Harris Starts At Third Base
Posted on July 5th, 2008 – 4:34 PMBy La Velle
Barring another finger injury to a middle infielder, Brendan Harris will start at third base today. Harris said he’s taken some grounders at third in recent days, and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire told Harris yesterday that he would be at the hot corner tonight.
The Twins are still building a sample size against Cleveland lefty Aaron Laffey but Justin Morneau is 5 for 7 against him with 3 RBI. Alexi Casilla is 0 for 7.
Twins win today, and it’s seven straight series.
4:29 update: Cleveland has signed Jeff Weaver to a minor league contract, which shows you how much the Indians need pitching prospects back as part of any C.C. Sabathia trade.
Indians (37-49): 1. Grady Sizemore, CF. 2. Jamey Carroll, 2B. 3. Ben Francisco, LF. 4. Jhonny Peralta, SS. 5. Shin-Soo Choo, RF. 6. Casey Blake, 1B. 7. David Dellucci, DH. 8. Kelly Shoppach, C. 9. Andy Marte, 3B. Pitching: Aaron Laffey.
Twins (48-38): 1. Carlos Gomez, CF. 2. Alexi Casilla, 2B. 3. Joe Mauer, C. 4. Justin Morneau, 1B. 5. Craig Monroe. DH. 6. Delmon Young, LF. 7. Brendan Harris, 3B. 8. Nick Punto, SS. 9 Denard Span, RF. Pitching: Kevin Slowey.
173 Responses to "Harris Starts At Third Base"
Why not start Harris at SS and Punto at 3B? Punto has shown he is a great defender at 3B. Is this a sign that Punto will soon be the everyday SS?
good to see casilla back
Morneau 5-7 against Mr. Laffey Taffey? NICE!
Nice to see Casilla back. I think Punto at short is better because his range is so much better than Harris’ and range is more important at SS than 3B. As long as punto can keep it up at the plate I am fine with him getting regular playing time.
I hope Harris at 3B does not get ugly, especially since there are 3 other guys who play there on the team (Lamb, Buscher, Punto).
Punto at SS. Harris at 3B. Just as Craig predicted. How could that have ever happened?
kmack,
“I hope Harris at 3B does not get ugly, especially since there are 3 other guys who play there on the team (Lamb, Buscher, Punto)”
IMO, Punto will stay at SS (no 3B) and Lamb will stay at PH, backup 1B, and 3B. (only if Buscher slumps)
That leaves a Harris-Buscher platoon at 3B until further notice.
If this line-up works out, we are looking at a platoon of Buscher & Harris at 3rd base…… assuming of course Punto continues decent offensive production. Of course, Tolbert’s return in about a month (?) could change everything again.
“That leaves a Harris-Buscher platoon at 3B until further notice.”
No, I don’t think so. Buscher will play some, but Harris is the man.
This apparently is the start of a Harris/Buscher platoon at third, with Harris as the alternate SS when the Twins rest Punto. I don’t trust Punto as an everyday player, but so far he has done well this year.
Casilla back in the lineup is the good news. Hopefully the finger will heal up during the All-Star break, but he will have to take good care of it until then.
IMO, Punto won’t be a seven-day-a-week SS. Twice a week against RHP’s, (I’m guessing) it will be Harris at SS and Buscher at 3B.
I don’t see how everyone rips punto and says they can’t wait for tolbert to get back. Punto has been way better than Tolbert at the plate this year and there is no comparison defensively.
Well, no ill will towards anyone but I wouldn’t mind an 0-5 with 5 k’s (all looking) out of Punto tonight as long as the Twins win. Maybe that would put him back into the super-sub role he his better suited to.
toby,
“I don’t see how everyone rips punto”
Its NEVER “everyone” here in blogland.
No one agrees on anything at anytime.
Punto has lovers and haters.
Don’t believe me?
Check the previous thread!
Ok a VAST majority and it goes beyong message boards.
“Its NEVER “everyone” here in blogland.
No one agrees on anything at anytime.
Punto has lovers and haters.
Don’t believe me?
Check the previous thread!”
My bad!
Check previous thread on JOE C’s BLOG!
I don’t mind Punto, but he is not a starter, he is a late inning defensive replacement and once or twice a week starter.
Punto does have much better range at SS, then Harris does.
If he keeps hitting like he is right now why can’t he be the starting shortstop?
