I really wanted to see Adrian run all over the Packers. That's what this football team is, or should I say was? The last two weeks we've seen AD locked in a box. He had no room up the middle. He couldn't gain the edge much either. I'm fine with Brett Favre being on the team. He's been a god-send when Peterson can't get going, but with all of Favre's success winning games with his arm, he's gaining more and more hype. He seems a natural leader, but he's still on his last legs. He's not a long-term solution, but the past two games have made the Vikings "his" team. If anyone wants that for these Vikings, I'd have to question their sanity.
The defense played fantastic tonight in big ways, both good and bad. They sacked Aaron Rodgers EIGHT times, they forced him into an interception and a fumble, both killing what looked like scoring drives. Yet Rodgers still had a 110.6 rating, throwing for 384 yards of offense. Jermichael Finley (a tight end, no wonder) could not or would not be tackled or covered by the Vikes D. Pack (ha!) on 82 yards of rushing (those draws really did a number), and you have a pretty horrendous day in terms of yard prevention. Of course, point prevention is what matters, so the turnovers, sacks, and clutch fourth and goal stop add up to a good defensive performance.
Aaron Rodgers' performance is the kind that you can really get excited about, if you're a Packer fan at least. He's young, and he shook off EIGHT SACKS and two early turnovers to keep the game close. He stayed collected, and his throws were accurate. And he's young. He's going to ensure the Packers offensive success a year for every time he was sacked tonight. Assuming the Packers ever build a good team around him. Maybe they'll do a trade for their former legend?
It's weird how negative one can be on such a great win, but the Vikes did almost everything they could to keep the game close, from their inability to get push from their offensive line, to their flashy but unproductive wildcat passing play and completely unnecessary bomb to Berrian, both of which stopped the clock. Luckily the Vikings have a power-forward like Sidney Rice to reach up to heaven and snatch any extra possessions and all hope from the Packers.
I'm worried about the Vikings D and running game, the supposed strengths of this team. Big plays are great, but they can't be consistently generated by even the best defenses. Consistently minimizing the offense's big plays and first downs are how defenses win championships. You don't face the Packers' offensive line every week, and Brett Favre won't throw three TDs every week. The defense and running game need to step it up.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Two years in a row
The White Sox did all they could for the Twins, even a failed rally against Verlander in the eighth after being shut-out until that moment. Leyland didn't make the same mistake again, and put in the closer to finish things off.
The Twins did what they had to do, though yet again a Twins starter didn't make it out of the sixth inning. The bullpen was flawless though, and the Twins cruised to an easy victory, with two Twins hitting multiple homeruns. Cuddyer continued his heroics, but it was Delmon Young who hit two solo shots, and Jason Kubel with two three-run taters, providing the winning runs before the fourth inning. Everything after that was just gravy, and making sure Joe Nathan got two days off before the big game on Tuesday.
It's incredible that the Twins will play 163 games two years in a row. This time though, a coin flip didn't screw the Twins out of the home field advantage they deserve. They clobbered the Tigers in the season series, and they're going to clobber them again in a couple days.
The Twins did what they had to do, though yet again a Twins starter didn't make it out of the sixth inning. The bullpen was flawless though, and the Twins cruised to an easy victory, with two Twins hitting multiple homeruns. Cuddyer continued his heroics, but it was Delmon Young who hit two solo shots, and Jason Kubel with two three-run taters, providing the winning runs before the fourth inning. Everything after that was just gravy, and making sure Joe Nathan got two days off before the big game on Tuesday.
It's incredible that the Twins will play 163 games two years in a row. This time though, a coin flip didn't screw the Twins out of the home field advantage they deserve. They clobbered the Tigers in the season series, and they're going to clobber them again in a couple days.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Minnesota has a hockey team?
They started their season tonight? You didn't watch? You didn't know Channel 45 broadcast anything besides sit-com re-runs? Shame on you. Shame on me, too, for keeping it a secret.
I don't know why I'm so intimidated by hockey, but I remain so. It's different than the other sports, not quite as mainstream. It's like Indie music, except manly. If you like it and know it and love it, then you probably think you're a better person for it. Because you are. Wait. Scratch all that. I just remembered my childhood, which contains quite the embarrassment involving hockey. Consider this blog my atonement.
The Wild (as well as the Timberwolves) are unknowns this season, with new management, new coaches, and a lot of new players. Not Carl Pavano new. Not Brett Favre new. More like Jared Allen new. It's as good a time as any to start following the forgotten sports in the Twin Cities, though the Twins just made it a good deal more difficult. Check out Star Tribune, the web version, especially whatever Michael Russo writes, to indoctrinate yourself. I hope that bankruptcy thing doesn't get in the way of their great MN sports coverage. Not that you should stop reading this coverage either though :).
