Gary Gaetti

Aaron Gleeman reposted his Twin's rankings on Gaetti so I decided to write about him today also.

I always loved Gaetti and his '88 card in Pursue the Pennant was awseome except for the fact that he was injury prone.

Like most Twins, his '88 season was actually better than his '87 season.

I don't want to blame it on religion, but there was talk of religion taking away his focus from baseball. Which is fine with me, I am not judging.

After he was hurt in '88 he found god during rehab and fell out of Hrbek's clique and into Gagne's "clique" and he became a born again christian.

Again I am not judging, I think it is perfectly fine and exceptable to find god.
In fact, it might have been a good thing for his career. He probably wouldn't have lasted as long if he would have kept drinking and smoking.

My only regret for him is that he and Hrbek grew apart. Up intil the injury they had been inseparable.

I rememeber the All Star game (I think it was '88) where Gaetti played and wrote T.Rex on his hand in honor of Hrbek and showed it to the camera as he was introduced.

T. Rex was Hrbie's wrestling name.

They were a cute couple.

I told you so

Baker has done it again. He pitched a great game, shutting out the powerful Cleveland Indians for 8 innings.

Like many young pitchers he has been inconsistent. He has hade a few bad starts but he has had many good and some great starts. His ERA is abaout average. So he isn't a star but as he pitches more I believe he will just get better and be a very big part of the Twin's future success.

His Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) is 3.84. So if he his defense was playing better he would be having an excellent season.

He will probably suffer from the long ball as time goes on, much like Santana. But if his strikeout to walk ratio improves from the already great ratio of 3.7:1, he will be a quallity pitcher for years to come.

I would say that the league should watch out for the Twins but I don't really think the league has to fear a team who has Tyner as a leadoff hitter. Or a team that has a manager who thinks Tyner is a leadoff hitter.

One positive is that Tyner is having the best walk rate and homerun rate of his career!!! He has already walked 11 times!!! He is only 4 walks away from his career high of 15 in 2001 which is the only season he played more than 100 games.

Catch up

I have been very busy the last few weeks but I will be back soon.

Its over

The Twins were swept in a 3 game series at home against Detroit. Detroit is a good team and they were all 1 run games so if the Twins would have had a little luck they could have easily been the sweeper rather than the sweepee.

Wait, they did have a little luck, Leyland still insists to use the very below average Todd Jones as his closer. I liked the Twins chances to come back in every one of those games. He is not a good closer, he allows way too many baserunners and has way too high of an ERA.

It would be like using Rincon as the Twins closer!!!

It shouldn't have been difficult to come back on Det with their best too relievers on the DL. What a choke-fest. Did somebody tell them that this was the playoffs?

Dick gets it wrong again.

The Twins completed a very good sweep of the Oakland A’s. They pitched well and hit OK. Basically, everyone did pitch pretty well. Did they pitch well or are the A’s just that bad offensively? Probably both.

Speak of the A’s bad offense did you hear Dick talk about the 3 worst offenses in the league on Friday night. It was another example of him not understanding what the important elements at scoring runs.

He went on and on about Texas, Chicago and Oakland being the worst offenses in the league.

That made me curious, were they really? Knowing Dick I figured he did not really mean the worst offense but he probably meant the worst hitting team ranked by batting average. I was right.

Sometimes the worst hitting teams are indeed the worst at scoring runs, but not always. As most of us know, it takes more than batting average to score runs. In fact, OBP and SLG are much integral than AVG at determining the amount of runs scored.

So how bad are the bottom three teams that Dick was talking about? Well Texas, Oakland and Chicago are indeed the worst hitting teams. But Texas is a much better team at scoring runs than the other two teams. They rank 7th in the league at runs scored but are in a virtual tie with four other teams for 4th in runs scored.

Chicago and Texas play in hitters parks while Oakland plays in a pitchers park. So Chicago is indeed the worst offensive team in the league

DH answer?

The Twins called up Garrett Jones again and started him at DH. But he is not the answer at DH. His minor league numbers show that he does not have a very high OBP. And so far this season at AAA it is .317.

With that being said he is still a better choice at DH than Tyner or Ford. He has some homerun potential at least.

