In praise of “Oof K. Onser”
Posted on April 29th, 2008 – 11:54 PMBy Howard
But first, a shout out to Delmon Young for the throw he made from the left-field wall to double off Nick Swisher at first base and end the eighth inning. You can have reflex diving stops by third basemen, lucky stabs by pitchers and web gems of that ilk. I’ll take the throw — 250 or so feet on the fly and right into the glove of second baseman Brendan Harris. For one thing, it kept Gardy from having to bring in Joe Nathan, well rested as he may be, to finish the eighth before going out for the ninth. (Or was Rincon warming up too?)
Second of all, I’m trying to imagine that play if Jason Tyner had been in left field. First off, the guy was a bit squeamish going toward the wall and, more importantly in this case, even if he’d made the catch Tyner would have needed a driver and a 7-iron to reach Harris.
That play rocked.
Now, back to Oof. That was a fine job, everything from the wrist-breaking curves that were locking up the White Sox batters and sending them back to the dugout shaking their heads and cursing their kin. I especially liked when he took down Swisher in the third inning and, um, adjusted himself in celebration. Talk about, “I don’t care what you think because you’re not hitting me tonight, boys” confidence. And maybe that’s what we got so many crowd shots from FSN as the game went on.
Seven innings, eight strikeouts, one mistake pitch that ended the shutout bid.
Oof was 70 percent strikes, 98 percent solid and reminded me of the pitcher that he was when he closed out 2006 with 10 or so important and clutch starts. The ‘08 Twins need more of that.
And he fielded his position with a couple of plays that Ms. Baseball rightfully deemed Santana-like. Whether the 425-pound Boof of old (like 2007) would have made those plays doesn’t matter because the slimmed-down Oof K. Onser made ‘em and made ‘em with style.
Gotta ask one favor, though. Can someone do something about Oof’s hair? That’s just not a good look — and the Tuesday night hair trifecta of Oof, Anthony Lapanta and Roy Smalley was enough to get me to the barber shop today. I don’t want to be in that picture.
Day game today. You all can leave work at noon.
other people are here too
38 Responses to "In praise of “Oof K. Onser”"
Gomez’s growing his hair out right now as well. Maybe it’s a rally thing…
Hey.
I enjoy baseball players with hockey hair.
Oofs hair is so flow-y and feathered…
Sighs.
Such a heartbreaker that kiddo.
Haha
Howard, speaking of wild hairdoo’s how about a picture of you when you were working at the Grand Forks Herald. That was not a good look.
Dick,
That was many, many years ago. I believe I was younger at the time than Gogomez is today. In other words, like, do we really hafta go there? 
Since when did Nick Swisher change his name to Steve????
And Boof has always “adjusted” himself after pretty much every pitch - the camera people “adjust” the shot to be from the waist up as the game goes on…
And I too wish he would just cut the hair already….
The little woman must like it like that!
Krissy,
Steve is Nick’s Daddy. Played for the Cubs back in the day. Didn’t have bad hair, from what I can remember. Been fixed. As for Boof, I guess I hadn’t really noticed that before. I guess his pitching has made me turn away from the screen for most of the past year. Thanks for sharing.
Nothing like seeing the boys clip the sux from down here. Hopefully we can make it twice in 24 hours.
Lets go Nicky B.
Good call on the Young play, Howard….play of the game for sure!
That was a promising start for Ooof, but as usual, Dick Bremer was already putting him into the Hall of Fame during the game last night. Let’s see more…the starting rotation is beginning to show signs of inconsistency, and Boof has been shaky up until yesterday, so let’s take it one game at a time, shall we…
A couple other thoughts which piggyback some of our discussion yesterday…
Great to see Kubel go deep…his first homerun since April 11, and it was huge. I will point out, however, that the Big Hurt was 3-for-3 on Tues. and was a HR away from the cycle…just FYI there…
And even though Joe Mauer finally broke out with an extra-base hit, I will stand by the fact that this lineup will continue to sputter if he is in the 3-hole…I just don’t think Harris and Gomez are established enough as MLB hitters to keep them both at the top of the lineup…
As for Punto, he managed to wow us with his 9th single of the year and yet another head-first dive into first…better get used to the feel of that pine, Matt Tolbert.
