Two Holes-In-One in One Round!

As cool as no-hitters are in baseball, getting a hole-in-one in golf is even cooler. Yesterday, Brian Harman did it twice in one round at the Barclays.

According to people who keep track of that sort of thing, that's only happened two other times in the history of the the PGA.

Yep, that trumps yesterday's no-hitter.

Santana!

IF Santana can develop consistency, the Twins CAN compete in the playoffs. Yesterday, he gave up a few hits but the 10 strikeouts in 6 innings kept him, and the Twins out of trouble. That ninth was hard to watch, but a win is a win.

Go Twins!

I caught the end of the no-hitter on ESPN last night. I can't believe how many no-hitters (at least the endings) I've seen live in the last few years. The Dodgers were on the receiving end of a no-hitter TWICE now in the the last NINE days. It tells you just how good the pitching in baseball is this year. That's 6 total in baseball for the season and there's still about a month left.

Go baseball!

Vikings and Twins

It's hard to get excited about the Vikings yet. With starters in, Romo had two TDs last night and Bridgewater was 7 for 7. Our subs played better than their subs to win the actual game. But 4-0 in preseason doesn't really matter much.

Until Peterson plays, and until Teddy plays a whole game, we won't know. We were undefeated in preseason last year, too. That didn't mean much when it was all said and done.

The Twins couldn't get much offense against the Astro's starter, the same guy who threw a no-hitter last time out. Pelfrey looked like he always does, pretty good with one bad inning, and that one bad inning cost us the game.

The Astros are a better team. Plain and simple.

Enes Kanter

OKC center, Enes Kanter is 6'11" tall. His fellow countryman, from Turkey, is known as Sultan Kosem, currently listed as the tallest man in the world by the Guiness people. He's 8' 3" tall.

They got together recently.

Twins Have Three Hits

And they won 3-0! Talk about efficient.

Gibson was outstanding. The rebuilt bullpen has been a pleasant surprise. Perkins is feeling better and Jepsen is doing great in the temporary closer's role. And let's not forget May. A month ago the starters were faltering and the bullpen was overused. Now it looks like the change of Trevor May to late innings and the addition of Kevin Jepsen to the roster actually may give them a chance to compete until the very end.

The starters are now the biggest question mark. We'll all have to wait in see if they have what it take for the final 30 games of the season.

The Astro's game last night was a good start, but how they do against them the rest of the weekend will tell us even more.

Go Twins!!!

Escobar

Question: How many games did the Twins cost themselves this year by insisting for months that Danny Santana was their best shortstop option?

For the second year in a row, Eduardo Escobar began the season as Plan B at shortstop and emerged as the regular. And for the second year in a row, he has provided some thump from a position commonly occupied by slap hitters. LaVelle Neal of the Star Tribune refers to him on Twitter as "Eddie The Stick."

This intrigues me, even though they involve too few at-bats to mean much: When playing shortstop this year, Escobar's slash line is .308/.361/.519 (entering Thursday's play, which means those numbers are even better this morning); as a left fielder, .224/.261/.388.

The defensive metrics I've seen have Escobar as an average shortstop. maybe a touch below average, and I'll buy that. That's acceptable, especially with the extra bases he's provided the past two years from the position.

I assume that Escobar will be the Twins' regular shortstop down the stretch. I also expect that he won't be a lock to be the regular at the start of 2016. I doubt the Twins have given up on Santana's athleticism, and Jorge Polanco has been a very productive hitting middle infielder in the high minors. Even now, Paul Molitor hasn't truly embraced Escobar as the starter, so he's probably inclined to look for alternatives.

And given Escobar's limitations, that's sensible. But I doubt the Twins have a better alternative on hand until 2018 or so, when one of the shortstops in the low minors might be ready. Certainly for now, Escobar should be Plan A at shortstop.

3 homeruns in the last two games and I'm still counting.

Six In A Row!!!

Sweet. Going for the sweep today!!!

Ervin Santana is Really, Really, Really, Really,

really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really bad right now.


BUT the Twins still won their fifth straight thanks, primarily, to their young first year performers.

Go Twins!

TV

With the Twins having a day off yesterday, I took a day off from sports as well, finishing the first season of Nikita, a CW network spy show featuring Maggie Q.

It was on sale at iTunes a few weeks ago so we decided to give it a try. The first 7 episodes and the last 6 were just excellent. The middle 9 were still very good. A big thumbs up if you've never seen the show. I didn't expect it to be that good.

Perkins!

