|
|
|
Friday, June 18, 2004
Loving Rivas (and shutting up about it)I have decided that, as long as Luis Rivas is hitting like he is right now, I won't say a negative word about him. I don't expect this to last very long, but I certainly wouldn't mind if he continued like this for, say, the next 10 years or so.He's hitting .538/.538/.846 since coming off the disabled list and is up to a semi-respectable .279/.305/.434 on the year (the average MLB second baseman is hitting .271/.332/.402). Basically, if he hits, I shut up, because I have nothing against the man aside from his established levels of ineptitude from 2000 until about two weeks ago. While we wait for Rivas to cool off, please head over to The Hardball Times to read my column for today. It deals with a wide range of topics, including ... - Richard Hidalgo - Belly buttons - Bobby Crosby - Joe Mauer - Brad Pitt - Richard Pryor - SABR - The new King of ESPN.com - The old King of ESPN.com - Superman - Johan Santana - Golf, sort of And I might be missing a few things. As you can tell, I had a lot on my mind. Go check it out ... The Hardball Times: News, Notes and Quotes (June 18, 2004) See ya Monday ... Today's picks: New York (Vazquez) -160 over Los Angeles (Weaver) Tampa Bay (Halama) +210 over Arizona (Johnson) Total to date: -$2,620 W/L record: 104-140 (3-2 yesterday for +125.) *****Comments? Questions? Email me!*****     
Thursday, June 17, 2004
It'll look like a hit in the boxscore (and a win in the standings)As if the Expos didn't have enough things going against them, they dropped a game to the Twins last night that they definitely deserved to win.In front of about three dozen loyal fans in Montreal, the Expos took a 4-2 lead into the top of the 9th inning. Their new closer, Chad Cordero, had already come in to record the last out of the 8th inning, so he was back on the mound for the 9th. What happened next was very strange. For the first eight innings of the game, the homeplate umpire, Phil Cuzzi, seemed entirely reasonable to me. The six Montreal pitchers who preceded Cordero didn't walk a single batter, and Minnesota pitchers handed out just three walks. Then, all of a sudden, with one out in the 9th, Cuzzi's strike zone vanished. Cordero threw pitch after pitch -- over the outside corner, over the inside corner, up in the zone, down in the zone -- and Cuzzi just wouldn't call strikes. After falling behind Jacque Jones 3-0, Cordero got an "automatic" strike over, got Jones to swing and miss at a pitch, and then gave up a solo homer. Suddenly it was 4-3 Montreal. The next five batters Cordero faced went like this ... Walk Double Walk Ground Out Walk He eventually got out of the inning, but not before it was 4-4, and not before he had thrown 36 pitches. 36 pitches. And only 15 of them were strikes, of which Phil Cuzzi was responsible for calling just eight. While all of this was going on, the Montreal dugout, and specifically Frank Robinson, was going crazy. Cuzzi stopped at one point, took off his mask, and yelled back at them. If the Expos thought Cordero being squeezed was bad, they were in for a real shocker a little later on. After the Expos failed to score in the bottom of the 9th, the game went into extra innings. Neither team scored in the 10th and then Luis Rivas, who had pinch-run for Joe Mauer in the 9th (after Mauer walked, of course), led off the 11th with a line drive deep down the left field line. The ball was scorched and it traveled right down the foul line. I couldn't tell, at first glance, whether it had stayed fair or hooked foul at the last moment. Neither could Rivas, because he sprinted to first, sort of stopped, started to run again, and then looked around. He eventually crossed home plate with the go-ahead run, while Frank Robinson came charging out of the dugout. Montreal's leftfielder, Brad Wilkerson, came sprinting to the infield to voice his opinion, and the pitcher, Jeremy Fikac, also had some words for the umpires. Meanwhile, it looked to me like none of the umps were quite sure what happened. None of them made anything even remotely like a forceful gesture. They just sort of ambled around, huddled up, talked to Robinson, and walked around some more. In the end, the homer counted. Upon further review, the ball was foul. Not by much, but it was definitely foul. Rivas had simply hit a long foul ball, but somehow the Twins had a 5-4 lead. Frank Robinson was understandably upset. First his closer had been pinched in the top of 9th and his team blew a two-run lead, and now the umpires had just ruled that a foul ball was a homer, not because any of them emphatically thought it was one, but more like they sort of thought it probably was and no one had a strong opinion otherwise. Robinson talked and the umps listened. Then he yelled and the umps listened. Then he made his way back to the dugout, but stayed there for about 20 seconds, before storming back onto the field. The first guy he got to was the first base ump, who presumably had the least to do with ruling on a homer down the left field line. 