Yes, when Howard worked in GF, his hair always was on fire. Now he looks almost respectable.
Great job at the plate for Delmon, too. 2 for 2 (one at the right center mind you), a walk, a run and 2 stolen bases.
Boof looks like he gained some weight back from spring training. He looks more like ‘Beef’ than ‘Oof’. An the mullet in training definitely got to go, as Gomez’ mini ‘fro. Speaking of Gomez, he made a couple plays in the field that Mr Hunter would have let them bounce while his cleats were stuck in the wall…
I just hope that Gardy does not screw up with the lineup today and let this team build some momentum, but I think that it might be wishful thinking…
re: head drives. For a team that stresses the fundamentals supposedly, there are way to many with way too may bad results (see Cuddy out for 2+ weeks). Someone there should install a fining system for every head first dive on any base other than home plate when their is a potential play.
jason,
If Gomez, Harris and Mauer vacate the top of the lineup, what do you think makes sense in the 1-2-3 holes?
I think this would make sense:
Gomez
Mauer
Cuddyer
Morneau
Or, two alternatives:
Harris
Mauer
Cuddyer
Morneau
OR
Mauer
Harris
Cuddyer
Morneau
My point is, even as Harris is batting around .300 and Gomez has been awfully flashy at times, you shouldn’t have them both at the top of the lineup…plus, I’m sorry, Joe Mauer has not proven himself to be a No. 3 hitter in a major league lineup….but that’s just me.
I’ve thought for a long time that Justin Morneau needs to grow his hair out and have a BIG, NASTY BEARD. I think long hair would be very beneficial to Gomez. I propose the following:
Joe Mauer: Mega-long, bushy sideburns (we’re talking mega-chops here), huge hair, no beard/mustache. It’d be like a reverse goatee(sp?)
Justin Morneau: Nastiest beard possible.
Nick Punto: Should never groom himself and just see what happens.
Jason Kubel: On to something this year.
Pat Neshek: A nice beard wouldn’t hurt.
Seriously, wouldn’t a healthy dose of facial hair do a ton for this team’s intimidation-by-looking-insane factor? Wouldn’t it loosen them up? I think this needs to be brought up in a manager’s meeting.
Mauer is like impossible to put in a spot that works perfect for his skillset
but I think he and the team is better served with simeone who hits for some power at the three spot!!!
I would say against righty’s go 2.mauer
3.kubes 4.morneau
what do you guys think?
Is this the fashion section?
What celebrity fashion faux pas are we discussing now?
What did Kate and Jessica and Jennifer wear to the Academy Awards show?
GET A GRIP!!!
I would prefer that the Twins look like sh-t, instead of playing like sh-t.
Too many lefties in a row, shameless.
Howard, actually the relay throw from Young went to Punto not Harris. Great catch and an incredible throw. If Thome would have reached I think we would have seen Nathan come in to face Konerko in the 8th?
shameless,
Late in the game ONE LH relief pitcher will mow down Mauer, Kubel and Morneau.
Break them up, and you can make the opposing team use up their LHP on one batter.
Also, until he breaks out (if he ever does), Kubel is the worst #3 in MLB.
Although it would be nice to get Kubel some more at-bats.
agree with sid (for a change) on the fashion thing…definitely bordering on the nerdy…
Kubel would be another option at the 3-hole I would live with….and Mauer has to be 1 or 2, mind you…but you just can’t trot up two young, unproven hitters followed by a non-RBI guy…doesn’t make sense.
Oops, I forgot. Stats aren’t nerdy. So much my bad.
