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Hey Ramon! Here's the situation,
When the cavalry comes you'll be out of the rotation,

April was great as you had your standing ovation,
But by June you'll be heading to the bus station,

Listen my posters and you shall hear
Of the early summer help that is dangerously near
On the twenty-ninth of May, in zero-seven;
Not a single fan is now in heaven
Who remembers that most famous time of year

Shanty said to the boys “If the Cavalry lands
By land or sea from AAA tonight,
Hang a lantern aloft in the upper deck stands
Of general admission as a signal light,--
One if Gar-za, and two if Slow-ey
And I on Direct TV will be there to see

Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every upper midwestern village and farm
To warn enemy fans of their impending harm.”

Apparently, TR thinks that the way to win is to sign a number of bargain basemant free agents sign Hunter to start the season; then at about 50 games or so, bench them or release them and go with the young players you should have started the season with in the first place sign Hunter.

Really, what were the odds that Ortiz and Ponson could help this club long term this season?

Same question about Castro and Batista last year. Brett Boone the year before. Credit him for Castillo but the rest of the list is pretty bad.

If he takes the money sign Hunter spent on these scrap pile players and put it into one legitimate player , the team would better off to sign Hunter.

25-25 now. Lets go. Keep hittin the boofin ball.

The AJ/Morneau play at first is still in the news. Even though the Sox have moved on to Canada, the talk is still about Minnesota.

The Twins are "sewer dirty" says one member of the Sox.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball ... 01.article

It sounds like the Sox have fallen victim to an old trap, getting distracted by the way the other teams plays rather than the game itself. They just got swept by a division rival, you'd think they'd focus on righting the ship but no, they lost another game to Toronto last night. Probably still thinking about the 'dirty' Twins...

Slowey goes tonight and while I don't expect much, he can't be any worse than what Pontoon and Ortiz gave the Twins. The pen will probably need to put in a full night's work, but the A's starter, Joe Kennedy, had a disastrous start last time out so it could be a slugfest tonight.

Tonight we see the results of the last move we will see for awhile to try to improve the team.

The Twins have placed their playoff hopes on the arms of Baker and Slowey. Yah, Mauer will be back and that will help the O if Redmond will DH. But there really isnt much else that's gonna happen.

If Baker and Slowey dont pitch well, the Twins wont make the playoffs. If they do, they will.

I think its that simple.

All the confidence I have for Twins success in Oakland disappears as they head south to Anaheim. This is one place where I think they are just lucky not to get swept. The Twins just haven't won here since the Angels got that monkey.

Take one here and the record will be all square heading into that magical time of the season.

But all they have to do is hit the boffin ball and they are as good as any team any where.

And they dont even have to hit the boofin ball all that well.

Just 3/4 runs a game most days.

We were out on Saturday night but got home early. I flipped on the Twins when we got home thinking it would be about the 4th or 5th inning.

There were 2 gone in the bottom of the 8th. Did they even put up a fight?

I dont get it.

Lets go. Hit the ball.

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ChrsiK posted this in the Oakland series thread:

packerboy, I think the inconsistencies might be a reflection of the fact that Cuddyer and Morneau in particular are still rather young. Castillo is a very good veteran professional hitter and there's Torii who while he still goes up to hack has been better this year, but the meat of this lineup is still quite young and consistency is the next level that these guys need to reach.
I didn't see Saturday's game, but yesterday's game was one in which the hitters needed to be patient. The umpire was inconsistent and not giving the pitchers the close ones. In a key at bat Torii went up and hacked at the first pitch and while it looked like it might have been a hanging breaking ball, he didn't make good contact and ended a rally. Cuddyer struck out swinging at ball four way outside in another key situation. Meanwhile, Santana didn't get a knee high pitch for strike three, ended up walking the batter and giving up some key runs.

Kubel had a really good game yesterday, making some solid contact. He has not been consistent but is showing flashes. It may be a case of him getting comfortable and confident at the major league level, it would be huge for the Twins if he comes around. I know I complain about this constantly and while Punto didn't have a bad game, I still prefer Tyner batting second and Punto ninth. Tyner is a better contact hitter with a lot of speed. Punto has been better of late but not good enough to justify batting him second.


Chris, this is why we keep begging for TR to sign a real veteran professional hitter.


As far as Tyner vs Punto, its frick for frack. Thats been a big problem this year. Lack of production from the support group.

