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longstrangetrip

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Everything posted by longstrangetrip

  1. longstrangetrip
    You can't really stop Butera...just gotta hope to contain him. Fortunately held him to a single.
  2. longstrangetrip
    I don't like it either, JB. Really unusual for it to be this hot in LA...all on account of those Santa Ana winds. Back to the comfortable low 70s by the weekend.
  3. longstrangetrip
    Wow, gotta love Colabello's discipline on all those tough sliders!
  4. longstrangetrip
    95 degrees and sunny (although quite windy) at my baseball practice today here in LA. I predict these Dodger wimps are going to roll tonight over in real weather.
  5. longstrangetrip
    With the snow in Minny yesterday, I'm confident Gibson wasn't able to get in his 18 holes of golf like he did before his last start...should result in a good outing.
  6. longstrangetrip
    I have to agree with jokin's take on Pinto defensively, although I don't think I would even call him OK for a rookie. Yes, his throwing has been terrible, but I have actually been disappointed with all aspects of his catching, including framing and moving his feet. I have to admit that I'm not yet convinced that he is the catcher of the future...seems like he has a long way to go. This really presents a dilemma for the Twins, because his hitting has exceeded my expectations. I don't think his propensity for walks is an aberration...he seems to have an uncanny ability to lay off breaking stuff out of the zone that eats up so many young hitters. And when he gets his pitch, he hits it as hard as anybody on the team. He has a major league bat...now they have to figure out where to play him. If they want him to be a catcher, I don't think that catching 1-2 games a week is going to help him. As much as I love his bat, I'd be inclined to send him down when Arcia and Willingham are ready, so he can catch 5 days a week and try to master the trade. It's too early to think of him as just a DH, but I think he's going to have to put in a lot of work before he's ready to be a No. 1 catcher in the bigs.
  7. longstrangetrip
    I have really enjoyed watching Suzuki take professional at bats this year. And the difference between him and Pinto defensively is vast (that's another issue, but Pinto has been a huge disappointment to me behind the plate so far). That said, I wonder if he really has changed his stride, or if we are just seeing an appropriate reaction to two very different pitches. In the first one, he gets a very good 2-seam fastball that dives inside, forcing him to open up his hips a little quicker. Striding toward the plate would have been ineffective against a pitch like that. In the second example, though, he gets a pitch up and away, and the appropriate response was to stride more toward the plate (he should have driven that pitch to the right center gap though...trying to pull it almost always results in a roller to the SS). I'd like to see video of Zuke against the same type of pitch, last year and this, to see if he has really changed his approach.
  8. longstrangetrip
    Intriguing question, trane, but I come down on the other side. My grandfather used to regale me with stories about Walter Johnson, but I never staked a claim to him or the Washington Senators. As far as I was concerned, the franchise I love didn't exist before 1959. I guess to me allegiance to a team has more to do with geography than ownership. It probably doesn't help that there is almost no mention of the Senators in baseball lore since the 1920s. I don't think my position is unique. I was a huge Minneapolis Laker fan as a kid, being the only major league franchise in town in the 50s. But I now live in LA, and I dislike the Lakers with every bone in my body. And it works in reverse too...I don't know one current Laker fan who can tell you anything about Vern Mikkelson or Jim Pollard. There are several retired number jerseys hanging in Staples Center, but the only one that ever appeared in Minneapolis is Elgin Baylor...and only for a year. LA people think of George Mikan like I think of Walter Johnson...a great player with no ties to the current franchise. I suspect most of even the most avid Twins fans couldn't name the greatest Senator at every position, or even fill out a lineup card with former Senators. Calvin made a good decision when he retired the Senators nickname, and that effectively cut off allegiance to the Senators for most Twins fans.
  9. longstrangetrip
    A lot of the devotion to Pelfrey has to do with the fact that he is one of the best-liked guys on the team...he's a favorite of Gardy and Anderson. In all fairness to him, though, he has a better career ERA than Hughes, is just entering the period where pitchers coming back from TJ start to get more comfortable, and had a much better last half of 2013 than Hughes. I don't want to give up on a 6'7" with such good movement on his ball...I know I wouldn't want to step in the box against him. That said, he has been a huge disappointment this year. Deduno is miscast in the bullpen and needs to start, and whatever starter is pitching the worst needs to go to the bullpen...I just don't know who that is yet.
  10. longstrangetrip
    Agreed, very sharp last two innings, and his breaking ball is the reason. I think the Yanks gave up on him because they didn't think he could command his curve ball...let's hope they were wrong.
  11. longstrangetrip
    I'm with ya, Gibby. My patience level is much higher with the addition of Colabello and Pinto to the lineup, along with the improvement of Plouffe. And fun to see that Kohl Stewart was so dominant last night.
  12. longstrangetrip
    I don't think Pinto's high walk rate is an aberration. You don't often see young power hitters with such an extraordinary ability to lay off breaking pitches out of the zone. At some point Gardy's going to have to protect him with a better hitter behind him...then, those walks are going to become extra base hits as he starts to see more fastballs.
  13. longstrangetrip
    Okay, a much better inning for Hughsey in the second, but man, these poor starts are getting to me. I'm starting to think Hughes' problem wasn't the dimensions in Yankee Stadium, it's belt high fastballs over the plate. Anybody else wince when he served up that fat pitch to Miggy... I'm stunned it stayed in the park.
