To Celebrate or Not To Celebrate

I know I missed the Toronto and Boston series, but Toronto wasn't exciting and I really didn't wanna talk about Boston so we'll move onto the next series which we all know was the Brewers.

It was a little disappointing that JJ wasn't able to play against his former teammates, it would have been nice to see (I'm just hoping he's back in time for my games on Thursday and Friday). We were able to see our old teammate GoGo.

I know this has been discussed in other blogs, but since I waited till today to do this and don't remember much from the series other than that marathon game from Saturday (did everyone else think that game would never end?) As we all know GoGo hit a home run against Nicky on Friday night and apparently that was a no no according to a few people. Okay the home run may not have been the no no but the celebration after was.

Everyone in Twins Territory knows how GoGo is and I have to admit it's nice to see he hasn't changed any. So he celebrated getting a home run. I'm sitting here watching the Boston/Tampa game and David Oritz hit a home run and pretty much acted the same way. You aren't going to see anyone making a big deal out of that tomorrow morning, so why did GoGo's have to be made into such a big deal?

Apparently people didn't like that his bat hit Mauer and something about his little hand movements after he reached home plate. He apologized after the game, but in my opinion he really didn't have anything to apologize for. He was reacting to hitting a home run just like any other batter would.

So that poses the question, should batters "celebrate" hitting a home run or not?

What A Drag...

So since I won't be around for much of the game today I figured I would do a random post now with some highlights and low-lights from the weekend.

"Fancy meeting you here"

Highlights from Friday and Saturday:

~Denard got his first home run of the season

~ Justin came back into the lineup with a bang with a 2 run home run plus a mysterious home run that I don't even remember seeing on Saturday. Did anyone else see it?

~Jeff Manship pitched what I thought was a flawless 6 innings in his first start of the season.

~Drew Butera was on fire with his defensive skills (only to get screwed over that's for later)

~We finished the month of April 15 -8!


Low-lighs from Friday and Saturday

~We lost Nick Blackburn for at least 3 days due to being placed on the bereavement list. I really hope that everything is okay.

~We lost Luke Hughes to AAA Rochester with Punto coming back off the DL

~We lost Patty Neshek to the DL with what they are saying is "inflammation of the middle finger" I wonder how true it really is.

~We lost Joe Mauer with a bruised heel and he could end up on the DL

~News came in that Jose Morales may be out longer then expected with another injury to his catching wrist.

It also was announced today that if Mauer goes on the DL that Wilson Ramos would be the starting catcher. I don't agree with that at all. Yeah Drew may not have the best bat in the world, but he rates right up there with Mauer in being a good defensive catcher. My opinion is one player can't carry the weight of the team on his shoulders and one bat isn't going to make or break this team. There are 9 guys that bat on this team, if one can't do it, there are 8 other guys that can swing to.

Obviously I don't know enough about Ramos to judge him and I need to see him play first, but I feel bad for Drew. He's the one that made the camp outta spring training and he's still getting
screwed in the end.

Today we have Crisco (3-0) against Huff (1-3). I have faith in Frankie to go out there and get this series and for this team to get back on track.

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.

If you can't stand the heat...

First off, I am stepping up to the plate (no pun intended) and saying that I will take the blame for the game today. I had to leave at the end of the first inning and then it seemed that all hell broke lose for Kevin. I also say let's blame it on the heat as it messed with his mechanics and just threw him off balance. We all know he's better then what we saw today, hoping it's still enough to get him back to St. Louis for the All-Star game.

I really have no point to today's post, but some random observations that I took note of during the parts of the game that I did see:

* I am proud of Cuddy for being the bigger man in the 5th inning. Casey is going to have quite the role model growing up. He should be proud of his daddy.

* I believe that Molina needs to grow up. Even my brother, in high school, was taught to aim for the glove when trying to make a play at home.


*Albert Pujols could just go away for the game tomorrow, that would be good, k, thanks :-)

* Sean Henn looks like Hulk Hogan... at least from the back with the hair.

* After seeing Keppel pitch today, the jury is still out.

* I totally had to laugh at Kevin today and the farmers tan he was rocking under that jersey.

Rumor has it that Steve Tolleson might be on his way up from Triple A if LNP doesn't show he's healthy enough to play. I've been waiting in this series to see if Cuddy will get his chance to start at 2nd base that everyone has been talking about. I really do feel bad for Nicky, but maybe this will teach him to stop diving head first into first base.

Tomorrow: Frankie gets the start. Hopefully the heat won't get to him and we can get 7 quality innings out of him and give our bullpen another little breather.

Random Stuff

It's good to be home from the wedding, it's been a long and exhausting weekend.

First off, thanks to my Twitter Twins fans for tweeting during both games this weekend. It was nice to be able to know what was going on while I was away!

More then likely there will be no baseball post this weekend since I missed two of the games, so I will return after the series with Oakland.