Stats Time

Kudos to Kubes on his 3 run homer! Nice going Jason :-) And what's with all the guys getting hair cuts? Everyone leaves for 4 days and we have guys coming back with no hair!

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So while I was watching tonight's game, I decided to do a little comparison of a couple of our players. It's nothing too in-depth or nothing too complicated, it's basically just comparing numbers for 4 players:

	AB	H	SO	R	RBI	AVG
Young	192	51	59	20	25	.266
Casilla	111	20	21	8	5	.180
Morales	67	23	10	10	4	.343
Redmond	89	21	10	5	4	.236

I had thought about doing this after I heard that Jose had yet again been sent back to Rochester, but then after seeing Casilla's piss-poor performance tonight I knew I needed to do this post. It didn't surprise me that he went 0 for 4, it really didn't because I didn't expect him to do any better, that and Bert did pick him for Pick the Stick so Betsy's theory still stands true!

I understand that Bill Smith says we need a 12-man pitching staff and Gardy has said the same thing. I can see that we need a bigger pitching staff considering some of our starting pitchers have struggled lately. And Smith says having the third catcher is a luxury, fine whatever, but from what I have read Jose can be used in other areas in the infield and his batting average is so much better than Alexi.

Now I know this is probably going to set a few people off, but my opinion on the whole Redmond/Morales thing is this. While I have nothing but respect for Redmond and think he's a wonderful catcher, I strongly believe that Morales needs to be in the majors. He has nothing but proven himself while he's been up here doing everything that's been asked of him plus he knows how to kill the White Sox when we need it the most.

Delmon is a totally different area. He can be on the top of this game one day, making great plays, hitting the ball all over the place and then there are days where I can sit down and watch a game and wonder why is he still here? There are other people that deserve a chance. I know he went through the rough period with his mother dying and that's understandable, but lately I just don't know.

We need strong defense and strong offense and I'm a little iffy if we can get that from the line up we have right now.

Champs yet again

Post derby celebration? Or pre-all star game celebration?

Even though Joe was knocked out of the home run derby in the first round it looked like he still had fun it with and I thought it was really nice of him to ask Jimmy O'Neil to do the pitching for him. Once Joe was out, I was personally pulling for Cruz, but I knew going up against Fielder it was going to be tough.

Joe, didn't your mother teach you it's not nice to stick your tongue out at people?

I will admit that I was a little concerned going into tonight's All Star game considering who the National League had in their lineup, but once I found out that our Joe Nathan was getting the 8th and Mariano Rivera was getting the 9th, I knew if we could manage to make it to the 8th with a lead we stood a really good chance of taking yet another All Star game away from the National League.

Congrats to our three all star guys, Joe, Joe, and Justin for a well played game along with the entire American league team! It was nice to see Jason and Justin on the field at the same time again playing together. I miss Barty. I wish he was still here.

I'm giving Carl Crawford a gold star for that catch he made in the 7th inning. That right there was a game saver and he totally deserved MVP for that.


I had to laugh though when Buehrle was out for his inning and they said it was a typical inning for him, when I saw him on Sunday, he was anything but typical!

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Since we're at the half way point in the season, I know a few people (my bosses and my dad) are counting the Twins out of the post season already. I, being the true fan I am, say bullshit. There is still a lot of season left and I strongly think with the right attitude and the right motivation (Justin and Joe, take note in this) this team can be so much more than a .500 team, we came so close last year and I, personally, would love to see the Dome go out in style and what a better way to do that than with another division title and a trip to the World Series (plus I'm saving some vacation time for a reason guys).

Just little minor things from the weekend I forgot:

~ Alexi Casilla will be rejoining the team for our trip to Texas meaning we had to say goodbye to someone. Matty Tolbert got the "kick in the pants" as my brother puts it. I personally like Matty better then Alexi, but I'm willing to give him one more try to prove he can put all these little mental mistakes past him.

~ Gardy has also said the team will have a 12-man pitching staff when they go to Texas this weekend. Now my question is, who gets sent back to Rochester or do they put Boof on the 60-day DL and open a spot on the roster? Really the only person we have that can go down is Jose Morales and I may just cry if he gets sent back. We need him up here!

Enjoy the rest of your time off guys and bring your A-game when we get to Texas on Friday!

Random thoughts

I was so looking forward to a sweep this weekend, but I suppose since we were playing in the friendly confines of Wrigley we should let them win one, it's the Minnesota nice thing to do after all.

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There really is no theme to this series post, so here are some random thoughts that I have on the weekend:

* We said goodbye to Alexi (again) & Swarzy and hello to LNP & Jose (again). Alexi going back to AAA didn't surprise me, but after his performance on Saturday, saying goodbye to Swarzy is tougher then I thought. He has proven he can pitch against the best of them and I'm already set to welcome him back when we get extra roster spots in the fall (if not sooner).
* Joey's power and performance this season still amazes me. I'm not sure where it's all coming from (not that I'm complaining). I did have to laugh in Friday's game when they were talking about the garage door and the next thing I know I'm seeing Joey's ball go right over the garage door.
* I was impressed with all our starters for this series and our relief pitching had actually picked up a bit.

Now the guys get to come home for a week, they are all probably ready to sleep in their own beds, I know I would be!

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Random funny item for the weekend, I purchased the 2009 Official Team Yearbook today at the Pro Shop while out shopping and was reading Ernie's page (Justin) and he said his biggest fear was flying. I wonder how that works out for him?

Thanks for your support

It's a little odd doing this before the series is over, but tomorrow night will be spent packing for the wedding I have to attend this weekend (I'm in the wedding so I really have to go). Twitter girls...I'll be tweeting on and off via my cell so I'll be checking in for game updates Friday and Saturday!

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At least tonight's game wasn't a shut out, we got that going for us. This game was depressing to say the least.

~ Slowey's performance from last night was amazing as usual (even with the walk and runs). Swarzy tonight, poor Swarzy. So many people that I have talked to since his first start have been expecting that every game since. He's young, he's still learning. I still love him even though he had an off day today. It happens to the best of them, he can learn from this and move on to his next start against Oakland on Monday.

~ I'm not sure how much more of Ayala I can take and I really hope to God when Papa Perk comes off the DL, Ayala goes back to Rochester. I do agree with K-Bro, I miss the days when we had the best bullpen in the league. What happened to that team?

~ Homerun number 12 for the baseball boyfriend last night. I do love watching him hit those homers! I also love that I get a phone call from my nephew after each and every one going "Auntie Katie! Did you see Joe hit that one?!" Skyler wants to be Joe Mauer when he gets older, I think it's adorable.

~ Carlos Gomez, you are the honorary baseball boyfriend of the series. One with that catch you made on Tuesday. That was a work of art, simply priceless! Second for getting into it with the cocky Cliff Lee tonight (I really do hate that guy). You really should have just smacked him and I would have chipped in to help pay the fine. But also for getting that single off him the next time you saw him. Take that Cliff Lee.

~ Oh and I remember tonight why we sent Little Lexi down to AAA.

Overall tonight's game, we had no offense, no defense, no bullpen. It's like they just forgot to show up.

Boys a suggestion for you all...

Go home tonight and sleep. Actually remember to show up tomorrow, go out there and at least win the series.