Twins-Indians pregame
Posted on August 15th, 2009 – 1:50 PMBy La Velle
Justin Morneau needed a DH day today, so Michael Cuddyer is at first with Denard Span in right.
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said matchups and who’s playing well will determine who starts at second between Alexi Casilla and Nick Punto. Casilla is starting at second again today.
Gardenhire thinks Orlando Cabrera’s presence has helped settle Casilla down. Casilla was 2-for-4 yesterday and made a couple nice plays in the field.
Punto has been pressing. And he’s failed to get a bunt down in a couple key situations lately.
Nick Blackburn is fired up to pitch Sunday after discovering a flaw in his delivery and working on it during bullpen sessions this week.
Lefthander Glen Perkins will head to Fort Myers, Fla on Sunday to begin a rehab assignment. Perkins hasn’t thrown a baseball since Aug. 8.
Jerry White had the line of the year the clubhouse today. The MLB network aired a replay of the Dodgers-Expos playoff game in 1981, in which he started in. As players looked on, Carlos Gomez kept asking White, “did you do anything in this game?”
Finally White said: “I hit the cutoff man! That’s one thing I know for sure!”
The clubhouse roared with laughter. Gomez couldn’t say anything else.
Lineups
Cleveland (49-66)
1. Grady Sizemore, CF
2. Jamey Carroll, RF
3. Asdrubal Cabrera, SS
4. Shin-Soo Choo, LF
5. Jhonny Peralta, 3B
6. Travis Hafner, DH
7. Luis Valbuena, 2B
8. Wyatt Toregas, C
9. Chris Gimenez, 1B
Pitching: David Huff, LHP
Twins (56-59)
1. Denard Span, RF
2. Orlando Cabrera, SS
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, DH
5. Michael Cuddyer, 1B
6. Joe Crede, 3B
7. Delmon Young, LF
8. Carlos Gomez, CF
9. Alexi Casilla, 2B
Pitching: Antony Swarzak, RHP
134 Responses to "Twins-Indians pregame"
Great line by Jerry White, and I hope GoGo takes it to heart. Go Twins!!!
Twins should win if Swarzak pitches OK.
Just look at that skeletal Indians lineup.
yes, and if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle.
And if Bull$hit were money we would all be millionaires. 
“Nick Blackburn is fired up to pitch Sunday after discovering a flaw in his delivery and working on it during bullpen sessions this week.”
Best news I’ve heard all week.
The operative word is “should”.
And if brains were gasoline we couldn’t power an ant’s motorcycle around the outside of a penny… 
Agree, T, and if brains were dynamite, some of us would not have enough to be able to blow our noses.
And if I had female genitals instead of male, I could get all the sex I wanted.
pretty good line up..nice to see gomez back in there, and casilla starting a couple in a row. wouldn’t mind seeing kubel in left after delmon’s performance yesterday, but gardy is pretty stubborn with the lefty vs lefty stuff
But don’w worry…..I have no such secret desires.
romer, If I had female genitalia, I would still be ugly.
Too far
Wow. This is not the conversation I expected to see when I logged on here.
Gomez simply should have replied and asked White if he pulled his pants up to his chest like he does today!
romer, If I had female genitalia, I would still be ugly.
I’d argue moreso…
Cuddy’s going to get his 20th HR this afternoon. I just got this feeling.
Twins will have at least 5 guys with 20 and at least two with 30 by the end of the year.
Kind of interesting that with the Indians literally having nothing to play for this last month and a half, they havent called back up Matt LaPorta from Columbus. Are they dumb and blind?
He is a stud prospect (got him from the Brewers in last yrs Sabathia deal) hitting over .300 and just hit 2 hr’s last night. But I guess they want to see more of Gimenez…yawn.
Right, TwinIves.
So, back to reality.
Cuddy’s 20th, huh?
Hope so. Hope Delmon shows some keenness today…….and that Go-Go can follow in Casilla’s footsteps of last night.
I’d be happy if the Twins had one guy with 35 HR. They have not done that since 1971!
That is pretty hard to believe, but it’s true. Harmon Freakin’ Killebrew was the last Twin to top 35 home runs.
Gardy is not stubburn when it comes to kubel playing against leftys. The reason Kubel is not playing today is he is hitting .210 against leftys. Kubel is the new age Jacque Jones in that he kills rightys but cant hit leftys. That is why he is not playing today not some conspiracy theory about gardy
GoGo het de cutoff man ‘day?
