Twins-Rays: Mini-update madness
Posted on April 27th, 2009 – 10:20 PMBy La Velle
Joe Mauer was 1 for 2 with two walks and caught seven innings on Monday for Class A Fort Myers. He’ll catch again on Tuesday, DH Wednesday and should join the Twins on Friday.
Scott Baker fell to 0-3 but will take a run in which he retired 10 straight Rays into his next start. Baker finally found the adjustment he was looking for and kept the ball down better. “For the most part, I was where I needed to be,” he said. “They were able to string some hits together.”
Baker didn’t give up a homer tonight after giving up seven in his first two starts.
Jose Morales was charged with two passed balls on Monday, which might have moved him into the major league lead (late games are still going on). One of the passed balls came during a pitchout. Never seen that before….
Jesse Crain said he feels good but wasn’t sure when he’ll throw in the bullpen as he works his way back from a sore shoulder.
Finally, Baker was squeezed on a two-strike pitch to Evan Longoria in the first. Longoria rifled the next pitch down the left field line that looked like it could have been foul but was ruled fair for a double. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire ran out to protest, but third base umpire Paul Emmel told him he was, “100 percent sure.” It was fair. Gardenhire couldn’t argue with 100 percent….
79 Responses to "Twins-Rays: Mini-update madness"
*sigh*
He was 100% wrong. That ball was slightly foul. I don’t blame him for missing it, but he missed it.
I’ 100% sure that the ump needs bifocals.
Thanks for the Crain update, La Velle.
What if Morales is a mini-Puckett in the making? He does have a Rod Carew type swing.
At the least, he’s a Brian Harper in the making, but will give a lot more high-performing years than Harper did.
He used to be a second baseman. Could he at least be an average MLB fielder at 2B?
He’s a keeper at the plate.
[…] Twins Insider – […]
romer
I can’t answer your question with any personal knowledge, but I would think the Twins would have kept him at second if they thought he was any good since they don’t have much depth at that position.
“Didn’t give up a homer tonight.” What about the moonshot that Carlos Pena hit?
Nevermind, guess that was Dickey.
shane,
Baker didn’t give a home run.
LEN3 didn’t say anything about the bullpen. Dickey gave up a HR to Bartlett and Morillo gave up Pena’s blast.
With Baker and Lirano starting 0-7,we are not in that bad of shape.Nobody is going to run away and hid in our division.It would help to have a big May with Mauer coming back.The lack of a right-handed power source,so far at least,is problematic!
Dickey’s role is wavering between “mop up” and officially “put the game out of reach.”
I prefer the role “Mariner RP.”
On the (not very) bright side, my predictions were right on: Baker lowered his ERA and gave up fewer HRs.
I think Mauer should be back up today. I’ll take a “rusty” Joe Mauer for seven innings over every other option we have. He’s getting at least a hit and a walk every game…
Regardless if Baker looked “better”, he left way too many fastballs up in the zone. It helped him get some K’s yesterday because he seemed to have couple extra mph’s on the sucker at will. Which is cool everyone knows I love the K’s but if that were the redsox or tigers they might have caught up with those. KEEP IT DOWN SCOTTY
Jeers to FSN for not broadcasting the game in HD despite the schedule saying it would be!
FSN thought watching that debacle in HD would be cruel and unusual punishment
100% sure…..LOL. what about when the home ump was 100% sure on a check swing to Casilla (he didn’t go) or a couple pitches to Morneau in big spots? That one was 5 inches off the plate I yelled at my TV, immediately after Dick Bremer says: that pitch had to be 6 inches off the plate. The umps have been squeezing us hard the last couple games. what is it with the umps against us? or is it just a coincidence?
yes the umps are causing our pitchers to throw gopher balls, causing Magic Man,Casilla,Crede,GOGO all to hit around .200
no excuses Twins need to play better bottom line
Bremer’s been going on and on about bad calls like there’s some kind of umpire conspiracy.
Conspiracy or not the Twins need to score more than 1 run to win a game.
I had to quit watching on mlb.com because the audio was a couple seconds earlier than the picture. I switched over to the Rays broadcast and there the audio was behind the picture. Good job mlb.com!
So far, Smith has failed to fill any holes. Young and Gomez stink on O, as does Crede. The bullpen moves have not worked.
The carry over guys are playing like they did before, meaning he either misjudged players (Punto, Casilla, Cuddeyer) or can only make so many changes at once (realistically).
