Detroit Tigers

This off-season has ultimately been a poor one for the Twins. From the terrible Pat Neshek news, to failed trade attempts and failed free agent signings, the Twins have missed out on a great opporunity to improve their team in what is a very watered down market in terms of dollars. The weak corner outfield market really hurt the Twins, since they were undoubtedly looking to trade either Michael Cuddyer or Delmon Young. Personally, I don't think the Twins did anything wrong by passing on both Casey Blake and Ty Wigginton. Neither player strikes me as a very good hitter, and while Wigginton's numbers look good on the surface, they are very misleading. I'll get into the exact stats and explanations of those stats sometime this week, but for now just trust me that his Home/Road splits are terrible, and leaving hitter friendly Minute-Maid Park should cause Wigginton's numbers to come crashing back to earth regardless of where he goes. (Unless the Rockies sign him, which won't be happening.) The team also failed in not signing at least one solid reliever when their bullpen is clearly the team's biggest weakness. With relievers like Jeremy Affeldt, Brandon Lyon and others signing for very reasonable deals, it's frustrating to see that the Twins haven't made a move yet.

Continue reading "A Failed Off-Season And Kubel's Extension"

With the MLB playoffs set to begin, there is a subtle difference in the air compared to start of any other postseason. In the NHL, fans can potentially look forward to a great Canadians/Bruins series that is not only exciting, but has a historical kick to it. Likewise basketball fans always have the chance to see if the Suns can finally get past the Spurs and football fans love seeing the rivalry of the Eagles Vs the City of Philadelphia when the Eagles so much as get tackled for a loss.

Continue reading "The Ups and Downs of the MLB Playoffs"

It started so well, with back-to-back wins against the mighty Angels in Anaheim. It ended calamitously, with the Jays sweeping the Twins in Toronto, with the final game a 9-0 blowout.

The Twins finished the road trip 5-8 -- 2-2 against the Angels, 1-2 against the Mariners, 2-2 against the Athletics and 0-3 against the Jays, who won all six games against the Twins.

Continue reading "Twins out of gas as Road Trip from Hell ends"

To add to yesterday's post, neither Ibanez nor Washburn was dealt after they were claimed on waivers. According to the Post-Intelligencer, the Twins put in claims on both, and their waiver number was higher for Jarrod, while the Tigers claim was highest for Ibanez.

Continue reading "Waiver Update"

One of the All-Star Break traditions: Reassessing our predictions from the first half of the season. Some of mine have changed, some have stayed the same—and some were just damn wrong. Living in the West, I will take the contrarian position and roll from west to east in my choices.

Continue reading "Second Half Predictions"

Brendan Harris, moved from third to short to replace the injured Nick Punto, continued to swing a hot bat to lead the Twins over the Tigers on Saturday, 6-5.

Harris went three for three, homered and drove in four runs to lead the Twins, who have won three straight over Detroit after being swept at Fenway Park in Boston.

Continue reading "Twins top Tigers again"

Many Twins fans were probably thinking "Here we go again" when the Twins fell behind Thursday.

The Twins were down 6-2 to a tough Tigers team playing at home. I heard the scored on the radio and thought, "Oh, no, they're going to be out of the race before long."

Continue reading "Gut check for Twins"

The series against the Tigers began badly for the Twins, losing a close one. But they took the final two games in the series, taking the finale in a laugher.

Nick Blackburn pitched seven innings of three-hit ball, and Jesse Crain and Boof Bonser completed the shutout against a team that had been hitting above .300 lately.

Continue reading "Twins cage Tigers, win 7-0"

Twins fans should breathe a sign of relief. They proved Tuesday that they can beat the Tigers.

How often? We'll find out.

Craig Monroe's three-run homer in the fourth inning was the biggest blow in the game. Monroe played several years for the Tigers and had plenty of motivation for this series against the team that gave up on him.

Continue reading "Twins tame Tigers"

You can't ask starter Glen Perkins to do more than he did. Against the potent Tigers, he allowed just two runs in six and one third innings.

But the bullpen let the team down, giving up three runs as Detroit came back to win, 5-4. It was a tough loss that put the Twins two and a half behind the White Sox, who beat Cleveland, and only two and and a half over the Tigers.

Continue reading "Bullpen lets Twins down"

Tough to top the Cubs' huge win against their intercity rival Friday.

Late homers by Aramis Ramirez, one in the seventh and the winner in the ninth, proved decisive in the 4-3 win. Kerry Wood pitched the ninth to get the win.

Continue reading "Cubs come back to tear Sox"

The Twins must wish the Nationals were in the AL Central so they could play them more often. The Twins win Wednesday night, 11-2, with good games from starter Kevin Slowey, center fielder Carlos Gomez, and the MM boys, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.

Continue reading "Twins swat Nats again"

With the strangehold that FOX has on Saturday afternoon baseball (see my earlier rant on this), I get the distinct pleasure today of watching the 23-31 Tigers muddle around the diamond with the 20-35 Mariners, a matchup with all the excitement of watching two toddlers tussle in the sandbox over a broken Tonka truck. I'm sure this looked like a good game during the preseason FOX schedule-making, but now it's barely enough to hold my interest.

Continue reading "Weak Saturday Baseball: Mariners vs. Tigers"

The Minnesota Twins completed their first road trip of the season last night, and the results were fairly disappointing. Disappointing because after splitting two games with the White Sox and taking two out of three against the Royals, the Twins twice blew late-inning leads and lost two games at Detroit, finishing the road trip with a 3 - 4 record that coulda should been 5 - 2. We'll get to the Detroit series later, first let's take a look at what went right.

Continue reading "Twins First Road Trip"

Two weeks into the 2008 season and the Boston Red Sox must be pleased with how the season has gone thus far. Granted they are only two games over .500 at 8 and 6 and have split their last 10 games, but things could be much, much worse. When the Yankees went to Japan to open the season, they proceeded to go 11-19 in the first month of the season before finally snapping out of it and going on to win the division. Boston is only half a game out of first place in the tightly packed American League East which is currently lead by the surprising Baltimore Orioles who do not figure to hang around much longer.

Continue reading "Red Sox Should Feel Good About The Season So Far"

Detroit Tigers

Given their offense, does it matter that the Tigers have huge questions with their pitching?

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: AL Central"

Continue reading "American League East is a Beast of a Division"