formerly33

On June 4th, Luke Westphal pitched an inning in relief for the Fort Myers Miracle in their 7-3 loss to the Bradenton Marauders and allowed a run on 2 hits. He also hit the first batter he faced by a pitch. I meant to cover this up by posting it along with an update on a better performance by Westphal, but it's been over a week since my last update and he still hasn't pitched since the outing in question. Maybe they want him to start game 2 of the doubleheader today...? Not sure, but time will tell.

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Minnesota Twins last night. The Royals had already won the first two games of a series which was deemed crucial to who would ultimately win the AL Central, and we were down 7-1 going into the bottom of the 8th in the last game of the series. Luke Hovechar had just inherited the mound from Edinson Volquez, and Trevor Plouffe was in the batter's box with a 2-2 count. Mark Ripperger, the home plate umpire, was hoping that the game would end quickly and according to schedule so he could keep a date he was set for later that night. Grim melancholy hovered like an evil being over the stricken multitude. The Twins had been in a slump for the past week, and they couldn't see how they could come back and win a game when down by six runs with only two innings to go. In the deepest depths of despair, a straggling few got up from the stands and returned to the miseries of everyday life, preferring that to seeing their team lose yet another game without even putting up a fight as they went. The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast; it was dismally whispered from person to person that the game wasn't over until it was over, and they might as well stick it out and see what happened next. Much to the fans' delight and Ripperger's dismay, Trevor Plouffe proceeded to tear the cover off the ball; when the dust had lifted and you could see what had occurred, there was Trevor crossing home, and the ball was a souvenir somewhere beyond the fence in that land known as left field. Then from 28,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell; the Plouffe birds shrieked and hollered, and the sound which emitted from their throats rumbled across the city and is even rumored to have been heard in numerous quiet living rooms stationed at various points all across the nation. Mark Ripperger began to worry just a little that the inning could turn into one of those blowout innings when the team just can't seem to stop scoring runs, and the worst thing about it was that it wasn't late enough in the game for it to automatically end after the Twins took the lead. Nervously wiping his perspiring hands on his already grubby black pants, Ripperger did a few hasty mental calculations. He knew the rule that states that balls and strikes cannot be contested beyond a little dugout and on-the-field chatter, and he also remembered that that can be taken care of quite easily and (here lies his mistake) with little to-do, so he decided that the easiest way out of it would be to widen his strike zone by just a little and ring the proceeding batters up to end the inning before anything disastrous happened. He had already earned himself a reputation behind the plate in years past, and he didn't think that anyone would notice anything out of the ordinary as long as he kept it looking pretty consistent. Accompanied by the shouts of the ever faithful, Torii Hunter stepped into the batter's box and took a few practice swings. He was already 0-2 with a strikeout on the game, but he intended to extend Plouffe's favor and get the team on an absolute role. Like the fans, he knew that no game is ever over until it's over, and based on that knowledge, he believed that the Twins would have had a chance even if they happened to be down 12-0 in the 9th. However, he also knew that it could very well depend on him to get the rest of his teammates going. 56,000 eager eyes were glued on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt; 28,000 eager tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt. In came the first pitch, and it was called a ball. As Ripperger stepped back from the plate he thought remorsefully to himself that he couldn't help that one; it was just too obvious to call it anything else, and he was sure to have plenty of opportunities later in the count. He watched as Perez threw the ball back to Hovechar, and then, while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip, the quartet set up once more, this time with a 1-0 count. Once again the leather sphere came hurtling through the air, and, in haughty grandeur, Hunter let it fly past unheeded. "That ain't my style," said he, but Ripperger bellowed, "Strike one!" and tossed his fist into the air. Then from the stands, not yet void of loyal patrons of the game, there arose a muffled roar which resembled the beating of the storm-waves upon a stern and distant shore. "Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone from behind home plate - and it's likely they'd have listened had not Torii turned and, with a smile of Christian charity, stilled the rising tumult with a gesture of his hand. The game resumed and Torii raised his bat; signaling the pitcher, he waited until the spheroid flew by again, but, as before, he ignored it; the umpire shouted gleefully, "Strike two!" "Fraud!" cried the maddened crowd, and the echo answered, "Fraud!" - and this time Torii reacted. No likening to a charitable smile flickered across his visage as he turned upon the ump, and with controlled politeness he proceeded to question Ripperger's salary, manhood, and vision. Of course, being an umpire, Ripperger decided to take it personally, and he curtly bid Torii hold his tongue and finish his at-bat. As Torii turned back to face the pitcher, he thought he discerned the words from Ripperger's mouth as he breathed heavily down Salvador's neck: "Just wait; you'll see me deal with this good-for-nothing smart aleck." On hearing this, the sneer disappeared from Torii's lip and was replaced with teeth clenched in hate as he pounded with cruel violence his bat upon the plate. And now the pitcher held the ball...and now he let it go...and leaning over Perez's back, Ripperger called Torii out on balls. Down went the bat and Torii was upon the umpire before he could even stop and congratulate himself on his success. However, with visible effort Torii restrained himself and managed to keep relatively cool while speaking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (meanwhile dropping in a few magic words in appropriate places where they seemed to best belong). Rippenger had never seen the likes of it before, and will probably never see it again, either. Strongly sympathizing with his sorry self and letting his growing hatred for Torii get the better of him once more, he tore off his mask and tossed Hunter from the game. Now from the dugout came the skipper of the Twins. He knew that the umpire was getting out of control, and it was his duty as the oldest, wisest, and most mature man present to maintain the order at Target Field. He marched up to Ripperger and started to ask him to explain himself, but before he had a chance to get the first three words past his lips and to Ripperger's unwilling ear, he had been ejected as well. The scene that followed will go down in the books as one of the better post-ejection performances in the history of baseball. Tearing off his elbow pad, shin guard, and batting gloves, Torii hurled them one by one onto the ground near where Ripperger had been standing just moments before. As he dismissed each article as unworthy of adorning his infuriated being, the shouts from the stands grew louder. Here, they thought, was something worth seeing, sweep or no sweep. It wasn't every day that they got to see their rookie skipper ejected, and, even more interesting, they would never have thought ten minutes previously that they might get to see a major leaguer undress on the field...much less Torii Hunter. So amid combined boos and giggles, Torii clutched at the ends of his jersey and pulled it over his head. With a few more choice words of spiteful derision, he tossed it away as a final hurrah and returned to the dugout unassisted. Thus ends our story. I must say that I am impressed with Torii's rant. He carried it on just long enough to keep people excited and wondering what would happen next, but at the same time he stopped before anyone dreamed of turning their eyes to the night sky and therefore missing part of the enactment. He had left a lasting impression, and that was the whole point. He had a perfectly legitimate undershirt which could have joined the pile of dirty laundry, but he wisely chose to let it stop at that. He could have kept on going until he ran out of resources, but he knew that that would spoil the whole effect. It was better to leave while his antics were still being appreciated and just give the cameraman one parting glance as he stepped down into the dugout that said plainer than words, "You've had your fun, and now you're done." The man is a true genius; the Twins will be wise to make him their general manager when he grows up. --- Read full entry here: Torii at the Bat

