This was a fun game, that didn't start like a fun one. Josh Reddick deposited a Scott Diamond fastball in the right field seats. The very next inning, Kila Ka'hauie did the exact same thing to bring the score to 2-0.

But, that was it for the Oakland offense. But not for Oakland pitching, Travis Blackley was looking dominant. he gave up 3 hits and one run. And that one run was a big one. Trevor Plouffe became Babe Plouffe and cranked his 5th home run of the season.

Josh Reddick lead off the next inning with a lead off triple, he scored when Brandon Inge hit into a double play. Diamond then got Kurt Suzuki to strike out swinging to end the inning.

The next inning had Darin Mastroianni and Joe Mauer both walking, and Josh Willingham doubling in Mastroianni. Justin Morneau followed that up with a sac fly to score Mauer.

In the 8th inning, Jeff Gray walked both Jonny Gomes and Brandon Inge. Gomes scored when Kurt Suzuki singled him home. For awhile, the score was 4-3 Oakland on top.

In the bottom of the inning, Mauer singled, and Willingham walked. Mauer scored on Justin Morneau's pop-up double, and Willingham scored on Ryan Doumit's sacrifice fly.

Matt Capps came in, and gave us a very adventurous inning. Alexi Casilla forgot to pick up the ball to throw out Collin Cowgill at first base, Seth Smith flew out, Jemile Weeks flew out, and Josh Reddick was walked intentionally. Capps then got Jonny Gomes to strike out on a foul tip. Twins win! 5-4!

Studs: Everyone! Great game all around!

Duds: Nobody! It's a holiday! Happy Memorial Day!

So sorry about today's game thread going up so early, but I have tickets to today's game, and I live in downtown St. Paul, and seeing as how I like being there when the gates open, I am leaving shortly after posting this.

Today's game features left hander Scott Diamond (1.78, 3-1) who will be squaring off against fellow southpaw, the Aussie Travis Blackley (4.09 0-0). More after the jump.

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Well, that was fun for a minute.

Tonight's game started otut swimmingly enough for Carl Pavano as he started us off with three scoreless innings. The offense even caught a break, as Darin Mastroianni scored on a passed ball. But that would be it until the late innings. Pavano's luck also ran out, as he gave up a ground rule double to Asdrubal Cabrera, which moved Jason Kipnis to third. Kipnis would come around to score on Travis Hafner's ground ball to Mauer, and Cabrera would also score on Carlos Santana's sacrifice fly to left field. In the very next inning, Pavano would give up a double to Jose Lopez, and a home run to Casey Kotchman. At this point, the Indians were up 4-1. And that seemed like it was the game. Until the 8th inning.

It started very innocently. Denard Span walked, and Brian Dozier flew out after battling Indians reliever, Vinnie Pestano for 8 pitches. Up came Mauer, who forced Pestano to use 7 pitches before finally retiring him. Then came the thunder, so to speak. Josh Willingham came up, and promptly doubled home Span, who had stolen second on Mauer's strike out. Manny Acta came out replace Pestano with Nick Hagadone, who threw two balls to Doumit, before delivering a strike. A strike that Ryan Doumit sent 401 feet over the left field wall. We had a tied game!

But, again, in the very next inning, Matt Capps came in, and he gave up a single to Kotchman, who was ran for by Lou Marson. Capps threw a wild pitch to move him to second, and Shin-Soo Choo singled him home. 5-1 would be the final score, as Chris Perez picks up what had to be the easiest save of his career. He threw 12 pitches, and 7 of them were to Jamey Carroll.

Notes: Chris Parmelee looks so lost right now.

Studs and Duds after the jump.

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TV: FS North

Radio: 1500 ESPN TRN

First Pitch: 7:10 PM

Know Thine Enemy: Let's Go Tribe!

Lots of cool things going on prior to tonight’s tilt with the Cleveland Indians. Firstly, Carl Pavano is pitching through pain, as per Mackey. Pavano did have an MRI, which showed no structural damage, which is a good thing.

and perhaps more importantly, Justin Morneau is taking live BP and is apparently destroying everything. Morneau is able to come off the DL on Wednesday, if he will or not has yet to be decided. And in case you didn’t see, Trevor Plouffe shaved off his hair after the Mother’s Day game, to donate. His mother, Diane is a breast cancer survivor. Twins pitchers are also taking BP, and apparently, Rhett Bollinger is impressed with the power of Jason Marquis. I would like to see him DH sometime this year.

