Archive for July, 2009

I am amazingly not excited to go out of town tomorrow, if only because the trade deadline is tomorrow and I want to be able to refresh MLB Trade Rumors 1,000 times. But such is life. Time for the weekend edition of the stuff you should be reading: If you want to read about tennis. Go here. Period. [The Daily Forehand] There’s a lot of good stuff in this post, but I’m linking it solely cause of the video of Tiffani Thiessen. [10 Yard Penalty] Good news in Twins Territory. [Twins Geek] Some deadline thoughts. [Nick's Twins Blog] Thank god [...]

Indians lefty Cliff Lee just got traded to the Phillies along with OF Ben Fransisco  for Jason Knapp, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and Lou Marson. Back when I explored some potential Twins deals, I mentioned that I would break down any deals involving the Twins. Since the Twins see the Indians quite a bit in the 2nd half, I would say this involves them. But mostly it’s an excuse to break out the Trade Value Calculator. Cliff Lee Year Sal (M) WAR Val (M) Net (M) Sal (M) Arb % 2009 $2.3 2.0 $9.2 $6.9 $2.3 2010 $8.0 5.0 $22.9 [...]

…through 2.1 innings. The jinx is in full effect!

I really felt like Al Michaels in 1980 last night after watching the Twins beat the White Sox. Glen Perkins on the hill, against John Danks? Clearly we had no shot. But, Perkins hasn’t been terrible this year. It’s true that his stuff is below average. His fastball travels just under 90 mph on average, and his changeup is about 81 mph. Bottom line he either needs to throw harder or throw his change slower. His slider, however, has been excellent; it’s 5.5 runs above average according to Fan Graphs. Like Blackburn, I think Perkins can eventually be a guy [...]

When Glen Perkins takes the hill tonight, he’ll be trying to avoid having an outing like he did against Oakland, when he got basically murdered. Oddly enough, his pitches weren’t moving all that differently in that outing than they were normally: There was more separation in movement between his fastball and his changeup than usual, but that alone couldn’t explain the horrendous outing he had. It just goes to show you that even when you have below average stuff like Perkins does, getting ahead of hitters and living on the edge of the plate can make a real difference.

Is Glen Perkins available for trade? And for Jarrod Washburn? (Please let the answers be yes and no) [Seth Speaks] Talk about bringing up Danny Valencia and a review of some hyped Twins callups over the last few seasons [Twins Geek] Defending Bob Bradley [MLS Talk] Something about someone in Chicago. [Babes Love Baseball] The Twins trading for Orlando Cabrera would probably end my fandom. [Twinkie Town] Five great college football traditions. [Souvenir City] Glen Perkins’s rotation spot cold be in jeopardy. [Twins killings] Some predictions for the second half. [Sparty and Friends]

When we think of the best position for the Twins, we automatically think catcher, right? And when we think worst, our 2B struggles certainly come to mind. In fact, our 2B production has been the worst in the league so far this year, as shown on Beyond The Boxscore. Reading that post gave me the idea to graph the Twins production by position:

We’re just nine days away from the 2009 non-waiver trade deadline and the Twins, like most teams, have some holes to fill. They need to make some moves to address the team both now and for the future. I may or may not dabble into Beyond the Boxscore’s trade value calculator in this post. Ah heck with it, I’ll do it. Without further ado…. Twins trade LHP Glen Perkins to Angels for 3B Brandon Wood Twins fans, and the organization have Danny Valencia pegged as their 3B of the future. Pish posh I say, especially when a potential impact bat [...]

I had a recent discussion on Twitter with someone about the value of playing Carlos Gomez over playing Delmon Young. Since I’m experiencing some mild blogger’s block right now, I figured I might as well tackle this problem, even though it’s a layup. Shockingly enough, Delmon Young enjoyed a “career year” of sorts last year in Minnesota, with a .324 wOBA, and he only struck out 3 times more than he walked. Hooray! He also had a career high speed score of 5.4. All things put together he was “only” 2.3 runs below average. Carlos Gomez has been pretty bad [...]

Rene Tosoni was on the Diamondbacks 25 man roster for awhile. It’s hilarious how much people on that site overrate him. [Seth Speaks] One of the last two Nick Punto supporters on Earth drops out. [Nick's Twins Blog] Why Joe Mauer isn’t untouchable. (He is by the way) [Twins Fix] A great URL reflects on the All-Star game. [Fire Gardy] An awesome post on the recent Yuni Betancourt trade, and other Dayton Moore stuff. Did you know Moore has a masters degree? Do they just put those in cereal boxes now? [Rany on the Royals] Optimistic that the Twins will [...]