Tagged: Target Field
Opposing Pitcher: Liriano!
Of course you know that Twins pitcher, Francisco Liriano, was traded to the Chicago White Sox. And tonight, he’ll be pitching for the Sox against the Twins at Target Field. It should be a very interesting game. Liriano has, at times, been a real pitching ace for the Twins, but at other times he’s been a source of frustration. Fans refer to “Good Frankie” versus “Bad Frankie”. Good Frankie can throw a complete game shut out (even if he does walk five batters). Bad Frankie,… well, Bad Frankie can last only 2.2 innings and give up 7 earned runs as he did in his final Twins start on July 23.
Many Twins fan will miss him; many are glad he’s gone. I haven’t quite made up my mind how I feel about it. Trades are part of baseball, and it doesn’t pay to get too attached to any one player (it’ll break your heart). On some level, just because he was a long-time Twin and I saw him pitch at one of the games I went to last year, I will definitely miss him. What I may not miss is his erratic performance. I won’t miss wondering if Good Frankie or Bad Frankie will take the mound.
You can read about his history with the Twins elsewhere, and you can find considerable debate about this trade elsewhere. I won’t rehash that. I did look at some numbers regarding his pitching this year, and turned up some interesting stats that I will share:
On one of the blogs I frequent, there was a bit of a debate about Twins pitcher, Scott Diamond, versus Frankie Liriano. So these stats also consider Diamond, who has been a real blessing for the Twins.
Here are some season-to-date stats for the two pitchers:
Liriano: 5.34 ERA, 2.1 IP minimum, 5.1+ IP average.
Diamond: 2.88 ERA, 5.1 IP minimum, 6.2 IP average.
Hitting behind Liriano: 3.41 R/game, .250 BAVG
Hitting behind Diamond: 6.13 R/game, .326 BAVG
Bullpen after Liriano: 3.48 ERA
Bullpen after Diamond: 6.68 ERA
Frankie has had some short outings, and he averages fewer innings per game than Diamond, so that’s one thing. What’s more important, perhaps (since runs win games), is that the run support behind Diamond seems considerably better than behind Liriano. In fact, it’s almost double! On the other hand, notice how bad the bullpen throws following an outing by Diamond versus an outing by Liriano.
I’ve read one comment that suggests the same relief pitchers tend to follow a given starter, and that would be a thing to check out. What may be showing up there is a certain set of bullpen pitchers. It’s the run support that’s really interesting to me. One suggestion is that the catcher (Drew Butera usually for Liriano) may be a factor.
As fans know, Liriano began the season as one of our starters, but was “demoted” to the bullpen in early May with a 9.97 ERA. He did okay as a relief pitcher and returned to the rotation at the end of May. Since then he’s mostly done very well other than a pair of less than great outings (twice giving up 4 runs in 5+ innings). It was his last start for the Twins that was a disaster: 2.2 IP, 7 ER (giving him a 23.63 game ERA).
Looking at his stats since his return, we see the same odd mix of run support and bullpen pitching:
Liriano: 3.68 ERA (BP 2.60), 6.0 IP avg, 3.45 R/g, .262 BAVG
Diamond: 3.16 ERA (BP 8.68), 6.2 IP avg, 6.70 R/g, .341 BAVG
Even just looking at things since the ASG shows the same oddity:
Liriano: 6.48 ERA (BP 1.93), 5.1 IP avg, 2.67 R/g, .277 BAVG
Diamond: 3.86 ERA (BP 9.00), 7.0 IP avg, 11.00 R/g, .398 BAVG
An odd effect, indeed!
I also took a look, curious to see what the effect of not having Liriano around would be, at the pitching stats of the staff minus Liriano (and minus Diamond as well). For the period since Liriano’s return on May 30:
Starters minus Liriano: 6.82 ERA (BP 6.00), 4.2 IP avg, 5.20 R/g, .285 BAVG
Starters minus Diamond: 5.42 ERA (BP 3.33), 5.1 IP avg, 4.38 R/g, .266 BAVG
The bottom line seems to be that, without Liriano, depending on who replaces him, our starters’ ERA may go up. On the other hand, so may our runs/game. So was this a good trade? Much depends on how Liriano does from here out, and many Twins fans will be watching with great interest.
And the watching, and the great interest, begins tonight in about one hour! More later!!
“Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.” ~Ted Williams
404: Losses Not Found
With the Minnesota Twins reaching a Win-Loss record of 23-34 (.404), they’ve gotten their percentage above 400 for the first time this year. They are 12-8 (.600) on their last 20 games, and a very tasty 8.2 (.800) on their last 10. Lately it hasn’t totally sucked being a Twins fan!
June is seeing us with a 5-2 (.714) record! As you may recall, last June was also a power month for us (in the midst of an awful season); the Twins ended last June 17-9 (.654). And last July wasn’t quite as great, but was still a winning month with 16-13 (.552). Some feel this “June Zoom” comes from playing National League teams; others feel it comes from the Twins finally “gelling” as a team after early struggles. Either way, here’s to another June Zoom!
And while we’re on the topic of tasty numbers, in the last 10 games the bullpen continues to a team hot spot with a 1.51 ERA! Starters are throwing 4.22, which is a huge improvement from the 6.00+ ERA we’ve been seeing. These numbers are even an improvement on the “last 10” stats reported three games ago (starters 5.44, bullpen 2.39)!
The Twins have also gotten above 400 on another important stat: They are now averaging 4.07 runs per game (on the season). In the last 20 games, they’ve averaged 5.20 runs (go Twins!), but in the last 10 are down slightly to 4.80. But still a big improvement from earlier in the season and a key part of winning games. Overall, opponent are still getting more runs per game on average (5.28), but the Twins have held that to 5.10 in the last 20 and (better yet) 3.70 in the last 10.
I mentioned last time that, while the Twins have been lagging behind their (unfortunate) 2011 performance from this season’s start, they have recently managed to get above that (in terms of their win-loss record). Above you can see a chart that compares last year’s W-L record with this year’s. The red lines are the losses, and the green lines are the wins. The thicker lines (which only run for this first third of the season) are the 2012 lines, the thin ones are 2011. On the right you see the important part of this chart with some vertical lines to highlight the key areas.
The left blue line (game #38, 5/17, Twins @ Tigers) shows where we matched, and then exceeded, our 2011 performance for the first time. A bit later, the left brown line (game #41, 5/20, Twins @ Brewers), we dropped back into complete synch with 2011. We got behind 2011 again for a short while from game #46 (5/26, Tigers @ Twins) and then pulled ahead two games later (5/28, As @ Twins). We’ve been ahead of 2011 ever since!
I’ve also mentioned that the attendance at Target Field has been down from its previous two seasons. This isn’t too surprising given last year’s season and this year’s start. The attendance short fall doesn’t seem due to it not being Target Field’s inaugural season. The attendance in 2010 and 2011 were very similar—at least until later in the year. Attendance did fall in 2011 starting roughly in August. The chart on the right shows the attendance in all three years. The blue line is 2010, the orange line is 2011, and the red line is 2012.
As a setup to taking a closer look at this year’s short fall, consider the chart on the right, which shows the attendance of 2011 compared to 2010. The black line shows the total attendance short fall, and the dark red line shows the short fall of each game. Importantly, note that the black line uses the left vertical scale, and the red line uses the right vertical scale. As you can see, per game attendance jumps around in a 4,000 fan range, which is not particularly significant. It’s around the 50th game played at TF that you can see an actual short fall. By the end of the season, there were definitely fewer fans attending every game, and the overall short fall plummets. By the end of 2011, nearly 60,000 fewer fans had attended Twins home games.
Now compare that to a similar chart for this season! The chart to the right shows 2012 attendance compared to 2010, and, again, the black line shows the overall short fall while the dark red line charts attendance per game. Also, again, the left and right vertical axes apply, respectively, to the black and red lines. But note how much larger the scales are! Target Field ended with a total short fall in 2011 of nearly 60,000, but we busted that record in 2012 after only 11 games. Currently, after only a third of a season, TF is over 120,000 fans behind previous years. If you look at the black line closely, it does appear to be flattening out a bit. Especially if the Twins pull off a June Zoom, we may see attendance improve.
Let’s hope so… Target Field is a beautiful ball park, and well worth visiting!
“Baseball is not necessarily an obsessive-compulsive disorder, like washing your hands 100 times a day, but it’s beginning to seem that way. We’re reaching the point where you can be a truly dedicated, state-of-the-art fan or you can have a life. Take your pick.” ~~Thomas Boswell, Washington Post, 13 April 1990
My First Trip to Target Field
The Minnesota Twins are rained out tonight, so the first game against the Chicago White Sox is postponed until a later date. It’s our fourth rain out this year; the first three came in April. We’ve already made up one of those (in a double-header, double-loss April 28th, but let’s try to forget that). We owe the Damn Yankees a game (to be determined) for the April 6th rain out, and we’ll play the Cleveland Indians on July 18 for the April 22 rain out. April showers may disable Mauers, as the saying goes. At least, I think that’s how the saying goes.
