Cleveland @ Minnesota GameThread, Apr 19, 2008 3:55 PM EDT

Game 18: Indians @ Twins

by Jesse on Apr 19, 2008 2:00 PM EDT in Game Threads

Cleveland @ Minnesota

Jake Westbrook VS Nick Blackburn

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2008 - Jake Westbrook	1-1	3	3	1	0	0	0	22.2	20	7	6	3	4	12	2.38	1.06

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2008 - Nick Blackburn	0-1	3	3	0	0	0	0	17.2	20	7	7	0	3	11	3.57	1.30

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I'm in town for the weekend

and heading out to the Dome right now. Will be fun to see Blackburn and the rest of the new guys… Go Twins!!!

"I don't care about feelings." - Lou Piniella

by natetheskate on Apr 19, 2008 2:33 PM EDT 0 recs

Lineups

Cleveland:

1. Sizemore – CF
2. Carroll – 2B
3. Hafner – DH
4. Martinez – C
5. Garko – 1B
6. Dellucci – LF
7. Gutierrez – RF
8. Cabrera – SS
9. Blake – 3B

Pitching for the Clevelanders: RHP Jake Westbrook

Twins:

1. Gomez – CF
2. Harris – 2B
3. Mauer – C
4. Morneau – 1B
5. Young – LF
6. Kubel – RF
7. Monroe – DH
8. Lamb – 3B
9. Punto – SS

Pitching for the Twins: RHP Nick Blackburn

by 33MorneauMVP on Apr 19, 2008 2:34 PM EDT 0 recs

Everett to DL

Third Baseman Brian Buscher called up to take Everett’s spot!

The third baseman has batted .345 with four home runs and 11 RBI in 15 games for Rochester this season.

by 33MorneauMVP on Apr 19, 2008 3:47 PM EDT 0 recs

Mauer

Today is Mauer’s b-day!! He is 25 and hopefully he will have a good game!!!!

by 33MorneauMVP on Apr 19, 2008 4:07 PM EDT 0 recs

huh

Turns out throwing belt-high 2-seamers inner half is a bad idea vs. everyone’s favorite lumberjack.

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 19, 2008 4:10 PM EDT 0 recs

Mazzone!

Leo Mazzone is my new favorite color guy. Already I’ve learned some new interesting things about pitching from the man. Beats the hell out of Bert talking about his freaking California math again.

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 19, 2008 4:18 PM EDT 0 recs

Harris!

I know he’s supposed to have stone hands or whatever, but that’s like the fifth awesome play I’ve seen him make in the game’s that I’ve watched.

(One-hop liner to the hole at 2nd that he turned for a DP.)

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 19, 2008 4:19 PM EDT 0 recs

fielding

Harris has looked fantastic in the field (if he can be just OK, I think we’d all be thrilled).

Everett has looked horrible in the field (he needs to be excellent or he should never play).

http://noblingblings.blogspot.com/

by Aaron Fix on Apr 19, 2008 5:10 PM EDT up 0 recs

Everett

Everett has a bad shoulder…give him a break!

by 33MorneauMVP on Apr 19, 2008 5:13 PM EDT up 0 recs

Sheesh.

Kubel on first with a leadoff single. Monroe looking lost at the plate, so on 1-1 Gardy calls a hit & run. Guess what happened.

Seriously, Monroe just looks awful every single time I’ve seen him at the plate. Just struck out swinging on a garbage breaking pitch about 4 inches outside that Martinez caught at his ankles.

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 19, 2008 4:25 PM EDT 0 recs

I’m watching on gameday, so I couldn’t tell which pitch the hit and run was, the ball (pitch two) or the strike (pitch 3). If the ball, could he have made contact? I just don’t think there should be hit and run with Kubel on, unless you know the guy will make contact and it is a hitters count.

by snolls on Apr 19, 2008 4:26 PM EDT up 0 recs

pitch 3

Same pitch that was thrown on 1-2 one pitch later, with the same ugly whiff by Monroe.

