We here at Twinkie Town have started calling Caleb Thielbar "Meat Raffle." Thielbar is from Randolph, a town of fewer than 500 people that is six miles west of Cannon Falls. We're pretty sure that the meat raffle is a Randolph tradition, like in every small town in Minnesota - hence the nickname. It just rolls off the tongue: Caleb "Meat Raffle" Thielbar.
That's a good nickname. None of the following, however, are good nicknames.
Tune in next week, because frankly there's a chance we just come up with terrible nicknames every Monday for the rest of the season.
P.J. Walters had trouble hitting his spots for most of the afternoon. It felt like whenever he was in the zone the ball was right down the middle, and if he wasn't in the zone then the batters weren't fooled enough to lift the bat off of their shoulders. Such is the way of the world when your favorite team is forced to start replacement-level talent.
We did get to see Torii Hunter hit the 300th home run of his remarkably long and accomplished career. Austin Jackson's two-run shot in the fourth gave the Tigers all the help they'd need. But the Tigers managed to tally nine hits off of Walters, and it probably could have been more. Even when he came out for the sixth, the out that Walters recorded was off of a line drive.
The Twins, meanwhile, couldn't return the favor. Brian Dozier collected a pair of hits on the afternoon, including his fourth homer, but the only other player to get on the board with a hit was Clete Thomas - who also made a rangey catch in center off of a deep fly from Prince Fielder. Hunter was only kept from a three-hit day by a diving catch from Chris Parmelee, who was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
Today's highlight, really, was Hunter's 300th homer. He hit his first against the Tigers in Detroit; his 300th came against the Twins in Minneapolis. Not a bad bookend.
Studs
Brian Dozier Anthony Swarzak Clete ThomasDuds
P.J. Walters Chris Parmelee Brian Duensing Josh RoenickeToday is the Minnesota's chance to take a series from the AL Central leader. All you need is right here.
A lot happened in this game. Wait, let me start over: A lot happened in this game while I was out for my birthday with a bunch of people from Spain and Brazil where I was given the gift of watching Brazilian dancers and then dancing to Brazilian music and watching Capoeira. This isn't actually what I did for my birthday, it was for a work thing. So, I went to a work party for my birthday. Which doesn't sound any better.
But the Twins did win. There were a pair of controversial calls made at home plate. In the top of the third, Pedro Florimon threw home off of a ground ball and Ryan Doumit appeared to apply the tag to Don Kelly. Then, with the game tied at two in the top of the sixth, Kelly singled into right field and Prince Fielder was waved around third base. Chris Parmelee's throw was there in time and, once again, Doumit appeared to apply the tag. Replays revealed that the play in the second was incorrectly called, but the replay in the sixth proved the correct call was made as Doumit's glove landed while Fielder's left leg was still in the air. Both were critical calls and needed to have correct judgments made, but unfortunately replay isn't allowed for plays at the plate.
Jhonny Peralta's two-run single put the Tigers on the board in the fourth, before birthday boy and back-from-the-disabled-list specialist Trevor Plouffe jacked one into the left field seats to knot it up. Plouffe led off with a double in the sixth, eventually scoring on a Brian Dozier single. Three batters later, Joe Mauer's two-out, two-run single pushed the game to 5-2. Plouffe singled off the wall in left-center in the seventh to drive in another run, missing his second homer of the game by two feet. It was the Trevor Plouffe show.
Oh. He walked, too.
Samuel Deduno threw 93 pitches in seven innings tonight, only striking out two but also walking just one. Two of the game's runs were charged to him, although he should have been charged with an additional run had the correct call been made. Luckily for Sam, history won't care.
Game three is tomorrow afternoon, when the Twins have a chance to take the series from the AL Central leaders. See you back here in the morning!
ROLL CALL!
Your one-stop shop for Saturday night's Twins-Tiger's tilt.
It's pronounced "jif." Yes, like the peanut butter.
Perhaps I should back up a bit. Our work week bookends, Jon Marthaler and Randball's Stu, co-host a podcast with two other guys called The Sportive that started back in February and currently has 18 episodes. For some reason, I was completely oblivious of the podcast until Twinkie Town head honcho Jesse was a guest last week. It's a podcast about all of the major sports with more swearing than a high school locker room and more tangents than your 11th grade trigonometry class, but I find the podcast genuinely funny and Jon's stereotypical Minnesota accent is just amazing.
