Twins

[PurpleMustReign]

What a crappy game last night. And I like MoneyBags (Mauer), but to bunt in that situation???? WTF. If he did that on his own (which I HOPE he did) he needs to be called out, that was terrible. If the coaches called for that, they need to be fired as they dont have the capacity to coach at the MLB level. If Childress was coaching like Guardy is right now, everyone would be calling for his head, Im not sure why Guardy has the fans so on his side, IMO, he is doing a terrible job. Starting pitching suck, we get a guy doing OK pitching, he gets pulled because of pitch count, reguardless of how he is actually pitching. IDK, he seems to have really lost a lot this year IMO. Throws Young under the bus (admittedly for a makable play but tough one) but wont bark about the pitching, frustrating. Its like worrying about a flat tire on a car with no motor, makes no sense.

I agree with every sentence of this post. Gardy is a bad manager on a team that has plenty of talent to win the WS. Finally they put Blackburn in the bull pen and put Duensing in the rotation. I probably would have gone with Slowey in the pen, because Blackburn and Baker have mroe experience and IMO the best chance to snap out of their funks.

[purple guy]

Pavano is pitching very well. If we could pick up a decent pitcher, one for the bull pen, AND one of 3 (Slowey, Blackburn, Baker) could pitch like an actual MLB pitcher, we MIGHT have a chance at the division. However, short of all of those things happening, I just dont see much hope. Last night when Pavano was still doing well, and I saw some bull pen action, I was going to turn off the TV had they pulled him for pitch count or cuz he gave up a couple hits, surprisingly they let him finish. Its clear Guardy has more confidence (justified IMO) in Pavano than any of the others as any of the other starting rotation would likely have been pulled, reguardless of how they were actually pitching at the time.
We scored some runs with a line up I wouldnt call offensively all that impressive, but it was against the Indians............we need to sweep this series and make some pitching moves immediately. They can be fun to watch, but also extremely frustrating at the same time, which IMO, reflects the managers job.....if we miss the playoffs I hope Guardy is history.

[HornedMessiah]

if we miss the playoffs I hope Guardy is history.

If they don't make it to the playoffs I'm sure there will be some kind of shakeup, but I don't think Gardy will be the one to go. More likely, Rick Anderson will be canned because he's responsible for the pitching, and #### pitching is what got us into this situation. Of course it all comes back to Gardy since he's the boss, but Anderson will be the fall guy much like how an NFL head coach will fire one of his coordinators to save his own butt.

[HornedMessiah]

Last night when Pavano was still doing well, and I saw some bull pen action, I was going to turn off the TV had they pulled him for pitch count or cuz he gave up a couple hits...

They pulled this crap again tonight. Yanked Duensing after 5 innings and one run allowed and put in some shlub I've never heard of who has a 10.00+ ERA and he quickly gave up two runs which ended up being the deciding factor in the game. I don't have cable tv so I couldn't watch the game, so maybe Duensing was tired or injured, but most likely not because it fits the pattern of behavior regarding the starters. If he was feeling fine, why in the hell wouldn't you let him go longer? They were playing the team with the WORST RECORD in the league. If the excuse is "well we're getting him acclimated to being a starter", that's total BS. If the guy can't go beyond 5 innings then you shouldn't even consider putting him in the starting rotation, especially when you have a shaky bullpen.

I'd really like to know who is behind these decisions to pull pitchers when they're doing fine.

[vikeinmontana]

They pulled this crap again tonight. Yanked Duensing after 5 innings and one run allowed and put in some shlub I've never heard of who has a 10.00+ ERA and he quickly gave up two runs which ended up being the deciding factor in the game. I don't have cable tv so I couldn't watch the game, so maybe Duensing was tired or injured, but most likely not because it fits the pattern of behavior regarding the starters. If he was feeling fine, why in the hell wouldn't you let him go longer? They were playing the team with the WORST RECORD in the league. If the excuse is "well we're getting him acclimated to being a starter", that's total BS. If the guy can't go beyond 5 innings then you shouldn't even consider putting him in the starting rotation, especially when you have a shaky bullpen.

