Thursday, March 15, 2007
Catching Up
Good morning, and I am back. How much you will get today... I just don't know. But, I'll try. You probably don't care, but I think I passed the stone. Not completely sure. But, I started feeling much better after about noon on Wednesday. I guess I will find out! Thanks to those of you who wrote and expressed concern.
But still, for today, I am just going to post several links and thoughts as I'm watching the Twins and Yankees game on FSN North. It is very cool to be able to watch baseball on TV again. The Yankees have pretty much their starting lineup with the exception of Melky Cabrera in right field in place of the injured Bobby Abreu. Considering he was a regular most of the 2006 season, Cabrera is a pretty solid 4th OF.
The Twins' Supernatural Talent - This is a great article by Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan on the Twins Johan Santana. Just one question though... isn't "The Eddie" performance-enhancing?
I don't know if you've heard, but apparently some big basketball tournament starts today. Maybe we'll hear more about it and some of its participants in the next days and weeks.
And some people think this guy should be reinstated. Ha!
The Twin Cities Dugout continues to count down and analyze the Twins top prospects. Here are the profiles for #15 Trent Oeltjen and #14 Matt Moses.
I can't believe I haven't been there before, but please check out Coffeyville Whirlwind. It is a Twins site that discusses a lot of Twins history.
Nick & Nick continue to their Position Analyses with their looks at the Centerfield and Rightfield positions.
Pat Neshek gives an example of how NOT to get an autograph request filled. It's really quite comical.
Kelly Thesier wrote her Torii Hunter-Denard Span article. She writes about how Span called up Hunter and requested getting to spend a week with Hunter and his family in Texas just to know how Torii handles everything.
Patrick Reusse has written a couple of good articles on a couple of the Twins top prospects. He discusses how Kevin Slowey is similar to Brad Radke in a lot of ways. He also wrote a nice article about David Winfree.
Tuesday the Twins beat the Cardinals 5-2. Johan Santana went four shutout innings. He allowed two hits and walked two hitters while striking out four. Dennys Reyes gave up the two runs in his inning, but he gets credit for a Win. Scott Baker, Pat Neshek, Mike Venafro and JD Durbin each pitched a scoreless inning. Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau both went 2-4, and Alexi Casilla drove in two runs.
On Tuesday, former Twins prospect Alex Romero was sent back to AAA for the Diamondbacks. AJ Pierzynski went 2-3 but he hit his 3rd home run of the spring. Shannon Stewart went 3-4 for the A's. Brent Abernathy went 2-4. Terry Tiffee got a single in his pinch hit at bat. The rest of the former Twins didn't do much.
AMR has been looking at player's mug shots recently at Stick & Ball Guy's site. Some are fun, some are not so good. But it is entertaining, no doubt!
So, I'm watching American Idol and flipping back and forth to the Twins/Yankees game. As American Idol went to commercial, they have the saying "Thanks for Drinking!" I flipped, then I flipped back wondering what that was all about. Then I remembered that Coke is a big sponsor of American Idol. So, I assume that they mean Thanks for Drinking Coke.
Here is a nice article in the Pioneer Press on former Twins minor leaguer Jake Mauer who is a coach for the GCL Twins.
The Bottom three on American Idol were Brandon Rogers, Phil Stacy and Sanjaya Malakar. Phil Stacy was sent back to sit down, and Brandon Rogers was the one sent home. He was not good. In fact, I had him ranked 11th of the 12. He forgot his words, but vocally, he is so much better than Sanjaya. I was happy that Sanjaya actually had the second lowest vote total. That gives me hope that next week will be his last.
Aaron Gleeman wrote a Twins season preview over at Deadspin.com. It is a good, well-written article. And as much as you won't find the final sentence on this site, it is hard to argue with the sentiments.
Against the Yankees last night, Luis Rodriguez, Chris Heintz and Josh Rabe had hits. Rabe's was a double. Those were the only three hits of the night. Carlos Silva gave up three runs in four innings against the Yankees top lineup. Doug Mientkiewicz went 0-1 with a walk. Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano each had two hits. Cano robbed Joe Mauer of two hits with nice defensive plays. Kevin Slowey struck out three Yankees batters in his two innings. As much as Slowey has been terrific so far pitching out of the Twins bullpen, I would like to see him get stretched out to four or five innings. If he's only getting these two inning stints in big league camp, they should send him down so that he is getting his necessary live pitching in.
In terms of former Twins who performed well yesterday, Kenny Rogers may have been the best. The Tigers southpaw went five shutout innings, allowing just three hits. Todd Jones got the save in that game with a shutout inning. Cleveland's Casey Blake went 2-4 with his 2nd spring homer and two RBI.
As of last night, I had over 50 people who sent me their six Twins prospects and got their names entered into the 1987 Twins World Series DVDs. If you want your name put in a hat, be sure to e-mail me by Friday night. See details above.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Good morning! Nothing new today. Kidney stones have apparently returns, so between that, some medication, and some work stuff, I just can't write today. I apologize. But please continue the discussion below. And if you haven't sent me your list of prospects, please do so and get entered in the DVD contest. I got a good amount yesterday and would love to get lots more! Anyway, have a good day. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow.
Oh, and I did watch American Idol. Here are my rankings based solely on my opinion of last night's performances. Feel free to debate that as well.
1.) Melinda Doolittle, 2.) Jordin Sparks, 3.) Lakisha Jones, 4.) Phil Stacy, 5.) Chris Richardson, 6.) Blake Lewis, 7.) Stephanee Edwards, 8.) Chris Sligh, 9.) Gina Glocksen, 10.) Haley Scarnato, 11.) Brandon Rogers, 12.) Sanjaya Malakar.