Danchat

Top of 7th Inning Report Marisnick strikes out swinging. Castro lines out to 3rd. Kemp doubles to deep right. Springer singles, Kemp to 3rd. Bregman flies out to center. Bottom of 7th Dozier singles. Grossman strikes out. (Jandel Gustave pitching) Sano strikes out. Dozier steals 2nd. Plouffe singles. Dozier scores on errored throw home by Kemp, Plouffe to 2nd. (MIN 7-0) Kepler flies out to center. Let's see if Santana can go all 9 innings. He's got 10 Ks so far.

Top of the 6th Altuve strikes out swinging. Correa singles. Correa steals 2B. Gonzalez grounds out (5-3), Correa stays. Tucker grounds out (4-3). Bottom of the 6th Suzuki walks. Rosario singles, Suzuki to 2B. Dozier singles, bases loaded. Grossman singles, scoring Suzuki & Rosario. Dozier to 3B. (MIN 3-0) (Chris Devenski pitching) Sano singles, scoring Dozier. Grossman to 2B. (MIN 4-0) Plouffe walks, bases are loaded. Kepler walks, Grossman scores. (MIN 5-0) (Pat Neshek pitching) Polanco grounds out (1-3). Sano scores, all others advance. (MIN 6-0) Escobar flies out to left. Suzuki walks. Bases loaded [again]. Rosario strikes out looking. WOW! What an inning! They finally did something with runners on base! Suzuki walked twice that inning! Grossman is 4/4! The game's score is almost the same as the real game's!

I'm actually considering taking a game thread next week and doing this again. Everyone seemed to like it, so I'll definitely bring it back.

Strat-o-matic Report Bottom of the 4th Kepler flies out to right. Polanco strikes out swinging. Escobar reaches 1st on an error by 1B Gonzalez. Suzuki singles, Escobar to 2nd. Rosario singles, bases are loaded. Dozier strikes out looking. Ugh... I hate leaving the bases loaded. Top of the 5th Kemp lines out to 2B. Springer flies out to left. Bregman grounds out (6-3). Bottom of the 5th Grossman doubles to deep left-center. Sano singles, Grossman to 3rd. Plouffe walks, bases are loaded. Kepler lines out to 1B. Polanco flies out to center (too shallow to tag up and score). Escobar flies out to left. Come on, they had the bases loaded with no outs and still didn't score! I'd say this is an accurate simulation! Grossman is quietly 3/3 with a 1B, 2B, and HR. Can he hit for the cycle?

OK, I'm back from my break. I'll post the rest of the game in the next hour or so. Top of the 4th Strat-o-matic Report Correa doubles. Gonzalez singles, Correa to 3rd. Tucker strikes out swinging. Marisnick strikes out swinging. Castro grounds out to SS (6-4). Santana got himself out of a tricky situation and now has 9 strikeouts. Maybe we could trade him for a top prospect?

My real name is Danny, so you could call me that.

You wait for my updates, of course! Yeah, since I'm the manager [of both teams], I'm letting Santana go as long as he can. I don't track how many pitches he has thrown. I imagine he's thrown around 40-45 pitches.

Alright, here's the 3rd inning. Top of the 3rd Kemp grounded out to first. Springer struck out swinging. Bregman singled past SS. Altuve struck out swinging. Bottom of the 3rd Dozier struck out swinging. Grossman singled to left. Sano hit into a fielder's choice - Grossman out at 2nd. Plouffe struck out looking. Santana has 7 strikeouts. I think I need to modify the numbers of Ks...

Since it doesn't look like the game will resume tonight, would you guys like me to finish the Strat-o-matic game? Or should I save it for later?

Ummm, yeah, there's no accounting for that. I'm not sure if I should continue playing... if the game is canceled, I'd rather finish the game today... what do you guys think?

Strat-o-matic Bottom of 2nd Report Polanco flies out to left. Escobar singles to center. Keuchel throws a wild pitch - Escobar advances to 2nd. Suzuki pops out in foul territory. Rosario pops out in foul territory. Too bad the Twins didn't smash Keuchel like they did in real life.