He certainly deserves 1 more year, but at some point, he has to actually be right about one of these major moves…
Bremer also commented several times early last night about how it’s a game of inches and the breaks were not going the Twins’ way…
That was true, but baseball is also a game of feet. And it would be nice to see some of these hitters go 400 feet from time to time.
The slider to Longoria was a strike, the double down the line was foul, Cuddyer didn’t get back to the wall quick enough on Pena’s shot he misplayed. A tough first inning for Baker.
I also share in some frustrations with FS North (or frustrations in general, again)…
–Pulling the plug on HD at the last minute was a buzz kill
–Twins TV used an old trick from the Rondell White era when Ron Coomer, just prior to Cuddy’s first AB, assured viewers that Cuddy and Crede were knocking the cover off the ball in batting practice.
The FSN broadcast was in HD on Directv
really Shawn???
My wife actually called Comcast and they said FS North pulled it at the last minute. Directv here we come, lol
On the HD issue:
I’ve read countless times that there is no economic benefit to broadcasters to offer the games in HD. It simply adds cost.
My question is “since when have broadcasters failed to take advantage of a chance to sell a sponsorship?” How hard can it be for the front office marketing wizards to go to some company to pony up the differential in costs in exchange for an on-screen and audio sponsorship?
“This broadcast, and the entire Twins’ season broadcast is brought to you by Best Buy. To enjoy it visit your nearest Best Buy for the best HDTV’s that exist.” Further they could flash one of those ghost logos periodically somewhere on the screen…a BB logo with HD provided by Best Buy.”
This isn’t hard. Hell, on NBC broadcasts of Notre Dame football they have the announcer promo the “Xerox Scoreboard” Sheesh.
I have DirecTV and the game in the Twin Cities was most certainly not in HD. Black box surrounded the screen.
I had to quit watching on mlb.com because the audio was a couple seconds earlier than the picture. I switched over to the Rays broadcast and there the audio was behind the picture. Good job mlb.com!
about the 3 inning when they were showing pictures of Target Field construction and Bert was talking about something else, I figured that they were showing the Rays’ broadcast video with the Twins’ TV audio, thus the lag. Switching at the Rays’ broadcast cleared it.
Can still be in HD even with a black box. HD has to do with the broadcast quality, not the dimensions of the picture.
Clearly the channel 29 shots are not in HD….at least not from centerfield.
It was not in HD on DirecTV. I can tell the difference. The picture quality, comparatively, was as if someone spilled water on the camera lens. One thing I do wonder, though is if, through MLB package on DTV someone outside the market area could get the Rays’ feed or through the Sports package if they could pick it up on whatever regional sports net they are on. Would that be in HD or is it governed by the setup at the home site?
If Emmel had another eye, he’d be a cyclopes.
Got it Done Award — Jacoby Ellsbury
11:20 AM04.27 Posted By: Andrew Perloff SHARE COMMENTS (4)
The Red Sox’s Jacoby Ellsbury wins this week’s Got It Done Award for stealing home agains the Yankees. What a weekend for Boston and its exciting outfielder.
But don’t worry we got Gomez and not Ellsbury and not Lester and or Masterson.
That Red Sox deal is looking better all the time. They could have had Ellsbury, Lester, Masterson, Crisp, Lowrie, Pedroia, Youkilis, Big Papi, and Wade Boggs.
I think Yaz was in the deal at one time but we already had too many lefthanded bats.
“They could have had Ellsbury, Lester, Masterson, Crisp, Lowrie, Pedroia, Youkilis, Big Papi, and Wade Boggs.’
The Twins could have shrunk Red Sox Nation down to Red Sox County.
That’s how much the Red Sox were really interested in Santana.
Really.
Why is Cuddyer getting all of this playing time? He’s horibble. Gomez or Span would have caught that ball in the 1st inning. Why does Gardy like him so much? I’m really starting to turn on the Twins. They have done nothing to improve this team. They cant pay the money to keep thier good players. but the have no problem drasticly over paying for the crappy players (cuddyer,punto)
Get over it, Cuddy is my rightfielder this year and next year no matter how he hits! Did you see how he got after that ball off the face, heck of an effort.
“Did you see how he got after that ball off the face”
The Baggy getting bumped by the Bag of….!
I have an antenna and only watch games when I have a sunday afternoon off
Or I listen to 1500
So stop your complainin’!
It pays to be reminded that Gardenhire is from Oklahoma. And he runs the Twins just like the Good Ol’ Boy he is.
With everyone on the topic of FSN North, I still absolutely hate their CF camera shot. I am forced to watch games on the computer on MLB.TV and it looks like I’m watching the game through a telescope backwards. Even on regular television, it’s so hard to get the height and width of the strike zone from that angle. I really hope they don’t use the same camera angle at the new park.