In other news, the Detroit Tigers took the Indians tonight, so the Tigers are now the champs of the American League Central Division. The Tribe has slipped to second place, which was not unexpected. They’re 2-8 on their last ten compared to 7-3 for the Tigers. As has been mentioned before, it’s looking like the Tigers are the team we need to beat. Kudos to Tigers’ pitcher, Justin Verlander, who threw a shut out and had a no-hitter until the eighth inning (the eighth seems the point where many no-hitters fall; Twins pitchers Frankie Liriano and Scott Baker both lost their no-hitters in the eighth this past weekend).
As an aside, baseball games are a bit like a good cigar in that the last third can surprise you and be quite different from the first two-thirds. I’ve smoked many a cigar where the last third was not at all predicted by the earlier, greater portion. Some have gotten so good at the very end, you want to smoke them until they burn your fingers. So, too, I’ve seen baseball games turn around in the later innings and become very different from what came before. My thought is that it’s because a pitcher begins to wear out as the game goes into later innings. There’s often a window between when a pitcher’s performance flags and when he’s finally replaced with a fresh pitcher. And sometimes a fresh pitcher takes a while to lock in or, in some cases, is having a bad day. Either way, opportunities exist later in the game to change the game.
Which all, in a round about way, brings me to the topic of today’s article. Since the Twins are rained out tonight, gather around the fire, and I’ll tell you the tale of My First Trip to Target Field.
As I’ve explained before, I glommed on to baseball late in life, and being a re-born Minnesotan (I was a Minnesotan in an earlier life during my Wonder Bread years), naturally I became a Twins fan. This all happened last year, in 2010, which was also the inaugural year of the new Target Field, the home of the Minnesota Twins.
Any Twins fan needed to be there at least once that year. You can hardly call yourself a Twins fan if you didn’t go at least once that year. I’m a single guy (ladies!), so going out has lost some luster, but I really did want to make the pilgrimage to our new Mecca of baseball. I finally got my act together enough to go October 2nd for the penultimate game of the regular season.
It all happened through serendipity: someone in my office, for a charity drive, was selling tickets. The pressure to go was enormous, and time was most definitely running out, so I jumped at the chance. (Target Field, in its inaugural year, and a year in which the Twins were doing well, was sold out for the season, so tickets weren’t easy to get.)
Well, we’re talking October here; October in Minnesota. The ticket I got turned out to be in section 330, which didn’t mean a lot to me until I got there. I went as early as possible (about 11:00 for a 1:10 first pitch time) so I could explore and check out the place.
Turns out the ticket was for the last row in section 330, which put me about as far out in left field as possible. Very high. Very, very high. Those sections are steeply graded, too. I made the climb up to my seat, and two things were immediately apparent.
First, I was in a state of near vertigo! I could just see myself getting up to get a hot dog and tumbling down the steep, steep steps and—with my luck—bouncing over the railing and falling to the level below. “Man dies in bizarre baseball park fall,” is what the headline would read. Laugh if you must, but too many events in my life lie far outside the bell curve. It’s exactly the sort of thing that would happen to me.
Second, there was a cool (no, let’s be honest: cold) breeze blowing in from outside left field, and sitting in the last seat it hit you smack dab in the back of the neck. The air temperature was cool enough; the breeze put it right out. (Or in this case, Left Field out.)
These seats, I said to myself… Will. Not. Do. So I carefully repelled my way back down to saner altitudes and sought the box office. “Can you find me any seat, any seat at all, that’s better than this?” I asked the very nice man behind the glass. (Remember, we’re talking sold out season in 2010 at Target Field, so I had my doubts.)
Well, wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, they did have a seat. It was in the Legends Club, section “A” (just a bit beyond first base). Not a regular seat, but a seat in the wheelchair section. That puts you at the back of the built-in seats, in a folding chair, but it also grants you tons of arm room. And I’ve found that, as with most venues, arm room is not a common commodity. When you’re built along the short and stocky lines, as I am, arm room is a blessing. Not that I don’t like close physical contact with my seatmates… no, actually I hate it.
