Bark's Lounge

I agree with the majority that Target field is a fantastically beautiful modern facility with a nostalgic/old-time feel, but I am perplexed as to why they planned out the dimensions the way they did. Usually teams who have procured the financing to build a new ballpark build it around their star players and their strengths. I cannot remember if the Twin's were given the thumbs up to build the ballpark in 2006 or 2007, but at that time they at least knew Mauer's strength was as a gap to gap hitter and Morneau is a left handed hitting power hitter that when he is going good hits the ball to all fields, but can pull the ball very often also. They have made the ballpark way to difficult to hit out of the yard in the power alleys and right field is a nightmare for power hitters. Petco Park (Padres) has served as an example to not build super-pitcher friendly parks in a mid to small baseball market. No decent free agent hitter wants to sign a contract with them and they seemingly always have middling teams at best with pitchers who's stats don't really tell the story (Good Luck Matt Latos in the Great American Band Box). Do the Twins have a stubborn attitude about adjusting on the fly to accommodate their star players and strengths? Was it too late in the process to make the dimensions friendlier to their star hitters? They definitely did not have a star pitcher to accommodate as Santana was gone when he reached Free Agency and everyone knew that. What happened and what was reasoning behind the ballparks design? Unbalanced ballparks ruin the baseball enthusiast's realistic point of view, reasoning of the box score's end outcome and overall feeling that player performance cannot be judged by results, but by theory based upon a generic ballpark's dimensions. MLB should have standardized dimensions on how each team builds their ballparks. Based on Climate, Wall Height, and Length of the turf. Target Field is Astheticly beautiful, but in baseball fairness.... ugly.

I figured this would be a tough season to watch, but the lack of offense by the Twins makes their games unwatchable. I cannot imagine anyone thought the pitching would be very good this year, although I thought the defense would be better... not looking good. Off of the subject - Unbalanced Ballparks are awful, whether it be band boxes or expansive ballparks that drop a pitchers ERA by 2 runs. Target Field is a Smoking Hot Woman/Man with a very unattractive and intolerable personality. Usually a ball club will build their park around their star players. The Twins on the other hand built Target Field to Handcuff them and render their strengths unusable.

I hope Moyer keeps pitching until he's 50. He's definitely an oddity. he's had a pretty damn good career, especially beyond the age 35, 82mph fastball and all.

ick... Silva had his time here, Livan had his time here. Let Hendricks and Swarzak fill up the 1-2 starting spots. The bullpen will lose depth with the loss of Swarzak, but in all reality it is a rebuilding year. If fact, we are probably going to have some major starting pitching deficiencies for some years to come. Let the young guys take their licks. If something magical doesn't happen, it will be a long time til our starting pitchers give us a chance to be contenders anyways.

This goes for any team: Vintage jerseys can be cool to sport sometimes and sometimes not depending on the look. If a team had a close proximity Negro League team from the past, it is great to respect that to the foremost. I am not too sure most fans would even get the Miller's jersey display. It's somewhat out of left field and will not resonate with the majority, but I guess it doesn't really matter. It's not like it is offensive. Seems like a waste of $ though.

Man, thechuckknoblog.com is filled with hate. No matter what happened, Carl's business is Carl's business. I feel bad for him to have to deal with this crap.

Here is something interesting about game 2 of the 2004 Division Series against the Yanks: CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman, the longtime Sports Illustrated baseball writer, talked to Hunter and Michael Cuddyer about the Yankees’ hold on the Twins. Hunter, while getting the situation slightly wrong (the Twins weren’t trailing by a run, the score was tied), said that someone on the bench was asked to pinch hit for Kubel but declined. On the bench at the time were catcher/first baseman Matthew LeCroy, who pinch hit later in the game; outfielder Lew Ford, who batted .299 in 154 games that season and started at DH the other three playoff games; and infielder Augie Ojeda, who didn't appear in the series. Either Torii is yackin' just to yack or something went unacceptably awry. I cannot see LeCroy refusing this assignment as he seemed to be a pretty good natured team guy. Augie Ojeda in his career was always fighting for a roster spot (don't see it). That leaves us with our formerly beloved Twins favorite Lew Ford. Is that smug lil' bugger the culprit of refusing to pinch hit? If T-Hunt isn't just running his lip and this did happen, he would be my guess. Thoughts?

