TBWAIN - AKA Jeff Svare's Blog

Barry Bonds: Better baseball through chemistry . Not. If you want my opinion of better baseball, take a look at the wrapup on last Friday's game between the Twins and the Mariners. Two great young pitchers, Francisco Liriano of the Twins and Felix Hernandez of the Ms. Hernandez gave up just three runs on five hits, struck out eight and walked one. Liriano pitched a four hit shutout, also walked only one, and struck out eight. What I wouldn't have given to have been able to see that matchup. Yeah. That's better baseball.

Barry Bonds hit his 714th home run today, to tie Babe Ruth for second. Here's all I've got to say on the matter: C 21 H 30 O 5

Last night, 17 May, Johan Santana pitched what may have been be best game of the season for the Twins. He gave up four hits, walked one, and struck out 12. On the flip side, he gave up two runs (both earned) on a two-out, one-one homer in the eighth. This gave him a Game Score of 77. The Tiger's pitcher, Justin Verlander , gave up six hits, and hit Michael CUddyer. Despite the six hits, the Twins didn't score. Verlander's Game Score? 70. A really impressive outing. So, did the Twins make this an easy win for Verlander? Here's a comparison of the two pitchers: IP ER BB HR K ERA 61.1 22 13 6 70 3.23 Santana 51 18 14 7 27 3.18 Verlander Other than strikeouts, Johan and Justin are pretty close. Innings wise, Johan's pitched one more game. Looks like Verlander's a better pitcher than he gets credit for. Maybe this knowledge will make the loss easier to deal with. Nah.

I was reading my old hometown newspaper today, and saw that their sportswriter, Mike McFeely , feels the same way about Rondell White as I do. Here's what Mike said: Designated hitter Rondell White, our choice for Nice-Guy Pro Jock of the Year, has to go. He’s paid to hit. He’s not hitting. Any questions? White’s been an embarrassing free-agent signing for the Twins. His zero home runs, 10 RBIs and .185 average make him the least productive DH in the American League. He also calls for the Twins to bring up Kubel to play outfield along with Hunter and Cuddyer as well as moving Stewart to the DH role. Interestingly enough, that's where Shannon was batting on the 15th. He went 1 for 4, with a single and RBI. The entire article can be found here (registration required) .

Last night, May 9th, the Twins showed their impressive ability to only be able to capitalize on crappy pitching. Back on May 3rd, they unloaded on Joe Mays, scoring 6 runs on 8 hits in 3 and 1/3 innings. Of those six runs, only two were earned, which makes me suspect that they had more assistance from the other side of diamond than from their own dugout. Joe's arm just isn't what it used to be, and the Twin's took full advantage of it. Mays' game score for this outing was 29. After they pulled Mays, the Twins went back to facing major league pitching and promptly shut down. If they would have kept going against the Royal's bullpen they way they went after Mays, they should have scored 16 runs on 22 hits. Of course, projections like this lie more in the realms of fantasy, so it probably wouldn't have happened. As it was, the three relievers combined to pitch a one-hitter with four strikeouts over the next four and two-thirds innings. Back to last night's...

Can anyone answer this question? What player holds the record for the most errors in a World Series? I don't know the answer, but Willie Davis committed 3 errors in game 2 of the 1966 Series . All of them in the 5th inning! The Orioles scored 3 runs, eventually going on to win the game 6-0. Incidentally, Jim Palmer pitched a complete game shutout in that game, and became the youngest pitcher ever to do that. Thanks to Ken for letting me know about Willie Davis' unenviable feat!

Ruben Sierra spent the first two weeks in April at extended spring training. On 18 April he was called up from Fort Myers (the Twins' Class A team), and eleven days later, he ruptured the biceps tendon in his left elbow. According to the report, the MRI found a rupture at the elbow. I've had one of those MRI's as well. As good as they are, mine didn't show that my injury involved a complete separation of tendon from the bone. I had to have surgery to determine that. I'm familiar with the repair to correct a distal biceps tendon rupture . I had surgery to fix it just over two years ago. Even though I successfully completed rehab, my right arm still isn't as strong as it used to be, and I still have numbness on the inside of my forearm (which bugs the heck out of me!). Reuben is going to try rehab rather than surgery. I tried rehab before I tried surgery, too. Let me clue you, Ruben, rehab doesn't fix the problem if you've pulled the tendon off...

Here's some changes I'd make if I was in charge of the Twins. 1. Send Liriano back to AAA to get him into a rotation where he's pitching every 4 or 5 days. 2. Dump Rondell White and Reuben Sierra. Their productive days are behind them. 4. Bring up the Jasons. Kubel could DH and play outfield, and Bartlett could take over for Castro at short. 3. Reevaluate the coaching staff. If they're sound, make the players listen to them. Especially to Joe Vavra. Tori isn't producing the way he should (who is?), and Morneau looks to be levelling off as a perennial average batter. He's got a lot more potential. 4. Plan on bringing up some arms from AAA to get them some experience. Radke's gone after this season, and I'm seriously wondering how Kyle Lohse won in arbitration again. :sigh: