Twins vs. Yankees: Lineup Comparisons

I'm psyched -- the Twins finally have a chance to redeem themselves against the Yankees and the postseason jinx they've put on us. My last experience at Yankee Stadium was the Kubel walkoff, and I'm hoping that I have a few more of those instead of what I had to deal with last year.

While I'm always nervous during the postseason, I'm not quite as edgy as I've been before. While last year I was talking trash with Yankee fans but secretly wringing my hands and hoping, hoping, hoping that we wouldn't screw things up, this year is a different story. The Twins can match up with any team in baseball this year.

To put that to the test, let's examine the two opposing lineups today:

Catcher:

Joe Mauer: .327/.402/.467, 9 HR, 75 RBI, 42 2B, 65 BB, 52 K

vs.

Jorge Posada: .250/.358/.458, 18 HR, 57 RBI, 23 2B, 58 BB, 98 K

Francisco Cervelli: .271/.359/.335, 0 HR, 38 RBI, 11 2B, 33 BB, 42 K

- I think this one is pretty clear cut and it's a nice way to start out. Joe Mauer is obviously the better catcher between the two teams. While Jorge still has the jolt in his bat, Joe Mauer is a hitting machine. He's also got the best plate discipline of anyone in the two starting lineups, being the only person to actually draw more walks than strikeouts. Advantage: Twins. And by a long shot.

First Base:

Michael Cuddyer: .271/.336/.418, 14 HR, 81 RBI, 37 2B, 57 BB, 93 K

vs.

Mark Texeira: .258/.366/.484, 33 HR, 108 RBI, 36 2B, 92 BB, 121 K

- Texeira has better power, plate discipline, and probably fielding skills as well. Although this isn't a knock on Cuddyer, who still shows solid numbers. Cuddyer doesn't have awful plate discipline, he's been serviceable in the field, and he has decent power and average. The advatage goes to the Yankees, but not by as much as you'd think.

Second Base:

Orlando Hudson: .267/.337/.372, 6 HR, 37 RBI, 24 2B, 50 BB, 87 K

vs.

Robinson Cano: .320/.382/.535, 29 HR, 108 RBI, 41 2B, 57 BB, 77 K

- Just like it was clear that Mauer was the better catcher, it's pretty clear that Cano is the better second baseman. Cano is probably the most complete player on the Yankee roster. Hudson's overall numbers have shown a drop in September, and he's clearly an upgrade over anyone the Twins have seen at second in a longtime, but they have a long way to go to match Cano's production. Advantage: Yankees. By a longshot.

Shortstop:

JJ Hardy: .269/.320/.396, 6 HR, 38 RBI, 19 2B, 27 BB, 53 K

vs.

Derek Jeter: .269/.340/.369, 10 HR, 66 RBI, 30 2B, 63 BB, 104 K

- This is a pretty tough call. Hardy's overall numbers are down by the lack of games due to injury, but he actually stacks up pretty evenly with Jeter. Clutch and leadership are not a factor in this decision, this isn't the MVP race... Hardy is a much, much, superior defender, and I think it comes down to that. They are about even at the plate and Hardy has the edge on defense. Advantage is going to the Twins, although not by a whole lot.

Third Base:

Danny Valencia: .314/.354/.453, 7 HR, 40 RBI, 18 2B, 20 BB, 45 K

vs.

Alex Rodriguez: .270/.341/.508, 30 HR, 124 RBI, 29 2B, 58 BB, 96 K

- Valencia is having a monster year. It's too bad he's only played a half season because you have to take his numbers with a grain of salt. Alex Rodriguez is typical Alex Rodriguez. There's no doubt that the edge is going to the Yankees, although the question is which A-Rod will show up this post season? The '09 version or the choke artist we've seen every year before. Advantage is to the Yankees, but the Twins don't have a slouch at third for the first time in a long time.

Right Field:

Jason Kubel: .250/.324/.427, 21 HR, 92 RBI, 23 2B, 56 BB, 116 K

vs.

Nick Swisher: .288/.358/.506, 28 HR, 88 RBI, 33 2B, 57 BB, 137 K

- Kubel is having a down year, and Swisher is going to be as annoying as ever. They are about equal in all facets. Kubel probably has more potential and he's shown he can be dangerous against the Yankees. Swisher is better in the field, and so he gets the nod. Advantage: Yankees, although slight.

Center Field:

Denard Span: .266/.333/.350, 3 HR, 58 RBI, 24 2B, 60 BB, 73 K

vs.

Curtis Granderson: .247/.325/.469, 24 HR, 67 RBI, 17 2B, 53 BB, 115 K

- It really depends on what you're looking for here. Granderson has the power and Span has the average. Granderson strikes out a lot, Span has better plate discipline. Granderson probably has a slight edge in the field. I think the edge actually goes to the Twins, Span isn't meant to hit for power but he can sure as hell get on base and that's what he's there for. This is a pretty tough one for me but it's hard to ignore that power disparity. Advantage: Yankees. I think...

Left Field:

Delmon Young: .299/.334/.495, 21 HR, 112 RBI, 46 2B, 28 BB, 81 K

vs.