The Twins had another rally win yesterday AND several great pitching performances. Glen Perkins WAS suppose to have another couple days off after that cortisone shot in the neck, instead they needed his services AND, like a trooper, picked up the win. Millone got his first save ever even though he just had a start a couple of days ago!

They're still playing like it matters.

AND it does. That makes for some fun TV viewing.

Go Twins!!!!

Another Rally, Another Win

The Twins may have lost 3 straight to the Yankees, but NOW they've won three straight against the team they are chasing in the wildcard hunt. That rally last night was especially sweet with Buxton getting his first RBI as the game-winning hit.

Pitching, both starting and the relief crew, have been much better in Baltimore. Here's hoping for the sweep today.

Speaking of rallies, the Vikings got the win last night after the interminable weather delay. I shouldn't say interminable, really, since it let me see the ending of the Twins comeback.

I really don't care about preseason, but watching all those missed Vikings kicks is getting a bit worrisome. We still really don't know how good or bad the Vikes will be this season until they have a couple of REAL games under their belts.

Looking forward to finding out.

Twins Win Ugly

But winning ugly is still a win.

And it's only fair since Milone only threw ONE bad pitch last night for Minnesota. Other than THAT pitch, he was superb. So was the bullpen.

The Twins are officially back to .500. I'll take it.

Sano Boooom! Duffy Smooth

15-2.

Not bad for a game I stopped waiting to watch at 8:15.

I missed quite a bit it seems, but the Twins, oddly enough, are still in the wildcard race, and Baltimore is one of those teams in their way.

Even Perkins is feeling better after the cortizone shots in the his bulging disc. The Twins are hopeful he could be available in a matter of days not weeks.

Sill in the race, and it's almost September.  Who would have thunk it?

Twins Lose Again

sigh

Twins Lose

Again.

Another Loss

I watched it until the bottom of the first. Gibson serving up a three-run home run ball on an 0-2 count was just painful. I did keep tabs on my iPad the rest of the night while watching RAW, and was actually tempted to switch back a couple of times.

I'm glad I didn't. Watching the "highlights" of bottom of the 10th, hours after it happened, was still painful.

sigh

It wouldn't hurt so bad if I didn't still care.

Tommy Milone

The Twins NEEDED a regular starter to step up and pitch a good game. Milone, fresh off the disabled list, only got five innings in because of pitch count restrictions, had that good game. AND as a bonus four relief pitchers (uncharacteristically as of late) actually gave the Twins some relief!

Rosario hit his NINTH triple of the season yesterday, a Twins rookie record. Plouffe blasted number 17!

10 east coast games are next starting with the surging first place Yankees tonight. Needless to say any playoff chance the Twins will probably mostly be decided in the next couple of weeks. With all the ailing starters, let's say I'm not really optimistic. BUT I'm still paying attention...

Tyler Duffy

Tyler Duffy gave up 5 walks in six innings yesterday. That's not the kind of control the Twins were looking for. At the same time, he only gave up ONE hit in his six innings, and overall, he looked way, way better than he did in his first start a few days ago, picking up his first major league win.

The Twins are back to the .500 mark.

Duffy got some long ball help from Rosario, Herrmann, and Dozier along the way. Some days the Twins look like gangbusters on offense and this was one of those days.

Go Twins!

Vikes Look Good

It's just preseason, but the Vikings seem to have two very good QBs. First pick, Jameis Winston, looked average against our second year man Teddy Bridgewater. BUT...

...it's only preseason.

Did I mention its preseason?

Offense was smooth. The defense, especially first string, looked great.

I mentioned yesterday that this game would be meaningless unless someone got injured. Well, it looks like the man mountain known as Phil Loadholt tore the Achilles tendon in his left foot. That means he's done for the year.

That is going to hurt the Vikings in so many ways. We'll see who steps in and steps up in the weeks ahead, but in football, you're only as good as your offensive line and an injury like that could be devastating to the Vikings chances.

One Hit?

Yep.

sigh

Vikings have another meaningless exhibition game tonight. Unless someone gets hurt, it won't mean much. I'm going to try to watch most of the first half...

Ervin Santana

Anybody else get the feeling that performance drugs got Ervin Santana the big money deal with the Twins, and that now, without them, he's just another millstone around Minnesota's neck?

The main rule I would change for getting caught with performance enhancing drugs is that a team has the option of VOIDING the players contract if he's caught, or, at the very least, limiting both it's duration and monetary amount by half.

Currently the player might get suspended and lose money for awhile, but I figure the team that signed him was actually paying him for "enhanced performance". Something he's no longer allowed to have, so he should no longer get the money he was supposed to have.