  14. longstrangetrip
    I'm really enjoying watching the Twins at bats this year. Remember what some of those Yankee teams in the last decade would do to our pitching? You just couldn't get them to swing at a bad pitch. The count was always 3-1, and our pitchers had 80 pitches by the 3rd inning. Well, that's what we seem to be doing this year! Dozier has never been my idea of an ideal leadoff guy, but he looks like Jeter to me this year. How many times have we seen him go 8-10 pitches leading off the game, and before you know it, the opposing pitcher has 20-30 pitches in the first inning? And Mauer, Plouffe and Cola have seen everything the pitcher has by the time they come up. It changes the whole complexion of the game. I credit Bruno, but I also give Dozier a lot of credit for how he starts the game.
  15. longstrangetrip
    Stories like Colabello are one of the things that make baseball the greatest game ever invented. Sure, you get unexpected phenoms in other sports too, but it never seems to have the same charm that a baseball story does.
  16. longstrangetrip
    I'm an unabashed Pelfrey apologist, but he's really struggling tonight. That said, you're right...if Mauer doesn't throw high to second, Pelfrey still hasn't given up an earned run tonight.
  17. longstrangetrip
    Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark on Gibby's ERA. In more positive news, I heard he shot an 82 on the links yesterday.
  18. longstrangetrip
    Okay, this post would have been much more meaningful if I had done it 4 hours ago, but I've been out and just got home, so this is my first chance. When I heard this afternoon that Gibson went out and played 18 holes of golf on a tough TPC course yesterday, I was pissed. It reminded me of the days that Ron Davis was blowing saves regularly while getting only four hours of sleep because he needed to get up to go fishing. I know that most of the team golfed yesterday, and I don't begrudge them that. But a starting pitcher can't be golfing the day before his scheduled start. Pitching is all about routine, and pitchers will tell you they stick to a strict schedule of activities between starts. And there is very little margin for error in the art of pitching, and chiropractors will tell you that golf does weird things to your body alignment. Gibson's poor start was predictable, and a player's coach like Gardy won't hold him accountable. I wonder if David Price went golfing yesterday?
  19. longstrangetrip
    I wonder how many young boys have the same picture in their minds as a vivid childhood memory. Last week my oldest son (now 38) and I were reminiscing about our top ten baseball experiences we shared together, and we agreed that the trip we took to Chicago in 1984 for his first outdoor game was in our top 3. He was a huge fan of the game, but up until then he had only been to a game in the visually unimpressive Dome. I'll never forget his eyes as big as saucers when he first gazed on the green expanse of Comiskey Park.
  20. longstrangetrip
    My buddy and I would always wander up to the broadcast booth to talk with the immortal Halsey Hall between innings. Halsey would have nine scallions lined up (so he could eat one each inning), and he usually would wash the scallion down with a beer per inning. By the end of the game he was pretty blitzed, and you could smell his scallion breath 100 feet away! 1975, arrived late to the game and was walking down to my seats in the funky stands beyond the third base bag...baby daughter under my left arm, a frosty Hamm's in my right hand, maybe 2800 in attendance. Rod Carew peeled a foul ball right at me. These were the days when players didn't flip balls into the stands regularly, so getting a foul ball was really special. As the ball arced toward me, I looked at what I was holding in each hand (arm), and had to make the split decision that they were both more valuable than the ball...it whizzed by me and was corralled by a couple kids behind me. I never had another chance until 2011 in the Legends seats behind the plate at TF...I dropped it.
  21. longstrangetrip
    Ha, loved those Frosty malts! Even though it would be totally frozen, I couldn't wait to eat mine. I usually would break the cheap little wooden spoon they would provide trying to pry the frosty malt out.
  22. longstrangetrip
    The Twins played their first game at the old Met. I was 9 years old and already quite familiar with the place as a Minneapolis Miller fan, but having a big league club in town to cheer for was heaven for this young boy. Sure, it wasn't a great ballpark, but I have so many fond memories of it. My best friend and I used to take an hour and a half bus ride from Excelsior (no 494 in those days, so it was tough to get to Bloomington) for day games in the summer. There was a piece of metal under the left field bleachers that you could bend back and sneak into the ballpark...ideal for a couple kids who had just blown their allowance on bus fare! Are there some other old timers on this board that would care to share some of their Old Met memories?
  23. longstrangetrip
    Yep, and he's building his lead...four ahead now. Gonna have to keep it up to fight off Kurt Suzuki, though, because Kurt is tied for 6th just 6 RBI back. On the negative side, anybody figure Joe Mauer would be 5th in the league in K's after 3 weeks?
  24. longstrangetrip
    That was my first thought too, until I looked at Vargas' splits. He's more effective against RHBs than lefties...both this year and for the past three. I still like the lineup except letting Florimonster bat RH.
  25. longstrangetrip
    Yes, Bruno needs to be given some credit in his second year. Blyleven made a great point yesterday...you can hear Bruno in the dugout yelling encouragement every time a hitter lets a high fastball or low outside slider go by for a ball. He is much more engaged, and it shows. But he also has much more to work with this year. TK once told my breakfast group that it just sounded different when Kubel was hitting, and it's clear that his leg issues held him back last year...what a great signing for the Twins. And one of our announcers said the same thing about Pinto...the ball just sounds different off his bat. Colabello is starting to convince me that he can hit in the majors like he did at AAA. And we're producing with the Hammer and Arcia not playing. I'd like to think that the Hammer has a difficult time getting back into the outfield once everyone is healthy. How Gardy lines them up in the batting order is a work in process. I've never been so unclear about how to go with an order, because there is so much promise and yet so many questions at most spots in the order. Sure is fun to watch it unfold though!
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