Kyle Brings a Smile

Quick, name the ONLY first round draft pick in Twins history to win their first major league start.

If you said Kyle Gibson, you'd win the the prize. After 50 plus years of first round draft picks, the Twins have finally found a pitcher who can win at the major league level. I was looking at list of names yesterday of first round drafted pitchers by the Twins (about a dozen or so) and the ONLY one I recognized was the Arizona State standout from a long ways back, Eddie Bane.

Bane, along with all of the other names on the list FLOPPED as Twins.

It's possible the Twins have finally chosen a winner. Gibson was good yesterday. He gave up two runs in six innings while striking out 5 and walking NONE. That's solid from anyone's perspective. The Twins took advantage of the Royals starter yesterday (who was doing his best P..J. Walters impression) by scoring 5 runs in the FIRST inning.

We were outscored the rest of the way 2-1, and almost blew it in the eighth, but somehow the Twins held on to win the game for Gibson.

Other Baseball Notes:

The PIRATES became the first team  to win 50 games this season. That's right, the Pittsburgh Pirates have more wins than any other team in baseball. Even fans optimistic about the Pirates this season didn't see them being THAT good.

Former Twin, Michael Cuddyer, extended his hitting streak to 26 games yesterday. Cuddyer is second in the N.L. batting race, hitting .346 for the season.

Has anyone been following Chris Davis from the Orioles? He has THIRTY homeruns so far for Baltimore. He's on a pace for 59 this season. I realize those are not Barry Bonds or Mark McQwire numbers, but this guy is showing that it IS possible to hit a boatload of homeruns without being accused of banned substance abuse.

Of course Ryan Braun was hitting a boatload of home runs without suspicion a couple years back for the Brewers as well.

Davis is 27 years old and had seasons of 33 and 30 home runs the last two years.

Who is the best player in baseball? One of the more interesting new-age baseball stats (sabermetrics) is called WAR (Wins above Replacement). It tries to measure a player's total contribution to his team by figuring in everything they do (baserunning, fielding, batting and pitching) and then it shows the number of wins this player has given their team based on those overall contributions, compared to a replacement level player at that position.

Now, as you will see from the stat chart below, the league MVPs are on the list, so the stat actually has some real-world validity. But notice THE player with the MOST value. I'm thinking my readers will recognize him.

Walters Wilts Again

Starting out in a huge hole is something that most teams simply do not come back from. Minnesota is one of those teams. Walters was unbearable again last night. At least he gave six runs in THREE innings rather than just 2/3 of an inning like his last time out.

Despite that, the Twins had lots and lots of runners on base last night, including having the bases loaded with NO OUTS late. They squandered every opportunity. The final was 9-3. It's time for the Twins to add some new young blood to their starting rotation.

On a related note: The Twins have decided to add some new young blood to their starting rotation. Today will be the day that the Twins will give Kyle Gibson his first major league start. At this point, they must be wondering if they should coddle him in the minors a bit longer or simply throw him to the wolves and see what he's made of.

I can't say I disagree with the decision, but from what I've read, he's been pretty sporadic as a starter in the minors. That's understandable since he's still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He's been given roughly 18 months to recover, so I'm guessing the Twins are thinking it's time to unleash him and hope for the best.

We'll all find out tonight if he looks ready. He doesn't have to pitch a great game. He just has to mix up his pitches and keep the ball low and show that he belongs here. You know, not be P.J. Walters or Vance Worley. If he tries to strike out everybody he faces, he's going to be in big trouble. We know he has a great fastball, but pitching is so much more than just whipping it as hard as you can until your arm falls off. Here's hoping his time in the minors has taught him that.

I just got another reason to keep paying attention to the Twins. I needed another reason at this point.

Two Champions and Their Teams

I cannot verify this, but I'll post it anyway.

A fan decided to keep track of the number of times Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks and LeBron James of the Miami Heat used the words "I" and "we" when interviewed at the championship postgame press conferences.

These are his unofficial/unverified results:

Small World

The NBA Grizzlies have a new head coach, Dave Joerger.

The cool thing? Cranky Curtis, one of the Casual Sports Fan's (very) few readers KNOWS this guy pretty well from their days at Moorhead State together.

It's a small world after all.

Deduno and Perkins

Samuel Deduno is becoming THE MAN when talking about Twins starters. His wildness is gone. He throws strikes. He keeps the ball down. He keeps his infield busy with a lot of weakly hit ground balls.

And he manages SEVEN strong innings nearly every outing.

To top it all off, Perkins got his 20th save of the season last night.

Even if the Twins have been disappointing as a team this season, there are a few players shining through in the murkiness that is Minnesota baseball.

Perkins and Deduno are two of the beacons that give me hope.

Murder, Attempted Murder, and the NFL

Aaron Hernandez was released by the New England Patriots yesterday after he was officially charged with the murder of his friend. Police have been concentrating on Hernadez as the main suspect since his friend was found dead.

Not to be outdone, the Cleveland Browns released linebacker Ausar Walcott yesterday after he was charged with attempted murder because of a beating he gave to man outside of a local nightclub.

The NFL is a violent sport. It attracts violent men. The ones who seem to have the MOST problems are also those who are attracted to late night clubs and freely flowing alcohol.

The NFL is always checking for illegal and/or banned drug use. Maybe it's time they started giving their players regular sobriety tests as well. Those who have a problem should not be playing in the NFL.

I've harped on DUIs by drunken athletes for years and years now. The NFL has had 28 of its players arrested since the Super Bowl. Nearly every case involves heavy alcohol use/abuse.

There is a prime suspect in all of this and maybe it's time that the NFL do something about this suspect.  Test for alcohol dependency and treat this problem like they treat every other drug problem. If players can be banned from the sport for using LEGAL  over-the-counter drugs, surely they can ban them when alcohol rehab is not successful or if players refuse it.

The NFL has a dirty image and it's not just performance enhancing drugs that are the problem. Just ask Hernadez and Walcott. They'll tell you.

Old Friends

Here are the stats for 3 former Twins. I didn't include Jason Kubel because he's been hurt much of the season.

Notice the home run totals for all of them. Like Kubel LAST season, Cuddyer is having an MVP-type season this year. These three combined have salaries less than Morneau and Mauer when added together.

I present to you what COULD HAVE BEEN:

Twins Get Swept By Worst Team In Baseball

And FORMER Twin Kevin Slowey got the win for Miami.

The Twins inability to score with runners on base is just so hard to watch. Hearing the announcers talk about Diamond's "regular 5th inning collapse" was also getting a little old. EVERY single Twins starter has a "collapse inning." For Pelfrey it was the sixth. For Deduno it's the seventh. Correia messes you up because it's either going to be the fifth or sixth. The situation is not unique for Diamond. Vance Worley was always the first or second, but he's old news now.

My "nothing but relievers" as a pitching staff is starting to look better every day.

Twins

Last night's game went pretty much as expected. The Marlin's 20-year old phenom, Jose Fernandez, pitched 5 good innings giving up just one run. Kevin Correia looked great through four innings and then struggled in the fifth. He gave up just two earned runs in 6 innings.

Miami might be the worst team in baseball, but individual games are won on pitching and defense, and last night Miami was better at both.

They play again today. The Twins are hoping for a split in the short series. I'm thinking the game starts BEFORE noon our time but you'll have to check for yourself to be sure.

Blue Jays and Blueberries

It wasn't that long ago that I was talking about how disappointing a season that the Toronto Blue Jays were having.

As of yesterday, they were still in last place in their division, but an 11-game winning streak has definitely left all Jays fans much more hopeful. They may have  had their streak snapped yesterday, but they are now only FIVE games out of first and above .500. The Twins by comparison are still 4 games below .500 and currently rest seven games out of first.

Winning streaks can turn seasons completely around. I'm still hopeful that the Twins can play .600 ball the rest of the way. A long winning streak would make that type of record all the more possible.

So what about blueberries?

This has nothing to do with sports at all, it's just that I've always wondered why tomatoes weren't considered vegetables. My casually observing wife sent me a link to a site recently that explained what "berries" were. In that article I discovered that tomatoes are berries.

The botanical definition of a berry is "a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovum."

Oddly enough, that definition does not apply to strawberries. Though a fruit, they are not a berry.

So what else did I discover? I like a lot more berries than I thought.

My favorites are grapes, bananas, and watermelon.

And in pie form, I also enjoy the fruit of the pumpkin. Yes, it's also a berry.

And I can't wait to be a know-it-all and my next social gathering.

Actually, I love being a know-it-all at every social gathering. And for those of you who know me well, you ALREADY knew that.

My wife loves me anyway, for which I'm extremely grateful.

Pedro Hernandez

Mike Pelfrey hurt his back Saturday so the Twins recalled Pedro Hernandez for an emergency start Sunday. Hernandez wasn't horrible his first time up with the Twins this year, but he wasn't good enough to keep his spot in the rotation either.

Yesterday, he was good enough to get the win despite issuing five walks in five innings.

That's good enough for me. He managed to prevent Cleveland from a three-game sweep as several Twins had a good day at the plate. It was really fun watching the Twins score without the long ball yesterday.  You know, the old-fashioned way, stringing together several hits an inning and finally driving in runs instead of leaving everybody stranded.

Pelfrey is going to be out for at least a couple of weeks so Hernadez is going to be with the club for a few more starts. I feels sorry for Pelfrey. He was FINALLY looking good enough to be part of the rotation.

The Twins have another Monday off today and start a two-game series with Miami on Tuesday.

P.J.

Walters has actually been pretty solid for the Twins since he came up about a month ago. Last night, he simply did not have it. FIVE walks in the first inning led to and extremely early exit. I know Gardy wants starters to work THROUGH troubles, but giving a team 6 runs in the first inning is a horrible way to start a ball game.

The Twins battled with home run power last night but still lost 8-7. I HATE games like this. You think it's over and just when you think they might have a chance. POOF! They lost another one.

Sure hope Walters is okay. He has been one of the unexpected bright spots in the refreshed Twins rotation. And as far as I know, no one else (DeVries, Hendriks, Gibson) is ready to be called up yet.

Deduno Solid Through Six, Dozier Hot

As was usual, Twins starter Sam Deduno was very good through six innings last night. But Gardy left him in to start the seventh and of course the roof caved in.

Not that it mattered much. The Twins ONLY run was another Brian Dozier homerun. That's three homeruns for Dozier in three games. You KNOW that something's wrong when a former AL MVP (Morneau) has had less homeruns (3) for the entire season than the Twins leadoff man (Dozier) has in his last five games (4.) Let's take it a step farther. Dozier has as many homeruns (7) as the OTHER Twin with an AL MVP title (Mauer), but he's done that with 60 fewer at-bats.

Did I mention Dozier is our LEAD-OFF man? I know I did, but that's the point.

I'm excited that the Twins seem to have a lot of guys that can hit a few balls out of the park, but we really do need guys like Morneau and Mauer doing it way more often. I USED to think that having Morneau as a teammate would cause Joe Mauer to become a better homerun hitter. Instead it seems that Morneau is much more content to follow Mauer's lead and has become a singles hitter. Yes, Morneau leads the Twins in RBI, but that has more do do with hitters getting on base in front of him. At LEAST his batting average is way up over the last two seasons.

We took in another Stark amateur game last night since it was at the Sleepy Eye practice field. From when we left out garage until the time we got back after the game was over, total time was one hour and thirteen minutes. It was a slaughter. The Sleepy Eye Squad won it in 5 innings with the 10 run-rule in effect.

I might be done with amateur ball for a while. We'll see. The friends were great. The weather, though overcast was quite pleasant with a beautiful breeze. But the game stunk. I saw more wild pitches last night in the first inning than I've seen in the last couple of years watching Twins games. And that was Stark's BEST pitcher. It just got worse from there.

The Sleepy Eye squad obviously gets some real practice time in. The Stark team obviously does not. They really should not be sharing the same field for a game.

I'm not faulting any individual player. They are just learning the game, but I think Stark players would benefit much more from practicing than actually playing games at this point. They aren't going to get any better until that happens. And if the goal is to get better, they should be practicing.

Playing the game isn't fun for anybody when you aren't very good at it.

NBA's Chosen "Win"

In what was not a big surprise, the Heat repeated as NBA champs last night. The refs were instructed to keep the game close, but make sure that the Heat clearly pulled it out in the end. Everybody played their roles perfectly.

I say that in jest, but if you watch the last five minutes of the game THINKING that's what's happening, you can actually see the game unfold that way. The "right" foul call. Who touched the ball last before it goes out of bounds? The unexpected traveling call. They all add up to a rather predictable outcome.

You knew the Heat could not lose game 6 at home. You KNEW that they would not lose a deciding game 7 either.

I was hoping that Duncan (a true legend) would take home his fifth NBA Championship. It wasn't to be, though. It just wasn't meant to be.

The lesson in all of this? You simply do not bet against the Heat.

Twins Sweep Sox

Home runs and good starting pitching have given the Twins something they haven't had all season: A three game series sweep.

It's hard to complain about anything the Twins are doing right now. Okay, ONE thing, all the Twins starters at this point, completely lose it at some point of the game. Most are getting through the fifth okay now, but the sixth and seventh innings seem to be deadly for all of them. Gardy still doesn't have any body warming up until a couple runs have scored in those situations.

Yesterday's game looked almost easy, until the dreaded sixth. A 6-1 lead suddenly became a 6-4 game and the Sox STILL had a threat going when the inning ended.

It got better when the Twins scored two of their own in the bottom of the sixth. That ending was pretty scary, too. A pop fly, lost in the sun, which would have ended the game, suddenly became a bases loaded rally. And how many people thought Rios had just hit a grand slam when the ball left his bat? It ended up being a warning track fly-ball out to end the game, but it was nerve-wracking nevertheless.

Rumor has it that Cranky Curtis attended this game with his sons. Nice game to see in person.

NHL

Yet another OT thriller last night in the Stanley Cup Finals. This time the Hawks tied the series at two apiece. I TRIED watching the game last night, but I still see soccer when it's going on. Lots and lots of back and forth, up and down the ice action with not a whole lot going on in the way of scoring.

And then IF you look away or step away for a moment, someone scores a goal. The play that SCORED the goal wasn't necessarily better than the ones that didn't. It was just the law of averages taking over. Eventually SOME shot has to go in. It's simple probability.

I don't like watching simple probability in my sports. Knowing nearly all the games go to OT just accents that point.

Kevin Correia

Another good start last night for Kevin Correia. The Twins offense piled on early. The eighth was scary. In the end, Perkins managed to pick up another save.

The Twins are actually above .500 at home this season and find themselves just 6 games out of first. I keep on wondering where we'd be right now if Vanimal hadn't given us so many horrible starts and if Pelfrey could have left after 5 good innings.

Still, there's lots of baseball left, and the starters have been been good to excellent nearly every start for awhile. The fat lady isn't even warming up in the bullpen yet!

Go Twins!

Heat

For a while there last night, I let myself think that the Spurs were going to win the championship, but that 10-2 Heat run run late in the third and early in the fourth sent me to bed early. I knew then and there that the NBA wasn't going to let their precious Heat lose a game six at home.

The final game is Thursday. Still thinking nothing will stop the Heat, but rooting for the Spurs anyway.

Pelfrey Good, Mauer and Perkins Great

Another spectacular eighth inning comeback keyed by Mauer's homerun gave the Twins the win last night. That and Perkins slamming the door again in the ninth.

The starting rotation is actually looking reasonably good as of late and the Twins hitters look much better against losing teams. With the Tigers losing last night, the Twins are seven games back.

