The Venezuelan Strikeout Machine At It Again

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
MIN (11-8)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1		2	7	2		Final
KAN (5-15)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0		1	5	1
W: J. Santana (4-0) L: A. Burgos (0-1) S: J. Nathan (6)


Johan Santana in his last 20 starts: 17 wins, 0 losses, 3 no decisions. The two games he lost before his current amazing run were both games where he allowed about two runs if I remember correctly. He owns a ridiculous 0.94 WHIP and 45 strikeouts, both leading the AL. The amazing thing about the 45 strikeouts is that Santana has pitched only 33 innings. Regardless, Johan is on a roll that is so monumental that we will probably never see anything like it again. He could threaten Carl Hubbell's record of 24 consecutive wins. That record was set in 1937, a lifetime ago.

Last year Johan had 4 wins through two months and managed to win the Cy Young with a enormous second half. This year he has 4 wins in under a month.

I've reached a point in this post that what I am typing isn't conveying what I want to. Maybe words are inadequate. Numbers seem are too little as well. The true point here is to remind everyone of what we as Twins fans are witnessing. Johan is in a groove that reminds me of Pedro back in the 90's when he might have put together the best couple of seasons by a starting pitcher ever. Johan has a chance to match that. In the entire history of this franchise, no pitcher has pitched as well as Johan has in the last year. Like the World Series win in 1991, I will not be forgetting this. Most likely, we will never see a pitcher wearing the Minnesota jersey do this again. You will probably die before another Twin dominates like Johan is dominating right now. Appreciate every moment. Every win. Every strikeout. Every pitch. If you have an opportunity to see him work, do it. At some point Johan will get old, hurt, or just lose his dominance. Like all things, this will end.

It is easy to become used to Santana winning. Try not to fall into that trap. This run could end at any time. Appreciate it as much as you can. If he's scheduled start, buy some tickets and see it all in person. Take it all in because what we are watching is something we will probably never see again.

The Future of Twins Baseball and Talkin' Smack

Recently, my friend Czern left a comment to my last post:

This might be a little off topic, but I cant restrain myself. According the official Minnesota Twins website, there will be a "historic announcement regarding a new ballpark development plan" today at 2 CT. Is this "new era" a new ballpark???? I would personally give away a a close friend's or a relative's testicle for such a scenario.

Well, he called it. A new stadium deal was announced today. Hopefully he doesn't try to give away my right testicle. After reading the article, the plan looks quite good. While its easy to become overly cynical of a deal working out for a Twins stadium due to the recent failures they have had, this deal looks amazing. The biggest hurdle, the money, looks like it may be overcome:

Under the proposal, the Twins would contribute $125 million, including a $40 million payment up front, with the balance to be paid prior to completion of construction. Hennepin County would fund its share -- including $235 million in construction costs and approximately $84 million in site development expenses -- through a countywide sales tax increase of .15 percent, or three cents on a $20 purchase.

Wow, can't say I am not impressed. Now for location:

The proposed ballpark would be located at the Rapid Park site behind the Target Center, which is located at the convergence of I-394 and I-94, the Hiawatha Light Rail line and the proposed Northstar Commuter Rail line. In addition to existing parking facilities, the area would benefit from access to existing bars and restaurants and the Downtown Minneapolis business district, as well as future mixed-use development, "Twinsville," which would be modeled after the Wrigleyville neighborhood in Chicago.

Man, I really hope we can get a new ballpark. Outdoor baseball would be amazing to have again. The artist renderings look nice as well.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
MIN (10-8)	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	0		4	6	3		Final
DET (8-10)	3	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	X		6	14	0
W: K. Farnsworth (1-0) L: J. Rincon (2-1) S: T. Percival (1)

Now, not to get too excited, I will now think about today's loss to the lowly Detroit Tigers. I did not see the game since my afternoon class came into conflict with it. Oddly enough, conflict is an appropriate word when describing today's game. From ESPN's account:

Seconds later, Ivan Rodriguez, who was on second after the throwing error, started toward Minnesota pitcher J.C. Romeroafter the two had words. Rodriguez was restrained as the benches emptied, but no punches were thrown. Romero was then taken out.Both players said they weren't sure what caused the argument."No idea," Romero said. "Go ask him."Several players said that Rodriguez had been yelling at Romero since being intentionally walked, but he denied that there was any trash talking involved."I'm not like that," Rodriguez said. "I respect every player in baseball, and I expect the same from them. I was trying to support him -- we are both from Puerto Rico -- and I don't know why he reacted like that.