Toby,
Its my impression that Punto is a fan favorite at the Dome and public enemy #1 at the bar.
“I wouldn’t mind an 0-5 with 5 k’s (all looking) out of Punto tonight as long as the Twins win.”
Huh. Doesn’t that beat all. I’m not a Monroe or Kubel fan, but I’m sure cheering for them when they are playing. Can’t imagine wanting either to do poorly. Huh.
I disagree. Whenever I am at the dome there is always some idiot(s) that heckles and boos him the whole game whether he goes 0-4 or 3-3 with a walk.
Monroe and Kubel are in their proper roles, Punto is not. And if your going with the hot hands, Harris, Casilla and Buscher all deserve to be playing because they are the starters in the line-up that put together the recent hot streak.
If punto is hittin .270+ and is getting on base at a .340+ clip and is playing his usual ridiculous defense why can’t he get most of the starts until he cools off.
The Twins have been looking for an everyday 3B for years. I think Harris may have the tools, to be that guy, if he works at it. He needs to cut down on the whiffs, also. I think he can do that. I’m excited that Gardy has made the changes he has been talking about. This should make a good team, better.
“Monroe and Kubel are in their proper roles, Punto is not.”
According to whom?
Gardy is the Head Man, he will call the shots as to who plays where and when. All of you arm-chair bloggers have opinions only, and you all have rectums, problem is you don’t know the difference between them, as you make a***s of yourselves. Go Twins, beat the Indians again tonight.
When Buscher started throwing the ball up the line, and forcing Morneau into the base-runner, I knew some changes would be coming. Gardy isn’t going to break his big gun, because a guy from AAA, can’t throw.
The Dr. has spoken!!
Harris’s chance to be an “everyday” 3B also depend on Buscher.
I doubt if the Twins will relegate a .333 BA; .785 OPS; player full-time to the bench.
Buscher hits means Buscher plays.
Dr. Don says:
July 5th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
“All of you arm-chair bloggers have opinions only, and you all have rectums,”
Hmmmm….is that a latex glove you have on, doc?
“All of you arm-chair bloggers have opinions only, and you all have rectums, problem is you don’t know the difference between them”
Dr. Don is a proctologist!
I will NOT stop pulling opinions out of my -ss!
Thats why I became a blog commenter!
Macri hit better than Buscher.
Dr. Don,
Thanks for your opinion.
Just bill my insurance company, please.
And only once THIS time!
“And only once THIS time!”
Ha-ha!
I would rate Harris a near-failure at second, a decent fill-in at shortstop, and undetermined at third. To be in the lineup every day from now on, it is pretty apparent that Harris will have to hit better than he has up until now.
Buscher has earned his starts at third base. If he slumps, it could open the door partially for Mike Lamb, and of course, keep Span in the majors. If he continues to hit as he has, he’ll play against righties.
Macri has tore up AAA since getting set down…. If you look at his numbers since his call up till now he has played better then Punto, Harris, Lamb and Buscher…. And plays better defense then all except Punto….. Buscher has played alright so you can keep him at 3rd…. Punto does not deserve the job at short…. Yeah Punto has good games ususally in blow outs like last night and then people say why not him. But the point is he is gone after the year (or the the GM should be canned) while Macri has played better and Tolbert has played good also and if he can come back at 100% I think Punto should be released…. Lamb is hard to swallow because he is in a 2 year contract, but Putno is done in a few months….
I’ll say one thing about this lineup.
Only Morneau and Monroe are slow runners.
I knew when Gardy called Harris “Hair-dog”, he would be the man at 3B. Gardy would never call a player Hair-dog and then put him on the bench.
I can read Gardy like a book.
“I think Punto should be released”
Joe if you want Punto released, you first have to fire Gardy.
Gardy isn’t about to be fired, and Punto is going to play SS. Drink from the cup of reality, brother.
I think Gardy will lobby hard, to have the front office retain Punto, beyond this season. Gardy and Punto are almost inseparable.
“Gardy would never call a player Hair-dog and then put him on the bench.”
Craig,
I am going to check all the previous players whom Gardy called “Hair-dog, but I think you may be correct!
LOL
“Gardy isn’t about to be fired, and Punto is going to play SS. Drink from the cup of reality, brother.”
that’s funny, craig. good one.