Haha…stats are nerdy for sure…but they are at least nerdy in the “baseball calculation sense”, in that it relates to the game itself and not something ancillary to the game…
I mean, if we really wanted to go nerdy on this bit we could discuss our favorite “between innings gimmick” at the Dome (Caution: this would throw off the vast knowledge of one Patrick Reusse, who claims that no one on these blogs is a paying customer)…
OK, so which is it…TC Bear shooting T-shirts into the crowd…Treasure Island Trivia….Dodge Ball (Old and stale boys–and we get it, Jim Cunningham, it’s not as easy as it looks)…Hormel Row of Fame…
What’s it going to be, guys? Let’s discuss…
And on that note, I’ll take what they have going on at U.S. Cellular any day of the week over our lame and old between inning gimmicks…anyone who’s been there knows exactly what I mean.
Kubel is rocking the ball. Have you ben watching, Sid? He’s had about 10 balls this year that were screamers that were caught. He’s a nice #5 hitter in front of Delmon, until Delmon can stop popping every pitch (that he makes contact with) up to second base or in the right field seats behind first base. Does Delmon have a slow swing? What’s up with that?
I’ve been hearing for two years about Kubel’s screamers that were caught. I want to start hearing more often about screamers that aren’t caught. I don’t believe in two years of bad luck. Kubel’s earned his spot in the everyday lineup and I think he’s heading for a decent year for run production, but contrary to most of what I see in the Blogosphere, he’s not the Second Coming Who’s Been Wronged. Oh, and by the way Kubes, feel free to go against Gardy’s swing-away philosophy and take a walk once in a while.
I totally concur with Average Joe. Enough of the “Kubel hits the ball hard right at people” garbage.
Boof pitched great amazing how getting ahead of hitters makes that curve more effective. Delmons throw was awesome i enjoyed that more than the Kubel HR. Cuddy had a good game as well and having him back in the lineup will help our offense but now we’ll probabley see less of Monroe. I think Boof just looks like he has more hair because his face is thinner but i do like the anti
Yankees look anyway.
I like the lineup that the Twins had to start the year with Cuddyer in the three hole. Although Cuddy is far from the ideal 3-hole hitter, Mauer really is an ideal two-hole guy I think.
Seems to me that the main reason that Cuddyer is hitting fifth - besides the fact that Harris is hitting the ball well and therefore deserves more ABs - is that Gardy wants to take pressure off of Delmon by sliding him into the seven spot.
I believe that the same “screamers right at people” line was used to defend Rondell White … dangerous territory there.
“agree with sid (for a change) on the fashion thing…definitely bordering on the nerdy…”
“Oops, I forgot. Stats aren’t nerdy. So much my bad.”
Sorry, Jason.
You had to know that agreeing with me would lead to no good.
Re: Jason’s “and Boof has been shaky up until yesterday”. Huh? Boof’s had 4 of 5 quality starts going into last nights game, then notched another one. It’s run support that gives him the cruddy W/L record (which is a terrible indicator of effectiveness), as in 6 games the offense has produced 10 runs for him. He should easily have a W/L of 4-2, at worst. He’s a kid, he’s adjusting, and he’s had a fantastic season so far.
sid, Jason:
Actually, the 2 of you agreeing is a beautiful moment in blogging history — even if we’re in different camps.
I’ll take what they have going on at U.S. Cellular any day of the week…
It surely isn’t the fireworks show after every homerun. Regardless of the score (”12-0 became 12-1? Fire off a round!”)
Anyone hear if Baker is going to be DL’d or not?
todd,
JoeC is reporting that he’ll start Saturday.
Baker is fine. As long as the team is indoors or in warm weather he is fine
Boof’s hair is outrageous.
And cool, in a mean way. (He looks like a surfer-thug.)
I was at my favorite dive last night, and saw Young’s throw there. LOTS of fun.
And hey folks, April is through and the Twins are a game ahead of Detroit and Cleveland, and handling Chicago pretty well.
And they’ve done it without essentially getting anything from their 5th stater (Liriano & Slowey).
It remains interesting.
Once again I say to check back after the end of play on May 12th, right after the Twins finish their 4-game series with Boston.
Oof can so pass as a Jonas Brother if he keeps his feathered hair going.
