bwille

After a drama-filled game on Tuesday evening in which the Minnesota Twins rallied to beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 10 innings, the teams were back at it Wednesday afternoon with the Twins having a rare opportunity to sweep a road series. The game was an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel, but it was a blown call by an umpire that ultimately stole the show in the Twins’ 1-0 defeat. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The Twins had runners on first and second base with Justin Morneau at bat and nobody out. Angels’ closer Ernesto Frieri had been struggling mightily with his command and the Twins were poised to scratch across a few runs and steal another game on the road; all of that changed in the blink of an eye due to a crucial “judgment” error by the umpire. Morneau hit a soft, broken-bat pop-up that was heading towards Frieri, who had plenty of time to make what appeared to be a routine play, when he suddenly let the ball drop in front of him before throwing to first for the out. ~~~Originally published on RantSports.com~~~ Now why would Frieri let the ball drop you may ask? Well, it’s pretty simple: if Frieri lets the ball drop, he can then pick it up and turn a double play because the runner at first—if he is a smart base runner—will freeze on such a slow and low-level pop-up and will head back to first. By letting the ball drop and throwing to first base, Frieri ensured he would get Morneau out and also catch the runner at first—Doug Bernier—in a run-down for the second out. You may be asking: where did the umpire make the error? The answer is that Frieri should never have had the opportunity to let the ball drop in front of him. The umpire should have ruled the play an infield fly, which would have held the Twins to one out, and the runners would have returned to their respective bases. Too often, fans and media members believe that an infield field fly can only be called if there is a pop-up that has occurred in the confines of the infield, to one of the four official infielders, with runners on first and second base and less than two outs; but that understanding is mistaken. According to the MLB Official Rules, by definition, “An infield fly is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out. The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who stations himself in the infield on the play shall be considered infielders for the purpose of this rule.” In addition to considering the pitcher an infielder, the key phrase to pay attention to in the infield fly definition is “caught by an infielder with ordinary effort.” The fact that Frieri had time to see the ball in the air, decide to let it fall and be able to make a double-play should be evidence enough that something wasn’t right. With ordinary effort—or below ordinary effort for that matter—Frieri could have easily caught the low-hanging pop-up; thus, the umpire should have called an infield fly because it was a play that the infielder could have made with ordinary effort. This missed call may seem insignificant due to the fact that the Twins are so far out of contention, but the fact remains that this type of blunder could cost a team a decisive game down the stretch and thus, it needs to be called correctly. Of course, it needs to be correctly called in any event. Contrarians will argue that the play was a “judgment call” by the umpire. Well, it was, and his judgment that it was not an infield fly was wrong. The additional judgment by Frieri to let the ball drop should have been rendered irrelevant if the ump had made the right judgment. Brian Wille is a Minnesota Twins writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @BeeWill15 or “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google To view more articles by Brian Wille, click here

With the addition of Eddie Guardado to the Minnesota Twins’ Hall of Fame two weeks ago, I got to thinking about the opposite end of the spectrum from great players. When I began watching the Twins in the early nineties, Kent Hrbek was retiring, Kirby Puckett was at the tail-end of his career and the Twins were about to be enveloped by a period of mediocrity that would damage the franchise for a few seasons. During that time, I grew up expecting mediocrity, but I also got to see the complete spectrum of players the Twins had to offer.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] In addition, the Twins have been criticized over the years for signing or bringing in players who were cheap, over-the-hill, underwhelming and unproductive; players the team hoped could be revitalized or that they would find some value in. Often, the Twins wasted money on players who had nothing left to offer and had no business being in the majors; yet, the FO gave them their one last chance. Photo Courtesy of Ben Tesch ~~~Article originally published on RantSports.com~~~ With that in mind, I started to have an idea that could recognize some of these moves and players scattered throughout Twins’ history. My idea led me to the Twins’ Hall of Shame. While this idea may not be fully unique, I think it’s a great forum that could generate great conversation. In order to be nominated for the Twins’ Hall of Shame, my only requirement is that the player had to play/be on the team a minimum of 40 games with the Twins, which is the equivalent of one-fourth of a season, or be acquired via trade/signed at some point during the season. This would allow for a good enough sample size to be considered worthy of the Hall of Shame, but also would allow for a player who was acquired via trade or signed during the season and quickly released again a chance to make the list. Without further ado, I will release the five nominees for the inaugural Hall of Shame class of 2013. I will release an article next week revealing the players who