Hydration

I am so amused now days about how focused people are on "keeping hydrated." While driving through New Ulm the other day, we noticed a man and his wife out walking. Both had a belt on, and attached to those belts were two or three small water bottles.

I also see parents out walking with their kids in the spring. EVERYBODY has a water bottle with them.

I guess I missed the memo. I get up in the morning and head out the door. I walk or jog for close to an hour, come home and do last night's evening dishes (yes, dishes really can sit overnight without becoming infested with bubonic plaque) and I start cooking. Somewhere around TWO hours after starting my jog, I sit down and have my morning cup of tea. A little while later, I'll have a big glass of something wet for breakfast.

Guess what? I did not shrivel up and die before I got my first drink of the morning. That's right, I may have gotten a tad thirsty, maybe,  in the times that I jog, but my lips didn't swell. My core body temperature didn't go to near fatal levels. My body didn't cramp up and I didn't pass out. NOT ONCE. And I do this every morning. I also go out for 45 minutes of walking in the afternoon and sometimes evenings and I don't take any beverage with me ever. Even when it's 100 degrees and humid. YES, I replenish nicely when I get home, but my body is more than capable of going at least an hour without "hydrating" even when exercising.

While I appreciate "experts" who have to tell parents how to raise their kids, I get a real chuckle about parents who think their children need to be sipping on water bottles every few minutes to stay "hydrated." I've noticed a similar trend in our church. I think most of the adults have tea or coffee in the morning  during the morning services (probably for their caffeine more than anything else) and more and more children are having their water bottles.

I'm not saying drinking is BAD for you. What I'm trying to say is that children can easily sit through a morning service without their water bottles. I've also noticed another trend. EVERYBODY now gets up sometime during the services to go to the bathroom.

I can't imagine the number of bathroom stops parents now days make when vacationing. Kids in air conditioned cars have to stop every 45 minutes to go to the bathroom. While at the quick stop, parents get another caffeine-laced beverage for themselves necessitating another stop in less than 45 minutes.

I still remember going down to Kansas in a NON-air-conditioned car in the summertime with my family. I think we had two or three bathroom breaks in 12 hours. I admit, that may have been extreme, but dehydration was the least of my parents' worries for us. And we all got there and back alive.

I'm also trying to figure out how many small plastic bottles are being added to our roadways by this hydration trend. I literally see dozens and dozens of half-empty pop and water bottles on my walks every singe week, and that's just in the small town of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. You see, parents may be concerned about their children's hydration, but they have absolutely no concerns about littering. I mean why would anyone want to carry a half-empty or empty bottle with them when they no longer have need of it? It's so much easier to just drop it and keep walking. Besides, they probably have a full spare with them. You know, so they don't get dehydrated before they finish their walk.

Spurs

I got home mid-afternoon yesterday after a church picnic, so I only watched the ninth inning of the Twins loss. Torii Hunter hit his 300th career homerun in the first, and that was basically the game right there.

BUT I wanted to watch some sports, so last night I turned on the Spurs/Heat game just in time to see the Spurs go on a 10-0 run late in the third quarter. At that point I stuck around for the rest of the game. The Spurs now have a 3-2 lead in the series, but that means so little when the Heat play the next two games at home. I'm hoping that San Antonio puts it away with the next game. Realistically it will probably go seven and I can't see the Heat losing at home in a game seven.

Much like NHL hockey, NBA basketball is difficult to watch. The constant shoving and clubbing that goes on, especially away from the ball means that refs can simply call the fouls they want rather than all of them. It makes for an inconsistent game. It also makes it easier for refs to favor certain teams even if they don't really mean to. Basketball is much more fun to play than it is to watch. The problem is that those that I play with now think that shoving and pushing is part of the game. The NBA game is a bad influence on America's youth.

Go Spurs!

NHL

Hockey fans must be enjoying this Stanley Cup Final series. Another OT win last night, this time for the Bruins. That's five total OT periods in two games.

Still thinking about watching at least part of one game. It's hockey, and that makes it hard.

Deduno

We got back fairly late from our own version of a double header last night. We saw Man of Steel early yesterday afternoon (two thumbs way up, though I think MOST action movies have way too much action in them and this was no exception to that rule) and then took in a high school graduation of the oldest daughter of some good friends of ours.

After doing some shopping as well, I was too tired to even attempt doing anything else last night so we turned on the Twins game in the fifth inning, even though I wasn't planning on watching the Twins for awhile.

I'm sure glad I did. Deduno wasn't quite as fantastic last night as he's been lately. In fact, if not for a horrible ump call on Prince Fielder at home late, the Tigers would have had a 3-2 lead for awhile. But the ump blew the call and called Fielder out. To make along story short, Deduno only gave up a couple of earned runs in seven very good innings last night. (He's only given up 5 earned runs in his last five outings total!) Oh, and the Twins went on to win 6-3 with Perkins nailing down another save.

Great game!

Did I mention Plouffe returned last night and was fantastic? Hitting AND fielding? Maybe he just needs a couple of weeks off every once in a while to stay fresh. Or maybe he just knows how to celebrate his birthday in style. Whatever the case, it was nice seeing his bat back in the line-up.

