twins/mlb
Startribune.com digital sports editor Howard Sinker used to cover the Twins and now shares season tickets with friends in Section 219 of Target Field. He blogs about baseball from the perspective of a long-time fan who loves the game, doesn’t always believe the hype and likes hearing what others think.
Posts about Twins offense
Section 219: Hope amid trouble (and trouble amid hope)
Posted by: Howard Sinker Updated: June 18, 2012 - 8:18 AM
These last half-dozen games have been a reminder of how the Twins will typically fare when they play teams that don't stink.
I figured I'd be as direct as possible there, if only because (judging by some of the comments from my last post) some people think the Twins are merely a quick fix away from contending for something.
Philadelphia and Milwaukee are by no means excellent teams. Both are a half-dozen games under .500 in their National League division. If you need more, here goes: In the dozen games on either side of beating the Twins 2 out of 3, the Phillies have lost 11 of them. The Brewers came here and won 2 out of 3 after getting swept by Kansas City.
Friends, even with fine play from a number of parties -- both expected and unexpected -- the Twins are still under repair from allowing their infrastructure to crumble. Their handling of Ben Revere and Trevor Plouffe, against a backdrop of skeptics, appears to be paying off. Even with the strikeouts, I would rather have Josh Willingham's numbers than Michael Cuddyer's. Scott Diamond's success is a stroke of unexpected good fortune. Brian Dozier should be better for playing his way through struggles. And the Glen Perkins/Jared Burton combo in the bullpen deserves more leads to hold.
The Joe Mauer paragraph: Yes, if someone offered me a No. 1 catcher with a .415 on-base percentage, I would take him and pay him a lot even if I knew he was leading the league by grounding into 14 double plays. I would encourage him to take a rip at more first-pitch fastballs, but maybe that's just me. I might harbor some frustration that he's not on pace to hit 20 home runs, but I'd try to keep that frustration at the same level as my frustration over not winning the Powerball.
The Justin Morneau paragraph: I'm really happy that Morneau is fit enough to be an everyday player and he makes the infield better as first base. I'm glad that he's mashing the ball against right-handed pitchers (a .393 on-base percentage and a .607 slugging percentage). I'm also concerned that his Adam Dunn-in-2011 numbers against lefties -- six hits and two walks in 66 plate appearances -- are collateral damage from his collection of injuries. How he figures into the Twins figure, in the next couple of months or the next couple of years, is a question that I can't answer with any certainty. Given his production and his place on the payroll, I assume the Twins would consider the right offer from a contender, even if Terry Ryan and the others can't say that out loud.
The Denard Span/Matt Capps/Francisco Liriano/Jamey Carroll/Ryan Doumit and more paragraph: Like it or not, those guys (and others) should be available for the right offer. The Twins have traded bit players in the past for substantial help. They need to do it again.
The Twins need to sell at the trading deadline and be aggressive players in the free agent market. I promise, they are not a tweak or two away from anything, and I promise that the front office knows that. After three years, selling the ballpark experience of Target Field will ring hollower against a backdrop of close-to-100 loss seasons.
Now on pace to lose about 97 games, the Twins should already recognize they need to stem the tide of fans drifting from buying tickets to watching from the sofa -- or doing something else entirely.
They can ride oversized yams, meat balls and craft beers only so far.
Section 219: 'Excitement' can't cover up Twins' ugly mess
Posted by: Howard Sinker Updated: April 26, 2012 - 9:10 AMThe flaws of the Twins have been pretty well exposed even though there are still 143 games to play: The starting pitching is messed up, the defense is a drawer of mismatched parts, the hitting in key situations hasn't been nearly as good as the hitting overall. If you watched them leave 13 runners on base Wednesday night, maybe you noticed that, with two outs, the Twins went 0-for-8 with a walk and a hit batsman. (It wasn't 0-for-9 only because Sean Burroughs grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth, ending a five-run inning in which he also made the first out.)
The Red Sox came to town struggling and left on a three-game winning streak.
The Twins played one disastrous game and two that were exciting. 1 + 2 = 3 more losses.
The end result for the Twins: A five-game losing streak and a 5-14 record. Monday's loss, as much as everyone wants to blame Matt Capps for the ninth-inning home run he gave up to Cody Ross, was aided and abetted by poor outfield defense. Parmelee in left, Span in center and Doumit in right sounds like an exhibition day afternoon alignment, not something you should pay for at Target Field.
