My thoughts....

I know this is a few weeks late, but it's been kinda busy so I had to put off doing this. Everyone has done their posts on who should stay and who should go this off season for the Twins. I, personally, thought a lot of this talk stemmed from an article from Patrick Reusse on the Star Tribune's website.

I think to start this off, the first item that I wanted to talk about was the article from Reusse. I think the Twins would be crazy to get rid of Nathan. He is by far the best closer in the Major Leagues and he was a great trade in order to get rid of AJ the ass. Sure he had a rough time during the playoffs, but we can't put the whole blame on him. The umps blew calls, the guys missed plays and in my mind you can't beat a team that uses steroids.

Trading Nathan would be the biggest mistake the Twins could ever make. In all honesty, I think the Twins need to bring back pretty much every single players we had this season. It worked from 2008 to this year forcing yet again another game 163, I think it could work again for 2010.

I even think they need to bring Joe Crede back. I love how I was against him being here to begin with, but he's grown on me and I think he's a real asset to the team. The doctors told the front office that the artificial turf was going to be tough on Crede's back, but I really think by being out on real grass next season, like he's used to playing on, we could really see Crede shine and help this team out all season.

I guess when it all comes down to it, the only person I can think of that needs to go, far, far, far away; is Glen Perkins. To me the guy brought down our pitching staff. He brought down the team. His constant complaining about his elbow, when no one could find anything wrong with him. I personally think it was all in his head, he knew his pitching sucked so he made up every excuse possible to not have to pitch.

Class Is In Session

The one thing that has always bummed me out with the Twins is whenever they are given a free pass, so-to-speak, they always seem to mess it up. Tonight is a prime example. Detroit lost 3 to 1 against Tampa Bay and the Sox were creamed by the Yankees, meaning the Twins had the perfect chance to gain some more ground on Chicago and close that gap between us and Detroit. Did we capitalize on it? Of course we didn't because that seems to be what the Twins do best.

I'm not sure if any of these guys on the team own a calendar or realize what month it's going to be in 2 days, but we're running out of time to do something to get into post season, cause the wild card ain't going to happen.

Boys, let me spell it out for you, everyone take a seat:

Let's start off with this: the definition of capitalize is as follows; "to take advantage of; turn something to one's advantage"

1) When the team you are chasing in the standings loses, you HAVE to capitalize on it. Meaning you HAVE to WIN.

2) When the team you are competing with for 2nd place loses, you HAVE to capitalize on it, again, meaning you HAVE to WIN.

3) When you are giving an opportunity to do something great, you HAVE to WIN.

Do you see a pattern here? All you have to do is win and be consistent with it and the rest will fall into place. I don't understand why it's so hard for everyone to figure out.


Enough about that depressing game and onto today's fun festivities with Betsy and my nephew, Skyler. Joe Crede and Denard span were signing at the two Best Buy locations in Eden Prairie. We hit up Joe Crede first with hopes that we would be able to get over to see Denard when we were done. Denard's signing started at 11 and Joe's was at 11:30. Okay, first off, the TV does not do Joe Crede justice. He is gorgeous in person but very quiet, which we all seemed to know about anyway.

Then we headed out of there and over to see Denard, who is by far the nicest person from the team that I have ever met (Cuddy I'm sorry, but you are a close second!) He is so humble and so friendly it's unreal. He was giving Betsy and I a hard time because we were laughing at something Skyler did. He promptly looked at Skyler and told him to stay strong.

Skyler and Joe Crede (you couldn't tell Skyler was excited to meet him at all waiting in line)

Denard and Skyler (Skyler promptly told my brother when I dropped him off that Denard was his new favorite player)

Hopefully we can do something good during tomorrow's game before Chicago comes back into town.

Tomorrow: Timmy (12-7) against Kevin Millwood (10-8). You know what you need to do tomorrow Timmy. Go out there and DO IT!

Holy Trades Batman!

