The Twins' New Guys, Part 5: Delmon Young

Delmon Young

Delmon Young was acquired by the Twins on November 28, 2007, as the centerpiece of the deal with Tampa Bay that sent Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, and Eduardo Morlan to the Rays. Delmon was drafted by Tampa Bay with the #1 overall pick in 2003. He was considered a top prospect at the time, even drawing comparisons to Frank Robinson. Scouts were extremely impressed by Delmon's canon arm and power potential at the plate. In his first two years in the Tampa Bay minor league system, Delmon showed the power numbers, hitting 25 HRs at A-ball in his first season, and 26 HRs between AA and AAA the next season. His slash line for the first two minor seasons were a very good .322/.385/.538 and .315/.354/.527, respectively. In 2006, Delmon began the year at the AAA level and eventually was called up to the major league club. However, he hit just 11 HRs in over 450 ABs between the two levels. The drop in power was also accompanied by a decrease in OBP, as he walked just 16 times in over 450 ABs, including just one walk at the major league level. Despite mediocre numbers with the major league club in 2006, Delmon was the starting left fielder for the Rays in 2007. Delmon proceeded to play in all 162 games for the Rays, posting a .288/.316/.408 line, which corresponds to a 91 OPS+. These numbers were good enough to earn Delmon runner-up in the rookie of the year voting (Dustin Pedroia won the award). The Twins traded for Delmon, clearly hoping that he would leave up to his power potential that he showed in his first two years in the minors with Tampa.

Season in Review: In his first year as a Twin, Delmon Young certainly was not the player the Twins were hoping for. He was the epitome of an average player. He was a fixture in left field, playing in 152 of 163 games. While its nice to have a durable player who can play every day, he was not especially impressive defensively. Delmon committed 8 errors in left field and consistently struggled to track down catchable balls. On the plus side, Delmon did display his strong arm, gunning down 11 base-runners and probably preventing others from trying to advance. Offensively, Delmon went through stretches where he showed promise, but overall, his numbers were very similar to last season. He was third on the team with 10 HRs (such a depressing stat for the team) and fourth in RBI with 69. Overall, he posted a line of .290/.336/.405, almost exactly what he posted last season with the Rays. However, there was some improvement this season. Delmon improved his OBP by 20 points over last season, which he did by talking a base on balls 5.7% of the time, compared to just 3.9% last season. He also struck out 18.3% of the time, compared to 19.7% of the time last season. Although Delmon can still be classified as a "free swinger", he had a slightly more discerning eye at the plate as a Twin.

Outlook for Next Season: I think that Twins' fans should be at least a little bit encouraged from what we saw from Delmon Young this season. The fact that he improved his BB% and lowered his K% is a very encouraging thing. We saw this season that when Delmon gets a good pitch to hit, he can hit it hard and a long way. The problem is that he often doesn't wait for his pitch. It would seem that Joe Vavre instilled in Delmon the importance of being patient and waiting for a good pitch to hit. Now, of course, I don't believe that Delmon will ever have the eye of Joe Mauer, but if he can continue his improvement in this regard, I think he will be a decent player. And as I mentioned before, it would seem that you can pretty much pencil Delmon in to play left field in every game, which is positive, despite his average defensive ability. I think that Twins fans will be happy with what they see from Delmon Young next season. I think he'll hit for a bit more power out of the gates and have a solid season.

Synopsis: After a full season of watching Delmon Young, its hard to know what to say. I guess my overall impression of Delmon is that he is an extremely frustrating player to watch. Watching Delmon take poor routes and look generally lost in left field at times was pretty tough to watch. And early in the season, when all he did was hit weak grounders to second, I think most Twins fans were ready to call him a bust. But, he definitely improved, at least in terms of his hitting, as the season progressed. The most frustrating thing for me personally, though, was that every time I thought he was finally improving and gaining a more discerning eye at the plate, he would proceed to have a horrible at-bat, where he would swing and miss at every pitch, no matter where the pitch was located. That has to stop. He needs to learn to be more patient, especially in key spots, with people on base. 

Despite my frustrations, I think (as I said in the outlook for next season) that there's hope for the future. I believe that we saw some of his power potential this season. Although he didn't hit many HRs this season, when he did hit one, it went a loooooong way. I mean, he hit some mammoth blasts this season. As I keep saying (and will probably continue to say), if he can just wait for his pitch, the one he can handle and blast, he can hit for a lot more power. But his approach needs to change. The other thing that I believe is really encouraging with Delmon is his ability to hit the ball to the opposite field. He does this really well, almost to a fault. A guy like Carlos Gomez and even Justin Morneau, who get into stretches where they try to pull everything, can get into prolonged slumps and need to correct their approach. Delmon Young is more like Joe Mauer, going the other way all the time and we've seen what Joe has done with that approach. I'm not saying that Delmon Young will ever be as good as Joe Mauer, but there's reason to be encouraged. Overall, I don't believe that Delmon Young is a bust, like some Twins fans do. He had an average year this year, but did show improvement. I look for Delmon to improve even more next year and have a bigger year. And if he doesn't, well, the negativity of Twins fans might just drive him out of town.

Blog revival, what's on deck, etc...

Wow, its been quite a while since my last post. Of course, I have a good excuse (I always do). I got married a month ago. Since returning to work after the honeymoon, things have been kind of crazy, so I haven't had time to write much. I guess I'll actually have to do some writing from home. Weird. 

So, as you probably recall, I was in the middle of a series of posts about the Twins newly acquired players. Now the Twins season is over, football season is in full swing, and the hockey and basketball seasons are right around the corner. How did that happen? Baseball season went really quickly this year.

Anyway, thought I'd lay out what's to come. Its more for me than anything else. Helps me remember the things I want to post about and hopefully gives me motivation to do so. So, here's what's to come:

• I do plan to finish the "Twins' New Guys" series, even though the season is over. Not sure if I'll get to the guys called up from the minors (Span, Casilla, etc). Definitely won't do the September call-ups.
• I mentioned in the past that I want to do a post about the state of sports broadcasting, journalism, etc. I was going to use Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven as the center of my comments, but with baseball season nearly over, I'm not sure. I'll probably still do this, there's plenty of great examples of what I'll talk about out there (e.g. Paul McGuire).
•  Various football-related posts. Mostly, they will be Vikings-centric. Maybe something about the benching of T-Jax and my thoughts on Brad Childress.
• I hope to have at least one post about the presidential election. It probably won't happen, since I have only a month before its over. Maybe this will be my priority.
• I might (I said I might) something regarding the wedding and honeymoon.
• I have a lot of ideas for posts that relate to Adam. He's getting to be such a big boy and is just so much fun right now. I need to post more about that stuff.
• Something about the last year of Purdue football under Joe Tiller, with a look to the future under the next coach.
• Something about the coming Purdue basketball season. Expectations, etc.
• Probably a work-related post. There haven't been too many Big Tuna incidents lately, but we'll see what happens.

