Blogger: Over The Baggy

In themiddle of July, mired in a five-game stint in which he had allowed 28 earnedruns in 22.2 innings pitched, Nick Blackburn was desperately in need of somere-tooling. The problem was fairly evident: he simply was not changing speeds enough. Thi…

30Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Tonight: Span or Repko in center?

Today, I assisted Fangraph.com’s Carson Cistulli in answering the question: Who should start in center, Denard Span or Jason Repko? For this particular instance, I favored Repko over Denard. Certainly with the Rangers starting the left-handed kill…

25Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

OtB Twins Notes

With Kevin Slowey hitting the disabled list, NickBlackburn will make a start tonight for the Twins. There are someindications that Blackburn has rediscovered his scorched earth policy inRochester that made him so effective in ’08 and ’09. In 23 inn…

23Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Behind Mauer’s second-half surge

In the first-half of the season, Joe Mauer turned in numbersthat were unbecoming of a reigning MVP. He still maintained an above averagewalk rate and continued to spit out line drives out like sunflower seed shellshowever, the numbers just wouldn’t c…

20Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Sunday’s game: One right decision, another questionable

After seven innings without allowing a hit and a comfortable four-run lead, Ron Gardenhire was in the unenviable position of deciding between allowing his starting pitcher to attempt history or risk injury potential. At that time, Kevin Slowey had amas…

16Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

A look at Denard Span’s walk drought

To say that Denard Span has had a rough 2010 season might be a significant understatement.Spring training started with him lacing a foul shot off of his own mother, then he got off to a slow start brought on by struggles to hit on the road and, to top …

13Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Twins jump all-over Garcia, White Sox

The Twins reclaimed sole possession of first place of the ALCentral by jumping all over Chicago starter Freddy Garcia and knocking him outprematurely en route to a 12-6 victory. While it may seem like a simple storyof the Twins lineup seeing-ball-hitti…

10Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Cooling down Valencia’s hot bat

Danny Valencia has apparently taken full advantage of the resources around him, getting batting tips from Justin Morneau and has opened his ears to the wonders of plate discipline from Jim Thome. This tutelage has paid dividends in just his s…

6Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

OtB Twins Notes

With the non-waiver trade deadline coming to a close onSaturday, the Twins proceeded into August having made onlyone maneuver, trading for Nationals closer Matt Capps to fortify a bullpen that had been taxed in July. Whilethe Twins were looking fo…

1Aug2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Twins spend best trading chip on closer Capps

By his own admission, Twins general manager Bill Smith seemed to grasp the absurdity of overpaying at the trade deadline. “There is a fine line between patience and impatience or patience and panic,” He told MLB.com’s Kelly Thesier, “You d…

30Jul2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Twins turning to Toronto for help?

1500ESPN’s Tom Pelissero relayed yesterday afternoon thatthe Twins were in contact with the Toronto Blue Jays, possibly seeking bullpenhelp. This report would corroborate the speculation of Star Tribune beat writerLa Velle Neal who noted that the Twi…

27Jul2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Delmon Young’s RISPy Business

In 2006, the Twins’ backupcatcher Mike Redmond encouraged his teammates to “smell” the RBIs. This year, DelmonYoung is upping the ante and apparently using all five senses. In fact, consideringhis league-best .419 batting average with runners in …

23Jul2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Changing speeds critical for Blackburn

Back on June 18th, Nick Blackburn followed a decent seven-inning 3-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves with an absolute throttling by a potent Philadelphia Phillies lineup – one that chased him out of the game in the middle of the second inning. Before most…

19Jul2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Bank on a better second-half for Liriano

The Twins starting pitching staff sputtered into the All-Star Break abused and confused in the month of July. The initial start by Kevin Slowey on the other side of the Midsummer Classic did little to reassure the team that things were going to turn ar…

16Jul2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued

Joe Mauer’s pull power?

For the second day in a row, Star Tribune columnist JimSouhan has taken aim at Minnesota’s All-Star catcher, this time taking anopportunity to highlight what he believes are the reasons behind Joe Mauer’sdecline in productivity. Souhan indicates se…

15Jul2010 | Over The Baggy | 0 comments | Continued