Be happy, Icon……..they’re gonna have 5 guys with 20 HR’s and MVP will be close to 35.
Probably 130 HR’s from 5 guys.
still haven’t seen enough of delmon young i guess…
Speaking of MVP, I have a feeling that we’re going to need a new nickname for Morneau. Because he soon won’t be this team’s only MVP.
I haven’t heard much talk about this, but (barring a major slump) I don’t see how Joe Mauer could fail to win the AL MVP this year. I mean, has anyone in the past 70 years or so hit .375 with 20+ home runs and not won the MVP?
My feelings, exactly, Icon. Many talk about Justin for MVP, and rightfully so, but Joe is also having an MVP year. This could get interesting.
Better question: has anyone since WWII even hit .375 with 20+ homers at all?
I know George Brett and Rod Carew both hit near .390, but I don’t think they had Mauer’s power numbers.
Ted Willliams would have been the only one close, that I can think of.
Williams hit .388 with 38 HR’s in 1957, and came in second for the MVP.
He turned 39 during that season.
Wow. Who came in first that year?
He should have been, but the New Yawk media failed him.
Mantle.
Of course Mantle had some stolen bases to none for Williams. And Williams couldn’t have been much on defense either.
Anyone have the link to watch the game online?
I am guessing that Mickey Mantle did not hit .388 that year though.
The Onion came out with a 20th Century history book, and I remember that one of their entries from the 1950’s talked about how Mickey Mantle was leading the race to be the first player ever with a .400 blood alcohol level.
He had his times, Icon, but was still one hell of ballplayer.
Indians looking like the day-game Twins so far.
Swarzak looks ready.
Mantle could out-booze Williams, but I hear it was close. What do you guys remember, romer and DrDon?
I have no inside dope (inside booze?) on Williams.
Me either.
Cuddy oughta be able to slap a single here.
Minnesota little leaguers > Michael Cuddyer.
How the tide turns……
Hmm. We are picking up where we left off on Thursday.
Three feet to far.
Poor Swarzy…….he didn’t need that Dome single.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Ron Gardenhire is the worst actor in the entire long history of radio commercials.
Mauer should win MVP, but because the Twins will finish so far out, he’ll likely lose out to a contender. 
Cleveland doing their best to give the Twins a W.
Two innings - 5 LOB.
Not true, Rob.
The Twins are a contender. Even if they ultimately don’t make the playoffs, being 5 games out of first in late August makes them a contender by definition.
That aside, I think that Mauer’s year is so much better than any other player that he has to be the front runner, regardless of where the Twins finish in the standings.
Anyway, who would win it if Mauer doesn’t? Ichiro has a good average, but he isn’t a strong candidate. Mark Teixeira has some power, but he shouldn’t be a leading candidate. I can’t think of anyone else…
I get the feeling Twins are going get zero runs on 15 hits.
If Rays make a push, Longoria will get some run. And I usually can’t trust that East Coast media. I think Mauer is the best player in the AL, but I just think it’ll be hard to win the MVP with the Twins winning between 75-80 games.
Couple of MVP essays today that are in Mauer’s corner:
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sweetspot/0-4-175/Has-Tex-locked-up-MVP-already-.html
I would guess if the Yankees stay on a roll that Teixeira will win the MVP award.
Not sure he should, but the baseball writers feel like nature is in order when the Yankees are good.
Robin Yount won the MVP in 1989, when the Brewers were 81-81 (4th place).
Larry Walker won in 1997, when the Rockies were a measly 83-79.
Anyway, there’s still a good chance the Twins will finish with around 85 wins, and they might even win teh division. I’m betting on Mauer for MVP.
Good post to links by FranTheMan. Thanks, Fran.
Anyway, I don’t buy so much into the “East Coast Media” argument, at least as it pertains to the MVP award. The only Yankee who has won it in the last 20 years is A-Rod (twice). And I’m sure he won’t get it this year.
So there’s no evidence that the MVP voters favor Yankees.
In 1977– the Twins finished fourth at 84-77 and Carew won the MVP–with his monster season. I think Mauer and Morneau will hinder each other’s chances and pull votes from each other.
Holy crap. Mauer is a machine!
You have a point, Rick. So who do you think will win it?
Cuddyer you are ridiculous when it comes to runners on base. Just terrible!
What is your problem, Cuddyer?
What is your problem, Crede!?
