Greg L Johnson's Minnesota Twins fan blog

Where, oh where has the hitting gone...

The Twins found a pitcher last night. Nick Blackburn, in his first major league start, went seven innings, struck out six, walked one, and gave up only one run.

Where, oh where can it be?

Unfortunately, Angels starter Joe saunders was even better, pitching eight innings of shut-out ball. Only one Twins hitter even made it past first base.

With those ground ball outs...

In Tuesday's game the twins hit into seventeen ground ball outs. That tendency continued last night, as hitter after hitter weakly grounded out to infielders who barel;y had to move to make a play. It's atelling sign that the hardest hit ball of the night for theb Twins came off the bat of Nick Punto, whose one hop smash down the third base line was slickly fielded by Chone Figgins.

Continue reading "Twins Shut-Out By Angels"

Continue reading "Game Two: Ouch"

Slow, slower, and slowest. Those were the speeds on Livan Hernandez pitches, and it was good enough to keep the Angels hitters off-balence and give up only two runs in seven innings pitched. Meanwhile, the offense, played small ball. Led by Carlos Gomez' two hits, two steals, and two runs scored, they produced just enough to pull off a 3 - 2 victory on Opening Night in Minneapolis.

The weather outside may have been frightful, snow and howling winds made it look more like December than the end of March, but a sold-out crowd kept things warm inside the dome. The Twins and Angels both looked to be in mid-season form, and the result was a crisply-played, highly entertaining game to start off the season. Baseball was being played the way it should be and for a couple of hours all was well with the world.

Continue reading "Slow And Small Equals A Win"

Twins Breakfast 1

Twins Breakfast 2

Over the last few years a new Opening Day tradition has established itself here in Twins land.  Breakfast on the Plaza has become a favorite way for Twins fans to start their day, and as you can see in the above photos Twins fans arrive in cars and on foot to pick up a free breakfast courtesy of the Twins. This year's menu included a hot dog, coffee, milk, potato chips and cereal bars. Breakfast of champions, indeed.

It was a fairly gloomy morning, and a bit chilly out, but there was a small band playing to help keep people's blood moving.

Breakfast Band

And in an Opening Day scene probably unique to Minnesota, fans in parkas and mittens sat at picnic tables and munched on their hot dogs. All of this was going on at eight o'clock in the morning.

Continue reading "Breakfast And Lunch with The Twins"

Opening Day is upon us, the roster is set. Time to take a look at how the Twins may fare in the American League Central, from top to bottom the toughest division in baseball.

Right away, that spells trouble for the Twins. Looking at the projected starting line-up, there are a full seven positions that featuredifferent players than last year's team. That means that, going into the season, Twins are full of questions as to how the new players will do. It's my own rule of thumb that a major league team can't go into a season with more than three questionable positions and expect to be a contender. And if they want to make the playoffs, at least two of those questions better have positive answers. Unfortunately for the Twins, their team consists almost entirely of questions. 

Continue reading "Twins And The A.L. Central"

The end of Spring Training and the start of the season are looming, and the Twins have been making some moves. The big news over the weekend involved pitching. Glen Perkins was optioned to the minors, Liriano pitched four shutout innings and kept some hope of being on the major league roster alive.

And today the Twins signed Joe Nathan to a four year forty-five million dollar deal with an option for a fifth year. That should guaruntee that the Twins bullpen remains among the best in baseball.

Which is good, because they're probably going to need it. They have some talented young pitchers, but none of them have really stepped it up in Spring Training. Scott BaKer looked the best and he strained a muscle and got the flu and might not be ready at the start of the season. Philip Humber was sent to Rochester today, it's looking more and more like Livan Hernandez will be the opening day pitcher.

Continue reading "Pitching, Pitching, Pitching"

One thing Twins fans have been looking for in spring training is for one of the pitchers to step up and lay claim to the title of number one starter, a position that is wide open after the departure of Johan Santana. Most of the Twins projected starters, like Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey, are young and inexperienced . The one veteran pitcher in camp, Livan Hernandez, is a middle of the rotation innings eater, but not a guy you want to rely on as your ace.

So the Twins need someone to pick it up, and today Boof Bonser at least showed some potential to do so. He threw  four shutout innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That's good in and of itself, what's even more encouraging is that he showed an ability to throw his breaking pitch and a change-up for strikes. As Boof himself said, last season he threw maybe two changeups a game, today he worked it into his regular routine. if he can keep that up, it will turn him into a four-pitch starter, and quite possibly make him the effective, reliable starter that the Twins hope he can be.

Continue reading "Twins: Pitching And Poetry"

Sunday's spring training game against the Yankees was televised here in Minneapolis, so some Twins fans got their first chance to see the team play this year. Here's a few observations from watching the game.

*Boof Bonser is noticeably thinner than last year. In the long run run, that should pay off in increased stamina and strength as the season wears on.  Sunday, though, the most evident thing about Bonser was his inability to get his breaking ball over the plate. The result was a second inning with two walks, two hits, and three runs scored. No wonder Boof was seen in the bullpen workiong on his control immediately after leaving the game after three innings pitched.

*With Delmont Young in left and Michael Cuddyer in right, the Twins may have the best throwing outfield that Twims fans have seen in years. Cuddyer didn't polay Sunday, but in the second inning Young fielded a hard-hit ball down the left field line and came up throwing. His no bounce, on a rope throw to second base held the hitter to a single and was a thing of beauty.

Continue reading "Yankees 6, Twins 4"

So far, The Twins are having a fairly routine, uneventful spring training. They've won about half their games, some players are off to better starts than others. For those looking for reasons for optimism amongst the usual spring training stuff, the best stories emerging so far are probably the progress of Francisco Liriano, and the hiting of Delmon Young.

Going into today's action, Young was 8 for thirteen, (.615) with a homerun and four RBI's. The best part of that is he's hitting the ball to all fields, something that the Twins coaching staff may not have expected. That's an awfully good quality in a young hitter, especially one with some power. Being able to hit to the opposite field makes a hitter dangerous as a situational hitter, not just when the circumstances are right to pull the ball. If he can keep it up and carry that approach into the regular season, the Twins will be getting all they hoped for and more out of Delmon Young. 

Continue reading "Ain't That Good News"

Through Sunday, the Twins have played three spring training games, winning one and losing two. Let's take a look at the early returns, and see if there are bany trends emerging in the big questions in training camp, namely who's going to start in center and second base, how the starting pitching looks, can the Twins find a lead-off hitter, and how is Liriano doing in his recovery from elbow surgery?

Center Field: All three contenders for the position, Carlos Gomez, Denard Span, and jason Pridie have had some playing time and the good news is that so far all three are showing signs of having a positive impact. Everyone has at least one hit, Gomez and Span have each led off a game with a single and a stolen base, and in Sunday's ninth inning Pridie came up with the bases loaded and two out and got a clutch base hit. If this keeps up, the  twins will have justv what they want, three players fighting to win the job instead of finding ways to lose it.

Continue reading "Twins Weekend Update"