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 19, 2008 4:36 PM EDT up 0 recs

Out at home

love it

by snolls on Apr 19, 2008 4:36 PM EDT 0 recs

oh man

Young’s throw was absolutely perfect. A freaking cannon, one-hop perfectly on target to Mauer who left no path to the plate for Cabrera. That was beautiful.

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 19, 2008 4:37 PM EDT up 0 recs

Punto's 3rd straight start?

Gardenhire must be trying to cool off Tolbert so Punto can keep getting playing time.

http://noblingblings.blogspot.com/

by Aaron Fix on Apr 19, 2008 5:18 PM EDT 0 recs

Punto

Punto probably went 1 for 2 against westbrook one time (infield hit). And you have to play the guy if he’s hitting .500 against him in his career.

by snolls on Apr 19, 2008 5:26 PM EDT up 0 recs

Yeah, but

Punto plays some serious defense at short. As long as they don’t need hitting, Punto can pick it.

by Old Twins Cap on Apr 19, 2008 6:23 PM EDT up 0 recs

Eh

Eh, I disagree. I don’t think he has the range for short. He’s very very solid at second and pretty good at third, but he doesn’t really have the range or a great arm for short.

"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane

by AdamOnFirst on Apr 19, 2008 9:11 PM EDT up 0 recs

Eh

Punto played some big-league shortstop Saturday.

Not that he’ll ever get any credit from this bunch.

Q: Generally, who should have a larger role in evaluating college and minor league players: scouts or stat guys?

A: Ninety-five percent scouts, five percent stats. Stats can tell you who is good, but they’re almost 100 percent useless when it comes to who will improve. -- Bill James.

by Firpo Marberry on Apr 19, 2008 11:58 PM EDT up 0 recs

You just can’t help yourself, can you?

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 20, 2008 1:48 AM EDT up 0 recs

Ha

Someone has to point you “the Rays is keepin’ the man down”/Evan Longoria misinformed in the right direction.

Q: Generally, who should have a larger role in evaluating college and minor league players: scouts or stat guys?

A: Ninety-five percent scouts, five percent stats. Stats can tell you who is good, but they’re almost 100 percent useless when it comes to who will improve. -- Bill James.

by Firpo Marberry on Apr 20, 2008 2:58 PM EDT up 0 recs

Punto played Eckstein shortstop today

It was better than average, but not the gold glove level that some insist it is. Punto and Eckstein both make everything look really hard, and it winds up looking more impressive than it actually is. (As opposed to Guzman and Rivas who were smooth and made things look pretty easy, and hence were unfairly criticized for being really lazy in the field.) He seemed to do best on the DP turns, where he was able avoid incoming runners pretty well, whereas I’ve seen Harris get taken out by the incoming runner a couple of times this year. (And I thought that most second baseman would have been able to start the DP in the second inning without needing to dive.) I still think he’s best suited to second base, but he makes a better SS than a 3B.

Given the internal options at the moment, I like having Punto on the field with Blackburn and Livan are on the mound, since they aren’t going to miss many bats.

Not that he’ll ever get any credit from this bunch.

Incorrect!

by ubelmann on Apr 20, 2008 2:32 AM EDT up 0 recs

SS

I disagree, I think Punto is a more than adequate defensive SS. If we had never traded for Everett and let Punto start there I would have been happy. Punto’s offense should be a lot better than Everett’s, and his defense is good as well.

However, Tolbert should play before either one of them.

http://noblingblings.blogspot.com/

by Aaron Fix on Apr 20, 2008 1:35 AM EDT up 0 recs

Punto's offense?

Really? Any better than Everett’s .600 annual OPS? I’m not against the idea that he could play only slightly worse than Everett (offense and defense included) at SS, but man…I’m not feeling the whole “Punto is a starting MLB SS” vibe.

formerly known in these parts as adamb

by ravenfly on Apr 20, 2008 1:51 AM EDT up 0 recs