Anyway, their guest this week was Twins Daily's Parker Hageman, who is a master with animated GIFs and really was the inspiration for me getting motivated enough to learn how to make them. This is not the first time Parker has been on the podcast, and this was also not the first time the guys discussed how to pronounce "GIF."
Guys, it's "jif." The creator of the file says so (the guy on the left in the article's picture, not the one on the right, believe it or not). If that's what he wants, then why do people insist on saying it like "gift"? The English language is already so wonky that we have words like "gift" and "giant" that start with the same 2 letters but are pronounced differently. Hell, there's also the "'ghoti' is 'fish'" phenomenon.
I do understand that some people point out that GIF stands for "Graphics Interchange Format" and thus the 'g' should be a hard pronunciation. However, as a commenter on the CNN article pointed out, the JPEG format stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group," which then suggests that JPEG is supposed to be pronounced "JFEG," except its not and no one argues about it. GIF should be the same way. Except it's not.
This concludes today's episode of "Bryz's Weekly Rant." Now back to sports.
#prayforcolorado pic.twitter.com/JY0ADpyoIR
— Peter McEvoy (@PeterMcEvoy2) June 12, 2013Through five innings, Scott Diamond and Rick Porcello were locked in what ball guys call a "pitcher's duel." But Detroit put up what ball guys call a "crooked number" on the scoreboard against Diamond in the 6th, as the Twins' starter again appeared to run out of gas just after the game's midpoint. Those four runs would prove to be all the scoring in the game, as the Tigers blanked the Twins 4-0, or as ball guys call it, a "shutout." (I'll stop now.)
Diamond actually had two outs posted in the sixth and was on the verge of escaping the Tigers' greatest threat of the night, but he hung a breaking ball to Prince Fielder, who is one of those "don't hang a breaking pitch to him as he likes to hit those hard and far" guys, and Fielder drilled his second double of the game and plated the game's first two runs. A single and another double followed, and the Canadian hurler was poutined (not a word and doesn't make a lick of goddamn sense in any context) after 5 and 2/3 innings. Casey Fein, Ryan Pressley, and Caleb "Meat Raffle" Thielbar finished out the game and allowed no further damage.
This didn't matter, as the Twins were unable to solve the deep, abiding mystery of Rick Porcello. 7 innings, 3 hits, 5 strikeouts, 0 walks. Oswaldo Arcia drilled a ground-rule double to straightaway center, but otherwise, they had nothin'.
Jose Valverde, Tigers closer and uninspected carnival ride that smells like gasoline, walked Joe Mauer to start the 9th, but a double play followed and any thoughts of a wonderful, gutting comeback disappeared in a Justin Morneau strikeout.
Prior to the game, the Twins honored Eddie Guardado and Tom Mee by putting them in the team's Hall of Fame. That was your Friday night highlight. Enjoy your weekend, everybody.
ROBOT ROLL CALL:
1. SooFooFan
2. kenzertz
3. BC Twins
4. jere.johnson.37
5. DavidRF
6. 2wins87
7. KOHG
8. twinsgirl197
9. markos
10. desertaaron
CHARTS & GRAPHS:
Source: FanGraphs
This is where you go to talk and laugh about tonight's Twins/Tigers tilt.
Your Uncle Randy, a lifelong Twins fan and someone who is mortally terrified of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, really likes how Clete Thomas has been playing since getting called up to the big leagues.
"Looks like he's really figuring some things out at the plate, and he sure can close on the ball out in center," said Randy. "Nothing crazy, just goes out there and takes care of his business."
Randy, 49 and never married, thinks Clete has a shot to stick even when Aaron Hicks gets healthy.
"I gotta tell you, Hicks hot dogs it a bit too much out there. I mean, I've heard him interviewed and he's really well spoken, but I don't care for that flashy BS. Guys like Bruno (Tom Brunansky), Randy Bush and Gene Larkin never showed anyone up, they just went out there and played the game the right way."
Randy, who still uses the phrase "ghetto blaster" in 2013 even though no one has one anymore or even knows what one is, also observed that, while he likes the potential of Oswaldo Arcia and Miguel Sano, he hopes that other players aren't lost in the wash.
"I tell you what, guys like Chris Parmelee and Brian Dozier, they still have a shot be something in the bigs. Kind of remind me of guys like Michael Cuddyer or Pat Meares, just good clubhouse guys who needed some time to get acclimated. With Arcia and guys like him, they have a lot of raw talent, but they get so emotional and hot-headed out there, you never know what's gonna happen."
