94 West and Just Follow the Signs
Twins at Yankees Live Gamethread 6:07 Eastern 5:07 Central
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94 West and Just Follow the Signs
So we made it to the postseason. A163 games of toil and there our team is, YOUR MINNESOTA TWINS!
The only problem is, I actually don't know that much about the Twins, well other than cutie Joe Mauer. So lets recap the 2009 season. A few weeks ago the Twins were much like our beloved Cubs, sitting 7 games out of first place, and desperately trying to make the postseason. Thanks to that Minnesota grit and a little bit of Tiger meltdown the season ended with a tie for first place. In one of the more exciting games of the season the Twins finally prevailed in 12 innings late last night.
Ok, maybe not so much like the Cubs
For the Twins(87-76)
Brian Duensing
The Twins are starting the ALDS series with a guy who started the season in Triple AAA, in Rochester NY. Yep, thats who we get to cheer for tonight. But with 9 starts in the bigs he's gone 5-1 with a 2.59 ERA. He's never faced the Yankees so it could be really interesting, one way or the other
For the Yankees (103-59)
CC Sabathia. As good as Duensing has been, well Sabathia is 9-0 in August and September with an 2.04 ERA. Yeah, did I mention he's in contention for the Cy Young? Nope, well you probably figured that out on your own.
So thats is people. The lineups will come, the game is on TBS or you can follow along with the radio types, its even on ESPN Radio so no excuses.
The only problem is, I actually don't know that much about the Twins, well other than cutie Joe Mauer. So lets recap the 2009 season. A few weeks ago the Twins were much like our beloved Cubs, sitting 7 games out of first place, and desperately trying to make the postseason. Thanks to that Minnesota grit and a little bit of Tiger meltdown the season ended with a tie for first place. In one of the more exciting games of the season the Twins finally prevailed in 12 innings late last night.
Ok, maybe not so much like the Cubs
For the Twins(87-76)
Brian Duensing
The Twins are starting the ALDS series with a guy who started the season in Triple AAA, in Rochester NY. Yep, thats who we get to cheer for tonight. But with 9 starts in the bigs he's gone 5-1 with a 2.59 ERA. He's never faced the Yankees so it could be really interesting, one way or the other
For the Yankees (103-59)
CC Sabathia. As good as Duensing has been, well Sabathia is 9-0 in August and September with an 2.04 ERA. Yeah, did I mention he's in contention for the Cy Young? Nope, well you probably figured that out on your own.
So thats is people. The lineups will come, the game is on TBS or you can follow along with the radio types, its even on ESPN Radio so no excuses.
103 Comments
Doc said:
Ugh! Once again I have to go look at houses during the game.
Doc said:
What does CC stand for?
Carl Heartscubs Gierhan said:
Carsten Charles
baturkey said:
I have to relearn to want him to bad now that fantasy baseball's over.
millertime said:
well, lets, ya know, have a good game n stuff. Just make sure ta watch da language tonight. Gosh I hope Joe Mauer has a big game tuh nite.
baturkey said:
Lineups
Wins:
Span, OF
Cabrera, SS
Mauer, C
Cuddyer, 1B
Kubel, RF
Young, LF
Harris, DH
Tolbert, 3B
Punto, 2B
Yankees:
Jeter, SS
Damon, LF
Teixeira, 1B
Rodriguez, 3B
Matsui, DH
Posada, C
Cano, 2B
Swisher, RF
Cabrera, CF
millertime said:
Some people whitewash fences. Joe Mauer just walks by.
millertime said:
Ole and Sven went on a fishing trip to Canada and come back with only three fish, and Sven says, "The way I figger it, Ole, each of them fish cost us $400. Well. At dat price it's a good ting we didn't catch any more of em than we did."
millertime said:
LETS GO JOE!!!!!!!!
millertime said:
Minnesota playing small ball. Leadoff single, then force CC to throw a wild pitch. Runner on third, time for Joe to knock him in.
millertime said:
Joe down on strikes. CC has some nasty stuff. But don't worry. According to Skip Bayless, CC stands for "Can't Count on".
flyball said:
i hope he got the "being awesome" thing out of his system in September
millertime said:
CC has a heart of a lion. That doesn't sound healthy to me.
