Blogger has been giving me some Pickering-sized problems over the last 24 hours, so there is no new entry for today. I was working on a nice, big Link-O-Rama for you, but everything crashed and then stayed crashed, until just now (around five on Friday). Anyway, I'll be back Monday with some thoughts on what is hopefully a Twins sweep. Oh, and as always, I hate computers.
Ron Gardenhire, like Tom Kelly before him, likes to get as many people as possible involved on getaway day. With Joe Mauer on the bench anyway after two straight days behind the plate, Gardenhire took last night as an opportunity to get cute with his lineup.
LF Shannon Stewart 2B Nick Punto CF Torii Hunter 1B Justin Morneau DH Matthew LeCroy RF Jacque Jones 3B Michael Cuddyer C Mike Redmond SS Juan Castro
Despite Luis Rivas and Jason Bartlett both being right-handed hitters who are off to good starts, Gardenhire sat them against left-handed starter Bobby Madritsch. Lew Ford, a right-handed hitter who has extremely good numbers against southpaws in his career, also found himself on the bench. Meanwhile, Jacque Jones started against a tough lefty despite horrible career numbers against southpaws, in part because Gardenhire always starts him against lefties and in part because Jones hit a homer off lefty Matt Thornton the night before.
Jones ended up going 1-for-3 with an RBI, although his one hit (a bunt single in the seventh inning) came against Ryan Franklin, a right-handed pitcher. He was 0-for-2 with a strikeout against Madritsch. Juan Castro and Nick Punto, the replacements for Bartlett and Rivas, went a combined 2-for-6 with two walks and two runs scored. So for one game at least, the lineup shuffling worked out pretty well.
Castro, our million-dollar supposed defensive whiz utility infielder who can't hit a lick, botched his first fielding chance of the season in the first inning, misplaying a relatively tough grounder in the hole. I point this out not because it was a big deal or a horrible play (it was called a hit, after all), but because of how little value Castro has to the team if he isn't providing incredible defense. (In all fairness, he made a couple of very nice plays on grounders in the fifth inning.)
For a guy who wasn't even with the team until days before the season, Wilson Valdez looked pretty good defensively at shortstop during the series. He's the type of passable middle infielder who the Twins never seemed able to come up with to challenge Rivas and Cristian Guzman over the past few years. Nothing great, but his minor-league numbers suggest he could hit .270 or so with a decent on-base percentage (for a middle infielder, at least) and some speed. If nothing else, he's a nice short-term find for a Seattle team that would have been in some trouble at shortstop without him. Of course, he went 0-for-8 at the plate in three games and, for all I know, will be back on waivers within a week.
Michael Cuddyer's arm strength is really going to be an asset at third base. I still would have liked to see him get a shot at second base, because I think he could have handled the job defensively and his offense would have been even better over there, but he is certainly able to take advantage of his rocket arm more effectively at third base. He even slid over to first base in the late innings last night, which I guess shows why the Twins were willing to cut Terry Tiffee and go with a bench made up of catchers and utility men.
There is no bigger schmuck than Bert Blyleven on his birthday, and I mean that in the best possible way. Incidentally, about 10 seconds after Blyleven said that he asked Matthew LeCroy to hit him a home run on his birthday, LeCroy took Madritsch deep to left field for a three-run bomb. Blyleven then said he would buy LeCroy a drink if only LeCroy drank, which really ruined the mental picture I had of LeCroy off the field.
I don't know much about Madritsch, but I know that there isn't much that says badass quite like a neck tattoo. Sadly, the look he had when he left the game in the fifth inning with what appeared to be a shoulder injury was one of complete disgust, like someone just told him his dream was over. The look, combined with the fact that Madritsch has a history of shoulder problems, and I'm guessing the injury turns out to be pretty serious.
This has nothing to do with last night's game, but Michael Restovich, who was claimed off waivers by the Devil Rays and then released a couple days later, has been claimed again by the Colorado Rockies. I have no clue whether or not Restovich actually has a chance to stick in Colorado, but there obviously isn't a better place for a hitter to end up. Here's hoping he gets a chance to put up some big numbers on Planet Coors. I still say he should have been starting in right field against Madritsch last night.