Brett Gardner: .275/.383/.377, 5 HR, 47 RBI, 19 2B, 79 BB, 100 K

- No comparison. As pesky as Gardner is, Delmon is a beast and there's no denying the year that he's having. He might not be the best fielder, and Gardner has more of a penchant for walks, but Delmon will likely get MVP votes (even if unwarranted), Gardner will not. Advantage: Twins. Not close.

Designated Hitter:

Jim Thome: .280/.410/.625, 25 HR, 59 RBI, 16 2B, 60 BB, 82 K

vs.

Lance Berkman: .248/.368/.413, 14 HR, 58 RBI, 23 2B, 77 BB, 85 K

Marcus Thames: .288/.352/.495, 12 HR, 33 RBI, 7 2B, 19 BB, 61 K

- Thome is putting up a monster year. He's got the best slugging % of anyone on this list and also a killer slugging percentage. The job of the DH is to hit the ball, and Thome does that perhaps better than anyone on either roster. Hopefully the lefty duo of Sabathia and Pettite don't neutralize this advantage, but it is an advantage. Berkman and Thames are solid players, but they are no Thome. Advantage: Twins. Not really close.

Summary:

The Yankees are better at 5 positions. The biggest disparity is obviously the Cano/Hudson, followed by Rodriguez/Valencia. The margins between Texeira/Cuddyer, Swisher/Kubel, and Granderson/Span are not that big though, and the Twins are right there with the Yankees at those spots.

The Twins have the advantage at 4 positions, and 3 of them aren't even close. Mauer/Posada/Cervelli is a huge gap, likewise Young/Gardner and Thome/Berkman/Thames. The only place it's really even close is Hardy/Jeter.

Basically these are going to be some very competitive matchups, the likes of which we have never had before in the postseason against the Yankees. The Twins have 3 vastly superior matchups at positions, and the Yankees have 2. The other four matchups are going to be pretty close. It will be interesting to see...

Next up: rotation comparisons.

Philly: On the Road for the Tenth Inning Stretch

First off, be sure to check out Seth's Weekly Twins podcast from last night as I feebly attempted to run the switchboard for him while discussing baseball with Seth and Travis Aune...

At the beginning of the year I decided that as long as I currently live out on the East Coast, I should take advantage of my proximity to other Major League cities and notch a few ballpark visits under my belt. Thankfully the Twins were happy to oblige with their schedule by coming out my way a few more times than normal this year.

So as soon as I saw the 2010 schedule, I circled this Philadelphia visit in red, and these boys didn't let me down.

I couldn't make the Friday game, and I don't feel too bad about that. But early Saturday morning I made my way over to Penn Station to catch the first Amtrak over to Philly.

Note: the crazy guy in the yellow shirt ready to greet me.

The thing I still love most about New York is its proximity and easy access to almost anywhere. My train zipped along and in just a little over an hour we were pulling into 30th St. Station.

The plan for the day was to hang out in downtown Philly and explore until Shawn and his family got into town to start our day at the ballpark. I killed some time hanging out in Rittenhouse Square where I first noticed that the city is decorated in little Philly Phanatic statues just as we have Joe Mauers dotting Minneapolis.

I have to admit that downtown Philadelphia is gorgeous. The shops, bars and restaurants along Walnut and Chestnut street gave it a very Greenwich Village feel and I wish I had been able to spend a bit more time there.

or perhaps just get my hair done at my spa apparently?

I wandered over to the Mutter Museum and after about an hour or so of looking at dry-preserved and wet-preserved anatomy and medical anomalies, I had found more than my fill.

After looking at John Wilkes Booth's spinal cord I decided it was time for a drink. Thankfully there was a nearby bar called Drinker's Pub and I hung my hat there chatting with some friendly locals about Citizen's Bank Park until Shawn and his wife and stepson arrived. (It was then that I felt it finally safe to put on my lucky Aguilera jersey... I was actually a little more scared of being an enemy in Citizen's Bank Park than I am of Yankee Stadium.)

Shawn is an awesome guy (and his wife and stepson were just as cool) and I was looking forward to finally meeting him for the first time after reading his blog for so long! We had a beer and chatted for a bit before carpooling over to the park and finding a space in a Holiday Inn parking lot amidst a horde of tailgaters. The tailgaters were something my new friends from Drinker's Pub told me was a tradition and I can see why: with all the sports facilities and their parking lots adjoining each other it's the perfect expansive layout of concrete for people to set up grills and lawn chairs.

The stadium itself is amazing. Having just been to Target Field, which for me was like a dream come true, Citizen's Bank Park still managed to leave quite the impression on me. From the various bronze statues adorning the outside of their gates:

To the beautiful vista of their downtown skyline which I'm sure would look amazing lit up at night:

and my horrible Blackberry can't really pick up the skyline, oops... but trust me it's breathtaking.

I had found tickets at the last minute in the row next to Shawn and his family

and so I was lucky to be able to sit with them and have a little companionship in the sea of Phillies apparel out there. Thrylos made the comment that that day was the most representation of any opposing team he had seen at the stadium and if that's the case it must get very lonely and intimidating out there!

We found our seats, thankfully sheltered from the sun (which was making me regret wearing my jersey), and were able to strike up a nice conversation with some Phillies fans nearby.

This was our view

I think everyone knows how this game went. It started out wonderfully and we were in pretty good spirits, but by the time that Slowey had coughed up his early lead and I was getting angry (if still jesting) text messages from Betsy, I thought it would be nice to go explore the food.