Its time for Terry Ryan to decide if he wants to make a run at the playoffs or not. Shit or get off the pot!!! As they are now, the Twins are not good enough to make the playoffs. The rotation is young but decent and they have some quality hitters but they have some huge holes to fill at third and at DH.

Finding a DH should not be that hard. Either you want to make run this year or wait until next year. But next year Torii probably won't be with the Twins so there will be 1 more hole to fill in the lineup. So this is the season to make the run. Trade a young pitcher and get a quality DH and third baseman here.

If not trade Torii for some decent prospects and give up on the season. They are going no where with the lineup as it is now.

Today's matchup Blanton vs Santana. I have the Twins as the 69% favorites.

The Twins need another hitter. They need either a 3B or LF/DH. Those are by far their weakest positions. I think Kubel will eventually be a decent leftfielder so 3B and DH are the biggest need.

There has been a lot of talk of trading for Wiggington. I am not a big fan. He does have some pop in his bat, he has 13 homeruns so far, but his OBP isn’t much higher than the current Twin’s 3B. His numbers are .268/.316/.439, with an OPS of .755. And he creates 4.59 runs per game. And the worst thing about him is his very dramatic platoon splits.

His OPS vs lefties is .976 and it is .300 points less vs righties. He creates 3.68 R/G vs righties and 7.25 vs lefties. There is no bigger upside for Ty. This is his average season and he is too old to all of a sudden make a dramatic improvement.

I don’t see this as much of a step up from Punto. Ty obviously has much more power but not so much that he is worth trading a prospect for.

Punto has better defense and will most likely improve at the plate over the rest of the season. Punto has a Zone Rating of .722, Ty’s is a dismal .636.

While Punto is not the answer at third Wiggington does not solve the problems the Twins have at that position. Trading for him would be a knee jerk reaction to a poor situation.

The best bet would be to somehow get Adam Dunn on the Twins. But according to Jim Souhan this morning, Dunn is overrated. Yeah, who wants a player with a high OBP and SLG? The Twins really need a truly overrated 3B.

Dramatic Chipmunk

You need sound to really appreciat this one.

Tyner is leading off

Jason Tyner is leading off. Jason effing Tyner. This shows how little understanding Gardenhire has of what a hitters job is to do.

It is to get on base and not make outs. Tyner is not good at either of those things. I assume he is leading off because of his "speed". But he doesn't even steal that often. And does he really take that "extra base" more than anyone else does. I would lead Kubel off before Tyner. He shows a propensity tto walk at least. And willl be in scoring position more often because he has hit an extra-base hit or two so far in his short career.
Hell, Cuddyer would be a much better leadoff hitter than Tyner.

Ouch

I can't stop laughing after seeing this. Watch the kid running.

Twins first round draft pick

The Twins drafted Ben Revere, a speedy outfielder with limited power. It sounds like Tyner. Check-out what the Hardballtimes says about him.

A tale of two relievers.

Pat Neshek and Joe Nathan are two of the Twins best relievers. Neshek is having a fantastic season while Nathan seems to be struggling at times. He has a decent ERA but has given up 41 baserunners in 30 innings while Neshek has given up only 26 baserunners in 34 innings pitched. Pat’s ERA is a stellar 1.05 while Joe’s is a very good 2.37.

It seems Joe has worked in and out of trouble all season. Though he has pitched a 1-2-3 inning in 11 of 30 appearances it does seem he has been lucky to get out of trouble at times. Does Carl Crawford ring a bell? Francisco Cordero has had a 1-2-3 inning in 14 of his 33 appearances this year, for comparison.

The opposite seems to be in effect for Pat Neshek. He has pitched great all year and never seems to in trouble at all. In fact he has only given up 4 runs all season. All came on 2 different pitches, a 3 run homerun to Raul Ibanez and a homerun to Alex Rios. In the rest of his appearances he allowed no runs.

I expect the fortunes of these two pitchers to change and in fact reverse over rest of the season. The main reason is that both have diametrically opposed Defense Efficiency Ratings (DER). Pat has a DER of .842, one of the best in the league, and Joe’s is .635.

The current thinking is that pitchers have relatively little control over the outcome of balls put into play against them. There are some caveats to this but for the most part I believe it to be true. And if it is true both players will start to move towards the league average of .685. In doing so, the numbers of Joe will improve while Pat’s will decline.

