And So It Begins

It’s here. It’s finally here.

It’s like Christmas but it’s warmer.” – Pete Rose

Today is one of the greatest day of the year. Today is Opening Day. Baseball is back. Well, MLB decided to go wacky on us this year and break Opening Day up into two days, with every team playing either yesterday or today, which is pretty ridiculous.

But for Twins fans the wait is finally over. Today we get to, once again, cheer on our Twins as they once again make a run at defending the Central Division title. This year does not come without it’s own question marks.

1. Will the losses of Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, Jon Rauch, and Brian Fuentes from the bullpen be to much to bear?

1a. Will the new bullpen be effective?

2. Will Justin Morneau stay concussion free?

Happy Joe Mauer Day

Unlimited joy. Unlimited relief.

Those were the 2 raw emotions felt by Twins fans everywhere one year ago today. We could not be happier that Joe Mauer finally, FINALLY resigned with the Twins. We finally were assured that Joe Mauer, one of the greatest players to put on the Twins uniform and potentially the greatest catcher to ever play baseball, would not be leaving Minnesota any time soon.

Not as many people are as happy about his deal anymore. They think it was to much. If all things were equal, it was an overpayment, but it was a price that needed to be paid. The Yankees and Red Sox, two of the teams with the highest payrolls, are still in a bad place catching wise. They would have loved to get a piece of Mauer this offseason.

The Twins kept Mauer. It needed to be done. Let’s rekindle some of the joy we had last year.

Happy Joe Mauer Day.

Jim Thome will be the Twins Homey Again in 2011

Associated Press

After months of waiting and recent rumors that he may be signing with the Texas Rangers, Jim Thome has re-signed with the Twins.

The Twins announced today that they are bringing Jim Thome back on a one year $3 milllion deal. Thome will also earn incentives  based on playing time.

I see this as a terrific move for the Twins. It appeared earlier in the offseason that Thome was becoming more money hungry and wanted to “make up for what he didn’t earn last season.” However, the Twins again got him for a price below what he’s worth, and likely less than the Rangers would have paid.

Thome is great security in the case that Justin Morneau is not 100%. Bill Smith says the team is “optimistic he will be ready for Spring Training.” As I’d like to hear it be certain that Morneau will for certain be ready to go, that statement scares me. As good as Morneau is, Jim Thome lessens the blow to the lineup with Morneau out.

The only negative side to this signing is the fact that the Twins would be much better off with a right handed hitter that could potentially play some first base or outfield, but the fact is that they got Thome on a terrific bargain. The “ideal” player just isn’t available, and especially not at Thome’s price. Some have argued that Vladimir Guerrero would have been the ideal guy, but he would cost upwards of $6 million and I think Target Field would play against his strengths, making him much less valuable.

This deal likely ends the possibility of “Manny being Manny in Minnesota”.

Congratulations Bert!

Congratulations to Bert Blyleven on a much deserved and long overdue Hall of Fame induction! With 79.7% (463 of 581) of the vote Blyleven cleared the needed 75% of votes needed. Along with Blyleven comes Second Baseman Roberto Alomar.

As frustrating as it is, once again there were 5 ballots left blank. I do not know how you can be given the honor of voting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and not vote. It is disgusting.

A New Years Resolution and A Starting Pitcher

As the title suggests, this is a 2 part post. The 1st part is a New Years Resolution that is very important to me and I hope to any faithful reader of Hitting The Eephus. I realize that I’ve become basically irrelevant in the Twins blogosphere. My New Years Revolution is to write a minimum of one blog post every week. I think that is an attainable goal and it will bring Hitting The Eephus back to where it should be. As my good friend John T. Meyer recently wrote that we need to write down our goals for the public to see so we are held more accountable. I think this especially entails to improving this blog.

The second part of this post is much more typical of what will be normal for this blog. As many reports have suggested, the Twins are indeed a favorite to re-sign Carl Pavano. It just seems like it makes sense for Pavano to want to return to Minnesota. The only other team that has any rumors suggesting that they want him is the Washington Nationals. If I were Pavano I’d want to steer clear of Washington. I don’t have anything against the franchise personally, it actually does look like a promising young franchise with the likes of Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, and many more players either just reaching the big leagues or still to come in the coming years. And of course their free agent signing of Jason Werth must not be forgotten. I just don’t think they have a real shot of being good for a few years, and Pavano will be gone by the time that happens. This is why it makes sense for Pavano to want to return to the Twins who are contenders.

It only makes sense for the Twins to bring back Pavano on the right deal. There is no way he should be given the three  year deal he seeks. I would be most comfortable with a one year deal, but I don’t see how he signs a deal for any less than 2 years. I still think that he does indeed re-sign with the Twins, but there do need to be alternate plans in the case that signs with the Nationals or any other team that could very well suddenly decide they are in need of Pavano’s services.