Here is something interesting about game 2 of the 2004 Division Series against the Yanks: CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman, the longtime Sports Illustrated baseball writer, talked to Hunter and Michael Cuddyer about the Yankees’ hold on the Twins. Hunter, while getting the situation slightly wrong (the Twins weren’t trailing by a run, the score was tied), said that someone on the bench was asked to pinch hit for Kubel but declined. On the bench at the time were catcher/first baseman Matthew LeCroy, who pinch hit later in the game; outfielder Lew Ford, who batted .299 in 154 games that season and started at DH the other three playoff games; and infielder Augie Ojeda, who didn't appear in the series. Either Torii is yackin' just to yack or something went unacceptably awry. I cannot see LeCroy refusing this assignment as he seemed to be a pretty good natured team guy. Augie Ojeda in his career was always fighting for a roster spot (don't see it). That leaves us with our formerly beloved Twins favorite Lew Ford. Is that smug lil' bugger the culprit of refusing to pinch hit? If T-Hunt isn't just running his lip and this did happen, he would be my guess. Thoughts?

Plouffe: Avg. 262 - HR 22 - RBI 78 (Respectable Defense in the OF & IF)

True dat. True Dat. True Dat.

Let's up the ante for Mauer: [TABLE=class: sortable stats_table row_summable] [TH=class: tooltip sort_default_asc show_partial_when_sorting, align: left]Year[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip sort_default_asc show_partial_when_sorting, align: center]Age[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip sort_default_asc show_partial_when_sorting, align: center]Tm[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip sort_default_asc, align: center]Lg[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]G[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]PA[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]AB[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]R[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]H[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]2B[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]3B[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]HR[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]RBI[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]SB[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]CS[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]BB[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]SO[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip hide_non_quals, align: center]BA[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip hide_non_quals, align: center]OBP[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip hide_non_quals, align: center]SLG[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip hide_non_quals, align: center]OPS[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip hide_non_quals, align: center]OPS+[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]TB[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]GDP[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]HBP[/TH] [TH=class: tooltip, align: center]SH [/TH] [/TABLE] [TABLE=class: sortable stats_table row_summable] [TR=class: full hl] [TD=align: left]2012 [/TD] [TD=align: right]29 [/TD] [TD=align: left]MIN [/TD] [TD=align: left]AL [/TD] [TD=align: right]143[/TD] [TD=align: right]606[/TD] [TD=align: right]456[/TD] [TD=align: right]135[/TD] [TD=align: right]185[/TD] [TD=align: right]33[/TD] [TD=align: right]3[/TD] [TD=align: right]37[/TD] [TD=align: right]120[/TD] [TD=align: right]2[/TD] [TD=align: right]4[/TD] [TD=align: right]147[/TD] [TD=align: right]27[/TD] [TD=align: right].406[/TD] [TD=align: right].553[/TD] [TD=align: right].735[/TD] [TD=align: right]1.287[/TD] [TD=align: right]234[/TD] [TD=align: right]335[/TD] [TD=align: right]10[/TD] [TD=align: right]3[/TD] [TD=align: right]0[/TD] [TD=align: right][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Gardy is walking down some street in Ft. Myers this spring. Suddenly there is a flash! From nowhere appears a DeLorean and Dr. Emmitt Brown emerges from this vehicle. Dr. Brown shouts, "Gardy! We have to fix the future, come with me!" Gardy being the age of 27/28 at the time of the release of the movie "Back to the Future" feels a little nostalgic and agrees, not knowing what he is getting into. Dr. Brown and Gardy get into the DeLorean and travel back to 1982, where Dr, Brown instigates the kidnapping or coercion of talking the 24/25 year old Gardenhire into coming to the future. Dr. Brown, Old Gardy and Young Gardy get back to present day Ft. Myers and Old Gardy immediately installs Young Gardy as his starting Shortstop. Old Gardy then convinces Terry Ryan to trade Aaron Hicks for Nick Punto and Punto is installed as our starting 3rd baseman. Danny Valencia is shocked, but is convinced by Emmitt Brown, that as a 3rd baseman he would be an offensive and defensive baseball star in the 1910's and he will take him there. As Dr. Brown and Danny Valencia are about to leave in the DeLorean, traveling to the 1910's, Dr. Brown has a thought: Hmmm, I wonder if 1992 Jeff Reboulet could help the 2012 Twins... Let's find out!

