Metrodome Memories

This was somewhat of a surprise.  He went from executive of the year to unemployed within less then a year and while the Twins could potentially finish below .500 this year, it’s hard to throw too much blame at Ryan.  He’s done what he can and he’s pulled off some of the most lopsided trades over the past ten year.  Ryan’s assistant, Bill Smith takes over as the team’s GM.

I know I haven’t talked much about the current day Twins much these days but they’ve been effectively out of it for some time.  And it’s hard to get excited about a team when everyone talks about Torii Hunter being gone with Johan Santana not far behind.  You hope with the new stadium that we’ll see an opening of the wallet by Pohlad but I’m not holding my breath.

In the meantime, I’ll spend my evenings watching the Twins wind down their season, knowing they’re set up with with guys like Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer along with a few other guys making their way up.  Having Francisco Liriano in the rotation next year would be a welcome sight as well.

And for a great look at Terry Ryan and what he’s done for the Twins, be sure to stop by Aaron Gleeman’s blog.

The Twins face a mammoth uphill battle the rest of the season.  After winning four in a row to kick off the second half, the Twins have now lost five of their last seven and they nine games back of the first place Tigers (ten back in the loss column) and seven games back of the Indians for the Wild Card.  With the trade deadline coming up, the Twins face a critical decision.  Take their shot or play for next year.  And if they lose more then they win the next eight days, the decision may be pretty clear.

Johan Santana has looked particularly mortal and you wonder if he’s running out of gas.  He’s dropped his last two starts and the last time Johan lost two starts in a row in the second half was 2002.  Hopefully nothing wrong, but if there is something there, the Twins have to tread very carefully because Johan is the glue that holds this pitching staff together.

At least Justin Morneau isn’t cooling off because we’ll need his bat as well.  He belted two more homers yesterday to bring his season total up to 28 and he could become the first Twin since Gary Gaetti to rack up back to back 30 homer seasons.  Torii Hunter could do the same thing but that’s assuming he’s still with the Twins in the final two months of the season.

The Twins have the rest of their series with the Jays, then they play the Indians and the Royals as they roll into the trade deadline.  Stay tuned because how that Indians seres goes could drive what the Twins do.

As a fan, you hate the middle road.  If your team is bad, you can sell the farm and pick up some nice shiny prospects.  If you’re good, then you go out and pick up a free agent to be or two to give you that push you need down the stretch.  Then there’s the teams in the middle who aren’t quite out of it but not exactly in it.   When that happens, you’re not sure what to do which is where the Twins are right now.

At eight games back, and behind some solid teams in the Indians and Tigers, the Twins definitely face an uphill battle.  Then again, they have the reigning Cy Young winner (and Johan is gold in the second half) as well as the reigning MVP along with some other nice parts.  So you have a good team but the Twins just play in a tough division.

Justin Morneau is your team MVP right now.  At 24 homers and 74 RBIs, he’s the primary run producer.  Right behind him is Torii Hunter, who could end up being that trade bait if the Twins falter in the next couple of weeks. 

And then Johan is carrying the pitching staff, which isn’t a big surprise.  Boof Bonser is probably the next best pitcher, but the mediocrity is open to debate.  The pen is solid again with Pat Neshak being even better then last year and Joe Nathan doing his job.

First up in the second half for the Twins are the Athletics at home.  Scott Baker takes on Chad Gaudin in the opener and you’ll have two teams in similar situtation duking it out.  Friday’s matchup of Joe Blanton against Santana should be a good one.

The Twins are 34-34 on the season and 5-5 in their last ten. Heck, they’re also 6-6 in their last twelve.  The point is, they’ve been playing like a .500 for most of the season.  While that by itself won’t cut it, it’s kept the Twins in the hunt for the division and the Wild Card and being just 6 1/2 back of the Indians and 5 1/2 back of the Tigers, they’re well within striking distance if they can put together a nice run here heading into the All Star break.

Ty Wigginton appears to be the guy the Twins could scoop up to help their team.  As a third baseman, Wiggington would give the Twins another solid bat but you almost hope they shoot a little higher.  Other then Johan Santana, the pitching has been only okay and that’s not going to cut it.  So we’ll just have to see who’s out there heading into the trade deadline that’s looking to sell.

Justin Morneau has tapered off a little bit in June.  He’s hit just four homers and he’s hitting at a .220 clip.  That’s not what you want to see from your big stick but we’ve seen this before.  We just have to hope the big guy heats up before any type of slide happens.

