Running in place is better than getting sucked up by the treadmill
Posted on September 1st, 2008 – 8:23 AMBy Howard
We expected better from the trips to Seattle and Oakland and, again, each of the losses were games that slipped away after they should have been W’s.
That being said, the Twins are still only a half-game out and could be tied by the end of the day if Cliff Lee handles the White Sox and raises his record to 20-2, which doesn’t seem at all far-fetched.
And that being said, the Twins need to put some payback on Toronto, which swept them in a painful three-game series at the Dome in May.
I’m thinking that Saturday night’s loss wasn’t indicative of very much. It felt like the clubhouse handled the situation pretty well — Nathan facing up to the facts that he wasn’t sharp (that happens) and the that he needed to make a better throw to third on the sacrifice bunt. Right idea, wrong execution. Watching the play, it seemed like a catchable throw for Brendan Harris, but he’s never going to be mistaken for a Gold Glover at third (or anyplace else in the infield).
The hardest part was watching Harris have a night when he grounded out weakly twice and then took two called third strikes. He was acutely aware of his suckitude, telling Joe C. that he had “left a small village on base” throughout the night. This is why it’s sometimes better not to blog until you’ve had a chance to sit and measure and count to 10. Harris knew he had a terrible night on Saturday and it wasn’t going to be a great revelation for me to pile on. Now, it’s going to be interesting to see what his role is now that the reinforcements from the minors have arrived and Brian Buscher smacked a couple of hits in Sunday’s win.
Right now, the season pretty much comes down to this: The Twins play 15 of their last 25 games against teams with losing records. The other 10 are against Toronto (barely over .500), Tampa Bay and Chicago. The White Sox have 12 of their final 26 against losing teams — and have three with the Angels this weekend and four at New York. I’m not sure how to measure the schedule and I’m not sure whether it’s all that important.
It’s pretty simple now: If the Twins don’t give away games and handle the White Sox, I’m pretty sure they’ll be playing baseball in October. Let’s take the day off and then bring on September.
Keep New Orleans in your thoughts.
22 Responses to "Running in place is better than getting sucked up by the treadmill"
Time to crank the treadmill up to the top speed!
Start Tolbert @ 3rd & let the track meet commence. 
The Twins 10 game trip to Baltimore, Tampa, and Cleveland really scares me.
Off the field, I hope Ron Washington and Randy Bush have their families in a safe spot along with the rest of the residents of the Gulf Coast.
How great is it that the Vikings haven’t overtaken the Twins on the relevancy factor on the week of the Opener…?
I have not a lot of faith in the WSox and as legit as all of the other contenders are in the AL, the Twins are as capable as any of them of getting on a hot stretch and realing off a streak that gets them in the playoffs and solid enought to win when they get there….
WIN TWINS!
We wouldn’t want the Twins to win all these games and run away from the BitchSox, would we? What would people have to complain about?
I’m actually looking forward to the Tampa Bay series. The Twins held their own at Anaheim and it should be interesting to see how they size up with the Rays.
Is suckitude a real word?
i think the white sox series at the end of the month in the dome will determine the division. these two teams will play like they’ve been playing and be close (no more than 1 game apart) going into that series. and the way the twins have been playing at the dome and the way they played the sox the last time in the dome, i think they’ll pull it off.
i’m also excited about the callups. i think a few have a legit shot at helping this team get to the playoffs. korecky will help in 6th and 7th inning situations when needed and i think jose mijares has a shot to be the dominant set up guy the twins need right now. terry ryan wouldn’t call up this kid (he’s only had 10 appearances since recovering from a car accidnet) unless he could help. i hear he has a blazing fastball from the left side, but i’m not sure about a secondary pitch.
johnrambo,
nope
The twins payroll is 20 million less than last year. We have what could easily be the best starting five in baseball. The best closer in baseball. Two of the top if not the top catchers and first basemen in baseball. Spahn, Young, Gomez, Casilla are all going to get even better. Cudduyer is far from chopped liver. Crain will be better coming back next year after his arm injury,as will Neshek. The bullpen will be improved.Super subs Redmond and Punto off the bench. Harris and Everett off the bench. Pick up a everyday 3rd baseman with some pop in his bat and mix in some of the younger guys from AAA
like Tolbert and Humber and Macri and this team could be good for a very long time. Even if we don’t win this year the experience of being in the race all year long will help in the future.
