Posted by John on April 9, 2009 under John | 
Great win for the Twins last night as the team improves to 2-1 on the season. Justin Morneau picked up his first hit of the season on a monster two run homerun off of former Twin Carlos Silva. Morneau had three RBI’s on the night and Denard Span hit a two run homerun of his own. Kevin Slowey struggled to settle into the game, but did manage to fight through six innings and picked up his first win of the season. A tip of the hat goes to the bullpen which pitched three really great scoreless innings, including Joe Nathan picking up his first save of the season and his 200th career save. Only Nathan and Twins legend Rick Aguilera have recorded 200 saves in a Twins uniform.
This afternoon the Twins and Mariners conclude their series at the Metrodome. Southpaws Glen Perkins and Jarrod Washburn will pitching for their respective clubs.
MVB around the World Wide Interweb!
For a little Twins talk head over to www.MNGameNight.com and listen to yours truly and the Seth Stohs from www.sethspeaks.net. We chatted about last night’s game, the AL Central, the upcoming series in Chicago, and general topics around Major League Baseball.
Also catch some AL Central predictions over at Jeff Parker’s www.royallyspeaking.com. You’ll find a representative blogger of each team in the division.
Let’s hope the Twins can take a 3-1 series win this afternoon!
Posted by twinsmvb on November 3, 2008 under John |
For an interesting 2008 AL Central Review head over to Royally Speaking; a great Kansas City Royals blog written by Jeff Parker.
Parker asked me along with other bloggers and media members to answer a few questions about the AL Central in 2008. If you need an incentive to read it you can learn the true name by the Twins MVB alias (never been disclosed here at MVB).
For more reading check out this weeks Off the TePoel as Dain discusses an interesting issue for Major League Baseball.
Posted by twinsmvb on April 4, 2008 under John |
So the first series is in the bag. After the adrenaline and excitement cooled from Opening Day, the Twins lost three games in a row against a strong Angels club. Other than Nick Blackburn’s outstanding start pitching was inconsistent and hitting has been awful. Justin Morneau is still hitless in 2008, but Joe Mauer had a good game yesterday, Jason Kubel hit the Twins first homerun of the season, Carlos Gomez is still using his electrifying speed, and most importantly the Angels will not visit the Metrodome again this year and we won’t have to watch any more of this…
Now we move on to the Royals, arguably the hottest team in baseball. With a quick glimpse at the AL Central, Cleveland, Chicago, and Minnesota in 2nd/3rd/4th respectively makes sense, but I don’t think anyone would have predicted an undefeated, first place Kansas City club and a winless Detroit team in the cellar. That’s why they play the game!
Kansas City got two great starts from their young pitchers Brian Bannister and Zack Greinke, and there young hitters Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, and Mark Teahen have been swinging strong bats. However, tonight Scott Baker takes the mound in his first 2008 start. Last year, Baker killed the Royals going 3-0 against KC and came within 2 outs of a no-hitter against this club. I’m looking for the Twins bats to wake up and the Twins to take 2 out of 3 at home in the dome.
As a part of the preview for the Twins/Royals series, Royals blogger Jeff Parker and the MVB teamed up and asked each other a few questions. Here are Parker’s thoughts on his Royals club…
1) What’s the biggest difference between this year’s Royals and last years club?
Two things really; 1. Addition by subtraction. Odalis Perez, Jorge de la Rosa, Scott Elarton, Jason Larue, and Emil Brown are all gone. Last year Perez started the second game of the year and this season Brian Bannister did, big difference. 2. The young guys are all a year older and they seem locked in. Somebody forgot to tell them that they are supposed to lose 100 games. They (and new manager Trey Hillman) seem unaware of the culture of losing that has defined Royals baseball the last 15 years.
2) What one player from the Twins would you want to play for the Royals?
I figure most people would say Mauer but he is a little too injury prone for my liking so I’d take former MVP Justin Morneau. He would provide a power hitter at a position where KC usually have been playing slap hitters (Ken Harvey, Doug Mientkiewicz, Ross Gload). Stick him after Gordon and Butler in KC’s lineup and they would score some runs.
3) If you were Royals GM, what’s the first move you would make?
I would find another shortstop. Tony Pena Jr is a great defender but he just does not get on base enough to justify being a starter. If the Royals had an offense like the Yankees or Red Sox then they could live with a no hit all glove SS but they don’t so they need at least league average production from that position.
Thanks to Jeff for his insight, and to read my comments from Jeff’s questions just check out Royally Speaking right here.
Posted by twinsmvb on April 3, 2008 under John |
An exciting Twins MVB first: I was asked by Kansas City Royals Blogger, Jeff Parker, to be a guest blogger and do a team preview for the 2008 season on his blog. To read my thoughts on 2008 Royals and a very good blog check out the link. Parker’s Royally Speaking can also be found in the MVB sidebar.
So after a thrilling opening day things for the Twins have come back to reality. Tuesday night Boof Bonser got hit hard and looked confused at times. The Twins managed just six hits against the Angels Jon Garland and suffered a 9-1 defeat.
Wednesday night, pitcher Nick Blackburn made his first Major League start and definitely rose to the occasion. The rookie allowed 1 run on 5 hits over 7 innings. However, the Angels Joe Saunders did just a little bit more allowing no runs on just 4 hits through his 8 innings as the Twins fell 1-0. The pro was seeing a great performance from the young Blackburn who won the final rotation spot with a good spring and was called a “sleeper pick” for rookie of the year by ESPN expert Peter Gammons. The con was the slow offensive start this season. Justin Morneau is still looking for his first hit and the bottom half of the order is not delivering. I’m not in panic mode yet about Morneau’s hitless start of year, but just slightly concerned. This young Twins team needs to have a strong April to have a good season, and to have a strong April they need their MVP to deliver.
Kevin Slowey takes the mound today for the Twins in their afternoon game. Let’s hope for the bats to catch fire and the Twins to end the series at 2-2 against a very good Angels ballclub.
