Rejoice! I say again, rejoice!

Let me just say, yes, that was an awesome game to be at. I think my timing was right for coming back to Minnesota, it's already been a success (and I haven't even eaten the cheese curds at the fair yet).

I would like to give a huge thank you to two of my favorite Twins bloggers and two of the best Twins fans I'll meet, Katie of KC's Baseball Blog, and Betsy of For the Love of the Game, as both of them met me before the game and showed me their slightly-less-than-legal way of viewing Target Field (which amounts to scaling a wall in a parking garage and then being blown away by the beautiful future of outdoor baseball in Minnesota). My lack of a camera prevents me from posting this view, but I think Betsy might have us covered so check out her site! And for the record, it's probably a good thing we didn't jinx anything with "Sweep the Sox". Also, Katie apparently wears lucky jerseys, as Cuddyer had quite a night and she was representing him -- I vote we all pitch in to buy her a jersey for every player which she can then wear at the appropriate time.

I'd also like to give another huge thank you to Jay for taking me to the game with his friend's season tickets and putting up with me rambling on about SABR even though I'm sure he just wanted to punch me -- and no, Jay, I still think Punto and Cabrera are dreadful and I'd rather them be replaced.

Thanks also need to go out to Jose Morales, we all know why. 

As much as I love Redmond, I really think Morales needs to be our back-up to Mauer. If Redmond retires anytime soon, I'm sure there will be a position in Twins management open to him and I know everyone would love to have him within the organization.

Lastly, Tim Laudner, if you're reading this, you're great. 1987 World Series team: awesome, and Don Baylor was totally safe, you knocked him in during Game 7, umps know nothing.

I'm going to enjoy the game from the first row tomorrow, and I'll use my proximity to third base to get into Gordon Beckham's head. For now, check out some more White Sox whining from this last game, and I'll leave you with an Ozzie Guillen inspirational poster I found while scrolling around online:

Game 131: Where the Twins Do Everything Right

Maybe it's just a mostly forgettable season, but I can't think of the last game when this team has played such solid baseball.

Nick Blackburn's starting pitching? Fantastic. Reminiscent of his beautiful start in Game 163 last year.

Relief pitching? Not even Joe Nathan gave me anything to sweat about! Maybe he listened to us bloggers?

Our defense? Beautiful. I can only imagine being a White Sox fan and worrying about every single ground ball being a hit with how dreadful their defense has been all year. We're blessed.

Our line-up? Well, how can you complain when you've got Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel teeing off like it's BP?

OK, so I can't write a real post since I have to go to bed in time to wake up for an early early flight to Minnesota to watch Jeff Manship make his major league debut (instead of Rich Harden; I guess you win, Betsy and Katie). 

But please, if you're looking for extremely fun reading ... take today to expand your horizons beyond the Twins blogosphere. Indulge yourself in a guilty pleasure that I like to partake. The comment section of the in-game thread from the South Side Sox website during last night's game. It's a good way to witness other fans go to through the dismay, pain, and fear that we've seen in our tenure as Twins fans. 

He may be the President, but when's he gonna pick a better team?

I'll have more tomorrow after I go to the game!

Bring on the Dirty Laundry!

*Due to the increased importance of this series with the Chicago White Sox, my desire to say goodbye to the Metrodome during a meaningful series, and the lovely convergence of the Minnesota State Fair, I will be returning to Minnesota for Tuesday and Wednesday's games against the White Sox! Let me know if you're going to the game and make sure to say hi! I'm going to bring my lucky Rick Aguilera jersey and sit right down by the field close enough to trash talk Gordon Beckham and try to get inside his head. Let's go Twins!

Leaving for Atlantic City and returning to NYC in the middle of a game in time to watch the Twins have one of their signature Dome rallies in the 8th inning was the perfect way to spend a weekend! We played at the Taj Mahal and The Tropicana this weekend and had a great time. My poker buddies and I didn't win as much as we should have due to some bad beats, but we didn't lose money, which is the key. Similar to the Twins' season thus far, no? They haven't really made the big runs they should have been capable of with the talent of guys like Mauer and Morneau, but here we are going into September and postseason is in the air alongside Minnesota State Fair cheese curds!