TL;DNW.

I always said that if I go swimming in the ocean and get eaten by a shark, I'll fight all the way down and make it regret that decision. Now I know how ... and I'll also have to start carrying a concealed on the land, too, I guess. But this is getting off topic.

That will happen when the sun goes round the earth and sharks walk on land.

I'd have to disagree, howeda7. You have your argument, but I think that Torii carried his meltdown just long enough to get people excited and wondering how long it would last, but at the same time he stopped before anyone dreamed of turning their eyes to the night sky and therefore missing part of the play. In my humble opinion, Torii had a perfectly legitimate undershirt which could have joined the pile of dirty laundry.

"He's riling up the troops" is fine with me.

Once upon a time, in tonight's game versus the Royals, there was a pretty biased umpire named Mark Ripperger camped out behind home plate. Leaning over Perez's back, he called our Torii Hunter out on balls. Torii calmly turned around and gave him the snazziest piece of trash talking he'll be hearing in 10+ years, and Ripperger, feeling sorry for himself, tossed T-Hunt from the game. Of course, Paul Molitor (doing his job as always) popped out of the dugout to see why that had happened. Before he had time to say "Little Pig Robinson," he had been tossed too. The scene that followed will go down in the books as one of the best post-ejection performances in the history of baseball. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/129900956/twins-torii-hunter-paul-molitor-ejected-against-royals http://i1.wp.com/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/80c5d93820ca2d29605909a48dfaf7bab91bb2ef/c=1174-21-3207-1549/local/-/media/2015/06/10/USATODAY/USATODAY/635695752921802182-USP-MLB-KANSAS-CITY-ROYALS-AT-MINNESOTA-TWINS-73699798.JPG?resize=660%2C495

I just watched the T-Hunt ejection. Epic. Epic. EDIT!!! I didn't know that he had been ejected, btw. And I just discovered that Paulitor Maul was tooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . . I almost think this was worth the loss right there - if we can pull out of this streak. !!!!!!!!!!!

You stopped me from saying: Concur. And I don't have a wife.

Okay, my analysis (at this moment at least). We might have been winning games earlier this season, but our pitching was still terrible. We just managed to score runs early and barely scrape by with a win. Now our pitchers have improved (except for this trend of giving up runs early, and I'd have to blame the defense just as much as the pitchers), and in turn, our offensive skills have vanished. But Plouffe seems like he's trying really hard to un-slump, and if the rest of our hitters can follow suit, we might not be doomed - yet.

