Dome Sweet Dome!

The Twins lost two of three from the ChiSox.
The hitting was abysmal. The pitching was just as bad.

The silver lining? Well, last year at this time the Twins went to the windy city and were swept in a four game series. During that series the Twinks were outscored by a score of 40-15. So….it could have been worse!

The Twins will start a four game series tonight at the dome against American League East leading Toronto BlueJays (5-2).

One week into the season and there are a few bright spots and several disappointments.

Bright Spots:
- Denard Span seems to have picked up where he left off last year. His average is .280 with a very good OBP of .419.
- Nick Punto is also holding his own as the every day shortstop. His average currently sits at .353 with an OBP of .476. To date he has been the most productive player on the team scoring 3 runs while getting on base 9 of 20 times.

Duds:
- Joe Crede, Michael Cuddyer and Carlos Gomez. While it’s only been 1 week, these three players got off to a very slow start. Gomez has struck out 9 times in 22 atbats while Crede and Cuddy have struck out 8 times in 25 and 26 respective atbats.

- The starting pitching rotation has not performed up to par.  Liriano was rocked twice.  Slowey was not sharp in his last start.  Blackburn has been ok.  The best performer for the pitching staff was Glen Perkins.  He pitched very well in his debut.  He will take the mound later this week against the Jays.

Kevin Slowey will take the mound tonight against Jesse Litsch.   First pitch at 7:10pm.

Dickey, Crede and Morneau pace Twins

Today marked the first time that the Twins set foot in Chicago since game 162 of last season.  This time the Twins has an extra bounce in their step.  The weather in the south side of Chicago was cold and blustery but the Twins bats were anything but cold.

The Twins got off to an early start in tonights game.  The Twins quickly jumped out to an early 2-0 lead when Joe Crede took a Jose Contreras pitch into the left field seats.  The fans at U.S. Cellular field who were just prior to his atbat given a standing ovation were quicly boo’d by the fickle southsiders.

The game was closely contested at 4-3 Twin prior to the beginning of the 7th inning.  At this point the bottom fell out and one of the glaring issues for the WhiteSox came through.  First Richard, then McDoogal and finally Carrasco entered the game just to have the hit parade push the one run lead to a cozy 8 run rate.

While the White Sox are looking to rebound this year, the big question mark for them will be their homerun dependent offense, questionable #4 and #5 starting pitchers and their inconsistent bullpen.

R.A. Dickey took the mound for the Twins tonight.  I wasn’t sure how a knuckleballer would be during a game with cold and windy weather.  The outcome was more positive than negative.  Dickey was effectively wild and was able to scatter just 4 hits over 5 innings while giving up 3 runs.  Dickey earned his first win of the year.  Most important however it was nice to see that we didn’t miss a beat with Scott Baker out of the lineup.  When Baker returns, I am eagerly anticipating his future work out of the bullpen.  What a great change of pace from the regular pitching staff.

Twins win the game tonight in grand fashion.  Tomorrow they will take on the White Sox at 3pm in a regionally televised saturday game.  Liriano will be pitching and will hopefully will make positive strides from his last start.

Twins win a thriller!

Given the way that the night started, I was shocked to see the Twins come from behind to steal their first win of the season last night. Everything that could have went wrong seemingly did last night for the Twins. Blackburn was not hit hard and pitched effectively however the Mariners racked up the runs with one seeing eye single after another.

The Twins weren’t much better with their bats either. Most of the game Twins hitters struggled to do what they led the league in last year….get hits with runners in scoring position. There were at least two times last night when the Twins had runners at second and third only to come away empty handed.

I thought that apart from the manufactured run in the top of the 9th the bullpen did a fantastic job. Phillip Humber (who coincidently is out of options) came in for two innings and was able to shut down the bats of the previously hot hitting Mariners. While Humber’s spring was solid (sans his first and last appearance of spring training), he likely made the team only due to Baker’s stint on the DL. I imagine that Gardy will attempt to use Humber several more times prior to Baker coming back. If Humber continues to compete and produce quality innings that will make Gardy’s decision a tough on. Who gets optioned to Triple-A?

Defensively the Twins were consistent, but thanks to Nick Punto and Alexi Casilla’s double play to get out of a sixth inning jam was a game changer and allowed the Twins to start to feel the momentum.

Most Valuable Opponent goes to Brendan Morrow.

Alexi Casilla was clutch and put it in the book.

Opener Recap

There were not too many positives that could be drawn from last nights game.  I do think that there are a few silver linings in the midst a barrage of homeruns given up by the Twins pitching staff.

1.  Span looked VERY comfortable in left field.  There were several balls hit to the gap in left center that when it came off the bat looked as if they would drop for extra bases.  Span however showed some impressive range in getting to those balls.  After chasing those balls down in the gap I was initially astounded by his supreme defensive abilities.  I quickly realized that in my head I comparing Span defensively to the much less mobile and often clumsy looking Delmon Young…  Even though I came to my senses, I won’t discount the fact that he was very capable in left field.  If Gardy chooses to keep Span in Left for a good number of games I believe that there won’t be too many balls that drop in the Twins outfield this year.

2.  I was encouraged by the infield play of the Twins sans the error where Casilla fell down and a ball went by his glove.  Overall, they looked very fluid and double plays seemed to be turned with ease.

