ITS OFFICIAL= SEASON IS OVER

[harvey lee]

They will be lucky to win 80 games. The team is just not playing well enough to win anymore even if Mauer and the rerst get close to healthy.

I watch all the games but it is simply not there.

[harvey lee]

yep. it's over and last night was flat out embarrassing as a twins fan. the catcher gets fooled by a fan yelling "I got it" and lets the ball drop. got a guy trying to bunt with 2 strikes in the 9th. a left fielder not hustling to make a play. and to top it off the opposing team intentionally puts the potential tying run on base in the 9th just so they can pitch to our cleanup batter who every knew would not come through. who in their right mind intentionally puts the potential tying run on base with two outs in the 9th unless the mgr is so sure the next guy is going to get out. sounds like leyland knows more about twins players abilities than gardy does. uggghhhh

Yep, they are playing very poorly.

[PierBridge]

Plain and simple it's time to get Delmon out of fair territory. His glove cost us another game last night!

and to be fair and balanced if cuddyer could ever clutch up he would be better than the average player he is ...

[Stratosman]

Cuddy has rarely been clutch.... 1/2 a season maybe. Usually it's solo shots when it doesn't matter and double plays when it does....

[B. Amish]

hard to be clutch when you get screwed by the ump on a called third strike.

i kid, i kid, it was close enough.

[jwmiller33]

Plain and simple it's time to get Delmon out of fair territory.

I'm not saying I disagree with your intentions but stand back and take a look at the guys we have sitting on the bench right now.... we don't have prime pickin's to choose from as far as replacement level players with all of the injuries we have right now... Our bench players are "AAA" level players at best. At least Delmon can provide the occasional offensive support with his bat from time to time. As far as our roster is concerned, Delmon is the least of our concerns right now IMO

[Mr.Seaguar]

HA HA 80 games. 50 maybe. Its gonna get worse. Once the players realize its over they start getting hurt A LOT.

[greebs]

not sure why delmon isn't dhing while kubel and thome are on dl? gardy does some strange things. also not sure why he doesn't pinch hit for cuddyer late in close games. I know there ain't much on the bench but cuddy has shown that unless he can coax a walk, he's pretty much guaranteed to get out in a late game clutch at bat situation. at least with one of the other guys there's a possibility of a hit.

[jwmiller33]

Carl Pavano: 7 IP, 1 R = "no decision."

Matt Capps: 1 IP, 1 R = "win."

Boy, that Capps for Ramos trade looks worse and worse each day we go on without Mauer and Capps continues to suck it up. Capps blew his 5th save in 13 tries today. Yikes. I hate to say I told you so but......

[pikestabber]

Carl Pavano: 7 IP, 1 R = "no decision."

Matt Capps: 1 IP, 1 R = "win."

That just chaps my hide...to pitch a gem like Pavano did and get nothing and Capps blows the game and gets a W. I know that is how the game is scored, but it just isn't right.

In any case, I will continue to watch every game that I can. We picked up 5 full games in 7 days...not bad! It's been fun to watch this past week. We look to be 11.5 out, but I think we are actually ten games behind the first place Tigers and nobody told Cleveland they are on the outs. 10 games is a lot, but if we start getting some healthy guys back on the roster, we have enough time left to make a serious push. Yep, I said it. Season is NOT over, and you are all welcome to some of my smoke and Kool-aid.

[mainbutter]

I wonder how different this first half of the year could have been if Nishioka didn't break his leg.

[PierBridge]

Quote:

Yikes. I hate to say I told you so but......

We weren't looking long term in this move.... we were trying to fill a needed hole in the line-up last year in order to get into the post season and Caps filled that role some-what adequately at the time. As sad as it sounds it would have been nice to have Ramo's .240 average in line-out right now.

And when Mauer comes back Ramos would have bolstered our farm system which potentially could have rivaled the greatest farm system in baseball like the KC royals have going on right now.... LOL

[mrklean]

last year it was a good trade not so much this year

[jwmiller33]

We weren't looking long term in this move.... we were trying to fill a needed hole in the line-up last year in order to get into the post season and Caps filled that role some-what adequately at the time.