I'd really like to know who is behind these decisions to pull pitchers when they're doing fine.

i'd also like to know where these decisions are coming from. i watched every inning and i was pretty confused with the pitching changes again. our pitching is bad enough right now, i can't for the life of me figure out why we'd pull a guy when he appears to be pitching well.

i will admit though these managers are in a lose-lose. if they keep in pitchers for even another inning and they give up a run or two there will be just as many fans questioning the decision to leave him in there. there are a few things i see that need to be fixed asap. first, is obviously our pitching. i don't know if we need to shake up our pen or search for a trade or what but something has to give. we either need the guys that we have to do a virtual 180 and start pitching great, or we need to make some moves. next, our guys have got to learn to get hits with runners on. say what you want about gardy but the guy can't bat for these guys and we're one of the worst in the league at getting runners home. how many times this season have we had the bases juiced with no outs to not even score one? a lot! i can't tell you how many times i've seen us with at the very least a runner on second with one or even zero outs and we never get him around. that needs to change. and last, we need to get healthy. we need morneau back, and now orlando hudson could be out for some time too. once we get guys healthy and can bolster our lineup than we can use thome as a dh where he should be. lot's of things need to change but i'm not giving up hope yet.

[purple guy]

They pulled this crap again tonight. Yanked Duensing after 5 innings and one run allowed and put in some shlub I've never heard of who has a 10.00+ ERA and he quickly gave up two runs which ended up being the deciding factor in the game. I don't have cable tv so I couldn't watch the game, so maybe Duensing was tired or injured, but most likely not because it fits the pattern of behavior regarding the starters. If he was feeling fine, why in the hell wouldn't you let him go longer? They were playing the team with the WORST RECORD in the league. If the excuse is "well we're getting him acclimated to being a starter", that's total BS. If the guy can't go beyond 5 innings then you shouldn't even consider putting him in the starting rotation, especially when you have a shaky bullpen.

I'd really like to know who is behind these decisions to pull pitchers when they're doing fine.

EXACTLY. Duensing was pitching fine. Only given up one run, who the hell cares what his pitch count is. This is exactly the terrible managing I hope gets Guardy fired. That very likely could have cost us the game. I could MAYBE understand it if we had a solid bullpen, but it sucks as bad as our starting rotation, totally unbelieveable.

[PurpleMustReign]

EXACTLY. Duensing was pitching fine. Only given up one run, who the hell cares what his pitch count is. This is exactly the terrible managing I hope gets Guardy fired. That very likely could have cost us the game. I could MAYBE understand it if we had a solid bullpen, but it sucks as bad as our starting rotation, totally unbelieveable.

I will disagree with you on the bullpen. Our bullpen is very good, it is just overused. Part of it is the starters sucking and us needing to go to it, most of it is Gardy and his stupid "pitch count" bull ####. I like our bullpen, they all come in and do their jobs very will. The weakest link out there IMO is Ron Mahay, but he is good at getting Lefthanders out, but Gardy and his infinite wisdom has him pitch to righthanders every time. Jesse Crain is finally living up to his potential, and then some, while Guerierr, Raush, ans even Majaras are all doing very well.

[purple guy]

Wow is Delmon on fire! A definate bright spot this month for the Twins.

[PurpleMustReign]

Wow is Delmon on fire! A definate bright spot this month for the Twins.

Did you see today's lineup? It may as well be the AAA Rochester Red Wings. You mean to tell me that Span NEEDED to sit TODAY?

[PurpleMustReign]

Did you see today's lineup? It may as well be the AAA Rochester Red Wings. You mean to tell me that Span NEEDED to sit TODAY?

Edit: Guess I should have checked the score first. It is nice to see them scoring with that lineup. Although I don't think it would cut it against any other team. Kubel his ANOTHER grand slam. He rocks with the bases loaded.

[HornedMessiah]

It is nice to see them scoring with that lineup. Although I don't think it would cut it against any other team.

Exactly. This was the last game of a four game series against one of the worst clubs in the league. If there was ever a time to rest your main guys, this was it.

Even though it was against the lowly Orioles, it's good for team morale to win a long series. The starting pitchers played well, and the team put up some good offensive numbers. Now the bulk of the team should be in a good mindset, because we have a big opportunity to put some distance between ourselves and the Tigers in the next week. We play the Royals and then the Mariners, while the Tigers face the Rays and the Red Sox. Put the kitties to sleep!

[purple guy]

Did you see today's lineup? It may as well be the AAA Rochester Red Wings. You mean to tell me that Span NEEDED to sit TODAY?

Yea, the line up was definately scary to look at before the game started. I was scrtatching my head, but like HM said, if ever a time for a few guys to get some rest, that was the day. Luckily it turned out OK.
Delmon and Kub are becoming my favorite Twins. Not onll can they hit, but they seem to be the only two to ever get clutch hits. We leave sooooo many runners on base, Im not sure of the stats, but watching a game, bases loaded or two runners on, with one out, unless Kub or Yound are up, we usually strand the runners, frustrating.

[Now its our time]

wow... Twins up 18-0 against the Royals

[PurpleMustReign]

wow... Twins up 18-0 against the Royals

19-0.

[Now its our time]

holy ####! We gotta spread these out though haha