Wednesday

Good morning everyone! Well, I have been gone for quite awhile now and I do feel bad. I took a day off last Friday from work and went to Valleyfair. There is a picture of me and my girlfriend on the Wild Thing ride that I may or may not scan and post here. Let's just say that I'm not a ride guy and well, that is a scary ride! It was fun though. It was a busy weekend, and I stayed down in the Twin Cities for some training for work on Monday. Left the cities at about 4:30 and got back home at about midnight. Slept! Sleep is good!

So, on that note, I want to get caught up with the site a little bit today and post on several topics, but I also need to make sure that I get some sleep tonight too. So, it may not be the longest of entries. However, one part of today's posting will be quite long. I participated in another fantasy football draft last night and I don't know how I did. So, I am going to post the results of the draft and, as I have in the past, point out what I believe to be the best pick, the worst pick and the most risky pick of each round. Then, hopefully tomorrow I will be back with more.

As always, if you have a question, comment, or an idea for a future posting, please e-mail me. Also, feel free to use the Comments section below to ask our readers their opinions on questions you might have.

Well, that was a pathetic offensive display, huh? Getting shut out by Mark Redman! But, it does make a lot of sense, really. The Twins were coming home after winning two out of three games in Chicago against the White Sox. It is natural for their intensity to come back down when they come home and take on the Kansas City Royals. I just don't think all fans understand how difficult it must be to maintain a high level of intensity for 162 games, and many times that comes down against lesser opponents. The Royals are not good, but they are a pro team. They have won 48 out of 133 games. That isn't a lot, but it is 36% That means that they average winnings a little over one game in every three game series. They aren't just going to lay over. They do have some quality professional hitters like Mike Sweeney and Mark Grudzielanek. They do have guys like Ryan Shealy, Joey Gathright and Mark Teahan who have some potential. And they have guys like David DeJesus, Emil Brown and John Buck who are somewhere in the middle.

And then some credit has to be given to Mark Redman. He was able to keep the Twins hitters off-balance the whole game. It is the same thing on a more individual basis as the above theory. A team can come down a level or two intensity-wise when facing a poor team. The same thing happens for hitters against a soft-tosser. Let's face it, 95% of pitchers in the big leagues throw between 88 and 95 mph. Mark Redman topped out at 83 mph. Watching him pitch, it is easy for us to say he should be easy to hit, but that is far from the case. Watching him pitch from the dugout, it looks like he should be easy to hit. If you ever played ball growing up, from Little League through high school, there was always an opponent who threw a pitcher who didn't throw hard, but he just threw strikes. Batter after batter gets out, and batter after batter comes into the dugout saying "Let's hit this guy! He's got nothing!" My theory is then how is he getting us out? Well, he is throwing strikes. He's getting ahead in the count, and then he is expanding the strike zone. Look at the last at bat, by Michael Cuddyer. On the final pitch, he was way out front and hit a weak fly ball to end the game. So yeah, Mark Redman is not great. However, he has been in the big leagues for seven years. Yes, his ERA is well over five this season. However, he is in the big leagues because when he is hitting his spots, he can do exactly what he did to the Twins.

The truly unfortunate thing about last night's game is Matt Garza was really impressive in his start. In 7.2 innings, he gave up just two runs on five hits and a walk. He struck out seven. And he had to take the loss. It is yet another example of why the Win stat for a pitcher is incredibly unimportant. The progression of Garza has been drastic. His first start was horrible. His next start started out poor, but he came on in the latter innings. His last start was very good. And last night, he was superb!

With the White Sox win last night against Tampa Bay, the Twins are again 1/2 game behind the Sox in the AL Wild Card. The Red Sox are a ways back and both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz are out indefinitely. Ortiz has missed a couple of games while he is being checked out on why he is again experiencing an irregular heart beat. It is just another reminder that no matter how intense baseball can be, particularly in late August and September, there are other things that are far more important. It is unfortunate that we get so many reminders of that.

In Game 2 of the series tonight, Boof Bonser will face Luke Hudson. It is obviously important for the Twins to try to win two out of three in the series and that is still possible.

