Friday, August 1, 2008

Series Review, Preview and other notes

By Michael Haas

My room mate refused to attend the game on Wednesday because Livan Hernandez was the Twins starting pitcher. But the 42,000 fans who found a seat that night may have witnessed the start of Something Beautiful. What went down in the record books as a Loss, the game could result in many wins, as Livan's bad start probably convinced the Twins to finally replace him in the rotation. With Francisco Liriano.

Even though the Twins failed to make a deadline move, they are sitting pretty at just a half game out of first place. The only problem now is that we have too many outfielders and not enough infielders.

Souhan thought that Smith should have traded Liriano for an infielder like Adrian Beltre. I thought that was funny.

"What? Trade Liriano? In our moment of triumph?"


So if Livan has truly made his last start as a Twin, we'll have a very forward-looking starting 5:

Nick Blackburn -26 years old
Scott Baker - 26 years old
Kevin Slowey - 24 years old
Glen Perkins - 25 years old
Francisco Liriano - 24 years old

I challenge anyone to find a younger, more stable rotation than that. For years to come? cross your fingers.


So what's next? The Indians? Yes.

Friday: Blackburn v. Sowers - The Twins just faced Jeremy Sowers last weekend in Cleveland. The lefty shut em down before they finally got to him in, like, the 6th or something. The Twins can hit lefties OK now, eventually. Twins Win.

Saturday: Slowey v. Byrd - What is there to say about Paul Byrd? He's a soft tossing righty with a 5 ERA, but he usually has some whiskers on his face. Twins should be able to get to him.

Sunday: Perkins v. something called Ginter - This will be just his fourth start of the year, but he pitched alright against the Rays last week. Twins win this game too.

Daymonster correctly predicted the outcome of the White Sox series last week, which was very cool, and hopefully my picks are spot-on as well. Daymonster also managed to piss off 95% of the Twins blogosphere with his post the other day, which was not so cool. But I think (I think) what he was trying to say is that we're all Twins fans. We're all Twins fans. And that's all I have to say about that.

And finally:

So long, Livan.

10 comments:

Holmer said...

Looking back on the assumed trade now is quite laughable, but I would not be laughing if it had gone through. I would be throwing things around my house in anger.

What a game last night huh?

For the last month I have not given any credit to the excuses posed by the organization for not having our best players on our major league active roster. Of course I am refering to Mr. Liriano and his dominance in the minors as of late. He has obviously regained the control he had been lacking when we saw him earlier this season, and our "veteran presence" has fallen off an already teetering table.

I'm having a hard time understanding our faith in Livan, and lack there of in Liriano.

Anyways... Morneau will be the AL player of the week, with his two timely bombs, and ten rbi going into friday. He's becoming the leader we've all been waiting for. Lead us to the promise land Justin.

soup said...

Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?!?!?

Livan is a garbage pail kid.

The Sox added Jr. Griffey. Why do they hate BA and OBP? As a Twins fan, I'm obviously okay with it because I like when our team wins divisions.

soup said...

You're right Holmer.

I think the word "clutch" is overated, but seriously...Morneau is clutch.

(closed circuit to Holmer)
I miss you and I'm going to send you a Facebook message to prove it. you're a scum.

Daymonster said...

you sneaky bastard Haas, I was going to write some stuff. But then you snuck in before me. Probably for the best. Here is what I wrote that applies to your post. Hope the formatting works, I'm too lazy to change it.

Well, if there is anyone still reading this (Jeremiah are you there?) I hope you guys/girls realize that I just predicted the Sox series to perfection. I know what you're thinking, predicting that Livan would suck it up and the rest of your young future HOFer's would pick up wins (another bold prediction) isn't really going out that far on a limb. But I didn't see you make those predictions. Oh you did? Well then.

I was almost way off when 3 of the 4 games had us trailing by more than a couple runs late in the game. Luckily, the Twins pulled off a couple of big come backs and ended up winning the series.

So I am going to press my luck and see if I can predict another series. So here goes:

Jeremy Sowers, LHP (1-5, 5.86) vs. Nick Blackburn, RHP (7-6, 3.69)
Win.
Sowers killed us almost exactly 2 years ago when he had a complete game 4 hit shutout against the Twins. But since 2006 Sowers has not looked very good. I look for the Twins to continue their very recent ability to hit left handers. Twins will win this and Nick will get his 8th win.

Paul Byrd, RHP (5-10, 4.93) vs. Kevin Slowey, RHP (7-7, 4.00)
Win.
Byrd, one of the more goofy looking pitchers in the Majors, has struggled this year. But he has looked fairly good in his last couple starts. Twins should put an end to that on Saturday where I predict at least 3 twins will have home runs. You heard it hear first.

Matt Ginter, RHP (1-2, 4.20) vs. Glen Perkins, LHP (8-3, 4.20)
Win.
Ginter is terrible. He hasn't been in the majors for since 2005 and I don't see him in the Tribe's rotation much longer. I look for the Twins to really hand it to him on Sunday. Perkins will continue with solid outing giving him his 9th win.

As you can tell I am getting a little more ballsy with my predictions. Going 4 for 4 will do that to you.

So we are in agreement then? I actually think the Royals might take 1 or 2 from the White Sox. I am glad to see Swiss Cheese Swisher at first base and senior citizen Griff Jr. roaming CF.

Holmer said...

Real bold prediction monster. Just say the same thing Haas did, and add a few HRs in there. By saying that the Royals are taking a few from the Sox, are you calling six games?

haasertime said...

its official: livan is out.

so is craig monroe.

Get to know em:

Randy Ruiz...

a first baseman and outfielder, hitting .313 with 15 bombs at triple A.


I'm confused as to why we'd need a 30 year old minor league journeyman to sit on our bench, but what do i know. more info to come...

haasertime said...

here's a short note about Ruiz:

http://tinyurl.com/5mmx9w

bizmarkie507 said...

I just love giving myself credit whenever I can. I said the day that the Twins signed Livan that he would not finish the season with this team.

And yeah Ruiz looks to me like he's just a patch player for this season only. Hopefully he can help out.

Anonymous said...

Daymonster, just in case you don't want to alienate the rest of your female readers that stuck around after your post from the other day, I would recommend dropping the term "girls" unless you are referring to 8-year-olds. Just a thought.

Daymonster said...

Sorry anon,

I used the term "guys/girls". It just sounded better as I was typing it, I definetly should have said guys/women. To that I am terrible sorry for any pain that caused you.

By me saying "girls" that proves I am a huge sexist.

I will never do it again. From now on I will definetly refer to the blog "Those Girls" as "Those Women".

Again, I am sorry. But in all seriousness and to be fair I am the last one in this whole debactle to use the term "girls". From all the comments and posts about this, numerous people have used it (men, and women) and then I finally did by mistake. Please forgive me.