I Make a Guest Appearance

Hey! I made a guest appearance over at TwinsMVB.com.

Check it out:

Fan Friday

There's GOT To Be a Silver Lining Somewhere

Or at least a cheap, silver-colored electroplate lining that turns your finger green.

Recap:
Tuesday: Twins 2 - Yankees 10
Wednesday: Twins 3 - Yankees 4
Thursday: Twins 4 - Yankees

Twins dustbunny the series.

So, I'll try to find some good things about this series to think about...

Fact: Twins lost by 8 runs on Tuesday.
Cheap Silver Lining: Gomez made a nice catch to rob A-Rod of a grand slam (couldn't have happened to a nicer guy).

Fact: Twins lost by 1 run on Wednesday.
Awesome Silver Lining: Blog-friend Betsy's kick-ass sign made it on TV! See:


(I took this picture of my TV. I couldn't get that stupid DVR timeline off there because it was paused. I suppose I could've tried to take the picture while is was playing, but I didn't.)

Fact: Twins lost by 2 runs Thursday.
Cheap Silver Lining: Joe Mauer started the day officially leading the league in batting because he finally has enough plate appearances.

Fact: The Twins are 0 - 7 against the Yankees this year.
Cheap Silver Lining: The Twins don't have to face the Yankees any more this (regular) season.

Nope. Finding the silver lining doesn't really help much.

~~~

Ok, so I'll try a different approach.

Guys, gather around. Yes, you, Minnesota Twins players. Yes, over here. Yes, now! All of you. Hurry up.

Ok. Blackburn and Nathan, you are excused. You didn't play at all this series, so you may go. Oh, and Perkins, you need to go too -- you're probably still infectious or something. Ew. Slowey, what are you even doing here? Go rehab your arm or something. And Mauer, you're just awesome, so you can leave too. Nope, not you Morneau -- you just sit down.

Ok, listen up. That was embarrassing! EMBARRASSING! You played timid. You played silly. You played confused. You just plain played spooked.

Stop laughing back there. I'm serious! You were afraid of the strike zone. You were afraid of the basepaths. You were afraid to hit the ball. You were afraid of the Yankees. Yes, the Yankees are good, but that's all they are. They're not magical. Simply put, you were afraid to succeed!

Well, KNOCK IT OFF! The White Sox are in town, and they've been hot lately. They're ready to jump on any mistake, any flub, any weakness. You need to be smart. You need to be good. You need to be confident!

So shape up right now! If you don't, I might have to resort to swearing. I don't want to have to do that -- my mom reads this blog (Hi Mom!).

Ok. I'm done. You can go now.

~~~

Ok, back to reality here.

You've probably already saw on one of the many other awesome Twins blogs about Saturday's get-together, but if you haven't, I'll tell you here.

The lovely Jen from Lipgloss & Baseball and the lovely Sarah from Oh It's THOSE Girls have planned a most wonderful shindig before Saturday's game against the White Sox. Here's the info from Sarah's blog:

So...here's the Deal:

What: Twins Fan/Blogger/Twitter Party

When: July 11th, 2009 12:30-3:30pm

Where: Jen's House (please email parkavepirate@comcast.net for address and info)

Who: Anyone who wants to come! If you're reading this, you're invited.

This is pre-game before the 6:10pm White Sox game, which happens to also be the Twins Hall of Fame induction night for Brad Radke. It's pretty laid back. We're planning to hang out and meet some new folks who share a love of Twins Baseball. I'll be bringing some materials for sign-making and perhaps some Twins trivia. People are free (and encouraged!) to bring any outdoors-y, tailgate-y games they might have. We'll just be doing snack foods, so folks are welcome to bring a little tasty something to share if they're able. Some bloggers/tweeters have purchased (or are planning to purchase) cheap seat tickets to the game, and are going to be sitting together as a group. If you already have tickets elsewhere, or don't plan to go to the game (shame on you! Brad Radke!), you can still swing by pre-game for some fun and frolicking. It will be good times. I promise.

I'm planning on going. You should too. They mean it that everyone's invited! I'm really looking forward to it!