Frank then yelled some more but couldn't get thrown out of the ballgame, no matter what he did. At least as far as I could see. He then decided he'd had enough. He was no longer interested in simply yelling in the faces of these umps. He began walking back to his dugout and stopped on the way to wrap his hands around his neck. Several times. One time he even jerked his head back repeatedly. Frank Robinson was choking himself. I really wish I had a picture to show you, but I couldn't find one online. If you'd like to re-enact it to see what it looked like, simply place both hands tightly around your neck and then nod your head repeatedly, up and down. Throw in a few choice words and you've basically got the Frank Robinson-choking-himself look down. I'm not sure if Frank was choking himself to show that the umps were basically "killing" the Expos or if he was saying that the umps "choked" by making the wrong call in an important situation. Whatever he was saying, it was funny and it was entirely warranted. I never did see Frank Robinson get the old "heave ho" last night, but after he was done choking himself he did leave the scene, fleeing to the Montreal clubhouse for what was almost certainly an altercation with a folding chair or a cooler full of Gatorade. The Expos should have won last night, their 21st victory of the season. Chad Cordero should have gotten the save, his 2nd of the season. The game should have ended in nine innings. Luis Rivas should never have come to the plate and should never have hit a foul ball, let alone a home run. But guess what? I'll take it. AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRALToday's picks: Texas (Drese) -100 over Cincinnati (Van Poppel) Seattle (Franklin) +110 over Milwaukee (Capuano) Boston (Lowe) -150 over Colorado (Cook) Chicago (Loaiza) +115 over Florida (Beckett) San Francisco (Hermanson) +115 over Toronto (Halladay) Total to date: -$2,745 W/L record: 101-138 (2-2 yesterday for +90, with one rainout.) *****Comments? Questions? Email me!*****
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Reader Mail (Shame On You Edition)My e-mails have been piling up lately, ever since I got my new laptop (thanks again to everyone who contributed to the fund!). So, to help clear out the ol' mailbox, here are a couple reader e-mails ...From Dave, in response to yesterday's article over at The Hardball Times about Jacque Jones' struggles against left-handed pitching: Quite simply, the Twins don't win when Jacque is on the bench.First of all, I'm not a big fan of the one-sentence-per-paragraph approach to e-mails. Second, I have a hard time taking someone seriously when they conclude an e-mail about Jacque Jones with the phrase, "Shame on you." Despite those two things, let me try to address this in a reasonable manner ... In short, if you are someone who believes there is great significance to the Twins being 1-3 with Jones out of the lineup this year or that their horrific 1-11 stretch before the All-Star break last season was due to Jones' stint on the disabled list, then there isn't much I can do to talk you out of it. It's an unreasonable stance to take, in my opinion, but clearly Dave doesn't think much of my opinion anyway. One thing I would point out regarding their 1-11 record with Jones out the lineup is that Dave conveniently ignores what they did in the two weeks prior to that. Jones missed from July 1 to July 16, during which time the Twins did indeed go 1-11. However, with Jacque Jones in the lineup from June 14 to June 27, the Twins went 3-8. Also, in the 14 other games Jones missed in 2003, the Twins went 8-6. Here's another stat that I figure Dave might get a kick out of ... As I discussed in yesterday's article, Jacque Jones became an everyday player for the Twins when Ron Gardenhire took over the team in 2002. Since then, check out Minnesota's record against right-handed pitching (which Jones hits well), compared to their record against left-handed pitching (which, as was the point of my entire article yesterday, Jones does not hit well): W L WIN%Since Jones started playing everyday, against righties and lefties, the Twins have won 62% of their games against right-handed starting pitchers and just 46% of their games against