Fire Gardy

That is more like it.

Even though its just one win, I think this was a huge statement game.  The Twins were downright dominated on Monday when they faced King Felix, and by the looks of things early, it appeared as if Bedard was more of the same.  Then they started racking up hits, and got to the soft underbelly of the Mariners bullpen.

Limiting Bedard to only five innings was huge.  I’m not sure if Seattle was being careful and pulled him early, or if they didn’t think he had enough to get any more outs, but either way I’m thankful he only lasted five.  

The two offensive stars of the game were Span and Cuddyer.  Despite Cuddyer’s propensity to strike out, he had some good at bats.  Span was 3-5, which is a great follow up to his 2 walk performance last night.  I really think he is going to have a good year.  He might not hit 290, but with his defense (at a corner OF position, no less) and ability to get on base, there is no reason he should not be playing everyday.

I was at the game last night, and after the Mariners scored their fifth run, to go up 5-3, people started leaving.  My friend questioned this.  Why leave with half an inning left.  You already invested three hours, why not stay a little bit longer, two runs isnt’ much.  I agreed.  And during the Seattle pitching change, that same friend ran out to use the bathroom and noticed people crowded in the concourse watching the game on the closed circuit TVs.  Unbelievable.

Anyway, on to the ninth inning we go.  Seattle’s closer, Brandon Marrow looks as if he will breeze through the ninth and put the Twins in an 0-2 hole to start the season.  Wrong-0!  Three consecutive walks, (along with some excellent, if obvious, managing by Gardy) Seattle then brought in Batista (who is terrible) to pitch to Span.  Span chopped one to third and it was too high for Beltre to handle.  Everybody safe.  5-4.  The Casilla finished the job by lacing one back up the middle.  Game over.

I was really impressed with how the Twins handled themselves at the plate.  They got down early, much like monday, against a good pitcher.  This time they didn’t go into their shells.  They kept battling, scraped together 3 runs in the fifth.  Once they realized Morrow couldn’t throw a strike, they didn’t try to hit bad pitches, like they sometimes do.  Just try to get on base.  It would have sucked to start the season 0-2, but I think the most important part of this win is that we came back from 4-0, and had solid performance out of the middle relievers.   It also showed how important having good bench players is.  Kubel and Buscher both had great at bats.

Anyway, game two is in the books, now we get to see what our old friend Carlos Silva is up to.

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Well, that was a bit of a setback. 

First, the pitchers. Liriano didn’t look terrible, despite giving up 4 runs.  He went 7, walked 0, but only struck out 3.   He made a mistake pitch to Junior, and Junior doesn’t let too many mistake pitches go by, even if he is old as hell.  The homer by Gutierrezwasn’t as much of a mistake, but he was sitting fastball and when Liriano fired one in there Gutierrez was ready for it. Luis Ayala didn’t look half bad.  Retiring the Mariners on 11 pitches, 9 of them strikes. The other three guys, not as much.  Crain threw  16 pitches, only 8 for strikes.  Then for some reason Gardy brought Breslow in to face Junior, and he walked him on four pitches.  It seemed like he was pitching very cautiously, so why not just intentionally walk him with Crain?  Oh well, that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme. 

On to the hitters, we had one extra base hit.  We had the bases loaded with no outs and scored one run.  You CANNOT do these things and expect to win ballgames.  Span looked comfortable out there, coaxing two walks.  Nobody else really impressed me.  I think once our hitters saw Hernandez start to get into a groove they got desperate and started taking bad approaches at the plate.  That is not a good thing.

Is anyone else worried that Gardy is going to play favorites with the outfielders, and not give Delmon is fair shake?  I think Cuddyer will get more at bats than he deserves.  He looked lost at the plate last night, he accounted for 3 of Hernandez’s six strikeouts.  At least one of which was looking.  Obviously, I think Delmon will play tonight, with Kubel probably sitting.  I don’t know Span’s numbers against lefties off the top of my head, but I don’t like the idea of sitting out leadoff hitter sometimes.  Whoever bats leadoff needs to be a fixture in the lineup everyday. 

