary to see that our DH is our backup catcher: in general, if you can play catcher and can hit like a DH, you’re not a backup, you’re making $10M a year.
But what’s scarier is when you’re _happy_ to see your backup catcher at DH because the alternatives are worse.
So true Roy
If we had a real DH (not a shot at Redman) this lineup would look good although a different option at 3b would be nice, but if we had a DH I could live with this lineup.
Tejada is overrated and old. His power has almost completely vanished. He’s good, but definitely not worth Garza.
Jack wilson is on the block according to what I read on espn. He could play 3b.
Jack Wilson?
Why?
The Twins already have Jack Wilson. His name is Nick Punto.
Atkins when yard for the Rockies.
The Twins should be selling, not buying.
There chance to win it is next year, with Santana, a healthy Liriano (hopefully), a more experienced Slowey/Garza/Baker.
Chance to win next year?
How?
If the Twins go into next year with holes at 3b, CF, and DH, they will not be contending.
Erik, We have holes at 3B and DH now. I’m not convinced they can’t find a way to keep Hunter here, once Silva, Castillo, Punto and RonDL are off the payroll. (Though I’d like to see Castillo sign a one-year deal).
And we’ll never win with a Yankee-like offense. It’s going to have to be pitching and competency at the plate.
Nick Blackburn has just thrown ANOTHER complete game shutout!
Matt Tolbert played at third base and was 1 for 3, so his average dropped…
PJS,
So how do you expect this team to contend?
If you can’t score runs, you can’t win ballgames.
BTW, this ump’s strike zone is one of the worst I’ve seen this year. Just awful.
Not as bad as that rookie ump’s in Oakland a week and a half ago…
Erik,
I think we’ll be fine scoring in the long run. 1-5 spots we’re as good as anyone, Bartlett and Kubel should improve, and hopefully 3b/DH gets addressed through trade/AAA/getting healthy.
I worry about consistancy in the rotation.
two questions: Who is our most coveted player? Answer, CyTana. Second question: Where are we the deapest going forward? Answer, Pitching. I love Santana, but we could get a boat load for him, fill every need and still be looking good for pitching next season.
You know….hopefully we come back to win this game….
But you could argue Johan Santana is a big part of the reason we’re not in first place right now…
Considering the state of our starting pitching, that’s amazing.
Big Dawg, I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that. Blasphemy!
What I’m thinking is look at the A’s. They gave up Zito, Mulder and Hudson and are still contenders every year. Like I said, I really enjoy have Santana in a twins uniform, but think of the possibilities.
Jason,
You could also argue he has been the Twins best pitcher.
No one is questioning Johans ability. I’m think Hershel Walker. If we get the Dallas Cowboys equavalent of the Hershel Walker deal but for Santana, we will be set for a few years.
You certainly could, Palerider. But the fact is, based on his expectations, the Twins have lost way too many Santana starts.
that’s the weirdest pitching change ever.
Can you believe this comeback. I love Bob Wickman.
The Twins are to Wickman as the Drays are to Nathan. Only Nathan kicks everyone elses ass.
Can you say, SWEEP!
What an unbelievable win!!!!!
YES!!!!! Pirhana’s!!!!! YES!!!!!
Seriously though… what was up with that strike zone??? Hudson was getting ALL of the close calls in the first seven innings, Santana, None. I don’t get to see many games living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Do umps just automatically discount Santana’s borderline pitches because he’s so good at inducing swinging strikes? Thanks TBS and Twins for providing me with some much needed 9th inning pleasure. Finally, we did just sweep this series but we still SERIOUSLY need another bat. It was SO not fun watching the first 8 innings.
Very nice win boys. A bit lucky and a liitle tenacious. Good win.
That’s a very big sweep.
Thank you Wickman and the Braves defense.
Make it 20 come from behind wins for the Twins this year.
Despite losing 2 of 3 to the Nats to start the homestand, this could turn into a very positive homestand for the Twins.
What a finish! I almost turned the broadcast off after the 7th. I’m glad I didn’t.
What are the thoughts on Nick Blackburn’s potential? I was at his last start. He was hitting mid-90s with his fastball and kept Indy off balance all night. I hadn’t heard much about him–he doesn’t show up on the top prospects lists. He now hasn’t allowed an earned run in the 26 innings of his last 3 starts
That was huge…time for celebrating, Twins fans!
Still just 1/162 as always….but it’s a huge win for us….
Tim Hudson has to be seriously ill tonight.
Hey LaVelle, try and get some feedback from Anderson/Gardy/Rantz on Nick Blackburn.