The deeper question is “would Gardy call a player “Hair-dog”, and then boot him out of SS to make room for a “Poon-dog”?”
I’m looking forward to watching Hair-dog play 3B. I’m pulling for him to succeed. I think he could get to like it over there.
sane,
Cut it out. There is no “Poon-dog”, is there?
I think so.
is greg gagne still in the majors? he was good at SS!
This was actually a moderately, coherent discussion, until Dr. Don arrived.
Yeah I know….. I need to drink that cup of reality the reality is though that Punto does not help the team, and on the other 29 rosters would of been released already.
“is greg gagne still in the majors?”
Do you mean Gag-dog?
“This was actually a moderately, coherent discussion, until Dr. Don arrived”
Dr. Don was just as much fun as my last rectal exam.
Maybe Harris could play LF….DOH!
“Do you mean Gag-dog?” Is that what the kids are calling him these days?
I’ve been in a bunker for 18 years, he’s the last SS I remember!
18 years? Time for that shower, stinky.
That a kid, Slow-dog!
I do think Morneau is better than Hrbek, I wish Gomez would steal first one of these days.
still 5 for 7 against this clown!
monroe is the man, just wish he could get more at bats…since he shortened his swing/step he is just crushing the ball…
Punto plays everyday but Monroe doesn’t? Don’t get it. Just about everytime Monroe is up therehe gets a HR or a double.
Monroe hit .125 last month that might be why he doesn’t play everyday.
“Just about everytime Monroe is up therehe gets a HR or a double.”
That may be the perception, but he was hitting .218 before that at bat.
monroe has found his swing, better late than never…we need his bat this 2nd half along with delmons new found power hopefully….
We have Gomez, Delmon, Kubel, Monroe, Span, Morneau, Mauer, Casilla, Punto, Harris and Buscher all hitting well despite Vavra’s failure to hit when he was a player.
I guess being a HOF hitter is NOT a prerequisite to be a MLB hitting coach.
Slowey, walk Sizemore from now on. You give up a triple to him in the 1st obviously pitching to him with runnerson is not a good idea.
In honor of Armed Forces Day, Kevin Slowey is under rocket attack!
Considering it was a doink single that was turned into a triple walking him would have been stupid.
Considering he gave up a HR right after that triple it really wasn’t ’stupid’ Hindsight I know but Sizemore is a dangerous hitter.
It would have been stupid to load the bases because young misplayed a ball that was off the handle.
Clevland 5 Twins 2. The result of not walking him. IMO I would have rather walked him.
Hindsight is 20/20. You do not put another man is scoring position inentionally. It was the right move at the time and to argue otherwise is pointless. If he had gotten the fastball down and away he would have grounded into the double play.
All I know is pitching to him did not help. Results speak for itself. Who knows what happens if they walk Sizemore. We won’t know now.
Walking him would have put 2 men in scoring position and with sizemore’s speed a double scores 3 and puts another man in scoring position. The bottom line is you take the chance and pitch to him.
Liriano has 4 no hit innings with a walk and 4 K’s on 60 pitches.
Angel Morales just hit his 5th HR and 11th RBI for Elizabethton in 57 AB and 15+ games.
Come on Delmon lets get a base hit here.
anybody have the gameday link to the rochester game?
Nora,
Its not practical to walk all hitters who have previously hit extra-base hits against the SP in every succeeding at-bat in that game.
Four early extra base hits could lead to 16 walks in that game.
A pitcher has to be able to retire hitters who have previously tagged him.
If thats not possible, a career change is in order.
I am waiting to hear Coomer and Telly reiterate that THIS time Laffey would not find the Twins as easy a team to face as they were the first time.
Laffey has a one-hitter going, proving that public predictions can be embarassing.
TWO-hitter!
THREE-hitter!
I was not making a public prediction!
I mind Punterrible. He has a good week, and Minnesota is on their knees praying to the golden calf of baseball. You people are sinning against baseball! He is just the 21st century Jeff Reboulet, Denny Hocking, or Al Newman (without personality)…
He has had a great week, and he is known for making spectacular plays in the field. I am not saying he’s a bad person to have on the team, but if the man gets more than 150 plate appearances when we have Lamb, Harris, Casilla, Buscher, and next month Tolbert back… then something is wrong with Gardenhire. Punto is a defensive replacement, not a starting baseball player. He proved that last year…
And I think he should be fined 10K for every time he dives into 1st base head first even if he were to ever actually beat one.