Twins Hit Brick Wall

Great pitching through five innings for both clubs. Great pitching from the 7th through the 9th for both teams as well.

The difference in the game? The sixth inning double by Fielder with two on. Diamond lost it after that. As did the Twins.

I might be taking a break form their games for awhile again. The Twins starting pitching has improved dramatically in the last month, but the Twins bats have completely fallen asleep in the last 10 days. That probably means the starting pitching they are seeing has gotten better as well.

Either way, watching the Twins flail at every pitch thrown them is getting difficult to watch.

Twins

Last night was was one of the weirdest Twins games I have ever seen. Corriea only gave up one run in his five innings of pitching but he was in serious trouble basically every single inning. And after he left, the bullpen gave up EIGHT more hits in their 4 innings of work.

On the other side of the fence, Cliff Lee was basically pitching a perfect game for 6 straight innings.

The weird part was that the Twins were actually ahead 2-1 after seven.

Don't get me wrong. The Phillies deserved to win that game last night and they eventually did. Ben Revere was amazing for the Phils. His sacrifice bunt that turned into a hit on pure speed alone in the eighth was the eventual difference in the game.

Though the final was 3-2, the Phillies outhit the Twins 16-3. The Twins also had TWO errors. I have no idea how a game could be that close when all of the stats were so lobsided.

It was great seeing Revere have pretty much a career day. It's just too bad he was doing it for the wrong team.

Twins have the Tigers this weekend. A sweep for the Twins and it all gets very interesting. Anything else, and it doesn't matter all that much for Twins fans. IF they are going to make a run, now is the time to get a good start.

If all the games aren't rained out that is.

Pelfrey!!!!

Just imagine if Gardy would have let Mike Pelfrey GRADUALLY get his stamina back instead of always forcing him to pitch ONE MORE INNING until he collapsed. Last night Peflrey pitched 7 pretty good innings. He left with the Twins trailling 3-2, but you sure can't fault him for the Twins leaving so many on base.

Somehow, it happened again last night. The Twins rallied in the eighth, scoring both the tying and winning runs, and then Perkins came in to slam the door. Another fantastic win, except of course for all of those stranded base runners. I'll still take it of course. The Twins are now just 6 back as the Tigers lost. And we're only a 1 1/2 games out of second. This is a great division.

I sure wished I like hockey more. The Hawks beat the Bruins last night in three overtimes to start the Stanley Cup Finals. It sounded like an all-time classic. The problem is that it's hockey. Maybe I'll watch one of the games before it's all over. Or at least part of a game.

Thought for the day:

I've been giving this a lot of thought lately. If it's "i" before "e" except after "c," WHY don't we just get rid of the rule and spell everything "ie" instead "ei"? For example, why don't we all just agree to spell receive as "recieve"? How would that hurt anybody? Within a generation, we'd never have to screw that word up ever again. And the rule would be retired into history. Where it belongs.

Language evolves naturally. Let's allow this quirk to go away instead of saying that stupid rhyme in our heads every single time we spell receive (and words like it.) Who is with me?

A Great Night of Sports

Let's start with the incredible rout of the Miami Heat last night in San Antonio. The final was 113-77. There was a time, starting  a couple of minutes into the fourth quarter where the Spurs couldn't miss any of their three-point shots. The game, was over at that point. I actually went to bed with 6 minutes left because it was obvious this one was done.

Go Spurs!

And what about P.J. Walters? Even though the Twins have struggled again for the last week or so, Walters manages to keep throwing gems every time he goes out there. Last night he made it into the eighth inning and his ERA is still around 2.00. The Twins may be seven games out of first place, but without P.J. ending short losing streaks, it would be a lot worse. The Twins won it late last night with some good hitting in the bottom of the eighth and a perfect ninth by Perkins. P.J. didn't get the win, but we won because he pitched.

In other sports news:

Tim Tebow did sign with the Patriots yesterday. When asked if Tebow will be playing some quarterback for the Patriots this year, head coach Bill Belechick answered, "We'll see." Tebow gets reunited with the Patriots offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, as well. McDaniels was the head coach at Denver when Tebow was drafted. Tebow's contract offers NO guaranteed money and runs for two years.

R.G. III looks like he's pretty much recovered from his devastating knee injury and resultant surgery from late last season, He was seeing doing some pretty impressive sprinting and cutting in camp yesterday for Washington. Maybe what Peterson did last year wasn't that big a deal after all. That or RG III is just as driven as Peterson. It's good to see that he's come back strong. Football needs players like RG III.

Ramblings

Not a lot happened in the world of sports yesterday.

I noticed that the Patriots are thinking about giving Tim Tebow a job, though I'm not sure what he'd do there since he says he still wants to be a quarterback. Last I looked, they already had a pretty good QB and I don't think he'll retire just to make room for Tebow...

I want to comment on the MLB drug "scandal" that's brewing down in Miami but at this point until somebody actually DOES something instead of just posturing, I don't really have a lot to say. My only question at this point is, "Were the people running that sports clinic doing something illegal or we're they merely giving/ accused of giving their clients something that is against MLB rules?"

My point to that question is basically, "What right does one private organization have to poke it's nose into another private organization's business?" And if the local or even federal officials get involved do THEY have the right to get involved IF nothing illegal was going on?

And why aren't any of these records considered confidential?