All three games featured crummy starting pitching. I remember the word "warrior" being attached to Jason Marquis by one of the TV guys on Monday, but that was still five runs and 11 hits in six-plus inning -- and you'd be right to debate Gardy's letting Marquis go out for that plus inning when Ross bombed his other home run. Nick Blackburn and Liam Hendriks were worse. Much worse.
After Tuesday's thumping -- seven innings for me at Target Field and home in time for the final out -- Gardy said something about needing to use the guys they have. That's a summary of a longer and grumpier response in the TV part of the postgame dissection. If that's the case, then it's up to Gardy and Rick Anderson and Joe Vavra to move the starting pitching toward competence and get more intelligent at-bats from the offense. (How many outside pitches are being pulled into weak grounders?)
The way the Twins are playing, there are no "easy portions" to their schedule. Kansas City is here this weekend and fans will be treated to a series between teams with two of the three worst records in the majors. The Royals broke a 10-game losing streak Wednesday and are 4-14.
Speaking of fans, one friend tweeted during the Red Sox series: "Pleased #twins season ticket holder rep called to upgrade tonight's seats to lower deck. Sad because this is edging into #twolves territory."
Lots of times you can look at a team that gets off to a bad start and know it won't continue. Boston isn't going to continue at the pace they played at through the first couple weeks of the season. Neither are the Angels, who are 6-12 and still waiting for Albert Pujols (batting .222) to hit a home run.
The Twins? At the current pace, they'll lose 119.4 games.
Let's round that to 120. Right now, I don't doubt that could happen.
Section 219: Is a split in New York like a sweep anywhere else?
Posted by: Howard Sinker Updated: April 20, 2012 - 8:21 AMMaybe the best thing about the Twins four games in New York is that all of the bad things you imagined happening during the series didn't actually talk place. The Twins showed some of their flaws without totally self-destructing, and even handled adversity a few times with reasonable grace. The shortcomings were some of the typical ones: An inability to get big hits in some key situations and the failure of two starting pitchers who need to up their games to keep their spots.
As La Velle points out in his postgame blog, the Twins should be kicking themselves for not taking Thursday night's game and winning three of four in New York.
But you can be an optimist, take that as progress and not an argument from me -- even if the Yankees are scuffling, as they tend to do early in the season and even if it was painful to watch the Twins let Phil Hughes, New York's version of Francisco Liriano, off the hook after scoring four runs against him in the first inning of the series-ender.
As the Twins move on, I'm interested in seeing how some things play out.
*What happens when Brian Dozier is deemed ready for the majors? I assume the Twins want him to play shortstop rather than second base because that's where he's been in 11 of the 14 games that he's played. Does that mean Jamey Carroll moves to second base, where he's played for more than half of his major league innings, or does he become the three-position reserve in the infield while Alexi Casilla stays at second? Whatever happens, it explains why the Twins didn't sweat demoting Luke Hughes even though he's out of options.
*I'll assume that Dozier would replace one of the 13 pitchers on the roster, but what happens to Chris Parmelee if Justin Morneau plays more at first base? Does he go back to Rochester to play regularly, or does he have enough value and still get enough playing time to warrant staying with the Twins? He's more than doing OK right now and his status makes for interesting speculation. Plus, the Twins first base situation at Rochester is being handled by nothing more than minor-league placeholders, not prospects.
*What happens when Matt Capps comes in to protect a one-run lead in the ninth? He was fine with a four-run lead on Monday but turned 6-4 into 6-5 on Wednesday, and came pretty close to giving up a second home run on the game's final out.
*Is Glen Perkins as healthy as he looked Thursday night? If so, that was a slick eighth inning, all the more because it looked like he was getting nothing on the inside corner from the home plate umpire.
*Should Denard Span get bonus pay for playing center field between Wham! Bam! Willingham! and Ryan Doumit? (I ask that in good humor, knowing that if Morneau is the DH and Joe Mauer catches, that's how you get Doumit's bat in the lineup?)
That's all for now. Being five games under .500 at 4-9 instead as ugly as being five games under at 2-7. When I stop to think about it, slogging toward .500 feels a little sad. So I'm choosing not to think about that right now.
Section 219: A few things to flip-flop for the Twins
Posted by: Howard Sinker Updated: April 13, 2012 - 12:45 PMIt's easier to write about things when they don't have the tinge of desperation, which was how a lot of people were feeling when the Twins started off by dropping four games without putting up much of a battle. But the two victories over the Angels have cheered up the fan base a bit, even if both of them came with downsides -- the subpar defense on Wednesday and the subpar work of Francisco Liriano and Matt Capps on Thursday.
