High and Tight.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Q: Name the Last Twins Pitcher to Win a Game in the Bronx

A: Johan Santana (2007)

Pretty crazy, huh?

Labels: johan santana, playoffs, twins

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 9:22 AM 4 comments

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Brian Duensing is Starting Game One for the Twins

Brian Duensing has a 13.50 ERA and 2.25 WHIP against the Yankees.

God bless extra innings.

Labels: playoffs, twins

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 11:31 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Guest Blogger: Rob Neyer

OK, not really... but as I promised to explain why Mauer was the best choice for MVP today, I came across Neyer's article which stated everything I wished to and probably more eloquently. Thus, I present a snippet from the esteemed Mr. Neyer:

Aside from his height, there's nothing unique about Dustin Pedroia. Unusual: yes. Unique: no. Chase Utley plays the game right, and is a better hitter and a better fielder than Pedroia. Utley stole 14 bases this season, and was caught twice. Pedroia stole 20 bases, and was caught once. I'm sorry, but one steal per month just doesn't contribute much to uniqueness.

Clutch hitting? Pedroia's career numbers in the clutch are nothing special.

The Red Sox wouldn't have reached the playoffs without Pedroia? That's a mighty tough case to make. At season's end, the Red Sox owned a six-game lead over the Yankees in the wild-card standings. I dare say that even if Dustin Pedroia had never been born, the Red Sox would still have finished ahead of the Yankees in 2008. (And if it's really Pedroia's pure force of will that's driving the Red Sox to win, then they won't have to worry about retaining Jason Varitek. Might as well measure Pedroia for that captain's C right now!)

It's not so obvious that Pedroia was the American League's Most Valuable Player. He didn't do anything that Chase Utley didn't do, and Utley finished 14th in the National League's MVP balloting.

Which isn't to suggest that Pedroia wasn't an outstanding MVP candidate. This was an odd year in the American League. Of the four postseason teams, three -- every team but the Red Sox -- simply lacked a viable candidate. Chicago's Carlos Quentin quite probably would have won the award if he hadn't missed the last five weeks of the season. But he did, which left only Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis among those in the playoff money. There's really not a great deal to choose from between them. If you value hitting most of all, Youkilis is your man. If you value the other things, it's Pedroia.

On the other hand, if you value players who missed the postseason, there were other fine candidates, particularly Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. And their team just missed the postseason; in fact, I suspect that a fair number of MVP voters completed their ballots before the Twins lost to the White Sox in their one-game playoff for the Central flag.

We know that Joe McDonald was right: Pedroia did win, and convincingly. While he didn't significantly outpoint runner-up Justin Morneau, he did pick up 16 first-place votes compared to only seven for Morneau. That's apparently the difference between making the playoffs and not making the playoffs.

But now I want to make the case for my choice: Joe Mauer.

This season Mauer became the first catcher in major league history to win two batting titles. He finished second in the American League in on-base percentage. He won a Gold Glove. Measured by Baseball Prospectus' Wins Above Replacement Player (which considers defense), Mauer finished a close second to Pedroia. Measured by Bill James' Win Shares (which also considers defense, along with clutch hitting), Mauer finished first in the American League, with Pedroia a couple of wins behind. Measured by Win Probability Added (no defense, but clutch hitting especially), Mauer finished first in the league, with Pedroia eighth.

None of these things can tell us everything we need to know, but I'm willing to say that Joe Mauer was one of the three best players in the American League, and that Dustin Pedroia might have been.

What I'm not willing to say -- what I'll probably never be willing to say -- is that Joe Mauer deserved to finish behind Justin Morneau in the MVP balloting again. Two years ago, there was virtually no evidence that Morneau was more valuable than Mauer, yet Morneau finished first and Mauer finished sixth. This year, there is virtually no evidence that Morneau was more valuable than Mauer, and yet Morneau finished second and Mauer finished fourth.

Let me just add that Mauer caught - not played in, not pinch hit in, not filled in defensively during, but caught - 137 games. That's value, especially with having to work with such a young pitching staff and getting good results from them.

