Halsey Hall

I understand there's only so much you can do. Unfortunately 2 of the worst bullpen pitchers remain on the roster as evidenced last night. What I don't understand is the reluctance to DFA players that just aren't worth keeping. Dumping Sanchez and Cotton, who just pitched reasonably well instead of Pagan and Duffey shows a lack of fortitude and IMO brains by the FO. Fulmer, Duran, Jax and Lopez can't pitch every game so the moves made will have limited effect.
Mahle pitches tonight so we'll see if the FO is as smart as they think they are since he is the guy they supposedly had been targeting from the get go. If he's your Game 1 starter in the playoffs we'll see how he does against the playoff caliber lineup of Toronto.

I think Correa is probably one of the most clutch Twin there is.

Archer retires 12 straight, so what’s the book say, Rocco?

Baldelli pinch hitting for Kirelloff just pissed me off at the time and it bit us in the end.

Ruesse is the best baseball writer the Twin Cities have ever seen.
I hope he lives and works to be Sid's age.

There’s a pile of money to be made on this team, as starting pitchers dictate.  Should of bet the house against Buddy.

I put the over/under on future Bundy starts at 2.5.
 
 

Really? Anyone? Do you really think nobody was screaming at the screen saying get Duffey out of there? I would have pulled him in the pen and not even had him pitch. I would have left in Smeltzer, who said in the post game he didn't want to come out, and Baldelli said that "was the plan, we talked about it the day before, so it didn't matter what lobbying Smeltzer did (not exact quote but paraphrased)." I would have an ultra quick yank on Duffey, because I was watching him pitch yesterday, and paying attention. But I would have had Smith ready as well, and immediately pulled Duffey after he gave up the pinch hit single to O'Hearn. And in comes magic man Smith for the one out, the single out, with the go ahead run, Twin killer Merrifield at the plate. But I would have had someone ready with a pecarious 2 run lead and Duffey on the mound, for sure. He was already at 17 pitches! And then I would have had Duran in the ninth for the save, because we were still ahead 2-0 (and maybe more because the offense would have been loser in the 8th and maybe scored with no outs and the bases loaded). Duffey would not have pitched to Merrifield. The big mistake and flawed part of "the plan" was not having Smith up and ready if needed. If he was, and Baldelli waited, Duffey doesn't pitch to Benintendi, and he certainly doesn't pitch to Witt, now with 25 pitches and the last 4 scared balls to Benintendi after an 0-2 count. Did Baldelli even get anybody out for the whole 34 pitches he watched Duffey throw? I can't remember. I was so livid by then. 
Ah......... the plan. The dreaded unbending rigid plan. These games matter, and should have more respect than the plan.

Larnach did spend hours more than anyone not named Jake Cave in the batting cages this spring.

Do we have a hitting coach?

Do we have a hitting coach?

Do we have a hitting coach?

Buxton will have a super year.  Reason - he now signs autographs with a bible verse.

Kepler, Kirilloff and Arraez worked out today, and signed a ton of autographs.  Max has buffed up and on a mission.

Happy New Year to all.  And many thanks to all that run this site.  I was to leave for Ft Myers tomorrow, but cancelled out Thursday.  Still hopeful for a spring training and will get there if there is. 

Happy New Year to all.  And many thanks to all that run this site.  I was to leave for Ft Myers tomorrow, but cancelled out Thursday.  Still hopeful for a spring training and will get there if there is. 

It’s with heavy heart I report that Big John Mele passed away.  A great guy and grounds keeper.  A friend of many players and fans.

No worries about offense tonight, 2 dingers already.

So there is finally a game on tv, and we are down a td in the second.  I may not watch much.

So there is finally a game on tv, and we are down a td in the second.  I may not watch much.

I was fortunate enough to sit and talk to Mudcat several times in Ft Myers.  He told me a lot of stories, some I’ll never forget.  I really enjoyed him, a great guy.

I was fortunate enough to sit and talk to Mudcat several times in Ft Myers.  He told me a lot of stories, some I’ll never forget.  I really enjoyed him, a great guy.

We need a pen tonight.

