Everything That's Great About Baseball: Jim Thome, Everybody.

"You just love to see good things happen to good people"  - Justin Morneau

Ciao, buddies.
-christine

 

So It Goes Baseball Mom Finally Makes Her Debut (and it's a good one).

(turn up the volume)


Ciao, buddies.
-christine

Moon Over Minneapolis

 Not bad. Not at all.

LOST and weird and frustrating and sad...

Remember 2004? It was a big year.

LOST premiered, Friends ended.

Britney Spears got married, got divorced, and then got married again.

The Red Sox won the World Series after 86 years of whining waiting.

And, of course, Fox hunting was finally outlawed in the UK.

2004 was also the last time the White Sox swept the Twins. Until Sunday. The losses on their own were ugly -- and at home, ouch -- but it was more than that... a bigger loss than just a series sweep. The nail in the 2011 season, I suspect.

All of that momentum from June seems a thing of the past and the things that were going so well, most notably the back to back to back dominance from the starting five-- well, no longer going so well, at all. Blackburn is doing that thing again when he looks like he's simply forgotten that he is a major league baseball player -- like really he's an art history from Fresno named Stephen with a ph who Quantum Leaped into Blackburn's body in the third inning and has no idea that there is a difference between a sinker and a slider.

It's not just Blackburn, they are all sucking in their own special ways, but he just has nothing. He looks lost and it's weird and frustrating and sad. I think someone really should check to see if there is an art history teacher in Fresno who suddenly has no idea that there is a difference between Edward and Dennis Hopper. Maybe we can still fix this.

Ciao, buddies.
-christine

The Good, the Getting Better but Not Quite There Yet, and the Ugly

I know it's been a while, again-- sorry. So here's a big fat post to make up for it. It's officially All-Star Break and the mid-way point, and a good time for some stock-taking. So, here ya go.

The Good

The Longview

Remember that on June 1, we were 16 1/2 games back and hovering around .325. A month and a half later, we are 6 1/2 games out and closing in on .500. We've won 9 of the last 12 series, which is key. 6 1/2 games out at the All-Star Break feel pretty typical for us, actually. So, yeah, it was an inexplicably terrible start, but now it's the AS break, the halfway point and a restart of sorts, and we've gotten ourselves to a point from which we know we can realistically do this. Perspective. And, yes, by, this, I do mean win the division.


The Rotation

The starting five are really looking good. Of course any one of them will have an off day, but quality starts, wins, deep starts and even some complete games, have been pretty consistent from all five of them,  This is good news, Twins fans. There's not much more key than a solid starting rotation; you cannot be a winning team without one, no matter what else you have going for you.


Glen Perkins

What? I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. Glen Perkins is killing it. A local blogger (so sorry, I can't remember who) compared Perkins to "the wolf" in Pulp Fiction. The clean up guy who comes in and, eerily calmly, efficiently, cleans up the shit show* that came before him. This is kind of a new thing for the Twins and I just love it. With these deeper starts from the aforementioned rotation and solid innings from Nathan + Capps, and Perkins' new found dominance, the 8-9 innings are feeling pretty good. I'll even go so far as to say if Perkins keeps this business up, he should maybe start thinking about his closer song. Hungry Like a Wolf, perhaps?

The Getting Better but Not Quite There Yet

Joe Mauer

My main man, my favorite muffinbutted catcher, sometimes DH, even first-baseman; Joe Mauer is looking good. He's clearly not 100% and I can't quite wrap my head around what went down the first half of the season, but I'm not worried about the second. I don't feel like looking up any stats on his climbing BA and OBP, but I know that he was on base a lot the last couple of series, he's getting some sweet hits or otherwise hitting the ball on the screws. To me, he's really starting to look Mauer.

The Bleeping Sardines

Dingo. Fosters. Shrimp on the barbie and stuff.

Casilla, Revere, Hughes, Nishi, Tosoni, oh my. These guys have been key to this comeback in a few ways, the energy being the number one factor. There's not necessarily a standout all-around, Casilla maybe, but as a sum of their parts, these boys have put together some impressive, and totally clutch, moments both offensively and defensively that have played a huge role in this June and July comeback. The reason that sardines are not in the "good" category is too many problems of inconsistency and youthful, stupid mistakes. Not going deep enough into at-bats, way too many first pitch outs, and poor base running, in particular.

Base running mistakes are sad, unnecessary rally killers -- and one of my biggest pet peeves, so maybe I'm being harsh. (Biggest pet peeves post still to come.)

Young and Kubel
Both are coming back soon. This is good news. I think. Definitely good news regarding Kubes, but... honestly I don't have a clue how it'll all shake out. We kind of have a lot of outfielders already, and designated hitters. Where o where will they go?

The Ugly

For the first two months, everything was going wrong. Everything. So, to make an ugly list would have been pretty pointless, like making a list of islands in Hawaii that are pretty. Now I think things are shaking out enough to where the consistencies of suck are, such as:

Hey, buddy. What ya thinking about?
You wondering why you suck so  much?