Just like Delmon Young should be fined 100 dollars for every single time he swings at the 1st pitch no matter the results, and if he gets out on the first pitch it should be a 10K fine until he learns how to have some discipline at the plate… but he’s heating up now so listen to the Golden Calfers come after me…
Just like how there is no such thing as Mauer Power…
The lineup should look like
Casilla - showing to have a decent eye
Mauer - great bat control, no power
Young - RBI machine when Hot
Morneau - best player on the team
Kubel - 2nd most power on the team
Gomez - Change would be good for him
Busher - 20 doubles 10 homers too much?
Harris - enigma
Span - has proven me wrong so far
Once Cuddy’s healthy put him in between Morneau and Kubel, and drop everyone else a spot. I want to see how Gomez would respond to a different spot in the lineup.
cuddy is going to find it surprisingly difficult to get back into this lineup on a full time basis .tis my opinion….
How about we wait until Punto has an 0-5 or the average drops below .280 to continue/start ripping him.
Gomez, thats horrible!
The pitch had NO CHANCE of being hittable, no matter how much break on the pitch!
Sometimes that kid should be medicated before an at-bat.
Can you hear me now?
“Once Cuddy’s healthy”
We’re talking 2009.
thanks toby
Punterrific!
so much for no range
Not complaining about Punto’s results, but doesn’t his approach at the plate seem awfully similar to 2007?
He’s swinging out of his shoes up there, he’s just making good contact now and not popping them up yet. Still… I’d rather see Punto getting hits on ground balls and choppers with occasional line drives. Last year, he looked like he was trying to hit the ball all the way to Duluth every AB.
It’s nice that he’s had success the past 2-3 games, but he’s really not doing much different than he was in 2007 as far as I can tell.
Same story as in the field… Punto always seems like he’s trying to do more than he has to. I realize that’s why a lot of people like him, but to me, it’s just detrimental to the team more often than not, and 2007 is a perfect example.
Nice catch there by him though… he’s earned himself a spot in the starting lineup for the next month now, knowing Gardy. Even if he goes 1 for his next 40…
You guys are all nuts. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Too bad we don’t have this much brain power figuring out what to do in Iraq.
In the meantime, does anyone else out think we are still going to win this game? I feel a rally in this and the next innings.
Mauer Power
His approach wasn’t the problem. He walked a lot last year. His mechanics were messed up and as a result he was popping everything up or weakly grounding out.
I never thought for a second we were gonna lose it. 
Speak of the devil…
“Not complaining about Punto’s results, but….”
OK.
I hink we should and will win this game because we are only down by one and Clevelands bullpen is pretty bad.
Remember… I wrote that post immediately before Mauer homered… Now if only Monroe……. 
What does Mauer think he is doing hitting a ball 400 feet? If he read this blog he would know he is weak for his size. Silly Mauer.
That’s a pretty healthy understatement Toby.
I know people don’t like that I knit pick even when the team is playing well, but they could be doing better, a team should always be trying to get better… just my opinion.
Regardless of what happens tonight, I’m just thankful there’s no Rincon lurking in the shadows
“Too bad we don’t have this much brain power figuring out what to do in Iraq.”
Spend more money!
We need more POWER!
Fire all the officers!
Send all soldiers down to the National Guards!
Bring back Eisenhower!
funny, sane.
Bring the troops home to shoot all the oil speculators!
Those aren’t Boof’s. They are Boos.
Werbelik…
I just got your comment from last blog. I do want to apologize if I offended you. The Baby Jesus comments are by no means original, you’ll have to call KFAN on that one. It’s just kind of grown on me seeing how these people worship him like he has no faults.
So I will work on a way not to tie religion and baseball together (difficult… I was raised to me a minister, so even though I’m far from a religious person, and I really disappointed the family on that one… it’s still fairly deeply engrained in my vocab. Easy weapons…
LH pinch hitters available:
Kubel
Buscher
Lamb
Way to go alexi
Angry Vet.