And I'm not arguing against you at this point packerboy. In establishing priorities I feel that pitching should get more attention but this year the pitching has been more than adequate so they need a bat.

Cirillo actually seems to be a professional hitter, but he doesn't have a lot of pop. Unfortunately, it really looks like Ryan will stand pat, leaving the holes in the lineup to magically fill themselves. If the piranhas don't come back to life this team will be out of the playoffs.

Twins need another good start from Boof tonight.

the twins just suck! detroit and cleveland are way better and chicago is about even. no hitting, and pitching is just not good enough for the amount of hits they get. i think theyll win 80 games at most.

gopherhockey33 wrote:the twins just suck! detroit and cleveland are way better and chicago is about even. no hitting, and pitching is just not good enough for the amount of hits they get. i think theyll win 80 games at most.

Another bitter Yankee fan.

Yup, those Yankee fans are bitter.

Its early but even if the Twins dont do much else than win 85 games this year, Id rather be a Twins fan than a Yankees fan right now.

Ive always been a Yankee fan but lately its getting tough.

The whole A-Rod thing bores the hell out of me and how do you spend that much on a team and forget about pitching?

The Clemens thing bugs me too.

I guess I am kind of.....well....bitter.

The Strib's Joe Christensen must have been reading our forum again, I believe I brought this up a couple of months ago:

http://www.startribune.com/blogs/christ ... 7#comments

He suggests that Mauer should bat second when he returns and Punto ninth.

Neutron 14 wrote:

gopherhockey33 wrote:the twins just suck! detroit and cleveland are way better and chicago is about even. no hitting, and pitching is just not good enough for the amount of hits they get. i think theyll win 80 games at most.

Another bitter Yankee fan.

ya your right i am a bit of a yankee fan

ChrisK wrote:The Strib's Joe Christensen must have been reading our forum again, I believe I brought this up a couple of months ago:

http://www.startribune.com/blogs/christ ... 7#comments

He suggests that Mauer should bat second when he returns and Punto ninth.

LaVelle makes it sound like a done deal.

Mauer really isnt a #2 hitter IMO. He runs the bases well but doesnt have enough speed to hit there.

But Punto isnt a hitter at all so Mauer can bat #2 if it keeps Punto out of the way.

Where is Luis Rivas when you need him?

Jamie Moyer of the Phillies gave up 2 runs on 8 hits in 7 innings of work last night against a team that is 35-21 and is a favorite to win the NL
penant.

Let's put this man's career into perspective in relation to Twins throwers of the past.

If Kevin Tapani were Jamie Moyer he would still be pitching for the Twins or some other MLB club for all of these years and he would still have at least 2 seasons left in him.

Scott Erickson would have at least six years left.

Willie Banks would still have at least 7 years left.

Pat Mahomes would have at least 8 seasons left.

Brad Radke , the crusty old war horse would still have at least 10 seasons left in his tank.

Frankie Rodriquez would have at least 10 left.

Kyle Lohse would have 16 whopping seasons left.

Roger Erickson would have been in the Twins rotation for their '02 and '03 playoff runs.

Irishmans Shanty wrote:The Central goes into the season with four solid teams. However, one of these teams will have a disastereous year and not meet expectations for a number of reasons to be identified later. There just isn't room for four teams.

Which Central team will fall on their face this year?
A. Twins
B. Tigers
C. Sox
D. Indians

C. Sox

Through seventy games it looks like they are going to be the solution to the question.

Govs93 wrote:

Irishmans Shanty wrote:The Central goes into the season with four solid teams. However, one of these teams will have a disastereous year and not meet expectations for a number of reasons to be identified later. There just isn't room for four teams.

Which Central team will fall on their face this year?
A. Twins
B. Tigers
C. Sox
D. Indians

C.

The Sox showed very little in the way of starting pitching last season, and their bullpen is nothing very exciting either. They'll be able to outslug quite a few teams, but the pitching will bite them in the end.

I was close ... but not only is their pitching bad, they're not outslugging anybody.

Sox are hurt. Thome hasn't been right all year, Dye would be DL'd but he's in a contract year and won't let them do it, Podsednik has missed the whole season, Erstad has been DL'd twice, Crede's back has kept him out most of the year.

And.

They can't hit, their inability to hit and score runs has been far worse than the '05 Twins. The Sox were 0x10 with men in scoring position this weekend. I don't know what's worse the 0 or only have 10 chances in three games.

And

They built a bullpen on guys the Royals didn't want anymore.