April 3: Angels 5, Twins 4
I was only able to see the first 5 innings of this game, which turned out to be the bad ones. Slowey looked OK until he left the game with, what Joe C is reporting, a bicep strain. Bass didn’t look very good, I really am not a fan of that guy, mainly because he really didn’t deserve to make the team. The bats were pretty dead through the first 5, but according to the internet the woke up as I was walking from the dome back to my office. Mauer had a good day at the plate with 2 doubles. Morneau finally got his first RBI, and Gomez was again impressive with 2 hits, although no steals. That is understandable considering Ervin was hitting 96 on the gun with ease. Good to see Kubel hit a homer, hopefully that will earn him more ABs. I think Gardy will give more ABs to monroe (we are no longer treating his name as a proper noun) in order to “give Craig-y a chance to catch up”. It makes no sense, but that is the kind of logic Gardy will use. Not cool. Gomez had a bunt single, I didn’t see it so I’m not sure if it was good or just lucky. He also hit the cutoff man the one time I saw him relay a ball into the infield. Torii got his first homer of the season, I would have liked him to have been 0 for the series, but oh well.We open up a weekend series against KC tomorrow night, they are coming off of a big sweep of the Tigers, so we can’t be taking anything for granted. I think we are sending Baker, Livan, and Boof out.
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A bicep strain sounds pretty bad. Slowey’d better be okay, or else he’ll be the guy to yield his rotation spot to Liriano.
Kubel’s home run was awesome. He absolutely crushed that ball, and it was gone as soon as he started swinging the bat. DORtiz/Bonds style. It was … just … awesome.
That said, I fully expect Gardy to bench Kubel for it. I don’t think Kubel played in any games last year the day after he had a good day at the plate. It infuriates me. I don’t really want to hate monroe, but it looks like I might have to if Gardy has his way.
I wouldn’t call Gomez’s day “impressive,” largely because of his AB in the 9th against K-Rod. He struck out on three sliders, none of which were within 18 inches of the strike zone, and his bat never got within a foot or two of the ball on any of his three swings. It was simply pathetic.
I think the plan for Bass is to have him suck it up so we can sneak him and his 10.00 ERA through waivers when we need to bring Liriano up. I just wish that could work without costing us games.
I kind of have the feeling that K-Rod knew after throwing that first slider he could throw the same pitch two more times in a row and have an out. He is clearly a work in progress but I think he is the right choice to be our CF this year.
Yeah, you’re right about that. Even the Angels commentators said he knew he wouldn’t have to go anywhere near the strike zone after Gomez flailed at that first pitch.
I’m just glad Gomez started off quickly to quiet some concerns. But it’s going to be tough to remember that he’s a big work in progress. And being made to look like a fool by K-Rod isn’t that bad. He’s a pretty awesome pitcher.
I’m looking forward to this weekend because we get to face the back of the royals rotation. They looked really good against the Tigers, but I’m pretty sure there is a huge dropoff after their 1 and 2 starters. With the way we are hitting though, who knows. Here’s to hoping Kubel gets the majority of the starts at DH this weekend.
Well if the offense doesn’t improve, it doesn’t matter who we’re facing, we’re not scoring.
Hopefully they snap out of it soon.
This talk of a struggling offense reminds me of a conversation I had a few weeks ago with some buddies. We were trying to determine what has been the largest contract the Twins have signed a non-pitching free agent to? Can anyone help me out here?
Chili Davis? Don Baylor? Although considering how long ago that was, the largest in terms of dollar value is probably someone really bad and recent like Rondell White.
Dollar-wise, I think it’s Mike Lamb. He was a true free agent and got a $7M deal. Before him it probably was Rondell White and his $5M.
For “non true” free agents, Shannon Stewart signed an $18M deal with us after we rented him for the 2003 stretch run. I don’t think that counts though.
I’d never thought of this before. And it’s kind of sad.
Feel free to dig through that to see if I missed anyone. The data there goes back to 1988 … when the team salary was $12M.
Things could be worse, we could be Tigers fans. I am surprised that Meche, Bannister and Greinke shut the Tigers down, with Bannister and Greinke looking the best. I am looking forward to Baker’s first start and hope that he can give us a lift. There is an article in the pioneer press about the disparity of Mauer’s statistics at home versus away. There is an incredibly large difference and worth thinking about. I don’t know if it is a MN pressure thing, or a dome thing, but it is interesting to think about
I think it’s because he’s still growing, and he has to crouch down a bit lower in the batters box to avoid scraping his head on the dome’s ceiling.
Or not. Make your own judgment on that.
Oh yes, believe me, I’m glad I’m not a Tigers fan. Seriously, what’s with those uniforms?
“Surprised” might be a bit of a strong word, but Meche, Bannister, and Greinke are all pretty underrated, and the Tigers’ lineup is vastly overrated (very good, but very overrated).
I would say that Meche and Bannister are udnerrated, but I wouldn’t say Greinke is. He was supposed to be really good when he was drafted and never really panned out and had that mental breakdown where he was out of baseball for a year. So i’d hold the phone on him, but the other two are very good pitchers. I’m not sure if Meche is 44mil good or whatever they paid him, but he is good.
Meche has shown nothing but positives since he signed that contract. I had doubts, mainly because I was not really sure what the hell the Royals were doing, but it looks like they were slowly under the radar turning into a good ball club. considering the the way we have been playing I wouldn’t be surprised to see us finish behind them. Assuming their end of the rotation can hold its own.
Good thought on Greinke, but I feel like the backlash against him for that crap-out has swung popular opinion all the way to the other side.
He’s still a talented young pitcher who very well may put himself back on the map with a solid year.
And Meche may not be worth $55M to the Twins, who have $400K pitchers falling out of their ass at the moment, but that’s the market rate for average pitching these days, and Meche is outperforming that expectation. It doesn’t bother me when someone gets a contract that seems a bit big. It bothers me when someone gets a contract and then doesn’t provide the services they were supposed to. And that’s not what Meche seems to be about.
(For examples of people doing that, see Kevin Brown and Mike Hampton. That’s about as extreme as you can get in that regard, but just imagine how frustrating that would be.)
Agreed, nice win by the Twinks today, however it is still frustrating to see Monroe as the DH