Sorry Target Field, but Citizen's Bank Ballpark has food-fare that would blow you away. Their famous Chick & Pete crab fries and the amazing sandwich known as "The Schmitter" were enough to make me forget about the travesty I was witnessing on the field.

Though I don't know if I was sweating from the heat or from the ridiculous amount of food I was trying to eat.

I'm also not a big fan of hopsy beers, but one sip of the Flying Fish Summer Pale Ale and I was hooked. (Get it? Fish? Hooked?) They do a great job of showcasing their local microbrews and craft beers at the stadium side by side with a wide spectrum of delicious food.

During the later middle innings Shawn and I worked our way back to where Thrylos98 of The Tenth Inning Stretch mentioned his seats were and we tried to scope him out by the jersey he said he was wearing. The moment we popped up the stairs in his section we started getting heckled by a bunch of Phillies fans, and while Shawn kindly waved back at them I just ducked back into the concourse.

But it was enough time for Thrylos to spot us and come running down to the concourse to say hi! And yes, indeed, he does exist! We chatted baseball and anything to get our mind off the game for a few minutes before finally making our way back down to our seats for the last couple innings.

That's when it all got interesting of course. When Thome stepped up to the plate and got his ovation was fun to see. We joked with our Phillies fans in the row about whether or not Punto was going to get the same treatment but they didn't seem to think so. Thome was actually very well represented in the Twins jerseys that we saw. It's clear that Philadelphians still hold a special place in their heart for him, and to watch him launch that home run and receive the rabid applause was amazing.

Hey, Parker! Your shirt in Philly!

As the Twins started to mount a threat the rest of the inning, you could sense the Phillies fans around you start to tense up. They saw this all last year in Lidge but had spent the better half of the 8th inning talking about how dependable he's been this year.

It just wasn't his day.

The Mauer shot sent chills down my spine. I was in disbelief, standing in my seat, high-fiving Shawn and trying not to lose my calm and get murdered at the stadium (apparently lots of people die at stadiums every year, now I'm paranoid, kind of).

Butera's homerun was almost just as surreal. I was trying to figure out how we'd stand a chance in extras with our bullpen so taxed and with only Butera available to come off the bench. I was even curious what it would be like for Rauch to just try putting his weight into a swing. But when our .175 hitting backup catcher launched one into the left field seats that completely floored me.

The Gload homerun was kind of a letdown. I know Rauch isn't perfect but that was just sad, and it didn't even look like a homerun. I didn't think that there was anyway our bullpen could stand much longer and didn't see how the ragtag bottom of our lineup was going to do anything against a mostly solid Phillies bullpen but this team never ceased to amaze me that day. I'm still not sure why they pitched to Delmon with an open base and Tolbert coming up but I'm glad they did!

After the game we met up again with Thrylos and hung around until they kicked us out of the stadium. We got high-fives and congratulations from scores of smiling Twins fans milling about while we watched all the Phillies fans stream out of the ballpark without any of them harming us! A miracle!

Goodbye Phillies fans!

Shawn and his family dropped me off downtown and I hung out around the 30th St. Station and had a few drinks near there, proudly displaying my lucky Aguilera jersey, while waiting for a red-eye Amtrak back to New York.

All in all a great trip, a lovely ballpark, and one of the more memorable games I've ever seen in person!

I Saw The Lights Go Out on Broadway

I've lived in New York for 7 years now -- and despite attending at least one Twins game in the Bronx every year, I had never seen a win. We might be playing well or leading into the 9th inning, but the results were always the same: Frank Sinatra blasting over the speakers about how amazing New York is and the smug looks on Yankee fan faces as I trudge back to the subway.

This year, I had the opportunity to go to all three games in the Bronx. I figured with one of the strongest teams we've ever fielded and with how well we've been playing of late, I was guaranteed to reverse my trend.

Friday I ditched out of work with a co-worker as soon as we could (he's a Yankee fan and thus acted as my bodyguard during my time in enemy territory). We missed the first inning as we hung out in line for our first beers and hot dogs of the season and by the time we made it to our seats I realized I hadn't faced one insult yet. I think it was either the fact that I had my Yankee "bodyguard" with me, or maybe they just realized how sad Twins fans must be....

View from our seats Friday night

This game actually started off great. We were playing competitively and I was able to forget about our complete ineptitude in the Bronx and actually imagined that we might, might stand a chance.

Then came the at-bat that still sends shivers down my spine. Guerrier vs. A-Rod. The place was in uproar. From the time A-Rod stepped out of the on-deck circle the cheering was so loud I wanted to shove forks in my ears. If we had actually shown any reasonable amount of success in the past, I might have been a little more confident (I didn't have the Guerrier/A-Rod career numbers in front of me...) but I knew this was the beginning of our decline.

Twins fans in front of me feel my malaise as well...

Let's just say it was a long walk home to the subway again...

One thing about coming back from Yankee Stadium is that it's always a surging mass of humanity on the way back to public transportation. You actually get home fairly quickly as they stack trains for you and fill each one up, but you still inevitably stand around on the platform surrounded by gloating Yankee fans whose eyes you can feel burning into your back as you try to remain as discreet as possible...