I guess that's enough for now. I couldn't even finish writing 7 posts about Twins players during the 162 game season, so what are the chances I write about much of the list above in the near future. I'm going to try. We'll see how things go.

There Is a God: Brett Favre "Drama" Finally Ends

After a month of watching the media collectively stroke Brett Favre 24 hours a day, I was just happy to see Favre end up somewhere... anywhere. It has been a month of non-stop Favre coverage on the "World Wide Leader in Favre Coverage" (aka ESPN), including his own ticker category, monopolization of entire episodes of NFL Live and Sportcenter and commentary from people that don't play football, don't know Favre and simply should not be commenting in the first place.

Normally, in the month leading into the NFL regular season opener, I would watch anything and everything football related, like NFL Live, to get ready for the season. Normally, I would read a favorite site of mine every day to read about training camp battles, key injuries, and who got arrested for what. Not this year. Everything has been about Favre and all the "he said, she said" bullshit between him and the Packers. Even if there are other storylines going on in the NFL (which I know there are), you have to filter through all the Favre-related content to find them, because Favre always comes first. Suffice it to say, my excitement for this season has been tempered.

I was especially excited about the Vikings this season, who look like a very good football team, that could make some serious noise this season. Then, we started to hear about all these rumors that Favre wants play for Minnesota and that the Packers are considering trading him to the Vikings. That was just too much to take. If he would have come to Minnesota, I would not have been in any way interested in the Vikings' season. People were talking about the Vikings winning the SuperBowl with Favre at the helm. I would rather go 0-16 without Favre than win the SuperBowl with him. Now, that sounds crazy, right? Because the ultimate goal is to win the SuperBowl. But if the Vikings won the SuperBowl with Favre leading them, it would be tainted. The media (not to mention all Packer fans) would say that Favre won the SuperBowl for the Vikings. He would be credited with the victory. He would be the sole reason the Vikings won the SuperBowl. I couldn't handle that. I wouldn't be worth it.

Finally, we know that Favre will not be wearing a purple jersey this year and I couldn't be happier. After all his crying and bitching and manipulating, trying to get his way, he ended up being traded to a team that he doesn't really want to play for. He's going to play for a team that is a 8-8 team at best, that will probably not make the playoffs. He will be playing for a bad team, which will remind him how good he had it in Green Bay and hopefully it will make him feel like it wasn't worth coming back and that he should have stayed retired. And then, next season, after he voices all of this in the media, he will play his bullshit game again about whether he'll retire or not. And we'll all be right back here, sick of all the coverage that he continues to receive for being a little baby.

I think I speak for a lot of football fans when I say "Brett, just go away". I don't want to see any more of his fake celebrations when he throws a TD, where he pretends to run around like a little kid because he's so excited. What a bunch of crap. Its so fake. I don't want to hear any more Madden orgasms over how much he loves how Favre plays the game, how he plays the right way, how he's the greatest ever. And most of all, I don't want to see or hear or read any more coverage of "Favre considers retirement" and "Favre retires" and "Favre considers return", and "Favre says he's not wanted" and "Favre breaks a nail" and "Favre has a slumber party with John Madden and all of ESPN". Seriously, I'm done. But of course, we're going to have to spend this entire season following his every move with a new team. And I think that I'm going to wear out the mute button on my remote.

Brett, seriously, I hope you tear your ACL. That's the only way we can finally be rid of you forever.

The Twins' New Guys, Part 5: Brendan Harris

The first four parts of "The Twins' New Guys" series focused on the free agents signed by the Twins last off season. Now, I will turn my attention towards the players acquired via trades, who are currently contributing to the major league club. There will be three posts about such players.


Brendan Harris

Brendan Harris was acquired by the Twins on November 28, 2007, in a trade with Tampa Bay. The Twins sent Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, and Eduardo Morlan to the Rays for Delmon Young, Jason Pridie, and Brendan Harris. Although primarily playing at 3B throughout his minor league career, Harris has spent the majority of his major league time at SS and 2B. After bouncing around in several trades, Harris got his first prolonged chance at the major league level during the 2007 season with Tampa Bay, playing mostly at SS. In 500+ at-bats, he compiled a .286/.343/.434 line, which totals to an OPS+ of 106, making him a slightly above average offensive shortstop. When the Twins agreed to trade Jason Bartlett to Tampa Bay, it made sense to replace him with a SS whose overall numbers appear (on the surface) to be very similar to Bartlett's (.265/.339/.361 and an OPS+ of 88 for Bartlett in 2007).

So far this season: Due largely to injuries on the infield (Everett and Punto) and the ineffectiveness of Mike Lamb, Brendan Harris has seen fairly regular playing time. In fact, Harris has the 5th-most at-bats on the team, with 320, which is just 8 fewer than Joe Mauer. Unfortunately, Harris' 320 at-bats have not been as productive as Mauer's. Through 91 games, Harris has splits of .259/.315/.369, giving him an OPS+ of 87 (below average). However, his is in the midst of a pretty good stretch, hitting .313, including 13 extra-base hits (7 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR) since mid-June.

Harris began the year as the Twins' starting second baseman, with Adam Everett playing SS. However, he struggled defensively at 2B, committing 5 errors in 39 games and posting a well below average RFg of 4.03 (league average at 2B is 4.58). Alexi Casilla was called up from AAA to take over at 2B and Brendan Harris was moved to SS, the position where he played the majority of last season. Despite the fact that his defense still isn't stellar, Harris has looked more comfortable at shortstop, posting a well above average RFg of 4.65 (league average is 3.93) and committing just 3 errors in 43 games. Ultimately, defense isn't the strongest part of Harris' game, as he still has pretty hard hands and too often is unable to turn a double-play, even though he has appeared more comfortable at SS.