And of course Johan is Johan.  He only has six wins and when it’s said and done, he’ll be the best pitcher in baseball but they’ll deny him a Cy Young because he won only 15 games or so.  Boof Bonser has established himself as the second best starter and even he has only five wins despite 81 strikeouts in 79 innings and a 4.33 ERA.  So the pitching can definitely get better. 

Speaking of Johan, he throws tonight in game two against the Mets.  The Twins hitters will have to contend with Jorge Sosa, who’s put together a nice season for the Mets this year.

Sidney Ponson was cut today and good riddance.  Apparantly he had a better attitude then in years past but that didn’t equate on the field and 2-5 with a sky hig ERA won’t cut it.  It looks like the candidates to replace him are Matt Garza, Scott Baker or Kevin Slowey and the Twins don’t have to make a move until the weekend.

Network problems have been a pain in my you know what and I’m hoping to catch up on both the 1987 diary and my work over at the 1967 AL Pennant site.  So I apologize for the lack of content the past couple of weeks, I just wasn’t able to post.  Good news though, the Twins are beating the Tigers 8-4 right now.  Hopefully they can hang on and win it.

I know it was against the Devil Rays, but Sidney Ponson had by far his best start of the season as the Twins topped the Devil Rays 9-1.  He gave up just one run on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts in seven innings.  His ERA is now down to exactly two thirds of ten runs (yes, it’s still way up there).  I’ll believe he’s turned the corner when he makes it a trend.

Jason Tyner, Luis Castillo and Joe Mauer all had three hits in the game.  Michael Cuddyer didn’t pick up a hit but he drove in two runs while Luis Castillo scored twice.

Boof Bonser gets the start tonight as he’s still gunning for his first win of the season.  He did have his best start of the season last time around with five shutout innings so hopefully he can build on that.

I’m starting to hate Kansas City.  First we lose a series last weekend and now we need an eleven inning pitchers duel to salvage a split in the most recent two game series.

Yesterday was the Twins fourth straight loss and Sidney Ponson had another rocky start. He gave up four runs on seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts in six innings and he dropped to 1-3.  The Twins tried to come back but the closest they got is 4-3.  Torii Hunter went two for three with a solo homerun and two runs.  Jason Kubel was hitless but he drove in a run.

Today’s game was one of the kind I love, a 1-0 eleven inning pitchers duel.  Mike Redmond singled home Justin Morneau in the bottom of the eleventh to win it.  He and Jason Kubel were the only Twins with two hits.  It was the pitching that reigned in this one though.  Boof Bonser threw five shutout innings and he struck out seven and Juan Rincon picked up the win with a shutout eleventh inning.

The Tigers come to town for three and this is one of those big early series.  With things being so tight (first and fourth seperated by a game and a half), a series win this weekend would go a long way towards keeping pace with the pack.

On Monday, the Tigers and Twins were tied for first.  Now, they’re both tied for third in a crazy, super tight early division race.  And unfortunately, not even Johan Santana was able to get it done as the Indians held the Twins hitters in check.

On Monday, the Twins scored three runs in the seventh to tie the game at 3-3 only to lose it in the twelth.  Alexi Casilla drove in two runs and Torii Hunter hit a solo homerun to account for the three Twins runs in the 7- loss.  Carlos Silva was only okay and he gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts in five innings.  Jesse Crain took the loss and he gave up the four twelth inning homeruns.

Last night, Johan Santana was touched up for four runs and that ended up being enough in a 5-3 loss.  He gave up six hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in seven innings.  Jason Kubel was the hitting star and he went three for four with an RBI.

I’d say a two game set against the Twins is just what they need but we all know what happened last weekend.  This time it’ll be at home though so hopefully the Twins can take care of business.  Sidney Ponson gets the ball in tonight’s game and hopefully he can bounce back from his previous start.

A trip to Kansas City is usually a good thing but I guess when you have the pitchers that the Twins have, any series can be an adventure.  Things started poorly and ended up poorly and it’s probably a good thing the Twins walked away with one win as they didn’t play all that well this weekend.

On Friday, Sidney Ponson was hammered.  He gave up six runs on ten hits and a walk with two strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.  The loss drops Ponson to 1-2 on the season.  Michael Cuddyer hit his second homerun of the season and Nick Punto and Joe Mauer drove in two runs in the 11-7 loss.