My hunch is that Gardenhire pushed the FO hard to extend Cuddyer and Punto. That’s how they ended up with contracts way over market demand. (With Punto they didn’t even wait to see what the market demand was.) Now Gardenhire is under pressure for them to contribute and that can only happen if he plays them regularly.
Is this the second or third year of Cuddyer’s deal?
Is this the second or third year of Cuddyer’s deal?
It’s the second year of a three year deal, with a 2011 option.
Y’know, in the time it took you to type up your question, you could have went to Cot’s and found the answer yourself.
Is this the second or third year of Cuddyer’s deal?
Feels like the fifth or sixth year, doesn’t it?
What is “Cot’s”?
Try googling “Cot’s.”
Or if you want to be more specific, try “Cot’s Baseball Contracts”.
The Strib blogs would feature better conversation if:
1. all posters were required to register, and
2. all posters were required to put “Baseball Reference,” “Cot’s,” and “Baseball Cube” into their ‘favorites’ folder.
I had the broadcast in HD on Directv, but i don’t live in the local market, not sure if it was a factor. I also only saw the last few innings in case they changed over. Had to watch little league first….ugh
Chief,
“The Strib blogs would feature better conversation if:
1. all posters were required to register, and
2. all posters were required to put “Baseball Reference,” “Cot’s,” and “Baseball Cube” into their ‘favorites’ folder.” and
3. all posters were required to pass a sobriety test, and
4. all posters were required to resolve their anger management issues.
If everybody had to pass a sobriety test there’d be nobody to talk to.
Agreed on the sobriety test. I like my beer too much
Does anyone else think that it would be entertaining to see a blog family picture?
Ben W,
“If everybody had to pass a sobriety test there’d be nobody to talk to.”
That requirement is not to ban any posters.
Rather, we could have their blood alcohol level posted WITH their comments, before we choose to waste our “precious” time reading gibberish.
Also, we could all find out at what blood alcohol level, each of us is at our MOST eloquent.
Rather, we could have their blood alcohol level posted WITH their comments, before we choose to waste our “precious” time reading gibberish.
Some people may choose to read ONLY those comments. It’s like American Idol; the auditions are 200% better than the actual competition. 
*hic*
Walter Johnson: Blog Killer
WJ,
“Walter Johnson: Blog Killer”
The Coroner has not pronounced it, yet.
The game was in “HD” on MLB.TV last night.
Been working well for me lately.
sane I wonder if the Swine Flu will affect baseball from being played in certain areas of the US.
maybe like in Mexico - soccer games were played just nobody in the stands. Put Dick & Bert in bio-hazard suits and broadcast the game to fans at home.
Maybe instead they would have Coomer and Lapanta do the broadcast. I don’t know if we could take a chance on losing our MVP announcer Dick. They could just have Vin Scully announce the games for the teams that may be affected. Vin Scully is a 100 year old robot that can not be stopped.
I live in Duluth with Charter. FSN HD is ch. 792, programming guide listed the game, but it wasn’t there. Tonight’s is also suppose to be in HD. The picture quality in standard definition of FSN blows on any TV.
thanks for the reference links, USAF
The game last night was a change due to the something outside of FSN’s control…. and it was NOT on HD at all for the Twins side, it was for Tampa, so maybe that is what Shawn was watching on Direct TV…. Tonight’s is slated to be HD as of last night
Can Morales play 3B?
La Velle, did you notice that Cuddyer has his eyes closed in that picture next to today’s game story?
Can Cudaver play 3B?
Ben W.
I laughed when I saw that picture in the paper over coffee this morning. The eyes closed, head a bit off the ball…it reminded me of the old days at the local ball field and poor Jimmy Moriarty always got picked last and put in…you guessed it…right field. He kind of looked like that picture of Cuddaverie this a.m.
Can Morales play catcher?
LMS,
I had the Twins broadcast on MLB.TV and it was HD, as compared to the weekend games in Cleveland which were in SD for the Twins.
Can Punto play catcher?
jimmy bee says:
April 28th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
“Maybe instead they would have Coomer and Lapanta do the broadcast.”
Hey jimmy, don’t you think it could get a little too “squirrely” with Lapanta?
Craig Lays One Down Hey jimmy, don’t you think it could get a little too “squirrely” with Lapanta?
Possibly, but Coomer could chase it down like a short hopper and eat it.
Hey, that’s not a squirrel. It’s a Davey Crockett coonskin hat.
What would you call LaPanta having a bad (hair/animal)day?