The bullpen, specifically closer role, wasn't a "need" by any means last year. Rauch put up the same numbers that Capps put up, at about 1/4th the cost. Our true need last year was a starting pitcher, and when all the best available names were traded to other clubs, Bill Smith & Co. decided on adding an arm to the bullpen was the "next best thing". Capps pitched one inning in the playoffs last year and gave up 2 hits and 1 run. The fact of the matter is, we needed another quality starting pitcher to get us into the later innings with a lead in order to even have a use for our closer (save situation), but that never happened.

It was a horrible trade last year and this year is just solidifying that. Paying over $7 mil for a closer that has blown 5 of his 13 save opps.

[solbes]

I just want to see some good baseball again. And we're getting it. Need to keep this momentum going at home here. We have played 2/3 of our games on the road. By far the most in the American League.

Not worried about number of games back at this point. On the other hand we do play in the Central, not exactly a lot of strong teams up top.

Pumped to be going to my first game of the year tonight. Go Twins!

[Musky Buck]

Some bad voodoo, if Nathan doesn't go down Capps is still a who for Pittsburgh, his straight 96 ask Billy Koch how his straight 97MPH ran him out of baseball. Ramos, we used to crucify Terry Ryan for lack of moves now it's Billy not a goaltender Smith putting bandaids on a wound that's likely to become infected. I could see the tampa trade but they wrote down the wrong TB outfielder, for Garza,Bartlett and Balfour was he in that deal ? Anyway it should've said " Carl Crawford " not Delmon.

[thatoneguy]

not sure why delmon isn't dhing while kubel and thome are on dl? gardy does some strange things. also not sure why he doesn't pinch hit for cuddyer late in close games. I know there ain't much on the bench but cuddy has shown that unless he can coax a walk, he's pretty much guaranteed to get out in a late game clutch at bat situation. at least with one of the other guys there's a possibility of a hit.

Because Cuddyer has incriminating photos of Gardy. That's the only possible explanation for his continued presence in the lineup on a daily basis, let alone his 8-figure salary.

[zamboni]

The real explanation is that he can play anywhere but P&C. Very valuable for a team that is injury plagued like we are

[greebs]

The real explanation is that he can play anywhere but P&C. Very valuable for a team that is injury plagued like we are

playing anywhere (average/mediocre) doesn't do any good when he's up to bat getting outs in the clutch though. agree that his flexibility is helpful although given his limited ability at the plate, hughes is probably a better option at any of the infield positions. they are about equal batting and hughes is better defensively. but I'm only talking about late game situations where a hit is needed. he has failed time and time again in that situation so why not give someone else a chance.

[DonBo]

ummmmmmmmmmmmm, did you watch the game last night? Yeah, Cuddy needs to be on the bench. Uh huh.

[greebs]

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm yes I did watch the game last night. ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I also watched the first couple months of the season. and I saw hughes and casilla get big hits late in the game.

we are all pleased that he finally got a big hit with runners on base and hopefully it will give him some confidence to get a few more big hits once in a while.

[solbes]

Awesome game last night. 4 home runs to see, a few of them bombs. And then the winning hit from Casilla. Great win.

[DonBo]

Yep, would've been fun to be there. You saw a good one.

[PierBridge]

JW... while I agree capps has been a disappointment your kidding yourself if you don't think we needed a real closer versus Rausch who was injured and isn't even an average pitcher. Your proposed trade which would have given up more to rent a starting pitcher for a month and 1/2 would have been a much bigger disaster than this... obviously IMO of course.

Now on to Greebs....love it when he post. "Sometimes I wonder whats going on with you"..

Put Delmon on the DL...LOL good grief.. lets put a guy who has struggled all year before during and after his minor injury on the DL again instead of getting a perfectly healthy guy who needs tons of at bats in the line-up.

Like you I woulda pinch hit for Cuddyer late in the game with 2 on and 2 out.....NOT.......KABOOM touch em all Michael cuddyer! Love it and keep em coming!