IF baseball is serious about eliminating  the enhancement problem, this would be a better place to start.

Santana now has a ERA of 5.66, having surrendered 30 earned runs in just 47 innings. Much like Nolasco, he has become a major waste of big money in a very short amount of time. And the deal runs for several more seasons.

His horrible performance yesterday cost the Twins a sweep of Texas. It's more than just money he's wasting.

Pelfrey, Hicks, Sano BOOOOOOM!!!!!

I find it hilarious that there are actually discussion groups saying that we should send Sano back down to the minors because he doesn't know how to hit major league pitching.

Forget the fact that he's been our most productive hitter for the last month. He's our DH! Jim Thome was our DH for three seasons and he was striking out all the time. Sano is just a kid. There's plenty of time to teach him more of the basics. BUT -in the meantime- he can keep on driving in runs and hitting home runs and winning games for us. Take last night for instance. SIX RBI, TWO home runs --AND... he was still patient enough to draw a walk in the eighth inning to load the bases when he was down 1-2 in the count. That kind of mature batting is amazing to watch AND he's still batting close to  .300!!!

Speaking of mature batting, has Aaron Hicks finally learned how to hit major league pitching? His fielding in center has been highlight reel good, night after night. But his hitting from BOTH sides of the plate has been spectacular. Here's the stats:

Home Field Advantage

With the Twins comeback win last night, something happened in baseball that's never happened before in all of baseball history. ALL the teams played yesterday and ALL the home teams won their games.

That's pretty cool.

Byron Buxton

Remember I warned everyone about signing Torii Hunter for this season? Uneducated fans said it was a good thing. I said it was a bad thing. Though Torii was having a pretty good season on offense, he is now standing in the way of progress.

Let me explain...

Byron Buxton hit .417 in three games with Triple A Rochester during the weekend on a rehab assignment. Now that he's established he's healthy, the Twins on Monday officially optioned him to Rochester.

I wish they hadn't done that. I understand the reasoning behind the move, but I don't agree with it.

Start with this: A healthy Buxton plays. You don't have Buxton in the majors to sit on the bench. I agree fully with that.

Which means that to justify having Buxton in the majors, one of the current three regular outfielders needs to sit in any given game: Eddie Rosario, Aaron Hicks and Torii Hunter. (One could DH one of them, but then you get into the Miguel Sano-Joe Mauer-Trevor Plouffe trio splitting first base, third base and designated hitter.) Presumably the Twins brain trust is loathe to tamper with the outfield setup.

There is also the service time factor, but that is counterbalanced by the fact that the Twins have now burned the first of Buxton's three option years. Ideally they'll never use all three option seasons, but the first is now gone. Buxton's call-up came late enough that service time shouldn't be a genuine factor anyway.

No, the real reason they shipped Buxton back to the minors is that Rosario and Hicks also need to play to develop, and they have committed too much (financially and emotionally) to the return of Hunter. This is why I disliked the Hunter signing last winter. Sooner or later, he was going to get in the way.

It took into August for that to happen, which is later than I expected, but it's official now. Today, he's in the way.

It's bad enough to let a 40-year-old who is hitting at a league average level block a prime prospect. But I fear that the Twins will double down on that bet and bring Hunter back for 2016.

Which makes his initial signing even worse.

Torii WAS good. Buxton could be GREAT. He should be playing on the major league roster right now, especially with the pressure of a real pennant race gone.

I'm not following the games much any more, but the behind the scenes moves are still interesting to pick up on. 

Financial Responsibility

I'm sick of the Twins, and the Vikings don't yet matter, so I'll commenting on a Sporting News article that my wife sent me this morning.

Lion's receiver Ryan Broyles has a $3.5 million contract with Detroit, but he and his wife live on a budget of $60,000 a year. That includes house payments, car payments and a small baby.

Unlike other pro sport multi-millionaires who find themselves bankrupt shortly before or after retirement, Broyles decided to spend wisely and invest most of his money in secure long-term management funds.

He doesn't want to have to play football the rest of his life or worry about what happens next.

I LIKE this guy. I like him a lot. It's never about how much you make or don't make. It's about how much you CHOOSE to spend and how much you then have left to invest.

Go Ryan!

Anticipation

Much of the joy in life comes from the potential of what's coming. I used to dwell on Vikings or Twins losses much too long thinking that's just what fans do. Now, the Twins season is all but over with all the starters ailing and average relief pitching failing to provide the extra relief that's now needed. They even fell BELOW .500 again for the first time since they were 11-12 early in the season.