Cuddy can’t hit for anything with RISP.
Another reason why the Twins don’t have what it takes to overcome the opposition in the division. While they are busy losing more at home than they are winning against Cleveland and KC, the White Sox are busy winning more than they are losing on the road.
Nick34, his number are horrible with RISP, but they are even worse when there are runners on regardless of base.
Okay, I’m not going to comment again until I have something positive to say. I hope it won’t be long…
Icon- if Mauer finishes at .380 with 30 HR and 90-100 RBI– it would be hard to see him not to get it–especially if the Twins climb back into first. Justin will have to get real hot to be considered and Joe would probably have to taper off. Right now Justin is in with a bunch of others with similar stats and value to their team.
The sad part is, Kubel is not batting in place of Cuddyer. Last time they faced him they lit him up and Kubel was 2 for 3 off him with a homer while Cuddyer was not in the lineup. So of course today of all days, Gardenhire insists that Morneau needs to DH. All just so he can make sure his Cudddyer remains in the lineup.
That is one tough LD catch by DY.
Okay. That half inning was positive.
I see Morneau finishing about 5th in the MVP balloting. His RBI total will keep him in contention, but he isn’t a front runner at this point.
I really don’t see how Mauer could fail to finish in the top three.
As everyone figured he would be after not playing for a week, Gomez looks extremely rusty at the plate.
Get Swarzak out, he looks terrible today!
Interesting. I think I might have left Swarzak in, at least for the fifth. He’s only at 78 pitches adn he’s only given up 3 runs. With a pop out and a double play he still had a chance to get out of the inning without any runs and a chance to save the bullpen an inning or two.
But we’ll see what happens.
Swarzak is over his head and needs to be sent to AAA, but who would replace him?
Can somebody give these guys some pep pills? They look dead.
Nick34, how about at least giving Manship a try? He is not doing anybody any good just rotting away on the bench.
Bert, you realize how ridiculous you sound by constantly ripping on the Indians throughout this entire broadcast so far? Someone told you that you are broadcasting a national game for Fox and you aren’t doing this game with Bremer, right? Not only that, it makes him look even more naive in the face that the Indians are handing it to the Twins right now.
Swarzak has looked terrible his last few starts.
Talk about a team with multiple personality disorder.
Here we go another pitching meltdown. The only consistent thing this team does. LOL
At what point does Gardenhire’s job officially become on the line? Are we not past that point yet? Oh sorry, I forgot we are talking about Minnesota, where nobody ever gets fired. Just ask Rick Stelmaszek.
So firing Gardy will make the pitchers pitch better?
Nora, this is professional sports. Somebody needs to be held accountable. In baseball, whether you like it or not, it is the manager. This team has no fire. It should come down to getting rid of Gardenhire, plain and simple.
Team RISP: Clev 4-7; Minn 0-6..Sound familiar!
This is what I want to hear from Mr. Pohlad:
“Mr. Gardenhire, Mr. Smith, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Vavra, Mr. Ulger, you are all fired. Please advise all of your staff to not make any permanent changes to their offices.”
It is not just the pitching meltdown. Unfortunately it was pretty clear in the 1st inning what would happen when the heart of the order left the bases loaded.
Part of the problem is Gardenhire’s man-crush on Cuddyer. While Cuddyer is having a good season, he has looked terrible with RISP. Perhaps he should sit for a few days or be moved down in the line-up.
This team looks lethargic today.
packh8ter, unfortunately as bad as we want that to happen it never will because we all know that would consist of Pohlad having to pay them as well as a new manager and coaches and as cheap as he is, that is not going to happen.
jjbiowa, I agree. Another reason why he should be gone. We need somebody in the managerial position who is not influenced by his man crushes when it comes to playing time.
yee-ha
Good for Justin — and thank you, O-Cab for hustling.
Cuddy: Another chance to do something you hack!
Does anyone other than Gardy have confidence in Duensing? For crying out loud, it has gotten to the point of being absurd and almost in a comical way. This bullpen that BS has built has been a major disappointment. Of course you all know that.
Cuddyer coming through with a RISP.
Your turn Crede.
I think Gardy has been bad this year. But he has earned a little bit of a longer leash. Say what you want about him, but he has had a nice run so far.
Cuddyer coming through with a RISP.
Good things happen when you don’t swing at the first pitch.
RyanW, how do you figure? How many consecutive years in a row is acceptable for a guy to miss the playoffs until it is enough for you?