Outlook for the rest of the season: I think that for the rest of the season, Harris will be in a platoon at SS with Nick Punto, as long as Punto can stay healthy enough to play. Although Adam Everett is due back from the disabled list soon, I don't believe he will be a factor at SS (he is more likely a candidate for release or trade). If Harris can continue to produce the offensive numbers that he has in the last month, it will be difficult for Ron Gardenhire to keep him out of the lineup, especially against left-handed pitchers, as the Twins desperately need a right-handed batter to step up against lefties. I believe that Harris can produce somewhere near his career splits of .268/.326/.402, which would be acceptable. Based on his track-record, I don't believe Nick Punto will continue putting up the numbers that he has (in limited playing time) this season, which will make Harris all the more important down the stretch.

Synopsis: In my mind, the Twins could do a lot worse than Brendan Harris as their SS. The Twins are a better team with him on the field than they would have been marching Adam Everett out there every day. That being said, I'm pretty indifferent when it comes to Harris. He is absolutely brutal to watch defensively. I have to cover my eyes every time he is involved in a potential double play. On the other hand, offensively, Harris has shown some positive things. He began the year on fire and is now in the middle of another good stretch. He just needs to learn to be a little bit more patient and selective at the plate, as evidenced by his striking out in 23% of at-bats, while only walking 7% of the time. Unfortunately, as a 28 year old SS, in just his second full year in the majors, Harris has more than likely reached his full potential. Ultimately, I see Harris as a stop-gap shortstop, until the Twins sign a quality player in free agency or have a player from the minor league system take over.

In my post about Adam Everett, I talked about how I felt that trading Bartlett was a mistake. If you look at the trade with Tampa Bay as 3 player-for-player trades (which isn't a great view of the trade, but for comparison purposes here, it works), then Brendan Harris and Jason Bartlett were traded for each other. With that view, I still think that trading Jason Bartlett was a mistake. Despite having more power than Bartlett, Harris strikes out a lot, walks fairly rarely, and is below average defensively. I think that Bartlett's defensive ability, coupled with his superior on-base skills made him the more valuable player. Admittedly, Bartlett is having a pretty poor year in Tampa Bay this year, but that doesn't mean that he would have been as bad if he had remained with the Twins. As I said above, I have no real problem with Harris, but I would still prefer Bartlett at SS.

The Twins' New Guys, Part 4: Livan Hernandez

Livan Hernandez

Livan Hernandez broke into the majors in 1996 with the Florida Marlins. In his rookie season (officially speaking, his rookie season was '97, although he made one appearance during the '96 season), Livan was the runner-up National League Rookie of the Year and helped lead the Marlins to their first World Series championship. Since, Livan has established a reputation as a durable "innings eater", pitching 200+ innings in every season since 1997, with the exception of '99 when he pitched "just" 199 innings. Prior to this season, he pitched for 4 other teams (Florida, San Francisco, Montreal/Washington, and Arizona) and was a two-time NL All Star. As Livan has gotten older, he has lost a lot of velocity on his pitches, resulting in declining effectiveness. His ERA and WHIP have increased steadily every year since 2003, while his K/9 has drastically decreased. Essentially, as he's aged, Livan has been missing fewer bats and become very hittable, resulting in him giving up a lot more runs.

With the trades of staff ace Johan Santana and the promising, young Matt Garza, the Twins were looking for pitching to solidify a very young staff. More specifically, the Twins hoped to find a veteran to step in as the new (if only temporary) staff ace. Enter Livan Hernandez, who signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Twins. In addition to Livan's ability to "eat innings", the Twins also loved that he would bring a "veteran presence" to the rotation.

So far this season: Livan has continued his trend of the last few years, by having an ERA and WHIP higher than the previous season, while striking out fewer batters. He has a terrible 5.39 ERA and a 75 ERA+, making him a well below-average pitcher. He has the 7th-lowest WHIP in the majors, giving up 1.5 walks and hits per inning. He has struck out a league-worst 3.31 batters per 9 innings. True to form for Twins pitchers, Livan has walked just 1.69 batters per 9 innings, good enough for 11th-best in the big leagues. However, the fact that he has walked so few batters makes his high WHIP that much more concerning, as it means that he has been giving up a ridiculous number of hits.

If you want to look at the "positive" side, Livan is once again on pace to pitch 200+ innings, thus living up to the "innings eater" tag. Plus his VPIOYPI (Veteran Presence Impact on Young Pitchers Index) is through the roof, at an astounding 8.92. OK, I made that stat up. But the Twins believe that Livan is teaching the young pitchers on the team (Slowey, Perkins, Baker, and Blackburn) how to pitch the right way and is having a very positive influence.

Outlook for the rest of the season: If you were to ask a Magic 8-Ball about the outlook for the rest of Livan Hernandez's season, I'm fairly certain the response would be "Outlook not so good". Livan will continue to "eat innings", just like the Twins want. Ultimately though, I think his overall numbers will remain approximately the same, meaning that he will pitch another 100 way below sub-par innings in the season half of the season. There have been rumblings (mostly just wishful thinking I guess) that Livan could be traded to a contending team who wants his "veteran presence" down the stretch. However, I don't really see that happening. Given what a bad year he has had, I don't really believe there are any teams that would be willing to take on his salary, his bad innings, and given the Twins something in return. Therefore, Livan will remain in the Twins rotation (I also see no chance of him being moved to the bullpen) and the Twins offense will need to continue to score a lot of runs when he starts, in order to win any games when he pitches.

Synopsis: During a recent Twins broadcast, Bert Blyleven said one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my life. He and Dick Bremer were discussing Francisco Liriano possibly returning to the rotation and Bert said something to the extent of "there is nobody that deserves to be taken out of the rotation to make room for Liriano". Now, I realize that the local broadcasters see things through rose-colored glasses, but honestly, there isn't anybody who deserves any consideration for being removed from the rotation? Let's just say I disagree. People like to point out that he has 10 wins this season. He's winning games, what more do you want? Well, actually, I would argue that Livan Hernandez isn't winning those games so much as the offense is carrying him on their backs and getting him those wins. Regardless, wins are a meaningless stat for pitchers. Livan, on average, gives up about 5 runs a game and gives up 1.5 hits and walks every inning. Compare that to Liriano's 3.30 ERA and 1.13 WHIP so far this season (admittedly that's against minor league talent, but its impressive nonetheless, considering he's coming off of major surgery on his throwing arm). Tell me that Livan doesn't deserve to be removed from the rotation.