Now, I did not watch the game, but I did see the highlights and the incident. Pudge was talking trash all the way down to first, then at second, then on his way to the pitcher's mound. It's as if J.C. slept with his mother or something. Regardless, it was good to see no one was hurt when the benches cleared. Justin Morneau even held Pudge back! What a team leader!

Speaking of Justin, what did I say about him pulling our offense out of it's funk. In his first game, he hit his homer, but today he was more productive. He had an RBI double with two outs as well as a sac fly earlier in the game. With a 1 for 3 game with 3 RBI's and a save (saving Romero from a rabid Pudge), Justin Morneau is providing what the Twins have needed. Hopefully he keeps this up and becomes our teams most productive hitter. It will be strange to see a Twin pass 30 homers in a season. 18 years is a long time to wait for a player to have that many round-trippers.

The bullpen has now lost two straight games. Well, Gardy blew the first one by keeping Mr. Rubberarm in for an inning too long. Tell me I wasn't the only one yelling at the TV when Mulholland came out for yet another inning. Today's game was actually blown by Juan Rincon, who up to this point has looked amazing. While it is tough to take another loss, I am not overly concerned about the pen's recent performance. Even the best bullpen in baseball (which resides here in Minnesota) will lose a few games now in then. Over the long haul our bullpen should win us a lot more games than it will lose. In fact, it already has.

After winning six games in a row, we now have lost five of seven. Once again, it is KC to the rescue. We should easily take two or three games there and return to form in time for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California. How do they fit all that across their jersey anyway?

Haven't Missed Much

Well, the Twins have had what every child wishes for the night before school: A snow day! In fact, we had back-to-back snow days. So there really is not a lot to talk about as far as game results go. That may be a good thing since I have been a bit busy and when I wasn't busy, I was lazy. This does provide me an opportunity to talk about some recent events in Twindom. So I'll talk about ma boy and the Twins best offseason signing.

First, ma boy Justin Morneau made his return against Detroit. Boy did he make his presence known. J-Mo jacked a shot into the right field bleachers that gave Percival his second blown save against us this year. I remember when we had never scored an earned run against him. It isn't that hard to recall because it was less than a month ago. Since then we have completely owned his ass. Percy is getting old. But I digress, back to Dr. Morneau. His homer gave every Twin a reason to relax. He's healthy and not feeling the effects of that pitch to the noggin. Great to see, considering he is our most dangerous hitter. The recent lack of scoring the Twins have displayed and Justin Morneau being out of the lineup is no coincidence. Expect the offense to pick it back up.

Now I must address a Twins offseason pickup. Rickey Henderson quietly signed with the Twins before the season. Secretly because people would worry he is old and not an effective player and the Twins wanted to avoid controversy. Boy were the doubters wrong! Rickey has ten steals and has yet to be thrown out. At his current pace he will have 95 steals, shattering the team record of 62 held by the "human hot dog target" Chuck Knoblauch. Now of course you are saying, "But Jon, Rickey Henderson isn't on the Twins! I checked at baseball reference." I have the inside scoop and know for a fact he is playing in disguise. Look carefully in centerfield. He's wearing #48 and his jersey says "Hunter" but he is not Torii. Torii Hunter has never had more than 23 steals in a season. No way is this basepath mence T-Hunt. If you still don't believe me, think back to the game against Detroit in the first inning. "Hunter" totally missed a routine popup and gave the Tigers a triple. Torii Hunter would never do that, would he? Case closed. Welcome the Twins newest centerfielder Torii Henderson.

It Was Just a Matter of Time....