Ok, so maybe I've tricked you, as both the Wild and the Wolves aren't going to be very good this year. The Wild have a new system for the first time in their (short) history, and it showed in tonight's game. In both good and bad ways. The good was a back and forth, fast-paced hockey game. The bad was Nicklas Backstrom standing on his head just to keep the deficit at one. The bad was playing Pierre-Marc Bouchard at center, where he can't win a face-off to save his life and will continue to get pushed around by players bigger than him (most everyone). Things will get better though, and if you stick with it, someday you'll understand those last three sentences. Give it a shot, give the Wild a shot, and at least read the Wolves' boxscores. Poor pups.
I don't know why I'm so intimidated by hockey, but I remain so. It's different than the other sports, not quite as mainstream. It's like Indie music, except manly. If you like it and know it and love it, then you probably think you're a better person for it. Because you are. Wait. Scratch all that. I just remembered my childhood, which contains quite the embarrassment involving hockey. Consider this blog my atonement.
The Wild (as well as the Timberwolves) are unknowns this season, with new management, new coaches, and a lot of new players. Not Carl Pavano new. Not Brett Favre new. More like Jared Allen new. It's as good a time as any to start following the forgotten sports in the Twin Cities, though the Twins just made it a good deal more difficult. Check out Star Tribune, the web version, especially whatever Michael Russo writes, to indoctrinate yourself. I hope that bankruptcy thing doesn't get in the way of their great MN sports coverage. Not that you should stop reading this coverage either though :).
Ok, so maybe I've tricked you, as both the Wild and the Wolves aren't going to be very good this year. The Wild have a new system for the first time in their (short) history, and it showed in tonight's game. In both good and bad ways. The good was a back and forth, fast-paced hockey game. The bad was Nicklas Backstrom standing on his head just to keep the deficit at one. The bad was playing Pierre-Marc Bouchard at center, where he can't win a face-off to save his life and will continue to get pushed around by players bigger than him (most everyone). Things will get better though, and if you stick with it, someday you'll understand those last three sentences. Give it a shot, give the Wild a shot, and at least read the Wolves' boxscores. Poor pups.
Twins still COMPLETELY IN IT
The Twins have played so well the past few weeks, the lead-off double in the eighth didn't dampen my spirits. The (too) early hook from Gardenhire, Mijares' pitiful performance and Jon Rauch's inability to clean up the mess left them tied... but I still felt good about their chances. The Royals bullpen is terrible, and their manager is worse, as Santa Claus came down the Metrodome's chimney, and gave Michael Cuddyer a left-handed pitcher to hit, and hit hard. He did not miss his chance, and he gave back the lead that the Twins never should have lost. Cuddly.
I felt bad for Greinke. To come back from all those anxiety issues, dominate all year, and leave his worst outing of the month for the last day of the season. He missed more pitches than I expected him to, and once Joe Batman broke the scoring dam, they might as well have ended it right there. Of course they didn't, and Delmon Young's second bases-clearing hit of the weekend became absolutely necessary.
Nick Blackburn out-pitched the Cy Young favorite, striking out just as many batters, walking fewer, and doing it all on less pitches. You could catch swordfish with the sinker he had today. Unfortunately he stuck with it a little too much, as Jacobs keyed in on it, catching up to a good one that caught the inside corner. Sometimes, good pitches get hit. Same with the ground-rule double that got him the hook. It sunk out of the zone, but was down the middle, allowing whats-his-name to sweet-spot it to the gap. I wouldn't have pulled Bob Black (his first name is Robert? Awesome). He had everything working nicely, and only used eighty-eight pitches to that point. You want to protect a relatively young arm on three-day's rest, but who do you have to turn to? Rauch would have worked straight out. Mijares was shot from pitching the previous two games and whatever revenge Delmon Young took. Gardy protected his starter, but at the expense of throwing a younger, more fatigued arm out there. Look what happened. I felt so bad for him, hating himself in the dugout. It wasn't right.
All's well that ends well though, and the Twins have been tied. Through their own perseverance yes, but mostly through the Tigers' epic choke job. Who cares about them though. Beat them Royals, and the Metrodome lives on for at least one more game.
I felt bad for Greinke. To come back from all those anxiety issues, dominate all year, and leave his worst outing of the month for the last day of the season. He missed more pitches than I expected him to, and once Joe Batman broke the scoring dam, they might as well have ended it right there. Of course they didn't, and Delmon Young's second bases-clearing hit of the weekend became absolutely necessary.
