big dog

A few people have mentioned a "suspension"- I believe he's just sitting out a few games, he's not officially suspended. He sits on the bench, he keeps his paycheck, he supports his team- big difference compared to a suspension from a morale standpoint.

It's one thing to flip your bat and run the bases, it's another to stand there and watch until it lands. As others have said, you not only show up the other team, you risk possible career-ending injury (to you or perhaps the guy hitting behind you). Imagine some guy who knows he'll be lucky to make AAA much less the majors on the mound- he might not have a real great attitude about the event, and not much to lose. Keep your personality, but keep it within the reasonable bounds of professionalism. AJ's survived in the league, there's a lot of room there.

Wow, that more than anything else makes me believe that last year's FA group was pretty weak. I don't think he's been terrible, but...well...8th? In two important categories? Good on him, I guess.

I thought perhaps Gardy was going to file a protest, but I guess that is only for cases where there is a rule interpretation. This would probably fall under the heading of Umpire Judgement (Or Lack Thereof). Too bad, but still a very good series. Absent Diamond, the Twins are on quite the pitching roll, too.

All right, Chris Hermann. Let's see a little two-out thunder.

I didn't accuse anyone of being outraged, just said that I wasn't (but the way you read it makes sense too). Trading Garza and Bartlett for Delmon Young, that outraged me. I'm not disagreeing about bench design for the long term. I would just as soon never see Doumit behind the plate again...or in the outfield. And I don't think much of him as a DH. As an emergency, tolerable (compared to Escobar anyway). I'm hoping we move him, and that Hermann is a younger, better version of Doumit. And I'm hoping Butera goes back to AAA without having to appear in a game, and that Arcia tears it up for another week and comes back ready to rock as he stays in the majors the rest of his career. But then I'm a hopeful kind of guy.

Very nice inning for Pelfrey. If, and that's a big if, he can keep improving, I hope he gives the Twins first chance at signing him for next year.

I know Colabello is a AAA god this year, but when he bats up here he just looks like he has no chance. I'm glad he's getting a chance so we can see what he has, but right now he's sure not looking like the power RH bat we need off the bench.

Liriano has been wildly successful for 2 months, something he did in 2 different years for the Twins. He really thrived with the White Sox. Etc. This all comes under finding data to fit a hypothesis rather than testing a hypothesis.

To be a little more fair, the Twins had only 2 catchers, one of whom is really a DH and both of whom currently represent a starting and THE backup outfielder. I have a hard time being outraged that Butera's coming up for a few games. If he stays up here after Mauer comes back, that's a different thing for me.

Your statement was that "starters as a whole improve drastically when they leave the Twins." Crain and Guerrier are relievers. Dickey started exactly one game for the Twins. Why is K/9 your only measure of whether or not a pitcher has improved? Two of the three new guys are coming off surgery, and all three are coming from the National League. Facing pitchers helps the K rate compared to facing DHs, though I don't know the expected amount. Some adjustment is called for when pitchers change leagues. According to Baseball Reference, Lohse pitched 908.1 innings for the Twins, with 561 K's. That works out to 5.56 K/9, virtually the same as his post-Twins career (all of which was in the NL). Garza was a kid who was likely to improve- he had pitched 133 total innings for the Twins. What about Slowey since he left the Twins, not just the last few months? Is a change of 0.5 even statistically significant without factoring in age, league, etc? Jason Marquis, really? You're arguing that the Twins' alleged philosophy had a huge impact for 7 starts on a guy who had made over 250 starts in his career? A guy who wasn't even in spring training? He was barely on the club long enough to learn the name of the clubhouse attendants. You forgot Eric Milton, but he went the opposite direction. We'd all like to forget Carlos Silva, who never struck anyone out anyway. I could argue the Twins gave up too early on Jim Kaat and Jerry Koosman and I'd be right, but it wouldn't be relevant. Pavano improved by 1.1 K/9 his first year with the Twins, then fell apart. Andersen's fault? I doubt it. I don't think the claim that starting pitchers improve when they leave the Twins has very much support, personally. I think the claim that the Twins have had a lot of crappy pitchers is much more plausible. You could also argue that they have given up on a few guys they should have kept, which is certainly true (and true of an awful lot of teams, but no less true here). But I sure don't see a long track record of starters going off to be wildly successful elsewhere.

I'm a little mystified by this. Which "starters as a whole" have improved drastically when they leave? Santana? Nope. Liriano didn't improve, he got back to what he had been twice before while a Twin. Slowey was a good Twins starter for a while, a bad starter after he left, and he's probably pitching no worse for Miami now than when he was a Twin. Kyle Lohse? It took him a long time, and a couple of teams, to become more consistent than he was with the Twins. It's fair to say that these pitchers have performed elsewhere at a level as high or even higher than when they were Twins, at least for short periods of time, but I don't think it's fair to say they all improved drastically. Who else do you mean?

Chris Hermann, welcome to the rest of your life!!!

Another double by the Cleater!

OK, I got nothin' that's going to come close to that. Well played.

My daughter's fast-pitch softball league was like that. Typical scoring sequence: W, WP, WP, W, W, WP, E-4, WP, W ad nauseum.

The E-Z Outs

Yeah, and I don't think he got a good swing at any of the four.

Dang...I thought I got that one removed. That was really a rough morning.

Anyone can play a guitar held horizontally. It's playing one held vertically that gets you the cool gigs. I'm glad Doumit caught that third out without getting hurt. He was fighting that pretty hard but made it work.

I'm going with Jake and John.

And another one of me with a different Gibson: http://i.usatoday.net/money/_photos/2011/09/17/Gibson-Guitar-CEO-to-face-feds-over-raid-TVCTJ43-x-large.jpg

Here's a picture of me and my Gibson:

Is that what you told Scott Diamond in May?

Sure, you just come back from a huge Vegas debauch and you blame the Twins being on the West Coast. Sorry, not biting on that.