If we had any leadership in Washington (sometimes wonder about both sides), but especially from the current president… you wouldn’t need to ask that question. But it’s the same problem we had in Veitnam. President made a terrible decision to get into a war, then the Congress and the Senate did a lousy job once we were in the war, and 8 guys in a room sitting around a table trying to balance what’s best for the people vs what’s best for the businesses, and this group always goes for the businesses. Next group will probably won’t be a whole lot better no matter who we see in there simply because they have no idea where to begin to fix all the problems of the last 8 years. So no this isn’t me picking one side or the other though I am a liberal (kill me later)… I have respect for McCain… I just think we need a miracle to solve the problems of the idiot in chief now.
And with that I’m done talking about politics here… I’m already expecting about 3 people swearing at me, 4 people messaging me on my myspace page, and 10 others condemning me for being a liberal on here. So realize I get it, it’s done, and you can stop already.
The four horses?
Bremer is a poet!
How about the cheetahs?
Since I’m already going to be in trouble… here’s a called shot…
I’ll be back around 11pm to see if people are calm, or angry… lol.
bring in the lefty to go after Morneau… 2nd pitch over the left center wall.
Yep, my nickname for them is cheetahs. they can run, play def, and hit. That’s good times.
Sane- Very nice.
The politics dish was a metaphor only. I will not go into that.
ALEXI IS THE FRICKING MAN, RUSSIAN NAME NOTWITHSTANDING!
BC Beneke,
I think your discourse has been conciliatory and constrained today. Your much more fun to read when you are like that.
As per the game, I think I am developing a man-crush on Alexi.
Grand slam too much to ask for Craig? I’ll be greedy.
Good thing they brought the lefty in to face Monroe….
*”You’re” not “your”.
Damn my spelling.
BC Beneke, It isn’t your opinions that I find distasteful. It is the way you present them usually. Everything is so full of anger. At least that is the way they come across to me.
I can imagine you wondering how the ‘27 Yanks ever lost a game. Stupid manager.
About 15 years ago, I realized that I was taking the games more seriously than the players. Happended to occur after a Vikes playoff loss as I recall. 5 minutes after the game, the players are laughing it up with the opposition and I am sulking around. Didn’t seem right to me. So, I changed.
Just some observations.
Ok, fine, Delmon can hit it…
DY- “What do you think of nasty blog commenters who lash the hate on you for three months?”
Shoot, didn’t work.
Cleveland has thrown 7 walks and a hit batter today? Jeez.
“Shoot, didn’t work.”
Delmon couldn’t hear you.
Back to the nicknames. Rabbits has got to go. Dick can do better than that. I’m tired of the fish names. Maybe we need Ozzie to coin another for us. Until then, I like cheetahs.
Nice rally inning.
One bad inning, then Slowey let only one baserunner the rest of the way. Works for me.
Atta baby Harris. Nice clutch two out hit.
Great to see a young starter get beat up a bit and not let it get to him over the rest of the game. I like Slowey more and more every time he takes the mound (which is saying something, because I loved him to start the year).
Nice to see him get a win on a rough outing… makes up for some of the games where he didn’t get much support.
I wish I could watch the games live, too cheap for MLB.TV and cable. I would’ve liked to see how that last inning played out.
As I said before, no reason to feel down when Cleveland five spotted us, right? Nifty little team we have here.
I hear alot of people out there in mega-media land saying the Twins will come back to earth, because their stats are just way outta the ordinary. Anyone buy that argument?
Good line for Cisco today but I don’t see a spot for him. Perkins is doing as well as him against MLB hitters. Has anyone seem him recently? Is he throwing sliders?
Steve: I agree, but I remember a similar game earlier this year where Boof gave up six in the first, then wasn’t touched the rest of the way. Twinkies won….
Yeah, I know, bad comparison. Two completely different pitchers. Plus, Boof was getting pounded back in April when that occurred, while Kevs has been pitching his heart out lately. Good for him, I say!
Not many home runs, but the boys do seem to be hitting up & down the entire line-up. Add to that the 4 greyhounds to add speed, it should be a hard to shut down offense. 3rd in the league in runs scored? Maybe Vavra deserves a raise?
Speak of the devil, AGAIN! Damn, my 6th sense is on overdrive today….
First play at 3B, awkward.
Scoco: so, if these guys are the greyhounds, does that make Gardy the bus driver?
He;s creepy enough, to me…
Angry Vet
I think there are stats that will return to normal. I think that will be compensated by improvement by Gomez, Cuddy, Young, and even Kubel. Gardy is accurate in this sense, he said that the team will go as far as the young pitching takes it. Even in Slowey’s start tonight I see growth. So I’m excited look forward to the rest of the season.