In a nut shell thank Goodness you are not coaching this team!.... in other words you could extract 5 hits and 2 home runs from the Twins if you were skippering!

Go Twins/Gardy he's starting work his magic with a bunch of stiffs we've never heard of.

On a side note where all the Danny V GUSHERS from last year. You know the ones who anointed him the next brooks Robinson the ones some of who are monitoring this forum who ripped Gardy for having the next chosen one in the minors? you guys laugh all you want but we would a much better team if we still had you know who...

I'll hang up and listen!

[Scott K]

Nick Punto....

[PierBridge]

Nick Punto....

From 6 to 20 veiwing the forum in a heart-beat..

[jwmiller33]

[Rauch] isn't even an average pitcher.

Please fill me in on how you came to this conclusion...

Career #s:

Rauch: 493 IP, 3.70 ERA, 1.2 WHIP, 54 SVs in 78 opps (69%), SO/9 7.3, BB/9 2.8

Capps: 372 IP, 3.45 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 117 SVs in 150 opps (78%), SO/9 6.9, BB/9 1.8

If Rauch "isn't even an average pitcher", then Capps isn't either. Their numbers are extremely similar, while Rauch has logged nearly 25% more IP than Capps while his 2011 salary is half of Capps. One pitcher was a career-long setup man whose stint as a fill-in closer was largely treated as a failure. One pitcher was touted as an experienced, proven, All-Star closer whose presence in the ninth inning was apparently worth giving up one of baseball's top catching prospects. And just as their respective numbers beyond save totals suggested at the time of the deal, there's been almost no difference between the two pitchers since the deal. Closing is a role, not a skill, and the success rate is 75-80 percent for mediocre relievers, 80-85 percent for good relievers, and 85-90 percent for elite relievers. Paying a premium for an 80-85 percent guy just because he'd done it before was an increasingly costly error in logic. Per Aaron Gleeman.

Ahhhhh I love arguing the Capps/Rauch value debacle. Never gets old!

[PierBridge]

Real simple Capps has been a bon-fide closer and Rausch had short stint where he was forced into being a closer. Pretty simple actually. But if want to read more into it go for it.

Again you wanted to rent Cliff Lee for 2 months and give away much more then we did for Capps which of course would have hurt the team long term much more then the capps trade. FACT!

For the record I didn't read much of your shackish type of post again...

[jwmiller33]

How are the 2 closers doing this year? Yes, Rauch is still a closer, for TOR in a much tough AL East.

Capps: 28 IP, 4.50 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 8 SVs/13 OPPs (62%)

Rauch: 24 IP, 3.65 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 7 SVs/9 OPPs (78%)

Pier, What it comes down to is you THINK Capps is lightyears better than Rauch (I'd love to see some stats to back this up), when their career numbers suggest they are pretty much the same pitcher. However, I'd say this years numbers are indicating Rauch is a lot more efficient closer and doing a much better job at closing games. Maybe you should call the BlueJays and let them know they don't have a "real" closer, and Rauch's stats, although better than Capps this year, are purely a fluke.

[greebs]

"Like you I woulda pinch hit for Cuddyer late in the game with 2 on and 2 out.....NOT.......KABOOM touch em all Michael cuddyer! Love it and keep em coming!"

you mean in the 5th inning as opposed to late in the game like those how many games in the last weeks where he was the last batter up in losses? and ya think that just because this is the first time he's got a dinger this whole season with runners on base that we should just ignore the fact that he's failed miserably in the clutch all year long? his hit with runners on last night raised his avg. in that situation up to about a whopping .190 for the year. this is the same guy that just a couple weeks ago, the tigers did the almost unthinkable and intentionally walked the potential go ahead runner in the 9th to be able to face him in a clutch late game situation. (he failed)

sad part about it though is that if kubel for some reason isn't healthy by all star break, this schmuck might possibly be the lone twin on the all star team.

I do agree with you though if we had Punto this year that we'd have at least one more win and possibly even be ahead of the astros in the standings at this point.