SATURDAY:

This time I was accompanied by both a fellow-Twins fan and a new Yankee fan "bodyguard" to protect both of us. We grabbed some brunch and cabbed it up to the stadium to make it in time. This was the day I was most excited about: I've been talking up Liriano's return to dominance to every Yankee fan I know.

My long march to disappointment...

I had my company seats today (which are awesome, and my work is quite generous to always remember when my home team is in town).

Sheltered from the sun slightly too so I don't get sunburned or rained on...

This game unfortunately just spiraled out of hand from the get-go. Liriano sure didn't look the part of the ace that I had been bragging about. While he actually didn't pitch that bad and ended up stranding plenty of runners, he still let those runners on and that was the tough part to watch.

As soon as the wave broke out for the second straight day I knew this game was over and began trying to distract myself...

...thankfully I couldn't see much of the field at that point because of some Yankee douche having fun on free hat day...

I could easily look into the press box so I spied on La Velle, Kelsie Smith, Kelly Thesier, and #StupidSouhan a little ... and I also got to watch Nick Swisher on some sort of cooking show? Because I guess the game wasn't interesting enough at that point?

My blackberry zoom isn't good, he's in the red hat. Don't know if the chef or the food would make me vomit first.

(Also I need to point out somewhere that I totally predicted Lookin' At Lucky to win the Preakness but I never made it to the OTB! He was #7, which is Mauer's number, and I was hoping we'd get lucky on Sunday.. in the bar pool though I drew Yahwanna Twist and kept trying to trade with the person who drew Lookin' At Lucky. But this is all besides the point...)

SUNDAY (GLORIOUS DAY)

I was a little worried about today. I was sitting up in the cheaper seats towards the top (which is the same area I sat in the playoffs last year). My buddy Tim took me to the game, one of the nicer Yankee fans I know, but I am of the firm belief that the rowdier and douchier fans tend to congregate towards the top of the stadium and thin out the further down you get. So perhaps my lack of verbal abuse was about to finally even out...

For being up high we had an awesome view!

I wasn't too encouraged about our chances going into this game. Despite the fact that the law of averages said we should win a game sometime, and despite the fact that we were going up against Sergio Mitre (my second favorite Yankees pitcher after Javier Vasquez), I knew we could find a way to lose if we really wanted to.

That being said, I tend to remain horribly optimistic. Even on Saturday I had hung around until the last pitch just in case we mounted a miraculous comeback. In the 8th inning as Joba began to struggle with control and our bats started to wake up a little bit, Yankee fans had completely forgotten to take us seriously. Half the stadium was back into the wave for the third straight day and was finally starting to get it traveling by the time Texeira made an Adrian-Peterson-like fumble to load the bases.

This seemed to wake everyone up a little bit. My pulse was racing as I saw Girardi come out to the mound and heard the first few chords of Enter Sandman start playing over the loudspeakers. It was like a maelstrom of activity between Yankee fans going crazy cheering, my phone vibrating with new text messages every 10 seconds, and my heart racing at the thought that maybe we might actually stand a chance.

That Kubel grand slam was the closest feeling to euphoria that I can remember.

It was like the air was sucked out of the stadium around me as Yankee fans everywhere collapsed into their seats cursing and groaning. It was beautiful. Not only did we end our drought against the Yankees and our drought of bases-loaded hitting, but we paid them back for all the times they slaughtered Joe Nathan and sent us home with heartbreak.

The tides have turned. That was the only way to come out of the Bronx that day with any sort of momentum or sense of success.

Now I can't wait to go back in October...

(leaving you with a ghost of old Yankee Stadium...)

Farewell Dear Friend

It's taken me awhile to process the fact that I won't ever watch the Twins play in the Metrodome again.

I'm not quite as ecstatic about this as I thought I would be. Perhaps it's because all of my fondest baseball memories happened there -- I'm not old enough to have experienced the old Met Stadium. The Metrodome was a dump, but it was our dump. I think I grew to love its quirks and being able to bash it and talk about how weird of a place to baseball it was. (Even writing about it in the past tense feels odd.)

Oh well. I know I'll always remember that amazing win over the Tigers in game 163. I almost wish our season could have just ended after that game so we didn't have to experience the stark reality of facing the Yankees and being supremely overmatched.

This weekend I watched the final game up in Boston in a whole city full of people pulling for us. Too bad it didn't help. I wore my Twins gear to a Bruins/Islanders game Saturday night and got some high fives from Boston fans -- much more congenial than Yankee Stadium was.

I'm done talking about our woeful exit from the post-season. For the next few months I'll focus a little bit on the Vikings and Timberwolves, but I'll do some thorough examination of Twins offseason topics, in addition to continuing my "Twins Bloggers: Get to Know 'Em" series. Check back Friday for the next installment, where Seth Stohs answers my Twins survey.

Speaking of Seth, he and the other group of Twins Bloggers at Twins Centric, have published an amazing book which should help you get your Twins fix throughout the offseason. Some of you may have read their Trade Deadline Primer and hopefully all of you have read Seth's Prospect Handbook he publishes, so you should all know what great writers they are.

They've all contributed very hard to put this book together, and for all the free content they publish for us, I think it's only fitting we help support their work and buy a copy of this book. If you're still not convinced, you can download 1/3 of it for free on the website! Need I say more?!?!?

