Angels 11, Twins 5 (with apologies to Clement Moore)
by RandBall's Stu on Aug 1, 2009 12:02 AM EDT
in Game Recaps
30 comments
Twas the night 'fore Cabrera, when all through the Dome,
Blackburn nor Santana could stay down in the zone.
Bill Smith bought Alexi a cheap one-way fare,
Knowing that Orlando soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
Extra innings had come after the Twins led.
A 5-to-2 lead that the hometown 9 had,
Vanished like that, Mike Napoli was bad (bad meaning good here).
Joe Mauer was the Twins' most valuable batter
A 3-run dong rather settled that matter
LNP smacked a triple, Gomez scored in a flash
Span blooped Punto home, Rob Wilfong mustache
The Angels kept coming, they simply wouldn't go
Bullpen kept them in it, 'til Bobby Keppel...(NO! NO!)
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
Crooked number, Crainwreck, agony and fear.
After the game, both surly and quick,
Gardy sorta resembles Jolly St. Nick,
More rapid than eagles his curses they came,
And he groused and shouted and yelled out by name.
"Now Bret Boone! Now Monroe! Now Tony Batista!
Rondell Friggin' White and Luis Ayala!
Used up and worthless, bums one and all,
Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!"
He sprang from his chair, beat writers a'scatter
Away they flew, their deadlines in tatters.
But I heard Gardy say, as he drove out of sight,
"Cabrera's batting seventh on Saturday night."
Notes:
- Box score here for all the ugly details.
- Cuddyer left the game late with an unknown injury. Will update in the ayem if I see or hear anything. (UPDATE: it's a lower back strain. He says that he shouldn't have to miss any time.)
- UPDATE II: Both Joe C. and Kelly T. make it sound like it might be Buscher who gets sent down, not Casilla. Nothing official as of 7:30 AM, other than that coffee is delicious, and at least the Tigers lost in extras, too.
- Morneau hooked a foul ball that might have gone a minimum of 450 feet in two seconds flat. Tough night for the Canadian.
- That flashback to 2008 Matt Guerrier was unpleasant. Did he think it was August already? (In all seriousness, Napoli was locked in all night, and Guerrier settled down and finished the inning without incident. Still...)
- If you're not worried about Bill Smith's inability to upgrade the bullpen, you didn't watch the game.
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Hillarious.
Nice work Stu.
The one golden precious wonderful aspect of this game was the absence of David Einstein. But that was it. Sox win and get Peavy. Tigers lose but get that one guy from Seattle who is good but not all the time but pitches lots of innings. We sucked tonight. (Our bullpen sucked tonight.((Kepple and Crain sucked tonight))
People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby
Someone said he's got his plane tickets already
but this is assuming Cuddy’s uninjured.
Strikeouts are boring - besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls. More democratic. -Bull Durham
Okay.....
First inning, Gomez threw home to get a tagging Figgins. No way. Runner advances to third to score. One run given to the Angels.
Alexi Casilla loses track of the ball while running. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t have amde it to third. But he looked confused.
10th inning, Harris falls down. Maybe we need a real shortstop.
Keppel can’t get anyone out. Crain kicks a bunt and doesn’t get anyne out. Dickey finally gets three outs after letting all of Crain’s runners score.
Punto and Cabrera may solve the middle infield. But the bullpen has three shills out there where we only need one (Crain keep because of potential still, Dickey consider because he can eat up innings in blowouts, Keppel is a retread on his way somewhere else). And then we have a rookie, Duensing, who eats innings and is the only viable long-man in the pen.
Can the Twins win 40 of their final 60? Can they trot out Mijares/Guerrier/Nathan for 40 of the next 60 games and hope to win? The bullpen needs someone else, a couple of some else’s, bad. And the Twins blew it because of precious prospects.
Precious prospects, who have to have as many pitchers as Morillo, Keppel, Henn, Dickey, even Crain……..let’s see what the future holds as the present is killing us bigtime!
Visit www.TwinsCards.com and check out "rosters" to see my collection!
Lots of ugly all over the place
but I wouldn’t add Casilla to that one. Span hit the fly ball to center, Matthews was about 5 feet short. Casilla was smart to hesitate just before reaching second.
At this point, we have three dependable relievers. Dickey, Crain and Keppel are pretty much chum at this point. If we’re going to attempt tp build from within the organization, then we need to do it with guys who have actually put up good numbers in the minors (i.e, not Keppel). In other words, are Delaney and Slama ready? Can Morillo throw strikes?
by Adam Peterson on Aug 1, 2009 9:54 AM EDT up reply actions
Morillo is throwing enough strikes
He’s be my guy.
