For the first time all season I’ve been able to watch more than three or four games in a row and also for the first time all season I am LOVING what I am seeing (except for you Matt Capps, you are who we thought you were, only Gardy hasn’t figured it out yet). This is the team I’ve been waiting to see all season, this is the team that I was hoping to see this spring out of the gate. This is the kind of baseball that can give us another AL Central title (again, except for you Capps and the club’s inability to hit with RISP on Friday). Coinciding with being able to watch lots of Twins games in a row, my tweeting has also exploded exponentially. I am addicted. If baseball and Twitter weren’t made for each other then I’m not my brother’s twin.
Out in the Twins blogging world I’ve been reading about mid-season awards, second half predictions and what the next 10-18 days mean for the club. So I’m going to stay away from that tonight. I did, however, spend some time talking about what the Twins need to do in the next two weeks on Twitter. If you’re also looking for some other interesting baseball (and non-baseball related) reading, check out the article Friday Links that my brother Eric posted Friday morning. I’m going to warn you not to click on the Derek Jeter image that he linked; you have been forewarned. Back to task, back to the Twins and winning baseball.
Despite playing good baseball over the course of the last six weeks (except for you Capps, you haven’t been playing good baseball), the Twins body of work still does not stack up against the rest of MLB. While watching the first day game of the second half of the season (Cubs vs Marlins at historic Wrigley Field) I spent some time looking at what the team stats say about our season so far.
In a quick glance at offensive stats from the season so far the only stat that with the Twins in the top ten was ground outs (1005) despite having almost 300 less AB than some other teams in the league. While I wasn’t surprised to see the Twins up near the top in number of ground ball outs, I was started not to find the Twins in the top ten in any other stat. What does this mean? We need to keep playing good baseball. Yes, we’ve been pretty darn good lately, but we need to keep it up. We’re still 7 games out of the division race and 6 games under .500.
So what’s the good news (other than my discovery and love for Twitter)? The good news is that we’re only two games behind the White Sox. We’ve got a bunch of AL Central games coming up in the next two weeks, and if we can continue to play the baseball we’ve been playing leading up to the All-Star break, we should be able to leap frog the White Sox and have only 2 teams ahead of us. But wait, there’s more.
In addition to looking at the offensive team stats, I also spent some time looking at pitching statistics for the season. The Twins pitching staff has a miserable ERA, good for 25th in all of MLB at 4.26. What’s the good news? The Tigers are even worse posting a 4.27ERA through 92 games. And only the Red Sox and the Rangers have more Wins that the Twins in the month of July. That’s what I call #TWINNING! (Matt Capps, you’re not Twinning, not even close)
As a Twitter neophite, I’m still figuring things out (I just surpassed the 500 tweet mark), but one thing that seems to pop up every week are Friday Follows, or #FF for you twitter heads out there. The following are my five #FF for the week. Normally I’d only give you one or two, but I’m headed back out to sea for 2 months so this will be my last chance to give you any #FF for awhile.
@LoMoMarlins : if you’re not following Logan Morrison (OF/1B) of the Florida Marlins, you’re missing out on some hilarious pseudo-baseball related tweets. This evening LoMo posted a picture of his mother doing ski shots. When Sports Illustrated came out with their list of top 100 Tweeters, LoMo was there.
@kirbysLeftEye : Maija Varda, a fellow Twins blogger has become one of my favorite Twitter friends. Over the All-Star Break we played the #HRDerbyDrinkingGame (I ended up finishing 9 beers and 2 whisky sours) to help ease the painful drawn out HR Derby. Best quote of the day from Maija : If I had to choose btw cutting off my hands or never having @summitbeer, I’d be drinking w/ a straw.
@NotHawk : Who is @NotHawk? NotHawk is a twitter account that may or may not be a parody of White Sox play-by-play broadcaster Hawk Harrelson. Normally I wouldn’t recommend anyone who has anything to do with the White Sox, but NotHawk is almost as hard on the ChiSox as most Twins fans are. He’s a little vulgar, so if you’re 14 years old like @TwinsGirl197, he may not be for you. NotHawk quote from today that made me laugh : Alex Rios will lead the Sox in something during the 2nd half. It’ll be runners left on base, but at least he’ll be the best at something.
@TwinsGirl197 : Twins Girl is 14 and she claims to be the most random person you will ever meet. If you follow KirbysleftEye then adding TwinsGirl197 is a must. I saw a lot of retweets and mentions for TwinsGirl197 before I could bring myself to follow someone who is 14, but I’m glad I did and enjoy the banter that goes on from her account, especially with Kirbyslefteye. Today Twinsgirl tweeted “also my entire team is made up of Harry Potter nerds.” If you want to relive the thrills of dating someone you’re not allowed to date make sure to check out Twins Girl and her relationship with the infamous “Trev.” Oh to be young again.
Last, but certainly not least, @SethTweets : Seth Stohs has his own Twins Blog (Seth Speaks) and if you’re looking for minor league analysis, he is the guy to go to. Many of you may already read his blog, but give him a follow on Twitter as well. Why should you follow Seth? Because his retweets are probably the most informative out there, and you’ll know every time he has new content up on his site.
And don’t forget to follow me and all of us here on the pond.@BaseballPirate @thebaseballfish @NorthpawNate @a_krueger @ERolfPleiss, and @jdavhill. That’s all for now sports fans. Next time you see my name on the blog roll I’ll be out to sea and without my beloved Twitter. Whoa is me, whoa is me.
*Of course I would write and post this post while watching the game only to see Matt Capps come in and blow the save in the ninth. Had to go back in and make some edits to the post, including lots of Capps bashing. Gah!