Lineups after the jump!

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This game could've gone better, but it could've gone much worse. You could make the argument, very easily that this was Francisco Liriano's best start of the season. But, keeping in mind that if you say that, you are not saying much. Liriano labored through the first inning, giving up a lead off single to Macier Izturis. A wild pitch, and two ground outs later, the Angels had the first run of the game. Liriano did come back in the second inning and struck out both Mark Trumbo and Howie Kendrick. But, as we all know, with Francisco Liriano this season, nothing good can stay, as Alberto Callaspo took him deep to plate two more runs in the third inning.

You might be asking yourself, "self, why isn't Brady talking about the Twins offense?" and the reason for that is because up until the bottom of the fifth inning, there was no offense from the Twins unless you want to talk about the double that Peter Bourjous stole from Ryan Doumit in an almost Revere-ian way. Or you want to hear about Trevor Plouffe's walk in the third. Or Erik Komatsu getting a hit just to be erased by Jamey Carroll lining into a double play. It wasn't until the bottom of the fifth inning until you felt like the Twins woke up a little bit.

It started out simply enough. Chris Parmelee singled to right field, and Plouffe walked again. Komatsu got another hit. The bases were loaded, with no outs and Jamey Carroll walked up to the plate. He popped up to second. The Twins were a double play away from letting another opportunity like that just evaporate. And it would've happened too, as Denard Span dribbled a ball up to Izturis at shortstop, but Komatsu took a hard slide and there was no throw to first base, allowing Parmelee to score. It was no 4-1, Angels on top.

Anthony Swarzak came into the game in the 6th inning and got through it unscathed. In the seventh, however, he walked Iannetta, Bourjous put down a sacrifice bunt, Macier Izturis singled to reach base for the third time in the game, and Albert Pujols came through with a single to score the run. 5-1, Angels. And that was the score until the 8th inning, when Jamey Carroll hit a ground rule double and Brian Dozier brought him to third with his first career hit. Joe Mauer came through for the first time in seemingly forever and lined a single to right field scoring Carroll. Doumit followed it up with a sac fly to score Dozier. Then all hell broke loose.

Glen Perkins came on to pitch the top of the 8th inning, and gave up a bunt single to Peter Bourjos, who came around to score on Callaspo's single. Callaspo came around to score with Torrii Hunter who walked before Erik Komatsu dropped a fly ball from Mark Trumbo. 8-3 would be your final score.

Studs and duds after the jump.

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First Pitch: 7:10 PM

TV: FSN

Radio: TRN

Know Thine Enemy: Halos Heaven

The last time Jered Weaver faced the Twins he threw a no-hitter. Last time he pitched at Target Field, he gave up five runs. Not that any of that means anything. People are yelling "Vander Meer" however.

The Twins have perennial headcase, Francisco Liriano going for the Twins tonight. He's been bad this season. His last start, he set a season high in innings pitched, with 5.1.

We get to see Brian Dozier tonight at shortstop! Josh Willingham is not in the lineup tonight, due to flu like symptoms.

Twins

Denard Span CF

Brian Dozier SS

Joe Mauer C

Ryan Doumit DH

Danny Valencia 3B

Chris Parmelee 1B

Trevor Plouffe RF

Erik Komatsu LF

Jamey Carroll 2B

Angels

Macier Izturis SS

Alberto Callaspo 3B

Albert Pujols 1B

Torii Hunter RF

Mark Trumbo DH

Howard Kendrick 2B

Vernon Wells LF

Chris Iannetta C

Peter Bourjos CF

Chris Parmelee was hit by a pitch. Alexi Casilla doubled. Denard Span singled. CJ Wilson had come unglued. Wilson was pulled after 8.1 innings and gave way to LaTroy Hawkins. Willingham welcomed him with a single. Danny Valencia sat him down with a single to make it 4-3. Then came Ryan Doumit against Scott Downs. Two on. Two out. Downs had never given up ANY runs against the Twins. That trend continued tonight as Downs got the four out save.

