Stoicism takes a holiday
Posted on April 14th, 2009 – 8:40 AMBy Howard
Sometimes, Ms. Baseball seems amazed at my ability to react stoically to bad baseball.
I’m comfortable with pointing out that even the worst of games is only 1 of 162 and that, sometimes, maybe it’s good to get all the stinking out in a short period of time. I can watch when a certain outfielder acquired for Jason Bartlett falls behind 0-and-2 and matter-of-factly say: “…and now the slider in the dirt for strike three…” right before the batter makes his U-turn to the dugout. Or when a diminutive infielder comes to bat in a key situation and I can deadpan, “…another clutch situation ripe for taking a called third strike.” In a sport where failing 65 percent of the time (on offense) constitutes success, expecting the worst helps pad the landing, I guess.
I’m just not the “I CAN’T BELIEVE HE’S BRINGING IN THAT SO-AND-SO IN THIS SITUATION!” kind of fan. Not with baseball, anyway. (Can’t say that applies to watching the Bears or this season’s Gophers basketball team, though. Consider yourself warned, Jay Cutler and Royce White.) Maybe it’s the permanent byproduct of the years when I’d see 200 games a year from spring training through the end of the postseason. Maybe it was going to a college that lost 50 football games in a row back in my day and just went through a victory-free men’s basketball season. Whatever, that calm serves me well.
Every now and again, though, a game will make me irrationally, look-for-a-small-object-to-throw, crazy. Monday night’s loss to Toronto was one of them, a game with enough breakdowns to remind me of the Chevy Citation I once drove.
It was distressing to watch Kevin Slowey giving up 2,471 hits over 5 1/3 innings. After lauding him for making adjustments in his first start, it looked Monday like Slowey was content with playing catch. Luis Ayala doesn’t get a lot of strikeouts, so when he’s pitching without location he’s a better bet to hurt the Twins than help them. Seven batters faced, four hits. Or was it 400? Game-tying single on his first pitch followed by a double and game-losing home run a few minutes later.
My frustration with Ayala may well be tied into the fact that I was happy about the Twins signing him.
Wait, there’s more! Delmon Young flailing at strike three twice with a man on third and nobody out. (Even weak contact likely scores a run.) Nick Punto whiffing twice with the bases loaded and two out. (Anguish tempered by his two-RBI single in the second and another fine defensive day.) Michael Cuddyer’s bad-call juju that got him called out at second when he was clearly safe on a steal attempt and at first on a double-play grounder he appeared to beat out. (Umpires can make me cranky too.) Alexi Casilla jumping at the ball on every swing from the right side of the plate (0 for 11 so far), Joe Crede’s eighth-inning strikeout, Gardy pulling Matt Guerrier (who’s looking pretty good to me now) after he gave up that single in the seventh when the Twins still led 6-5.
And that’s not counting how Toronto tried to give away the game with its base-running and bad defensive choices. A team playing solid baseball would have won that game 10-2 instead of losing it 8-6.
Really, it was only a cheap pen that got launched. Didn’t touch the Easter basket.
For his own mental health, Gardy preferred to isolate the pitching in his postgame comments. Even if it wasn’t 110 percent accurate, he could stand solidly on the point that six runs should be enough to win. I could feel Gardy battling (his tail off) to keep from saying how he really felt about some of what he’d watched. He did well at keeping it together, which is good thing with 154 games left to play.
If the Twins had kept it together during the game as well as Gardy did after the game, no doubt they would have won.
57 Responses to "Stoicism takes a holiday"
Good analysis, Howard. DY’s AB’s really hurt the team last night on the offensive side of the ball. Ayala gives me the chills much like Guerrier did late last year. It’s still early but still…. And yes, Cuddyer did get the losing end of at least one, maybe 2, close calls on the bases.