Going into this season, I was eyeing this upcoming White Sox series at the Dome, its convergence with the State Fair, and already planning coming back for my last hurrah at our stadium, and I simply prayed that at the very least these games would be meaningful. With the Twins and Sox separated in the standings by only 1 1/2 games and the Twins only 4 1/2 back from the Tigers (who are about to play the suddenly decent Cleveland Indians), we are in great shape. And we could be in even better shape soon!

If the Twins are serious about acquiring Harden, I'm all for it. Penny would be a decent boost to our struggling rotation, but Harden could be the golden ticket. Before being traded from his career in Oakland over to the Cubs last year, Harden has been plagued by an injury history that would make even Michael Cuddyer groan. He holds a career 3.36 ERA and 1.22 WHIP and average just over a strikeout per inning. Plus he's on my fantasy roster already and it would give me one more reason to cheer for him.

If the Twins can sign him to an extension (preferably incentive-laden), that also just might give Mauer the whiff of looming success that he's been hoping for before re-upping.

I must also say that I'm very happy after watching Jon Rauch pitch, and from what I hear, Mahay didn't do awfully himself. At the least, they have adequately replaced Humber and Gabino -- now we just need to see a fresh face in place of Keppel. And speaking of Keppel, I'm not quite ready to give ultimate confidence to Rauch and Mahay just yet, because hopefully we all remember how dominant Keppel looked in his first few starts until his career stats began to catch up with him. But I'm willing to applaud Rauch and Mahay for their performances, and I'll definitely be rooting for them to keep up that level of success and make the Twins look brilliant in their waiver wire maneuvering.

SEPTEMBER CALL-UPS

Things have already been written about the September Call-ups, and I don't mean to add anything that hasn't already been said. But I will say that it looks as if by all means the Twins front office hasn't given up on this season, and judging by Gardy's words and the Twins' place in the standing we're going to have to wait to see some of our long-anticipated prospects hoist a bat or toe the rubber in the majors.

Obviously Morales was going to come up, I don't think anyone didn't see that coming. But the real question was whether the front office would keep the party line and bring back Buscher, Tolbert, Swarzak and Dickey, or whether we'd see some of our better prospects (who might not be as refined yet), like Valencia, Tolleson, Plouffe, Hughes, Huber, Slama, and Delaney. At least Gardy stated that he wanted to see Valencia up but he's being told that "it's not the time". I just wonder who exactly is telling him that! Gardy is the manager!

I still wouldn't be surprised if someone like David Winfree or Brock Peterson makes a surprise cameo in September, as soon its going to be time to cut bait on them and we might as well add some extra bats to our bench for the stretch run and get a look at them up here. Although the real question is who would we remove to add them to our 40-man now that we know Tolbert and Buscher are coming up. Perhaps Dickey? The real surprising thing is that Tolleson and Hughes haven't been announced as coming up as they're already on the 40-man roster and could provide some valuable bench bats -- and Tolleson has versatility in the infield and outfield just as Tolbert does.

In another somewhat overlooked move, Yohan Pino was traded to the Indians to complete the Carl Pavano acquisition. This could actually come back to haunt us as he's been on fire lately, and despite falling out of the picture the last few years he once was a very promising prospect. Chances are he would have been taken in the Rule 5 draft this year anyway, as there are many prospects to add to our 40-man roster this offseason and not enough spots for all those deserving. I wish him luck, but it's going to be tough to like Pino if he comes back and makes us look foolish!

Ok, hopefully I have some good news tomorrow to write in regards to Harden (or Penny if Harden doesn't work out). But in the meantime, check some of the great blogs on the left for some more Twins news!

Quick Update: Bullpen NOOOOOO

Alright, I'm about to head off to Atlantic City, so I won't be around to hear the fallout from this, but, meet your two new bullpen members:

Ron Mahay, LHP 4.79 ERA, 1.79 WHIP ('09)

The Twins acquired Ron Mahay from the Royals for, well, basically nothing. Which is about what Mahay's worth. The one upside is that he's another lefty who at least knows how to throw a something towards a plate, but his chance of having a real impact is almost next to nothing. It's basically change for the sake of change. He's had a couple better years previously, but to bank on Mahay suddenly finding his own groove with only a month to go is a long shot. At least we didn't give up too much but he's not an answer.

