Aerodeliria

Of the three trades being discussed, this is the one that disgusted me. Houston knew exactly what to do with Pressly the second he arrived. They would have coughed up more had we held out.

Of the three trades being discussed, this is the one that disgusted me. Houston knew exactly what to do with Pressly the second he arrived. They would have coughed up more had we held out.

Of the three trades being discussed, this is the one that disgusted me. Houston knew exactly what to do with Pressly the second he arrived. They would have coughed up more had we held out.

Of the three trades being discussed, this is the one that disgusted me. Houston knew exactly what to do with Pressly the second he arrived. They would have coughed up more had we held out.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Of course, I love Maeken, but pitchers are always a risk because of arm problems. FYI, he was a horse for the Hiroshima Carp (I'm sure he regularly threw around 120 pitches in games he was pitching well if he needed to). This has been par for the course in Japan. I once saw Yamaguchi-san (Toronto Blue Jays) throw over 140 pitches in a game. This is why I was frustrated to see Maeken pulled against the Astros.

Not all errors or misplays have equal weight--just like hitting. This is the trouble with defensive metrics. Polanco's error in Game 1 of the playoffs lost the game for the Twins. The weight of the error is the equivalent of a closer giving up a two-run homer with two outs to lose the game. If this had been the first inning, sure it would have hurt, but the intensity of the error would seem somehow much lighter in retrospect.

Baldelli: Note to myself. Regular season and post-season are different. You can't play the long game in the post-season.

This is my favorite quote of the year.

Like so many other big games, failures on defense cost the Twins the game. There is something about Polanco in tight games and errors. That was an easy throw to make. Maybe he should come out in tight games in the late innings. The other interesting thing is patience at the plate. Obviously, Baldelli emphasized that the Twins be patient at the plate...it lasted one inning. Only Kepler and Arraez were swinging at strikes after the first inning. (I'd really like to know the number of balls hitters chased in this game--on second thought, forget it--I don't want to know.)

One thing that Tom Kelly understood intuitively is that every game in the playoffs is Game 7 and that conventional patterns from the season should be ignored. (He also had some tricks up his sleeve that were only saved for the playoffs.) The mistake many managers make in playoff games is that they think about the morrow or they revert back to their mid-season mentality. This usually involves pitching changes within a game. When a pitcher is pitching well, Kelly understood that you should leave him in until he's out of gas. It is shortsighted IMHO to consider who is going to pitch in Game 4. Pulling a pitcher after five innings so he can be ready for Game 4 is a mid-season strategy. Game 4 may never even happen! Last year, Berrios was pitching well and he was yanked too early. Dobnak wasn't pitching poorly IMHO and he was also yanked (albeit the poor decision from the previous game may have contributed to Baldelli pulling the trigger more quickly than he wanted to). In Game 7 of last year's WS, AJ Hinch pulled Greinke after he gave up a home run on a very good pitch. Sometimes an opposing player just hits a very good pitch well--that was the only ball hit well off of Greinke to that point in the game. The bullpen imploded and Hinch was fired--maybe not only for that loss, but it was still a poor decision. If Maeda is rolling tomorrow, why pull him after five or six? He has thrown well over 100 pitches (like 130) on more than one occasion when he pitched here in Japan. Anyway, that's my two-yen's worth.

Maeken also feels more comfortable with the Twins IMHO. He was always the odd man out for the Dodgers, which added unnecessary pressures.

Well-said.

Oh, this is the opposite conclusion of what I had imagined! In any case, let's call up some recruits.