The only thing I'm positive about is that we lose this game.

FIFY.

FIFY.

Sconnie ... it appears that you deleted your post, but aren't we glad that it isn't "You're killing me, Cory"?

This reminds me of a story that Provus told once about how he tried to wear a baseball hat. Danny Valencia (I think) sauntered up to him and said to anyone who cared to listen, "Hey, you look just like SmallS." Apparently everyone thought it was the biggest joke - except Cory. So if you've ever wondered why Cory never wears a baseball hat, now you know. I haven't watched The Sandlot, but I'm pretty sure this is SmallS Provus. Or is it Cory SmallS? Not sure. http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/mp/-cfh5qM2Np9l.jpg

No, but they gave him an ego boost by letting him bat first. Sadly he didn't score any runs and the Redwings lost 5-3. At least if my memory serves me right (did I get that from Chief? I think ChiTown might have alluded to that in the past ... if my memory serves me right ... and it seems like something he'd say).

I think DanSan's feelings were hurt. He went 4-5 with a double in Rochester, and I'm inclined to take it as a personal plea to the FO to add him back to the ML roster.

What a pity! I even read it. I think you mentioned that Mauer may be in a slump, but Plouffe is worse so he shouldn't be in the 3-hole. And you said that you wouldn't call a grown man Molly. EDIT: You put it under the Minors thread.

I've always assumed that I'd invariably get my baseball news secondhand from my younger brother, a fanatical baseball fan and true stats geek, until we no longer lived in the same household and I would be obliged to do the research on my own. That is, until he finally managed to talk me into starting a Twins Daily account last November. Image courtesy of Seth Stohs I've always assumed that I'd invariably get my baseball news secondhand from my younger brother, a fanatical baseball fan and true stats geek, until we no longer lived in the same household and I would be obliged to do the research on my own. That is, until he finally managed to talk me into starting a Twins Daily account last November. At first I rarely visited the site, only doing so when he succeeded in persuading me to post an idea I'd have now and then, but, as time went on and baseball came back for good this spring, I got more consistent and even learned to broaden my horizons to other baseball websites and look up more than just the Twins score every day. When this year's minor league season started, my brother was super excited since it was his first year to be able to participate in Twins Daily's "Adopt-a-Prospect" feature. He was hoping to be able to take Kohl Stewart, but though he got on just minutes after the thread started, he was disappointed to see that Stewart had already been claimed by another member. But then he noticed that Byron Buxton, the top prospect in baseball, hadn't yet been claimed; I guess everyone else, like my brother, was assuming that he'd already be taken by the time he had a chance to make a pick. Naturally he immediately jumped at that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and took him. I was pretty excited for him. Writing about baseball was something he'd dreamed about doing for some time, and to get Byron Buxton on such a prestigious website as Twins Daily was a huge deal. He told me that I should take someone, but I kind of shrugged it off and said that I wouldn't have time. However, he kept pushing the point, and finally I decided to just take a look at the prospects still available. At the time, I hardly knew anything about the players, and only recognized the top names from hearing him talk about them so much. I decided to choose in an unorthodox manner; scrolling through the Twins minor league rosters, I looked for a player who wore the number 33 on his jersey. (I go by "always33" on Twins Daily since Justin Morneau has always been my favorite ballplayer, and I thought it would be kind of fun to have my prospect wear 33, too.) The player on the Fort Myers Miracle who wore 33 was at the bottom of the pitchers. It was a name I'd never heard before, Luke Westphal. "Is he any good?" I asked. "Well, it's a kind of cool story," my brother responded. "He's from Wisconsin, but he never got drafted, and then he went to play winter ball in Australia last year, and the Twins signed him during the offseason." That was enough for me. The story caught my attention, and I suddenly wanted to write about this guy. Westphal is a guy who had to go all the way to the other side of the world to sign with a team not four hours from his native town. I signed up and got to work. The next day I spent hours researching Westphal's career from college to independent baseball to Australia winter ball to Fort Myers. I scrolled through pages of Google results and read everything I came across until there wasn't another page to be found. With pages and pages of notes, I organized my information as best I could and put together my first ever Adopt a Prospect page...and my first ever article about a baseball player, much less a minor leaguer who had only made one appearance so far. By the time I was done and had it posted, I was feeling pretty exhausted. My brother, who had also adopted Zach Jones, wanted me to take a second player as well, but I put my foot down and said no. One was enough...at least for the time being. But maybe five weeks later, I became interested in another minor leaguer's career: Trey Vavra, son of Twins' bench coach Joe Vavra. He was terrorizing pitchers in low A and had just been awarded Twins Minor League Player of the Week after posting 10 hits (1 double), 8 runs, 2 RBI, and 6 walks in just 19 at- bats, earning a .560 batting average on the week. I got excited about him and decided to adopt him, too...and then when I started doing research about him I discovered that he not only wore 33 but had been drafted in the 33rd round of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft. I was pretty thrilled, to say the least. How cool was it that I now had two prospects who shared jersey numbers with my favorite all-time player, however short the time would be that they'd keep them. I got Trey's page up and was rewarded when Seth Stohs, my new writing hero whose articles I always read with enthusiasm almost equal to watching the Twins play, thanked me for doing so and told me that I had done a great job. I don't mean to brag about myself, but I was so excited that I adopted D.J. Baxendale, a starting pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts, not twenty-four hours later, if my memory serves me right. And he wasn't the last one, either. Just a few days ago I got Todd Van Steensel's page going, and now I have four prospects to follow and update on a minimum of a weekly basis. It's been a lot of fun, and while I was right that it would be time consuming, it's well worth it. I've developed a sort of sentimental attachment for each and every one of those players, and it's going to be pretty sad if I can't get them all again next year, for whatever reason. But I'm enjoying following them now (and all the rest of the Twins' minor leaguers, even though I can't adopt them all), and I'm going to relish every moment of it while it lasts. I've included a brief overview of each of my prospects below, and if you're interested in learning more about them, you can click on their names to read their Adopt-a-Prospect pages. It's been a lot of fun reading about their careers, and I hope you enjoy reading the pages I've put together for them! D.J. Baxendale, right-handed starting pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts, was drafted in the 10th round of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Arkansas by the Minnesota Twins. Since then, he has worked himself up to Double A, and this year he has made nine starts and posted a 3.47 ERA over 49.1 innings pitched, striking out 42 and walking 16. His record currently stands at 3-1. Luke Westphal, left-handed pitcher for the Fort Myers Miracle, was signed by the Twins in early 2015 after being discovered by Twins scout Howard Norsetter when he was pitching for the Doncaster Dragons of Australia’s Baseball Victoria Summer League where he started 14 games and collected 141 strikeouts with an ERA of 0.49 in 80 innings. He was assigned to High-A to start the season, and so far he has made 12 appearances, starting 5 games and picking up 2 wins and 2 losses. He currently has 20 strikeouts and 13 walks over 29.2 innings pitched. Todd Van Steensel, right-handed closer for the Fort Myers Miracle, has had a somewhat rocky minor league career but was given a second chance with the Minnesota Twins when they signed him to a minor league deal on February 6, 2014. This year he has played in 16 games at Fort Myers and is currently 1-2 with 4 saves in 6 opportunities. He has allowed just 24 hits over 29.1 innings, and he already has 42 strikeouts whilst walking 17. Trey Vavra, first baseman, left fielder, and designated hitter for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, was selected by the Twins in the 33rd round of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of Florida Southern College. His father, Joe Vavra, and older brother, Tanner, were already parts of the Twins organization, so it was pretty special for Trey to come to the Twins, too. This year he has played in 42 games at Class A, batting 319./.392/.454 (.846) with 10 doubles, 1 triple, 6 home runs, 28 RBI, and 29 runs scored. Unfortunately he was placed on the 7-day DL on May 27 due to a sprained left ankle after banging into the tarp down the left-field line chasing a foul ball. However, the week is almost up, and I'm eagerly anticipating his return to the field. --- Read full entry here: Twins Daily's "Adopt a Prospect" - How I Became Addicted View full article