While checking other scores between the fifth and six innings, I noticed that the White Sox came back from down 3-0 in the ninth inning to beat the Indians 4-3. I'm not sure whether I should be rooting for Cleveland or Chicago at this point, so I'm just hoping they split all their matchups until we can better determine which one is the bigger threat to the Twins this year. I will say that I instinctively want to root against Chicago, despite my picking the Indians to finish in second place.
Oh, and remember the White Sox and their new "small ball" approach? Well, they scored a grand total of one run in their first 16 innings of the season, and then hit two homers while scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth yesterday. In other words, they couldn't score until they started to hit for some power. Shocking, I know. Speaking of other scores, I see that Doug Mientkiewicz hit a solo homer off of Eric Milton last night. I think that speaks for itself, so I won't add anything to it.
Carlos Silva had a typical Silva game. He worked quickly, threw strikes, and made the Mariners put the ball in play. He didn't record a single strikeout or walk, needed just 68 pitches to get 21 outs, gave up a bunch of singles, and got some very timely ground balls to get out of trouble. A lot of people see his low strikeout rate and assume Silva's success last year was a fluke, but I think he can put together a similar season this year. He actually had a lower-than-average percentage of his balls in play turned into outs last season, which makes his 14-win season different than, say, what Joe Mays did in 2001.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Silva gave up three straight singles with one out, and just when it looked like the game was about to get out of hand, he got Dan Wilson to hit a routine grounder to Cuddyer at third base for an easy double play. Not that Scott Spiezio is any great shakes, but I was surprised Seattle didn't pinch hit him for Wilson in that spot. Perhaps they were saving Spiezio to pinch hit for the next batter, Valdez?
Even on a day when the opposing starting pitcher had to leave the game suddenly with a shoulder injury, there is nothing scarier than seeing a batter get hit in the head with a pitch. Ron Villone's two-strike pitch to Justin Morneau hit him right in the ear flap, and Morneau hit the deck like a ton of bricks. He looked more shocked and dazed than actually hurt, and eventually got up and walked off the field on his own. The biggest concern is obviously that the pitch caught something that wasn't covered by his helmet, but a secondary concern is that Morneau may let being hit in the head get to his head.
Most hitters, particularly in the major leagues, seem able to simply shake it off and forget about it, but some can't. I was hit square in the forehead with a fastball in Little League and was never quite the same (not that I was any good to begin with). It doesn't make you afraid of the ball, really, but it does make you a little tentative at the plate. Or at least that's what happened to me. Here's hoping Morneau is a little more equipped to deal with it than a 13-year-old Aaron Gleeman was. I'll be interested to see how he reacts to the next big-breaking curveball a left-handed pitcher throws to him.
UPDATE: The Official Twins Beat Writer of AG.com, La Velle E. Neal, had some good Morneau-related stuff in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Morneau went to the hospital, had a CT scan that "came back negative," and was cleared to fly home.
Quotes from Morneau: "They wanted to make sure I was OK. They are not going to let you fly if you have a concussion. I wasn't dizzy at all. I've had concussions before. I was once kicked in the back of the head with a hockey skate."
Quotes from Gardenhire: "They asked him, 'Where are you?' He said, 'I'm on the ground at home plate in Seattle.' I thought he might be OK. When you ask a question like that and he makes an answer like that ... I've been hit in the head before and did not have those kind of answers."
Just a brutal start to the game, particularly coming on the heals of Brad Radke's three-run first inning on Opening Day. Santana needed 34 pitches to get three outs, as the Mariners started the game by going single, walk, double, double, ground out, single. He managed to escape with "only" four runs allowed by getting Randy Winn on a grounder to third base that Michael Cuddyer made an excellent play on, and then striking Miguel Olivo out swinging to end the inning.
Santana then got Wilson Valdez, Ichiro!, and Jeremy Reed to each ground out for a 1-2-3 second inning. It was looking just like Santana's early struggles from last season, when he a) couldn't finish hitters off when he got them to two strikes, and b) got the majority of his outs on grounders. Both things are in direct contrast to what happens when Santana is rolling, when he's basically a strikeout-and-pop-up machine.