My current attitude is now, "so what?"  I probably won't watch many more games this season, and just wait for the playoffs instead. It's actually kind of a relief NOT being a fan like I used to be.

And this way I can get ready for the Vikings. Speaking of which: preseason games are ALWAYS difficult to watch, and last night was no exception. Bridgewater was good in his one series BUT missed an easy pass that would have kept a drive alive. Even in preseason it's hard to watch a lapse in concentration like that.

The Vikings won I hear, but sitting through a whole game of players I'll never see during the regular season doesn't interest me that much. I didn't last much past the first quarter. Preseason games are just  extended practices. As such, they don't merit much attention.

I THINK one of the main reasons that sports don't rank as high on my list of things to watch anymore is there are so many good television programs to watch instead, more than my wife and I could ever hope to watch. Where geeks everywhere are anticipating the return of new Star Wars movies to the pop culture universe, I'm actually more excited that FOX has decided to bring back X-Files with all new TV shows.

I'm looking forward to both, of course, but 8-10 hours of good television will always be better than a 2 hour movie once a year.

If they are GOOD, of course.

If they aren't, I can always look forward to next year's Twins. The anticipation is almost always better than the actual product. But the potential keeps us all hopeful.

.500

The Twins failed miserably Saturday. I stopped watching at 4-1.

Vikings tonight.

WOW!

We were at my Aunt Maybelle's for supper last night and, avid Twins fan that she is, we got to actually watch a great Twins game.

Well, the part we watched was great. That 6-run inning was great. Pelfrey was not. And by the time we left her place the Twins were still ahead but the score was 7-4 with Cleveland threatening to score more. By the time we got home and settled the Twins were down 9-7 so we stopped watching.

Then after our show was done at 9 pm we switched over to the game again with the Twins up 10-9! We got to see Perkins pitch a shaky bottom of the ninth that included three strikeouts AND the save.

One above .500 again.

We'll wait and see what happens next. Go Twins!

AND VIKINGS TOMMOROW TONIGHT!!!!

WHOOOOO!

.500

Perspective means a lot. If someone at the beginning of the season would have told me the Twins would be in second place with a .500 record at his point of the season, I would be overjoyed.

As it is, not so much.

Twins and Vikings

Let's face it. The Twins season ended at the All-Star break. They've lost 10 of 15 since then, including 8 of their last 10. Starting pitching rich, they were forced to call up a new guy this week, when they decided to keep Trevor May in the pitching poor relief corp.

And that new guy was NOT good last night. Not good at all. Sano looked good again, though.

The Vikings play their first pre-season game of the year against Pittsburgh on Saturday night. It's the annual Hall of Fame  which usually gets a pretty good audience. The Vikes should be good this year. My Pack is ranked number one in the rankings, the favorite to win the Superbowl. The Vikings are ranked 16th. Right in the middle. That's about right. They have room to move up and surprise that way.

I still think they'd be a much better squad without an aging Peterson, but he has much to prove to the fans and himself this season. And at least that's something.

Twins Have Just Two Hits

Again.

I'm not watching.

Twins

The Twins were 10 games over .500 a couple of weeks ago. Now, we're all wondering if they'll even finish above .500 for the season. Perkins has become Ron Davis, just as he does every year after the All-Star Break, and suddenly, good opposition pitching makes the whole lineup inept at hitting.

Trevor May is like the only bright spot in an otherwise awful bullpen, so even with Milone now going on the injury list, the Twins are going to leave May in the bullpen.

No hitting. No bullpen. Average starting pitching. And fielding that has suddenly tanked.

I'm just having a hard time watching this team anymore this season.

I'm glad the Vikes are starting soon. In the meantime, I'll just watch more movie marathons.

And wrestling. There's always wrestling.

Top of the Eleventh

sigh

Bottom of the Ninth

We were watching a movie last night, but I kept track of the game on my iPad. Movie finished, we watched the bottom of the ninth.

YESSS!!!

Great finish.

Roddy Piper

Hulk Hogan lost a great deal of his reputation this past week when racist remarks he made, on tape, were released to the public. Commentators were saying he was personally responsible for the wrestling boom of the 1980's.

I beg to differ.

Hulk Hogan was the "Real American" hero that got people to watch of course. But every hero needs a villain and Roddy Piper was THAT villain. Without Roddy Piper's smarmy attitude, and heelish behavior, most fans would have never given the great cheers to Hogan.

Batman would never have been as popular if the Joker had never existed either.

Hogan AND Piper put Vince McMahon on the map and set the course for his billion dollar empire.

Roddy died last night in his sleep. He was 61.

Here's a drawing I recently did of him.