But the one thing they both will probably do is give up more homeruns. They both have homerun per flyball percentages around 5%. The league average is around 11%.

All of this may be obvious. There is no way that Pat can keep up his current pace. I just think it is good to look behind the numbers to see what is really happening.

Sunday’s game is Joes’ season in a microcosm. He gives up a weak, high flyball which the defense does not turn into an out. And in this case it turns in to a homerun. All season he has been giving up balls in play that defense has not turned into outs. A lot of luck goes into this. A bloop here, a texas leaguer there, and a slow roller will make a good pitcher look bad.

Matt Guerrier will also be due for a drop-off for the same reason as Pat. The one thing they all have going for them is that they have very good strikeout to walk ratios of about 3 to 1. They are all very good pitchers but due for a big drop in effectiveness.

New Poll

There is a new poll. Please take a look and give me some ideas of what is important to you and what you would like to see more discussion of on this blog.



According to past polls Liriano was going to win the Cy Young award last season. Jason Tyner should rarely be in the lineup and if he is he should be at the bottom of the lineup. The Twins should trade a pitching prospect for a hitter. And lastly, the Twins should be patient with Scott Baker, but trading before his value drops too low is a close second.



Let me know what you would like to see, your comments are much appreciated.


And for absolutely no reason I have included a picture of my dog. The wife likes to dress her up for holidays. And in our house Halloween is a major holiday. See what I have to live with. And yes, the one ear never goes up.

Johan shaved Bert's head...

...and I think he nicked his brain.

Bert just said, about Guerrier. " Its his first debut at Shea Stadium."

Also, Gladden caught 2 balls during the broadcast and after the 2nd one he said (paraphrasing) "I got 2 balls tonight." Gordo then said "Its a rare night to have 2 balls."

Tyner again.

Johan worked out a walk and hit a double tonight. He should be the Twins DH. He has shown the plate patience that Tyner has not shown.In his career as a hitter Johan now walks in 3.5% of his plate appearances and Tyner has walked in 4.5% of his plate appearances.

Why is it so hard not to swing the bat. Watch how Mauer approaches an AB, hell watch how Johan approaches an AB.

He must think that if he keeps swinging he will eventually hit a homerun. It is really not worth it.

Somehow Sosa walked Tyner in the 3rd. I missed the at bat so I don’t know exactly how it happened.

The next inning, Tyner had the kind of at bat that I hate. He somehow worked the count to 3-1 and Sosa threw ball low and inside and so Tyner, halving already reached his walk quota for the month, swung and missed. Then on 3-2 Sosa threw a high fastball that also would have been ball four and grounded out.

The game was basically over then so it really didn’t matter. But it’s the principle. He has no power it makes no sense for that idiot to swing at ball four constantly.

I guess I should be thankful because a two walk game by Tyner would be a sign of the coming apocalypse.

Thank you Jason.

RBIs and sportswriters

I read Jim Souhan's article in the Pioneer Press yesterday and this quote made me laugh.

"Manager Ron Gardenhire has tried Mike Redmond and Jason Kubel in the No. 6 hole. Redmond puts together good at-bats, but his career-high in RBI is 28. This isn't going to work for the long haul."


Why does it matter what Redmond's career high RBI's are? The amount of RBI's is so dependent on where he bats in the lineup and his teammates that his past RBI totals just don't mattter.

If he was in the 6 hole all season long and had 500 to 600 AB he would easily double or probably triple that total just by being a warm body in the lineup.
I wonder why sportswriters so want to hold on to their old perceptions of baseball? What is the psychology of this.



I believe it has to be a fear of math. It takes some understanding of math and logic to understand how much RBIs are team dependent. If all of your life you are told that batting average and RBIs are what make a good hitter than it will be difficult to change your mind.

As a child I believed ther was a Santa Claus until I saw my uncle dressing up as Santa. I saw the evidence that there was no Santa.



It is not so easy to see the evidence that RBIs are not a good way to evaluate a hitter. You can't just see someone "putting on a Santa suit." You actually have to be proactive and look at the mathematical evidence.

Many people don't like math and don't trust statistics because they do not understand them and feel that they can be twisted to show any facts.


Its too bad because baseball is the one sport where math and statistics can really tell us who the best players are.