Your Uncle, who has forwarded you multiple emails about "Barack HUSSEIN Obama"'s birth certificate, wants people to know that, while he likes Samuel Deduno's ability to strike batters out, he'd sure like to see someone like Cole De Vries get another look, too.
"I tell you, Sam can be fun to watch, but De Vries oughta get a shot. Sam gets a little wild, but Cole's one of us and has a real good head on his shoulders. Sam's probably a better pitcher, talent-wise, but Cole pitches smart. Can't have enough of those guys in the locker room."
Randy, who has never actually talked to an African-American in his entire life, is excited about Byron Buxton, though.
"Man, Buxton just sort of reminds me of Kirby (Puckett) and Torii (Hunter) out there in the outfield. He's fast like Torii and can hit like Puck. Don't know much about the kid, just hope he's got his head on straight, if you know what I mean." Randy then makes a hand gesture that he saw Tupac Shakur make on TV once, maybe the "California Love" video? You don't know if he knows what it means. You are not going to ask.
That first inning left a little something to be desired. For both sides, to be fair. Ben Revere singled and stole second before Kevin Correia shot himself in the foot, making it first and third with just one out. But the Phillies would score just one. And from that point until the seventh inning, the Minnesota and Philadelphia traded zeroes.
Correia, in spite of stringing together a bunch of goose eggs, was very hittable. After that first inning, the Phills had two base runners in the second and third; Revere tripled in the fourth; the bases were actually loaded in the fifth. Anthony Swarzak came on in the sixth and didn't fare any better but had Correia's luck: with three two-out singles Philadelphia sent Michael Young on Ryan Doumit's arm. Doumit's throw had just enough for Joe Mauer to apply an awkward-looking tag on an awkward looking slide to end the threat.
In the bottom of the seventh, for the first time all night, the Twins forced Cliff Lee to face more than the minimum number of batters in an inning. With two outs and runners on first and second, Justin Morneau looped one into center field. Revere ran perpendicular to the ball's trajectory in order to make a fantastic catch...but he missed it by more than a hair. Mornea cleared the bases, and with it the Twins took a 2-1 lead.
Unfortunately it was the only time all night that the Twins could do more than send three hitters to the dish. Instead, Jared Burton gave up the ghost in very fast order. A double, two singles, and a fielder's choice later, Philadelphia had scored two runs to re-take the lead.
With the loss, the Twins drop to 29-34, and Minnesota only "takes" the series instead of sweeping it. The Tigers come to town starting tomorrow night for three.
ROLL CALL!
At the end of August, Cliff Lee will turn 35 years old. His arm doesn't seem to care. This he's pitched into the 8th six times, and completed fewer than seven innings just twice. His fastball is consistently effective, the cutter works. What more can you say? He's healthy. He's durable. He's consistent. Cliff Lee is everything you want in a starting pitcher.
And to think he would have been a Twin in 2010 had Wilson Ramos been healthy at the time that Seattle was looking to make a move. It's totally an over-reaction, but I still think that 2010 ends up a whole lot differently if Lee is pitching for the Twins.
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Kevin Correia 5-4 12 12 0 0 0 0 76.2 89 35 35 14 12 36 4.11 1.32Whatever kind of dark magic Correia has been spinning this year, I'm good with it. He struck out seven guys in 6.1 innings his last time out. Seriously - this could be a 1-0 pitcher's duel in the 10th inning and Correia would be pulling a Jack Morris.
Historically the Phillies batters haven't seen much of Corriea, and nobody has a big enough sample size to draw any real points of analysis. As a whole they've notched six doubles and a pair of homers in 62 at-bats, for a .290/.389/.484 triple slash, but I'm saying we just chalk a lot of that success up to small sample size. Cool? Cool.
Your one-stop shop for the Twins-Phillies finale in Minnesota!
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There was a time when an outfielder not named Mike Trout or Bryce Harper was taking baseball by storm. His name was Grady Sizemore, a five-tool player who hit for power, stole bases, played Gold-Glove caliber defense, while being the most productive leadoff man in all of baseball. In terms of saber metrics, from 2005-2008 only three players had a higher WAR then Sizemore, Albert Pujols, Chase Utley and Alex Rodriguez. Not to mention Sizemore is two, four, and seven years respectively younger then all those players listed.
Unfortunately, the knees of Sizemore caved in on him, as he was a shell of his former self when in the league from 2009-2011. Only playing 210 of 486 possible games and batting as high as just .248 in that time as well. Sizemore returned to Cleveland in 2012, but started the year on the 60 day DL and never saw any game time dealing with his ailing knees and back problems.