I think my board game predicted Correa's error. (Correa had an error in the 1st in my game)

Top of 2nd Report Correa strikes out looking. Gonzalez singles. Tucker reaches 1st on Plouffe's error, Gonzalez to 2nd. Marisnick strikes out swinging. Castro strikes out swinging. In this universe, Santana is a strikeout monster.

Bottom of 1st Report Dozier strikes out looking. Grossman HR - MIN up 1-0 Sano flyout to LF. Plouffe reaches 2nd on an error by SS Correa. Kepler flyout to CF. Wow, I love how we got a HR too.

I hope Dozier hits a leadoff homer in my game too.

Alright, here's my first report from the Strat-o-matic game: Top of the 1st Springer grounds out (5-3). Bregman strikes out looking. Altuve strikes out looking.

Yeah, I just saw that right after I finished writing my article. I would have talked about it, but I did mention him struggling in yesterday's thread.

Game Thread: Astros @ Twins, 8/10 @ 7:10 CT Probable Starters: Dallas Keuchel (7-11, 4.56 ERA) vs Ervin Santana (5-9, 3.62 ERA) 1. Jose Altuve The current favorite for the AL MVP, Jose Altuve is just killing MLB pitching. Altuve is batting an insane .361/.427/.570 – and that’s no small sample size. He’s whacked 19 HRs – which is pretty darn good for a guy with 36 total career HRs in 5 previous seasons. He’s also had an amazing K/BB ratio of 49/48. He’s also fast, stealing 26 bases in 31 tries. What can’t this guy do? Move over, Mike Trout, ‘cause Altuve is no doubt a superstar in his own right. And he does all this at the tiny size of 5’6” & 165 lbs! He’s basically the same size as me and he’s the best player in the American League! I don’t get how he does it, but I like him a lot. I don’t see anyone else being the AL MVP. 2. Finally, Chargois!! I was originally planning on using this section to complain about Chargois not being on the Twins roster. The good news is that he is (May on the DL)! J. T. was tearing up AAA with an ERA of 1.80 and a K/9 over 9. He is definitely a candidate for a closer or at least setup guy of the future, so let’s hope the next month and a half can be used for Chargois’ development. 3. Lineups Astros Dallas Keuchel (L) 1. George Springer ® RF 2. Alex Bregman ® 3B 3. Jose Altuve ® 2B 4. Carlos Correa ® SS 5. Marwin Gonzalez (S) 1B 6. Preston Tucker (L) DH 7. Jake Marisnick ® CF 8. Jason Castro (L) C 9. Tony Kemp (L) LF Twins Ervin Santana ® 1. Brian Dozier ® 2B 2. Robbie Grossman (S) LF 3. Miguel Sano ® DH 4. Trevor Plouffe ® 1B 5. Max Kepler (L) RF 6. Jorge Polanco (S) 3B 7. Eduardo Escobar (S) SS 8. Kurt Suzuki ® C 9. Eddie Rosario (L) CF 4. Today’s Special Event Now it’s time for that event I foreshadowed earlier… it’s time for some Strat-o-matic Baseball! http://i66.tinypic.com/kb7hut.jpg Has anyone else played this game before? If you haven’t it’s basically a baseball board game, but it functions like a simulator. Every player has a card with numerous outcomes on it – Sano’s card would have lots of strikeouts and more HRs than the average player, and so on. You roll dice to see what outcome will happen. But why do I mention this game? Well, that’s because… during today’s baseball game, I will be simulating the same game using the Strat-o-matic Baseball Board Game! You can’t actually purchase this year’s set of players until the year is over and they’ve been made, but that won’t stop me. Years ago I developed a way to play the game without the need of buying more sets of cards. All I need are the players’ current stats and I can simulate the game with maintained accuracy. During today’s thread, I will be reporting what happens in the board game. After each inning’s over, I’ll tell you guys what has happened. I hope you find this as exciting as I do! OK Twins, not only do you need to win, but you also need to beat the Astros at a board game version of baseball! Let’s go for the double victory!