Nick Blackburn out-pitched the Cy Young favorite, striking out just as many batters, walking fewer, and doing it all on less pitches. You could catch swordfish with the sinker he had today. Unfortunately he stuck with it a little too much, as Jacobs keyed in on it, catching up to a good one that caught the inside corner. Sometimes, good pitches get hit. Same with the ground-rule double that got him the hook. It sunk out of the zone, but was down the middle, allowing whats-his-name to sweet-spot it to the gap. I wouldn't have pulled Bob Black (his first name is Robert? Awesome). He had everything working nicely, and only used eighty-eight pitches to that point. You want to protect a relatively young arm on three-day's rest, but who do you have to turn to? Rauch would have worked straight out. Mijares was shot from pitching the previous two games and whatever revenge Delmon Young took. Gardy protected his starter, but at the expense of throwing a younger, more fatigued arm out there. Look what happened. I felt so bad for him, hating himself in the dugout. It wasn't right.
All's well that ends well though, and the Twins have been tied. Through their own perseverance yes, but mostly through the Tigers' epic choke job. Who cares about them though. Beat them Royals, and the Metrodome lives on for at least one more game.
On pitch-tipping
For those unfamiliar, Joe Mauer has been accused of tipping pitches during Tuesday's double-header. Via YouTube. By a so-called "Twins fan."
Here's a quick interview of the guy who made and posted the video. Here's the Twins' reaction.
I'm a real Twins fan, so naturally I'm buying the "it shouldn't have been that obvious" explanation that Gardenhire gives. Also I think Mauer is the kind-of guy who would admit to it if he was actually caught, and since he denies it, I'm going to believe him.
The Tigers could have easily prevented it by switching signs (MLB teams have a second set of more complicated signs for when a runner's on second). The video claims they did switch signs, but the resolution doesn't really allow for an accurate assessment of this. On the first pitch (a change-up) Mauer gives the same "signal" he does for the curveball later. Assuming Joe can tell the difference between three Tigers' signals, why wouldn't he have three different signals of his own? Additionally, Mauer touches his helmet, and THEN his face around the 2:33 mark, yet the maker of the video ignores this different signal for the same pitch. I think these "signals" are what Mauer's teammates are saying. Nervous habits, which happen to exhibit themselves every time the pitcher gets set.
The video just seems to be made with the same type of sensationalist style of "Loose Change" (a 9/11 conspiracy movie, no link for that crap):
-The "quick glance towards Mauer"... except there's no way to tell if Kubel's looking at Mauer or Verlander
-The "everyone in the game knows it" part. How, exactly, is knowledge viewable in one's body language? Does Verlander look any different than he normally does? Does Leyland look silently aware of the mind games going on between Laird, Verlander, Kubel and Mauer? Or does it just look like they're all intense, because they're playing in a very significant baseball game?
Not that pitch-tipping is cheating, or an irregular occurrence in baseball. This just isn't a case of it. The video-maker got obsessed with this notion of Joe tipping pitches, and ignored irregularities in order to support it.
Here's a quick interview of the guy who made and posted the video. Here's the Twins' reaction.
I'm a real Twins fan, so naturally I'm buying the "it shouldn't have been that obvious" explanation that Gardenhire gives. Also I think Mauer is the kind-of guy who would admit to it if he was actually caught, and since he denies it, I'm going to believe him.
The Tigers could have easily prevented it by switching signs (MLB teams have a second set of more complicated signs for when a runner's on second). The video claims they did switch signs, but the resolution doesn't really allow for an accurate assessment of this. On the first pitch (a change-up) Mauer gives the same "signal" he does for the curveball later. Assuming Joe can tell the difference between three Tigers' signals, why wouldn't he have three different signals of his own? Additionally, Mauer touches his helmet, and THEN his face around the 2:33 mark, yet the maker of the video ignores this different signal for the same pitch. I think these "signals" are what Mauer's teammates are saying. Nervous habits, which happen to exhibit themselves every time the pitcher gets set.
The video just seems to be made with the same type of sensationalist style of "Loose Change" (a 9/11 conspiracy movie, no link for that crap):
-The "quick glance towards Mauer"... except there's no way to tell if Kubel's looking at Mauer or Verlander
-The "everyone in the game knows it" part. How, exactly, is knowledge viewable in one's body language? Does Verlander look any different than he normally does? Does Leyland look silently aware of the mind games going on between Laird, Verlander, Kubel and Mauer? Or does it just look like they're all intense, because they're playing in a very significant baseball game?
Not that pitch-tipping is cheating, or an irregular occurrence in baseball. This just isn't a case of it. The video-maker got obsessed with this notion of Joe tipping pitches, and ignored irregularities in order to support it.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Twins still half in it
That was the most tenuous ten run lead I've ever seen. Ok maybe not. STILL though, this was a pretty damaging win. Manship had his longest outing of the year, and Crain didn't do much to stop the bleeding. Mahay continued to be a band-aid. Kepp Kepp threw ball, ball got hit, ball not always find glove. The Twins' long relief is hurting, mostly because the starters' haven't pitched past the sixth since Tuesday. Fun fact: Royals starter Lenny DiNardo lasted one inning, but the Twins used TWO more pitchers during the course of the game. That's the worst part about scoring five runs in the first inning: you still have to keep watching, the players have to keep playing, and the players don't want to keep playing. I wouldn't either, and that's how comebacks happen.
