4 game lead for the Twins over the White Sox.
Good night.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Nice consistency, blue.
Mike DiMuro was the home plate umpire tonight.
Strike zone for John Danks tonight:
Strike zone for Glen Perkins tonight:
Strike zone for John Danks tonight:
Strike zone for Glen Perkins tonight:
Thursday, July 15, 2010
What Jim Thome saw
Same story, just a different game.
Twins continue their slide, now sit 4.5 games out of first place behind the Chicago White Sox.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Been awhile...
It has been a few weeks since my last blog post...and with good reason. I made the trip out east to watch the Minnesota Twins play the New York Mets, visit some family, and take in the sights of New York City. While I expected watching the Twins to be the highlight of the trip, it certainly was not that.
With that said, things have been less than stellar for the Twins for quite some time. While some people want to refer to this as a 'mini slump', the Twins have been struggling for much longer than most people either know, or want to admit.
Since the beginning of May, the Twins are playing below .500 baseball - 30-33 including tonight's 7-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. In fact, the Twins are 9-9-3 in the series that have comprised the last 63 games. For a team that played so well during the first month of the season, this should hardly be considered a 'mini slump.'
This team has gone from good, to average, to poor quicker than most of us would jump into bed with Kim Kardashian.
What have been the issues? Well, there isn't just one area that you could point to and claim that to be the biggest concern. All three facets of the team - the offense, starting rotation, and bullpen have given plenty to be worried about; and it seems to all come at different times.
When the offense is struggling, the starting rotation is great. When the starting rotation is struggling, the bullpen is great. When that - well, you catch the theme.
The amount of offensive production is down since April; the amount of runs allowed has increased since April. It has been a complete 180 since the Twins were playing their best baseball of the 2010 season - giving optimism that this could be the season when the Twins take the next step. Those were the expectations for this team heading into the season; giving even more reason to be upset and frustrated about their current state.
With the trade of Cliff Lee to a team other than the Minnesota Twins, the dominoes figure to fall over the next few weeks. Will the Twins be involved? One would like to think so - but sitting 3 games out of first place with two games left before the All-Star break (versus the team you are chasing) does not leave much reason to be buyers for the trade deadline.
This team needs help - significant help. Let's just hope the organization realizes that before it's too late; which it may already be.
With that said, things have been less than stellar for the Twins for quite some time. While some people want to refer to this as a 'mini slump', the Twins have been struggling for much longer than most people either know, or want to admit.
Since the beginning of May, the Twins are playing below .500 baseball - 30-33 including tonight's 7-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. In fact, the Twins are 9-9-3 in the series that have comprised the last 63 games. For a team that played so well during the first month of the season, this should hardly be considered a 'mini slump.'
This team has gone from good, to average, to poor quicker than most of us would jump into bed with Kim Kardashian.
What have been the issues? Well, there isn't just one area that you could point to and claim that to be the biggest concern. All three facets of the team - the offense, starting rotation, and bullpen have given plenty to be worried about; and it seems to all come at different times.
When the offense is struggling, the starting rotation is great. When the starting rotation is struggling, the bullpen is great. When that - well, you catch the theme.
The amount of offensive production is down since April; the amount of runs allowed has increased since April. It has been a complete 180 since the Twins were playing their best baseball of the 2010 season - giving optimism that this could be the season when the Twins take the next step. Those were the expectations for this team heading into the season; giving even more reason to be upset and frustrated about their current state.
With the trade of Cliff Lee to a team other than the Minnesota Twins, the dominoes figure to fall over the next few weeks. Will the Twins be involved? One would like to think so - but sitting 3 games out of first place with two games left before the All-Star break (versus the team you are chasing) does not leave much reason to be buyers for the trade deadline.
This team needs help - significant help. Let's just hope the organization realizes that before it's too late; which it may already be.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
More sink, Blackburn!
If you began watching the Twins/Phillies in the 3rd inning, you missed Nick Blackburn's performance. You might ask, how? Well, take a look at Blackburn's line from last night:
1.2 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR
On top of that, Blackburn threw 50 total pitches - half of which were registered as strikes. He also retired just two Philadelphia on balls in play; one on the ground and the other on a line drive to left field.
To say it wasn't Blackburn's best start would be an understatement.
