Funny that this baseball cookie cutter has recessed laces, the opposite of real baseballs.

Happy Holidays to all of the Puckett’s Pond readers.  We hope each and every one of you find something to lift your spirits during the holiday season.

If you’re a young person from my generation, you can never really feel the holiday spirit without watching Home Alone.  To kick off this week’s version of the Thursday Links, here is a list of 12 things you probably didn’t know about Home Alone.  And if you DID know all 12 of these things, let me know, I’ll mail you something awesome.

If you’re still not feeling the spirit, head over to The Platoon Advantage and read Mark Smith’s 12 Days of Baseballmas.  If you still don’t feel the spirit, you likely never will.

Last week I presented a link to the All True Twins team from Beyond the Boxscore.  This week, Beyond the Boxscore presents the All All-True-Team Team.  The Senator’s Walter Johnson is the only player from the Twins franchise to make the list.  I had to look him up at Baseball-Reference, as he was a bit before my time, but with 127.7 career WAR, he’s a total stud (Here is another interesting character from the Washington Senator’s history, one that played just before Johnson arrived in Washington).

This one is a little more than a week old, but something I hadn’t stumbled upon until some time during the last week.  Target Field has earned a LEED Silver Certification.  Not only is Target Field the
Greenest Ballpark in America but now the folks over there have an extra something to hang their hat on.  (more…)

Punto was a useful utility guy for the Cards when he wasn’t hurt this season, compiling a .388 on-base percentage and playing his usual stellar defense. His performance at the plate wasn’t so solid in the playoffs. In 15 postseason games (six each in the World Series and LCS, and three in the NLDS), Punto went six for 35 (.171) with three RBI. While he played in all but one game of the World Series, he only collected three hits (all singles), but he walked five times, leading to a bizarre .214/.421/.214 slash line.

Like Punto, Lohse played well during the season but wasn’t as good in the postseason. He was 14-8 with a 3.39 ERA in the first 162 games. In the postseason he was 0-2 with a 7.81 ERA. In 12.2 innings pitched, he gave up 18 hits and 11 earned runs. Lohse made one World Series start, in Game 3. Lohse breezed through three innings, but he couldn’t get an out in the fourth. He faced four men, and three came around to score in the biggest slugfest of the World Series, a 16-7 Cards win.

Lohse and Punto are the latest Twins to win a championship, but they’re not the only ones. The 2010 Giants and the 2009 Yankees somehow managed to win it all without the help of any former Twins. But most of the other championship teams this century have had at least one:

2008 Phillies

J.C. Romero was a very important bullpen arm for this squad. In 59 regular season innings, he struck out 52 and earned a respectable 2.75 ERA. Romero made it into four of the five World Series games, and he didn’t allow a single run in 4.2 innings versus the Rays. In the process he notched two wins. (more…)

It’s official: Kyle Lohse, Nick Punto, and 23 other players that nobody cares about will represent the National League and the City of Saint Louis in the World Series. The only thing standing between these former Twins and a title is a ragtag group of Texans led by another Twin of yesteryear, Ron Washington.

After what seemed like six decades of battling his tail off for the Twins, Punto slid headfirst into free agency last offseason, and he landed safely in St. Louis. Some Twins fans were amused by his energy and kamikaze style of play, but his pitiful hitting prowess earned him as many detractors as supporters. For the 2011 Cards, Punto managed a .278/.388/.421 line that puts Tsuyoshi Nishioka‘s .226/.278/.249 to shame. And as usual, Punto was well above average in the field, sporting a 14.2 UZR/150 at second base and a 10.1 mark at shortstop. Perhaps the Twins would have been better off keeping him around. Then again, he missed a large portion of the season due to injury, so perhaps he was already with the 2011 Twins in spirit. (more…)