We are losing rights and liberties like crazy in this country and the only picture most people can seem to see is that some ball players may be doing something they shouldn't and that everyone has a right to know their business.

If what the clinic is doing is illegal, go for it. If it's not, then I'm not sure why they have a "right" to be nosy. After seeing that the government now has rights to access any phone call I've ever made on a cell phone without a warrant, I'm getting more worried that government is now much scarier than it used to be or should be.


Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Ben Franklin

Twins Lose TWO

Diamond was pretty bad in the first game, but the Twins offense was worse. They rested Willingham, Mauer and Morneau for the second game and BOY was that noticeable. Three total hits in the game. Still I'd rather lose 7-0, than by one run late.

In the second game, the Twins lost by one run late. They loaded the bases with one out in the first and DID NOT SCORE. They had a runner on third base in the sixth WITH NO ONE OUT and did not score. Deduno wasn't great, but he wasn't bad either. The problem (and they had this problem the entire road trip) was that they could not score with runners in scoring position with less than two outs.

It's so hard to watch a team that cannot score runs when they are given so many opportunities.

On the brighter side: Yogi Berra is known for his many inane quotes, but I came across this one by Oscar Gamble yesterday that blows them all away.

New Vikings Cheerleader Oufit

I honestly think think this costume would make the Vikings cheerleaders look better than all of the other cheerleaders in the league combined.

Mauer Hits Number 100

The Twins got back on the winning track yesterday. Correia gave the Nationals a two run lead when the returning Jayson Werth hit a huge homerun to center field.

But the Twins came back to tie it in the top of the third, and from then on the pitching was pretty stingy on both sides. The Twins need 11 innings, but they pulled out the win.

Joe Mauer hit his 100th home run in the process, and Ryan Doumit came through in the clutch at the end. It was actually a pretty good baseball game. It was also nice seeing the sun shine again, even if it was only on TV. We've been mostly cloudy here for about 15-16 days and it's starting to get to me. Last weekend I bought some "rose-colored glasses," just to trick my mind into thinking it's sunny out when I walk. They actually work pretty well. Officially, they're safety googles made to look like sunglasses. I don't care about that. They just bring sunshine into my life. I'd recommend them to all my seasonally-depressed Minnesota readers. You can get them at Walmart right next to the paint supplies for only $5. Consider it an inexpensive investment in your sanity.

My California fans are getting lots of sun lately. Last I heard, they were around 110 degrees. It's hard to believe that we are struggling to get out of the mid-60's here and we're already close to the middle of June.

More baseball news:

There were two marathon games yesterday, so consider yourselves lucky that the Twins only went 11 innings. The Jays beat the Rangers in an 18 inning game yesterday. The Rangers tied it in the top of the ninth and then nobody scored for another nine innings untill the bottom of the 18th. It went 5 and a half hours.

And then there's the LONG game. The Marlins beat the Mets in TWENTY innings yesterday. The final was only 2-1. I can't imagine sitting 6 1/2 hours watching two teams not score. The Marlins picked up their 17th win of the season, though. (Yes, they are the worst team in baseball.)

I still think that every single regular-season-extra-inning game should end in a tie after a couple of innings of OT play. Ties could be factored into the standings like everything else. There is no reason to deplete two teams' bullpens like that. And my guess is that every bench player available was used early on. That's just too much baseball for one game.

Remember how I said they should change the ground-rule double rule with two outs allowing runners to score from first if they are moving with contact? This is another rule change I would make. Let all the fans go home a little happy with a tie after11 innings instead of sending half of them home angry after 20.

If I were the players association, I would make that a priority in my next negotiation. OR, at the very least, ALL players could come back into the game after 13 innings if they were removed earlier just for safety reasons.

Though having ties would make more sense. Why is it that the sport with the most games in a season doesn't allow ties, but the sport with the least amount of games on their schedule (football) does? Ties would be good for baseball, and it might stop the idiotic one-game play-off between teams tied in the standings at the end of the season. If one team is 90-72 at season's end, and the other is 90-71-1, guess which team gets into the playoffs? Exactly. Genius.

You're welcome.

Baseball Last Night

With wet weather destroying the baseball schedule in the eastern states last night, the Casual Observer and his Casually Observing Wife took in another amateur game last night, this time at Stark. This game was much better than the Monday night game we attended.

The primary difference was the pitching. The first three innings flew by because the pitching was crisp and they were throwing strikes. The last 4 innings were a bit slow as both teams tried out a variety of different pitchers and most looked they had never pitched before. That's probably because they hadn't.

As I mentioned in Tuesday's blog, we go to these games because we know two of the players pretty well. Based on what they say, baseball isn't what it once was. They get no official practice during the week and neither gets much practice on their own either. I think that explains the pitching.

My twin brother and I never played organized baseball of any kind, but we played hours and hours a day every single day of the summer. If we couldn't get a few friends together to play pick-up games (even three on three or two on two worked well enough sometimes) we'd fungo hit to each other, pitched to each other, played rundown (some call it hotbox) or 500 when we had at least three, or as a last resort, just played catch.

Every single day.

If no one was around, we'd take the ball, stand 60 feet from the high school and pitch against the tall wall. The foundation of the school was at knee level, and we'd aim right at that spot and throw at it over and over and over and over again. Side-arm, over the top, three-quarter arm, curves, fastballs, you  name it. And we got very good at hitting our spot every single time.  We easily threw 60-80 pitches at a time. Hard. And then do the very same thing the next day, and then the next again.