April 20, 2005

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Kansas City	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0		4	6	1
Minnesota	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	X		5	9	0

April 21, 2005

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		R	H	E
Kansas City	2	3	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	0		9	13	2
Minnesota	3	0	4	1	0	0	0	0	1	1		10	16	2

Coming off a series of missed opportunities in Chicago, the Twins got just what they needed: a series against Kansas City. As Bruce Dickenson (yes, The Bruce Dickenson) might have said to the Twins, "I got a fevah! And the only prescription is more cowbell." In the case of the Twinkies, our proverbial cowbell was a nice matchup of Johan Santana and Jose Lima.

I attended game one on the 20th. Nothing quite like $3 seats and two $1 hot dogs while watching the best pitcher in baseball. My own personal Nirvana? Sadly, this game did not go as expected for almost eight innings. Its a good thing baseball is a nine inning game because we nearly needed extra innings to decide the game. While we continued our complete lack of clutch hitting through almost the entirety of the game, Shannon Stewart finally delivered what turned out to be the game winning RBI with a ground ball that snuck by the infielders. Nathan came in and struck out the side for a Twins win. The crowd roared and went home.

While Shannon Stewart delivered the hit the Twins have been needing for the last few games, the real game changing play was made by Lew Ford. Lew had gotten on base and reached second on a throwing error to first. Now, after that TT was walked. This wasn't your run-of-the-mill walk though. Jaime Cerda was suffering from severe control issues. Each pitch was about a foot off of the plate. KC should have pulled him for a pitcher who wouldn't be so wild, but they didn't and that was their mistake. What the Royals didn't count on was the great heads-up baserunning by Leeeeeeew. Nate Field pitched a while ball in the dirt that bounce off the catcher just enough for Ford to advance to third base. The ball got no further than six feet away from the catcher but Ford was running almost instantly. Not many players would have been able to get to third in that situation, but he did. Cuddyer was intentionally walked and Stewart drove in the winning run and looked like the hero. The truth was, the game was won on the basepaths.

Lew got his due in game two of the series. In the tenth inning he delivered with a tenth inning single with the bases loaded to score the winning run. It was as if he imitated Shannon Stewart. I missed game two as it was not on television, so I will not go into that game too much. One thing I do like is the many clutch hits we seemed to come up with in that game. First, we tied it in the ninth inning and then won it in the tenth. Good too see the clutch hitting come back after the White Sux series. It was as if we forgot our clutch hits at the metrodome when we left for Chicago.

It seems as if in the last week we have seen both ends of the spectrum of bases loaded hitting. Earlier we couldn't get a hit to save our lives. Recently, it appears we are getting them at will. It could be the fact that we are playing KC on the road. On the other hand, that's just baseball. It is a game of percentages. At times you can be playing just awful, while at other times you cannot be denied. This is true from any team from the Yankees to the Devil Rays. Over the marathon that is the major league season it all balances out and the best teams float to the top. The Bronx Bombers started last year in a bad funk, but ended up winning more games than anyone in the American League. The lesson to take out of this is that it is way too early to hit the panic button. We have a great team that should win our division for the fourth year in a row.

Proof That Pitching and Defense Don't Always Win Games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
MIN (8-6)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	14	0		Final
CHW (10-4)	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0		3	11	0

This game was almost the clone of last nights game. Both teams scored a few less runs, but the basic problem remained. The Twins could not get hits when they counted. Instead of getting walked every inning, this time we got hits. But like clockwork, whenever someone reached scoring position, the bats simply died. We would have been shut out had it not been for Matt LeCroy coming through with an RBI single in the ninth inning. One clutch hit could have changed the game. If we had one last night it could be a two game sweep in our favor. That's baseball though, sometimes it just doesn't go your way. As I alluded to in the title of this post, our pitching was great. Radke gave up 3 ER in 8 innings, which made him look like Cy Young compared to last night. I really thought we had this one won once he made it through the first inning. His zero walks were a far cry from the control issues exhibited by Contreras in the last game. Now, with all this negativity coming out of this miniscule series against the Sux I should definitely mention a big positive from this game. Our defense was amazing. Torii made a great catch against the wall and Jacque made an even better diving play that really pissed off Konerko, which was fun to see. Hunter also threw out a tagging Podsednik at home plate. But the biggest part of that play was by the birthday boy himself, JOE MAUER! He managed to block the plate completely from Podsednik and put the tag on him. The play of the year so far.