I expect to continue throwing small things (not animals, though) until
a) Joe Mauer returns
b) Gardy sees enough to settle into the “regulars” and the bench and;
c) A power-armed, reliable reliever is added either through a trade or from the system.
on b)…Sometimes in organizations it is a good thing to be over-stocked in talent. It’s always nice to feel pressure to perform from others in the organization. I don’t really subscribe to that for a baseball team. I prefer that any “pressure” felt by a player be due to talent that is in the minors knocking at the door. On a baseball team I want a set group of starters with their roles defined and I want a set of subs with their roles defined. I don’t want platoons. I don’t want a bunch of “if you’ve got two starting qb’s you don’t have any” situations on my baseball team.
I’ve always felt that baseball and golf, because of the frequency of play, require a certain rhythm and routine that help with the timing and tempo aspects of the game. What we’ve got going now, IMO, looks close to a situation where guys aren’t exactly knowing their roles…their place in the lineup subject to change day-to-day. This isn’t conducive to getting into the rhythm of the season.
Gardy is going to have to bite the bullet and say “these are my regular outfielders and this is my almost all the time DH.” It means one of Young or Gomez will be upset, but that is for Bill Smith to deal with.
I don’t think we’ll see a good stretch of winning baseball until the roles are defined and set and the bullpen is improved. The only question to me is if it will require TK’s “first 40 games” or if Gardy will be forced to act sooner if this mediocre, slapdash play continues.
Willie - “I’ve always felt that baseball and golf, because of the frequency of play, require a certain rhythm and routine that help with the timing and tempo aspects of the game. What we’ve got going now, IMO, looks close to a situation where guys aren’t exactly knowing their roles…their place in the lineup subject to change day-to-day. This isn’t conducive to getting into the rhythm of the season.”
I couldn’t agree more.
The best move Gardy has made all year was to put Morneau in the No. 3 spot in the order.
As for his pitching moves yesterday, I can’t really gripe. Although I will say that Ayala just bought himself a turn in the dog house.
What happened last night was an example of what we’ve been fearing all along: a shaky Twins bullpen. Yes, there were bad calls by the umps, bad plate appearances by the Twins, and you might as well have my nephew behind home plate trying to throw out runners…but at the end of the day, winning teams should have a bullpen that can close the deal when you’re up 6-3 after 5 innings. Not only did we allow the Jays to tie the game, we let a No. 9 hitter launch one through the tunnel past the View From Section 212, giving the Jays a decisive 8-6 lead.
Who plays what outfield position and the ying and yang of Nick Punto’s fielding kind of becomes irrelevant when the bullpen doesn’t hold a lead.
I was wrong about the start of a winning streak…at least for last night. I’m still holding out hope for a 6-1 homestand. We need to hear from mike wants wins…(cause we’re not getting them lately)
They aren’t overstocked in talent, unless you consider Young and Cuddeyer to be good players, which evidence indicates that have not been for a while. The problem is that they are overstacked with mediocrity.
As for the bullpen, I continue to be frustrated by the Twins’ instance that location is more important that stuff. I continue to be frustrated that they worry about losing Humber, when they could have a hard thrower from AA up here.
Until proven wrong, I’ll also continue to insist that the Garza/Young trade was worse than the Santana for not much trade.
All i have to say is that it’s a good thing they do play 162 games because right now they look like crap.
I feel like a genius picking Guerrier to “click” over Slowey.
Good post, Howard, since you seemed to have nailed just about every gripe I had with that game last night. As poorly as the Jays executed we should have won by a bunch but once again we end up having problems with the bullpen. I was really down on Guerrier at the end of last season and even the beginning of ST, but Ayala has me wanting to jump off a tall building! Where’s the upgrade we were promised in the bullpen? I’m a die hard DY fan but even I’m getting tired of him swinging at every pitch - no matter the location. You simply can’t excuse not scoring a run with the bases loaded and no outs - that’s little league ball. I’m still not done with my rant but I need to get some work done, otherwise I would continue this for two more pages. A truly ugly loss.