Jon Rauch RHP, 4.14 ERA, 1.36 WHIP ('09)

So these aren't bad numbers per se, and he'll probably be an upgrade over Keppel, Humber, Manship, etc. But he's no 8th inning guy. His numbers are also a little high for his career this year, so maybe he's just had some bad luck. At least we probably won't cringe every time he takes the mound, I just wonder who the "player to be named later" is. It looks as if we'll be seeing Rauch next year as I seem to remember reading somewhere that he's signed for another year. Unfortunately I think by that time he'll kind of be dead weight in a stellar bullpen, but for now he shouldn't be too bad. Let's just hope they haven't given up on Penny.

OK, I'm off for the weekend for real this time. Make sure to check out my Target Field post earlier, and there's some good stuff about Jon Rauch on The Tenth Inning Stretch, and Seth Stohs also talks about both acquisitions, so I'd check out their sites, both are definitely worth a read.

Also, if seeing Betsy's pictures of Target Field the other day on her site made you want more, Nick Nelson's got a post up as well. Have a great weekend and "Go Twins!"

"Weather" or Not We're Built For Success

Yes, I know, bad puns will get me nowhere. But late at night after a long day at work and it's the best I could come up with.

Some of you might recall my previous posts looking ahead to what we'll see next year from other AL Central teams. My original intent had been to build up and then start looking at what we'll see on the Twins roster next year -- although the recent win streak somewhat derailed me from the whole "next year" kick, temporarily at least.

But I got to thinking -- we don't even really know what to expect from our stadium, much less our team. We've been so conditioned to people's stats inside a dome that sees balls get lost in the ceiling or take evil hops off a seam in the carpet in half of our games. Should I maybe only evaluate our team based off of our road splits?

Let me confess, one of my guilty pleasures is reading in-game threads and posts from White Sox blogs the day after we beat them. It's kind of fun. Do you know the one thing they keep harping on? That glorious day when we leave the Metrodome and give up our Domefield advantage... yeah, they can't wait until they face us next year.

Really? I thought we were the only ones who get to look forward to our new stadium! This is just a little disconcerting to me. What's it going to be like changing from that scrappy indoor team that always beats people with things like the "Butcher Boy"? Or air conditioning?**

**unsubstantiated

There are certain factors we need to take into consideration to really imagine next year: Ballpark dimensions, elevation, weather, and the composition of our team are probably the key ingredients to think about.

BALLPARK DIMENSIONS

Left Field: 339ft.

Center Field: 404ft.

Right Field: 328ft.

These dimensions are smaller than the Metrodome all-around. They've scraped 4ft. off of the left field wall, 4ft. off the center field wall, and just a foot off the already shortened porch in right. This will be a somewhat cozier ballpark than we're used to -- and we've already had to adjust to the lack of plexiglass in our lifetime!

Now, it's no Yankee Stadium, which takes the liberty of being a whopping 21ft. shallower in left, as well as 14ft. shallower in right (though they're both just as deep in center field -- I really hated geometry), but based on these dimensions we should still probably see a few more balls leave the park than at the Dome. We've seen how many of Mauer's homeruns are to left and center, and giving him an extra 4 feet there who knows what his power numbers are going to be like?

I went through the dimensions at Clem's Baseball of other parks, and while none really exactly match the new Target Field dimensions, the two that seem to come closest are Turner Field of the Atlanta Braves, and -- U.S. Cellular Field of the Devil's Children. (Ugh, it'll almost be like they're playing at home on the road!)

Now, both of those fields have a left field porch of 335ft., center field of 400ft, and right of 330ft. That's about four feet shorter than ours will be in in left and center and just a couple feet deeper than ours in right. That's about as close as it comes all around. Now, both U.S. Cellular and Turner Field are considered somewhat "pitcher friendly", and while that doesn't necessarily equate only to the dimensions, those play a large factor.

ELEVATION

Mountains symbolize elevation, in my mind. And, one of the most "hitter friendly" parks is widely considered to be Coors Field, home of the Rockies, which we all know is high up on a giant mountain peak where it's really hard to breathe because the air is so thin. (Citation needed.)