I guess young arms had a lot more in them than I've been told lately.

Life in the summer WAS baseball. When it got too dark to play, we'd go home and listen to the end of the Twins game on radio. On rare occasions when the games were on T.V. we'd stop playing early just to go home and watch them. It helped that when we first developed a love for baseball that the Twins were the best team in the division every single year. Only the Oakland A's offered any real competition for us. This was in the late 60's and early 70's.

Back to last night's game. Stark won again, this time against Lamberton. The final was 4-2 but Lamberton had the bases loaded with two outs in the top of the seventh. The final batter grounded to second to end the game.

Good game.

Spurs Beat the Heat

It's only the first game, but it was at Miami. Go Spurs!!!

Kohl Stewart and Jeff George

Mile Pelfrey was actually pretty good last night. He gave up three runs in a little over 6 innings and he made it through the sixth for the first time all year. But the bullpen gave up as many runs LAST NIGHT as they've given up in the last couple of weeks. And the offense wasted a couple of early chances...

...but let's talk about something else.

Kohl Stewart, one of the best athletes that the state of Texas has ever produced, (much like Joe Mauer, he was recruited by a huge college to be their next quarterback) has been drafted fourth by the Twins in the draft. It looks like he's going to accept the big dollar contract and pitch for the Twins instead.

Obviously baseball draft picks from high school have to season a while in the minors before they are ready for the big-time, but it's nice to know that the Twins picked someone extremely talented for their system.

This isn't football, we won't know if he's a good draft choice or not for several years.

Speaking of football, Super Steve mentioned to the Casually Observing Wife yesterday that Jeff George is going to be a "guest" QB coach for the Vikings for a while as well. Frasier just wants Ponder and Castle to pick his brain some to see what kind of advice he can offer them.

George is a good choice. He "bombed" when he first came out of college, but later in his career, he learned HOW to play the game and was quite successful toward the end. Of course he had a rocket for an arm, something that Ponder and Castle can only DREAM about, so the similarities MIGHT end there. If George were in shape right now, I'd still take him over both of our current QBs.

So how's Joe Webb doing at receiver? Reports are that he's really bad, at this point, at running crisp routes, but that's expected at this stage of the training. The good news? He has the best and softest receiver hands for a Viking since Cris Carter. He also knows the plays so well, that he can tell other receivers WHERE they should be standing when they line up wrong. It's like having a receiver coach playing the game. The Vikes also are planning on using Webb as a punt returner. I was hoping for kick-offs (he used to) but that may come in time. The Vikings want Webb involved in the offense this year. Percy is going to be tough to replace, but they are thinking of Webb in those terms. Getting excited. Training camp starts July 25th.

White Sox Blow 5-Run Lead in 14th, Recover to Win in 16th

That headline says it all. That must have been one amazing game.

Costly Error

P.J. Walters pitched another gem last night. The problem is that an error cost him and the Twins the game. Walters gave up NO earned runs in his six innings. The bullpen gave up just one in their three. We still lost 4-1 because of an early throwing error.

It didn't help that the Twins left 14 runners stranded last night.

Games like this happen in the course of a season. Disappointing? Sure. But knowing that THIS Twins pitching staff has only given up ONE earned run in three full games is still pretty encouraging.

Of course Pelfrey and his 6.66 ERA pitches tonight for the Twins.

sigh

Deduno

I was actually excited at the end of last season. Even though the Twins had a miserable season, three Twins starters we're having some well pitched games. Scott Diamond, Sam Deduno, and Cole DeVries ALL looked like they had the makings of a very good Twins starting rotation.

But then problems came up. Diamond ended up with a brief arm injury at seasons' end so the Twins started looking for other help outside of their organization. Deduno got hurt at the WBC as his country won the entire event. And DeVries took a line drive to the ribs just before the season ended last year and then he  developed a tight forearm in spring training that was diagnosed as "day-to-day" by an incompetent training staff. We haven't seen or heard from him since.

At least I like to think that's the reason that the rotation of Diamond, Deduno, and DeVries (the 3Ds as I liked to call them) weren't starting for the Twins when this season started. The REAL reason is that even though Diamond WAS hurt, the other guys weren't even being CONSIDERED as serious entries into our rotation this year. The Twins simply did not see the talent in these guys that I did.

That's the primary reason that the Twins loaded up on losers like Vance Worley, Mike Pelfrey and Kevin Correia. They went with castoffs and guys with a history of arm trouble hoping they would be good enough to be what the Twins needed. And that's MY primary reason for hating the Twins early this season. Correia looked good in April, but he's really struggled since. Worley was basically worthless from day ONE, but we traded a very good center fielder for him, and the Twins, as an organization, were bound and determined to show that was a good trade for the Twins despite all evidence to the contrary. They literally forced two months of his losses down the Twins fans throats waiting for the "real" Worley to finally show up. He never did. But he, Pelfrey, and Correia managed to put the Twins into a huge hole to start the season.

At least Corriea got some wins in the month of April. At least Pelfrey was good for five innings in most of his starts. But Pelfrey was used poorly by Gardy and His ERA and the Twins win/loss record suffered as a result.