The the active players you mentioned - Mariano, Jeter, Chipper, Ichiro, Pujols are a lock. Maybe Halladay? There will be a few from this era, but it is too early to speculate who that might be.

Here is a few predictions... ~ Plouffe will surprise some with around 20HR's. Hitting between .250 -.265, while being an effective utility guy jumping between the IF & OF ~ Morneau wins comeback player of the year hitting Upper 20 HR's while batting close to .300 ~ Mauer has comparable year to 07, 08 & 10 Season ~ Liriano wins 15 games (11 as a Twin)

Success Stories: Ichiro, H. Matsui, Nomo, Sasaki & Kuroda. Zach, sabremetrics will probably not be able to define Ichiro as we see he should be defined, but he is great none-the-less. In my mind, heart, and moral system I feel racism in the game of baseball has been, for the most part erradicated. Let us not forget about Jackie Robinson's struggles for equality, against racism and the hardships he had to endure. He opened the door for many and paid a great price for his sacrifice. When I hear the name of Jackie Robinson mentioned I do not equate that to baseball, but equate that name to the fight for civil rights, pride, honor, and to be treated like a human being. Sorry for my rant, Ichiro is a HOFer... hands down... no doubt.

On the Souhan Tip. Whether it be television, radio or in print he seems like an arrogant prick. His pomposity/better than thou attitude forces me to turn off the TV, crumple up the newspaper and turn off the radio. It almost feels like abuse (no offense to victims of such acts). Get rid of him (job termination). We don't need him and never did. Let's spruce up this place!!!

Oops, I forgot to add the Orioles. They will probably be bad also.

I don't think there really is a candidate to take a big step backwards. On paper everything seems in place. We all know the Astros, Mets, Athletics, Mariners, Cubs, Pirates will probably be bad, but that is not guaranteed. The rest of the teams seem to have some key players in place. All we can do is watch them overachieve, achieve, or underachieve. Injuries happen, bad years happen. Let the games begin! FYI - The Card's will be very good.

Richie Ashburn should probably say hello also.

Ichiro: Let's not forget his outstanding defense and his cannon arm. That has to come into play. A .326 BA and .370 OBP is more than HOF good. A .338 BA for Tony Gwynn is the stuff dreams are made of. No one can reasonably dispute his place in the HOF. He also revolutionized the art of hitting by studying his mechanical flaws from game day video... many have followed his lead. Both of these guys are GREAT artists of hitting!

Mr. Twins Fans From Afar. You are right about the fact that his overseas stats won't count with the "Old Codgers" (nice old school term!). Maybe they shouldn't? I think Ichiro will be a first ballot HOFer, but 2nd or 3rd ballot is not too bad. I am still perplexed by the 3rd ballot induction of Ryne Sandberg... I am not a Cub's Fan, but that one still unsettles me to this day. Oh well, it all worked out.

There are some who will disagree, but he's a shoe-in MLB HOFer. As of now he doesn't have 3,000 hits (578 to go), but his stats in 11 seasons of MLB play are astronomically great. I know it is speculation, but I think he will make it to 3,000. He will be 39 this year, but in my opinion last year was an abberration and he will hit .300+ this year and a few more to follow. He still has the quicks and he seems to be the kind of player who will age very well. He is a different kind of animal, nobody in baseball is quite like him and I don't expect to see another of his ilk. Last year's Seattle Mariners squad was offensively inept and sometimes bad hitting can be contagious. He would not be the first great player to suffer a bad year on a bad offensive club. I understand the warning signs. Ichiro WILL bounce back. Plus, as far as HOF consideration, don't discount his super stardom in Japan and how that has positively effected MLB popularity in that country. That too, will also be a factor.

Let's say Baker starts season on DL. Who would be another candidate other than Hendricks? They seem determined to use Duensing out of the bullpen. If it is not Hendricks - I would assume it falls to Swarzak. What are your guys/gals opinions?

1.1 IP - 1 H - 1 BB - 0 K's

It would be great, I hope it happens. But it is theoretical.