I have a feeling that it will be the next generation of sportswriters and TV analysts who will start looking behind the traditional batting numbers of RBIs and average. It will take time but as more and more generations grow up with computers and statistics more people will have a better understanding of the important statistics in baseball.


Joe Morgan can't be a TV analyst forever. He hates computers and is basically Amish when it comes to technology.

New Theory

Here is my new theory about Tyner. Gardy knows the Twins have no DH. The Twins DHs have been one of the worst DHs in in the league. Also, The Twins don't have anyone off the the bench to pinch hit. So Gardy is using the worst player possible to do both, Tyner.

I use to think he did this because he did not understand Tyner's limitations as a hitter. But now I think he does understand Tyner's limitations. Yes, Gardy understands that Tyner should not be a DH or ever be a pinch hitter but does this to show Terry Ryan how bad this team needs a hitter on the bench to DH or pinch hit.

Gardy would never think it is OK to pinch hit a player with as many career walks as he has stolen bases. Or to DH a player with as many career homeruns as I do.

Its obvious to me now that Gardy is sending Ryan a message to get him a real hitter. Gardy is a genius!!! Hopefully, Ryan has seen the obvious things that Gardy is showing him.

Gardy hates Bartlett

How much does Gardenhire hate Bartlett if he is willing to pinch hit Tyner for him. So far this season They are basically the same player. In their careers Bartlett has been better and has a better upside. So why would you actually make a move just to put in the same player?

And why tweak the confidence of Bartlett. Gardy has already yanked him around enough. Show some confidence and patience in your shortstop.

Well,Tyner is lefthanded. But it is a crucial situation. There are 2 outs and nobody is on base. The run expectancy is already very low and adding Tyner to the mix doesn't change a thing. So why make a move.

Bartlett must have made a move on one of Gardy's daughter's. Why else would he hate Jason Bartlett so much.

Scott Ulger cost the Twins at least 1 more run

The third base coach just sent Punto home on a play that wasn't even close. It probably won't cost the Twins the game but it does show a lack of understanding of physics.

There was 1 out, Punto was on 2nd, Castillo hit a hard shot through the hole between 1st and 2nd. It was a well hit ball. Francouer was charging, the ball was hit right to him. It wasn't even going to take a good throw to nail Punto. I assumed Punto would be held at third. He wasn't. He was tagged out easily.

When a ball is hit hard and directly at the rightfielder, who wasn't playing too deep, don't send the damn runner!!!

Scotty, the harder a ball is hit the faster it goes and when the fielder is running straight in, it is easier to get a good strong throw than when he is moving to the left or right.

There is your lesson for today. If he keeps it up, he will be scouting with former thirdbase coach Al Newman.

1 year anniversary of Todd's Twins

It has been 1 year since my blog started. Here is my first attempt a at a blog entry. Here is one of my early favorite blog entries.

I hate the name Todd's Twins. I should have had a more creative name for a blog.

Adam Dunn

Steve Phillips was a GM for the NY Mets. Somehow his Mets made it to the World Series but lost. I don’t understand how, this man does not understand baseball.

On ESPN last night someone asked him about possible trades including the Reds. He said that Griffey was the most likely to be traded because he was the teams best commodity. He went on to talk about Adam Dunn.

He said that some teams like him and other teams hate him, mostly because he “ends too many innings and rallies”. Dunn has too many walks, homeruns and strikeouts. Yes, too many walks and homeruns end a rally and innings.

Adam Dunn does strikeout often. He has 83 so far leading the league by a large margin. But how is a strikeout different from other outs? He doesn’t advance the runner as much, no big deal. He doesn’t hit into as many double plays then either.

But he does get on base. He is 15th in the league in walks, giving him a .346 OBP. That isn’t great but it isn’t bad either. It is below his career average of .377.

He has 15 homeruns, tied for 3rd in the league with Griffey. Griffey is having a great season but Dunn is younger and would be more valuable for a longer period of time than Grifffey.

Any out will end and inning and double plays end innings too. As does being caught stealing. Dunn doesn’t do either much in his career. He has hit over 40 HR 3 times in his career and walked over a 100 times 4 times. When you walk you are not making outs therefore you are not ending innings.

A team like the Twins could use a player like Dunn. Please!!

