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There is no question that umpires have biases. The question is whether we want them or not. A couple of years ago I reported on a book that I was reading titled Scorecasting by Tobias J Moskowitz and L. Jon Weerthem. This writeup is going to copy a lot of that story. The book is similar to the book Freakonomics, except that it focuses exclusively on sports. If you have an iPad or iPhone, you can download the first chapter for free – and just that much changed forever how I watch baseball.
For those of you too young to remember the Mick when he played for the Twins, let me take a few minutes to enlighten you: Mickey Hatcher was loved in Minnesota. Not so much because he was a great player (though he was decent enough to be a semi-regular starter), but because he was slightly crazy. Everybody loved him. There are a few stories about him I would like to share. On May 4, 1984, Dave Kingman hit a towering fly ball that went up through one of the drainage holes holes in the ceil
Because there has to be something positive to talk about, and in part as a lead-in to going through my top 50 prospects heading into the year, there are a number of players of interest to look at instead of looking at Carl Pavano, Jason Marquis, and Nick Blackburn starts. Here are 6 stories at each currently-playing level (and one extra): At Rochester: 1. Ben Revere is hitting well again, and while he is not drawing walks, it is interesting to see that batting average rise above .320. I still
Offseason changed (article in Star Tribune) fall of 2008 You can't expect Mauer, who was 0-for-4 Thursday, to stay as hot as he has been lately. Since hitting the ninth-inning home run against the Red Sox in the first game of the series, the catcher was 1-for-10 with one walk and no RBI, but he is still hitting .407 with 11 home runs and 32 RBI in 26 games. Mauer had surgery last December, and as a result he couldn't do any lifting of weights or any of the normal offseason conditioning until the
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft. I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- This is the second version of the 'who is hot in the Twins' minors' series for 2012. About a month and a half into the minor league seasons now, a lot of changes have happened on the pitching leaders from the last "who is hot" list, mainly because of promotions and because PJ Walters and Scott Diamond are now excluded from the list. Nice to see that there are reliable relief corps throughout the organization, including the AAA. The bats
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-49w-eP93aWA/T7OkX-ftgpI/AAAAAAAAAVo/PoyyrOxcmPc/s1600/Dave.bmp [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] From the confines of his Target Field office this morning, Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter issued the following press release: "Twins Fans. It's been a rough start to 2012. We here at the Minnesota Twins are especially disappointed by the way this season has gone, especially after having sat through 2011. In 2011, when things were going bad, we to
First of all, put Eddie Rosario up for sale in the "Adopt a Prospect" forum. As of this blog I am finished with this "Twins Daily" stuff. For most of the time I enjoyed my time on this sight, but seemingly felt stifled as my blogs/threads/comments did not enact much response. Yes, in a way I can see why they did not. It seems like I made a mistake and should have left this sight well alone. The hierarchy on this sight have made it seemingly clear they want it fairly straight and narrow and do no
Originally posted at k-bro's baseball blog Short series; short recap; short paragraphs. Men left on base. Leaving pitches up. Shin-Soo Choo. Homerun. Homerun. Homerun. Grounding into double play. Grounding into double play. Grounding into double play. Grounding into double play. Groan. ~~~ Injury update After Tuesday's game, Justin Morneau was activated off the DL. He's been swinging in batting practice for the last couple of days. The Twins o
The Twins put up a lackluster effort at home in getting swept during a short two-game series with the first place Cleveland Indians. Derek Lowe looked like Cy Young on the mound and the Twins continued to hit ground ball after ground ball to fall further behind the Tribe. Jason Marquis gave up three home runs in the fifth inning and five runs over five innings to put the Twins in a hole they would never be able to get out of in the game. Ron Gardenhire shifted up the line-up for this contest a
The curse of the Pine Trees strikes again. Five- Zipperoo today against the blue meanies. We were told that removing them would help the Twins hit better. Joe Mauer himself made this claim. It's done the exact opposite. BRING BACK THE TREES IN CENTER FIELD PRONTO - - Or the Twins will suffer losing season after losing season and heartbreak after heartbreak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 15: on this day in Twins history, 2012, Jason Marquis gave up three home runs in one inning, in a lethargic 5-0 loss that also featured (not to be outdone) four different Twins grounding into double plays. Wait, what? You have to wait a year to mark a milestone like this one?
Hello Twins Fans! I am sure I am not the only one who is puzzled and, dare I say, annoyed by the quasi-familial atmosphere that seems to slink around the Twins organization like smog. Don't get me wrong, I think camaraderie is great for a team and especially for a team that is struggling like the Twins are however this is a business, not a family. I guess what pushed me over the edge on this issue was the article I read in which Alexi Casilla spoke with manager Ron Gardenhire about his lack
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft. I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I w
I waited almost a full month to update the status of my "prospects to watch." I actually wish I could attribute the lag to laziness, but I was waiting for some of these guys to turn it around so that I would look smarter. It didn't really work out that well, but there is some progress: BELOIT: JD Williams, OF (Age: 21.6, SH): 111 PA, .222/.306/.313 (.619), 7/1/0, 11/34, 8/10. Williams is exciting and he is slowly hitting better as the year goes on. End of Year: Should finish 2012 in Beloit.
Originally Published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Here is this week's installment: While Brian Duensing is stretched out to be a starter, I think that the Twins should fill at least one or maybe two rotation spots on an "internship"-like way: Promote a new pitcher from the minors every week to make a start. That might work pretty well, based on the recent first starts by Scott Diamond and P.J. Walters. One of the things I am doing these days and will finish before the draft, is to pu
This weekend, for mother's day I helped honor the woman who taught me how to irrationally love a bunch of wild, punk kids...she had practice with my brothers and I, and it's clearly served her well as a baseball fan too. My mother is a die-hard, eternally loyal and unflaggingly optimistic, and permanently enamored of the Twins. She cheers for Mauer when others boo, she cheers for Nishioka when others leave him for dead, somehow-someway, she even cheers for Matt Capps. But over mother's day brunc
I was wrong with liking giving Matt Capps a second shot in the closer role. When we let Nathan go, I thought the rangers overpaid for him, we needed someone that was decent at the back end, I thought Capps would get over the struggles he had last year. I was dead wrong. I was the only one that liked it, I can admit now that we should have found another arm in the bullpen to finish games. I am still a big proponent of the closer by committee option, I think the Twins could still figure that o
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Winning the Cedar Rapids Kernel prize from TD is far better than winning the FIFA World Peace Prize. Thanks.· 0 replies