MLB is only 14 bucks a month.
The baseball season is full of ups and downs, so chances are, the Twins will have their downs.
But looking at lifetime stats, there are few players playing absurdly above the normal range of their averages.
Casilla, for one, could come back down to earth.
But on that same note, Delmon looks like he’s starting to hit the ball a little better.
Who knows?
Vet,
No one in the media ever gives the Twins a remote chance, and yet somehow, there they’ve been pretty regularly over the past several years.
I think the media places too much emphasis on young pitchers not being able to get the job done, and the need for veteran presences. With the way this rotation’s looking though, especially if we can get an effective Liriano back, we’ll be just fine.
This team’s not gonna stop scoring runs as is, let alone if they make a solid upgrade or two at the deadline.
Only question is if Chicago can ever slow down. Their offense is stacked, and finally coming together. Danks is pitching out of his mind, Floyd’s been good, Vazquez is always solid, Buerhle too. Only rough spot for them is Contreras I’d say, who’s gonna start coming down. He’s been losing effectiveness for the past few seasons, and I’m not buying a rebirth for him.
I don’t think Detroit has the pitching to do it, and they’re really gonna miss Magglio in that lineup. Their defense is horrid too. I think it’s coming down to the wire with the Twins and the Sox… and I can’t wait!
How does greyhounds sound? They hunt in a pack & can “run” anything down.
JP- Yeah, I hear you. If you go with the stats even out argument, then, naturally, players that are under-performing should perform better as well.
I’m a poor law student. $14 for MLB.TV is a lot of money in the era of $4/gal gas, “my friend.”
That made it look like Harris doesn’t have enough range…………on popups?
Steve- Concur. We’ll see how it plays out. Still awfully difficult to predict anything. When you have teams like us and Oakland consistently playing out of their minds in the second of the season, well, anything can happen. Good analysis, though. I appreciate it.
PETA would probably point out the cruel treatment of greyhounds in racing. Cheetahs are the fastest land animals. Plus, they are wild (as in not predictable).
Angry Vet,
“I hear alot of people out there in mega-media land saying the Twins will come back to earth, because their stats are just way outta the ordinary. Anyone buy that argument?”
If any stat is 100% luck (like coin flipping)it will tend to even out as the sample size gets larger.
Some people think there is no skill (only luck) involved in high RISP which the Twins have.
IMO there is a definite skill set involved in RISP, so it has a good probability of remaining high.
The Twins BA, OBP and SLG are improving, so that might mitigate any drop in RISP due to the luck factor involved.
sane,
agreed.
Angry Vet
I hope the “friend” comment was not sarcasm. Regardless of differing opinions, I have no ill will towards any poster. The majority of us are here because we are Twins fans. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Life is expensive these days, a lot of us are on tight budgets. $14 bucks to watch 25 games or so (depending on time constraints) is a pretty cheap form of entertainment for me. Find a friend and get the thing together. My brother and I both log in and watch games all the time (he lives in las vegas).
To the 4 dollar gas. Anybody hear that the Bush Administration has put a freeze on all federal solar projects to do environmental research (over 150 projets). Doing this while promoting oil, gas, coal initiatives. Ironic huh? In the face of historic energy prices, shuting down a clean renewable energy source that must be part of the solution and in the name of the environment! So absurd it could only happen here in America with our Administration!
that was what i was trying to say sane earlier, didn’t communicate it as well as you did. cheers.
JP,
The “my friend” comment was not a dig at all. In fact, it was a side-swipe and reference to a certain Presidential nominee. Tough for me not to stay angry all the time.
Nope, not aimed at you at all. Peace!
MLB.com stamps make you less angry? Don’t think you are the only liberal here.
when you get out of law school, will you become a community activist?
SMD- Have no clue. Probably not. I’m a little old for that. Don’t expect to see me in the private sector, tho.
Lee goes 8 innings tomorrow, Twins fall 2 back.
They will be at least 4-5 back by the all star break after having to face Beckett, Dice K and Lester along with Lee in the next 4.
Nevertheless a sincere thank you for your service!!!
That’s game, folks. Keep the Ws coming.
Erik- We’ll see. I don’t count my wins until they are safely in the W column. Same goes for losses.