Delmon, keep this going.
Dy is due for blast…Please!
morneau must be melting down, what the hell is he doing by not playing 1b today….thats not how leaders act…im betting jeter and ARod are not acking for dh days–this is a young team and mauer can lead it if he needs to but it would be nice if morneau(mr mvp)would do his part
mj1, I would bet that he didn’t ask for the day at DH, rather Gardenhire just put him there.
u may be rite, but i highly doubt it…
That will happen when you don’t play in a week.
Well off to a wedding I go, but I guess it doesn’t appear as though I will miss much.
Ben he has won 4 division titles since 02. His worst finish is 3rd place.
That is pretty solid.
So Gardy is actually going to try and win today and decides to keep Swarzak on a short leash and yank him as soon as he looks like he isn’t going to be able to keep the score down, AND HE REPLACES HIM WITH DUENSING, who you know will be just as bad, and looks just as bad as soon as he puts him in there and he puts him right out there for another inning to give the runs they just scored right back. ???????? Somebody please explain this to me.
Here’s the deal. I heard before the game that left handed hitters are batting .327 against David Huff. Why isn’t Kubel playing, he is hot right now and should be in the lineup everyday. Cuddyer is a 6th or 7th place hitter at best. The lineup is much better when Kubel is 5th and Cuddyer is 6th. I don’t really care if Delmon hits a homerun once in awhile, he should be on the bench, he is a singles hitter. Gardenhire has had a terrible year. It is said that one run won games tell what kind of job the manager is doing. How often do we win a one run game? This is the most inconsistant Twins team I’ve seen in a long time. I’m tired of hearing blame on Punto etc. The manager has been terrible, the pitching has been terrible and at times the hitting is terrible. A week ago we scored 11 runs one day and 1 run the next two and lost two out of three. Please stick with an everyday lineup that includes Kubel………
Well Justin,
If your starter is bad that day, you pull him and put in your long reliever (in this case Duensing). If Duensing is bad, then you put in Manship. If Manship is bad, then you are probably in a spot where the game has been decided.
But leaving your starter out there to give up god-knows-how-many-runs is not a good strategy.
Well RyanW,
As I note in my post, I agree with the decision to pull Swarzak. I disagree with the decision to put in Duensing. He’s bad and I don’t want to see him. I haven’t seen Manship yet, I’d be ok with letting him blow the game since at least he hasn’t done it like 6 other times this month.
My sympathy to y’all.
Barring a comeback here today, it looks like the rest of this year will either be about nostalgia or about bitching.
Don’t care for either one really.
The Twins have to find a good 5th pitcher, and Blackburn has to find himself. Otherwise, it’s pretty futile.
For those of you who think the Twins might get to 85 wins …. really? They haven’t been more than 3 over .500 all year and haven’t won more than 4 in a row all year. Let’s be honest. This team will be lucky to win 80. Mauer will have to have overwhelming numbers to win MVP. He might do it, but he’ll have to win it by a landslide, because he’ll lose every close call.
dick stockton makes a good point… instead of whining about how much this team sucks, we should just enjoy watching Joe Mauer play everyday. the dude is downright amazing.
BLIP
Hmm… wonder if some runs in the first or second would have changed the outcome of this game.
I have come to the conclusion thst the sooner we are out of the race the sooner Twins can begin to start thinking about rebuilding this team to ce a winner next year. This team needs retooled not just tweaked. They should be getting rid of deadwood and selling vs bringing in players who will be leaving at the end of the year. Do you guys think Cabrera and Pavana will be back next year? I think a case could be made for both, but unless 6 or 7 roster spots are upgraded in the offseason we will not be a true contender to go beyond winning a weak divison and that will be hard if Peavy pitches to his ability next season. This is a team in disaray that is playing at the level of Cleveland and KC at the point in the season.
O Twin Fan, there’s nothing to rebuild except pitching.
morneau can go away as far as i am concerned…i would trade him away in a heart beat, while his stock is high and when it comes time to truly give up on this season, barring a miracle, i would seriously think about trading away the all-stars and starting over and building around mauer, cabrera, gomez and some others, but i would definately lose morneau, cuddy, nathan, punto, casilla, redmond, crede, crain, and other pitchers…we could accumulat some pretty good talent for the all-stars to fill some serious holes on our team…
I would get rid of Delmon, hopefully his contract is up. Crede won’t be back, he’s too banged up all of the time. We have a young 3B in the minors that will be up. If Cabrera doesn’t stay which he probably won’t, by the way, we are 4-10 since he’s joined the team, we have to spend some money and get a top notch shortstop that can hit. I would keep Pavano, a good 3 or 4 guy.