Sizemore has been out of work ever since, and is trying to make a comeback. With his career and reputation at stake now, Sizemore is attempting to make a return, but has insisted that he does not want to return until he is “baseball ready.” The Minnesota Twins are a potential suitor. As of right now, Aaron Hicks is on the DL, giving the Twins one true center fielder in Clete Thomas. Not necessarily a long-term answer there, and although Hicks has played above exceptional defense, his bat is still looking for any form of consistency when he does return from the DL.
That being said, should the Twins take a chance on the once promising star? The Twins went to watch Sizemore work out in March and when Sizemore does finally reach that “baseball ready state” the Twins are a supposed front-runner in winning the sweepstakes. It is a vintage Terry Ryan signing, and Sizemore is very familiar with the AL Central, as his entire career was spent in Cleveland. He would most likely be signed at league minimum, with maybe some incentives built into the contract as well. All though even if one month from now Sizemore is ready he would only at most play about 50-60 games. He also could be auditioning himself for another team for 2014. Who knows, maybe a little mentoring for Aaron Hicks from a guy like Grady Sizemore would do wonders, not to mention with Byron Buxton tearing through the minors, he may up here well before 2015 as originally anticipated. Maybe Sizemore could provide the same kind of mentoring that Carl Pavano was able to do, but to actually talented players this time.
In terms of the Minnesota Twins, the signing of minor league journeyman Cody Eppley isn't likely to make many waves. The 27-year old right-hander was a 43rd-round selection by the Rangers in 2008, reached Triple-A by 2010 and made ten relief appearances for Texas in 2011. The Yankees selected him off of waivers in April of 2012, and proceeded to collect 46 innings of 3.33 ERA baseball. Not bad for a waiver claim.
New York largely utilized him for his platoon splits, with 130 of his 194 batters faced bring right-handed. Righties managed just .227/.276/.319 off of him, with 22 strikeouts and eight walks. Lefties, meanwhile, hit .352 with a .444 on-base percentage, striking out ten times and walking nine. It's not uncommon for pitchers to have a weaker approach to a certain side of the plate, and that's certainly in evidence with Eppley whose funky sidearm delivery makes it easier for left-handers to pick him up. Righties can sometimes have difficult with the angles.
Eppley's fastball usually sits in the upper 80s, but has been clocked a tad slower this season. He compliments it with a very occasional changeup, but his true alternative is his low-80s slider. While he can't locate it well enough to be truly effective against left-handed hitters, the arm angle and the levels of his fastball/slider make it awfully tempting to righties.
What Eppley does provide is a history of big strikeout numbers in the minor leagues. In 248.1 career minor league innings he's sent down 282 on strikes, and if you split Triple-A out of that group he's still struck out 118 in 112.1 innings. In addition to a strong splits candidate, Eppley also has a history of higher than average walk rates and, this season, he's allowing a great deal of additional hits as well.
Triple-A Pitching Coach Marty Mason is going to have his work cut out for him, but if there's something to be fixed then there's certainly an asset there for the Red Wings' 'pen. Welcome to the organization, Cody Eppley. With Anthony Slama's slow start, Eppley will join Michael Tonkin and Luis Perdomo as another pitcher who is capable of posting strong strikeout rates.
Grab a cup of coffee and let's talk Twins. Nobody really wants to talk about boring work stuff anyway, right?
If you weren't able to watch tonight's game, you missed out on a really good one. Mike Pelfrey, who has been struggling much of the 2013 campaign, pitched a very solid 7 innings for Minnesota tonight, the longest he's lasted in a game all year. Pelfrey only gave up 5 hits (three in the first inning--only two after the first) in his 7 innings pitched, and walked 1 while giving up 3 earned runs. Seeing Pelfrey's numbers get better game after game is really encouraging, and tonight's limited walks and seven (!) strikeouts is even better news for the recovering pitcher.
Casey Fien came in to relieve Pelfrey and promptly gave up two hits and only got one out, so Brian Duensing was called in to relieve Fien. Duensing isn't always a great reliever, but tonight he was definitely on his game. He struck Jimmy Rollins out on a very slow breaking ball over the plate to end the eighth inning, and the Twins went into the bottom of the inning down 3-2. We'll cover the offense in a bit, but I'll just note that Glen Perkins came in in the top of the ninth and had a nice, quick 1-2-3 inning, as we've become mostly accustomed to. Tonight was Perk's second one-run save in a row.