* The Bullpen

Glen Perkins, Joe Nathan, and Matt Capps notwithstanding, the bullpen is the major malfunction. I just cringe when I see Burnett, Mijares, and company warming in the pen, especially Mijares. And Burnett. The only thing either of them do consistently well is sweat, give away the lead, and melt down. "Melt Down Mijares," I like it. This is where I hope to see some movement before the trade deadline.






Injuries
It's really been frustrating, hasn't it? I've said before, and not just on this blog, that the Twins seem to be more injury prone than other teams. (Note: I have no clue if this is true or not statistically, but it sure seems that way.) Do they not train hard enough? Not lift enough weights? Are they just babies? Don't do enough core workouts? Don't do enough steroids? Hopefully the worst of it is over because I don't know how how long our sardines could keep it up if any more of the big fishes go down, again.

So, what do ya think- will the Twins make any moves before the July 31 deadline? Should they? (Can you tell I'm trying to get you guys to chat it up a little? I know you're out there.)

Thanks, buddies.
-christine

p.s., If you are curious where I come down on All-Star Game, Love It or Hate It?  I love it.

  

Good job, Red Sox. Come on teams, keep 'em coming.

Ciao, buddies.
-christine

Jim Leyland Don't Care

Jim Leyland don't give a shit.

 Ciao.
-cr.

St. Paul Pride. 4 Eva.

Yup, I'm already tired of the Mauer bashing and will not be doing it here. Plenty of others are (quite predictably and derivatively) all over the clearly the problem is Mauer bandwagon. So, if that's what you are looking for, feel free to disembark. You're on the wrong ride, folks.

I'll be honest: I am a fan. A big, fat Joe Mauer fan. You know how you have a very few certain players in your life as a sports fan, maybe just one ever, whom you choose to get behind and from whose allegiance you do not waiver?

Joe is that guy for me. Mauer means something to me; he stands for more than numbers, be it dollars in his contract or his batting average. I am willing to give Joe-- MVP, twice batting champ as a catcher-- the benefit of the doubt and trust him to work it out. I believe he has earned that.

And I don't think he's perfect-- of course not. I see the faults, especially related to the injuries and the recovery time (but this is a larger, Twins-wide problem, in my opinion-- it's like they just don't work out hard enough and have weak cores. And ankles. And wrists. And knees), but the idea that the Twins' major malfunction this season is Mauer is pretty ridiculous and not one I will entertaining here at So It Goes Baseball.

OK, I'm getting redundant, I know. But it's my blog, so there.

Ciao.
-christine

P.S., Readers, I'd love to hear about those players you love no matter, be it Twins or not. Please comment.

 

Terrifying + Adorable

> Another laugh out loud worthy Twins commercial

Ciao, buddies.
-cr.

Relievers Relieve and Closers Close

Allow me: Where on earth have I been? I know. I'm sorry. I've been a bad blogger. It's not like I don't have a lot to say because, well... that's just never true. So let's just get to it.

I could seriously french kiss every single Twin for making this whole thing fun again. I know breaking .400 isn't something typically to get all slobbery over, but come on-- the last time we talked we were hovering at 17 games back and now we're 9. This is a big deal. The Twins are putting together a lot of wins and reminding us all just how fast the standings can change in a very long season that is not yet at the halfway point.

It's been particularly fantastic -- and reminiscent of the old "piranha" baseball that so nicely described Twins baseball (ah, the accidental eloquence of Ozzie Guillen) -- to watch it getting done by a bunch of young scrappers, all of whom I truly believe when they say they are just happy to be here.

For awhile, my only answer to the WTF, Twins? question was something about the Twins being Murphy's Law in cleats: everything that could go wrong was indeed going very wrong. No need to rehash it all, but it seems, at least right now, that many of the issues on that long list of wrongs are on their way to being righted.

Most notably, we seem to have remembered that this is major league baseball and execution matters. Pitchers throw strikes, infielders turn double plays, hitters get their asses to first somehow and then the next guy moves him over to second or they steal their way there themselves, relievers relieve, and closers close. And some other stuff, too.

No, it looks good. I mean, I prefer the 'stach but this is cool, too.

In all honesty, it might be the superb starting pitching that is the biggest part of this turn around-- the effects of these consistent, in-command, efficient, winning performances are evident all over the field, the bullpen, behind the plate and in the stands.

Seriously, what is sexier than back-to-back complete games?

Nothing, Carl, nothing is sexier.

This week we see Nishioka and MAUER return, which, even though we have been on this streak without them, can only be a good thing. I think. I am curious about when Span and some the rest of the big boys start returning... I mean, I kind of feel that maybe Ben Revere is here to stay.



Play on, playas. This is fun.

Ciao.
-christine

p.s., "Fucking sardines" now, Ozzie?

p. p. s., I would pay cash money for a spontaneous Ozzie Guillen breakdown of every MLB team and the fish they correspond to and why. Somebody please ask him that question.