caulfield12

They BETTER have Thornton ready for JD Drew if it comes to that...

I'm really really starting to hate Jenks a lot more than I ever disliked Kotsay...just because he's soaking up $7.5 million in salary. Why was Rios playing so deep against Lowrie?

Farmer and Jackson seem absolutely disgusted with the White Sox mental mistakes today on the basepaths. I've never heard their tone so critical.

Teahen's offense won't kill us at 3B, but his defense might. Same with Viciedo. If you look at all the reasons why our team "suddenly" started playing up to its potential, you'd have to list Omar and Alexei's defense, pitching from Gavin/Danks/Buehrle and the bullpen (until recently) as three of the main components of that success. Maybe it's not fair to pick on Teahen, his stats since he came back are very good, actually...despite the lack of power. The question is he can he actually play 3B for a full season and put up an 800-850 OPS? History shows it's unlikely. Now Joe Crede wasn't doing that either, but you combine a 750 OPS and Gold Glove level defense along with a reputation for clutch hitting, that's definitely workable.

Well, the Broncos, Bills and Cleveland Browns had that reputation for a long long time, as well as the KC Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings. I don't see the Twins getting past TB without the homefield advantage, Morneau and now Kubel's looking shaky. But there's a better chance they beat Tampa than the Yankees in the first round, and they do seem to match up more evenly with the Rays.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 3, 2010 -> 09:47 PM) What I want to know about Borbon's single to right that Repko threw out the runner on was why wasn't Repko playing deep in "no doubles position"? Every other team in baseball would have their outfielders playing no doubles there. I think it's simply because Borbon is such a weak hitter, like Pierre. 95% of the time, Young and Kubel/Cuddyer would play almost on the warning track...although Span can play shallow from time to time. Ask Twins' fans how many hits have fallen in short LF and RF this year or between outfielders. If they had a halfway competent baserunner who'd actually warmed up and wasn't 40 years old, the game might still be going on. And at least Capps isn't available tomorrow, so they'll have to go to another pitcher at the end unless they get a CG.

Do you really prefer the Yankees beating the Twins? I don't. Baseball was a lot more interesting from 2001-2008 IMO when there was more competitive balance and parity. Of course, replacing the Yankees with the Red Sox isn't such a great trade-off, but it's still nice to see other franchises get to the playoffs and actually win the World Series. It's kind of like the Big 10 during Bowl Season. I almost always cheer for the other B10 teams, although sometimes it's not easy to cheer for Michigan and especially Ohio State.

Murphy with the clutch 2 out hit...Alex Burnett in, Fox getting a nice round of applause/appreciation from the fans. He pitched well. And yet he probably will never start another game in the big leagues for the Twins.

Yeah, I already added Harrell's name, but Torres and Hudson didn't pitch so well for us. And he was on a teeter-totter that entire game long where he was one clutch hit away from being knocked out of the ballgame. Go back and names like Felix Diaz, Josh Stewart, Matt Ginter, Mike Porzio and Arnie Munoz conjure up nightmares...although Diaz did have one very good start against the Cubs that I can recollect.

Span already robbed a homer off Murphy's bat. If the White Sox brought up a journeyman AAA pitcher with a fastball topping out at 90 MPH, what are the odds the Rangers would only have scored 1 run off him? Then again, Harrell wasn't expected to do anything and he at least held his own in his spot start. Oh, well. Holland has pitched pretty well for the Rangers too, he's had his way with Mauer so far. Is that Keith Moreland's son playing 1B? I know I'm getting older when there are so many kids of former players in the majors these days. 77 pitches through 5 IP for Fox, I give up. It's now proven that any Twins' minor leaguer can be recalled with zero notice and play competently in the majors.

Matt "The Fabulous Mr." Fox will be starting tonight, but Burnett was recalled...Morneau to 60 day DL, but he still would be able to come back Former 2nd round pick who's had major reconstructive surgery. Righthander Alex Burnett, 0-2, 5.49 at Rochester: He spent a lot of time with the Twins earlier in the season, going 1-2, 4.39. Has a lot of talent and the Twins feel he can develop into a bullpen force. But he hit the wall at midseason - hard. And he's struggled with Rochester. He pitched two scoreless innings on Sunday. Righthander Rob Delaney,7-9,4.73 at Rochester: He's on the 40-man roster, so it makes sense. His velocity jumped toward the mid 90's around midseason. Gave up a run on two hits and a walk in a third of an inning on Wednesday. He was non-drafted free agent in 2006. Righthander Matt Fox, 6-9,3.95 at Rochester: The surprise pick. Fox has started and relieved for the Red Wings, and is 2-2, 3.07 over his last 10 outings. A great story. He was the 35th overall pick of the 2004 draft but shoulder surgery cost him all of 2005 and his fastball has never been the same. IIRC, it took a couple years for him to get his fastball out of the mid-80's (maybe not that long). He's had to learn how to pitch. Fox is expected to start tonight against Texas. startribune.com/sports (LaVell Neale)

http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/USMA0046# The rain will start hitting Boston in the next 30 minutes to an hour, it's already on the radar screen. However, the possibility of a doubleheader on Saturday is looking more and more possible...instead of just one game late Saturday night.

Cortisone shot already administered. Will probably miss at least one start...Slowey likely to be recalled as early as next Monday and join the rotation.

