Wednesday,
September 16, 2009
Are You Positive?
I was watching the Twins game
last night, happy with another win. Much credit for the win has to go to the
bottom of the lineup for coming up with some big hits. Nick Punto had three hits. Brian Buscher
had a big run-scoring hit. Orlando
Cabrera hit a game-tying home run. Getting production from guys like that
will be key down the stretch. The
Twins have won three games in a row, all without Justin Morneau. They got good starting
pitching, and the bullpen has been very good of late. Sure, Joe Nathan is fighting through
struggles (on his way to another 40 save season, mind you!), but the rest of the
bullpen has been much improved. Meanwhile, Detroit has been playing quite
poorly of late. They have certainly left the door open, at least a little bit.
Why am I not getting excited? I mean, the Twins are 4.5 games back of the
Tigers with 17 games to go. The odds of the Twins making the playoffs are not
good, something like 11%, but they are technically still alive.
So why am I
not excited? Is it because they haven’t had that extended run that we all
thought they were capable of? Well, in reality, they did. They won 12 out of 15
games. And, let’s be honest, if they can win twelve or thirteen out of their
remaining games, there is a realistic chance that those games in the Dome on
the final weekend will be bigger than just a farewell to a stadium.
It’s mid-September. The Twins
are technically still in this thing. Help me out! Is there reason to be
positive and excited? I think there are.
1.) Those infamous seven games remaining with the Tigers
provide an opportunity.
2.) The Tigers have been bad. Their pitching situation is
arguably worse than the Twins. Yes, they have Justin Verlander, Edwin Jackson and Rick Porcello,
but their bullpen has been a mess.
3.) Maybe the Twins front office did know what they were
doing in NOT acquiring Jarrod Washburn.
We are so quick to be negative on the guys that got away that we often forget
to say thank you for all the cases in which that is a good thing (See also, Joe Nelson, Juan Cruz, Eric Gagne
and too many more to mention in this).
4.) The Twins have Joe
Mauer.
5.) The Twins have Denard Span.
6.) The Twins have Michael
Cuddyer and Jason
Kubel.
7.) Scott Baker has been very good of late.
8.) Carl Pavano has been
as good as expected.
9.) Nick
Blackburn had his struggles, but he
has also shown a propensity for pitching really well in really big games.
10.)
Brian Duensing is still doing something to keep hitters off balance.
11.)
The Bullpen is
much improved, now making the 7th through 9th innings a
little easier to breathe in.
So what else do you have? Let’s
start being a little more positive! Why not? Worst case, we’re wrong, but we still
get to enjoy only three more weeks of baseball before the long winter
offseason. Are there other reasons to be positive about?
I have to be honest and ask,
aren’t you (like me) tired of being negative? This is a .500 team, why can’t the
positive at least equal the negative? I mean, I too can look at the bottom of
the batting order and see Nick Punto in the
lineup. Last night’s lineup had Buscher, Matt Tolbert and Punto
at the bottom. That doesn’t create much excitement. But it is what it is. We
can complain as much as we want about Danny
Valencia (or Brock Peterson) not
being up here right now, but that isn’t our decision, so no need for us to
dwell on it. (No, I don’t get it either!) We can complain when Mike Redmond catches, as he likely will
today, but we need to get over it. It’s easy to look at Michael Cuddyer’s WPA, but I prefer to
look at the .270 with 25 homers.
Seriously, sometimes it’s
much more fun to just step back and enjoy the baseball. I know I need to do that.
Let’s just enjoy these final three weeks or before we know it, it’ll be gone.
And then the offseason starts and we can all analyze away!!
World Cup Update:
·
Monday
o
Nelvin Fuentes pitched a scoreless inning for Mexico.
o
Luke Hughes
hit a home run.
o
Matt Willams got a win for Australia. He went 1.2 innings and gave
up an unearned run.
o
Rene Tosoni went 3-4 with his second homer and second steal of the tournament.
o
Trevor Plouffe went 2-3 with a walk, a double and a stolen base.
·
Tuesday
o
Trevor Plouffe was 1-3 with a walk and another double.
NFL “Expert” Picks Update
Although the page is still a work in progress, I have set
up the 2009 FB Picks web page. It will include the bios, updated standings and
the weekly picks. Our panel did well in week one. As a group, our selections
went 13-3. Six participants went 14-2 (Jeff
Manship, Phil
Mackey, Nick Nelson, Parker Hageman,
Josh Johnson, Brian Pietrzak and Andrew Kneeland). With no Thursday games
this week, the Week 2 picks will be posted on Friday.
If you have any opinions,
comments or updates, please leave them in the Comments
section.