Redmond hurt is groin running the bases, hopefully he isn’t out too long or we will have a Morales/Butera platoon behind the plate.  And nobody wants that.

Well, we have 161 more.  And Felix Hernandez won’t be pitching in all of them.

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I’m pretty sure the reason Jim Souhan and Patrick Reusse don’t have RSS feeds for their online content is so that it’s impossible to find — and ridicule — their articles. But I managed to find one, this time from the desk of Souhan, so it’s time to have a little fun with it.

(Editor’s note: Jim Souhan’s column is unavailable today, so the Star Tribune instead will use this space to print an infomercial.)

Oh good, so we’re going to get to see some interesting content then!

Hey, kids! Want to be a big-league hitter? For only three payments of $29.99, we’ll show you how you, too, can make millions of dollars by doing nothing.

I see. It was a joke. An annoying tease to trick me into reading the article. Well, judging by this auspicious start, this will be a good one. I mean, what can go wrong with this concept?

Sound too good to be true? Then you haven’t been paying attention to Major League Baseball, the only major sport in the world where millionaire athletes get paid to act like defense lawyers — they stand still, look serious and occasionally argue.

Sometimes I think that the worst thing about baseball is that it turns its fans into crotchety old men who hate everything about it. Maybe that’s not baseball, though. Maybe it’s just senility.

Don’t believe us? Then you haven’t been paying attention. Once upon a time, baseball was ruled by fast, powerful athletes, guys who liked to steal bases and hit long home runs. I know, I might as well be telling you stories about dinosaurs, but it’s true! Guys like Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle could have played quarterback, wide receiver or small forward, could have anchored a sprint relay team.

In case you were wondering, yes, I do need a ridiculous hook at the beginning of every single paragraph. If I don’t get one, I don’t know that there’s something exciting and important coming up!

I’m a little confused by this, though. Is he somehow implying that players were more athletic forty years ago than they are today? I don’t see it.

They went to the plate looking to do something spectacular. Well, thanks to pitch counts, times have changed. No longer do baseball games imitate Clint Eastwood movies, two hours of suspense punctuated by action. Now, baseball games are Robert Altman films, ensemble casts standing around talking and taking forever to get to the point.

So, here we have it. The thesis. The thing we’re being sold in this “infomercial.” Hitters aren’t as exciting as they used to be, because their approach is boring and lawyer-y. And what’s to blame? Pitch counts! Of course, why didn’t I think of that?

Meanwhile, Eastwood and Altman? Are you deliberately trying to date yourself? Or is this a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that nobody under 50 bothers to subscribe to the newspaper any more?

Thanks to the Yankees and Oakland A’s of the late 1990s, and the new-millennium Red Sox, pitch counts rule the game. Thanks to author Michael Lewis, the act of standing still watching pitches — and hours — go by is now romanticized.

You keep on saying “pitch count,” as if you think pitchers should be throwing more pitches. But your entire complaint is that they’re throwing too many pitches. I think you’re a little confused.

The baseball filibuster is now in vogue.

That “paragraph” was fun. Whenever I come across a single non-sequitur sentence like that, sitting on its own in the middle of the article, it gives me the impression that the author came up with it on its own, and either needed an article to cram it into, or crafted an article around it just so he could use it. Somehow this line just didn’t seem worth it.

This might be bad for fans, who need No-Doze to get through Yankee at-bats, and the help of both Dunn Bros. to get to the end of a World Series game, but it’s great for you, the aspiring young baseball player.

Or you could, you know, watch Twins games or something. Instead of watching Yankees games, which you seem to hate. Also, I hope you didn’t try to stay up for all of Game 5 last year.

Thanks to pitch counts, you, too, can become a big-leaguer, even if your greatest athletic asset is patience.

Yes, if only managers would leave their pitcher in to throw 150 pitches, children would stop being able to dream of someday growing up to be in the majors.