*Also, interesting article on Nick Punto over at Andrew Kneeland's new website. Definitely check it out, he makes some great points.

"Twins Bloggers: Get to Know 'Em!" presents KC's Baseball Blog

First off: BREAKING NEWS. I'm going to the freakin' Twins/Yankees Game 2 at New Yankee Stadium tonight! Special thanks to my buddy Tim for buying tickets and taking me there. I know you're a Yankee fan, I just hope you know what you're bringing down on your head by inviting a person in a Rick Aguilera Twins jersey and waving a homer hanky to a playoff game in the Bronx... Also, this will be my first live post-season experience. I'm ridiculously psyched -- I'll try to get my hands on a camera but no guarantees...

Even in light of our boys making it to the post-season, I'll be kicking off my first installment of "Twins Bloggers: Get to Know 'Em", the title of which refers to the old Twins campaign, but the posts are a flashback to those "questionnaires" people like to send around (though this one is particularly Twins Centric). A huge thanks to Katie for her responses. She's the sole writer at KC's Baseball Blog which is one of my daily reads, and she's also one of the only two fellow bloggers I've actually met in person! For those avid readers of her site, below you'll get to know her fanhood even more! For those who haven't yet checked out her site, you should do so and let her help post you through our miraculous playoff run and into Target Field from here on!

Without further ado:

Personal-

NAME: Katie

WEBSITE: http://kcbaseballblog.blogspot.com/

BIRTHDAY: March 2nd

HOMETOWN: Delano, MN

WHAT KEEPS YOU EMPLOYED OTHER THAN BLOGGING: I do accounts payable/accounts receivable for a trucking company.

FAVORITE COLOR: Red and Black

FAVORITE FOOD: My Mom's homemade pizza

FAVORITE MOVIE: Pearl Harbor

FAVORITE BOOK: A Walk to Remember

FAVORITE TYPE OF MUSIC: Country

FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH OTHER THAN BASEBALL: Toss up between Hockey and Football

FAVORITE SPORT TO PLAY: Volleyball

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE VIKINGS/TIMBERWOLVES/WILD: Vikings and Wolves I could care less about. I do love the Wild though.

General Baseball-

WHAT MAKES BASEBALL SO GREAT TO YOU: The excitement of the game. Never know what each inning is going to bring.

IF YOU HAD TO FOLLOW ANOTHER TEAM, WHICH AND WHY: I follow the Tampa Bay Rays besides the Twins. They have my first baseball love, which is Jason Bartlett.

BEST EXPERIENCE AT A BALLPARK OTHER THAN THE DOME: I've only been to one other stadium and that was Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. It is a beautiful ballpark and I hope to get back there some day.

OPINION ON INTERLEAGUE PLAY: I don't mind it. It's nice to change things up a little bit every once and a while.

OPINION ON THE UNBALANCED SCHEDULE: I'd like it if we could play different teams more often. It gets kinda old playing the same team 18 times a year.

FAVORITE NON-TWINS PLAYER IN BASEBALL HISTORY: Babe Ruth

MOST HATED NON-TWINS PLAYER IN BASEBALL HISTORY: If you are talking non-current Twins players, AJ Pierzynski. Otherwise Alex Rodriguez.

DID YOU EVER PLAY BASEBALL/SOFTBALL, WHAT POSITION: I played softball for 3 years and I played first base.

Twins Generic-

WHEN DID YOU BECOME A TWINS FAN AND WHY: I have always been a Twins fan because of my grandmother. She would always watch the game when I would spend the night at her place and I became hooked.

BEST EXPERIENCE AT THE DOME: Probably my first game in person last year. I had never been to a game in the Dome and my dad got free tickets from his work so I went and that was that!

EVER BEEN TO TWINS FEST? HOW WAS IT: Not yet, I'm looking forward to going before the 2010 season.

EVER BEEN TO SPRING TRAINING? HOW WAS IT: No, but I'm hoping to make it down there maybe next year.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CIRCLED BY BERT: No :-(

HAVE YOU EVER CAUGHT A FOUL BALL OR HOME RUN AT THE DOME: No, but I've come close!

Twins Player Specific-

FAVORITE TWINS PLAYER IN HISTORY: Kent Hrbek

FAVORITE CURRENT TWINS PLAYER: Michael Cuddyer

ARE THERE (WERE THERE) ANY TWINS PLAYERS YOU DISLIKE: You can see above, but AJ Pierzynski

FAVORITE EXPERIENCE MEETING A PLAYER: I took my 8 year old nephew to meet Michael Cuddyer Mother's day weekend and Cuddy was so down to earth and friendly. He carried on a good 5 minute conversation with my nephew before we were told to move on.

CURRENT PLAYER YOU'D MOST LIKE TO WATCH A GAME WITH: Michael Cuddyer

GO TO A BAR WITH: Joe Mauer

BE STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND WITH: Kevin Slowey

HAVE DINNER WITH: Michael Cuddyer

BE THE FRONT MAN OF YOUR NEW BAND: Joe Mauer since he thinks he can rap

THINK SHOULD BE A MOVIE STAR: Good question ... Jeff Manship

EXPECTATIONS OF TARGET FIELD: I'm excited for outdoor baseball here in Minnesota. I like the excitement that the guys have been bringing to in talking about Target Field next year. I just hope they bring that excitement and show everyone that they can play on real grass too! I think it's going to be an interesting season with the new ball park and everyone getting adjusted to how the ball carries.