The there's the whole topic of "veteran presence". Honestly, I can't say whether or not Livan's presence in the dugout and in the locker room is having a positive influence on the other pitchers. That is an intangible thing that cannot possibly be measured or even proven to be a factor at all. Therefore, due to lack of evidence, I must dismiss this concept as not increasing Livan's value. It sounds nice, but I'm just not buying it.

However, in a surprise twist, I'm going to end on a positive note by arguing that the signing of Livan Hernandez was not the worst signing in Twins history. In fact, despite his horrible performance this year, he has been essentially as good (bad) as Carlos Silva has been this year. Consider the following stats (Hernandez/Silva):

IP: 127.7 / 121.7
ERA: 5.29 / 5.62
ERA+: 75 / 71
WHIP: 1.58 / 1.46
K/9: 3.31 / 3.92
BB/9: 1.69 / 1.48
HR Allowed: 16 / 14

As you can see, Hernandez and Silva have been essentially the same pitcher this year. But here's the big difference and the reason I don't think that Hernandez was a terrible signing: Hernandez was signed by the Twins for 1 year at $5 million, while Carlos Silva was signed by the Mariners as a free agent for 4 years at $12 million per year. That's a $7 million difference for essentially equivalently bad pitching. Plus, the Twins can easily allow Hernandez to leave as a free agent at the end of the season, while the Mariners are stuck with Silva (and the likelihood that they could trade him with his bad performance and such an inflated salary is pretty low). I'm not saying that Livan Hernandez was a great signing, not even close. In fact, the Twins should have just trusted their young pitching talent in the minor league system. However, considering that the Twins had quite a bit of money to spend after Santana left, $5 million for one year of bad pitching isn't the worst move the Twins have ever made. It could have been much worse: they could have resigned Carlos Silva.

Hey, those are my cans

Well, its been over a month since my last post and I've gotten several complaints about that. Sorry about that. Work (where I do most of my writing) hasn't allowed must time for blogging. In any case, I'm going to digress from the Twins postings in order to discuss something that just pisses me off.

There are these two guys that live in one of the buildings in our apartment community and they happen to have a garage right across from ours. Pretty much every day when I come home from work or pretty much anytime I come or go from my garage, at least one of them is out in their garage doing their thing. What is their thing, you ask? You see, their garage is filled with bags of cans, scraps of metal, and old appliances. They are constantly sorting through the cans, organizing the metal scraps and stripping the old appliances of their various metal components. All of the work that these two fine gentlemen do in their garage is so they can sell this metal at the local recycling center.

On the surface, this all sounds legit so far, right? It's certainly their right to make a little money off of recycling their used cans and old appliances. Except, I have a hard time believing that two people could produce hundreds of empty cans each week. I also notice that different appliances appear in their garage each week. I have an even harder time believing that they own all of these appliances and that they just happen to keep breaking all the time such that they can scrap them for parts. So then, where are they getting all of these items which they can sell for money?

Answer: The dumpster/recycling bins

These nice men are dumpster-divers. I have seen them many times (usually early in the morning and after dark) literally climb into the big dumpster outside our apartment building and pick through the garbage looking for anything that would have metal that could be sold. They take entire bags of people's recycling out of the bins and place them in their garage. In short, they steal other people's garbage and sell it for their livelihood.

Now, we've all heard stories of meth-heads stealing copper wire and catalytic converters from people's cars and selling them for meth money, but I don't believe these guys are meth users. I think they're just too lazy to get real jobs. I mean for Christ sake, they could be trash/recycling pickup men, or work at the dump and it would be the same work. I'm guessing it probably doesn't pay as well though.

I probably shouldn't be as upset about this as I am. I mean, I am getting rid of the cans, etc, so why do I care what happens to them once I throw them out? And legally speaking, dumpster-diving is perfectly legal in most places. Essentially, when you put something in the trash, you give up your possession of the item and its free for anyone to claim. But you know what, when I put my garbage and recycling out there, I'm not putting there for someone to make a profit.

I would be even more upset if I were a home-owner. In some cities, home-owners have to pay a company to come collect their garbage and/or recycling. If I were paying for those services and then someone came along and stole my garbage and/or recycling to make money, I would be livid!

I guess one of the reasons that I'm so annoyed by these guys is that I think maybe they get some of their metal from places other than the dumpster and recycling bins at our apartment. They often have pieces of metal pipe that look like fence posts or something similar. So, are they going to construction sites or homes and taking pieces of metal? Not to mention the large number of appliances they have. Are they driving around and taking appliances off of people's curbs? At least once a week, they park their car, which is full of metal scraps, etc in front of their garage and unload it. The fact that they loaded their car up indicates to me that they didn't get most of that stuff near by.

When I was researching the legality of dumpster-diving and stealing of recyclables, I found this story. People are making a business out of stealing recyclables and garbage. Its completely ridiculous.

I'm so sick of lazy people who can't just make a normal living. I'm sick of those who have to prey on others and take advantage of everyone just for their own gain. Maybe what these guys are doing isn't that big of a deal, but it still falls under these types of behavior and I can be upset with them if I want to be.

I guess I'll just have to start taking my metal scraps to the recycling center myself...

The Twins' New Guys, Part 3: Craig Monroe

This is part three of an on-going series of posts looking at the newest members of the Minnesota Twins. As I said in the last post, I am first looking at the free agent acquisitions. Today we'll look at the 3rd of the 4 free agent pickups. Technically, he was not acquired as a free agent, but I will treat him as if he was. Enjoy.


Craig Monroe

Craig Monroe is a veteran of 8 major league seasons, primarily spent with the Detroit Tigers. After his rookie season in 2001 with the Texas Rangers, Monroe was claimed off of waivers by the Tigers. He became a regular part of the Tigers' lineup in starting in 2002, averaging almost 500 at-bats between 2002 and 2006. However, Monroe struggled mightily in 2006 and 2007, eventually being traded to the Cubs at the trade-dealine in 2007, where he continued to struggle. The Cubs were unwilling to pay anywhere near the $4.8 million Monroe made in 2007, considering his poor production. The Cubs were ready to release Monroe, making him a free agent, until the Twins came along.