Here’s the deal: The Yankees of the mid- to late ’90s were not the bloated underachievers who now wear pinstripes. They were gamers such as the young Derek Jeter and the older Paul O’Neill, and their method of gamesmanship was the high pitch count.

Now I love a good fat joke as much as anyone, but this one kind of fizzled out before the punch line. Also, don’t the “bloated underachievers” currently playing for the Yankees attempt to drive up the pitch count much in the same vein as the 90s Yankees? And aren’t they pretty good at it? Isn’t that what you’ve been complaining about this whole time?

We all know that the scarcest quantity in sports is quality pitching, and the softest underbelly in sports is middle relief. With O’Neill taking balls and fouling off strikes, with the Yankees intimidating umpires into giving them the benefit of the doubt on every close pitch, games grew longer than the recession.

So what you’re saying is that everyone knows about the weaknesses of a pitching staff, and that the Yankees figured out a way to exploit that in a way that helped them win baseball games. Outrage!

But at least there’s a timely reference to current events clumsily stuffed in here so we know you’re still awake.

If you attended a Yankees game that started at 7:05, you had to be prepared for their opponent to be making its third pitching change in the sixth inning at 10 p.m.

Why would we be attending Yankees games? Isn’t this the Minneapolis paper? You are aware that when the Yankees play the Twins, the game goes pretty quickly, right? I mean, the Twins pitchers throw strikes, which remains the best way to keep the games quick. So, given that you’re supposed to be writing about the Twins, this is just about the last article that you should be writing. Right?

When good pitching was at its most scarce in the ’90s, teams such as the Yankees and A’s capitalized, adopting hitting philosophies that often didn’t emphasize hitting.

Why was it at its most scarce then? I mean, wasn’t that the era of Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, et cetera? I mean, those are four of the best pitchers of all time. I think you can argue that the late 90s was a period of good pitching rarely seen in the history of baseball.

And by the way, if “drawing walks” weren’t part of hitting, why is it even possible? Why are there balls? Why is BB listed in the box score?

Those philosophies won titles for the Yankees and praise for the A’s, whose general manager, Billy Beane, was immortalized in Lewis’ book “Moneyball,” in which Lewis portrayed Beane as a genius for drafting players based on on-base percentage and other vital but undervalued statistics.

Actually Lewis portrayed Beane as a genius for finding an inefficiency in the market for baseball players and exploiting it to field a competitive baseball team without the luxury of a large payroll. That there was anything inherent about OBP that Beane cared about is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the book.

The Red Sox hired statistical guru Bill James, adopted the every-at-bat-is-a-siege mentality, and won their first two World Series since 1918.

If only they hadn’t done that, we could still make fun of the Red Sox for never winning the World Series, just like we do the Cubs. Instead, they’re trying to do things that are smart, and as a result they look smart. I’m cold and scared.

Sure, the emphasis on pitch counts has ruined baseball-watching. Now, if you want to watch the Red Sox or Yankees, you need to invest four hours. If you want to watch a postseason game, you need to stay up until 1 a.m. and take the next day off work.

The obvious solution is not to watch the Yankees and Red Sox, which is remarkably easy for teams who aren’t fans of those teams, or even of rivals of those teams. Souhan, where do you live?

Unfortunately, though, I agree with him about the playoffs. But it’s not “pitch counts” that are the problem there. It’s the fact that they start the games at 8 PM and have 10 minute commercial breaks. I think the horrible demon you have a problem with is not “walks,” but rather “Fox.”

But that’s OK — the emphasis on pitch counts is good for our society. It keeps people — namely, baseball fans — off the streets. Who has time to get into trouble when it takes 30 hours to watch a week’s worth of Yankees games?

Yeah, and after watching something so boring, you have to sleep for the other 138 hours in the week. I mean, I get that you’re trying to be sarcastic here. And given that you’ve been doing this since the birth of newspapers, you’ve probably had enough practice to realize that it should at least make a little sense.

