Review Continued...

Let us continue our review of the Twins 2011 roster...

Starting pitching

Carl Pavano: Let us all rejoice that Carl came back to the Twins this year. He was one of the most consistent pitchers for us last year and more importantly is a good leader in the clubhouse. He will probably not be a dominating force but he will keep us close in games giving our MVPs opportunities to win it!
Francisco Liriano: An underachieving Ace. Not very happy with Frankies off season conditioning or his tendency to get over hyped in big games. Hopefully this year will be the one where everything clicks for him.
Brian Duensing: Pitched great in limited play last year and seems to have the temperament to be a steady contributor.
Nick Blackburn: Looks to improve on his 2010 injury hampered year. Really should be more consistent this year.
Scotty Baker: He too is looking to improve on his 2010 season and return to previous form.
The key to our success is these pitchers keeping games close and pitching deep. Our hitters need to avoid any droughts and score consistently.

Bullpen:
Joe Nathan is back and will share closing duties with Matt Capps. Most likely Capps will setup for him but this will allow Anderson some leeway depending on the situtation.
Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crane are gone but new additions of Dusty Hughes and Kevin Slowey will be helpful. Jeff Manship, Jose Mijares and Glen Perkins round out the pen. This maybe the weakest link for the Twins but every guy has experience and hopefully can continue to improve. Again our hitters have to stay consistent and keep games close.
We do have some experienced help in the minors, who may be called upon through out the season, Scott Diamond and Anthony Slama. Draft pick Kyle Gibson may come up at some point he is just too good to not use! As always Rick Anderson and his minor league coaches will have pitchers prepared to come up and contribute. The Twins always seem to have guys ready to come up and be productive.

Our Batting order:
Denard Span will lead off and no doubt will have a better avg. this year. Gardy will give him more breaks so he doesn't wear down. Hopefully he wont get picked off so much this year and use his speed to get on base and steal a few.
Tsuyoshi Nishioka will follow and his speed is going to get him on and force some errors. I have to say I am most excited to see him play.
Most likely Joe Mauer will hit third and be followed by Justin Morneau. If these two guys are healthy they will have lots of RBI opportunities. Lets hope Justin picks up where he left off when he got hurt last year. Hopefully Joe will not try to be home run hitter and just get the hits!
Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, Jim Thome and Delmon Young will probably be interchangeable in the next few spots. Hopefully the changes in the outfield site lines will help these big hitters.(who knows maybe the concrete has dried enough to help the ball get out of the park) Alexi Casilla will be ninth and hopefully use his speed more.

Twins need to avoid slumps and stay healthy, as every team does, and they should contend for the division!

Today baseball officially starts and tomorrow the Twins begin! They will play in Toronto revisiting where Mor"yes" got hurt. Hopefully Mor"yes" takes the opportunity to close the book on this frustrating injury detour with a great first game.

GO TWINS!!

Snide note: Disliking that Patrick Reusse(on1500am) has already started the when will Casilla lose his job pool. They did compliment his arm and speed but doubt he will stay focused. My take is that the guy has learned what he needs to do to play everyday and will rise to the occasion. Prove them wrong ALEXI!!!(and me right!)

A little review...

So lets review our beloved Twins....

Ron Gardenhire finally won AL Manager of 2010! As you may or may not recall my brother has had a love hate relationship with Gardy and like some others probably doesn't think he deserved this award. Perhaps this wasn't his most deserving year as a manager as I believe a couple years in the past he was! If you review all he dealt with in 2010 you have to give him his props:losing Joe Nathan, Losing Morneau, Juggling infielders because of injury, heck juggling the whole roster because of injury, having no Ace starting pitcher, Joe Mauer battling thru injury. Add all this to those past years when he has consistently won the division and continues to develop excellent young players...yes yes I know we haven't won in the post season blah blah blah...At least we are getting into the postseason and have an opportunity!! Personally I think Gardy is a great Manager and really gets the most out of his roster. Seriously look at the teams he has fielded in the last five years: No true ace pitcher, basically two guys who can hit .300 plus, having to start utility players like Nick Punto(I love Nick and will miss him but lets face facts he's a great back up but not who you want as a starter)and losing high quality players like Torii and Johan Santana. Gardy creates a positive atmosphere in the clubhouse and gets players to play up to their potential. He keeps things in house and doesn't trash players in the press.

Kudos to Rick Anderson the pitching coach as well for making average pitchers better and always bringing up pitchers ready to perform. I love that we have had such a great competition for the starting group. Brian Duensing is a great addition his past performances have shown he is ready to be a big time player! I also believe both Nick Blackburn and Scott Baker will be better this year. They had moments of brilliance last year and both fought thru injury, both having surgery in the off season. The quick infield defense will help both pitchers out too.

The 2011 Roster

The infield has been revamped a bit. The addition of Tsuyoshi Nishioka a Japanese golden glover speed demon and moving Alexi Casilla over to shortstop gives the Twins one of the fastest middle defenses in the MLB. The corners are anchored by a hopefully finally healthy Justin Morneau and fresh faced Danny Valencia. Lets hope the sophomore slump doesn't hit Valencia and that Mor"yes" has healed up. These guys are a perfect combo of speed and power. Matt Tolbert a Gardy favorite will be the back up for the infield and a great pinch runner. This kid has lots of grit and speed. Drew Butera will back up for Joe Mauer at catcher, he caught most of Carl Pavano games last year but Mauer will definitely catch the season opener.