I got a very interesting e-mail from a man named "Al" late last week that I thought was worth posting. Hopefully it is something that we can discuss in the Comments below:

This is a very fair question and when I read it, I was not really in a spot to take the time necessary to answer it at all. I asked Al if I could post it and he responded that I could, but added:

So, the number of games that Hunter missed while on the DL is made up for by the games that Cuddyer missed in April when he was the team's fourth or fifth outfielder. Cuddyer's OPS is 5.5% higher than that of Hunter's. The main contributor to that appears to be the doubles totals.

Here is another question for discussion. It comes from "Scott" Maybe you can help me with a response:

I think that if Justin Morneau reaches those numbers AND the Twins make the playoffs, he should be the league's MVP. Will it happen? Well, if I had to vote right now, my vote would probably go to Jermaine Dye of the White Sox. If we're being realistic, however, David Ortiz or Derek Jeter have to be considered the front runners for the whole East Coast bias reasoning. They are both having great seasons and deserve to be mentioned. I think that Morneau is hurt by a couple of things. First, he plays in the Midwest. Second, only recently has his name even been mentioned in this discussion. Joe Mauer is the Twins player most mentioned as an MVP candidate, something that he deserves. So, they could potentially take votes from each other. Any chance Morneau could win the MVP? Leave some Comments.

Any other thoughts or questions, please let me know! Send me an e-mail, or leave Comments below.

SethSpeaks Player of the Day - Garrett Jones, Rochester Red Wings

SethSpeaks Pitcher of the Day - Bobby Korecky, Rochester Red Wings

If you have any thoughts on the Twins system, please e-mail me.

ROCHESTER REPORT

Tuesday - Red Wings 6, Pawtucket 5 (11) – Quinton McCracken singled in Chris Heintz in the top of the 11th for the eventual winning run. Garrett Jones went 3-5 with a double. Shawn Wooten was 3-4. David Gassner went the first five innings and gave up three runs (2 earned) on five hits and two walks. Levale Speigner gave up two runs on two hits and two walks and got just, you got it, two outs. Beau Kemp went the next 1.1 innings without allowing a run. Bobby Korecky went four shutout innings for the win.

NEW BRITAIN NEWS

Tuesday - Rockcats – Rained Out

FT MYERS MEMOS

Tuesday - Miracle 1, Clearwater 0 - The game was suspended in the sixth inning, probably due to Tropical Storm Ernesto. As of that point, the Miracle had just three hits. One was a Deacon Burns double. Josh Hill started and went three innings. Despite allowing five hits and a walk, he didn't give up a run. He struck out four. Jose Mijares went the next 2.2 innings and gave up no runs on three hits and a walk.

BELOIT BITS

Tuesday - Snappers 2, SW Michigan 3 (11) – Somehow the Snappers stayed in this game despite just two hits on the game. One of the hits was a solo home run by Eli Tintor, his 11th of the year. Ryan Mullins started and gave up two runs on five hits and five walks in 5.1 innings. He struck out eight. Dan Leatherman went the next 2.2 innings and struck out four without giving up a run. Danny Vais went two shutout innings before giving up some base runners in the 11th. Frank Mata came in and gave up a hit that scored the game-winning run.

Do you have any further thoughts on any Twins prospects, minor leaguers, or these summaries? I would love any input, or ideas to make it better. Thanks! E-mail me, or also feel free to leave comments below.

Last night, I was involved in my first live draft for fantasy football. I was in one about a month ago already, but I did that over the phone. So, here is what happened. If you're involved in a fantasy football league and haven't drafted yet, just consider this a free mock draft. Again, I will post my thoughts on the Best Pick, Worst Pick and Most Risky Pick from each round. Please take those thoughts with a grain of salt as I have watched very little on football so far this fall, so I may not be the best source. Also, as we get into those rounds where there are a lot of kickers and defenses, I won't have a best, worth and most risky in each of those rounds.

So there you have it; all 15 rounds of our Fantasy Football Draft from last night with some comments from me. Let me know how you think my team is comprised and if I have any chance. Send me a quick e-mail. Should I make any trades? Drop anyone? Any sleepers that weren't taken that I should try to sign? Let me know.

That is it for today! Let me know what you think. Send me an e-mail, or let's talk about it in the Comments here.