Month End Update
The Twins have reached our goal (and by extension their) of finishin April at 500. This was challenging for three main reasons:
1) No Joe Mauer
2) We were one of two AL teams who faced all four of the 2008 playoff teams (White Sox, Rays, Red Sox, Angels)
3) We played against some teams who were really hot in April, but will fade back this summer (Toronto, Seattle)
So doing these things without Mauer is pretty impressive. Baker and Liriano have both gotten off to terrible starts,Baker in particular, so you can probably add that to the above list. If Mauer comes out swining, and Baker and Liriano revert to the pitchers we know they can be, we might be OK for this season. The key to this amazing 11-11 start has been the performance of Perkins, Span, Morneau and Kubel. Those four have really carried us. Note: They are all lefties, I am a lefty, thus I am awesome.
We face Sidney Ponson tonight, I’m assuming Mauer will be catching, and we get to miss Zach Grienke. All of these are good things. Hopefully Mauer can catch two of the games, but I’m not sure how that will look. It appears as if Kubel is entrenched in the DH spot, which is another good thing. This means that when Mauer rests, he will really be resting, not DHing.
A few thoughts on the last nights game. Blackburn looked excellent. He walked just one guy, got a lot of first pitch strikes (24 of 30 I believe), and induced many ground outs.
Who else thinks that Casilla has to be on a pretty short leash at this point? The way Harris is hitting the ball makes it tough to keep him out of the lineup more often than not. While Casilla is a better defender, and its nice to have the versatile Harris on the bench, we should have our nine best hitters in the lineup. At this point that includes Harris. If Casilla must start, he should not be batting second. Can you imagine if we had Span-Mauer-Morneau-Kubel. Our four best hitters in a row. I don’t care if the are all lefties. Casilla is going to be batting left handed most of the time anyway, but having our 4 best hitters in a row is better than any stupid R-L-R lineup construction anyday.
I’ve also been reading that the Twins might place Redmond on the DL retro-active to Sunday, thus delaying any roster decision for about 10 days. This is probably a good move, as Redmond probably has nagging injuries. If Gardy plans on easing Mauer into things, the backup catcher will be playing a lot more than normal for the next few weeks, and it might be best if Morales is getting those at bats over Redmond.
Here’s to a winning May. I will be in attendance tomorrow and I hope Mauer gets at least 3 hits off Ponson.
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It’s pretty great that we all came out and said we hoped we could finish April 11-11, and then we went out and did exactly that. Good job Twins. (Should we now predict a 20 win May? Just to see if that’d work?)
I agree that Casilla needs a short leash, or even a benching. I’ve been one of Casilla’s biggest supporters, and he’s rewarded that support with short-armed popup dropping, muffed grounders, and quite a bit of flailing. Harris should be at SS and Punto at 2B until Casilla gets his act together. Harris should ALWAYS play against lefties … I’m done with watching Casilla “bat” right handed.
Oh, and Ponson had better not shut us down tomorrow night. I’d be supremely annoyed.
Great Post, I was anticipating it all day!
You pretty much hit everything on the head that went right for us in April (we did have some fortunate come back victories as well – of course thanks to the guys mentioned above)… Signs of improvement for me are Crede who seems to be finding a better stroke at the plate and that Gardy has actually been more right in his managing moves during games than wrong… it seems while I’m watching I’ll say things to myself that we should do next and then Gardy actually does it (I guess with a better bench this year, it’s become more obvious to make these moves??) Harris needs to get more ABs, his defense wouldn’t be a big deal at 2B, like we mentioned, take Casilla out of the lineup for a couple days to get his head cleared…
Of course the only thing Gardy WONT do is bat Mauer 2nd, as he said about 50 times yesterday that he’ll be right back in the 3 hole where he belongs.. then I’d say Harris should be 2nd if that’s how he’s going to do it.
Redmond will most likely end up on the 15-day DL with shoulder stiffness and soreness, which would be the best thing to start off the May campaign.
