PDX Twin

It's wonderful listening to Jim Kaat! (It was wonderful watching him pitch 50 years ago!) He made a comparison of Arraez hitting style and ability to those of Pete Rose. That's one I hadn't heard or considered, but it seems on target to me. Pesky hitter with brilliant bat control and zone coverage. Always hits for average. No power, little speed, and a mediocre fielder. (But from what I've heard he has a more amiable personality.)

And if he bunted to the left side a few times (or shortened up his swing and punched a few singles that way), they would stop shifting so extremely and he could have more chances to get hits going to his more comfortable right. This isn't a difficult concept. Why do so few players do it?

According to FanGraphs, his current WAR is -0.2, He's worse than a replacement player! When he comes up with a man on first and less than two outs, I want there to be an "intentional strikeout" so that he won't hit into a DP. Just wave your hand to the umpire and he's out.

I'm sure I'll get criticized for this, but about the only sport I watch now is European football. Baseball is interminable; rarely a game under 3 hours and many closer to 4 as players make constant equipment adjustments on every pitch and natural breaks in the game keep getting extended to sell more commercials. I still subscribe to MLB.TV, but have probably watched 100 innings this season. For many years, nearly all of my watching has been while doing something on my other monitor. It's nice to "keep track of the game," but I can't imagine how people can watch it. Going to games upon occasion, it seems that most people are just there for a night out to drink beer with their friends or to have a family activity, Almost no one is keeping score and at any given moment many (most?) are not actually watching the game. In fact, this has become true of all of the American sports I used to watch. An American football game is hours of commercials interrupted by minutes of concussions (and, of course five or more substitutions before every play). I recently watched some of an NHL playoff game with my son-in-law after not having watched hockey for years. Long commercial breaks in the middle of periods? Where did they come from? There is certainly a lot to hate about FIFA (not least selling the World Cup to one of the hottest places on Earth), but some of the things I love about European football broadcasts are: No commercial interruptions other than halftime, which is 15 minutes long and easy to FF through or spend away from the TV Continuous flow of play where anything can happen at any time Low scores so that a brilliant play (whether leading to a goal or preventing one) nearly always changes the balance of the game Very limited substitutions (3 total in England with no re-entry) so that all of the players play all aspects of the game rather than an army of specialist coming on to do one specific task British commentators who know and respect the game, and whose broadcast style conforms to the pace of the game (Vin Scully-style) rather than constantly trying to hype what's going on and citing endless (!!) arcane historical statistics I've been watching every minute of the European Championships this summer with (usually) rapt attention. I can't devote that attention to any American sports any more. But baseball will still be on the other monitor!

Me, too. It was 116 in Portland on Monday...

I'd be interested in comments from the professionals here. Is it possible that the emphasis on building strength in certain areas and muscles leads to imbalances in the stresses placed on proximate soft tissue and leads to injuries to ligaments, tendons, and muscles? Just a naïve thought, but it seems logical that increased force on one side could cause injuries on the other.

Lovely use of hyphens!

Buxton wants to play; the Twins will not let him. Yet another reason that he has no interest in a long-term contract with them?

It makes sense that this organization would choose someone with 4 HRs even though he hit .222.

As others have noted: Four solo homeruns and get no other runs and lose by two. So typical! I know it's silly, but if you extrapolate last night to the full season we hit 648 homeruns and go 0-162. That's extreme, but it's the pattern that his team has set.

How in the world did pitching even happen before this surgery was invented? This is only half sarcastic. Did pitchers not strain/sprain/rupture the UCL ligament in those days? (And if they did not, why is it ubiquitous now with all of our modern medical and training advances?) Or did pitchers simply quit when the UCL went out? Or did they find a way to pitch with a damaged ligament? I'd appreciate any clarification from those with more knowledge.

So Ober is #82? By my calculation he's only 81 inches tall!

So, three players from the expected pre-season starters, and they are hitting .250, .238, and (the #3 slot hitter) .150.

Exit velocity is sooooo important.

Never mind...

Simmons gets two assists on this play? How often does that happen?

Wow, a clean inning from the BP with a one-run lead. Isn't that against club policy?

I haven't watched the Twins for a couple of weeks. Should I watch this one? Alternative is the second half of a meaningless friendly match between Sweden and Armenia, whose quality makes MLS look decent. Hmmm. Maybe I'll watch Berrios for an inning or two on my second monitor.

Or "just another mis-happ."

Maybe it's time for the Twins to move over from Column A to Column B.

Perhapps.

How many times do you suppose a broadcaster ends up saying "Tarpa Tampons" instead of "Tampa Tarpons"? Accident waiting to happen.

Donaldson cuts that one off and gets two. Sano watches to see if Simmons can perform a miracle.

Do you suppose that when the Twins were advertising for a closer in the off-season, they inadvertently left off the "c"?

They pitch in T-ball now?