Carl Heartscubs Gierhan said:
I thought Congress passed laws to stop chimeras!
baturkey said:
I like this Orbitz commercial where the valet is trying to park the hovercraft.
millertime said:
Time for Choke-rod (thats my clever nickname for him) to show why he's worthless in the post-season.
millertime said:
A-rod chokes again. Choker.
Lets go Twins, lets get some runs!!!!!
JulieDiCaro said:
Go new team!
millertime said:
Delmon Young strikes out. Typical. Trade him!!!!
millertime said:
"[Sabathia] could have pitched in generations before." Except for the generations that didn't allow players of color to play. Oh those old school days!
JulieDiCaro said:
HA.
Before Dennis Miller got all weird and republican, he said "I love the Republican Party's fascination with returning to the 1950s. The 1950s weren't that great. Trust me. Ask anyone who was black, a woman, or a member of the communist party."
JulieDiCaro said:
what happened to ARod?
millertime said:
He choked like normal. had a guy in scoring position, completely failed to bring him in. Just like he always does.
JulieDiCaro said:
They should trade him. I know this team in Chicago that could use him.
millertime said:
The national league doesn't even play real baseball, what with their stupid idea of making the pitcher bat and what not. Pure rubbish.
millertime said:
Commercial Break!
You know you're from Minnesota when.....
Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor.
"Vacation" means going to Brainerd for the weekend.
You measure distance in hours.
You know several people who have hit deer more than once.
You often switch from "heat" to "a/c" in the same day.
You use a down comforter in the summer.
Your grandparents drive 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during a blizzard, without flinching.
You see people wearing hunting clothes to social events.
JulieDiCaro said:
I've been typing (fast) since 8:00 this morning. My hands, wrists and shoulders are all screaming.
Boo.
millertime said:
The Yankees are just a bunch of cake-eaters.
JulieDiCaro said:
Central Park West fancy boys.
millertime said:
See, this is the one thing I don't like about watching the Twins, is having to hear about the "Twins way of playing baseball".
Every team tries hard. Every team wants to play good defense and have good pitching. The Twins aren't reinventing baseball strategy. They just have great scouting and a solid minor league system which has helped them continually develope talent. They also get a lot of talent in their system because they have losing seasons where they trade away high price players for prospects, and get high draft picks. This works because when the Twins have a bad season, their writers and fans don't go batshit crazy and demand heads to roll.
flyball said:
um, can the Cubs play the Twins way?
millertime said:
They're starting too. They've had some great pitching start to come through their system, and they're starting to find position players. The nice thing about the Cubs is that they have the financial resources to sign good players, putting them in a position to win more often than the Twins, who rely on the draft for almost everything.
JulieDiCaro said:
Did you watch this season at all?
millertime said:
Did you watch the past two? The ones where the Cubs just happened to win the division? Two years in a row? Does this mean nothing?
I did watch this season.
Soriano? Hurt/down year
Ramirez? Hurt/down year
Bradley? Down Year
Fontenot? Down year
Soto? Down year
The Cubs and Jim Hendry are doing a good job of turning things around. This is the first time in a long time that the Cubs have had 3 winning seasons in a row. Some people might consider that progress.
JulieDiCaro said:
You're delusional. After 2010, we're so screwed. We're already the 3rd oldest team in baseball. In two years, we'll be even older with tons of backloaded contracts and players who are too old to live up to them.
millertime said:
You're spoiled. So we take a couple lumps, and rebuild. We'll be back in the playoffs before you can say Jimminycricketswespendalotofmoneyanddon'thavemuchtoshowforit. You don't get guys like Mauer in the 2nd round. Lots of teams have it worse than the Cubs. Don't be such a Negative Nancy. Debbie Downer.
JulieDiCaro said:
NO, it is YOU who is spoiled!!!!
millertime said:
Nuh uh!
JulieDiCaro said:
quit bashing our new team, jerk!
if you love Yankees so much, why don't you marry them?
millertime said:
I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.
AndCounting said:
Sorry so late on the discussion, but I thought for sure our allegiance would be sold to the Yomiuri Giants, and I adjusted my alarm clock accordingly.
But, in the words of Demi Moore, I have to strenuously object to your argument. The idea that every team tries hard is bull crap. Plenty of teams don't hustle. They don't run out ground balls. They don't run out pop flies. They don't run out to White Hen.