I'm finally coming back to my original point. We had three guys WITH PROMISE in our own organization, ready to start for us when the season started. We have three other guys in the minors close to breaking into the bigs this season, and yet we decided to go with questionable trades and castoffs during what was already considered to be a REBUILDING year.

I'm so happy that Scott Diamond's arm is healthy. He pitched a fantastic game on Sunday and the Twins managed a shutout as a result. Guess what? Deduno looked great LAST NIGHT and the Twins produced ANOTHER shutout.

Thankfully the Twins are in a forgiving division. And equally thankfully, the Twins are finally facing teams that are actually WORSE than they are. A few more solid wins on this road trip and the Twins may actually get back into this race within a couple of weeks.

I'm still waiting for DeVries to return healthy. He's only pitched about 20 innings in the minors this season and his AAA stats have not been good.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying what P.J. Walters has accomplished since being brought up. He gets the start tonight.

And we all are just waiting for Kyle Gibson to be consistent enough to join the rotation permanently...

Stat of the Day

The Twins bullpen has now allowed just FOUR runs in their last 37.1 innings. That's an ERA of about 1.00, while hitters are batting less than .160 against them. There are several good reasons that the Twins are on a roll right now, but this is certainly one of the big ones.

Essig Vs. Stark

With no Twins game scheduled, the Casual Sports Fan and his Casually Observing Wife headed to Essig last night to watch a baseball game live. A couple of young friends were playing for the Stark team and this was our chance to see them in action.

This was one of the junior leagues. None of these kids are major stars in high school yet, but from what we saw, a couple of them will be in the near future. Stark ended up winning 6-2, and one of our friends scored twice.

It was a good night for baseball, even if it did feel like October by the time the night was over.

With $2 hotdogs and $1 popcorn, most of the fans had a great time even if the local team did end up losing. Seeing the train go by twice during the game gave it that authentic rural Minnesota feel. Minnesota and baseball. It's two great things that go great together. We really should do this more often.

How Is He Doing?

Francisco Liriano is back from his Christmas day broken hand incident. In 5 games with the Pirates this season he's pitched 29 innings and has 39 strikeouts, including seven in a row Saturday night. His ERA is 2.17. His record is 3-2, but the Pirates aren't scoring him many runs. Saturday night was a good example. He gave up just one run in 6 innings but the Pirates were shutout.

It's still too early to tell if the "old" Francisco is back, but at least he's doing well for the moment.

Great Sott! Diamond Shines

An awful lot went right for the Twins yesterday. They hit FOUR more home runs at Target Field. Scott Diamond ended up with six shutout innings and the bullpen was good enough to keep that shutout.

The 10-0 final was fantastic. The Twins are now a perfect 16-0 in games in which they out-hit their opponents this year. Better? Believe it or not, the Tigers are slumping again and the Twins find themselves just 4.5 games out of first place.

I love playing in the A.L. Central. Next up for the Twins? KC and Washington. On the road. They get a night off tonight after playing something like 29 games in the last 30 days.

A good time for a break.

Kevin Correia and Caleb Thielbar

Correia was not awful but that bad first inning almost did him in early. Minnesota native and recent call-up Caleb Thielbar still hasn't given up a run in relief. Those two pitchers along with a red hot Ryan Doumit's walk-off triple in the ninth gave the Twins a fantastic come from behind victory yesterday afternoon. The key the Twins recent success? Find teams as bad or worse than they are.

Milwaukee and Seattle are fitting the bill nicely. Here's hoping Scott Diamond can throw off the Mike Pelfrey curse and go longer than 5 innings today himself today.

And let's see some more Minnesota home runs again. It's been two games since their last one and the last week has really spoiled me.

In other sports news: The Pacers forced a game seven last night against the Heat. Go Pacers!

Pelfrey Good For Five

And he collapsed in the sixth. Gardy says he wants Pelfrey to get stronger so he always leaves him in until he collapses. And the Twins lose every one of Pelfrey's starts in the sixth because of that philosophy. Six of his last seven starts have the same exact pattern and Gardy does the same thing every single game.

I'm NOT opposed to Pelfrey in the starting rotation, I'm just sick of seeing Gardy treat him this way. He's made a remarkable recovery from Tommy John surgery but he's having no success at all being abused this way.

At the same time, the Twins were not going to win last night going against that kind of pitching. Seattle deserved to win even though the Twins did squander a  couple of decent chances.

I really want ONE rule change in baseball. I've talked about a lot of them over the years but this one REALLY makes sense. With TWO OUTS and the runner on first base going on contact anyway, he should be allowed to score on ground-ruled doubles.The Twins lost a run again last night because of the current rule.

The rule states that you can't assume the runner would score on the play. I say, sure you can as long as he's already close to second base any way.

I know this rule change would hurt the Twins as much as help them, but fair is fair. That runner has been caught trapped on third base all too often by a rule that needs some obvious tweaking. The pitcher and defense have gotten the benefit of this call since the rule was made.

I can't think of any play in the history of baseball, where a runner going on contact with two outs, didn't score when the hit was a double by the player batting. It's always an easy score.

It's time to do the right thing and tweak the rule when there are two outs. I can't think of any reason why the rule change would not be accepted by just about everyone. It's such an obvious move.