In fact, this was Blackburn's fourth start in the month of June; and the third of which he was not able to complete 4 innings of work. On the Twins last road trip, Blackburn 10 earned runs in just 6.1 IP versus Seattle and Oakland.
Blackburn's lack of success on the road should not come as a surprise. In 32 IP, Blackburn has an ERA of 7.31; including 55 hits allowed, 5 home runs, 9 walks, 8 strikes, and an opponents batting average of .393.
As you may have noticed, I highlighted a few different numbers. In fact, I could have highlighted all those numbers based on the significant amount of ridiculousness that they present. In a much easier way of saying it, Blackburn has been awful on the road this season; and not much better as a whole.
However, I am not going to ignore Blackburn's month of May. Blackburn gave a number of people hope that he would be worth the contract extension that he signed with the Twins just a few months ago. Blackburn posted a 2.65 ERA in in 37.1 IP in the month of May - impressive. However, if one looked deeper into Blackburn's moth of May, they would have noticed that he was very, very lucky.
To prove that, here is Blackburn's BABIP by month so far in 2010:
April: .325
May: .288
June: .444
Notice - there are two extremes there; meaning that Blackburn was lucky in the month of May, and has been a bit unlucky in the month of June. Blackburn will never be a pitcher that records a lot of outs via strikeout - and as much as people want to claim his as one, Blackburn isn't as 'ground ball driven' as one would think. In fact, he has a less than one GB/FB ratio on the season.
However, he will always be a pitcher that relies heavily on his defense - and right now, those batted balls in play just aren't finding the Twins defense like they had been in May. In fact, Blackburn is probably closer to the pitcher we saw in April than he is to the pitcher in May or June. And Blackburn wasn't very good, at all, in the month of April.
So be fair, he is probably a little better than that as well. In fact, he has posted ERA's of 4.05 and 4.03 the last two seasons before 2010 so he has had some success - he just isn't going to be able to sustain that success; and I believe we have seen the beginning of that in 2010.
It is just too bad the Twins front office became enamored with ERA and .500 record over the last two seasons to realize that this was bound to happen.
1.2 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR
On top of that, Blackburn threw 50 total pitches - half of which were registered as strikes. He also retired just two Philadelphia on balls in play; one on the ground and the other on a line drive to left field.
To say it wasn't Blackburn's best start would be an understatement.
In fact, this was Blackburn's fourth start in the month of June; and the third of which he was not able to complete 4 innings of work. On the Twins last road trip, Blackburn 10 earned runs in just 6.1 IP versus Seattle and Oakland.
Blackburn's lack of success on the road should not come as a surprise. In 32 IP, Blackburn has an ERA of 7.31; including 55 hits allowed, 5 home runs, 9 walks, 8 strikes, and an opponents batting average of .393.
As you may have noticed, I highlighted a few different numbers. In fact, I could have highlighted all those numbers based on the significant amount of ridiculousness that they present. In a much easier way of saying it, Blackburn has been awful on the road this season; and not much better as a whole.
However, I am not going to ignore Blackburn's month of May. Blackburn gave a number of people hope that he would be worth the contract extension that he signed with the Twins just a few months ago. Blackburn posted a 2.65 ERA in in 37.1 IP in the month of May - impressive. However, if one looked deeper into Blackburn's moth of May, they would have noticed that he was very, very lucky.
To prove that, here is Blackburn's BABIP by month so far in 2010:
April: .325
May: .288
June: .444
Notice - there are two extremes there; meaning that Blackburn was lucky in the month of May, and has been a bit unlucky in the month of June. Blackburn will never be a pitcher that records a lot of outs via strikeout - and as much as people want to claim his as one, Blackburn isn't as 'ground ball driven' as one would think. In fact, he has a less than one GB/FB ratio on the season.
However, he will always be a pitcher that relies heavily on his defense - and right now, those batted balls in play just aren't finding the Twins defense like they had been in May. In fact, Blackburn is probably closer to the pitcher we saw in April than he is to the pitcher in May or June. And Blackburn wasn't very good, at all, in the month of April.
So be fair, he is probably a little better than that as well. In fact, he has posted ERA's of 4.05 and 4.03 the last two seasons before 2010 so he has had some success - he just isn't going to be able to sustain that success; and I believe we have seen the beginning of that in 2010.
It is just too bad the Twins front office became enamored with ERA and .500 record over the last two seasons to realize that this was bound to happen.
Friday, June 18, 2010
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