Monday Morning Madness: August 19, 2013

Over the past week, the Twins offense has been inconsistent, their starting pitching has been up and down and their bullpen has started blowing leads.  It's almost like this isn't a very good team.  This weekend, the Twins had a lot more trouble with the lowly White Sox at home.  This would be troubling, but the last three seasons have been troubling so I'm not sure we can feasibly add any additional trouble at this point.  On the plus side, the Twins play most of their games at 6pm or earlier this week, ensuring that I get to bed by 9pm like a good boy. 

Casey Fien

So Casey Fien sucks now, right?  In his last three appearances, Fien has given up seven earned runs, raising his ERA from 2.61 to 3.71.  He's getting worked over by home runs, but he struck out more than a batter per inning and didn't issue a walk during that tiny sample.  Basically, we can all chill out.  Unless this home run problem persists for a couple weeks, this is just a blip on the ol' radar.  If we thought Fien was good a week ago, we should still feel the same way right now. 

Chris Colabello

.273/.415/.485.  That was Chris Colabello's triple slash in August.  That performance was apparently not good enough to keep an MLB job.  Once again, the Twins seem more concerned with having a lot of mediocre to bad players on the bench, rather than having potentially productive players in the lineup.  The Twins basically chose to keep Chris Herrmann as a third catcher/Andrew Albers caddy, Wilkin Ramirez as a backup centerfielder, and Clete Thomas as a human.  I would bet a bajillion dollars that Colabello would out-produce those three scrubs from this point on.  However, he doesn't produce some veiled positional flexibility, so he's out.  This makes no sense on a bad team. 

No Sano in September?

Terry Ryan was quoted this week basically saying that there is little-to-no chance that Miguel Sano gets a September call-up this season.  I don't disagree with that decision, but why state it publicly?  Wouldn't the anticipation of Sano's potential debut be something to keep fans engaged as this uneventful season winds down?  Granted, come September 1 all the hope would die, but does this need to be ruled out in mid-August?  It really doesn't matter a lot, but it seems like a bad PR move.  What if Sano hits .450 with 10 home runs to end his season with New Britain?  It's unlikely, but he could probably do it.  Just odd to me. 

Clete Thomas

Clete Thomas in August:  .230/.309/..328.  That's markedly better than his July, by the way.  Question - Does this guy ever get a legitimate hit?  Every time I see him actually make contact, it's some sort of blooper or he reaches his bat out and pokes it to left or he bunts and the ball hits his bat twice.  I don't want to continually bag on Thomas, but I'm going to.  Everyone has their whipping boy.  

Time for fun and madness instead of complaining and sadness.

Half-hearted Mini-Rant

I would like to present to you the newest feature in the Madness, a rant that I'm not really all that into:

Why was Oswaldo Arcia on the bench on Friday and Saturday?  Doesn't this kid need to play every day?  Please don't tell me it was because he was facing "tough lefties" either.  Chris Sale is tough, but Jose Quintana is not.  How will he improve against lefties on the bench?  Also, please don't tell me this is some concentrated ploy to keep Wilkin Ramirez fresh or to keep Clete Thomas' "hot bat" in the lineup.  You can sit either one of those guys for 5 years straight and guess what, they'd be totally ready to come in and not produce.  Trust me, when you need Clete Thomas to come in and go 0-4 with three Ks, he'll be ready.  In fact, I created this flow chart to help the Twins make better decisions in this area:

It's not rocket science.  End rant.

Fun Stat - Most innings with no starts

The Twins are about 75% through the season and Anthony Swarzak has thrown about 75 innings.  That puts him on pace for 100 innings pitched.  Math!  Throwing that many innings solely in relief is a bit of a lost art.  In fact, in this millennium, it has only been done six times, usually by guys named Scott or Scot.  Here's the list of guys Swarzak could potentially join:

1. Steve Sparks 2003 - 107.0
2. Scott Sullivan 2000 - 106.1
3. Scot Shields 2004 - 105.1
4. Guillermo Mota 2003 - 105.0
5. Scott Sullivan 2001 - 103.1
6. Scott Proctor 2006 - 102.1

Random Photoshop 

I've grown tired of traditional baseball celebrations.  I find the "beat the holy hell out of the hero" celebration to be the worst.  There's nothing more annoying that watching Clete Thomas try to throw rabbit punches at Chris Herrmann.  To me, celebrations are stale and need to be revamped.  Celebrations don't need to be huge productions.  Sometimes, it is just a minor touch.  Look how much better the famous Jim Thome walk-off celebration looks on silly hat night:

Look how happy Joe Mauer is!

Baseball Card from the Past

Senior Photo!

Link to something I wrote - Anniversary

I realized over the weekend that I had been maintaining this "blog" for a year now.  As a blog-guy, it is my duty to celebrate milestones with posts that will generate more views.  It's a snake eating itself really, but it's all in fun.  I threw together a list of my five most OUTRAGEOUS posts from the past year and some fun pictures/photoshops as well.  You can find it here. 

Song of the Week:  Butthole Surfers - Let's Talk About Cars

Parting Thought - Thanks Twins Daily

To accompany the previous section, I wanted to give a huge thank you to Twins Daily for the past year.  First, thank you to the site leaders who have put together a fantastic site where everyone can contribute.  I appreciate it every time I see one of my posts on the front page, even if I don't always say it.  Really, I appreciate just being able to have a blog here, even if nothing ever touched the front page.  Without Twins Daily, I would have never written a word on the Twins.  So, now you know who to blame if you've ever wished I'd shut up.

Second, thank you to the whole Twins Daily community.  I enjoy being a part of this community.  I wish I could post more and comment more, but I read just about everything.  People are very supportive of each others' ideas and thoughts and very encouraging when someone new arrives and weighs in.  I've told just about every Twins fan I know about Twins Daily and I will continue to do so. 

End sap.

Have a nice week, everyone!