Image from ESPN.com

By the way, here is a good update on Morneau and Mauers knee.

In other Twins news it appears as if with the return of Silva and Morneau (who homered in a AAA game today) we will be sending down Terry "His initials are TT for a reason" Tiffee and Dave Gassner. Gardy said that his reasons are to make sure those guys get enough play time and develop, but I suspect it is to make us endure Corky Miller some more. I wonder if this will frustrate me as much as when we would not bring Morneau up to the majors last year. Only time will tell.

Tomorrow I will be making the hour-and-a-half trek up to the Metrodome to see Johan wail on the Royals. What can I say, I am a sucker for $3 tickets and $1 hot dogs. It should provide an interesting story for tomorrow. I expect no less than 12 strikeouts for Mr. Santana. At the very least he can show that all mouth, no arm, Jose Lima what real pitching is.


Opportunity Lost

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
MIN (8-5)	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	1		4	9	0		Final
CHW (9-4)	1	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0		5	7	1
W: L. Vizcaino (2-1) L: K. Lohse (1-2) S: S. Takatsu (4)

Three things we can take out of this game:

1. The White Sox gave the Twins every opportunity to win.

The Twins were getting walked left and right tonight. Until Hermanson came into the game in the 8th inning, we had seven walks in seven innings. Combine that with our nine hits on the game and we had a runner touch first base sixteen times! A pretty productive night at the plate by any measure, except for one. We simply could not get runners home. The White Sox even balked a runner home from third base! Sixteen times a runner touched first base, but somehow the Twins managed to get only two RBI. Joe Mauer did managed to hit a homer off of Takatsu. Sadly, even that was spoiled by the fact that Mauer's shot was only a solo-shot and his last plate appearance he had the bases loaded and hit into a double play. If only we could have swapped one swing for another. Joe wasn't alone though. Hunter and Fatty Lecroy grounded into some double plays of their own. Ten runners left on base was the story of this one.

2. Kyle Lohse shouldn't be allowed to pitch against Carl Everett

EVER AGAIN. Kyle, or rather as the BG community refer to him on nights like this: "his evil Twin brother Lyle," served up two balls that Carl golf into the outfield. I thought the White Sox were putting emphasis on speed this year!

3. Bert Blyleven drinks while he does Twins games.

I will probably bring this point up several times in the future, so I should introduce it now. Sometimes when I listen to Bert talk about the game he seems a bit off. Earlier in the season he celebrated his birthday and appeared to be drunk. Wearing a pointy birthday hat when you are older than 10 is a dead give away.

This brings me to tonight. There were a couple tipsy moments from Bert. Actually, a couple I cannot remember so he is getting off light. First when Jacque ran through first base and down the right-field line he shouted "Jacque come back!" It was just the way he said it. I think he thought Jacque was leaving the game. Secondly, for some reason he blurted out "I wet the bed." We still don't know if this was past-tense or if it is still going on. Dick was even a bit taken aback by the comment. Now, I love Bert, don't get me wrong. But he is both too old and too young to be doing things like that. He made some comment about Coors Light being to blame. Maybe it is to blame for many of his off the cuff remarks that are sometimes Madden-esque.

The Dream is Over! Win Streak Ends at Six

Scoreboard - Sun, Apr. 17, 2005
Final - Jacobs Field		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
	Minnesota (8-4)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	5	1
	Cleveland (5-7)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0		2	7	0
	W: B. Howry (1-1) L: J. Romero (0-1) S: B. Wickman (4)
Hafner's hit by pitch pushes pitchers' duel in Tribe's favor Box Score

Well, the winning streak is over. The Twins lost today due to what was basically an error by Cuddyer and some wild pitching by Mr. JC Romero. The innacurate arm of both players ended up wasting a great performance by Joe Mays, who looks to be in for a great comeback season.