So if you kids want to become big-leaguers, buy our DVD series and learn how to take pitches and drive up pitch counts.

This would be a valuable thing for kids to learn. By learning to take pitches that are outside the strike zone or aren’t in the area you’re focusing on, you make yourself a better baseball player. You can wait for a better pitch to hit so you can drive the ball and hit those long home runs. Or draw a walk so you can steal bases.

Good point, Souhan, driving up the pitch count is good for baseball, and leads to more exciting things happening. Wait, that’s not what you were trying to say? You should probably try again on this one.

If you call now, we’ll include a bonus DVD from Paul O’Neill on method acting — specifically, how to act like every strike called against you is a moral outrage on the order of mass murder.

Wow, what’s with the Paul O’Neill hate? And that was the last sentence of the article? Did your computer crash before you could finish? What happened here?

Okay, anyway Mr Souhan, if you’ve managed to stay awake through this whole thing, let me explain something to you so you don’t make this mistake again. When people complain about the “pitch count” being a big problem in modern baseball, they’re talking about the practice of lifting starting pitchers out of the game after 100 pitches. They are not talking about batters trying to draw walks to help their teams score more runs and win games. That’s “OBP,” and it’s an entirely different “things were better back in the good old days, when men were men, women were women, and we walked uphill both ways to the stadium every day, in a snow storm” old timey rant.

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It’s the last workday of the offseason, so let’s toss together another lengthy article, shall we? This time looking at someone’s offseason recap of the Twins.

When I saw the headline over at The Hardball Times, Five Questions: Minnesota Twins, I figured at least one of the questions would be something like “Why do you suck so much?”

Of course, it’s possible that my expectations were set by the article’s summary in Google Reader, which was, and I quote, “Or, how to succeed in the AL Central without really trying.” You don’t get to be one of the most efficient teams in baseball without trying, and a division that has two of the top three most efficient teams in all of baseball basically makes it impossible to succeed without trying. I point this out because I wanted to explain my mindset as I clicked through to read the article.

I’m not going to re-post much of it here (it’s refreshingly long, and you should go read it yourself). But I’ll run through a quick recap of the questions.

[Here's the format: The questions are me paraphrasing his answers, and the italics are me responding to his answers. If you want to know what the actual questions are, too bad. You'll have to wish someone invented some kind of "hyper link" which would allow you to go check it out for yourself. I'll try to paraphrase his answers concisely, accurately, and in such a way that you don't actually need to know the question to get the jist.]

Question the first: Good job not signing another Livan/ROrtiz/Ponson, and going with the young guns. It was long overdue.

I agree completely, and the Twins Blogodome (or whatever it’s called) has been basically saying exactly that for years. Finally.

Question the second: The defense sucks. I mean, Gomez and Span are good, but Delmon Young is so bad the outfield defense is pretty much crap overall. Also, the right side of the infield is terrible, as is the middle infield. And Joe Mauer? Overrated. In fact, the Twins were one of five teams to suck across the board defensively.

Wow, he is really not enthusiastic about the defense. I don’t blame him, in 2008 the Twins had one of the worst defenses in the league, and certainly by far the worst one they’ve put together under Gardenhire. But I expect Casilla to improve at 2B, Punto will do a better job than Everett did, and Crede is a pretty big upgrade at 3B. And also, Delmon Young will probably not continue to suck that badly in the field. So I don’t know if the defense’s prospects are really all that bad.

Question the third: If Crede’s healthy it’s a huge boon to the offense, and while he fits the Twins “don’t walk or strike out” mold, he also diversifies the lineup by adding a flyball-hitting bat. 

I don’t know if diversifying the lineup in that way is meaningful at all, but it is interesting that Kubel was the only Twins player last year who put the ball in the air more than the major league average. Remember all that talk about how we don’t hit home runs? Well, you can’t hit home runs without hitting fly balls. Perhaps Crede will help us take advantage of the weaknesses of flyball pitchers, which we’ve tended to ignore in true Minnesota-Sports fashion. Also maybe that’ll rub off on Delmon Young and he’ll start putting some air under the ball too.

