1 day, 1.5 games
After being swept in a doubleheader by the red-hot Blue Jays the White Sox sit just one game above the Twins with 18 games to go. This is a huge morale boost. The White Sox face Roy Halladay and he is awesome. Also, Paul Konerko went down with what looked like a serious injury, I usually don’t wish harm upon other players, but the White Sox hardly consist of “players”, more like 25 “satan incarnates” and its OK to wish harm upon satan incarnate. With Quentin formally out for the season, and Konerko probably done for most of the year, the Twins probably had their best 24 hours all season. It is important that we just keep focusing on our own games. I get the feeling that on that road trip (and the tigers series) the team focused too much on what the Sox were doing, and not enough on what the Twins were doing. As hard as it is to do, its time to put the blinders on. We have no control over what the White Sox do (until we play them). They are now relying on Ken Griffey, Jr. to be an impact bat in their lineup, which is something no team should have to do. The man is old, and I think they were expecting him to pick up some slack for the stretch run, not carry the offense.
The Twins have a stretch of six games (including last night) against the Royals and the O’s, so hopefully we play like we did last night for all six of them. I still don’t trust the bullpen, but playing weak lineups should allow our starters to get into the 7th inning, thus minimizing how often we have to use worthless Reyes and/or Crain. I still don’t get why Gardy isn’t using the September call-ups. Last night for example, we are up by 5, why bring in a terribly overworked Jesse Crain instead of Humber or someone else? Its a relatively low-leverage situation (I guess five runs isn’t a huge lead) and the Royals have a very weak lineup, perfect for a young pitcher to face.
The Twins have an off-day before they start that crucial series against the Sox in a few weeks, so hopefully we will use that to our advantage. Apparently having that off-day at home on Monday helped the team immensely. It should be a fun next few weeks, Go Twins!
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I was watching the White Sox game on one of my screens last night, and Konerko going down was really fluky. It’s really too bad to see that. Before you get too happy about someone else going down, imagine what it’d be like if that happened to Morneau. Our season would be over in the snap of a finger (or, in this case, an MCL).
Crain actually looked decent last night, and was hitting 97 with movement. (According to the FSN speedometer, which I don’t know if we can trust.) The thing is, he blew people away. Gardy may be trying to rebuild his confidence so he can use him as a setup man. Players react badly to being treated with kid gloves.
That said, I would like to see Humber get into a game.
Yeah, I was just joking about the players getting hurt thing. Not only is it bad if it happened to us, but also it gives the team excuses, and give the winning team a watered down sense of accomplishment.
I like that theory on Crain. Hopefully we can have big leads and a starter pitching 7 all through these next two series. That will give Gardy plenty of chances to re-structure the bullpen in low-pressure situations.
As long as we’re hoping, can we have big leads and a strong starting performance every night from now through October?
Heaping praise upon the White Sox by describing them as “satan incarnates” gives them way too much credit. That’s very Guillenesque and too flattering. Let’s face it, the pundits didn’t give the Twins much love. The Sox, Indians and Tigers were given the proverbial nod over our Twins…and yet, here we are. One game out of first place and trailing the White Sox as we head into the stretch run. I’d say they’re very ordinary. All the Twins need to do (as mentioned before) is shore up the the bullpen and buy some time for our relievers to get a rest. Insert Humber. Let Korecky get an inning. At this point in the season, we’re not going to get true help for offense or defense from the September call-ups, but what we can use to our advantage is the depth of pitching. They may not have the “trust” of Gardy, but for the good of the remainder of the season he has to start using them here and there (like last night).
Come on Gardy. Give one or two of the new guys a chance. You may be surprised…
An interesting stat I learned today: The White Sox are 8-32 in games in which they don’t hit a home run.
A couple of corollaries: 1) That means they’re 72-32 when they hit a home run. 2) They’ve hit a home run in 104 different games (more than the Twins have hit overall). 3) We need to keep them in the yard. 4) It would be really nice if we didn’t have one of the more homer-prone pitching staffs in baseball.
The practice of heaping praise on your opponent (especially when they’re the Twins) appears to have become an organizational policy with the White Sox. Hawk & DJ (especially Hawk) are especially egregious. My theory? They used to dismiss the Twins like everyone else and say we’re no good (after all, have YOU ever heard of any of these no-name pieces of crap?) … and we kept beating them, day in, day out, year after year. That doesn’t make themselves look good — so if they say we’re awesome and it doesn’t matter who’s on the team because it’s the AWESOME TWINS it doesn’t make you look bad if you lose and it makes you look really good if you win. And the Hose are all about making themselves look good to their fans (and they need to be, since the fans will stop paying attention the moment things start to look bleak).