Thankfully, Santana began pitching like himself starting in the third inning, allowing a leadoff single to Adrian Beltre and then retiring the next nine hitters he faced, including five on swinging strikeouts. Staked to a sudden 7-4 lead when the Twins' lineup plated seven runs in the top of the fifth, Santana called it an early night, leaving after just five innings and 93 pitches. His final line:
IP H R ER BB SO HR PIT 5.0 5 4 4 1 6 0 93
Not horrible, and certainly not as bad as it looked like it would be in the middle of the first inning. The good news is that Santana had the following line once Seattle scored the fourth run of the first inning:
IP H R ER BB SO HR PIT 4.2 1 0 0 0 6 0 68
The bad news, of course, is that he did give up four runs in the first inning. Plus, a concerning sign despite his getting on track is that he ended the game with eight ground ball outs and just one fly ball out. During the first two months of last season, when Santana was struggling, he had 77 ground ball outs and 72 fly ball outs, for a 1.1-to-1 ground-to-fly ratio. After that, when he went on his incredible run of dominant starts, Santana had a ground-to-fly ratio of 0.8-to-1. In other words, the more balls you see in the air when Santana starts, the better (which makes sense when you think about how he pitches).
In what was initially looking like another punchless game from the offense, everyone in the starting lineup ended up with at least one hit as the Twins dinked and dunked their way to 13 singles (and one homer). It just took a little while for them to get warmed up, and things didn't officially get rolling until Matt Thornton made what will probably be one of his final appearances in a Seattle uniform (at least judging by Mike Hargrove's face when he made the trip to the mound to take him out).
Thornton had some bad breaks go against him -- namely Joe Mauer's hit-and-run single and Justin Morneau's check-swing blooper -- but he's also left-handed and gave up a long homer to Jacque Jones, a sin for which there is no excuse. Jones had two homers in 155 at-bats against lefties last year, giving him a grand total of nine homers in 628 career at-bats against lefties entering last night's matchup with Thornton.
This is obviously easy to say in hindsight, but I was very surprised by how quick the hook was for Gil Meche. He looked good early on, ran into some trouble giving up singles in the fifth inning, and then got yanked in favor of Thornton, who immediately let the game slip away. Not that I'm complaining or anything.
Mauer struck out three times, which is very surprising, but he continues to impress the hell out of me with his approach at the plate. So calm, so patient, so selective. The walks haven't started to pile up quite yet, but they will very soon. And, of course, equally encouraging is the fact that he caught his second straight game without incident.
I expect him to sit out tonight's game, not only because it is the team's third in three days, but because Seattle is starting lefty Bobby Madritsch and the team has a day off on Thursday. So if Mauer sits one game against a tough matchup today he actually gets two days off, which is perfect for the early going. Mike Redmond needs to make his debut at some point anyway.
The bullpen is in midseason form, as Jesse Crain, J.C. Romero, Juan Rincon, and Joe Nathan combined for four innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just two hits and a walk while striking out four. Romero's 1.2-inning outing was particularly good to see, as you never know what sort of control he'll have. He threw strikes, got outs, and even made a very nice defensive play.
I have decided that one of my goals for the 2005 season is to watch Ichiro! as much as possible. I don't have anything to say about him that hasn't already been said, but the guy is really amazing to watch. Especially once he's not hitting against the Twins.
Today's Picks (3-4, -$150): Los Angeles (Perez) +115 over San Francisco (Rueter) Oakland (Saarloos) +135 over Baltimore (Cabrera) Boston (Wakefield) +160 over New York (Mussina)
Before I get to Richie Sexson's heroics and other notes from Opening Day, I would like to take this opportunity to document the fact that Joe Mauer stole the Twins' first base of the season. After blooping a single into short left field in the top of the fourth inning, Mauer took off for second base as my jaw dropped. I would have been just fine if Mauer agreed to never attempt a stolen base for the rest of his life, yet there he was, not only trying to steal against Miguel Olivo, but sliding head first into second base in a 5-0 game. Amazingly, Mauer was safe, but I almost would have preferred if he was thrown out. That way at least he would think twice before trying it again for a while.