Apparently Rosario is on paternity leave. https://twitter.com/MikeBerardino/status/608473131229941760 ETA: Is there a way I can embed tweets?

Trevor Plouffe has two hits against Holland. Guess what they were.

And HICKS nabs the runner at home!!

Great job on the GT. I would suppose that you remember this game: On this day in 1966, the Twins were playing the Kansas City A’s and were trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the 7th at the Met. Catfish Hunter was on the mound and facing the bottom of the Twins’ order. With 2 outs and a runner at 1st, Rich Rollins came in to pinch hit for Pete Cimino and lofted a 2 run homer into the seats (at least I’m assuming so - unfortunately the box score doesn’t get down to such details) to give the Twins the lead. The next batter up, Zoilo Versalles, hit a solo home run to add some cushion. Home runs are great, but back-too-back home runs are even better. Kansas City probably wasn’t too amused, though, and they laid the blame on Catfish and pulled him from the game, replacing him with Paul Lindblad. We’ll never know if that was a wise decision on their part or not. However, we do know that he did manage to get the 2nd out before allowing Tony Oliva to homer … and Don Mincher … and then John Wyatt replaced Lindblad … and Harmon Killebrew homered too!! Back-to-back-to-back home runs to give the Twins a 9-4 lead which stood for the game. It was only the 4th time a team had hit 5 homers in a single inning, and it still stands as the only 5-home run inning in the AL. The only other times this has happened were when the Giants did it 1939, the Reds in 1949, the Giants again in 1961, and the Brewers in 2006.