EXPECTATIONS FOR THE TEAM NEXT YEAR: Hopefully a repeat of what happened in 2006 and 2008. This team has what it takes to make it to the playoffs, we just need the starting pitchers figured out and get our bats swinging and hopefully the guys can show everyone they know what to do again.

Thanks for stopping by! This series will hopefully continue every week throughout the off-season! Next week, pre-eminent Twins blogger and minor league guru: Seth Stohs is on the hotseat! Go Twins! Look for me and my homer hanky tonight!

Bliss

I don't know how else to describe it. That's easily one of the craziest, most amazing games I've ever watched.

Anyone think it's time to make a new "Metrodome Moments" collection? Leaving this night off would be a crime.

What an evenly matched game, though. Just as last year's pitcher's duel was so symbolic of how no team in the Central really was going to grab the crown, this year perhaps emphasized that even more. 12 innings???? 

My Yankee Fan Boss was cheering for the Twins to force this extra game to tire out either us or Tigers before we have to face the Yankees, and think about how tired we're going to be now! Especially after the champagne party they are certainly enjoying.

Enjoy it boys. This was an amazing game and you've proved all of us doubters wrong. Keep it up?

I'm Baaaaaack

... and so are the Twins! What a crazy week in baseball!

I apologize for my absence on this blog for awhile ... it's been a little hectic learning my new position at work on the fly and trying to catch up on a backlog of paperwork there. But I haven't forgotten about what's going on with our hometeam! This amazing stretch of baseball is one of the few things that's been keeping me sane.

I think that having my hopes and expectations about the postseason shattered back in August has given me a new appreciation for these final weeks. I'm trying to just enjoy this improbable run instead of getting too worked up about it, and I think that's been very helpful for my blood pressure. When we left Detroit having not made up any of the ground that we should have, I wasn't as amazingly crushed as I otherwise would have been thanks to having already dealt with my pessimism a month ago.

That being said, I was a little nonplussed to be seeing Pavano start tonight. I've appreciated what he's done for this team, but after his last outing and the fact that he's already greatly surpassed his innings pitched in a season since 2004 with the Marlins, bringing him back on short rest seemed like one of those "always trust your veteran too much" moves that Gardy so frequently loves.

I eat my words.

While Pavano's performance wasn't particularly dominant, he looked in control almost the whole time he was on the mound. Of course, having a huge cushion of runs to back him up probably doesn't hurt too much.

Thanks, you rock. I'll buy your jersey next.

I promised myself that if Ozzie and the White Sox would sweep the Tigers that I'd cut A.J. and the rest of my most hated enemies a little bit of slack in the future. Well, they came close to a sweep, but without their two wins we wouldn't have another Twins game to watch this year, so, I'll give a hat tip to the White Sox and not bash them too much this offseason (although a win today would have been spectacular; I'm not complaining though...).

This brings Porcello and the Tigers to Minnesota on Tuesday. Thankfully my boss is actually enjoying the Twins bringing this down to the wire ... as a Yankees fan he appreciates that regardless of who wins, our pitching staff won't have that much rest and we won't really be able to line up our starters how we otherwise might. I've been getting gleeful texts from him all weekend. But I love it too, and his appreciation of our streak means we'll have the game on at the office during the day so I'll at least be able to catch pieces of it if not the whole thing (we'll see how busy Tuesday is).

I was watching Saturday's game with Boston Dan, and he gave me some reassurance from an unbiased outsider's perspective. He said that in 2004, even when the Red Sox were 3 games up on the Cardinals, he and all his Boston fans were so nervous going into game 4 that something was going to mess up. But a San Francisco friend of theirs who was with them essentially just told them to relax because they were playing so well as opposed to the Cardinals that they were all but assured their World Series. He said that's how he sees the Twins and the Tigers this year in the Central ... the Tigers implosion just screams too much of wanting to lose, while the Twins are playing the best baseball of their season at exactly the right time.

I'm still not going to relax.

Neither will you, Mr. Leyland. Neither will you.

I would like to take this moment to take back every negative thing I've ever said about Orlando Cabrera, Matt Tolbert, Nick Punto, and especially Delmon Young.

You might be greatly increasing your trade value, but now I kind of want to keep you...

If it weren't for these guys, who I think most of us pick on all the time, we wouldn't be here. Their inspired play is making me ashamed of being so hard on them. At the same time, I think numbers don't lie, but there's something to be said for people performing when everything's on the line, and this handful of my usual whipping boys is doing it above and beyond what I could have imagined. If they can beat Detroit on Tuesday, maybe I'll have to cut them some more slack along with my offer I made to the White Sox.

-----

FYI, I've been pulling together a series of posts to get us through the long offseason. It's going to be called "Twins Bloggers: Get to Know 'Em", in conjunction with the old series of Twins ads before the "This Is Twins Territory" campaign:

By the way, I love Koskie's ZZ Top beard in this commercial...

This series was going to start last Friday and run every Friday of the offseason focusing on a different member of the Twins blogosphere every week. But since the Twins have improbably given people something to care about on the field recently, I'm going to delay these posts until at least this Friday.