FSN had Ron Gardenhire read the starting lineup before the game, which I thought was a nice idea. Gardenhire made a few little comments, like calling Justin Morneau "The Big Canadian," but the thing that caught my attention was introducing Luis Rivas in the ninth spot by saying something like, "Louie is going to have a good year and make me right about him." It's obviously just a throwaway line, but it does make me think that perhaps Gardenhire is Rivas' main supporter within the organization.
When trying to figure out why the team brought him back for $1.625 million this year, that may just be reason #1. It would also go a long way towards explaining why Gardenhire constantly complains about Rivas' play, yet never actually benches him. Incidentally, Rivas got the team's first hit of the season and also made a very nice play on a ball up the middle that Brad Radke deflected with his glove. He's had several good games before though, so don't get too excited.
Jamie Moyer has got to be a tough Opening Day assignment. You spend all spring getting ready for the season, Opening Day finally arrives, you're playing in front of a packed house on the road, emotions are running high, and then some lefty with a goofy delivery keeps throwing off-speed junk at you. It would be like a basketball player going through one of those NBA-style overly dramatic starting lineup intros, complete with total darkness and some cheesy PA announcer screaming their name, and then watching as the other team runs the shot clock down to single digits on every possession.
When a batter smacks a ball into right field against the Mariners and it appears as though they are going to try to stretch the hit into a double, the crowd at Safeco Field starts buzzing in preparation for Ichiro! throwing a laser into second base. Jacque Jones hustled a double out of a hit to right in the top of the sixth inning yesterday, and while Ichiro! had no shot at throwing him out, the Seattle crowd started getting audibly excited as soon as they saw Jones round first. Little stuff like that is why I miss baseball so much during the offseason.
I'm not completely happy with the lineup the Twins trotted out yesterday, but it is at least reasonably close to the order I would come up with if I were in charge. If Jason Bartlett hits like I think he will, the team will have just one easy out in the entire lineup, which is a whole lot different than what we saw in the second half of last season. Michael Cuddyer hitting eighth is pretty sick, although I'm worried he won't see enough good pitches to hit with Rivas batting behind him.
I'm not sure that this means anything, but Radke gave up two homers to one batter on Opening Day last year too, serving up a pair of long balls to Cleveland's Travis Hafner. In fact, Radke gave up three homers (and 11 total hits) to the Indians, and then went on to have the best season of his career. After serving up three homers in that first game, Radke then allowed just two homers in his next 14 starts. So he's got that going for him, which is nice.
For the first of what will probably be about 100 times this year, we saw a potential downside to batting Mauer and Morneau back-to-back in the lineup. With those two due up in the top of the eighth and the team in need of a big inning to get back into the game, the Mariners brought in lefty reliever Ron Villone from the bullpen. Now, Villone and pitchers like him in other bullpens across the American League aren't exactly rally killers, but combined with the fact that neither Mauer or Morneau have shown that they can handle lefties yet and you can see why it might present some problems throughout the year.
I don't see any real way around it though, as Mauer and Morneau are the two best hitters on the team and are prototypical #3 and #4 hitters. Plus, the guy I would call the third-best hitter on the team, Shannon Stewart, is a right-handed hitter, but isn't budging from the leadoff spot anytime soon. As soon as Mauer starts learning to handle southpaws a little better -- and he will, and probably before Morneau does -- it will be less of a problem. Still, something to look for in late-inning situations this season.
Hopefully all the people who have tried to convince me that keeping Mauer at catcher for as long as possible isn't worth the risk had a chance to see the bullet he tossed to second base to throw out Ichiro! yesterday. You don't give up on that unless you absolutely have to. Mauer is now 8-for-19 throwing out runners for his career, which works out to a cool 42.1%. Ivan Rodriguez's career mark is 48.1%. And Mauer is now 2-for-2 stealing bases, which I'm pretty sure is some sort of record.