All credit to Cleveland though, they made our offense look anemic. C.C. Sabathia, a Twins "hater" if there ever was one was, had his pitches working. They even struck out the buzz-saw that is Terry Tiffee. The Indian bullpen even managed to pitch well! Whenever Bob Wickman (who I swear is Matt LeCroy's fatter clone) makes you look bad you know it just isn't your day.

My one question throughout the end of the game was one that I thought I would never hear myself say: "Where is Jacque Jones!?" Now I am one of the bigger JJ critics out there in Twins country but he should have been in the game with Wickman on the mound. Ron Gardenhire, and almost all managers for that sake, makes decisions I really scratch my head at. With Sabathia out of the game, we could finally insert some of the lefty bats that weren't starting. I commed Gardy on sitting Jones against a left handed power pitcher since I hit them about as well as Jacque does (hitting .062 points lower against lefties than righties in the last three years). But he has been hitting the ball very well for us this year and Matthew LeCroy shouldn't be DH'ing in a close game when there are right handers on the mound (about .160 lower OPS against righties in the last 3 years). Once a Sabathia left the game, Jones should have been inserted into the lineup. This is especially critical in a road game against a divisional opponent with the score tied 1-1. Ron Gardenhire's gave us a lesser chance to win that game.

In other news, Corky "The Turtle" Miller is quickly becoming my least favorite Twin. Not a lot of this is his fault, it is just that situation surrounding his prescence in the lineup. First, whenever I see him in the lineup I am frustrated that Mauer is not in there. Second, he is one of four catchers on our roster which is completely insane. Lastly, keeping him cost us Michael Restovich. The other day Resto had as many hits as the entire Twins team did. Another thing not helping Corky is that he has as many hits as I do this season. Hopefully Corky will be sent down when ma' boy Justin Morneau returns. This way we can keep Tiffee on our 25 man roster.

Up next this week are two, two-game series in Chicago and KC. Hopefully we can start getting some hits and win three of those games.

Full Tank of Gass

Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
D Gassner (W, 1-0)	6.0	3	2	1	1	1	1	72-48	1.50

"Local Boy Makes Good" or something to that tune will be the headline of the Post-Crescent tomorrow, an Appleton, Wisconsin based newspaper. That is because today, in the biggest game of his twenty-six year life, Dave Gassner got the W.

I have always been inclined to read the box score when I want to see the story of a game. The numbers tell a story in black and white; a story that is brutally honest. I find that the numbers help overcome a bias I might have on a player and tell me the whole story of what that player really does. If Kyle Lohse is having control problems, I won't have to see the game in order to tell. The box score tells me how little of his pitches are being called for strikes.

Baseball is a game of numbers. .400, 61 (now 73), 300 Wins, 500 Homers. They are sewn into the fabric of the game so tightly that you cannot help but remember them in the same way you remember how the crack of a bat hitting a ball in April sounds. It all just fits together seamlessly.

Numbers however, can never tell the whole story. Sometimes, the story isn't about a box score, strikeouts, wins, or losses. I'd usually talk about those numbers, but I wont. Today Dave Gassner, who probably dreamed of pitching in the major leagues since he was six, stepped up and delivered. In front of around one-hundred friends and family, Dave threw six innings he will never forget. No matter if he goes on to win 300 games or never pitches in the big-leagues again, he won today.

In an article from yesterday, Gassner's brother, excitedly describing a cell phone picture sent to him by Dave said, “It’s David in front of Jacobs Field. Just like in the ‘Field of Dreams.’”

Scoreboard - Sat, Apr. 16, 2005
Final - Jacobs Field		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
	Minnesota (8-3)	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	0		6	10	1
	Cleveland (4-7)	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2		4	7	0
	W: D. Gassner (1-0) L: K. Millwood (0-2) S: J. Nathan (3)

Goin' Yard

Welcome to my new Twins Blog. I have been thinking about doing a good one for a while and I finally did it. So what can you expect to see here? Some analysis and random thoughts on your Minnesota Twins by a lifelong Twins fan. I'll go over wins and losses and other topics related to Twindom. So kick back and enjoy. It can only get better from here.