The principle behind why elevation has anything to do with baseball is that the ball tends to travel further in lower pressure, and it doesn't carry as well in particularly high-pressure air -- and we all know that air pressure is associated with elevation.

Two extremes: Philadelphia's Citizen's Bank Park is located 9 feet above sea level. Coors Field, on the other hand, is located 5,183 ft. above sea level. That's why the ball carries just a little bit further in Coors Field.

Let's look at Turner Field and U.S. Cellular though. Turner Field is on the relatively high end of the spectrum, sitting at 1,050 ft. above sea level. That's really behind only Colorado and Arizona for lowest air pressure. The Cell is about middle of the pack, at 596 ft. above sea level.

While I don't know Target Field's exact elevation, it's safe to assume it will be similar to the Metrodome's, which is 812 ft. above sea level and right behind Turner Field as the 4th highest elevation. We've had the luxury of defined air pressure which has sustained our inflated roof, so we haven't really noticed the effect of elevation on the flight of the ball in Minnesota yet.

My guess though, is that it won't make too much of a difference. Sure, the ball might carry slightly further in Minnesota than at Citizen's Bank Park, but the only place that elevation is really noticeable in its effect on a game is in Colorado, which still has around 4,000 ft. of a gap on its closest competition. Still, the ball could carry slightly further at Target Field than some other stadiums, it's just something to keep in mind.

WEATHER

That's what July baseball is going to look like next year. OK, so, that's an exaggeration. But that is a picture from opening day at The Met in 1965. And you may recall that The Met was in the same city as the outdoor stadium we're building now.

I would love nothing more than to fly out from New York to be there for the opening of Target Field, but, truth be told I'm worried as hell that it would be snowed out.

Here's the thing though: the average high and low in Minneapolis in April is 56/36, and in Chicago it's 58/38. In May that jumps to 68/47 in Minneapolis and 70/47 in Chicago. It averages through the 80's and 60's during June, July, and August, and then in September it drops back down to 70/50 in Minnesota and 74/54 in Chicago. October, if we get that far, is 58/38 in Minnesota, and 62/42 in Chicago. Not that different from April. (I don't want to even compare these numbers to the average temperatures in Atlanta. That's not even relevant.)

So it will certainly get chilly, and the White Sox are used to that, but the Twins will just have to start wearing long underwear all the time. Its playable. Cold air is dense, which means that in April, May, September, and October, the ball won't be carrying as far as it will in June, July, and August. The temperatures will swing dramatically between our coldest point and our warmest point, so I wouldn't be surprised if our power numbers don't start flashing until a couple months in.

What about the snow though? That picture of the Met on Opening Day in '65 is scary. In truth, the average snow fall in Minneapolis in April is 2.8 inches, and in Chicago, where they've been playing outdoor baseball for awhile, it's still 1.7 inches. It's miniscule in May, and it doesn't really register again until October when the average snowfall in Minnesota is .5 inches and in Chicago it's .4 inches. Further, the average date of the 1st inch of snow in Minnesota doesn't usually hit until November 18, and the average date of the last inch of snow is April 2nd (which isn't too bad).

-----

So, that just leaves us with what our team will look like next year playing in that environment. The real question is, with a smaller park does that mean we want ground ball pitchers? With almost two months of the weather hindering our homerun chances, should we seek high-contact hitters primarily to supplement the power threats of Morneau and Kubel?

I'll get to some of this stuff in a later post. For now, I need to rest off before I take off to Atlantic City for a weekend of Texas Hold 'Em. Wish me luck! If I win enough, I'll give it all to Joe Mauer and maybe we'll be able to keep him around a while longer?

Well, that's that

I wonder if this is what Dave Trembley's afterparty was like Wednesday night after the game?

Do you think Gardy laughs like that after a win? For some reason, Gardy reminds me more of Santa.

At least it was kind of nice to have David Ortiz help us out with a walk-off win even when he's not on the team. I don't really feel like writing much about this game, and I'm trying to work on a Target Field write-up before I head off to Atlantic City for a poker weekend.

So check back tomorrow and I should hopefully have a decent post up, but for now, check out some of the pictures of Target Field over at For the Love of the Game. They make me excited for next year -- and this season isn't even over yet (maybe)...

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.