And I think “satan incarnates” is incorrect, by the way. I think they’ve just spent too much time with AJ and have taken his tendencies to heart — as opposed to noticing how irritating he is and doing away with him. Really, watch that team play. They’re a bunch of AJs.
I forgot about that POS. Granted I liked him while he was here…a .300 hitting catcher…what’s not to like? Oh wait…
These Twins sure are interesting. I do like the grinder mentality. Just go out and play Twins baseball. Win. Win ugly. Find a way to win. Do you think the Sox fans buy the hype that we’re awesome in spite of the smoke and mirrors of our line-up? I doubt the sophisticated Sox fans buy into the propaganda machine. They must be really pissed when they lose to us.
re: point #4 — we still have Radke? Santana? How bad are we in giving up dingers? I know we’re polar opposites in hitting them 209 vs 101.
The White Sox fans I talk to are terrified of the Twins. They’d rather face the Tigers, Indians, Red Sox, Yankees, or any other team than the Twins. They’re baffled as to how the Twins can lose any player on their team and just replace them and move on. Some of it seems like they’re mimicking the Hawk, but some of it seems like they’ve actually thought about it. And believe me, right now they’re scared about the division race.
Homers… Slowey: 19 HR in 139 IP Baker: 18 HR in 147 IP Blackburn: 17 HR in 176 IP Perkins: 22 HR in 142 IP Livan: 18 HR in 139 IP (with the Twins)
In total, we’ve given up 155 HR, which ranks 12th in the AL. The White Sox, in contrast, have given up 133 HR, which is 4th in the AL.
Love it!
Ok, here’s another question and maybe it’s just dumb, but what the heck. So what that we’ve given up 155 HRs. The organizational pitching staff philosophy is to throw strikes, throw first pitch strikes and do not walk anyone. Let the defense handle things and don’t give them extra opportunities to score runs (those dreaded walks). Is it unfair to criticize the amount of homers the Twins staff has given up with respect to this methodology? As a staff we’ve given up 346 walks to 413 walks by the White Sox. That’s pretty good, no?
And a 6-run lead in the 8th inning and Bonser was brought in…were Korecky and Humber sick? Are we saving their arms for the post-season as a secret weapon?
Really, the fact that we’re so homer prone isn’t as big a deal precisely because we don’t walk anyone (we’ve given up the fewest walks in the league). Still, the organizational philosophy is allegedly to develop sinkers, and none of our pitchers actually throw one. It’s kind of unfair to criticize all the homers we give up — but at the same time I think we’d all rather they didn’t.
Humber and Mijares were both up in the pen in the 7th. I guess Gardy was ready to bring one of them into the middle of an inning, with runners on base and the pressure on. Obviously, that’s much better than starting their own inning with a nice big lead. (?)
Then Boof in the 8th and Breslow in the 9th, instead of Humber in the 8th and Mijares in the 9th. Seriously. Is Gardy waiting until we’re getting beat by 6 runs so he can do the Gardy-patended “Give Up On The Game” maneuver and put in the untested rookies? It makes no sense.
And no, he’s not saving Humber, Korecky, or Mijares for the playoffs. Since none of them were on the 25 man roster on August 31, they can’t be on the playoff roster. Gardy continues to overuse the guys who are fatigued from being overused all season AND still (hopefully) have to pitch in October.
In a 6 run blowout, you can’t really do much wrong with the bullpen. Which is why I think it’d make more sense to put in the untested rookies then — to make them tested? — rather than continue to tire out the arms you want available in closer games.
re: playoff roster — aww crap, that’s right.
This [not using Humber, Korecky, or Mijares] does baffle me. Gardy probably views every game as must win, and that’s great. Sure he wants to ride the horses that got the Twins this far and wants to know who he can depend on in a 5-game series from the bullpen…and he probably wants to keep “his guys” sharp instead of giving them the break they need.
But shouldn’t Bill Smith make a call to Gardy and nudge him to start using those guys in those 6-run blowouts? It’ll save the arms in the pen and allow both Smith and Gardy to evaluate these young guys against big league hitters.
Do you know if anyone has come out point blank in a news conference and asked why he’s not using them? I’d like to hear why. Where’s the logic? What are the reasons?
Sheesh.
Brutal.
“Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is trying to find a spot to get a look at lefthander Jose Mijares.” — La Velle
Gardy then says that six runs isn’t that big of a lead. I think that does go to your “Give Up On The Game” theory. He must be waiting for the Twins to take a beating and then use those untested, unused players.
“I can see where Gardy is coming from, but I’m anxious to see what Mijares can do.” — La Velle
That’s way too nice of La Velle. A few commenters over there at the Strib blog get it…gads. I like Gardy, I really do, but this stumps me.