Archive for June, 2010

The Twins overall have one of the best team UZRs in the major leagues. Third base’s high number is due to both some good range by Punto and the fact that no Twins 3B has made an error all season. And as you can see over at 1B, Justin Morneau’s (hopefully) improved defense is a big reason why he leads the majors in WAR, and could be well on his way to his 2nd MVP. But a troubling trend has emerged. While the infield is very good, the outfield has struggled a bit. Given that the starting staff is stocked [...]

Fangraphs The Twins are now in first place by a game and a half after taking 2 of 3 from the Detroit squadron. And now that it’s July, hopefully the bandwagon Twins fans will turn their attention to football, and leave the rest of us to just enjoy our team and the rest of the season in peace. Seriously, people, baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. Even the very best team in the sport will lose at least 50 games. The Twins will probably lose 75 and still win the division. Best hitter: Justin Morneau, .203 WPA. The Mountie [...]

It was weird enough having Jim Thome hit a triple last night, but tonight Denard Span bested that, putting up 3 triples in a single game vs. the Tigers (and in fact he did it in the first 5 innings). Span’s three triple game was the first in the majors since 2002 when Rafael Furcal did it against the Marlins and the first for the Twins since Ken Landreaux did it 30 years ago. Span’s 7 triples lead the AL, and now is as good a time as any to mention that despite a horrible start he is now hitting [...]

Nick Blackburn didn’t pitch very well again, but it wasn’t a dumpster fire and the offense did well, so that tends to hide things. Hitting wise, Span had 3 triples, which is awesome (more on that in a later post) and Jim Thome needs some more starts at DH. Best hitter: Denard Span (+.399) Worst hitter: Delmon Young (-.046) Best pitcher: Brian Duensing (+.004) Worst pitcher: Nick Blackburn (-.012) Most important play: Span triple (4th inning version): +.216

In an homage to the Twins effort as of late, I decided to put the same amount of effort into my game recaps, so here goes: they lost.

So, the Twins started this month with a 4.5 game lead over the second-place Tigers that has steadily dwindled to just half a game. The Twins have dropped seven of their past ten games, while the Tigers have gone 5-5 and the White Sox 9-1 over that same stretch. Is the Al Central race much closer than it appears, or have the Tigers and White Sox simply been feasting upon weak opponents? Run differential is not the most accurate way of determining a team’s overall performance, as just one 20-1 performance can skew the results, but it is a good [...]

Fangraphs OK, the Twins do realize they have to win games to make the playoffs not embarrass themselves, right? Best pitcher:  Ron Mahay, .008 WPA.  You know things aren’t going your way when Ron Mahay is the best pitcher in the game. Worst pitcher:  Scott Baker -a billion WPA.  Ok, Baker wasn’t really that bad through the first four innings, surrendering only a couple of runs and striking out four, but good God did he suck in the fifth.  I love Scotty, and I am one of his most ardent defenders, but outings like this (where his breaking stuff is [...]

I fell asleep before finishing the recap of last night’s game, but this is about all you need to know: er, I mean, this is all you need to know: At least the Tigers lost, so no harm, no foul, though all of this losing was making me look like an idiot and I hate that. As you can see, the outcome of today’s game was a little more favorable: Johan Santana was my favorite Twin back in the day, but good God am I glad the Twins aren’t paying him a bazillion dollars over the next four years. And [...]

The Twins just got swept by the Brewers for the first time in about 15 years, so I think it’s a safe bet that we could all use some laughs today. Thankfully, the Onion obliged

Tough to not see this one coming. Brendan Harris, owner of the god awful .229 wOBA, has been outrighted to Rochester. In his stead the Twins called up OF Jason Repko. Repko certainly doesn’t bring a great bat to Minnesota. His career major league line is .226/.297/.371, good for a .298 wOBA. But Repko is likely up with the club because he plays centerfield. It would be nice to give Denard Span a couple more days off, and Repko can do that. In his early days he was a pretty good outfielder, posting a 9.7 UZR in 2005 with the [...]