On the plus side was the offensive wake-up call in the final game of the series, including the booming home runs by Mauer and Morneau and the four hits by Denard Span. And the first week of Josh Willingham is caused some people, in comments scattered around the Twins web, to make (premature) comparisons to Harmon Killebrew.
Willingham has had a Killebrew week, and has become a guy that you make sure that you're watching when he comes to the plate. Can four home runs in six games become 40 in 162? The Twins appear not to have oversold when they talked about why he's a good fit for Target Field, compared to Michael Cuddyer or any of the other alley-to-alley guys who don't thrive in the ballpark's layout.
Is anyone else wondering when Gardy may decide to break up Mauer/Morneau in the batting order and go Mauer/Willingham/Morneau? It's a left/right/left thing, as well as getting your purest power hitter into the clean-up spot in the order. There doesn't seem to be any downside to the move, especially with some combination Ryan Doumit, Chris Parmelee and Danny Valencia backing them up.
As heartening as it was to see Morneau's blast on Thursday, I'm still concerned about Mauer and Morneau batting consecutively against tough lefties, especially out of the bullpen. The Morneau-Willingham flip would make an opposing manager work a little bit harder in plotting late-game strategy.
And on the subject of late-game strategy, what about the closer situation? Matt Capps was OK in getting Wednesday's save and barely survived in getting Thursday's, giving up two-thirds of the lead that the Twins gave him going into the ninth. Meanwhile, Glen Perkins has picked up where he left off in 2011 -- three games, 3 2/3 innings, two hits, six strikeouts, no walks.
Does it make sense to switch their roles? Or to give Perkins the closer gig and find a better eighth-inning option? Maybe not right now, but it's definitely as issue to keep an eye on. Perkins was almost as effective last year against right-handers as against left-handed batters -- .318 OPS vs. .300 (although righties did hit him with more power) -- and Gardy has used him in a way that shows confidence left or right. Capps splits -- both career and in 2011 -- are neutral.
The closer call isn't one that needs to be made this week or next, but it's a good option to have.
And speaking of options, what do you do about Liriano? He's kicked butt in the first inning of his two starts and then gotten his butt kicked after that.
Does that make him a set-up candidate? You know, getting him in and out before he gets hurt.
Section 219: Twins win without winning defense
Posted by: Howard Sinker Updated: April 12, 2012 - 9:35 AMI was as grumpy as the next person watching the Twins at Target Field on Opening Day. The Twins went down that late afternoon in such humble fashion that I concluded there was a good reason why the Twins were distracting us with so many tales of their new food offerings -- and other thoughts that were less civil.
I played around with words, but held back on sharing any of them because everything -- from hooting at Joe Mauer's early performance to the lack of defense to my frustration over the Twins bullpen seemed either a bit premature or well-written about elsewhere. I try to live by a "when you don't have anything to add, add nothing" blog stance. (I try, but don't always succeed.)
There are still a bundle of concerns even though the Twins finally won on Tuesday.
You have been warned that the Twins have traded defense for offense this season, and that was manifest Wednesday.
Poor defense contributed to four of the Angels' runs, whether it was Josh Willingham slamming into the wall while trying to catch the fly ball that turned into an inside-the-park home run, or Jamey Carroll being unable to handle the skipping throw from Denard Span on Torii Hunter's seventh-inning double, not to be confused with the slow start Span got on Hunter's ninth-inning ground ball double.
Also, Carl Pavano made a poor throw on a grounder that could have started a fourth-inning double play, when the Angels scored their first run. That would have been close either way, but it was still a play that wasn't made nearly as well as it should have been.
There was also concern in the ninth inning when Gardy didn't pull either Willingham in left or Ryan Doumit in right for Ben Revere as a defensive replacement. Gardy told La Velle that he didn't want to take Willingham out and he was concerned about pulling Doumit in case something happened to Mauer.
It seemed like a pick-your-poison situation: Go with the guys who might not get to the ball or the guy who will have trouble making a good throw if he does get to it.
And good on Gardy for going with Parmelee during the winning rally. If Parmelee isn't good enough to bat against a pretty good -- but not great -- lefty reliever, then he's not good enough to be in the majors.
Day baseball today. Find an excuse to pay attention.
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