Question four: This is a make or break year for Delmon Young and since I’m the same age as him I expect him to do well. And if he does, the Twins have a pretty strong middle of the lineup.

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everyone! There’s no reason to think a 23 year old is just going to crap out, and his increased maturity in the last year or so continues to be comforting. And I’d add Kubel to Isleib’s potential middle of the lineup.

Fifth and final question: The AL Central blows, so the Twins can rack up wins against shitty teams like the White Sox, Tigers, and Royals.

I really don’t know why everyone’s going out of their way to bash the AL Central so much this offseason. At worst, they’re the third strongest division in baseball right now. The Twins and Indians are two very well run, talented teams, and the White Sox are also a legitimate contender. I mean, the Royals are a joke and the Tigers are the punchline … but only the AL East doesn’t have at least two bogus teams (and even they’re pretty close now that the Jays are sinking). I personally think the Twins are the best team in the division, but the gap between them and the Indians and White Sox is extremely small. It’s not like this division is going to be “easy” for anyone.

Alright then. That’s over with. I thought it was actually a pretty good article, mostly aimed at people who don’t follow the Twins specifically. (Which is, of course, the point of these “introduce you to the team” articles.) And it didn’t end up being nearly as critical of the Twins as I expected it to be, which I appreciate.

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Well, its time for the second annual firegardy.com MLB predictions.  I will lay out my predictions for division winners, world series (but not each playoff round) and major award winners.  Here goes:

American League

East: Yankees- I really think their pitching will live up to the hype.  Having CC, Burnett, Wang, Pettitte is a pretty fearsome rotation.  

Central: Indians- This division is a crapshoot.  Top to bottom could be separated by only 5 games.  I’m going with the Indians because if Victor Martinez and Hafner bounce back even a little, they will be dangerous.  And having Matt LaPorta waiting in the wings doesn’t hurt.

West: Athletics

Wild Card: Devil Rays- I think everyone knows the AL east will have two playoff teams, just a matter of which two and I like the Devil rays and Yankees and hate the red sox.

MVP: Grady Sizemore

CY Young: Zach Grienke

Manager of the Year: Ron Gardenhire- despite the title of the blog, he is probably due.

National (children’s) League

East: Phillies- if it ain’t broke….

Central: Cubs- This division is pretty bad.  The Cards will be decent because Tony LaRussa could grab 9 guys out of a bar at closing time and finish above 500.

West: the LA Mannys, I mean Dodgers.  This Division is also pretty weak. There is plenty of good pitching, and the Diamondbacks are loaded with young, offensive talent, but I think he dodgers are just too good.  They might have to add an arm for the rotation at some point.

Wild Card: The Mets….. No I’m serious.

MVP: Puljos- not exactly bold, but he is too good to not pick.

CY Young: Johan.

World Series: Yankees over Cubs.  The Yankees are back, for better or for worse.

Leave your predictions in the comments section.

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Okay everyone, here’s a little injury update from Joe C.

First the good news:

Twins General Manager Bill Smith said the team is confident Scott Baker (right shoulder stiffness) will return from the 15-day disabled list after missing one or two starts.

As for Justin Morneau (sore back): “I’ve been told he should be fine for Opening Day,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Delmon Young (sore right shoulder) will be back in the lineup Friday, Gardenhire added.

So there’s not much to worry about on this front. I still don’t know if Baker’s injury was “real” but it sure doesn’t sound serious. Of course … let’s not believe them until Baker’s actually on the mound for the MLB club.

Second, the funny news:

Nick Punto left today’s game after he fell onto the baseball, back-side first, trying to chase a fourth-inning pop up.

“The wind was blowing, the sun was out – it wasn’t the prettiest play I’ve ever seen Punto make,” Gardenhire said. “But they told me he’ll be fine.”