Anyone else think it time for a Boshers-Chargois swap?

Santiago's looking much better so far. Though this does kinda smell of deja vu from Nolasco's starts earlier this year...

SANO!!!! Cue the fireworks!!

Game Thread: Astros @ Twins, 8/9 @ 7:10 CT Probable Starters: Mike Fiers (7-5, 4.34 ERA) vs Hector Santiago (10-5, 4.37 ERA) 1. Hector Santiago The Twins newest starting pitcher, Hector Santiago, will make his second start as a Twin today. Now, first off, I have to say I’m much happier seeing Santiago start rather than Nolasco. I was becoming afraid that the Twins would actually think he was part of the solution rather than the problem… But now we have Santiago. His numbers are kind of weird – he hasn’t been that great this season (5.15 FIP w/ MLB leading 59 walks given up), but he’s somehow got 10 wins with one of the worst teams in baseball this season (not that wins mean anything, but I do find it odd). And just as recently as last season, Santiago went to the All-Star game. In the first half of 2015, Santiago had an ERA of 2.33, a solid 2.82 BB/9, and a very nice 8.14 K/9. Since then, Santiago’s numbers have drooped to an ERA of 4.77, a 4.36 BB/9, and a sustained 7.95 K/9. Santiago can help this team if he can learn to control his pitches and limit the number of walks. If there’s anything this pitching staff does well, it’s teaching guys not to walk batters. (Or that’s been my perception over the last few years.) 2. What Happened to Carlos Gomez? What has happened to Go-Go? After being an All-Star in 2013 & 2014 with the Brewers, Gomez has not produced at the plate. In 323 PAs, Gomez has already struck out 100 times. His contact ratio is at just 64.9%, which is a far cry from even 2015 when it was at 76.5%. Gomez flashed some power in 2013-14 with 47 HRs combined. In those two years, he had stolen 74 bases – the last two years in Houston, he’s stolen just 22 bases. He’s been hurt, and perhaps that’s what is affecting him. But perhaps he isn’t the player he used to be. It’s too bad he isn’t in the lineup tonight… 3. Lineups Astros Mike Fiers ® 1. George Springer ® RF 2. Alex Bregman ® 3B 3. Jose Altuve ® 2B 4. Carlos Correa ® SS 5. Marwin Gonzalez (S) 1B 6. Evan Gattis ® C 7. Tyler White ® DH 8. Jake Marisnick ® CF 9. Tony Kemp (L) LF Twins Hector Santiago (L) 1. Brian Dozier ® 2B 2. Joe Mauer (L) 1B 3. Max Kepler (L) RF 4. Miguel Sano ® DH 5. Trevor Plouffe ® 3B 6. Eddie Rosario (L) CF 7. Jorge Polanco (S) SS 8. Kurt Suzuki ® C 9. Robbie Grossman (S) LF 4. The State of the Astros As I’ve been casually observing the Astros this season, I must say that they’ve had an odd year. They swept the American League by storm and nearly took the AL West. It seemed this team that had been in a complete rebuild was on the way up. But then they began 2016 tripping up and falling on their faces – though they were outdone by the Twins’ early failures. Similarly to the Twins, they had a torrid June and July, and Houston was back in range of making the playoffs. However, they’ve lost the last 9 of 11 games and they’re tumbling out of control. Most of their bats have gone cold with many starters failing to hit over .220. Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel hasn’t been himself, and the other starters are average to mediocre. They’re in an odd position. They should be only getting better, but it’s not happening this season. Who knows where they might end up next year… 5. Coming Soon… I am also in charge of tomorrow’s game thread, and I will be doing something special during tomorrow’s game. What will it be? Well, I think I’ll keep that secret for right now… OK, Twins, let’s show the Astros who’s boss! Let’s keep on winning!

Winner winner chicken DINNER!!!

It may have been an unearned run, but I'll take it.

I will be very disappointed if the Twins don't score at least 1 run on Jepsen.