Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

The first Twins baseball game of 2012 is here!  Admittedly, the game today is a B game, which is barely a game at all, but it is something, and someone, somewhere will probably produce a recap and a box score.  A B game is closer to a scrimmage than a real baseball game.  A B game will usually feature less notable players that coaches want to take an extra look at, or in the case of the Minnesota Twins, it gives Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson an opportunity to see the pleothora of pitchers they’ve invited to camp square off against a real opponent (La Velle E. Neal III is reporting that Scott Baker and Nick Blackburn will be among 9 pitchers used in the B game, and here are the rest of the players slated to make an appearance today).  But it does not matter what kind of baseball the Twins will be playing, all that matters is that BASEBALL IS BACK!

Now onward with the links from the week that was:

With today’s B game quickly approaching, be sure to check out The Tenth Inning Stretch’s helpful post listing all the new Twins and the numbers they will be wearing during Spring Training.

Coffeyville Whirlwind is investigating the curious case of Jarvis Brown, who won a World Series ring with the Twins in 1991, but whom I’ve never heard of.  As a young Twins fan, not yet into my 30s, the 1991 Twins were everything to me as a youngster, but I had almost no idea of baseball at the time, not even yet in little league.  Turns out the 1986 1st round draft choice built a career on stealing bases, making his Major League debut earlier in 1991 before lacing it up for the Twins in the greatest World Series ever.

Pitcher Wins.  A terrible stat used to measure some of the greatest pitchers of all time.  While winning 20 games still means something in 2012, it does not mean everything, and it certainly does not mean you are witnessing greatness everytime a 20-game winning pitcher toes the rubber.  But it kind of does.  Winning 20 games is still a nice accomplishment and Bradfod Doolittle explains why he loves Wins so much at Baseball Prospectus in Ode to a Terrible Stat.  (more…)

Tonight the Twins open up a three game set against the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants. Minnesota hopes to continue a surprising streak that has seen them win seven in a row, and 14 of 16, to climb out of last place in the AL Central. San Francisco is slumping, having lost four in a row, including a sweep at the hands of their Bay Area rival Oakland Athletics.

Special thanks to the writers at Frisco Fastball for their help with this preview.

Minnesota Twins

2011 Record: , 31-39, 4th in the AL Central (7.5 GB)
263 Runs Scored  (13th in AL) / 320 Runs Allowed (11th in AL)

San Francisco Giants

2011 Record: 39-33, 1st in the NL West
248 Runs Scored (15th in NL) / 254 Runs Allowed (3rd in NL) (more…)

Another week is in the books.  I’m a day late with my weekly links column, but you’ll have to forgive me because I have a 13 year old guest in my apartment who is consuming every free second and all of my energy.  I’m sneaking this post in while he watches some sort of Fast and Furious knock off racing movie.  Can a movie be worst than the Fast and the Furious?  Yes.  Here are the links:

The Common Man isn’t wild about wins as a statistic that accurately measures a pitchers’ performance.  He isn’t alone, the growing crowd of baseball fans that is embracing sabermetrics is beginning to lose faith in wins as well.  (Remember when Matt Capps blew the 9th inning lead only to be bailed out by Phil Dumatrait and Ben Revere, and then Capps was given the win?)

Just because Kevin Slowey is on the DL and off to AAA Rochester doesn’t mean that his trade saga is over.  And who doesn’t love to beat a dead horse?  Here are some starting pitching trade candidates, featuring Kevin Slowey, from Dave Cameron over at FanGraphs.

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