That first inning though, wow. I never knew Delmon had it in him. Buster Olney's blog (ESPN Insider only) includes a table showing the batters who saw the most pitches the previous day. Guess whose name was near the top? He still has those three pitch strikeouts, but his pitch recognition has improved. Now he needs to learn to be satisfied with getting on base without swinging the bat, which may never happen, but oh well. He's been a secretly big part of the Twins' hot streak (hit .309/.326/.444 (avg/on-base/slugging) in September), and hopefully can be a big part of their future. Now that he's hitting grand slams and all.
The Twins still are relying too much on the Tigers losing, but the chances are improving. Which is more probable, the Twins beating Greinke or Freddy Garcia beating the Tigers? I'm hoping for both, but to bet on one would give even the most degenerate of gamblers pause.
That first inning though, wow. I never knew Delmon had it in him. Buster Olney's blog (ESPN Insider only) includes a table showing the batters who saw the most pitches the previous day. Guess whose name was near the top? He still has those three pitch strikeouts, but his pitch recognition has improved. Now he needs to learn to be satisfied with getting on base without swinging the bat, which may never happen, but oh well. He's been a secretly big part of the Twins' hot streak (hit .309/.326/.444 (avg/on-base/slugging) in September), and hopefully can be a big part of their future. Now that he's hitting grand slams and all.
The Twins still are relying too much on the Tigers losing, but the chances are improving. Which is more probable, the Twins beating Greinke or Freddy Garcia beating the Tigers? I'm hoping for both, but to bet on one would give even the most degenerate of gamblers pause.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Twins still half in it.
Did they lose? Because it felt like lost. Baker's pitches were all over the place. He couldn't put the ball where he wanted, but luckily the Tigers couldn't either. An effectively wild day, which is good, but an effectively short day as well, which is bad. It's a miracle he made it through the fifth, his pitch count stood at seventy five after three innings. That's ridiculous. The Twins' starters pitched a total of twenty one and a third innings. That's not going to get it done. The starting pitchers' failure to go further into the games has left the bullpen depleted going into this weekend's series against the Royals. Jeff Manship will kick things off against KC, and he's going to need some long relief help. His longest start? Five innings one month ago today.
The offense recovered quite well from last night's brain freeze, with the scrubs and stars contributing equally. An explosion like this always makes you wish they hadn't saved it for a blowout, but such is baseball. The same can be said of all extracurricular activity from Marcus Thames, Jose Mijares, and Jeremy Bonderman. Don't think less of me: I ducked out to go to the gym after the bottom of the eighth, so I missed most of the fun. It's kind of surprising that Mijares had the command to graze Everett's back, but there it was. He probably heard O-Cab complaining about Thames' slide (I don't think Jose speaks English very well, lending Orlando a greater influence over him), and decided to take care of it... to a different batter. I'd have loved nothing more than to have Thames himself plunked, but Adam "Shoulderitis" Everett didn't deserve it. Bad call, Jose, which is exactly what Delmon Young thought when he suffered for it. I hope Gardy was able to heal the emotional as well as physical wounds Mijares caused. A rift in the locker room, between a US and South American player, could have larger consequences than a sore calf.
They're still alive, and tomorrow remains the biggest day of the season. The Tigers could easily lose two of three to the Sox at home, but sweeping the Royals will be tough, mostly because Zach Greinke's pitching on Saturday. Best of luck, Twins.
The offense recovered quite well from last night's brain freeze, with the scrubs and stars contributing equally. An explosion like this always makes you wish they hadn't saved it for a blowout, but such is baseball. The same can be said of all extracurricular activity from Marcus Thames, Jose Mijares, and Jeremy Bonderman. Don't think less of me: I ducked out to go to the gym after the bottom of the eighth, so I missed most of the fun. It's kind of surprising that Mijares had the command to graze Everett's back, but there it was. He probably heard O-Cab complaining about Thames' slide (I don't think Jose speaks English very well, lending Orlando a greater influence over him), and decided to take care of it... to a different batter. I'd have loved nothing more than to have Thames himself plunked, but Adam "Shoulderitis" Everett didn't deserve it. Bad call, Jose, which is exactly what Delmon Young thought when he suffered for it. I hope Gardy was able to heal the emotional as well as physical wounds Mijares caused. A rift in the locker room, between a US and South American player, could have larger consequences than a sore calf.
They're still alive, and tomorrow remains the biggest day of the season. The Tigers could easily lose two of three to the Sox at home, but sweeping the Royals will be tough, mostly because Zach Greinke's pitching on Saturday. Best of luck, Twins.
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