left-handed starting pitchers. That means they've been 35% better against pitchers who don't make Jones look like Rey Ordonez at the plate. So, Dave, you stick with your stats based on 16 games, and I'll go with three seasons worth of complete data. Of course, I'm not blaming the Twins' struggles against lefties since 2002 on Jones, just as I'm not making him the cause of their 1-3 record this season when he sits out or their 1-11 slide heading into the All-Star break last year. Doing so would be silly. I just get offended when someone like Dave tries to "out-stat" me. It's funny too, that Dave would use a statistic to support his argument, and then mock someone for being a "stathead." Tisk, tisk, Dave. Shame on you, indeed. Here's a far better e-mail from a long-time reader, MLO, regarding my article from earlier this week about Eric Milton and Carlos Silva: You seemed at a loss to understand how a Twins fan would do anything but back flips over the Milton for Punto, Silva and cash deal (ok, we didn't get cash cash, but we unloaded salary). You wondered what the average fan thinks -- well, as a Twins fan (only) I think I'm pretty average.He goes on to describe a long history of Twins trades involving "dumping" higher priced guys to save money, but I'll stop here and address the above, because otherwise this entry would turn into "MLO-length." One of the things that separates an "average fan" from ... I dunno, let's say an "advanced fan" (I tried to think of a better word and I just couldn't), is the ability to see beyond the on-field stuff. An average fan has grown attached to Eric Milton and also sees Milton at 8-1 and Silva at 7-3, and they think "I wish we still had Milton, that was a bad trade." An advanced fan sees that the pitchers are a lot closer than their won/loss records indicate, and that the difference in their salary has huge ramifications and cannot be ignored. Trades are not made in a fantasy world, they are made in a real world, where teams have payroll issues and players can leave via free agency. Would it be nice for the Twins to have kept Eric Milton until he retired? Of course. But he's not worth $9 million this season, especially not for a team with a $55 million payroll. Milton is also a free agent after the season and Carlos Silva, thus far, is doing just as well for about 4% of the cost. MLO asks (and then answers), "Is there any way you can justify the trade on its merits, without mention of the money it saved? Of course not." I disagree here. Eric Milton is a 28-year-old pitcher who came into this season with a career ERA of 4.76. Even his best ERA, 4.32 in 2001, is nothing special. On top of that, he pitched a grand total of 17 innings last season and also missed time in 2002, all because of a serious knee injury. And, as I just mentioned, he had the ability to leave the team after the season. Meanwhile, Carlos Silva is a 25-year-old pitcher with a career ERA of 3.83 coming into this season, albeit as a reliever. In addition to him, the Twins got Nick Punto, a 26-year-old utility player. This isn't some lopsided trade, and if you think it is then you definitely think a whole lot more of Eric Milton and his league-average pitching than I do. And, of course, asking if you can "justify the trade on its merits, without mention of the money" is interesting, but ultimately meaningless. There are only about 2-3 teams for which money is, essentially, not an issue, and the Minnesota Twins will never be one of them. Incidentally, if you go back to the Chuck Knoblauch trade and trace all of its impact, it's fairly interesting. Here's what the Twins have gotten out of Chuck Knoblauch, so far ... - 6 seasons and counting of Cristian Guzman, in which he has hit .265/.303/.379 in 755 games. - 6 seasons of Eric Milton, in which he went 57-51 with a 4.76 ERA in 987.1 innings. - 3 seasons of Brian Buchanan, in which he hit .258/.319/.428 in 143 games. - 1 season and counting of Carlos Silva, in which he has gone 7-3 with a 4.00 ERA in 81.0 innings. - 1 season and counting of Nick Punto, in which he has hit .268/.388/.268 in 22 games. - 1 season of Danny Mota, in which he went 0-0 with a 8.44 ERA in 5.1 innings. - Jason Bartlett, currently in the minor leagues. - Bobby