This team needs to show some emotion. Looks robotic and showing bad tendancies it had during the ugly road trip from last year. Opposing hitters are very aggressive and comfortable in the box with our ‘control’ pitchers. For instance, the left fielder Snider for the Jays, would one of the Twins prichers make him move his feet. He’s all over the plate. As bad as DY and Cuddy have been with the outside sliders, they have been pitched to and swinging at fastballs at their right elbows. If they lay off those maybe they would get ahead in the count and not needing to protect the plate and be subjected to chasing sliders.
I also agree. Circle gets the square. This isn’t Junior Varsity Equal Play Time Camp!!! I’m not a Cuddy fan, but you won’t get his best without committing to him being RF. DY won’t develop getting 350 ABs. DY and Go-Go still feel pressured to compete for playtime. Span can’t “gel” in the OF when he’s in a new spot each night. At this point, I don’t care which 3 you pick, and it probably doesn’t matter. Each has strengths and weaknesses that could arguably offset their counterpart’s. Gardy needs to MANAGE and make a choice for once. He had a choice made for him at 3B, I’d rather see Buscher, but I’m happier that Crede can prove me wrong instead of waffling a platoon out there.
I was begging for Slowey to just go ahead and plunk somebody last night. It wouldn’t have hurt the Twins chances considering there was already a conga line around the bases.
I just wish their pitchers would tighten it up. Did they not get enough innings in spring training? I feel like the starters, except for Perkins one game, have been falling apart in about the fifth inning day after day.
Howard, thanks for being level-headed. It’s refreshing after reading the other blogs.
I suspect that we’ll see a lot of RP changes unless the Twins add another 8th inning calibur arm. Gardy is probably playing numbers and crossing his fingers until Smith gets him somebody–like he did last year by putting Bass in important situations.
I empathize with Gardy’s reaction. So much went wrong that I just want to focus on one problem. I also would choose the pitching to focus on. Ayala is not good. He played for the Nats for crying out loud! That’s never a good thing. I feel like if I just make him the scapegoat then I don’t have to be too upset at everyone else.
I don’t blame any individual Twin for this loss; something was just wrong last night. There must have been something in the water in the Blue Jays’ dugout. It is not normal for a team to get that many hits! I ran out of curse words by the end of the sixth inning.
I sense the torch of hatred is being passed from Punto to Delmon. At this point, with his awful fielding and worthless at bats, I have a hard time seeing Delmon in the lineup going forward. I’d almost rather see how Kubel hits lefties than throw away at bats from Delmon.
On the bullpen. Ayala? Really, should we actually be surprised? This guy was horrendous last year. There’s no reason to believe it will be different.
All in all, just a frustrating loss last night. Almost makes tonight a must win for the series as Halladay pitches on Wednesday.
It appears that with the glut of outfielders and Humber likely on the way out, we don’t see much from the Santana trade anymore!
My biggest gripe,other than watching Slowey throw mediocre stuff over the middle of the plate,was Gardys situational bullpen use.Howard touched on his quick hook of Guerrier,but the same could be said for Breslow IMO.
Since it appears Duensing is either the odd man out(I hope I’m wrong),or just a mop up guy,you can’t use Breslow like last years version of Reyes.If Breslow can’t get out RH hitters,the bullpen is in big trouble.
If you allow Guerrier the chance to finish the 7th,maybe you have Breslow ready for Snider in the 8th.The Manager had five pitchers up last night,used four.Including Ayala pitching in his fifth game out eight.IMO Gardy could have gotten by with two or three.
I was the biggest proponent in Minnesota for Delmon Young and his “free-swinging- ways . . . until it became painfully obvious that the scouting reports say to throw wide on the first pitch (swinging strike) low on the second pitch (swinging strike two) and anywhere towards home plate on the third pitch (swinging strike three) and it works EVERY TIME! Didn’t Young learn anything from the game on Easter? He worked a 2-0 count and got a perfect pitch to send over the left field fence. PATIENCE young Young. Learn it, practice it, and FLOURISH with it!