So Punto fell down and landed on his ass, with the baseball underneath it. Man I wish I could have seen that. Stupid not-all-spring-training-games-being-on-MLB.TV. Oh well. At least he’s not hurt.

And finally, something to angry up the blood:

This looks like a down year for the Twins. If they win, it’s because they’ve got four or five starters who keep them in most games and because they’ve got one of the best players in the majors behind the plate. Sure, Baker is eligible to pitch on April 12. But will he? And when he does, will he be 100 percent? And what if another starter goes down? Baker may be the first but he almost certainly won’t be the last.

As for Mauer, nobody seems to know how to fix him. And again, when he’s back, how good will he be?

The Twins are always operating on the margins because, with the notable exceptions of Mauer and Justin Morneau, they don’t have any excellent non-pitchers (unless you count Denard Span, and I don’t yet). Take away one of them and replace Baker with R.A. Dickey – and yeah, I love the knuckleballer, but c’mon — and you’re looking at a .500 team. At best.

If there were any mainstream optimism about the Twins, Neyer could try to look like a contrarian smart guy by saying stuff like this. As it is, he’s yet another guy toeing the company line regarding the Twins and how they suck*. I don’t think it’s all that reasonable to be this pessimistic about the Twins’ chances, especially given that the AL Central is pretty even this season and the Twins always seem to find a way to pull ahead when it’s close.

* Oh, and did you know that ESPN and Baseball Prospectus have a new information and opinion (and money) sharing deal going on? I wonder how that’s going to effect the anti-Twins rhetoric coming out of ESPN. Actually … I don’t wonder at all.

But, again, just passing along what others are saying about the Twins. As you may have noticed, none of it has been good yet this offseason.

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Reader MarkW alerted me to this in the comments, and Joe C confirms: Baker is headed to the DL and won’t make his Opening Day start.

His apparent injury is “right shoulder stiffness,” which sounds like it could either be bad or nothing. The immediate fear here is that he’s following in Crain’s footsteps and getting injured for a year immediately after signing a long term contract. That kind of thing infuriates me.

But the other possibility is that they just don’t think he’s ready for the season (he has a 6.85 ERA this spring), and are giving him a little extra time to get ready down in Ft Myers. More like the Nathan/WBC situation than the Crain/Contract situation.

Of course, ultimately “shoulder stiffness” doesn’t mean anything, and we’re going to have to wait for more information to come out. As MarkW pointed out, we can only hope that this isn’t like the Bonser situation where “soreness” rapidly became “season ending surgery” with nothing in between.

Since Baker hasn’t pitched (in an actual exhibition game) since March 27, he’s eligible to come off the DL on April 12, so he’ll miss a minimum of about a week of the season. 1-2 starts. But he did pitch in a AAA game yesterday, and threw 5 scoreless innings. There is no indication at this time that he hurt himself during that start, though he only threw 58 pitches. (It is also not explained why he was pitching in a AAA game. My assumption is that they knew he was injured … but then why have him pitch at all. Or that they knew he wasn’t ready and wanted to backdate his DL stay.)

Stay tuned for more information, folks.

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In 2003, the Tigers lost 119 games. They followed that campaign up with a couple more 90 loss seasons, before winning 95 games in 2006. If you’ll recall, everyone took that success to mean that the Tigers had “arrived,” and would be the powerhouse of the AL Central for years to come. They had a well-capitalized owner, a large market, a GM with a track record of success, a famous new manager who’d done good things in the past, a young and successful rotation, and a lineup full of All Stars all signed to contracts that would keep them around for years.

Meanwhile, the Twins won the division that year, like they’ve been doing a lot lately. And everyone called it a fluke that simply shouldn’t have happened.

