Chicago White Sox @ Minnesota Twins

[Irishmans Shanty]

Ladies and Gentleman your 2007 Minnesota Twins........win one, lose one, win one, lose one, win two, lose three, win one, lose two, win three, lose one, win one, lose one.

To date, this is the way the book reads and the way they are currently constructed, I don't see it changing.

[packerboy]

Herbie told his players that they didnt have enough talent to win on talent alone.

Memo to Terry Ryan: Your pitchers aren't good enough to win on pitching alone.

John Danks. Who in the Boof is John Danks?

Just another in a long line of nobody pitchers who shut down the Twins offense.

[ChrisK]

I didn't see the game last night but it sounds like Ortiz kept his Radke impression going, emulating the 'bad' Radke this time.

Here's a question from last night's game. If it's so important to have Mauer and Morneau split up so you don't have two lefties hitting in a row, why was Hunter hitting 3rd, Cuddyer 4th and Morneau 5th last night??

And as bad as Kubel has looked recently, he's still hitting 40 points higher than Rabe who started in left field last night.

Last year the Twins went on their run when Ryan surprised me and made some decisive moves plus Liriano was moved into the starting rotation. This year there's no Tony Batista and Juan Castro to dump, no obvious Liriano waiting in the wings so it seems like any help that Ryan tries to get will have to come from outside the organization. His track record is good for offseason trades and pickups, but he has made a lot of mediocre trades during the season, Shannon Stewart notwithstanding.

The Twins don't need another Brett Boone and they are once again in need of a solid righthanded bat, Rabe is not showing that he's the guy. Will Ryan make the right move to fill the need?

[Irishmans Shanty]

Lack of Hitting Stat of the Day.

From May 2-9, the Twins have scored a total of 6 runs prior to the 7th inning.

[packerboy]

Chrisk wrote:"The Twins don't need another Brett Boone and they are once again in need of a solid righthanded bat, Rabe is not showing that he's the guy. Will Ryan make the right move to fill the need?"

Well Chris , guys like IS and myself have been begging for this for 2 years and you and BB and others have been saying "No, all we need is another pitcher"... "We cant trade a young pitcher for offense, it would destroy us forever "

What? Are you finally getting tired of watching these guys try to hit?

The organization has pitching depth. Use it to get some offense.

[Irishmans Shanty]

Ahhh......another early deficit.

Well, how many zeros is the good Cuban going to hang before the Twins can score (if they even do)?

Tyner, get the bunt down!

[packerboy]

Hey, come on now. Its only the third inning and they already have one hit.

Its bad when you cant hit but worse when you cant get a bunt down or move a runner over to 3rd with nobody out.

[Irishmans Shanty]

Hey, come on now. Its only the third inning and they already have one hit.

Its bad when you cant hit but worse when you cant get a bunt down or move a runner over to 3rd with nobody out.

Through 4, Contereras has faced the minumum.

The death blow, a potential second run for the Sox, stands at third with one out.

[Irishmans Shanty]

Mackowiak scores the second run, with only 15 outs to work with I don't see the Twins closing that gap.

[Irishmans Shanty]

Ozuna singles, 3-0 Sox.

Stop wasting your offense Chicago, save it for tomorrow. You have more than enough already.

[packerboy]

3 is a big number to put up.

But going against Danks and Contreras back to back is quite a task.

[boblee]

Well, it looks like May 8th was another Twins fakeout.

[ChrisK]

Chrisk wrote:"The Twins don't need another Brett Boone and they are once again in need of a solid righthanded bat, Rabe is not showing that he's the guy. Will Ryan make the right move to fill the need?"

Well Chris , guys like IS and myself have been begging for this for 2 years and you and BB and others have been saying "No, all we need is another pitcher"... "We cant trade a young pitcher for offense, it would destroy us forever "

What? Are you finally getting tired of watching these guys try to hit?

The organization has pitching depth. Use it to get some offense.

You're being revisionist in your memory of what I've said. At this time last year, before Liriano came through to save the day, the pitching staff was in complete shambles and the Twins were in dire need of pitching help. I feel that a team's focus should first be on pitching, then offense. The pitching depth that we have this year was not there at this time last year.

Two years ago, the year of Boone if I recall correctly, Lew Ford lead the team in OPS and there was no question that the hitting was anemic. The one thing that lineup had though was future potential as Mauer and Morneau were still young. If you recall, the Rangers wanted Liriano for a rent-a-Soriano and that's not a good deal, Ryan was right to turn that down.

This year's team is a team that should be competing for the pennant but they need offense. I've been vocal in my feeling that Punto should not be the regular third baseman and I've even come up with some suggestions for moves that Ryan could make.

[Irishmans Shanty]

I'm always looking for ways to trim the fat to save money for free agent hitters. I think the Twins should eliminate the base coaching positions as they have so few customers anyway. Get the bench players like Rabe or Rodriguez to put a helmet on and take turns down at first. Gardy then can get his globes out of the dugout and flash signs at third.

Maybe laying of Ulger and/or White will give them enough money to sign someone like a Brian Jordan to give them that extra infusion of pop in the order.

[Irishmans Shanty]

Now that the Twins offensive play has made the action on the screen only peripheral to other stimuli, I notice that MLB.com's gameday is reporting that the wind speed in the dome is -1.