Definitely check back for them once they start going up as it will give you a new perspective on some of the best Twins voices on the web. I've had the pleasure of already reading over the answers from my questionnaire from the first 5 bloggers I approached about this and it's been great getting to know their own unique reasons why they love the Twins, baseball in general, and other aspects of their fandom too.

Also, if you run a Twins blog and I haven't e-mailed you my questionnaire yet, I'm going to do so soon, be warned. It's going to be a long offseason so I'm sure I'm going to approach every Twins blogger out there. But a big thanks to Seth, Katie, Jack, Betsy and Josh for being my first experiments into this series.

Check back Friday probably for the first installment. But in the meantime, we're not through enjoying this for a little longer:

Let's go Twins!

*If you haven't been listening to the podcasts from Seth Stohs, you're missing out on a huge heap of Twins related talk from one of the most knowledgeable bloggers out there. It's great to have so much material from him so definitely go back and start listening to some if you haven't already.

Also, an interesting statistical observation from Twinkie Town. Just another reason to love what Delmon's been doing recently.

The Final Countdown

The Minnesota Twins are at least still making it interesting for us:

And so are the Tigers.

Hey, if the Vikings can make an amazing comeback, why can't our baseball team?

I've had a long, long, long week at work, and it's only going to get worse for a couple days (so the posting might get a little light until after the Detroit series), I promise, I'll make up for it with some good ones soon. But I must say, this weekend was perfect for watching Minnesota sports.

You could be of the opinion that the Twins didn't do themselves any favors by not winning on Sunday when the Tigers gave them an opportunity to get within 1 game.

Oh, thanks Chicago. We thought it was fun too!

However, the Twins have been on an extended road trip and they've shaved a game off the Tigers lead. Sunday they faced the guy who by all accounts should win the Cy Young

Yeah, you Zack! Smile!

Despite Kubel's bat becoming nonexistent, they managed to peel of 8 wins in a row until running into Mr. Cy Young. As long as they break out the bats again tomorrow against Porcello, this team still has a very realistic shot. It's coming down to the wire.

This is going to be a very interesting 4 days of baseball. I like the Twins chances, even in Comerica. The Tigers just seem to be imploding and the Twins are picking each other up at exactly the right times. All season long I've never had this much confidence that we'd find a way to eke out a win when watching games.

OK, so again, I'll try to post if I find time in the next few days, but expect me back towards the end of the week at the very least. Check out the Twins blogs on the lefthand bar for your daily dose of Twins news though.

I know, Nick, it's getting exciting! Hold on!

Wave those homer hankies! Let's get some optimism flowing!

Learning Not to Care

I watched about one hour of Twins baseball this weekend -- and that was solely to pick out Katie and Betsy in the crowd on Friday, which I swear I did on a long focal lens where they were fuzzy in the background. Then I had some buddies come over for poker, one of whom was a Rockies fan, so we watched that game, and their come from behind win in the 9th inning was a refreshing reminder of why baseball is fun, something that's easy to forget in Minnesota these days.

It was exciting. This was not.

Saturday, thankfully, the Twins game wasn't even an option. It became college football day for me. And even though my alma mater isn't anything to speak of -- although our fencing team apparently is awesome, who knew? -- I tend to cheer either for team's that my friends have strong allegiences to, or else for the Minnesota Gophers. So I found myself watching Tate Forcier have a huge game against Notre Dame and singing "Hail, hail, to Michigan, the leader of the West..." during the day, and capping that off at night by going to the bar and watching the last quarter of Minnesota's inauguration of TCF Bank Stadium.

Isn't that a pretty sight?

(For the record, outdoor sports in Minnesota is beautiful, isn't it? If the Twins were playing that night at least it would have been a beautiful ballpark experience, even if the results were lackluster...)

Sunday, I had the option to enjoy the first day of the Minnesota Vikings with a bunch of friends at a bar on the Upper West Side, or watch a game of my floundering baseball team. I opted for the former, and as much as Favre made me want to hurl, this was beautiful:

Click the link above for the glorious replay that I kept watching on every TV in the bar -- yes, fans of every team were in attendance and they all roared as AP swatted the Browns player aside like a fly.

I suppose I missed a good game by the Twins that day too. 8-0, great start by Duensing. But gee, the Tigers won too. Is this some sort of conspiracy to match them step for step in mediocrity?

I have a feeling that when it comes down to the Twins vs. Vikings on Sunday, I'm going to have to go with the Vikings. At least they've been fun to watch. Twins games seem like a chore and a test of my loyalty. I'll still tune in on weekdays and regardless of what happens down the stretch I'll watch that last game at the dome against the even more hapless Royals. But 8-0 Sunday means nothing to me unless they can carry that energy into their next game against Cleveland. This is it, boys, make me want to watch again. If the Vikings can trample Cleveland, can't you do it to?

The Magic Number?

No, I'm not talking about the infamous elimination number we start to see this time of year, I'm talking about the magic number the Twins have been taking advantage of:

At least that's what Joe Christensen reports in his blog that La Velle Neal believes:

La Velle called tonight’s comeback in a text message: “The sixth inning has been magic for the Twins.” Sure enough, after two more runs tonight, the Twins have now scored 19 sixth-inning runs in their past eight games.