As to the Casilla play: Man is Matthews a piece of crap. That was a very catchable ball that he made almost no attempt to move in on. And he let another ball in the gap fall that he showed absolutely no interest in. Just think how good the Angels will be when they get Hunter back. Scary.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
What about
Gabino? He has some pretty good numbers. I think both Keppel and Crain need to be demoted (again) and have Gabino and Morillo called up.
Gabino has the better numbers and thus you would think that he would be the better pitcher
Morillo throws strikes and throws them hard. Morillo is a thrower
by 33MorneauMVP on Aug 1, 2009 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions
Pitcher, thrower, tomato, tomato.
:)
People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby
Good question
Morillo actually has better numbers than Gabino.
Gabino’s AAA BB% 7.2 K% 14.8 GB% 38 BABIP .243 ERA 2.83 FIP: 4.05
Morillo’s AAA BB% 14.6 K% 31.1 GB% 48 BABIP .330 ERA 3.57 FIP: 2.71
The FIP differential is mostly due to lower K rates and higher HR rates for Gabino, despite a lower walk rate. The ERA differential is mostly due to Morillo having a higher BABIP. In other words, Gabino is lucky to have the ERA he has.
I suspect Morillo will always be accused of being a thrower because he throws so darn hard. The harder you throw, the harder it is to control it. But the harder you throw, the harder it is to hit it as well. So Morillo has a lot more margin for error than Gabino, and that’s why he has the better numbers overall.
The one thing that speaks in favor of Gabino is he’s on the 40-manand has three options, whereas Morillo will have to be added to the 40 man and cannot be optioned again. I suspect this is the least of the Twins worries, though. If they want to win the division, they will need to upgrade their bullpen. It is very difficult to do that after the non-waiver trade deadline. All the good relievers will get claimed before the Twins have a chance to claim them.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Twins get owned by Napoli AGAIN!
What does he have, like 17 homers against the Twins this year?
"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. See, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it . . ."
by Skippy tastes better than Jiff on Aug 1, 2009 3:24 AM EDT reply actions
Worried
Smith has totally failed to upgrade the pen for running on 15 months now. I’m WAY beyond worried.
"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
Yep
I’m just about to the point where I throw Liriano out to the pen and see if Mulvey can handle the big time. Not yet though.
by Adam Peterson on Aug 1, 2009 9:56 AM EDT up reply actions
Or Duensing.
He held his own against the Sox the other day.
People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby
Great recap
I was at the game. Pretty good until the 8th, then it looked like the Twins were playing at the Dome for the 1st time. Bad (meaning awful)
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Aug 1, 2009 9:05 AM EDT reply actions
Very clever.
"He didn’t call me or anything. It was an accident, but a lot of people would have called to see how someone is doing after they got hit in the head. Especially if they had to go on the DL." — Morneau on pitcher Ron Villone after an April 2005 beaning.
This is truly awful
and I mean that in the best possible way.
If it goes to extras.......
we got no shot. The only extras game I remember was Joe Crede’s walkoff slam against the tigers.
JT
It's been a pattern, especially at home
Once we run through our few dependable relievers, then Dickey, Keppel, etc blow up.
by Adam Peterson on Aug 1, 2009 9:55 AM EDT up reply actions
Offense needs to score...
If we’ve run through our few dependable relievers, then we deserve to lose. We need to win these in the 9th or 10th. That’s where the home field advantage lies.
Morneau hit TWO liners like that foul
Son, when you participate in sporting events, it's not whether you win or lose: it's how drunk you get. ~Homer Simpson
by thewild_viking_twins on Aug 1, 2009 12:20 PM EDT reply actions
It's like the baseball gods
kicked Billy Smith in the nads and said congrats on OCab, what you needed to get was some pitching!
Tough loss, I hope they bounce back tonight.
Win Twins
Arizona
may send Doug Davis and Jon Garland through waivers and then hope to trade those pitchers.
Twins had better be the first to line up for the wholesale!
They would need to be in third place in the dvision to get them
If the Sux are ahead of them, they’ll put in the waiver claim first.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
we are currently in third place
so shouldnt we be the first team to have a shot at putting in a waiver claim, at least in the AL central?
Yes
If we stay in third place through August (but within a game of second or so), we’ll be in ideal position to get a quality arm before teams have to set their playoff rosters. Garland and Davis would be great gets, as long as the price is right.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
I am sure Arizona
isnt going to ask a ton for them. It sounds like they are just looking for low ball “prospects” for them, but they get to unload the contract on the trading team.
I, say, we go out and get them as quickly as possible, as it appears that the Twins were working behind the scenes during the trade deadline to try and bring in additional relievers/starters though only Heath Bell, Jon Rauch, and Mike Wuertz got the press.
This team
just cant compete with the elite AL teams, or rather the teams they would face in the playoffs. They are clearly in another tier.
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