Weekend series

The Twins take 1 of 3 from the Nationals which can only be described as a major disappointment to lose to one of the worst teams in the NL.

They beat Mike Bacsik after Silva blew up on Friday, big surprise, and after only scoring only 1 run off of former Twin farmhand Levale Speigner. The 1 run allowed lowered his ERA to 7.79. That is not a typo, his ERA before the game was a Ponsonesque 9.10.

I was unable to see the game yesterday but I listened to most of it. Did anyone else think listen? Gladden basically spent the whole time making fun of Bacsik. Since he threw so softly he kept making sarcastic remarks about the speed of his pitches. He even called one the pitches an “81 mph toad-ball”. It was pretty fun but a bit harsh

Mauer is back

And he will be batting the 2nd spot in the lineup. Yaaaay. It is a good spot for him. Mostly because then it will move Punto out of that spot. Punto gets way too many at bats for a player with a .333 OBP. Mauer's ability to get on base will help this offense a great deal. Especially, since it moves a weak hitter out of the top of lineup.

The effects will be felt throughout the whole lineup. Over the rest of the season Cuddy, Morneau and Hunter will now be getting more at bats which will lead to more runs. Imagine that, giving your best hitters more at bats.

For once Gardy is doing the right thing. But since it such a rebellious even revolutionary thing for Gardy to do, once Mauer starts to struggle or the Twins don't score for a game or two. I bet Gardy shuffles the lineup around and moves everyone back 1 spot in the lineup to make room for Punto or Tyner.

Another good headline

read this

Slowey debut

The Twins start a 3 game series tonight with Kevin Slowey making his MLB debut against Joe Kennedy. Slowey has been compared to Radke in the way he pitches. He has great control and so far in AAA this season Slowey has a 10 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio.

He differs from Radke because he just won’t shut up. I hear he is a talker. Read more about Slowey here.

I have the Twins as slight favorites in the first 2 games than a 2 to 1 favorite with Santana going against Chad Gaudin the third game. Gaudin is second in the league in ERA but he is no Santana.

Pick of the Day:
The System did great yesterday winning big on some and losing on some but overall it was another big day. The picks that I posted did well. The 2 favorites won but the 2 underdogs didn’t. The longshot did pay off though.

Best Favorite: CHN -165, NYA -115

Best Dog: Tex +135, Ari +113. The System also picks PIT over the favorite LAD but it seems not to like Randy Wolf too much. Will see what happens after this game.

The Twins are also a good dog to bet.

Longshot: Baltimore +170.

Twins win, Baker fails.

Twins swept the Sox on a walk-off walk by Torii Hunter. That is good to see. I like to see the Twins win by being patient. Now I hope they can be patient with Baker.

I think Scott Baker is a decent pitcher who has had some bad luck. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think he will ever be a great pitcher but he could be a quality innings eater if given a chance.

Last season Scott had some bad luck, his actual performance was not as bad as his ERA showed. In only 83 innings he had an ERA of 6.37 but his DIPS was a much more manageable 4.71. Hardballtimes gives him a FIP of 5.07 and an xFIP of 4.95. This shows that he had some bad luck to have such a high ERA. If he was allowed to play the entire season random chance would have equaled out, most likely, and his ERA would have been more manageable.

Because of this Baseball Prospectus projected Scott to have an ERA of 4.93, again, not great, but manageable.

This year so far he has had 1 good start 1 bad start and 1 mediocre start. And his numbers bear out again that he is pitching a little better than his ERA shows. His ERA is 5.94 and his DIPS and FIP are both slightly lower but it is his xFIP that is very good showing a decent 4.07 ERA.

His big problem has always been the homerun. This season he is still having that problem but given a chance the homerun rate against him should start to move toward the mean. Right now his HR per Flyball is almost 30% which nearly 3 times the league average. This number should and will drop and he will then appear to be a more effective pitcher.

On the other side of the issue Silva’s HR/F rate is a miniscule 6.9%. This probably won’t stay at this rate and his ERA will probably rise.

The one thing that has plagued Baker his whole career is the home run ball. It should continue to improve this season not just because of his high home run per flyball rate but also because it looks like he is throwing more groundballs. It is early but his groundball to flyball rate is a career high 1.75. And his overall groundball percentage is 50%. This includes outs and non-outs.