That wasn’t the only blessing. These seats, at the back of the section, made it easy to get up and take refuge from the cold in the closed in section that comprises the Legends club. This part is closed unless you have a ticket, so the concession stands aren’t as crowded, and they have these wonderful glassed-in fireplaces. Perfect for putting your wrists directly on the hot glass to warm up.
And make no mistake; it was chilly. At one point I went and bought a pair of Twins gloves to help keep my hands warm. But enough about the cool seat or the cool day; let’s talk about the cool game.
One more aside: I recently stumbled across an article on the AARP site that suggested that words such as “cool” or “whatever” were in the past for folks my age. To which I respond: kiss my grits (which, yes, I know, dates me). I’m not one of those who think dyeing your hair fools anyone, so my hairs are grey, but my heart is young enough that I enjoy rap music. So the seats were “cool.” Whatever.
As Twins fans will recall, the Twins had a good season and clinched the Division title for the sixth time in nine years when they played the Indians at home on September 21st. (For the record, Scott Baker started and pitched five innings, walked one, struck out seven and allowed only two runs (one earned). Matt Capps closed the ninth 1-2-3, and the pennant was ours 91-60. Cool, right?)
The problem is that the Twins kinda fell off a ledge after that. In the last eleven games of the season they were 3-8 (.273; ugh, blech, yuck). They took the Tribe in the final game of the series and then won only two more games for the remainder of the season. (And let’s try to forget how the Damn Yankees knocked them out of the playoffs 1-2-3.)
But one of the two games they won was on October 2nd, and I was there to see it!
On that October day we played the Toronto Blue Jays. Brian Duensing pitched five innings and gave up four runs (all earned) to the Jays. Meanwhile the Twins only posted three, which looked like another loss for us. (In an interesting bit of foreshadowing, Alexi Casilla hit a two-run bloop double in the fifth inning that took the game from 4-1 to 4-3.)
No one scored in the sixth, seventh or eighth. The Jays went down 1-2-3 to Matt Capps in the top of the ninth. Then came the bottom of the ninth: our last chance…
Delmon Young doubles. Joe Mauer flies out; Danny Valencia flies out; two outs. Ben Revere replaces Young as pinch runner. Jason Kubel walks, and is replaced by pinch runner Jason Repko. Jose Morales walks, and bases are loaded.
And now Alexi Casilla steps up to the plate, takes strike one, swings at strike two and takes three balls; full count. Pitch six: foul. Pitch seven; foul. Everyone in the stands is on their feet. Pitch eight, and Alexi Casilla knocks it right up the middle! Revere scores; Repko scores… The Twins Win!!!
And that’s why Alexi Casilla will always be my favorite Twin! His two-run walk-off single won the first Twins game I saw; the first Target Field game I saw (in its inaugural year); and one of only two wins in their last ten games. (And it’s arguable that his two-run double in the fifth inning positioned that win, which makes him a double game-winner!)
“Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.” —George F. Will, Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, 1990
A Nearly Perfect Ballgame!
As ballgames go, it’s hard to find a more perfect one to attend in person than the Rangers @ Twins game Sunday June 12th. It’s not just that we won; with an 8-3 record on the month, that’s almost getting to be old hat in June (almost, plus it’s early). It’s not just that we won a series; this is our third this month. It’s also not that we beat the Texas Rangers—a much tougher opponent than the Kansas City Royals or the Cleveland Indians—or that we did all this at home in front of the fans. It’s all that and quite a bit more.
So we won another game, putting us at 9-3 (.750) on the month and 26-39 (.400!) on the year. We’re also 3-0 on winning series this month (let’s not mention May or April). And now we’ve routed the Royals, taken the Tribe and rammed the Rangers—a progression of increasing difficulty by most accounts. This is great for morale all around, but what takes this to a new level is that Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano pitched a pair of awesome back-to-back gems so shiny they make you wanna weep tears of joy!
Below are the stats for both pitchers. They each allowed only one run in the game, walked no one and struck out a total of 16 batters! Baker allowed a few more hits (but hits that don’t become runs just make the game a little more exciting). And Alex Burnett, who pitched the ninth inning, deserves a shout out for his 1-2-3 perfect inning preserving Liriano’s great game.