Wilson flat out dominated tonight, not just with his pitches, but with his glove, stealing at least 2 hits with some very athletic plays. Torii Hunter killed the Twins tonight, hitting a two run home run, and an RBI single. Chris Ianetta gave the Halos the other run with a solo home run.

Studs and duds after the jump. As well as some notes.

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Losses like this are the worst kind of losses. I'd rather be no hit than what happened in this game. In case you missed it, Jason Marquis gave up three runs in the first two innings, and gave up 11 hits in his 6.1 innings of work tonight. By the end of his night, he surrendered a total of 5 hits, including home runs to Jarrod Saltalmacchia and Cody Ross.

It wasn't all bad for the Twins though. They scored 5 runs, one came off of an absolute bomb from our enigmatic third baseman, Danny Valencia. Joe Mauer had two singles, and one walk. Kevin Youkillis robbed Josh Willingham of a hit by snagging his liner over the third base bag, which would've brought in Jamey Carroll who tripled to lead off the inning. He stayed at third for the duration of the inning.

The offense looked good in this game, and it just looks like everyone is going on different nights. Once the offense starts clicking, the Twins, while they won't be an offensive powerhouse, will have something respectable.

The bullpen though, looked fantastic. Jared Burton and Brian Duensing blew right through the top of Boston's order before Carroll's triple, but then Matt Capps came in and gave up the only hit the bullpen would surrender. A home run to Cody Ross. His second of the game. That would be it. 6-5. A very humbling loss. Studs and duds after the jump.

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First Pitch: 7:10 PM
TV: Fox Sports North
Radio: 1500 ESPN
Know Thine Enemy: Over The Monster

Just a few nuggets of Twins related information before we start tonight’s game thread.

• Fransisco Liriano will skip his next start and will focus on throwing bullpens to clear his head.
• Josh Willingham will be gone for a few days starting Wednesday for paternity leave.
• Alexi Casilla was scratched from the lineup due to flu like symptoms.

Okay! On to the game thread. Today, the Twins take on the Red Sox in Target Field. Jason Marquis makes his home debut. He will be doing battle with Jon Lester.

The Twins have gotten off to the kind of start that talking heads have expected, at 5-11. They did just come out of a decent road trip through the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Red Sox, however have not gotten off to the start that the same talking heads expected, at 4-10. Are the Twins going to take advantage of a scuffling team? Or will the Red Sox use Twins pitching to get the lead out? We shall find out! Lineups after the jump!

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Josh Willlingham hit his team leading second home run of the season today, and Jamey Carroll did what the Twins want him to do. Walk. He walked twice today.

With 2 hits from Willingham, 2 walks from Carroll a hit from Joe Mauer, and Ryan Doumit the Twins still only managed to send 31 men to the plate, or 4 over the minimum.

Today was a pretty pitiful effort from most of the guys who were here last year. But hey! At least those new guys are putting up some numbers.

Nick Blackburn was Nick Blackburn today. Aside from the 2 walks. He managed to strike out three men, and a few of those 5 runs weren't his fault. Blame the left field defense.

The bullpen ran rough-shot right through the Angels offense, especially Glen Perkins.

Studs: Josh Willlingham, Jamey Carroll, Ryan Doumit, Glen Perkins, Matt Capps.

Duds: Everyone else.

Let's win one tomorrow guys!

Today's Spring Training game ended with no winner. 6-6 tie. Fransisco Liriano was solid again, striking out 7 in 5 innings in his last start before the regular season. He gave up 3 runs, but only was earned.

We got home runs from Lance Ray (WHO?), Danny Valencia, and Luke Hughes. Chris Parmelee continues destroying the Grapefruit League, and showing us he is worth an extended look at 1B. It was a good game for everybody.

It's really awkward writing a recap for a game that there is no video or audio for. I tried guys! Have a good night!

Today and tomorrow, our Minnesota Twins, will be meeting up with the Tampa Bay Rays for what feels like the 40th time this Spring. Do we play the Rays this many times every year? Or does it seem like a lot to me because I've written like 4 of the game threads? Either way, the Twins are scoring runs in bunches. It's a trend that I think will continue today. I expect no less than 18 runs from the Twins today. Anything less will, of course be blamed on Joe Mauer, who isn't playing today. I suspect because Gardy is trying to get Doumit sometime behind the plate, and Morneau is DHing again. If there was anything to worry about, somebody would've fired it through Twitter already. Lineups after the jump.