I agree with SMD. Thanks for the service.
Erik is back! You probably predicted we’d lose to Maddux, Peavy, Sheets, Webb, R Johnson and others. Keep making those predictions!!!!
GO TWINS!!!!
Report: Mauer a starter for the All-Star game.
There is more at Sports Illustrated. Mauer is reportedly a starter and Morneau just missed out at first.
We’ll find out if Nathan and Morneau make it as reserves tomorrow afternoon.
What a great game tonight too. 11 over .500 and our seventh straight series win…
JP is back! Oh wait, you’re nowhere near relevant enough for anyone to give a sh*t about.
6-0 Tribe Sunday afternoon. Homers…back to reality.
Angry Vet says:
July 5th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
“Peace!”
Peace indeed, Sir!
And our thanks to you and your buddies for that!
God bless all of you.
AV,
Likewise thanks so much for serving.
regarding the redsox, the Twins South blew through them. (Bartlett,Garza, Balfour)
hahaha good one erik. i hope your mommy finally makes some time for you so you don’t feel so neglected. and even if you’re right and they lose, they took two out of three from a division rival. thats a good series.
Go Twins!!!!
Regarding the Twins’ record. Eleven over is great, but remember after tomorrow, they will have played 50 home games and only 38 on the road. If they can hold their own on the road and continue to shine in the dome, things will be exciting this September.
Chicago hasn’t been great on the road, either. It seems like they’ve been home for a month, but their homestand ends tomorrow. BTW, the Whities face Harden tomorrow, so maybe both teams lose.
Tomorrow should be a good game. Maybe the boys can make Lee throw enough pitches early & beat up on the bullpen.
god bless you “ERIK” just remember god loves you!!!!!!
I hope like heck that Mauer, that the Twins have their A game line up in tomorrow.
The one thing that has driven me crazy about Gardy over the years (and believe it or not, it’s one of only a very few things because I really like the guy) is how he seems to just throw away Thursday and Sunday games by putting all the bench players in at once. I would like to see him mix it up more, or just have Redmond be a personal catcher to a certain pitcher so that Mauer’s guarenteed a day off once a week, but not always on Sunday… it’s almost as annoying as how the Twins seemed to have Johan Santana pitch every freaking Thursday, and those games were never televised…
Going up against Cliff Lee, 1 game behind the White Sox, and the all star break in 10 days or so… play the best players against the best pitcher in the American League…
where did the rest of that sentence go? lol.
I hope like heck that Mauer, Morneau, Kubel, and crew are in the game tomorrow. And that the Twins ahve their A game lineup in.
That’s how it was supposed to read.
I thought that Kubel would start one of the two games vs. leftie against the Tribe. I’m guessing that the only change he makes is that Mauer is out and Redmond is in. Span did a good job in right again and reached base three times, so maybe he is okay against lefties.
Most likely no Mauer, no Kubel and more Punto tomorrow. Something like -
Gomez
Casilla
Redmond
Morneau
Monroe
Young
Harris
Punto
Span
Hopefully Redmond makes me look bad, and has a great game today? Mauer should be the man when you are in a division game for a sweep… let him take Monday off.
The first priority of a hitting coach is to IMPROVE the hitters he coaches.
After a miserable start in April-May, when most of the blog “experts” were calling for Vavra’s job and his head, the Twins hitters are now near the top of MLB.
For the last 30 days the Twins hitters are hitting:
OBP .354 Tied for 2nd in MLB
BA .297 2nd in MLB
Runs 353 3rd in MLB
That, despite having only two proven MLB hitters (M&M) in the batting order.
The case for firing Vavra was often lynch-pinned on the premise that bad results indicated bad coaching. If that premise is valid (and its not), then good results must indicate good coaching. However, IMPROVED results probably does indicate good coaching.
And can anyone deny that that the offensive results have improved?
And the above stats for the last 30 days certainly indicate that the offensive results have improved.
Question:
When will all the “experts” man-up and apologize to Vavra for their lack of whatever?
Answer:
Never!
You can’t man-up unless you qualify!
BC,
My 10:23 post was not aimed at you.
Its a coincidence that my post follows yours.
I respect the fact that you care about the Twins. (as do I)
I was calling out the many, many Vavra-bashers of April-May, mainly because I was over-worked trying to defend him.