3.  Mike Redmond is the best backup catcher in baseball.  He might also be the toughest guy in the game.  

4.  Twins retro jerseys are very classy and cool.  I think that i’ll have to pick one of those up sometime….  I think that they should keep those around and get rid of the alternate home Navy jerseys.

5.  Only 80 games left in the dome!  Hip Hip Hooray!

Game 1: Twins vs. Mariners

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Boys and Girls.

Let me introduce you to the 2009 baseball season.  Today is the best baseball day of the year.  Today unlike all others, fans from all over the nation stood by the water cooler to discuss their favorite baseball teams chances.  There were many discussions of “If ARod can only stay healthy” to “We have an up and coming rotation”.  This will be the year when even the worst teams will believe that they can become the 2008 Rays.  After all, today, everyone is in first place. 

In reality, not all teams are created equal.  In the upper midwest we are lucky enough to have a team that seems to contend year in and year out given the financial restrictions placed upon it.  Given our market size we are lucky that we’re not Kansas City, Washington D.C. or Pittsburgh.  We are the Twins and we will once again sell out the Dome tonight in support of our very own Boys of Summer.

Tonights opener will have some interesting storylines that I am eagerly awaiting.  Here are my top 5 in no particular order:

1.  How does Liriano pitch under the pressure of starting the season.  Will we see the dominent pitcher who is capable of mowing down batters or will we see the second coming of Rich Anchiel?

2.  The Four Horsemen of the Metrodome:  Also known as Cuddyer, Gomez, Span and Young.  Who will Gardy start tonight and will the fourth see the field today?

3.  Who’s on Third?  How will Joe “Twin Killer” Crede perform now that his bench is on the thirdbase line?  If he strikesout will he walk towards first?

4.  No more roof…  People will undoubtedly be talking about Target field.  What will be the overall feeling towards the possibility of playing outside this time next year?  Hot chocolate anyone?

5.  Who’s batting third?  Is it Kubel?  Is it Cuddy?  What’s Gardy’s approach? 

All of these questions and more will be found out in just a few hours.  So, sit back, relax and enjoy your evening.  I know that I will because today is opening day.

Nostalgia

There are not too many times in my life where i’ve been nostalgic.  Tomorrow I will however be feeling this strange emotion.  Tomrrow as I make my way to the Metrodome, I will be overcome with all the opening day celebrations i’ve been to over the years.  While none of the openers that i’ve been to at the dome have ever been all that memorable, I will be forced to stop and think of all the memories that I have been witness to.  Here are my top 3 in order of importance.

1.  And We’ll See you Tomorrow Night!

This is something that in my lifetime I don’t think that i’ll ever be able to see again.  At the time, I thought that it was cool but now looking back years later I obviously missed the significance of that game.  I could not have known that Pucketts “Touch Em All” in game 6 would be the biggest baseball event in my life.  Thank you Kirby!  I will always have that memory.

2. Go Royals!  Twins Clinch!

The second most memorable event that I witnessed at the Dome was the last game of the season happened on October 1st, 2006.  The Twins had a home game against their bitter rivals the Chicago White Sox as they were tied for the division lead with the Detroit Tigers.  The game was not contested by the Sox however during the entire game the Twins and their fans kept a close eye on the scoreboards in left field.  Everyone was watching the Royals who were playing at Detroit.  Detroit was in first place to start the day and had previously lost two games against the hapless Royals.  The Royals and Tigers game went long and as the game came to a conclusion the Twins ran out of the dugout and started their celebration with the fans by running around the stadium giving highfives to the fans.  The Twins won the division and as fate would have it, this was the only day of the entire baseball season where the Twins were in first place.

3. Torii….Will you sign my baseball?

My third favorite memory at the dome happened during the last home series of the 2007 season.  During the Friday night game, Torii Hunter was batting.  I was sitting about 10 rows up on the first baseline right above the Twins bullpen.  During this atbat, Hunter started off the atbat in a hole.  He went 0-2 and looked as if he would soon take a seat.  On the fifth pitch of the atbat, after he flared one down the first baseline and the line drive went right into my right hand while I was texting my girlfriend (now fiancee).  I made it on television, caught a linedrive and have a memory for life.  The following year Torii was no longer with the team and I attempted to get the ball signed with no luck  Maybe this year!

Tolbert Optioned to AAA

As expected, the Twins optioned utility infielder to Triple-A on Friday.  This isn’t much of a shock to me however I would have much preferred to see Tolbert make the big league squad.  There are several reasons for this.  First off, I love his speed and he is a definite spark plug coming off the bench.  Secondly, I don’t really like the idea of Harris and Buscher both riding the pine.  I have my doubts about Harris.  Specifically his abilities in the field.  He is a defensive liability at second/short and is only marginally better at the hot corner.  While his bat is much better than Tolbert I think that it is important to think more about what situations Tolbert or Harris would be used for.  If Gardy is looking for a bat off the bench then without questions, Harris is the guy.  If however Gardy is looking for a defensive substitution or someone to fill in for Casilla or Punto then I think that Tolbert should be the guy.

Twins Blog

Just like baseball, every season starts anew.  I too will follow the lead that the MLB has shown by starting to blog again.  I will be starting again from scratch.  No old posts.  No old comments.  No old website design.  I hope to make this blog into an informative look at the Minnesota Twins and to also allow those who choose to read my blog a look into my thoughts and opinions.  Please feel free to comment if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for visiting and please look back for future updates!

Go Twins!