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This game started out as a fun one for Rays fans as Moon Shot Scott or Rocket Bats made a start for the Twins, and gave up a 2 out grand slam to Ben Zobrist. Baseball player. Things got better as Ryan Doumit hit a solo shot in the inning to make it a 4-1 game.

But, hey. At least Baker pitched, and it seems like this is being chalked up to rust as this is the first time Baker has pitched since March 6th. So, good for him.

Other things of note after the jump.

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Today, Scott Baker makes his triumphant return to the Twins. Trumpets played with brilliancy, and beat writers thanked his mother for excusing him from Mr. Johanson's 3rd period English class. She's a wonderful lady.

Anyway! The last time the Twins faced the Rays, the lineup exploded in a major way. Runs were being given up like a New Year's Resolution to stop smoking. Lineups after the jump.

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I've been sitting here at my computer for 5 minutes, trying to think of a way to describe the effort put forth by Jason Marquis today. And the only phrase that came into my head, was the phrase that came into my head when the Twins signed him. "Nothing special.". No, he wasn't bad. 4 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 Ks and 2 BBs, but by no means was he spectacular. Jared Burton, Alex Burnett, Jeff Manship, Anthony Swarzak, and Kyle Waldrop all pitched fairly well, but there was nothing really to report about anything they did either. The offense really shined today. More after the jump.

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Rene Tosoni and Chris Hermann were cut today. As was Nishioka. Bulger, Perdromo, Thompson, Vasquez, Walters, Rohlfing, Bates, and Ramirez will also not be making the trip up north. That leaves 45 players in camp.

In the race for the Mayor's cup this year, the BoSox own a 2-1 advantage. Let's even this out today! Lineups after the jump!

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It was 1-1 going into the top of the 10th inning, when Luke Hughes put down his Foster's, stopped talking with Rene Tosoni about how he needs to go get a new didgeridoo, and walked up to the plate, and pounded a pitch from Albert Suarez over the fence to give the Twins a 2-1 lead. They did not give it back.

The Twins have now won 3 in a row. This is what fictional Indians manager Lou Brown calls a "winning streak". They feel good. Even if it's just in Spring Training. After last season, every Twins win makes me giddy. More notes on the game after the jump.

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First Pitch: 12:05pm CDT

The Twins are playing the Rays. It’ll Carl Pavano against James Shields. Who is probably the least interesting of Tampa Bay's starters. David Price was hurt by his towel, Jeff Niemann has a fun name. Matt Moore is the best pitching prospect in baseball, Jeremey Hellickson was the Rookie of The Year. If the Tampa Bay Rays starting rotation was the Bluth family, James Shields would be Annyong.

Pavano has pitched 2 games so far, totalling 5 innings, and he's given up 3 earned runs. Price hasn't given up a run in 3 innings. Shields has just thrown 2 innings of perfect baseball. Maybe he can end up with a composite perfect game this spring. That'd be cool. Right? I really wish there was more to talk about, but there really isn't.

Also: Jim Thome is playing first base today for the Phillies in preparation of playing first base while Ryan Howard is on the mend.

Line ups after the jump.

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So, I am thinking about starting a fantasy baseball league for Twinkie Towners, and I am just trying to gauge interest. If you're interested, let me know. Comment on here, or tweet at me. Thanks.

If you look over at the right hand side of this screen, of the front page, there is a link to Yahoo Sports baseball blog, entitled Big League Stew. Currently, they are having a guest writer every day write the 10 best things about being a fan of such and such a team. I have decided to not wait to talk about the 10 best things about being a Twins fan. They are after the jump.

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Today has been a weird day. First, Jonah Hill became an Academy Award nominated actor and, at roughly 2 PM central time, it was announced that the Detroit Tigers signed Prince Fielder to a nine year, $214 million dollar deal. And all around Twins territory, hearts broke. Babies cried, and everyone, at or above the age of 21 started drinking to drown their sorrows. Because, as we all know, one player a team makes. Clearly.

So, I decided to take a look at the Detroit Tigers starting lineup. One by one and talk about what they are on the field. Just to give everybody a reminder that the Detroit Tigers, even with Fielder and Cabrera still have a lot of issues.