I know Govs and ERE are at the game today, I hope they can give me some insight on what a -1mph wind feels like.

[packerboy]

ChrisK wrote: "The pitching depth that we have this year was not there at this time last year. "

Bullship. They don' t have Liriano nor your hero Radke and have added Poson and Ortiz. Bullpen is virtually unchanged. The prospects are down in Rochester. The pitching depth has stayed the same.

Its still early but it doesnt look like the hitters are going to have the career years they had last year.

I am not too worried about Mauer nor Morneau and Hunter will probably end up as he usually does. Castillo is Castillo. But the rest of these guys are bad news.

Kubel, Punto, Bartlett , Cuddyer, Redmond and the unleftfielder are not going to contribute much.

They need offensive help.
But this is not new.

Chris, you and ohers are so proud of your "pitching first' approach. Right now all its getting them is a lot of low scoring losses accompanied by quality starts cuz they cant hit.

Pitching is very important but Ryan hasnt assembled a staff of Hall of Famers. If all you are going to do is get pitchers, you have to do better than he has.

The team needs o

[Neutron 14]

I know Govs and ERE are at the game today, I hope they can give me some insight on what a -1mph wind feels like.

I think it means they both suck.

[ChrisK]

ChrisK wrote: "The pitching depth that we have this year was not there at this time last year. "

Bullship. They don' t have Liriano nor your hero Radke and have added Poson and Ortiz. Bullpen is virtually unchanged. The prospects are down in Rochester. The pitching depth has stayed the same.

At this time last year we had one guy in the starting rotation holding his own, Santana. Silva and Radke had gotten shelled and who were the other two in the rotation? Oh yeah, Kyle Lohse and Scott Baker. Liriano was waiting in the pen but I believe Garza was still down in Single A, Bonser in Triple A and Perkins in AA.

They don't have Liriano, but the overall quality and depth is much higher this year. Silva is pitching better, Ortiz is filling in fine for Radke, Boof has shown flashes and Ponson has been mediocre but about what you'd expect for a 5th starter. And there are three guys down in Triple AAA who should be able to move into the Twins' rotation if needed. The Twins did not have that luxury last year they were scrambling all year, partly because of injury and partly due to ineptitude.

I haven't questioned the Twins' need for a hitter, I've just felt that pitching should be the priority. If you get good pitching you should be a well placed bloop single away from winning most games, but sadly the Twins haven't even been able to do that lately.

BTW, good one Neutron!

[Govs93]

I know Govs and ERE are at the game today, I hope they can give me some insight on what a -1mph wind feels like.

I think it means they both suck.

I think it was the collective inhale of 23,000 people right before yelling "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE?! "

Congrats to ERE for being within seconds of making the Kiss Cam... the camera was on he and his lovely sidekick, but the warmup tosses ended too quickly. And kudos on the signs... you weren't kidding. What was the one about school or something? I got a kick out of that one.

[EREmpireStrikesBack]

I know Govs and ERE are at the game today, I hope they can give me some insight on what a -1mph wind feels like.

I think it means they both suck.

I think it was the collective inhale of 23,000 people right before yelling "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE?! "

Congrats to ERE for being within seconds of making the Kiss Cam... the camera was on he and his lovely sidekick, but the warmup tosses ended too quickly. And kudos on the signs... you weren't kidding. What was the one about school or something? I got a kick out of that one.

We had no school one, not sure what you were lookin' at haha. "Torii- I'll give you my allowance if you stay in Minnesota" That was our good one along with a Circle Me Bert for the first Twins game of the little cousin.

I saw the Booooooooooooooooof went to work today or something, but hope you had a good time watching and was good to meet ya.

And that -1 MPH wind was killer. I think we coulda had two HR's out in LF if it was 0 MPH, but oh well.

So PB, instead of focusing on getting a hitter, we should just get those guys to turn the vents on like they did back in the day to help the ball carry.

[Govs93]

I think it means they both suck.

I think it was the collective inhale of 23,000 people right before yelling "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE?! "

Congrats to ERE for being within seconds of making the Kiss Cam... the camera was on he and his lovely sidekick, but the warmup tosses ended too quickly. And kudos on the signs... you weren't kidding. What was the one about school or something? I got a kick out of that one.

We had no school one, not sure what you were lookin' at haha. "Torii- I'll give you my allowance if you stay in Minnesota" That was our good one along with a Circle Me Bert for the first Twins game of the little cousin.

I saw the Booooooooooooooooof went to work today or something, but hope you had a good time watching and was good to meet ya.

And that -1 MPH wind was killer. I think we coulda had two HR's out in LF if it was 0 MPH, but oh well.

So PB, instead of focusing on getting a hitter, we should just get those guys to turn the vents on like they did back in the day to help the ball carry.

Allowance... that's it. Good one.

[gopherhockey33]

the twins suck!!!!! they will be lucky to win 85 games. Clevland is going to win 95 games easy! the twins have 1 good starter and one decent starter (ortiz) and dont even get me started on the hitting and baserunning.(even though they steal blunder like kubel today trying to get to third from 2nd on a grounder hit to the THIRD BASEMEN!) luis rodriguez is BRUTAL he should be in the minors. punto is good in the field but is pathetic at the plate. cuddyer only has 2 homeruns which is unacceptable for the cleanup hitter. hunter and mauer and kinda of morneau are hititing. this is going to be a long season!