For some reason I just kind of glanced over that before the game today, and as I watched the Twins try to claw their way back from the 5-3 deficit, I noticed the innings tick by until -- the 6th. And when I saw Brian Bass warming up? Well, let's just say that I used to cry and moan and throw (soft) things at the TV last year when Bassy would take the mound at the Dome. Tuesday night? I knew the comeback was about to start.

Oh, and what was the score they tied it up at?

Oh yeah, 6! Sports are crazy aren't they? But maybe there's something to this. Let's look at those games where we fought back in the 6th inning.

MONDAY, AUG. 17

The Twins lost to the rangers 8-5. The Twins scored 3 runs in the 6th inning. It started out great, with Mauer doubling. Casilla then flew out to left. Kubel walked and Cuddyer flew out to center. Then Tommy Hunter was replaced by Darren O'Day. O'Day came in and immediately walked Crede to fill up the bases. But he didn't stop there! He issued a free pass to Delmon to bring in the 1st run of the 6th inning.  LNP followed up with a 2RBI single that ushered O'Day out of the game, and Neftali Feliz came in to close the door by getting Span to ground out. Ok, so, this is how it happened: the Rangers starting pitcher got into the 6th inning and his 3rd time through the order we start to figure him out and his pitch count gets to him. An ineffective reliever is brought in and BOOM, we have a fighting chance until the Rangers stop fooling around with their big lead and bring in the lock down guys. Seems pretty normal.

TUESDAY, AUG. 18

The Twins beat the Rangers 9-6! This time we score 4 runs in the 6th. The rangers leave Scott Feldman in longer and so his meltdown is even bigger. After a lead-off single misplayed in the outfield to allow Orlando Cabrera to second, things get out of hand. Feldman retires Mauer, but Harris, Cuddyer, and Crede all single and the damage is underway. Gomez is retired, but Feldman walks LNP and then the Rangers realize it's time for the bullpen to solve things and Jason Jennings is brought in to erase the threat.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 19

Twins win 5-4. And we score 4 in the 6th ... again. Oh look, their starter -- Kevin Millwood -- is still pitching! So the Twins figure him out and start to pound him. Cuddyer doubles, Crede dounbles, and just when Millwood thinks he's settled down by retiring Young and Gomez, he implodes. LNP does it again by getting an RBI single followed up by a Span double. Millwood is shown the door and O'Day is brought back. O-Cab knocks in another before O'Day gets out of the inning.

THURSDAY, AUG. 20

Let's forget about this one. Nothing good happened at all, and certainly not in the 6th (when the Rangers scored 5 runs and the Twins put up a goose-egg).

FRIDAY, AUG. 21

Twins @ Kansas City. The Twins won 5-4 after tying it up -- in the 6th!!! It started out simply enough with Delmon grounding out to Hochever, the starting pitcher. Then Gomez singled and used his awesome speed to take 2nd and then 3rd on a throwing error. Casilla doubles, then Span triples, before Hochevar finally gets out of the inning.

SATURDAY, AUG. 22

Twins get another 3 runs, obviously in the 6th, because that's where they seem to do all their scoring.  Starter Kyle Davies runs into struggles his 3rd time through the lineup. The Twins rough him up before he's replaced by Ron Mahay, who eventually gets them out of the inning, and the Twins go on to win 8-7.

SUNDAY, AUG. 23

The Twins didn't do anything in the 6th here, but they did win ridiculously, 10-3. In fact, they exploded for 8 runs in the 7th. Maybe that's because it was starter Brian Bannister's 3rd time through the order? Perhaps?

MONDAY, AUG. 24

Twins pull ahead to take the lead 2-1 against the Orioles in the 6th and end up winning by that score. You'll never believe it: it was start Chris Tillman's 3rd time through the order. I think I'm seeing another trend other than the number:

So, Tuesday the Orioles took their starter out after the 5th, but I think it's safe to say that any time Brian Bass takes the mound, people are going to start scoring in droves. It just happened to be the 6th inning.

I love these weird coincidences and superstitions in sports, but you know what's special about the 6th inning? That's usually when a starter begins to tire. If only 3 people get on base in the first 5 innings, the pitcher will be facing the top of the order for the 3rd time that night at the start of the 6th. And by then, the hitter has probably seen the pitcher's complete arsenal of pitches and probably has his timing down. Couple that with the higher pitch count and chances are you'll see runs, not only in the 6th, but probably the 5th and 7th. The only times you'll see huge numbers put up in early innings is probably when the starter utterly fails, and in later innings when a team has a horrible bullpen.

Don't we have a guy who struggles after his 1st and 2nd time through the order?

Just a thought. But I still like thinking about the whole 6th inning thing, it gives me hope if we're behind going later into the game. And, hey, if we can win Wednesday's game, guess how high our win streak would reach?

In other news ...

Armando Gabino got roughed up in his debut. But don't most people? Swarzak was a rarity in his first major league start. I don't think Gabino will be a frontline starter, but he could very well be effective in the majors if used properly (i.e. not in a desperation start). Check out Thrylos's blog for a more detailed look at Gabino, it's some great material.

And over at Plunking Gomez, Erin provides an awesome look into Joe Nathan,his usage and his effectiveness since we got him for that "other" catcher we used to have.