Friday, July 27, 2007
Weekend Thoughts
It's Thursday night and I am just about to walk out the door to drive down toward the cities for the weekend. A day off from work is a necessity! But before I leave, I just wanted to point out a couple of quick notes and also leave a couple of places for you to comment throughout the weekend, so here we go.
Well, the one guy that I thought that the Twins should trade for still is likely now unavailable. It appears that the Washington Nationals will sign Dmitri Young to a two year extension. There are a few rumors going around. Several teams are watching Kevin Slowey closely. The rumor I mentioned yesterday was that the Phillies have sent several people to watch him pitch. Again, I hope it's not Pat Burrell. Scott Baker is apparently being watched by the Devil Rays. Ty Wigginton? He just doesn't excited me at all. Sure, he has a little pop in his bat, but he has played primarily 1B and 2B this year for the Rays. Is he going to be decent if he comes to the Twins to play 3B? He would still be with the Twins most likely in 2008, and that is one criteria I would want in any player the Twins acquire... that he would remain with the team for more than just the final two months of the season. Such trades seem so unnecessary to me. Look for 2008, and if they help in 2007 too, even better.
Likewise, although I am certainly one of the leaders of the Kevin Slowey bandwagon, I don't mind hearing rumors about him for a couple of reasons. To me, the Twins system is full of pitching prospects. It appears now that Anthony Swarzak is back and really pitching well and reclaiming a Top 10 spot in the SethSpeaks Top Twins prospects. So, I would prefer to keep Slowey, but the idea of using some of the Twins pitching prospects to get a couple of young hitters does make a lot of sense.
Brian Buscher is not 'the answer' to the Who is the Twins 3B of the future question. But I do think that he is a step up from Nick Punto. It will be interesting to see how he does this weekend and how much leash he is given. How will Gardy get his personal favorite Nick Punto into the lineup?
The Twins have a three game series in Cleveland starting on Friday night. Boof Bonser, Johan Santana and Matt Garza will go against Paul Byrd, Jake Westbrook and CC Sabathia. The Twins are eight games behind the Indians in the Wild Card race. The Indians are a game behind the Tigers in the AL Central.
Feel free to use this set of Comments as a Game Thread, and a general Twins Notes area. Talk about the games, the rumors or if there are any actual moves made, discuss them here.
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Twins Minor League Updates
The Rochester Red Wings won an afternoon game on Thursday 3-2 on a two out single by Glenn Williams. Tommy Watkins scored the winning run. Watkins had doubled earlier in the inning, his second double of the game. Former Red Wing Jeremy Cummings, who asked to be released about three weeks ago due to lack of opportunity in the Twins system, pitched for Syracuse. Brian Bass started for the Red Wings and went seven shutout innings, striking out seven. Julio DePaula pitched a shutout 8th inning. Bobby Korecky got two outs in the 9th and gave up two runs to blow the save. However, Carmen Cali got the team out of that inning and was the winning pitcher to improve to 5-0.
Please use these comments to update any goings on in the Twins minor league system. If no one has posted game thoughts for any of the Twins affiliates, please do so. I would really like your thoughts on one question, or two questions, I guess... Which Twins minor leaguers have most improved their status as a Twins prospect this season? Likewise, which have fallen the furthest in your eyes? At my midseason Top 50, it would have been easy for me to say that Anthony Swarzak fell the furthest in my eyes, but since his return, he has definitely pitched well and improved his status.
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MILESTONES
Obviously the big news item is Barry Bonds and his quest to tie and then break Hank Aaron's all-time home run record. Feel free to discuss that here and any updates related. Also, Alex Rodriguez is sitting on 499 home runs as I type this. He is very young to be getting #500. How many do you think he will end up with? Frank Thomas got there earlier this year, and Manny Ramirez and Gary Sheffield are close as well. Finally, Tom Glavine notched the 299th win of his career on Wednesday night. He is almost certain to get to 300 wins. Will he be the last to do so? Every time someone new does, that question gets asked. Randy Johnson is close, but injured most of the time. Who else will do that? Discuss here, please.
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Statistics
Baseball is a game, more so than any other where statistics matter. They give us a way to measure what a player does. Yesterday, I put my thoughts into a discussion over at Twinkie Town that I think is interesting and important. What is the value and the role of stats? How much is too much? Which stats are most important to you and why? I think stats are very important, but you won't find anything overly advanced here. I will use the BA/OBP/SLG, and I will talk about OPS and OPS+. You have heard my rant about the unimportance of the W-L record in showing how well a pitcher has pitched, but I will point about WHIP, ERA, Opponent BA/OBP/SLG and K/9. There are so many more stats available that I don't blame people for being a bit overwhelmed at times. Check out the discussion at TwinkieTown and then leave some comments here about what stats you follow, what you want to read about, what has value to you.
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That is it for today. I must leave town and enjoy a weekend away. As always, please feel free to e-mail me with any questions or comments you may have. If anything happens over the weekend, feel free to leave comments and encourage discussion, but if you would rather, I will try to respond to e-mails as I can.
Have a great weekend!