The Cubs agreed to trade the rights to Monroe to the Twins for a marginal minor league player (Doug Deeds). This gave Minnesota exclusive rights to bargain with Monroe, instead of having to fight the competition for Monroe in the free agent market. The Twins hoped to get Monroe to agree to a lower salary, considering the likelihood that he would make anywhere near $4.8 million in the free agent market was unlikely. Monroe agreed to a $3.82 million, one year contract. So, although the Twins technically traded for Monroe, he was going to be released anyway and thus would have been a free agent, who the Twins would likely have signed anyway.
Reason for signing: At the time Monroe was acquired, the question of who would be starting in center field had still not been answered. The Monroe signing gave the Twins another option for center field, as a fourth outfielder, or even as a designated hitter. Monroe has historically hit left-handed pitchers very well, therefore, the Twins planned to use Monroe against left-handers in place of Jason Kubel, who figured to get most of the at-bats as DH versus right-handed pitchers. Regardless of his position in the field, the Twins certainly hoped that Monroe would provide some power for a fairly light-hitting lineup. Monroe's 28 HRs in 2006 intrigued the Twins enough that they felt it was worth the risk of a one-year deal for under $4 million for someone who has the potential for big power numbers, despite his struggles in recent years.

So far this season: Craig Monroe hasn't had the finest year so far. He hit a memorable pinch-hit 3-run homerun against the Royals on May 28th to cap off a 5-run 9th inning rally. But that is pretty much the high point of his season. Jason Kubel has spent a lot of time in the DH spot against right-handed pitching and even some days against left-handed pitching. And with the play of Carlos Gomez so far this season, Monroe has found it difficult to find at-bats. When he has been in the lineup, Monroe has been the player he's been the last two season, swinging at everything, striking out a lot (currently, he's struck out in an astoundingly high 38% of this at-bats), and hitting for a low average. Monroe has shown some power, hitting seven doubles and five homeruns, which comprise just under half of his hits. So, I guess if you want a bright side, that might be it. In the rare cases where he's gotten hits, they've been for multiple bases.

Outlook for the rest of the season: Barring any sort of injury that necessitates otherwise, Monroe will pretty much keep the role he has today. He'll start at DH against lefties, make an occassional spot-start to give one of the regular outfielders a day off and he'll pinch hit at the end of games when the Twins are behind, hoping he'll repeat his performance in KC a few weeks ago. Ultimately though, his numbers will remain poor overall. His average will be sub-par (to the tune of about .220), he'll hit for some power, but strike out so often that the power is pretty much negated.

Synopsis: Another swing-and-a-miss by the Twins. I won't say that signing Monroe is quite on par with the signings of Tony Batista and Sidney Ponson, but its not far off. I don't understand the logic of trying to rekindle the career of someone who had success for a couple of years, but has been absolutely horrendous for the last couple of seasons. I mean really, what are the chances that he's going to put up the numbers that he did between 2004 and 2006? His minor league track record also indicates that those years were statistical anomalies, meaning that there is really no chance that he will return to the form the Twins were hoping for. Paying somebody almost $4 million to play in less than 60% of the teams games and strike out nearly 40% of the time seems like a bad investment to me. Honestly, they could pay me $200,000 a year and I could strike out 38% of the time (maybe less). I'm not saying that the options in the minor league system are great, but at least they're inexpensive and in most cases they're younger, so there's the chance of improvement. Seriously, at some point the Twins need to realize that spending millions of dollars on washed up veterans who weren't ever that good anyway is a bad idea. Trust your minor league system and give some youngsters a chance and save a few dollars. Or just get it over and call me up.

Big Tuna Joke of the Day

Partially because it was requested and partially because it just happened yesterday, I thought I would take a small break from my baseball-related posts and tell another Big Tuna story. This will be a fairly short post, but don't worry, I have something planned for next week. The Big Tuna is leaving on vacation next Tuesday for three whole weeks, so I thought I would have a send-off post to celebrate. So, be sure to tune in next week for that.

In my introduction to the Big Tuna, I mentioned that he likes to re-tell the same, not funny jokes all the time. He thinks that he's a real comedian, but really, all he ever gets is pity laughs. In any case, one of the most annoying things about a lot of his jokes is that they rely on "audience participation". The "rock" joke I mentioned last time is a great example. The joke is initiated by him asking you a question or making a comment in your direction (e.g. "So how big was the rock?"). At this point, the "audience" is required to respond in an appropriate way in order for the joke to be completed (e.g. "What rock?"). Finally, after the response from the "audience", he hits you with the punchline (e.g. "The rock you used to iron that shirt"). A pretty high percentage of the Big Tuna's jokes follow this pattern.

True to form, the Big Tuna dropped another one of his favorite jokes of this type on us yesterday. This particular joke needs to be put into context for you. In order to tell the joke in the office, it must be told on a weekday, other than Friday. Thursday being the ideal day. The person telling the joke or the person listening to the joke must be leaving for the day. Alright, with that in mind, the joke goes like this:

Big Tuna: OK, see you guys on Monday.
Audience: Oh, you're not here tomorrow?
Big Tuna: No, I'm here tomorrow, but I'll see you on Monday too.
Audience: (laughing so hard that milk comes out of everybody's nose at once)

Like all of them, this is a joke that I and everybody else in the office has heard many times. So, yesterday, three of us were standing around talking when the Big Tuna comes by on his way out the door. After chatting with us for a few minutes, he attempts to initiate this joke with the "OK, see you guys on Monday" line. The thing is, all of us have heard it so many times (and don't want to hear it again) that none of us provide the "audience participation" part. So, what ends up happening is there is about 15 seconds of awkward silence as the Big Tuna waits for someone to take the bait. But nobody does. So, he's forced to just walk away, without completing his joke.

The funny part is that you can just tell that he is furious that nobody took the bait. He needs to be the funny guy, so if nobody bites or nobody laughs at his stupid jokes, he gets super offended. Its awesome. He acts like a 4 year old. We're so cruel. Although, sometimes, to "save face", even if nobody takes the bait and does the "audience participation" part, he still tells the punchline, which is equally funny, because the joke is incomplete and doesn't really make any sense without the "audience participation" part. And then there are the times where he explains to you that you're supposed to say "Oh, you're not going to be here tomorrow", like we don't realize it after hearing the same joke a thousand times. Good times.

Ok, this post ended up a bit longer than I expected. But I will leave you with another classic Big Tuna joke that I just thought of. This one comes up on a day where you didn't shave and have some stubble.