Scott Baker should improve if given the chance this season. I hope Gardy gives him the same chance that he has given veterans in the past.

Pick of the Day: Yesterday’s 2 best bets worked well. The longshot was a loser but that happens. Overall the System had another winning day after having its worse day on Tuesday after its best ever on Monday.

Best Favorite: SD -135, Tor is also a decent favorite at -160.

Best Underdog: TEX +127 is a very good bet and SF +130 is too.

Longshot: Bal +175.

Castro/Batista Part Deux

The Twins have cut Ponson and demoted Ortiz to the bullpen after the failed experiment of trying out 2 bad, over-the-hill players. The Twins are turning to youth again, just like last year. They learned a bit from last year, though they did make the original mistake again by signing them, this time they are cutting bait sooner than they did last year.

And they are winning.

If they keep this up they will not sign any crappy veterans by the 2010 season.

Baker is already pitching well and Slowey will be making the start Friday against Oakland. They may not be the best pitchers in the league but they only cost about $700,000 while Ponson and Ortiz cost over $4 million. And they project top be much better pitchers than the other 2 slugs.

I am looking forward to the slugs that Ryan will be signing this off season.

Pick of the Day: The System had a great week but faltered yesterday. Today there are not many good picks. Starting with $500 the system is now up to $425 after less than 2 months.

Best Favorite: SD -143

Best Underdog: SF +130

Best Longshot: Tex +180, they have only a 36% chance of winning but the money line makes it a good bet.

Weekend Series

The Twins are facing the Blue Jays this weekend. The Jays aren’t playing very well and Baker is facing rookie Jesse Litsch, I have the Twins as 56% favorites.

Litsch looks like he will have a 2:1 K to BB ratio with very good control with a about a 52% GB percentage.

Gardy is still pitching Ortiz this weekend even though the Twins had an off day, so all of the pitchers will get an extra days rest. 3 days rest was enough in the past, and now 4 days rest is not enough?

He has to learn to pitch his best starters more often. There is no reason that the Santana shouldn't have many more starts than Ortiz by the end of the season. But it doesn’t look that way. A strategy of utilizing your worst player as much as your best player is not an efficient way of garnering more wins. So fa rthis season Santana has 10 starts and Ortiz 9. Ortiz will be tied with Santana after tomorrow's game.

Reusse said that he was told that 'Ortiz had a good bullpen session". That is why he is not being skipped in the rotation. That makes as much sense as me saying they should start Crain because he is a starter in MLB 2k7 on my XBox and he had a good season. Both are not real life situations.

Pick of the Day: by the Baseball System

Its always tough to pick favorites but there are a couple good favorite bets tonight.

NYN over Fla -125

Bos over Tex -190 this game has tough odds but I have Boston as a 70% favorite.

There are 2 good underdog games.

TB over CHA +115

Hou over Ariz +107

I have both of these teams as slight favorites.

So far this season the System is doing great. It has soom good days and bad days but is doing very well in the long run.

Twins Win

The Twins were patient again against Robinson Tejeda. They scored 5 runs off of him and knocked him out after 3 innings. He threw 86 pitches and averaged 4.5 pitches per plate appearance!!!

This is another good sign from the Twins. Patience at the plate equals more runs.

Boof gets the win and Nathan gets the save after facing Sammy Sosa as the go ahead run in the bottom of the 9th.

Twins Pitchers

Ponson has finally been jettisoned, about 2 months too late. Ortiz and Silva have been getting knocked around as of late after very good starts. But that was to be expected. The both were getting a little bit of luck to keep their ERAs around 3.

Thier DIPS ERA's were much higher and they finally have ERAs closer to how they have been pitching. In the future I would expect Ortiz and Silva to keep their ERAs around 4.7 to 5.2 That wouldn't be too bad but it was not a very cost effective way of building a pitching staff.

Garza, Baker, Slowey or Perkins could have filled those roster spots and would have pitched just as well if not better and done it for about 1/10th the price.

With all of that being said I think Silva has pitched much better than I expected.

Now we just need to start scoring more runs.

Twins win....through patience!!!

The Twins showed some patience and actually scored some runs. Torii hit the big Grand Slam but it was the at bats by Cuddyer and Morneau that were the key.

