Twins 29-29, All Square & Ready To Go On A Tear

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 9:20 am

Man, these guys are on a tear, just 2 wins from being all square.

Silva continues to add value to his free agency. I am very surprised he wasnt dealt in Sept for a couple of prospects. It seemed to me that if there was one guy on the team to trade it was him.

I cant believe they have any hope of signing him.

Glad to see Casilla in the lineup. He needs to play.

Neshek on the shelf. How many quality relivers are they going to burn out while savng the arms of the starters. Its great to pull them out after 100 pitches but who is going to finish the games?

ChrisK · Post by **ChrisK** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:11 am

Torii was on Barreiro's radio show last night. It sounds like he wants a five year contract and will be testing the free agent waters. Barreiro made the point that any team that signs him will likely expect to get three or four good years out of him but will give him the five year contract because that's what it'll take to sign him. And it's unlikely that the Twins will do that.

Assuming that Torii's gone, the Twins will have a new hole in center field. There is some serious talent on the squad but they will have a lot of holes to fill plus Mauer will need to stay healthy and Morneau and Santana will need to return to 2006 form as both have had a disappointing season this year. The return of Liriano can only help the rotation but they need to get some offense for next year.

Packerboy, I wanted to slip this in here, there's a documentary that was recently released about the Red Sox and Carl Yastrzemski's 1967 season titled Impossible to Forget. Now I know you're a Yankee fan so you're probably not interested in that but it includes a bonus DVD that features the complete broadcase of the penultimate game of the 1967 season--against the Twins. Even though the Twins lost, I'll be that would be something you and other Twins fans would like to see. According to the Sports Illustrated article that I discovered this in, that game is believed to be the oldest surviving complete regular season MLB color broadcast.

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:44 am

Thanks for the thought Chris but Ive seen that game...40 years ago.

That was tough.

I dont want to see it agian.

tomASS · Post by **tomASS** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:46 pm

packerboy wrote:CNT wrote:Baseball is over this year..

So is football.

so to "toast" the basball season and its final games, here is a classic baseball joke. Feel free to insert the appropriate "bored" baseball fan's
names

Two 90-year old men, Moe and Joe, have been friends all of their lives.

When it's clear that Joe is dying, Moe visits him every day.

One day Moe says, "Joe, we both loved baseball all our lives, and we played
minor league ball together for so many years. Please do me one favor when
you get to Heaven. . . Somehow you must let me know if there's baseball up there."

Joe looks up at Moe from his death bed, "Moe, you've been my best friend for
many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this favor for you."

Shortly after that, Joe passes on. At midnight a couple of nights later, Moe
is awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding flash of white light and a

voice calling out to him, "Moe. . . Moe."

"Who is it? Asks Moe sitting up suddenly. "Who is it?"

"Moe, it's me, Joe."

"You're not Joe. Joe just died."

"I'm telling you, it's me, Joe," insists the voice."

"Joe! Where are you?"

"In Heaven", replies Joe. "I have some really good news. .
and a little bad news."

"Tell me the good news first," says Moe.

"The good news," Joe says, "is that there's baseball in Heaven. Better yet,
all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better than that,
we're all young again. Better still, it's always springtime and it never
rains or snows. And best of all, we can play baseball all we want, and we
never get tired."

"That's fantastic," says Moe. "It's beyond my wildest dreams! So what could
possibly be the bad news?"

"You're pitching Tuesday."

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 4:03 pm

An oldy but goodie.

Neutron 14 · Post by **Neutron 14** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 4:15 pm

Hey elliott! How old do you have to be before thats not funny?

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:01 am

3 under with 3 to go.

All square is unlikely.

Watched the game last night and enjoyed it.

I dont need them to make the playoffs every year to enjoy Twins baseball.

Sign Hunter. Trade Santana for offense.

Govs93 · Post by **Govs93** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:37 am

Hehe.

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:23 am

Bonds would be fine.

I doubt he would come here.

He is 43 and has a lot of money, why would he want to play here or anywhere thats too far from home.

State Champ 97 · Post by **State Champ 97** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:07 am

packerboy wrote:Bonds would be fine.

I doubt he would come here.

He is 43 and has a lot of money, why would he want to play here or anywhere thats too far from home.

Bonds will play where he has the best chance of winning a title. Because Godfather Willie and Daddy have rings and Barry doesn't.

Neutron 14 · Post by **Neutron 14** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:57 am

The Twins will never sign Bonds. Not becuse of the money(allthough that does rule him out) but because he's a clubhouse cancer. Same with Sammy. I don't think Gardy would put up with Sammy's "posse" in the clubhouse.

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:02 pm

I dont know Neut. I think they are pretty fed up with this offense and realize they need someone.

I wonder if they didnt pass on The Big Hurt for that reason(not a good fit).

For all the 'cancer' these guys supposedly are, the frustration with the offense can be a more deadly disease.

Irishmans Shanty · Post by **Irishmans Shanty** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:14 pm

Four below "all square", and not enough left to get back there.

Currently, MLB physicians and immediate family members are meeting and it's probable they will be removing the Twins' feeding tube and ventilator sometime within the next 30 hours.

What changed from '06 to '07?

#1 The Twins didn't win as much.
#2 Nick Punto didn't hit as much.
#3 Joe Mauer didn't play healthy as much.
#4 Packerboy didn't threaten to send ChrisK back to Rochester as much.
#5 Cuddyer got just as many guys out as Boof did.
#6 For a season with far less success, ChrisK seemed to identify far fewer conundrums.