I’m also sad that the Punto-hate continues. He is one of the loan bright-spots this year so far (minus his “inside-strike-three-looking-no-matter-how-much-he-acts-like-it-almost-hit-him” at-bat he has once a game. Far worse habit than sliding head first into first.)
I still love and cheer the Twins, but I did throw a beer last night, too (after empyting the bottle, of course.)
Pro From Dover: You read my mind. Usually I like how Gardy and Anderson use the pen, but I have not been very happy this year so far. Go back to the first game. (9th inning, 4-1 Mariners lead. Crain gives up lead-off single, then gets two easy outs. Already a 4-1 game, an “L” virtually assured. But rather than let Crain face Griffey (if he homers, 6-1, but who cares, 4-1 or 6-1, chances of comeback nil versus extra-nil). He brings in Breslow, who walks Griffey. Then comes Guerrier; after a passed ball, comes a two run single. My point is not what Guerrier and Breslow did, but that they never should have been in that game. Two needless appearances, when Crain could have easily finished that 9th inning. Just like last night; let Guerrier try to finish the 7th. I think the pen has some flaws, but I will gaurantee that using 5 relievers a game is going just make it worse, and have them all gassed by August. I would prefer just to see guys start and finish an inning, rather than trying all the L/R match-ups with multiple pitching changes per inning.
“On the bullpen. Ayala? Really, should we actually be surprised? This guy was horrendous last year.”
Then why is he being brought into a game where we have a 6-5 lead in the seventh inning?
I might not be a fan of Punto bashing…but I’m sick of the Punto love. He’s shown me very little that says he should be starting in front of Harris.
In fact, I want the pro-Punto folks (if there are any of you out there) to lay out the arguments as to why Punto is the better choice at SS than Brendan Harris.
“There must have been something in the water in the Blue Jays’ dugout”
Molson Canadian water.
“I want the pro-Punto folks (if there are any of you out there) to lay out the arguments as to why Punto is the better choice at SS than Brendan Harris.’
Defense, speed and “geting after it”.
Though, “it” hasn’t been explained to me yet.
[…] A Fan’s View – […]
I’m putting this loss squarely on the shoulders of the pitching staff. I want them to start pitching instead of throwing batting practice. This was the longest spring training in history so wouldn’t you think it would have given them all plenty of time to get their “arms” in shape? I’m sick of listening to excuses as to why we can’t get any outs - be like Perkins and go after the hitters and get them really uncomfortable in the box instead of tossing up cookies for them. There! I’ve said my piece now it’s time to cool down.
I liked the Ayala trade when it happened b/c it looked like maybe he was just overused last year as his stats are much better over the couple seasons before last where he pitched less innings. It looked like the Twins got an undervalued reliever if they pitched him right. That said, so far he is putting up even worse numbers this year, but he’s already appeared in 5 of the 8 games so far. Maybe they just need to use him less? They’ve been using him in long relief situations but that just might not work out.
Jason -
I think it all comes down to defense on Punto over Harris. For example, in 2008 Punto (while playing at SS) had a revised zone rating of .860, while Harris was at .779. I’m not in the love-for-LNP camp, but his defense is certainly better than Harris’. My perception is that what Harris lacks in the glove he only partially makes up for with his bat, while the opposite is true of Punto. All in all, they’re probably pretty close to a wash. The thing is, you can minimize Punto’s bad bat by putting him last in the order, having him bunt, and pinch hitting in critical situations (thus Harris off the bench is an asset), but you can’t minimize Harris’ glove; the other team is going to hit to the SS. So all told, we don’t really have a better option. If Harris had an amazing bat that made up for his defense or had better defense to compliment his bat, then we’d be better off with him. But for now Punto is the better choice.