Pitcher IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
S. Baker 9.0 5 1 1 0 7 0 1.00
F. Liriano 8.0 2 1 1 0 9 0 1.13
On Saturday Baker threw perfect 1-2-3 innings until the fifth inning when a double by Adrian Beltre ended the perfect game (and the no-hitter). Today Liriano threw perfect 1-2-3 innings until an error by third baseman Luke Hughes allowed Elvis Andrus to reach first in the seventh. But since Andrus reached on error, the no-hitter was still in play (let alone the shut-out)! The no-hitter lasted until the next inning when Adrian Beltre singled. Beltre later scored the Rangers’ only run ending both the no-hitter and the shut-out. Liriano received a well-deserved long round of applause after the single for his no-hitter!
A shut-out ends for Francisco Liriano
It’s an interesting bit of synchronicity that both pitchers ended their shut-out in the eighth inning, and in both cases it was the only run the Rangers received. And if Scotty pitched a gem, then Frankie pitched a diamond! In one less inning, he allowed fewer hits and struck out more batters. It was a sheer joy to watch!
I had to feel a little sorry for the Texas fan sitting on the other side of his Twins-loving girl-friend sitting next to me. Poor guy is a Rangers fan all his life and has to watch these last two games. Small pleasure in Friday night’s rainy game, but the Rangers are a great ball club, and there will be other games. (After all, last year, in the playoffs, they beat the guys who beat us!)
And speaking of Texas, their pitchers (four of them) didn’t do too badly. Starter Matt Harrison allowed a run in the first inning, but then kept the Twins from scoring any more for five innings. At the top of the seventh inning, Harrison took a line drive from Danny Valencia and was retired on an injured arm. Replacement Mark Lowe allowed four more hits and was finally replaced by Yoshinori Tateyama who finally ended the inning on the tenth batter.
Casilla bunts
And as for the Twins batters, the game started off nicely with walks for Ben Revere and Michael Cuddyer; Revere ultimately scoring that one first inning run on a single by Luke Hughes. Unfortunately Cuddyer got caught between second and third on that play, but he was put out after Revere reached home scoring the run. The first inning also featured Alexi Casilla making a bunt he must have thought was foul, since “batter indifference” allowed Texas catcher Yorvit Torrealba to tag him out.
Cuddyer homers!
The only other Twins batting excitement was that seventh inning when Minnesota picked up five lovely runs of “insurance” (against a comeback from Texas… or a throwback by our own bullpen). Errors by Texas allowed Rene Rivera and Ben Revere to reach. Revere actually struck out by swinging at a wild pitch that allowed him to steal first. But the really big highlight was Michael Cuddyer’s two-out, two-strike, three-run homer that brought in Revere and Casilla (who’d just singled).
Ironically, Danny Valencia, who’d begun the fun with the single that injured Harrison, was the last batter (facing Tateyama) and ended the inning on a pop fly.
So two amazing Twins ball games this weekend to close this series with the Rangers. It wasn’t a good time for Texas, but it sure was for us. We out-scored them 22-15, out-hit them 39-32 and out-won them 3-1. Considering what a good team Texas is (at least if we’re talking Rangers; the Astros are another story), it’s gotta make us feel pretty good.
And now we’re only nine games behind in our Division. The Cleveland Indians have been suffering, losing their last four (and 1-9 in their last ten), and the Detroit Tigers have now tied them for first place in the AL Central. The Twins have Monday off and then play a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox. That will certainly affect the standings one way or another.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Twins are no longer the worst team in all of major league baseball. We’re no longer #30 in Runs, Hits, RBIs, HRs, 2Bs, 3Bs, OBP, SLG, AVG, ERA, Wins, Losses or Errors. And we have not even come close to dropping below a win percent of .666 (DemonBall™) that we need to win the pennant. Look out baseball, here come the Twins!
The icing on this delicious cake has to be Target Field. This was my third trip (second this year), and although I’m 2-1 on seeing the Twins win, I’m definitely 3 for 3 loving the place and having a great time. I can highly recommend the Loon Chili! It’s a purist chili containing no beans and sizeable chunks of real meat. (I did ask, and no Loons were harmed in the making of said chili. It comes from the nearby Loon Cafe, which also neither serves nor serves Loons.)
As far as I’m concerned, the only thing putting the “nearly” in “nearly perfect” was a cloudy day (baseball deserves to be played in the sunshine). The weather was warm without being hot (perfect), but sunshine somehow makes a ballgame sparkle.
“A hot dog at the game beats roast beef at the Ritz.” —Humphrey Bogart
New To The Game 