Monday,
December 10, 2007
Weekend Update
Hey everybody! Happy Monday! After taking Thursday and Friday off
to travel to Nebraska for the funeral of my grandma, it is back to work on
Monday. I don’t have anything official or new, so today will be a series of
bullet points and random thoughts:
·
Although
I knew it, I verified that my great-grandma’s maiden name was Duensing. She was from northeast Kansas, in a small town
near Marysville, Kansas, the town where Brian Duensing
was born and much of him family still lives. What does that mean? I’m not really
sure. I think it means there is a chance that Brian Duensing and I are something like 5th
cousins. Duensing started the season by going 4-1 wit
ha 2.66 ERA in nine starts with New Britain before being called up to
Rochester. There, he went 11-5 with a 3.24 ERA in 19 starts. He then was taken
off of the Twins Arizona Fall League list because he was invited to pitch for
Team USA in the World Cup. He was the starting pitcher against Cuba in the
championship game, a game that Team USA won.
·
Speaking
of the Rochester Red Wings and Brian Duensing, if you
are looking for a great stocking stuff for a Twins fan, be sure to pick up a
copy of the
2007 Rochester Red Wings Season in Review. I got my copy this weekend and
sat down and watched it. Having followed all of the team’s box scores all
season, it was a lot of fun to see the players and the plays, the home runs and
the great plays. Box scores are great, but to actually see the players and the
plays was really a lot of fun! Seeing the reaction when Jason Miller got his
call up to the Twins was great. Seeing highlights of the likes of Kevin Slowey and Tommy Watkins, Matt Garza and even David Gassner, was really great. Josh Whetzel and Jeff Coltoniak did a great job narrating and writing for the
video. Jim Mandelaro, Joe Altobelli
and wIng nUT did a great
job adding a lot to the video. There are plenty of very interesting and
entertaining extras as well including information on the team’s 50th
year which was celebrated throughout the year. Two of my personal favorite
Twins minor leaguers of the last few years had a couple of highlights. Trent Oeltjen had a couple of big hits and a great diving catch
in CF. For Doug Deeds, they only showed his two homer
game late in the season. A couple of things that did surprise me were that Matt
Tolbert’s first half and Jose Morales’s batting title weren’t really mentioned
much. I have the 2006 version as well, and it was great, but they definitely
improved with the 2007 version. So, check it out and pick one up for the
baseball fan’s in your life!
·
The
Vikings got of to a fast start, as in first play was an interception return for
TD by DT Kevin Williams. It was the first of three interceptions by Vikings
Defensive Tackles. The amazing story of the day was that Adrian Peterson had 14
carries for three yards. Chester Taylor had eight carries for 104 yards. The
amazing thing there was that one of those runs went for 84 yards, an AP-type
run. Tavaris Jackson was good again. The Defense was incredible
as ever. That was helped by a 49ers offense that is as good as it gets. Did you
know that if the season ended today and the playoffs would start, the Vikings
would be the #6 seed and playing the Seattle Seahawks, a team that they could definitely
beat.
·
So,
the big question now is: Were the Vikings right about Tarvaris
Jackson? Was he worth their 2nd round pick last year? Obviously he
has the physical gifts necessary to play in the league, but we hadn’t seen it
until three weeks ago. Is it real?
·
Former
Twins reliever LaTroy Hawkins is about to sign a one year, $3.75 million contract
with the New York Yankees. It’ll be interesting to see how he does in the
spotlight.
·
While
listening to Sid Hartmann’s Sunday morning radio show, a caller who claimed to
have been at the Winter Meetings in Nashville. He said that he had spent some
time talking to a person associated with the New York Mets and had been told
that the Mets are trying to acquire Brandon Inge from
the Detroit Tigers. The Mets would, in turn, trade Inge
to the Twins for Boof Bonser.
I personally am not a big Brandon Inge fan.
Defensively he would be good or a little better than good. Offensively, he is
clearly a step above Nick Punto, but not a huge step,
and is signed for a few more years at a price higher than Punto’s.
So, unless the Tigers and Mets would be chipping in big time, I don’t see the
benefit.
·
Having
spent a couple of days in Nebraska and in a car, I realized that being a Twins
fan, even with many of the fanatics, is not so bad. College football fans in
Nebraska are absolutely crazy. Since they don’t have an NFL team to really
cheer for as their own, the Cornhuskers football team takes precedence over all
else. So, not making a bowl game this year is a major story! A new head coach
with ties to the old Black Shirts (Bo Pellini) will
certainly help them get there.
·
Kevin
Slowey is
quite the chef!
·
Remember
Joe Mauer’s inside the park homer off of the Angels’ Scot
Shields?
·
Former
Twin Tim Teufel will remain the manager of the
Mets Hi-A Florida State League in Port St. Lucis.
·
Red
Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has decided to throw his support toward John McCain
in the 2008 Presidential race. I listened to part of a town hall meeting that
they appeared at in New Hampshire last week. So, I thought I would check out his blog (38
Pitches) to find out more.
·
Congratulations
to Jake Mauer on his wedding on Saturday!
·
If
you would like to know a little more about Red Sox prospect Clay Buchholz, here is a great video of him
answering several fan’s questions.
·
This
Rotoworld report says that the Twins have
interest in Aaron Rowand, which doesn’t make a lot of
sense to me. Even worse, it mentions that the Twins are still in contact with
Luis Gonzalez. Now, can someone please explain to me what value Luis Gonzalez
would add to the Twins at this point in his career??
·
Ah, Torii
Hunter memories… courtesy David Ortiz.
·
Are the White
Sox slipping into irrelevance?
·
The
Twins have seven
players currently eligible for arbitration. They have until Wednesday to
offer them arbitration, or to non-tender them:
o
Justin
Morneau – sign him to a four year deal!
o
Juan
Rincon – NON-TENDER!! Or trade him before then.
o
Jason
Kubel – sign him to a four year deal.
o
Michael
Cuddyer – sign him for three or four years.
o
Matt Guerrier – sign him for two years.
o
Craig
Monroe – Non-Tender probably. Although he wouldn’t be a horrible bench guy.
o
Jason
Tyner – just offer arbitration and he will probably make about $800,000. In a
year when his salary would be over $1 million, then Jason Pridie
of Denard Span can take over 5th OF
duties.
·
The
Mets Geek asks, “How
Good is Carlos Silva?” See what he found out.
·
But could Silva end
up back with the Phillies?
·
How
much was Scott Baker worth to the Twins? Viva El Birdos tried to figure out some dollar values because
he, like Tony Larussa and many with the Cardinals,
wants to get rid of Scott Rolen. He also wants that
deal to be with the Twins.
·
I’m
sure many of you want to know that Sidney Ponson threw four scoreless innings down in the Dominican
Winter League.
·
Bobby
Mitchell played for the Twins in 1982 and 1983. He was just named the manager of Salt
Lake City, the AAA affiliate of the Angels.
·
Sometimes
the worst hitters
become the best managers… sometimes the worst pitchers make the best
pitching coaches… or at least they can still become
pitching coaches.
·
Bleed Cubbies
Blue has new lyrics for Adam Sandler’s Hannukah song, and he explains more into
the Rod Carew lyrics.
·
Brent
Brede played for the Twins in 1996 and 1997. He is now a teacher and basketball
coach at Wesclin High School in Trenton,
Illinois.
Is that enough for today? Well, it’s all I’ve got time for. Have a
great week, and be sure to stop back tomorrow for a Q&A with a Twins minor
leaguer. If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me or leave
Comments below.