Or you could pull the Loria/Dolan/Pirates' trick and run the franchise into the ground, pilfer all the (revenue sharing) profits out of the team, pocket a HUGE capital gain by selling the team and then retire to the island of Milena. Or just buy Milena. Actually, I wouldn't retire. I would buy a minor league franchise (probably in the Midwest League), those are much more fun to operate. And that way you'd still be close enough to make it to quite a few Sox games in person. FYI, did anyone see where Frank McCourt didn't know where he "misplaced" the $2.5 million he got when the Dodgers' sale went through, and also professed unwareness of "dodgers.com"? Incredible. Arte Moreno must be laughing up a storm (just not at this season's results).

In all fairness, Crain has probably been their best pitcher down in the pen the last 3-4 months. He's nothing like the Crain who pitched for them in 08-09, that's for sure. Guerrier is really the weak link down there and the one who was torched, if anyone...along with Alexi Casilla and their infield defense.

http://www.weather.com The Twins have to start, in all likelihood, AAA journeyman Alex Burnett on Friday night against the Rangers. Perkins isn't eligible to be brought back up yet and the other main candidate just pitched in Rochester. FRI Alex Burnett/TBA versus D. Holland (2-2) SAT Pavano (not moving up one game to start on 3 day's rest) versus Colby Lewis SUN Blackburn (pitched one inning Thursday and took the loss) versus CJ Wilson MON Liriano versus O' Sullivan TUE Duensing (pitched two innings Thursday) versus Bullington WED Slowey (he's eligible to come off DL as early as Monday) versus Greinke Baker already has taken a cortisone show in the elbow and it looks like he'll miss at least one start, with Slowey likely rejoining the rotation. I bolded the games I thought the Twins would lose, so 3-3 for them. I'm going to be optimistic that we can take 2/3 from Boston (if we actually get all three games in) and 3/4 from Detroit. We all know how difficult DH's are to sweep for either team. If we went 5-2, we could get the lead down to 2 games, but more likely it will be 3 if the Sox can go 4-3 (keeping in mind last year when we were faced with a similar trip, we went 2-8 and were summarily knocked out of the race, so we've already done better than that by sweeping CLE). Remember, the Twins were 64-65 at this same time last year and still finished 11 games over .500. In fact, their low point in September was 7 games back and at one point they sported a 70-72 record (5 1/2 GB at that point). As long as we stay within 5 games and take 2/3 from Minnesota at home, we can still win this thing. Granted, a sweep would be great, but I'm just counting on two for now. Since Minnesota fans are already aligning their playoff rotation (Liriano, Pavano, Duensing) while it looks like Kubel might be out for awhile too, this is our chance to run down the Twins again when they're overconfident and already looking forward instead of in their rearview mirror. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/bl...L7PQLanchO7DiUr That huge bullpen mistake by Gardenhire might prove to be the undoing of their season. At the least, it forces them to start someone they never imagined would take the bump for them in 2010 and makes them look like idiots for not bringing up more relief pitchers when the rosters expanded. Crain must be sore after pitching 3 in a row and 40 pitches last night (probably won't pitch until Saturday but most likely Sunday), Capps was sore and held out last night, Fuentes has a sore back, Guerrier got rocked, it's looking doable. Plus we get Thornton back to go with Sale, so we now have two relievers.

http://www.weather.com/ More like Return of the Hurricane... Looks like we won't be playing unless it's Friday morning or late Saturday night.

As Robert E. Lee and Dr. Robert Oppenheimer said, "Even piranha packs can be swallowed whole by a motivated Manny Ramirez playing for a new contract."

I thought Greg would pick Ozzie Guillen. Actually, when I was in grad school, it would have been Kenny Williams. Since then, I would prefer Director of Community Relations (Christine O'Reilly) since you can really see all the good that professional athletes can do "behind the scenes" to help, everything from "Make A Wish" type hospital visits to kids with terminal illnesses to more substantive projects like the Pepsi Community/Block grant one that all the MLB teams applied to win the funds for. You really see the best and worst of professional athletes in this area...fortunately, even in this day and time, MOST are very gracious and generous with their time. I know this is one area that JR really is proud of, compared to other franchises. Being Brooks Boyer would also be a HUGE challenge and interesting, although that job would probably have a lot less job security than Director of Comm. Relations.

Machete is definitely better than Expendables...although not recommended as a date movie or for the faint of heart. I'm not sure I'd greenlight a sequel though, Danny Trejo's acting is about as one dimensional as Zac Efron's or Freddie Prinze, Jr., and that's not saying much. Maybe it's the "hot chic" factor, lol. Michelle Rodriguez has really gotten into good shape, and Jessica Alba's always cute, although I found her character to be hopelessly naive and impossible to believe. Between Seagal in Machete and the cast of Expendables, I think all the bases have been covered this month except for Jean Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris.

It's over. Let's hope this is the turning point and the Rangers can take advantage of pitching issues and take 2/3.

bad back for Fuentes, like Thome.... interestingly, Thome has 6 homers in 65 AB's this season (now 66) against lefties, including the one off Matty And Minnesota's park is like PetCo and Seattle as far as homers...unbelieveable game. 36 pitches now for Valverde.

Use Valverde for 3 innings and lose him for the weekend or try Daniel Schlereth for his first major league save?

Gerald Laird? REALLY?

DAMN Piranhas again....Tolbert follows in the tradition along with Punto.