Howard,
Permit me to share, on this Twins off day, my seven biggest Twin wishes with you:
DREAM #1: A PRODUCTIVE GOMEZ
Carlos needs to get instructed to do more bunting — even with runners on second. We simply cannot absorb unlimited strikeouts from Go-Go. He has potential, but my dream is that he bunts once per game, and is given a kangaroo-court reward for every walk he draws in the month of September. Seriously. This is a guy with 122 strikeouts and 21 walks. He is on pace to draw 4 walks in September. Let’s give him $500 for every walk he draws over 4. We need productivity here. His .632 OPS really hurts us.
DREAM 2: MAUER PLAYS EVERY DAY. I do not mean he plays behind the plate every day. I do mean that he starts every game, taking on DH duties in day games. We have four day games left. Every game counts now. We need a guy with an .856 OPS, who — hallelujah — has drawn 73 walks vs. 42 strikeouts (compare to Carlos above). We need every at-bat from Joe that we can get.
DREAM 3: SEEK THAT EXTRA 1/3RD, 2/3RD, or FULL INNING. I understand why we manage our young arms so carefully. I disagree with Bert about this. I think we’re doing the right thing. But the arms are healthy. We need to extend our starters for some extra outs now. If you look at the inning by inning stats (a great future article by you, I propose!), you’ll see that the numbers support guys like Baker going into the 7th/8th often. Bringing in Crain, Guerrier, or Bonser has to be seen as the *downgrade* that it is. The numbers don’t lie. The dream here is to take a few games from starter right to Nathan this month.
DREAM 4: FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE RATHER THAN CIRCUMSTANCE. In my humble opinion, the bullpen has been mismanaged this year. You can start by comparing Breslow and Bass. What digits suggest we ever should have given Bass 2X the innings of Breslow. At this point, Breslow should be the go-to setup man for Nathan (yes, ahead of Guerrier, Crain, Reyes, Guardado). Rick and Ron need to stop tying outings so tightly to situations. They should focus more on performance.
DREAM 5: CAREFUL WITH EDDIE. In six of Eddie’s last ten appearances, he’s given up runs (not to mention inherited runs). During that period, his WHIP has been a terrifying 2.44 and his ERA has balooned a full 1.09 to 4.18. I’m not saying don’t use him. I am saying do so with a very tight least right now. He isn’t getting the velocity and placement right now to warrant a loose hand on the controls. Be very careful here.
DREAM 6: PILE ON RUNS. It’d be a dream to just say it and have it happen: MORE RUNS. But I mention this because I worry that we may turn too defensive-minded down the stretch. We need Busch’s bat in the lineup vs. righties. It certainly deserves consideration to put Span in center, Kubel in right, and DH Busch vs. righties. Alternately, DH Morneau and put Busch at first. The more you look at our situation, the more pain we suffer with Carlos at the plate right now (cf. Dream One).
DREAM 7: FOCUS ON THE TALENTS. When we insist on playing the following players, they need to be restricted to their areas of producitivity as follows:
- Everett: late inning fielder and only bats versus lefties;
- Buscher: DH of choice vs. righties and mostly off the field in the late innings:
- Casilla: either sits vs lefties in favor of Punto or bats 8th;
- Guardado: tight leash
- Gomez: reduced plate appearances versus righties;
Howard, look how much care I’ve put into an ephemeral blog comment! I do so because I really enjoy your column. I do so because I really love our Twins and have for decades. I do so. . because I know you’ll share this with the coaching staff.