Punto is also a better “doink” hitter than Harris.
That is how he hit .290 and .284 in ‘06 and ‘08.
In ‘07 Punto struggled with his “doink” hitting…but since then, no problem.
I guess I didn’t realize Harris was a bad defensive player…which, to me, is what it would take to give Punto 3-4 ABs a night that he doesn’t get.
Do we need to take a 220 pool on when that first LNP extra base hit will come?
Not many propuntos here today.
But I have definately made up my mind about those two trades last year.
Ayala circa 2009 = RD circa 1986 = Rincon circa 2008. I just hope Gardy figures it out that his guy’s got nothing left before he ruins the season putting him in there in close-and-late situations.
That reminds me: Last year the only way to prevent Gardy from using Rincon and later Bass in those situations was to release them. Maybe Bill Smith needs to release Ayala when Baker returns from the DL. Then Gardy will be forced to rely on Crain and Breslow in those situations.
You might be on to something cmathewson, everyone has been talking about either seding Humber down (thereby releasing him in all likelyhood) or sending Dickey down (probably thereby releasing him). I would much rather see Ayala let go as I think Humber and Dickey offer a lot more to this team than Ayala. Bill Smith sure hasn’t proven to be a good GM so far. The only move that he’s made that I’ve approved of is signing Crede and we still have to wait and see if that works out.
Though, “it” hasn’t been explained to me yet.
I used to be with it, but then they changed what “it” was. Now, what I’m with isn’t it, and what’s “it” seems weird and scary to me.
-Abe Simpson
I wanted to bet a friend of mine, who’s a Cards fan, that Pujols will hit more HR’s in one game this year than Punto does all season. He wouldn’t bet me.
there are a few things that seem missing here:
a. Gardy allowed Slowey to start the 6th, even though he was hit all day and yanked him a little too late (like Liriano the other day)
b. Gardy keeps treating Breslow as a LOOGY, when Breslow was the second best pitcher against RHB last season.
c. Crain is the 8th inning man. He was sitting while Ayala was piching
d. DY was up with nobody out and Harris on 3rd (and he messed up previously in the game in a similar situation)… Didn’t Gardy see enough to PH Gomez for a bunt?
Gardy should get a lot of the blame for this loss…
wow…after reading thrylos98’s analysis I might have to re-evaluate letting Gardy off the hook for last night. As far as D Young goes, I think you just have to roll with him.
by the way, my favorite tid-bit from last night was the look on Morneau’s face as he saw Denard Span on third base after he doubled off the wall. It was as if to say, “what happened to my RBI?”
Howard, was that school Macalister? I’m with you after going to Hamline in the late fifties. They won one football game in four year, although set a passing record with Jerry Foley throwing to Dick Donlin-later drafted by Baltimore in the second round.
Glorious. That’s the word for what we are seeing. Monday night’s loss to Toronto was a beautiful example of baseball’s wonderfully complex interaction of factors, some previously known, some knowable, some completely unexpected.
Examples:
We already knew the Twins were lacking in the hitting department without Mauer batting third. Batting Morneau third appeared almost ideal, except who knew Kubel would start the season so cold after such a hot spring training? Even so, he hit his first homer. Has the sleeping giant awakened? Not for another week or so, says my hind brain…
We already knew Toronto was hitting almost .300 as a team, but who knew the Twins pitchers would come out with so little movement on their pitches? Who knew Snyder would hit a pair of Ruthian homers, the first off a good-looking Slowey curve that he golfed from two feet in front of the plate? Did Slowey tip that pitch? How did Snyder know that was coming?
We already knew that Toronto had been beating the Twins on a regular basis, but we didn’t know why. Today, I think I see why.
Slowey’s velocity hovered around 89mph for his fastball, 84 for his cutter. Not much movement, either. Cold day? Maybe, but some pitchers seemed unbothered. Slowey also looked gassed after five innings. Where’s the promised additional stamina from off season workouts? Unknown.