Big Tuna: Did you hear that the strike is over?
Audience: What strike is that?
Big Tuna: The Gillette strike. You'll be able to shave now.

Absolute hilarity.

I have more than one reader?

It has been brought to my attention that people other than my fiance read this blog on occasion. That's weird. It has also been brought to my attention that not all of said readers are familiar with much of the baseball statistic lingo I use. Therefore, in an effort to appease the audience, I have added a legend on the right side, which contains a list of the baseball statistics that I commonly use and a brief definition for each entry. I will try to keep that up-to-date as I reference other stats. Leave me a comment if I use something that I don't add to the legend that you would like clarified.

I have also decided to add a disclaimer on the right side as well. Basically, I don't want people to get the idea that I'm try to "prove" my claims using stats. If I were attempting that, I would be blasted by people who are a lot more knowledgable about statistics than I am, as my use of statistics wouldn't really not be adequate. Essentially, I am "cherry-picking" stats that support my claims, but really, most of what I write is based solely on observation and my opinion. I just felt like I needed that to be there.

Finally, in a further effort to please my audience, feel free to put comments in the comments section of any post with suggestions or requests for post topics. I will do my best to oblige such requests. I aim to please! You are all a valued part of this blog and I appreciate your patronage!

The Twins' New Guys, Part 2: Adam Everett

This is part two of an on-going series of posts looking at the newest members of the Minnesota Twins. As I said in the last post, I am first looking at the free agent acquisitions. Today we'll look at the 2nd of the 4 free agent pickups. Enjoy.

Adam Everett

Like the free agent we looked at last time, Mike Lamb, Adam Everett is also a veteran of 8 seasons. Also like Lamb, Everett came to the Twins from the Houston Astros. Everett spent all 8 seasons of his career prior to coming to Minnesota with the Astros. First and foremost, he is a superb defensive player. He has excellent range (a 4.30 career RFg, versus the league average of 4.00) at SS and a decent arm, allowing him to take away hits on a regular basis. However, he is an abysmal .246/.297/.356 career hitter. His career OPS+ is 69, meaning that offensively, he is about as bad as you can get and still have a job in the Majors.

Reason for signing: Provide defensive stability up the middle. With a high likelihood of having a young starter at 2B (e.g. Brendan Harris, Alexi Casilla), the Twins hoped that Everett would be a steady, defensive presence, unlike the departed Jason Bartlett (this is the Twins' view of Bartlett's defense, not mine).

So far this year: Everett has played in just 25 games for the Twins so far this season. He has spent two different stints on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder issues. In his 25 games played (74 ABs) he has hit to the tune of .189 batting average and a 54 OPS+. These stats, of course, are from a fairly small sample size, but he has really struggled at the plate when he's been up there. On the defensive side, where the Twins felt he would provide the most value, he has also struggled, committing 4 errors already this season (he committed just 8 errors all of last season). His defensive range remains solidly above average, but his throws have been an issue, perhaps due to the continuing shoulder issues.

Outlook for the rest of the season: I don't expect much from Everett the rest of the season. He is not expected to return to the lineup until after the All-Star break, since his shoulder is still causing him some issues. Based on his offensive track record, I don't think that we can expect Everett to have a huge, or even a marginal, offensive impact in the second half of the season. Admittedly, defense hasn't been the Twins strongest point so far this season, particularly in the middle of the infield. When Everett plays, assuming he's healthy, I think his defensive will be fine. Perhaps the best we can hope for is for Everett to share some of his defensive knowledge with Brendan Harris, who should expect to see a lot of time at SS, with Nick Punto back on the disabled list.

Synopsis: In short, I don't agree with the Twins on this one. The Twins made a mistake in trading Jason Bartlett. He was a decent bat who played better defense than the organization believed. Bartlett is only a career .266/.333/.348 hitter in the Majors, but his Minor League track record showed much more offensive potential. Bartlett was a .297/.363/.415 hitter in 6 Minor League seasons. And Bartlett's defensive ability was far better than the Twins believed. He had a tendency to make a bad throw on occasion, but his offensive ability made up for his throwing errors (at least in my eyes). Adam Everett has a career OBP that is 30 points lower than Bartlett and an OPS+ that is 13 below Bartlett. The value that Everett provides defensively does not make up for his offensive inability. Given the other options to start at SS, both in-house and on the free agent market, the Twins felt that Everett was the best option. Looking at the free agent market for SS last season, you can see why. The only other viable option would have been David Eckstein, who would have commanded about double the $2.8 million contract given to Everett. In light of the trade of Jason Bartlett, the Twins were left with few options, so from that standpoint, the signing of Everett to a one-year deal, for relatively little money, as a temporary band-aid until one of the younger, in-house options is ready, it is an OK move. But I still believe that the Twins gave up on Bartlett when they shouldn't have.

The Twins' New Guys, Part 1: Mike Lamb

I like baseball. A lot. Therefore, you can anticipate several baseball posts in the future. For the most part, they will be focused on my hometown (and favorite) team, the Minnesota Twins. There are two baseball-related topics that I hope to post about over the next couple of days:

• The "new guys" on the Twins, their impact so far, outlook for the future and some general commentary.
• The state of play-by-play and analysis provided by broadcasters during televised games. I will use the Twins broadcasters as examples, but will probably touch on some better-known, national broadcasters as well.

I will get to the broadcaster topic at a later time, I hope. But for now, I want to talk about the Twins' newest players. I will break these up into several posts, each one looking at one or two players, as time allows.

The Twins' new players can be broken into two categories: those acquired this last off-season and call-ups that weren't with the major league club to start the season. Let's start with new off-season acquisitions. The Twins were busy in the off-season, acquiring 4 new players via free agency and 3 more via trades (more than 3 were acquired via trades, but only 3 are with the major league club and I won't talk about those down in the minors). The free agent acquisitions were all signed for specific reasons, which I will try to identify. So, let's get to it.

Mike Lamb

Mike Lamb is a veteran of 8 seasons, playing for the Rangers and most recently the Astros. He is a career .279/.336/.421 hitter. His career OPS+ is 95, meaning that offensively, he is slightly below average for a third baseman. Lamb has a reputation of being somewhat of a liability defensively at third base.

Reason for signing: Provide some offensive production at a position that has been a glaring sore-spot for the Twins for several years.