The line up, after the jump.

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Okay guys. This is probably way more information than anyone will ever need in the history of anything. Ever, but after reading Lindsay Guentzel's tweet about Roy Oswalt, I decided to do some research. And I think I went kind of insane with the research I did.

While going to FanGraph's to get the nessecary information for this project, I noticed something I'd never noticed before on FanGraph's. Pitches thrown. And what the result of those pitches were. In terms of balls and strikes.

So, I made a spreadsheet, and I wanted to see, on average, how many pitches they use per inning, per groundball, flyball, hit, walk, for each batter they face, and for how many they use per base runner they put on.

Then, I wanted to see how many base runners they create (using only hits and walks) per inning and what percentage of batters turn into base runners.

Then, finally I wanted to see what their strike to ball ratio is. Why? For fun. I will post a link to a Google Docs spreadsheet for you all to peruse. Then what FanGraph's says with their graphs...

Why did I use these three? Marquis was used because the Twins signed him. Oswalt because of Guentzel's tweet, and Jackson because of the clamoring for the Twins to sign him. Keep in mind this spreadsheet is far from perfect and still probably needs some work.

Here is the link to my spreadsheet.

Basically, the chart says that not only is Roy Oswalt more economical with his pitches, he gets fewer line drives and fly balls balls than either Marquis or Jackson. He also gets outs on fewer pitches, and throws fewer pitches every inning. A significantly smaller amount of the batters he faces turn into base runners, and his strike to ball ratio is heads and shoulders better than the other two. In almost every sense of the word, Oswalt is a superior pitcher to Marquis and Jackson.

The graphs on FanGraphs back this up. Here is the link for the Fangraph's info.

I guess this didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, but I think the pitch to pitch tendency is pretty cool.

I was writing my rosterbation piece last Thursday, then I got a phone call and I had to leave. So, now that my life has calmed down a considerable degree, I am going to whip it out. My 2012 Minnesota Twins roster. One of my guys has already been signed. (Ryan Doumit). And one guy I was going to say I "wouldn't mind having" has already signed (Jamey Carroll). So, where does that leave us? Payroll wise? After the jump.

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Today, Joe Mauer was scratched out of the lineup with an upper respiratory infection. And after hanging out on the Internet for awhile, and seeing all the comments about Mauer, and his durability. So, I've decided to, debunk the softness issues. Which has been done before, and likely will be done again. 

First, I'd like to state the obvious: Joe Mauer isn't taking himself out of the lineup. Let's all remember that.

Since Mauer came up in 2004, and played in 35 games, but since then, while not an iron man, he has been a far cry from the china doll that he seems to be thought of as.

From 2005-2010, Mauer has played in 801 games, out of a possible 972. That is 82%. 

What about games at catcher? Mauer has caught so far, in his career, 769 games. Which is only 14th among active catchers. The all time leader is Ivan Rodriguez, who is at 2,424. Jorge Posada (1.573), Jason Varitek (1,479), A.J. Pierzynski (1,416), and Ramon Hernandez (1,381) round out the top 5.

We can ignore the top 5, because of the simple fact that if Mauer had played in every game from 2004 until the end of this season, and had never missed one game, and he had caught them all, he'd still only have caught 1,269 games. 

As far as catchers who have played a more comparable amount of games to Mauer's, 4 of them (Brian McCann, Henry Blanco, Yadier Molina, and Brian Schneider) have spent most, if not all of their career in the National League, giving them far fewer DH opportunities. 

Out of the active catchers who are on above Mauer on the active defensive games as a catcher list, apart from the top 5, (Schneider, Rod Barajas, Miguel Olivo, Molina [2004-2008], Blanco, and John Buck) 6 of the 8 have not qualified for a batting title for most of their careers. Yadier Molina and Brian McCann are the only ones who have ever accumulated the 502 required PAs for a batting title. Molina didn't even qualify for his first batting title until 2009.

Hell, in terms of catchers in their 20's, Mauer ranks third in games caught, behind Molina and McCann. Catchers who came up in 2004? Third. Behind Molina and Buck.

Is it fair to get irritated with Mauer's injuries this year? Yes. Is it accurate to get upset about his needing to "be a man" and "play through the pain" and "catch more"? Clearly it is not.