Saturday was the win with Mike Redmond leading the way at the plate.  He went three for four with three RBIs in the 7-5 wins.  Alexi Casilla finished with two hits and two runs and while Boof Bonser was roughed up in his five innings, the pen did their job.  Pat Neshek picked up the win and both he and Joe Nathan struck out the side in their single innings.

Then yesterday, the Twins couldn’t get the sticks going.  Michael Cuddyer doubled home Joe Mauer for the only run of the game for the Twins and while Ramon Ortiz was effective in seven innings, he took his first loss of the season in the 3-1 loss.

It doesn’t get easier this week because while the Twins head home, the Indians will be there for two.  Carlos Silva will get the start tonight and then Johan throws tomorrow.  I like our chances in both of these games if the pitching does their job.

I hate these west coast trips so this was pretty encouraging as the Twins rolled into Seattle and won all three games.  The pitching wasn’t as great as I would have liked but you can’t argue with the results.

Tuesday’s game was the funnest with an 11-2 win.  Torii Hunter hit a grand slam and both Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer drove in three a piece.  Ramon Ortiz has to be the surprise of the season and he improved to 3-0 with another solid outing.  He gave up just two runs on eight hits with two strikeouts in seven innings of work.

Yesterday was the first of two one run games.  The Twins scored all of their runs early and they did most of it off of an injured Felix Hernandez.  Justin Morneau drove in two runs and Joe Mauer scored twice in the 5-4 win.  Carlos Silva picked up the win but he gave up three runs in just 6 1/3 innings and Joe Nathan picked up the save before making things interesting and giving up a run.

Tonight, Johan Santana had a solid start but Pat Neshik was shelled for three runs in the ninth to make things interesting.  Johan gave up two runs (just one earned) on four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in seven innings and that pushed him to a nice 3-1 record.  Mike Redmond and Michael Cuddyer drove in two a piece and Justin Morneau scored twice in the 6-5 win.

The Twins continue their road trip but this weekend it gets a little easier as the Royals play the host.  Sidney Ponson will take on Odalis Perez tomorrow night and I see the biggest problems coming Saturday when Zach Greinke throws.  Still, two out of three should be at least what happens.

This hurt, because the Tigers were playing a tough Jays team and while those two teams split, the Twins failed to capitalize on it by splitting with the lowly Devil Rays.  In this series, you saw Johan Santana lose, Joe Nathan blow a save and then Sidney Ponson pick up his first win of the season.  You can’t make this stuff up.

Things got off to a good start on Thursday.  Justin Morneau hit a walk off solo homerun to break a 2-2 tie as the Twins won it 3-2.  Carlos Silva threw 6 2/3 shutout innings and Joe Nathan picked up the win with a shutout ninth.  Michael Cuddyer accounted for the other two Twins runs with a two run homer.

Then on Friday, Scott Kazmir actually outdueled Johan Santana.  Johan gave up four runs on six hits and a walk with ten strikeouts in seven innings.  Justin Morneau hit his fourth homerun and Luis Castillo had two hits in the 4-2 loss.

Saturday was a beat down.  Sidney Ponson benefited from all of the offense and he picked up his first win of the season.  Torii Hunter drove in three runs, Jason Tyner scored three times and Luis Rodriguez went yard with a solo shot.  Ponson gave up two runs on eight hits and three walks with six strikeouts in 5 1/3 and that was good enough for the win.

Then yesterday, Joe Nathan gave up two runs in the top of the ninth to break a 4-4 tie as the Twins dropped the finale 6-4.  Boof Bonser gave up four runs in 5 1/3 and Jason Bartlett went three for three with two RBIs.

The Twins hit the road today and they’ll head to Seattle for a three game series against the Mariners.  Ramon Ortiz will take on Jeff Weaver in the opener. 

It sure is nice to get the Yankees out of town and the way they played, I’m almost happy we just picked up one win considering Johan Santana didn’t get a start.  The first two games were beatdowns but then the Twins got some solid pitching from an unlikely source to pick up the finale.

Sidney Ponson was hammered in the opener.  He gave up eight runs on ten hits in 5 2/3 innings and the offense got just two runs.  Torii Hunter was the hitting star and he went two for three with a run and an RBI in the 8-2 loss.