So far this year: Lamb has started the season very slowly with the Twins, hitting just .247/.283/.335 in the first two months of the season. He has just one HR so far and is slugging a measly .335, which is well below the league average of .393. The expectation that Lamb would provide more pop than Nick Punto did last season as the primary third baseman hasn't been met so far. And he certainly doesn't have the flashy glove that Punto does. However, he has been adequate defensively, showing approximately average fielding range (2.50 RFg, versus the 2.44 RFg leage average at 3B).

Outlook for the rest of the season: Lamb has shown signs of breaking out of his early-season slump, as his batting average has jumped 30 points in the last couple of weeks. However, Lamb is not a power bat and will provide will offensive pop that the Twins need. I think Lamb will probably get his batting average back up into the high .260s or low .270s, which will be enough for Gardy to keep him in the lineup on a regular basis. But he is unlikely to hit more than 10 HRs. He will continue to play average defense at third base.

Synopsis: Lamb is an upgrade over Nick Punto. That's about all I can say. Despite Punto's reputation for being a great defensive player, his defensive stats beg to differ to some extent. Lamb still isn't quite the defensive player Punto is, but even Lamb's average offensive statistics make him a definite upgrade. Since the Twins seem to not want to give a chance to younger players in the minor league system (i.e. Brian Buscher, who for the record is hitting .327/.415/.524 in AAA, a .939 OPS!), we have to look at the bright side that Lamb is an upgrade over last season. But long-term, Lamb is not the solution at third. His batting average is acceptable, but he doesn't walk much, hits for little power, and is only average defensively at third. Oh yeah, and he's 33. If he continues what he's done in AAA so far this year, Brian Buscher should get a chance to win the job next season. Overall, Lamb was an OK signing for the Twins this season (since they're unwilling to take a chance on Buscher), but I don't think that he is going to provide the Twins the offensive production they were hoping for.

The Big Tuna: An Introduction

Hypocrisy, arbitrary enforcement/making up of rules, having to be right all of the time, re-telling the same stories and (not funny) jokes all the time. Take all these annoying habits, put them together in a single package and you've got The Big Tuna. No, sports fans, I'm not talking about Bill Parcells. I'm talking about my boss's boss (and formerly my direct supervisor), who, quite honestly, is one of the bigger pains in my ass, as far as work goes.

Here are examples of each of the traits I listed above.

Hypocrisy - There is a Wednesday meeting led by The Big Tuna where work is assigned to developers. The Big Tuna always preaches that if work isn't brought up in that meeting, it shouldn't be assigned to a developer and definitely should not be worked on by a developer. However, when someone sends him an email on a day other than Wednesday requesting that a developer be assigned to some work, he immediately assigns it. But then, after he assigns it, the developer will be chastised for working on it, because it wasn't brought up in the Wednesday meeting. I'm still unclear on whether he realizes that he's the one that assigned the work in the first place.

Arbitrary enforcement/making up of rules - I love this story. Once a developer finishes writing their code, we have to review the code with the rest of the technical team. The code must be approved by three members of the team: a senior developer, any other developer, and a DBA. The Weasel was one of our DBAs and there was a code review on his last day with the company. The rest of the DBAs were busy with a production issue during the meeting so we needed a DBA approver and thus asked The Weasel, who was available. The Big Tuna, however, decided that The Weasel could not be the approver because it was his last day. The Weasel approved the code anyway.

Having to be right all the time - We were having a discussion about the best way to implement a solution and The Big Tuna was present. As per usual, The Big Tuna had his design idea that he proposed, which was a terrible idea. The rest of the group shot holes through his idea, but he kept arguing for it. Someone else in the group proposed an alternative solution, which made a lot of sense. The Big Tuna attempted to poke holes in this idea while continuing to push his original idea. After much discussion, we obviously started to realize that his idea was horrible and that the other idea was much better. By the end of the meeting he was talking about the good idea as if it were his own, like he came up with it. Priceless.

Re-telling the same stories and jokes - The Big Tuna walks over to you and asks "So, how big was the rock?", to which you are supposed to reply "What rock?". Then he hits you with "The rock you used to iron that shirt". This joke is really hilarious after hearing it two dozen times (I'm not exaggerating).

I have a very specific (continuing) incident involving The Big Tuna that I will post about some day. I expect that to be a pretty lengthy post given the level of frustration it has caused for me and others.

For now though, consider this an introduction to The Big Tuna. I can pretty much guarantee it won't be the last time he's mentioned in this space.

"One-Step-Closer-to-a-Heart-Attack Night" at the Dome

Last night, the Twins held their first "All-You-Can-Eat Night" at the Metrodome. I was lucky enough to go (with my friend Nate) because my lovely wife-to-be won tickets from a local radio station. The idea is great. You pay $33 for an upper club section ticket and all-you-can-eat hot dogs, nachos, pretzels, popcorn, and soda (unless of course you win the tickets, like some lucky individuals). That's about $12 more than an upper club ticket by itself. And I don't know about you, but I easily spend $12 on food and drink and still leave hungry.

So far, sounds like a great idea, right? Like I said, the concept is great. The execution, however, left a bit to be desired... OK, a lot to be desired.

Before I get too far into this, I should point out (again) that last night was Twins' first ever attempt at this promotion. So, I'm willing to give them a little slack for less than perfect execution. Unfortunately, in this case, "less than perfect" means just downright poor execution. I guess the good news is that the promotion was limited to just a single section in the dome. If the entire stadium had been a part of the promotion, it would have been absolute pandemonium.

In any case, here's how the night went down. Nate and I leave work and get to the Dome about 6:00pm. The first order of business is to get in a line and redeem your all-you-can-eat voucher that came with your ticket for a wristband. The wristband is your gateway to all-you-can-eat, fatty, greasy goodness.

Once you exit the wristband line, you immediately enter another line to get your food. Basically, they open up all of the windows at one of the "Field Fare" concession stands and put all kinds of food out on the counter, buffet-style, and you pick the items you want. There are two or three employee's per food item, trying to peddle their item (some of them more abnoxiously than others).

This is a good place to stop and point out the first big mistake that they made. If you read the Twins' website about All-You-Can-Eat Night, it first lists the items that available to all-you-can-eat customers:

"A specific menu will be offered from among the items traditionally available at the "Field Fare" locations. Items include hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, peanuts, soft pretzels, fountain soda, water."

Then, a little further down, it says under the restrictions section:

"No more than two items may be selected during each visit to the specified concession stand".