And in 8 years under Ron Gardenhire, they've had exactly one losing season. And getting higher draft picks doesn't seem to make as much difference in baseball as in other sports. The whole draft is a crap shoot.
Their scouts may be good, I don't know. And I agree they have a good minor league system. And that IS what makes Twin baseball better. They teach their players the right way to play the game, and the ones who understand that make it to the big leagues.
Classic Cubs contradiction to that model: Corey Patterson. Instead of developing him within the minor leagues to be a base-stealing, bunting, leadoff man, they had him hit third and swing for the fences to pad his minor league stats. Big surprise he became a major league strikeout artist.
I get your point that trying hard only does so much and that other teams aren't eating bon bons as they run the bases. But the level of professionalism the Twins have is respectable, and the degree to which the players willingly carry out the game plan of their manager helps a great deal. And it's fun to watch a team play like professionals.
That was one thing about Kosuke that made people fall in love with him last year. He may have sucked at a lot of things, but he ran hard, played smart, and executed the fundamentals.
Those poor fundamentals never saw it coming.
Um . . . don'tcha know.
MN Pat said:
One of my students was trying to listen to the game during class. If he had been using one of those bud earphones I wouldn't have noticed, but he had this big blue thingy clipped to his ear. Hee. Freshmen are so oblivious.
JulieDiCaro said:
How come our new team isn't winning yet?
Why does Ron Darling talk so weird?
Why does he say "cCEE?"
Little Bear said:
Maybe we are a Jinx
millertime said:
There you go. The Twins win because they are ballplayers. Scrappy, gutsy, cling to your pants leg ballplayers.
Spending large payroll on baseball teams is not a bad team. Spending a lot of money and not winning the world series doesn't mean you failed. The Yankees have been a great team for the past decade. They almost always make the playoffs. It's a very well run organization.
JulieDiCaro said:
and the Yankees win because the "Yankee way" is to play in the postseason.
So all Cubs fans have to do is declare a better "Cubs way" and all their problems will be over!
We should have let Ron Darling buy the team.
JulieDiCaro said:
You guys, what do I do about people who send me FB friend requests because of LOHO or Red Eye? I don't want to be mean, but I'm not comfortable letting people have access to all my info if I don't know them. Hell, I'm not comfortable having people I DO know have access to all that information.
Should I direct them over to the LOHO fan page? They don't really seem to go for that.
MN Pat said:
You could put them all in one group, then seriously limit what that particular group has access to on your profile. I know people I used to work with did that when becoming FB friends became the hot new "at work" trend.
baturkey said:
You can limit what groups of people can see on your profile.
(Mauer!)
1. Go to Friends->All Connections->Create New List
2. Name it, and add people if any
3. Go to Settings->Privacy Settings->Profile
4. For each option, you can choose Customize... and select the new list to prevent people in that list from seeing that information.
5. When adding people, you can choose what list, if any, to put them in.
JulieDiCaro said:
That was a good idea. Thanks guys.
millertime said:
Joe Mauer is so awesome.
millertime said:
Alright, 1-0! Keep it Minnesnowta!
MN Pat said:
Hurray! We scored!
millertime said:
Posada is having a super shitty game.
millertime said:
Joe Mauer invented hockey when he got bored during winter.
JulieDiCaro said:
Awwwww! I just found out I'm going to be an auntie! Yaaaaaay me!
MN Pat said:
Congrats!
flyball said:
congratulations! its the best gig ever (ok, so I've never been a mom, but being an aunt means you can spoil them, and send them back, thats a pretty awesome gig)
millertime said:
It really sucks for A-Rod that his regular season success gets in the way of his post-season play. Maybe if he wasn't so selfish and cared less about money and all-star teams he'd be more clutch. Like Jeter.
JulieDiCaro said:
I love Jeter. I don't care what people think about him. He rocks.
millertime said:
Jeter is awesome. I wish the Cubs had a shortstop that could hit like that.
I mean, um, uh, go Twins! Hooray Joe Mauer! Lets go fishing after the game and drink some beers!
JulieDiCaro said:
CC looks so hilarious from the back. He looks like he's wearing bloomers.
JulieDiCaro said:
We're rubbing off on Joe. :(
Perkins said:
Yankees lead 3-1...Boosh!