I Think Bert Blyleven Loves Nick Blackburn

Ok, I don't really know if Bert Blyleven loves Nick Blackburn. I've never met either man, so it's not like I can go ask, but since all the rest of the members Twins Territory are professing their undying devotion for Nick, why shouldn't Bert? And hearing everything Bert's said on TV about good pitching, loving Nick is a no-brainer.

TwinsFix, Fanatic Jack Talks Twins, Twinkie Town, Twins Geek, among others, are not shy about heaping praise on him. And it's well deserved; he is a good pitcher. A very good pitcher.

He does a lot of things well. I, for one, think he's the best option for a "big game." (Remember game 163 last season? He was awesome.) But I'm certain the one thing about Blackie that makes Bert happy is how far into ball games Nick goes. I bet it makes the bullpen pitchers happy too.

On his first start of the season, he pitched 5.0 innings (that's typical for the first game), and since then, he's gone less than that only once -- everyone has a bad day. But Nick doesn't have very many. Of his 17 performances, 13 of them are "quality starts" (at least 6 innings and 3 or fewer earned runs), and his last nine consecutive games are QSs.

He blows the other starters away in total innings pitched, but he's also leads the staff in innings per game. Look at this little chart I wrote up: (Yes, I did math and everything! Don't worry, I didn't hurt myself.)

Pitcher	Total Innings	Games Started	Innings per Game
Blackburn	116.33	17	6.84
Perkins	74	12	6.17
Baker	92	15	6.13
Liriano	96.67	17	5.69
Slowey	90.67	16	5.67

But not only that, he doesn't give up very many runs -- he sports a sexy 2.94 ERA and a nifty 7 - 4 record.

So, yes, I'm convinced Bert Blyleven adores Nick Blackburn. I know I do.

Scratching and Clawing

It was great weekend overall, but it was made better by the Twins taking the series from the Tigers. And by doing so, they gained a little ground on Detroit, and re-took second place in the division. (Did you notice that the Evil Ugly White Sox snuck up and held second place for a couple days there?)

Recap:
Friday: Twins 9 - Tigers 11 (16 innings!)
Saturday: Twins 4 - Tigers 2
Sunday: Twins 6 - Tigers 2

I spent the weekend with the whole family at the lake. It was a fantastic weekend -- we went out on the boat waterskiing and tubing; we got sunburned; we ate and ate and ate; we made red, white, and blue slushies for the kids; we made some slushies for the grown-ups too; and when we wanted to relax a little, we watched baseball.

On Friday evening, it was raining a little, so we gathered around the TV to watch a recording of a play my niece was in. We started it after the first inning of the Twins game, the play lasted about two hours, afterward I went back to watching the Twins game, and still saw about nine innings of baseball. I was happy when I first turned it on because I thought the Twins were down by six runs but they were tied (my nephew gets text messages, and the last time he showed it to me, the score was 1-7). However, when it finally did end, I was a bit bummed that we lost, but I was grateful it was finally over -- I was tired.

The Saturday game was a good win. It was fun to watch it with my brother-in-law and nephew. It was fun to see Cuddy and Morneu hit homeruns. It was fun to see Nathan save the game.