Since then, things haven’t gone all that well in Detroit. Just recently they put their $21M pitcher, Dontrell Willis, onto the disabled list for “anxiety,” they released DH Gary Sheffield despite owing him $14M for 2009 (apparently realizing that all those All Stars they have signed to contracts all play the same position), and they’ve announced that 20 year old Rick Porcello will open the year in their starting rotation. He hasn’t played above A ball in his professional career, where he struck out 72 hitters in 125 innings. (Not good.)

Detroit’s payroll has Dave Cameron swooning, apparently, as he’s come out saying this move could work because you don’t need strikeouts to be a successful pitcher.

He showed excellent command of his sinker [2.38 BB/9], which allowed him to succeed without racking up a lot of strikeouts. The combination of no walks and lots of ground balls is a recipe for success in the majors. It might not be as flashy as racking up huge strikeout totals, but it’s still a good combination. If Porcello can continue to command his sinker, he has the tools to pitch in the major leagues right now.

2.38 BB/9 is decent command, not “excellent,” especially when it leads to a K/BB ratio of under 2. A walk rate like that is good if you’re K/9 is over 9 … not under 6. Of course, the rules are different if the analyst likes your team.

It’s certainly possible that Porcello will struggle, as a lot of 20-year-old pitchers do when thrust into the majors.

Off the cuff, it seems likely that a lot of 20 year old pitchers would struggle when they’re thrust into the majors. That’s, you know, why we have the minors. But instead of just taking the word of one of these crazy internet bloggers, we need to look into this a little more. By going to a crazy mainstream blogger! Here’s Rob Neyer’s take:

For whatever reasons, not a single 20-year-old started more than 20 games or pitched more than 99 innings in the 1990s. In the current decade, though, six pitchers have done both: Rick Ankiel (2000), CC Sabathia (2001), Jeremy Bonderman (2003), Zack Greinke (2004), Felix Hernandez (2006) and Clayton Kershaw (2008). And with the exception of Bonderman (6-19, 5.56 ERA) all of them pitched (at least) reasonably well in those seasons.

So 20 year old pitchers don’t actually pitch very often in the majors. When they do, it’s because they dominated the minors at a young age, are very talented, and they tend to do well in the majors, even at age 20. Promising, right?

Except that the one example of failure was, in fact, these very Detroit Tigers. What did all the guys who had success have in common? They struck people out like crazy in the minor leagues. Unlike Porcello.

Leyland’s going to have his work cut out for him, attempting to keep Porcello from ever facing the White Sox, Indians, and Twins, all of whom are simply going to tee off on this guy. Of course, so is the rest of the American League. This is another bad decision in a long series of bad decisions the Tigers have made since they were good back in the 1980s.

Remember when the Tigers had “arrived” and the Twins were a fluke? Does it still look like the Tigers weren’t a fluke in 2006?

And another thing. About Dombrowski’s “successful” track record. This marks the second time in his career that he’s come into a new situation, spent a bunch of the owner’s money to put together a good team that year, and then the team immediately began a long and crappy dry spell during which they were no good. So look for GMs like Dombrowski if you want to take one shot at winning 90 games and going to the playoffs once every 5-10 years. And apparently that’s considered a “successful” track record.

All in all, I think we’re in a better place.

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Apparently Torii Hunter has a blog entitled Torii’s Storiis.  Earlier this week he posted his take on Gary Matthews, Jr. and his recent bitching about playing time.  A lot of people (myself) included have been saying Matthews should sit down and shut up, let his play on the field do the talking.  Apparently Matthews wants guaranteed playing time.  Fair enough.  Major Leaguers are fierce competitors and can’t stand to see someone else take their job.  However demanding a trade without taking a pay cut is pretty stupid.  Yes, GMJ is way overpaid.  However if he had a very reasonable contract someone who needs help in the outfield would probably trade for him.  They just don’t want him at his current salary, and I don’t blame anyone for that. 