Tuesday was even worse.   Boof Bonser was hammered for seven runs in 4 1/3 innings and the Twins offense managed just a single run in the 10-1 loss.  Jason Kubel singled home a run and that didn’t even come until the seventh inning.

The Twins got it done in the finale though.  Ramon Ortiz completely shut down the Yankees and held them to a single run on three hits and through eight innings and he’s now 2-0.  Michael Cuddyer had two hits, a run and an RBI in the 5-1 win.

So the Twins sit tied with the Tigers at 5-3 in the Central and Tampa Bay comes to town for a four game series.  Anything less then three wins will be a disappointment this weekend.

Talk about some crazy weather.  The Indians and Mariners have had to use an off day just to get in two games of a four game set that practically got wiped out.  In Chicago, the series opener with the White Sox was cancelled and the Saturday game may as well have been because the bats didn’t show up.  Michael Cuddyer was the only guy who really did anything and he had two hits including a double.  On top of that, a nice start by Carlos Silva went to waste.  He gave up one run on just five hits in five innings of work.

Then, we have Johan Santana.  Man, having this guy is huge because rarely will the Twins have an extended losing streak.  So before the Twins could lose two in a row, he pitches seven shutout innings in which he gave up just one hit en route to a 2-0 record.  The Twins got just one big hit, but it was a three run shot by Justin Monreau that was more then enough for the win in this one.

So the Twins are 4-1 and they’re a game ahead of the Tigers.  Unfortunately, a pissed off Yankees team is rolling into town and at least for this series, we won’t have Santana.  If the Twins can pull out two wins in this one, I’ll be extremely happy.

Alright, I know I had some harsh words for Ramon Ortiz and I take them back.  At least today.  He threw seven solid innings in which he gave up just two runs on five hits.  Matt Guerrier pitched two scoreless frames to close things out and just like that, the Twins are 3-0.

Michael Cuddyer led the way for the Twins at the plate.  He went three for three with two RBIs and a run.  Luis Castillo also drove in two while Nick Punto scored twice in the 7-2 win.  It was a nice all around game with plenty of offense and solid pitching.

The Twins have tomorrow off and then Carlos Silva will go in the series opener against the struggling White Sox.  It sure would be nice to bury Chicago since I see them in the mix when it’s all said and done.  Hopefully the Twins enjoy their day off because their still undefeated.

Boof Bonser gave up two runs in third but the Twins stayed in this one and chipped away at the lead before finally winning it late.  Nick Punto scored when Michael Cuddyer grounded into a double play in the fourth and then Luis Castillo singled home Torii Hunter in the fifth to tie the game up.  Then Jason Bartlett came up big in the seventh and he singled home Jason Tyner for the game winner.

Bonser threw six solid innings but he didn’t get the decision.  He gave up the two runs on three hits and three walks with six strikeouts.  Pat Neshnek pitched a shutout seventh and he picked up the win while Joe Nathan pitched a no-hit ninth to pick up his second save.

Ramon Ortiz (I cringe when I type that) goes for the Twins tomorrow in a chance for a sweep.  Jaret Wright gets the start for the Orioles.

Johan Santana looked mortal out there.  In a normal season, he probably would have lost and the typical slow star for the two time Cy Young winner would have occurred.  Now though, the Twins have some offense and both Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau homered and drove in two runs in the 7-4 win.

Santana struck out six in six innings and he gave up four runs on seven hits and two walks.  Also give some kudos to the pen because four relievers three three shutout innings.

So a good start and the Twins will try to make it two straight tomorrow.  Boof Bonser will get the start against the alway erratic Danny Cabrera.  It’s another night game.

I’m pretty disgusted with the way the Twins rotation turned out.  I can’t say it much better then this and don’t have a lot to add.  I mean, is that a championship rotation?  That’s asking for an awful lot from your offense with guys like Ponson and Ortiz out there.  Sigh.

At Baseball America’s prospect blog, they take a look at sort of a post spring training look at the Twins top prospects.  They talk about Matt Garza’s great spring and subsequent likely trip to Triple A as well as Alexi Casilla, who also looks slated to start the season at Rochester.  And he closes with the decline of J.D. Durbin. 

Rob Neyer questioned how the Twins are going with inferior, yet veteran arms like Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz while forgoing some of their younger, home grown starters like Scott Baker and Matt Garza.  It’s a great read from an expert and you really do have to wonder what the Twins are doing.  They did this last year at a few spots and they made a move early enough to recover so I’m hoping Rod Gardenhire and company will come to their senses and this doesn’t come back to haunt us.