So I wasn't home for the game tonight, so I can't comment on much of it other than this:

1) Brian Duensing = amazing performance tonight! 8 strikeouts in 7 innings? Not normal for a guys making only his 3rd major league start. I had to laugh though, Betsy sent me a text while I was out saying that Brian got a hair cut, the only reason I found that funny, had to do with the conversation in the comments of this post. Apparently he listens well and the job isn't even mine yet!


2) Joe Nathan = Damn it man! How many time did I have to scream at my radio that you only had to face 3? And then I turn it off and you get the final out. You're on deck for the hair cut line ;-)


3) I'm sad that Crede is going on the DL (I will make sure and tell him that in the morning when Betsy and I see him) But at the same time, we get our White Sox killer back in time for that series starting Monday!

Welcome back Jose!

So with all that outta the way, apparently the Indians took Yohan Pino from Triple A Rochester to complete that trade. But now we have two more....

Jon Rauch from the Diamondbacks and apparently Ron Mahay from the Royals. I always hate it when trades are done and it's "for a player to be announced later". I'm one of those people that sits on pins and needles hoping it's not one of my guys. More than likely it will be someone from Triple A or even Double A, but you just never know.

I just find it funny that Smith is trying to make all these changes now. Where were they months ago? At the rate he's going we're going to be playing ball in September with a totally new starting rotation and bull pen. I heard there is one more trade in the works, but nothing has really been said about it online anywhere.

Here's to hoping all this actually helps and doesn't hurt us in the end.

Say goodbye to Tampa Bay...

At least this road series wasn't a sweep, which I was expecting. But I did think that with Tampa having 9 players on the DL we would have stood a better chance of winning more then one game. But hey, that's the Twinkie way right?

As a rule, I like/"love" all the guys on the team, but after his performance yesterday, I am not very happy with Frankie. I realize he really hasn't been himself since he had the Tommy John's surgery a couple years ago, but to openly admit that you don't know what you are doing, that you don't know what pitches to throw, to me that say's you've lost it and to Triple A you should go. It's the catchers job to call the game, don't shake off the pitches he signals. I'm pretty sure Joe and Mike know what they are doing.

But Gardy and Andy both think he can still handle it, so here is where he stays. I think he needs to go back to Triple A and Swarzy should stay in as a starter. He has been so impressive his first two starts and at only 23, he has a lot of potential in the big leagues :) Today's performance by Blackie made up for the lack luster performance last night so that's a plus.

I would love it if we could make it through a game without someone getting dinged up! Today was Cuddy, out with a sprained right index finger, yesterday was Crede, and I guess you could also say was Mauer after the beating he took behind the plate. Apparently he has bruises all up and down the inside of his thighs, one on his rib cage and one on his right leg where he fouled a pitch off it. How that man manges to win batting titles after getting beat up really says something about his performance.

And to end today on a lighter note. Kevin Slowey during yesterdays game and Denard Span's mom had to be the highlights of the weekend. Listening to Kevin yesterday while talking to Perkins was the best thing during the game. "I feel like I'm at a rave, not a baseball game." Denard's mom, she's so cute! You can tell she's so proud of her boy.

Now come on home guys, the "dome magic" is waiting for you.

So I decided I needed to redo this blog and use it for baseball related stuff since I'm pretty sure all my friend on LiveJournal are tired of all the baseball stuff.

So if anyone wants to see my pictures from the game last night let me know and I'll post them here too!

I never, NEVER, wanna see Joe cringe like that during a game again. My heart was in my toes.

For the love of God, we were already down Crede for getting hit in the hand by a pitch and then they hit Joe. Not cool Milwaukee!

And all I have to say is, Joe Mauer for the 2009 Batting Champ! A 437 foot homerun to right field, upper deck no less. This coming from a guy who always hits his homers to left.

And then after hitting Joe, with bases loaded, Justin with the game winning grand slam. And Scotty going 8 1/3 innings. Best outing all season.

This is the team I love, this is the team I've missed. I will never give up on this team.