One player that I see as a relatively low risk-high reward replacement to Pavano is Justin Duchscherer. Duchscherer is an injury prone pitcher. There is no getting around that. That being said he can still bring good value. Since he has been hurt his price tag won’t be very high. Last year he was given a $1.75 million contract. He only pitched 5 games before having season-ending left hip surgery. After that I can’t see his price tag going up. The one thing he wants is to be signed as a starter and not to be put into the bullpen. I think that if the Twins can see him as Pavano’s replacement they can offer him that.

Kyle Terada/US Presswire

World Series Predictions

Usually World Series predictions predict the winner of the World Series and that’s it. Well, I’m prepared to go farther. And I don’t just mean predicting who will win and how many games it will take. I mean predicting the outcome of every game.

Game 1: Rangers over Giants

Game 2: Giants over Rangers

Game 3: Giants over Rangers

Game 4: Rangers over Giants

Game 5: Rangers over Giants

Game 6: Giants over Rangers

Game 7: Rangers over Giants

That’s right. The Rangers will win the series with Cliff Lee winning games 1, 4, and 7.

Roy Halladay Throws No-Hitter in Game One

AP Photo/Rob Carr

Sometimes things happen that are completely unreal. These are things that you can only dream of happening. Take for instance the dream that almost every young kid has; the dream that someday they could pitch in the big leagues, the dream that they could be the best pitcher in baseball, the dream that they could throw a no-hitter in the playoffs.

Well, sometimes these dreams do come true.

In dream-like fashion Roy Halladay started the Philadelphia Phillies playoff run with a bang last Wednesday. In fact, he made history by throwing only the second no-hitter in the history of the MLB playoffs. The first no-hitter in the history of the playoffs was a Perfect Game by Don Larsen in the fifth game of the 1956 World Series.

Even more impressive is the fact that this was his first appearance in the playoffs of his career. Since he was with the Toronto Blue Jays for the entirety of his career before being traded to the Phillies this past off-season he never had a chance to go to the playoffs.

In fact, ever since that trade Halladay has been living a dream. Let’s face it. You’re the best pitcher in baseball. You play on one of the worst teams in one of the toughest divisions in baseball. So what do you do? You ask to be traded to the best team in the other league, the weaker league, the Philadelphia Phillies. You get traded. You put together a Cy Young year including MLB’s 20th perfect game in history. You do this on the way to winning the division with the best record in all of baseball. Then you go out and throw a no-hitter in the first game of the playoffs, something that’s only been done once. And that makes it a no-hitter in the regular season and the playoffs, something that’s never been done before. Ever.

Mr. Halladay, on behalf of baseball fans everywhere, I’d like to ask you to never wake up.

The Racquet

As you may have noticed in my latest post, I am now writing somewhere other than Hitting The Eephus. I am happy to announce that I will now be writing for the paper for the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, my universiy, otherwise known as The Racquet. I will be primarily writing baseball stories for the paper. I will be the main baseball writer over there. Tomorrow (well that’s now today isn’t it?) I will get to see my name in print for the 1st time, and I must admit, that will be pretty cool. If any of you have any interest, I invite you to subscribe to the paper, which can be done here.

Unfortunately, this does mean there may be less Twins writing on this site, but overall there should be much more baseball stories.

Thanks so much for the support, and thanks for reading!

Will the real Cy-Young winner please stand up?

Ah, October. It is the epitome of fall. For many it means it is time to start raking leaves. For others the time is upon us when you can dress up like someone else, go to houses of those you do not know, knock on their doors, and scream at them to feed you: Halloween.

To others October means the end of the Major League Baseball season. If you are lucky your team is one of the eight advancing to the playoffs, but if not you are going to  be stuck waiting around until next March for another feeling of optimism as you believe your team has to be the best team in baseball. Yes, the regular season is over, and that means the time to give awards to extraordinary players is here.

There is always plenty of debate near the end of the major league season as to which players should receive the prestigious personal awards. The main three are the Cy Young Award, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, and the Rookie of the Year Award. The Cy Young Award goes to the best pitcher, the MVP goes to the best player, and the Rookie of the Year Award goes to the top rookie.

This year there has been a particularly noticeable split on the American League Cy Young Award. The split is basically between two different groups in the baseball community. The baseball traditionalists believe that CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees is an easy choice for the award based on the fact that he leads the American League with wins with 21 victories.

Conversely, those who believe in Sabermetrics, or analyzing what happens on the baseball diamond, especially using statistics, believe that those who think that Cy Young Award should go to the athlete with the most victories are woefully ignorant. They believe that there are more important statistics to look at to see how well a pitcher performed other than wins.

This is Your Time. Their Time is Done.

I’m pretty sure Joshua Sacco was talking about the Twins. There’s no way it was the Red Sox.

Even though that 9 out of 10 18 thing is absurd.