Joe Nathan

 

Joe Nathan has been nothing but spectacular as he picked up his 13th save of the season.  I can’t imagine what he could do on a team that gave tons of runs.  

The

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7 game hit streak is an important season note but Minnesotans just want a little recognition.  Joe Nathan picking up his 11th save was magical, but no crucial it did redeem the team after a 6-1 loss to Cleveland.  Winning a game 2-1 in Seattle is huge but, isn’t the most important.  Making is on Sportscenter reminds the world; the Twins play honest baseball.

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Joe Nathan is my hero.  He saved the first game of 14 game block the twins have embarked.  When he takes the mound in any game Twins fans settle a little back into their seats. Suddenly the Metrodome doesn’t seem so ugly or cold when Nathan is pitching.  The Minnesotan accents retreat and we start to sound a little like New Yorkers;  over confident and coarse.  Our nice is replaced with cocky.  

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orm he was at before getting hurt a couple years back  Keep it up Liriano, great work....Also, Joe Nathan needs to maintain if not raise the bar maybe a bit....he is looked at as one of the premier closers, but isn't closing like it just yet...I know it's early, so I will back off on that negativity.....GO Joe!!!

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or in three and two-thirds innings -- six pitchers shut out the Sox over six and a third innings.

Joe Nathan got the win for pitching two innings. Also pitching were Matt Guerrier, Dennys Reyes, Boof Bonser, Jesse Crain and Craig Breslow.

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The Twins gave up a late unearned in the ninth, as Joe Nathan blew a save. Then Eddie Guardado -- yes, the washed-up guy who played for the Twins a few years ago -- and the hapless Boof Bonser losing the game. It says a lot that Nathan appears to be losing a bit of steam and the Twins are using the C team from the bullpen.

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ich didn't have to put in someone as woeful as Justin Speier in? The Twins' bullpen was great, with Joe Nathan getting the save after strong stints by Matt Guerrier and Jessie Crain.

Or should we credit Denard Span, who had two hits, knocked in the winning run and made a great catch in right field? The kid has been great. He's hitting over .300 and has been spectacular in the field.

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win.

Slowey allowed only three hits and one run in six innings, and the bullpen finished it off. Joe Nathan earned his 32nd save in 34 chances. Nathan, who has an ERA of 1.05.

Can that number be right? Yup. He's been the rock who's stabilized a shaky pen that was hard-hit by the season-ending injury of Pat Neshek a few months ago. The pen, undermanned without Neshek, has been overworked because of the young starters who usually go only about six innings.

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He induced two inning-ending double plays and got a standing ovation when he left after the eighth. Joe Nathan struck out Bobby Abreu, Alex Rodriguez and Xavier Nady in the ninth for the exclamation mark to a great win.

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eaded for the All-Star game in Yankee Stadium -- Joe Mauer, who hit a two-run homer, his fifth, and Joe Nathan, who struck out three in a dominating ninth inning. (That last half-inning was broadcast on Fox because the Arizona-Philadelphia game ended early. Nathan looked great -- one guy hit a couple of fouls and that was it. Whiff, walk, whiff, whiff.

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s' one.

Middle relief looks like a problem for Minnesota, which is definitely missing Pat Neshek. Joe Nathan's been lights out, but Brian Bass gave up a run today. Matt Guerrier lost the game Monday. Keep an eye on middle relief -- it could prove to be the Twins' Achilles heel.

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Brian Bass, Matt Guerrier and of course Joe Nathan pitched runless ball over four and two-thirds innings. This is the timeless Twins formula of all their great teams, including the 1987 and 1991 teams that won the World Series: Great bullpen, timely hitting, a couple of guys at the top of the rotation who could dominate. (And, yes, some great fielding, which so far hasn't appeared.)

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Crain (2.70), then Dennys Reyes (2.31), then Breslow (1.47), then Matt Guerrier (3.02), and finally Joe Nathan (1.38).

Nathan has converted 21 of 23 save chances, and the Twins won the two games when he blew saves. Which means that if he gets in the game, the Twins are perfect.

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About unhittable. I'd take Joe Nathan over any closer in the league.

* Young pitchers have been tough. Two years ago it was Francisco Liriano. This year it's been Glen Perkins, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn. You'd expect that they would only get better.

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On Tuesday night Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher hit solo homers on consecutive pitches, and Joe Nathan came in to pitch a perfect ninth as the Twins won their seventh in a row.

The Twins young pitchers continued to do well. Tonight it was Kevin Slowey, who outdueled Jake Peavy, though he didn't figure in the decision. Slowey allowed only four hits over six innings, and then the Twins bullpen did the rest.

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It's been weaker than in the past. Joe Nathan's still great, but the setup guys have faltered.

Fourth, the young rotation has to make constant improvements.

This might all happen. But it's

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I wasn't worried about that run too much but I understand what I did."

Keep in mind that Joe Nathan, one of the best closers in baseball, was already warming up as Crawford made the catch.

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When we left off at the end of last week's episode, the Minnesota Twins had come from behind to beat the Kansas City Royals, and the Cylons had mysteriously broken off their attack on a vulnerable Fleet. But Kara Thrace was holding a gun on laura Roslin, and the Royals were holding on to first place in the Central Division of the American League.

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n of the suicide squeeze bunt on Friday was a Thing of Beauty.

*The combination of Pat Neshek and Joe Nathan at the end of a game make the Twins almost unbeatable in the late innings. But you've got to be ahead to make it work.

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e player?

These questions and others remained on Twins fans minds even as they rose to celebrate Joe Nathan's second save of the season. For Kara Thrace is holding a gun to Laura Roslin's head, the Twins remain a young, inexperienced team, and no one knows what's going to happen next.

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On the other hand, the bullpen is all pluses, and Joe Nathan and Pat Neshek are among the very best at what they do.

Add it all up, though, and it makes the Twins a team with nine questionable positions, way too many to expect then to  be in the thick of the pennant race, especially in a division where Cleveland and Detroit are loaded up to make serious runs at the pennant this year, and where Kansas City looks to be finally breaking out of years of mediocre play. The only team in the division that looks to be on the way down is the White Sox, and even they have enough veteran players that they could be a factor. 

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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.

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he same.  Bill Smith blew it with Johan Santana.  He can't afford to do the same with Joe Nathan.

With Santana, Hunter and Silva all gone, it's now obvious that the Twins are full-blown rebuilding mode.  The starting rotation that was the strength of this team as recently as 2006 will likely consist of Scott Baker, Boof Bonser, Kevin Slowey, perhaps Glen Perkins and maybe Francisco Liriano if his surgically-repaired elbow holds up.  These inexperienced starters, paired with a line-up that's still not looking all that formidable, will probably afford Nathan relatively few save opportunities. 

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Then, let's also assume the Joe Nathan is traded, these days the worth of a first-rate closer is probably even more than that of a decent starter. The question then arises, where does that leave the Twins? Definitely in a re-building mode, but will the re-building process more closely resemble the mid-eighties, when the Twins put together the  team that eventually won two World Series, or will it be more like the mid-to-late nineties, so eloquently described  by Batgirl as the "years of the great sucking?"

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