will be selected to enter the Hall of Shame based on your votes. Players must receive a minimum of 75 percent of the votes in order to be selected. You can vote on my group page on Facebook or via Twitter at @BeeWill15. Bret Boone Boone was a career .266 hitter with 252 HR and 1021 RBI, with 22.6 WAR over his 14-year big-league career, but his brief time with the Twins was shameful. Boone was acquired from Seattle after the team designated him for assignment and the Twins put in a claim to trade for him. The Twins agreed to pay the balance of his $9.25 million salary and also agreed to send Seattle a player to be named. General Manager Terry Ryan had this to say about Boone when he was acquired, "I'm not saying that Bret Boone is going to be a savior, but he might be a guy that can help. There's a lot at stake for him, obviously." If those aren’t inspiring words, I don’t know what are (sarcasm). Ryan went on to say that, "This is a high-reward, low-risk situation. I don't think there's any downside." Besides paying a player a portion of 9.25 million dollars to appear in 14 games (58 AB's) with a .170 batting average, zero HR and three RBI in 58 at-bats, the Twins also missed the playoffs after hoping Boone was the player who would revitalize the team. All in all, Boone made himself a strong candidate to enter the Hall of Shame as a first-ballot member. Jason Marquis The typical off-season pitcher signing of the Twins was well beyond his productive years; the Twins thought they’d take a chance on signing the starter in hopes of catching lightening in a bottle like they did when they acquired Carl Pavano. In reality, the Pavano acquisition working out probably was the worst possible thing to happen to the Twins because it was validation for their ridiculous strategy of acquiring players to fill out a roster. At any rate, in 2012, Marquis was horribly ineffective with a 2-4 record, 8.47 ERA, 1.941 WHIP and a not-good 13.8 H/9 in seven starts with the Twins. Marquis was a 10 game winner for a six straight seasons in the mid-2000s, but he hadn’t won more than eight games since then and had an ERA near 4.00 over that time. The Twins figured he was better than what they had and so they made a move to sign him and ended up getting what they paid for. Marquis did have a nice run in San Diego after he left town, but his performance with the Twins was bad enough that he wound up on the ballot for Hall of Shame in 2013. Pat Mahomes Mahomes wasn’t your one-year wonder with the Twins and in fact, he spent a total of five years with the team. Well, while that may be more an indication of how bad the team was in the mid-1990s, he still lasted longer than other players on this list. During his five-year run with the Twins, Mahomes went 18-28 with a 5.82 ERA, 1.617 WHIP, 4.6 BB/9, 9.9 H/9 and a total of 237 earned runs allowed over 366.2 career innings. Mahomes was seemingly always trying to work himself out of trouble and never really seemed to have a plan when he was on the mound. The image of Mahomes consistently taking off his hat to wipe the beading sweat off his forehead because he was in a difficult situation is engrained in my memory; he, in my opinion, best represents the ineptitude of the Twins’ starting pitching during the mid to late 1990s; thus, he is a candidate for the Hall of Shame. Tsuyoshi Nishioka Nishioka was supposed to be the solution to the Twins’ problems at shortstop when the team signed him from Japan and traded away J.J. Hardy. He ended up being a huge bust and cost them a valuable shortstop in the process. Hardy wound up having a couple great seasons in Baltimore and Nishioka ended up being vastly overmatched by American baseball and seemed lost and overwhelmed on the most routine plays and situations. Even time in the minors couldn’t save Nishioka’s career in Minnseota. The Twins signed Nishioka to a three-year, 9.25 million dollar contract before the 2011 season after the team gave more than $5.3 million to his Japanese team to gain negotiating rights; talk about money wasted. In his two years with the Twins, Nishioka wound up hitting .215 with zero HR and 20 RBI over 71 games with a WAR of -2.4. If you watched the Twins during Nishioka’s two-year run, you’ll understand why he is Hall of Shame-worthy. Butch Huskey No list of Hall of Shame candidates would be complete without Butch Huskey. Before the start of the 2000 season, the Twins were looking to add a player with DH experience. They threw half a million dollars at Huskey and gave him the role over a young David Ortiz who was also fighting for at-bats at DH; ultimately, the experience factor mattered more for the Twins. In the end, playing Huskey over Ortiz may be Hall of Shame-worthy in itself. Huskey was a career .267 hitter and put up seasons of at least 15 HR and 49 RBI in four of five seasons from 1996 to 1999. Those weren’t great stats, and expectations of him as a power hitter and run producer on a team that didn’t possess those qualities in abundance were never fulfilled. At any rate, in 2000 Huskey hit .223 with just five home runs and 27 RBI in 215 at-bats with the Twins. Huskey wound up being dealt to Colorado; the shameful part of his time with the Twins can, unfortunately, be seen by the team not playing a man who became David Ortiz and instead choosing to play an over-hyped, not very good player on a team that was young and emerging as a playoff contender. These are the candidates for the inaugural Hall of Shame class of 2013. Remember to vote via Twitter or Facebook on who should be placed into the Hall of Shame and also let me know if I missed anyone who could be included on next year’s ballot. Brian Wille is a Minnesota Twins writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @BeeWill15 or “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google To view more articles by Brian Wille, click here