I was fortunate enough to sit and talk to Mudcat several times in Ft Myers.  He told me a lot of stories, some I’ll never forget.  I really enjoyed him, a great guy.

A Byrd In Hand
The Byrds. No, not the Birds, the Byrds, the folk-rock band of the ’60’s. You know, “Roger McQuinn had a 12-string guitar it was like nothing I’d ever heard.” - David Alan Coe lyrics from his song “Willie, Waylon and Me”.
I was always envious of Roger McQuinn of the Byrds. He could make a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar jingle-jangle while I had trouble plucking your basic 6-string. That’s how I wound up a bass man. Only had to pluck four strings. It was said I could play the bass by ear, but to be honest, I only ever used my fingers.
I had a buddy, our rhythm guitar player, who also liked to play bass and sometimes the two of us would get together to drink a little beer and try to create a two-bass riff. Usually, after a couple hours of intense “practice”, the basses were loaded. The runs often came later.
We both played in a garage band, that’s like Low A ball in the music world. We were just good enough to play cheap taverns for all the surreptitious beer we could drink, but occasionally we’d get real cash in payment; sometimes to stop playing. But there was one small town tavern that booked us every couple of months because we always packed the place. I often wondered if the semi-isolated town was that hard up for entertainment or if the local population was tone deaf. If so it could've been genetic. They kept calling each other “Cousin”.
One of the cousins, a dishwater blonde with chapped hands, had a thing for me. I once told her an off-color joke during one of our frequent intermissions and she wrinkled up her face in disgust and scornfully demanded “God! How low can you go?”
“Well, I am a bass man,” I told her. Needless to say I struck out.
“So what the hell does all this have to do with the Twins game?” you demand impatiently, suspecting the Dastard is about to throw you a curve ball.

“Patience, Grasshopper,” I reply in my best impression of a learned Shaolin monk. “A master weaver threads carefully.”

Or should that be “treads carefully”? You know, so you don’t tear the rice paper as you run away from irate dishwater blondes.
However I will graciously concede Roger McQuinn has nothing to do with today’s game or the Baltimore Orioles for that matter. But he does have something to do with Minnesota. You see the Byrds first hit was “Mr. Tambourine Man” which was composed by none other than Bob Dylan, a native Minnesotan who actually has musical talent.
 
 

Dylan, according to legend, began writing “Tambourine Man” while attending Mardi Gras and completed it during a cross-country trip from New Orleans to New York with friends. One of those friends, according to Dylan, was none other than the ubiquitous yet often inspiring Mary Jane.
Anyway, if you drive cross-country from New Orleans to New York City, you have to go through or around Baltimore. And if you’re into one of those wide-eyed driving-stupors that come on after too many hours behind the wheel, with or without Mary Jane, and get caught up in Baltimore rush-hour traffic you just might see a bird or two. Not a baseball player. Or Roger McQuinn. The middle finger kind. I know this from personal experience.
Which, circuitously brings us back to today’s game with the Orioles; aka in sports writer slang; The Birds. It seems John Means, today’s pitcher for the Birds, recently got the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award for almost throwing a Perfect Game. Apparently Means did throw a Perfect Game, but since his catcher dropped a third strike pitch and the batter made it safely down to first, a runner did reach base and therefore technically Means threw a Perfect Game that can’t be scored as a Perfect Game. Talk about getting the middle finger. Just goes to show you that the end doesn’t always justify the Means.
I know, I went a long way to get that one in and lend this effort a somewhat tenuous connection to baseball, but in my own defense I would like to point out that I devilishly turned the phrase “basses were loaded” and also used such iconic baseball words as “Low A”, “struck out”, "runs" and “curve ball” while threading my way to this denouement.
I guess you could say I’ve been stringing you along.
Whatever, it's time for the Twins to stop stringing us along and turn this season around if they want to avoid getting "birded" by their fans.
 
 
Today's Duelists on the Mound
 
Orioles - John “What Does It” Means  4-0    ERA  1.70    K- 59

Twins - Matt “The Cobbler” Shoemaker   2-5    ERA  6.08    K - 25