MiLB.com previewed the Twins minor league system today.  In the preview, you get player profiles at each stop in the Twins minor league system and there’s also a look at the 2006 draft.  It closes things up with some players who are under the radar and it predicts good things from Alexi Casilla and Kevin Slowey.  There’s a bunch of stuff here and it’s probably the best read I’ve seen on the Twins minor league system.

Ramon Ortiz took it on the nose today.  He gave up six runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings.  He gave up three homeruns but he also struck out five.  Pat Neshnek was also hit hard.  He gave up three runs on four hits and only got two batters out.  It’s not too ironic that those two outs were strikeouts.  Matt Garza was the only decent hurler today.  He gave up only one run in three innings of work.

On the hitting side, Rondell White and Luis Castillo hit solo homeruns to account for the two Twins runs in the 10-2 loss. 

Joe Mauer looks like he’s going to miss a handful of spring games because of what’s being called a stress reaction in his left leg.  It sounds a lot worse then they describe and they’re hoping after sitting out for four or five games and the getting some treatment, he’ll be all set to go.  Not sure if this is something that can linger throughout the season or what.  If you want some more details, stop by the Hardball Times.  One of their notes on the right hand side of the site (part way down the page) explains what’s going on.

Joe Sheehan at Baseball Prospectus reviewed the Twins yesterday.  He talks about how the Twins have to make the right decisions for their back end rotation spots right now and that their pen also has to get back to it’s old dominating form.  He also talks about something we all know, and that is that the talent at the top of the team is top notch but the rest is just support.  You can also listen to a related podcast between Aaron Gleeman and Will Carroll on the Twins chances.

The Twins took care of the Reds today, with most of the offense being provided by Michael Cuddyer.  The designated hitter hit the only homerun of the game en route to a three for three game.  He drove in three and scored twice.  Luis Castillo also had a nice game at the plate.  He went three for four with a run and an RBI.

Sidney Ponson was unimpressive in four innings of work.  He gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk with one strikeout.  Matt Garza looked better and he threw three shutout innings in which he only gave up one hit.

Boof Bonser gets the start tomorrow for the Twins, who face the Devil Rays in a day game. 

Jayson Stark takes a look at the Twins and discusses how future teams could look very different going forward.  Torii Hunter could be the first to leave after this season but more importantly, Johan Santana could potentially test the market after the 2008 season.

He then goes into another profile of Johan, who’s primed for another Cy Young season.  Solid read, but a lot of it is fluff because it deals with things pretty far out in the future.  Let’s see how we do in 2007 and then think about what holes need to be filled.

Jeff Sackman recently listed the Twins as having the deepest starting rotation, although it’s with somewhat of a caveat.  This was basically an analysis of the guys who probably won’t make the top five and since the Twins will be going with some pretty bad options in their rotation (i.e. Ramon Ortiz), they still have some good arms left over to fill in as neccesary.

While he really needs no introduction, Johan Sanatan was the latest player highlighted in a Jeff Passan column.  He runs through some of Sanatan’s fantastic numbers and also compares him to some of the all time greats.

Will Young previewed the Twins over at the Hardball Times today.  In their standard five questions format, he discusses Rod Gardenhire’s use of the bullpen, Brad Radke’s retirement and how the Twins rely on just a few players to drive the team. 

There’s no doubt that once you get past Johan Santana, the Twins have a ton of question marks in their rotation.  Yeah, they have some good young arms but are they developed enough to help the Twins in 2007.  This NBCsports.com article goes into a lot of detail on what the Twins have and don’t have when it comes to pitching but there’s not a lot of doubt that how the Twins finish in 2007 will depend on a young arm or two stepping up and becoming a full fledged major league pitcher.

The Twins bats didn’t show up today in their spring loss to the Pirates and they now sport an unimpressive 1-6 record this spring.  Torri Hunter singled home Jason Bartlett and Watkins hit a solo homerun.  Boof Bonser looked sharp though.  He threw three shutout innings and he struck out three.  Jesse Crain also looked good with two shutout innings and two strikeouts but J.D. Durbin and Barrett were both shelled.

The Twins season continues tomorrow with two split squad games against the Red Sox and the Cardinals.  The A game is against the Red Sox and we’ll see Johan Sanata and Curt Schilling go head to head.