Game 29, Twins at Mariners
Mike Snow · May 5, 2012 at 7:21 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Oops, Felix Day comes an hour early on Saturday evening. Hernandez vs. Marquis.
Montero and Jaso are both in there, so hope there are no catcher injuries. Especially since Montero’s the one doing the catching. Shawn Kelley has been called up, by the way, and Erasmo Ramirez goes to Tacoma to resume starting. That means that a) Noesi needs to step it up, and b) Iwakuma might actually get a chance to pitch once in a while.
Lazy outfielder made that play. Weren’t expecting it with one out.
That was an ackley run all the way. Great job of base running.
hehe Mike.
Somewhere, Omar Vizquel is smiling.
Looking at what appears to be the team’s official “Game Notes” for fans – lots of really crap statistics! Stuff like what the team’s won-lost record is when each player has batted in a certain order, the W-L record when each player has been in a certain defensive position (e.g. Ackley at first, Ackley at second), lots of RBI-related stats (e.g. # of multi-RBI games, # of game-winning RBI hits), a pitcher’s W-L record pitching after a loss, and so on.
Is some 90-year-old guy in charge of putting those together? Are they being mimeographed?
As recently as two years ago, the Twins were a benchmark if not the benchmark for how to run a low revenue team. Correct? Then they signed a couple huge deals with key players and relocated into a new stadium. Now what are they considered to be?
Dunno… but I don’t think they were expected to be as bad as they currently seem to be!
Darn it, games almost over – I need another excuse to not mow…
Valencia walks on 7 balls in the strike zone. Talk about a small strike zone.
Yeah that tracer graphic was pretty damning.
Thank God for the Twins…without them we’d have almost nobody to beat. Nothing like Twins pitching to make a bunch of stiffs look like All-Star caliber hitters.
The Twins are victims of a combination of terrible luck and poor drafting, in my opinion.
If Morneau and Mauer were playing to their capabilities it would look like a very different team. Think back to say, 2008-2009. Except since then they have both been hurt/gimpy, leaving the team with zero middle of the lineup types. Willingham is not a guy you should have batting third, he is more of a 5-hole type of guy.
As for drafting…well, look at this rotation. My coworker refuses to watch them anymore because of their “pitch to contact” philosophy. We just saw why, the past two games. Their rotation is basically a bunch of guys who wouldn’t be above #3 on almost any other team. Nobody who can consistently throw a ball past anyone.
As to Ryan batting second, both he and Wedge mentioned in postgame interviews that when Ryan bats in that spot it’s more likely that he comes up with someone on base and thus must use a “plan” at the plate. Apparently this helps him focus.
This is why you can’t take what a player or manager says at face value. If you look at the numbers – even basic ones – that argument doesn’t hold up. FanGraphs makes this TOO easy…
Brendan Ryan situational batting average, 2012
Bases empty .167
Men on base .133
Men in scoring position .091
Brendan Ryan situational batting average, Career
Bases empty .256
Men on base .245
Men in scoring position .210
I see no evidence his focus is improving – or, if it is, that it’s actually helping. Quite the opposite.