Korecky, currently in the minor leagues. Now, there is no doubt that, like the Milton trade, the Knoblauch trade was made for reasons other than simple, on-field stuff. However, that does not mean it can't still be a good trade. Chuck Knoblauch played in 619 games after leaving the Twins, hitting .265/.356/.389. He was never as good with the Yankees as he was in his best seasons in Minnesota, and he eventually had to be moved to the outfield and then DH, before playing his final big league game at the age of 33. In exchange for Knoblauch, the Twins got Guzman, who has been their starting shortstop since 1999, six seasons of Eric Milton, three years of Brian Buchanan and a few odd games of Danny Mota. And those are just the four guys they directly received from New York. They traded Buchanan to the Padres for Jason Bartlett, a player I think has a chance to be very good and perhaps our starting shortstop or second baseman as soon as 2005. They also dealt Milton to the Phillies for Silva, Punto and a minor leaguer named Bobby Korecky. In a couple years, maybe they'll deal Bartlett or Silva or Punto or Korecky, and this whole trade will keep growing. The point is, deals are not made in a fantasy world and sometimes they are done for reasons that go beyond purely baseball, but that doesn't keep a deal from being a good one. Would the Twins have liked to have kept Knoblauch for the rest of his career? Absolutely. Did they do okay by trading him? I think so. Would the Twins have liked to have kept Milton for the rest of his career? Sure. Did they do okay by trading him? Definitely. New article at The Hardball Times: The Magic Twenty (Left Field) Today's picks: Chicago (Maddux) -105 over Houston (Redding) Chicago (Schoeneweis) +125 over Florida (Pavano) Detroit (Maroth) +160 over Philadelphia (Myers) Anaheim (Lackey) -120 over Pittsburgh (Fogg) Colorado (Jennings) +210 over Boston (Schilling) Total to date: -$2,835 W/L record: 99-136 (3-2 yesterday for +90. Hello Drop, meet Bucket. Bucket, this is Drop.) *****Comments? Questions? Email me!*****
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Enough Already!I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out, and yell: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore." --- Howard Beale, NetworkWhen Ron Gardenhire replaced Tom Kelly as the manager of the Minnesota Twins, one of the first things he did was name Jacque Jones the everyday leftfielder. Under Kelly, Jones had been starting against right-handed pitching, but he often found himself on the bench against lefties. Gardenhire is now in the middle of his third season as the Twins' manager and, if you know anything about how stubborn he is, you also know that means Jones is in the middle of his third season of playing every day against left-handed pitching. Whether he's playing sparingly against them or every day, and whether Tom Kelly is writing out the lineup card or it's Ron Gardenhire, Jacque Jones simply cannot hit left-handed pitching. It's not the end of the world, of course, because plenty of good left-handed hitters can't do a thing against southpaws, but it is nonetheless a fact. The problem is that, unlike most other left-handed hitters who can't hit lefties, the Twins refuse to bench Jones. I don't have the specific numbers, but at one point this season Jones was hitting about .330 against lefties and I was getting bombarded with e-mails from Twins fans mocking me for my continued insistence that he shouldn't be playing against them. Sure enough, just as he has after hot starts against lefties in the past, Jones went back to his old ways and is current hitting just .256/.341/.293 against left-handed pitching. And, of course, he continues to play every day, regardless of what hand the opposing starting pitcher throws with. I've all but given up on the idea of Jones being on the bench against lefties (for some reason Gardenhire doesn't listen to me), but the other day I started thinking about just how many outs the Twins have essentially wasted by playing Jones every day, and just how many runs that has cost their offense. I don't have the math skills to get specific about how many runs the Twins have flushed down the toilet with Jones playing against lefties, but I know enough to tell you that the number is somewhere between "a lot" and "why is Aaron tying that rope around his neck?" Click here to read the rest of this article over at The Hardball Times Today's picks: Chicago (Zambrano) -100 over Houston (Miller) Chicago (Garland) +110 over Florida (Burnett) Minnesota (Santana) -115 over Montreal (Day) Seattle (Garcia) -120 over Milwaukee (Santos) Toronto (Batista) +180 over San Francisco (Schmidt) Total to date: -$2,925 W/L record: 96-134 (0-2 yesterday for -225.) *****Comments? Questions? Email me!*****