What happened to the small ball we use to play, nobody bunts much anymore. Anyway, we’ll make a few changes, a couple in the bullpen but it won’t be wholesale……..we won’t do that going into a new stadium………….. We need a couple of bats and probably three new pitchers in the bullpen. I’m just not sure they are going to give up yet on our young starters.
They don’t want to spend the money.
I think the east coast media will be inclined to vote Mauer for MVP this year simply for the fact that it could help drive up Mauers price too high for the Twins, forcing him to the east coast to play.
Twins can’t even beat the lowly Cleveland Indians. We have to play the rubber game now. AND the Tigs are winning, six back soon. We Twins better move soon are they can kiss playing in the World Series good bye.
But I think they will still do it.
Twins will go all the way.
“but i would definately lose morneau,”
This is the second time in two days someone has suggested trading Morneau. I don’t get this at all. There is no way the Twins receive equal value in return. They might get a prospect or two that might pan out, but they won’t get anyone who is close to Morneau’s level since no team would trade away such a player.
IMO, the only thing that will force Mauer to the east coast, or anywhere besides here, is if this team refuses to prove to him that they are willing to try and do more than be competitive in a mediocre division.
Any news on Gibson? I said it on a dead thread so I’ll bring it up again, and hopefully someone will correct me if I’m wrong. Did’nt the team sign Revere for less than slot when most figured that he was a second round player? IMO it only makes sense now to give a guy that was drafted lower than was expected because of injury a little more than slot.
Of course when using the Twins logic, only the deals that sway towards the cheap side of things makes sense.
Trading Morneau would be dumber than every other Bill Smith move COMBINED. And we build around Gomez? What winning team has ever had an offensively challenged CF as a major cornerstone?
Since I am of the belief that this franchise is heading down towards a lot of bad years(Mauer leaving after next year, a pathetic minor league system, an overrated skipper with essentially a lifetime contract, etc.) I would give some thought to trading Joe Nathan. He could possibly net quite a few strong prospects in return, and why have an elite closer when you aren’t going to have any meaningful games to close?
Okay now, what did I do on here that sends every comment I make through the awaiting moderation process. I’m not vulgar, and don’t call anyone names.
I don’t mind not being heard on certain writers blogs, but I do like LaVelle’s writing, and as far as I know I have’nt offended anyone on here(with any kind of personal attack).
You have my e-mail address, please let me know what the issue is.
‘This is the second time in two days someone has suggested trading Morneau. I don’t get this at all.’
Consider the sources.
Whoever suggests trading Morneau is an idiot. Stick a fork in this team though they are done for the season. You can’t lose series to KC and Cle and expect to be in the race for the playoffs. Management knows what they need to do to make this team a contender next year, hopefully they make an attempt too.
The Twins are a sad bunch, I feel bad for the likes of Span,Mauer,Kubel and Nathan they have a manager that has tunnel vision, I wish for once he would try something different, move your pitchers around, have a guy start when he’s not suppose to,that will reset his rotation, maybe that will change their luck,let kubel lead off with Span and Carbrera following and Mauer batting clean up change things up,because what he’s doing isn’t working
We hate to go to movies where the writer attempts to insult the intelligence of the viewer right ??
I think that this is what the Pohlad Sons do to some of you loyal Twins fans
The Pohlads goal is not a championship.
The goal of sports is to win the championship.
Poor Gardenheir. My guess is he is getting tired of the same old song and dance
“Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said matchups and who’s playing well will determine who starts at second between Alexi Casilla and Nick Punto. Casilla is starting at second again today.”
That’s like saying you are going to take the Ford to the moon instead of the Chevy because it gets better mileage.
Do not trade Morneau. He is the rock that makes this team go. Mauer is also very important, but to lose Morneau would put the Twins into last place for the next 10 years. Under no circumstances trade Morneau, Mauer, or Nathan. Over and out.
During this off-season, after Bill Smith, Gardnehire, and Rick Anderson are all fired, we should trade Cuddyer (can’t hit with RISP), and Kubel (can’t hit left-handed pitching worth spit). Considering their years, we can get some good talent for them.