He threw another complete game shutout tonight. 6 hitter in 2-0 win. Has not allowed an earned run in last 3 starts, 8/9/9 innings. last time he allowed an earned run was May 29, in the 4th inning of a 6 inning-outing, so that’s 28 scoreless innings!! He allowed an unearned run in the 8th inning of his June 3rd start.
His ERA has dropped from 4.91 after the May 29 outing to 2.03
Scoreless innings = Unearned runs. Back to back shutouts is nearly unheard of these days.
Geez I wish a person could edit these things..I MEANT 28 innings without giving up an earned run. Ack.
All I can say is thank you Bob Wickman and the Dome effect. It was about time that the Dome came through.
And, BTW, I must tender my strong disagreement with the notion that the Twins should focus on positioning their team to contend next year. There is every reason to believe that next year will never come. What I mean is the number of variables that go into preparing and the counting on of one certainty or the next are bound to implode. Here’s the Twins’ rotation for next year: Santana, Liriano, Bonser, Slowey and maybe Silva/Garza. Anybody want to bet $1000 on that prediction? I wouldn’t bet a dime.
The Twins are in a better position than they were last year at this point in the season. They need to strike while the iron is hot. Don’t ya’ll think it’s better to get a legitimate bat and contend right now? Next year could be the start of a 10-year drought for all we know. (One in the hand in baseball is always better than two in the bush…IMHO.) That’s my two-yen’s worth.
Yeah. 5.5 games out of first place and 2.5 behind for the wild card with 98 games remaining to be played. Definitely time to give up on this year and focus on 2008 when almost certainly at least 2 (and probably more) of the key contributors on this team will be elsewhere. Right.
I’ve never seen a player get so much underserved love in these blogs as Jason Kubel. Since his knees got wrecked he’s been lifeless. Once in a blue moon he’ll have a decent game which feeds the instanity for the next 2-week dry spell. It’s hilarious!
“But the fact is, based on his expectations, the Twins have lost way too many Santana starts.”
Written when he appeared headed for defeat despite a masterful performance, because the Twins couldn’t score, yet you blame Johan? Since pitchers don’t bat in the AL, I don’t really see what he can do about his offensive support.
Santana obviously can pitch even better than he has so far, but if you _expected_ something significantly better, your expectations were unreasonable. Even great pitchers do not win the Cy Young every year: sometimes they get hurt, sometimes it’s just a bit of regression to the mean.
Santana’s ERA this year would be a typical ERA (relative to league) for Christy Mathewson, Greg Maddux, or Pete Alexander. I can live with that.
At what point will the twins throw at Andruw Jones. Mauer now hit on the wrist and now elbow by Jones follow through. I say a high hard one under his chin would be due.
Brian: Maybe next year when hopefully Jones is playing centerfield for Texas
and Torii is still in a Twins uniform.
On an earlier point, I love Santana and he hasn’t gotten the run support for many of his starts, but I’m kind of with Big Dawg. If its going to cost the Twins 20-million a year to pay a guy who plays every 5 days wouldn’t that money be better spent in other areas to improve the offense? I’m not saying trade him this year, but we have so many good young arms that perhaps in a year or so, we may have a starting staff that can average 15 wins apiece even without Johan. Don’t get me wrong, I would love Carl to get off his wallet and sign him, but it’s the Twins and unfortunately, we all have to be realistic when it comes to payroll.
To the point again about hitters swinging and whacking catchers with their bats. I would love to see a rule that if a batter’s follow through hits
the catcher while he’s in the crouched position, the batter should be automatically out.
Hey, if the catcher can’t touch the hitter why should the hitter have free
reign? At least it would stop players
like A.Jones and Sheffield from swinging
out of their shoes and hammering catchers with their bats!!
Bufftwins,
Not sure what you’re proposing…if we trade Santana now, we will have a rather iffy rotation for the rest of the year.
We could trade him this offseason to someone who thinks they can sign him long-term…I would hate to see him go, but for the right package it might be worth it. But people always overestimate what their team will get in a trade: look at what the A’s got for their stars: it’s turned out well in the Mulder case, but not so much in the Hudson case.
Or what the D’Backs got when they traded away the Big Unit, some OK stuff but nothing special. The Houston Unit rental is a best-case scenario (Garcia, Carlos Guillen, Halama) but keep in mind that none of those guys were well-known at the time.
My guess is that the best course will be to keep Johan till the end of 2008 whether we re-sign him or not.
Roy: I’m with you. As I stated in my previous post I don’t want to trade him now, and hopefully will keep him through ‘08 because next year’s club could have some great potential with a few additions, a hopefully healthy Liriano included. I just don’t think down the road we can pay a pitcher 20 million to play every 5 days.