As for Morneau, writers seem to have a hard on for him. We've had this fight before when Mauer gets passed over for his less-deserving teammate.

Pedroia however is becoming a perfect storm of media love and I don't think there's any way of stopping it. Scrappy? Check. White? Check. Short? Check. Gets dirty? Check. All of the Ecksteinian qualities are present. Add in some decent stats, and he should win the MVP of everything every season from now on.

Labels: dustin pedroia, joe mauer, MVP, redsox, rob neyer, twins

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 10:43 AM 1 comments

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Season Boils Down to the Next Week and a Half

The Yankees enter play today 10 games out of the East. We can pretty much forget about that, for all intents and purposes. The hope here is the wildcard.

Currently, the Yankees stand 5.5 games behind Boston, and 4 games behind Minnesota for the wildcard, with 38 games left to play.

Boston has 2 more games at Baltimore, 3 at Toronto, then come to the Stadium for 3 against the Yanks before heading back to Fenway to take on the White Sox.

The Twins play the AL West: they have two more at home against Oakland, and then have a 4-game stretch at Anaheim against the Angels, 3 in Seattle, and 4 at the A's.

The Yankees have 3 games at Toronto, 3 at Baltimore, and then come home for 3 against both the Red Sox and Jays.

For the Yankees to have a realistic shot at making a real push, they're going to need to get hot, and fast.

Let's say they can go 4-2 over the next 6 vs. Toronto and Baltimore. In order to gain ground of course, the Sox and Twins will have to lose. Assuming they both simply play .500 ball, that's still only a game to a game and a half gain in the standings.

The bottom line here is to avoid needing to sweep the Red Sox next week, the Yankees will need to pick up a minimum of one game - preferably two - before the series with Boston begins on the 26th.

The Yankees' fate isn't in their own hands this year. They need to win games and also have other teams help them out.

A bad couple of series over the next week or so though and the season is over.

This is despite what notirious Yankee hater Jeff Passan has to say over at Yahoo!

Labels: jeff passan, playoffs, redsox, standings, twins, wildcard, yahoo

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 1:13 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Dude, They're Getting a Delmon

According to the Star-Tribune of the Mini Apple, the Twins have been busy on other fronts.

The Twins and Tampa Bay Rays are close to finalizing a multi-player deal, according to several sources with knowledge of the discussions. The deal could be announced as soon as today.

The main pieces changning teams would be outfielder Delmon Young, the first overall pick in 2003, and righthander Matt Garza. But indications were strong on Wednesday that as many as six players could be involved.

In addition to Garza, the Twins would send Tampa Bay shortstop Jason Bartlett and reliever Juan Rincon for Young, shortstop Brendan Harris and outfielder Jason Pridie. Pridie was with the Twins during spring training of 2006 as a Rule 5 pick.

There are a few ways to look at this deal:

The Twins plan to hold on to Santana for 2008, because without Garza they'll need pitcing.
The Twins plan to try Pirdie or Young in CF and now are targeting different players that match up better in return for Santana.
The Twins have a deal involving Nathan on the table in which they acquire a young third baseman, and only want pitching for Santana.
The market wasn't what the Twins thought it could be for Santana, so they are willing to take a larger package of less ML-ready talent and build around the young core they now have.

I don't think this deal helps the Yankees in their quest for Santana unless the latter is the case. Could the Twins be willing to accept Kennedy/Horne/Marquez with an eye towards 2009-10? It's possible I suppose.

I still think the only place Santana wants to go is New York. Torii Hunter and Ron Gardenhire have all but said that, and since he's got a NTC, he holds all of the cards as far as his destination. If the Yankees and Santana both play hardball, it would mean a lesser package or Santana filing free agency after the 2008 season.

The down side of this of course is that the Twins may not have to ask the Red Sox for Ellsbury anymore which would facilitate a better match with them.... if, of course, Santana agrees.

It will all come down to where Johan wants to pitch.

Labels: delmon young, johan santana, trade rumors, twins

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 5:08 PM 0 comments