JulieDiCaro said:
you probably didn't get the memo, but this is a Twins blog now. so. . . you know. . . comply.
Perkins said:
I mean 3-2...I'm retarded. And the American in me wants to see the big powerhouse steamroll the little guy.
JulieDiCaro said:
no, that's the roman emperor in you.
Perkins said:
lol, I like to think of this country as the Empire.
The Twins In Haiku said:
Damn you Alfonso
Can't make the throw home from left
Could have had the out
er ...
Damn you Delmon Young
Can't make the throw home from left
Could have had the out
JulieDiCaro said:
I seriously can't take Ron Darling for another second.
The Twins In Haiku said:
I hate the Yankees
Even more now that I am
Cheering for the Twins
millertime said:
Rooting for the Twins is just like rooting for the Cubs! Replace Gregg with Liriano and we're set!
millertime said:
I like the my touch commercial with Cat Stevens music.
JulieDiCaro said:
i HATE it! i can't believe cat stevens sold one of my favorite songs to Tmobile! and there aren't even good celebrities! it's like they made up for not having anyone good by getting a ton of boring people! is that the guy that's married to sandra bullock? why is he in there? phil jackson, seriously?
gah.
The Twins In Haiku said:
Single off C.C.
Twins have tying run on deck
Need a hit from Span
The Twins In Haiku said:
Looks like Denard Span
Can't hit the ball in the clutch
Just like Aaron Miles
The Twins In Haiku said:
It's quite depressing
We're cheering for the Twins now
But nothing has changed
JulieDiCaro said:
just wait until tomorrow when I start telling everyone "it's only game one, you guys!"
Perkins said:
Yeah, the Twins are boned.
JulieDiCaro said:
do you think it's our fault?
baturkey said:
Small sample size.
The Twins In Haiku said:
So it's not the Cubs
It's the great fans at LOHO
Who are the spoilers?
Perkins said:
Speak for yourself; I'm rooting for the Yankees.
JulieDiCaro said:
fine. go start your own blog.
millertime said:
I blame Delmon Young. We need to trade him.
Little Bear said:
YES
The Twins In Haiku said:
Our guys are just tired
After that long game last night
They'll win on Friday
The Twins In Haiku said:
A slight correction
The final line should have been
WE'LL win on Friday!
Perkins said:
Suck on that, A-Rod haters!
JulieDiCaro said:
i don't hate him as a ballplayer, i hate him as a person.
Perkins said:
I didn't mean you specifically; I mean all the meatball fans who say he sucks in the clutch and other such nonsense.
JulieDiCaro said:
in the past, he. . . didn't always do that well when he was nervous.
Perkins said:
Well, for his career, his playoff numbers are decent, though not spectacular. With a player of his caliber, I think the expectations are unreasonably high. Pujols and Bonds are the only players I can think of who never seem to slump.
JulieDiCaro said:
cheese ravioli, a glass of chianti, and a hot bath makes everything better.
JulieDiCaro said:
will you SHUT UP about Joba? he almost got left off the postseason roster! jeez!
Carl Heartscubs Gierhan said:
But he was born in Nebraska! Just like me.
The Twins In Haiku said:
More proof that nothing has changed, as tweeted by @MikeTully23:
These TBS guys
Constant love for the Yankees
Makes me want to puke
MillsChC said:
I turned on this game in the 3rd inning, and turned it off after the 4th inning because the two commercial breaks I saw had FIVE freaking promos for this George Lopez show.... and then immediately after one of them (I'm talking seconds), the game came back on and Chip read a live promo for this show.
Did TBS not learn anything from the backlash of all those crap Frank Calliendo promos?... and I like some of Lopez's standup (unlike Calliendo), so it's sorta sad that he's headed down this path.
AndCounting said:
Who has been the most annoying weapon of TBS playoff overexposure: Dane Cook, Frank Caliendo, or George Lopez?
I know Dane didn't have his own TBS show, but he was pretty much the theme for an entire postseason so I threw him in there.
Maim said:
Ugh. Stupid Yankees.
Maim said:
If that man made Mark DeRosa break a nail, I'll kill him!!11
millertime said:
So, has this blog ever gotten a playoff win?
Doc said:
That would be a big fat NO.
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