Imagine how great yesterday must have been for Seattle fans. You open up the season at home, in your beautiful, new(ish), outdoor ballpark, and beat the three-time AL Central champs after a season in which you lost 99 games. Your 42-year-old Opening Day starter, who had a 5.21 ERA last year, goes 5.2 innings without allowing an earned run. Your bullpen, which ranked 11th in the league in ERA last year, closes out the win with 3.1 no-hit innings. Your big free agent slugger, who has some major question marks concerning his injured shoulder and the impact it might have on his power, hits two home runs. And, of course, your freak of nature leadoff man goes 2-for-4.
Hopefully the start of the season won't be so pleasant for Mariners fans once they become Johan Santana's first victim of the year tonight.
Today's Picks (2-2, -$50): Los Angeles (Lowe) +165 over San Francisco (Schmidt) Minnesota (Santana) -160 over Seattle (Meche) Boston (Clement) +155 over New York (Pavano)
Well, here we are. Finally. The Minnesota Twins' quest for a fourth straight American League Central title begins today, but not without plenty of questions.
Four-fifths of the infield -- Joe Mauer (32), Justin Morneau (61), Jason Bartlett (5), and Michael Cuddyer (62) -- have a combined total of 160 career games played at the positions where they currently hold starting jobs. The elder statesman of the group, Luis Rivas, has 500 career games at his position, several of them good ones.
The two best hitters on the team, batting back-to-back in the third and fourth spots in the lineup, have a grand total of 133 career hits, 29 career home runs, and 91 career runs batted in. They also have three healthy knees between them and have yet to play a single inning together in the major leagues.
The third starter, Carlos Silva, struck out 76 batters in 203 innings and let opponents hit .310 against him last year. The fourth starter, Kyle Lohse, had a 5.34 ERA. The fifth starter, Joe Mays, last had an ERA under 5.00 in 2001, which also happens to be his only season with an ERA under 4.00. The sixth starter, Terry Mulholland, is 42 years old, had a 5.18 ERA last season, and last had an ERA under 4.00 back before I had a driver's license.
Lew Ford is the team's third-best defensive outfielder, behind two Gold Glove-caliber guys, yet he starts at designated hitter while the worst outfielder, Shannon Stewart, starts in left field. Ford also led the team with a .381 on-base percentage in 2004 and has a career on-base percentage of .383, yet bats seventh in the lineup.
The five-man bench consists of two utility infielders and three catchers, one of whom is versatile enough to occasionally DH. They have career slugging percentages of .448, .362, .332, .331, and .294, and career on-base percentages of .348, .318, .305, .301, and .269.
And yet despite all that and a lot more, I really think this Twins team will be the best one since 1991. If they can catch some breaks, or at least not get hit with bad luck, they have a chance to be a very special team and the first one of this era with a real chance to go deep into October.
While I anxiously count down the seconds until Jamie Moyer delivers the first pitch to Shannon Stewart, here are some things I hope to see in 2005 ...
... 80-90 games behind the plate and another 30-40 at designated hitter for Mauer, because the rest will take care of itself.
... Morneau finally giving the Twins their first 30-homer guy since 1987.
... Ford getting consistent playing time from Ron Gardenhire.
... A new second baseman by the All-Star break.
... A repeat performance from Johan Santana.
... At least 50 healthy innings from Grant Balfour.
... The late-season emergence of either Scott Baker or J.D. Durbin.
... A shortstop who actually dives for grounders up the middle.
... 500 at-bats from Cuddyer.
... Mike Redmond on the bench. A lot.
... A right fielder capable of hitting left-handed pitching like a right fielder should.
... Matthew LeCroy throwing someone out at second base from behind the plate.
... The Lohse of 2003.
... The Mays of 2001, or at least 1999.
... Torii Hunter taking the air out of U.S. Cellular Field and Jacobs Field when he does his Spiderman routine on a deep blast to center field.
... The smoke that comes from the bullpen when Balfour turns it over to Jesse Crain, who turns it over to Juan Rincon, who turns it over to Joe Nathan, who slams the door.
... Jason Kubel pinch hitting in September.
... Someone other than the Yankees in the first round.
Today's Picks (0-0, $0): New York (Martinez) -150 over Cincinnati (Wilson) Chicago (Zambrano) -125 over Arizona (Vazquez) Oakland (Zito) -100 over Baltimore (Lopez) Toronto (Halladay) -125 over Tampa Bay (Brazelton)
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