After Slowey, Gardy brought in a succession of pitchers, but mostly used the ones whose stuff looked a lot like Slowey’s. Maybe unexpected on Monday (small sample size), but will Gardy learn from this?
Ayala’s stuff looked just like Slowey’s, but with even less movement. Kaboom! No so unexpected, since he looked that way last time out, too.
Guerrier’s stuff looked better, but not by a lot. Both he and Ayala are right handers. Early season tightness?
Breslow got one guy out (their super-hot RBI lefty), but then Gardy yanked him. Breslow’s a lefty, and his stuff was ducking down quite nicely, yet Gardy still yanked him after one batter. Why? A little too wild? Unknowable. Breslow’s a big X-factor.
Dickey could have been the answer, in my opinion. A team hitting as hot as Toronto is on balance, poised, ready to hit stuff in the 89 to 93mph range. If pitching is all about keeping hitters off balance, then R.A. Dickey was doing that (along with keeping Morales off balance). Predictable. A knuckleballer can throw a wrench in the works of a fine hitting team!
If I were to point my magic wand at one factor and say, “there’s the key to winning,” I hate to say it, but it’s sending Morales down and bringing up Drew Butera.
Morales has good spirit, and he may develop in time, but his catching has been a liability. His glove work has been average at best, he doesn’t appear to handle pitchers at all well, and his tardy, scattered throws to second invite all but the slowest to steal at will.
Pitchers, especially young pitchers, depend on excellent catching and good defense (hi, Delmon!) to keep them from losing their precarious confidence. Early in the season with so many question marks, a single clumsy defensive inning can rattle these pitchers. Right now, when Morales is catching, Twins pitchers have little confidence in his ability to handle their stuff effectively or hold runners reasonably well.
Just before Gardy made his Morales/Butera decision, the starting pitchers expressed great confidence in Drew Butera’s ability to handle pitchers. That was supposed to be a hint, Gardy.
Success for the Twins is predicated on a foundation of efficient pitching and outstanding defense. A great defensive catcher that hits .100 is therefore better for the team than a .300 hitter that lets balls dribble by him and can’t deliver a throw to second on time and on target.
The Twins’ young and sometimes shaky pitching staff has benefited greatly from Joe Mauer’s superstar abilities and Redmond’s calm expertise behind the plate. Morales has neither of those qualities. In fact, it looks like the pitchers hardly know where to throw the ball when Morales is back there. If a pitcher is afraid that his catcher will let bouncers get by him, does that affect his willingness to pitch down low? Um, yes. So, he keeps the ball up a few inches. KA-BOOOM!
Meanwhile, it looks like Morales is finding his eye at the plate. He’s had a multi-hit game, and he’s starting to make solid contact. However, his chances of suddenly becoming proficient defensively are zero. That takes a lot of time and practice…at the minor league level.
We all know the Twins have an excellent defensive catcher doing time in AAA, trying to learn to make wooden stick meet leather ball in a productive direction. Even if Drew Butera can’t bat his IQ, I think the team would still be better off with him behind the plate than Morales. Even great pitchers need good catchers. Twins pitchers need a great catcher.
Bah, if the Twins’ pitcher’s pitches stink, it is primarly their fault, not the catcher’s. The catcher may have some influence, but that’s not the problem when your starters are giving up 5-8 runs a game.
MWM +1
Gardy said it wasn’t location. Watching from the center field camera, I can say it was primarily location. Everything was thigh high and above. Almost everything was in the middle of the plate instead of the corners. Unlike previous outings, neither Slowey nor Ayala had much sink on the ball. If Toronto hitters had taken bigger hacks, it could have been 20-6. As it was, they were content to take the ball up the middle and score one run at at time.
You can’t blame the catcher for the pitchers failing to execute. And you can’t blame the catcher when the manager not only brings Ayala in, but keeps him in as the opposition not only ties the game, but takes a two run lead.