Go Twins.
T-Mouse
Nice dreams! One of the September call ups is a catcher and that was done just so they could get Mauer’s bat in the like up more often. So that is one dream come true for you!
Sam– Harris and Everett will not be back next year, Everett was on a one year contract and will not return and the way Gardy has constantly buried Harris that just means he sees him as a stop gap long just long enough to get his boys in there (Punto, Tolbert, Buscher, Casilla, etc) expect Harris to be traded or DFA’d for no reason over the offseason.
Harris, if sent along, it won’t be for “no reason” - he’s decent with the bat but nothing special. A 7 hitter in an NL lineup, maybe, but is such a defensive liability, it doesn’t justify him being in the lineup. I’m excited and hopeful that Tolbert will get his shot. He was such a sparkplug at the beginning of the year - a more talented Punto. I’d like to see Tolbert at 2nd, Casilla at SS, and Punto at 3rd in late-inning situations, but I’m doubtful that will happen.
Go Twins!
Tolbert’s numbers are .265/.307/.337 not quite spark plugging…
that said, I wouldn’t mind having Harris and Tolbert on the bench next year instead of Punto (much more price effective)
btw, anyone else noticed that Bass was not called up?
what is wrong with punto?
.289 avg, .343 OBP, .749 OPS and well above average defense at 2nd, SS, and 3rd.
how is harris or tolbert a better option? what has tolbert done in the majors to justify him being better than punto. i don’t get anyone’s fascination with him.
Good Work T Mouse. I like your effort.Now let’d just hope someone will use the information for the good of this team.
whalefeet,
There is nothing wrong with Punto.
The people who ripped him last year for his miserable hitting find it difficult to acknowledge his success this year.
When players struggle, the posters seldom say “he is playing badly”.
They usually “he IS bad; he IS terrible; he sucks or he stinks”.
Once he gets hot, it is difficult to retract the statements that “he IS bad; he IS terrible; he sucks or he stinks”.
The poster has to admit he was wrong.
For that reason, even if Punto were to become a genuine all-star, many of his detractors would still not be able to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Tolbert at 3B for his D. The mere Punto with his .280 BA at SS. Everyone else hits .300.
Anyone else notice Casilla swinging for the fences after he was knocked down? Calvin would like this kid.
BP is still suspect. Very good, but not playoff supreme.
I’m only commenting re WS possibility. The Twins are WS possible because of their 5-core starters. Can that last?
THAT’s what’s fun. It’ll be a VERY interesting month. And a dangerous one. Has there ever been this kind of anticipation since the early 1990’s re the Twins? And such a young team ya know.
It really really comes down to Gardy…..with his excellent coaches, Anderson and Vavra. And will Ulger come through with some unexpected excellence?
Can’t wait for the 4-game between the bitchsox and Hankies. Fun fun fun.
“Anyone else notice Casilla swinging for the fences after he was knocked down?”
And he knocked the 2-run HR is what I wa gettin’ at.
I hate off days.
:)>
That’s what you get for posting at 5 in the morning. 
I saw that from Casilla too. He got koncked down, then took the next pitch deep.
That same day, Redmond had one take him down…and then he lined an RBI (or two) double on the next pitch.
Great ABs in both cases. Showed the pitcher that they weren’t going to be scared away.
Yeah! That was pretty good by Casilla. Reminded me of a time Gary Gaetti got knocked down. It was REALLY close! He hopped up, barked a few cuss words, and glared at the pitcher. You could tell the adrenaline was pumping! Stepped back in the box and hit the next pitch deep to left field. He barked at that effin pitcher all the way around the bases.
And for the record, Mudcat and all…..they did a slow-mo replay and stopped action at the point when Casilla was just making contact. His swing was fundamentally incorrect because his eyes were not on the ball, they were looking out at the fence man!