Monday, June 14, 2004
News, Notes and Quotes (June 14, 2004)What Could Have BeenI would describe the Minnesota Twins' bullpen as "fair" so far in 2004. They haven't been great, but they definitely haven't been horrible. They rank tied for 10th in the American League in ERA at 4.34, and they are actually closer to 1st (3.23) than they are to last (5.64). If I were handing out grades, I think I'd probably give them a solid C. Still, I can't help but think about what could have been. After the Twins got Joe Nathan in a trade with the Giants, there was a chance, however slight, that they could team him up with Eddie Guardado and Latroy Hawkins, who were both free agents. As we know now, that never happened, as both Guardado (Seattle) and Hawkins (Chicago) signed with other teams during the offseason. But what would the Minnesota bullpen look like if they would have been able to keep both of those guys, along with Nathan and the immerging Juan Rincon? Take a look at this "front four" that they would have been featuring ... Click here to read the rest of this article over at The Hardball Times Today's picks: Baltimore (DuBose) +120 over Cleveland (Westbrook) Houston (Clemens) -125 over Chicago (Prior) Total to date: -$2,700 W/L record: 96-132 (7-15 over the weekend for -880. At this point, hopefully you've all figured out to do the opposite of whatever I do.) *****Comments? Questions? Email me!*****
|
E-Mail: aarongleeman@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/aarongleeman  Read Me Elsewhere Rotoworld NBC Sports MinnPost Minnesota Twins Stuff Minneapolis Star Tribune St. Paul Pioneer Press MinnesotaTwins.com LaVelle E. Neal III Joe Christensen Kelsie Smith Kelly Thesier Seth Stohs Stick and Ball Guy Nick Nelson Parker Hageman Phil Mackey John Bonnes Edward Thoma Josh Johnson Howard Sinker Twinkie Town Pat Neshek Sports Stuff Hardball Talk Rotoworld Fan Graphs Baseball-Reference.com The Hardball Times Baseball America Baseball Think Factory Bill Simmons Rob Neyer Joe Posnanski Big League Stew The Big Lead Deadspin Fanhouse Baseball Prospectus U.S.S. Mariner Al's Ramblings Sports By Brooks Baseball Musings MLB Trade Rumors Non-Sports Stuff MinnPost Alan Sepinwall David Brauer Adam Carolla Poker Road Gorilla Mask Wicked Chops Poker WWTDD? Popoholic The Superficial Steve Silver Tao of Poker Discount Sporting Goods   ![[Powered by Blogger]](http://buttons.blogger.com/bloggerbutton1.gif){kind=small}
 Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com OFGoAG.com Timeline: Heidi Klum (8/2002 - 12/2003) Jessica Alba (12/2003 - 10/2004) Elisha Cuthbert (10/2004 - 11/2006) Vacant (11/2006 - 6/2008) Keeley Hazell (6/2008 - 3/2010) Mila Kunis (3/2010 - Present) OFGoAG.com Candidates: Marisa Miller Jenna Fischer Kate Beckinsale Keeley Hazell Diora Baird Top 40 Twins Prospects of 2010: 1. Aaron Hicks, CF 2. Kyle Gibson, SP 3. Wilson Ramos, C 4. Miguel Angel Sano, SS 5. Ben Revere, CF 6. Angel Morales, CF 7. David Bromberg, SP 8. Danny Valencia, 3B 9. Matthew Bashore, SP 10. Billy Bullock, RP 11. Rene Tosoni, RF 12. Chris Parmelee, RF 13. Adrian Salcedo, SP 14. Joe Benson, CF 15. Jeff Manship, SP 16. Tyler Robertson, SP 17. Carlos Gutierrez, RP 18. B.J. Hermsen, SP 19. Anthony Slama, RP 20. Max Kepler, CF 21. Alex Burnett, RP 22. Robert Delaney, RP 23. Luke Hughes, 3B 24. Ben Tootle, RP 25. Deolis Guerra, SP 26. Shooter Hunt, SP 27. Trevor Plouffe, SS 28. Michael McCardell, SP 29. Reggie Williams, 2B 30. Estarlin De Los Santos, SS 31. Derek McCallum, 2B 32. Jose Morales, C 33. Chris Herrmann, LF 34. Bobby Lanigan, SP 35. Danny Rams, C 36. Josmil Pinto, C 37. Steven Tolleson, 2B 38. Anderson Hidalgo, 3B 39. Loek Van Mil, RP 40. Joe Testa, RP |