Alright, it's definitely time to discuss the offense. Clete Thomas, the recent call up (again), had a career night tonight. He had 4 hits, two of them doubles, and 2 of the Twins' 4 RBI. He also scored one of the runs, in the bottom of the eighth inning, on a wild pitch from Justin De Fratus (though Antonio Bastardo was responsible for both the runs De Fratus gave up). Thomas' efforts were helped by top prospect Oswaldo Arcia, who went 3-for-4 this evening, with a double and the other three of the Twins' runs scored. Arcia was basically on base all night, which was great to see.
Side note: I'm not a big fan of bunting, but I will say that tonight, Eduardo Escobar performed probably the most perfect bunt I've ever seen in a game. He hit it just up the first base line, but the ball had some spin on it so it rolled back toward home plate, and Escobar made it safely to first base. It was really well executed, whether it was intentional for that spin or not, and it was, admittedly, a great call.
Overall, the Twins really didn't play that well -- the bottom half of the lineup really produced most of the offensive help, but the combination of solid pitching and decent-enough offense definitely got the job done.
Roll Call
Congrats, kenzzzzertz.
Win Expectancy Graph
Source: FanGraphs
Note those delightful pivotal Clete Thomas moments. Amazing.
Studs
1) Mike Pelfrey. A big congratulations on the improvements in pitching.
2) Clete Thomas. Holy cow, it's #Cletesanity!
3) Oswaldo Arcia. The prospect showed why he was ranked so high tonight.
Duds
No one. Winning is always fun!
Coming Up
Tomorrow night, the Twins look to sweep the series as they face off against Cliff Lee (no one said it would be easy...) at 7:10 pm at Target Field. Minnesota will be looking to Kevin Correia to secure the series sweep and keep the Twins' winning streak going. Make sure you check back tomorrow for all the latest game information!
First Pitch: 7:10 pm CST
TV: FSN
Radio: 96.3 K-TWIN, TIBN
Know Thine Enemy: The Good Phight
After another rainy day, the Twins hope the poor weather conditions stay away long enough to beat the Phillies again at home at Target Field tonight. The pitching matchup tonight features Mike Pelfrey for Minnesota and Tyler Cloyd for Philadelphia. Both pitchers had quality starts in their last outing, with Pelfrey throwing 6 1/3 innings against the Royals last week, a season-high for him.
Your throwers
Mike Pelfrey #37 / Pitcher / Minnesota TwinsHeight: 6-7
Weight: 250
Bats: R
Throws: R
Born: Jan 14, 1984
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Mike Pelfrey 3-6 12 12 0 0 0 0 57.2 79 43 41 6 20 28 6.40 1.72Tyler Cloyd #50 / Pitcher / Philadelphia Phillies
Height: 6-3
Weight: 210
Bats: R
Throws: R
Born: May 16, 1987
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Tyler Cloyd 2-2 5 5 0 0 0 0 29.1 31 13 12 2 12 16 3.68 1.47
Lineups
Will be posted when available.
GO TWINS!
Your one-stop shop for tonight's Twins game
Tonight's game features the matchup of Mike Pelfrey and Tyler Cloyd. For some reason, I've been lucky enough to have to have covered the past few Pelfrey starts, and I have to say, it hasn't been a ton of fun. Admittedly, Pelfrey's start last Thursday against the Royals was pretty good for him -- 3 runs on 7 hits in 6/13 innings. Not shabby, especially considering some of the pretty awful starts he's had this year. Tonight, he looks to continue to upward trend and stay in the game past the 6th inning again.
Tyler Cloyd hasn't been outstanding for the Phillies, but he's been able to hold his own for sure. His last start was against the Brewers last week, and while he wasn't dominating, he did hold them scoreless over 6 2/3 innings.
The pitchers:
Height: 6-7
Weight: 250
Bats: R
Throws: R
Born: Jan 14, 1984
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Mike Pelfrey 3-6 12 12 0 0 0 0 57.2 79 43 41 6 20 28 6.40 1.72
Tyler Cloyd #50 / Pitcher / Philadelphia Phillies
Height: 6-3
Weight: 210
Bats: R
Throws: R
Born: May 16, 1987
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Tyler Cloyd 2-2 5 5 0 0 0 0 29.1 31 13 12 2 12 16 3.68 1.47Please Note: You may have disabled JavaScript and/or CSS. Although this news content will be accessible, certain functionality is unavailable.
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