Now, if they want to say that I can only get two items per trip, that's fine I guess. If you ask me, three items seems like a more reasonable number, but I understand what they're going for with that restriction. The issue I have here is that it says "No more than two items". Nate and I took this to mean, based on the items list shown above, that a drink was considered an item. So, our first time through the line, we each grabbed a food item and then grabbed a drink (at the end of the line) as our second item. We later learned that, apparently, what they meant to say is "No more than two food items may be selected during each visit...". The signs at the concession stand (and clearly the website) are not very clear about this. So, we essentially missed out on an item on our first go around.

So, our first pass through the line took us about 3 or 4 minutes. Afterwards, we headed to our seats to quickly consume our first round of food. A couple of minutes later, we were ready for round two. We headed back down to the line, which was slightly longer, but still not terribly long (it was still only about 6:15). While talking to the guy in front of us, we learned of the two food items thing. After about five minutes of waiting, we were once again through the food line (this time with two food items and a drink) and we headed back to our seats.

Fast forward about 20 minutes (so approximately 6:40). Our second round of food is gone and we were ready to go for a walk to find an apparel stand and hopefully burn a few calories that had just been consumed as well. The first thing we noticed when we hit the concourse was the all-you-can-eat food line. It was insane. We walked approximately 6 or 7 sections in the direction that food line was forming and it was still going. Absolutely nuts. This is still half and hour before the game and the line is that long. And my favorite part is that they still had only the one "Field Fare" location open, serving all of these people. Brilliant.

Suffice it to say, we didn't get in line for another round. Instead, we headed to our seats for the start of the game. After a couple of innings, the guys next to us decided to go for another round of food. Rather than go down and find out how long the line was, we instead decided to time these guys and see how long it took them to come back. Half an hour later, a couple of the guys come back. Half an hour! That's at least an inning and a half, and might have been two full innings. Crazy talk!

At some point later in the game (it was at least the 5th inning, might have been later), I heard someone behind us say that they finally opened a second "Field Fare" stand. It took 5 innings to figure out that the line was insanely long and that people were waiting for 30 minutes?? So let me get this straight. You're going to offer all-you-can-eat junk food to hundreds of glutons like me and you expect the reaction to be so mild that a single window will be sufficient to service all these people without pissing everybody off with wait times? Are you new to America? People like hot dogs and nachos at baseball games. If its all-you-can-eat, people are going to take FULL advantage (have you been to OCB?) This is not rocket-science. Instead, somebody thought that making people wait for 30 minutes for two food items would produce a positive reaction. Back to the drawing board.

I haven't even mentioned anything about the food itself. Going into this, I assumed that it would be the same serving that you get when you buy the food at a "Field Fare". Not quite. The drinks were tiny, the nachos were pre-opened in a tray, and the nacho cheese was served in little cups (like the ones at Taco Bell), which the chips don't even fit in. Not only is the nacho cheese in these little cups, but the cups are just sitting in baskets. They are warmed before being put in the basket, but they are not continually warmed while in the basket. So, by the time I get my food, get back to my seat and begin eating my nachos, my nacho cheese is luke-warm at best. My pretzel is being handled by someone while she tries to peddle it to everyone who passes, instead of sitting in the warmer, so my pretzel is cold and hard when I eat it.

Quick side note: What genius decided that the cup-holders should be at an angle? When my cup is full of Coke and its tipped at an angle, what do you think is going to happen? Again, brilliant.

Bottom line, if Nate and I hadn't gotten there an hour before the game, we would have missed about half the game while standing in line for our two passes at the all-you-can-eat line. So, if you're going to attend an all-you-can-eat night in the future (tonight perhaps), my recommendation is to get there good and early to ensure a maximum of food with a minimum of standing in line. Unless of you course you don't like baseball, in which case, its a convenient excuse for not watching the game.

But I guess I can't complain too much (only for about 1300 words), since the tickets and food was free.

Daddy Mooshka vs. Baby Mooshka

My son Adam is 2 years, 8 months old. I love that little boy more than anything and I know he loves me too (he tells me so all the time). Unfortunately, he doesn't always like his Daddy. The feeling is mutual.

For about a week now, he only wants Mommy. This isn't really anything new. He gets it in his mind that he wants either Mommy or Daddy to do something for or with him (brush his teeth, put him to bed, make his dinner, etc) and nothing can change his mind. But normally, its each event over the course of a day that he seems to re-evaluate his parent preference. Lately though, he needs all Mommy all the time. If Mommy says "your Daddy can do it", he throws the biggest tantrum. We're talking kicking, screaming, banging and the repetition of the phrase "no, mommy do it". And he continues to cry until Mommy comforts him and/or gives him his way. If Daddy tries to console him, he throws a bigger tantrum. The result is that he ends up in his room because he won't stop his tantrum. Then, when he's starting to calm down, I go into his room to try to talk to him and he closes the door on me and won't stop blocking it until his Mommy comes.

I can handle the fact that Adam doesn't always want his Daddy. I expect that. But it does hurt me feelings some when my presence makes him go into an uncontrollable rage. And admittedly, there have been situations where its the complete opposite, where he wants only Daddy for several days in a row (it seems to happen when one of us spends multiple days in a row with him alone, while the other is off doing other things). I guess its just hard to understand why he has such a strong preference. He really does like us both and is totally comfortable with either one of us. Due to work schedules, etc, Manda and I have spent equal amounts of time with him as the soul care-giver, so its not like his a total Mommy's boy. I guess I shouldn't try to delve too deeply into the psyche of a 2 year old. I'll just hurt my brain trying.

But my frustration doesn't just end with his preference for his Mom lately. I'm also so sick and tired of having the same fights with him. A perfect example is going to the grocery store. He hates sitting in the cart more than anything in the world! It takes both me and Manda to hold his legs and force him into the cart. Meanwhile, Adam is screaming as if he is being abused. And people probably look at us and think we are abusing him. But its too much to try to let a 2 year old run around the busy grocery store by himself (he won't even hold hands), so we're left with little choice. The fact that we have the same fight every time is just too much. You'd think he would eventually figure out that sitting in the cart at the grocery store is just how its going to be. But no. He has to scream bloody murder and make us look like bad parents. Its not just in public, we have the same fights at home too, like about watching a movie, going to bed, taking a bath, etc. Its extremely tiresome.

You know the worst part of all? He's just like his Daddy. Let's just leave it at that.