Jason, I agree on Monroe/Span. Span has been doing well. I wish he was a litte more aggressive. Both on the basepaths and at the plate. I know he has alot of walks. But his double into the RF corner yesterday is what he needs to do more of, especially when he isn’t leading off an inning.
Hey, c’mon, victory free men’s basketball season? They won the warm-up with some breathtakingly athletic layups in at least 3 of those games!
Yeah, maybe mike’s right. How important is catching skill to a catcher? Certainly no more important than social skills are to a politician… 
Jimbo, good lord. I just finished your manifesto up there. We are in agreement that the Twins seem to me to be in good shape if they can just tread water until Mauer and Baker are back, problem is, they seem to se sinking a little bit. I think at least of of Slowey or Liriano need to improve before they have any realistic chance, even in that division. I definitely was one of the few who felt like the Twins were the team to beat this year, but that was predicated on their rotation being the class of the Central. It definitely looks better than Clevelands and Detroits right now, and maybe about even with the White Sox, but nobody looks like they matchup with the pitching KC is getting right now. As for the struggles against Toronto over the last couple years, what can you say? The Twins have always seemed to struggle against AL East teams. Toronto has really had excellent pitching the last few seasons and on the rare occaision they are scoring 8 runs/game, thats a pretty tough team.
One other issue to add to the pile- situational hitting and knowing the count. Cuddyer is especially bad at this. 7th inning, tied game, one out and Kubel on first with a single. Cuddyer gets to a 2-0 count and gets a fastball right down the middle and keeps his bat on his shoulder. Even Bert couldn’t believe it and jokingly commented that he was going to wait to get a slider. He then grounded into a double play on a much more difficult (ie crappy) pitch. It was just stupid - and Cuddyer (and others) do it often. This team is not aggressive when they get into 2-0 and 3-1 hitter counts.
Good point lenny and I think that we need to take advantage of pitchers having to put one down the middle - the opposition sure seems to work it that way with us. Hopefully we’ll see a good outing from Perkins again tonight and we can get a win for him and everyone else on this blog.
I didn’t say catching didn’t matter, I said that when your pitchers have an ERA in the 6-7 range, that the primary problem is probably not who the catcher is.
Could anyone live with trading Delmon and putting Kubel in left and Dh’ing Buscher?
Either that, or let’s have Delmon platoon DH with Kubes - its just not fair to the guy to run DY out to left field anymore…
Jason:
I agree with your comment about Span’s not scoring from second on a double high off the wall. I had the same reaction as Morneau - to see Span on 3rd was almost surreal. Can Morneau get like 0.5 an RBI for that?
Howard,
What college did you go to? Sounds a lot like my 1990s Oberlin College (OH) days, when the football team’s ineptitude was so grandiose it was worthy of multiple write-ups in SI, and only lives on to this day due to a certain very large athletic endowment tied to the Heisman Foundation (yes, THAT Heisman).
Jeeze, Delmon Young in LF. Wow. That boy really takes after his brother with the glove. He really better start picking up the power numbers if he is going to be getting away with that ungraceful, unathletic lumbering out there in the majors.
Wow, bases loaded with none out and they don’t score? Certainly you launched the easter basket after seeing that one, Howard?
At least Perkins is looking good again. I would never have guessed he would be the one guy to step it up.
Morales catching hasn’t been a problem. The kid has blocked everything and his throws have been accurate, if not on time. I’ve only seen 3 steals on him all season…its not like other teams are running crazy on him. I’ve been pleasently suprised…he’ll do until Mauer gets back.
Tresio,
That would be Macalester College in St. Paul, home of the popular: “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Macalester will never win” chant.
JustinCB,
I watched that inning disintegrate stoically. My calm returned and was rewarded by Crede in the 11th.
Optioned LHP Brian Duensing to Triple-A Rochester tonight after the game.