The outfield will be much like last year. Delmon Young in left, Denard Span in center and Michael Cuddyer in right. Jason Repko will spell Span in center more often this year to avoid wearing Span down like last year. Jason Kubel will DH and fill in for Young and Cuddyer. It is likely Cuddyer will play first a few times this year to rest Morneau. Jim Thome will DH and pinch hit going for his 600th homerun this year he is currently at 589! My hope is he reaches it at a home game early in the season.

More next time on starting pitchers, bullpen and batting order...

GO TWINS! (TWO DAYS!!!)

Beside Myself

Twins baseball starts in 3 days! My excitement is multiplying each minute! Love the new commercial with Denard Span, Jason Kubel, Coach Jerry White and Danny Valencia! This should take you to it: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13142579&tcid=tw-min-snipe_ns_03042011 The Twins commercials have always been somewhat entertaining and the Radio ones use to be awesome! Not so into the new voice on them now, trying to be like the voice of Bill Woodson . Woodson did the "Get to Know 'Em", "Every Fan Counts" and "This Twins Territory". He was once the voice of Superfriends "Meanwhile back at the Hall of Justice..." and the voice for the beginning of Odd Couple. He was born in 1917 so he was nearly 90 when he started the Twins Radio commercials. I have to assume he just wasn't up to it anymore and I sure miss his rich voice. I wish the Twins had gone another way and used an entirely different voice rather then try to imitate Woodson. My suggestion is Kevin Kling! Awesome write storyteller and a very folksy voice. He does the Minnesota accent well, The Twins are becoming more popular nationally so lets play up the whole Minnesota thing. We have our hometown boy playing for us and he is a bona fide star but still a Minnesota boy! Ya you betcha! Three days people!! Twins play in Toronto! GO TWINS!!

Just over a week...

Just over a week until the first GAME!!! So exciting! It appears everyone will be healthy for the beginning of the season!! I love the decision to put Baker in the 5th starting spot, this gives Slowey a little time to heal up that elbow. Though I wonder how he will do coming out of the bullpen.

I tried to buy tickets on the first day they were available but gave up after sitting for 3 hours plus. Guess I will watch the first home game on TV! I miss hearing Bert and Dick anyway so that will be just fine for me. I can't wait to hear the crack of the bat!!!

Go Twins!

upon further review...

Ok having viewed several videos of Japanese chanting or songs at games I have to say I am glad American baseball doesn't do that! Sure I am all for cheering at games I am always yelling or clapping. But I pay attention to the game and am cheering for good plays or to give a little boost. It struck me that the Japanese are cheering to cheer or singing to sing....they dont actually seem to be watching the game. For me baseball is a beautiful game full of nuances. One of those is being at the park and hearing the crack of the bat, slap of a ball into a mitt...these followed by cheers or groans from the crowd or Wally the beer man calling out. I dont imagine you hear those things at a japanese game over the constant song/cheer. I love it when the crowd joins together for "KUBE!" or gets to their feet as Jim Thome comes up to bat. Yes I do kinda wish there was more cheering and perhaps less negetive yelling but I am glad we dont have cheer captins and trumpets.

I heard the collective sigh of relief when it was announced Morneau had played in a game. It was definitely a boost to have his second at bat be a 3RBI double. Pretty Sweet! I am sure Justin is chomping at the bit to be in every game but I think its a great plan to ease him into it. As I said before those veterans don't need a lot of spring games to get back into the groove.

I also want to point out that Delmon Young got into his first game and got two walks!! Yes TWO walks. If Delmon can show that kinda plate patience through out the season the fellow is going to have big numbers!! I have no doubt those broad shoulders and thick forearms can muscle some balls out of the park, but if he can layoff bad pitches his work will be a piece of cake.

We need to start the melting and get this winter over with I am ready for some baseball!!!

GO TWINS!!

This is how you cheer!!!!

This is how you cheer in Japan at least. This is the chant for Tsuyoshi Nishioka every time he comes to bat! Can you imagine doing this at Target Field!?! It would be amazing. Evidently they do this for every batter through out their entire at bat. They have cheer captains and pass out the words to each players chant. Every year the chant changes for each player just like the coming up to bat songs in MLB.

I wonder how Tsuyoshi will feel coming to bat and having it so quiet compared to Japan. It would be amazing if fans here could create a chant for him and make him feel more at home. I think it would be fun to go to a game in Japan and cheer constantly like that, I am often the only person cheering in my section at games. People always are "They can't hear you!" Well if everybody cheered they would hear you! And it does help to have your fans cheering, good examples are: the dome during our last world series and Williams arena when the Gophers don't suck.

I can recall games at Williams where the crowd was chanting M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A and it is AWESOME!!! Lets do it! Lets start our own tradition of chants for our players! Lets back our Twins in a new fun interactive way.

I am going to work on some chants for players and would love to hear your suggestions!

MORNEAU MORNEAU
Watch that Baseball GO!

Hey I think I am onto something(or on something)....

GO TWINS!