EREmpireStrikesBack · Post by **EREmpireStrikesBack** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:53 am

Irishmans Shanty wrote:Four below "all square", and not enough left to get back there.

Currently, MLB physicians and immediate family members are meeting and it's probable they will be removing the Twins' feeding tube and ventilator sometime within the next 30 hours.

What changed from '06 to '07?

#1 The Twins didn't win as much.
#2 Nick Punto didn't hit as much.
#3 Joe Mauer didn't play healthy as much.
#4 Packerboy didn't threaten to send ChrisK back to Rochester as much.
#5 Cuddyer got just as many guys out as Boof did.
#6 For a season with far less success, ChrisK seemed to identify far fewer conundrums.

Especially the last one.

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:06 am

They had a bad year.

With the exception of Hunter, the offensive numbers were down.

The bullpen wasnt as perfect as it has been .

The starting pitching wasnt as good as it has been.

The good news is, in my opinion, there isnt that much to fix.

Get a LF and a DH who can hit. The only way to do that is to trade Santana.

Get Liriano healthy.

Mauer needs to stay healthy.

Lets go front office.

Neutron 14 · Post by **Neutron 14** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:13 am

The End!

Irishmans Shanty · Post by **Irishmans Shanty** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:37 am

The way I cope with disappointment is by identifying those who should feel worse, look no further than the NY Mets. The Mets finished one game out by going 5-12 down the stretch as Philly went 14-3, ouch. Detroit, a World Series Team that adds Sheff in the offseason and they're packing it in today as well. And Milwaukee, they had every chance to seize control of a bad division and they never could.

The tear did come, and then it went. My idea of a tear would have been a 2-3 month stretch of .600 baseball. The Tear ended up being a 10 hour dismantling of the Chicago White Sox on Thursday July 6 where the Twins pounded out many more hits then they actually needed on their way to scoring many more runs than they gave up.

I look forward to watching Jeff Cirillo of the D-Backs this post-season, I'm sure he will deliver to levels we never witnessed with our club.

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:58 am

DET had an off season too. They brought about everybody back and added a big bat in Sheff and they go from World Series to watching it all on TV

Cardinals won it all last year were not even all square this year.

The White Sox.

Thats baseball.

Irishmans Shanty · Post by **Irishmans Shanty** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:13 am

packerboy wrote:
The White Sox.

Geezo Beezo, I forgot all about this bust, they didn't even get to the end of August playing meaningful games.

Spenders of over a 100 million to finish nearly 20 below square.

ChrisK · Post by **ChrisK** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:10 pm

Actually, I didn't start seeing conundrums in everything until after last year's Iowa-Minnesota football game.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I didn't get to see much of the Twins in the last month. It seems like Garza and Bonser in particular took steps backward this year but on the plus side Scott Baker came around.

The Twins should bite the bullet and sign Hunter even if it takes a five year contract. This team had trouble scoring runs with him in the lineup, they'll just have too many holes to fill if he gets away. We learned this year that Jason Kubel probably isn't the answer to the left field problem and Nick Punto should be the utility player not the starting 3rd baseman.

The whole division was down this year, last year there were two teams from the Central in the playoffs and one of them made it to the World Series while this year Cleveland will be lucky to make it out of the first round.

I think the White Sox and Tigers will bounce back, barring injuries and the Twins will be hard pressed to keep up unless they keep Hunter and sign another bat. Mauer, Morneau and Santana will also need to have better seasons next year. The pitching staff should be stronger with the return of Liriano and I expect that Garza and/or Bonser will see the light and start to figure out how to pitch at the ML level. For them to contend next year though, they'll need to fill some holes either via a career year like Punto last year or through free agents. It will be interesting to see if Bill Smith follows a different path than Terry Ryan.

dangla. · Post by **dangla.** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:02 pm

well, with Liriano in the rotation next year, and if Santana and Hunter stay and they pick up some power hitters we will be set but they wouldnt pick up any power hitters who needs them?

did morneau go in a slump 2nd half of the season or what

EREmpireStrikesBack · Post by **EREmpireStrikesBack** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:19 pm

dangla. wrote:well, with Liriano in the rotation next year, and if Santana and Hunter stay and they pick up some power hitters we will be set but they wouldnt pick up any power hitters who needs them?

did morneau go in a slump 2nd half of the season or what

Liriano might not be what he was before. It could take him until 2009 or it could be never. You can't count on Liriano. Just like you can't count on dangla..

dangla. · Post by **dangla.** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:27 pm

EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:
dangla. wrote:well, with Liriano in the rotation next year, and if Santana and Hunter stay and they pick up some power hitters we will be set but they wouldnt pick up any power hitters who needs them?

did morneau go in a slump 2nd half of the season or what
Just like you can't count on dangla..

whats that suppose to mean

Govs93 · Post by **Govs93** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:31 pm

EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:
dangla. wrote:well, with Liriano in the rotation next year, and if Santana and Hunter stay and they pick up some power hitters we will be set but they wouldnt pick up any power hitters who needs them?

did morneau go in a slump 2nd half of the season or what
Liriano might not be what he was before. It could take him until 2009 or it could be never. You can't count on Liriano. Just like you can't count on dangla..

Nice!

EREmpireStrikesBack · Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:43 pm

dangla. wrote:
EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:
dangla. wrote:well, with Liriano in the rotation next year, and if Santana and Hunter stay and they pick up some power hitters we will be set but they wouldnt pick up any power hitters who needs them?

did morneau go in a slump 2nd half of the season or what
Just like you can't count on dangla..

whats that suppose to mean

How'd that fantasy baseball team do?