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Random musings from a transplanted midwesterner

Entries in this blog

Hammond Notes - March 19

A much abbreviated version of my notes today. Arrived after lunch and watched the two games offered. Perkins was the "starter" in the AAA game versus the Bostons, and seemed to do well in his one inning. Here is a photo of him warming up.     Tyler Duffey started in the AA game. Warmup photo alongside pitching coach Stu Cliburn:     I forgot to mention that I caught a glimpse of Gardy when he attended the UW Stout game Tuesday against our younger players - son Toby coaches Stout. So here's a b
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Hammond Notes - March 18

I meant to write up these notes last night and forgot. No deep insights here, just my jottings from a day under the sun at Hammond Field.   I arrived at 9:10, too late to get free parking on a game day. Cheapskate fans of minor league spring ball, take note!   I was approached by a reporter from a Naples newspaper, who was looking to interview average fans. I had initially mentioned my tenuous "affiliation" with TD (thinking he might be Nick Nelson), and apparently that made me way too official
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Spring Training Game Number 11 versus St Louis

I had the pleasure of watching today's game in person at Hammond Stadium, versus the portion of the St Louis Cardinal roster they deemed worth putting on a bus (hint: no stars). This writeup ought to be pretty quick, because it's one of those rare games where the box score plus a little inference pretty much tells you all you need to know.   But first, I'll mention that we didn't have tickets to start with, and didn't want to feed the scalpers - but a little bird had told us that tickets get fre
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Poker night with Terry Ryan

One of the interview questions with Terry Ryan at the Torii Hunter introduction press conference was, "are you surprised it [he?] took a one year contract?". Terry twitched and suppressed a smile and basically used every single one of his facial muscles before replying "no".   http://blogs.twincities.com/twins/2014/12/04/twinsights-terry-ryan-defensive-metrics-twins-ignore/   (Second short video in the sequence.)   My reaction is that, while poker is not my game and I am terrible at it, if by ch
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The Game

(This is an entry in the Blogging For Pizza contest.)     April, 2010...     "I don't want to be the catcher on the Twins anymore," Joe Mauer said. He looked around the table at the others inquiringly. "Like that?"   Gardy beamed. "Exactly like that." The manager picked up his glass and made a vague toasting motion with it, in acknowledgement of the catcher's quick comprehension.   Morneau's eyebrow inched up. "And the purpose of this rather esoteric activity is...?"   Gardy sighed. "It's a game
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Impressions after the Sunday game in Cleveland

After watching the Twins today in Cleveland, several impressions come to the forefront.   First, the pitching seems to be no better than last year, and quite possibly even worse. The starter, Nolasco, stunk it up with 5 runs in only 4 innings, and could not seem to locate his pitches to save his life. The bullpen quickly coughed up two more runs, a performance that could put a game essentially out of reach by the halfway mark.   The defense was also laughable, with somebody inexperienced manni
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Jimmy Rollins being shopped

MLBTR has an item stating that the Phillies would be willing to trade Jimmy Rollins. In the article, it's stated:   "Rollins, 35, struggled at the plate in 2013, batting .252/.318/.348..."   Meanwhile our resident starter pleased some fans with his progress, posting .221/.281/.330.   I don't particularly advocate trading for Rollins, as I assume the Phils want prospects the Twins won't want to part with and the Twins won't want to invest $11M a year in an aging player. I'm just mindful that o
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Road Trip for Arizona Fall League?

Folks,   When the Twins announced their players being sent to the Arizona Fall League (AFL), John Bonnes made an off-hand comment about a Twins Daily road trip. Something of that magnitude might be a little fanciful, but I'm thinking about going and he and I agreed maybe a clearinghouse would be useful for those who plan to go, or are considering it.   The Twins players will be on the Glendale Desert Dogs. All the AFL games are in the Phoenix area. Our guys have games from October 8 to Novemb
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Swiftian satire must be attempted only by people actually named Jonathan

In response to a forum reply that I felt crossed a boundary, where the writer questioned the courage of Andrew Albers, instead of just deleting the post I decided to try a bit of "see how you like it". Since it stirred up some controversy, I am posting here the private message I later sent:     Brock and I were both basically reacting to one sentence:   Albers could have at least had the balls to fight for it if he really wanted it.   Nothing else in your several posts
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Would you have gone 5 years and $80M for Anibal Sanchez?

This is a repeat of a forum post I made in December 2012. I'm blogging it now mostly for my own convenience; I took the time to look up several pitchers and I don't want to have to search again when I try to remember what I learned. The question was, if you were GM would you have matched the 5/$80M deal for Detroit's Anibal Sanchez? The context now is, when if ever would you sign a pitcher to a long term deal, given that there is room in the budget until the rookies start to earn big dough ..
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Anagram update

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/img/photos/2012/01/26/19/ca/original_shcool_photo.jpg Previously I posted anagrams of the 2013 Twins active roster. Here are permutations on some recent additions:   Oswaldo Arcia Iowa Carloads I Also A Coward A Cow Loads Air   Scott Diamond Candid Mottos Misadd Cotton Condom Tit Ads   Pedro Hernandez Preharden Dozen Pardoned Her Zen End Red Porn Haze   Anthony Swarzak What's Zany? Akron! Hawk Annoys Tzar Who Yanks Tarzan?
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Tigers looking to trade Porcello

I'll try this as a blog entry instead of a forum post.  The Tigers continue to shop Rick Porcello to no avail. MLB Trade Rumors states that the Padres turned down a chance to trade either Huston Street or Luke Gregerson to get him. Other deals have failed to materialize. I suppose the equivalent from the Twins standpoint would be Glen Perkins, factoring in the NL and the Padres home park. Would you make that deal, if the Tigers also saw it that way (and were willing to trade intra-division)?
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Managing a 40-man roster for a last place franchise

Originally posted in reply to thread These Call-Ups Are a Downer   The Twins' 40-man roster is apparently at 39 right now, and the desire for waiver-wire flexibility is a reason given not to bring up one or two other players for September, such as Anthony Slama.   How can a last-place team have any issues at all managing their 40-man roster? Just sooooo many talented players, the other teams will scoop an All-Star-in-the-making right up, if the Twins aren't careful?   Indecisiveness, may
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13 - A lucky number of pitchers?

The transactions of the last few days boil down to Blackburn being replaced by Deduno, and Parmelee being replaced by... Fien? So, we're back to a roster of 13 pitchers and 3 catchers. Very little scope for pinch-hitting and pinch-running. I guess this has been hashed to death, but it still seems weird to me. Wasn't so long ago that 11 pitchers were enough for a staff. And I think it detracts from the enjoyment of the tactical game - instead of managers having to anticipate opposing moves a
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Why is it...?

Why is it that on most days, when I channel surf to ESPN during commercial breaks of the other show I'm watching, I never get an update on how the Twins' game is going, but when they lose a game 16-4 like yesterday it's constantly the game shown on the crawl at the bottom of the screen when I click over there? Ugh.
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