Blackburn started Sunday's game, and true to form, I missed the first four innings of it. I didn't mind too much; I was out on the boat. I still am trying to watch one his games from first pitch. But it was a great performance. I love it that he has another complete game. Too bad he just can't seem to get that complete-game-shut-out. I'm sure he wants it more than anybody. Keep trying, Nick!

~~~

Congratulations to our All Stars -- Joey, Justin, and Nathanator! All of Twins Territory is very proud of you guys!

Our All-Star Ballot

With the All-Star Game voting period coming to a close soon, j-bro (17) and mini-bro (13) sat down and perused their choices. They pored over stats, examined batting averages, analyzed RBIs, researched runs scored, and deliberated their options. They wrote down notes, made cases, and did their research. They took this very seriously because this is an important decision (personally, I think they were doing it to avoid doing the dishes or putting away their laundry).

So, here is your starting ASG lineup, according to a couple knucklehead kids:

AL:
C - Joe Mauer (MIN)
1B - Justin Morneau (MIN)
2B - Dustin Pedroia (BOS)
3B - Evan Longoria (TB)
SS - Derek Jeter (NYY)
LF - Jason Bay (BOS)
CF - Torii Hunter (LAA)
RF - Ichiro (SEA)
SP - Zack Greinke (KC)

NL:
C - Yadier Molina (STL)
1B - Albert Pujols (STL)
2B - Chase Utley (PHI)
3B - David Wright (NYM)
SS - Hanley Ramirez (FLA)
LF - Ryan Braun (MIL)
CF - Alfonso Soriano (CHC)
RF - Raul Ibanez (PHI)
SP - Tim Lincecum (SF)

See, It's Not So Bad

For the first time in a really long time, the Twins are two whole games above .500. And for the first time in a really long time, the Twins have completed a winning road trip. The Royals series wasn't easy, but it turned out all right.

Recap:
Monday: Twins 2 - Royals 4
Tuesday: Twins 2 - Royals 1
Wednesday: Twins 5 - Royals 1

Some observations, in no particular order:

• For some reason, I don't get to see Nick Blackburn pitch very often; I don't think I've seen a first-pitch of his yet this season. Why is that?
  
• For some reason, when I'm listening to a day game, some stupid situation that puts my boss into a panic happens...never happens any other day.
• I thought it was funny that MLB's Gameday pitch-by-pitch site kept telling me that R.A. Dickey was throwing changeups. Um...no; those were knuckleballs.
• Nicky Punto needs some bubble wrap and Advil. After coming back from a bruised rib injury, he now has back spasms after someone (I don't remember who) slid hard into him trying to break up a double-play. The radio guys made it sound like it was a dirty slide; they said he wasn't even close to the bag.
  
• Mike Redmond will dent, but won't break -- he took a foul tip off Mitch Maier's bat to the forearm. But his bruised arm will probably be ouchie for a few days.

~~~

Dan Gladden answered a question during today's broadcast. The listener wanted to know what typical ball players do while on the road, whether they have routines such as going to bed at a certain time, and if their routines are different than they are at home. To this, Gladden replied, "it's none of your business what time I went to bed, and it's none of you business what I did out on the town!" He was joking, of course, but it got the guys talking about partying and curfews and carousing and watching TV in the hotel and such. They wouldn't really give any details to what our boys did though. So I imagine they do the following:

• They might go back to their own hotel rooms to watch ESPN or re-runs on TV Land.
• They might go out and have a meal at a cozy little diner.
  
• They might stay at the ball park to practice fielding drills.
• They might get together and play cribbage or gin.
• They might go shopping for a nice piece for their wives' snowglobe collection.
• They might go to the zoo or botanical gardens.
• They might go see a movie, but nothing racier than PG-13.
• They might log on to their laptops and check in with fans on Twitter...oh wait, never mind.
• They might head to the hotel bar and order a club soda with lime or a Shirley Temple.

Ok, I not really delusional. I'm fully aware that they're grown ups and will party as much as they want...well as much as they're allowed to. But I do imagine that painting the town red all the time might get old after a while. Actually, I don't really care what the do with their free time, as long as they play well the next day. Whatever it takes.

~~~

Up next: an off day, and then some tough series: Tigers, Yankees, then White Sox before the All-Star Game. At least the Twins are at home, so they can sleep in their own beds and stick to their favorite lucky routines.

If You Haven't Seen This Yet, You Should

The awesome Katie over at Oh, It's THOSE Girls is flexing her amazingness-muscles once again. She wrote up a clever survey and sent it off to Nick Blackburn to fill out, and he did. Really. It's terrific! Terrific questions and terrific responses. And Nick's a great sport for doing it.

So, if you ever wanted to know the answers to important things like what Nick's coolest nicknames are, what superpowers he wishes he had, or his opinion on puppies, you'd better head on over there tout de suite!

Get To Know 'Em: Nick Blackburn




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