Cuddyer worked out a walk and Morneau then had a very patient at bat. He fouled off some tough pitches and did not swing and balls. He walked to load the bases then Torii got his big hit. It was on the 2nd pitch but it was a hitters pitch and he crushed it.

Quarter of the season:1987

20 years ago after ¼ of the season the Twins also lost to Cleveland to fall to 20-20. They fell to 5th place and 3.5 games back.

Today they lost to Cleveland to fall to 18-22. Thay are still in 4th place, 7games back.

In 1987 Greg Swindell beat Bert Blyleven 6-3 before a raucous crowd of 7,401.

Corey Snyder went 3 for 3, hitting 3 homeruns. Snyder hit 2 off of Bert and 1 off of Mark Portugal. Mel Hall also hit a homerun as did someone named Tony Bernazard.

Swindell pitched a complete game, giving up a homerun to Laudner and walking none with 7 strikeouts.

The starting shortstop for the Tribe was a young Julio Franco.

The Indians “improved” to 13-27. This was a Cleveland team that was on the cover of Sports Illustrated before the season started with the heading: “INDIAN UPRISING" and the sub-headline, "Believe it! Cleveland is the best team in the American League!"

Cleveland lost 101 games in 1987.

Joe Morgan is still an idiot

The Twins won. And they should have won. They were facing a pitcher called up just for 1 start and the Twins hit him and the Tiger relievers hard.

But according to Joe it was because the "ball was always up". He went on and on about how the Tigers pitchers kept the ball up. And instead of just saying the Tigers were leaving the ball up, because that can happen, he became a detective and figured out the real reason.

According to Joe, the real reason the pitches were up was because the mound level had changed. He had no evidence to back the this up. And if he did he did not tell us the evidence. So he was blaming the Tigers bad pitching on the Twins' ground crew.

But wouldn't the Tigers pitchers been affected by this the previous 2 games? Not according to Joe. The change took place after Saturday's game, again no evidence presented.

But wouldn't the Twins' pitchers be affected by this? Not according to Emmy winner Joe Morgan. This is the Twins home park so they would be use to the difference. But Joe, how could they be use to the difference if it had just happened?

So given no evidence he, in effect, blames the grounds crew for the Tigers poor pitching. Yes Joe, 2+2 =9.

Could you imagine him as a doctor.

"Doctor Morgan, my toe hurts."
"You broke it."

"Really, it just feels like I stubbed it."

"Its broken. Someone attacked you and broke your toe."

"I don't remember that."

"Its broken."

Best Headline ever!!

"Royals To Get A Taste Of Angels' Colon"

New Poll

There is a new poll to the right. The results of the last poll showed that most people wanted Tyner either in AAA, out of the lineup or batting last. But a couple of idiots actually wanted Tyner leading off.

I didn't know Gardy read my site.

20 Years ago

20 years ago the Twins were also 17-17 and coming off of a loss. They were also in 4th place but only 2 games out in 1987 as opposed to 4.5 out today. Yet they still won the World Series and are still doing better than at this time last year.

But, this year the competition is much better so the oulook isn't as good, especially if the Twins continue to fail to score runs.

The Twins have no power and rarely walk. That is a combination for a 4th place finish.


The System has had a good week so far and a good season. The last picks I posted were good. There are a few decent ones today.

Best Favorite: Cleveland -130
Best Dog: Kansas City +163
Good Dog: Baltimore +145
Twins: Take the Twins -200. Johan is a heavy favorite but the System has the Twins with a 70% chance of winning.

Patience Pays off

The Twins finally score some runs and win. I have been harping on patience at the plate and it looks like it finally paid off.

They were very patient with Vazquez. He threw over a 100 pitches in 7 innings and the Twins saw 4.5 pitches per plate appearance. Though they never really "got" to Vasquez he did come out after the 7th which allowed the Twins to tee off against the Sox' Bullpen, scoring 6 runs in less than 3 innings.

The fact that the Twins worked the count vs Vasquez led to the Twins seeing inferior pitchers like Macdougal. Patience works.

Pick Of the Day:

Best Favorite: Yankees, Mussina -200
Good Favorite: Boston, Daisuke -173

Best Longshot: Washington, Bergmann +190

Twins: Min is a decent bet if you get good odds at -128