Matthews had a great (possibly steroid induced) year in Texas then signed a huge contract in LA.  I don’t blame him for that.  I do blame him for expecting to be guaranteed playing time.  He hasn’t really stayed healthy, and when he has been on the field he hasn’t been good.  What do you expect, Gary?  LA is a perennial playoff team, and they don’t get there every year by letting mediocre, overpaid, aging veterans play through month long slumps.  The minute they realized he wasn’t the answer in center, they went out and overpaid for Hunter.  When a career 300 hitter (Abreu) became available at a bargain price, the snatched him up too.  Add that with Vlad and Juan Rivera there is no room for Gary.  If he really cares so much about playing, take a pay cut, thus allowing LA to trade you to one of many teams looking for an outfielder who can play all three positions.  Right now it is impossible for anyone to look past that albatross of a contract to see a moderately useful player.

I know the union won’t let him take a pay cut, as it might set a bad precedence.  I find that BS.  If Matthews VOLUNTEERS to take a pay cut, how does that force other player to do so in the future?  It doesn’t.  It just gives them an option.  Its having your cake and eating it too.  Hypothetical:  Player A has a huge contract but has been relegated to the bench due to injuries, terrible play, and influx of new talent at his position.  How does Matthews taking a pay cut to be traded the previous year have any affect on what Player A does?  He can just wait it out, get cut and still get his paycheck.  Or work his way back into the lineup.  Just because the situations are the same doesn’t mean the end result has to be. 

I don’t blame Matthews for taking a huge contract, in fact, good for him.  But the Angels sign his checks, so they get to decide how to resolve this situation. End of story.

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Over the course of spring training, we’ve been hearing more and more about the Twins attempting to unlock Delmon Young’s power potential, by simply telling him to “pull the ball more.” He’s clearly been trying to do that, and he’s combined a few home runs with a bunch of weak grounders to the left side of the infield. While it demonstrates that he’s willing to listen to the team, I felt that it also demonstrates the team’s inability to teach power hitting.

We’ve also heard about Justin Morneau talking to Harmon Killebrew about home run hitting. It appeared to work, because Morneau immediately started putting balls over the fence. My first thought was “why doesn’t Killebrew also talk to Delmon?” That’s when I found out exactly what Killebrew told Morneau.

“When I was a young player, I hit for a high average and hit the ball all over the ballpark,” Killebrew said. “One year in spring training, I think I was 18 or a little older, [Hall of Famer Ralph] Kiner came up to me and said, ‘Kid, you’re never going to hit a lot of home runs consistently if you don’t pull the ball. That doesn’t mean you pull every pitch, but to hit home runs consistently, that’s what you have to do.’ “

So that’s what he told Morneau. “Pull the ball more.” While it appears to have made a difference, it seems to me that this is a lot like Ted Williams being a hitting coach; “Come on, just hit the ball. It’s not that hard.”

But then we learn something a little disheartening. Morneau is in fact NOT listening to Killebrew.

“If he told me to stand with my back facing the pitcher, I’d try it because he’s got 573 homers,” Morneau said. “He obviously knew what he was doing. So I definitely tried it. I just feel comfortable with what I’m doing.”

He tried it. It worked. Then he decided to go back to his old ways because he was more comfortable that way. You know what’d make me more comfortable? A cleanup hitter named Justin Morneau who hits 40 homers and is the second coming of Harmon Killebrew.

Craig Calcaterra has this to say:

Morneau is basically ignoring Killebrew on this point, even if he is doing so in the most polite way possible. Which is a shame, really, because though I don’t know that I’ve seen enough of Morneau to say if he could actually become a Killeresque hitter one day, he’d be a far more interesting player if he tried. 

I’ve seen a whole lot more of Morneau than Calcaterra has, and I still don’t know if he can (or can’t) be a Killebrew-esque power hitter. But I sure can’t argue that it’d be fun to watch him try.

Also, if “pull the ball more” is all the advice you need to hit with more power, why is it that “hitting to all fields” is valued as a veteran, smart thing to do?

And is it at least possible that Morneau take one or two big pull-happy hacks per plate appearance and then goes back to his comfortable “shoot it to left” approach?

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