My lineup tomorrow night vs Ponson would be:
Span CF Harris 2B Mauer C Morneau 1B Kubel DH Crede 3B Cuddyer RF Young LF Punto SS
Gomez, Buscher, Morales on the bench…
I would even consider playing Kubel in RF, benching Cuddyer and Buscher at DH… since it would take out a weak RH bat and put another lefty in (since they RULE.)
Batting Mauer 3rd when we have Morneau and Kubel (ie, basically perfect 3/4 hitters) is simply moronic. But I’m so excited that Mauer’s back I can’t get too worked up about it. For a few days, anyway.
Gardy’s bench management seems a lot better, but you’re right: when the players on the bench are pretty much as good as the starters, playing for a better matchup makes sense. It was ALWAYS a bad move to bring in Ford, Tyner, L-Rod, White, etc … but it’s rarely going to be a bad move to bring in Gomez or Harris, or to pinch hit Buscher for Punto.
I know, as FunBobby pointed out, having Span, Mauer, Morneau, Kubel be the top of your order isn’t too shabby.. why risk the extra out in the 2 hole? Isn’t the goal to get out front early, score early and often? takes the pressure off your pitcher and the rest of the offense… hence last night with the 4-0 lead after 1.
But you are right, we can let it slide FOR NOW, as just having Mauer in the lineup at all is a huge boost… we’ll have time to rip Gardy the rest of year!
My revised lineup for Friday night:
Span CF Mauer C Morneau 1B Kubel RF Crede 3B Buscher DH Young LF Harris 2B Punto SS
That looks like a lot of runs!
I like that lineup. I think Kubel has put to rest the theory that he doesn’t hit when he plays the OF or was it he doesn’t hit when he DHs? Either way, dude can flat out rake no matter where you put him.
Yeah, Kubel’s going to hit whether he’s in the field or not. (And he hits better as a DH.)
He should be in the lineup 162 times.
At least.
I’m re-thinking my apathy towards Kubel. I might even get excited when he steps up to bat… Nah. I’ll save that for MVP.
Even with the pitchers struggling and all of the offensive woes, the Twins haven’t fallen behind the rest of the AL Central. Not too shabby.
When we all made the goal to be 11-11 at the end of April, I don’t think we were expecting to be just half a game out of the lead for the division; that’s a pleasant bonus, and it puts us in even better position for the rest of the year.
Should be a good race all the way through the year.
Can you imagine what it’d be like if 4 teams are separated by 0.5 games in September? It’d be the most exciting race … ever.
are we still allowed to call Morneau “MVP” even though there have been two more recent AL MVP awards handed out? I assumed that nickname was reserved for the reigning MVP winner in each league.
Well he did come in 2nd last year, and it’s only a “team” nickname — in that he’s still the “MVP” of the Twins.
That said, I don’t think much of it as a nickname. Something more along the lines of “The Burly Canadian” or Justin “Busted Nose” Morneau might be better.
I propose that we attempt to bring back the age of crazy 1920’s nicknames, rather than the lame stuff people have been coming up with for the last couple of decades.
At least people don’t call him J-Morn.
Fact. Too bad Boof is hurt/terrible. I know Boof is his real name, but its still pretty cool.
Something with Maple Leaf or Mountie might work for Morneau. I’m guessing “Cheap drugs for old people” is too long.
Yeah, “Boof” is definitely an old-school name, harkening back to a simpler time when baseball players had unique and baffling names.
Sorry guys, I’m sticking with MVP. Because, dammit, he’ll be the league MVP again soon!
Or I would go with the Canadian Crusher. I’m always in favor of alliteration.
The Canadian Crusher isn’t bad. I’m going to stick with “Morneau”. I’ve never been a huge fan of nicknames since most of them suck. A-Rod, K-Rod, etc. I think my favorite modern nickname is “Manny”. Possibly “The Big Hurt”. Go-Go is one that I think is really stupid.
Wait I thought boof actually was his nickname until he legally changed it to be his real name. Which is cool. Nobody actually called whatshisface ocho cinco